Poor Simba!

Today has been a struggle. Hell, every Monday is a struggle, but this weekend was harder than most. Namely because our dog Simba spent most of Friday night and half of Saturday vomiting.

It started about 2am Friday night. At 4:30am, Lauren and I decided that we’d put him outside (we gave him a comfortable bed) so we could get a few hours sleep. A couple of hours later, he woke us barking so we brought him in. An hour after that, he barked again, which is something he rarely does, and only when he’s telling us he NEEDS to go outside.

When we woke up a few hours later and opened the door to check on him, he had been sleeping in his hidey hole in the garden. In the rain. Where it was muddy. The photo above wasn’t from Saturday morning, but the truth of it was that he looked worse. He was shivering and caked in mud. We spent the next hour or so bathing him.

When he was clean, the vet’s had closed. But seeing as how he hadn’t thrown up for a while, we were hoping he was on the mend. And he was… until he threw up again.

Saturday night was another late night, this time due to an engagement party (congrats Jo and Danie!). We’d gotten him a babysitter and everything was fine – he woke me up at 5am to go to the bathroom – but after that he was back to his normal self on Sunday (although a little weak). He spent the day chasing lizards and helping Lauren prune the roses.

But even though I’m an exhausted wreck at the moment, I’m just happy the dog’s okay…

Go The Tahs!

For the second time since the inception of the Super 12 Rugby competition (and its migration to the Super 14), the NSW Waratahs have made the final.

What’s more, they actually look like they can win. They’re playing good rugby. The forwards are going forward and the backs are hitting hard, making breaks and scoring tries.

The Crusaders will be a tough ask this weekend, especially in NZ, but I actually believe that the Tahs have a good chance. I can’t wait.

A Weekend of Lobster, Lindt and Corned Beef

It was a pretty busy weekend, which started with dinner on Friday night with mum, Matt and Lauren and Aunty Sue and Uncle Curl. We went down to the Italian restaurant near mum’s place – she had a hankering for lobster after I sent her the picture to the left there.

The food was lovely, although the service was a little slow. I didn’t have the lobster myself (instead had veal with king prawns in a garlic and chilli sauce), it didn’t live up to the expectations mum had. Not surprising, really.

After dinner we went back to mum’s place, which was nice but for the cigarette smoke. Considering everyone but Lauren, myself and Curl were smokers, there was a thick haze of it throughout the house. Thank god there isn’t a smoke detector in the lounge room, is all I can say!

Saturday I woke up with an absolutely horrendous headache. Part of me thinks it may have been the firefighting from the night before. In any case, I felt terrible all day, which sucked big time because Lauren and I had planned to go and see Iron Man. Instead, I sat on my backside and did nothing while my head played drums on my brain. Unpleasant.

On the upside, I felt better on Sunday and Lauren and I took Lyn out to the Home Show. Saw way too much stuff that we can’t afford there, but it was nice to go and not have to work. Afterwards, we wandered over to the Lindt cafe for iced chocolates / Mochas coffees, before heading home to cook Corned Beef for dinner.

So another weekend of eating. Not a bad way to live if you ask me.

The house is clean

What an exciting weekend. Lauren and I cleaned. Really cleaned. The house has been neglected for so long, what with the wedding and everything, that there was a stench permeating the very pores of the walls. Now, that’s gone, (hence Mr Sparkle above).

I mean, you know your house hasn’t been cleaned properly when you’re sitting down watching Pirates of the Caribbean on a Friday night and you watch a mouse run across the hallway floor. Thankfully, Simba the Brave managed to pry himself away from his bed long enough to catch the mouse once it had run into the linen cupboard.

And the only thing worse than one mouse – two mice. About an hour later, just as the movie finished, another little bugger ran across the exact same spot. Sadly (not so much), it had a similar fate to the first – Simba the brave caught it, then proceeded to play with it until he lost it in the garden somewhere. In case you were in any doubt, the mouse didn’t survive.

