Les aventures de Ricardo

Stwaight fwush?

2008-07-20T22:50:12Z

Nothing here has much to do directly with poker really. Think figuratively.

According to the Facebook "name analyzer" application, my name spells out the following character:

Romantic
Indifferent
CYNICAL
Abnormal
Rhythmic
Dangerous
Objective

The most pertinent word of all is highlighted above. So don't expect me to believe I have the cards you can see until I've looked at them very carefully. Comes with old age, wisdom and experience.

Maybe more later.

P-p-p-pick up a...

2008-07-06T09:22:57Z

I just got back a while ago from seeing penguins, seals and various birds out on the cold, exposed, viciously windy bluffs of the Otago Peninsula. (Yes it is a natural penguin habitat.) Included was free "surprise" entertainment when a yellow penguin fresh out of the ocean was suddenly startled by a sneaky sealion slithering from a camouflaged position behind some rocks. The penguin dashed back into the ocean and had vanished in a flash! Good old evolved survival instincts...

And then...

2008-07-06T09:02:22Z

Where to start? OK so I'm "freezing" my 'nads off in Dunedin, New Zealand at the moment. Planning on going on a wildlife tour to see penguins etc. tomorrow arvo IFF the weather isn't horrendous like it was earlier today. Temperature's hovering around a balmy 1° before the wind chill, milder if it's pouring.

Winter in Queenstown and Wanaka is beautiful; the mountains glaciated recently.

I'm (supposed to be!) looking for casual jobs - not found anything on the job boards in Queenstown but will keep looking generally. A temporary job in a YHA anywhere (board included) would be quite good. Until I head back to Auckland that is. Then, bankroll allowing, SKYCITY beckons.

I have enjoyed the ever warm hospitality of teotakuu in the world's southernmost city (the definition thereof being somewhat arbitrary). Keep up the good work and keep the house warm! Looking forward to seeing you some time ahead! {{{teotakuu}}}

It's been a while since I spoke to my biological father, save a few replies on BookCrossing. So I'd like to make it up with a reconciliatory hug: {{{miketroll}}} (the shorter name is easier to hug, I'll admit: )

The future's looking highly uncertain, but potentially very bright. It's early days yet, but it looks as though I have a date for when I return to Sydney in the spring! Yes I'm overjoyed, but not to the point of risking a painful disappointment. She seems out of this world in every way, as well as genuine, and online she made the first move. She's an old fogie like yours truly but (thankfully) doth not look it. I'm grateful to God for any positives that arise. If things blossom and work out, I might be willing to find any means I can to remain in Sydney legally, included the dreaded 457 "guest worker" visa (whose holders are rather like the Turks who went to west Germany in the 1950s). It's amazing what one can put up with when there's a little... incentivizing compensation! ;) Should things not blossom and work out, looks like it's one way to Switzerland. (Or if all goes well and she's happy to live in Switzerland.)

There's no reason why this can't be the TOP of the world

2008-06-14T10:40:00Z

I'm at somewhere resembling 47 degrees of southerly latitude chez teotakuu who has offered me the privilege to stay at her house. I may not truly have visited the ends of the earth, but at least I've been places from which they're visible! :)

Queenstown's the next stop for possible seasonal winter work.

I haven't posted to LJ for an eternity - I had difficulties logging in before! I'll try to post at least from time to time. Not dead yet!

Take a sip of Full's Irish Dew
Love Europe but hate the EU!

C'mon y'little leprechauns, you've got the ball rolling, now it's time to destroy the evil monster. I think I would be happy to live in a freshly independent, Farage-led Britain, preferably with my Aussie spouse *Cheshire cat grin*. Porcine creatures celestially elevated? In the case applicable to the former part of that sentence, probably yes... *smug optimistic grin*

Pandemonium in Paradise

2007-10-23T06:21:17Z

Pandemonium in Paradise

Blood moon rising

2007-08-30T09:20:04Z

The night before last, I watched the moon turn a funny blood-orange colour... and then disappear a few times! It was weird, but that's because I'd never seen a total lunar eclipse before. Totality lasts a long time compared with a solar eclipse (which I saw back in 1999).

