90%

It's been a fairly busy time for me since my last post. It's been mostly work related, but I've had some fun as well. Actually, I'm rather happy as I've had quite a lot of time working at ACTTAB and I'm expecting a nice paycheque very soon; I think I've put in the equivalent of 47 hours over the last 2 weeks. And it comes at just the right time. In about 3 weeks I'm off to Perth for a few days and I'll need some spending money.

I've also been a little busy with an application for a clerkship and the Canadian Federal Court and/or Federal Court of Appeal. For some reason the application due date is Friday, Jan. 29th although the clerkship doesn't begin until August 2011. Why they need 19 months to sort everything, I don't know. Anyway, I've had to write a short letter explaining why I want the position, as well as prepare my CV and get 3 letters of reference from my law school professors. Surprisingly, that wasn't as difficult as I thought. On of the professors, Fiona Wheeler, is also the Associate Dean and she told me that clerkships really open up opportunities. I wouldn't mind getting the position although it would mean leaving Australia, at least for a while. Luckily, the position recognizes my Australian JD as equivalent to a Canadian JD. We'll see how it goes.

In fitness news, I've been running quite well and I've set 2 personal records. A few days ago, I ran my 4km in 19:30 and then a few days later in 18:45. This means that I am about 15 seconds to 1 minute off the AFL's time requirements for goal umpires. While that 19:30 run wasn't too bad, the 18:45 run was exhausting. By then end, I was ready to collapse. To get that fast I had to pull out all the stops and essentially run to my very limit. Still, if I can keep it up, I'll be well set for the coming season. It also means I'm running somewhere between 11.5 and 12.75km/h.

To try and eat more healthily, as well as lose weight, I've started eating corn flakes as a snack. It seems to be working and I've already lost a few kilos. It's amazing how much a little thing like that can make a difference. Corn flakes with milk are healthy and nutritious, though not always completely filling. Still, it beats McDonald's. Also, I've started drinking pineapple juice, something I like but have never really had much of. They say pineapple juice sweetens up the blood but I can't say I've noticed.

The most exciting thing that happened to me last week was my birthday on the 20th; I turned 27. That means I'm 90% of the way to the dreaded age of 30. I remember being in Grade 1 and thinking how much I would like to be 27, for no particular reason, and now that I am, it's not as exciting as I thought. We'll see how it turns out.

My birthday began at around 09:00 as I helped clean out a storage room. It involved us taking everything out, cataloging what we needed, throwing out what we don't and then moving everything back in. It took most of the day but we were virtually done by the end. I thought to myself, this isn't the way to celebrate my birthday but I didn't have anything else planned so here I was. After the cleanup, I went to El Dorado's for a steak dinner. I had a t-bone steak and some garlic bread; I think I earned them. And that was my birthday from beginning to end. Not as exciting as I would have liked but there's not much you can do when everyone's away for the summer.

My birthday did get me thinking about what I call the Birthday Cycle, and just how you count when your birthday begins. Most people just celebrate it on the day but if it's supposed to be another revolution of the Earth around the Sun, then birthdays will change from year to year. For example, I was born, according to my mother, at 16:20 EST in Ottawa on Jan. 20th, 1983. At this time of year, Ottawa is 16 hours behind Canberra so 16:20 Ottawa time would be 06:20 Jan. 21st AEDT (Canberra time). As well, a year is approximately 365.25 days long so you have to add 6 hours for every year until you hit a leap year. That would mean that my birthdays in Australia would be at about 06:20 Jan. 21st, 12:20 Jan. 21st, 18:20 Jan. 21st and 00:20 Jan. 22nd until the cycle resets because of the leap year. These are the times that the Earth completes 1 full revolution from the previous time. I think, for simplicity's sake, everyone just celebrates according to the day wherever they are. A little unfortunate though, since it means we can stretch out birthdays a little longer.