Finally a day of clear weather! But the problem today was not the clouds, the rain, the thunderstorms, the sorts. Instead, it was the winds. That's the story of the month, if it is clear, it is too windy. If not, it is just a gloomy, overcast and rainy day. So, my friend and I were just camping in the Ops Room waiting for the winds to die down. But no light at the end of the tunnel in sight until very close to my ETD. After spending close to 20 minutes convincing the instructor in charge that I am capable of handling the situation, I eagerly jumped into the aircraft. Time to crank the engines. Not just the aircraft's engines, but also my flying mind. It has been rotting for the past 10 days sitting around doing nothing.

All was good, until I was about to leave, only to hear the broadcast saying that the winds have picked up again. It was back to the original wind speeds! Those mofos at the tower must been sniggering to themselves thinking of the idiots like me starting up just to shut down again. Anyway, my friend still managed to go up because he is a certified ace pilot.

So, here I am blogging out what happened today. I think I'll go for a run later. With the crazy petrol prices these days, I just might actually need use of my legs again...

A guy got the best birthday present so far: a holiday back home.

Quite good timing as well, since his instructor is going to be on a holiday of his own, and since the weather has been bad, bad, bad. Some of the guys just went to check out some hiking trails just outside of Perth. Would have gone along with them if not for a tonne of non-flying related projects all lined up eagerly to be completed as soon as possible. Just need to get over the inertia of starting it. Speaking of inertia, decided to go for a run this morning. Actually, it was more like getting dragged out of bed at 10AM (late, yes?) to go for a run by TwoDoorsUp who wanted to test out his brand new Asics. No more I-am-90kg-so-I-cannot-keep-up or my-feet-hurt or my-ankle-hurt or my-knees-hurt or my-head-hurts excuses anymore. And he did quite well, surprisingly. I guess a pair of good running shoes really helps. Reminds me of the grueling 2.4km runs I had before. Yonex shoes murdered me.

One guy is going home this evening after 8 months. "8 months is long!" So he says. I have been here 5 months and I am nowhere near completion!

Well, it is a slow, gruesome crawl to the finish line.

I want to make a recommendation: every cadet should spend one day with a planner doing his stuff.

Been flying long distance recently. Been let loose by my instructor already, althought I only managed the minimal standard required. Quite a disappointment. But nonetheless, I am loose.

Was attending a course this afternoon, which will be continued on Thursday. The facilitators are one instructor and my instructor. Today, I saw sides of my instructor which I have never seen before. He can be quite funny at times.

And the MCD just says the darnest things. Today, he just reinforced that fact.

Weather is crap. Which is good, because I can't do anything due to this course. Call me a dog in a manger.

Yes I am a perfectionist. I can't stand incompetence. And after a long time, I am getting quite fed up with the level of incompetence being displayed by someone from the committee. No need to name names here. We all know who it is. I am not the only one who feels that way. Almost everybody else thinks so too.

It is rain, rain and more rain every day. And maybe we can get some hail. That would be so cool. We never get these things back home.

More accidents in the news recently. So, more calls from home recently. "What happened? It isn't safe anymore. Are you sure you want to do what you are doing?"

A little late for a change of mind now. But anyway, I don't see any way of going back. Not by choice either.

And time for a hair cut tomorrow. Hopefully with that, I can rid of the callsign that has been given to me. And what an unflattering callsign it is.

It is a miracle! I have been online for 15 minutes and I have yet to get disconnected. Really amazing considering the fact that the average online lifespan these few days has been between 2 and 5 minutes. Don't know if there is really a technical glitch, or the internet vendor is up to no good. The college is going to get our own equipment and connection which means that we are not renewing our contract with the vendor. Obviously, the vendor is not happy. Which gave rise to the suspicion of the second possible scenario. Note: possible.

Last Friday, we had yet another welcome party. This time, I was too bored to go down to even grab some junk food. So, as usual, we planned to have a pizza night since dinner was to be served only at 10PM (turned out to be at 1130PM...). However, change of plans. A few of the guys decided to try out a chinese restaurant just around the corner, and what a meal it turned out to be! After eating catered food for about 5 months now, I almost forgot how good food actually tastes like. What a great reminder.

Then on Sunday, our course went over to our course mentor instructor's home for a barbeque. It was a good thing it didn't rain, because the forecast at that time wasn't too great. But what made it great was the pool table right where the dining table should be. He stays with his girlfriend and two other instructors. No wonder they don't need a table. They probably eat out every day or eat in the living room. I think if I lived here all my life, I would be eating out very often (pizzas sure are cheap) and would be one of the five Australians who are reported to be obese or grossly overweight.

Work progress has been good. After waiting for a week for good weather, it finally arrived on Tuesday. So, the first one down. Today, we managed to go for another one. Three hours in the plane flying, navigating, avoiding crap weather and communicating sure was tiring. Two hours is easy. Three hours is tiring. Planned for the third one on Saturday, but I seriously doubt there will be any chance of it happening. Really, really bad weather will be coming in tomorrow. I should be lucky that we had four days of good weather already.

Till the next bout of clear skies, it is back to the PS2 console and the books.

Finally, a day where the internet is working right.

Last week, a coursemate invited the whole course to have dinner together in conjunction with his girlfriend coming down to visit him. We decided why not, since our course 1st anniversary is coming up. But little did we know..

It ended up a mama outing. Instead of being just a course meeting, which included our mentor instructor, it also included almost all the mamas from the other courses. Of course we were not happy about it. And, as expected, my honest roommate just let the guy know how we felt about it.

Will be having a "real" course dinner on the real day.