Spring cleaning aside, there are no major events going on in my life... at least not yet. Next travel opportunity is in October: Cairns (again, for the Reef), Melbin and Kiwi. Then back across the Tasman when new visa is issued.

The "ultimate aim" of marriage to a beautiful young Aussie lass has officially been demoted from an "agenda" to a mere "strategic objective". I am learning to cope with the prospect of being single for life too. According to Paul in his first (known) letter to the Corinthians, chapter 7, this is nothing to be ashamed of.

It is good for a man not to have sex with a woman. - 1 Cor 7:1
...if you are free of a wife, do not seek a wife. - 1 Cor 7:27

1 Corinthians is an excellent "life guide" book, I have found, and in chapter 9 verse 24 it even seems to endorse poker by encouraging us to participate vigorously in a "race where only the winner shall receive a prize". *nods cheerily*

Life, oh life...

2007-05-27T11:19:22Z

Cairns on a Sunday night isn't too exciting, so I'm killing some time making another LJ post. My iPod picked the Des'rée song in the subject header earlier today, and it got me thinking about one of its most poignant lines:

Sometimes living out your dreams ain't as easy as it seems...

Couldn't be more right. But the proverbial beautiful balloon could be anywhere in sight.

Due to rough sea conditions, it looks as though I'm passing on the Reef until next time around. Maybe I won't be travelling on my own that time either... ;)

Hoping to grab a trip up the Skyrail cable car tomorrow: there could be some nice views, though it's hardly as though I've never ridden a cable car before. While Cairns' esplanade as a great quick fix if you can't quite make it to the Côte d'Azur, that doesn't mean the Skyrail will prove a match for Grenoble's Télépherique that I rode in 1991.

Just a quickie from the tropics

2007-05-23T04:44:07Z

Gone troppo in Port Douglas and Cairns for a week, enjoying the Carnivale fest and hoping to grab a tour of the Great Barrier Reef, preferably through a glass-bottomed boat!

Need liquid, need ice cream, it's 30°C on this "winter" (chuckle) afternoon.

Peace and may the Lord always be with you.

er_optimist @ 2007-05-18T00:17:00

2007-05-17T14:29:02Z

Thanks to rubbergirl for this:

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Low
Sloth:	Low
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Medium
Pride:	Medium

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com

Blog a dead horse

2007-04-02T12:03:53Z

There've been no new posts from me for a little while. And I return to a mixed LJ bag.

Most importantly, condolences must go out to Te Otakuu and family. They've been very good to me in giving me a wonderful welcome in the land of Kiwi, beautiful, clean, free place that it is, and now they suffer this tragic loss. My Bible group and I have been praying for them, and may their Belovèd rest peacefully in Heaven.

B_and_m81, smart lady that you are, I hope you haven't been up to too much mischief lately. Well, maybe a bit more than my cruising around on the river ferries, but, hopefully not too much more than that. :P MSG me anytime and I'll be at South Bank or wherever in an instant - or as fast as the transport system allows.

I must remember that this is my LJ and not my poker blog so no card shark stories in this article, though an update there is long overdue too. Other than to say that there's a pretty good 10/20 game at the Trezh where I've been hustling nights, and I'm sticking with that as my grind, 'cause it seems to be somewhat profitable. You can find me there most weekend nights, or messing about on the river if the poker waiting list is very long. ;) The Brisbane river that is, not the last card...

Bris is so nice, and you appreciate this place when you're sailing around on the CityCat/CityFerry on a clear sunny day (most of them), absorbing the fresh river breeze and eyeing up the sights. It's relaxing, soothing and a great perspective of the inner city and sure beats the bus for pleasure. The CityCat boats run between St Lucia and Hamilton, dawn to dusk, which is rather neat in that I travel between these very two suburbs quite regularly. Now, if the Trezh had the action of the Crown in Melbin, and there were a few trams to boot... ah well, you can't have everything.

