Mellissa and I had a lovely weekend away at the coast. We spent the time with our parents at their newly built home in Marcoola. The 2 story house (mansion?) was fantastic, with 5 bedrooms, plus a study, plus 2 en suites, formal dining room, large kitchen, and three living areas. It was like staying in a five star hotel. It was a very different experience to the house we live in. Mellissa and I had a room all to ourselves (with it’s own en suite) which was great because it meant we didn’t have to put my little sister Jessie-Leigh out of a room during our visit.

We didn’t do a whole lot while we were there, basically just had a bit of a relax. We did a bit of window shopping, went to the beach (which is about 2 minutes walk from the front door), and kicked back in the folks’ Spa. Mellissa and I spent a collective $6.50 over the whole weekend, not bad huh? Mum cooked us a lovely dinner both nights we were there, making my favorite dessert too ….. apple crumble … yum yum! Over dinner we had some lovely fellowship, catching up on everything with Mum and Dad and talking about life in general. The best thing about the whole weekend? I wasn’t in Toowoomba!

We left to come back mid-morning Sunday so I could get in a good sleep before my night shift that night. On the way home I saw the strangest thing. There was this fleet of McDonalds Salads Plus hatchbacks cruising along the highway. Behind each hatch was a little trailer carrying small billboards advertising McDonalds’ new (relatively) Salads Plus menu. It wasn’t just one or two of these cars, but over a dozen of the things, stretched along the highway for what I can only assume is a new advertising technique.

Who would have thought of advertising in that way? Good idea though I suppose, having a car pull an advertisement along the highway so you see it for longer than a standard billboard, it’s very tenacious. I wonder if this isn’t some kind of damage control after the release of “Super-size Me” though? Good idea from their perspective nonetheless. This kind of reminds me of the advertising extremes imagined in the movie “Minority Report”.. boy oh boy, I hope advertising never comes to that. I think I’d skitz out having that much advertising shoved in my face.

Special thanks to Heather who placed my 1000th comment today. If this had been a store and not a website she would have won a lucky door prize… perhaps a holiday for two to the Bahamas or something cool like that. Seeing that it is a website though, all she gets is her named mentioned in this stupid post.

I was thinking for a second that a t-shirt like this would be a good prize, no? Hahaha, just kidding.

Make sure you all read Heather’s blog. She’s insteresting, funny and smart with a dash of sarcasm thrown in for good effect.

Yesterday evening, on my way to work, I was listening to the radio. Some idiot comes on and says, “It feels great to be alive!”. I thought to myself, “How the hell would he know… really!? Has he ever been dead? What then does he have to compare it to?”

There are a lot of sayings making the tour these days which make absolutely no sense. Another one I happened to hear yesterday during my shift was “Don’t speak unless you’re spoken to”. Ironic as it was to hear such a saying in a call centre, the phrase begs the question: If everyone stayed silent unless spoken to, would anything ever get said at all? Better yet, if the above held true, it doesn’t make sense that the saying should have been coined at all.

It just goes to show, thinking before talking may infact stop you from looking like an ass. While pondering these things, can anyone else tell me of some other sayings which make no sense?

This evening after finishing work Mellissa and I took Seven’s national life expectancy test. The test was very similar to a test I once did at RealAge, though instead of telling you your biological age, it gives you an estimate of how long you should live.

This test reckons I will live to the ripe old age of 85.4 years old. This doesn’t sit real well though, because I don’t plan on dying before 100, and I’d like to live to 120. Here’s hoping Medicine advances in leaps and bounds in the coming years. I’d like to get very old and have long flowing white hair like Gandalf and a long beard. Old men with long beards look cool, and of course it would go well with the fleet of Harleys I’m bound to have by then.

During the test it gave a running commentary of what to do and what not to do to live longer. Here’s an interesting extract I took from the website:

“Bedroom aerobics are another good way to live longer, as there’s lots of interesting research that links a healthy sex life with a long life. Researchers from the University of Bristol, for example, found that men who have three of more orgasms per week are 50% less likely to die from coronary heart disease. Early results from an Australian research study also show that men who ejaculate more than 5 times per week in their 20s, reduce the risk of prostrate cancer by a third. The news is good for woman too, as sex triggers the release of a substance called oxytocin, which promotes feelings of affection, and triggers a nurturing instinct. This has flow-on effects by producing overall feelings of contentment, which according to many researchers, has a positive impact on life expectancy.”

Looks like I’ll live to 120 after all…. ;o)

In thursday I went down to Brisbane for my next stage of Airforce testing. Things went a little differently to what I had expected. Having been in the Army Reserve I had experienced one of these testing days before, and thought I had some idea what it was going to be like.

Most of the day went quite well. I aced my physical and Defence interview, though I was totally grilled by the psychologist. He wasn’t a very nice man, very caniving and rude, but then I don’t presume they pay him to be nice. All in all it went pretty well. I’m more aware of the areas I need to focus on for my Office Selection Board now, so even though the day was somewhat draining, I should be happy for the heads up.

OSB is the final part of the selection process. It’s in September, yet I already feel the day racing towards me. I’m having a few days off now from studying to regroup and relax for a bit. I will get back into study for the OSB next week. I want to make sure I have everything squared away for the big day.

In other news, my new PB on the 2.4k is 10:10.