All lovers of Good Music should plan to be at the Troubadour this Sunday night (29 July). $8 entry, doors open at 8.

I'll be making my debut as part of the Hungry Shepherds. I don't know about the other bands, but I know we're planning to rock out. It is a Sunday night, and we won't be on till late, so either have a nap in the afternoon or cancel work/uni/whatever so you can sleep in Monday morning.

People from other cities, if you leave now you should be there in time.

If you don't come, I will be so very sad.

Jake happened to mention the other night that he would like to start baking. I happen to be a Kitchen Whiz™. We both happened to have the next day off work. Biscuits ensued!

I went to Sydney about three weeks ago. Mum had a conference down there, which meant she was getting a free room, so I busted out some Flybuy points and tagged along.

Her flight was early Monday morning, but mine wasn't till 1 that afternoon. Scott dropped me off at 12. I had a backpack and a small carry bag - my phone was in my pocket and my wallet was in my hand. I took a quick trip to the loo before heading to those fancy check-in machines, and then went to the security place. I put my two bags through, and put my phone in a tray and sent that through the x-ray machine. As they were coming through the other end I got called over for an explosives test, so I quickly grabbed my bags and went over. The guy rubbed the thing over my clothes and put it in the machine, and while we were waiting for the results, the voice-over came on and says, "Paging Joshua Duffield to the garble garble garble." I asked the explosives guy if he'd heard where I was supposed to go, and he mumbled something about not being able to leave till the machine was finished. Finally he let me go, and I ran upstairs to find my gate.

Luckily I was at the gate right in front of the escalators from the security area, so I was there within seconds. I checked my watch, and saw I still had about half an hour till boarding, so I definitely wasn't running late. I asked the chick at the gate if she knew where I was called to, and she told me I had to go to something called Baggage Blues, which was back down on the first floor. I headed back down and found it. Turns out it was the lost property area - I had left my wallet in the toilets. I'd just assumed I'd put it in my bag. As I was putting it away, I noticed my phone was no longer in my pocket, and realised I never took it out of the tray at the security area. I went back there and asked if they had it. They looked around and checked in their office, but they didn't have it. I went back to the lost property area, and had to ask the chick who'd given me my wallet if she also had my phone. She commented that I wasn't having a good day. I had to agree.

I had to go back through the security area to get back to my gate, so I checked with them again, but they still hadn't found it. The guy told me that they usually hold lost property for an hour or so before announcing it, and that I should probably check back later that afternoon. I didn't tell him that that was the most unhelpful thing I'd ever heard, since I'd be in Sydney that afternoon, but I thanked him and went upstairs. I still had a while before boarding time, so I found a payphone and tried calling my phone. It rang, but I couldn't hear it anywhere, so I figured it must still be down there somewhere. I spent about five minutes calling it repeatedly, but no one answered and I couldn't hear it, so I gave up. Just before we boarded I went back downstairs to check with lost property one last time. The chick gave me their number and said to call when I got to Sydney in case they found it later. The security guys, with whom I was quite friendly by that stage, still hadn't found it, so I went upstairs and joined the boarding line.

While I was in the line, I saw someone I recognised. He was very much a bogan, with tattoos down his legs and an unhealthy-looking girlfriend in tow. I realised he was right behind me while we were going through security, and the first thought to cross my mind was that he had seen me leave my phone in the tray, and picked it up. Of course, I didn't want to go up to him and say, "Hi there, did you perchance steal me phone? You look like the sort who would steal stuff." I didn't want to promote that stereotype. Also I didn't want to get stabbed.

I spent the flight in a very cranky state. I had planned to catch up with a number of friends in Sydney, all of whom I was supposed to contact by mobile. Without my phone I was destined to spend two days wandering around a strange city by myself. Not even the hilarity of the plane's comedy channel could cheer me up.

As soon as I got off the plane I found another payphone and tried calling it again. It rang, which confirmed that my phone was still at Brisbane Airport - had someone taken it on a plane they would have had to turn it off. Luckily I was at the sort of payphone that could send text messages, so I sent a message to mum saying that I'd lost my phone and that I'd meet her at the hotel. I followed the signs to the train station, bought a ticket which was far too expensive, wondered at the stupidity of NSW not accepting Queensland student cards despite the fact that they're not made of crappy cardboard and have photo ID on them, and made my way to the platform. I had missed the previous train by a minute or so, and had a ten minute wait until the next train. While looking for a toilet I found another payphone, so I called my phone a few more times, and then had the idea of sending it a text message. I wrote, "OI, IF YOU FIND THIS PHONE I PROBABLY WOULDN'T MIND GETTING IT BACK." I didn't want to come across as angry, but I couldn't work out how to switch to lower case. I included mum's mobile number, hoping that someone would come across it and call her, and everything would work out. I sent the message, called it one more time, and hung up, resigning myself to the fact that I was never going to see my phone again.

