been putting in long hours at work - getting there before anyone, leaving after everyone. Getting the desired effect, namely that a particular project has no charged time accrued against it, despite it needing about half my time in a given week.

i've started putting in lots of unpaid overtime (directive from boss)so that i can put an entire job into unpaid overtime. it's been a struggle, as i'm getting in to work well before anyone, leaving after anyone, and barely keeping my head above water with project work.

I'm hoping it is only for a month or so. I'm only into my second week and already my sleep is getting disturbed by working so late that my mind doesn't disconnect from work while asleep.

Work his recently required some long hours (overtime is rare and often only needed for short periods). Starting at 6am and going through to 8pm. My girlfriend noted that I am unlikely to find time or inclination to cook after a very long day. She then set about planning, cooking and Subdividing into meal sized portions. I now have a fortnights worth of meals frozen down. I could have readily subsisted on what I could prepare (Subsist being the key) but was deeply touched at her thoughtfulne

My grandad is in his mid 80s, not too frail, but not saved either. Being a christian, there is a desire to see all people saved, but there is a personal desire for those close to you to be saved especially.

Went to a seafood festival at Paddington on Sunday. Superbly Sunny weather but the majority Of the stalls were selling a limited range of beers, and the height of imagination is seafood seemed to be baby octopus. Prawns by the ton. A few Morton Bay bugs and the ubiquitous fish & chips but nothing like seafood curries or things that people would not have seen a hurdled times before.

I bought an HP rx1950 in october/november last year to help organise my life. I love HP gear as they make the ultimate in rock solid calculators for engineers. their consumer lines leave a lot to be desired though. One of the main things which i wanted in a PDA was that it would synchronise my calendar, email and contacts from the PDA onto my desktop at work.

A housemate moved out last weekend. Did so quickly to move into a new place. The landlord wanted assurance that the last couple of weeks rent would be paid so i said that i'd pass on the money and if the guy was a day or so late, i'd cover it til then.

Big mistake.

Had my hair cut this morning. nothing too eventful in that - i can tell the barber what i want in a single sentence "number four on the sides and back and tidy up the top".

Had the option of a hot or cold towel afterwards. never had a cold towel before, and it was amazingly refreshing. The joy of small things, indeed.

discovered that a cheap coffee table i thought belonged to one of the other tenants belonged to the landlord. Cold drinks of any sort will sweat and gather condensation when left anywhere, and coasters are only so good in terms of stopping flat surfaces from getting wet. some wetness had affected the varnish of the table. a sheet of paper had got stuck to the table (tv guide improvised as a coaster that had (surprise surprise) got wet, and had largely come off but a couple of bits of paper

Fun of Church hunting

(names of churches not mentioned to protect the various parties - email me if you really want details)

I moved from my last long term church as I had failed, After two years of concerted effort , to make a friend I could count on for regular social contact. Not having people I had grown up in this city with, my pool of social contacts was smaller than most so put more weight on finding friends at Church than most others.

Landlady's younger brother (nice guy, no problem with him) moved in at midnight on Friday to one of the empty rooms in the house. A heads up would have been nice, but things will shake down ok no doubt.

Saturday when I got home from a day out I found that the kitchen table had gone. No idea where, but just gone. Have got some other table we can call into service, but again, a little communication would have been nice.

A girl i chatted with on irc a few years back in Mississippi just passed on news that she'd left her husband. Always sad to hear of things not working out, even more so as they're both Christian. I've never met her or him, but had short bits of their courting relayed on to me, as well as their marriage and moving around.

I don't have any deep insights into how this was anything but a sad event for all concerned.

Cairns is an excellent city for touring around, and within a short distance of it, you can get to very many great tourist related activities with enough variety and quality to keep you amused at least until your bank account runs dry.

For me it has been a mixed blessing being up here. The project I have worked on has been challenging in a good way. I have got to refresh myself on details and construction methods that I honed back in NZ, and helped bring colleagues up to speed on them.