InBlogNito

I am disorganised like you would not believe! I’m going home tomorrow, the shuttle comes at 9am and I am nowhere near ready to go. This morning I went for a walk with my cousin, which was great, then came home and cleaned the bathroom, so got that out the way. Ever since then I’ve been alternating between complete laziness (DH reruns on the couch!) and hat making. I made 3 and a half hats in the past couple of days. I almost gave up after one and a half, but I’m glad I didn’t, I’ve got 2 great hats now, one dud, and one pile of half made hat bits. Here are the two that worked out great:

I’m so pleased, this is what I was imagining! I wasn’t anticipating the hours it would take though. Now I have to clean up a huge sewing mess, vacuum, clear out my spare room (I’ve had the heater on for two days trying to dry washing in there), pack, package up a christmas present to a friend to courier tomorrow, eat dinner (have leftovers to reheat thank goodness!) and return a dvd. Wish me luck, I have a feeling it’s going to be a late one!!

Have a wonderful christmas! I don’t see myself blogging again till after, though I will have the laptop in case I feel inspired.

I really thought I had a better landlord this time round, after having three of the most useless property managers you could ever come across at my old house. But apparently not.

In this country landlords legally have to provide working smoke detectors but there were none when I moved in. I requested that they be installed - specifically one in the living area and one in each bedroom - about a month ago. It took a follow up phone call and a couple of days for him to get back to me after that to say he would install them. Then nothing for a week, so I followed up again and also asked for a second key. He came around on Friday, and when I got home I looked at all the ceilings. No smoke alarms, but the key was left on the bench. Then just now I noticed an alarm on the wall above a door way. .

WRONG. They are supposed to go on the ceiling, if you put them on the walls you have to wait for enough smoke to rise to fill the ceiling space to the level that the detector is at. So excuse me for being risk averse, but I live alone in a house where there is only one exit, I want at least three alarms (the fire service would probably recommend four), and I want them installed on the roof. Now I have to email again and tell him to do it again and do it RIGHT.

I also tested to make sure it was working, and the one ear splitting beep that emitted caused the battery to go flat, which means I have to take it down to stop it beeping every 2 minutes until I buy a new battery. So now I’m back to square one. Great.

So freaking annoying. If I had the tools to do it myself I would buy them and install them properly and wouldn’t give a crap about leaving holes in the roof when I removed them after I left, but I don’t have any way of drilling holes. Perhaps a power drill should be on my list to Santa this year!

Me: ‘I’ve been trying to cook for myself every night, so I can have leftovers for lunch every day too, but all I have is chicken in the freezer, and I hate leftover reheated chicken’

Mum: ‘And you don’t like cold chicken?’

Me: ‘No. Plus I make stuff like the satay and stirfry chicken, so cold’s not going to work anyway’

Mum: ‘If you use lots of sauce you won’t even notice’

Me: ‘Yes, I will. I can still taste reheated chicken, it tastes like… like… like yuck! It tastes like yuck.’

Mum: *pause*

Me: ‘I’m sure I have weird tastebuds that taste everything differently from everyone else, I can always taste yucky tastes in food’

Mum: ‘Yes. I know all about your tastebuds, I’ve long been convinced of they’re weird!’

I may or may not have been the fussiest child who ever lived and who received specially prepared meals separate from the rest of the family because I didn’t like dinner. I got over the dinner thing, but I still don’t eat salads, or any salad veges. Cept maybe lettuce. But not in a salad. And I don’t eat sandwiches either, cos they’re full of salad vegetables. And the supersonic sense thing extends to my sense of smell too, I *hate* the smell of tomatoes and cucumbers, I can’t even touch them. And yes, I know what you’re thinking… ‘but tomatoes and cucumbers don’t smell of anything really?’

So day one at my new job seems to have been a relative success! They are so super organised with new people, inductions, processes, IT, all that stuff that I am so not used to. I also now know a bit more about what I’m going to be working on, I can’t say too much, it’s never a good idea to - especially for me - but it should be really interesting. It’s really future/strategy focused, which is exactly what I was looking for, my old job was day-to-day reactive stuff.

Of course, being the time of year it is, there was a morning tea in the morning, then another team had afternoon tea and anyone was welcome to eat the mountain of leftovers. On Thursday they are having breakfast and there’s another morning tea before the end of the week too I think. My team seem ok so far, it’s a little hard to tell because I didn’t get to talk to them very much, I’m sure they’ll be great though. The only other lady in the team invited me out for coffee tomorrow, so that’s all good. One of the guys I did talk to was really interesting, we were talking about background and he just slipped in casually with ‘oh, well I was doctor for a couple of years…’ like it was ‘oh, well I worked as a bank teller for a couple of years’, you know, nothing that required years of school and a ton of cash for fees! I have to admire him though, clearly the medical profession wasn’t for him and so he moved onto something else, good on him I say. Life’s to short to have a stressful career that you don’t even enjoy!

