Thursday comp: 2-8-1

Thursday
On Thursday I got a lift from DC after court. It was only after I got into his car that I found out he was also giving Kate a ride. I didn't talk to Kate much during the trip, it was either DC talking to her or me talking to DC, which was kinda funny because when we catch the train together we can usually keep a decent conversation going.

DC offered to drive me home, but I said the city was alright. He wanted to know where I was going in the city but I didn't say. I actually just wanted some KFC before going home, but thought that was embarassing, and so he semi-teased me about going to the casino. You know when people joke about something and inadvertently hit the truth or a soft spot? That was it. I mean, I wasn't going to the casino, but when he said it, it made me ask myself "did he know?"

Or maybe it was just another stereotype of his that all Asians gamble. Like the other day, he heard RB coughing and spitting in the toilet, and when RB came out DC joked that he "should be Asian", on the assumption that all Asians spat. RB quietly disappeared back into his room, probably thinking that DC had said the wrong thing since I was there. It didn't offend me, because I know he was joking and he didn't mean anything by it, but yeah, the downside to fast talkers is that sometimes they don't think before they speak.

So anyway, I got myself some delicious KFC, bought some sports drinks, went home, changed, and drove out to bball.

If you thought I couldn't have a worse game than last week, well, then I outdid myself. I managed to score all of one point in a loss that blew out in the last ten minutes of the game.

We could score for shit in the first half, but luckily only found ourselves down by ten at half time. In the second half we made a pretty good run, and even took the lead by a few points. I jarred my right hand/thumb when they threw a long touchdown pass and I tried to intercept it but it hit my hand awkwardly and it caused me some slight pain for the rest of the game. Because of that, I knew I couldn't shoot, yet I still did, missing very open shots, something I would like to think I'd normally hit.

In the last ten minutes of the game they started hitting threes and leaking out for quick transition baskets which we never found a way to stop.

In a game with no Abi and Fat Pat, you'd figure that you would take charge to some degree, but failed. I did try to drive it, and when I did I found that they didn't really try to block me, but rather just stand there with their hands up. None of them were true centers, so that made it easier. There was one left hand side baseline drive I did where I shot it over some guy and the ball almost rested on the back rim before deciding to roll off, grrr.

The only point I scored came from a free throw after a drive in which I grabbed my own miss and was fouled when they kept trying to strip the ball off me as I tried to get back up. I seem to have no problems rebounding my own misses, but other than that, you really couldn't rebound if your life depended on it, which is ironic in a way given your hops.

Part of the game was filmed, nothing special from me when I watched it, although I can't for the fucking life of me figure out why you don't drive as much. There's a point where you put your head down and drive with your left and that is THE most beautiful thing I have ever seen. No one can stop that, so why don't you do it more?

Friday
Technically no court on this day as it was a coey's results, but I went to watch anyway. GS wasn't going at first, so I felt relieved that I could get there at any time before 10am, and then he called me saying he was going, and then messaged me saying he wasn't going.

So anyway, got to court, talked to Twish a bit and then just took down notes as the judge was reading his judgment. Wasn't a bad result by any means, glad to see the guy and his family and friends walk away without too much crying, unlike the other coey.

For the rest of the day I was actually very productive, but spent most of the time printing stuff out for GS. I initially thought it was only gonna take an hour max, but there was a lot more than I expected. I didn't go out for lunch as I had that morning bought a cup of instant noodles which managed to satisfy me until at least the afternoon.

I left work at like 4:30pm, went home to drop my bag off and then went straight back out to the city to meet up with the guys. I met with Bob first at the arcade machines, and we played a few games while waiting for G and Shuing. I swear those skills tester machines can be so addictive. I won a pink dog, didn't know what to do with it, considered giving it to some random girl but didn't want them to think I was hitting on them so I ended up holding it for the night.

When we met up with G and Shuing, we decided to go to this Northern Chinese restaurant as suggested by Shuing.

The food was alright, and it was good for value, but our experience otherwise wa sless than satisfactory. First, it was really stuffy and they had just a ceiling fan and no air-conditioning, despite their signs outside to the contrary. Second, some high school kids came in later on and I think they must've spilled pepper or something, because the whole restaurant became filled with the smell of pepper and we were all coughing and sneezing everywhere. The kids walked out to get some fresh air and as they passed us they apologised.

Bob and G eventually went out to get some air, leaving Shuing and I sitting there trying to muster it. It was at that time that I decided to tell Shuing about how I offered to give Ele a lift from the airport. I don't know why I did it, I guess I just felt like I had to tell someone. He reckons Tracy might not necessarily know about my intentions. He didn't talk about it much, and so I decided to leave it at that.

We hurriedly paid our bill when we had had enough, and then G drove us to Bob's house so he could change because he was complaining about how his pants were sticking to his legs. Whilst parked outside waiting for Bob, I checked out his car which was pretty nicely done, and I admired his effort and passion put into it.

We headed back out to the city where we made another visit to the arcade machines and bumped into Thai as he was playing that drumming game.

After that we went to Macca's for some drinks/ice cream, and then went to the Mando centre to meet up with Puke. Shuing reckoned he wanted to go to a strip club, which he denied, and we sat in the poker machines room to talk a bit, where upon I decided to slide a $5 note into one of the machines and ended up winning $27. I went to cash the ticket in and then returned to find them ordering drinks, and we sat in the beer garden for a while before going downstairs where the main gambling room was.

Shuing won $5 on sic bo and then decided to cash in, but had to wait an eternity for someone to come over, and he reckons it was because they didn't like 'scalpers' - people who go in, win a small amount, and then leave.

We also saw Chi there, who tried to explain that he was only there because of his friend, which Shuing didn't buy at all. It made me think about my excuses if I ever bumped into people at the casino.

We decided to ditch the place shortly after that and went to get some drinks at a convenience store before calling it a night.

Today
Slept in because I didn't get much sleep and then went for a jog because I wanted to slim down.

Operation Email

During the lunch break from court today, I was in the office and saw Tracy was online on MSN.

Yes! This is my opportunity!

Anyway, the conversation went like this:

Me: hey Trace
Tracy: Hey..........
Tracy: Long time no see. How r u?
Me: good
Me: how's China?
Tracy: It's so cold outside so I stay at home every day.

Ok, come on dude, I'm hungry, I wanna go to lunch.

Me: lol
Me: that's no fun
Tracy: Now its minus 6 C outside
Tracy: Yep,not fun at all but i don't feel like doing anything if its cold

Time to cut to the chase.

Me: have you had a chance to meet up with Elle?
Tracy: Nah. The phone num of her home she gave was a wrong one so I cant get to her. But she wil b back in syd on 2 Feb

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!

Me: oh ok

Might as well give it a shot.

Me: I was just going to say if she needed a lift from the airport that I was available on 2 Feb
Tracy: Lol.....u can leave her a msg on her msn. So I assume that the car is fine now.

Lol? What the hell is lol? Is that a "you like her" lol or something else?

Me: does she check her email?
Me: yeah I got a new car because the Honda had to be written off
Tracy: Well. I wrote her emails but she didn't reply. U can try. Written off!!!!!!!!!!!

Well that's just fucking great if she doesn't check her email.

Me: yeah I know, bad huh
Me: I didn't think it was that bad

Aight, time to get some lunch.

Me: but hey, I gotta get back to work
Me: ttyl!!

So I ended up sending Ele an email offering to pick her up from the airport. I don't expect a reply because I doubt she'll check her email before she comes back, but I always have hope everytime I check my email.

I wonder if Tracy has figured out I like Ele.

Dream - Ele

Last night I had a dream that I was checking facebook and saw Ele's status as "In a relationship but not anymore".

I got that "everything now makes sense" sort of feeling, and felt somewhat satisfied.

I'm not sure whether it was just before I fell asleep or if it was during my dreams, but the following thought occurred to me:

If she still has a boyfriend then why would she spend christmas eve with you guys and not him?

The fact that before she left the train she remembered to say bye to you, doesn't that show you who is on her mind?

Hmmm.

I've had another idea - if Tracy doesn't come online in the next few days, I could always send Ele an email offering to pick her up from the airport. The only concern is, will she check her email in time?

Ex-clients

Had no problems waking up today, mainly because I slept early last night. I had a shower, got dressed and drove to Macca's for breakfast. Then I drove to the city to pick up DC right on time. He bought me a short black, lol. We talked about my new car, the weekend, some movies, and then about what was on the radio. He seemed to really enjoy the station Nova, I don't know why he doesn't listen to it more.

We got there before GS and checked in. We waited in the lagl waiting room for a while before GS caught up to us. We waited a bit more and DC introduced me to this LA lady before we were called in to the conference room.

The conference went for about four hours, but it was very productive. I don't know why, but I always walk out of these conferences with the feeling that my client will get off. Not that it's relevant, but I actually believe he's innocent. He's only so secretive because he wants to protect the others, which I admire. If this was an Asian group you would've had everyone ratting on eachother before the trial began.

Speaking of ratting, when we walked in I saw one of my former clients, the gambling client/mortgage fraud dude. We said hello briefly and had a short chat. He was being escorted to the police interview room. I don't know why they have a room specially designated for that, it's pretty dangerous isn't it???

And then on the way out, I bumped into Nom's former client, and we said hello. He asked for my card and I told him I worked for one client only. When I caught up to DC and GS they had this stupid grin on their face, mentally teasing me about knowing so many inmates. Whilst driving DC back to the city he commented on how I seemingly knew so many clients. I probably shouldn't have, but I told him how I had started to build a client base until Nom decided to rip them all off.

After dropping him off I drove to the Bra where I made a credit card payment and then went to the motor registry to have the car changed to my name. That didn't take as long as I had expected, and it was much easier than I had thought. I then went to Macca's for lunch and then went home.

You know what I had thought up a couple of nights ago? That maybe I should go pick Ele up from the airport when she returns. I mean, it's a crazy thought, I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier, and I don't know what made me think of it at all. But the thing is, I have no means of contacting her while she is in China. My only alternative is to ask Tracy to ask her if she needs a ride, and Tracy is in China too and only comes on to MSN sometimes.