Given the severity of the housing situation here, I'm still in the hunting mode, although that may be coming to a blissful end soon (hopefully). An application is still processing (!) for an awesome suite with a great location - easy walking distance of the Trezh! Perfect. You can see the building from the river as you round the downtown peninsula: it's a modern day high-rise arcology with all the mod cons. Ya man truss me this is good, fi real. I should hear from them tomorrow, one way or another.

On the political/refugee front, no change to my temporary non-status here in Paradise, of course. Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union - id est, the EUSSR - the proto-communist bureaucracy in Brusskva along with its provincial apparatchiks, "Super Tone" "Bliar" Blair-zhnev, Murky and the rest of them, is ratcheting up its repression in the name of the new quasi-religion of "man made global warming". (On this particular issue, even Paradise is somewhat getting in on the hysteria bandwagon, sadly.) Even more so than the war on terror, this is a really cheap excuse for more powers for (unaccountable!) government and less freedom for the citizens, not that there ever was that much there anyway in the nEU order of things. This evil Soviet must be fought at every juncture. The honourable and admirable Nigel Farage is doing a good job exposing the evils of this political construct to the people without coming across as a wacko extremist, and his work as a MEP is much to be commended. I wish UKIP well in their future election efforts, for they are the only non-fascist party that believes in British freedom, but more importantly than that, individual freedom from quasi-communist madness and excessive lefty political correctness, both of which have destroyed British society from the genuine and free country it was before 1970. (Back then it was the UK; today it's the UK-rainian Soviet Socialist Republic.) Though I'm not holding my breath on this, I think most sane folks would be happy to call a Farage-led Britain home. For one thing there would be no more Soviet rule, but the core UKIP ideas go way beyond that: no more Soviets, personal freedom, less bureaucracy, less "Vogon" lefty political correctness, more police, more jails, direct democracy, stop immigration, lower taxes, pro grammar schools, UN skeptic, freer world trade, restore and strengthen Commonwealth/USA relations... The UK would be rather more like Switzerland, which can only be a good thing. If the poor deluded folks on the proverbial Clapham bus think they'll get any better with Camefraud's Blue Labour... poor folks, what did they do to deserve this? But they do have a choice now, they just have to exercise it. Whether they actually do plump for freedom or more of the troika remains to be seen, but I think I know which way the betting shops will be looking...

It goes without saying that Aussies are exceptionally lucky people, and it's important that they realize this. I think some do and some don't. But having a foreigner's eye here in Paradise makes me acutely aware of this, plus I've lived under an unaccountable and highly bureaucratic socialist government (whereas most Australians haven't) so I have some experience to relate to.

Minus 227. Ahhh, Aussie girls. Yes, they do drive me hormonally into another dimension - the real reason Australia's Paradise ;) - and I've recently met this really sweet laid back young(ish) massage therapist from Burleigh sorta way (that's on the Gold Coast, for non-locals) - online at least. Like me, she's lived in Canada so we've some things in common and we're getting along marvellously thus far. Let's take it from here and see what it brings. Until recently I've hardly had any woman time, for househunting has taken up much of my days, hustling my nights. And of course there are the obligatory visits to the gym assuming I'm not too knackered to feel like training. :P Time is always the enemy.

You must have missed your flush, huh?

2007-02-16T04:12:50Z

Minus 272. The subject header is a quote from poker shark Sam Farha, when he was playing heads up with Chris Moneymaker at the 2003 WSOP. And it rings so true for me ATM, because, well... I went out on a semi-blind date on Wednesday! That's right, I went out on a date with an Aussie chick on Valentine's Day. Lucky me, right? Well yes and no. It all went wrong from the get go, for she showed up at a different mall from the one upon which we had agreed as a meeting place. That was shortly thereafter resolved but I think she was slightly embarrassed. It turned out that she wasn't so keen on me after we met, and in fact in spite of the lengths I had gone through to organize this outing, she snubbed my movie date after dinner under the buyable-sounding guise of a claim of fatigue. (The dinner at Picasso's was scrumptious though.) I drove her back to the mall where we actually met up, from whence she drove home. So I didn't even get to see Casino Royale that night: 20 more bucks down the drain there, but the money doesn't matter. On top of that, she left the rose I gave her behind in my rental car when she went off home - could have been mere carelessness, but... One of two conclusions has to be drawn: either (a) she didn't like me very much or (b) she did but had a rather funny way of showing it. Applying the well-known Occam's razor axiom Entia non sunt multiplicanda præter necessitatem, I have to assume (a) unless a whoppingly good reason to believe otherwise comes forth.

