Visitors

So the big weekend with my parents has come and gone. They arrived Thursday night late-ish so were basically just settled in, given the tour of the new apartment, and we caught up on each other's gossip.
I had Friday off work, so had a bit of a sleep-in (don't you think the best sleep ins are always on week days?) and then tag team shopping. Mum was first while Dad kept himself busy doing all my handy-man jobs (thank Dad!). We sorted out a new dress, wrap, shoes and handbag for Mum to wear to my sister's wedding in October, plus a few other bargains for each of us along the way. Dad was next - a new pair of jeans, plus a trip to Bunnings to help pick out some tools for his eldest daughter.
Friday evening was out to dinner at one of my favourite restaurants in Enmore, and a bit of an after-dinner drink at the Duke where Sandy joined us for a while.
Saturday involved a relaxing day, a surprise visit from Ron & Harriet (Ronene's family) after a bit of an issue with dodgy keys to Ronene's unit, and slowly preparing for Saturday night dinner.
The dinner was a roaring success with family and friends and massive amounts of Italian food.
Sunday started with a big clean-up, then down to they Quay for a tour of the Opera House - very interesting. Back home to take-away dinner and a trip to the movies (You, Me & Dupree - wait for DVD).
So now I'm back at work and they're on their way home - time flies when you're having fun and it feels like it's all over before it's begun.
thanks for the visit Mum & Dad - great to see you!!!

J.

How do you know when you're old?

My rude little sister emailed me the other day about this blog. I believe her comments were along the lines of:
"How many quotes on a person's blogsite along the lines of 'does
that mean I'm showing my age/ getting old' does it take before it proves
that they really are getting old??? ;-)"
So I got to thinking. How do you know when you're getting old? Actually, how do you know you're grown-up? Or middle aged? or Old? Or do we ever really hit any of these things completely or are they just a construct? In fact, if films like The Sixth Sense or The Others (Oops - hope you've seen them, otherwise I'm about to spoil the twists for you!) sometimes people don't even know when they've died!
Some milestones are pretty easy to pick. Some are a bit harder. Some cultures have proper rites of passage that signify when you pass from one stage of life to another, but ours tends to leave things a bit open.
Anyway, along these lines, I thought I'd construct my own little guide to where you are in life, and what milestones you can expect if you are younger than me, and what I'm looking forward to (or dreading) coming up. You'll also notice I've taken it upon myself to invent a few new categories, but since it's my scale I've given myself (very generously, I think) poetic license with these things. So here we go - in somewhat chronological order.
Baby: OK, this one's easy. When you're born you're a baby.
Toddler: Since the verb "to toddle" refers to walking, if somewhat precariously, I'm designating toddler-ship as starting when attempts at walking being. Also coincides with other developmental stuff like learning to talk and eat proper food.
Little Kid: Walking, talking, going to school, but still allowed to take naps after lunch, and school often involves, such delights as "playtime" "sitting on the mat having a story told", and spending time in the sandbox.
Kid: Going to school. Discovering the delights of social society such as bullies, not being in the "cool crowd". School actually involves sitting at a desk and the 3-Rs.
Bigger Kid: Owning a bike. No question. Life becomes a new game altogether once you get your first bike.
Back to the bottom of the food chain: I really don't think enough has been said on this difficult period of life. The catalyst, of course is going from the top of the food chain in primary school to the bottom of the ladder in the much bigger pond (ouch, apologies for the 3 horribly mixed metaphors in one sentence!) that is high-school.
Teenager (official): Turning 13
Teenager (truly): Discovering that boys (or girls) are more than just carriers of boy(/girl) germs.
Young Lady / Gentleman: Somewhere around the first formal function.
Student: Uni, but only if commenced within a certain period after finishing high-school. Usually straight afterwards, but allowances can be made for gap years/exchange students. Funny how that those attending high-school are called "high-school students", but "students" seems to automatically imply university. Other indicators are such related activities as discovering the uni bar, actually being allowed into pubs, living in shared accommodation, and staying up all night finishing an assignment that you've only not done because you were too busy hanging out at the uni bar.
Pretend Grown-up: This is kind of like a grown-up, but more for that period just after uni when you've left because you've finished your degree but still don't know what you want to do with your life. Involves getting a day job that doesn't involved carrying any type of food or beverage. Also discovering the joys of having a full-time salary.
Real Grown-up: Hmm. Not sure that I've entirely hit this point yet, but here are a few things that make me think I might be getting there - I make my bed every morning. I am not considering leaving the company I work for just a little while longer because then I'll qualify for long service leave. I've made career choices rather than changed jobs. I've hired someone and threatened to fire someone. My house is clean most of the time because I just keep it that way. I can't remember the last time I went to a night-club. I went to the pub last weekend and asked if they could turn the music down. I have my car serviced regularly (and I own it outright!). I have 2 mortgages (eek!). I do my tax on time (mostly). I know the difference between a shiraz and a merlot without having to read the label. I always brush my teeth and clean and moisturise my face before going to bed. Oh dear. The evidence seems to be mounting. On the other hand, I still don't really get the make-up thing, I rarely iron, and I still watch Video Smash Hits or Rage every weekend morning.
Getting Old: I may have hit a couple of these things, but I don't think I'm quite there yet. I do have a podiatrist, but I'm not yet at the point of arthritis. I don't have any grey hair (I think being naturally quite blonde helps in that department). I don't have any wrinkles (I don't think so, anyway. Although now I've typed that I'm considering going to the bathroom to check before posting in case I'm kidding myself about this one). I'm still ambitious with my career instead of craving a sea-change.
Old: I actually think this one might be a bit of fun when I get there. I'm planning on being a cantankerous old person. Preferably with a bit spooky house and lots of cats. I'm going to take great pleasure in confiscating any wayward balls hit over the fence by neighbouring children, and will bargain incessantly with the checkout staff at the grocery store, greengrocer, bakery, local craft store....He He. Looking forward to that indeed. **rubs hands together and smiles gleefully**

