Hi!Well. A leeeettle late - what a slack start to the new year (Happy New Year by the way!!!)! In my and my poor little computer's defense, it's been stinking hot these last few weekends, and you know how I am about running the poor little liable-to-overheating computer on days like that. So that means it's been a few weeks.... Apologies all around - Never fear, you haven't missed anything. But then, after all those weeks of stinking hot and humid - we've had non-stop downpours since Thursday/Friday - the remnants of ex-cyclone Oswald, and boy are we getting it. That's ok tho, it's not hot! But yes, here we finally are, got the hip n' groovy classic jazz tunes streaming, got a nice cool glass of standby white wine (I said it's not hot outside, but it certainly ain't freezing cold either - it's still summer after all!), life is good!
So work. Yep. Still no real word on my fate at the end of March..... it's been threatened that I'll get another 12-month contract, so if that comes through, well, it'll beat finding a new job and losing all my hard-saved vacation
time...... But we'll see, lots of time between now and March 29th, which means lots of fluffing around on HR's part (most useless department ever known to man). Fingers crossed that they come through..... Ultimately it'd be kinda nice to be made permanent so I don't have to go through this stress every year or so, but alas, as has been my fate since arriving here, it seems the only way it's done in these here parts, that no one these days has a permanent job. And really, in light of all the lay-offs of both contractors and permanent folks both in the state government and at our company, ain't nuthin' guaranteed in this world! So if they offer me another 12 months, well, I'll take it and be thankful! Otherwise, work has been busy as usual. Went back to work on the 2nd of Jan and have been pretty busy ever since, which is always a good thing! Enjoying the gainful employment while I can.....!And then there were a bunch of weekends in there...... Let's see, on New Year's eve I and the usual suspects headed over to Jason and Clare's for
another very nice, very relaxed NYE of pizza, wine and board games. We actually spent more time catching up and drinking than anything else really, as we haven't caught up much over this last year..... Ahhhh well, they have the 3 little kids who are getting into all things school-y so that takes up a lot of their time and energy...... But yes, New Years, while quiet was very nice. My kind of NYE. Oh, and another weekend in there they had us around again for their daughter Sienna's 5th birthday party - my, they're growing so fast! So that was another lovely afternoon catching up with their families and the usual suspects.Oh, another weekend evening in there my friend Kim and her husband Carlos came around where we drank wine and ate nibbles while he installed this really cool media management software-y thingy on my mini-laptop called
XBMC (free as can be and apparently it's been around for like 10 years, yeah, I'm with it). It's really cool and you can run it remotely from your cell phone using your wireless internet signal.... It's all slightly too techy for my patience (he works in IT, so there's that), but it's cool. We just have a couple bugs to work out and it'll be totally whiz-bang. You should look into it if you keep a lot of digital media files on your computer (it can also stream Netflix and others through the one program). And no, this isn't a plug and I don't secretly work for them. Just try it!And then this weekend, while definitely cooler than the last few, has done
nothing but pour rain and rain and rain. And then more rain for good measure - just in time for the long Australia Day weekend (Australia Day is the 26th and lucky us, we get Monday off too! Hooray!) Still, managed to get a few chores done...... And on Saturday, never deterred, my other Kim friend came around and we wandered up to the Barracks Palace Cinema (in the pouring rain) to see -gasp- Skyfall (yes, for those of you keeping score at home, that's now the third time I've seen it in as many months. Oh yeah). It's pretty good for an action movie if I do say so myself, Kim quite liked it too, tho she admitted that the last James Bond film she saw in the theatres was "Moonraker". Hrm. Then after that we wandered back towards home (in more
pouring rain) to have a spot of dinner at Kookaburra Cafe (Ravioli Alaskan - serious salmon-y ricotta-y noms). Mmmmmmmmmmmmm! If I haven't said so enough times, I love that place; their food is soooo good, pizzas especially. And then, with full, happy bellies, we waddled home and Kim headed up to her home in Brendale (in more pouring rain, just for something different). Ahhhhhhhh, aside from the rain, it was a really good day!And that pretty much brings us up to now. See? You totally haven't missed
anything, other than me whining about how hot and muggy it's been. I've kind of tried to keep things quiet because of not really knowing what's going on with work, you see........ Once that's sorted then other things can definitely be planned....... Oh, I know one Adventure on the cards (if I haven't mentioned it already) for the end of Feb - am off to Sydney for a few days to go see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds play with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Opera House! Coooooooooooooooooool! Can't wait. Haven't been to Sydney in a long time so really looking forward to checking it out again!!! And so far that's all the Adventures planned for now........ Just have to get that contract signed and in mah hot little hand and then look out bank account!So there you have it. Hope you're all well up there. Am sorry for neglecting all three (?) of you out there... Once the summer (or at least the hot and gross, wee laptop killing heat) has passed (March-ish) I hope to be more punctual! And yes, not long now until the normal weather returns and the window to come visit in comfort will open! Hooray!
BYE!
J!
