Long Weekend with Rain, Friends and Bratwurst

Hi!

Well. Here we are on a wet Sunday afternoon. Well, that's not true, it's not just today, it's been a whole week of pretty much non-stop rain. Usually we get this rain in November but we're getting it at the end of the season. Hmmm. Anyways, there are a few lorikeets out there chattering away. I've heard a lot of Kookaburras, but they're tough and can deal with any kind of weather. They're cool that way. Otherwise, as a bonus to the wet rainy days, the temperature hasn't been too hot or muggy, which is a wonderful thing in my book. So yes, the weather is lovely aside from all the rain. It's cool and breezy. Got some really groovy jazz tunes streaming through one of my new favorite internet radio stations Sky.FM Radio (am streaming their "Jazz Classics" station. So far they have 42 stations of various flavors, from blues to Japanese pop to new age and points in between. They're awesome!). It's a bit early for the cool glass of standby white wine, but seeing as I've been sitting here slaving over this hot little computer all day I almost think a small glass might be ok........

So work. Yep. Is good, busy, the usual. Tho I had a very quick "catch up" with my Boss, who's been away on vacation for a month and a half......... He had almost no memory of telling me how he wasn't going to keep me permanently or follow through with my permanent residency application. Again, I was dumbfounded. Suffice to say I set him straight on a few things and all he could say was that he would talk to HR. Again, it's all out of my hands so they'll concoct what ever deal they can figure out. That's too bad but will just sit tight and see what they come up with. Sigh. Hopefully they'll keep me and go through with the PR application, but I'll be happy with a measly contract extension. Suffice to say I'm keeping my eyes and options open........... Watch this space! Otherwise, all's well, it's nice to have a job and be busy!

And then there were the weekends. Apologies for not checking in last week. I've been sitting here trying to think what I was up to that I couldn't check in................. I know I busted out the chores on Saturday like a crazy lady......... Oh yeah, Sunday was errands/take the car out for a spin where I made the fatal mistake of going to a 'new' grocery store (by car for once, like normal people) in Ashgrove, the 'hood behind mine (another 'hood I'll never be able to afford to buy in). Well. It was me and a thousand other SUVs all trying to get around in a parking garage made for Minis (did I feel like a dope for not having my SUV packed with screaming children and their sports gear). And being a rainy Sunday afternoon, the place was absolutely packed. All I can say is I won't do that again. But I did manage to get what I needed and that was chicken so I could make my Dad's boneless fried chicken (or as my neighbors dubbed them, "Gourmet McNuggets"). It's the bestest recipe on the planet, of which I can't divulge due to fatal repercussions......... So that's what I spent the evening doing and cleaning up after. Which was why I was too busy to check in. But man they were gooooood! Worth the Battle of the SUVs!

And then there was this weekend, with a nice catch-up dinner at Vio's Italian restaurant (fairly new kid on the block with excellent food and super nice staff) with my friend Jan during the week. Always good to see her, our catch-ups always go too fast. And then Thursday was Australia Day (and a national day off - hooray!) where, traditionally, we all head to Julian's for his usual Australia Day BBQ. But alas, this year Julian was not in the mood to entertain and therefore didn't have it. A bit of a bummer but completely understandable. So I didn't do anything except enjoy a nice day off - no chores, no running around, it was excellent. I think I just read and watched more "Breaking Bad" episodes. And because Australia Day was on a Thursday and I had yet to take my January Free Day Off from work, I took the Friday off too. Again, it was another quiet day, but later that evening met up with the usual suspects for pizza and games, again, that was most excellent and always a good time. Yesterday was a bit busy, had lots of people drop by to say hi, which was nice but sort of wierd as I never have people "drop by".......... Good thing the little apartment was tidy and I was dressed fit for public approval! And then later that evening I met Bruce, my friend/old co-worker from Fire days, and his family at the German Club for his birthday dinner. All I can say is I had the best time I've had in a while. Not only because of catching up with Bruce after aaaaaaaages, but there was a German one-man-band named "Andrew" (the video isn't so great but you totally get the idea) who, complete with lederhosen, played everything from AC/DC to Madonna, to traditional German drinking songs to the theme from Zorba The Greek, all on his stack of keyboards, trombone, guitar and trumpet and who knows what else he has up there on that little stage. The guy was unstoppable and managed to bring down the house with his rendition of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit (Entertain Us)". Maaaaaan it was funny. And the place was full of alllll types of folks - little old ladies to little kids, and everyone looked to be having a fantastic time. If you get your butt down here soonish and he's playing one weekend, we are so going. Not to mention the (traditional) food was amazing for the portions and price (I had the Bratwurst - soooooo good, complete with veggies, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut). It was an absolutely fantastic night out. I wish I'd brought my camera because the photos I took on my phone didn't come out so well (as you can see). So you'll just have to get down here and see for yourself!

