Humid and Hot in Cement Shoes

Hi!

Well. There it is, another week, weekend, come and gone. This time it was kind of a shame to be stuck inside the little apartment relaxing when it was 95 or so degrees outside with 70 or so percent humidity with no luxury of a/c. Kinda wished I was at work in the comfort and safety of their air-conditioning. But, that's ok, the only way to acclimate is to just get in it! Ugh. It's still Spring and yet it's been feeling like Summer. Stinking hot and humid, and the wost is yet to come. Sigh. Maybe I'll chicken out after all and end up moving to a place with a/c. Call me a wuss.

So yeah. Work is fine. Ticking along. Was actually a bit of a struggle to keep myself entertained 8 hours a day for 5 days in a row, and yet look really busy and slightly important at the same time. But am an old pro from the old school of looking importantly busy, so it was easy. But, kinda boring in a 'waste of a perfectly good day' way. So until things start to pick up I think I'll have to start chipping away at some of these screenplays kicking around in my little ol' head. Hmmm.

And then the weekend. Yeah. Quiet more or less. Well, Friday I met Cindy and her man Miles to go to the comedy club that's in the basement of the Paddo pub. Some pretty funny guys. One guy, Steady Eddie, he's apparently been around for yeeeeeears, he was the best (he was the headliner). The other guys, eh, moments that made me laugh. Thankfully they kept the "my old lady" kinda jokes at a minimum. And that was Friday. Always kind of hard to get my feet moving on a Friday night to go out and do something, but always glad I did.

And Saturday, very quiet. Nice though. With the weather being so gross it's been hard to sleep at night and with Monster Boy upstairs with his cement shoes marching around at 2am, yeah, I was wanting to catch up on sleep. So I just hung around and read my book, talked on the phone and watched a mini-marathon of "Arrested Development". Love that show. Shame I missed it the first time around. Shame it's not running anymore. A gal at work loaned me all of her DVD's (all 3 seasons) and I've had them a couple months now and haven't been making much of a dent in them. So I made a pretty good effort this weekend. Funny show. Very sharp and clever and fast. Ahhh, but like with all good tv shows, the good ones never seem to last long. Shame. Hooray for DVD's!

And today was pretty good, 'cruisey' as the locals would say. Went with Cindy to her art showing in town. She paints icons and is pretty good at it even if she says otherwise. Pretty neat. They don't bust them out like you'd think they would, with its seemingly-basic style, they have to stick to the techniques of the period - and that was incredibly painstaking and slow. It's a style of art that's pretty hard to find classes in. But she's been doing it for a few years now and every year or so they throw together a show. And, being religious, it was within St. Stephen's Cathedral church grounds right in the city. So while she was being the proud artist I had a wander. Went into the original little church to find a really interesting, if not slightly creepy, sculpture of a gal they want to be made a saint, Mary MacKillop. She was, back in the late 1800's, one of the outback pioneer/colonial gals who basically set up her own style of Christianity and taught folks in the remote outback about religion and all that. She was apparently pretty good and tireless at it, so now they want to get her into the Sainthood. Well, ok. So this guy John Elliott carved up a sculpture for her. Pretty neat. Then Cindy and I had a walk around the Riverside Markets (my favorite) and then drove out to a fruit market (not far from my work) where she loaded up on fruit and veggies for the week. And that was that! I came home and vacuumed and here I am with my glass o' wine. Man, it sure would be nice to have a car of my own. I know the costs are just silly, but ahhhhhh, the freedom! The ability to drive in the rain and carry lots of stuff! Novelty! Not that I don't love the scooter, I do, but you have to admit it has its limitations.

And that's that. You see, the trick to my saving money for adventures is to simply not leave the house. That, and socking away some $$$ the minute it arrives in the ol' bank account, which I've been extremely bad at. So, for motivational reasons, I've picked up a few brochures of different train package tours around Queensland, which all seem to average around $1,500+ for a week of adventure (not to mention the additional 'single supplement' i.e. financial punishment for going it alone). So let the savings begin! Meanwhile, I will endeavor to do my best at finding little free things to do around town to keep myself entertained.