So here I sit waiting for Tracy to come online...

Seven Pounds

I went to the casino this morning, was up $100 and tried to get $25 more but couldn't, and ended up losing it all. Walking out with a hundred dollar loss is a feat in itself. Can't say I wasn't teased by temptation to chase it back.

As I walked back to the car, I kept telling myself logical things like "you're bound for a loss some time", "you can't win all the time", "even businesses have expenses" and "you gotta give the casino back some of their money to make it seem normal".

However, the feeling of a loss was gnawing at me, and it seemed to grow heavier.

I went home, changed and headed out to bball. It was too late for any type of filming, and as I predicted, there were some people there already. Just a father and daughter to begin with, and then a bunch of people came.

I had only finished my shooting warm up when one of the guys from the bunch came over and asked me to join them. I didn't really want to, but said yes out of politeness. When I got closer to them I realised they were a group of Asian guys, I think Indonesian, probably early 20's. They couldn't really play, I mean, they had the basic skills, but I think they played socially rather than competitively.

The team I was on won the first four games pretty easily. Whenever I enter these type of games I always get into the "I'll go easy on them offensively but I'll work on rebounding and assists" mode. And so I did that, although I failed pretty bad at rebounding, even though most of them were about my height and I could out-jump them.

I remember one of the guys on the other team was a fat kid, and I kept thinking to myself "it's always good to see a fat kid get some exercise".

Soon, I got pissed off at my own lackluster performance and decided to go agro. My shot had been off but I started hitting a few, and I drove it more to dish it off. I don't like to go aggro against people who aren't my level because it's kinda like picking on people smaller than you, but sometimes I feel like I have to prove something to myself and get out of this habit of going easy on people.

I left when they took a break, went home, had a shower, did a tiny bit of work and then gave in to the gnawing. I returned to the casino and started with a bankroll of $200 playing inside numbers. This time, I was partly there to get back my money I lost earlier, but also I used it as an opportunity to try something out - watching the wheel.

My first few bets were outside bets, as I wanted to see how this dealer spun. I had already chosen this table because the wheel wasn't spun too fast. There's been a lot of work done on roulette physics, and that's the ideology I follow, as opposed to those 'systems' that say something like a particular sector will come up within x spins - where the hell is the logic in that?

Anyway, whilst watching the wheel, these were the things I was doing: 1) watch for where the ball tends to fall; 2) watch how fast the wheel spins (I do this by counting how many revolutions it makes before the ball drops. Of course, I learnt this off the internet, and it appears logical enough. The other thing is you want tables that are using a big ball, as they tend not to bounce around as much.

As I watched the first few spins, it appeared that the ball was landing within the sectors I was mentally predicting. I remember I once told this to Shuing, and he asked "then how does the ball land in different areas all the time?"

Good question.

I couldn't come up with an answer at that time, but I think I figured it out today. This dealer obviously wasn't that experienced, as she made a calculation error when paying someone out. The thing I noticed about her was that she was spinning the wheel inconsistently - sometimes it'd be faster than others. So I think it's best to choose an experienced dealer who gets so bored of their job that they end up spinning the wheel at the same speed all the time. This would explain why there seems to be a pattern in terms of sectors coming up. It all seemed to make sense.

Does analysing the wheel this way help? Yes. Does it guarantee a win? No. There are still so many variables which can affect where the ball lands that would be too hard to account for, like the little diamond obstacles around the wheel, and the pure random nature of the wheel. Like today, I saw the ball roll around the metal ring of the wheel a few times after it had dropped. It's like card counting I suppose, it gives you an edge but it's no sure-thing.

I thought about changing tables because of her inconsistent spinning, but then decided to just use my own sector betting system. I got really lucky as I hit the numbers 23 and 3 straight up consecutively. I placed some more outside bets as I watched more of the wheel before I decided that the pit boss probably thought I was a bit suss sitting there with all these chips, so I cashed out with a $200 gain for the day.

I don't think casinos mind if you win, but they have a problem if you win consistently. How could someone possibly win so many chips consistently over a period of time? The house odds dictate that you must bleed chips eventually.

Maybe I'm just paranoid. But I have a feeling my casino career won't be permanent. I just have a feeling that something will happen to ensure I never gamble again. Maybe I'll get backroomed, or maybe my parents will find out, I don't know.

Anyway, I headed to the cinemas and watched Seven Pounds. Buying myself a medium popcorn and coke, I plopped myself down on the designated seat only to find that a couple were placed next to me. Sitting next to them just made me think as to how they became a couple, and whether whatever happened between them was so impossible and hard for it to happen to myself.

I couldn't figure out where on earth the movie was going for the most part of it. I was beginning to think that Will Smith had lost it. I had put him on my "if he's in it then it's good" list, but I really started to question it during the movie.

It was only towards the end that everything came to place and I admired Will Smith for another brilliant performance. I swear if I was in that cinema by myself I would've started crying. It was just so sad.

I think it touched me because it involved an isolated male character with suicidal ideations, which seems eerily similar to me.

The new car

Friday
I left the office at about lunch time, caught the train back out to the city where I had lunch. I thought about KFC, but then decided to do my health a favour and get a Subway sandwich. I decided to try their new fruit smoothie, and it was pretty good, although the girl kinda didn't do a very good job with the lid so it leaked everywhere.

I went home and then went back out to the city to meet Bob for some dinner. We went to a different Japanese restaurant which had sushi train. I bumped into Ha on the way, and we just said hi although I think maybe I should've stopped to talk.

I just had a bowl of noodles which was pretty good. I swear one of the waitresses kept giving me 'the' eye. Or maybe I'm just paranoid and over-sensitive.

After dinner we caught the bus to his place so he could drive to G's house. His parents were still out with the car so I waited outside while he changed. When he got the car we went to pick Shuing and Puke up, and then arrived at G's place about an hour late.

We played poker for most of the night. Puke was labelled the male version of Michelle with his blunt and upfront questions. He got out first in poker and spent the rest of the night watching, lol. It's good to see him when he comes back from HK. I think we get along ok, although I was surprised at how blunt he can be.

When we got bored with poker we decided to try out our new roulette wheel. I was really looking forward to this, and I think G and Bob were too. But then it was ruined by Shuing when he got pissed off with losing when the winning was the number next to his bets on a few occasions. He literally took back his bets from the lay out and wouldn't admit he lost.

G said "why be a dickhead for" and I feared for a moment that this may have been a friendship changing point. Luckily it didn't escalate further than that. I like Shuing, but it would've been hard not to side with G on this one. Sometimes Shuing scares me. I remember once during a very late night MSN conversation, he admitted to me that he had manic depression and involved a bipolar disorder. That was ok, I could understand, because I wouldn't exactly call myself mentally healthy either.

But I guess the starting point for me was when I totally wiped him out at blackjack as the dealer and he just grabbed more chips from the box, not wanting to face the fact that he lost. I think everyone was surprised to say the least. Now Bob doesn't even want to have these 'casino nights' anymore, and I tend to agree with him if it's going to bring this side of Shuing out.

So mainly because of that, we called it a night and Bob drove everyone home.

Saturday
Went to the courts in the morning for a shoot around. What made this different was that I decided to film myself to see how I could improve my form. A few notes:

- you can no longer be labelled as 'skinny'; I don't know how you did it, but your back is fairly muscular; which also makes me wonder whether your vertical has decreased due to the extra weight you've put on or if it's due to the age of your legs

- your set shots are slow - very slow, but then it probably doesn't matter since you never use set shots in a game

- your turn around jump shots and the one with the fake have been imitated almost to perfection, I love it!

After that, I went back home, had a shower and then went with my dad to the car dealership. We finished off the paper work and all the stuff with the insurance, and then we were given the key to the car. As I sat in the passenger seat, I could hardly believe it. This was my car. It was in my name. It was niiiiiiiice!

I kept asking my dad how it felt to drive and he said it was good, very powerful although a little more effort was required in terms of control than the Honda, which I guess is due to its size.

It was hard to believe that we had just driven off with a car. It was probably harder to believe that I've now signed myself up to a debt. Oh well, it's a good practice run for a real mortgage I guess.

My dad dropped me home and then went out with my mom. I wanted to use the car in the afternoon for work, as I had to check out some places which sold chemicals, so I waited at home for it. I waited heaps long, and because I was eager to test out the new car, I got frustrated waiting, but told myself I wouldn't call my dad to rush him as I was sure he enjoyed the new drive too.

I got bored on the internet and then went to get some take away and then came back and ate it while watching Seinfeld. By the time my parents finally came home it was too late, but I took it for a drive to the casino. I won $200, which meant that for the first time in the last 23 days I was up!

I was up $5, lol, which is probably still a loss considering all the transaction costs and stuff, but still, it was good to know I had broken that barrier.

Throughout yesterday, I kept getting calls from Michelle which I just kept ignoring. I didn't know what the hell she wanted, since I had already said I couldn't make it to her 'catch up' thingy. I wasn't too adverse to going, but you have to keep in mind this: she is the ex-girlfriend of Egghead, your former best friend. So I wouldn't get too close to her, for complications sake.

Linda also called me once, which I ignored. Far out, why are all these girls calling me when the one I want to call me is in bloody China!?!?

Today
Went to the casino in the morning, won $175. I was actually up $225 but then lost $50 on a table I probably shouldn't have betted on. Call it hindsight bias, but I'm starting to think I can identify which tables are not good for my betting system. For example, this last table had numbers like 2, 4 and 0, all of which really aren't profitable numbers for me. Even though every spin is a new random spin and there is no memory in the wheel, it seems that wheels which have in the recent history come up with my profitable numbers are the better ones to play on.

Anyway, that means I'm up $180 for the month now. I went from -$830 to +$180. If I hadn't of lost control that night, theoretically I'd be up close to a thousand dollars, but yeah, you can't look at things that way.

I went home, changed, and then went back to the courts. I filmed myself again, although you can't see much since most of the time I was outside of the screen shooting threes.

