vobiblog

Today, I was lucky enough to go into a time warp. I can’t exactly work out how far I went back, but sure was scary. I had to visit a certain RSL club in northern NSW today for work. From the moment I pulled up outside the complex, I knew this was a very strange place

Through the grand entrance and I found myself surrounded wood panelling and aluminium bordered by gold, marble and neon. Chandeliers made from white, brown, and chrome plastic illuminate the way forward. I am greeted by a man with big white hair, white shirt and gold teeth (do dentists still do that to people?). To the left of me there is a bottle shop that looked like it hadn’t changed its promotional material since the club was constructed. Then again, maybe beer labels haven’t changed all that much in the last 20 years. Next to the bottle shop is a row of gold Telecom Payphones with the brown acrylic noise shield around them.

Drawn by the neon I head up the escalators . The floor on the second level is covered in a wonderfull bright blue, marine print carpet. A staff member, sporting a shirt with a similar marine motif is casually smoking a cigarette. I continue to the administration area that was themed in a blue that is somewhere between teal and aqua. It would have been the perfect office in its day, with a place for everything and plenty of cupboards and draws. If only its designers could have forseen the need for a computer on every desk. The place was a mess with computers and cables running everywhere.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to explore the rest of the building as I was too busy working. I suspect that parts of it have been modernised since it was built. It’s a pity. I haven’t seen such an untouched example of 80’s kitsch for a long time.

I spent most of the weekend cleaning up the house. It is almost at the stage where I feel that I could ask someone to live here. It’s amazing how much crap you accumulate when you live in a place for four years. I reckon that It is quite possible that I kept all the parts left over from servicing my car over the last four years in boxes under the house. What possessed me to do something so stupid? I wasn’t trying to cause an ecological disaster. Now all that I have to tackle is what was the home office and is now just the junk room.

I also went to Ikea on Saturday. After spending an hour in a traffic jam on the pacific motorway, I finally get there and it was packed. As usual, they didn’t have the particular pieces of Ivar that I wanted. The 87cm cabnet that I was after had been discontinued :~(. Why is it that no matter how much money you spend at Ikea, the rooms in your home never look as good as the rooms in their catalogue?

Finally, my mum told me a little story tonight that proves that George Bush’s issues are genetic. George’s brother Jeb was recently in Spain where, in a public speech, he referred to Prime Minister Aznar as the President of the Republic of Spain. A quick check of the CIA world fact book would have alerted poor old Jeb to the fact that Spain is actually a parliamentary monarchy and hence, referred to as the Kingdom of Spain. A quick check of the dictionary would have alerted poor old Jeb to the fact that by definition, heads of state are only referred to as presidents in republics. In this case, Prime Minister Aznar is not even the head of state, the king is.

Thats fine. Honest mistakes happen. I can quote Colin Powell as saying “Prime Minister Downer” not so long ago. However, a few days later, the King of Spain met Jeb, and told him to say hello to his brother “the King of the United Sates”. Apparently the joke went right over the top of poor old Jeb.

Toodles

4th day of the detox. So far I have had enough lentils to last me a life time. I hope its all worth it. Tonight my girlfriend came over and we made the most kick ass vegetarian pizza possible. I even bothered to make the base. It seams the only time the breadmaker gets used is every 6 months when I am inspired to make real pizza.

I had a scary thought yesterday. I turned 24 recently. That means that my life at worst is 1/2 gone and at best 1/4 gone. Lets say 1/3 gone as a nice average. The last 6 years since I moved to Queensland have just gone so fast, yet I can’t think of anything I have done that I am really proud of. Essentially I have done the same kind of work, driven the same car, lived in the same house with similar satisfaction from life for years now. Yet time and time again I fail to take any action and actually do something. I don’t even know what I want from life anymore. Maybe I moved here to get away from my family who were putting pressure on me to decided what I wanted to do with my life (how was I supposed to know at 18). I have been able to just coast through life and only have to think about the long term issues when I go back to Melbourne and get a grilling from the old’s.

