(Warning: this update has little or nothing to do with GNOME.)

Friday
Spent the day with Stephanie after she came home from Malaysia. Also saw Alex who only just returned from Japan. Between them they must have purchased some AUD$300 of penguin-related things. We have everything from plush penguins, to a Penguins of the World box, to pingu PS/2 mice! Basically my entire world is now that much more penguinny.

Saturday
Did that previously mentioned concert at Perth Modern. It wasn't too bad, I didn't play my best. Some of the playing up from the stage hands and that was a bit too much many people thought (it was also all unscripted and unplanned). The audience seemed to have fun, particularly with pieces like Concerto Grosso Domestica Simplistica for hairdryer in B^b, blender and vacuum cleaner. Some other stuff was a little more confusing and occasionally punctuated with airhorn blasts. (When the band put on earmuffs, cover your ears ;)

Sunday
Up early to visit those at Terracon down in Mylup Pines. Mylup Pines is confusingly not in Mylup (for those who have no idea where Mylup is, it's near Harvey, or about 40km north of Bunbury, which is about 2hrs drive south of Perth, which is the capital city of Western Australia). Still Mylup Pines is actually 10km north-east of Mylup, and on the other side of the highway (yes, we drove straight past the sign told us this).
Still, we got there with heaps of time, it was slightly closer to Perth then I'd realised. Stephanie did her fabric painting session, while I figured I'd join in the LARP (Live Action Role Play) after I'd had to bring down the weapons for them. The LARP was actually pretty good, the best thing about playing cannon-fodder, is you get to run at them again and again while they give that bewildered look going, "didn't I just kill you?". Only took one serious blow to the head (blows to the head were banned), but it was a legitimate accident and everyone seemed cool. There was much shaking of hands, and no obvious hard feelings afterwards.
Also watched the usual vomit-fest that is the Iron Stomach contest. This is like something out of Takeshi's Castle (sp?) although had definitely calmed down after previous years. Everything this year seemed edible, just hard to eat. (This is compared to last year, where things were more often then not non-digestible). An interesting addition was everyone could abdicate one round in exchange for the mystery round, this actually allowed vegetarians to play. Tormsen was the clear winner, managing to clearly win each round. Frozen tinned spaggetti on a stick, chocolate biscuits in Tabasco sauce and sweet chilli sauce, a glass of fish (tuna, salmon, etc.), a glass of M&Ms (to be eaten with chopsticks), and a Mars bar in a litre of coke (first bob for the Mars bar, then drink the coke). The girl who came in second did a remarkable job, although did throw up in the last round.
Nothing eventful on the trip home, though I did miss the new, faster turnoff to Perth (it's not signed up at all) so I had to take the older route, via Rockingham.

the Duality of Grahame
So as a number of people will attest, there is a phenominon known as the Duality of Grahame, where Grahame will state quite clearly he either loves, or hates something in particular. Then anywhere between 5 minutes and a week later he will state, quite clearly the complete antithesis of what he'd said before. He never recalls this, denies it ever happened and generally causes some of us a lot of pain from it.
Related to this duality, is the bimonthly explosions Grahame directs at me. A good solid 10 minutes of abuse and threats of physical violence that are triggered by nowhere near the level of provocation you'd think is required. I stared him down the whole time, mostly because his rant was incoherent which only provoked him further. I wonder whether these outbursts show what he really thinks of me, and while he'll apologise (I assume), I wonder if I've had enough of it (it is my opinion Grahame receives numerous lifts, bits of hardware, dinner, patience, etc.).
There is talk, from some sections of finding a new place, as it will deal with several problems at once, somewhere with thermal insulation would be nice.

I apologise if I'm incoherent, I am really quite tired.