After that I returned home, had a shower, and then went to Bondy to make a credit card payment and get some breakfast. For a shopping centre that big, their food court kinda sucks, so I just had Macca's.

After that I went home, got changed and took the car with me. My dad was home with the guy fixing our locks.

What better way to test out the new car than to drive it all around Sydney looking for chemicals! I went west, I went to the Hills, and then came back to the city area. Most of the places I went to were closed, but it was still fun to drive around. I actually drove so much that the car told me to rest, lol.

I went home, changed and then went out to meet Bob, G and Shuing for tennis. I was half an hour late, but still managed to get a good game in. I teamed up with Bob, and we ended up losing, although we had our moments. I find that I like to get close to the net to play, and even Shuing said I was good with the volleys.

There was a really hot European girl with an Asian dude on the court next to us, so maybe there's still hope for me yet.

Thursday comp: 2-7-1

No court today, but I'm just on the way to the office to check on something. Earlier this morning I went with my dad to pick up the car, but was told that the guy wasn't there so we'd have to be there tomorrow. I was pretty upset. Last time I went the dude told me he wasn't going to be there but someone else would look after us, although I'd have to call to check. So yesterday I called up and spoke to some dude called Wally who said "yeah I know that car, it's ready to be picked up". Fucking idiot. And then as we left today, the guy says "don't worry, I'll make it up to you by making sure you drive off with a full tank".

Watch that become a lie, just watch.

Even earlier, I had gone to the casino. We have to pay an exorbitant amount of deposit for the upcoming Sunday comp, and Fat Pat said he was broke and Mike only gave me $100, so I had to give my luck a go and see how much I could get. I had a fixed target of $125, so that I'd pay $100 from my own money and then together we pay $300 together, which plus the bond makes up the deposit.

Most of the tables were closed, and I ended up at one where there seemed to be some friendly and chatty guys and a woman playing. I played my Supabets method and managed to reach my target of $125. One of the guys noticed that I hit on both targets twice, and said "nice". I just said it was luck and then quipped "better quit while I'm ahead" as I walked off. I hope he did the same because I saw him exchange for a $1,000 chip, so I hope he didn't end up giving that back.

The lady won a couple of hundred at first, and I watched as she lost it all back.

So now, for the month, I am down $195, which is pretty good considering at one time I was down eight hundred something.

Yesterday at work I spent a considerable part of the day looking for a program to help out SB with her laptop problems. It was kinda tricky because it was a Mac and I don't know much about them.

After work I went home, changed, and then headed out to bball. Whilst walking towards the courts, I was listening to my music and when I turned my head I saw a red Lancer slowing down. It was Lemon offering to give me a lift. We talked a bit, and I wondered why he didn't want to play with us given that A is now playing and it could be an ex-high school thing.

Anyway, I was the first from my team to get there, and then three of Abi's friends came. We started the game with four and went down like 8-0 in a matter of minutes. I felt like I had to step up, but I didn't.

Fat Pat, Mike and Marco eventually came about five minutes into the game. I wasn't happy that they were late, but I didn't want to start anything either, so I just stayed quiet. I didn't think it was noticeable but at one intermission Mike asked "why are you so quiet?"

I didn't have a particularly good game. I airballed my first three, had an alley-oop blocked, swished a two pointer, and then airballed another three. I scored two points in the whole game.

TWO POINTS.

Towards the end of the game, I had already started feeling disappointed about myself. In a game where you're obviously one of the main scoring options, you scored two points, and took four shots. On top of that, you have been training and going to the gym. All for two points???

I noticed during the game that I didn't penetrate their zone defense at all, except on two occasions when once you attracted their defense and slipped in a pass to Fat Pat in the middle, and when really late into the game, they had pretty much figured out you wouldn't penetrate so I was basically able to walk inside.

How's that for your starting point guard? Two penetrations.

I found myself asking: what am I afraid of? Getting blocked? Having the ball stolen? Landing on someone's foot and injuring my ankle?

What is my greatest fear? And why?

Those were the two questions I was contemplating as I sat on the bench by myself after the game. It had been a hot day, and it was very humid inside the stadium, so I sat there unchanged, with sweat dripping everywhere, contemplating.

Contemplating.

As I left the stadium and made my way to the train station along the dark, quiet road, I wondered how many girls would be willing to walk with me. It reminded me of my high school days when I would walk up the hill to and from basketball. Would any girl be willing to walk with me? Or would they all want a car as a pre-requisite? Who out there is willing to struggle along with me in lift?

Who out there is willing to join my jihad?

Team management

As I was walking home last night, for some reason I felt angry. Angry at the world. It was that same anger that I had during uni, the one that pushed me into extreme boundaries. I haven't felt that for a very long time. I was glad I still had it.

I forgot to mention that a week or two ago, I made a decision to keep Daniel and Lou instead of Abi for our Sunday team. The comp starts early next month, and so I had to put together a team for Fat Pat's last year. I asked Abi if he wanted to play, and he specifically asked if Daniel and Lou were playing, and when I said yes, he didn't respond.

It's probably not very loyal of me to forgo Abi like that, but this will be Fat Pat's last year, and I'm not exactly getting any younger. We need to win, and we need to win now. With Abi, we might become a better team if we added a few more very decent players, but I can't wait for that. It might never happen. With Daniel and Lou, we have a chance, a very good chance, to win now.

I managed to recruit A back into the team, so with Mike coming back from injury, that should be enough for our bigs. But now I find myself in a rare situation - with Dunnycan opting out, we're short of guards. Not only am I not getting any younger, but the other day when I was shooting around, I remembered how agile and fit I was in my early 20's. I am no longer that person, and cannot expect to be that person ever again. A few nights ago I was looking at some of my old bball pics, and you could see I had a much slimmer look back then. Sure, you could say I've put on muscle, but is it too much? I kinda liked it when I was that slim, cause I could run a lot faster. Looking at myself then and myself now, I feel like I've made that Kobe transformation you can see if you look at a picture of him in 2000 versus the present.

So I find myself looking for a guard. I want someone like me when I first entered the comp. Someone who felt that they had been rejected by the world, and had something to prove. That Ares guy I met at the courts before would've been perfect, he's so small but he plays so aggressively. Too bad he doesn't want to play.

Today
I didn't wake up as early as I wanted to, but I still managed to get to the gym at just after 7:30. My card wasn't working for some reason, so I couldn't lock the locker, and I didn't want to just leave, so I had to just leave my stuff in an unlocked locker and do my thing. The thought of someone running with my laptop and wallet was constantly in my head, so I just did the flat bench and some curls and left.

I still managed to be the first person in the office, and all the lights were off. I told the sheriffs but they didn't seem to do anything about it. Funnily enough when GS told them about it during the break, it came back on almost immediately.

Call it testing the waters, but I asked Twish out to lunch tomorrow. I asked if she had ever tried sushi train as I had found a good one nearby, and she said she didn't really like sushi but she'd give it a go. I got the overall impression that she wasn't as over the moon as a guy would hope, so I take that as confirmation that she's not interested.

Most of the times it's hard to be objective when you're involved. Especially for guys, because a lot of the times it's our egos telling us one thing and our logic telling us another, and egos almost always prevail. For example, if a girl snubs a guy, his ego will just tell him that she's just playing hard to get, when his logic says she's not interested. I find myself constantly playing a balancing exercise between these two demons.

Anyway, I guess I'm relieved. I really don't think she's my type anyway. Granted, we're both sort of odd and goofy in a way, but these are the differences I have discovered between us: 1) she doesn't seem very sporty; 2) her idea of a good time on Friday night is drinking at a bar/club; 3) she has this annoying habit of pretending to look around when telling jokes.

She also asked me to ask LA to get some staples as we have run out. Don't really know what made her think she could tell me what to do, especially when she knows how to ask LA herself.

Hi

Hello.

I am sitting on the wharf opposite the casino. I have just won $150. I was playing inside numbers and was up $200 at one stage, got greedy, and then almost lost it all. I switched tables and was up $180, and tried to get to the 200 mark again but failed, and almost lost it all. I then switched back to my Supabets method, going from table to table, and eventually left with $150 gain. It's a lot of ups and downs, and in a way, it can be very stressful. Is it easy money? Some would say yes. I would say no. I don't think it's ever easy when the odds are against you. Is it quick money? Yes. You can be bankrupt or you can buy a car in one spin.

I left the casino eager to get my eye drops as I had been in there too long and missed it. I was also eager to have dinner with my family. I called home and my sister picked up. After the call I sat on the wharf side right in front of the water, no longer wanting to go home. I sat there and did my eye drops, and then sat there some more, thinking and pondering, before moving to where I am now.

It wasn't a big win for me. The new car will be ready tomorrow, and we gotta pay all this government stuff, and I volunteered to pay for it which is like $400.

I got to work at about 8:40am today. Only DC was there, I told him I saw him driving on Saturday morning, lol, that was funny. GS came in moments later.

When I went up to court, Twish seemed pretty happy to see me. She asked about my weekend. I didn't want to talk too much, because I didn't want DC's mind to start wandering.

Work was ok today, we sorta finished early because a juror was sick. I left work at just after 4pm, and DC was the only one left.

Role Models

I went out to the courts in the morning for a shoot around. I had just started building up a sweat and began my threes when I saw a bus full of high school girls walk from across the field towards me. I wasn't sure if they were going to occupy the basketball courts or the netball courts, but I kept on playing and they seemed to began habitation of the netball courts.

I was a little bit uncomfortable since I had my shirt off and all, but I was willing to deal with it in the sake of completing my threes. Moments later, another two bus full of girls also started walking my way, and that was when I decided that that was enough.

I packed up and then headed to Bondy to make a credit card payment. Because the post office wasn't open yet, I went to the gym nearby and worked out for about an hour before returning to the post office in the shopping centre. After that I went to the supermarket where I bought a smoothie for breakfast, and then headed home.