So there you have it. Lifestyle milestones according to Jacki. Have I missed anything important?
If so, let me know. Otherwise, I'm signing off. I feeling a little tired. Must be about time for my nap....

J.

Dammit!

Premature roaring. Bugger. Been doing revisions all today. Heading off now with a whimper, not a roar.

But on the up-side, only 1 more sleep until the imminent arrival of the parental units! Yay!

J.

ROAR!!!

In spite of continuing shared drive issues and a mountain of very complicated work I had to get through today, everything's done!!! Is it just me that sometimes wants to go out in the street and roar after a job well done?

I'm going home for home-made pizzas and an early night now.

J.

Too much of a good thing

Yawn. All the shared drives at work are having issues. No access to documents, templates, tools and files. It's not making for much of a productive day (especialy since I went back to my podiatrist this morning and so was in late. Have I told you lately how much I love my podiatrist? Sorry, that's another post. But at least now I can hopefully stop whingeing about my toes and write something interesting).
So I've been sitting here doing a job that we're all in the process of going through, and changing all my work files over into the approved stationary / files for the new building.
Now I'm a pretty organised person when it comes to my work. Everything is filed - and generally in an order that might make sense to most people, not just me. I have a collection of manuals for systems I use, suspension files in a locked filing cabinet for more sensitive stuff, and in-trays with neat manila folders for stuff I use regularly.
So now I'm busy taking all my stuff out of a perfectly good filing system and putting it into a new one.
You can imagine how thrilling I'm finding that.

There hasn't even been much of an explanation given for why we might all have to spend hours re-filing every scrap of paper ever kept by the 4000-odd staff moving into the new building. There have been a fe mumblings about the size of the new desks, but I would have thought that that would be my own problem if I can't fit all my stuff there? Do you think there was some sort of filing expert that came in and assessed all the different roles and methods of filing that everyone had and came up with a solution that suited everyone (or even most people)?

In fact, now that I come to think of it, there's actually a fair bit of stuff that refers to things I have done through the company, filed in very nice company branded lever-arch folders. Of course these aren't approved for the new building so they'll have to be re-filed.

