VolaciousNet

Wow.
Exciting few days I have to say.

Believe it or not, Gus went to Church! Not only myself, but Adam was also invited to attend church with my brother and his wife Natalie. I still remember Natalie asking if Adam and I would like to come… Mum said “Oh get real… you wouldn’t want to take him there”, to which I replied “Excuse me, mum, but she was talking to me”. Apparently this is common banter between mum and me.

I felt so happy that Natalie was so inclusive of Adam into the family. She also mentioned that if he wasn’t going to be spending all day with his family, then he was most welcome to have lunch with us. She even gave Adam a Christmas present, which holds a certain amount of symbolism for me. There is a decided irony to this situation, but I will discuss this in a protected past rather than in a public forum.

Anyway, we rocked up to North Rocks Community Church, and it was really quite interesting! I summoned up my best, loudest and proudest singing voice for the carols, and Adam duly rolled his eyes when I began to pump out the bass parts to the carols.

We ended that night with Thai in Newtown, which is a place we can always count on to provide wonderful Thai at 11pm, for a damn cheap price. Yay for Newtown!

Well, today was one I had always been dreading. As had my brother. I woke up with Adam beside me, which I had to say was probably the best thing to happen all day. We exchanged presents, which was absolutely wonderful! He had to go down to see his own family in Picton, so I prepared myself to go up and see my folks.

The family lunch started off ok… but it rapidly went downhill near the end. I’m not going to mention the particulars about the family situation, as this is a public journal. The thing I can safely say is that I don’t like being used as leverage, having the guilt trip put on me, and it looks as though things will be going downhill very soon. I do not like having to make a choice between my parents. Things are likely to get very messy, very soon.

I’m very torn up here. One part of me can’t bear to see my mother unhappy and crying, and want this to be over and done with. Another part thinks that I have to distance myself as much as possible, and lessen the involvement of people in my life who are damaging. In either case, it was not the Christmas I woulda liked. I went home to spend the afternoon in front of the TV, and just as I got home, Adam rang me. For some reason, I just broke down on the phone talking to him. He threatened to come right up and see me, but I couldn’t bear his christmas to have an unhappy ending. However, he ignored me, and arrived at my place after dinner with his fam. It was sooo good to see him. There’s a reason I love that boy so much.

Well, after working at Royal Randwick, it was time to make good on my Christmas present to Adam. I took him off to Bondi Junction, to the Gold Class cinemas, to watch “Phantom of the Opera”. Oh wow. Complete indulgence!
We enjoyed a Boag’s Premium in the bar to start off with, and then sat down in 1-metre wide reclining chairs, whilst waiters served us champagne and chicken tenders for dinner. I squeezed Adam’s hand so tight when the “Phantom” Overture was played, and even tighter when “Music of the Night” came on. Half an hour before the end, we had a supper of cheese and dips with crackers. There I was, sitting with the boy I love, watching cinematic musical theatre, with champagne and cheese. Does it get much better than this?
I so wish I had more money than I do… all I want is to be able to treat him to such things more often. I have a much grander plan in store for his birthday, but considering that’s in 2 weeks, I had better start saving up!

Ohhhh!!! I went for the first batch of Christmas shopping today.
However, I really only managed to get things for Adam… will have to go back tomorrow for the rest.

I did buy myself and Adam collectively one present though… Anthony Callea’s (Australian Idol 2 runner-up) new single, “The Prayer”.
It cannot EVER compare to the original performance. It quite literally gave me goosebumps in a way few performances ever do.
The single just released is good, but no-where near as good. The attempt at a Dance remix also included was the most blatant corruption of purity I have ever seen in a song. Shame on it! The Prayer is a magical quasi-classical bilingual work originally performed by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion, which amazes me how it has reached such popularity with teeny-boppers. Being raised on classical music, I think it’s a welcome breeze after so much musical bastardization in terms of thematic complexity and contrasting textures.
That being said, the poor guy is only 5’4″ tall. Munchkin!