Just then the train arrived, and I walked back around the corner where the other passengers were waiting. There I saw the bogan and his girlfriend, about to get on the same train. The bogan was holding a phone, and for a moment I thought that it was mine. Alas, I noticed it was a slide-phone with a blue light, and didn't resemble my phone at all. He stood up to get on the train, and his girlfriend, a few steps behind him, closed another phone. I tried to see it, but it was obscured in her hand. I walked up to her, my heart racing, and said, "Can I have a look at that phone?" She stared at me while I tried to see the phone she was clutching. I couldn't see it too well, but then I noticed that its small screen was still lit up from when she closed it. There, flashing between her fingers, was this:

My phone! I took it from her hand, still terrified of being stabbed, and stammered, "It's mine," before getting on the train. I was so relieved! I checked the phone for calls and messages, but they hadn't used it at all. They hadn't even checked the message I'd sent to it. I realised they must have left it turned on during the flight, since they wouldn't have known the password to turn it back on again. I marvelled at the coincidence of the phone that I'd left in Brisbane Airport ending up not only on the same flight as me, but on the same train that I planned to take.

Then I marvelled at the fact that we didn't crash and die from those guys leaving my phone turned on during the flight. We could have totally got Lost. I think I would have been Locke, cause I know knots and stuff, and am also vaguely mysterious.

This truly has been a bad week to be famous. Though it has been a good week for me to go "DUUUUUH!" a lot. The crocodile hunter gets killed by a poisonous animal. The celebrated author dies at a ripe old age. And the racing car driver dies - wait for it - in a racing car crash.

Not surprisingly, we've heard almost nothing about the author, Colin Thiele's death. I attribute this to the fact that everyone hates him for writing Storm Boy. Seriously, in grade 5 we read it, watched the movie, listened to the book-on-tape and saw the play. Every class activity for a good six months had something to do with pelicans. Now every time I see a pelican I break into a sweat and start obsessively recounting spelling lists and compound words.

On Tuesday, one of the little girls at work told me she had written a letter to Steve Irwin, and burnt it so that he would get it. Another kid told me this was "because burning things makes them go to heaven." I didn't have the heart to tell them that it was the stupidest thing I ever heard. But it did give me an idea.

We convince Kochie that setting himself on fire will get him into heaven, so he can have an exclusive interview with Steve's immortal soul.

My holidays so far: Vacation Care and Metroid Prime.

In other news, I snuck into the music studio after my last exam last week and remixed my song. It's still not perfect, but it's better. Checkz it outz.For those of you who weren't here last time, the lyrics are by Ling, and everything else is by me.

I've also been spending a lot of time reworking my website (you know, this one). I say a lot of time, but it was really just a couple of hours some time after midnight one day last week. I like it, but it's still incomplete. I'll try to spend less time on Metroid this week and get the rest of it finished.

No, that's not gonna happen. I'll try and finish Metroid on Sunday, so then I'll be able to get the site done.

So yeah, vacation care. It's been pretty good so far. Long hours. I have to do 10 hours next Friday - that's gonna be intense. My only day off is Wednesday. This Wednesday I had to drop Sarah off to St Lucia for physio at like 7:30am. Figured I'd make something of it, so I wasted time at Maccas and then popped in to see tippy_toez, who was in hospital with pancreatitis. Had to cancel jacobim_mugato's birthday plans on Sunday cause she was in writhing screaming pain. Whinger. Anywho, ended up staying for a few hours. atlantica69 turned up there too. Hadn't seen her properly for about a thousand days, what with her prac and all. It was a good day. Had to leave when I remembered I was parked in a two hour zone. Didn't get a ticket. The system phails again! Then I went home and played Metroid.

I'm really liking Metroid right now. Did you notice?

I'm worried I failed Japanese. I know I'm worried about that every semester. Probably because I do 0% of the work. But this time, I'm pretty sure I'm actually going to fail. Luckily I qualify for a make-up exam if that's the case. Perhaps I should study a bit harder this time.

Scott and I had to play at the Gateway Center yesterday. Had to be there at 7:30 for setup and soundcheck, which meant getting up at 6. Saturday is never exactly a sleep-in day what with church and everything, but seriously, I don't even have to be up that early when I have the 6:30 shift at work. Just plain rude. Anywho, we got there, set up, and then found out we couldn't practice because the drama team wanted to run through their thing. And cause we didn't get a soundcheck, the sound was totally crap. We played alright, sort of, but overall it just sucked.

While we were there we found out Eric had died the night before. That wasn't cool. That makes him my third friend to die in a car wreck. First was Jocelyn in Nov 04, then mum's friend's daughter a week later. Three cheers for cars!

The program finished at 4:30. That means we'd been there 9 hours. Good gravy. Had to go straight from there to church, cause I was organising a fund-raiser concert thing there that night. It was supposed to start at 7:30, and as far as I knew I still had to set everything up. We packed up the car and were about to leave when we found out we had to stop by Aunty Dee's to pick something up. Did that, then headed back to the city, only Scott had no idea where he was going and took the long way. Didn't get there till a bit after 6. Luckily Colin must have got the sound set up that afternoon. All I had to do was hook up my keyboard, a CD player and a couple more mics, get the projector and the laptop happening, and get all the chairs set up. I wasn't expecting many people to turn up, but it was packed out. Kitty and Bernard MCd, and did a marvelous job, too. There were heaps and heaps of items, which was a relief, since last I checked there were about 3. Mum sold drinks and food and stuff up the back, and I ran the cake auction with the help of my graceful assistant Scott. We made about $500 for Sarah's trip to Uganda. Marvelous.

Didn't get home till 11:30. Longest Saturday ever.