Days 10 to 13 - Wednesday 27th to Saturday 30th January

I have to admit that I’ve been writing quite a lot up to now but as things start to settle I’m bound to get a bit less prolific. So here I am having reached my second weekend and I’ve got a whole 4 days to write about. I can hardly remember yesterday let alone Wednesday!

It was Amy’s birthday on Thursday and she has used the “remember that time you were away for my birthday” quote more than once. She had been up to Leeds for a couple of days but came home for a meal with some friends and her mum. I missed speaking to her a few times but we spoke on her Friday night. She has got her jabs booked for travelling and I think she’s starting to look forward to it now.

Then there’s Andy Murray. Felt a bit gutted for him when Nadal dropped out. He had played really well and deserved to get his victory without Rafa pulling out injured. Whatever he was in the semi final and I enjoyed watching that on Thursday. Things didn’t look to good throughout the first set and Cilic looked really up for it. I reckon it was that crazy net cord point when he went running back and hit the winner over his shoulder that changed things. He didn’t really look like losing once he got his passion going and started going for his shots. Of course it helped that Cilic was knackered! I’m really looking forward to the final against Federer. Could go either way I reckon but Federer has been awesome so I’ll reluctantly put my money on him.

I’m beginning to get my head around work and have sorted a programme and reporting diary. I’ve put out a few feelers for meetings and had my first weekly review meeting with Mark on Friday. I’ll be happier after I’ve met my first new contact. It was supposed to be next Monday but Juliet has cried off.

I’ve been using the Powerball a fair bit. I can’t quite work out if it’s actually helping just yet, but I suppose it must be. The only sign of anything so far is a blister on my little finger! I’ve done a bit of swimming too and loads of walking so with any luck I’ll be going home a bit fitter, especially if I start running as well.

I’ve been getting home from work reasonably early to talk to Jemma before she goes to work. That has really helped but it still seems strange chatting to her and seeing her on screen when she is so far away. I spoke to mum on Thursday too and things all seem well there. Dad was out at golf.

I’ve been having a look at some events to go to while I’m out here. It’s been pretty frustrating as I seem to be in the wrong city at the wrong time and will be missing a fair bit that I wouldn’t have minded seeing. I spoke to Mark about the T20 at the SCG and I’ve bought 5 tickets for that. Emilie is coming along and Sam Powell and Chris who Mark used to live with. He wasn’t to enthusiastic about seeing George Michael and at $129.90 I’m not sure I fancy going on my own.

I walked out of the apartment on Friday morning to a bit of a shock. There had been a massive thunderstorm overnight and there was water everywhere. Unfortunately for me, the rain returned just before I left for the night so I got soaked walking back to the Oasis. Soaked but still warm so it was actually quite refreshing. Friday night was washing and ironing time – rock and roll!! It got even more rock and roll when I did my weekly shop at Coles on Saturday and put my cooking skills to the test when I got back rustling up a bit of shark. It was really good just a tiny bit salty.

Saturday night was time for ‘the match’. Brisbane Roar were playing Sydney so I thought I’d give it a go. It was quite a laugh. The Suncorp Stadium is well impressive but the crowd of just over 8,500 didn’t really do it justice. It was difficult to judge on the standard of football as well. I reckon probably somewhere comparable to the lower leagues at home but who knows. The only player I recognised was Sydney’s John Aloisi who took some personal abuse from the Brisbane crowd – something about little children and sweets! Rather bizarrely Patrick Kluivert was introduced to the crowd at the start as he is ‘guest coach’ at Brisbane for a couple of weeks. I moved from my original seat, right behind the goal, ,6 rows up, in with all the Brisbane hard core. This was mainly because I couldn’t see too well through all the flag and banner waving kids at the front, but I also didn’t fancy getting any more beer spilt on me. That was another strange experience – sat there watching a football match with a beer in my hand! For the record Brisbane grabbed a late winner and went on a lap of honour as it was the last home game of the season.

I had a plan to head off to the gold coast for the day on Sunday but I didn’t wake up until 10.20 and the weather was still rubbish so I’m going to put that off for a better day. Let’s hope tonight’s tennis brightens up the day.

I would have added some more photos but my Flickr account has reached its 100MB limit for the month!