So there. Hope you're all well up there. Hope everyone came through those fires in San Diego ok. Come down for a visit anytime!!!!

BYE!
J!
Weekly: One Good Thing About Little Apartment, #12:
The carpet is pretty old and dark - so you can't tell if something gets spilled on it or the cat throws up on it!

Modern Cows Working for Art

Hi!

Well. That week went kinda slow this time. But, never mind, the weekend came eventually. But it's a shame that if the week goes by slow, the weekend shouldn't go by so fast. Them's should be the rules. Yeah.

So, yeah, work, still good. Lot of changes going on in the background but hopefully I can stay under the radar and keep my little job. I've been told to expect to be extended into next year, but you never know, especially when organizational changes are running rampant. Hmmmm. I certainly hope to stay!? Oh yeah, I didn't get the high-powered gig. It ended up going to a guy who's had "operational" experience - means he's been an Urban and Rural firefighter and he's done time behind a desk, so he knows what the folks out on the front lines need in a manual. Fair enough. Little bummed ($78 g's starting salary) but that's ok. Was an awful lot of work. I really like my gig because quite honestly, it's not very much work at all and no stress to speak of, am my own gal and don't have to answer to anyone but the Director. Cool. Compared to the last few jobs, this is (still) like a vacation. People (at work) tell me to keep my eyes open for gigs in other departments, but every gig I look at says in it somewhere "support". I don't wanna support anyone anymore. Well, not until I absolutely positively have to. Put that off as long as is humanly possible!
And the weekend. Man it went by fast. Saturday, chores. But got those done so quickly that I had the whole day to do nothing. Ahhhhhhh it was most excellent. And it was quiet. So I read my Bill Bryson book "A Walk in the Woods". Have read it before but two other gals at work and I decided to read it at the same time, like a mini-book club. Man it's a good book. Hilarious. He's my favorite. But hey, speaking of books and authors, I got tickets to go listen to Michael Palin come talk about his new book, am very excited. He started out yeeeears ago with Monty Python, acted in loads of movies ("Fish Called Wanda", etc), now he's into travel writing and travel documentaries. He's most excellent too. I've always really liked him. So I and a gal from work are going to that in a couple of weeks. And then another one of my favorite authors, Ian Rankin (writes crime novels set in Scotland with the same central characters) is coming to town to talk about his latest book, so am hoping to go to that too. Oh, dahlings, it's absolute cultcha!

And today, well, speaking of culture, I took myself down to the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. It opened earlier this year with much fanfare. Well, I gotta say, they wasted an awful lot of space. Space that I know could be filled with a lot more modern art than they had scantily hanging around. All these little galleries around town with so much neat stuff in them and they can't cover the walls of the main gallery in town? Something tells me they're far too selective. Needless to say it was pretty disappointing. I know I was spoiled by living in NYC. And trust me, I tried as hard as I could not to compare. But after 45 minutes when I went looking for more floors and art and not finding any, well, it was hard not to compare. And a lot of the art I understood. At MoMA in NYC, I didn't get 95% of it but liked it for what it was anyways. I'll give it to this gallery tho, they had lots of Aboriginal art, but nothing I'd really call "modern". But who am I. I got my degree in Film and TV Production, not art criticism. So yeah, interesting but, hmmm. I did notice they're going to be having a major Andy Warhol exhibition next month, will go to that.

And that was that! Kinda dull, yes, but I was tired after this week for some reason. Am trying to plan little adventures, but it's incredibly difficult to get people to come along. Who knew no one wants to go be a tourist?! Chickens. It's fun to be a tourist in your own town! So yeah, am trying. Gotta save. I tell ya, since moving to this little apartment, my savings are in worse shape than when I was at the expensive place! But ahhhhh, such nice meals dining out! Gotta stop, I know, if I want to get outta town on the weekends. Will do! Silly not to save for escape really, when I rent cars from Thrifty I get Qantas frequent flyer miles - bonus! So yeah, will be better and save. Would like to do something at least every weekend or so. Must save!