I could have seen it all coming of course. In her favour was the fact that she's a pretty Aussie girl and that when we "met" online she was the one to make the first move so to speak, but that's, well, just about... it. And it doesn't matter how nice she is on the outside if she's not so nice on the inside (and vice versa). With hindsight I would have been better off going to Dan (guy from church)'s Bible sesh that night, but of course hindsight's always better than 20:20, n'est-ce pas?

Redemption night is tomorrow because I'll probably head off to the Gold Coast (for the first time!), not only to have a shot playing poker at the Jupiter Casino, but especially for the singles night taking place at a venue in that vicinity starting 19h30. No rest for the wicked, especially those who are proverbially chasing flushes!

No bluff; I'm still drawing at the flush - the flush. Rats. Chalked up, bygone, onward march. Gotta keep chasing 'cause ace-king-deuce-jack-ten doth not a hand make. And the girls here make for bigtime implied odds indeed! ;)

Househunting's a severe struggle, just like everything else in these parts. The minor progress made this week hasn't come to much: the unit I visited in Ipswich yesterday morning was okay but north facing sans air con (equals bad news) and not especially well priced for that area, probably 'cause it was largeish and all. But living at a unit number 13 located on Elms St - couldn't make it up - would probably cure most of my superstitions in an instant. Either that, or it'd be terribly jinxed, a total nightmare on Elms St... *groan* Anyway, back to reality, I found another cabled unit in a decent inner city area, a decent size and at a fair price, but, surprise surprise, it was a kraphole, and again, north facing living area with no air con (for the amnesiacs, that equals bad news). So that search continues too; I have to find a place soon.

Last month was pretty brutal: losing my backside at poker (though visiting the Aussie Millions for a couple of days was still fun), struggling with househunting, struggling with relationships and to top it off, I picked up a weird infection in my right ear which rendered me semi-deaf for a couple of weeks. I finally got my ears flushed out - which felt as though parts of my brain were being sucked out - and a special treatment for the infected ear, and there was a marked improvement, thankfully. I still have to go to the doctor every week for a checkup, however.

So you could say it couldn't get worse, but I'd better not jinx myself!

God bless you in these interesting times, and may you all follow and find Jesus.

"That's bad, but you wouldn't believe what they're doing to me here." - J. Straus, 1930-88, during a tough poker session in response to a friend who was calling him up from death row in Texas after a failed final appeal

No, not a Monty Python farce; Monty's funny

2007-01-13T13:58:16Z

Well, it's househunting time again.

After being screwed around by Telstra for almost two months, they sent an engineer from Ipswich to tell me what I should have been told much earlier than now: it's impractical to wire a digital Internet cable into my apartment. Well, I'm sorry but I need broadband Internet, and I live in the middle of a big city so I should bloody well be able to get broadband Internet without half this hassle. So, drastic action is called for, and that means moving to a new place that has the prerequisite (FOXTEL compatible) cabling prewired.

I've been up since 7:30 this morning when I rushed off to have a brief inspection of a flat in Red Hill that happened, like most affordable rentals, to be situated in an older building. Quaint old house, so-so neighbourhood but no cable so that's no good. The search continues and I'm waiting on responses from at least two agencies now, if not more.

For November, I've been contemplating making my Aussie departure in style: by taking a Card Player cruise to New Zealand (Sydney-Melbin-Tassie-various ports in NZ, terminating in Auckland). But that's expensive (not including all the buyins for the poker games taking place on board ship) so it may have to be Pacific Blue if the budget is less permissive. Still, something interesting to contemplate.

