Ok, what have I been up to? Woke up early this morning about ~9:00 am, and got into work about 9:30 am. Fiddled with a few reactions which didn't turn out very well at all. I wasn't certain that they would work, but hopefully I can avoid having to use them. Paid $600 to John's which means I have about $280 left which isn't too bad. I should survive pretty well until next payday on the 2nd September and the one after that is on the 16th which is just before the Ball. So it seems that I will be able to pay off Johns and also have money for the Ball too! *yay*
Today at 12:30 pm I cycled into Civic to have lunch with Szusza. We ate at Café Essen which was quite nice though a bit crowded, I was hoping to get a more private table for two, but rather we got a table for four right in the centre near the door. No great loss. Lunch and the conversation was very nice. She regaled me with her Sydney adventures and we covered all the news which our various acquaintances had been up to in the mean time. Seems like Deb had been down again which had caused a bit of stress. I pleaded to be let known when the next social event was coming up after I pleaded social "isolation". ;)
I can hardly wait for the Ball and Szusza is putting what seems to be a reasonably friendly table together. I don't know them all, but hopefully I can get filled in before the Ball. I am very tempted to go to Gloria's Salon on the Saturday afternoon and get some professional make-up done. It will be a bit of a hassle getting there and back, but I think it will be worth the effort. I'll have to book soon, since apparently it's going to be quite busy. I'll try to schedule it for late in the afternoon after I shower and shave. Catch a taxi out there and back again, hide in my room and then hopefully get a lift with Szusza to Julie's place to change and go to the ball. Szusza said she would ask Julie if I could use her place to get changed, I'm really hoping she will say yes. *fingers crossed*
Anyway, about 1:30 pm we parted ways and I headed back to the lab. I wasn't enormously productive, Red called and I went and did a bit of afternoon tea with her, just shooting the breeze and what not. Went back to the lab, set up a reaction and kicked around. Mass spectra still not ready, and I'm still waiting for some supplies to arrive from overseas.
About ~6:00 pm I came home and cooked dinner. The last of the two-minute noodles, the last of the cheese and the last of the pasta sauce together wasn't too bad. Went back to the lab at 7:00 pm to turn off a reaction and came home. Installed ICQ on my computer and spent a fair while chatting to Jules and a long time to Red. It's an interesting medium, the speed of a conversation almost with more planning available. I think I'll like it. Still I now have to get everybody's ICQ number so I can contact them where necessary.
I also got another email from Mrs D***** which was nice, she seems like quite an interesting woman.

OK, 11:10 am now, I am seriously in need of sleep, so I'm going to crash out. It took me about 20 minutes to write 600 words, so that's about 30 words per minute including thinking time, so I'm not too bad at the old keyboard it seems. :)