As I was walking home, I returned G's call, and he offered to give me a lift to the city for our yum cha outing. I told him I needed to take a shower first, so I went home, had a shower and changed, and made it just as he arrived to pick me up. We went to pick Shuing up as well, and I told him that Bob would feel left out, but G said "that's how much I don't like him". Wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

We picked Shuing up and then drove to the city. G managed to park his car in this really tight spot, which I admired since I'm not very good at horizontal parking. Bob told me he was there at the restaurant already and said it was packed, and after that I suggested to Shuing that we should go to another one which probably wasn't as full. So Shuing called Bob back and asked him to meet us at that other restaurant, to which Bob said no, so Shuing asked Bob if he could get a ticket while he waited for us, to which he also said no, which was followed by a five minute Shuing lecture on how stubborn Bobby was.

We met up with Bob at the restaurant, grabbed a ticket and waited. Shuing went to pick up Clare, and in time, Michael L showed up and soon after Shuing returned with Clare. Maybe I'm used to Ele, but I think I forgot how amateur-ish her English was. It's not as bad as Jenny's, but it's not as good as Ele's either.

We waited for about 20 minutes, and in that time we watched a lion dance come through to the restaurant. Man, I used to be so scared of that stuff when I was younger. I kinda like the music, it pumps you up in an odd way.

When we were finally called in, the table we were designated to hadn't even finished paying the bill yet, so we stood around waiting for that. Even then, there weren't enough chairs for us, and despite numerous requests for more chairs, they never came and we had to steal some from the table next to us when they left.

A running theme throughout the meal was how bad their service was. G wanted some vinegar, and none of us could get the attention of a waiter. I waved at one, who looked at me and then walked away. When I finally got one, I told him what I wanted, he said ok but never returned. And then there were the trolley ladies who ignored Shuing, and the one who threw our invoice thing onto the food. Everyone thought it was rude, I thought it was more funny than rude.

I had to do my eye drops during the meal, which was a little embarassing.

After eating, we went to check out some movie session times. We went to the main one, and found that the movies we wanted were in the late afternoon, so we walked to another one, which was about the same. So we went to the arcade and played some games. We decided to try and save up enough tickets for that mini-roulette table which was 400 tickets. Shuing suggested we make a weekly visit to achieve that goal.

He then picked out a wheel of fortune game and said that that was a good way to get tickets if successful. It was a wheel with different numbers around it, and if your arrow stopped at a particular number you would get that many tickets. But before you got to the wheel, you needed to stop the rotating light at the 'stop zone' around the wheel.

It was bloody rigged, as we could tell when G was giving it a go. It was obvious he timed it to perfection but he was always one or two light bulbs off. Bob wanted to play Deal or No Deal, so we went to wait for that, before someone turned my attention back to the wheel of fortune wheel.

G had gotten it. He had gotten the maximum prize - 500 tickets.

We all jumped in joy and watched as the tickets kept rolling out. It took so long that I went off to do my eye drops, and when I returned it was spitting out the last 100 tickets. I still couldn't believe G's luck.

Clare wanted a fluffy pig which was 150 tickets, so we tried to get some more tickets for that. I played the skills tester a few times and ended up getting a fluffy dog, which I gave to Clare. Shuing and I played various games, including basketball, and we eventually saved up enough tickets for the pig.

So we exchanged our tickets for the roulette wheel, the fluffy pig and we also walked off with the fluffy dog. I called it 'Breaking Galaxy World' as in 'Breaking Vegas' as we seemed to walk off with a large gain.

There were so many people at the wheel of fortune game when we left, as they had all seen G's performance and wanted the same thing to happen to them.

We walked back to the main cinema, where Shuing, G and I bought that pearl milk tea drink to get a cheaper movie ticket. We watched Role Models. I wasn't sure of it at first, all I knew was that it was a comedy, but I was willing to go along with the crowd.

It turned out to be a pretty funny movie. I loved that Ronnie kid with Wheeler. My favourite line was:

Danny: Pick us up in two hours.

Ronnie: Fuck you Ms Daisy.

I sat between G and Clare, and next to Clare was Shuing, and then Bob. I think there were at least two occasions where Clare turned to me and we silently smiled at eachother at whatever was happening on the screen. I must admit that I'm a little curious as to why she would turn to me and not Shuing. At first when I sensed her looking at me, I thought about pretending not to know, but then I thought it'd be a little rude, so I gave in.

I must admit, I think throughout the day I may have chatted with her more than Shuing. I just felt he sort of ignored her at times and I felt a bit sorry for her. Like when we were walking down the streets, she told me she wanted to go to karaoke, and I said to ask Shuing. She asked him, and then I asked her what his response was, and she said he just ignored her.

Everytime I was talking to her I was always conscious of not coming off as too friendly, as I didn't want the guys, especially Bob, to think there was something going on. Besides, I was sometimes thinking of Ele throughout the day.

She's also seemed to reach that stage where she thinks it's ok to touch me. At first we were walking into the restaurant and I felt a hand on my shoulder. I thought it was some stranger so I turned around almost semi-aggressively, ready to give a dirty look, and she apologised. And then later on in the day when I teased her about something, she pushed me lightly on the arm.

She also told me that she tried to add me on facebook but couldn't, and I had to explain to her that I adjusted my privacy settings so people couldn't search for me.

Given all this interaction, I was glad everytime she and Shuing talked, as I didn't want to be seen as some guy who leeches his friends' girls. I mean, Ele might be a one off case with special circumstances, but two? Two cases would very much give you a bad name.

After the movie we pretty much split ways with her, as she had to go to her car and we all went to G's car. In G's car we tried to play a game of roulette, but it didn't turn out to be very feasible as I dropped and lost one of the chips, lol. But that is a cool game, yes it is.

And just my luck...

I started yesterday off with a mention in Penrith. I was afraid the client would get there before me as I was going to arrive just on time, but luckily he was late so I got there before him. Everything went smoothly and surprisingly according to plan, as I was one of the first ones and just did it and got out.

After parting with the client I went to some vacant seats and sat down to do my eye drops. I'm sure some of the people who saw me must've thought I was weird.

I travelled back to Parra for court, and found the office empty, which meant everyone must've been in court. I unpacked and went up with my laptop to see court in session. I walked to my seat and smiled to acknowledge GS and sat down. Twish was there and she adjusted some of her stuff on the table to make room for me, even though it really wasn't necessary since DC wasn't there for the day.

At a later stage I managed to tell Twish that I had something to do after work so that I would get to her drinks later on in the night, and she was fine with it.

We finished before lunch, and GS left early, so I pretty much had the whole office to myself. I walked with him out of court since I was on my way to get lunch anyway. On the streets, he must've had Twish's drinks in mind and wondered why he wasn't invited. Then he asked "do you think she's a bit keen on you?" I just said I thought that that was the type of person she was, someone who was talkative, and a bit odd.

I wondered if he had asked that because of something he observed, or if it was just because she invited me and not him to her drinks.

I stayed until 4pm and then left. I went to the casino where I lost $100. I was actually up $150 but got greedy. I was tempted to try and chase back the loss but decided against it. Again, I went to the park across the road to do my eye drops, although the hobos were nowhere in sight this time.

I went home to drop off my bag and pick up the present for Twish. On the bus I had been thinking about GS' remark, and started considering Twish a bit more seriously. When I was looking into the bathroom mirror at home, I realised that I wasn't going to get any younger, and that my hair would only recede more, rather than grow back, so maybe I should appreciate that someone likes me.

I headed back out to the city, still in my work clothes, and gave her a call to see where she was. She told me the name of the bar she was at, and said "come by if you're in the city".

If I'm in the city?? This was the only reason I was in the city!

I didn't know where the hell the bar was, so I walked around the quay looking for it. After about a 15 minute walk I finally found it, and even then I went towards the wrong entrance, being called back by the bouncers because I was apparently entering a private function area. Don't know why they blocked that, because I could've just gotten into that same place by going in the main entrance.

I saw Twish at a table outside, talking with her friends, none of whom I knew. She gave me a hug as she saw me and I gave her the present. She seemed to like it ok, saying it was cute.

She did a pretty good job of bringing me into their social circle, introducing me to everyone and telling them about me. I really didn't like being in the spotlight so I don't think I handled it that well.

I went to get a drink from the bar and one of her friends said she'd come with me. We talked a bit as we waited at the bar until I said I'd go to another part of the bar to see if I could get some service faster as I thought we had been waiting too long. I ended up getting served before she did so I got her a drink, as well as some wedges for everyone else.

I ended up talking to Twish's ex-flat mate Michelle for most of the time. I think she's the one Twish went out to lunch with once, as I remember seeing her in our office. Apparently she works next door to us. I thought she was decently attractive, but she seems to have that high, annoying squealy voice which talks too much.

I thought I fitted in pretty well with the people sitting around me, including Michelle and Elliot who had just come back from travelling for like a year. Some of her other friends were two couples on the other end of the table and they kept mainly to themselves.

Two gay guys joined us later on, and they were pretty funny, but I didn't get to talk to them much. I noticed Twish had obviously gone home and managed to change into some more casual attire and put on some make up. At one stage I thought she looked like one of those pharoahs.

Throughout the whole night there was a pack of cigarettes with a lighter on top in front of her. It hadn't been touched and I wondered if that was hers or someone else's.

And then it happened. She picked it up, opened it, took out a cigarette, lit it up and began smoking it. She smoked two.

Seriously, I've been told that only about 30% of the population smokes, but it seems that I KEEP meeting people within that 30%. That pretty much killed it for me. That was the deal breaker.

I suppose I had the slightest of suspicions a while ago. I remember one day thinking she smelt of cigarettes, but my naive optimism dismissed it as being the smell of second hand smoke (ie. she was just around someone who had been smoking).

Am I disappointed? Yes. But in a way, it sorta helps my decision making. By eliminating one option, it aids me in making decisions as to other options, whatever they may be. But in another sense, it's kinda sad to know that I will have one less alternative.

Bob called me chasing me up about going to Shuing's house with my movies and chips, so I finally used that as an excuse to leave the drinks. I said goodbye to everyone and then went to the supermarket to get some chips and drinks, and then going home to pick up two DVDs of Seinfeld.

