We got MySky HDi+ installed today. Basically what that means is Sky, plus the ability to record shows when you're not home. Or to watch one show while you record another. Or you can pause live TV while the phone rings and then keep playing when you hang up. Those sorts of things. It's pretty neat, I guess.

Tui went to the vet this afternoon. She's often flicking her head around, so I wanted them to look at that. But she's fine, just a cat thing. Her ears are both clean and mite free. Her waistline was, however, other news. She is now on a special cat diet in an attempt to loose nearly a Kilo of mog fat. We had noticed that she waddled a bit when she walked. It's my fault, she meows so I feed her.

I've got the flu. I started to feel a bit crappy...

It's been a good weekend, it hasn't even been raining too much which is rare at the moment.

Did some more digging in the front yard today. I thought that I'd gotten all the roots out the other week, but when I went to "clean up" today I soon realised I was far, far from over. I spent another 3 or so hours in the front yard digging the dirt, getting the axe and cutting the roots out. They're such a bitch to remove, I really get frustrated. But I haven't managed to axe myself yet, so that's a bonus.

I had the axe out, in full swing and as I brought it down I heard a "Doooonnnggggg".

It wasn't a rock. I wasn't worried until I brushed the dirt away though. Holy shit! A pipe! I was freaking out, did I just bash the water main at full swing...

Sarah brought home from work a Polo Shirt for me the other day. It was black, my favourite colour. When she gave it to me and I put it on the table we both agreed it needed a wash. So we put it through the washing machine and yesterday morning I gave it an iron and put it on. All seemed fine.

I tucked myself in at work when RRRIIIIPPPP. I put my hand through the back of it. That's strange, I thought. No worries I went about my day. As holes started to open up on it. At some stage I lifted up my Shirt and nearly died of shock. My skin was black. I had collected a very impressive amount of black belly button fluff. I was disappointed later when I realised I didn't get a photo of the belly button fluff.

By the end of the day...

Bit of sad news yesterday afternoon, though not unexpected. Nan Milburn, my mothers Mum, passed away after a fairly long illness. I wrote down a few of my memories about Nan that Jeremy has said he'll read for me at her service. If you're logged in you can read it here if you'd like to.

Thursday night was the TUANZ awards. Sadly we didn't win this time around. It was a fairly interesting night, the Top Twins (a well known New Zealand duo) were the hosts and they made an otherwise fairly dry and boring night quite interesting. I had to crack out my tux, which I haven't done since Barcelona (with Vanco!)

Weekend was good. We assembled another herb box and today I went and got another trailer load of soil which I shoveled into the new herb box. Our three little herb boxes are looking really good...

I'll never stop trying!
I'll update the story if they write back.

From: Tim Harman
To: Boags
Subject: Hello From New Zealand.

Hello.

Since moving here 10 years ago, I hassle on you a semi-regular basis to find out if/when I might be able to get some of your tasty Boags Premium once again here in Auckland.

Please see here for my previous attempt:
http://tjharman.com/tim/blog/05-feb-2010

I'm happy to report that my best man (also a proud Tasmanian) did indeed stash a 12 pack of the golden lager into his suitcase, so the wedding was a total success.

Of course, you would want to marry a lovely woman who, for your 30th Birthday got you a Boags Cake, wouldn't you?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/redmozzie/214541580/
I know I did.

Anyway I digress. Is there any good news? Will the joyful tastiness that is JBP be gracing the shores of poor New Zealand anytime soon? There's...

I found this online the other day so had to download it. I remember it well from my childhood. I could almost sing along to it as I listened again. Strange how things you haven't heard in ~25 years are still tucked away deep in your brain somewhere. It's not a bad album really, if you like bad Disco music.

We had a pretty good weekend, we headed off to the French Market on Saturday morning just for a look around. It's such a cool place, if only for the emmental cheese sausage for breakfast. Oh and the lovely bread and fresh veggies.

I bottled my Ale on Saturday and put down a Lager on Sunday. Not sure how well it'll turn out but hey I can only learn. Now's the right time to be brewing lager because the weather is freezing cold.

I avoided the garden this weekend, it...

Bit of work related news if you wish to login and read. Work going well though, happy happy joy.

Have been dieting all this week and also getting back into jogging. It's been so cold here, jogging last night and the rain came down while I was going. It was really hard, trying to see where you're going in a dark park with the pouring rain coming down, glasses fogging up from my breath and the cold. It wasn't fun. But hey, exercise is exercise, that's the main thing.

Didn't really do too well on the diet tonight, had a very tasty Pizza. But it's Friday night and it's not like it was 8 huge slices of pizza. Just 6 regular sized slices. Woo!

It's been a good week though, I've worked to and from work a few times. It's been a really wintery cold week. I've left brew number...

Got the call yesterday from the Australian passport office to come and collect my new passport. Yes that's right, almost less than 24 (business) hours after lodging my passport application it was ready. I was quite impressed I must say.

It wasn't quite the experience that Friday was though, I arrived in the room with 5 people in the queue ahead of me. My visit today reaffirmed a firm belief I hold, which is that 95% of the population are morons. One lady was getting upset because she only had one photo. "Well your form isn't very clear on the fact that you need two photos" she was yelling at the woman taking the application. I wanted to grab her, show her the form and ask if she wanted to borrow my glasses. Finally she left and some other people jumped up. In a right tizz because they were travelling...

Powderfinger made it to number 1 in the TripleJ Hottest 100 Australian albums of "all time". Even they were surprised they beat Back In Black. Frogstomp by Silverchair was No2.

Anyway the title of today's story is a Powderfinger quote, but it's in reference to the fact I broke a spade yesterday trying to dig out the god damn roots from the ground. I was digging and digging and SNAP. Pulled out the spade and it was munted. So I headed up to Bunnings and I purchased the spade to end all spades. This is a meat machine, it's a super tough reinforced man strength spade. It ain't going to break in a tornado!

So I spent another couple of hours playing around in the mud/root hole in the front yard and I think, finally, the battle has been half won. There's still a lot more work to do...