The Best Thing in the World...

... is this:

http://www.octodog.net/

Hands down.

I want to hear from anyone that buys one.

Try to resist.

Are you really really ready?

Amusingly, following my last post I actually did have a few comments to the effect of "umm actually I was waiting on an update but was too polite to point it out". Very heartening.

Last weekend was pretty good. Went to Tim and Jim's Flatwarming briefly on Friday. On Saturday morning, Jess, Meredith, Rico and I got up early to go to a boot sale which turned out to be dumb. Since we were up, we went to yoga, which was much better. The rest of Saturday was spent kind of floating and not studying. Saturday night was fun, with the election party at Tiff's, a party at Meredith B's crazy colonial style flat and Hot Topic, the Kiss and Make Up all-nighter, which let the side down a bit.

The highlight of the weekend had to be Lee Scratch Perry though. I think he was slightly better last time I saw him (although that gig had the advantage of not being on a Sunday night...come on people), but he was still great, and completely mad. Possibly beyond mad, and sitting in some kind of full circle situation. Despite the Sunday factor, the crowd was good, and we had a fun time. No idea what he was talking about half the time, but he was the perfect accompaniment to George Clinton back in March.

Film Society on Monday night was quite average. A Patrice Cherau film, that I'd been looking forward to, that turned out to be a bit below par. It was called Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train. Great title, boring subject matter. Turns out that artists generally aren't very nice people, tend to be a bit self destructive and then tend to gather similarly self destructive people around them. Having seen the Basquiat AND Pollock biopic I knew this already. But the French countryside did look nice, so it wasn't all mad. And the soundtrack was great. It leapt around from Bjork, to Mahler and even to Cake. Worked though.

Caught up with my friend Kate's family on Tuesday, and especially enjoyed seeing Sera's daughter who is now three and sharp as anything. Kind of scary. Kate et al, are off to Italy which made me momentarily jealous. Then I reflected that she is going to miss out on more of the hot weather I am presently enjoying so much. Yep.

Last night was spent working on Who Wants to be a Popstar? Tabitha and I managed to get ourselves "allocated" to Mens Wardrobe, where we "had" to help "people" get changed all night. Which was pretty novel. Somehow, a bunch of my friends, namely Q and Morgan, seem to be working on the show, so hanging out was pretty fun.

Nerdily, I'm going give a blog shout-out to Donna, who just started up. We also just got our tickets to see the Eels, which is pegged to be the highlight of October thus far. Anyway, her blog is well worth a look:

www.ominoustaleofcaptaincrunch.blogspot.com

Tomorrow night is the (actually) long awaited Rialto Reunion. I have the feeling this may be similar to the High School Reunion, where you realise that you already hang out with the people that you want to see, but it also could be a chance to hear many amusing stories. Especially about the great times there, oh, about five years ago, which are so long since passed.

And in Trinity Street news, Bob Landlord has recemented his c*ck status, by drawing up plans to 'landscape' for property 'maintenance' that give half of our back yard to the neighbours. My claims that I was planning to spend Summer playing non-stop Cricket fell on deaf ears. I only narrowly managed to talk him into moving the gate so we could still get to it (so Saturday morning rugby spying, and late night West Bank walks are still safe). Work begins next week- as due to our periodic tenancy agreement, we don't have a proverbial leg to stand on. So I think some form of garden farewell will take place this weekend. Hopefully the weather will hold, as at this stage this could take the form of lying drunkenly in the middle of the lawn.

One really good thing did come out of the week though, car-hitter paid up, and I got my car back. Of course, it instantly ran out of petrol about 100m later, but I was so glad to have it back that I didn't mind (too much).

Also today Alan bought Zoe into work for the first time (only for about 5 minutes- it's not like we put her to work or anything). She is as adorable as promised. On the work note as well, Erica started at Living this week. It's very nice to be working with a friend.

Oh and check out:

www.readtheblacklist.blogspot.com

WTF?

I really wish that I had some kind of great reason for not posting for so long (or come to think of it, some disgruntled fanbase clamouring for reasons...) but I don't.

Reasons that should do are:

Long hours perfecting the doco- No. I wish I had spent the last two weeks working on Play It Again (working title only). But I haven't. Instead I am sitting on the ten minutes of footage I do have and trying to find a camera without much luck.

Finishing touches on the research portfolio- No. I have discovered lovely supervisor Luke's breaking point though (he's there now, not good). Time to get onto that also.

Long hours at work- this applies more. The impending Food TV is sucking up a lot more time than work used to. But this will all be meaningful in two months when we can all enjoy Channel 38 aka Food TV. Great.

Excessive socializing- No again. Although I have enjoyed a few events, such as the Pavement party last Thursday (first two mini-pieces published!), there hasn't even been enough going out.

Sickness- partly true. I have been disabled by a nasty cold since Thursday. But it's not like I haven't been next to my lap top for most of that time (please note that I am very cool).

Lots of little things have been keeping me busy though. Stuff like getting the panelbeating on my car going (damn you woman!), having people round for dinners (lovely to see you Tan, Brooke, Glyn, Phillipa, Meredith, Rico, Jess etc) and watching movies. The Hitchcock box set is gradually falling.

Looking forward to the election this weekend (there's that cool thing again). Our flat has been growing more divided over the issue, to the point that we now quibble about non- election related stuff too. Like bathmats. So I'm also looking forward to it being over. Jess in her usual organized way, organized all of us Labour wristbands, which we've been proudly showing off. Lucky me also has a Labour policy pen which I cadged on Ponsonby Rd, from some earnest Young Labour guy. Amusing. Especially when I hide all over pens in the house and Nick is forced to write with it...too much?

Things are definitely feeling busy right now though. I'm pretty well aware that uni deadlines are drawing closer...studying and working is SUCH a bad idea. I wish I had the time to just enjoy uni but it's become more of a drag then anything else right now, which isn't the way it should be. I see so many of my friends who really enjoy their Masters, and turn out great work. I want some of that action. That sounds good.

So anyway, no more excuses. Just better keeping up to date!