Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Hi!

First off, yes, I missed yesterday's check-in, but that's because I was being patriotic by attending a pre-Australia Day BBQ! Today is Australia Day but friends had their BBQ yesterday so that we could have today to recover. And that's kinda Australian right there. And yes, I did actually kinda need today to recover. Best part is, I have tomorrow off too! HOORAY for a 3-day work week!

So work. Yep, is really good. Busy. Always. Kinda getting to the point where I really need to keep a closer eye on some of the stuff am doing as it's starting to look like I-5 at rush hour......... But otherwise all's well.

Then the weekend. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Friday was very quiet (gotta save that money for Sept!). Saturday I was a good little house-elf and did the chores, and proceeded to lose about 50 pounds through sweating it out with the 95 degree 85% humidity! But couldn't stand the sight of the place with bits of cat fluff everywhere and the odd skink tail here and there. Nice that my place is so little (and crammed with furniture nowadays) cos it makes it a trillion times easier and quicker to clean. Imagine having one of those great big rolling mansions...........sigh......... Nice. If I could afford one of them I could afford staff!!!! Someday...............!

And then yesterday, Julian's pre-Australia Day BBQ - was fantastic. Forgot mah camera but it was the same crowd as always sitting around laughing, solving the problems of the world and watching their kids play for hours in about an inch of water in their little wading pool. Ahhhh, those were the days - who needs a real pool when you have a little inflatable wading pool and a hose! It was a really nice day/evening, excellent food (as always), great to catch up with everyone, basically it was such a lovely way to celebrate, well, Australia!

And here we are at Monday, the real Australia Day. Incredibly enough there's nothing special on tv! You'd think they'd have movies on at least one channel of nothing but Mad Max, Crocodile Dundee, Muriel's Wedding, something! But no. It's the same day-time crap as the States actually - Oprah, Ellen, Judge Judy. Sigh. Am happy I have a decent sized stash of movies as back-up because that's what I plan to do for the rest of today - veg with movies, maybe a nap and more movies! Hooray! And I have tomorrow off too - BONUS!

So I hope you're all well up there! Like I said, and will probably say every time until Sept, I can't wait to get up there and see everyone (if I can)! And please, if there's anything you want me to bring you from here (ok, well, within reason, let's be sensible now), let me know!?

BYE!
J!

Faster than a Speeding Weekend

Hi!

Well. Here we are yet again on a Sunday evening. I swear, a minute ago it was Friday evening and I was contemplating what a nice weekend this was going to be, I had the whole two days ahead of me, a lovely blank slate. And then whoosh! just like that it was gone, and here we are. Sigh. Do you know, tomorrow (in this country) is the 19^th of January already? Man.

So. Work. Yep. Is actually quite good, if not busy and only going to get busier tomorrow and then on (by now most of everyone I work with will be back from their Xmas break – lucky folks). I like it busy tho. And I like the projects am in charge of. All doable, interesting, manageable. I figure this week is going to go by as fast as the last two. That’s ok. I don’t mind. What I do mind is the equally speedy weekends. I think something needs to be done about this. Someone needs to dig up a Roman or two and sort this calendar thing out. Add an extra day to the weekend. I think an extra day after Sunday needs to be invented. Why not? The Romans did what they wanted, when they wanted, who says things have to stay the same? We don’t have any days that start with “B”, what about ‘Besterday’ or something. Yeah.

And then the weekend. Was nice. Speedy, but nice. Busy. Friday was nice, quiet, low cost. Saturday….. Chores…… Reading………. Dullsville Central…….. And today were errands with Natasha at the malls. We covered a lot of territory, got a lot done, but am happy to report I didn’t spend that much money. Hair gel, library book fines, the usual. Hmmmm, looking at it, fairly dull, but busy. Thankfully the weather was much cooler today that it has been over the last few days, thus making it heaps easier to run errands. Usually when it’s that hot and we have that much running around to do I lose concentration about a third of the way through the day and by the time I get home my brain is mush and I realize I’d spent way too much money on lots of crap I didn't need. So even though the sun is setting earlier and earlier, that just means we’re that much closer to cooler weather! Though they keep threatening me with the fact that we still have February to get through yet…… Hmmm. Fingers crossed.

And that’s that! Still planning our trip to the US in Sept, very exciting. Slowly

but surely it’s all starting to come together and look like loads of fun. If anyone is interested in meeting up with us at some point in our whirlwind tour, drop a line and I can let you know where we’re going to be! C’mon down – it’ll be fun! Help show a couple of Aussie gals around our fine country!!!!! Yeeehaw!

BYE!

J!

1st Week After Vacation, Never Easy

Hi!

Well. That was a week. Busy busy busy. Went by pretty fast too for a first week back at work after 12 days off. Expected it to drag, but it was quite the opposite! And of course, this weekend went by just as fast. It’s already Sunday afternoon, so soon. Sigh.