Bob picked me up and drove me to Shuing's house, where they had been playing soccer on his XBox. His mother spoke to me for a bit, which made me feel a bit strange.

We went into his tv room and played poker whilst watching and commenting on the tennis match playing. After poker we went to his lounge room for blackjack. Bob was the dealer at first, but then we switched when I lost all my chips. Just like last time, I managed to clean everyone out, which included a slaughtering of Shuing. He got really frustrated because he was using Martingale against me and couldn't seem to believe that I won like ten hands in a row against him.

We finished the night off with sic bo, I swear that is like the hardest game to win. A free, but tough lesson to learn.

Bob gave me a ride home, and it was like 2:30am already, and I ended up going to sleep a little after 3am.

This morning, I woke up still feeling irritated about having lost $100, even though my logic told me that a loss was inevitable, and that I should be happy that it didn't turn into an out-of-control $800 loss. So I went off to the casino in hope of winning back my loss plus change. Sometimes I feel that what happens at home justifies my casino visits.

Starting with $100, I lost it in two spins using my Supabets method. I couldn't believe it, but my logic told me that losing like that was always a possibility. Needless to say, I ended up using $200 more on another table, this time using colour chips and playing on the inside numbers.

I think the dealer was the same girl as the one who I had won $600 from before. I just played silently for a while, not really going up or down. There was a brief pause in the game as the cleaners had to clean the table. That was a first for me.

The numbers profitable for me never really came up, until I hit a straight up on a 23. But even then, I needed two hits on a 24 with my Supabets method to claw back the previous night's loss, the earlier loss and coming up with a $45 gain.

The dealer said "the column's doing pretty well for you" which started some conversation between us. She asked me how much I started with and then said I had done pretty well, and told me not to give it back. She then told me about how during the previous night some guy had lost all his savings, then won it back with a $600 gain, but that that was rare.

I just nodded and decided not to reveal anything about my win/loss status. I was going to talk about how much psychology there was to gambling, but then I wondered if she was just trying to get some info out of me so I remained relatively silent.

I ended up cashing in, and she joked "did I talk you into it?" and I just said I was hungry and needed to eat (it was true, I had only had a banana).

I left to meet up with my dad at the car dealership. We talked to a dealer who, after showing us a few cars, took us to the back to show us the car he reckons he put aside for us (yeah right).

It was a 2005 Commodore, only 72,000kms done. It was a nice green. They called it 'Martini', but it's fucking green. Contrary to his position a few days ago, he was offering $19,990. We said no, and counter-offered with $13,500.

He said he'd go talk to his boss about it, and then took us to an interview-style room. We came to some preliminary agreement about the price, upon which we reached the next stage where we were passed to the finance guy, who, probably intentionally, had the original price of $19,990 set up on the computer and pretended not to know about the price agreed upon.

He said he could do $14,500, and my dad offered $14,000. He came back after speaking to his 'boss' with an offer of $14,250. WTF? What's $250 to these guys? My dad was pretty concrete on $14,000, and the dude accused us of being unflexible. My dad said he'd walk, to which he responded with another talk with the 'boss' and coming back to accept our offer of $14,000.

But even then, he said he wouldn't tidy up or clean up the car for us and that we'd just have to take it as it was, which was a load of shit, because later on he agreed to clean it up.

Some more talk about details later, and after we paid our deposit, we got passed onto the next stage who was a lady trying to convince us to buy 'packages' which would help protect our car against bird shit and bat shit.

Ummmm...no.

I was finally relieved to walk out of that money-hungry house of used car salesmen, and we went to check out the car one more time. Even though it had just arrived and it wasn't polished up, it was still a magnificent vehicle. I must say that was a pretty sweet deal. I noticed the trunk was slightly ajar, so I tried to lift it up which set off the alarm.

Oh well, at least the alarm works.

We came back home, and my dad bragged to my mom and sister about how well he bargained.

The photocopy boy

After I got off the train to work yesterday, I went to grab a couple of hash browns from Macca's for breakfast. As I was nearing court, I was close to finishing and just stuffed the last piece into my mouth as I prepared to withdraw some cash from the ATM. As I turned around an Asian girl who had been walking behind me stopped and said my name.

I paused for a second as I looked at this short, slim girl wearing sunglasses, wondering why and how she knew my name. And then it clicked - it was Elleon.

I couldn't manage to talk since I had that big piece of potato in my mouth, so I just gestured. She asked if I wanted to go for a coffee but I couldn't because court was starting in like half an hour. So she walked off, and then I caught up to her, now free to talk, and we just talked a bit as she walked towards the cafeteria I pointed out to her.

I didn't get much action in court, so to speak. I had to leave once to get my eye drops, and then during the break, whilst we were in the elevator, GS volunteered me to go help with the photocopying that was going to be done by LA.

I didn't mind, but at the time I just thought it'd be a quick thing and that I just needed to help carry the stuff. But it ended up being a three hour photocopying sessions with me, Lu and that kid who had just finished high school doing work experience.

At first it was quite hectic, but we managed to evolve into a factory line system where Lu did the photocopying, the kid did the labelling and I placed them into the folders. To make six copies of three folders is no easy feat I must say.

I saw Kylie sitting at her desk working, and Bree also came by a few times. The first time I had my head down busily trying to work out the folders when she said "hi [insert name here]". I looked up to see her smiling, with some degree of naievity and innocence. I just said "hello how are you" and that was it. I wonder if she knew I liked her. Surely she must. Surely. But doesn't matter now, I've emotionally moved on from that. Lucky I made myself find out early, so things wouldn't have to drag on.

By the time we finished, court had finished, and I went back to the office. GS apologised, which I took to mean he didn't know it was going to be that bad. I didn't mind really, it was good doing something different, even if tedious, and for a while the three of us got a really good conversation going. It was just one of those experiences that brings people closer together.

To be honest for a moment I thought GS had done this to set me up with Lu, but because he apologised that seemed to refute my suspicions. I remember a couple of days ago he asked me what a 'chop' was, bringing me into his conversation with Lu in court, and then stepping out of it leaving me and her talking. Grrrr.

I went out to get some lunch in the extreme heat, and ended up taking my tie off when I got back into the office. I mainly worked on editing an audio file for the rest of the afternoon.

After work I checked out the shopping centre briefly for some presents I could get for PL and Twish. I couldn't find anything, so just decided to go check out some cars on that main road full of dealerships.

I caught the bus there, and on the bus I had to do my eye drops, and because it kept rocking, I kept missing and making a total mess.

I was mainly looking for the Euro, and I saw a few, but they were all too expensive. Most of the dealers were closed, so there wasn't much I could do anyway.

I caught a taxi back to the closest train station, and bumped into Mis' brother as I exited the taxi. We had a short chat before his girlfriend arrived to pick him up.

I went to the city and checked out that very Asian store for some presents, where upon I decided that I could just give an excuse to skipping PL's birthday drinks and then attending Twish's drinks which was afterwards. It would just be awkward since I don't know PL that well. Hell, it'll probably be awkward with Twsih, since I don't know any of her friends. Oh well, I've already said I'd go.

I found this soft cuddly toy mobile phone holder thing, so that's what I got for her. Also got her a box for it. It was pretty hard to find a box in that store without "I love you" or something along those lines on it.

After that I went to the casino where I won $190. That blonde girl I've seen a few times was there. She looks like the typical gambling addict. She has that same look that Kim Basinger had in Even Money. It's kinda scary.

When I left the casino I went across the road to the park and sat two benches away from a couple of hobos as I did my eye drops. I heard them talk incessantly, and I wondered how they could have so much to talk about. But I guess the important thing is that they seemed happy.

Eye inflammation

Yesterday during work when I went out to get a coffee, I noticed I felt a lot of pain in my right eye as I became exposed to the sunlight. Because of this, I went after work to get some sunnies. I've never looked good in sun glasses, so I was a bit hesitant, but this was for my health, so I had to do it. I went to one of those kiosk shops in the shopping centre and found a pair that looked decent on me, and bought it for $55. I'm sure I got ripped off, but I needed it urgently.

My eye has been red for a little while now. I always thought it was nothing and that it'd just go away, but the pain yesterday really startled me.

I caught the train and bus and met up with my parents at the car dealership to check out some cars. My mom had her eye on some hatch back which I totally didn't like. There's no way I'm driving a hatch back. My dad found a few Commodores for pretty good value, one of which the sales people told him about was a 2005 model with only 70,000kms done selling for $13,000, which could be reduced to $12,000.

Wow, that's a bargain.

I made a deal with my parents saying that if I can't get the Euro down to $12,000 then we would get that one.

I got to work early again today. Had Macca's for breakfast at Parra, and actually had time to sit there and enjoy it as court hadn't opened yet. There's this girl working there who is slightly attractive. I think she's caught me looking at her before, but it's not what she thinks. I'm kinda just looking at her wondering why the hell is she, and how on earth can she be, so goddamn skinny.

I was the first one into the office, and then DC and GS came in together. RB's xx of the overseas witness was BRILLIANT today!!! Far out I wish I could be like him. He stands there like a statue shooting words out with efficiency, getting straight to the point and not wasting a breath. I think everyone can agree that he made the witness out to be a pretty big liar. Maybe one day I'll post up the transcripts.

We finished around midday today because of technical difficulties. We were going to finish at 1pm anyway, so I had scheduled a doctor's appointment for 3:30pm, but told everyone I had to leave at 1.

As I did a bit of finishing up for the day, V called and asked if I wa sok for lunch since he was around the area. I told him I'd call him back cause I wasn't sure exactly when I would get out cause Michael D was coming in to give me some stuff. He arrived earlier than I thought, and we chatted away as I helped him with some faxes while GS and DC were in DY's room talking to her.

I told him about my car accident, and he told me about an accident he had in the past, and I think that was the first time I really started to bond with him.

