Day 14

Another gorgeous day for a walk in. I was glad to see that the graffiti strewn across a couple of the downtown statues had been cleaned off. With Australia Day rapidly approaching, marauding gangs (under the guise of angry aboriginals) had spray painted the status of Captain Flinders of the Royal Navy. His statue commemorates the day the first English landed on the continent, and of course, the premise is that the aboriginal inhabitants have been pissed off ever since. I don't really know whether they were truly angry aboriginals doing the defacement, but my personal gut feel is that street punks (I have seen a LOT more of those than aboriginals) just thought it would be cool to spray something controversial about how Captain Flinders commemorates the rape of this land and the murder of the native inhabitants. Either way, it was gone as quickly as they had put it out there. It was almost Demolition Man in nature. (If you don't get the reference, rent the movie. It is Wesley Snipes and Stallone at their stereotypical best, and marked one of the first times an aging white action star co-starred in a movie with an up and coming African-American star in an attempt to appear cool and hip to the current movie going audience. See Steven Seagal and DMX, Seagal and Morris Chestnut, Seagal and Keenan Ivory Wayans, and Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans for other examples of the formula.)

I was amazed to see that I was the first one here this morning. I didn't really pay attention to the time, or where I was going. It turned out I had passed by one of the IBM Australia folks on the way to work as well, and didn't even see her. The world behind the wall of iPod sound is just very different. I really do seem unaware of anything else going on. I did see quite a few young kids jogging in uniforms (though Physical Education in nature) and quite a few rowers, but unless they were going to run me down, I really didn't pay attention to other pedestrians on my walk in.

I sent off some pictures to Colleen. No, that does not mean I am going to post any here. I just haven't had the will. Maybe once we get onto our vacation. I don't think about snapping any when I am walking around. Hopefully, she'll get them. It takes a bit of doing to replicate all those messages out and I had to do it in spurts because our cable provider caps the maximum size of a single mail message. Still, I did owe her a couple, and the ones I sent I thought were nice.

Holy cow, but I just got through an ordeal. If I am able to pull the damned thing off, it will be a miracle. I had wanted to surprise Colleen (well, not really surprise since she knows about it and does read this) by setting up a little Day Spa time for her prior to going to the Australian Open Ball. I chose the one in question because it was a very short walk from the hotel. What I got was mind boggling. The first issue was that she kept trying to sell me some services I wasn't asking for. Colleen wanted a pedicure, and I wanted to get her a pedicure, manicure and facial. The last two just to pamper her a little bit. The woman wanted to sell me a package that involved a body massage and sculpting wrap, neither of which I wanted, and neither of which could be substituted. I failed to see how that was going to save me any money. In the long run, I did manage to work it out, at least I hope. We'll see. Colleen has a 10AM appointment at the spa, and she'll get the treatment. It might have been a bit more than Colleen would have wanted me to pay, but I wanted her to not have to worry about those details. Besides, it will, if nothing else, provide her with a way to kill an hour and a half while I am at work. :-)

I can't believe today marks two weeks of my daily posts. I am also blown away by the rapidly approaching 1 year anniversary of this blog. That's actually later this week. I don't know how I'll celebrate that.

We went to a restaurant in St. Kilda called the stockhouse. It was an interesting place, and the food was wonderful. I had my first Marlin steak, and it was tasty. Seared, so the inside was a bit rare, but I eat sushi, so I couldn't very well complain. At least it was hot. :-) From there, we did a little stroll around St. Kilda, stopping in a bar named Joe's greasy bar and cafe. They had these really cool mug glasses for the pints. A cab ride back to the CBD, and back to Turf Bar. The trading hours in the CBD are far too subjective. I suspect it is just a cost sensitivity issue, but seriously. We got one pint there, and then they shut down. Oh well, how many pints do I really need anyway? LOL. Got back to the room and watched the last bit of the tennis. That Cypriat is showing well at this tournament, and he seems to thrive on the center stage. Maybe I'll be rooting for the underdog. I don't know that he honestly has the game to take Federer, but he's handled a couple of matches no one thought he should so far. :-)

Cheers!