Caution - Humidity May Be Hotter Than Appears

Hi!

Well. To start off, am sorry for not checking in last week. For one thing, an embarrassing thing, I did absolutely nothing alllllll last weekend. Nothing. I think I may have done some laundry but that was the height of the activity. It was too bloody hot to do anything else except lie on the couch in front of the fan. I couldn't even think to even be able to sit and watch tv. It was like 95 degrees with 70% humidity. Yeah. It was gross. And it was exactly the same today only I decided it would be better to just sweat it out and get chores done at the same time. Ugh. Humidity. Hot. Summer. Here until March. Otherwise, the week was good. Air conditioning at work is even gooder!

So the week, yep, was good, speedy. Monday evening I went to Town Hall to go see Sting and Edin Karamazov play Elizabethian-Age songs on lutes (I mentioned it a month or two ago when I bought the tickets). It was reallyreally cool. So different. Very pretty, very relaxing. Kinda weird to go to such a big yet chilled-out concert (with wine - bonus!) on a Monday evening, but there you are. It was nice and made the week feel just that little bit shorter!

So work. Yep. Is good. Starting to slow down as Xmas comes. Oh yeah, sorry, one thing that happened last week (really the only thing that did happen all that week) - I got my contract extended until the end of March! HOORAY! Talk about r-e-l-i-e-f. Shame it's only until March instead of until at least June like I'd originally filled out my paperwork for, but nevertheless, it beats unemployment!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Annnnnnd, hurrah, I get PAID time off during Xmas! Hooray for earning days off instead of having to use real vacation time! YIPPIE! So I get to have a break from the 24th and back at work on the 5th. Cooooooooooooooool. Got nothing to do, nowhere to go because I wasn't sure if I'd have a job or not, so I didn't plan anything. Bummer, but that's ok. I have to save money to pay bills and for mah trip home next Sept.! But, I am the very proud owner of a car, so perhaps I'll go away to.......... some place for a few days..... Hmmm. Must plan........ But otherwise, work is very good. I still quite dig my job and 99% of the people! Hooray!

And then the weekend! Started Friday evening with drinks at the pub with a couple folks from work. We haven't done that for a while and it was nice just to hang out. Funny thing was, we were all slightly grumpy and really tired. I mean, we were all in fine moods, we were all just pooped from the week I think. It was kinda funny. But, we still had a nice evening that ended at a respectable hour. Well done us.

Saturday was nice, I went to a new DFO (I think it stands for Direct Factory Outlet - a mall of outlet stores, basically) in Jindalee (no idea where it is, west of the City I think, not far from my house actually, 15 minute drive...) with Sarah from work. It was really nice to get out and have a look. Probably because last weekend I was cooped up in the steamy little apartment the whole time. They have a DFO out by the airport and its bigger with lots and lots more stores. But eh, either way, am not a huge shopper so I really didn't even notice. I bought new summer pj's and that was pretty much it. We had some lunch and did another lap of the place and that was that! Was a nice afternoon. Then later that evening I made my apparently "famous" bean dip and headed over to Bruce & Family's house for a pre-xmas BBQ. It was nice but because I had to drive, not too many drinkies for me! It was really fun and neat to catch up with his family and kids - this is how savvy the 2 boys are (14) - they were watching "Quantum of Solace". Yeah. Hip. Modern. But I was pooped and couldn't keep up with the adults in the drinking stakes, so I left pretty early. It was my first trip in my car not going to work or on a short errand! Very scary in that it rained and I kinda had no idea where I was going. Added to that, with the steamy rain, my car windows fogged up on the outside. Yeah, beats me but they did and I was lucky to see. Hooray for wiper blades (which I think I may need to replace...)! And I only got kinda lost once and didn't get lost at all on the way home! It was one thing to ride the little scooter around a couple nearby suburbs, but it's another to go real places in a car. Gotta think different. I guess I get turned around because since I've been here I've either walked everywhere or taken public transport. Hmmm. But am learning, I have a little map book, I have wheels - life is very good!

And today I met Natasha in town at our favorite breakfast cafe, gossipped, and hit the stores (mascara, lotion, shoes, the usual). We haven't caught up in aaaaages because she's been working a lot of overtime (it's pretty rare in government to be able to work lots of overtime, so she's been doing as much as they offer), so it was really good to catch up. She's off to NZ over xmas for like 2 weeks on the 17th but back in time for New Years, so we'll plan something for then.......!

Otherwise all is well. So happy to have been given an extension in my little job. Even happier to have 12 days off from work - WAAAHHOOOO! PAID! Coooooool! And that's about that. Sorry for not writing sometimes. It's just that sometimes I don't do anything even worth mentioning and I feel really embarrassed to even write and say I did nothing. So maybe next time I'll try harder and take a different tack........ Hmmmmm... Well, I hope you're all well up there! Drop a line and let me know how it's all going!?

BYE!
J!