So there. Hope you're all well up there. I see plane tickets are silly expensive going either way. Hmmmm. Maybe we would meet halfway in Hawaii?!

BYE!
J!
Weekly: One Good Thing About Little Apartment #11:
Don't have to clean the stove/oven - the apt doesn't come with one!

Errands on the Coast

Hi!

Well. Sorry I'm late. Too tired strikes again. But here I am, Monday, fresh home from a hard day at the office, even have a load of laundry in the washer as we speak. Multi-tasking!


So yeah, the week at work was good. I gotta say tho, I've applied for a very high-powered gig with them, basically being in charge of the production of allllll the training and info manuals for all of Queensland Fire and Rescue Service. The applications closed on Friday. They need someone right away and the 'receipt of application' email said they'd notify me of my application's status ASAP. Here's hoping. Big job. Comes with big pay tho. Yeah baby!

So yeah. The week was good. Another speedy one. The weekend was pretty good too. Productive, in an "I spent more than I really should have" kinda way. But good. Friday, I met Natasha and some of her friends at The Normanby pub. This is the #1 pub I don't like. But, because am a such sucker for a glass of wine on a Friday after work, it's amazing what I can put up with. And of course, it actually turned out to be a pretty good evening.

Saturday wasn't too bad either. Met Natasha, again, for errands in town. See, let me hold the story there for a moment while I explain why Natasha and I run around so much together - we're both our own gals, single (tho not for lack of trying, all the nice boys are married to sour-faced gals, with kids) and we live in the same 'hood. And really, we both need laundry soap and stuff, so why not run around with someone in your same situation? So that's that. Anyways, we ran the usual errands and I came home with a new DVD player. Coooooool. The boy in the store even took $10 bucks off the price and hacked it for me to make it region-free - so send me your US DVD's! Of course, I get it home, because the whole point of getting a DVD player is because A) It looks like I'll be here awhile and B) The Dead Guys tv hates my laptop; So instead of having to haul the laptop out all the time just to watch a movie on a teeny screen, may as well make life that much easier and get a real one; save the poor little laptop the stress. So I get it home, connected, and fired up - the tv hates it. It launches itself into that vertical-hold tantrum it likes to do when I plug the laptop into it. So, it's confirmed that the Dead Guys tv doesn't get along with our modern age. So now I have to find a "modern" tv. So, in essence, I bought a $90 CD player. Hmm. Ok. But hey, someday when I get a "modern" tv, I'll have the DVD player to go with it! Bonus!

And then Sunday. Yep. I was allll set for chore-day. Even got as far as vacuuming when Natasha called to say a friend of hers, Juliette (who is the proud owner of a car) is headed down to the Gold Coast to go to Harbour Town - a great, big, outdoor outlet mall. I told them 3 or 5 times I didn't want to go when they broke me with "Bro (they're Kiwi's), it'll be good to just get out of town". That's all I need to hear! So we spent the day in and out of stores looking at stuff. I came home with a new pair of jeans (to wear to work on Fridays) and some coconut oil hand lotion. And then we took a drive down to the ocean (not far, about 10 minutes, but because they're having some sort of car racing Grand Prix, the roads looked like race tracks and traffic was poop). So by the time we got home, I was too tired to be able to string a coherent sentence together. Which is why I'm coming to you live from Monday evening!


And that was pretty much that! Hey, they just had a story on tonight's evening news about how many flights to the States Qantas has scheduled compared to 8 years ago. So there you go. C'mon down!




Bye!
J!









Weekly: "One Good Thing About Little Apartment #10:"
The apt complex comes with a washer and a dryer - and I don't have to pay!!!

Toowong and Beyond!

Hi!

Well. Another week shot by. Excellent. But the weekend went by just as fast. Shame.

So yeah, the week. Busy at work with the other manual am helping out on. This manual isn't my show, am just a little helper to a gal who's gig this one really is, if that makes any sense. Getting to the end of my part in a little bit, couple of weeks maybe. This week the 2 big bosses and I are going to sit down and map out what other work (manuals) could be in my future. As far as I know there's really 3 more for me to put together, but guess we'll find out. They're going to prioritize for me. Hmmm. I hope they don't prioritize me out of work! At the moment am supposed to hang around until just before Xmas, but with the work I know needs to be done, well, I really could be there at least another 6 months. But that also depends on their budget too. So, this week I should have a better idea of my expiration date! Fingers crossed it's later rather than sooner!!!!!!!

