28/04/2011

Sydney weather is waaaaaaaaaay more confusing that it is in Auckland.  Today, I left my house, it was overcast and had been raining much of the night, but was fine at that moment. My work is 5 mins away so decided to bike in and not bring a change of clothes.

Three mins down the road it starts pouring.  I've never really appreciated the saying 'bucketing down' until now- it really was like buckets of water pouring over me. There was no point turning around, I rode hard, figuring I might be okay.  I arrived at work saturated, water everywhere, shoes, should literally wring out my jeans.  Apparently they had best on me to see if I would ride to work or not. I'm hardcore (or stupid).
I ended up borrowing the work car, driving home to get changed then coming back. When I arrived at my house to get changed, the sun was out.  WTF. Now THAT'S remarkable.

Lesson learned, Sydney, lesson learned.

27/04/2011

I had an absolutely fantastic time in NZ. While I didn't actually do much (other than eating 4 different kinds of cake, eating easter eggs and being drugged to make my urine bright green), seeing my family and friends was so, so good. It also reiterated that I want to be living in Sydney, being back in NZ felt like a holiday, which is a good place to be. Plus, Lou and Mike got engaged!!! It's so, so exciting, plus I get to be a bridesmaid. I've already spoken to Lou about the outfit, that it's all about making me look good. She said she'd make sure her dress complimented me, which is fair enough.

I arrived back last Monday night, shattered from being with people non-stop and the general wearniess that flying brings, went to sleep and spent the whole of Tuesday in my pajamas. It was BLISS. I ate more easter eggs, ordered Thai food, played games, had skype conversations, read a book, so, so nice. I'm reading 1984 which is doubleplusgood. Such an interesting book and so easy to read. I really like Orwell.

It's good to be back at work. It's tiring but i really love it there.

22/04/2011

I'm still sick, sigh. I dragged myself out of my cold, dark house, went and sat in the sun, had a coffee, got a massage, met with my lovely Em and watched a movie called "Rachel Getting Married" It was a weird, depressing doco-type film with Anne Hathaway being an emo ex-drug addict, weird role for her but she pulled it off. The wedding was awesome, but it put me off getting married. The politics, the stress, the fights. Though i'm sure it's worth it (like apparently having kids and being tired and sick all the time is worth it), i'm not convinced.  So, I remain, for the next while anyway, a childless spinster.

spin·ster/ˈspinstər/

Noun: An unmarried woman, typically an older woman beyond the usual age for marriage.

 

Well, according to my friends, the time is now.  Spinsterhood, I welcome you with open arms. I'll spend my honeymoon money on a cemetery plot. I'll buy a cat, name her Emily Dickinson, wear a bum bag, hold my hair up with a giant hair clip, re-use jokes from a 30 Rock episode...life moves on. My career will be my husband.  My work my one love. My 3/4 full flat white...our love child. And....i'm weirding myself out.  (Going to work is going to be WEIRD now).

 

In other news; a colleague made me a kick-ass mix cd of Girrrrl music.  Some amazing new stuff i've never heard, love discovering new music! I've also applied to join a couple of Sydney indie/folk bands, not sure how it'll work but figure it could be a fun experiment, where the worst that could happen is that they turn out to be crazy and kill me. In which case, you guys just need to come to Sydney and meet EVERY indie/folk band and shove bamboo up their fingernails (I trick I learned from Lost, who said it was a bad show?) until they tell you who killed me. I figure it's join a indie/folk band, or join roller derby. I am SO edgy. BAM.

 

ps Happy Birthday Sare. I love you.

 

21/04/2011

50 Posts! To celebrate; a joke.
What is Mary short for?
She has no legs.

Bada boom.

Today at work, my boss went and got us all gourmet chocolate bunnies and hid them around the cafe. I love my work. We had a glass of wine after work, eating chocolate and just chilling, enjoying the fact that we're about to have FIVE DAYS OFF.  Very excited about this.

Can't wait to sleep and veg tomorrow.

20/04/2011

Today I reflected with my friend Aimee on Sydney. I really, really like it here, and despite not knowing many people or having much of a social life (yet), I love it.  I'm not planning on coming home anytime soon; this is so where i'm supposed to be and I can't wait to explore further. I finished Bill Bryson's 'Down Under' and travelling across Australia (for the most part, if you put aside his cynicism -realism- that everything will eventually kill you) sounds so good.  I'm looking at doing Kakadu in Septmeber possibly, as well as visiting Canberra and Tamworth, my lovely Em and Ellie's hometown's.  My Adelaide girls (girls I met in India) are planning to come and visit me in June, that or i'm going up there to check it out.

I have secret dreams of finding someone to visit the Gold Coast theme parks with me...in reality, i'm alone on that one.

