So I woke up to a scene similar to this today. Seems like performing those D&D rituals wasn’t such a good idea…

My sinus’s aren’t happy and my eyes kept watering nearly the whole time I was outside which nearly got me hit by a car.

I can still smell the dust even in my air conditioned office.

More pics etc here: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/sydney-turns-red-dust-storm-blankets-city-20090923-g0so.html

This birthday I got:

• The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
• Penny Arcade Volume 3: The Warsun Prophecies
• A Talking Murloc Plush
• A WORLD OF WARCRAFT: SERIES 3: HUMAN PRIESTESS: SISTER BENEDRON Figure
• Phantasy Star Portable
• A Darth Vader Bobble Head
• A Pair of Converse Jack Purcells
• Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (Pre-ordered with bday cash)

I have to say I did pretty well this birthday.

I’ve pretty much reached my final straw with getting the train to work. Over the 8 years that I have been getting the train I’ve had to deal with:

• Canceled services – Once I was 1 hour late to a interview when I should of been an hour early.
• An aging fleet – It was awesome to have been on an older model train with sealed windows and no working air-conditioning on a 40 degree day!
• Filthy Carriages – Graffiti up the wahzoo and rubbish everywhere.
• Raising ticket prices – I thought public transport was supposedly cheaper than driving?
• Rush hour crush – To fix the problem with late running services they just simply cut the number of trains running which lead to this current problem.
• Other Commuters – This was the final straw.

The final straw happend this morning on my way to work. I was half asleep listening to my ipod when another commuter sat down next to me. This was no problem at all until I needed get past the other gentleman jerk next to me. I grabbed my bag from the floor and stood up. Now most people will usally get up and stand in the aisle to let you out or crunch their legs up to give you some room to move out. This guy did nothing at all, he just sat there reading his book. So I said a number of times “excause me” as I needed him to at least move his legs for me to get out without stumbling over him. Still no response, so I crumsly climbed over/past him.

Then the next fun part came, as I tried to exit the train the lovely people inconsiderate people of Auburn nearly bowled me over getting on the train before I had a chance to get off.

So I’m going to make a booking to do my L test next weekend at my local RTA and will be free of cityrail and it’s awful commuters in about…..12 months time….ugh.

The change in my lifestyle hasn’t really been that drastic, as I was spending the majority of my week at what is now my residence. I do find that true free time is now a valuable commodity (need more time for gaming!). Living as an adult tends to chew up free time with boring tasks such as dish washing, cleaning and grocery shopping. I didn’t include cooking as Melody does most of the cooking (She’s so dam good!) and when I do cook I find it rather enjoyable.

Living in a shared house has been great, there’s so many bad stories about room-mates behaving badly in a number of different ways and situations. I must of hit the jackpot as our room-mate is hardly there, he’s down in the garage working on his car when he is at home and he’s a very laid back friendly guy.

I have to agree with the socially accepted statement that you are only truly an adult when you move out and look after yourself. I really do feel like I’m living my own life now, which is a great feeling.

I procured her a exquisite looking bracelet with a amethyst in it (picture coming soon), which she loved and  surprised her by having roses sent to her place. Saturday night we went and saw a romantic movie… “The Dark Knight” (gold class at Rhodes), which was good on so many levels. It was also sad to see Heath Ledgers last performance.

Sunday I had planned to have a picnic lunch but the weather wasn’t that great, so that will be for another day.  Overall it was a great anniversary weekend.