Anyway, I left at a bit past one and called V and met up with him in the shopping centre for lunch. The first thing he said was that I looked flash, and I gave an odd response because I didn't think it was. The first thing I noticed about him was that he was really indecisive. He said he hated food courts because he never knew what to get. I was just thinking "ummm...get anything".

I got pasta and he grabbed a mini pizza from the same place, and we sat down and talked about work and uni friends. We talked about library guy and how he was working with Fam. He knew they had some troubles but I didn't say anything about them approaching me, cause I wasn't sure how much library guy had told him.

I found that he just keeps going on and on and on, when I had my doctor's appointment in the back of my mind. When I felt it was time I finally said I needed to go, and we walked together for a bit. As we walked he asked if I could let him know if I ever came across any job opportunities, which made me think that this rendezvous had a professional purpose.

I made it to the doctor's just a little bit late. As soon as I pointed my eye out to him his face was overcome with a very serious look. He had a closer inspection of it with some tool, and then sent me to his brother's office who was an optometrist. His brother made it sound pretty serious, asking me why I didn't seek help sooner, and I just said I didn't think it was that serious.

He examined my eye through some other equipment and made me do an eye test, then sent me back to my doctor. Apparently I have an inflammation, and my doctor was very serious when he stressed that I needed to take my eye drops every two hours on the dot.

Because of the seriousness of it all, I went to get my eye drops immediately instead of the usual process of giving my mother the prescriptions for her to get it.

I got home and used the eye drops on myself. I've never been good or comfortable with doing it myself, but I guess this was a good a time as any to start.

I met up with Bob and Shuing in the city tonight for gym. In the changeroom I had to ask Bob to do the eye drops for me, which I'm sure looked pretty weird.

We tried to push Shuing a bit in the gym. At first he was reluctant, saying he didn't do weights, but then I managed to convince him to try the incline benchpress without any weights, claiming that it's not really 'weights' if it's just the bar.

Like any other newbie, he found the balancing a bit tricky at first, but he caught on pretty quickly. He very slowly completed a set of 10, and I decided that was enough for him for one night. I hope I've got him started on something good.

We all went to a sushi train place after for dinner, this time opting for the one near the cinema. This was probably the best by far, since all plates were $3 and there were tonnes of variety.

As we walked to the bus stop, Shuing told me of a way I could finance my car cheaper, which made a lot of F sense. Far out, can't believe I was about to get jipped like that. Convincing my parents, however, will be another issue.

Write-off

Yesterday I felt like watching Seven Pounds, so I texted the guys to see if they were interested, and if they weren't then I was prepared to go by myself. G and Bob said they were interested, so we organised to meet at the shopping near us.

I went out to the city to buy my weekly train ticket and then headed back for the movie. I got there right on time, but Bob was already there. As I was walking up the escalator G called and said he was still at home...

Bob and I went to the supermarket to get some chips and drinks, and by that time G had arrived. We ended up watching Yes Man because G wanted to, and I didn't mind it. I thought maybe it would be a good idea anyway to watch something light, and that I can do my own personal thought-provoking entertainment in my own time.

The movie was pretty damn good. I thought that Jim Carrey had finally reached that Stephen Chow stage of his career where he could make a meaningful comedy. Not only was it funny, but it taught people how closed off we normally are and how the world might open up to us if we would just take the time to explore the opportunities presented to us in everyday life. That chick was pretty hot too.

After getting home, I spoke to Tracy on MSN for a bit, and managed to find out that Ele had left for China on Friday. Hmmm. Wonder why she's so secretive and doesn't tell us. Or maybe she doesn't consider us to be close enough. I asked Tracy why Ele went back and she said she didn't know, which raised my suspicions a bit. I also asked her for Ele's MSN and added her, so I'm going through that agonising wait for her confirmation, although not sure if she'll check the net much when she's overseas.

I got to work fairly early today, at like 8:20 or something. GS was the only person there. As soon as I got there, he invited me into his room and asked me to take a seat. He asked me to pretend to be the jury as he read out his xx and asked me what I thought. I've noticed he's done that a number of times now - asking for my opinion on tactical decisions, which surprises me because a lot of baristas treat you as a secretary and tend to discard your opinion as amateurish and nonsense. I'm not even so sure that Twish's and Kate's baristas ask for their opinions on such things. So because of the apparent responsibility placed upon me, I try to give a thoughtful and intellectual answer. It is tough though, I can't imagine what it'd be like to be in his shoes.

I didn't get to have lunch because the government agency was installing stuff on our laptops and I had to be around, but I didn't feel like eating anyway. I didn't like what the judge did at the end today, basically accusing us of wasting time, saying that the video we wanted played added nothing to the oral evidence given. I guess he's never heard of the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words.

During lunch I made a phone call to my insurance company to see how much longer it'd take for the car to be fixed. I was told that it had to be written off.

WTF???

I couldn't believe it. It had been that seriously damaged. I had so much expectation on getting the car back, and now this.

After work, I went to get some KFC and then caught the train to the city. I went to the casino, won $225 and got the hell out of there. As I was playing, I watched as this guy played on multiple tables simultaneously, using $25 and $100 chips. On one table, I swear to god, he placed $25 chips almost everywhere, leaving only about four numbers exposed (one of which was 2).

You can guess which number came up.

As the dealer swept away his chips, he was like "how do you get 2?" and she said "accident" and he said "I hope you die" lol.

It's pretty unbelievable isn't it? If you cover 33/37 numbers, you'd like to think that the odds are with you, and that you'd get something back even if your special number doesn't come up. Sometimes I wonder if the casino has a way at cheating in roulette. Maybe they have a magnet underneath the wheel to attract the ball to a particular number.

I swear some amazing things happen at the casino. One time I went, almost every table I went to spun out a zero. And a lot of the times, if you look at the tables around you, the same numbers come up at a lot of the tables.

After dinner at home tonight, I browsed some car dealerships on the net with my family, looking for a new car. My dad wanted a Honda CRV, which I totally didn't want because it was way too big, and I managed to convince them by showing them the picture and saying how it wouldn't fit in our garage.

My dad then suggested a Honda Jazz, which I'm not too fond of, seeing that those rice boys seem to race in it on the streets.

I found a Honda Euro for just under $20k, which I reeeeeally want, but the price makes it seem a bit suss. My dad has his eye on a Camry, which I don't want because it's too much of a family car.

I just wonder how feasible it actually is to increase our debt given that my dad was recently retrenched, and that my job is temporary for a few more months at best.

Fat Pat's birthday

Technically we didn't have court on Friday because our matter wasn't listed, but it was a co-ey's sentencing so we could turn up and watched if we wanted to. I had organised to meet someone from our computer expert's company to drop off our hard drive for them to examine. I was supposed to get there at 8am, but I woke up so bloody late I got there at 9am, and then I couldn't get through to the lady I was supposed to meet, so I called our expert who said he was going to be there in 10 minutes so I waited for him. Maybe it wasn't as bad as it seemed, because it was initially the expert's suggestion that I meet him at 10.

Anyway, I caught a train to Parra and went into the office to drop off my things. I saw Twish in her other room working away. I grabbed a glass of water and went over to her room.

Me: Is this the [insert her other client's name] Twish?

She didn't hear me clearly at first and chuckled a bit when I repeated it. She then started saying how she needed to print and stuff. I decided that was enough and headed up to court.

Walking in to a less than expected crowd but still more than usual, I made my way over to my seat where GS smiled at me. I sat down and listened to GT make his submissions. Because DC wasn't there, there was a lot of room on my table so I had merged over close to GS. Twish had her stuff spread all over my table anyway.

It went for nearly the whole day. I thought about asking Twish out to lunch but later saw she had organised to have lunch with her female friend. I didn't speak to her much in court, not as much as usual anyway. It was only at the end when things were wrapping up that I said to her how I thought her client looked like Leonardo DiCaprio in Body of Lies. She said she thought he looked more like Jesus, lol.

GS, Twish and I stayed back in the office till nearly closing time. GS left first, and I was half expecting Twish to offer me a lift somewhere, even though I had no intentions of accepting. To my surprise, she just said bye and nice weekend and headed out the door.

I didn't leave long after, and ended up seeing her walking with her female friend to the train station. Hmmm...so if her friend wasn't there, I may have been able to share a train ride with her. Wonder why she didn't drive.

On my way to the train station I also passed that new girl at the coffee shop, and we just smiled and nodded to eachother. Earlier in the day GS and I had gone there for coffee, and when she brought it over, I was looking up at her as she placed mine in front of me. Right at the last second she glances up to make eye contact, I smile and say thanks, and she looks down, almost shyly.

Maybe it's just me, but that might be a slight sign. I read somewhere that when you make eye contact with a girl, and they look down, it means they might be interested, whereas if they look sideways then they're definitely not interested. Seems logical enough for me.

She's attractive, but seems a bit young. Not sure if I should do anything.

I had organised a poker night at G's house, and tried to meet up with Shuing and Bob for dinner. I had some time so I went to the casino and lost $200. I couldn't get in touch with Shuing before he reached home, so I just had dinner with Bob.

He seems to have a conundrum with not inviting Linda to his anticipated house warming. That day, there had been an email exchange, perhaps somewhat heated, between Michelle and Linda. Bob kept saying how that was enough justification to invite Ele and Tracy but not Linda. I told him he didn't need any justification - he had a right to choose who he wanted to invite and who he didn't want to invite. My bottom line was that we all have the right to choose our own friends.

I have no idea why Linda wants to hang out with us so much, and why she is acting so desperate in trying to turn every opportunity into a get-together with us. But if we don't like her for whatever reason, I think it's better to cut her off early than to lead her on, because that'll just make things worse, and as I've told the others, she's the type to take advantage of the courtesy of others.

After dinner I bought some chips and then we went to pick Shuing up. We asked him why he had sent that "meeeeow" email in the midst of the Michelle-Linda tantrum, and he said he thought it was funny and he thought it would break it up.

Break it up? Is he stupid? That's just like chanting "fight! fight! fight! fight!" when two people are arguing.