I need to get my life in order. I like feeling confident and happy, and I’m getting much closer to achieving that… I just need to make sure I know what I’m on about totally. Cruising along in the easy lane isn’t going to find me answers. I think I’m in a great place, at a great time, to find out where I want to go in the next few years. Just let it come, Gus.

Volacious.net.au has completely new photo galleries!!!
I need some willing victims to browse through it and tell me if anything is broken.
So far I know it takes a long time to load the first page, but quicker after that.
Is this something that happens in Apache? I don’t know.. very confuzed.
So this is Step 1… next step is to include a comments page that works properly. And a Guestbook. And a MySQL / MS SQL database backend for journal entries ganked from LJ, including comments. Also to be added are individual comment sections for each of my pictures on my site, so you can leave comments for each picture. But this has taken me long enough already. I think I’ve done quite well teaching myself a new programming language, and converting the entire site over from ASP to PHP. My skills are a bit rusty.

Had a delightful dinner with , and in Slurry Hills… is good for me to get out. A nice red wine to wash it all down.
Big storms are brewing this week with scheduled dinners with Dad and his gf tomorrow, then Mum and her bf in Wednesday. Watch this space for the fireworks.
Tomorrow is the BIG HOUSE CLEAN ! Family over, and I finally want the house clean for xmas.
I’m loving http://www.di.fm , which on the Eurodance channel I heard a techno remix of “Top Gun”…. I couldn’t help but love it !

Couldn’t help it….
(sent to me by Adam)

A quick update tonight.
Just got home from work… not the most exciting shift.

Next few days should be interesting… got an unusual shift on Saturday which involves “cash in hand”, leading me to believe that the job is a personal favour for one of my boss’ friends. Apparently when Adam asked for a shift for the two of us, we were insisted to do this shift because the client wanted two… *** (subject changed quickly by employer). The job is in a huge apartment at Circular Quay, for a very wealthy client. Noice. Nothing but the best for us !

Also, things have been cleared up between the boi and I… it seems that the 9-month jitters have come a little early… we passed 8 months two days ago. Yes… this is almost 3 times my record! Also, it has been decided that he will not move in with me, ending that uncertainty. At the moment he is down in Picton after borrowing my car. Aren’t I a good boyfriend?

Speaking of the car… I have a funny feeling that Gus is going to have to get down and dirty with ol’ Tasha… she’s running quite rough and there is a lot that needs to be fixed up. I have asked my parents for a decent tool set for Christmas. My mother decided to “modify” my car when I lent it to her whilst I borrowed hers for my trip to Temora. She has a new dent in the side and a new mirror on the side. Thankfully I have the manual and a bit of time to tinker with her. At the very least I can put in the new speakers that have been sitting in my cupboard for the past few months.

I’m back in the land of the living !!!
After one hell of a trip back yesterday, I’ve returned triumphantly… to Redfern. *sighs*

The last day of the comp, we were determined to get in a flight after Friday was rained out and cancelled. The morning started off looking promising, but if history meant anything, it was sure to develop into thunderstorms quickly and make conditions very interesting indeed. An early task was called, and we all launched just before midday. As soon as we were in the air, we saw a cell developing to the west, gradually moving closer. It picked up speed quite rapidly, and just as all gliders were in the air, it was just 20 kms away. More cells were starting up in the area, and as such we got the radio call announcing that the day was cancelled. BEAT-UP TIME!!! Being the last comp day, and especially with it being cancelled, it was on for young and old as to who could to the lowest, fastest pass over the clubhouse. Unfortunately, just as I was getting low enough to set myself up for a decent beatup, the cell started getting just too close for comfort, and was emitting lightning very fast. I got the glider on the ground as fast as possible, as did the other pilots. Suddenly, it was a race against time to get the gliders to safety before the storm hit. I had only just gotten the wings and nose tied down when the wind gusts hit, and the rain started pouring down. Then, the hail hit. I took cover under the wing of my glider, but it didn’t provide that much shelter. Our twin seater was unattended and not tied down at that time, so I ran out and wrapped myself around the wingstand so that the storm didn’t pick the glider up and take off with it. I haven’t been that wet in a long time, I have to say. Soaked to the bone. That’s what gliding is about though !!!

