Week six at uni now. No blogs for awhile. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but isn’t it ironic that when I’m busy doing interesting things, I never have time to post; yet when I’ve got time off and I’m not doing anything in particular, I can manage a daily post or more (yet I have have nothing to offer during those times, apart from a list of banal things I did, or the odd morsel of craziness dressed up as intellectual musings..)

Also, when I’ve missed so many days, I feel this need to do a more general update and comment more generally on all the crap I’ve been doing. And that’s sad because it means that many strange daily experiences become diluted or omitted alltogether. For example, randomly seeing two police officers running along the side of the road, and only when the bus moved further up the road, noticing that they were chasing a grinning, sprinting, naked man. Or random conversations with old ladies at bus stops.

I’ve been doing a reasonable job of keeping up this semester. And when I say reasonable, I mean of course, reasonable only by my own shocking standards. I feel constantly under the pump, much more than first year, because I feel I should be doing an even better job of things this year, rather than doing a good job of a couple of things and winging the rest.

But anyway. Apart from uni, everything else is exploding as well. The last three months have held one piece of bad news after another. I almost feel like listing all the horrible things that are currently underway, but that probably won’t help. I should note that, up until last Thursday at least, none of these things have been happening directly to me. Instead, bad things are happening to many people I know. So many people I care about are fighting hard battles at the moment. And then of course there is the turmoil across the world…

On the subject of international turmoil, I think it’s of course not as intense as it seems, at least from where I sit. Mostly because the world is so damn huge, yet media is incredibly good (as it should be) at distilling every bomb blast, every quake, every upheval into 30 minutes of pure gold, guaranteed to kick start your day on a high note.

I love and hate the Australian media in about equal proportions, but I don’t care about writing about it right now.

After spending two weeks over Christmas selling and delivering cupboards, then moving the rest of our stuff in a trailer, my lower back wasn’t feeling the best. Then we went camping and I did more lifting. And then back into the exercise regime when all the floods and shit died down. I finally had enough of being constantly as stiff as a board so began doing yogalates, which did indeed increase fitness and core strength. Yet because I never properly rested, the lower back injury niggled.

Then last week Cara was away and I was behind at uni. I overdid it, waking at dawn, 70mins of yoga/pilates, then an hour and twenty on the bus while reading and furiously taking notes. All day at uni, home, reading on bus, then collapse. I did that all week.

Thursday came around and I was stressing about an exam the next day. Woke up, a quick run for a few kays, came back and back felt a lot worse. I studied all day and by the afternoon back was ratshit. Went for a walk to the park with Cara. With the back niggling away, I decided that a nice bout of furious sprinting might put it in line. And then, as I pounded along at full steam, something in the lower back/butt/leg region went bang. I slowed to a stop, and after that I could barely move.

No exam for me the next day, but a doctor and x-rays instead.

Went to the physio yesterday. She said if I keep going the way I am, I will soon destroy a disc, which is very very bad at a young age. Therefore I basically need to straighten up and fly right in terms of exercising sensibly.

Today, after implementing physio’s recommendations, I’m feeling much, much better, getting back toward just the dull ache I had before I destroyed it on Thursday. Physio says that once the pain is back under control, it’s time to fix the underlying issues. I imagine that will take some time and effort. But because I care about my health and want to be able to run, jump and surf into my old age, by god I will do it!

There’s some stuff I want to talk about, yet at the moment, I must prioritise how I spend time.

In the mean time, be good, and I will see you on the other side.

The bus eventually came and took me to uni. The day commenced with our first Environmental Protection lecture. This subject is of particular interest to me, given it is the first one specifically for my major. It’s mostly geared toward the relationship between the environment and human health, which is what I’m thinking I might focus on in my interests.

The lecturer was extremely enthusiastic, going through all the stuff we’ll be doing throughout semester. He seems like the kind of guy who will have a lot of expectations, but due to his busyness and hugely broad focus, maybe not provide as much guidance and support as one might need. I should not make these judgements just yet however.

