Free Hugs!

Wow .. a pigeon just walked along my office window and scared me for a sec :p

hmm can't believe it's a Thursday .. good ol Australia Day smack bang in the middle of the week .. ah, if only all weeks were like that! :o)

on Saturday, I went to Wentworth Falls (Blue Mountains) to finish that bushwalk .. I went with Alan, Peter, Alan's dad, and Alan's dad's workmate + family .. It was a nice day out - we got there at about 9 and the walk took about 4 hours .. We took it easy, didn't really push ourselves too hard, but did work up a fair amount of sweat and appetite .. Alan, Peter, Alan's dad and myself chose to try an experienced walk along the way whilst the others rested - it was this steep decline with a whole heap of ladders .. there was one part which involved using a rope to climb down too, but it wasn't too bad (though i did get my foot stuck a bit :p) .. i was buggered coming back up, but after being down at the bottom of that walk, i knew it was worth it - there was a beautiful waterfall down the bottom and if we didn't have ppl to meet back up the top, we would have stayed for longer to enjoy it!

The walk was quite long, there was a fair amount of walking upwards .. i'm so glad i brought my hiking boots as i dont think my sneakers would have appreciated all the mud and trying to grip on the rocks ... it was really enjoyable though, and we went at a good time as it started to rain after we finished our walk ..

Apparently, it was around that same place later that day that some guy went missing - he was canyoning with his friends .. I'd heard about it on the news, but didn't realise till yesterday that it happened on the same day we went and around the same place :o/

Sunday was spent at the cricket with family .. After the thunderstorms that woke me up in the morning and shook the house, I thought the match would be cancelled .. but it wasn't and I Was glad we went in the end :o) It did rain at the end of the game but the game still resumed afterwards .. Xerx, Kel, Baz, Rhyan, Ruth, Carl, Aiden, Mamo, Chelle and Grace were all there but were sitting all the way on the otherside - i did visit them during the lunchtime break, though apparently missed their appearance on the big screen :p

Played frisbee Monday - man i've been playing badly lately .. I only had 1 game but just felt really lethargic and itchy .. ended up scoring 1, helping score another i think too? Also caught a few and cut a bit more than normal, but i also dropped a few too which made me feel bad :o/ We got good flow too and I dropped the disc forcing a turnover! BUT, I must say I am VVVV impressed with my team .. A couple of weeks ago, we moved up the ladder to 5/12 (i'm not sure what we're at atm) and i'm happy .. I dont really care if we dont come first as i dont think it's quite expected (half the team haven't played at this level before, a couple are new to the game), but i wanted us to get in the top half and i think we pretty much have :o) Finals start next week i think so *fingers crossed* we'll do okay, but even if we lose, it's a good feeling knowing that the team has improved heaps .. and i think we're having some fun in the process too :o) I just hope that I get over this feeling useless in time for the finals and start playing better! :o/

Y'day, for Aus day, I went to Flemington for some vietnamese food and sugar cane drink :o) hmm .. yum! This was followed by the park, where Alan and I met up with some of his friends for a bbq/picnic .. was a nice day to be out :o) Watched the Emperor's New Groove as well, good movie .. v funny, even if david spade is annoying :p nice and short too (i dont have the attention span otherwise :p)

My head's so sore from staring at my monitor ... written and executed so many test cases lately and i think i've now finished .. sorta .. that is, until the next release where i'll have to start writing more test cases next week .. My manager has resigned so my workmate is taking over after next week - she's stressed :p it wasn't what she had planned on doing .. and i'll be leaving this team shortly, so will the other grad .. so it'll just be her and a couple of new grads i guess? It's also bad cos next week, the other grad is away for the whole week, and the following week, he's away 2 days whilst my workmate's away for 3 .. so i can see myself being v stressed out the next few weeks :p

Cos my manager's leaving, she took my team out to lunch to say thank you for all the work we've done .. we went to the Quay Seafood restaurant near work .. was okay (chinese food), service was slightly shonky (the water tasted like lipstick) but the food was decent enough :o) though i felt v bloated afterwards :p

Today is the last free ride for me for buses .. well i think it is .. Alan's no longer driving as school hols are over, and Westbus aren't taking over the Harris Park route .. State Transit are apparently which might work out okay for us as we can buy travel passes which gives us some discount .. though the buses may be old and non-air conditioned and the bus drivers may not know where they're going (well tomoz they might not) .. but i'll give it a shot and see if i like it or not and if i really hate it, i'll just go back to trains! :p

Oh yes - reason for my blog title .. I was desperately needing a hug today after a meeting i had and was walking along pitt st when some guy with a "free hugs" sign was there .. tempting .. vvv tempting ... vvvv tempting .. except he was a stranger and looked like um .. as matt/hungly/jy would say "he had a great personality" :p .. i got a free hug in the end, but not from the stranger but from alan instead .. ah much better getting it from someone who isn't totally desperate and/or prolly wont be trying to nick my wallet :p (at least i dont think he is desperate or a thief! :p)

Okies, am outta here .. Meeting Lauz for a movie tonight - Raise Your Voice .. her free tix expire at the end of this month so we have to use it up ;o)