Wombling Free

a Bulletin from Miss Parsley

2009-02-25T17:17:00.000-08:00

So it's been about six weeks, or thereabouts, and I am still crippled in the face. I've got a little movement back in the corner of my mouth, so I don't look quite as scornful now, which is nice... but I gotta say. I miss being pretty. I used to be okay lookin... and people treat me differently now. Not the people I actually know, but strangers and shopkeepers and all those people you don't know but interact with. They don't smile at me like they usually would (I think this is because I have a big grin most of the time when I'm not face-retarded), and they're not as nice to me. It could just be me being a bit over-sensitive though.

I don't know what it is about me, but I seem to collect humorous injuries lately. Yesterday I got bit on the arse by a stink bug - who even knew they bit? I sat down in my office chair after lunch and felt something sticking into me on the chair. I got up to have a look, and this giant bug skitters off under the desk! I took a photo, and the consensus is that is's some sort of stink bug. It hurt plenty and went a very strange orange colour, but thank goodness I didn't squish it!
The night before I kicked the corner of the bed by accident and I suspect I may have broken another toe. It feels awfully like the first broken toe, and is all bruisy and stuff. This one I'm going to ignore, because it's not an important toe. And the doctor definitely does not need to see my ugly mug again so soon!

I sound like such a hypochondriac with my myriad of physical woes, don't I? Don't worry, it's not all bad news. I went to Soundwave festival over the weekend, and it was everything I've ever dreamed of. I saw Goldfinger, Anberlin, Lacuna Coil, 36 Crazy Fists, Dillinger Escape Plan, the Subways, Alice in Chains (!!!!!!) and Nine Inch Nails.

Alice in Chains is part of my Holy Trinity of Rock - that is to say, one of my three favourite bands ever (the other two being Blind Melon and Faith No More). They haven't toured or made new music since nineteen dickety-two, and the lead singer, Layne Staley, died in 2002, so I never thought I would see them tour. But lo and behold, they have a new singer who does alright and they're going round the world again. They played a bunch of my favourites - Rooster, Bleed the Freak, Would?, Nutshell, No Excuses, Angry Chair. It was incredible, so so good. I was almost at the very front of the mosh pit for most of their set. Nine Inch Nails was pretty cool too.

I had an annual leave day on Monday, so I went and had a very pleasant Ladies' Lunch in Newtown with Leah, Jess and Leanne. It's nice to be able to do that sort of thing every now and then - and I had a delicious bruschetta.

Yesterday I made scones for dinner. I know that's cheating at dinner, but I'm a grownup and who's going to stop me? Nyaaah! They were lovely, with jam and cream. I had the three leftover ones for breakfast this morning.

Waking up retarded has never been easy

2009-01-19T14:41:00.000-08:00

So, what with bank fraud, a broken big toe, sunburn and a bad back (the latter two from a shoot at Bondi last Monday) all thrown into the mix, it hasn't been a great start to the year. I wasn't going to whige about it or let it get me down, but yesterday I woke up with the left side of my face paralysed and it was all a bit much.

According to the doctor, what I have is Bell's palsy. It's a bit like being a stroke victim - the left side of my face doesn't really move at all. I can make my cheek sort of twitch, but my eyebrow won't raise or scruch, my eye doesn't blink all the way closed and I only smile and laugh on one side of my face. It's the weirdest feeling. It freaked me out pretty hard yesterday before I went to the doctor!

I had a sore throat and was feeling a bit bleh at the end of last week, and they think that was a virus that has affected my cranial nerve somehow. It should last a few weeks or months and then come right on its own, apparently. In the meantime, I look like a retard. I have to put drops in my left eye every few minutes because it's all dry and not blinking properly, and eating is surprisingly hard. It's hard to get the food into my mouth because my lips don't want to cooperate. It's also very funny for anyone observing. :)

Thank goodess it was on a Monday though, and not sooner!

On Saturday I did a spot of modeling with some girlfriends for another friend who wanted practice at portrait photography. We had heaps of fun playing dressups and posing.. the results are at Arkady's Flickr . I guess these might be the last photos where I look normal for a while.

Holidays and other happenings

2009-01-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

So Keff has pointed out that I haven't updated my blog in ages. Here ya go then Lala... just for you.

Christmas, as predicted, was totally awesome.

Before I left, I started an infusion of Werthers Originals in vodka, for consumption on New Years Eve. When I lived in Wellington, the owner of Mercury bar, Grant, used to infuse his own vodka with jersey caramels and make a cocktail called an apple pie. This involved caramel vodka, cloudy apple juice and a cinnamon and sugar rim. It was absolutely the most divine drink I had ever tasted, so I thought I'd have a crack at it myself.

I found myself some cheap flights over to NZ. They weren't direct, but they were ever so cheap, so I flew Sydney - Auckland - Wellington on the 20th and Wellington - Auckland - Brisbane - Sydney on the 28th. Good thing I like planes.. I got to take off three times on the way back!

I stayed with Sarah the first night in Wellington, and took advantage of the chance to catch up with my friends Angela and Dennis (some of you will remember Dennis, my indian flatmate from Stanley Street Berhampore - top bloke). Roger drove us all up to Pohangina in the morning, and we had Mum and Dad to ourselves for a couple of days.

The farm impresses me more every time I see it. Now there are nineteen sheep, two pigs, heaps of chickens and two cats. I'm not that keen on the pigs - they're kinda scary and they squeal and smell and stuff. I did get to huggle a lamb. I could have huggled the lambs more, but they stayed well away from me after the first day. I think I enjoyed the experience a lot more than the lamb did.
The grapevine is going nuts, as is the passionfruit vine. I suggested to Mum that perhaps she could try some vodka infusing of her own, but she didn't seem that keen. I think a walnut infusion would be rather tasty, as would a passionfruit. It'd be interesting to try wine from their grapes also...

The rest of the family arrived over the next couple of days - first the Dorrians and Grandma, then the Harrisons and the other Bells. I went on a pilgrimage to the Santa Cave with Mum and Dad, my aunt Karen and cousins Tim and Sophie, and Grandma. I'd managed to avoid it for 28 years, but they reckon it may soon be gone, so I figured I’d better sort it out while I still could.

The Santa Cave is a relic of a bygone era. Tucked away in the basement of the Farmers department store in Palmerston North, it’s full of ancient clockwork Christmas scenes – elves building things, reindeer learning how to find the Manawatu, that sort of thing. It’s kind of a shrine to Christmas past I guess. Karen reckoned it hadn’t changed a bit since they used to go as children.
I really enjoyed it, it had an innocence that seems to be missing amongst the Bratz dolls generation.
Sophie, Tim and I had a photo with Santa (I’m pretty sure I was the oldest kid to have a Santa photo), we did a spot of last-minute shopping, and waddled back off home.

Christmas day was fantastic. There was an absolutely huge pile of presents under the Christmas tree, which Dad had harvested himself from the paddock next to the orchard two days earlier. Santa made an appearance after breakfast to hand out the gifts. He has an uncanny resemblance to uncle Mike, only a bit fatter and with the beard… how strange! Loot highlights include a fabulous brown leather satchel/handbag from Sarah, and an awesome laptop backpack (which I really needed) from Mum and Dad, and a great wee recipe book with gorgeous 50s teatime things to bake from the Harrisons. They really are great at presents, those Harrisons – always have been. I also fell in love with two of Rachel’s gifts; a book called ‘Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus’, and another one with cute little crochet and fabric toys to make – including a crochet ‘scream’ face and little Seargent Pepper turtles. I must acquire these books for myself at some point very soon!

Mum and Dad put on a roast lamb on a spit. Dad had prepared Charlie the lamb a few days earlier (so as to get the actual killing out of the way before the sensitive vegetarian types arrived). Charlie was complemented with a couple of chickens inside his ribcage and the biggest sprigs of rosemary I have ever seen. Mum’s rosemary bush must have taken a hell of a hit. According to the carnivores, Charlie was maaaaaaagical and delicious. I enjoyed the lovely salads and a glass or two of bubbles.

Two of the Aged Aunts came up for Boxing Day, so it was Family ++. Mum amazes me with her ability to feed hordes and hordes of people, including vegetarians, celiacs, people who hate onions and people who are just plain picky. The fare included heaps of her homemade preserves and vegetables picked straight from the garden, and fresh eggs courtesy of the chookhouse.

On the 27th, we all piled into town, and had a ride on the miniature railway in the Esplanade in Palmerston North. This is especially cool, because Dad drives the train some weekends. He took us around the track; all sixteen of us in a row (Mum stayed back to take photos, I think she might be bored of the train), and then we had a lovely lunch at the café in the Esplanade. The waitress was particularly entertaining, and she even thanked us after the meal for being ‘such a fun table!’. Clearly we are very cool people.

I almost escaped without there being fuss about the new ink (the bluebird on my right shoulder) – but I was foiled at the very last minute after lunch. I’d been carefully wearing t-shirts as opposed to singlets, and covering my shoulders… but at the end even Grandma came over to peer down the back of my shirt to see my bluebird. The disapproval was minor, and I am still very impressed with the artwork and colour of it.

I think the best thing about the Chrimbo Experience was the fact that my cousins are old enough to be real people. I am the eldest of the bunch by quite a big margin, and I’m really not very good at children, but once they become old enough to have ideas and personalities of their own, they’re a lot more fun! I was particularly impressed by how cool Tim is now. I’ve known for a while that Rachel and Andrew are very cool individuals (and talented to boot, so musical!), but Tim is turning out a lot like me. This may or may not be a good thing – I imagine his parents are desperately hoping he’s better behaved than I was – but he’s a very interesting kid.

So after all the family bizzo was over and done with, I ate the hell out of a Hell Pizza, bought some bagels and various delicious kiwi treats and sodded off home. I owe massive props to Mum and Dad for putting us all up and providing for everyone, and also to Sarah and Roger for accommodation, good company and airport shuttle service. I have the best family. 

On the way back, I managed to have my bank account hit by scammers – they stole my entire paycheck, which put me out for rent and left me destitute! It’s all sorted now, the bank has put the money back in my account this morning, so it’s like a double payday today. Fortunately, I’d invested in some duty free before I found out I was destitute, so I was well prepared for New Years! I was also very well looked after by a new geezer on the scene, Jim, who cooked me dinners and made sure I didn’t starve; bless his heart.

New Years Eve was a blast. We had a party at Sean and Nic’s apartment. Their complex has a pool, and it was a perfect afternoon for it; not a cloud in the sky and so warm! We messed around for a few hours making pyramids and having piggyback wars, and then hung out in the garden. The Werthers Original vodka was a massive hit (HA! SEE!?), and I do believe I’ll do another one, along with a strawberry infusion and maybe a cucumber one.

I did manage to fracture my big toe though, due to some irregular topography and bare feet, having just come out of the pool. I didn’t think it was broken and I didn’t want to make a fuss, so I didn’t bother having it x-rayed until Wednesday this week… but it turns out there’s a big old crack down the middle of my toe bone, which explains why it still hurts. Whoops. I’m going back to the GP today with my x-ray film to see what’s to be done about it.

Following the New Years festivities, I caught the L90 bus out to Avalon for a wedding, which was a beautiful day. Congratulations Keff and Lyndy you gorgeous people!

So that’s about up to date. Don’t say I never do nuffin’ for ya! As usual, requests, admonitions, adulation and gift certificates may be sent to me at emma.s.bell at gmail dot com.

Thunders! Lightnings!

2008-11-14T01:14:00.000-08:00

I've been watching the angry sky with the lights off. It's nice to be home on a Friday night with nothing to do but relax and enjoy the storm outside. I have Beth Orton, Jeff Buckley, Songs Ohia and a cup of hot chocolate (with maybe a tiny nip of Absolut Vanilla), and I couldn't be more content.

Sydney does some fantastic storms. It's been really hot today, and the atmosphere got heavier as the day drew to a close. It's half past eight now, and a little storm's been raging to clear the air for about half an hour. I watched it draw closer on the bureau of meteorology's rain radar thingo, and I'm glad for the lower temperature.

I'm staying home tonight because it's been another big week, but I will be going out tomorrow to see C.W Stoneking at the Metro (see, I have a life, honest!). He's a self-described "hokum" musician. Basically it sounds like early Appalacian jazzz, lots of horns, guitar, piano, banjo. If you have a few minutes free you should look him up on Myspace. I'm going with my High Tea Ladies; Jess and Leah, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Cripes, I've had a busy couple of weeks, it's been AGM Central. I've done Telstra and NRMA, as well as Idol and CIA and dealt with eleventh-hour script changes from phalanxes of secretaries. I ended up working just over sixty hours last week, and this week wasn't much better. Mum and dad said they saw my credit on CIA, which was pretty cool. I still haven't got around to watching a whole episode, but hopefully I can correct that sometime during the WHOLE WEEK I get to spend in NZ over Christmas. I'm flying out on the 20th, and back on the 28th, so that's heaps of time to hang out in Pohangina - to meet the pigs and say hi to the sheep, chooks and cats. I'm so looking forward to it.

It looks like the whole damn family will be there - last time we did that it was so good. There's something about Pohangina that makes everything special. Mum's cooking is the best, and it's so peaceful and beautiful out there. There's always something else to explore, or some new project to have a hand in. I'm so proud of my parents for making the place so magical.

I'm still chasing clients on the John Cleese thing - I may be doing the Asia leg, the Australian leg, both legs or no legs... but noone has much to tell me at this point. I'll have to keep rattling their cages though, because the Asia dates are just over a week away. Also, the grand finale of Idol is next week - thank goodness. They've asked me to be on standby - if it's good weather they'll be outside the Opera House and won't need me; but if it's not, they'll be in the Bennelong restaurant. I'm hoping it's fine - I will have an enormous Sunday lunch and thoroughly enjoy having two days off in a row if so! Just one more Idol Sunday in the studio.....
I will miss the catering though, they've been really good. I swear I eat better on Idol nights than I do the rest of the week.

So yeah, I've been working hard, but I'm on the home stretch now. Brian (the manager under Murray) at work has been looking after me as much as he's able - making sure I bugger off early or sleep in when I need it. I'm looking forward to looking back (it makes sense, trust me!) on my starting anniversary at how much I've learned and how far I've come - I've made some good contacts, and I think I'm starting to build a solid reputation in Sydney. I can't wait to see where it takes me...!

The Shoo-Fly Hand-Jive

2008-10-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's hot. 28 degrees and rising at 11am.

You can tell summer's pretty much landed early, because everywhere you go, people are doing the Shoo-Fly Hand-Jive. Flies here like to get all up in your face. They set their sites on you and go straight for the eyes, causing everyone out and about to do this constant hand wave in front of their faces. I suspect mine looks more like some sort of spastic self-attack, because as soon as I feel a fly in the vicinity of my face I start slapping it away with both hands, rather than the casual Australian one-handed swipe. I hate flies.

It's been a quiet week at work. Monday I did that ad thing, and they used an actual film camera - an Arri 535 on a Carpenter dolly. Moving pictures from actual film stock, in this day and age! I was so impressed I took some pictures on my phone.
That job took all day. It was two 30-second ads for MLC, which when finished will show a man climbing down a big red share price line. To do this, they built a giant line-graph-shaped catwalk, painted greenscreen green, on a green background. They did endless different angles and lenses and a million takes - all in all, we used over 4000 feet of film stock, but I think it'll look pretty cool when it's done.

On Tuesday I managed a half-day off, and I did have my massage, and it was awesome. I felt so good that I went home and knocked together a gazpacho soup - the first time I've attempted one. It didn't suck, and it was rather nice and summery. I still think of Rimmer in Red Dwarf when I think of gazpacho though.

The rest of the week has been quoting, invoicing and organising for the next month. I've sent away a quote for an eight-city seminar tour, which John Cleese is presenting. I'm crossing all my fingers and toes for it to be approved, because if it goes ahead I will be operating the Asia leg of the tour - meaning I'll be going to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and Hong Kong to work with John Cleese. Imagine that! I grew up on Monty Python and Fawlty Towers, and the standard boyfriend-eligibility test in our family has been the Python Quote Test. I shan't be mentioning the Germans, or the Dead Parrots though - I like to appear more professional and less like a crazed fan on these occasions. Nor shall i be mentioning Palmerston North!

Next week is jam-packed with corporate gigs. It's AGM season, so I'm trucking my rise-and-fall lectern stands about the place for the CEOs and corporate bigwigs of the city. Idol's still going strong, but there's only another four weeks to go now... home stretch! YAY!

Ladies' High Tea

2008-10-26T03:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a good weekend. I had Ladies' High Tea on Saturday afternoon at Leah's house, with Jess, Leanne and Leanne's 11-month old son Matty. We had cucumber sandwiches, freshly baked scones and madeleines and about eight types of tea (Leah works in a tea shop), and gasbagged about weddings and babies, like proper old hens. To be fair, we also made rude jokes and mocked people. Mum would have loved it!

Leah has a dachsund named Barney, who is adorable, but also a big jerk. He'd sneak up on the baby, and just when the baby was quiet and looking he'd go "BOW ROW ROW ROW" really loudly, and Matty would burst into tears. What a jerk! We had to send him (Barney) to the sulking room. Matty's pretty cute too. Before you ask - no, I'm not getting clucky, and I'm still not having babies. I like other people's babies, because you can give them back when they poo or start to cry.

I spent today (Sunday) working on Idol, as per usual. I had an awesome "HOLY CRAP!" moment in the middle of it when the laptop seized up - meaning that there are no words on the autocue and the presenters have to adlib. They just do it without missing a beat though - it really shows how good they are at what they do when something goes wrong like that.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to have a day off sometime during the week, and if I do, I am so getting a massage. My freelancer recommended a masseuse in Bondi Junction, who apparently is amazing. I am such a massage junkie at the moment. Something is wrong with my right shoulder, and it's been hurting quite a bit. It's probably a combination of lifting heavy stuff and tension from grinding my teeth in my sleep - I'll mention it next time I'm at the doctor. In the meantime, massage is awesome. :>

Tomorrow I'm doing a couple of TV commercials at Atarmon. They've booked me for a whole day for two 30-second commercials, so I don't know how many takes they think it'll need, but hopefully it won't be the whole day, cause I'll need to leave at 6.30 to go pick up my gear and a van for it. You really learn to appreciate a good sleep working hours like these!

Publish Post

hooooo boy... update-o-rama!

2008-10-23T00:40:00.000-07:00

I've got a bit of catching up to do, eh. Er yeah, sorry about that. I've been so horrendously busy these last few months it's kinda slipped by me.

Cripes, what have I been up to?

Well, I flew back from Brisbane this morning. I was there for a schmooze night at our office there. Murray invited an old friend of his, Gary Wilkins, to give a talk. Gary's been in the sound business for years upon years - certainly long before I was born. He told some awesome stories, my favourites being about working on Mad Max, and about Michael J. Fox getting drunk and going crazy with the Aussie soundies in Thailand. I think I might know why the guy has Parkinson's now... heh.

All in all it was a good night and I met some interesting people but my goodness I'm tired! Now the challenge is to get my foot in the door for autocue in Brisbane, while living and working in Sydney. That'll be an adventure.

I've been working on a few different things - currently Australian Idol. I'm training with my freelancer, as I'll be flying solo for the last few weeks of the season. It's been pretty good, the crew are all really nice and interesting people, and the contestants are okay too. I've seen some past idols and various other musical types come on and perform, and while I'm not really into the whole pop machine, I do feel pretty priveleged to see talented singers doing what they do, and doing it well. When people are rehearsing and the band's jamming out, it's a really magical atmosphere, there is so much talent just kicking around the studio. Hopefully I absorb some of it somehow!

The freelancer has been awesome this season. She got the kick in the pants she needed over her antics on 'So You Think You Can Dance' (being, I didn't hire her for anything else, until the EP of Idol insisted on it). She's taught me a lot, and we get on like a house on fire now. She'a kiwi too, although a bit older than me. She's of Maori descent, grew up in Auckland and is now having a blast in Sydney. She has a daughter a couple of years older than I am, but I can't imagine her as a Mum at all, she's such a party animal. I guess that's what happens when the kids leave home. My parents are probably standing on the couches, air guitaring to Led Zep right now (or popping wheelies on the tractor).

The hosts are pretty cool too - they're funnier off camera than they are on it, and James especially has a really dry sense of humour that I enjoy. Strangely, the catering has also been really good. I think I eat better on Idol nights than I do the rest of the week. Maybe it's because I just love it when someone else cooks, and it's free...

I've also got a regular gig (once a month or so) on Crime Investigation Australia. It's sort of a pulp crime reconstruction kinda thing. To be honest, I haven't actually seen a whole episode (because I don't have Fox!), but I gather some of the reconstructions can be pretty graphic. The stuff I do is with Steve Liebman, who is a great guy. I think he's my favourite person to work with. We usually have a smallish crew, seven or eight, and we mostly do outdoor stuff. That largely means I lug my gear out to far-flung suburbs (including my 34kg battery pack!). It's hard work, but I love the location stuff. The assistant, Paul, is really helpful and often carries my really heavy stuff for me.

Don't get me wrong, it's not all glamour and bright lights and film crews.. I do plenty of office days, and plenty of weird little corporate jobs. I had one last month for TVSN, when their autocue unit broke, and that was just surreal. I rocked into their studio, which is in a warehouse in the nothern suburbs, and it was like walking into some sort of real-life Kath and Kim. Everyone seemed to be convinced that they were the pinnacle of style, in white pants and leopard-print shoes. The piece I worked on was a ten-minute long spiel on the crazy home shopping products of the month. There was some sort of body-shaping underwear, a spanner set, a very nervous, bearded nerdy guy from Dan Murphy's (a liquor store chain) talking about wine, and a few other bits and bobs straight out of the Innovations catalogue. I don't know if they have that in Australia, but it used to appear in the letterbox in Wellington every so often, and it seemed to be full of completely useless and bizarre inventions.

Other than work I don't think I've been up to much. There doesn't seem to have been time for much else lately. It's AGM season, so I've been pumping out quotes and doing corporate bits and bobs and testing gear and so on and so forth. Because I've been doing Australian Idol, I work Sundays, so my "weekend" days tend to be Saturday and Tuesday. I have been going to trivia nights in Newtown on Wednesdays, in order to ensure I get to see my mates at least once a week. I'm hanging out mostly with the best bunch of nerds in the world, who I met through a forum I frequent (no I won't tell you which one, the internet is a bad bad place and you would be shocked).

My apartment is coming together nicely, though it's always a work in progress. I took a trip to Ikea a couple of weeks ago for more bookshelves, and some shelves for the bathroom. I also came back with fairy lights, an artists' figure model, ice cube trays shaped like stars and hearts, and a couple of other Swedish oddities. Turns out Ikea is a big Swedish blondwood nightmare/adventure - I took my friend Sean out too and we were in there for hours. Everything has a hilarious Swedish name.. my favourites were the "Poang" chair (PWANGGGG!) and the "Groggi" cocktail set (heh, groggy). They also have $1 hotdogs at the end (not for me, for the carnivores among us). Ah, those wacky Swedes and their crazy antics.

I've also gained some plants in the last few weeks. I have rosemary, basil and chives in the kitchen, pennyroyal and pyrethrum on the living room windowsill (to try and stop the bugs flying in), a big thing I don't know the name of in the living room and a peace lily in the bathroom. I've always felt that plants really make a place home, so I feel much more content with my little oxygen factories sharing my space.

I think I'm about newsed out for now, but I promise I'll update this more frequently. If you want some news, please kick me in the pants so I don't forget! Now for a nice cup of tea and a lie down after all that Queenslanding.... :>

The unglamourous world of pulp television

2008-06-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

So it's been pointed out to me that I am entirely too slack at updating my blog. This is partly because hardly anything ever happens to me and partly because I am lazy. So here's an approximate summation of the last couple of months!

I did indeed go to New Zealand for the Wedding of the Year, in Palmerston North. It was a nice wedding - a particular highlight for me was the fact that the groom chose Chris Knox's 'Not Given Lightly' for the first dance, which seemed absolutely perfect to me. Dad was the MC, and he managed to throw in his line (possibly Mum's line) about Palmerston North being the romantic capital of the world. Nice one Dad.

It was awesome to show off New Zealand and in particular my parents place to Terry, who was suitably impressed. I dragged him to Hell Pizza, and around New World in Chaffers Park - it's amazing how much bigger supermarkets back home are. And he marvelled at the beer selection - you can't get beer in the supermarket at all in New South Wales, and New World had a better selection than Dan Murphy's (which is supposed to have a really good range!).

He loved my parents place, for the one night he was there - which I was really pleased about. I'm really proud of them for it, it's such a lovely spot to chill out in. We played bent-rules Scrabble - in which made-up words that make the opposing player are allowed. Such as 'meatnog' (on a triple word score!).

After NZ, I was in Perth and Adelaide for a work trip. Perth is like a bigger, boringer Palmerston North, without the romance. I liked Adelaide though; the hotel was really nice (the Hyatt) and had super friendly and helpful staff, and it seemed to be crammed with awesome little shops and things. I'd like to go back when I have more time to spend poking about.

Directly after that, there was the MTV awards. They went remarkably well - we had Wyclef Jean, Mischa Barton, Eve, the Veronicas, Scribe, Juliette and the Licks, 50 Cent and a couple of others whom I forget, and they all read off my autocue. :> The crew were really lovely as well, especially compared to my 'Dance' experience (thanks to the Freelancer from Hell who spread nasty rumours about me and generally tried to screw me over). The director was absolutely lovely, and one of the floor managers came to find me during pack-down to thank me for my all-round positive vibes. I think that was the best compliment I've had so far. And I had my name on the credits!

Straight after that, I helped out with Rove who did a show in Sydney for the Dance final, then I was back off to Perth the following week for another AGM. I caught up with Helen New, who I knew from the Mairangi Players back in Auckland, and who now lives in Perth. Other than that, Perth is pretty unremarkable.

Today I've been working on 'Crime Investigation Australia', which is on the Crime channel on Foxtel here. Pulp television at its finest! We were shooting in a carpark in Sutherland where a girl was abducted twenty years ago. The host had his serious face on, and we were in the middle of a take, when all of a sudden a troupe of ATC cadets marched across the background. It was like something out of Monty Python - very amusing.

Tomorrow we're off on a bush walk - apparently there are some heiroglyphs of some sort carved into rock somewhere up Hornsby way, and we're going to look for them. It should be a nice day - and Terry gets to use his new hiking boots that he bought for work. That's right - he can now call himself a proper real live Environmental Scientist! He's got a new job with Sydney Water that involves walking through the bush mapping pipe assets, which he's very excited about. I ironed his bush shirts that they gave him, and I'm going to buy him a lunch box to take with him. Barney at my work has a Garfield lunch box, and he always gets Freddo Frogs in it, so I'm going to have to raise the standard.

Ooh, and now that they've recieved it, I can spill this: I bought Mum and Dad a very small piece of Scottish Highland for their birthdays, so you are all to refer to them now as Laird and Lady Bell.

crickets

2008-04-02T04:57:00.000-07:00

It's been a week of high pitched noises in the night. On Monday night we had some sort of machine which made a noise that approximated a vacuum cleaner and a kettle whistling at the same time. I had to put some music on in order to sleep. Would you believe that the Deftones were more relaxing than the High Pitched Noise? Tonight I've just watched an episode of Dexter (which is an awesome show, you should get hold of some - I'm up to season 2), and I'm enjoying the noise of crickets in Hyde Park (and the muted traffic that's par for the course in the city).

I'm rapidly becoming bored with my job - there's just not enough work on. I should get out there and market myself I suppose, but I'm sort of lacking in confidence currently. I've sentenced myself to a year at least in this position. Perhaps it'll get better - or perhaps my mind will quietly curl up and die while I save money to see some new places - I'm thinking about an excursion to Europe next year. On the upside, I'm going to New Zealand (for family), Perth and Adelaide (for work) all in the next two weeks, and the following week I have work on the MTV awards, so at the very least I should be kept out of trouble. I shall have to invest in a good book or five for all the plane trips I'll be on. ^_^

Lifestyles of the poor and obscure

2008-03-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

Since my last blog, I've managed to cram in some minor celebrity experiences. I saw Simple Plan and Catherine Zeta Jones on the same day! Simple Plan were rehearsing for the camera crew on 'Dance', and I happened to be walking past when CZJ got out of a car outside the State Theatre for some premiere or other. How very exciting. Next time I'll try for some more interesting celebrities as those ones seem to have given me germs - I went home that night and immediately got ill. I'd done thirteen hours across three jobs that day, as well as it being a Monday, so I probably had a hole in my immune armour somewhere. It was just a 24 hour thing, but unpleasant nonetheless.

I still have no couch, although that should be fixed next week. I know I've been saying that for a while.... but life gets in the way, y'know? I'm still going with the black Ikea thingit, that way I can get matching stuff later, armchairs and the like. It'll be awesome having a couch, finally. I have lots of lovely cushions, but it's still not quite the same, and it does make my loungeroom look a bit odd.

I went fishing the other weekend with Terry, Luke and Andrew on a little boat at Akuna Bay, and caught myself a 30cm bream, and a pike eel. I let them both go. Actually, to be totally honest, Andrew let the eel go, as it seemed hell-bent on strangling itself by curling around the fishing line and tangling itself all up. As eels are both slimy and vicious, I thought it best left in the hands of the experts. Funnily enough, Andrew caught an even bigger pike eel later on, which did exactly the same thing, only bit him and tore a hole in his t-shirt in the process!

The hair is a sort of reddy-brown. As Sarah so kindly pointed out, I have 'gone gina'. Whatever that means. I wouldn't call it ginger exactly, but it's very normal and boring. I might go a shade darker next time I refresh it, and stick to the semi-permanents for a while.

I’ve been having my groceries delivered, and this week I decided to get the $30 box of seasonal vegetables instead of picking out which ones I wanted, cause I can never decide. I figured I’d get a surprise box and just cook what I ended up with. I don’t think I’ll do it again, cause I got things like eggplant (NOBODY likes eggplant, surely?) and mushrooms and celery. The celery’s going in a vegetable soup, the eggplant I’ll try and fry up Turkish style, but I’m not sure what I’ll do with the mushrooms, because neither Terry nor I like them. I also have nice things, like asparagus, courgettes, pumpkin and rocket, so I do have plenty to eat – I just have to cook it all up and freeze it so it lasts me.

life under coonstruction: limited services available

2008-03-08T23:08:00.000-08:00

I'm recovering from my flatwarming drinks today with a batch of freshly-baked cheese/sundried tomato/shallot scones. Which are very nice indeed - I must get it together to bake more often.

The flatwarming went okay. I'm still sans sofa, but I bought a whole bunch of cushions in a half-arsed attempt to provide at least some seating. It was an interesting mix of people - from Tim Batt, who I worked with at IR, and who is my friend Jon's little brother, to Lincoln and Bernice, who are two of the smartest people I know (as well as being lovely), to the bogan crowd from Fairfield who I know through Kevin.. and Niko came. I am so glad Niko came - I haven't seen him since about 2000, and I was delighted to see that he's still Niko, still interesting and cultured and.... Niko. I wonder if I'm different. I feel different to who I was eight years ago - better than I was eight years ago.

It's interesting the polarity of opinions. We were talking politics for some reason. It started out with Jim Anderton (who Lincoln is a big fan of), and led into Apartheid, and then into Australia's handling of Aboriginal issues. The further west one lives, the less liberal one's views are, it seems.

I have to dye my hair today. I have two corporate jobs on tomorrow and I've had the hard word about the hair. To be honest, I don't think it's that out there, but I suppose a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. I'm kind of miffed at having to change up my appearance just so I don't scare insurance moguls and investment bankers. It's going to be some sort of reddy brown colour, depending on how the dye reacts to the bleach and the bright red/pink that's already there. It's only a semi-permanent also, but I won't have the same light base if I want to redo my bright colours. It was fun while it lasted... god I wish I knew some hairdressers!

It's been a really busy week at work as well. I feel like I've spent the entire week stressing out about a project that cropped up for this coming week. I've spend most of the week on the phone to the client while they changed their minds every five minutes. Frustrating. I keep getting this strange sense of impending doom at work, like something's about to go horribly wrong. I'm as prepared as I can be I guess, but I still have this weird uneasiness. I guess it's just a result of being new to the industry, and I just have to fight my way through it til I feel comfortable. I'm not used to being on the back foot.

I really fancy a night out - I might see if I can arrange that next weekend. I feel like I've been nowhere and done nothing for ages (flatwarming excluded... but I didn't have to go anywhere for that!). The last place I went out was Lowenbrau, which is this big hideous overpriced German-themed booze barn that one has to line up for, for ages. It's not worth the wait, but I was obliged to go for a friend's birthday. It was lovely to see her, but my goodness I hate that bar. I think this makes me a snob. :>

Anyone wanna come out and raise hell with me next weekend? ^_^

fish in a barrel

2008-02-29T02:28:00.000-08:00

I've just come back from two days at HMAS Creswell, the navy training base in Jervis Bay. Mon Dieu! That was hard work! We did nineteen setups, which involves carting my gear our on location, setting it all up, scrolling the script for a bit, and taking it to the next location. I'm going to develop enormous muscles if I do a lot of that - it's heavy stuff!

Those poor trainees, they got soaked and gassed and all sorts of carryon, whereas the film crew stayed largely dry and safe.

It was good fun though, we saw the navy trainees in mock ships being flooded, putting out fires and being tear gassed. It was well impressive. They also had kangaroos all over the base. There were heaps of them, all over the parade ground and kicking back on the golf course they have. They were Eastern Greys, so not the massive ones, but very cute nonetheless.

The weather was blowing a southerly gale, and cold (for Australia). I actually quite enjoyed it.. it's nice being able to rug up. I like how you can always get warm if you're cold. There's nothing much you can do if it's hot.

Mardi Gras is on this weekend, a block from where my place is. I might go down and watch the parade for a bit, and I'm also having a friend over for dinner and a bottle of wine. We'll have to make do without furniture still, but I'm sure he won't mind.

Now, I'm rewarding myself for two days of hard labour carrying my heavy gear around with a pizza, which has just arrived. Yummo!

Let's have a picnic on my loungeroom floor!

2008-02-25T05:15:00.000-08:00

Wow, I did a crappy job of keeping up with my blog. Sorry about that, family and friends. I bet you're wondering a) whether I'm still alive (yes I am) and b) what on earth I've been doing since September (wouldn't you like to know!?).

So. Let me begin, in reverse chronological order.

I have a new job - Teleprompting Manager (it's managing the autocue department), for a Sydney audio and telly gear hire place. It's kind of a niche market I guess, we're not exactly Hirepool. It's also heaps of fun, I am absolutely loving it. I've done a bit of work on 'so you think you can dance', I'm doing autocue for the MTV awards in April, and I get to do a bunch of other cool stuff, like spending two nights on a naval base for a shoot in Jervis Bay, involving fire! I'm still an absolute newbie (I started at the end of January), so absolutely everything is exciting to me.

I decided in the end that stockbroking wasn't really me. I felt constricted by the stiffness of the corporate atmosphere, and I realised that in a period of record low unemployment, there really was no excuse for staying in a job I wasn't passionate about. So I took the plunge, called a few people and found the current position. I'm stoked with it! :>

I also have a new place - a one bedroom apartment in Darlinghurst. The building was constructed in 1928, so it's nice and weathered, as opposed to the bland modern-ness of my former abode in Triguboff Towers. Also, no flatmate. As much as my little quirks are endearing, I'm really not cut out for living with other people. Having my own place and my own space suits me just fine.

I've gained some furniture items, of course and I'm slowly filling the place with things I like. I've got a chocolate coloured timber bedframe, a pistachio mosquito net (no aircon, you see), with my pale sage brocade duvet cover and some green cushions, and I'm very happy with the effect. I also found a little table for beside the bed at the best little secondhand shop in the world, which is at the end of the street where I work. They have many things I'm eyeing up...

If only the lounge was looking so good. I have two perfectly serviceable wooden chairs, and my desk, and my beloved filigree floor lamp.... but oh! For a couch! The novelty of picnic dinners in the lotus position on my loungeroom floor is rapidly wearing off. I did actually buy TWO matching couches today, but I couldn't get them in the lift, nor could I get them into the stairwell (which would have been an epic mission anyway because I'm on the ninth floor). They're at Terry's parents' house, waiting for me to re-Ebay them and buy some smaller, less ostentatious furniture. Pity, cause I really liked them. I did get to have adventures in a van though, which was the first time I have driven in Sydney.I can't believe it took me almost a year to get round to driving something - anything!

But yes, the lounge is an ongoing project. I've also purchased a coffee table, which Terry will pick up while I'm away later in the week. I'll at least have something to eat off, but the lack of seating will be interesting given I had planned a housewarming party this weekend! Perhaps I'll postpone it...

So who's Terry? Well, it's complicated, according to Facebook. I suppose I should probably apply one of those naff relationshippy terms to it now. I'm not going to though. I like him - he's smart. We can argue about absolutely anything, for hours. Previous topics include: whether or not chickens are sentient; whether free will exists or is an illusion; whether Lindsay Lohan's Marilyn Monroe shoot was skanky; and many other inane topics. It's all in good fun though; they're debates, not fights.

In other news, I have bright red hair currently. Because I don't work in an office, and I can. So there. I like it.

Oh, you're still here!

2007-09-22T06:02:00.000-07:00

My apologies, I have been extremely remiss in updating this page. Now I shall have to think of all the things that have happened since July!

Well, I moved house in July, to Waterloo. My new flatmate is Sarah, from Auckland, who is absolutely darling. I love her to bits. Our apartment is in a suburb full of similar apartments, so it's a bit like living in Legoland, but the apartment is comfortable, and has a pool and a gym, and aircon. I'd thought I'd live somewhere more... lived-in, but I do quite like it here, in spite of my snobbish disdain for things modern.

I'm still working at BBY (the stockbrokers), and I won a payrise just before my birthday! That was the best day ever. I had been thoroughly spoilt for my birthday, taken out to lunch at a swanky Italian place in Martin Place, and (swoon) granted a payrise. Then I went to a party at my friend Kevin's place, and had the following week off in New Zealand, to spend with Mum and Dad and some Wellington friends. What a fantastic weekend!

My week in NZ was lovely - although I seem to be acclimatised to Sydney weather, so I found it really cold. I had two days of lectures at Massey Palmy, so I went in and checked out Dad's office, and got to have lunch with Dad both days (and Mum the second). It was funny coming back to really broad kiwi accents, and hearing people say "eh" after every third sentence! Everything's well on the farm. They've had three lambs this year over winter, and they're quite biggish now. We had one night where some of the sheep got out, and there was all kinds of herding sheep in the dark (there may have also been a few choice curse words). I thought it was good fun, but I think Mum and Dad were less impressed about it. I suppose the novelty would wear off real fast.

I'm working very very hard, and cramming in study as well, so I've been really busy over the last couple of months. Sadly, I was a bit too busy to hold on to Rory, and we've broken up. It's okay though, he's settled in well and everyone is on good terms. Mum was good enough to tell me he wasn't good enough for me... and then suggest I get back together with Hamish. Thanks, Mum. ;)

My place has been a bit of a hostel for transient Kiwis lately - we've had two of Sarah's friends from Auckland to say, and now Ainsley, who I worked with at Inland Revenue is here while she finds a flat. It's good fun having people around, particularly people who have recently been through duty free.... !

This last week I've been at a conference in Double Bay, which has been interesting. I was pretty nervous about it, because I'm not a 'networking' kind of person, but it all seemed to go okay, and the CEO gave me a lovely box of Belgian choccies for helping out, which was nice. It really is fantastic to be working in a place where they notice when you're doing a good job!

The weather's getting warmer, and I keep discovering new weird little extremely cheap clothes shops. I'm ashamed at the rate my wardrobe is growing, and I really must stop soon.. but things are so cheap here!

I suppose that will do for the Reader's Digest version of July/August/Most of September. I'll endeavour to be less slack in future. Of course, if I need to be prodded into action, you can always email me at: thepurplelollies@hotmail.com

Good evening to you!

2007-07-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

Greetings, friends and family!
We've survived the Return of Ann-Louise without having to surrender any furniture as yet, but we have ordered ourselves a new bed. And I have been very bad! Today I bought myself a sweet-stand, 60% off! It's lovely, it has sort of filigreed edges and I am quite enamoured of it indeed.
I have lots going on this weekend too. Tomorrow night I'm going to a club with Kev and some of my younger friends (the ones who are closer to 20 than 30), Saturday I'm going on a day trip to the Blue Mountains and then, to a keg party, would you believe it? I'm not sure I've ever been to a kegger before. It doesn't sound very civilised, but I suppose I'm grownup enough to go by myself.

So there's not much news currently, I haven't really done anything interesting. I ended up feeling a bit lousy over the weekend and did't go to the medieval thingo. Perhaps one of you kind readers could fill me in with news from home instead?

Wanted: Bed. Stat!

2007-06-25T02:25:00.000-07:00

So the ex-flatmate who's bed we have been using is coming back on Wednesday. That means I need to go bed shopping tomorrow. Urgently. I might have to see if I can skive a day off work for it, even. Bugger eh.
On the bright side, it's always nice having new stuff, and it does mean I get to go shopping, even if it is at lightning speed.
I'm in the middle of organising to enrol at Massey to finish that damn degree also. Being overseas means many more forms to fill in, and delegating much of the organising on to Dad, who is awesome. And might I say, I appreciate it very much! Thanks, Dad. <3
I've downloaded all 45 episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus, so I'm kept well busy at the moment. ^_^
Not much else is going on. There was a fog last night, which looked pretty cool all swirling around the buildings of North Sydney. I took some photos...

extreme weather!

2007-06-19T05:39:00.000-07:00

It's been a bit wet lately. You may have seen this on the news or whatnot. I'd like to take this opportunity to let you know that I am just fine. In fact, I'm feeling very much at home, as the weather is just like being in Wellington. All horizontal rain and such.
It has been pretty intense actually. There've been all sorts of delays on the train lines, which is a pain in the bum getting to and from work.
Last night I rocked up to the train station to find the platform ram jammed with people, to the extent that people were queueing on the stairs. These are pretty big platforms, and while they do get crowded in rush hour, you couldn't move last night on platform 4 at Wynyard. As I squished in between a fat dude and an old lady with her elbows out on the stairs, they announced that the trains were off and were being replaced by buses. Have you ever seen 5000 people trying to file down a stairway designed for maybe 50? It's intense. So 5000 filed out of the train station in a reasonably orderly manner and lined up on George Street for some mythical bus. At that point I gave up, got a coffee, and went back to the station to see when the trains might be on again. I work just above Wynyard Station, so I was planning to just go back to work and hang out there for a bit. Maybe eat some cheese. Turns out, the trains were just bloody fine! I got there, and in two minutes along came a train. Which I got on. The moral of the story? Cityrail are mental. And possibly spiteful.

We have high wind warnings both outdoors and indoors tonight. It's meant to get up to some serious gale force winds near dawn. I'm keeping an eye on it all from bed with a sore tummy - hence the indoor wind warnings. I find it pretty amusing, apart from the pain part of it.. but Rory is sleeping on the couch to avoid being gassed in the night. I'm pretty sure this makes me less of a woman and more of a crusty old curmudgeon... but what can I do? I have a bad tummy... might as well get some enjoyment out of it! ^_^

Kitteh!!

2007-06-17T05:54:00.000-07:00

I so badly want to adopt this guy

I think we'd get on well. Look at him, all burly and cute and stuff. Can I take him home? PLEASE? His name is Chubba Chops and he is two and a half years old. He currently lives at an RSPCA shelter, but I'm sure he'd be happier at my house. So would I, I miss having a kitteh.

wintery weekend

2007-06-16T22:04:00.000-07:00

It's been really cold and wet again. It rained most of Saturday, and I had to bust out the heater for the first time last night.

I've had a really full-on week at work, with it being a short week and all, and still in the midst of performance appraisal season... people have been stressing out and things have been going a bit wrong. Should be okay next week though.

I had an errand to run in town yesterday, so I wandered the streets a bit, just checking stuff out. I was accosted by Save the Children, She Gym, a bum and ten or so people handing out flyers. One of them, who I didn't abuse, was Kevin's friend whose name escapes me, but who was at Argie's band's gigs out at Liverpool the last couple of times. He was handing out flyers for the Sydney Winterfest which looks like fun. Kev and some of his friends from out that way are medieval reenactors, which looks like way more fun than it sounds. They make thier own armour and swords and stuff. I'm going to go along to some of their meetings in the near future and check it out.

I also ended up in town for a second time with Adam, at Scruffy Murphy's, which is a scuzzy little irish pub on George Street. Frankly it's got nothing on Molly Malone's or even JJ Murphy's or the Bristol in Welllington, but it was raining pretty hard and we wanted somewhere unpretentious and cozy. Lars came along with his poker set, and we went back to my place for some serious money-winning (the pot was $20). I've wanted to get a regular poker night going for a while now, and Lars taught Adam and Rory how to play, and Adam's girlfriend Liz when she came over a bit later, so I have at least three potential victims. I'm not that crash hot at poker myself either, so it was nice to have a refresher session of how it works! It was a really pleasant evening. :)

Today I'm hanging out in bed because it's still freezing bloody cold, listening to loud classical music and drinking endless cups of hot chocolate. It's nice.

Helloes!

2007-06-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a week. This is because I am lazy. Here's what I've been up to:

Monday last week: Liverpool Idol. Hail Discordia should have won, or Broken Response, but I'm sorry to say the title was taken by a band named Rattlesnake, who were a power-metal covers band. It all sounded a bit glam-rock to me, but it could be that I am just bitter cause I sort of know some dudes in Hail Discordia. And I think they're really good. At least they write their own songs, anyway. Although, they did do a cover of System of a Down's 'Toxicity' which was off the hook. I almost moshed.

Thursday: It rained and I had a sore tummy. I stayed home. I rather enjoyed it, apart from having the sore tummy.

Friday: Sarah, Ele and Emma were over from Auckland, so we went out to Loft in Darling Harbour. Unfortunately it was still persisting down, but we had a good night anyway. We drank swanky cocktails. ^_^ I felt somewhat delicate afterwards.

Saturday: My Dad turned 50, and celebrated with Mum and friends from Australia. When I rang it sounded like they were having a very nice time. The big party was last weekend, which I couldn't attend due to lack of funds. Bigup Dad! He's awesome. And SO doesn't look 50.
After nursing myself carefully back to health after the cocktails at Loft, I ended up at Chinese Laundry, a club in Darling Harbour, and had a really good night. Although, I may have got my friend Adam in trouble some more. His girlfriend is convinced he is cheating on her with me (he's not), so I'm a little awkward around her at the best of times. Anyway, I met up with Lars, his girlfriend, and some other guy at Lowenbrau, and Adam's girlfriend Liz arrived. I was a little bit like "ruh oh, I hope she doesn't make a scene", but she was reasonably well behaved. Or at least she stuck to bitching about me in Korean. Either way, didn't make too much of a fuss, so I was happy. Trouble was Lowenbrau, and it's upstairs counterpart Uberbar, are horrible. Like a livestock sale. I hate that kind of place. So Adam and I campaigned hard for going somewhere else. Lars wanted a beer and I don't know what the girls were about, but they said they'd meet us at another bar, called the Basement.
Adam and I went down there, only to find that Guy Sebastian was playing! LOL! So naturally that was out of the question.. and we got a cab down to Chinese Laundry. I rate is, finally a place where I feel totally at home. It's a nice sifty dark bar with lots of little rooms and some great tunes. Loved it. We got turfed out of there at four - Lars et al never showed up, but at that point I wasn't worried to be honest.
After that we ended up at the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel, where I found myself drinking a VB. That's when you know it's time to go home, seriously. I hate beer. By that stage I was starting to realise how pissed Liz was going to be that Adam had disappeared with me all night, and he was looking the worse for wear, so I bailed him into a taxi and installed him on my couch to sleep it off a bit. It's true that alcohol impairs one's judgement, because I'm pretty certain that would have made it so much worse!
Sunday: Total write off, I wanted to die, all day. Mostly slept.

Today the weather's finally cleared up, and Sydney is back to its usual sunny self. I'm lying on my bed in a big patch of sun wondering what to do with my day. I'd like to go shopping for homewares, but I'm also conscious of the fact that I may want to move house in the next month, and money would be desirable on that front.

call the waaaaaaaaah-mbulance!!

2007-06-03T05:51:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling awfully sorry for myself this weekend. I had a cold this week, and I'm not known for my brave face and soldiering-on-ness I'm afraid. I didn't take any days off from work, but I did indulge in some taking to my bed, a little bit in between work. I feel much better for it though, which is lucky because it turns out next week is upon me already!
In lieu of something nice to say, here is a sample of recent paintings, now that I've located the cord thingy that connects my camera to the PC.

Pink cupcakes!

2007-05-31T20:48:00.000-07:00

We had cupcakes at work this morning. Home baked ones that The Operations Manager's daughter Casey made. She's awesome. Nothing makes me smile like cupcakes with pink icing. Also, I'm feeling much better (I had a cold earlier in the week), so today is a good day. Apart from anything else, it's Friday!

it's always sunny

2007-05-28T03:33:00.000-07:00

Sydney has the most fantastic weather, all the time. Last weekend was completely cloudless, and on Saturday I went to see the World Press Photo exhibition at the library. SO GOOD! If you're in Sydney get down and see it this week cause it's free, and gone after the 31st. I loved it. So many amazing pitcures!
After I did that I had a look around the botannical gardens, and saw a crapload of cockatoos, just kicking round this lawn. They're kind of scary en masse, but I'm not much of a bird fan at the best of times. I don't like the way they have all sorts of sharp bits. Still, I've never seen a cockatoo, apart from the one at Auckland Zoo that talks, so that was pretty exciting... but not as exciting as the hundreds and hundreds of bats sleeping on this big pine tree in the sunshine. That was a sight to behold. They're noisy buggers too.
Rory had a couple of job interviews today. Bigup Rory! :D

I'm brilliant!

2007-05-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those rare days when everything you do seems to be a stroke of genius. I came up with some absolute gold corporate speak, so much so that my boss gave me a bottle of wine. I also had not one but two brilliant ideas for paintings - one about one of those old green phones, and one about a mechanical body. I've started on the phone series, and I'll buy some stuff for the other one tomorrow I think. I'm tempted to just stay up all night and work on it, but I've also been really tired, trying to catch up on sleep from Monday.

I'm only staying up to write this blog cause I wanted to say: I love my new job. It's so nice to be recognised in a meaningful way, not like at IR, where it was all very token, and they'd praise you because it was in the staff feedback survey that they had to.. not because your work meant anything or anyone genuinely appreciated you. I can see my work making a difference where I am now, and that's cool. Especially when I'm having one of those days where everything that comes out of my mouth (and typing fingers) seems really well crafted and insightful! Ok ok ok, me and my big fat ego are going to bed now.

the last one about cheese, I promise.

2007-05-22T03:57:00.000-07:00

It turns out cheese does give you weird dreams. After eating cheese for dinner on Sunday, apparently in the middle of the night Rory woke up because I was trying to push him out of bed. He says I told him I had a dream about someone I didn't know trying to grab me, so I was pushing them away. I have no memory of this, but when I woke up my wrist was all bung and my shoulder was all gammy, and the back of my thigh was all sore. I must be a lot more kickass asleep than I am awake.

I gave this homeless guy half my salad today. He was looking in the bin for something to eat, and I was full, so I gave him the rest of my salad, then spent the next hour feeling really guilty because a) I'd already eaten the good bits, there was lettuce and carrot mostly left and b) I forgot to give him the bread roll that came with it, and he wasn't going to be very full on half a salad's worth of rabbit food and c) I spend five minutes congratulating myself on what I good person I was before I made the abovementioned realisations. I still kinda feel bad about it, but I couldn't find him again after I'd been for my walk and realised. Poor old hungry guy. :(

I was shocked to hear also, that AWB Limited, the former Australian Wheat Board had been paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime during UN sanctions. How corrupt is that? I can't believe I missed it in the news when it came out. Anyway, they were looking at having their monopoly toppled today. They have some crazy system in Australia where anyone who wants to export their wheat has to go through AWB and put up with lower than market prices. How backwards and regulated! But at the same time, I can see the sense in argumants for it, given American and Eurpopean subsidies for farmers. If I come down on the side of deregulating the market, does that make me right wing?

Rory and I went out to Liverpool last night for Liverpool Idol. It was top fun. Six bands played. The first three were arse, but Argie's band, Hail Discordia (who we were there to support) were awesome. And I'm not just saying that because he is devastatingly handsome. Johnny-Depp-in-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-Good-Looking. So, so hot. Rory agrees. He's also a talented musician, and has a great voice. However, I think I might be too old to go out til 1am on a school night, because I am shattered today. And of course, I had to stay back at work til 7pm today because stuff needed doing.

On the way back we missed one train, then had to change at Granville for another one, and while we were waiting at Granville we saw a mighty long coal train being pulled by no less than FOUR diesel engines, and also two orange diesel engines with big round noses, just like in a train set, but real life!
Just like this one! I was kinda excited, but I tried not to let it show in case people found out I'm a closet train geek. I have my father to thank for that. He's so into trains that he drives the kids' train in the esplanade in Palmerston North at weekends. Ok, I'm kinda excited about that too, its the cutest thing. I like trains.

I'm knackered. Goodnight!

PS, I'm not allowed to tell people that Rory shaved his armpits. Weirdo.

Cheese for Dinner

2007-05-20T05:27:00.000-07:00

That's right, you heard me. I'm a grown-up, and if I want to eat cheese for dinner, I can! Hell, I could eat ice cream for dinner if I wanted to. On occasion I have. However, now I have a sore tummy, and I'm pretty sure I have cheese to thank. Delicious as it was.

I was a little worried about going to sleep having just chowed down on an awful lot of cheese, but the British Cheese Board says it's sweet as! Thank goodness for that!

cheese, chive and chicken

2007-05-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

Cooking at the butcher yesterday: Cheese, chive and chicken sausages. I never want to say that phrase again. When I came home Kim asked me what was cooking, and all I could manage was "sausages". Six hours saying a tongue twister makes your mouth real stumbly!

While I was cooking the tongue twister sausages, Rory and Kim saw Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban macking at the café around the corner from my house. They didn't stop and bother them, but Rory reports that she is really beautiful in real life. Welcome to my 'hood, celebrity types! Come round for a nice cup of tea and a biscuit sometime....!

Annnnd! On Friday I signed my permanent contract with the stockbrokers, yay!! Now Rory gets money if I die, as life insurance was part of the package. I guess he'll need it, as he's a proper dependent at the moment. I'm giving him an allowance... he hasn't found a job just yet.

So, APEC coming up in September. The Aussies are going hard to prevent the percieved terrorism threat. They're declaring a public holiday on the Friday of the three-day weekend conference. They're closing city train stations.

They're jamming mobile networks - but only in a really small area over the important people.

They're busting out the SAS.

Are they being overly paranoid? Obviously some security will be required, but are they overstating thier own importance? Or has Australia kissed America's arse enough to be a real terrorism target? We didn't really have to worry about this sort of thing at home, and I can't work out whether it's silly or warranted, given the effect on the residents of the city, and people's rights to protest.
It worries me some.

Art Party

2007-05-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

I did the most fun thing on Tuesday night - I took Rory, Kim and Kev to Dr Sketchy's - which is a life drawing session at the Arthouse bar with burlesque models. Rory and Kim didn't seem that into it, but Kev loved it, and for a Westie, he's pretty good! The models were gorgeous too. I have some pics of the sketches I did, which I'll upload at some point. I'll definitely do it again though. www.burlesqueball.com <-- Dr Sketchy's website if you'd like to come too..

After that I was absolutely destitute, but I managed to go out last night as well, cause Adam shouted. Thanks Adam! We went to the Bavarian Bier Cafe on York Street - which apparently is different to the Belgian Beer Cafe, somewhere else and the German Beer cafe, which is another one again, and may in fact have a German name. I'm ashamed to say I got home somewhat intoximacated. Kim went on a date last night... and when I got up this morning he was in the lounge! Hehehee...

Oh, I almost forgot...

2007-05-14T02:35:00.000-07:00

Rory ate his toast into the shape of Australia this morning. Now that's patriotic!

Ramen!

2007-05-14T02:30:00.000-07:00

A bit of a boring day today. Turns out Kev got the wrong day for this battle of the bands thing - it's next monday. So I came home and cooked up some Ramen for Rory and I...

It was killer. I had nori, and shiitake mushrooms, and tofu and everything. Kickass. Not much else going on. Work is still good.

I've decided I'm going to sort my diet out though. So I've had vegemite vogels toast, some almonds, a salad for lunch, a mandarin and my tasty ramen for dinner *polishes halo* Rory even did me the favour of eating the rest of the chips I had, so they don't have to end up on my hips. He's so thoughtful. The only trouble is, now I reallly want something chocolate!

Happy Mother's Day

2007-05-13T06:08:00.000-07:00

My mum is awesome. She's always got something helpful to say, she ages gracefully (even though she's not very old), she makes great asian food and she's cool. She lives on a rural property out of Ashhurst with six sheep (or is it seven?), six chickens, a cat and a buttload of walnut trees. You can borrow my mum, for a price, cause she and my Dad have a bed and breakfast you can stay at - www.konewa.co.nz
I recommend it very highly, because they're both awesome people, and it's a really nice property. Mum and Dad have turned their place from a random bit of land with no power, no phone and a long-drop toilet into a flourishing farmlet and walnut orchard in just over five years. I'm really proud of them.

Having no Mum to hang out with today, I consoled myself with shopping. Rory and I went to the mall in Chatswood intending to buy a World of Warcraft game card and something else. I can't remember what that was. We ended up with two noodle bowls (I am yet to make that ramen though, Kim cooked butter chicken tonight), a rubbish bin for the kitchen, two large canvases and four small ones, plus some gesso, a sketch book for Rory, a toothbrush holder, a game card and a 'For the Horde' T-shirt for Rory, and then we had the great misfortune of walking past a really good sale at Ice (a cheapish clothes shop). I walked out with a green and black striped singlet, two 60s style dresses, a geometric print top and a plaid flannel shirt dress (how grunge!) for just under $30. I was well pleased, and am going to wear my new singlet tomorrow, when I go out to Liverpool to see a band with Kevin.
I've started on one of the large canvases - I'm doing some sakura blossoms for the bedroom, and if it turns out not to suck I might work on something for the Parentals.

Yesterday I worked Kim's day at the butchers, which was good fun. I cooked rump steaks (the rump jokes never get old, I tell ya). It was the final straw for my poor feet though. I wore flats, so it wasn't too bad.. but it meant that my heels got a workout to match my toes from standing around in heels from the conference. Afterwards, I went to Woolies and bought heaps of good stuff, like cottage cheese, fruit, vegetables and beans, because this week I am sorting out my diet. For serious. Then I went to catch the bus and discovered that I'd just missed it and the next one was half an hour away. Not being the sort to sit around on my tod, I decided I'd walk a few stops. The bus went past me just as I'd passed the last stop before mine, so I ended up walking the whole way home. You shouldn't feel sorry for me, cause it was only a 40 minute walk (I think I made it an hour with my feet and my shopping), but by the time I got home I was practically incoherent. Rory had to go to the bottlo to procure me some vodka. Fortunately, Rory and Kim had taken the liberty of ordering me some pizza, so dinner was ready and waiting. d(^_^d)

Tomorrow I am going to a battle of the bands thing out in Liverpool with Kevin. Rory's coming too, and we'll probably crash at Kev's house in Fairfield. Evan might come too, I hope so, cause he's a top bloke. The band we're going to support plays medieval influenced metal, so it should be interesting!

the pain! oh god, the pain!

2007-05-10T03:27:00.000-07:00

My feet are so sore right now. I've been swanning about schmoozing all day in cheap stilettoes. That'll learn me.
The conference was pretty interesting. Well, I thought so, but then I've been known to enthuse about things most people would fine deathly boring. Like belly button lint and writing KPIs. Anyway, the first day went off really well. I dressed conservatively and didn't say anything dumb, and I got to have a little drinkie with the new workmates afterwards. The CEO even rocked over and told me he'd been hearing good things about me. *blush!*
The conference itself, like the industries involved (stockbroking, mining, oil and gas production) was hugely male dominated. At one point, I was the only woman in a room full of about 70 people, and I was only there being a microphone taker-overer for question time and geeking it up learning industry terms so I can impress the people who make decisions about hiring one permanently. Still, it was quite interesting. I picked up some stuff about what makes a good presentation, and what makes a dull one, as well as got inspired to sink some nonexistent funds into nickel mining and exploration.
Good times!

For now though, I'm going to go and have a cry about how much my feet hurt!

Bats

2007-05-09T04:18:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of bats here. Seriously. A LOT of bats. One just flew past my window. I can't get over how there are just bats kicking around the city, like mammalian little night pigeons. It's kind of creepy, but also kind of cool.

I am knackered today. My friend Kev came over last night and we stayed up chatting for ages, which was cool cause I haven't caught up with him properly for a while.. but it's been a huge week at work also, due to this conference thing we're having tomorrow, so I've been super busy all week. I'm kind of excited about it.. I'm even going to buy a suit tomorrow in the morning. Cause I don't acutally own one any more, and this shindig is going to be pretty corporate. Gosh, I hope I don't mess it up by saying something completely inappropriate and retarded.

Only two more days to go til the weekend. I don't know what I'm going to do with this one - except maybe meet Anton for a drink. And maybe go to Manly for another drink with Auntie Karen's $50 note.
On monday though, I am going to see a battle of the bands thing that someone Kev knows is in, which should be awesome. They play medieval influenced metal. The last time I went to a live gig was when I saw Pennywise last year in July, I think. I'm really looking forward to it!

At last!!

2007-05-07T02:21:00.000-07:00

^^ costume party!

After over a week of dragging the chain, several hours and hundreds of dollars of phone calls and some serious bollocking... we finally have a landline and internet at home. Now we can't make the router work, so we can only have internet on one PC at a time, but it sure beats paying for internet cafes!

We've moved into our room and we're borrowing Lou (the previous occupant)'s bed. It's nice and firm, and not an air bed. I love it! The building is really shoddily built, early 80s vintage and as such it's kind of crumbling in places. There's a big crack between one of the walls and the roof, and one of the wardrobe doors fell off the first day. It's got lots of light though, a big ranch slider and a skylight.
Ok, it's not the place I would have chosen, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it here once I've decorated a bit.
The room faces north, so it gets lots of sun in the middle of the day, and lots of air when the ranch slider is open. I was lying on the bed reading my book and enjoying having a room on the weekend, and looking out the window. All sorts of crap flies past the window. Like, a bunch of black and silver balloons, two crows, some rosella things, leaves, a plastic bag. It's the third floor up, and we look out onto next door's roof and chimney, which is brick and has old fashioned chimney pots on top.

Last weekend we went to the oriental markets. I had a great time, and came back with so much stuff! Rory, Kim and I were going to a costume party on the Saturday night, so we bough costumes to wear. I was a geisha, and Rory was a wizard. I also bought a hat, two pairs of leggings, a shirt-dress, a paper lampshade, a japanese sword for Rory, and a bowl of ramen. Good gear, as my dad calls it. Now I'm determined to make some at home, and I've got a shopping list for miso paste, nori. bonito flakes and suchlike. Yum!
The other thing I came back with was a second-hand tennis racquete which I found at the St Vinnie's shop up the road. The lady said I could bring it back the next weekend (we were going to use it for the costume party), but I haven't been back. I liked her, and I liked the op shop, so I might have another look this saturday.

The costume party was a bit meh.. everyone seemed to be trying a bit too hard... or that might have been leftover annoyance from a book I had read last week, where I couldn't stand the main character because she was a shameless social climber, and said things like "groovy". Unforgivable!

Last weekend was a bit quiet, apart from Friday night, when Rory and I went out to Parramatta to see Spiderman 3 (Don't bother), and afterwards I went out with Adam and some of his friends to this old-man pub in Darling Harbour called the Pyrmont Hotel. It was gorgeous, full of character. I even almost saw a proper Aussie bar brawl! Adam's friend Cynthia, who called me Switzerland, was gorgeous. I liked her. She had lovely clear skin, full lips and dark eyes and a cool peircing.

I'm so happy about having interweb. It's so cool to be sitting here in leggings and my big fluffy blue socks posting on my blog. It's even cooler to be able to just blog when I think of something to say, cause I keep forgetting all this brilliant stuff I want to post about.

A Steak to the Heart

2007-04-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

I am a lifelong vegetarian. I've just always been this way, from a child. Apparently when my Mum fed me that mushy meat baby food stuff I'd just spit it back out at her, and nothing's changed since then. So it may come as a surprise to those who know me, that I cooked somewhere in the region of twenty-two steaks yesterday, for money.
Kim (Rory's sister) does promo work every second saturday for a local butcher, and they needed someone to fill in as all their usual staff had things on. So, being destitute as usual I volunteered. How hard could steak be? Men do it all the time.
I sent a few texts out cause I thought it was pretty funny. Kynan told Jon B, who sent me the following (bless his ginger heart):
"I hear Emma likes a bit of meat. She likes it big. And she's not afraid to use it in a shopping mall". Figuring that he was the kind of man who knows a bit about steak, I asked him for advice, and got the following. "Taunt the meat Emma. Make it feel hot. Like it's being fried alive. Or alternately, just fry it cause that's what you have to do".
Turns out I'm rather good at it. The steak was certainly very popular, and I might go do it again. At least they know I'm not eating all the profits...
Rory thinks it's the best thing ever, and I brought three home for him, Kim and Lou. We had steak (well, everyone else did), chips with chicken salt (and I had mayo), and salad (mayo has protein in, right?).

In other news, the fridge is on the blink. It makes funny motor noises, and every now and then it gives up completely in spectacular fashion. Usually in the middle of the night. It has one of those alarm thingies that sounds when the door is open and that goes off, and all sorts of lights flash and stuff. If you turn it off, and then back on, it recovers, but it's not doing the dairy products any good, and I am loath to shop properly as anything fridgey I buy has an uncertain future. My first pay day from the stock brokers is on Thursday (I spent most of my butcher's money on dinner for the troops.. salad and whatnot plus a few things I needed) so I'll probably get a man in at that point. I would dearly love to have a proper grocery shop, cause I look decidedly porky at the moment from all the takeaways and dinners out I've been doing lately.

I took a bus trip through North Sydney to Northbridge, to get to the butcher's yesterday. It's lovely, all established big trees and stately brick buildings. Also, this random bridge that looks like it should span a fairytale castle moat, but mysteriously is in the middle of suburban Sydney.

Happy Tuesday

2007-04-17T03:22:00.000-07:00

Well, that was a good weekend. I went out on Friday night with Skrael and some of his friends and Rory came along. We went to this German beer place where the beer comes in these massive litre steins. The beer was good (according to the men), but the music was wack, so we decamped to the Ship Inn, where I had a REALLY tasty Margherita pizza and several vodkas.
Saturday night Rory and I went all the way out to Fairfield to Cristal (Kevin)'s place. The area around the train station really was ghetto, but Kev's house isn't. Again, that was a really good night. I was merry (hic).
Kevin is a medieval enthusiast, and he had his practice sword and shield out, and I checked out his metal weapons, which are really cool. I also had a look at some video from the medieval festival thing he went to over easter weekend, and it looks like heaps of fun. I'd love to learn how to do sword combat.
Kevin is also a great host. He and his dad Hans put on a barbeque, and Hans brutalized Rory with his homemade schnapps shots. What a lightweight. I was perfectly well behaved and kept my composure all night. I just chose not to walk around too much. We stayed the night out there and caught the train back the next day, when Rory was feeling slightly sorry for himself.

On Monday I got a job offer from the IT place. And the stockbroker place wanted me so much they matched it, so now I am working for BBY. It's awesome! AND! my car sold! YAY! Thanks to Jono, who has been organising it from New Zealand. That guy is completely totally awesome and I SO owe him.
My PC arrived yesterday too, and it booted up just fine. All in good working order. Just need my clothes and linen to arrive and it'll all be good. I'm feeling pretty good about today! ^_^

I am SO employable!

2007-04-13T00:52:00.000-07:00

I had my first day at BBY, the stockbroking firm today and also a second interview at EMC, the IT firm. Both of them seem really keen to have me. The stockbroking one's a temp role at the moment, with the possibility of going permanent, and the IT one is a si month contract with possible ecstension to help them sort out their database. For some reason the ecs key doesn't work at this PC in another sifty net caf, so ecscuse my unsusal spelling of some words.

The stockbrokers is a bit like in the movies, with dealers yelling and swearing and TV screens all over the place and stuff, it's quite ecsiting. I can't decide which way to go now if they end up both wanting me. IT is cool, but there might be more money down the track at the brokers. I'll have to have a think about it over the weekend, but I'll be going to the broker's on Monday. ^_^

For tonight, I'm going out for a drink with Skrael and Jozz, and tomorrow out west to the ghetto to see Cristal and Dothic. Wheee! Rory is ecsited about going to the ghetto. He's singing the elvis song, in the cartman voice.

Tuggerah

2007-04-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

Over Easter weekend, Rory took me up to Tuggerah to meet his Opa and Oma. Tuggerah is a bit north of Sydney, just north of the Hawkesbury river. His grandparents live next to this creek thing. The terrain is all flat, so the back of their place goes on to the creek side. It's lovely, there's all kinds of birds and creatures around. Didn't see any snakes, but that's probably a good thing cause I would have squealed and jumped and stuff. There's lots of tall gum trees and it's a nice neighbourhood.
I was so well fed up there I swear I'm going to have to spend the next week jogging! Oma is a great cook, and the meal I had at his auntie Margaret's place was really nice as well. She did this delicious tofu salad thing that tasted like it had balsamic vinegar as a dressing, and some crudités with a satay sauce that was divine. Uncle Mick has the broadest Aussie accent I've heard yet, and says 'mate' a lot. He was great fun! In fact, the whole family were. Opa makes stained glass things and Oma is a talented seamstress. She'd made Kim a gorgeous black broderie anglaise halter neck dress when we were up there, and she's got scores and scores of vintage patterns. They were lovely, I'm looking forward to going up there again.

Sydney

2007-04-11T21:06:00.000-07:00

I love Sydney. The people here are all gorgeous, the shops are plentiful and cheap and the sales are amazing! I've been out for a drink at Lenin bar on the waterfront near the Opera House, but not properly out on the town yet. I've been up and down George Street and got myself a bank account and a mobile number (email me if you want it.. thepurplelollies@hotmail.com)
The public transport system is fantastic - Aussies seem to whinge about it nonstop. I reckon spending a week relying on Wellington's rickety Johnsonville line would cure that forever. We've never had to wait longer than 10 minutes for a train the whole time and the carriages are remarkably clean. And big! The trains are double-decker jobs and I've never seen one less than four carriages long.
We went to the Easter Show last Tuesday, which was heaps of fun. I bought stuff, but didn't come back with a show bag. I ended up with a hat, a toy bilby (endangered rat thing, proceeds went to helping the endangered rat thing) a hematite necklace and ring, and a cameo necklace which is currently decorating my grey tartan skirt. I really need to get a job now! I also saw a snake. I'm not a fan. Haven't seen any huntsmans yet, and I'm looking forward to it, assuming when I see one it's not on my head or something.
The next thing I want to see is the bats taking off at (I've forgotten the name of it) at dusk. Apparently it's really cool. This weekend we should also get to the zoo and the aquarium.

One thing I've noticed over here is that they have HUGE shopping malls, everywhere. Seems like there's one parked at every train station. Convenient, but dangerous until I find myself a proper income. I have a few leads at the moment. I was offered the job with the deaf relay service, but turned it down as it wasn't enough money. I've signed up with an agency, and I'm looking at roles with an IT company (which I'm really excited about) and a stockbroking firm. Both are fixed term contracts, but that's okay cause I'd quite like to have some variety. I've settled on the IT industry or financial services as areas to develop into.
I had an interview today for the IT one, and I'm pretty amped about it - it's close to home, pays a good rate and sounds like interesting work. I hope I get it!

Aerolineas what-now?

2007-04-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

Next time I am flying Emirates. The flight over is funny now, cause it was over a week ago.. but at the time I was less than impressed.
On the upside, the check-in girl very kindly didn't notice that my baggage was overweight and didn't charge us for it. That was nice of her.
The aircraft was in desperate need of a revamp. We flew cattle class and it was cramped as. There was no inflight movie, and we had a lady in front who had her seat back as far as it would go for the whole flight, two small children next to us, and this british lady behind who spent the whole flight complaining about things in a really loud plummy voice to the poor asian girl next to her. I didn't hear the asian girl say a single thing the whole time - she must have been nodding and smiling.
The food was a roll the approximate size and texture of a golf ball, and a squishy sandwich thing with unidentifiable filling. The coffee had a film on top that looked suspiciously like diesel fuel. Fortunately, I had four Reese's cups in my bag, which Rory and I ate for breakfast. Thanks Paul!! (they were part of my leaving gift from work)
We did arrive in one piece though, and got through customs without having the rubber glove treatment.... even though we discovered on arriving at Kim's place (now home) that I had a nectarine, a passionfruit and a pear in my bag from my lunch at work on my last day. Lucky me! I should have been fined $200.00.
There was a Krispy Kreme at the airport! Everything you've heard about them is true - they are delicious. We got the train in to Circular Quay and a ferry to McMahon's point with our fifty something kilos of combined baggage and hiked up the hill. I feel awfully virtuous about it now, but I'm pretty sure there were curse words on the way.
So currently, home is an airbed in the lounge at McMahons point. I like it. We have harbour views and afternoon sun and a great balcony. I can't wait to have a proper bed and stuff and have my clothes and linen and PC arrive!