I'm sure that standardising is a good thing in a great many cases, but I think we have here a case of ill-conceived bureaucracy. Sure "let's just get everyone to use the same 2 types of folders. Then it will all look really neat and tidy in the cupboards" sounds like a good idea in theory. But did anyone actually think it through?

Grrr.

J.

Guest Writer - Visitor!

One week in Sydney by an Adelaide girl.
I started my visit to Sydney on Sunday afternoon with a trivia contest raising money for Oxfam. Our table did fairly well and ended up with lots of magazines and mouse mats to share between us. As it turns out, Lawn bowls clubs have really cheap drinks! I had a great time, met some great people and had lots of laughs.
The next day it was time for my first bus commute into Sydney and everything went pretty well. I visited the new WBC building and was very impressed with the views, the decor and the funky furniture. The day ended with a fabulous curry and celebrating Jonathan's Birthday.
The next day, I yet again found out that someone doesn't regularly attend after work drinks (we all drive to work in Adelaide!) cannot keep up with hardened Sydit'sites and that's pretty much all I remember about Tuesday night drinks. those Branch Resourcing gals can really hold their own!
On Wednesday night we went to a pub trivia evening a very enjoyable, but we didn't actually win anything. (Yes, it was definitely due to the broken speaker).
On Thursday night we had a fabulous dinner at Emperors Choice and Jacki and I shared a very large plate of Spicy Tofu (which, as always was the food highlight of my trip) Also at dinner were Briohny ,Darrell, Jo, Sergio and Linh. It was great to catch up with everyone again!
By Friday I had experienced pretty much every commuting scenario, missing the bus, waiting in the rain, not being able to catch it as it was full, running to catch the bus and having it pull away just as you get to it, catching the train, waiting over an hour for a taxi in the city before giving up and even making my way in by myself on Friday morning. I especially like Friday afternoon drinks and am looking forward to some Veggie Yum Cha for lunch tomorrow with Sergio and Linh!
It was great seeing all the guys in Sydney again and especially meeting Peta and others for the first time. I think I'll have to do this every year for the change of scenery and to experience the lovely Sydney hospitality!
Nicole

More than halfway there

Did anyone make a new year's resolution this year?

I did, and I have done pretty well with it so far, even if I do say so myself. I suppose it helps that I chose to do something that I thought I would enjoy and have actually enjoyed even more than I thought I would.

I decided that it was time I made music a part of my life. So I've bought more CDs this year than I think I have in my whole life before. I sorted through all my old CDs and threw out a stack that were damaged in an unfortunate incident a while back and that I hadn't bothered throwing out when I played and they didn't work and I just put them back on the stack.
I've been to see a bit of live music this year already, and hope to see more.

I love when New Year's resolutions turn out like that.

So what am I loving right now?

• Desert Lights Something for Kate
• Black Fingernails, Red Wine Eskimo Joe
• Tales of a Librarian Tori Amos
• A Grand Don't Come for Free The Streets
• Street Signs Ozomatli
• Thirsty Merc Thirsty Merc

J. :-)

I'm friendly, OK.