Like a roller in the ocean...

2007-01-08T02:04:07Z

...life is motion, move on... (poker-related)

The latest

2007-01-05T05:54:08Z

Here's the latest news from scorching muggy Melbin.

Back to the drawing boards, and back to Bris on Sunday!

Happy New Year, Happy New Year...

2007-01-02T06:00:07Z

"Happy New Year, Happy New Year, may we all have a vision now and then of a world where every neighbor is a friend..." ("Happy New Year", ABBA, 1979)

Just got back to Bris from the Sunshine Coast. Just a brief stop though: Melbin tomorrow, Aussie Millions here I come!

Minus 318. The New Year's bash at the Maroochydore Pig 'N' Whistle was a hoot... well, it was okay anyway. The music was fairly decent, though starting the new year with Prince's 1999 seemed just slightly odd for some reason. It was a "lock and key" event so the guys took keys and the girls had locks, but no key I picked seemed to fit anything! Ah well, there were plenty of women there among whom to mingle, though almost all were quite a bit older than myself. It's only the start of the year, rememeber. I met one lady who seemed to hit it off beautifully with another guy, and the two of them seemed ostensibly so right for one another, so I wish them the best for the future. (Plus, she kissed me on the lips just for the hell of it so I should be at least somewhat grateful!) But that qualifies as my 1 January action towards the ultimate end, so now I just have to find at least some token thing to do to qualify for today's effort. :) Every day, every little helps, as they say. Onward march!

I wish everyone a very happy, successful, fruitful and memorable 2007!

And like a bright star shineth

2006-12-25T06:13:05Z

It's... Christmas Day already! Merry Christmas everybody. May God be watching over us all this holy day, and may we be grateful for our good fortune. (Australians, of course, should be especially grateful, being the luckiest people on earth.)

Yes, it's still possible to get a bus downtown and go online on Christmas Day. But no "work" today, I have decreed.

Minus 325. One of my New Year's resolutions is to stop gambling, not that I do very much of that anyway, but I do take occasional punts against the house even though it's dumb. (Generally in the form of a Lotto ticket, which is exceptionally dumb!) Well that must stop - if not completely, then as good as. So from next year, I pledge a dollar to good causes for every dollar I'm silly enough to bet knowing I'm taking the worst of it. If one can afford the latter one can more than afford the former.

Another vitally important resolution, though, is to beef up my determination to hook up with a new significant other. Seek and ye shall find, they say. So on every single day of 2007 from 1 January through 14 November, I shall do something - anything, even if it's only a tiddly little token thing - to help pursue that end. Time waits for nobody, not even a single Yardie in Paradise looking for that someone. My contribution for 1 January is already sorted: the New Year's bash in Maroochydore continuing after midnight! For 2 January, I may find some chicks from the hostel or something to take a side trip to Australia Zoo with. But it taketh nothing so grand to qualify as an achievement toward the ultimate end: merely a token gesture such as logging onto certain websites and searching, or whatever. Anyway, this is obviously really crucial.

Irie vibes for the New Year; may 2007 be great for all of us!

Pre-Christmas update

2006-12-14T06:01:58Z

First off, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. Happy birthday to b_and_m_81 too! :)

Mum's just had a little operation so I hope it went well for her. I've been feeling for and thinking about her a lot lately. Love you Mum!

Minus 336. Last Friday evening I met some complete strangers for drinks and stuff through a group I found called Friends Central. It's bordering on being a de facto dating agency, but that's okay, 'cause it's obviously a genuine organization and not just out to pull in a fast buck. Now, I happen to have an account/userid with a real dating agency, but no hot babes have hit upon me yet by that route. However, that company is associated with a "singles" party that is going on downtown tomorrow night, and I plan on being there - and at the same venue for the Sylvester party, too. Gotta get in there and gamble, so to speak. Nothing to lose, right? Time is definitely not on my side, so no time like the present! Who knows what Santa could bring this Christmas. It just doesn't really feel like Christmas, though: it's warm and there's no snow about! But that's okay with me: I've seen enough snow to last a dozen lifetimes.

