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Sydney Life

RSPCA Paws For Celebration Ball

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Last night was the 2008 RSPCA Paws For Celebration Ball, held at Star City Casino. I try to go every year because they are my favourite charity.

The theme this year was “The Musical”, so the entertainment was all based on musicals like Chicago and Hairspray – right up my alley!

I loved the cute little cupcakes they placed on all the tables for us to take home – and to remind us about Cupcake Day in August (I’ve already registered my work place – now I had better get organised!).



Cupcake tower!


Donating money to play a trivia game.



The food was pretty average but the dessert more than made up for it.




“Blue steel” look.


Showing off our dresses.


Kae in a bevy of girls.


The weird horse lamp outside Astral bar.

The Dark Knight

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I was devastated when Heath Ledger died and have been looking forward to seeing this movie for a long time. I loved Batman Begins and was keen to see if the follow-up would be as good.

We decided to see the movie at Imax right in the middle of youth week. Not the best choice ever, but it was worth it! We did have to line up for a while to get in which was annoying. I don’t understand why iMax doesn’t sell numbered seats!

Back to the movie, Heath Ledger was undeniably amazing. He was such a cruel villain that he scared me and I had to look away several times. The movie is even darker than the first one and doesn’t leave the ending looking very positive for the future, it felt more realistic, if you can say that about a superhero movie.

Lots of people in line.

More people in line behind us!

Why hello there!

Ready for launch!

World Youth Day 2008

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This is a photo of a few of the 150,000 pilgrims who gathered near my office to hold a giant mass. It’s been an absolutely insane week.

SYTYCD – Live Sydney Show

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As my many, many blog posts of So You Think You Can Dance attest to, I am obsessed with the show. So much so that I bought tickets to go and see the live tour when it played at the Sydney Entertainment Centre tonight.

The show was a lot of fun – pretty much the same as the TV show, lots of dancing routines. The routines were a mix of old ones from the show and new. There were a lot of video clips from the show was well.

The only annoying thing about the show was the strange scripted dialogue between routines. The dancers all had to introduce each other and say super-cheesy things that made us ROFL.

It was also interesting seeing how different it was watching the same people live vs on TV. On TV the cameras focused a lot on their faces but live it was easier to see things like lack of stage presence and lack of technique.

To be brutally honest, they all looked a lot better on TV. In person I could only compare them with the many other professional dancers in shows I’ve seen. Perhaps that is unfair, but that’s how it is!

I still really enjoyed though. I liked a lot of the choreography and Kate was very good to watch in person.















Half of the opening routine

Rhiannon and Graeme – Hip Hop
“4 Minutes”

Last Routine – “You Can’t Stop The Beat”

The terrible angle is because the people sitting behind me were threatening me if I kept filming, so I had to be sneaky.

Top Ten Routine

I found this one on YouTube

New iPhone!

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I was quite devastated by my iPhone loss back in January and have been hanging out for the release of the 3G phone in Australia ever since. Today it finally arrived. I lined up at an Optus store in Chatswood at 7:15 to secure the precious device. After being in line for about an hour I was told I needed a print out of my deposit confirmation – WTF? Surely this is in a database? I guess not! I had waited this long, I sure wasn’t going to give up now. I asked the nice people in line to mind my spot while I dashed out on the street to find an internet cafe that was open. I harassed the staff there to help me get up the email and print it – it took me over 20 minutes, so it wasn’t as easy as you’d think! I then ran back to the Optus store just in time – the man in front of me was now at the front of the queue.

Soon after it was my turn – and I thought I was only about 15 minutes away from iPhone glory. How wrong I was! An hour later, I rushed to the station to get to work – two hours and 30 minutes after lining up … OMG!

It was worth it though for iPhone glory. I got the 16GB in white on a cap plan. What I love most about the new phone is how less slippery it is. I dropped my old one so many times, resulting in its ultimate breaking. The new one has a different back that is grippier and some kind of beveling around the edges so my hands fit around it better – meaning less chances of dropping it!

My new phone in the store – it took so long to get it ready to go because the Optus and Apple systems were all crashing.



In the box … so pretty my precious!

Blue Mountains Offsite – Day 2

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With all the work stuff done we head off on a 10km mountain bike ride. I’m really not much of a biker, I have to admit. Every pedal uphill made my calves feel like cement. Even with the pain, it was a lot of fun. Really crisp (OK, freezing) mountain air and a wee bit of exercise.

This was the entrance to one of the bedrooms one of my team stayed in.


Taking a break on the ridge to check out the view.





Caught in motion. Olah loved to take photos almost as much as I do.




Weeeeeeeeeeeee!





Picnic site at the end – so pretty! The water was so clear – but freezing cold.




Where’s the food?!


Wouldn’t be a mountains trip without more fire.

Blue Mountains Offsite – Day 1

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I drove up to Leura for a work offsite. We stayed at the Old Leura Dairy – a completely renovated place that was truly unique. Very modern rustic, I guess you could call it.

It was freeeeezing in the mountains, but the air was crisp and the sky was blue, and we had plenty of delicious food.

The dining table set up for lunch.


Big ol’ salad.



Room set up for our conference. Note the corragated iron – it was a bedroom on top of the kitchen.


Roasted capsicums stuffed with rice – they catered very well for the veges.






Mmm fresh scones.


The cottage I stayed in.


My bedroom.


The living room in my cottage.


Hard at work as evening rolls in.




Dinner – noodles with ginger. AMAZINGLY tasty.


Mega bean meal.




Roaring fire – definitely needed up in the mountains!

Photographing Water

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From my photography class last week – throwing water around in the car park. It was a lot of fun – even though the results are a bit all over the place!

Whoops – I got the bucket in this one!


I think this looks a bit heart-shaped.


Whoops again – totally missed this shot.


A bit of lens flare and got the light in it as well, but I like the shape.

GoogleServe 2008 – Lane Cove National Park

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I haven’t done any gardening in a loooong time. I am always in favour of doing good for the environment however, so I lead a small group of other Googlers to help regenerate some bush land in Lane Cove National Park yesterday.

We were given a very detailed talk on the park, its origin and uses in the community, as well as warnings on animals that might spring at us – namely snakes, spiders and jumping ants (WTF?!). Our mission for the day – to clear out noxious weeds in part of the wildlife corridor to clear space for the nice plants we actually want to help grow strong – things like wattle and banksia – the pretty ones I like to photograph.

Armed with huge cutting tools and some pink of posion with red dye in it to stop them growing back, we trekked into the bush and started a day of hacking and posioning.


This cute little ring-tailed possum said “Hai” before going back to sleep.


Alec weilds the mighty tools.


Ummm what am I meant to do with these again?


It was a stunningly beautiful day.


Chatswood in the distance, beconing us home to clean up and eat afterwards.


Whoops – spilt dye on shoes makes them pink. Lucky I like the colour!


I had an amazingly good time, getting out anger by hacking up evil plants, getting a good work out and being in the beautiful sun all day. I did get home and collapse with exhaustion, but it was totally worth it. Yay, we saved some trees today!