Our belongings that we had shipped from Australia arrived yesterday. They had been picked up on June 14th, so they took over three months to cross the Pacific. What we had most been waiting for was our queen size Posturpedic bed. After 8 weeks of sleeping on an inflatable mattress, our spines were like pretzels and our tempers were short. Last night I slept in a proper bed again and it was bliss.

Also, Wolfy the cello made the journey in one-piece and arrived safely, though very out of tune, to his new home. I am very scared that in the three months I was without my cello that I have forgotten how to play.

This weekend we'll unpack everything properly to make sure everything arrived unscathed. I think we'll be making the trip out to Ikea to get a bunch of bookshelves for the ton of books we have. Its nice having our old things again. Somehow, it makes our new apartment more like home. And three months without one's crap makes you appreciate it more.

Avast me hearties, time once again for International Talk Like a Pirate Day. So swab the deck and drink some grog, else ye be forced to walk the plank.

I came home from work today to find a parcel from my friends Jen & Dan. It contained two tubes of vegemite! I was so thrilled. I immediately made myself some sourdough toast with butter and vegemite and a nice strong cup of tea. The timing is perfect as I have a cold at the moment and vegemite toast is my "comfort food".

Jen, Dan: You guys Rock!!!

My first vegemite toast in months: (note our kick-ass "cow" butterdish)

While my search for full-time work continues, I have just started a 4 - 6 week temping assignment as a computer game QA Tester for 34*. I haven't found out which project I'll be on yet, but I have a sneaky suspicion it will be a sports game. Still, it beats reception work and the pay is only slightly more crappy. Besides at the moment I spend all my time playing computers games for nothing.

*names changed to protect the multinational.

I just read about the death of Steve Irwin, the "Crocodile Hunter". I always thought he would get too slow and a croc would get him, but apparently he was killed by a sting-ray. Though I always regarded him as a complete nut, with questionable judgement some time, I think he was a genuine animal lover, and its always sad to hear of the death of someone with a young family. Though I'm sure that if he had to die someway, he would have wanted it to have been by a wild animal.

Goodbye crocodile man.

Hooray! The police have recovered Edvard Munch's "The Scream", which had been stolen two years ago. Its one of my favourite paintings because it conveys so much emotion. I'm happy to hear its come back. When it was initially stolen, I was concerned it may be destroyed.

It also augers well for me, cause today I decided it would be "ART DAY" and instead of moping round the house or playing Wow or Puzzle Pirates, I would head out and make some art. My plan is to do photography, drawing and water-colour. I'm not too hopeful; I haven't got my SLR (lent it to mum) so I have to use Jaime's very compact but rather restrictive point-and-shoot, I haven't drawn in a while, and I never got the hang of water colour. But hey, its worth a shot.