Anyway, that night at G's place was a lot of fun. We played poker, then Big 2, and then I pretended to be a dealer at the casino for blackjack. That surprisingly took off, as we soon found ourselves with chips, and I was on the opposite side of them dealing out cards, hand after hand.

Maybe it was the dealer position, or maybe it was luck, but I ended up cleaning them out (except Shuing, who was smart enough to quit when he was ahead). Like, at one point, they all had a 19 or 20. I got 18 and went against the rules to get another card. I drew a 3. I just thought that was pretty funny. Things like this are funny when you're the dealer and it's not your money. It's not so funny when it is your money.

After black jack we played sic bo. G printed out a lay out, we grabbed three dice and played. I was the dealer again and ended up cleaning all of them out.

Bob said, and I agreed with him, that it was a good lesson that taught us how hard it was to actually win at the casino. We even said that losing all those chips made us feel bad, even though it wasn't even our money. It wasn't even real money.

Interesting psychology there.

Yesterday I went to the casino to try and make it all back. I went up $250, got a little greedy and then ended losing it all. I then went back to the main city area to look for a present for Fat Pat's birthday.

To be honest, I felt a little guilty because I didn't know what to get him. I mean, we all know he likes basketball and the NBA, but it seemed a little thoughtless to just buy some a basketball or something. Besides, I didn't want to get him something too perishable, I wanted to get him something that would last and can be remembered, so that ruled out clothes, basketballs and shoes.

I searched around the upper end of the city first, then checked out Chinatown. I saw some lion dancing, and then checked out that franchise store from where I bought the rubber keyboards. They had a lot of good stuff there, but nothing really appropriate for Fat Pat. Then I saw some small figures of the Slam Dunk comic basketball players. I thought about getting them, all different ones, and making them out to be us, but it was too hard since their numbers were engraved.

I called Mike and managed to talk him into agreeing that that was the ideal gift if I couldn't find anything else. I did a search of the markets, and came up empty. I did, however, find this one shop where you could send off a photo and have your own custom made figure made. That probably was the ideal gift, but it takes 30 days to make. I think I want a set of that for my team.

I then decided that maybe I should just get the figures and a pen with his name engraved. Yes, the pen has been a favourite of mine for other people's birthdays in the past, but I couldn't come up with anything else and seeing that he'll enter the workforce soon, it seemed like a good idea.

I called Mike and confirmed, and couldn't get through to Dunnycan, so that was set. I headed back to that Asian store to buy the figures, then made my way to Myer to get the pen. I must say, the store person, who was an elderly man, short, perhaps of Italian origin or something with thick glasses and grey hair, took one look at me and instantly made me feel like I didn't belong in the store.

There was just this vibe about him, which I couldn't confirm until the end when he threw the pen box onto the counter after scanning it, despite me holding a hand out to receive it. I felt like making a scene, or at least a complaint, but then thought I had better things to do.

I found a key cutting place that did engravings, and made a call to the insurance company about my car whilst I waited. They still had no news on how long it would take to repair my car. The engraving was nicely done, although I didn't remember it to be that pricey back in the suburb of my old work.

I happily went home where I napped very carefully and then went out to the city. On the way to the bus stop going home, I somehow hoped that I would bump into Ele like that time before, despite feeling some form of angst against her for lying and having a boyfriend but not wanting to disclose it. My logic keeps telling me to avoid it, yet my emotions can't stay away from the thought of her.

Anyway, I went to the designated meeting place which was outside the cinemas in the city. I stood there with others who were presumably also waiting for their friends, before seeing Fat Pat come down the street after about a ten minute wait.

We talked as we waited for Mike, and I felt that we almost struggled to keep the conversation going. Dunnycan called saying he was near the restaurant we were going to, so we went there. He reached out to shake hands, and I reached out at the same time, but he was reaching for Fat Pat's and then mine, so I felt like a bit of a stooge, but at least I could laugh about it with this group of friends.

We went up to the Korean restaurant and told Mike to come find us. When we were all set, we ordered what seemed like the Korean version of hot pot. We had a pretty good time talking about stuff that was, surprisingly enough, not related to basketball.

Towards the end we talked about disgusting things on the internet and Dunnycan told us some ghost stories. We call it a night at about 11pm. Mike and I bought some desserts from the restaurants and had a few laughs as I tried to take some photos of him eating it. I find it quite funny taking photos of him, he's like lego man, lol.

I walked with them to Fat Pat's car and then went home, proud of myself for not going to the casino even when it was a few minutes walk away.

The Kandi Man Kan

Sometimes I feel more like an IT guy than a lawyer. Not only have I recently been occupied with editing videos and previously analysing my client's computer, I spent a considerable amount of time yesterday fixing people's software problems.

At lunch, I tried to help EO with installing a program on his laptop, but it wasn't powerful enough to power the usb drive I had, so I crossed the road and helped Kate with her problem. I asked her what happened when she tried to open the program and she was like "oh, everything, it's too messy, it goes crazy". When I had a go at it, it was just a dialogue bpx saying the database had to be re-specified, so I fixed it for her in a matter of moments. What's funny is that that problem could've been solved had she read the email I sent during the Christmas break.

There was one moment yesterday where I felt a negative sign, or at least a non-positive sign from Twish. She had asked me to get back from GS something she lent us, and while I was in her room about to leave, she reminded me of it, and it was almost as if it sounded like "get me that" type of order. I know that in my early days I saw her bossy side, but I never knew she'd turn it on me.

In court however, she fully leans on my shoulder, which confuses me even more.

After work yesterday, I was to meet up with Bob for gym at one of the branches we had never been to. Because I arrived in the city a tad early and I was hungry, I went to get something small to eat at KFC. After that I headed to the gym where I tried to wait for him outside. As I waited I saw so many business people going in and out of the gym, and I wondered what it'd be like if I worked in the city. Man, maybe I could like finish work at five, go to the gym, finish at six, and get home by seven.

Anyway, I waited for about ten minutes before deciding that he must be inside already, so I went downstairs and looked around for the change room. I had to ask because I totally couldn't find it and looked like a knob.

I got changed and found Bob at one of the machines. We did our usual thing although there was only one benchpress so that was a bit strange. I didn't even do the bench because of my sore shoulder, so I tried to focus on my arms and abs.

We talked about Linda. During the day Shuing had sent a group email asking why everyone was so quiet, and she replied saying she would host a dinner THAT NIGHT where everyone would bring their own food. Like, do you want to be any more desperate? I sent a rather formal email declining the invitation, citing work reasons. It wasn't a lie, as I stayed up till like 1am burning CDs for work.

Anyway, after gym we went for dinner at a Japanese restaurant with a sushi train. It wasn't as good as I had thought, as they didn't have a lot of variety - the same dishes kept coming round and round. God knows why it seemed so popular.

I got to work a tinsy insy bit late today, but still had time to fix EO's laptop and do some other work before court started. I was talking to GS in his room and when I came out I saw CW so I said good morning to him. GS was on his way up to court and started talking to CW. I saw Twish and went into her room to say good morning.

She started telling me about how yesterday in the car, her group had me as the butt of a running joke where they kept coming up with things and then saying "well [insert client's name]'s lawyer can do it", referring to me and the video I edited, as CW seemed pretty impressed. She said she tried to explain it as "well he knows about computers!".

She then said "screw you, I'm not sitting next to you anymore, you make me feel like a retard", lol.

Even though this was a joke (I hope), it was a friendly reminder that one shouldn't be too good, drawing the envy of others in the process. I made this mistake in my old job, but luckily Mis was understanding.

So when I first started this job, I kinda deliberately got to work on time instead of being early, but now it seems like it's a habit I can't get out of.

I wanted to buy Twish her favourite drink today when I went out to lunch, but the cafe from which I bought my sandwich didn't have it.

After work, I had organised to meet Shuing and Bob for gym. When I reached the city I noticed I had a bit of spare time, so I ducked off to the casino and won $75 and left. I met up with Shuing outside the gym as he seemed a bit reluctant to go in himself, so we went in together, got changed and found Bob on the treadmill.

I have a feeling that Bob and I won't sync in as much with Shuing at the gym, as he doesn't seem to do weights, and when he uses the machines he seems to be using it incorrectly. Oh well, guess we can gently push him in the right direction.

After gym we invited him to dinner but he said he promised to eat at home, so Bob and I went to another sushi train place. We were actually looking for another Japanese restaurant, but couldn't find it. The walk was getting long, and I was hungry, and I was close to suggesting a meal at the strip club as we were walking passed it, but resisted.

I was tempted to tell Bob about the running joke at my work, but I didn't want to come off as showing off or something, so I didn't mention it.

First day back at court

"When the sun shines, we’ll shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be your friend
Took an oath I'ma stick it out till the end
Now it's raining more than ever
But we'll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella
(Ella ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh eh)"
-- Umbrella, Rihanna

Man I'm loving that song right now.

On my way to work I decided to stop off at Macca's to get some breakfast and bumped into Michael Shammy. We had a good talk, and he told me he's engaged now. Far out, everybody is getting engaged now, it really emphasises my loneliness. I wonder if I'll ever be able to find 'the one'.

Got to work at right on 9, and saw Shane waiting at court, so I had a short chat with him before I got into the office. Saw GS in his room, and Kate in DC's room talking to him. As I was settling down, DY came in and seemed pretty happy, being much more chatty to me than usual.

I think everyone was kinda glad to see eachother after the break. Like EO said, it's like the first day back at school.

I missed out the start of court because I had to do some urgent printing. I'm actually pretty quick at it if I might say. Kate came and asked me for something and I had to kinda brush her off because I was too busy with the printing.

Today was the first day that Twish and I got to put our new rubber keyboards to the test. I didn't notice it before, but her one actually has pictures of Hello Kitty on it, hence the text messages.

I got the feeling she's struggling a bit in getting used to it, and it doesn't help that her one doesn't fold out straight enough. I'm a little better because I have a bit more patience when it comes to getting used to it, but I feel that she doesn't have much patience.

