We’re departing for our Christmas holiday in about an hour! We’re flying to Geneva, then getting a car to our chalet where we’ll be staying for the next 7 nights with Ben, Michelle, Louisa and Profileless Steve. Kirsty will be joining us on Christmas day, too! It should be an absolute hoot!

Anyway, apparently the chalet has no internet access (*gasp*!) so looks like updates will be a little slow over the silly season.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

When an artist puts out back-to-back albums, people lap it up. But when they’re gone for a couple of years, the public turns. Suddenly it’s open season for criticising their art, not to mention their parenting, driving, drinking, dressing and very existence.

Other than wishing G a happy birthday, I haven’t blogged since July. I suppose that makes this my big comeback… Don’t hate me people!

So what’s news? I’m settling in well in London and have a contracting job that will see me through to February. I’ve been doing most of the same stuff G’s been doing, so there’s not that much news to report.

Hopefully that gets me off the hook.

This is the 1,000th article on gerrod.com. 1000 articles! What do you write about to signify such a momentous occasion? Well, I figured I’d do some statistics.

Rules for this 5 bleeding obvious things post:

• Each player must post these rules to begin the meme.
• Each player starts with five random facts or habits about themselves which are bleeding obvious. It helps if these things are little edgy.
• People who get tagged must blog about their five things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose five people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog

How many of these things will there be? I’m running very low on things to announce about myself… still, not one to back down from a challenge, here’s my list:

1. I love coffee. But it has to be proper coffee – something made with espresso. I’ve taken to drinking “everyday” coffee at work because Chris and Nick – the two guys I work with – drink it, but generally it’s not for me.
2. I love gadgets. You can never really have enough gadgets, from small ones (like iPods) to big ones (like a 40″ LCD TV!).
3. I have terrible posture. I’m trying quite hard to fix it up – it was even a New Year’s Resolution one year – but I think I’m still on the curvier side of the norm.
4. I believe you can never have too many t-shirts. When I was in Hong Kong recently, I bought about 5, bringing my collection to somewhere in the 20s, I think. I’ve no doubt my more stylish friend would argue that that’s too many, and that there’s definitely room for some to go.
5. I get my eyebrows waxed. I don’t know if that’s obvious or not, but every time I do, I feel like people are staring at me when I walk out of the salon, so I feel like it’s pretty obvious.

*phew*!

Rules for this 8 interesting things post:

• Each player must post these rules to begin the meme.
• Each player starts with eight random facts or habits about themselves.
• People who get tagged must blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Now, I remember back in the day when this was the 5 things meme but it seems to have grown since doing the rounds. Anyway, I was “kindly” tagged by Jo to spill the beans again, so here goes:

1. I always cut my fingernails too short. Generally I blame this on playing guitar, as it’s especially apparent on my left hand more so than my right. But long fingernails really annoy me, especially while typing!
2. I love buying jeans. I currently have four pairs, down from five after some old faithfuls recently ripped in a most unbecoming place. I’d happily wear jeans every day if I could!
3. I recently started a new job, working for a Hedge Fund in Victoria. The work is interesting, but the hours are long. Still, the commute is only half-an-hour, less than half the time it took me to get to the last place I worked.
4. When I was in high school, I used to write little computer games during IPT classes. My teachers didn’t care because they knew I was better at programming than they were, and they often exploited this by asking me to fix their bugs for them.
5. I fidget constantly while I’m sitting down. Usually it’s in the form of me tapping my feet or legs really quickly. When I started my new job, Nick (who sits next to me) found it rather irritating because I tap my legs so quickly it makes his monitors shake. I don’t know why this is but I’d like to think it comes from a high metabolism.
6. If money/skill wasn’t an issue, I’d love to be a dog trainer. Truth be told, I’d love to just work in a job where I got to have a roofy as my sidekick!
7. I absolutely love to travel. I’d love to have a job where I get to fly around the world in Business (or First!) class, though I don’t know where roofy would sit. That said, I’m always extremely nervous going to a country which doesn’t have English as it’s first language, as I’m always scared that I’m not going to be understood. I blame this fear on my dodgy trip to Colombia when I was working for CAT.
8. When I was in grade nine (i.e. 14 years old), I had to have two weeks off school because I got Glandular Fever. They call it the kissing disease, but that sure wasn’t the cause for me!

Phew! These things are really hard! Well, I find them so anyway. And soon, John, Kirsty, Stacey, Pat, Jason, Dr Evil and Nathan will know my pain, as I’m tagging them for an entry in the spirit of passing these things on. I’d also like to see an entry from Karl, but since he’s blogless, perhaps he could just write it as a comment here instead.

A massive fanks goin’ out to ma main man Karl, who be sendin’ me a wicked good package in va post! I was well surprised to come ‘ome today and find maself a nice, soppin wet pacakge from va States. Lucky for me, va rain didn’t be doin nuffin to va contents of va package, so it’s well good!

