Now here’s a first. It’s 4.11am and I’m wide awake. Not that that has never happened before, but I’m actually at work. I believe that, besides the odd overnight experience at E-FM, this is the first time I’m working at this hour. And well, there’s not much to do. The roster-person at the hotel called me last night around 6 and told me the night shift guy called in sick, and if I would mind coming in at 3am. Well… So I went to bed at 7pm. I haven’t done this since I was 5 and had to go to bed straight after Sesame Street. I wasn’t tired, so I didn’t sleep very well, and of course now I’m tired… and bored. I’ve even got time to write this. Well… I’m here till 11am, and I’m sure that in a couple of hours the pace will pick up, but until then I’ve gotta amuse myself with stuff like this. Mmm… I guess I’d better get back to at least pretend to work. Sleep well world.

Australia sometimes surprises me with it’s customs. The past week Australia has celebrated Christmas in July. Yeah, well… I didn’t make it up. At the place where I work they had a huge party on Thursday to celebrate, and of course I was not invited, but I was working, so I got to see and hear a little bit of it. At first I thought it was just a party, but then all of a sudden there was a Santa Claus, and people started singing ‘We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year’. At that point I sort of understood Christmas in July. After all Christmas has traditionally (well… in the UK, the motherland of Australia anyway) a cold rainy winter atmosphere. But the cold and rainy period just happens to fall in July here, rather than in December, so fair enough. But I am absolutely mind-boggeled about people wishing each other happy new year in July. Weird, weird, weird…

Well, finally I’ve got them. I’ve finished my last exam almost a month ago, but today was the official release date for the results. To be honest, I’m a little bit disappointed, but that’s probably because I’ve got an average to keep up. I scored 71%, 75%, 85% and 90% for the four subjects I have taken last semester. In letter grades that works out as two B’s and two A’s.

Here’s a bit of trivia for you. I was talking with my girlfriend about the longest place name in the world, and she told me the official name of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, is by far the longest place name in the world. No, I didn’t know it either, but it’s long. Curious? Well, there you go:

Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udom Ratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanu Kamprasit

And it means something along the lines of “The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam“.

Just so that you know…

Today I went to the Picasso: Love & War exhibition in the National Gallery of Victoria. I didn’t have any idea of what it would be like, but it turned out to be quite interesting. I’m not very familiar with Picasso’s work, and I have to honestly say that not all of his work appeals to me, but I did find a few nice paitings today. One of those is the Portrait of Dora Maar, on the left. Some of Picasso’s work is really really weird, but this one I find quite beautiful. I quite enjoyed walking around the exhibition. I only spent about 45 minutes in there, while I could have easily spent 2 hours, but it was quite busy, and since not all of the work appealed to me I skipped through some section rather quickly. But, overall an enjoyable experience.