While we waited for the judge she took the opportunity to do a little catching up with me, asking me what I did for Christmas and NYE. I told her about my car accident, which was pretty much the same as hers except reversed. She said her birthday was soon and that I "must come to it". I was picturing an after work thing but when I looked at the calender earlier I think it's on a weekend. I sure hope not, I don't think her type of friends are the type I'd be comfortable with.

Today was our client's search. We played the video I had been editing. I never had the time to sit down and watch the final version; instead, it was just edited from a pre-final version I had seen. So I was a little nervous sitting while it was playing, hoping to God for no nasty surprises. Luckily, all went well. I wonder if anyone apart from DC noticed my smooth ass transition effects. Probably not.

For lunch, DC and I joined Twish and her barista's group, and we went to this German restaurant nearby. Far out, everything was so friggin' big! Twish surprised me a little by ordering this huge ass chicken schnitzel and bragging about how much she could eat. I sat diagonally across from her and I couldn't help but notice that she was a little bit.......chubby. Hmmm...I guess all that eating should've made it more obvious. But I guess wearing a suit covers all that.

I was even more surprised when the food came, as she managed to chomp it down quickly and efficiently. She even said she could eat more. There's something...slightly unattractive about a girl who eats that much.

DC and I left before the rest of them so we wouldn't be late, which meant I didn't finish my huge ass chicken schnitzel sandwich. We got to court with a few minutes to spare, though CW, PL and Twish were late, and I told myself that I shouldn't hang out with them for lunch too much if they were always going to be that long for lunch.

It was a pretty hot day today, so I didn't exactly enjoy the walk from the office to the train station. On the way I stopped at the post office to make a credit card payment. At the station I saw Kate, so we caught the train together. I think I'm beginning to see her more as a friend/colleague than a potential interest. Good to see logic and rational thinking has prevailed.

On my bus back home, I saw that brunette girl get on with an ice block. I couldn't help but smile a little because I thought that was kinda cute. She sat a few rows in front of me, and a few moments later I realised that she was sitting next to that blonde, Maria Sharapova look-alike I see at my bus stop sometimes.

Wow, the two girls I have distant and remote fantasies about sitting next to eachother!

Which one would you rather sleep with?

Hmmm...so hard to choose. Maybe the brunette, because Sharapova actually kinda looks unco up close.

Turns out the Sharapova look-alike gets off at my stop. Hmmm.

Throughout the day in court, as I sat there, I couldn't help but wonder if Twish was interested. Sometimes the things she does tells me yes, although I wondered: why didn't she ever send me a christmas or NYE text message? Is it because we're still strictly in the colleagues zone?

I had a secondary issue: how did Twish compare to Ele? I couldn't picture Twish holding a guy's hand and then dropping it and claiming that it wasn't her boyfriend if caught unexpectedly by a friend; but then again, I never thought Ele to be that type of person either.

I also wondered why I never got a message from Ele asking if I was ok from the car accident. Does that mean she doesn't care? Or is it just because she knows we're all ok? Why would I even expect one? Who are you to her?

I guess I was just being optimistic. Hell, I don't even think any of your friends have asked you if you were ok. And HELL, your family didn't even ask you that.

Well, I just thought that if she cared, then maybe she would've just asked, that's all.

Car accident

I went to the casino today, and upon arrival discovered that I only had $45 left on my credit card. I was a bit shocked...even given that they may not have processed yesterday's payment yet, I still should have more than that?

So I drove back home, got changed and headed out to the bball courts. I finished off my threes from the other day. I got really frustrated when I had two left to go, as I couldn't seem to throw a rock into an ocean. I had to try and hurry it up because I didn't want to see the Russians, cause then I'd have to stay and play a game which I didn't want.

It's not going to take you an hour to hit two shots is it?

Nah, that would be a world record.

I eventually made the last two shots, practiced some free throws and went home. I headed straight back out and went to the gym, as Bob told me he'd be there at 9. I got there at about 9:30 and saw him in the weights area.

He asked me what I had prepared for Linda's interrogation, and I just told him I'd say I only thought of Ele and Tracy. I noticed he kept looking at my fake tattoo.

We pretty much did our separate things because of my delay, and I left before he did as I didn't drive, and his mom had driven him there.

I went home, had a shower, and then my dad said he was ready for me to drive him off. I was like "huh?" because earlier in the morning he said I didn't need to, but then he said he was talking about just the city.

So I got changed quickly and got in the car. I got a little more irritated when my dad said I also had to drive my mom to Rockdale, because I knew she'd take a long time to come down to the car. That's a very bad habit of hers, to always have someone waiting for her instead of her waiting for others.

Anyway, we drove off, and I got annoyed as my dad was telling me where to go even at the most basic of routes. Like, I've been down that road a gazillion times before driving him to work, so I know where to turn, what lanes to use etc.

I showed them the noise the rear wheels were making, which sent my mother into a panic. Both my dad and I were just like "ok, we'll get it fixed" but she was like "no, take it to a shop now because it's too dangerous". She may have had a point, but after I dropped her off we discovered all the shops were closed.

I dropped my dad off at Campsie, and then rushed back to pick up Bob and Tracy. My plan kinda backfired - I only suggested driving because I thought Ele was coming. But at 4am Tracy sent me a message saying she was coming, and 40 minutes later Ele sent me a message saying she wasn't coming. The message was as follows:

hey i didn't check my email today but thx 4 let me know. i wont b able 2 join tmr,u must eat double including my shares. :-) anyway, hv fun

It's so easy to see that that was coordinated. Anyway, I now couldn't retract my offer to drive.

I was late like 20 minutes, but was glad to see then standing at the entrance when I got there. I joked about Bob hailing me down as I approached, I can't believe he hailed me like a taxi, idiot.

Bob sat in the front passenger seat, and Tracy sat behind him.

There was mention about me being late, and I joked that I would speed but safety came first, and Bob said something like screw safety and I told him to take off his seat belt, which he didn't.

I was planning to park where I usually stopped when I used to go with my dad to pick up stock, so I drove along the long straight road which my house is also on. I've driven on this road a million times. I don't think I was going very fast, I think I was below the speed limit, if not just on it. I was in lane 1/3.

Tracy noted how there were so many cars parked on the field across the road, and asked what event was on, and told us to look. I was just about to look when I saw a black car with its indicators on, in the middle lane cutting into my lane. It was waaaay too close. Bob said something about it, but it was too late. The car hit mine, and forced my car against the kerb.

My first reaction was to control my car. As I was pushed harder against the kerb, I saw that we were headed for a pole so I pushed back against the black car and stopped. To my surprise, the black car had taken my lane and continued going, I was very much expecting it to stop.

I muttered a profanity and started to chase before I realised that something was wrong with one of the tyres, preventing me from going. A white van had pulled over in front of me and I saw the black car stop too.

I got out of my car and walked towards the two vehicles. I wasn't sure why the white van had stopped - was that involved too?

At first I was angry that anyone could be so stupid as to not look at their blind spot. But as I got closer, I realised that I should probably be more civil. It was a Caucasian man from the van who had approached me. I asked him if he was alright, and he said he was, and that he wasn't involved but was a witness, saying she was wrong.

I went up to the black car to find a short stocky lady with another lady and a child in the car. We both asked eachother if we were alright, and then she apologised for what had happened. She was visibly shaken up, and so was I. I had never been in a car accident before, and neither had she.

We exchanged contact details, and I grabbed the contact details of the witness so as not to hold him up.

I eventually returned to my car, realising I had not even checked if Bob and Tracy were ok, so I asked them if they were, and they said yes. I told them they could go on and meet the others first, but they chose to hang around.

I called up an insurance company which couldn't find my dad's details, and then realised that my dad changed companies years ago. I asked the dude if I needed to call the police and he said I probably should, so I called police assistance and was on hold for like five minutes and decided to fuck it.

I called up the other insurance company and they organised a two truck to come and take the car away. They were all really nice, made everything easier. I was still a little shocked, but tried not to show it as I joked with Bob and Tracy. I again invited them to go ahead without me while I waited for the tow truck, but they said no.

I thought about how a 'strong' man would handle the situation. I was calm at least, but other than that I wasn't sure if I was doing everything right. While we were waiting, Tracy and I took some photos of my car.

The two truck guy came pretty soon, and he just basically towed it away, along with my key to the car. It was so sad to see my car like that, it really hurt inside.

We caught a taxi to the fish markets, and talked about the incident while in th car, completely ignoring the taxi driver which I'm not a big fan of doing. I was a little concerned for Tracy, but she seemed pretty ok.

We met up with Shuing, Linda and G when we got there, and chose a restaurant where we all sat down and eagerly talked about the incident. G was probably the most eager, using mobile phones as replica cars to re-enact the accident.

We eventually made it onto other topics. Shuing was sitting next to Linda, and I could just feel him giving a "wtf?" look everytime she did something weird.

After the meal we caught the tram to watch Bedtime Stories. As we marched into the cinema, I realised I was going to end up sitting next to Linda and did the cowardly thing and ran to G's side, leaving Shuing to sit next to her.

The movie was ok, but I think I would've enjoyed it more had I not been involved in the whole car accident thing.

Linda laughed out really loud everytime something minutely funny happened. I'm sure that annoyed Shuing.

After the movie I could tell Shuing wasn't very happy with me. We all walked to a spot neat Bob's bus stop and split. Bob and Tracy caught their bus. G, Shuing and I walked to the lights, only to have Linda run up after us, as she lives near me and wanted to catch the same bus.

Shuing parted ways at the train station entrance, and I could still tell he wasn't happy. G, Linda and I caught the bus together. It wasn't as bad as I had expected, I think G neutralises her.

Talking to Bob on MSN earlier, he told me a few things he found out:

- that thing about Ele not checking her email was a lie; she and Linda discussed way beforehand about whether to go or not

- Linda told Ele and Tracy that she wasn't going, so Tracy was surprised to see Linda today (and vice versa)

- once Michael L bumped into Ele and her boyfriend holding hands, and Michael L asked "is that your boyfriend?" and she quickly let his hand go and said no

Just to know, for certain, that she lied in that message alone is very, very disappointing. I am very, very disappointed.