So work. Yep. Is….. yeah. Good. Busy, and getting busier, which is also good. Picking up a couple more projects. Not everyone is back yet from vacation so things should start picking up even more this next week. Pretty soon, I don’t know, I’ll be too busy to think! Hooray! I’ll say yes to all things they throw at me as I’m due to expire at the end of March, so I’m hoping the busier I am the less likely they’ll be to want to see me go! Fingers crossed! So far so good!

And then the weekend. Was nice. Friday the folks from work and I were good and only had two glasses of wine after work, then home. Got to sleep in Saturday morning (my favorite!) and then picked up Natasha to go get our hair cut. Am trying to grow mine out again so maybe getting it cut, even to get it looking kinda decent, can’t be a good idea. I’m just gonna have to suffer through the gangly growing-out stages or else it’ll never grow out. Then we drove around checking out Springwood (the ‘hood where we get our hair cut) and what the houses were like, where grocery stores are, that kinda stuff. Not sure really other than I have a car and we can now! Then we went to Stones Corner to look at boring office clothes. Then we went to the Paddo pub for lunch and what turned out to be too many glasses of wine. Well, we haven’t really caught up in ages, so one glass lead to another, which lead to another which lead to a sort of hazy evening. Ahhhhhh, it was great!

And then slightly groggy this morning, was up to do quick chores to tidy the little place up for Young Christine and Lauren who came around so we could talk about and plan our trip to the States in Sept this year. Yeeeeaaaaa! It’s funny, they want to do sooooo much, which is fine by me, but there’s not much I really want to do, which is also fine by me cos it’s going to be way enough fun as it is showing them around! It’ll be exciting and everything will have a different perspective. Plus, there are a few places we’re going that I haven’t been – like the drive down Highway 1 and the drive from the Grand Canyon (Flagstaff, actually) to Las Vegas, and then we’ll be spending about 3 days in Vegas and I’ve never been there for reals, just drove through. So I’ll get to do a fair bit of new stuff too – excitement will be had by all! Can’t wait.

And that’s that. Now it’s after 5pm, the day has started to cool off a little bit, silly 80’s tunes on the radio, no wine because I had plenty last night, and now it’s just time to chill out and read (James Bond short stories). Dull, perhaps, but nice nonetheless. Hey, I have to save $ to go to the States later this year, so will have to cut down on the excitement! Wait, I kinda do that anyways. Ahhhh, always trying to save money for something! Hope you’re all well up there! Drop a line sometime!

BYE!
J!

End of Vacation in 3... 2... 1...

Hi!

Well. Am sitting here, blues music on the radio, cool glass of chardonnay, what a better way to see the sun set on 12 wonderful days of vacation, I ask you. Ahhhh. Shame. I could use one more week off… Then I’d want one more week and then I’d pretty much want to just retire and never have to go back. Ever. Sigh.

So yes, work. Huh? Happily didn’t have to go near the place once this whole week. Lovely. Not that I don’t like my job, much the opposite, I just like not working and getting paid for it. Heck, who doesn’t??? But will return promptly at 7.30am tomorrow. Yeah.

Vacation. Ahhhhhhhhhh. Was fan-bloody-tastic. Didn’t get up to a whole heck of a lot, which is what made it so fantastic. Did manage to fit in a trip to Ikea…… picked up my happily tuned-up wee scooter with it’s certificate saying it’s safe to sell (sigh)…… rented some movies (I highly recommend "Gone Baby Gone" - who knew Ben had that in him??!)….. went to the store…. Did the chores today……… yeah, didn’t get up to much. Which is what I really wanted to do – not much. Read my books. Napped. Plus, a lot of the time it was so bloody hot you couldn’t move more than what was really required, otherwise with the humidity, you’d’ve needed another shower. It’s been disgustingly hot and humid. But, thankfully, these last couple of days have been lovely and cool. It even rained most of the day yesterday. Ahhh! So now I’ve managed to get some stuff done! Even painted the ceiling of the bathroom.

I know it all sounds incredibly, painfully dull and extremely uneventful, but I haven’t had a break to just sit since last year. Sure I know that’s what I already do on most weekends, but it’s not the same. If I’d known earlier in the game that I had a job to come back to after Xmas, I’d’ve planned and saved for something far more exciting, something(s) that I could cross off my “Things to Do in Australia” List. But never mind. Will just have to get better at saving for exciting little trips on weekends. I don’t normally make New Year’s Resolutions, but this year I think calls for it. So one of the things on that list (that I have yet to compile, but I know this will be in the top 5) is to get out at least once a month and try to knock some stuff off my List over the year. A lot of the stuff on that List is high dollar, much time off work stuff, but there’re few littlies in there….. So yeah. Have car, will travel – it’s why I bought it!

So there you have it. Yes, I know, bo-ring. Hence the Resolution List. Will work on remedies! Otherwise, I hope you all had a fantastic New Year’s and a lovely couple of days off, if you were allowed! Drop a line and let me know how you all are because, get this, am getting better at returning emails – another thing appearing in the top 5 of my Resolution List!

BYE!

J!