Apart from that, it was the usual reading up on all the policies, filling in paperwork, I must have signed my name 12 times for HR. The good news is it looks like I will get paid next week, so I’m straight into the pay cycle, I was worried with christmas I might not see a paycheck till next year.

Then, even better, I got home to find a really cute Pooh christmas card from one friend, and a wedding invitation from another friend. The one who’s getting married is someone I consider a very close friend, but I have to say I was surprised to get a wedding invitation. I’ve barely met his fiance, and he’s been a bit weird about talking about her anytime I ask. I was prepared to be written off, then he asked for my address last week and I thought ‘hmm… he’s not the christmas card type, but isn’t it a little late for wedding invitations when it’s in February?’. Apparently not, cos I’m invited! And the best news? Out the 5 weddings I will have attended in just under a year by the time his rolls around, this is the only one that I don’t have to travel for, thank goodness there’s finally one where I live! They’ve chosen a gorgeous venue for the ceremony and the reception is at a swanky hotel, so should be a great day. This also means I have two totally separate weddings in February, no other common guests, I have no qualms about recycling my outfit! Plus I can spend a bit more on something really nice, or buy some new shoes or whatever, yay!! Now I just gotta lose 20lb so I fit into something really nice….

… finding good friends, a great man, the right job… all those things. One thing I’m struggling with at the moment though is friends. I have a few close friends, rather than lots of good friends. Many people I’ve been friends with have been into things that I’m not into, so while they’re nice enough people, I find myself cutting my losses and walking away, it’s just easier and better for me in the long run. However some friends are really great friends, genuinely nice people who really care for me and go out of their way to include me, catch up when I’m in town etc. But some of them, one in particular, is really not into the same things as me. She drinks lots, smokes, indulges in illicit substances, has endless minimum wage jobs (we actually met at uni, she’s recently graduated with her bachelors), has a nice boyfriend who works hard and looks after her, but again, the dodgy business is going on with him too. And all she wants to do is get married and have kids - not something that mixes well with the rest of her chosen lifestyle. However, she’s getting her wish and getting married next February. And because she considers us such good friends, she has invited me. It’s not pity invite or a way to boost numbers, she has plenty of other friends, she genuinely wants me to be there. I’ve just booked flights to go (it’s a long weekend and in my home town, otherwise I’d be making excuses probably), I’ll dress up and buy a gift, and I am genuinely happy for her. They’re a great couple and have been together for ages, and they’re happy together.

Every time I go home I do intend to catch up with the very few people I do consider friends there, but when I’m usually there for 2 days, or 3 max, I just don’t have time. A day of rest just enjoying being home, a day with my bff and her kids and a day with my family and I’m done, it’s time to get back on the plane. So since I left for good (3 years yesterday), I’ve think I’ve caught up with this friend twice, definitely no more than three times. It’s so hard, how long can I keep this up for? Even if I do have time to catch up, I usually put it off till it’s too late, because getting drunk and going out to icky clubs just isn’t my scene, and a catch up over a coffee is turns to stories of what happened that weekend she was on whichever substance.

But it’s so hard to cut ties when she is such a genuine friend to me. What to do? For now I’m committed to the wedding at least, and it will be nice to see her on her big day… but what next? I don’t think I can stand by and watch her have kids at this rate… soon after the wedding they are also moving away, so I guess the pressure will be off when I’m there at least. It feels wrong to be relieved about it though!

As I looked at the side bar the other day, I realised I’ve had this blog now for two and a half years!! That’s a fairly decent amount of time to keep something going. Sure there’ve been times when I’ve hardly written a thing for months, but I’ve also written 192 posts in total. I did the math, that’s 192 posts in approximately 913 days, about one post every 4.75 days, not bad for someone who probably wouldn’t label themselves a ‘blogger’ (I have a blog, but don’t consider myself a blogger. Yeah I know that makes no sense).

I was also looking at the side bar and remembered my About Me page never showed up, even though I wrote it. I figured I can blogroll it, but then I end up last on my own blogroll, and I can’t seem to reorder said blogroll. I’ve also had the same design for 2.5 years and I’m sick of it, but don’t like any of the other blogsome options. I also *love* the snow that people have on their blog at the moment, and the themes other blogs have, whether their ‘regular’ theme or a holiday theme. So I’m thinking… maybe it’s time to step it up a notch? The trouble is, I have no idea how! There’s something about wordpress, and something about selfhosting… but then I’m lost. So if anyone knows of any good blogs or articles on how to set up a blog in say 5 or so easy steps I’d be keen to read it. I’ll also do my own searching in the mean time. That’s task number one for you all, so time to speak up!

