Well, the week started off as I said in my last post with the arrival of my new computer. I really didn’t want to get another computer, but with things as ridiculous as they have been, there wasn’t really much choice in the matter. I called up again this week and found out that the replacement power board didn’t work, replacing the motherboard didn’t work, so now they’re thinking that the replacement power board was faulty (which is the same thing that happened last time) and are looking to get another one in somehow so it can be fixed. Mental. Anyhow, I started setting things up on the new machine, filing away the emails and such that I had been replying to via webmail, installing software, that kind of thing. It took me just about all day (and I mean all day) on Tuesday before I was nominally set up with things, and gradually adding smaller utilities as I’ve needed them since. This allowed me to go into the software house on Friday and do some setup for the new machine there as well. Given how long it took to set up my Ferrari and get her running with the software, I’m finding it a bit unlikely that I’ll even get to the work for them before I leave for Japan. We’ll see, I guess.

Socially it’s been a fairly busy week. I saw Dace for a little while here and there, Rach was over earlier in the week for a little while, I saw her and her family later in the week for coffee and a chat, I had my (usually) weekly coffee and chat with Andrea, my weekly golf and coffee with my grandparents, I finally managed to catch up with Emma over coffee, family dinner tonight at Mum’s place and of course on Wednesday was Pizza Night around at Dad’s place. This involved a bit of running around on my part and I had a fairly full house (probably the most in attendance so far with this little event I’ve got going) and also rather hilariously involved my leaving in the middle for a little while (luckily I was pimping Kyle XY to all my friends, so I knew what happened). I went into town to go to a gig that Hera had going on in Sol Square. Hilariously it turns out that David Grieg, an old schoolmate of mine, is the manager of the bar where she was playing (Yellow Cross) and we had a bit of a catch up while I was there. Oh, I also picked up a CD for Katie, since she asked me to next time I was at one of Hera’s gigs. So, busy busy on the social front, which has been nice. A lot of coffees, it seems like. Speaking of coffees, I also met up with a potential new resource for outsourcing web-work that Ian put me on to. I’m not sure how much work I’m going to be passing along to him, or even if it’s his cup of tea, but certainly a very interesting guy to talk with.

Various other bits and pieces have been happening as well. With Nik around (and usually Ian as well for most of the time), I’ve been doing a whole lot more gaming than I usually do. It’s been nice to take some time out to do so, just kick back and LAN with my mates (who are practically living with me). We’ve also watched a bit more Pretender (I still love that show) and Run Fatboy Run, which I liked but was a little disappointed that it didn’t quite have the same feel as Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz. Another interesting thing that happened this week is I got interviewed (very briefly) for the UC Chronicle with the other two Monbusho scholarship candidates from Canterbury. We all caught up a bit afterwards and got to know one another a little so that by the time the travel rolls around, we’ll hopefully be making inroads on being friends and can have some friendly faces for while we’re living in the dorm together. Not sure which issue of the Chronicle the article will be in, but I’ll try and post a link to it if I can when I do. Yesterday I also went to the international cultural festival at the recommendation of my Japanese language course’s teacher. I had a lot of fun wandering around the various stalls and seeing different things from different countries, but mostly I was there to see what bits and pieces of Japanese culture I could experience before heading over there and experiencing them first hand. I had a bunch of different kinds of food, tried origami and talked to a bunch of different organisations that, if I was staying in New Zealand, I would probably be interested in keeping in touch with. Oh, as a nod to Nik I also tried some Serbian food while I was there. All in all, good fun!

Right, despite staying up until 6am gaming last night, I’m going to stay up again and game some more tonight… hopefully not too much, though. I want some sleep!