Weekend

I just read the last entry about Die Hard and the ramen - the movie was fantastic - non stop action and I really liked it - it's just good fun and no need to analyse or make too much of stuff. It's very entertaining.

The Ramen was good too - we went to the one that was more authentic looking, so we ate at the counter. the noodles were very good, but the soup wasn't as good - it was fine, but nothing like the real thing! Still though it was very enjoyable and not expensive at all.

This weekend was fairly quiet - on Saturday we took it easy and then sorted some stuff out and went to the pub in the afternoon - we took a walk to Surry Hills and went to the Porterhouse, which is semi English/Irish traditional pub. We stayed there for a while and had lots of beer! I was so full by the time we got out - it was fun though - we went with Lauren and we chatted about this that and the other.

Yesterday, we had Caroline and Barbara over and we all made pizza. It was yummy! One was simple with ham and mushroom and the other one was avocado and prawn - works very well - I recommend it! We made the base from scratch and Caroline did a great job on the dough and rolling it out - her first ever!

Well, apart from that, we spent a fortune in a deli, where we spent about an hour eating different cheeses - so smelly! - but we learned a lot and it was good fun. We ended up buying loads and some very nice aoli - yum yum! Had some on my sandwich today at work...

Last week at work now - then I'll be free to play in Sydney before we leave on he 12th to Hawaii and then to Dallas to see Terri and Amy and then to Vancouver and then NY and then home - AAAAARRRRRGGHGHHH!!! - Home already??????

Life in Sydney continues

We have a new flatmate and she's nice - her name is Lauren and she's from Brisbane on a secondment from work with PWC. She's friendly and chatty so that's nice to have around the place.

The last weekend, we spent helping her move in and we built two wardrobes, one for her room and a cupboard type wardrobe thing for our living / kitchen for more storage - it took us hours but it was good fun. got some pictures to prove it so will post these too.

On Sunday we went to see our first Rugby League game in the big Telstra Stadium here and it was really good! Toni our other flatmate had organised some free tickets for us and it was really good fun. The Warriors were playing the Roosters and it was a good game, the score was tied even after overtime and golden shot (?) so they left it at that. Then we went and got to meet loads of the players, they were really good and patient with all the fans and they were very nice to us especially when they saw Toni. Her dad is the media manager for them so they all know him and were chatting on the phone to him after the match. It was pretty cool.

Back to work on Monday though, same as always, bit bored lately after the buzz and busy-ness of the last few weeks...

Tonight (09/08/07) Phil and I will go watch Die Hard 4.0 and grab a bite to eat. I found a Ramen shop near work so we want to try it and see it might be great!

Phil will be working all weekend so that will be a bit boring for me...

Life in Sydney

Our life is pretty easy going in he sense that we're not massively out on the town a lot of the time and don't do things like go shopping or go out a lot - because we are trying to be good.

We had our anniversary the other weekend - three years now! But unfortunately I was ill - I had a pretty bad cold and though I thought that I would have beaten it by the weekend, it got me properly then and we couldn't go out.

Then last weekend we thought we'd go whale watching as our anniversary gift and then go out for dinner to celebrate as we hadn't been able to do so the weekend before.

We had wanted to go whale watching for a while and now is apparently the best season to do it! The boats leave from just down our street and we went on with a couple more mates. I was very excited and weather was good - what could g wrong?

Well, plenty... really ... Once we were out at sea, things were fine for a while and then the waves got bigger an bigger and we were trying to find these whales and the boat was going up and down and up and down and up and down... and I got very ill.

Very ill.

It was a big boat, I didn't think it would be a problem and also in the Whitsundays when we had that terrible weather, I managed to work through it. Well, not this time. I threw up of course. Several times. I thought that maybe after the first round I would feel better and things would be sorted, a bit like when you've been car sick, but this wasn't like that at all. I kept going till I broke the bag and then I got a new one.

Did see two whales though - they were cool but they didn't jump or do anything - lazy sods - you really get to see more on Richard Attenborough, but it's still an experience. Then there was a crowd of dolphins following the boat but unfortunately I missed that as I was very busy at that point. Then we found another whale but I missed him too. Again, I was very busy at that point.