And the weekend...... Well, for starters, I got out of work Friday evening and decided to walk home. Crazy, man! It took about an hour and 45! I'm not even going to guess how many miles it was (not many, am sure, but it felt like many). But I just knew I couldn't bear a rush hour ride through the city on the bus, through "The Valley" (Fortitude Valley - home of drug dealers and their customers, drunks, topless bars, cheap Chinese trinkets, and well, sadly, A&W Rootbeer) where usually some bad-smelling weirdo sits next to me the whole way. So I decided to walk. Well. I sure felt like I'd accomplished something, that's for sure! Pretty tiring but I think that's because am outta practice with my long walks! Wouldn't mind doing that at least once a week. Be good for me and losing my office flab.

So Saturday I walked down to Milton (Park Road - where all the shops and cafes are) to meet Natasha for breakfast. We seem to try new places at least once a weekend or so. So far our favorite is a place in town on Albert Street, across from Borders bookshop. Mmmm. After that we walked over to Toowong for Kmart and groceries and to work off our breakfast. Good thing we were good girls and got up early to do it - it was hot! Well, summer's pretty much here. I guess we all knew the 3 weeks or so of spring couldn't last forever. So it's been hot and gross the last couple of weeks now. And the "climate experts" keep threatening us with a long, hot and gross summer. Fantastic. Punishment for having such a nice one last year. And me with no comfy modern apt with a/c and a pool. Spoiled I was. Then in the evening I met Cindy and Miles for dinner at the Paddo Pub. Mmmmmm.

And today. Well, I think because I've been running around in hot and humid when am normally sheltered nice and cool in an office, I'm pretty tired. Too tired to even do my chores. Ok, I did one big load of laundry, but more than that I just couldn't. Even had a nap. Reading a Gregory Peck biography. Sitting in front of a nice fan writing this and surfing the 'net a little (looked for jobs at Warner Brothers, eh, only admin assistants and accountants, nothing worth my moving to LA for). Yep, that's about all the energy I have! It's early in the summer yet, will steadily build up my resistance to it! Tho, does anyone except native-born Floridians ever get used to this awful combination of hot and humid? I didn't think so. But will do my best. Hey, I could still be in NYC with its 6 months of winter. Yeah.

And that's about it. No adventures this week, and nothing on the books just yet. Will keep my eyes peeled! Hope you're all well up there! I'd say c'mon down but I hear plane tickets are silly expensive...... Save, people!

BYE!
J!

Weekly: One Good Thing About Little Apartment #9:
It's small, so it doesn't take much time to clean!

It's Curtains!

Hi!

Well. That week went by pretty fast and thankfully uneventful. Well, after the last couple of weeks with being sick and whatnot, it was good to just have a normal week and for it to move quickly. Whew!

So the week at work was fine. Starting to pick up a little, got stuff to do. Excellent. The manual that I was first hired on to fix up, organise and get out has hit the streets of Queensland. 3,500 copies have been scattered across this massive, sunny state. Ended up costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $90,000. shudder. So hopefully the little fire folks like it! I still like my job helping to keep their training manuals up to date! They're starting to plan their Xmas party. No one seemed to be able to think of anything they hadn't done before so I threw in croquet. And amazingly, they went for it! The whole office of 30-some folks are going to a croquet club a couple 'burbs away - on my idea! Wow, cool! Gee, I hope they like it and have a good time..... I'm not even sure if I'll be around to attend, but I sure hope so. Heck, it'd be great not only to go play at their Xmas day out, but to have a job to come back to in the New Year!? Fingers crossed!

