The Empire

Last night Shan and I went to the Commodore and had a lovely dinner and beer while listening to the supporting act before the Cat Empire came on.

To be honest I've been meaning to get around to listening to the Cat Empire for a while. I'd heard 2 of their songs and seen 1 music video of their 2nd CD. I liked what I heard but just didn't get around to it. When we arrived at the end of July and had just missed them at the Blues festival we were a little disappointed. However a month later I was walking around the streets and saw a flyer saying the Cat Empire was playing on their own away from the rest of the festival. So I ran home to tell shan and she had seen the same flyer. So we got a copy of the first CD, we bought tickets and waited.

Fast forward to last night and we were ready for a good show as we liked what we'd heard. And boy, what a show! It started at 10:45 and was still going strong at 1am. We danced non-stop. We were in what would be considered the 4th row if you could put rows in the mosh pit. Jumping up and down and accosted by drunken Irish women, shan and I just kept going. They were quite honestly one of the best live performances I have ever seen. I would put them at number 2 in my list of live performances I've seen. They knew how to entertain and involve the crowd. I had to work the next day but who cared, we dance, we sang, we laughed. It was good to be part of the Empire for the night.

Thanks Cat Empire, we had a great night. I'm still laughing at the irony that we had to come to Vancouver to see an Australian band.

Edit: I meant to also add, while we were waiting for the band to start, I called this out just for Joe and Guy "Play some fucking Chisel"

2nd Edit: I just remembered that while we were dancing there was a Guy who I at first thought was a little obnoxious and creepy as he kept leaning on me while I was dancing. After about 1-2 minutes I turned around to see what the hell was his deal and the guy looked like he could barely stand. He was either drunk as a skunk or high as a kite. Either way he wasn't coping as he looked like he'd already sweat out half his body weight in fluid. A few seconds later a few security guys came along and pulled him out of the mosh pit asking if he was "ok". He looked like he was about to collapse. While it was a little creepy, hope he survived, he looked like his heart was about to kerplode.

The Cambie

Well my birthday was heaps of fun.

I started the day off at 5:55 am to get up to go to work. I covered the "Nestle Presents" nutritionist convention. So after supporting that for 9 hours I was ready for the Cambie.

We arrived and just as we got there, the Canucks scored a goal evening the points. While waiting for the others to arrive we then got to see the Canucks score again and win the game. It was very exciting to be in a bar when that happened. It also meant I had beaten the curse that I was having on the Canucks as the last 2 games I watched they had lost (before that they had been winning).

Then Kass and Bjorn turned up and Rob shortly followed. And thus we laughed and imbibed libations. For 4 hours straight.

Alcohol consumed by moi:
- 2 screwdrivers (which consited more of vodka than OJ)
- 3 jagermeister shots
- 2 Tequila shots
- countless pints of Granville Island Honey Larger

And then we went to Rob's and played Guitar Hero. And there was much rejoicing and passing out. A good night was had by all.

Zombie Joey Ramone can kiss my ass!

We went out to the Keg for dinner tonight with Shan's mum for my birthday dinner. Dinner was delicious and the service was emaculate as always. However just before the meal arrived a special surprise came with the waiter.

IT WAS GUITAR HERO! Shan's mum bought it for me as a birthday present. Shannon is playing it right now while I write this. I've already unlocked the first section of medium.

Thanks Christine! You rock as well!! I'll make sure I play "More than a Feeling" by Boston just for you tonight before putting it away.

Oh and Tancred, if Zombie Joey Ramone turns up I'll enact plan 9 and go for the fire axe. That'll reduce his rebellious spirit.

Score!

Just wanted to say that Shan bought me a Playstation 2 for my birthday along with Shadows of the colossus. This is completely awesome! I was no way expecting it. This opens up a world of games I've been itching to play for a while.

I find it funny as I've now come full circle. 2 years ago my parents bought me a playstation 2 for christmas (i think it was) and at the time, I wasn't really fond of a lot of the games that were available. So I went out and swapped it for an X-box. Now I got the X-box for Halo (and if Bungie had stayed Mac only I probably would have bought a mac) and that was well worth it. I had the X-box for 2 years and only really bought a few games for it. The X-box did not have the best selection but thats because I'm not overly fond of car racing or just pure action games apart from a few of the FPS's that were available. Also, most of the games on X-box were almost always released on PC, so if I actually wanted a game for X-box, i had to ask if it was better on the PC.

During that time, a ream of good games came out for the PS2. I have a few friends who have PS2's and they purchased alot of the good games, including Guitar Hero (which I think to this date is one of my all time favourite games...next to Accordian Hero). So here I am, back with Playstation after many years apart.

Thanks Shan, you rock!

