kjp

Hey wow - a post just one week after the last. Anyhow.

So I've had a pretty busy week.

Monday night I had my Spanish exam. It went pretty well. I was a bit worried about the conversation component of it, but I did ok. It's pass/fail. If it was being graded, I'd be around a solid D, or so.

Tuesday night was QWAB rehearsal, which was good fun, although for a lot of it I was the only first (the 1st/Eb ist was away, and the other 1st was sick/coughing for a fair bit of the rehearsal). Eeek. But, with a bit of practice, I'm slowly getting better. Who would have thought?

Wednesday night was great. Went to a BBQ cooking course at the James St Cooking School. Was excellent: learnt a whole bunch of stuff, and cooked up three dishes (steak, salmon, duck skewers) that were very yummy. Over the next few weeks I'll be trying the out for myself.

Thursday night was hanging out with R. Meat pies, beer, Top Gear. Awesome.
Friday night was quiet.

Saturday - doing some jobs out and about. Hanging out with R in the evening and then with L and L's sisters. A game of celebrity head exposed my lack of depth of knowledge regarding English Kings and Queens. Now I know a little bit about Henry VIII. Six wives(!), amongst other things.

Today I've been doing up a packing list for my trip to South America, and starting to create a "to take" pile of things. At this point, to sort out, there's: a camera (to be bought in August to get a bit of tax back), some socks, a phrase book, a bunch of travel things to borrow (travel pillow, money neck pouch, etc), and money to sort out (need to by some greenbacks). One of my options I've been considering: Travellers Cash is apparently changing to something new, mid July. Sort out money is a job for August. Ohh, injections and first aid kit I also need to sort out.

In amongst my digging through boxes for bits of clothing, I've created a pile of clothing that I'll be getting rid of (giving to Vinnies or Salvos). All stuff that I haven't worn in Brisbane. When I was creating that pile I couldn't help think that I probably live in the past too much? Maybe, dunno. Not sure if that was just another random thought, or something deep that I haven't realised the significance of yet. Anyhow. But comparing my clothes from Canberra to now, it's kind of interesting how much I've grown since I was living back in Canberra. A good thing. Speaking of chucking out clothing, rumor has it that I had significant difficulty getting rid of a bunch of dad's clothing that stayed in a bag at the base of my bed for ages and ages. Hmmmm. Why did I write that? Anyhow. Maybe chucking stuff out is important because of the inference that you're moving forward. ?

Changing topics: housing prices:
I've been reading some stuff recently. haha; don't say it!. There's a few points I don't really get: if (a) renting is cash based - people don't go into debt to pay the rent: if the rent goes up / they loose their job, they move out. So, in a sustainable long term, rents will rise in line with household income. And: (b) In a sustainable long term, house prices (to purchase), can't increase at a faster rate (or presumably decline) relative to the rents, as the value (not price) of a house (or other asset) is related to it's ability to return earnings (or not pay rent in the case of housing). Then, if house prices (in particular) go up faster than incomes in the short term, but have to be level with incomes in the long term, then in the medium term they'll decline??

Very annoyingly, after reading a whole bunch of stuff that "we've just past the peak in housing boom, and things are on the way done", that I find a unit which looks really good. It's actually in the same building as I put in an offer in 2007, except next to the next door (this has a better location within the block), than the one I put an offer in for. (This is the place on the hill, not the place with the crack in the wall). I'm thinking that I will put an offer in for it, but be very careful...

Well, it seems that in my summary of some of the things in May (previous post), I may of forgotten about one or two things. Ms X's trip up to Brisbane was tops. Was interesting going to the Coke factory at Richlands - much different to the Golden Circle cannery in Northgate. My trip down to Sydney was excellent as well - seeing the girls down there - L had her first birthday. They're both growing up very fast.

Today is just a rainy cold day here in Brissy. Stay indoors for the day. I really should have done more Spanish study today! But did a fair bit of clari practice. A piece we're playing in band - Giannini Symphony 3 - has grown on me: I quite like playing it now. Though Festive Overture sill takes the cake.

