A WEEK OF NEW THINGS

My last week has been filled of new and interesting events, as opposed to the usual drudgery.

On Wednesday i posted a comment on a article in the SMH about computer game addiction, on how i have been obsessed by games on and off over over a decade. How Rob and I play World of Warcraft side by side a fair bit, drinking wine, chatting and smiting Gnomes, and we still have active social lives.
Another journo emailed me saying she was doing a story on gaming and can she ask a few questions?
I rang her up and we had a chat, she wanted a photo so a very nice guy turned up on Thursday night to take a few snaps of the Nerd Couple playing.

I was thinking it would be small in Icon somewhere, so it was a shock to see a half page story on page 3 with a whooping big photo.
My Mum was flicking through and thought "I know that tattoo", she is dead proud.
On Friday night i said to Rob "If i thought about ever being in the paper, i'd hoped it was for something more noble like rescuing babies from burning buildings or making First Contact, not for being a uber nerd"

At 0230 Saturday moring i get a call from the State Emergency Service (SES), that i'm a volenteer for. Mostly we do storm damage clean up, but also assist the Fire Bridage and the Police when needed. Some units even attend car accidents.
They needed people to help search for two lost children (5 and 3) that hadn't been seen by the family for several hours. I got there at 0330, there was about 40 SES peeps and the mobile police HQ. We were in teams of four with set streets to search, walk and shine torchs into front yards, under cars, any likely looking hiding place. Calling thier names, saying they are not in trouble and we are here to help.Hoping that if they had wandered off, they were curled up somewhere asleep and/or worried they were in trouble. That search finished about dawn, so we headed back to HQ.

Another new thing- I ate my first Macdonalds burger in over 12 years, a sausage and egg thing. I was hungry so just this once.
The police then split us up into two groups, one went a looked the girl's school and the rest of us went to the golf course to look around the dams for *signs*. If you thought about it hard enough it was sad to think about the *signs* we were looking for. Nothing was found and we headed back around 1000. The cordoned off area had been increased and alot more suits and Glocks looking tense.
They were to stand down the SES at 1100, and 40 cops were turning up to do another sweep, door knock and all that professional police stuff. I left a bit earlier, got home at 1030, into work by 1130 for a couple of hours. (lucky being awake isn't part of my job discription).
They found the kids just as the Chief Inspector told the media they were bringing in the police divers. They were at a friends 10 doors up. A miscommunication between the shift working mother, the father and the babysitters.
A quote from the Chief "Apparently there was a note"

Home from work, power nap, packed car and drove up to Mt Banks to camp the night with friends.
On Sunday 8 of us (5 newbies) did Caustral Canyon, a epic 13 hour adventure. Thrilling accounts can be found at ForBattle and awesome photos here. Is rated medium to difficult, so i think we all should be darn proud that we lived to tell the tale.
My thighs still ache, all the gyming i'm doing must ignore those bits. Such beautiful country and i'd love to do more.



Let the mockerating begin.
After the newspaper report i got a email from a tv show (TT for a hint) asking could they interview us about being NERDS. Maybe it was the Week of New Things went to our heads but we said yes.
Don't ask why! I don't know!
I have no real desire to be on tv, hell we don't even own a tv so unless someone tapes it we probably won't even see it.
So why do it?! I don't know!
Anyway they turned up, reporter (Liz) camera and sound guys. All very nice and chatty. They tried to push the whole addiction thing, but since we are not addicted (no really we are not) we could deflect it. Liz asked about why we don't have a tv, Rob answered "Because there is nothing on worth watching and ads drive me insane" i somehow think they won't be putting that bit in, Heh!

Then they filmed us eating dinner, drinking wine, summoning Daemons and smiting Dinosuars like any normal happy couple.
I asked Liz whats the spin, she said she wouldn't make us look like total NoOBs. Hmmmm we shall see.
Reminds me of the sketch by Alas Smith and Jones. Mel is being interviewed by the police over a crime. He is getting more and more beaten up, dubbed over and edited to confess. Funny buggers.
From all the footage i bet we will be on for about a nanosecond. It was a lark and yes we are nOObs.
Don't ask why.....just sit back and mock.







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