And that brings us up to now, and that you got to read at the beginning, so we're all caught up! All's well down here, we're in the home-stretch of summer and then we'll be out of the heat and humidity (not that it's been that bad this year) and into Autumn! Hooray! So feel free to book that trip down here anytime! I hope you're all well up there. I say it and I'll say it again, drop me a line sometime and tell me your news from the Northern Hemisphere!

BYE!
J!

Running Around with Wildlife on Dining Room Tables

Hi!

Well. Here we are, Monday evening. Sorry to be a little late but am here now. The weather was really wierd last week - super hot and stinky humid and then boom - come Friday it was rainy and "chilly", and it's stayed ever since. Am not complaining tho - I'll totally take this rainy damp chill over what we'd normally be having at this time of the year. Thankfully we only have until the end of Feb, maybe March to get through and the worst will be over and we'll be into Autumn! Hooray! But yes, here we are, Monday earlyish-evening. A few brave lorikeets out there in the rain jabbering away, trying to be heard over the crows. Don't know where the magpies and pee wees are..... and the noisy miners are out there yelling full blast at anyone who wanders under their tree (which is usually Kona - you should hear the ruckus when he sits in the yard. There'll be like 7 of them out there all yelling at him. He ignores them. Good boy.) So yes, it's wildlife central out there when the weather is cool and damp. Not too many Kookaburras, but they swing by on patrol now and then. Anyways, got the way groovy jazz tunes courtesy of the modern TV (do you know, I've had it just over a year now and it never gets old having a nice, modern TV (as opposed to none, if you'll cast your memory back)), got a nice glass of Merlot (seeing as it's cool enough to drink red), Monday is officially in the bag - life is good!

So work. Yep. Is good, busy-ish. Enjoying it while I gots it. Was super busy last week with the bid folks editing a big bid they're hoping to hand in. Sat in a stuffy room for the week shoved in a corner at a little laptop. It's Monday and I'm still feeling the bad typing angles and posture. Thankfully no more of that for a few weeks, or so I hear. Apparently there're a few "Big Bids" coming up that they want to go for and apparently "need" my help on. Hmmm. Still no word on my ultimate fate but that's because my Boss isn't back yet from his cruise around the South Pacific with the family. Hmmm. So it's still a case of 'watch this space'. Otherwise, I have enough work in my foster department to keep me entertained 8 hours a day, and that's always better than the nothing I had to do this time last year in my previous department! Hooray!

And then there was the weekend. Saturday was chores. The usual. And when I finished with them I plunked myself down on the couch in front of the TV and had a mini-marathon of Breaking Bad. I was still suffering from all the wicked kinks in my shoulders and neck from the editing blitz, on top of not sleeping well most of that hot humid week - I was beat. But hey, at least the little apartment was clean!

And yesterday, Sunday, was another Ikea run. Well, the car needed a good little drive around and I thought a good walk around (indoors, because of the rain) would help with the kinks. I had a list but meant to just look and think and plan. Well.... I came home with a new dining room table! Hooray! I have been wanting a new dining room table ever since I moved to this Shitbox Palace. My unit came with a super crappy table (with wobbly, tin legs) and two crappy chairs (that were way too low for the table. So every time I sat at it to do anything, like, say, eat, I always felt like a kid) that I just never organized myself to replace (or ask the owner to take away). So yesterday I made the Executive Decision and got a new table and two chairs (with jaunty red cushions)! And I lugged down the old table and chairs and stuffed them in our little "abandoned furniture" niche under the S.B. Palace. It took a good couple of hours putting at all together (those chairs are never coming apart!), but in the end it looks totally awesome. I'm ever so happy with them. Just like normal people in a normal house (almost)! And now I actually want to be in the kitchen longer than just cooking and running away into the "living room"! Hooray! And then unfortunately, as the afternoon wore on, my aches and kinks moved back in with a wicked headache to boot. So as soon as I finished building the table and chairs I had to sit and not do anything. Which meant not checking in. Bummer dude. Am better today - hooray for Advil and Aleve!

But there you have it! Another week and another weekend. Not too exciting. Otherwise all is well down here, I hope you're all well up there! Hurry up and plan that visit down here already! If you need annnnnnny help with an itinerary, I can hand out a few ideas...... Am just sayin'.........!

BYE!
J!

Movies, Pizza, Laundry - It's a Weekend!

Hi!

