Friday, 12 January 1996  1:00PM

Damn it S,

Just found out I’ve missed out on my Christmas bonus.  It’s because I wasn’t here to collect it, and to ask for it now on top of the overtime and long holiday I got, it seems grasping, especially since it’s only $150.  Would’ve been handy though.

Friday drinks tonight, my first with all the new arrivals.  See how it goes.  I wanna get home by 9:30pm to tape Cyrano de Bergerac (Gerard Depardieu).  I’m building a little library of good films.  Dunno why, I’ll probably never watch’em.

Monday, 15 January 1996  12:40PM

Hey. Stinking hot weekend, 36° yesterday, absolutely foul.  So hot I had to scurry over the road to the service station and get a Magnum ice cream – diet be damned!  Thankfully it’s cooler today, I had serious reservations about coming in to work it it was going to be another hot one.

Did nothing with my weekend.  Friday night drinks was a paltry affair, five people and two of them weren’t drinking because they were on antibiotics. Christ, the world has been swallowed by a Beast of Boredom while I was on my Yuletide sojourn. Rather depressing to tell the truth.  I had one vodka, a lemonade and then I split at about 6pm after an hour’s worth of dull sobriety.  Sad really, Friday drinks was about the only social event on my calendar.  Actually, that’s tragic. Who needs friends right?  All I need is for the ratings season to start again.  God I miss good TV.  Really really really.

Tuesday, 16 January 1996  12:30PM

Went and saw “Land and Freedom” last night at the Kino with three girls from work Paige, Lisa and Nadia.  It was great, I felt like the Fonz, three chicks on the hop.  It was a good film, all about the Spanish Civil War.  A bit laboured in places, and the grand-daughter’s role seemed a little superfluous, but I can see how she was needed as a narrative tool.  I liked it, it didn’t make me cry or anything (there were a few sniffles in the audience here and there), but it managed to get its message across.  It was sad to see the Spanish Revolution fall apart like that with all the factionalism and mistrust.  It starred that guy who played John Lennon in “Backbeat”.  (Can’t remember his name.)  Next Monday (Monday is cheap ticket day) I might go and see “The City of Lost Children.”  It’s by the same two guys who made “Delicatessen.”  Did you ever see that?  It was a bit of a hoot.  Their films look great.  I seem to recall reading somewhere that they used to make music videos.  I feel like seeing lots of films at the moment.  Dunno why.

After the film the four of us sat in Collins Place and had a few jugs of beer and discussed the film.  It was nice to talk to people who are erudite and have interesting opinions and can communicate them well.  It’s good mental exercise.  Paige and Lisa went home around 9pm and Nadia and I had another jug of beer then ate nachos in “Le Monde” in Bourke Street with sambuccas and vodka.  I got home around midnight.  Felt a bit hungover this morning, not too bad.

Got a hair appointment at 2pm.  Just a trim, a bit of length off the back and sides. I’ve got this wedding this weekend too, must hire a suit and get a present.  Money money money.  Why can’t I be hugely rich?  It’s not like I don’t deserve it!  I’d like to buy friends, and I’d make them wear signs saying how much I paid for them.  “Hey you, Three Thousand!  Come here and trim my nails.  Tell me I’m popular.  Four Thousand! Come here and tell me how good looking I am, and how you wish you were just like me.”  Oooh yes, I’d love to be rich.

Mum rang before and told me she’s going to change her name back to MacKenzie. I told her she ought to change her first name as well.  To Dingo.  Yep.  Dingo MacKenzie.  We could call her Dingo Mac.  Momma Ding.  Big Ding.  Granny Ding.  Mondo Dingo.  Yeah.

Personally, if I was going to change my name, I think one of the front runners would have to be Buck.  You just can’t get any tougher, can ya?  Buck Blood sound pretty damn cool, or Buck Butcher.  “Buck Butcher, Bonker of Big-Breasted Broads”. It doesn’t take much to keep me happy.

Well I ought to mosey along, I’ve loads to do O Sis o’ mine.  Say hi to Jack and the Bub for me.

Cheers

J