I was so relieved when we started our way back to shore... I am not a seafaring kind of person - I think I learnt my lesson. I keep trying to see if it gets better but I think this is really something that is not meant to be.

So basically I spent $70 to spend four hours on a boat throwing up. I could have done the same thing taking a ferry to Manly for about $4. But then again I wouldn't have seen a whale...

To be honest though, when I was feeling awful, all the whales in the world could have swum by juggling baby dolphins and I still wouldn't have been impressed...

No more boats for me....

So after this though, we decided we couldn't go out for dinner, because I really wasn't too well even after I came off the boat - it took me a good few hours to feel like myself again - honestly it's not fair!

The Friday night also was a big night out form work and we all had a quite a few drinks - it was our month end and so we were all drinking loads and didn't have to pay for anything which was great! Hooray! I got trashed and then walked home just randomly by myself - to be honest, I don't know really how I made it home. Phil was meant to meet me along the way but somehow we missed each other and I ran into a lot of scaffolding and hurt my shoulder but apart from that, I was fine! Hooray! Had a stinking hangover though to be honest... Oh dear... I guess that didn't help on the boat either.

What's going on?

Wow again it's been absolute ages since I last wrote an entry. I know you all think that we're just swanning round the world and have a good ole time and while this is true for a lot of the time, it's also true that we are now in the grip of working life again.

To be honest, it's not nice - I can do without it, but as we are seriously getting low in our funds, it's just about time that we look after the pennies and try to earn some more dollars. so far so good.

Last I wrote was when I was working for Lazard Investment Bank, and they were great. But sadly my gig with them only lasted for three weeks and then I had to start to find something else. Well I did after a few days. I signed up to work for reed Recruitment. You guys in the UK would know all about them o but here they are still tiny - a real start up and of course they want to do a great job in Australia and expand.

So I joined them as a sort of Jack of All trades which is fine, I do a lot of admin for them and formatting and while that is boring, they are all quite good fun which makes the office and easier place to be.

In the beginning I found it a bit harder, because I was so used to Lazard and the offices we were in were really small and crowded. Also they were constantly hiring new people and so my workload kept increasing and increasing to an extent where I couldn't manage anymore - it was really too much and I got lots of pain in my fingers and shoulders an eyes from all the computer work - not good!

So, we managed to set better processes and the consultants started to do a lot of their own bits too which was helpful so now I wasn't quite so busy anymore - at least now I would be able to go to toilet!

We then decided to move offices so I got to organise all of that and I swear I was so tired and busy! But now it's all done and our new offices are good and spacious so it's much better. They've also now hired a person to do this job permanently and that means that today for the first time I can sit down and do something personal during work hours! hooray!

It's Thursday and I'm looking forward to the weekend. I've been working long hours for the money and it's been a bit tiring and stressful because all the stuff was going on at work and it's a busy sort of place anyway. I think I'm a bit run down.

Apart from that, I'm looking forward to moving on - I feel that I've had enough now with work and now I'm ready for a break again. it's funny, when you're busy and working, it doesn't seem to matter where in the world you are - you'll fall into the exact same routine as back hoem and you get just as tired and fed up

I thought that maybe being in Sydney with the nicer weather and the great view, I wouldn't feel it so much, but now it's my third month of working straight and I feel like I need a holiday!!!

We try to do fun stuff on the weekends and meet up with people - we've made some nice friends which is always great - but you also have to do things like your laundry and cleaning and shopping - very annoying...

I still really like our flat though and it's nice to live where we do - it's very pretty and a nice area so we can't complain. I can walk to work, it takes me about half an hour, so the commute is virtually non-existent!

Phil is working hard too, it's been really quiet for him lately, he hasn't been getting many shifts at all but that's slowly picking up now. he's been really good though and kept cooking me delicious dinners for when I get home and made me nice sandwiches for my lunch. What more can you ask for??

So here I go, jut working away for at least another couple of weeks an then hopefully we can stop and have a look around Sydney and maybe whiz down to Melbourne for a few days to have a look around and then back and then off to Hawaii - can't wait - it will be really good to go there and get some sun!