Just when you're about to leave

Ok, so the countdown to Friday begins and I decided to take a break from cleaning up and getting everything packed by updating my blog.

I couldn't help but find what was happening across the road as being a little ironic. You know when you leave primary school or high school and then they build better buildings and generally improve the place, and you're left thinking "hell, why didn't they do that while I was there?" Well, I thought my current abode had a pretty good location. There's a huge supermarket across the road, as well as a video store, chemist, doctor, dentist, chinese takeaway, Domino's pizza, Chicken takeaway, newsagency, hairdresser and post office/hardware store. This is all a 2 minute walk away. Ooh, not forgetting there is a huge reserve out the back of my place - sort of like a backyard that is maintained by the local council. Well, not being greedy or anything, but I always wished that there was some 24-hour store or something across the road. My wish has come true! A 24-hour servo has recently been built - with hold on - a 24-hour Subway! That is great, but if only they could have built it a little sooner then I could have gotten more use from it. To all those who have to drive anywhere to have such luxuries, I express my deepest sympathies :-)

I have recently discovered an excellent way to get up in the morning that is a lot less abrupt than the "beep! beep! beep!" on normal radio alarms. The morning shows on two of the local FM radio stations (Triple M and SAFM) are, IMHO, just downright annoying. I find that waking up to people talking is much more calming on the nerves - I don't think that the sky is falling in due to some cruel beeping alarm - and so I don't immediately reach for the sleep button. However, I also find that if I listen to what the radio announcers from these stations are saying for more than 10 minutes then I'll be out of bed ready to smash the radio against a wall. I've worked out the middle ground now so that when I start getting slightly annoyed that's when I get into the shower. It's worked perfectly so far. Hats off though to Adam Spencer from JJJ claiming the 22nd of July as "International Pi day" (22/7 approximates to the value of Pi). I don't listen to JJJ in the morning for my wakeup call. I tried that and I ended up lying in bed for nearly 2 hours.

I think I might take some more time off and get into some "light" reading - the 9-11 commission report sounds like a good start.