Anyway, at the FC do last Friday I did meet this pretty nice bubbly girl who just had to tell me about all the things she did when on holiday in Disneyland - lol. But that's okay 'cause I wasn't in the least bored with her ramblings on about the vicissitudes of Miami life. With some luck I'll see her again at the next FC do, whenever that is, but not sure if any sparks are flying. Though she did give me a peck on the cheek before going home for the night, so she obviously doesn't find me unbearable company. ;)

It's off to Melbin in the New Year for me, to take a shot at the big money in the Aussie Millions poker tournament held in the newly refurbished and improved poker lounge at the Crown Casino. I can't afford the $10.500 buyin ($10k prize pool entry plus $500 vig) so I plan on playing a satellite for the long shot at winning a seat. It'll be a good time for sure, and a certain celebrity has told me personally she hopes to meet me there. Raises the spirits, doesn't it? Now, here's a verse out of a lovely little folk song that is relevant to the great southern city (E&OE):

And when we came to Melbin town
We all prepared to split
The father, captain and the mate
The crew abandoned ship
And all the girls of Melbin town
Threw up their hands with joy
I'm one unto the other
Here comes me Irish boy

(from With My Swag On My Shoulder, a ditty concerning gold-digging in Paradise and travelling its bushes "like a true born native man", or so the lyrics pontificate)

It's only a matter of time...

2006-12-07T04:28:08Z

...before the Soviet régime gets its teeth into Norwegian oil, gas and fish reserves, the way they are blackmailing their Swiss neighbours. Big Soviet-style monstrosities are never content reserving their bullying to the domestic arena, as history aptly demonstrates.

It's the old flea-and-elephant scenario bearing out. Canajuns have a similar problem with their relationship with the US, except that contrary to shockingly popular belief, the US government (for all its many, many faults and failings) isn't the evil unaccountable régime of the EUSSR.

Thanks for the aces!

2006-12-05T06:58:18Z

Not a poker hand per se, but not infinitely removed. Let's just say that I'm chuffed. Exactly why is not really the issue here.

Plucking strings does work...

Now it's off to post some important papers to the Yardie embassy.

(The subject is "thanks for the aces", not "thanks for the straight flush", so it's not quite what you might be thinking. That's a separate matter entirely. Solve the Prime Tribute for a better perspective!)

Not betting on a white Christmas this year

2006-11-28T07:17:58Z

The sun it brightly shineth. Mum's enduring worse weather in the Soviet Union (though of course that's the least of their problems over there). I know this because I called her up on Saturday night.

I wish all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year, even though it's still earlyish days to be doing that. Don't Christmas preparations tend to begin sometime between July and September these days anyway?

Personent hodie

Disclaimer: The lyrics are off the top of my head, so errors and omissions are of course excepted. Please don't ask me to translate! :)

Personent hodie
Voces puerulæ
Laudantes jucundæ
Qui nobis est natus
Summo Deo datus
Et de vir- vir- vir- (x2)
Et de virgineo ventre procreatus

In mundo nascitur
Pannis involvitur
Præsepi ponitur
Stabulo brutorum
Rector supernorum
Perdidit -dit -dit (x2)
Perdidit spolia princeps infernorum

Magi tres venerunt
Parvulum inquirunt
Parvulum inquirunt
Stellulam sequendo
Ipsum adorando
Aurum, thus thus thus (x2)
Aurum, thus et myrrham ei offerendo

Omnes clericuli
Pariter pueri
Cantent ut angeli
Advenisti mundo
Laudes tibi fundo
Ideo -o -o (x2)
Ideo gloria in excelsis Deo

Minus 352. It's only been nine days since the last countdown subjournal entry, so unsurprisingly there's been no meaningful progress made on the two key pillars: relationships and visa status. But eventually I'll actually get to meet the knockout girl next door properly and then will as quick as a flash find out whether she's genuinely interested or not. Sadly, she's been proving elusive of late! Time waits for nobody and that's a commodity I'm seriously lacking at the moment, with only about eleven and a half months to go before I must by law depart Australia. The key question is, do I get to come back afterward? Quietly, I'm assuming the worst and looking far enough ahead to make future plans based on a negative answer to that question. Kiwi Christmas next year? Very possible. Onto North America for six to nine months? A viable choice if I'm still single at that point. I can spend up to three months in the US on a visit, and that does allow for playing quite a bit of cards in Las Vegas (or any other good poker venue).

