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Hot on the heels of my friend Rod, another friend came to town and visited. Kevin was here for work but managed to take time out of his busy schedule to see our new place and enjoy dinner. As per our usual we went to Una's and gorged ourselves silly on schnitzel and Zipfer. Being a school night we didn't want it running on too late, so after coffee and a bit of a chat about old times, we dropped "Chirper" off at his swish hotel with the harbour view in North Sydney.

A friend of mine from Brisbane, Rod, popped in on the way from Brisbane to Armidale. Laura and I picked him up from the airport, had a couple of beers and lunch, before taking him back for his 3:00pm flight. It's always great to see Rod, he was the best - and worst - boss I've had. Best in that he actually thanked you each and every day for your efforts. Best in that he made sure he was always the last person to go home at night; if you had an all-nighter, he had an all-nighter. Best in that he willingly shared credit, introduced staff as "colleagues" and not "employees", and generally treated people with respect and dignity. Worst in that he was a god-damned workaholic and expected the same from everyone. Actually encouraged is a better word than expected, but still it meant some killer amounts of overtime.

Just getting back to yesterday's Hottest 100 (Triple J), it reminded me of a rule I made when I first started keeping this log - "unless you're talking about a concert you went to, don't mention music". Why? Well for starters music can be supremely polarising. Like when I confessed to my mate Michael that I actually quite like Eminem. He ragged me out for hours about it, and still brings it up when the chance arises. The other reason is that there is every chance that the clever ditty I like today just won't stand up to the scrutiny of time, and if I have committed to purchasing the CD, my embarrassment is forever recorded at the back of my CD rack.

Well I haven't bought the CD, but I really like that new song by Ben Lee "Something Borrowed, Something Blue" (#22 on yesterday's chart). Ben's now a mature 24 years old, but back when he was just 19 he proclaimed that "Breathing Tornadoes" (his album of that year) was "the best Australian album ever made" and declared himself to be one of Australia’s premiere songwriters. Obviously this immodesty didn't endear him to other Australian acts of the time, with Bernard Fanning from Powderfinger (a band I detest) proclaiming him a "precocious little c$#%". That comment spawned a line of T-shirts that further popularised the use of the "c" word in Australian and international music circles. I saw him that year at Livid and didn't think much of him back then either.

Laura and I spent much of last night choking on cigarette fumes - it looks like there are new tenants below us on level 4. But to make an even better impression, the damn fool downstairs spent much of the day hitting a tennis ball up against the wall. The ball mage enough noise to completely give us the irrits, but the way the impact resonated through the building each and every time was enough to drive me (even more) insane.

After abstaining for months Laura and I thought that we had earnt a decent steak so thought we'd spend a nice evening at Angus at Cockle Bay. Really it was an obscene amount of food and wine, with an obscene price to match. But what was really obscene was the $5 per head weekend surcharge that was added to the bill. We will try and only go weeknights from now on. Oh, and if you're wondering where the photos of Cockle Bay are, well I took the camera but someone (hint, a male someone) forgot to charge the battery.

In happier news, Triple J's Hottest Hundred was run and won today. Despite the fact that I turn 30 later this year and have listened to the radio for less than a handful of hours in the last 2 years, I recently purchased the album that yielded the number 1 song. Queens of the Stone Age took the coveted position with their ditty "No One Knows". Actually I've got my friend Michael to thank for introducing me to them (well not *them* in person, but their music), but not that that erodes any of my coolness.

p.s. - Queens of the Stone Age also had songs 44, 48, 56 and 81 in the list.

This morning Laura was the only one who managed to get up at any sort of decent hour. Her friend Jackie came at 11:30am so we all headed out for breakfast. Went to Delectica which, IMHO, was much better than the previous morning's breakfast. Jackie is Susan's (Mirko's wife's) half-sister, so she was interested in seeing the wedding photos which are still on my laptop. After she left Mirko and I resumed our chess battle from the previous night, where I managed to square the ledger to 1-all for this trip, and 4-2 to Mirko lifetime. The game went for sometime with the Cricket for background - a nice way to spend a hot afternoon

Still disappointed by my stupidity in not taking my camera to the Star Wars show at the Powerhouse, Mirko and I thought it might be a good idea to accurately recreate some of our favorite moments. If it is not completely obvious (as if) what we were doing, hover the cursor over the thumbnail and it should pop up a caption.

Mirko's sister Tanya popped in for a visit but I spent most of the time asking her tax questions. We ordered a pizza or two (actually 3) from the Fat Chefs, before saying goodbye to her, packing Mirko's things, and then saying goodbye to him. The drive to the airport took only 9 minutes - testament to just how brilliant the Eastern Distributer is. We dropped Mirko off at the Qantas check-in, which was a shame because he was flying Virgin, shook hands and Laura and I drove off into the sunset.....

After the late night we were a tad slow rising in the morning. Mirko and I went to Danny's La Bussola for breakfast which was adequate without being special. We got home sometime after lunch and bummed around the pad. Laura played the Matrix on her new DVD so we all watched until late afternoon. Once the movie finished we went down to Rushcutters Bay Park and threw the frisbee. It was a particularly stinking hot day so when we got home we thought it was a good idea to tak e a dip in the pool - I won the World Championship of Breaststroke and Mirko edged me out in freestyle. He reckons breaststroke suits greater body-mass but I just don't accept his excuses.

After the swim I had to do a bit of work, which meant that we didn't head to Una's Palace of Schnitzel until fairly late. We ate till we were full then went and enjoyed some premium gelato. Still wide-awake despite the late hour, and now that we have a DVD player, Mirko and I got home and watched for the upteenth time Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. By the time I staggered into bed it must have been after 2am....

