winter is really setting in here. just the other morning it was at 2 degrees. and i'm not talking about at like 2am or something; it was already 7am+ and the sun was already it gets harder and harder to justify walking to the dining hall for breakfast every morning.

i need a jacket to go to to town in since we're not allowed to use our army-issued jacket out ( beats me why ). saw some really flash jackets today, but i guess it wouldn't be worth it to pay $170 for a few weeks of use, tops.

hmm. but....if i don't have a jacket, then i can justify more alcohol! warms the blood and all that, y'know?

on that note, i don't like the local brew, vb ( victoria bitter ).

the rest of the guys got to go out yesterday but i had to stay in. see, they need 2 ppl every weekend to stay back and man the phone or whatever ( i secretly think they just want to ruin our fun, the nasty pig-dogs ) and since i hadn't flown yet, i had to stay, on the grounds that the rest might get chopped and sent home before next weekend. phooey.

luckily, the day was saved from utter drudgery 'cos we went to a country music concert, part of this "hats off to country" festival thing going on ( did i tell you? tamworth is the country music capital of the region! *snigger* ). the organiser had offered us free tix ( through the housemaster ). i know, i know, you're thinking, "country music???". and to be perfectly honest, i thought so too. but if *you* had to stay in when everyone else has gone out for the weekend, you'd jump at the chance too.

incidentally, yan, you remember that chick, kasey chambers whose song you liked? she's from tamworth.

but she wasn't at the concert. phooey. instead it was a bunch of fat and/or old and/or ugly women. bah. i was hoping for shania twain. or at least dixie chick-standard. and instead we get macy gray. an old anf dat macy gray, at that. when we got there and saw the median age of the folks there we were like, "what have we got ourselves into?!". but hey. its an experience. after all, there's no chance in hell i'd go somewhere just to see a cm concert, and since this was free, wth.

we did see these two hot blonde babes dressed in cowgirl outfits, with "come get some" on the back of ther short, short, skirts. but we only got one glimpse before they disappeared. *sigh*

so between that, and the fact that i didn't get up until 1300 because i had been playing dai-dee till 3am the night before ( went from up 8 bucks to down 2 ), it wasn't all that bad, i guess.

went out today. spent $180 on clothes. there was a 25% sale, unfortunately there wasn't much of a selection of summer gear left. the guys from the previous course had bought boxloads ( literally. not very big boxes, but boxes nevertheless ) of clothes and cleared out most of the good stuff. bastards. only bought a shirt, tshirt and two longsleeved tshirts. i wanted boardshorts! and only 2 of them were discounted. oh well.

there isn't much to see in the town. i imagine a lot of people won't want to bother going next weekend. i will, 'cos i haven't really seen everthing yet. the shops closed around 2 or so today. hick town.

there's a shop which sells homemade chocolate. pretty good. rsaf agc students are definitely the shop's best customers - every course goes there and spends loads. one of the guys bought 75 bucks worth of it today alone.

ate lunch at the 'marigold inn', a chinese restaurant. personally i really don't see the point in going overseas and eating chinese. it'll be expensive and taste crap to boot. but a lot of the guys wanted to, so...we have a running joke involving sweet-n-sour pork and mongolians after a a certain south park episode, so we were thrilled to see sweet and sour pork and mongolian lamb on the menu.

they have a petrol station called "bogas" here. wouldn't survive very long in singapore with that name, i imagine. there's also a place called "cummins" and "hiscocks" which, you can imagine, were sources of great amusement. i have photos. then there's the place which proclaims "open 7 days" in big lettering - but was closed. and we came across a sign on the street which said "alchocol consumption prohibited here". i'm sure you can guess what i did. ( if you guessed, run to the bar nearby, but a bottle of grog and pose for a photo right next to the sign with it, you're perfectly right! )

well. till next time. maybe tomorrow ( holiday! ) now to brave the walk back to the accom. block in the freezing night air. 'ta.