So while we're on the topic of the other night with the girls. I should mention that they had endless fun at my expense, making fun of my friendliness.
Now, I'm the first to admit that I'm a pretty friendly person, and I'm really not shy. At parties I generally manage to meet everyone attending, and I have no problems doing work networking or making new friends at any sort of function.
So why do my friends apparently seem to think it's so shocking that the same tendencies seem to come out in less structured environments, and with people less connected to me in a social sense?
I'm talking about the fact that I have a bit of a knack for striking up conversations with random strangers in public places.
Pubs are easy. I do it all the time, especially if I'm left standing on my own while my companion(s) are off in the bathroom or at the bar. In fact, I did that last week and struck up a conversation with some random while Kogi ducked off the the bathroom.
The Bus. Now this what kind of what started the conversation. I mentioned something about the guy I sat next to on the bus the night before. And the fact that I got his name and email address. And swapped some music files from our phones via bluetooth. And I took his photo (it was time for photo diary, OK?). Well, he had the same phone as me, and we were stuck sitting next to each other for a 30 minute bus trip. What else are you going to do? I also met another guy the other week, when he noticed I was playing sudoku whilst taking my normal commute and asked me about it. (See, it isn't always me doing the initiating). I ended up teaching him how to play and having a very interesting conversation about time-series regression. (OK, interesting for some people, I'll admit). And then there was the girl at the bus stop the other week. She asked me how far it was to a particular stop and how she would know where to get off. I told her I was getting off at the same place and if she wanted to sit with me I'd let her know. Turns out she was from Tassie...So of course we ended up having mutual friends in common. And the French backpacker a while back...I think I also have photos of him somewhere...
There are also some more random ones. I've seen people sitting by themselves in strange places looking upset or crying, and I've asked if they needed help. I was even actually able to help once, but it has always lead to interesting conversations.
So the question is, am I a freak for talking to random strangers? Or what is wrong with our society that we think we can't?That we're afraid? Or that people will think we're crazy?
Well, I'm quite happy making friends all over the place. And I guess while people still talk back, there's obviously enough like-minded people to there who feel the same.
So there.

J. :-)

Judging a book by its cover

A funny thing happened last Saturday night when I was out with the girls. Thought I'd share.
The 4 of us were sitting around, glasses of red wine in hand, having lots of laughs and meaningful (or not so meaningful - but that's another post) conversations, and minding our own business.
Then, from the end of the table, we hear "Excuse me" and turn to see a lady has approached the table and is addressing us.
"Do you girls like putting music on the jukebox?" She asked.
So what would you think? I think we must have all looked pretty horrified and there were 4 blank looking expressions staring back at her, stuttering and struggling for something to say.
Was she crazy (we were in the inner west, after all, and as much as I love living there, I do admit we have more than our fair share of loaves short a slice)? Was she approaching us for money? I didn't think that asking strangers for money to put music on the jukebox was really the done thing? Did I miss the memo? Huh?
"I'm the owner - you girls look like you'd pick good music", she said, as she slid 2 hefty stacks of $2 coins across the table....

Whew!!!

It's been crazy this week. Here's the abridged version so far....
Saturday - Chores and running around shopping centres on a rainy Saturday. Not fun. Out for a girls night in the Inner West with Bec, Sandy and Kogi. Possibly just a little more wine consumed than was absolutely necessary, and definitely more hanging shit on Jacki than was necessary.
Sunday - brunch with Bec, picking up Nicole from the Airport and heading straight to a charity bowls day that turned into a charity trivia day because the grass (pitch? turf?) was too soggy to play on.
Monday - Happy Birthday to Jonathan! It was me in chef mode, loads of curry and a friendly game of scrabble (should I have let the birthday boy win? Nah.)
Tuesday - a quick after-work debrief drink after a hectic day. Unfortunately a deluge started and we were stuck there a while...
Wednesday - Trivia. Missing a few regular team members. We sucked. We're blaming the broken speaker and the fact we couldn't hear properly.
And in between it's been a very hectic week's work. Tonight is dinner with a couple of the other interstate guys from work in town for training. Then tomorrow is Friday. Do you think it's showing my age to want to just go home and spend the night watching TV on the couch on a Friday night? Saturday Nicole heads back to Adelaide and I'm heading up to the Central Coast for Bec's Mum's 60th birthday party (should be a blast), then back for Jonathan's birthday celebration on Sunday. Work next week and then Mum & Dad arrive the next weekend....

Never mind. What's that saying about when you can sleep?

J. ;-)

Work this...well, little while

Well it's been ages since I've done a "work this week". I'm guessing you have assumed one of 3 things has happened with that particular column.

1. Jacki has done no work
2. Jacki has been too lazy to go through her diary to figure out what she's been up to since when
3. Jacki has been too busy actually working to stop and tell everyone about it.