My best mate Mirko flew in from Brisbane the night before, but he got in so late we really only had time to eat a dozen tacos (between 3 of us) and drink beer before it was bedtime. Also I was exhausted from all the late nights doing my PJs during the week.

We both got up reasonably early although I was still half-an-hour late for a 9:00am meeting. Got home from that around 11:30 so we went into town for lunch. Met Laura at the Bourse Cafe in the ASX Building in Bridge Street. I got to see all those lame companies that cost me the money in last year's Stockmarket Game still floundering, but up on the big screen.

After lunch Mirko and I embarked on what was to become an epic walk to the Powerhouse Museum. Once there (several hours after we left) we realised to my abject horror that photography of the exibition was allowed. The stuff was amazing - real costumes, real props. It was actually quite amazing how crappy some of the stuff (particularly from Episode IV) was. The character Boba Fett had what looked like mini-hydraulic tubes on his arms. On closer inspection it was obvious that they were the ink inserts from a biro (one of those four colour jobs because the metal tips were coloured red, blue, black and green). And the keypad on his other arm was simply a calculator spray painted silver.

After the Powerhouse we walked to the Three Monkeys Pub and had a few much needed ales as we watched the Poms play Sri Lanka in the Cricket. Laura called to say that her brother David, his girlfriend Donna, and Steve Bradbury were coming to visit in an hour or so. Mirks and I raced home to get ready for dinner.

Dave arrived sans Bradbury but with Donna and with Laura's present - a brand new DVD player! While I was showering he set it up so we played a few music vids before heading out for a very late dinner. Laura and I had been to Neil Perry's XO before and enjoyed it so thought that would be a good venue. The meal was delicious and moderately priced, although despite my warning everyone about the price of drinks I somehow managed to get everyone stung with 3 small bottles of still water for $18. Tell me about it.......

After dinner we went across the road to Peppermint Lounge but with standard drinks costing 8 bucks each we were never going to stay for very long. Dave had been drinking slowly all night and so was right to drive. His new Maroon Audi A4 was impressive in the flesh although it looked like it needed a clean.

We scored an invite to Greg and Andrea's fantastic pad for a BBQ - how could we resist? After work Laura and I drove to Cremorne Point for what ended up being Greg's birthday party (28 the following day - I know, that's pretty old).

We had a super barbie and all got pretty toasted. At some point I drank beer using a hollowed-out left-over sausage as a straw. It looks a bit sus but I assure you it was a sausage.
It was a brilliant night, tempered by the fact it was a school night. Christmas really hasn't ended just yet.....

After our big schnitzel night at Una's Laura and I both took a while to rise on Sunday morning. Once we were up and at 'em Laura managed to drag me away from the cricket long enough to go to Paddington and buy her Christmas present. I used the opportunity to take a few pics of our local surrounds.

Ended up doing a lap of the fashion district and buying Laura a pair of cool sneakers. Now we both have new sneakers because I bought myself a pair for Christmas (Laura's are white, mine are black).

After my very big week of late nights I struggled a bit to get up on Saturday morning. We drove around a bit looking at shops (mental note - avoid Bondi Junction from now on) before going home to tidy up a bit.

In the evening Michael and Cate and Greg and Andrea came round for a few coldies before heading on to that Darlinghurst institution - Una's Cafe. We all ate so much food that we were full for days and it was so cheap we could afford the liposuction after. We had a good night, which tapered back to our place for coffee before our guests headed home.

I promised Laura we'd go somewhere on the bike today but piked. In the end we just headed into town around lunchtime and took a quick look at the shops. Nothing there worth buying, so we thought of checking out The Rocks and getting a bite to eat (and I was hoping to catch some of the cricket on telly). We ate the worst meal ever and drank the most expensive local beer at The Observer Hotel: Bald-man Bistro. Actually it was probably my fault - when the cashier asked how I would like my steak and I answered "medium rare" it could have sounded like "medium.... no screw that, make it well done and all grey". I've been told that uni students drink beer 'cause it's cheap, but $8.80 for a schoon' and a lemon squash just doesn't sound right.

After lunch we took a beau peep at the Museum of Contemporary Art which was arty and disturbing at the same time.

After only getting to bed at around 4:30am and after our big NYE party at Greg and Andrea's, it wasn't surprising that neither Laura or I made it up until well after lunchtime. Laura has a tradition that every new year's day she has to go to the cinema and see a movie. We were both keen for a bit of Bond in Die Another Day but by the time we got to the cinemas the next 2 sessions were sold out (it seemed that everyone in Sydney had come to watch movies at the Broadway complex).

In the end we settled for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers which meant we only had to wait another 2 hours for it to start. Figured we'd take a look at the shops until we realised that all the cool shops were shut. So we took a wander around to Glebe and found this cool bookstore that was having a sale. Chewed up an hour or so looking at books without buying anything (while I was mighty pleased at my awesome restraint, I was in equal measure disappointed with my awesome lack of moolah). Then we remembered the crowds, how popular our movie is, and how unlikely we would be to get 2 adjoining seats, so we shot back to the googolplex (well they do have too many cinemas there!).

Here's a tip - if you're planning on seeing a movie that cracks it for 3 hours duration, it's probably wise to try and sit somewhere near the centre of the theatre. As it turned out we got 4th row, hard up against the wall. There's so much about that damn movie that annoys me - Gollom, Frodo, the stupid hair that the Hobbits have, Sam always calling Frodo "Mr Frodo" when he was clearly older. I guess not having read the books puts me at a distinct disadvantage because I don't understand (or care for) what's going on.

At least this episode, unlike the first stanza, had some sort of an ending (the trees win). It's kinda like Star Wars in that way - Episode IV and Return of the Jedi had clear endings, but Empire Strikes Back, in my humble opinion, lacked the closure that I need in a movie. And I got to finish my popcorn....