I need to do some more study (tonight's job) before my Spanish exam tomorrow evening, although I should go ok in it. It's the speaking part that I'm not sure about. Reading and Listening should be ok.

Yesterday was pretty cool: spend a fair bit of it with R, who got back last weekend from 8 weeks cruising around Europe. We had lunch in Rosalie, then I took him around his first orienteering course at Bardon (Orange course, thought Red might be pushing it for a first time!), then beer at Regatta. Nice.

South America stuff:
At the moment I'm trying to figure out my movements in Santiago. At the moment I arrive at 5pm ish (flying in from La Paz). Take the airport shuttle bus to the city. Apparently traffic jams are common, so maybe get off it at one of the metro stations on the outskirts of town, and take the metro in to the city centre. Stay overnight in the city centre, at a hotel near line 1 (the line heads towards the airport and has several long distance bus stations on that line). Stay overnight, walk around the city for a bit during the morning and afternoon the next day, leaving my main pack in storage at the hotel. Pickup pack, get some dinner, then overnight bus to the southern bit I intend to visit. (At this stage) I'm putting more thought into Santiago then the following week further south in Chile - because I'm arriving in the late afternoon / early evening, which isn't really my preferred arrival time in a strange city.

My plans for a flash based, AA[A] battery powered mp3 player have gone the way of the dodo - due to a lack of availability in stores of such a device that's of a reliable brand. So it's going to be an internal battery, powered off USB. This should be ok, the one I'm thinking of has more than 25 hours battery life. Won't be using it that much between checking in at a internet cafes, I imagine. Actually, when traveling overseas, probably it will be only on flights, on the bus trips. Not actually out and about.

No changes to camera plans. Also need to start thinking about injections, etc.

Well, it seems that I haven't been putting anything up here for a while, so here goes for a bit of Kevin world over the past month or so:

I've gotten myself (in the past couple of days) a neck strap for my clarinet. I've been noticing for a while that my (right) thumb, wrist and forearm have been getting sore when I practice. I think that gradually, over time, I've grown used to an incorrect position with my thumb - rotated too much (?). The long term solution is to get a better positioning, but in the short term, the neck strap helps. I've been able to do decent practice sessions without stopping, which has been very good. It's not so much an issue at rehearsal, because there's always stopping, bars rest, etc, that you don't have when you're practicing at home.

Band is going great. The major concert we did in May went really well, the next major one in August should be great too. We're playing a new piece (written for us) - which is a pretty cool piece - at that gig, plus several other good pieces (eg: Festive Overture - a favourite) so it should be tops. Fingers crossed. Playing first is good fun, more interesting musically, but more stressful. A good experience for me though.

So preparations for South America are going along fine. The main thing over the past while (~2 months?) has been my Spanish classes, twice a week. It's just an introductory course, but I seem to have learn a fair bit, comparing it to what I learnt of Mandarin before China in 2005. Script is the mostly the same as English, roots (Latin) the same too. Depending on how the trip goes, I may go back to Latin America in a couple / few years time. In which case, I might do some more Spanish (next year). Anyhow, sort that out later. But it would be once a week, twice a week is a bit too much, for the long year long courses?

With Spanish twice a week, plus rehearsal, plus usually something on Friday and weekends, I seem to have been fairly tired of late, and not running enough. Annoying. (Although I take the point that running gets you less tired).

I need to sort out a new pair of shoes for the trip. Should sort that out sooner. Probably should look at my sock situation first though? I've done a draft 'stuff to take' list, I've got pretty much everything, except: an mp3 player (doubling as a USB drive backup for photos), and new camera (small, compact, put in front pocket size). Looking at Canon Ixus and Panasonic Lumix ranges at the moment. The cameras I've been looking at all have removable rechargable batteries, that are not AA, AAA sizes. The MP3 players I've been looking at seem to be either powered off internal (non removable) rechargable batteries, that are charged off a USB connection, or AA/AAA batteries. My preference is probably for the later, and just take a couple of batteries on the trip? (no need to take a recharger for the mp3 player?)

Not sure what else has been happening. A few other things, nothing too major though.