And the weekend, well, not bad. I've gotten kinda lazy about not bringing my camera out. That's a bad habit. I'll start dragging it around more. Friday night I met Natasha and a few of her friends for after work drinks at The Fox hotel in South Brisbane. Eh. Even tho the new owners of the pub have thrown millions into making it look cool (and it does, tho I never saw what it looked like before), I just can't stand the place. Not sure why. Could be the staff. Could be the way too yuppie crowd. Could be the over-loud music. Could be the over-priced drinks. Dunno, but I hopefully won't be going again anytime soon. But, it's always nice to get out and see Natasha and her friends. They're a good group.

Saturday I went with Cindy and her man Miles over to her friend Jeannette's house for an Aussie Rules Grand Final party. It's basically rugby but I'm not supposed to call it that, it's Aussie Rules! It's different! I can't tell, but ok). It was a very lovely afternoon, met some neat people and came home at a respectable hour. The weather is really starting to warm up. And get muggy. Ahhhhhh, summer in the sub-tropics. Mmmmm. Like Florida.

And today I went with Natasha into town for pancakes and curtains. I have an inspection of my little apartment on Wednesday and I've been pretty ashamed of my bits of fabric for "curtains", so I got real ones. They're pretty nice. Cheap, even better. And they look pretty darn good if I say so myself. And because it was hot and muggy, that was about all the energy we had and came home. I put up the curtains (they fit!) and had a nap. Man. I haven't even done my chores yet. Guess I'll do them after work tomorrow. Gotta vacuum and tidy the place up, even tho the dude doing the inspection won't be able to tell the difference, I'm sure. They feel the need to inspect these little piles of plaster every four months, "for the owners peace of mind". Hmm. Yeah. Ok. So I have to take half the day off of work to escort this real estate monkey through my place. They usually do these when you're not home. And most people are pretty cool with that. Not me: A)The Illegal Roommate and B)Trust issues with having strangers wandering around unsupervised through my digs. So I have to be here to babysit. I hope the dude comes on time (9am is when we agreed I'd let him in) and that it takes the five minutes I figure it will. What a pain. I just moved in! Anyways...... The joys of renting.

And that's that. No adventures on the cards just yet. Tho there's a gal at work, Maree, who's threatened to take me down to Byron Bay one weekend. Cooooool. Will keep you posted. Otherwise, I really need to knuckle down and saaaaaaaave!

So there! Hope you're all well up there! Drop a line sometime because you may know what I'm up to, but I have no idea what you're up to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BYE!
J!

Weekly: One Good Thing About Little Apartment, #8:
Bars on two of the windows (the kitchen and bedroom) - keeps the breeze coming in and the murderers out!

Back to Normal, with a Bed!

Hi!

Well. What a week. Short though. Stayed home Monday and Tuesday to recover from being sick and the wine weekend. Man. I hate being sick. Bank hates it even more!

So yeah, the week was short. Fairly busy at work, but with this project am just a little helper, so I'm not all that busy, which is good until I get back up to full steam. Otherwise, work is good! Still so happy to be employed in a nice gig with nice folks!

And the weekend, well, kinda the usual, only at a slightly slower speed - still trying to get past this tonsilitus/sinuitus/etc...... But Saturday was typical chores and relaxing.... Am reading Gregory Peck's biography - really interesting! He's from La Jolla (in San Diego)! I knew he had lots to do with the La Jolla Playhouse (theatre) but didn't realize he spent a good chunk of his life there in the 20's and 30's. Neat. Interesting life, rotten childhood, but then I guess they all kinda did. Then went to Cindy's for dinner with her two friends Emmy and Jeannette. Always a good and interesting evening. They left early because Emmy has rotten allergies, so Cindy and I stayed up and tried to solve the problems of the world - everything from how crap Ikea furniture really is, to vacation spots, to Circus shows on TV. Hmmm. And today was nice - I finally got a bed! Now I'm like a normal person!!!! Zoey and her husband Michael brought it around this morning. It's been raining a lot up their way so he was scared to bring the bed in in case it rained, the mattress would be ruined. But, they missed the rain, caught lovely nice weather and here it is! Hooray! Good thing too as the airbed had a slow leak. Excellent!!!!!!!! Am getting to be like a normal person slowly but surely!

