100

I've spent the weekend being a social whore once again. Out Friday night for Spanish with co-workers and the mad Italian who has flown in to regale his tales of love in Sicily. Then off to meet and old Shizuoka coworker, Leanne, on Saturday afternoon. And then it was on to my sister's birthday party at a Richmond pub. Sunday was also spent being social, but that's for me to know and others to wonder about. I'm determined to do nothing at all next weekend, so here's to hoping I can make it so.

The Spanish food was great, though not such a fan of anchovies on bread. Besides having the usual bitch with the 'inner circle' about the ineptitude of some of our co-workers, I spent a large portion of the night being hit by a co-worker's son. He's 11 and no matter how hard I tried, couldn't be convinced to start barracking for Collingwood. Hmmm... it didn't occur to me until now, but perhaps there is a direct correlation between his violent behaviour and my attempts to recruit him. Any Hong Kong based speculation on this idea should be taken with a grain of salt as Essendon supporters are notoriously vocal in knocking other teams (especially when said teams are their betters).

Was funny to catch up with someone from my madcap Shizuoka days. While they weren't nearly as insane as my Wakayama days, they surely had their moments, as I was reminded. I don't miss Shizuoka and I'd be blatantly lying if I said I ever wanted to go back there, but I did befriend some wonderful people so meeting up with Leanne made me very natsukashii.

A worrying trend in inner city Melbourne pubs is to refurbish and become upmarket. Hire a real chef, pare down the menu, give things exotic names and triple the prices for the meal. We went to the Grand Hotel in Richmond for my sister's 40th birthday to do the whole family thing. The last meeting of kin before my other sister leaves for Dubai on Wednesday. The food was terrifically average and the waiter tried very hard to appear smooth. Despite his lame efforts, even breaking out "Of course you don't want dessert, you're too sweet already", he almost made it due to the European accent. If he can just work on his material I'm sure he'll be one of Melbourne's best. While the decor and lighting (who doesn't love a dimmer!) made the place quite romantic and atmospheric the overall quality of food brings this place down to the Not Recommended category. By the way, I know that small portions are supposed to be the sign that the food is exceptional and the restaurant classy, but surely the meal itself has to taste good!!

I helped one of my co-workers load podcasts onto her recently purchased MP3/MP4 player. She's a Scottish woman in her late 60's and a complete technophobe but apparently I've been inspiring her with my use of technology in the classroom so she began the descent into nerddom by buying a player. I love this co-worker to pieces so the look of unbridled joy on her face when I'd downloaded and installed some interesting podcasts was enough to lift my spirits for the rest of the day.

Enjoy this 100th edition. It's back to negativity and bile tomorrow.