Back to the Grind

A week ago I returned to Canberra to resume actuary at ANU. For the three weeks previous, I was in Perth for one of my most enjoyable holiday periods to date. The weird thing was, there wasn't any particular stand-out outing I went to, bar one which most people may find a little edgy. Basically I was hanging out with friends at Garden City or else at home playing with my dog Oscar or watching Foxtel. Yet it's amazing how the simple things in life are so pleasurable.

The one stand-out aforementioned was the Ignite Young Adults Conference 2006. This event was put on by my church for the first time, and looks set to become an annual event to look forward to. Given this was the first time the event has been held, it attracted over 300 full-time delegates and nearly 500 for the night rallies. Pretty awesome no? With special guest speakers Jurgen Matthesius and Crishan Jayawardene (pretty sure I mispelled that one), the conference was an absolute blast, invigorating and refreshing. Even though next year I might go to Hillsong conference as well, Ignite will be more personal.

But now I'm back in Canberra resuming my studies. I have 13 contact hours a week, with one unit in each of the main areas of commerce (International Business), economics (Macroecomonics), finance (Financial Instruments and Risk Management) and the big "doozy", statistics (Survival Models). However the fact that I only have one statistics unit should equate to an easier time than last semester.

And to counter my extreme sleeping problems, I've got two classic novels to while me to sleep every night. Magician by Raymond E. Feist was written by a young man not much older than myself back in 1981, and I'm hooked even though I'm only a quarter of the way through it. Next on the agenda is "The Great DUNE Trilogy" written by the late and great Frank Herbert, apparently the greatest science-fiction novel ever penned. It's even longer than Magician, which is quite a feat considering the former is nearly 700 pages long.

So this is back to the grind.

One Cold July's Morning ...

Being back in Perth has its advantages - and its disadvantages. Since I've returned home, I have caught up with most of my friends within a week thanks to a nice housewarming party on Saturday evening. Unfortunately as I was having dinner with my family later that night, I could only stay one hour, but in that time I managed to muck around with their dog Loki, play Time Crisis 3, play a little Go and down a beer (only half an hour before I drove home, but I was relatively fine).

On the downside, I received my first semester results last night. It's too depressing to go into here, but suffice to say I will find the rest of my holidays severely restricted by my parents' determination to get me studying again before second semester commences and I return to Canberra away from their watch. I don't blame them; I was very disappointed too. I passed everything, but at this stage I need to be aiming higher to achieve the exemptions from the Actuarial Institute examinations, which I'm told would be significantly harder.

And to top this all off, there's the possibility I may want to start something up with someone here. The whole long-distance thing has me hesitating, but if we make it clear at the outset that this will start casual, we may last till the end of the year when I return for three months (as opposed to the three weeks I'm currently here). But organising all this given my parents will now be watching me like hawks will make this that much more interesting.

And as for the title ... well, it's just a lot colder here than I remember Perth ever being in July. I'm told it even recently went negative, which would be a first. Then again since I've spent the majority of the last 18 months in freezing Canberra, it's not too tough dealing with it; what is tougher is handling our dog Oscar who will paw at our windows at night if he's not let into the garage, out of the cold.

I guess even dogs need their creature comforts. And they don't have to deal with statistics examinations. At times like these, I really envy my dog.