Well. Here we are, Sunday afternoon, hot, humid, ahhhh summer with no air-conditioning.....! Am a bit early because I've decided that when I wait until the late afternoon/early evening, I'm tired and get distracted easily. Ok, so no cool glass of white wine or groovy jazz tunes, but at least this way I can be productive on two fronts - getting the laundry done and checking in! So yes, here we are, it's a hot, humid Sunday afternoon.... the birds were fulla beans first thing this morning and are usually even chattier in the evenings. I'm glad the lorikeets have come back, the evenings don't seem as fun if they're not around. But yes, since it's early, there is no wine, but there it's there waiting in the fridge for when the sun goes down, meaning the worst of the heat has passed! For now, I have two fans on full-speed and a huge glass of ice water - life is good!

So work. Yep. Is good. It was a short and quiet week last week. Lots of folks are still away on vacation. I don't get using all your vacation time at once, especially at the hottest time of the year, unless you're off to Europe for Xmas that is, I suppose. These folks use all their time when everyone else does, they all go to pretty much the same beaches, and then fight with each other to get home at the end of it all, undoing all the great relaxing they just did. It doesn't make sense to me. Take vacation in chunks when the weather is cool and places aren't crowded with your co-workers. That way your sanity is sure to be kept intact, instead of losing your marbles hanging out for that one big vacation a year. I don't know, that's just me. I'd rather spread the vacation across the year than blow it all at once. Hmmm. But in saying that, not knowing what's happening with my job, saving my vacation time could be an even better way to go - if they let me go they'll have to pay me out for it - whew! Again, with the job, watch this space. Fingers crossed they can figure something out........... and soon?!

And then there was the weekend. It's been quite nice, heat and humidity aside. Yesterday my friend Kim came around and we wandered up to the Palace Barracks Cinemas to go see "Iron Lady" (that's a link to the Herald Scotland review, which I think nails what I thought of it). While Meryl Streep was, as usual, amazing, the movie/story itself was just ok. I got it, but they could have done more about her and her rise through the ranks of an all-male parliament and her political career instead of focusing on her present-day, sort of hallucinatory/dementia-riddled relationship with her dead husband. To me, that took away from what could have been a really interesting and enlightening film. But no, Hollywood had to step in and toss a bit of sad drama into it. Hmmm. So, while I can recommend it for Meryl Streep, wait for the DVD. Or TV. Thankfully I'm in the cinema's movie club and only paid $11 for the ticket, instead of the usual $17.50 (gasp!). Now I remember why I rarely go to the movies.... But it's an awesome cinema with lots of windows and comfy spaces to sit (with coffee tables) while you drink your wine and wait for your movie, and you can bring your wine/beer/whatever booze in with you (Awesome! Take that US movie theatres!), and I'd go more often if there were movies I just had to pay $11 bucks to see on the big screen...... Maybe this year I'll go more often............. And after the movie we headed up to Kookaburra Cafe for dinner - always perfect and too filling! So, even though it was getting on to 10pm, we had to go for a bit of a walk to walk off all that pasta and pizza. The days are too hot but boy the evening's are beautiful. Certainly beats when I lived in Phoenix when, during summer, the temperature would drop to a chilly 95 at night! At least here it gets to 75, and I can live with that.

And today, Sunday, just did the laundry and can't be bothered for much else. Too hot. Hopefully maybe get some more writing done on my Hollywood Blockbuster Sell-Out Screenplay.............. Maybe after a nap.......!

And there you have it. Dull, dull, dull. But that's ok. Will just sit tight until the job thing is sorted and then we'll see where we're at for fun and Adventures! Until then, you have until March or so to plan your visit down here - by then the weather will be back to being perfect! Hooray! Hope, you're all well up there! Drop a line and let know know someone is alive and reading this out there!

BYE!
J!

Holidays, Food and Naps!

Hi!

Well. Am late, like late, again. I swear, these last few weeks have been stupid crazy busy. Still, that's no excuse (but it kinda is when the holidays have been on the weekends....). Anyways, here we are on a bright, warm and happy Monday morning (we get Monday off because New Years was over the weekend. I don't get it either but who am I to question local customs?), the birds were up and at it early this morning but I chose to sleep in - get it while I can. Way too early for the cool white wine, but since am on vacation, and it's a Monday when I'd normally be at work, it's almost sort of tempting...... But no, I've got a nice cup of coffee, some groovy French jazz tunes that I forgot I owned - life is good!

