Borderline

Unfortunately, mission not accomplised. Didn't pass my driving test today. The main reason given is that I don't do enough observing when driving, which I'm a little suspicious of since I went out of my way to check and double check before turning and stuff. So yeah, a little bummed out, but as that saying goes 'Shit happens'. I've rebooked for the 16th of February, but I might book earlier.

Anyway, besides that I've been kinda bored through this month. There's nothing much to do and Doctor Who doesn't come out until autumn at least. So when an email popped up from Land and Phuong calling for a trip out to the city, I decided to go. Not only would I get out and maybe be entertained, but also for the reason to give Phuong the Doctor Who Christmas Special she wants so much.

The group was smaller than I expected, only me, Phuong, Gloria, Ricknam, Shuai, Julia and Danny. We went to the movies first, watching Happy Feet. It was pretty good. Animation was slick, voice work was terrific (especially Robin Williams), and the plot was decent. For a moment, it had a saddish ending, and I thought' Holy shit, a director with the balls to have a sad ending in a kids film'. But, of course, it did have a happy ending. Didn't go with popcorn this time, instead I bought a packet of malteasers. Phuong and Julia invested in popcorn, but wanted my malteasers instead. Julia grabbed a handful, but I didn't know if she shared.

Next was Galaxy World in Market City and half of it was full of kiddies style games. I spent most of my credits on shooting and racing. They only had Time Crisis 3, not Time Crisis 4 that I saw at Timezone at Surfers Paradise. Eventually we tried to collect tickets, and in the end we nabbed quite a few. There was this roulette style game where if the ball landed on the right colour you selected you won anywhere from 15 to 75 tickets. We managed to hit 40 tickets prize a few times. The next was a light spinning thin, where you had to hit the button when the light reached a certain point. If successful, this turned another wheel with numbers to see how many tickets you won. 500 was the max, but i managed to hit 40 then 60 tickets. Some lucky bastards hit 500 though. Most of the tickets went to the girls because the prizes where like kiddies toys.
I think in the end, we had 700ish tickets altogether.

Had Macca's for a late lunch, then went to Kinokuniya which I didn't know existed. It's a massive book store, but it also stocks a large collection of manga. So there was a large group of people reading. I wandered around a bit (mangas not my cup of tea) and settled for two books to buy.

• The Chaos Point: The World at the Crossroads by Ervin Laszlo
• Brass Man by Neal Asher

Neal Asher writes some brilliant hard sci-fi, with great plots, detailed science, although character development is a bit lacking. Hard sci-fi tends to concentrate on the science and technology, often extrapolating future techs from present technological advancement. The other book is a bit of a philosophical treatise on the future of mankind, either total breakdown into violence and decay or breakthrough to the next level.

After, everyone started to leave. Danny and Shuai left early. Julia stayed for the manga. And the rest of us left for Town Hall. I think Phuong bought Battle Royale, the book.

So what now? Offers come out tonight. I have to get my tax file number. And maybe some Day of Defeat: Source. Except my brother keeps hogging it.

Till next time.