I've finally decided to do some random blogging about, well, you know, stuff. But before I get started, it would be rude to not introduce myself. Consider this set of dotpoints an introduction.

• Name: Ant (short for Anthony, or as my parents would say Anth)


• Age: 30


• Physical Characteristics: 189cm, 85ks, #2 crop hair (blondish), blue eyes


• Lives in: Braddon Canberra Australia


• Lives with: partner - Nick


• Identifies as: Gayboy

Life has been interesting the past three months. So far this year, I have been to China for three weeks, visited Chris and Samara in Adelaide, been to the Scissor Sisters concert, Mardi Gras, vomited wagyu beef ($130!!!) at my partner's brothers wedding, swum in the Pacific and Indian oceans in the space of a week, visited one of my oldest mates Chris over in Perth, applied for and got a new job in less than a month - a miracle for the public service, had my car keyed and am psyching up for a megatrip to Japan, Eastern Europe, the UK and Singapore.

Politics
It's the night of the NSW "election" tonight. My mate Richard abstained, which seemed to sum up the general feeling of the electorate. The attack ads have been truly amazing, including being on high rotation on Canberra FM radio stations (last time I checked, the ACT was a separate jurisdiction). My main worry is that it will count against Kevin Rudd to have 8 Labour state/territory governments, thats why I was hoping for a Lib win in NSW. And to be honest, they wouldnt do any worse than the labour party. I loved a quote in the SMH: "Most people would privatise their grandmothers to have Jeff Kennett do to NSW what he did to Victoria".

Also - hands up anyone who finds Antony Green sexy? He is the ultimate geek - always having the computer crash in the middle of the election count, and not trusting his computer projections. Plus he has the same name as me (well the Brit version of it).

Perth
I love Perth. Sure, its the "most isolated western city in the world" but with planes its not that far from the east coast or Singapore.

There is a special boy called Chris who has been in my life for 8 years as a friend - we met at ANU when we lived in the same residential college (on the pink corridor). He was pretty instrumental in coming out to myself and getting used to being proud to be a gay boy. I remember when I first met him (helping him set up his laptop) I was so nervous to come out to him - my heart was going about 160bpm. We became good friends, staying up way too late (and distracting me from final year engineering). Plus Chris had a stash of gayboy magazines that were fun to borrow (nothing seedy, just Blue). Chris helped me through a tough phase of my life and I hope I helped him out during a pretty tough phase of his life back at ANU. Even though we only lived in the same city for 6 months he is a close friend and I have watched his escapades in Perth, Sydney and London over the last few years. I went over for his 30th (plus any excuse for a flight) and had an awesome time.

It was my fourth visit to Perth - there is something comforting arriving in a place that feels like it should be "international" after 5 hours in a plane, and finding that everything works pretty much like it does east. I grabbed the hirecar and headed for Chris's place in Subi(aco). Whereis is awesome except when the Graham Farmer Freeway is closed for roadworks - meaning I spent an extra hour in Northbridge kerb-crawling. My little baby car (Toyota Corolla, vibrant red) was perfect tho - I so need an auto.

Having the hire car and tootling round Perth with Chris was a lot of fun. I got to meet some of his Perth friends, who seem uniformly nice and not nasty like some of the SYD boys, went to the beach, got trashed (2x), bought the cheapest fruit at the Subi markets, did some very designated driver winetasting, larded up on Margaret River Chocolate - in the Swan Valley(!), had james squire golden at the brisbane hotel, watched the sun set into the indian ocean (2x), perved on cute boys at the Court (x100) and dumb str8 boys - which Perth does exceptionally well; and had some of the finest sourdough bread in the King Street Caf. Whats not to like? Plus I know my way around now, know where to eat, party, sleep, shop, and beach.

Crazy Europe Trip
Booking a trip to Japan for the Plowman wedding (part 2) was a good idea. Maybe adding on 3 weeks in Eastern Europe "on the way home" wasnt such a good idea because I've been really slack getting my act together to do the bookings - so everything is pricey as all hell. But I've made a start on it. Surprisingly wotif came up with a decent looking place for Prague - except that the hotel's own website says they are "full". According to Wotif, they never overbook. We'll see about that!!!

In summary the trip is Japan for 4 nights, fly to london for one night, then to Prague, and make way overland to Dubrovnik (3 week period), back to London for a few nights, singapore then home.

Currently toying with the idea of going to Edinburgh as part of the london trip. Part of me wants to do a decent UK train trip, another part of me wants to check out Edinburgh castle, and its another "country" to cross off my list. I've been having fun with a combination of www.gner.co.uk, www.networkrail.co.uk and www.ba.com (for the return bit). As you probably guessed I should be a travel agent! So far the bit up to EDI is pricing at GBP25 for the train, and the flight back to LHR would be GBP40. Not too shabby. Now to convince the bf that its not crazy!

Points Whore
I've been hoarding my frequent flyer points - I now have 240,000 which is totally insane. After Europe I'll have 260,000. Should I upgrade my flights and suffer the wrath of Nick - who is on an award ticket and can't be upgraded? Tough call. Otherwise to hoard them and save for that Round the World with 5 stops in business class. Except with the new job at the Sports Commission I'm not sure I'll ever get to take them - I'll have all my leave paid out before I quit ANU including my long service - which means I'm 10 years away from long service.