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Merry Christmas! A quiet day spent with family and seafood.

That was a busy weekend. On Friday night, I went to the party for the closing of the Manly Rugby Club (that's the licensed club, not the football club). I've been associated with the club for a number of years doing sound work and a few computer things for them. It was fun and sad at the time time. Who knows, perhaps the phoenix will rise from the ashes.

Secondly, the Aussies won the third test against the West Indies in what was a bit of a nail-biter.

And lastly but not leastly, Amanda had her 40th 20th birthday party Sunday evening. It was nice to meet her relatives and family, and to catch up with all of the group. Drinks where had by all and I was a good boy and went home early as I came down with the summer cold on Saturday that everyone seems to have at the moment.

Possible photos of the party posted here if I can talk Ms A out of some :-)

Sydney bus drivers all went out on strike today. Seeing I am now working near Macquarie University, I'm rather reliant on taking the 140 bus to get there. A quick rethink this morning saw me catch the Manly Fast Ferry to Circular Quay, a train from Circular Quay to Wynyard, and a train from Wynyard to Macquarie University, and I still arrived 30 minutes late.

My normal bus fare is $10 a day (and I have to figure out a reasonable travel ticket deal once I stop having to go to Gordon on the odd occasion, which will reduce my fare below this figure). Today, I'm going to end up paying approximately $32.

This hardly makes me sympathetic to the bus drivers' cause. As a matter of fact, this sucks. The idea is to get a lever on your employers (i.e., the government). Running the buses and not collecting fares would accomplish that and not piss off the commuters.

Last night I went to see Dream Theater at the Horden. Wow, what a show. They were supported by Pain Of Salvation, a prog metal band from Sweden, and while they were good, the lighting and the sound for PoS was a bit of a letdown. Half the time the lead vocalist and guitarist were in the dark, and the sound was, to put it mildly, crap.

However, that all changed when Dream Theater hit the stage at 9 PM. The set list was pretty mindblowing, with a great mix of stuff from the new album and in typical Portnoy fashion, an awesome selection from the back catalogue.

Lighting, sound, atmosphere, a hyped up crowd, and the Horden - a venue I've always liked - all combined with some virtuoso playing from Portnoy, Myung, Petrucci, and Rudess, fronted by LaBrie, made for one hell of a memorable gig.

If they come back to Sydney, I'll be there.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that as the stage was being cleared after PoS, the sound guys put on some great acoustic covers of Dream Theater songs done by a French couple named Pipo & Elo. If you're a DT fan, you should really check them out. Their covers are available on their website for free.