So work. Well......... it's been good. Busy in an I-can-handle-it kinda way. Helping to re-draw (electronically) aircraft technical diagrams, it's half interesting, but much better than doing nothing. Although the whole work thing took a slight turn just before we went on our break. The Boss rather bluntly told me, after asking me to come on in shut the door and have a seat (always a harbinger of doom), that they weren't going to make me permanent, that they weren't going to support my permanent residency application and if I didn't like it I was happy to look for work elsewhere. After an entire year of telling me that they would do both. In fact, in the week or so before this little dive bomb, we'd talked about the permanent contract and how HR was nearly finished with it and how the Director of Finance had given the go-ahead to fund it all. Not to mention that up to now I've spent over a grand getting my PR paperwork together. The paperwork they told me to go out and organize. Then boom, he pulls this Crazy Ivan and tells me to "have a good Xmas and a Happy new Year, OK?". I was as stunned as a baby seal on an ice float. So, I had a quick chat with my foster department and they say they'll see what they can do, which is also an interesting change in direction as a month ago they were willing to "do whatever it takes" to get me from my original department permanently into theirs. Hmm. All I know is my contract ends at the beginning of April and I have no idea what's going to happen then. Do I fire up the job hunting machine? Do I sit tight? What a pain. I hope Santa left him a lump of coal...... (is the kindest thing she could say in an open forum like a little Blog..........). So yes, watch this space.

But then there were the weekends, riddled with holidays, food and naps! To kick-start the break, that Friday, the 23rd, we had a half-day at work, which was good so I could get ready to go out later that evening to see The Church here in town at the Powerhouse (P.S. Not my photo on the left there. I took a couple and they were crap. Thank you Church website). It was one of their best shows I've seen yet. The audience was well-behaved compared to some shows of theirs I've seen where half the audience (usually the folks up front) spend the evening talking on their cell phones, only to have the front-man stop the show to yell at them. Thankfully, there was none of that. Either folks have learned that the lead singer is a grumpy dude who doesn't put up with their rudeness, or they all just really wanted to be there. Ohhhh it was a good night. The Church have been around for 30 years (gasp!), hence it was their 30th Anniversary Tour, so they did one album from each decade - the latest one "Untitled #23", "Priest = Aura" and "Starfish", with no opening band and two intermissions. It was a fantastic night. If you even remotely like them I can highly recommend going to see them. And tickets weren't as stupid expensive as I expected. And, knowing how notoriously expensive the Powerhouse is for food and drinks, I smuggled my own wine in, thus saving the $22 for the cab ride home - awesome! What a good way to kick off the holiday break!

And then there were the holidays. Xmas was lovely, as it usually is. I spent it with my foster family (former boss from my job with Fire), Paul and his wife Margaret, his son Russell and his wife Kim. We ate, talked, ate, talked, watched the latest Pirates of the Caribbean and Planet of the Apes movies (Pirates good, Apes bad), ate, talked and finally home around 9.30pm. A lovely day with awesome food (I even had seconds, which is rare)!

And then somewhere in the break my friend Linus and his girlfriend had a BBQ, which turned into a really really good evening meeting new folks who all used to work at Southbank at one time or another (quite a few jobs ago now, thankfully). It was a great afternoon/evening. And for once I was in the country! Usually whenever he's had a BBQ I've been out of the country. And you know how rare that is. Such timing!

And then it was New Years. Spent it with the usual pizza and games suspects. Again, another lovely and fairly quiet evening. Heh, we almost didn't notice it was New Years until we heard the fireworks. We looked at each other, said Happy New Year and continued with our game and more wine. I love that it's such a non-event with us. It's most excellent.

And that was the holidays for another year! Hooray! I'm splurging and taking my monthly one free day off and taking Tuesday off, going back to work this Wednesday. Thankfully we have another break at the end of the month for Australia Day, which happens to fall on a Thursday, so am taking that Friday off too (as are most folks I imagine). Because right now, with work giving me the run-around, it's just nice to have the [paid] time away.

So yes, apologies for not checking in yesterday like I should have, like I intended to. I even fired up mah little computer but my sinuses decided otherwise. Ooooooohweeeee, I swear, one new bush or tree blooms somewhere in the neighborhood and my sinuses overreact with glee. Going all out (literally) for the entire day. I didn't feel better until 9.30pm last night. And I had such grand plans for yesterday.......... Thankfully I have tomorrow off, which kind of makes up for it. But am checking in now and hopefully will keep it up, do my best to check in on the weekends. Again, it's tough sometimes when I don't get up to much. I'm convinced that doing chores and napping just can't make for even remotely interesting reading......... But I will try! And so far there is not a single Adventure on the calendar! Gasp! Then again, with the job up in the air, best to just batten down the hatches and see what shakes down. Hopefully I'll know which way the wind is blowing in the next month or two. Sigh. Either way, all is well down here, with summer trying to get going. Thankfully we haven't had the blistering heat and humidity that we usually do, that tried to move in in early November. Nor have we had a third of the storms we usually have. Huh. Wierd weather. But, am not complaining! Every day that the temperature is even two degrees "below normal" is perfectly fine by me!

So there. I hope you're all well up there, that you had good holidays and have grand plans for the new year.... like coming down here for a visit (or else the 'roo with the laser eyes will hunt you down)! Hooray!

BYE!
J!