I also need to delve into the financial side of things. I know (or think I know) it’s not a huge cost, but there is a cost nonetheless. Task number two: I’d be grateful if you wouldn’t mind sharing how much your blog costs, or even some ideas on how to keep costs down or links to any good, cost effective options if you don’t to talk specifics.

At the moment I’m really enjoying the writing, and I’ve really turned things around this year and toned the general ranting and bitching down and tried to think and write in more positive ways. I’m a less-than-tolerant person, things will alway bug me more than the average person and this is a great way to vent, so I can’t ditch that attitude completely, but right I’m happy in general and happy with my writing here. Appreciate any assistance you can give!

Thanks

Word of the (now) wise: if you watch this movie, play this game (a LOT) and read this book all in one weekend, you will have crazy dreams and sleepless nights! I didn’t sleep at all well this weekend while housesitting, and even being back home last night I woke up a bit. I’m sleeping really heavily on my shoulders (I don’t know how this works, that’s the only way I can describe it!) and so they hurt and wake me up, I switch and a couple of hours later the same thing happens. A trip to the Osteo will help, but I’m leaving it till as close to christmas as possible. I will also be subconsciously thinking about leaving my current job and starting my new one. I’ve got 3 more days of work left and a few tasks to finish. Today I have meetings all day, but kinda spread out, so I have half to one hour between. This is not conducive to being productive, but in the interest of efficiency I’ve decided I can utilise this time and will sort and file emails. A stupid task which needs to be done and is really time consuming! I’m hoping even with the meetings in between I’ll still get most of them sorted today.

I just felt like posting… didn’t really have anything in mind, but I wanted to write something. Goes to show how much NaBloPoMo month paid off! Anyway, then I thought I’d talk about my neighbour. Last house I was in there were two little 1 bedrooms flats underneath us, the first neighbour was really friendly and introduced herself, then moved out a month later. Her replacement and the guy on the other side never said boo to us the whole time. They had to walk right past our front door to get to each of theirs and still never said anything, even if I smiled or said hello. So when I moved in here I decided to go right ahead and introduce myself to the neighbours downstairs. I already knew it was a couple and they’d been here a few months. She came to the door and was totally shocked to find her neighbour was actually introducing themselves! But we had a little chat - turns out her and the bf had broken up and he was going to move out. Then I haven’t seen her since, and he was obviously still here cos his car was in the driveway every day. Seeing as I’ve been here a month now I figured maybe they got back together. But then the other day, and again today, when I got home, his car was gone, so he might have finally moved out. I also saw her briefly the other day, and she made a point of making eye contact and waving (I was in the car), so it’s nice to know we’re on friendly terms, it’s good to at least know your neighbours by name, especially two single girls living so close together.

Now… if only I could find my christmas card list I could get on with the next productive task. Hope you all have a great week!

So I promised last month to do a video blog and I never got round to it, so seeing as I was playing round with my camera taking photos of my skin, I figured I’d whip one up real fast, so here it is, first cut, no editing! Note that you will have to be a friend on Flickr to see it, but just go ahead and add me, I’d make it public but I do share my photos with people I know, people who don’t know I have a blog. I would have embedded it here but my whiz bang html skills aren’t cutting it tonight Hope you enjoy just the same!

So today I got my nutrimetics order, finally, almost two weeks after I ordered! It doesn’t normally take so long. We had lunch with the lady too, which was… ok. She hugged me at the end. I don’t hug at the best of times, there are few people I will partake in this activity with. And often that list excludes any current boyfriends. Anyway, here’s the haul, click through to Flickr for notes:

I’ll also take a before shot of my face before I start using the stuff on the left hand side, it’s supposed to even out your skin tone, will let you know how I get on in a couple of weeks.

Hope you’re all having a great week, I’m busy as heck, with 5 working days to go before I finish my job. I have a to-do list that is growing, not shrinking. Tomorrow is out as I’m in an all day meeting, then today, when I was all prepared to be productive, the big boss specifically requested me to do something. As flattering as that was, I really didn’t have time!! It was kind of fun anyways, I can’t even begin to explain what it was cos I’d get blank stares (or would that be blank comments?), but trust me, it was interesting. Then something else came up that took the rest of the afternoon. BUT once I’m gone, I’m gone! I can only do my best till then.