As I sat through this course it dawned on me that I was now in second year and things were getting serious. The course seems to be a way of jolting you out of the student kid mindset into that of the adult employee. There is a lot of varied assessment, a lot of it fairly open-ended, and even though I believe this course will achieve its purpose excellently, I just wasn’t ready for it in the state I was. I don’t know anyone in the class, it’s a mix of kids my age in a clique, and random mature age students doing it as part of their employment. Felt pretty alone, confused, and intimidated.

The day wore on in a similar fashion, by 5pm I was so sick of hearing about environmental issues and just wished I’d become a plumber.

The first day back was uneventful, consisting only of an introductory lecture for one of three second year courses I’m doing, Environmental Systems. The course is basically focussed on consideration of natural phenomena and its relationship with human settlement as a system, and use this system framework as a way of making something complicated more manageable to think about. Lecturer is the same lady I had for Stats last year and she tries hard.

Felt weird to be back after so much leisure time. Had to happen sooner or later though, so hopefully I get back into the swing of things before too long.

The commute went basically as predicted, taking about an hour and twenty mins door to door.

In the evening it was warm. Cara and I went to Redcliffe for a swim, but found all the beaches were still closed due to post-flood health concerns. So we went for a walk and got scallops and chips. Remorseful value.

Cara had a 14hr day at work on Friday and was understandably twitchy and on edge all through her sleep as her mind attempted to deal with the enormous trials that she had faced all day. So we woke on Saturday morning after a fitful sleep, feeling a bit unsure about how we would handle all the fun activities we had planned.

Macca came round and we headed off for Bribie, suddenly feeling much better when we arrived and stepped outside into a stunning, mild summer’s day. Clear sky, about thirty degrees, soft breeze, and best of all, slow, clean, friendly waves coming in diagonally on the shore break. Water was excellent, and Macca and I caught some waves, having to paddle for them like crazy. I could stand up where they were breaking, coaxed Cara onto the board and launched her along one, watching her speed off toward the shore. So proud!

Eventually the girls managed to pry me from the water and the waves, and we headed across the road for lunch, where Macca won a meat tray, which I decided proved the entire weekend was blessed and destined for greatness.

After filling the belly I jumped right back in the surf, heading up the beach a few hundred meters to find this super fun break, getting beautiful rides along these friendly little waves (but indeed, having to paddle for them like crazy, adding to the fun and challenge).

After probably much more than an hour of this and heaps and heaps of rides, I realised time was wearing on and we would need to be home before long. I decided to get one last big one, waited around for a suitable wave which eventually rocked up. Paddled like a demon, got on, it was awesome, got overexcited and went a bit too far sideways then lost it in such a comparatively pleasant dumping next to what I’m used to at the Gold Coast. Found my feet and board, turned for the shore and there was Cara who had come to summon me from the blue, she had of course seen it all, but none of all my awesome ones before!

Yeah, I rush this post late at night with no regard for structure, grammar or the rest of it.

We trucked home and bid Macca thanks for bringing her happy presence upon our tired morning and turning it into a magnificent day, then farewell.

Cara and I readied ourselves for attending Fridays’ in the city for Mikejones’ farewell party coupled with Briony’s bday in the same venue. Cara looked stunning in some extremely high, black heels, whilst I resembled a tradie heading out on the piss. Onto another especially keen bus, I’m fairly sure the driver snapped some part of the suspension when he swerved at one point.

We hit Friday’s and Mike and everyone was there. He’d grabbed a decent function room which opened out onto a huge balcony overlooking the immense and charming nighttime view of river, kangaroo point and story bridge. I was feeling pretty old and tired, yet was able to medicate this extremely effectively with bourbon and coke. After four of these both of Mike’s parents made speeches, along with Mike himself. I felt so damn proud of the guy, and empathy with his parents who were so clearly filled with conflicting emotions of extreme pride, yet sadness at having their little boy jet away to such a huge and daunting career.

