Over all the festival was pretty amazing.  Good friends, good bands, good times.  Sure it rained, a lot, but we made do.  Everyone was well prepared and managed to stay as dry as possible.  Standing in the rain watching bands and drinking beer isn't the worst thing in the world after all.

Our camp site was packed, so there was always someone around to talk to, or meet for the first time.  A really great collection of personalities made for some amazingly funny chatter.

Spent a fair bit of time hanging out with Neat, Cripps and their two mates Gaskall and Warner.  They were a good bunch and we got loose together a lot.  Spent a bunch of time in the bar drinking Pink Flamingos and getting up to no good.

Saw a bunch of people that I was looking forward to talking to, and one or two I could have done without.  My first ever girlfriend, from Primary School, was there but I didn't end up finding a chance to talk to her.  Was a real shame, though I'm not what you talk about with someone you haven't seen in 20 years.

Got back on the Monday afternoon, showered and was in bed really early.

Such a good long weekend, it won't be topped any time soon.  Well, at least not until Meredith in December!

Some things that won't make sense to anyone else but me;

Steve's Stories, Drew's Wallet, Acid Heads, Warner's Slides, Pavement, Let's Never Lose Each Other, Lawrence Hate, Run Bad.

Picked her up around 7:30 and we headed to St Kilda.  Ate dinner at The Elbow Room which has a pretty decent vegetarian menu, so was easy to find something delicious to eat.  Plenty of fun conversations and laughs.  She made a comment about it being strange that I can talk to girls, even though I'm from a large family of mainly males.  Haven't heard that before, but I guess it's a compliment?

The plan for after dinner was to go to Luna Park for their Circus of Screams event.  Wasn't sure if it was going to be entertaining, but I thought we'd make the most of it either way.  After dinner we started wandering down there, and decided to stop for a drink or two at the Espy.  The girl is from Sydney so she hadn't been there before, and being a Melbourne institution I thought we should stop by.

By the time we got to Luna Park it was 10:00pm, which should have been fine because it was open until 11:00pm.  Sadly, they closed early due to it being a "quiet night".  Was pretty bummed but kept the mood happy and she didn't seem to mind too much.  We walked the beaches of St Kilda, messing around and having a good time.  We then went and met up with some friends in Richmond for more drinking and laughing.

After we had been kissing for awhile at one stage, she asked me if I remembered kissing her at Pony a couple of weeks back.  Had to admit that not only do I not remember that,  but I don't even remember GOING to Pony that night!

Got home at 2am and got a message from her saying she had a "perfect evening".  Awww.

The Weakerthans played at the Northcote Social Club on Thursday night.  One of my favourite bands, who I never imagined getting to see, played at a venue within walking distance of my house.  This was crazy, and the only thing that could top it is that the gig was AMAZING!  Had very high hopes, maybe too high, and they blew them out of the water.  Played every song I wanted to hear (including some I never thought I would hear), the sound was great, their stage presence was amazing and the crowd was relatively fine.  Will remember this night for a long time, seeing a great band with great friends is the best thing ever.

Friday was Soundwave Festival at Flemington Race Course.  This was always going to be an epic, long day and it didn't fail in that regard.  Spent over 10 hours standing in the sun, taping my foot to music and drinking stacks of water.  My highlights are pretty obvious, The Weakerthans and The Get Up Kids who were both GREAT!  I've seen The Get Up Kids before, but this was even better than last time.  Played great songs, sounded good and they didn't even let the fact that someone threw a SHOE at them get them down.  They said they're coming back, and that makes me a happy camper.  Other highlights include; The Aquabats, Jane's Addiction and FAITH NO MORE.  Such a great day, but it was long so by the time I got home at midnight I was beat.  It was the first Friday night that I've been home at that time, not drunk, since becoming single.

Saturday Cripps and I went shopping, like a fun little gay couple.  I'll forever be in his debt for helping me out, and I hope he had some fun at the same time.  Spent a LOT of money on clothes, but due to my weight loss nothing really fits me any more, so it had to be done.  How I fit into a size 30 jeans now, I have no idea how.  Also lots of small t-shirts and shirts, which is great news.  That night we went to a fancy dress up party with a Wild Wild West theme.  Didn't really dress up much because had places to be, but wore some fake guns, holsters, sheriff badge and spurs.  The party was PACKED but fun, lots of good people drinking and having fun.  There was hay all over the floor and you could eat peanuts and ditch the shells on the ground.  Afterwards a bunch of us headed into the City and started an epic journey from bar to bar which of course ended with us at Cherry, and then Pony, until 5am.  FUN.

The only downer of the weekend happened on Sunday.  Was supposed to be at a wedding in Ararat (Country Victoria) at 1:00pm.  Got an SMS from a mate at 12:30pm, which woke me from my slumber.  The wedding was a 2 hour drive away, damn, felt like such a bad dude.  Seems I had managed to set my alarm for the correct time, but not actually switch it ON, which is incredibly smart.  Rang and made my apologies, which seemed to go well.  Lucky it was only a small, impromptu wedding at a celebrants house, so no one was out of pocket.

