10 Year Highschool Reunion

On Saturday I went to my highschool's 10 year reunion. I flew up to the Gold Coast for the event.

There was around 80 or so people which is a lot more than I expected. Initially it was all the guys which is weird I thought they would have been the least inclined to go.

I got to catch up with pretty much everyone. Even people I wouldn't donate blood for I had good chat to. My crew (the guys I ate lunch with everyday, talked about Simpsons with and played handball with) didn;t really turn up. Only one of them who was a newcomer to our click.

Peter, Daniel, Dale, Mark & the two Nathans (sounds like a Biblical role call) didn't turn up. The other guy who I can't remember his name (the amercian guy with glasses and always wore a hat) was one of the few who actually died. Hit in the head with a baseball. Which makes sense as he was a keen baseball player.

Even the girl I had a mad crush on was there alway the sparkle has worn off considerably. Nothing on her, she still looks cute as, I just have something better now.

That said many of the girls have aged well. Although we did have a pretty good line up of talent in our year to start with.

There were a few noticeable characters that didn't turn up (Robert Botkos, Kris Dolinko, Grant Hacket, Chad Walsh, Sam But, Azra, Sumi) which is a shame but there was enough there to make it a really interesting night. People seemed to recognize me more than I recognized them. There was a couple I would not have picked out in a police line that remembered me but I couldn't put a memory to the face or name.

There were three marriages that stemmed from highschool, two from relationships from highschool, which is pretty amazing. But I guess I've been with Ervi since 1998 so that's almost as long.

I'm not sure I'd be so interested in a 15 year reunion. 5 years just isn't long enough for much to change but we'll see. Thanks to facebook I'm able to contact a few more of my highschool friends. It's nice being able to throw a "hey" to people once in a while.

I Be Homeowner

I officially got my homeloan approved today and will be exchanging contracts on a unit this week!

This means no more paying rent for me! YAY! Just a mortage! BOO!

I'm buying the unit I've rented for the last year which means I don't even have to move out! I can finally nail shit into the walls and put fly screens up and paint some walls.

And once the mortage is paid off I can go back to buying stuff I don't need instead of saving every penny.

Other Ashley Ringrose's

It's wierd to think there are other people out there with your name. Esspecially for one like mine which isn't common.

I remember hearing about a guy who met every other person with the same name as him and had a photo taken with them. Maybe I need to get an arts grant to fund this most excellent idea?

The freakest one of all is Girl Gymnast of the Year Ashley Ringrose. Whoa. I can't even touch my toes!!!

Runiks Cube Solution Video

We've had a Rubiks Cube around the office for the last few months and I've gotten really good at solving them. I asked someone to mess it up in around 25 turns and I told them I could solve it in under a minute. It took me just under that.

Searching for Hotels

I've finally booked all my hotels for my Europe trip. Yay.

I found the best site to be Worldby.com as the information and maps are quite good. Other sites either give you a map that has no relevance or the photos are tiny.

The only thing missing from Worldby.com is user reviews which would be good to have but you can usually google the hotel name and find them that way.

Most of my hotel accomodation is 2 star but I'd rather spend more time exploring than sitting in my room. Although I found (form my Australian experience) that a 5 star hotel puts you ina 2 or 3 star room unless you pay an huge fee so star ratings on hotels is useless unless you're loaded.

And I get my own bathroom rather than a share one just in case I feel the need for a 30+ minute poo.

Mr Truffle Profiled

I deep and meaningful profile has been conducted on my by Kripy. Check it out here

Brown Pen

If you ever use a brown felt tip pen look out for if the ink spills onto your fingers, as it looks really dodgy.

Detox

I'm 5 days into my 10 day detox doing well. We didn't have a BBQ at work so that was good. Cause a salad instead of a burger would have been cruel punishment.

I don't smoke or drink or even drink coffee but the detox was to stop and cleanse my system from all the kebabbs, pizza, pides, chocolate I eat on a regular basis. Luckily I'm not a fat bastard!

I even bought a fresh juicer (a big ass one that destroys whole apples!) and it's great. You basically shuck anything in your fruit basket and it tastes good as a juice.

So 5 more days of tempe, tofu, vegies and corn crakers to go. Actually corn crakers, avacado and tomatoe is really nice. I was surprized. Normally I'd munch down a half pack a biscuits but these corn crackers are great.

2005 A Year In Review

2005 was one of the most exciting years for me. Not only did I turn 25 and can now easily hire a rental car but I moved out of Ashfield for an inner city apartment. I will not list in point form major events that happened to me during 2005 as I know I will forget what a great year this was. I'm a little hazy before August as my blog entries from OCt 04 - August 05 were deleted.

• Moved to Chippendale and finally out of Ashfield. I don't miss the trains.
  
• Attended Andy's wedding in Indonesia .
  
• Soap moved into our own office in Ultimo deciding to purchase rather than rent after securing the deposit and a good position to continue our empire :)
  
• Soap went from a staff of 6 to 11 with a few leaving or being asked to leave in between. Right now we have a very strong team with no "dead wood". Two more staff to join in January 2006
  
• Attended the 2005 ARIA awards and got within 10mtrs of The Hoff
  
• I was asked to be on the jury for D&AD 2006. Graciously accepted :)
  
• Moved to a PC laptop after 7 years of MAC worship. I miss expose and that's about it.
  
• Bought a PSP
  
• Did a talk at Wagga Wagga on the importance of personal work/experimentation and your career.
  
• Had my first viral photo with The Fly getting over 80,000 views in a month.
  
• Had my blog deleted by my host in the USA. After 5 years he decided to do a runner with everyone's money and delete my files. That's why there is a 10 fucking month gap in my archives!
  
• Started www.bannerblog.com.au which is just now reaching it's stride. The initial site was also deleted by the crazy web host in the USA.
  
• Moved over to wearing underpants full time after many years of wearing boxers.
• Soap won awards at Desktop Create Awards, AWARD, Internet Awards and was in the interactive annual for Communication Arts & D&AD.
  
• Cashed in my years of Subway Stamps
  
• Was nearly beaten up coming out of my favorite restaurant in Canterbury. Yay for the police.
  
• Got back from my long trip in Indonesia during which the Tsunami hit (the other side of Indo luckily)
  
• Visited Melbourne, Perth, Wagga Wagga, Singapore as well as Indonesia twice
  
• Almost converted to Muslim. That's top of my list for 2006
  
• Attended an Easter Royal show, Crusty Demons X, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Auto Salon and didn't hate them both. Although I don;t plan on ever going to one again.
  
• Got violently sick from some dodgy food court food. Vomited on the bathroom marble that actually left a permanent mark on the marble!
  
• Attended the launch of the new A-League (Australian soccer league)
  
• I paid for less than half of the movies I saw this year. By having Fox as a client and also a friend who is the security guard at George St cinemas I managed to save a heap on cinema tickets. A big thanks to Julian and Fred!
  
• Saw Into the Blue, Night Watch and In Her Shoes at the Fox Studios private screening room
  
• Missed the media premier of Star Wars as I directed the guys to the wrong cinema!!! Saw it at the premier 11 days later.
  
• Saw Mr & Mrs Smith and Fantastic Four at the media premier at George St. Margaret and David Stratton don't sit next to each other.
  
• Stayed at level 68 at World Tower in Sydney.
  
• 
  

Good Ol' Undies

After 15 or so years of wearing boxer shorts I have gone back to undies. After being the strong advocate for boxers for many years I have now found the joys of having my boys secure.