Maybe it is partly to do with my girlfriend. We went through a rough patch last year and we actually broke up for a few weeks. We got back together but I still don’t have a long term view about anything. Everything I do is just for now. I just don’t want to think about the future. Maybe we will get married and have 3 kids, maybe we will both move on. I don’ t know. I don’t want to think about it, but after 5 years together, maybe it’s about time to answer the hard questions.

I have been thinking back to my school days a lot lately. For the record, I hated school, and hardly went. However, I can now see why older people say they school days are the best days of your life. Hopefully that isn’t the case because it means the rest of it is going to be crapola.One thing I really miss from my school days is friends. Sure I am only in contact with a few of them but distance does that. Since I moved to Brisbane I have only had one friend (G). Our relationship was always strained because we worked together and he is a difficult bastard at the best of times (I still luv ya tho). Unfortunately he left Brisbane almost two years ago.

Well that was all rather depressing wasn’t it.

Fuck it

I am so tired. I can’t believe i managed to get home safely. It has been such a busy day.

I got up at 6am to go to the Laundromat
Did my 3 weeks worth of washing
Came home, had breakfast and went to work
Had lunch (Mr Bird’s MYO)
Went round to my girlfriends old house to paint over some holes in the walls
Went back to the office
Went home to feed the cats and have dinner
Went back to my girlfriends to touch up the paint. She wasn’t in the best of moods so I cleaned her oven too.
Went back to the office to install a server for someone.
Went to Ipswich to give a friend a packet of smokes. Almost fell asleep at the wheel on the way home. He was very greatfull though

Bleh.

I started a 15 days detox program today. It seams all right though I don’t know how I will go with the diet. Its basically vegan but I am able to eat fish and products made of milk from animals other than cows. Processed food is also out. Hopefully it will make me feel a little better than I have been.

Time for sleep

I am so tired and sore. Yesterday, I helped my girlfirend move apartments. That was an effort. I then proceeded to go out and get trashed. I wasn’t out too late, but more than enough alcohol was consumed. Went back to my girlfriends, watched the debut of Salmon Hater film clip and crashed.

Today I went to the peace rally against the war in Iraq. Apparently 100,000 people turned up which is a record for Brisbane. I couldn’t believe how many people came to support the cause. However, I was sadend by the address delivered by Simon Crean. Sure, the Labor party is against the US going into Iraq guns blazing (and Australia following blindly) without a UN mandate, but why not go further.

Even with a new UN resolution permitting the use of force, what right does any country in the world have to wage war on the people of Iraq. Unlike Australians or Americans *, the Iraqi people are not members of a democratic society. They shouldn’t be held accountable for the foolish actions of their leader. The UN has a responsibility to all the people of the world, including those in Iraq. They are the people who have suffered under Sadam’s rule, UN sanctions and the aftermath of the first Gulf war. Give them a fucking break.

It is still unclear what level of threat Iraq presents. I don’t believe that they should be able to have weapons of mass destruction, I don’t believe anyone should. Bombing the crap out of Iraq will only encourage other states to build up their stocks of weapons. Keep the weapons inspectors in there, Hell, why not send the South Africans in there for some independence. Back them up with “peacekeeping troops” if absolutely necessary (shouldn’t be if the CIA keep out of it this time). And how about some humanitarian aid? I don’t like the idea of 3rd world countries being used as a dumping ground for generically modified shit that no one else will eat but these people really need help.

I should also make a point about oil. I love cars, I won’t deny that. I am a consumer of oil. I am not about to give up my car for a push bike, but its time that we all realised that there is only one real source of energy (that we can use) on the planet and that is the sun. Oil just energy from the sun that is a few million years old. Every year, we use more an more oil, a trend that is unsustainable. The amount of oil left depends on who you ask, but there is no doubt within the next 20 - 30 years, that demand for oil will finally out grow production. At this point, the price of oil is likely to head towards the sky. Smart nations will use the next 30 years to reduce their dependence on oil and hopefully, maintain some of their high standard of living. The not so smart nations will wait for the laws of supply and demand to wreak havoc on their economies before they take any action. Just imagine what happens to car cities when the price of petrol hits $30/l

All this ranting has made me hungry. Time for dinner.

* I guess it is fare to say that Americans can’t be held accountable for the actions of George Bush, seeing technically they didn’t vote for him.

Awww. Isn’t that sweet