This week I have to get ready for Golden Plains Music Festival which just means food and alcohol shopping, then packing my bag later in the week.  Should be an amazing couple of days spent with great friends and great bands.  Also I've got a date a bit later this week which will be heaps of fun, she's a great chick and I look forward to seeing how we go on this date.

Wow, what a long post.

1300 carolies.  22% of the calories are from fat, 30% from protein and 47% from carbs.

Not only am I not eating enough calories (bodyweight x 14 = ~2400 - 20% (weight loss) = 2000) but it's way too many carbs.  So after some tweaking, and changing what I eat, I've managed to get my diet for today to:

1500 calories.  34% of the calories are from fat, 38% from protein, 27% from carbs.

Obviously I'm still not eating enough, but it's plenty of food over the course of a day.  The carbs are still too high, but if I take out my post work out meal (dinner) it goes down to 21%.  That meal is the ONLY meal of the day that I can get away with eating carbs, so it doesn't bother me that much.  My goal is to have a 40/40/20 split between fat/protein/carbs.

Eating 5 times a day will be hard, especially on the weekends (impossible?), but I will get into the habit and see how I feel.  Hopefully I can lose weight, but still gain muscle, we shall see.

8am - Breakfast, 11am - Snack, 2pm - Lunch, 5pm - Snack, 8pm - Dinner

EDIT:  My diet for today, Thursday the 25th of Feb is:

1700 calories.  35% of the calories are from fat, 43% from protein, 22% from carbs.

Old friends, new friends, drinks, speed, The Carlton Club, garage chats, Cherry, Pony, Richmond, random hook ups.

This week will be pretty crazy.

Wednesday - Date night

Thursday - The Weakerthans at the Northcote Social Club

Friday - Soundwave

Saturday - Wild Wild West party

Sunday - Wedding in Ararat

Busy, busy!

My Father has been in hospital for the last couple of weeks, in a lot of pain.  Yesterday they sucked a thumb nail sized gall stone out of his bile duct.  The procedure went well and he's leaving hospital today!  Mum will be super glad to have him at home, means she won't have to do a 3 hour round trip every day.  Thanks to all those who have been asking after him, it means a lot to me.

Finally got around to buying scales and weighing myself, and as of this morning I weigh 80.8kg.  Nothing to brag about, especially considering my height, but at least I know.  The good thing is that I'm pretty sure last year I weighed as much as 90kg, so it's an improvement.

One great thing that has come from eating well and working out is that I no longer get indigestion!  Cannot even remember the last time I had to eat an old man lollie, this only dawned on me today and it's an amazing thing.  This coming from someone who would be in pain from indigestion/heart burn EVERY day, sometimes twice a day.

Still working out every day, though I have a "rest week" next week.  No weight lifting, just cardio and core work for the week.  This should work out well as next week is going to be flat out crazy.  Going to see The Weakerthans and also going to Soundwave and a dress up party.  Fun times hopefully.

Went on a date last night which was a lot of fun, the girl is really into me, which is flattering and scary at the same time.  We'll have to see how it plays out, but it's good for my ego none-the-less.

Still in the process of applying for jobs, have a couple of things that look promising.  Hopefully this comes quickly because driving to Cheltenham to do no work is slowly killing me.

Unfortunately I didn't take a before photo, or weigh myself, so can't show definitive proof in how well I'm doing.  None of that really matters though, because I know I've been working hard, eating well, and feel amazing... and that's all that matters.

Going to pick up some scales soon though, just to help encourage myself to get to the gym and work out.  Haven't had too much trouble being motivated so far, but it's only been 6 weeks.  Hopefully I can keep this up for 90 days, end up skinny and fit, then work on putting on muscle.

My weeks training regime:

Monday - Chest & Back

Tuesday - Plyometrics (Jump training)

Wednesday - Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper

Thursday - Tennis or Kenpo (Fake martial arts)

Friday - Rest day

Saturday - Legs & Back, Ab Ripper

Sunday - Bike ride or Football

For the first time in about six years I did not watch the Superbowl live.  This came as a surprise to everyone, including me.  It wasn't that I was at work, because I've had the day off since last February, it was because I didn't want to watch the game alone.  Gaz had to work, and he usually does all the pimping for the event, so there was no one at my house to watch it with me.

At 7:30pm we finally got to watch the game, quite a large group at my house showed up with plenty of beer and laughs.  The team I wanted to win, did win, so that was the icing on the cake.

Bring on September 2010. 

The flight home was quick and painless, but by that time I was completely destroyed.  So tired and run down, it was two days that felt like five.  Slept for 12 hours that night, and felt a lot better the next day.

Was a good trip, made me more eager to get a new job.  Mumbles knows a lot of people, I never would have guessed, so hopefully he can help sort something out for me.