Well the answer is somewhere in-between. Clearly there have been a couple of periods where I have done no work. These include my holiday and the time I've had off with food poisoning and the dentist.

I have definitely been too busy to go through my diary to give a detailed description of what's happening in the exciting world of forecasting.

When I have been in the office it's been pretty crazy with all the different stuff going on. There's been all the usual stuff, plus a few dramas we discovered with daylight savings and time-stamped data, plus getting ready for new time studies results and the next year's sales targets. Adam was off for most of last week so I've been holding the fort and wishing I could split myself in two!

So between all that, not oo much else has been fit in!!!

I think I need a nap!

J.

What's hot and what's not

Do you ever read those articles in magazines? I thought that I might put my own personal list out there.

What I'm loving right now
The new handbag I bought at lunch, the new album from Something for Kate, Blistex complete moisture lip balm, the whole Superman revival thing, the 2 new vegetarian products from Sanitarium, all the visitors that are coming to see me, my new favourite cocktail - Hibiscus infused vodka with wild lime juice (called a Pink, and available from Summit), Chambourcin.

What's not in the good books
Dentist visits, noisy neighbours downstairs who play techno music too loud every night until late (am I getting old?), numbers that don't add up when they should, the fact that it's another 3 hours until the weekend really starts, getting excited when the bus driver handed out new schedules for my regular bus route (after I made a seemingly well-received suggestion to the Sydney Buses a couple of weeks ago that they review the bus timetable given all the new recently-built and approved apartment buildings along the line), only to discover that they've actually cut the number of buses down. Who was the @*&% moron who decided that in all his infinite wisdom???????

I think I'm gonna start taking the train next week

Grrr...again

I still hate the dentist.

Power days

Whew! Adam's away sick for the second day and I'm holding the fort on my own. There's a new forecast just finished running, the sales plan needs finalising and there are merger scenarios to run!! Aargh! Even worse, my dentist has called and said there's been a cancellation this afternoon so I don't have to wait another month for my final filling (yay! great news!...yes, I'm being sarcastic).

But somehow I'm doing OK. You often hear people talk about having off-days (and I certainly know all abouty them too), but I've been known to have Power Days.

There are a couple of factors that come into power days and today seems to fit the bill....

• You have to be in peak physical condition - no lingering or lurking colds or flu, late nights the previous evening, or lingering back-ache/head-aches (did I mention my toe seems to be better?). Ay of these things can ruin a power-day and make it into a regular day.
• You have to have at least one deadline. If you don't, you'll never push yourself and achieve a power day (why do today what you could put off until tomorrow?)
• You have to have a full day's work that needs doing. If you're totally swamped, you're likely to get overwhelmed and disheartened. If you haven't got a full day's worth of stuff to do, the old procrastination law comes into play.
• There have to be minimal interruptions. You can't have a power day if you've scheduled six hours worth of meetings. It's just not going to happen.

So my to-do list, which looked crammed this morning is alrady well under way. Things seem to be running smoothly (knock on wood) and I'm on schedule to get everything done I need to today by the time I need to leave for the dentist. Hooray!

So back to it. Must....focus....

Hope you all have power days too!

J.

A rose by any other name

What's in a name?

Everyone's given a couple at birth. They may be shortened or lengthened, or abbreviated, or changed completely. Many women change them shen they marry. Other people can give them to you, but somehow it's not cool to give one to yourself. Although making one up can be acceptable in some situations.

Most people somehow seem to suit their names. Either that or they grow into them.

I personally go by Jacki. My full name is Jacquelyn Marie, but only my grandparents call me that these days (Mum held out for years, but even she's given up!).

For some reason I'm not entirely sure of, Mum occasionally calls me Jacquelyn Marie Theresa Henrietta.

I'm quite often called Jackster/Jaxta - something started by my friend Rossco (also known as Rissko - when he's had a few and gets a bit cheeky, Groover - a long story, and "my boy Ross" - usually proceeded by "not" and referring to what his mum might make of his many and varied shenanigans) many years ago, I believe.

My friend Sandy also has a drinking alter-ego: the ever-charming Shandy.