My job is incredible, last night they shouted us all (very expensive) drinks and food at a Darlinghurst Bar, for doing such a good job at being awesome.  I had so much fun, the people I work with are amazing and so much fun, i laughed so hard. Plus I wore my pretty new red dress and looked awesome, so that was good.

Ellie and Em are incredible, I see them usually about once a week or so and we have such a good time, plus they've introduced me to their flatmates and friends so my social circle is widening.  They're such amazing people and really inspire me to be a better person, a person that loves and lives life. And that's good.

My flatmate David is a sweetheart and is great to live with, our schedules are very different so I don't see a lot of him but we work together well, he's lovely.

Cottage Church is amazing.  The people there are not only really friendly, funny and awesome, they're real.  They're a bunch of people who believe in God and want to follow him in a way that I so respect.  They think in community ways, always doing stuff to help out the community or thinking about how they can.  They're immediately welcoming and loving and I feel genuinely at home there.  The Anglican thing is fun, I went to worship in the most beautiful church, which was so awesome, singing songs I loved and knew and feeling so grateful for the surroundings.

Sydney as a whole is fun.  It's so freaking big and I have so much to explore, but i'm getting there. Having a car would be awesome as buses are VERY confusing, but my friends and colleagues are very helpful in helping me find where to go. I haven't explored as much as I want to, but in a couple of weeks Brendan is visiting and we'll go and explore and do the tourist thing, which will be good, it's never the same on your own.

This weekend i'm going home to visit friends and family. I am SO looking forward to it. Life is good.

17/04/2011

Today Ellie and a random Belgian girl (that's somehow linked to her grumpy downstairs neighbour that gave them chocolates filled with alcohol) went to the Rozelle Markets.  They were good, I got some awesome presents for my sister that I can't actually write about, despite being really excited about them.  Way to ruin my blog Laura.

Afterwards I went to Cottage Church, where we discussed a poem by Pte. Thomas Albert Crawford written in 1916.  It was about war and death and was really quite depressing. We paralleled it with the gospel of Luke, which worked, but it left the mood quite somber.

Afterwards, I felt like singing so went along to Church in the Graveyard (which isn't actually in a graveyard, as cottage church is no longer in a cottage...but anyway) which was good, they sang a song by Brooke Fraser so I was excited about that...plus I actually knew most of the songs.  I met someone who was pretty awesome called Hannah who was all 'hey come sit with me', actually talked to me and made comments like 'and THERE'S the segway' during the sermon, it was funny.  Then I ate some chicken, bought an icecream and taxied home the end.

16/04/2011

Today, it's pouring outside, which means the espresso bar is crazy busy, we get rushed breaks or scoff down food and picollos in the back then run off to take orders and clear tables. Saturdays are the day I manage the place and Ronan has the weekend off. Of course, we're short-staffed, only one down today which is a nice change from 2. Although I have to bike home in the rain, I have no plans other than to skype in my pajamas with a peanut vege noodle stir-fry and perhaps watch a movie. It's good to have things to look forward to.

15/04/2011

I've been hungover three times in my life.  The first was when I was 18, usual story.

The second was when I was 21, Erin and I were at the Hofbrauhaus* in Munich and kept being bought the local white beer (by the half litre!!) by some lovely old German couples who said (in their broken English) it was their duty to 'welcome us to Bavaria', despite our polite, then forceful "NO THANK YOU I DON'T EVEN LIKE BEER ALL THAT MUCH PLEASE STOP". I feel asleep on the toilet then threw up a lot of it (not all 2.5 litres though) while singing toilet songs in German.  *As a side-note, this was where Hitler formed the Nazi party.

The third was today. I feel AWFUL.  I'm not even really sure what happened, I had 4 drinks over 5 hours so figured i'd be fine, but i guess the mix of tired, beer/gin/wine was lethal.  Today has been so hard, I could barely talk this morning (I also had an ulcer on my tongue which made me slur a little...all class, this girl) and playing the helpful manager was far too much effort. This girl at work asked me to get her keys from upstairs, where she'd strategically placed a bottle of wine with HAPPY BIRTHDAY all over it....i didn't even notice it, bleary-eyed, I gave her the keys and was confused when she asked me if i understood. I thanked her later, after numerous coffees, berocca and toast.

Tired and yuck turned to headache and yuck which has now turned to nausea and yuck. I can't believe people do this all the time! Voluntarily!!  I apologised to my manager, who just laughed at me. Nice work.

What's remarkable about this? Well, I suppose, the lesson i've learned. Don't mix drinks, kids.

15/04/2011

Last night, Em, El, Mere and Niki came over bearing banoffe cake, antipasto, gifts, poo stories and the accompanying laughter.

