I was in charge of organising the drinks. With a budget of $300 for about 25 people it wasn't difficult. We had:

• Little Creatures Pale Ale
• Redback
• Stella Artois
• Newcastle Brown Ale
• James Boags Strongarm
• Hoegaarden
• Various girly drinks and non-alcoholic alternatives

Food-wise it was very fantastic. One of our software engineers is a former professional chef, and he excelled. After the first round of food he joked that it was only the entrée. Most people didn't believe him, until the second round of food came out later on, followed by a third and final round.

Best barbeque ever.

Aside: Apparently entrée is American for main course. I never knew that until this week, but I can imagine it being very confusing.

Work dinner

On Wednesday night we headed out for dinner to celebrate the end of our three days of meetings. We went to the Old Swan Brewery. Very nice, and very expensive. Most of the main courses were around $45, entrées around $25. It's always good when work pays to go somewhere like that.

Family research

I talked to my grandmother the other night and she was interested to find out the name of her grandmother that she never knew. I've ordered some birth and marriage certificates from from the General Register Office which should help in the research, particularly on her mum's side of the family.

I'm also keen to find out about my dad's side of the family. I think they were running a pub in Cheltenham in 1871. I just need a marriage certificate to convince myself of their identities.

Smokey

In my last diary I briefly mentioned the big fires in the hills east of Perth. Over last week they caused some pretty major smoke haze over the city. This photo is looking over the river from the city towards South Perth.

It actually got even smokier later that day, if you can imagine such a thing. There was a strong smell of smoke throughout our office. It was quite unpleasant.

Dancing

Last week turned out to be not as bad as the previous week, though it still ran rediculously late and the instructions were unclear and confusing throughout. About 15 minutes after we were due to finish, the guy running it said "and now I'll just show you what we're doing next week". I took that as a cue that we were finished for the night, but strangely we weren't. He continued for another 10 minutes after that.

I think the main reason it was better is that I did more dancing with my fiancée and less walking around wiggling. I don't like wiggling. At one point they tried to make us swap partners, but I'm not keen on that idea. Considering that dancing with her is the only slightly enjoyable part of the whole evening, I'm not exactly rushing to swap.

Tonight one of my mates is going along. He doesn't have a partner at this stage. There's a possibility that I'll be able to get him to take my place and never have to go again. We shall see.