Hi. Hello. Elderly. A little drunk.

HI! IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!

(I originally typed that as 'birthda' , which I think has a certain ring to it.)

I have had a lovely day. I had breakfast with The People's Champion and Rip van Winkle, I spoke to some most excellent folks from home. I went to work, where I managed to not only meet but exceed my monthly performance target (yay, not getting sacked!). I had lunch with some work friends at a pub owned by an Australian woman with the best name of all time: Roxy Beaujolais. Rock and roll.

Tonight I went for dinner with the aforementioned TPC and RVW, together with Dr Evil and Madam Fox. When I say 'dinner', I meant 'cocktails'. I mean, we did have dinner - at an excellent Moroccan restaurant - but given that I had three mojitos before we even considered adjourning for food, my birthday had been well and truly celebrated already. The lovely Lady Thommo joined us for dinner, and we drank red wine and made Shroud of Turin jokes and had ourselves a time.

I miss you guys. I have stories to tell: the wedding was lovely and my departure from Sydney heartbreaking. The jet lag sucked in a major way, but it was worth it. Since then, there have been many amusing moments, which I will share as soon as possible. We had our housewarming on the weekend and we lit the town afire. Also, there are photos, and that's the only way to tell a story about tarts.

None of this makes any sense, but I've had a lot of wine. And mojitos. Drunky posting is fun. I will write more, I just wanted to let you know that I'm thinking of you all.

I have commenced my thirtieth year. It's going to be spectacular. And I'm thinking Shanghai for February 27, 2008. Who's up for it?

Home!

It's a beautiful sunny morning, and I'm sitting in an apartment in Surry Hills looking over Sydney Town. It's hot but there's a lovely breeze. Yesterday, I went for a long walk along Bondi Beach and kicked around in the Pacific Ocean. I had a chocolate paddle pop which melted all over my fingers.

It's good to be home.

This is a lovely place, you guys. The flight was LONG, and I do not feel anywhere near my physical peak (wherever that is), but it's worth it. I went to a barbecue last night at Neilsen Park at Vaucluse and had a beer while looking out over Sydney Harbour.

The wedding is this evening, I'm having breakfast with my family and then heading over to Bondi to watch KPO get all brided up. More later.

Hope those of you in England are nice and warm. That it snowed in London the night I left blows my mind all over the place.

Reasons to be cheerful..

So much for New Year’s resolutions – this poor wee blog has been as woefully neglected as ever. January has been rather tedious – as I have hinted in previous posts – and I just haven’t felt particularly chatty this year so far.

I have been working a LOT. The sacred slacker covenant of the Working Holiday has been well and truly broken – in my bid to see if just maybe they’ll let me stay in this country, I’ve been trying to secure the fickle affections of my employer through a truly shameless display of brownie-point-gathering: many hours at my desk, an increased caseload, volunteering for responsibility. I’m drowning in it at present, which is unfun. There’s an element of panic – even after slogging my guts out all month, I didn’t ‘make target’ in January. I find arbitrary numerical performance measures intensely frustrating, but they fired one of my fellow contractors this week for lack of productivity, so the threat is real.

I swore I’d never let a job become my life again. In this case, there’s a clearly defined end point (I should qualify for the visa by May) but getting there has been dragging me way on down.

I’ve been living fairly quietly in between, as well – trying to save money to pay off urgent debts is a difficult task for me in the best of circumstances. In this town, it’s almost impossible and it makes me grumpy.

It hasn’t been all gloom, of course – RVW and I are settling nicely into The Pickle (did I tell you we named our flat?) and The People’s Champion is a most entertaining houseguest. Together with Dr Evil and Madam Fox we have reinforced our commitment to the Sunday Roast Club – and after sampling many of the pubs in our immediate neighbourhood have settled on this place as the venue of choice for our weekly meetings. We saw a musical, watched the Ashes, played in some snow, and I may or may not have had my first Bundy in about 15 years in joining my little brother in his traditional observance of Our National Day.

February is going to be great. We’re only a week in, but I’ve already been reminded of how much fun there is to be had if I just get out and make the most of this city. Madam Fox and I danced our asses off at a Bloc Party gig at the Astoria on Thursday night, and on Saturday evening I saw this play, of which I give the following one-word review: ‘excellent’. I spent some quality time at the Spitalfields markets yesterday and tonight RVW and I sent out invitations for our housewarming party later in the month (conveniently scheduled to coincide with a Very Important Birthday). You should all come along…

But do you know what I'm really excited about tonight? The Wedding of The Year is taking place next Saturday afternoon. And I am going to BE THERE.

Oh yes, it is the true. Two more sleeps until I hop aboard a large plane and commence my journey southwards. As some of you are already aware, this is quite possibly the stupidest trip ever in that I am only going to be in town for a total of four days. The Great Visa Attempt precludes my taking any time off work, but I cannot resist the lure of what promises to be a most outstanding party.

I apologise most sincerely to those in Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra - I promise I'll skip Sydney next time I head home and head straight to where you are.

I've had a haircut, packed my thongs and worried about how pasty my arms are going to look in my new blue frock. My mountain of work isn't going to magically disappear while I'm away, and there are many weeks of the cold and grey still to come - but for the moment, I'm dreaming gleefully of sunshine.