Will be in Melbourne next weekend & the following Monday because we get a Bank Holiday in NSW that day, and, funny that, I’m working in a bank :D Score! So yeah, hopefully may meet some people at some point. It is the last time I’ll be down before I leave for London, so chances are that I’ll be prioritising family time. Also will be planning my 21st party… which will be 2 months after my actual birthday. Given that I’m off on the 1st of September, it’s gonna be difficult to come back here a week later :P Planned date is Nov 18th, a Saturday night, though the final details have yet to be finalised. Haven’t had a lot of feedback from people, I must say, when I asked them for their experiences, so gotta make it up as I go along I guess (obviously with the able assistance of my family). Consider this official notice to keep that night free. ...

Stories abound of people getting mugged just for having those famous white headphones, so I went hunting last week for a new pair. That and I had medical advice that I better switch away from the in-ear headphones, meaning my choices were in the over-the-ear range. I strayed for all of 2 minutes into the sound-cancelling zone; the sound cancelling really does work, but gods, the price. THE PRICE, MAN. $250 for a pair of headphones that are as chunky as my attempts to chop up onions?! (woo bad mixed metaphor~) ...

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest: ★★★★ Good fun ride, but much like Kill Bill 1 or The Two Towers, it’s been stretched a little too long in order to justify release as a movie by itself, and basically has only half the plot it should have had, with the end leaving you hanging. The last half hour has all the stuff that really counts, so I’m very much looking forward to the final chapter of the story wrapping it up. Which, as a matter of course, is exactly what the creators intended. Bastards. ...

Hi all, Normal service will resume shortly. Last weekend I did not read one blog, email or even think about signing in to MSN. I hooked up the computer to the TV in the lounge and cleared a backlog of movies, anime, TV shows etc that have been waiting to be seen for a while now. I’d like to give a shout-out to Regan for giving me Densha Otoko. I haven’t laughed that hard in a good while. ...

The Oil We Eat: Long and occasionally rambling but certainly thought provoking.