Last night Jos, Jolyon, Kane, Susan, Haikal and Karin went to Alchemy, a very expensive restaraunt in Brisbane. Why? SCIENCE!

The meals themselves were great, and the cocktails were tasty and the conversations were fun. My highlight, and the reason for picking Alchemy, is because they do Liquid Nitrogen desserts. They freeze them in front of you and then you eat them. Typically, while I was eating the treats and blowing jets of mist from my mouth the only photo I've got is me with twin jets of mist bursting from my nose. Thanks Kane ( ;) )

COLD!!!!!

Jos and I went to Baguette last night for dinner and cocktails. We were taken straight to our table by great waiters, had a cocktail each and a baguette while ordering, Jocelyn had a Cucumber Collins and something, and I had a Lusty, Busty Maiden. Yes, I was too embarrassed to ask for it outright, I had to ask for suggestions and then nod when that one was pointed out. The food was great. Jocelyn had a fish dish of some description that actually looked tasty, and I had rabbit. For the record, Bugs is very tasty. Dessert pulled Jocelyn's attention with a passionfruit souffle while I had a chocolate treat. Jocelyn amused the waiter by asking for the entree menu after dessert as she wanted something savory. Jos is strange.

Today I woke up early to truck out the ol' Professor outfit once again to join Amy, Scott, Nel and Martin in steam-punk finery for Supanova. Well I think we veer more towards steam-pulp, but anyway. Scott and Martin had to get in there early as this year they are judges - the last few years their costume has been excellent and award winning so they decided to no longer compete. Quite charitable of them, however be assured their costumes were still awesome. Those four were getting pulled over for pictures frequently wherever we were. Many of the puller-overers were asking what series or anime we were all a part of, goes to show the detail that they all put in to their costumes. James and Amanda were also there, Amanda in the best Carmen Sandiago costume you're likely to see. She too got pulled over a few times for snapshots. Jos went plain-clothed and was happy enough with that, thank you. For those interest, of course I have pictures.

Supanova this year was a bit underwhelming. The stalls were all very commercial, the artists alley/ independents area was tucked away and small, everything awesome got sold out very quickly so there was nothing much of interest for me to purchase. Jos bought a few DVDs from JB because they were handy, and Amy bought SingStar 80s for my PS2 so we could further embarrass ourselves in front of Connie. Jos and I went to join everyone in watching the Cosplay - the auditorium was so damn packed Amy and I decided to go back into the shopping area and Jocelyn had a nap. Seriously, organisers, last year we were already starting to spill out - organise it better next year! Amy has a good suggestion, do it thematically - Anime in one group and then The Rest.

All that aside, the guests this year were great. I didn't interact with any or get autographs, but just standing near the line and seeing Jewel Staite (Kaylee from Serenity/ Firefly), Teryl Rothery (Dr Frasier from SG1), James Kyson Lee (Ando from Heroes), Lou Ferrigno (Incredible Hulk series), Michael Winslow (Sgt. Larvell "Motor Mouth" Jones from Police Acadamy) - twas full of win. Jos noted that Jewel and Terryl looked stunning IRL (well, she didn't acronym) and every one of them was so genuine and nice to people getting autographs/ talking to them. It's things like that which make events succeed. Awesome and engaged guests. Just in case any of them find this page via Google, I salute you.

Thanks to Amanda, Scott and Nel for the encouragement to Professorialise. However, I definitely felt the sting of 'not-good-enough' about the outfit so some serious work will have to commence for next time.

Yesterday a new vending machine was installed at the Common. A hot chip vending machine.

I'll let you think about that for a moment.

Now, we didn't trust it so we spoke to the guy who was installing it. Who was very informative, talking about self contained systems, patented hot chip frying process and the like. So with a bit more trust (and after poking the machine to ensure it existed) we tried it.
( Process and Images )

All in all... the chips were tasty. It took longer than the advertised 90 seconds because of weighing and the like - but still. Fast. Chip-esque. Edible. What more do you want in a student common room?

My last two working weeks have been hell weeks.  Bad hell weeks.  Given these things come in threes, I'm not looking forward to next week.  So today, I suggested to Jos we finally go check out the Roma Street parklands.

So we did.  I'm quite impressed by them, a good variety and the birdies there were many and varied.  Jos and I had lunch at Melange - the cafe they have at the gardens.  Prices were steep but the food was good.  Very different, eclectic.  I was disappointed to find there was no Melange du Trois on the dessert menu.  The rasberry and mint spring roll w' ice-cream made up for that lack. 

I love seeing lawns in gardens that aren't labeled 'keep off'.  Jos wandered out into the middle of one bit and sprawled, so I joined her and we had a nice laze in the manicured grass while birds and people travelled around us.  I did remember to bring my camera, so I have many photos that I will attempt to prune down to the good ones and put on my DeviantArt account.  Maybe I'll look into putting most of them in the Scrap book LJ has now.  We'll see.

Oh, and last night's RP game?  Rocked the freakin' house.  Was kinda my character's turn to be a bit in the spotlight... and boy did I love the angst a demon-sword-possessing/corrupting-my-character caused or what?  Didn't die, even with a freshly laminated character sheet - maybe it's not the curse I had thought it was.

EDIT: Image links!
 [Orange Native]
 [Red Native]
 [Violet Flower]
 [Kangaroo Paw]
 [Cityscape]
And
 [My favourite flower]