This visa nonsense really is much simpler now I've done away with the uni straitjacket. Ultimately, as far as Australia's concerned, by 2008 I'll either have a spouse visa or nada.

I'm sure as sunrise going to make the best possible efforts not to be single by that point in time. I'm just preparing for those efforts not paying off, based on past experience. Remember, the odds don't just seem stacked against you: they really are! It's not rocket science; it's Gumperson's Law (with a bit of Murphy added for good measure).

I just can't get you out of my head...

2006-11-19T00:50:34Z

Minus 361. The Kylie Showgirl Homecoming concert last night was awesome! (What else could she be?) I'll take that as a "true comeback" for a hundred, please Alex!

The trains to and from the venue were as crowded as London Underground rush hour: it was a sight to see platform 6 of Central Station so crowded while the others were pretty much empty!

The Showgirl event is a highly professional job, with superb dress, choreography and lighting effects. Kylie performed a great diversity of her repertoire, from the oldies right up to a new song called White Diamond. (Nice song, but I'll still stick by my red and black deck, thanks very much. ;) She even did a jazz-style version of Loco-Motion in which she and the supporting cast (about half black incidentally) were dressed in black Chicago-style. Of course, one minor drawback with Kylie taking the Manneken out of Catherine Zeta-Jones (all that jazz!) is that there is the subtle issue of height - or lack thereof - to take into consideration, but Kylie managed to get around this by wearing a huge mohican-type toupée thingamywotsit that seemed adequately well for the purpose of that clip to do the job of making her look (a lot) taller.

Renditions of Can't Get You Out Of My Head (a song even the Yanks can sing along to) and Love At First Sight were accompanied by more astounding strobe lights. Oh yeah, the venue was loud and I was pretty close to the stage too! FWIW if one was unaware, one would never realize that the R.B.W. had been suffering from a horrific disease like breast cancer. She certainly doesn't look her thirty-eight years, not a bit of it! Good on ya, little Aussie battler!

About twenty years ago, when Mum and I were watching Neighbours on that old brown JVC TV, she never pointed at Charlene and said to me "Y'know, she's gonna be a great singer, and in twenty years' time you'll be down under watching her live in concert a few metres from the stage". Or maybe she did say that, but I just forgot. ;)

Okay, this bit isn't as weird as it seemed at the time, but I was sitting beside the sister of the woman from whom I procured my ticket in the first place! That was weird because she was a complete stranger to me and yet knew me by name! :O

After the concert was over I rode a crowded train home and - exciting this bit - went to bed!

The Showgirl tour is doing another performance in Bris on Monday night, then it's moving onto Melbin and/or Perth I believe. (Okay so a Melbin gig or three goes without saying really!) And then, presumably by popular demand, it's going back to the EUSSR, even though the Soviets and the Swiss did get a chance to see the original performance of it a couple of years back. In particular, there was a load of Showgirl gigs performed in the UK-raine the last time around, that accounted for most of the Soviet tour. In this regard though, the Soviets are lucky to get another crack at the whip, so to speak. I know some people travelled from the Soviet Union all the way to Paradise in part (or primarily) because of the Showgirl Homecoming tour! Talk about loyalty...

Back to the not-quite-so-live-wired humdrum reality then, no further sightings of the girl next door yet, but still early days. I'll bump into her before you can say Столичная Водка, довро, довро! (That has nothing to do with my state of sobriety either this morning or last night, I have you know. The air in the Brisbane Entertainment Centre was as dry as a bone, so the only "Водка" I felt the compulsion to consume was good old-fashioned pure, non-alcoholic dihydrogen monoxide Маунт Франклин! :)

Oh! Think twice...