What else.......................... Not a lot really. Just trying to settle into this new place I guess and recover from being hammered by viruses. Gotta start saving for stuff like little bits of furniture and to pay off the little scooter and to ultimately go on trips! Must win lotto!!!!

So there. Back to normal down here. Hope you're all well up there!

BYE!
J!

Weekly: One Good Thing About Little Apartment, #7:
Every window is frosted glass - weirdos can't look in!

Swinging from Vines!

Hi!

Well. That was a fun and nice weekend for a change! An adventure was had! Wine was drunk! Wildlife was spotted! Hooray!



So the week started off with work, as weeks do for us workin' folk. Then Tuesday I got hit by one nasty cold and a soresore throat. Made it through the entire week somehow until Friday when a gal I work with practically forced me into her car to take me to the doctor. Well, am glad I did because in the end it turns out I have tonsillitis. Fantastic. So Doc put me on penicillin (my absolute favorite next to Advil) and told me to rest. Not a chance with a weekend winery tour on the cards! I had to go, it was too late to duck out. I suppose in retrospect I should have, which is why I'm writing this on Monday and not Sunday - I had to stay home from work today as I just couldn't find strength to so much as get out of bed. Am considering taking tomorrow off too as after a day of watching movies on the little laptop (old tv doesn't like my modern gadgets, it throws a vertical hold tantrum), I still don't feel much different from this morning. Hmm. I hate being sick. And I was doing so well through this year's nasty flu season........ Well, I don't have the flu so I guess I still win! Coughcough.

Anyways, Saturday, Zoey (gal I work with) and I met the group "Wanderin' Winos" (a group organised by another gal I work with, consisting of her husband, her son and numerous friends) down at Roma Street Transit Centre (about 10 minutes from my house - it's one of the main train stations in town and a pretty trusty meeting spot for tour groups) and we were off down to Stanthorpe, which is about 3 hours south and east of Brisbane, in the "Granite Belt". It's apparently one of the top wine regions in Queensland. Anyways, potentially long and highly-detailed story short, tonsillitis, laryngitis, sinusitis and any other -itis aside, it was a fantastic weekend! I'd never been on a proper winery tour, especially one that covered two entire days and 7 wineries! I learned a lot and spent a fair bit (came home with 11 bottles of top shelf vino!!!). The diversity between some of the wineries was really interesting in their delivery and approach to tastings and tours and food and all of it. Some were a lot better at it than others. And it was neat to see how different wineries really can't do certain wines where others can. It was a lot to take in for a weekend (and I don't just mean the wine tastings!)


I think my favorite wineries were Ballandean - 4th generation Italian, excellent little tour, lots of info and history and a superb little lunch of meats, cheeses, olives, etc. It was excellent. And my other favorite was Bald Mountain - we had that wine tasting at 9am Sunday morning! It sounded terrible, especially for those that overdid it the day before, but it was surprising how easy it was to just sit back in those little plastic lawn chairs, in the warm sun, with a nice breeze and sip away. Mmmmm! It was just a lovely place with the coolest lady running it (husband was probably still hiding in bed). I tell you, out of those 7 wineries, this was the only one where people had to use hand carts to get all of their boxes of wine to the bus!!!! We practically cleaned the gal out! And I think the thing I liked the most was that you knew precisely where your money was going. I love to support the locals, and even more so when wine is involved!


Ahhhhhh, it was just an excellent weekend away. So nice to get out of town and breathe fresh air (even if I couldn't smell it) and see green hills. Even saw two wallabies (like smaller kangaroos) and a joey!!!!!


So yeah. It was most excellent. I have lots of photos. Will try to cram as many in as I can stand to wait for the phone line to download!

And that's pretty much that! Work is still good and busy, even if I have to take two days off (eek), I have got to kick whatever this alien virus is that's trying to kill me.


So, if anyone wants to come down, I have fancypants boutique wines to entertain you with! Hooray!

BYE!
J!









Weekly: One Nice Thing About Little Apartment, #6:
It's cooler for its plaster walls and bushy palms in front - bonus for when summer comes.