When I'm receiving unwanted attention I'll go by Agnes. The expressions of people when you introduce yourself by that name are pretty priceless.

A couple of people call me J. The ultimate shortening. I've always particularly liked this one, but as I said above, you really can't influence your nicknames.

The boy calls me a number of odd things. But he kind of does that to everyone. Pretty much everyone he knows has been called Crazy-pants at least once. I get a few too cheeky (or soppy) to put on here, but also get such pearlers as funky-duds, cheeky-chops, Jacksterino, and fluffy-fuzzy-bunny-feet (when I'm wearing my fluffy slippers, of course).

My friend Louise and I used to let our inner children out to play sometimes. They were called Chloe and Molly. They like to Spice Girls and singing into hairbrushes.

When I was in primary school, my dodgy surname lead to quite a lot of nicknames. The less said about those ones the better. I think I'm still traumatised. Although I may have done better than my youger sister and brother who ended up with unusual first names, as well as surnames (I think Mum & Dad ran out of ideas after the first 2 kids). Bronte and Petrina (who you could be mistaken for calling "PetrinawithaP" for the way she has to always introduce herself), your names will always be normal to me...sorry I can't speak for the rest of the planet.

So that's pretty much the history of me and my names (and those of a few of my friends). Does anyone else have any pearlers?

J.

The final countdown....(da da DAA da, da da da dah..)

3 sleeps until Bec comes over for girls cocktail night in the Inner West!

4 sleeps to go until Nicole arrives from Adelaide!

15 sleeps to go until Mum & Dad arrive from Tassie!

I love visitors!

And while we're at it.....I love going away too.

91 sleeps until I leave for WA

95 sleeps until my sister's wedding

97 sleeps until I leave WA for Tassie

101 sleeps until Karen's wedding

103 sleeps until I head back to Sunny Sydney.

And while we're at it, I love birthdays!!!

67 sleeps until my birthday!!!!

J.

And...

And Hello to Nic. glad you like the blog. Feel free to leave me comments instead of sending emails. Makes me feel more loved.

That goes for all of you.

J.

;-P

The wonders of modern technology

Everyone in the office has had the silly-half-hours today. Nobody has even noticed I'm not wearing shoes. I've been informed it's because of the full moon.

Maybe that's why I found this so hilarious. In this day and age of sensational forecasting technology, software and hardware, this is the best solution we could come up with today to a particular problem!

for the record, that's a pile of 10 packs of post-it notes carefully balanced to hold down the escape key on keyboard.

How far we've come!

Another whinge - and another one not for the faint hearted

At the risk of sounding like I'm a whinger who talks way to much about feet, I'm going to give you another whinging post about feet.

I'm wandering around today with no shoes on. Despite what some of you may remember from my uni days, this is not due to any hippie idealism. It's because my toe hurts.

I have this hereditary weird toe thing. My siblings all have the same thing and it seems to be inherited from our Dad. In our family it's a well known phenomenon. Basically, our big toes are larger than the rest of our toes. Not just in the normal way where big toes are supposed to be bigger than the rest (as the name would suggest), but substantially bigger. I'd guess mine is more than double the size of my next largest toe. Given that I've already posted one gross foot photo on this blog, I'll spare you a visual, but you get the picture. If you're really curious, you can check the archives. Otherwise, just take my word for it. Where most people have a big toe (or two), our family have giant toes.

Now the giant toes on their own are really not the problem. Aside from looking a bit odd, and meaning that we all have to wear a size bigger shoe than the rest of our foot would require, having an inordinately large big toes doesn't cause any problems on its own. The problem is that our toenails are also inordinately big. And not just big in that they are relative to the toe and therefore cover the inordinately big toe. (who would have thought you could use the word "inordinately 4 times in one paragraph?). The big toenails are both large in surface area, but also in thickness and strength. In fact, they kind of resemble a (barely) smaller version of a horses hoof. Very difficult to cut and prone to things like ingrown toenails. They tend to be OK during summer when open-toed shoes are essential wardrobe items, but not so much fun in winter when they get crammed into open-toed shoes.