As Mike’s oldest cousin I had the pleasure of being his mate throughout the trials he faced in applying at the RAAF. I still remember the day prior to his first interview, us going to DFO to get him suited up, him staying at our place in Taringa that night, then in the morning sending him off on the train for his interview in the city, wearing my black pants because he had realised five minutes before the train left that his own were about a foot too short for him.

So glad I could play a small part helping him in this way. Will certainly miss the fella, even if he does cause me to miss trains by wearing his ipod in the toilet.

Anyway, all that flooded back to me and I went down my own memory lane as his proud mum gave her speech. After that it was party on, with Tequila shots coming our way courtesy of Josh and Steph. I remember giving my pissed analysis of said Tequila: “It has a roughness as it makes it voyage down, a friendly, acceptable roughness”. We just shotted then chewed the lime and it worked so well. I have never really enjoyed a shot except this one, and would totally do it again. It left me with such a warmth and happiness in my chest.

After this we, in the terms of Mikejones, “erupted” out into the rest of the venue and found Briony and her posse. Some guy was buying lots of champagne and Cara got into it. A few hours and some crazy Dirkstyle on the dancefloor later, I was feeling ready to wind down, immensely satisfied with how things had gone.

We said our goodbyes and I figured out a bus that would get us home, not before having to walk a few blocks which were excruciating for Cara due to high heels raping her feet.

Bus home, sleep, felt good. Drinking sensibly is excellent. Four bourbons and a tequila shot, stopped at 9 and just rode the crest from there till midnight.

As a result, felt pretty good the next day. Went for a decent Redcliffe ride with Shannon, discovering a fishing platform and a shipwreck which Skywalter enjoyed a lot. It was scorching and hot, but the sea breeze was good. Holy shit I am tired.

Dropped Shannon home at Carole Park before making our way across to visit the Cara clan at Karana downs, going across the river on a small weir due to Collages Crossing being taken out by the floods. Had an extremely nice, relaxing evening with those guys before a late night drive home.

Sound sleep.

Also tackled the electrics in the canopy which haven’t worked since I bought it, and was too lazy to bother claiming on statutory warranty. Busted out dad’s decades old multimeter to find wires to tap into to reconnect the top brake lamp, found multimeter slightly eccentric, then opened to find the reason. Fifteen year old battery had leaked everywhere, corroded away it’s contacts completely, and swelled up to twice its original size.

At this point I went inside to implement such protective gear as a shirt and last year’s chemistry goggles before prying the battery bomb from the device and disposing of it. Connected lamp, soldered it up, taped up with packing tape when I couldn’t find the electrical tape and got the shits.

Hate working on cars. Dirty, expensive and time consuming. Ripoffs when you can’t fix stuff yourself. So glad I hardly drive them now, bike is a much better lifestyle.

Played Morrowind all day. Heh. That game. Makes me feel like a little boy again. My foxy man is now a level twelve, or something. I found some enchanted bracers behind a treasure box which are worth a ridiculous amount.

Put the bins out in the evening. Recycling quite heavy – he missed it last time. Made a leek-based fried rice. Yep, that’s about it.

What a good conversation we had, as always. Then some chips, to Joshua’s house, and saw Steph too.

Most gung-ho bus driver ever on the way home. No regard for limits – neither road speed limits nor physical capabilities of the bus. He was throwing the thing round corners at 70. He’d floor it out of each stop and just keep it planted, hitting massive speed, before slamming on the breaks just before the next stop. Drive it like you stole it bro!

Also, whilst figuring out image stitching software, I accidentally fed two of the same image in. The prog then went ahead and found about a billion similar points between the images, and proceeded to merge them into each other.

The result cracked me up so much. I think you have to be a geek to appreciate this, but it’s almost like I’ve discovered a new dimension: