Thursday, January 29, 2009

Out of the Blue

I have to apologise to anyone who read my last post and is interested in my job...because it no longer exists.

Yes. That's right. My job was made redundant today. And my first reaction...

WOO-HOO!!!

Oh, it's such a relief! I can't tell you how excited I am. Not only is there now a definite finish date but they are going to pay me to leave! Being a receptionist, I never thought that they would make the position redundant, but I hoped they would. It seems they were able to do without me while I was on holidays after all. Now I will be finishing up at the end of February and on top of my February pay, I will now receive another month and a half of wages, which can go straight into the bank and possibly bring my move to London a whole lot closer.

Is that a crazy reaction? Probably.

But now I can shout it from the highest hill - I'm moving to London!!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Home Stretch

It's back to work for me tomorrow and I'm really not looking forward to it.

It seems like forever that I have been on holidays and it's going to be hard to get back into the routine of going into work every day, but this is it. The home stretch.

I know that my time there is now limited and that can only make me excited, right? Sure...!

Anyone out there looking for a job...a very quiet, cushy job? I know where you can find one...

Monday, January 26, 2009

Happy Australia Day


Today is Australia Day. A day of Vegemite and thongs. Of zinc cream and floppy hats. Of BBQ's on the deck and mosquito bites in the afternoon. A day for Tim Tams, lamb chops and Violet Crumbles. I could go on...

And how am I planning to celebrate my last Australia Day in Australia for a while? Tonight I am having a BBQ...to celebrate the end of the NFL (American Football) season...as you do! For the past three seasons now, a group of us have got together at my brother-in-law's (a mad NFL fan!) to watch American Football. The first season, there weren't too many of us with any idea as to what the game was about. We had one resident American among us who was fountain of knowledge. We tip on every game, other than the Superbowl, and at the end of season BBQ, we present a trophy to the tipping winner. The group is a pretty even split of guys and girls and very intersting to note that the first season trophy was won by a girl and the second season trophy was won by my sister. Not bad for a pretty "blokey" sport!

Now my goal is to take out the trophy this year. I have finished third the past two seasons and since this will be my last one, I want that trophy! I'm not too confident though, as the past three weeks games have been upsets (and not just upsetting me!) and have thrown my tips into chaos. Tonight will reveal the winner.

Next week is the Superbowl and even though my team, the mighty New York Giants, are out, I have to say...go Cardinals!!

Anyway, back to Australia. I woke up to the sounds of the kookaburras this morning which made it feel like Australia Day...although, I wake up to the sound of them most mornings!

This is going to be my last Australia Day in Australia for a few years. That makes me a little bit sad! In my life, I have spent two Australia Days outside Australia and they were both great!

The first one I spent in Crieff, a small village in Perthshire, Scotland. I was working at the Crieff Hydro Hotel and after my shift, met up with some other Aussies at the "Social" then back at home, we gathered under the Aussie flag in the lounge room and drank cans of Irn Bru out of our Aussie flag stubbie holders and ate Cheezels that had been sent from home for the occassion. The second one was in Manchester, and after work, we opened a bottle of Aussie wine and a packet of Tim Tams bought from Tesco and ate Cherry Ripe and Chicken Crimpys (sent from home), watching taped episodes of McLeod's Daughters!

Who knows what I'll be doing next Australia Day!

Have a great one....remember the Aerogard and avagoodweekend!!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The Week That Was

What a week! The builders have been in and ripped out all my walls and put up new gyprock all ready for painting this week. Hopefully I can move back home by Wednesday.

Meanwhile, I have been living upstairs with my sister, brother-in-law, 9 year old niece and the German Shepherd, Max! It's a full house.

Yesterday, we had 40 plus people at the house for mum and dad's 40th wedding anniversary party. We planned a high tea and it went off without a hitch...but I am exhausted today. After thinking there wouldn't be enough food, we had so much left over. Thank goodness for morning tea after church today. A perfect opportunity to "offload" the leftovers! Everyone was happy! Back to the party, we surprised mum and dad with some family members who came up from Melbourne and also with a trip to New Zealand, so I think they were pretty pleased with that!

Since I am on holidays from my regular job, I have been doing my "other" job, as a temporary nanny for the school holidays. It has been fun but full-on! I have had a few activities planned, but so far all the kids have wanted to do is watch TV or play on the Wii. What can you do? At least they are happy! This week, however, I will have a few more kids to care for and so I'm planning some games and activities to do so we'll see how they go down with the kids. The house I am at seems to be a drop in centre for all the kids in the neighbourhood, so at any given time, my four kids can double to eight or drop down to two. Most of the houses at this end of the street just leave their front doors open so the kids can come and go. Not quite sure how I feel about that, but so far, no one has gone missing or been run over by a car, so I guess it's all good!

Tomorrow, I have an appointment for a haircut, a real haircut. Not a trim but a cut. After growing my hair long for about a year, the time has come for a cut. I do this all the time. I grow my hair long. Get annoyed with it. Get it cut off. Get annoyed with it. Grow my hair long....and the cycle continues! Maybe it's a girl thing! So, it's off to the hairdresser with me.

So, a pretty busy week. I still have one and a half weeks of holiday and I think I'll be looking forward to getting behind my desk for a good rest....but not quite yet!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Homeless

The builders have finally given me a date. They will be here on Tuesday to tear out all my walls.

I'll be homeless. Sort of.

I will be moving in with the landlords upstairs (also known as my sister and brother-in-law) until all the work is done.

So, I am packing and moving - again. Having been back in my place for a week and a half and un-packing all my stuff, I now need to pack it all back up and cover everything with plastic sheets. What a fun way to spend the weekend!

It actually gives me the opportunity to throw out a whole lot of stuff. I have been putting it off for too long and it needs to be done. Each time I have started though, I end up moving stuff from one place to another and never throwing things away. I need to get tough and just do it. I have never been a big hoarder, but with this move to London, I am selling most of my stuff and won't have any place to store anything beyond one box or so (one box will be OK in your garage won't it, mum?). This means throwing out a whole lot of stuff that I haven't been able to part with before.

I keep thinking to myself, do I really need it? The answer: probably not, but I want it.

I'm going to need to have a massive garage sale....

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Back to Work (part 2)

Day Three. Wednesday. Hump Day. Whatever you like to call it, Wednesday is the middle of the week. The middle of a very long and quiet week for me.

Today, in my wonderful, dead-boring office job, my "work" consisted of discovering a new blog to read, reading all the other blogs I follow, and....that's about it.

Did I do anything that I am meant to do, according to my job description? Well, I did unload the dishwasher this morning....after that I forget!

Tomorrow is Thursday. I really think I should devote some serious time to Google Earth, maybe see what other treasures Wikipedia has for me....

It's all about the balance....

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Back to Work

Second day back at work today, after the holidays - or should I say back at my place of work, because there is not a whole lot of work to do!

We have a total of 5 people in the office this week, myself included and as of 11.30am, I have taken a grand total of three phone calls. I don't know what I would do if it wasn't for Wikipedia! This morning, I have been exploring myths & legends, ancient Native American Tribes and Ewan McGregor! Not bad for a mornings work.

Trouble is, there are still three and a half days of this before the weekend...and my second round of holidays! That's right, I can't complain...back to work for a week and then off again for three weeks. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Not that I am having an official holiday. I have landed myself a temporary nanny share job for the rest of the school holidays, looking after 3 kids aged between 7 and 9. I'm really looking forward to it. The kids are great and it's all really good experience for me (not to mention the potential for glowing references!).

So after running around after three kids for three weeks, I can come back to work, where it's nice and quiet, for a well-earned break.

Good to know that some things will never change!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

OK, moving on...

Right. 2008 is over. 2009 is here. The Christmas decorations have been put away. New Year's Eve has been celebrated and recovered from. It's time...

Time to get out those boxes, sort out the stuff that needs to be sold, be given away, to be kept. Time to stop spending and start saving all my pennies. Time to apply for my Ancestry Visa. Time to finish my CV and start applying for jobs in the UK.

Time to move. Time to start thinking what I really want from this year. Where I want to see myself this time next year.

When I think about all that I have to do, it's really overwhelming. I know all the well-meaning people will say just take one day at a time.

Well, it's Saturday today. I have boxes ready to go and as soon as I stop wasting time on the internet, I'll get started boxing stuff up. It really is hard to know where to start because the builders haven't arrived yet to start work on my place after the storm damage, so even though I am back at home, I may be homeless again sometime soon. I guess now is a good time as any to have a clean out.

Still blogging, I hear you ask? Did I mention that I am prone to procrastination?



OK, OK...I'm going now!