My flatmate David had not only cleaned the flat, but purchased beer, gin, chips and a lovely bottle of Penfolds red for me! Not only that, we (finally!) had internet AND the 2 beers I had at the pub had gone straight to my head, so by the time my friends arrived, I was feeling rather cheery. Beer, you ask? Correct.  There is a lovely ale here produced by a brewery in Adelaide, called Cooper's. I've never really thought much of beer, or even about it's brewing, but it's all quite an art, for example; the pale ale I drank last night (and the rest of Cooper's beers) are characterised by their secondary fermentation technique, which means that the bottle always has some yeast sediment at the bottom.  Generally, people will either a) roll the bottle before drinking or b) pour it into a glass and leave the sediment at the bottom of the bottle.  So there you go. Write that down. Either way, Cooper's Green = nice beer.

The evening was a good one, I opened the sparkling Shiraz (Black Chook) that was recommended by my foodie boss and it really was fantastic.  I'm not the biggest fan of sparkling wine and wasn't sure about a sparkling red, but it was light and fruity and far too easy to drink. This was followed by a gin and tonic and a very early night as I very quickly remembered my low alcohol tolerance/was hit with drunken stupor.  Not my finest moment, but due to me being as hardcore as I am, the moment was short-lived as it was immediately followed by me having a shower and going to bed by 9pm.  Rock and roll.

A strange day, being away from the majority of my friends and family, but many texts, calls and fb messages reminded me that i'm not yet forgotten. x

14/04/2011

Last night I went to see "Hello Vera" at a pub in Surrey Hills. They're so good, I really enjoyed their gig.  I had a Pims & lemonade for the first time, which was delicious. Google them!

Today, I woke up earlier than I planned to, opened a couple of birthday packages (including some kick-ass Merino icebreakers for my further adventures!...and a tiki tea-towel because 'I'm anal about cleaning') rode to work without a helmet, (which I only realised when I got there!!!!! craaaap) enjoyed eggs and soldiers and a flat white before starting work.  Without demanding special treatment, i'll take it, had a special birthday salad made for me, plus some of the girls at work suggested birthday drinks...which means we're...dare I say it...friends? We're heading to the local pub, which is bogan central but has cheap drinks and is 1 minute from work.  I'm so lucky, today is Thursday (which comes before Friday, Saturday comes after that, Sunday is afterwards) which means lingerie waitress night!! It's uncomfortable and you don't know where to look and they bend over really far when they get your drinks. Awesome birthday treat. We we we so excited.

El, Em, Mere and Niki are coming over for birthday drinks and dinner later as well, I text them earlier in the week asking for them to come over because I didn't want to eat takeaways alone on my birthday. How funny would that be, though, crying alone, wine in one hand, Thai in the other.... They happily obliged.

Yay for Catherine day!

13/04/2011

Melbourne was pretty awesome.  As well as the awesome espresso bar I wanted to visit (better than I thought!), I had a great time with Erin, Thomas and Jon-E, just hanging out and enjoying the sights.

The first day we went up to the Dandelong Mountains, driving through cute little towns, seeing the sights and enjoying the locals. Thomas and Erin had seen a DVD about this guy who sculpted about Aborigines (or something...)...which was... well, read what Thomas wrote;

"Today was spent in the mountains; back in the nineties I saw a travel show where Billy Connolly went to this Forest Sancutary near Melbourne where a recluse named William Rickett had spent sixty years carving our the most incredible statues depicting the struggle of the Australian aborigines and wildlife and their stuggle against colonialism.

The guy was a nutter. He was a genius, but also a nutter.

At the park we watched a documentary filmed in the early nineties (he died in 1993) where he aggressively asserts that his totem was the Lyre-bird. He even did a little senile dance to demonstrate that his totem was the bird. If he couldn't carve such incredible works, it is likely that he would have been locked up.

At one point in his life, the guy took many of his carvings and travelled 250km to the nearest Aboriginal settlement to greet his aboriginal "brothers" but unsurprisingly, they had no idea who this white nutcase was that had turned up and was trying to hug everyone. They eventually took him in, but I suspect it was out of pity, more than anything else.
It makes me wonder if genius is closely related to madness. No sane person would have spent so much of their lives in the forest carving stone. I guess he found his niche.

The carvings however were magnificent - the guy may have been nuts, but his work was amazing. Some of the best art that I have ever seen."

Pretty much sums it up.  Interesting and i'm glad I went, he was very talented, but it was creepy.


The next day we travelled around, did some shopping visited cafes and tea shops before I headed back to Sydney. I cried a little leaving Erin.