Auckland

2007-04-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Auckland at 10.30 on Thursday the 29th of March. Kris picked me and Jono up in style in his incredibly classy Nissan Bluebird.. with a Navman. They are so cool - I want one now. I love how Kris' flat is so high-tech even his toaster has a digital display.
I was treated to the most gracious hospitality there, thanks to Simon and Marie, Kris and Alice who are all the best hosts ever. Marie gave me the run of her kitchen, so I made a passionfruit sponge thingy for Rude Not 2 at Supper Club on Friday night. Marie made chocolate crackles, which were divine. I think I had about twelve.
I had an absolute blast, although by Sunday I was feeling a little bit delicate, to say the least. Many thanks to all the Aucklanders who entertained me, in particular Jono, Clipper, Sayra, Leigh, Dave, Lejanne and Bee.
Sunday I went out to Glen Eden to see Mel and Stef, and Mel's son Cameron and Mel cooked the best potato thingies with garlic salt. I must blag the recipe from her, they were delicious. Monday night Rory and I went over to my grandma's for dinner, and Rory got the full family treatment - aunties Karen and Fiona, and uncles Mike and Cliff, plus cousins Rachel, Andrew, Tim and Sophie, and Dad and Grandma. Apparently he passed, which is lucky cause I quite like him.
We stayed with Dad at the City Life Monday night, and were upgraded to one of the penthouse suites, which was mad blinging! Trust me, it was pluuuush. The place had three bedrooms and four bathrooms, a kitchen with a granite benchtop, double-height ceilings, and the most comfy bed I have slept in for ages and ages. Pity we had to get up at three-something to catch our flight.

At last!

2007-04-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have found a net cafe that will let me sign on to Blogger!
So.. to recount the things I've done since my last post..

Thursday at Supper

2007-03-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

I had my last day at work on Wednesday. It was weird, it felt just like any other day. I rocked up on time, did my work. We had an afternoon tea thingy, but it kinda felt like it was for someone else. They did get me a really nice necklace though, Paul chose it. That man has awesome taste. It's all sparkly-silver with black beads on it, and it's nice and weighty around my neck (but also light enough not to contribute to my 29kg Baggage Problem).
I had leaving drinkies at Syn, and lots of my favourite people came, for example Kynan and Jon Batt. People kept buying me Midoris, but it turns out I am crap at drinking. I think I got through about three before I got bored and went home at about 11ish. Jono Jones and TtheHF continued til about 3am, and Jono looked somewhat delicate at 8.30 yesterday morning for our flight to Auckland.
Last night we had Thursday Supper Club bidness. It was lovely, I met some people who I was surprisingly impressed with, and I managed to spill tomato sauce all over Zenny's crotch. He wasn't that impressed, but everyone else thought it was hilarious. I slept on Kris B's couch and woke up this morning next to a 40cm high Alf toy. He was a poor substitute for Rory, but cuddly nonetheless.
Today I've been baking. I've got this passionfruit sponge dealie on the go, in between laundering the clothes I was wearing last night, as I was on the recieving end of a tomato sauce hug from Zenny. I came home smelling like a plate of fish'n'chips.

Sarah's Birthday

2007-03-26T20:13:00.000-07:00

My little blister turned 24 on Sunday the 25th of March, so Rory and I went up to Pohongina Valley to say goodbye to my parents and to wish her a happy birthday. I got her a breast cancer t-shirt in black with two gold kissing fish on it (it was what she asked for, I have no imagination right now).
I was pretty tired after the big wedding the night before. I drove up and by the time I got there I was exhausted. I wanted to nap, but mum and dad had alternative plans..... sheep worming.
Mum, Dad, Rory, Boring Richard, Sarah and I ended up chasing seven wayward sheep through three paddocks to the stock yards to be wormed. I have to say, two dogs would do a much better job than six of us people and a four-wheeler. It was kinda fun though. Turns out sheep are even stupider than I thought, but they're sort of cute in their way. Mum was more upset than I thought she'd be at me going overseas - I thought she'd be like "ok, have fun.. bye", but she seemed pretty sad about it. Dad is going up on the Monday for some business thingy, so he's jacked up a hotel room for Rory and I and he'll give us a ride to the airport at ridiculous o'clock on the Tuesday morning, and see us off. Thanks, Dad!
d(^_^d)

Julia's Wedding

2007-03-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

Julia got married to Aaron on Saturday the 24th of March. She looked lovely in a dress designed and made by Aaron's aunt, and had Liz and Jo as bridesmaids in bright fuschia. The wedding was at Trentham Gardens, and Julia had all the fine details organised, right down to the weather, which was hot and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. It was a perfect afternoon.
The ceremony was lovely. Jo and Liz did a reading each and at the end, Julia and Aaron released two white doves, which I thought was a nice touch.
The reception was also held at Trentham. The décor was immaculate in pink and white. Everyone had individual place names, and a fun rolled-up piece of advice on marriage. Everything turned out just right and it was a really beautiful day. I have some photos, which I'll post when I can find the cord for my camera.. but the official ones are at http://www.emotif.co.nz/images/Weddings/Julia_Aaron/index.htm

Rory's Leaving Drinks

2007-03-26T20:05:00.000-07:00

On Friday the 23rd Rory had leaving drinks at the Loaded Hog. A few hardened drinkers from work came and a good time was had by all. I was sober driver. It was a really good night, although Rory was feeling rather sorry for himself the next day. Jono was there, who I am travelling up to Auckland with for Supper Club shenanigans later this week, as was Eli, who is one of my favourite people, ever. I managed to offend him slightly by calling him Frodo (he has a passing resemblence to tolkienesque little people), but I redeemed myself with a running power-hug.
Fun times ^_^

extreme curry sunday!

2007-03-17T20:14:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many sleeps now cause I've stopped counting.. but it's so close! I've got my car on TradeMe, and my mattress, and I'm having a little panic about getting everything organised.

I've applied for 64 jobs. I've had a few bites, and the one I am really interested in is being a helpdesk operator for the Asutralian Relay Service - that's how deaf, speech impaired and hearing impaired people talk to call centres and stuff. It sounds like it'd be quite rewarding, and I think I have the skills to do it. :)

My last day at work is a week and a bit away, and Rory's is next week, so I've been organising to catch up with people, which is howcome I'm having an Extreme Curry Sunday today, with Nick, Dave, Hamish and maybe some others, I don't know. Good times. :)

So here are my plans so far:
Sunday 18th: Extreme Curry Sunday
Wednesday 21st: Rory's last day
Thursday 22nd: Coaches drinkies
Friday 23rd: Rory's drinkies
Saturday 24th: Julia's Wedding
Sunday 25th: Sarah's birthday
Wednesday 28th: My last day and drinkies at Syn (time tbc pending roster, all welcome)
Thursday 29th: Auckland! Maybe Supper.
Friday 30th: Simon and Marie's leaving do at Supper, all welcome cause I'll be there too. And also leaving.
Sunday 1st: Dinner with family
Monday 2nd: pull all nighter for 5am checkin on the 3rd
Tuesday 3rd: Au revior!!

big tings a gwarn!

Wednesday: in which I spend more money on planes

2007-03-07T02:57:00.000-08:00

I have my extra two days leave - so it's 21 sleeps now until I leave work! I've just booked a flight from Wellington to Auckland on Thursday the 29th, soooooo... I get to spend the weekend with awesome people such as Kris, Mel, Grandma and others. I'm still excited!
I still need to buy some suitcases and work out exactly how I'm getting my PC over there, but I think it'll all come together nicely.
I applied for three more jobs today, so surely someone's gotta want to interview me, right? I've sent my CV to heaps of places.

I went out for dinner tonight with some of my friends from work, the ones that started the same time as me. As usual I felt a bit boring and lame, being the only one still in the call centre.. especially as most of the others have travelled to awesome places or got awesome (that's a relative term, we all still work for the government) jobs. At least I'm outta here in three weeks to start my Big World Adventure.. but I still feel a little inadequate I guess. Robyn's just got engaged, and her ring is lovely. It's white gold or platinum (I can't tell the difference) with a big diamond on the top and some smaller ones on the sides. The proposal is a really romantic story with rose petals and a hot air balloon and stuff. Good on her, she's awesome and she deserves a really romantic wedding.

You know who else is awesome? My friend (and also flatmate at the moment) Jo is awesome. She was at dinner as well, and we had a really good talk over coffee waiting for the bus home. I can't say enough good things about Jo, she's one of my favourite people, and she is my hero. She was a team leader at work at 20, studies her arse off doing law, works and works at work (she has an awesome job, but she puts in loooong hours), and she's always positive and inspirational. I'm going to miss Jo.

Ha ha.. Rory's trying to sleep beside me and just asked me "how do really fat people go to the toilet?".
We jsut had a conversation about the logistics of really fat people going number twos. Such is my glamorous life... I really like him, even if he does talk about poo sometimes.

yesterday's error

2007-03-05T03:10:00.000-08:00

twenty--three sleeps yesterday? I don't know what was up with my maths yesterday, but today being the 5th of march, and the plane out being the 3rd of April, I think that makes it (okay I'm using my fingers here)... 29 sleeps today. Or, 25 sleeps til I finish work.. or 23 if I finish two days early, like I hope.

I'm staying up late today eating stroopies, ,these dutch waffle thingies. They're sweet and rather tasty.

So far I've applied for jobs at: a travel agency, a toy company, a liquor company, some sort of medical place, a fashion house and a few more that don't really specify. I keep imagining myself doing all these different jobs in different industries, and it seems funny, having been a boring civil servant for four years on the trot. Kind of exciting. Gosh, I hope I find something!

twenty-three sleeps

2007-03-03T14:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome to what will hopefully become the Blog of my World Tour! I am starting with Australia (for a year or two) on the third of April, and frankly I am excited.

Twenty-three sleeps until my last day at work. I've been getting excited since January, because I am quitting my job and buggering off overseas with Rory, my erm... significant other.
For two months I've been banging on about how much better things will be in Australia, how much more exciting, how much better the weather will be, how much hotter the people will be.. I'm not sure if any of the above is actually true, but since I've never been outside of New Zealand (apart from two weeks in Hawaii when I was 10).. I'm quite happy to live in a little fantasy world about it.

If my last day at work was Christmas, the decorations would have been up for two months and late night shopping would have started. People would have started pillaging the choccies from their advent calendars and busy mums would have started stressing out about christmas dinner. That's how close it is.

I am SO EXCITED!