Ohhh…. hangover time!! The night before was messy… LOTS of drinking, plus a complimentary performance of Abba’s “Dancing Queen” to all the boys at the pub. The lapped it up ! Best of all was Ryan, the 16 y/o cutie whose mind I had been messing with all week. He was seriously scared of me !!! I made him come up on stage during my peformance… he simply curled up in the foetal position! Funny funny stuff….
Anyway… the trip home… was going fine until the leg between Young and Cowra when I heard a loud “bang”, felt the trailer (and subsequently the car) swing violently, and saw part of a shredded tyre be flung in FRONT of the car! I managed to regain control and bring the car to a stop by the side of the road, but the damage to the tyre and wheel well was impressive. The entire wheel guard was a mangled mess of metal, and thankfully i had mobile reception (thankyou Telstra CDMA!!!!!). Sure enough, we found that the spare tyre in the trailer was the wrong size !!!!! Simply didn’t fit. After much cursing, another member who was travelling 1/2 hour behind us arrived on scene, and we found out that his car spare tyre actually fitted our trailer. Oh well.. whatever works really !!! So… loaded it on, and off we went!
Arrived back in Bathurst just as some more storms hit, and spent some time getting the glider out, rigging it, and giving it a good clean. There was some damage to the tailwheel, but it just required that the wheel wall be replaced, which just took time to do. Unfortunately, this time in the day I was fast running out of patience, and it wasn’t helped by one of the members present, Armin. He sat there, blaming me for the damage to the trailer, and pretty much treated me like some imbecile who couldn’t be trusted with the glider. This almost made me see red. I had just come back from a week dominated by under-25′s, which existed to exclude people like Armin from being involved with younger pilot flying. I will admit here and now that I don’t have the time he does to come up and do work on the gliders, but damn I do give it a try. I have a feeling he was one of the club members who was against me taking the glider away to Temora. I feel like having a few words to others on the committee, otherwise I will literally blow up at him. Patience, Gus, patience.

Two weeks until Christmas. I have absolutely NO money. In an act of pure Murphyism (ref. Murphy’s Law), I recieved a phone bill, gas bill, electricity bill, internet bill and traffic fine all within a week of me spending $1,500 on flying. Plus, I get home and there is literally NOTHING in the cupboards, so I had to go out today and spend $150 on groceries. My patience is running just a little thin at the moment, and I’m a bit crochety. It didn’t help that I forgot to take my meds yesterday, so that just added to the extreme impatience. I’m trying not to snap at Adam, but unfortunately there are parts there that also contribute to the situation. However, I’m doing my best to maintain a cool head and just take a few deep breaths.

Note above: This is Australia’s only flying spitfire. Purchased and piloted by David Lowy, it is based at the Temora Aviation Museum, and is painted in the “Grey Nurse” squadron colours. One of the most successful warplanes of WW2, it’s really quite something to see them fire up the 1700HP Merlin V12, and take off. This shot is actually a frame captured from a video that I took of it using my Sony DSC-F828 in video mode. Still good quality! I was so amazed! The full vid is here.

I made it back today!!!! Started off as a bit of a scratchy day, but it ended up quite alright. Strong winds made the task quite difficult, but I got around the turnpoints, this time with a logger that worked!! Hopefully I should get some points.

Yesterday was a different matter though. Ended up in a farmer’s paddock !!!
Whilst attempting to track between Coolamon and Ariah Park, I got low and tried it complete futility to ride a thermal being generated by a machinery shed near a farmhouse. As much as I tried, the thermal gave out on me, and I was forced to set up and land in a newly-cut stubble paddock. Wasn’t as freaky as I thought… my landing was quite good and thankfully I landed near the farmer’s house (however, that was a part of the plan!). Met the farmer, and of course told Keith that the farmer’s son was really cute, so that he would come and get me faster! Oh well… at least I wasn’t the only one to land in a paddock. Out of the 15 gliders launched, only 4 made it back to Temora.