So anyway, I'll try getting to the point at some stage here (I'm sure I had one when I started this rant....Hmm....Oh yes. Right.) Well my toes have been hurting quite a lot lately. To the point where it was not overly pleasant wearing socks and even worse wearing stocking, and downright torture wearing tight shoes.

Being a girl, and therefore definitely not too tough to go see a doctor, I toddled off to my GP and got a referral to a Podiatrist. I've never been to a podiatrist before and didn't quite know what to expect. But this one was conveniently located and managed to fit me in with only a couple of days wait - a nice change from most specialists.

So I rocked up and was pleasantly surprised. She was professional and did a great job and knew what was wrong immediately and took care of it straight away. (Corns, if you must know). Plus she had one of those machines that magically process your health insurance card so you don't have to pay and then fill out forms and make a claim and pray to the arbitrary gods of health insurance that you'll get a decent refund.

So all was well and good for a while, and since my podiatrist included a complete once-over for my feet and heels in my visit, my feet looked better than they ever have in my whole life.

Unfortunately all is again not well in footsville. Compounded by the fact that I wore my least comfortable pair of work shoes today (they look great with the outfit - it's not like I could have worn my brown boots with my black and white outfit) that get kind of sore by the end of the best of days.

So I've rung my fabulous new podiatrist and, shock, horror, she's got the flu so I'll have to wait until next week to see her.

Apologies to anyone in my office who has had to put up with me hobbling around in my stockings today. It may last another couple of days, but I will be back into shoes as soon as possible. I promise.

J. (aka Hop-a-long Cassidy)

The green-eyed monster

Some days just don't seem quite fair. I arrived this morning to 3 emails in my in box that made me very jealous. One from Cecilia having a lovely time in Lebanon, one from Ronene with funny stories of her escapades at the Blarney stone, and one from Maddy and John who are enjoying the vineyards of France and about to head to Italy.

Meanwhile I'm having a lovely adventure. Here at my desk. At work. Just like I do every day. Dammit!

All quiet on the Western Front

Apologies for the lack of posts the last couple of days. Unfortunate case of food poisoning to blame. I recommend not eating at the Chinese place in Myer food court next to El Turko turkish place. Ever. Really not fun. Will try for a decent post this afternoon.

J.

Update - the place is called Khao Thai - steer clear!

Exciting visitors

I had a phone call from my Mum yesterday. She still lives in Tassie, although her and my Dad spend a lot of time touring around the country in a big motor-home. They've decided to come visit me in Sydney for a long weekend at the end of the month, before they set off on their next big tour (to WA for more time with their favourite grandchild, plus my sister's wedding). Yay! Mum & Dad have only made it to Sydney to visit me once since I moved here (4 years ago one week from today!) even though we've seen each other in various different locations several other time since then. They also certainly haven't seen my new apartment, something I'm very proud of (in case you haven't been able to tell!) and now I finally have room for them to come and stay properly.
I'm not quite sure what we'll do yet. They quite like shows, but I've searched Ticketek and CitySearch websites and there's not really anything suitable on while they're here. Any suggestions from my loyal readers (particularly the Sydney-based ones...or anyone who's been to Sydney and enjoyed doing something)?? Feel free to post suggestions via the comments - keep in mind Mum doesn't enjoy wine and neither of them are as agile as they used to be, but we have a spacious and comfortable car and lots of enthusiasm.

Cheers!

J.

Nothing better

I had a great weekend. A very satisfying spring clean on Saturday, dinner then drinks with a charming and attractive man (despite a particularly Jacki moment involving a jug of boiling vegetable stock and my hand) then Sunday up early and off to Maroubra for coffee and a long walk along the beach collecting shells and enjoying the sunshine. Mmm heaven!

At the risk of becoming repetitive

sorry to harp on, but I found this site, and given my penchant for doing stupid things with photos, of course I loved it.

http://www.funonit.com/funny_jokes/fake_magazine/

Endless Possibilities, Too funny.