(Postscript to title - Burr challenged Hamilton to the duel, or 'affair of honour' as it was also known, over supposed character assassination. No, he was not even prosecuted for the murder, despite the nation's outrage.)
So hello everybody! If there is anybody left. I am ashamed to admit that in the month of June I didn't manage to leave a post once. Not even once. I know, I'm slack. And I apologise profusely. Especially to you Mindy since you are such a profuse commenter and obviously await each post with high expectation. Re your email suggestion - it is company policy to restrict external emails, no matter if they are sent in our lunch hour or after work. All external emails are monitored by oh what is it, something.. MailMarshall. Plus I don't know how the email functionality works, so I stick to the old-fashioned internet method.
Anyway - what have I been up to. I do have an excuse that for 8 days of June I was in Greymouth and then Chch in a jam-packed choir schedule, so that did restrict me somewhat, and I was exhausted on my return and spent last week half asleep at all times. in fact I was quite dozy today - I didn't feel like sleeping, but I felt in a semi-coma. Making lots of silly typos and being generally blonde at work. I'm lucky that SQLServer doesn't let you write sprocs about columns that don't in fact exist. (I kept typing Unit instead of Item all day). So if I say something silly in this post I hope you will forgive me.
Other exciting things that have happened: Tree cooked curry tonight. It was really yummy, and then I was chewing a mouthful and bit into something hard. I stopped chewing, didn't swallow, and gingerly extracted the hard substance from my mouth to discover I had bit into a piece of glass! And now had 3 small shivers of glass. I have no idea if there was any more that anyone ate.. or where it came from - we used two tins in cooking, Nestle's condensed milk and someone's Rogan Josh, so they are both possibilities - or else maybe it was already in the frypan? Hiding in the middle of a courgette or onion? Well, I finished my meal - everyone else already had, I think they are paranoid now and worrying they aren't going to wake up tomorrow because of extensive glass swallowing.
Hmm let's see what else. Well I've been thinking a lot about trips lately - Mum and Dad are off with friends of Dad's (Tom and Joyce) for a week in Port Douglas on Tuesday - their plane actually leaves early Wed morning but they are staying at the Russley, nice and close to the airport, on Tuesday night. Dad's feeling quite well at the moment, he's on Warfarin for a blood clot in his ankle! Yes, funny! (ok, for those of you who don't kjnow, maybe 'ironic' would be a better word as Warfarin was the subject of my honour's thesis last year). Also since it's almost Labour Weekend - well, the months are passing swiftly by and October is nearly here... I'm thinking about going and visiting my auntie in Kaitaia. And I want to go to Australia after Christmas so I've been reading the Lonely Planet guide and am looking at either Hobart, or Sydney followed by Canberra or Adelaide. Suggestions welcome - the only place I've been in living memory is the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, and Karthik's lived a year in Perth, and according to the LP guide in January the north coast and queensland are wet and filled with box jellyfish, or something.
So in the weekend that's just been Karthik went back to Chch. I went out for dessert with Kate on Friday night, which was really lovely, and on Saturday went shopping with Ellen, cleaned the flat and then ended up going with my very drunk flatmates to the Barmy Army HQ. Which was actually fun - great atmosphere, even I was moved when the National Anthem was sung. Didn't stay too long though - yearning for the peace and quiet of the flat to myself for the first time in a *very* long time. Yes, I know - who would thought - Lara longing for peace and quiet! Well, I just wanted to eat nice food and have icecream and work away on stuff and listen to my music etc.
I've been losing chess all the time to Karthik lately. I think he's even getting sick of winning. So I need a new strategy. Maybe I should actually research an opening and try it out. Except I have no memory for that sort of thing... mmmm
Karthik's birthday Tuesday next week! I already gave him a duvet cover set and inner earlier cos he was getting cold, but I've got him something else exciting :) Went shopping with Brendon on Sunday on my way to meet K at the airport.
Beca Ball next weekend. I tried so hard to get more people from my section at work to go, but with little success, so that's a bit sad. At least David's going, and there'll be Vaughan and Thomas (second in charge, and my section head) and hopefully lots of grads that I know, Matt is coming up too which is cool. Karthik better sort out something to wear sometime this week... oh well should be a fun night! Went to the theatre last week, saw 'The Bach' with work and really enjoyed it. Karthik babysat for Richard and Shelley so they could come out with me so that was cool. (He's really not into theatre). It was funny, but also thought-provoking, and stuff I could really identify with.
Ok if I write any more you'll all be bored, if indeed you've managed to read this much. I am going to try and post at least once more this month. You never know your luck.