2006-11-16T02:49:59Z

...it's just another year for you and me in Paradise...

I'm back! It's so good to be back basking in the warmth and sunshine of beautiful Bris, and for some reason it seems so much better than it was when I left it. Maybe it's just the warmer weather, but it seems so much more pleasant and welcoming now.

Thanks muchly to Te Otakuu and Lytteltonwitch for making me welcome in Xch. I'll try to be back next year. (Not a promise, just a likelihood.)

Mum, you're an angel. Don't forget that.

B_and_m_81, sorry I can't make it to your thingamy on Saturday. And such a shame there's no encore. The Showgirl Homecoming concert may be a once-in-a-lifetime event, so is an absolute must see. (It even made front page news on the BBC News website.)

It's summer in Paradise, so the hat and sunscreen are back on! It's windy today, but not a horrible chilly wind like the ones in NZ.

And now, a new sub-journal, the one year countdown to my visa expiry, focusing on the truly important matters (uh huh):

Minus 364. Id est, I have 364 days left in Australia (before my visa expires and I'm legally obliged to fly away). After the taxi had dropped me home last night, I saw a figure behind the bushes just up the hill sneaking into the driveway at #134. And then there was a wave! That was her, my girl. :) At least, I hope... I'm sure I'll get to speak to her real soon now, but there is no desperate urgency. We'll properly cross paths when we does, then I can ask her out and take it from there. Ostensibly at least, she appears interested, but I've been in this sort of spot before...

Life seems sweet right now, but just like a poker hand where the flip of a card can change everything, the same can apply in real life. You sum up the situation at each juncture and decide whether to check, bet, call, raise, fold, whatever is the appropriate course of action. But right now I'm on a royal flush draw and optimistically awaiting the magic card... ;)

Prime Tribute

2006-11-11T08:00:56Z

Very subtle it may be, but that's the point! ;)

Prime Tribute

This prime told that prime
“Add me to you and you're no more prime”
That prime told this prime
“Take me from you and you're still prime”
This prime said “my digit sum is prime”
And that prime said “and so is mine”
So this prime said “my digit difference is prime”
And that prime again said “and so is mine”
This prime went on “my first digit is not prime”
“But mine sure is” answered that prime

This prime proclaimed “Now I'll tell a story
A composite end in all its glory”
That prime squawked “So go on then
While I just bet the end's not ten”
This prime said “You're right, my friend
Though you're a factor of the end
And that final composite minus me
Is an emirp's perfect square, you see
(The emirp of choice being one of a pair
No palindromic orphan there)
Yet that final composite and I combine
Through addition, less you, to form a prime
Whose last two digits add to nine
Of all the numbers I've laid bare
None are greater than my square”

Two primes and a composite end
News to communicate, to convey, to send
Yes, these three numbers betray a missive
Of which one cannot be dismissive
A tale of a voyage in the neatest
And most of all the voyager sweetest
One whom I truly must admire
The one who this prime tribute did inspire

(The two primes and the composite are... which means... and is thus... yes, that's right. Free candy for the winner! ;)

Luck like a yo-yo

2006-11-03T08:35:54Z

Well today my luck just turned around.

Just been informed by DIMA that my visa's (finally) been approved. The excessive delay was actually caused by their bureaucratic wrangling regarding sorting out the cancellation of the old one, and they couldn't issue the new one until the old one had been cancelled - pffft.

So I can now fly to Paradise on the 15th, whereupon, after winding down from the travel, can get working on the hot chick who lives a couple of doors down, 'cause she did seem interested. :)) Time waits for no one; the sands are pouring...

Oh yeah, and I also won $823 playing poker this arvo, coming 5th in a $100+9 no-limit hold'em event. Pretty adrenalin-pumping and hair-raising near the end! There will (probably) be more on this on my poker blog after said has been updated.

Time for a celebratory dinner or something!

Not spotted any witches!

2006-10-31T09:55:11Z

Broomsticks or otherwise. Maybe I should go look outside before the expiry of the month...