The night before, I have to say, was hilarious. All the young pilots went down to the pub, and we staked out the back room, with the pool table and the jukebox. Sure enough, much drunken singing was taking place. As a joke, one of the pilots put on “It’s Raining Men” and thrust the mike in front of me. I took it away !!!! Of course, I knew the words, and even some of the actions. So Gus, in the middle of a country town, in front of 25 str8 boys, launches into an all-singing, all-dancing performance of Geri Halliwell. One of the boys (thankfully one of the cute ones), ripped off his shirt and danced with me! More on that later… was really quite something! After that performance, which was so gay it wasn’t funny, the boys cheered me and came up to me, telling me how great it was that they knew a fag who was a “decent bloke”, and giving them an all new perspective on queers.

Anyway, being late, I had better get back to the airfield. I had to come into town to declare my Centrelink, which I managed to do just in time to get paid tomorrow. Lord knows how poor I am with hobbies like these!!!!!

Play Safe!!!

Gus

So here I am, sitting in the council library at Temora. Outside, there are HUGE thunderstorms rolling across. Thankfully they didn’t send us to fly today!

Yesterday was a different story though. We could see the huge thundercells building to the west, but we still went on task.
Sure enough, the cells moved closer and closer, and eventually got in the way of where I wanted to go! I had to turn home 4kms short of completing the task, which really shat me off.
I was flying with another glider, and we were approaching the thunderstorm. I was a little dubious, but pressed ahead, hoping to get to the turnpoint and piss-bolt the hell out of there. 4kms away, I see lighting flashes right in front of me (you don’t hear thunder up there… it’s interesting), and starting hearing the “ping ping ping” as the rain hit the wings. That soon changed to “CRACK CRACK CRACK” as I started to see hail hit the canopy! Sure enough, I put the aircraft on its wing into a sharp right turn and scuttled off home. I tried to hang around the storm, to see if I could dart around it after it had passed, but it killed all lift making me simply float home. I touched down safely that day, but that wasn’t the case overall. Two gliders landed with significant damage, although the pilots were ok. Bit of an intersting day overall!! Half the aircraft never made it back to the airfield!

Apart from the flying.. it’s sorta interesting out here. I’m becoming increasingly “str8″, my accent is becoming more broad and country-like, and I’m sporting a hell of a sunburn! The other pilots know I’m gay, and I’m getting on well with the yokels. I still feel a bit out of place, and it’s a bit of a challenge when I don’t have crew to help me like many of the other pilots. However, being a day off, I’m going to head down to the pub for a few rumbos and a chat to the boys. (Gawd listen to me… my gay friends would cringe to see me like this!)

I’ll do a full update of the competition when I get back. So far the scores aren’t brilliant, because my logger failed on the first day so I got “0″. However, I’m here for the experience, and we have something like 15 of the best under-25 national pilots here, so if I can at least be competitive, I’ll be VERY happy!

love y’all!

Gus

My last night before I ship out!
Still a lot to get ready, but I’ve done a fair bit of organization today. A little more to do before I hit the hay.

I just found a great site, referred to me by !

http://www.digitallyimported.com

I’m here, dancing away to corny Eurotrash dance music in my underwear!!!
I’m absolutely beside myself! *laughs and rolls over*
And no, i’m not on anything. Just randomly happy!

Why am I happy??? Adam’s coming over tomorrow at 7:30 am before I head off !!! I’m gunna miss that boy SOOO much it’s not funny!
*bops to trashy music some more*

I’m gunna miss this blatant indulgence of fagginess when I’m over in str8sville for the next 10 or so days.

‘later people! Cya in a week or two!