PRICE
(Suddenly enthused)
What's that, a gram?

BATEMAN
New card. What do you think?

McDermott lifts it up and examines the lettering carefully.

McDERMOTT
Whoa. Very nice. Take a look.

He hands it to Van Patten.

BATEMAN
Picked them up from the printers yesterday

VAN PATTEN
Good coloring.

BATEMAN
That's bone. And the lettering is something called
Silian Rail.

McDERMOTT
(Envious)
Silian Rail?

VAN PATTEN
It is very cool, Bateman. But that's nothing.

He pulls a card out of his wallet and slaps it on the
table.

VAN PATTEN
Look at this.

They all lean forward to inspect it.

PRICE
That's really nice.

Bateman clenches his fists beneath the table, trying to
control his anxiety.

VAN PATTEN
Eggshell with Romalian type.
(Turning to Bateman)
What do you think?

BATEMAN
(Barely able to breath, his voice a croak)
Nice.

PRICE
(Holding the card up to the light)
Jesus. This is really super. How'd a nitwit like you get so
tasteful?

Bateman stares at his own card and then enviously at
McDermott's.

BATEMAN (V.O.)
I can't believe that Price prefers McDermott's card to mine.

PRICE
But wait. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

He holds up his own card.

PRICE
Raised lettering, pale nimbus white...

BATEMAN
(Choking with anxiety)
Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Paul Owen's card.

Price pulls a card from an inside coat pocket and holds it
up for their inspection: "PAUL OWEN, PIERCE & PIERCE,
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS." Bateman swallows, speechless.
The sound in the room dies down and all we hear is a faint
heartbeat as Bateman stares at the magnificent card.

BATEMAN (V.O.)
Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness
of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark...

His hand shaking, Bateman lifts up the card and stares at it 

until it fills the screen.

He lets it fall. The SOUND RETURNS TO NORMAL.

CARRUTHERS Is something wrong? Patrick...you're sweating.


-------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh Yeah. I just got given my very first business card.

Itttssss my birthday

Although I've been living in Canada since the end of June, my body clock is still a little bit Sydney time so somewhere in Australia it is currently my Birthday.

Woo!

Tomorrow Canada time I can look forward to a relaxing day of Dermatology Lecture, Nursing Bursary and Dermatology Tutors. What more could I want on my Birthday!

If your in Vancouver and have nothing better to do this saturday night, come have a drink at the Cambie. I'll be the one getting drunk after a 12 hour shift at work.

2 hours and 33 minutes

I had a plan when I arrived home. A simple plan but a plan that amuses me to no end. I was getting comfortable and decided it would be really amusing to put on Shannon's pyjama pants and then mine over the top of them. Not only would this mean that I would be toasty warm and doubly comfortable (I mean one pair=comfortable then 2 pair would = 2 x comfort or comfort squared) and the 2nd part of the plan would have Shannon looking for her pants and thinking she was crazy for not being able to find them.

So she got home from a long day at the console and made chicken soup to help with my sore throat. Then she decided to get comfortable. "Honey, have you seen my pants?" (an amusing line which has stuck with us from a nescafe ad in Australia). "Ah no dear, where did you last see them?". Now I had deliberatly let the end of the pants legs slightly show just under mine. She spied it and then yelled bloody vengenance. What next could only be described as a Benny Hill-esque* of chasing around the house trying to get the pyjama pants.

Then we called Jen and congratulated her on finding out the sex of her baby.

* I couldn't actually find any actual benny hill chase senes but I did see some silly things on YouTube , but I think the silliest was this one.

Future medicine professional

Well firstly I can say, that med students around the world are the same. At least Canadian/American and Australian med students that is. The other day, while waiting for the lecturer who was late, a student ran out the front and said "so does everyone want to do a wave and I'll record it with my phone?". And they did, three times.

I've been fortunate to see over the last month highly interesting medical lectures. Some of the pictures are a little nauseating but not so bad as to remove the interest. I feel privileged to see these lectures and I won't pretend to say I understand more than 50% of what I'm seeing/hearing but I also have a handy net connection and google with wikipedia, I can usually get the gist of whats going on. However it does make me think bleakly of the future of some of these "doctors" when I see one or two of them playing computer games in the back row of the lecture theatre. Now generally I'm pretty understanding of games, I'm a gamer myself, but when the lecturer is talking, you should be paying attention especially when your above first year medicine, since this could be an important lesson that one day may save a life. Now there are other factors, maybe he could multi-task listening and playing, or maybe he was doing 2nd year medicine again and toped this section of the course. Regardless, I laughed about it at first and then decided that I hoped I never had him as a doctor.

To date, the most icky lecture I've had to sit through was diseases of the Anus, Rectum and Colon. Yuck.