emotions, mixed — i’m not sure why i’m having to remind myself approximately every two hours that yes, it’s only to be expected that i’d be alternating between (literally) jumpin’ up ’n’ down ’n’ grinning & staggering about on the verge of tears, but apparently forgetfulness is another symptom of moving from one country to another, so… but yes, my moods over the last week & a bit have been, shall we say, a little changeable…

bonus radiohead concert — linda & dave & fiona & simon & jimbo turned up for the weekend with a spare radiohead ticket in tow & would i be interested in seeing radio-YOINK!-head… (the YOINK!, of course, being the sound of me swiping the spare ticket faster than the eye could follow…) so, yeah, i got to see radiohead. twice. they were brilliant again on saturday… different set list, a little more of the bends, a little less kid a & amnesiac, but yeah, wow…

unemployed at last! well, it’s taken me about thirteen & a half years, but i’ve finally left university… nine years at JCU, about three at UTS, two & a half at USyd… i was about to say i’ve learnt a lot in that time, but you’d hope you wouldn’t spend thirteen & a half years at university without learning something…

radiohead — were phenomenal… thom yorke is such a twitchy little hobbit, & yeah, we were sitting way up in the nose bleed section & the sound was occasionally a little muddy, but wow, they were just brilliant. in no particular order, they did: there there, 2+2=5, myxomatosis, morning bell, my iron lung, pyramid song, planet telex, sit down stand up, you & whose army, backdrifts, go to sleep, exit music (for a film), paranoid android, where i end & you begin, i might be wrong, the national anthem, idioteque, how to disappear completely, climbing up the walls, karma police, sail to the moon, everything in its right place… i think my life in sydney is now complete… thank you everyone…

こんにちはすみえ.

お-げんきですか. ぼくはげんきです.

work plan — escape velocity in 5, 4, 3…

• meet people for coffee (ongoing);
• try not to gloat too much (ongoing);
• finish briefing papers (today);
• attend official farewell (today);
• tidy up desk & immediate environs (today/tomorrow);
• unsubscribe from mailing lists (tomorrow);
• disable administrator accounts (tomorrow);
• accelerate to escape velocity (friday)

that’s right, sometimes a parrot talks — awk! awk! awk-awk! aw-aw-aw-awk!

that whistling noise — is time rushing past… still lots of things to do & organise, but it’s all happening…

breathing — must remember to keep breathing… last week was kinda permeated with a deep, free-floating anxiety… this week i’m feeling a little calmer… sort of walking around saying goodbye to things & almost enjoying myself now… & you know, sure, it’s all a little bit sentimental & self-indulgent, but yeah, sydney has been fantastic for me over the last few years, & it’s nice not to be totally frantic as i’m leaving…

turn the key — just signed off on the new system. it’s live. fingers crossed that no one finds any new & interesting bugs before the 28th… ;p

let’s count!

1. six more working days!
2. eight days to radiohead!
3. twelve days to tokyo!

system nigh good to go — well, it’s still a little rough around the edges, but i spent much of yesterday afternoon & this morning testing what could well become the first production version (fingers crossed) of our new database… of which i wrote the spec, built the proof of concept, & wrote the data migration tools… so, you know, yay for me… as a possible added bonus, the data migration appears (fingers remain crossed) to have gone smoothly… (the final lot of data came out of the legacy system & into the new system at 9.30 last night…) so yeah, this is kinda cool…

& i may find myself, in another part of the world — it’s getting increasingly difficult to stay focussed on the tasks at hand… like finishing work with a degree of dignity, & finalising all my packing, & contacting all the organisations & companies & so on that i need to contact…

petrolhead — forgot to mention the hire car i scored in townsville… i asked for a compact hatch, but they didn’t have any, so they gave me a V6 all-wheel-drive mitsubishi magna sports model at the compact hatch rate… sweet. deep shiny blue with a wing on the back & one of them new-fangled 5 speed sequential automatic transmissions… it went like a rocket… not that i was hooning around or anything…

shidoni ni kaerimashita — returned to sydney after a brief easter sojourn in townsville… did the family, friends & mountainbiking things while i was up there… mikalya is getting big & starting to talk… dawn is keen on jumping up & down on the spot & does a very good impersonation of a cat… & my mum is keen on visiting tokyo…

mokomoko — warwick lent me his kona mokomoko over the weekend… last year’s top of the line race bike is this year’s loaner now that he has his scandium-framed salsa… (he was gonna lend me the atx that i rode in the triple-r last year, but it had a flat, so…) the mokomoko was totally sweet, weighed next to nothing & smoothed out the bumps like a flying carpet… dave & i hit the tracks out behind the university a couple of times & i managed not to bend or break anything, which is always nice, but even nicer when you’re on someone else’s bike…

gogo shichi ji ni nemashita — gozen hachi ji ni okimashita… totally crashed when i got back to coogee… fell asleep around seven last night & crawled outta bed about eight this morning…

tokyocycling.com — hey, cool…

26,832 things to do — 20 & a bit days in which to do them…

makes happy little data cleaning noises — as scripts run in the background…

we are the champions — sydney kings 90, west sydney razorbacks 79… the kings win the championship 3 games to 2… (my boss bought me a ticket to the last game of the NBL finals series as a going away present… on one level it’s probably kinda symbolic that we’d choose to spend a social occasion chanting DE-FENCE! DE-FENCE! but there you go…)

it was a freaky game — the kings were nowhere for most of it… the pigs opened up a lead in the first quarter & held it pretty much throughout… the kings offence was completely scrappy, there were long periods when they couldn’t buy a basket… & they were woeful from the foul line… every so often they’d make a bit of a run, but the pigs would jump away again…

uh oh — so it gets to about three minutes to go, the pigs are up 79-72 & it’s just not looking good… (my boss & i being kings fans…) cue the kings to light up an 18-0 run… ebe eri hit some threes & c.j. bruton started icing free throws… game over… the pigs looked like they couldn’t believe it…

of course, it’s not just about winning — i mean, that was tidy work by the townsville crocodiles in finishing ninth…

school’s out — also had my last beginner’s japanese class last night… it was a great course, with a fantastic teacher… honestly, learning japanese is so much fun, everyone should do it…

apologies for delayed transmission — have been/still am exceedingly busy…

happiness — had a fantastic week exploring sydney with Sumie… day tripped to the blue mountains, visited the zoo, walked through the botanic gardens, dinners in chinatown & darling harbour, swimming in coogee, walked around bondi, proposed… (she said yes…)

daveness — his royal daveness was in town earlier this week on business… we caught up a few times for dinner, coffee & conversation… finally got to eat at fuji-ya, which i’ve often thought about doing but never done for some reason… it was good, although the takoyaki wasn’t great… on the other hand, the tempura & karaage were very good, & dave recommends the plum wine…

various travel plans:

• will be in townsville over easter, leaving sydney on the thursday & flying back on the monday…
• going to tokyo on the 28th…

close now — it’s all starting to feel a little freaky… totally exciting, but it seems like there’s about a zillion things to do… i guess i just gotta get in & do them…

data recovered — got everything back off my dying hard drive, which was a huge relief… took a few days, but it’s all there… & yes, it’s all backed up now…