Lucky to have such exciting adventures! So many more to come! I'm also totally on the verge of winning at making friends, so life is good.

9/04/2011

Tonight, straight after work, i'm flying to Melbourne to meet up with Erin, Thomas and Jon-E.  I am so, so, so excited. 2 days knowing I can't be called into work, where I have nothing planned but visits to tea houses and espresso bars. And the museum. Which equals life.

In other news, I made a friend at work, she leveled me up from colleague.  Then yesterday she put me back down, past colleague to aquaintance, for being a smart-ass.  At least i'm seeing some progress.

In other news, I'm excited, my friend Brendan who really really wants to get into acting, has spent much of his week doing so and is now the production assistant manager (or something) for 7 days and some other NZ tv show, AND GETTING PAID.  I love seeing people's dreams come true.

Sydney is sunny and life is good!

7/04/2011

Yesterday I did some coffee tasting, learnt about blends, roasting, origins and usual coffee stuff. I can now sort of tell the difference between a bitter taste (can be a good thing in coffee) and sour (bad). So much much, I can't wait to be able to say wanky things like 'oh, can you taste the full-bodied apricot flavours in this blend'.

Last night I went to Cottage Church's community group, where we discussed the notion of community. It was totally awesome, Em came with me. I really like these people.

Ruby-Belle is back, her mudguard fell off and I had to take her back again. I wonder if someone's trying to kill me, like in the movies where the brakes don't work, or bits fall off.  I don't think i've upset anyone enough, yet. A bit of a worry, though. FURTHER UPDATES AS EVENTS WARRANT.

5/04/2011

Yesterday I had my hair cut by Thai Ladies, had a Thai massage, then had Thai for dinner. That's remarkable, I think.

I have lots to look forward to. This weekend i'm flying to Melbourne to see Erin.
In two weeks i'm flying home to see friends and family.

Life is pretty good.

4/04/2011

The last few days have been remarkably AWESOME.

Saturday, after work, I headed into Newtown for Jazz in The Graveyard.  Pretty self-explanatory.  It was amazing, a live cover band (with a double-bass, might I add), singing Summertime, Have I told You Lately (I thought of you Laura), Route 66... It was epic.  I sat with my peeps from Cottage Church who had made a low-carbon picnic from their community garden (as part of a series they're doing on the environment), drinking wine, coffee, eating crepes and enjoying the ambiance.

At first I was weirded out that we were sitting in a graveyard, so I positioned myself between two grave stones to be respectful.  The others laughed at me and gave me some history.  Basically the graveyard is super old and no-one's been buried there for about 160 years.  The graveyard was initially bigger, so they grabbed all the headstones, put them inside the fence and used the outside space fro something else.  The graveyard was so crammed full that it didn't matter where you sat, you were sitting on a place where people had been buried.  The headstones were old, many had fallen over, but it was well looked after and a very cool experience, especially as the night went on and it got darker and darker.

Afterwards I had dinner with the other guys from the cafe.  Work shouted us all dinner and drinks as we've all been working 6 days, so we did Teppanyaki then drinks.  The Teppanyaki wasn't the best i've had, but it was hardcore, you had to catch raw eggs in bowls, rice thrown in the air in bowls, bowls full of rice, egg in your mouth...it was hardcore and I totally won at Teppanyaki. A little too proud that I was one of the few whose eggs didn't break. It was pretty funny.

Afterwards we went for drinks, where most people drank A LOT. I had a few drinks, after all, work was buying, but around 1am (midnight with daylight savings) I went home, while people double my age stayed on and partied. 1am is amazing for me, just to clarify.

The next day (Sunday), I met Em, Ellie, Meredith (Ellie's flatmate) and Amber (their friend) in Centennial park, where we all brought something to eat.  Ellie, Mere and I cycled in and it was so much much, such an incredible park.  We found a spot in the trees where no-one was around, the sun was out, a gentle breeze, we played frisbee, drank Shiraz, such a wonderful afternoon.

I was supposed to have today off work, but 2 people are sick-alas! :) I don't mind so much. It's a good day.

1/04/2011

This morning I realised it was April Fool's Day and I was ill-prepared. I kept it basic, giving customers names like Megatron on their coffee lids. My favourite response (to the question "would you like Optimus Prime as your name as it's April Fool's Day?") was "No.  "Are you sure?"  "No. I'm fine."

Win.

It was a good day today, no big mess-ups, no customers yelling at me, plus after work beers at the local bogan pub, where they have lingerie waitresses and I on't know where to look.

Bi-Winning.

I've found a few colleagues with my sense of humour, who not only laugh at my jokes, but respond with pun-based jokes that I haven't heard. Good times.

Tri -Winning.  And let's keep it that way.