Tonight, Kate, Nick, Rob and myself dined at Kafe Meze in West End. Beautiful Greek food - their specialty is souvlaki, which was incredible, but in general the meals we all ordered were fantastic. Italian hot chocolates at Park Road nicely topped it all off!

Speaking of awesome dining experiences, we’ve discovered a new shiraz we love. The Pepperjack Shiraz is absolutely the best $20 bottle of red I’ve tasted - it’s smooth, deep, and before you know it you’re at the bottom of the glass. Oddly enough I think I preferred it to the Grant Burge Barossa 2003 Cabernet Sauv., even though the Grant Burge usually retails at $50-$60 a bottle (we got the last one on sale for $20 at First Choice Regatta, I love that bottle shop!). Definitely try the Pepperjack if you get the chance, and if you’re that way inclined, try their shiraz infused beer as well.

Queensland Roar finals tickets go on sale tomorrow, they’re playing two games against Sydney F.C. (one in Sydney, one here) to determine who will progress to the next round. If they keep playing the way they have been (lobbing long balls to the absolutely hopeless Reinaldo, making goal-keeping errors and generally being useless), I don’t really think they deserve to go any further. Without Danny Tiatto I don’t fancy their chances…

I got an email from Geoff, my honours supervisor. I officially got a first class! This is great news, as it means I can choose which university and course I want to do in the UK next year (2008). UCL (The Bartlett School of Architecture) or Edinburgh University are looking likely.

On a sadder note, I may not return to Australia now that Kevin Rudd is in power - yes it’s great that he wants to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, but I hate to think what will happen to the Australian economy, unemployment and interest rates. Yes, I will openly admit I voted for Howard, and I’m not ashamed. He made some dodgy decisions but overall did a lot of good for the country.

Tomorrow is the Wrexham v Chester local derby - some people are saying it will snow, others are predicting doom and gloom of a different variety - a loss to Chester. Hopefully it won’t be too bad a game… but then I always was a bit of an optimist!

It has been an incredibly hectic few days! Over the last week I’ve managed to squeeze in lunch with Sophie and Sarah; dessert with Kate and Nick at Freestyle Tout and then back to Kate’s to taste-test some of Rob and Nick’s home brew; witnessing the shamozzle that was the Socceroos’ loss to Iraq; dinner with some family friends; seeing the new Harry Potter movie; and finally, tonight, dinner with some old school friends - Tammy, Simone and Pearl.

Combine this with trying to be at uni and getting as much research done as possible before the start of semester two (next week), and still not feeling 100%, and you can imagine I’m pretty tired!

I am, however, incredibly happy about this: Socceroos Last Past Thailand / The Pressure is on Japan: Arnold / Socceroos Shake Off Slumber. That’s right, the Socceroos miraculously pulled themselves together and beat Thailand 4-0. Although by no means playing to their full potential, it was heartening to see a few of the lesser-known players doing really well - Michael Beauchamp, David Carney and Mark Milligan all seemed up to the challenge. The next game is against Japan on Saturday.

Now do I spend the next few weeks as a hermit-researcher, or do I try and fit in time to read the final Harry Potter novel?!