Last night Lauren and I designed our wedding Thank you cards in iPhoto. I love the fact that you can do it, but I’d like a bit more flexibility. Hopefully they’ll arrive soon and we can send them out, completing the last of our wedding related duties (other than paying off the credit card).

Well, So much for daily…

I discovered last week that although I “blog” for a living these days, trying to find something interesting every day in my own life was a struggle. There’s only so many times that you can say, “I woke up, did the feed for Gizmodo, wrote some local stories, cooked dinner and went to bed”, and even fewer times that it’s actually interesting. So, this will probably become more like a real diary, where I chronicle the exciting events in my life.

The weekend was one such event. It started on Friday with the IT Journalism awards. An. Absolute. Farce.

I’m not saying it wasn’t a good night, but the fact that neither Giz or Kotaku was a finalist for “Best New publication”, when the award went to Gamespot AU (which was relaunched last year) and Playstation Magazine (which was just Playstation 2 magazine rebranded) was a finalist justifies my opinion. I mean, I know they lost our entry, but we resubmitted, so they should have counted us. It’s not like they can rule us out because we use licensed content – so does Gamespot AU. I’d say it’s more that they lost our entry, but by the time they let us know, they’d already judged. I won’t deny I’m disappointed – I don’t think I deserve any accolades myself, but the site is doing so well that I don’t think people can ignore us anymore.

Anyway, after a few drinks and a late train home, I got over it (no really, I did. That last paragraph was written by someone else). Saturday was a nicer day, with Kristie and Ben’s wedding.

It was a beautiful ceremony down at Cronulla (not on the beach). The light was fantastic – if their photographer is as good as I thought he was, then they are going to have some fantastic photos, plus some shots from me, like the one above. The reception was beautiful – they did a ceremony like the candle ceremonyt we did, except instead of candles they poured sand from their home towns into a single vase. It was very much them, and very touching.

The reception was equally fun, although I was a designated driver and I was surrounded by drinkers. I’m so jealous of the fact that they’re having a 3 week honeymoon as well – I would have killed for 3 weeks in Fiji!

Sunday, understandably, was a write-off. Even though I didn’t drink, two late nights in a row really took it out of me I must be getting old.

I’ll post some more pics from Kristie and Ben’s wedding soon.

A mixed bag of a weekend, really

As far as weekends go, there wasn’t too much to get excited about this one just gone. Lauren and I did a spot of shopping on Saturday before heading in to watch the Waratahs demolish the Blues (thanks Sarah!). It was a good match, although I was blown away by the fact that Greg Growden (the Sydney Morning Herald’s Chief Rugby journo) kept coming to sit down behind the posts. Maybe he just loves the atmosphere of the cheap seats?

Sunday we went in to the Red Bull Flugtag. We were both completely underwhelmed. Firstly, there were so many people around that you couldn’t actually get somewhere close enough to see. Then there was the food – expensive, small servings and less than appetising stall food. Finally, the fact that I need a bigger zoom lens on my camera – there’s nothing like going to an event where you’re a long way away from the action to remind you of your lens inadequacies… Oh, and Tim Bailey. God that guy annoys the crap out of me.

We’ve got Kristie and Ben’s wedding next weekend. It should be good, but I am a little bit worried about the night before – I’ve got to go and represent Giz at The Lizzies. I reckon we’ve got a really good chance of winning this year. Hopefully I’ll get to come home with a statue of a frilled-neck lizard…

I’m so tired…

Thank God it’s Friday! I’m exhausted. It’s been a hard week all around, trying to get back into the swing of things after Fiji time. There have bee a couple of late nights this week (Canon event, Lauren had a work event last night), and the early mornings for Giz have taken their toll. I’ll be sleeping in tomorrow!

We’re heading out on Sunday to the Red Bull Flugtag… not sure what to expect there, but it might be a bit of fun and I could get some good photos from it. Also may be going to the Waratahs match tomorrow – I should find out tonight. In any case, it looks like a bit of a busy weekend. Which means I’ll probably be just as exhausted come Monday.

Kinda makes me wish I was back in Fiji…