Va package be containin some Reeces cups, which is me favorit chocolates, and which I’m well missin’ since leavin va states. Also, a wicked new shirt, from Va Macchiato Cafe, our old coffee joint in va Big Apple. And just for a bit of a teesa, Karl be throwin in a little servie from Chipotle, which I’m well missin’ since departin from da US. Nice!

I’ll fink I’ll be wearin’ ma new tee ta work tomorrah! Fanks again Karl, very nice!

Unfortunately we’re almost completely cut off from the internet at the moment, though. Our “free connection” at home has disappeared, and strangely, every day that I look it seems that there are new networks available (none of them unlocked), and the old ones have gone. Very wierd!

Anyway, hopefully some decent updates soon. So much has happened!

We’ve moved! It’s only taken what, six weeks or something (perhaps longer!), but finally we have a place we can call our own! Here’s a few photos, showing full well the damage that we’ve already invoked with our nine suitcases of possessions!

Here’s the lounge room. There’s a single seater sofa chair just out of shot to the left of the photo too, and the windows are looking out on to the street. We’re on the first floor so we get some lovely breezes through – perfect for those hot, Brisbane summer days that we just don’t seem to get over here… oh, and those bookcases are actually leaning forward at about a 15 degree angle – like pretty much every London apartment we’ve been to, the floors here are not exactly what you’d call “flat”!

Hard to get this one wrong – it’s the kitchen. Notice anything missing – like, a coffee machine? Well, hopefully after this weekend, it will be missing no more! We also don’t have a microwave, but I think that’s of secondary importance to a coffee machine.

Here’s our master bedroom, and of course the only reason the bed isn’t made is because we were freshly out of it! I’m not a fan of having the bed propped up against the wall because it means I’m without a bedside table (where am I supposed to put my PSP?) – but there’s not a lot of room to manoeuvre things around…

And, possibly the most exciting thing of all – our second bedroom! We couldn’t believe that a place in our budget and desired neighbourhood would have two bedrooms, but there you have it!

Most importantly, we technically don’t have internet access yet, so my apologies in advance for the slow updates. Hopefully Virgin Media well get back to me soon with an install date. Oh, we also don’t have any pots, pans, or cutlery, plus Amazon won’t deliver our new TV for another week! Ahh, the downers of moving countries…

Well, not really, but that’s certainly what you’d think if you walked into our old apartment now.

Then again, I guess it’s strange that the only things that the would-be thief left include the Xbox 360, a laptop, and the TV! (Then again, the TV is so freakin’ heavy, it wouldn’t surprise me if they just gave up!)

Of course, the real reason for our empty apartment is that we sold all our furniture on Tuesday (since we’ve moved into a furnished place). It was a very sad day to be honest; that furniture had served us well for two years. I can barely count the number of guests that we had sleep on our couch (actually that’s not true, it was thirty).

All that’s left now is the desk, which nobody wanted (what do people have against desks?). To be honest, I have no idea what we’re going to do with it.

*sigh*. Moving bites. Oh well – onwards and upwards, right?

I feel a bit like Miss Bates in Jane Austen’s, Emma, called upon to say three interesting things (in this case five) for the entertainment of my friends, and fearful that they will be very boring indeed. Already you’re bored with my introduction, so here goes!

1. I was such a big baby that before I was born, the doctor asked Mum to undergo an extra scan to check if I was a pair of twins. I wasn’t. I successfully worked the weight off post-birth (phew!) by refusing to drink milk. My parents got the idea for my name from Kristy McNichol, a television actress from the seventies who featured in such shows as “Family”, “Starsky and Hutch” and “Empty Nest”.

2. I get the hiccups if my coffee’s too hot. Gerrod finds this funny. I find it embarrassing. I also get an odd pain in my left shoulder if I have too much softdrink. (What are the rules here, does that count as a separate item?)

3. I’m a big believer in emergency chocolate and almost always have a few squares on me. It’s handy when waiting in long lines, getting rid of the crankies before lunch, and also a good way to cheer me up after a big “stack” on a ski mountain.

4. I don’t have a favourite movie. Fave tv show. Fave colour. Fave band. Fave song. Fave cuisine. Fave restaurant. I secretly fear that this makes me a very vanilla-boring kind of person. (Also don’t have a favourite flavour ice-cream). I do however have a favourite number (5, because I found the 5 times tables very easy to learn), a favourite day of the week (Saturday), a favourite person (Gerrod), and a favourite language (English, I talk it real good).

5. The biggest secret I’ve been hiding all my life is that I used to carry “extras” everywhere. I would arrive at my Nana’s house, and as I walked up the stairs she would ask me, “Have you got your extras?” I would very proudly say yes and hold up my handbag (don’t all 3-year-olds carry handbags?). You see, I was so worried about one day, ahem, needing an extra pair of underpants (which I never did: verified by Mum) that I always carried extras. Only now, at age 26 have I realised that this is funny, and almost cute and decided to share it with the world. Up till now my Mum and Nana have been sworn to secrecy.

So there you have it folks! My Five Things Meme, boring as they may be. I extend the challenge to: Marc, Meghan and Cam (this is a good chance to get any secrets out pre-wedding), Jo, and John.