Monthly Archives: December 2008

L.O.L.

Posted on December 27, 2008 by | Leave a comment

I am not really one for the text abbreviation but I have just LOL in fact giggled to the point of tears.

I have just wandered back into the holiday house after a quick walk along the beach. Not funny yet I know…. But as I stumblied into the living room I could here this rumbling, grumbling, low down vibration coming from somewhere. But where??

All I could see were two manly feet poking above the sofa arm and the top of the remote control. And there dead to the world, hidden in the comfy depths of the soggy settee was my sleeping brother…. completely out of it, grasping the remote control as if his life depended on it, snoring his head off!

Clearly too much Christmas cheer for him today!

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old friends

Posted on December 27, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Well – I don’t think we have changed that much. Have we?

Our waist’s are slightly wider – true

Hair may be frosted just a bit with grey, or shorter or longer or just simply less….

Just about every one knows how to change a nappy..even me!

We only have one drink at lunch time….

But in the end I have seen my friends in the gawky and the awkward teen years, visited them in different corners of the world, watched each one fall in and out of love, find the one, get married and now grow families.

They are old friends

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I love a sunburnt country…

Posted on December 26, 2008 by | Leave a comment

It is a great first line of a wonderful poem and certainly encapsulates Australia, particularly my home state of Victoria at the moment.

Most of the ground and paddocks looks like they have been in the toaster for a little too long – very dry and brown, kind of  flakey. The lack of rain over the last few years has placed water in the forefront of everybodies mind. We have a water minister, a website funded by the government, it is the first thing people comment on.  Melbournites  may knock the Brits off the number one spot for obsessional talk about the weather.

Plus  it would seem that everyone would be more than happy to have a wet  and soggy Christmas and summer 09…..Quite possibly I am the only one who is desperate for sunshine – although once I have gone back to the land of grey and gloom… I would be more than happy for the heavens to open.

If for no other reason than to have Dad fill has humongous water tank , so that Mum can stop bucketing her garden and so that the price for turning on the tap for a glass of  water does not  outstrip the cost of  a glass of wine or a barrel of oil!

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the flight

Posted on December 25, 2008 by | Leave a comment

God who ever groans about the 23 hours of blissful peace found when flying between London and Australia clearly has not had a hectic enough time before!

The first 7 hours between London and Dubai dissolved as I watched a film or two, shut my eyes and paid no attention to the rest of the world. Quick 60 minute transit between planes and then off to Melbourne. While not comfy for sleeping, the next ten plus hours were brilliant!

In my mind it is all about expectations – so as long as you don’t expect to sleep the 23 hours of uninterrupted, doing nothing can be heaven. However it may just be me?

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Flying home

Posted on December 17, 2008 by | Leave a comment

In two sleeps I hop onto a plane and fly back to Melbourne.

Now everyone over here goes on and on about the length of the flight but really……. I am going to be knackered, I am going to sit down, someone is going to feed me, water me and I can watch films. The obvious down side is the lack of sleep but am hoping to overcome that with complete exhaustion! So really no down side.

I am looking forward to heading home for the first time in a long – a first time since I have been home, and I actually want to go home. So hopefully it is going to be low on angst and high on fun, family and friends.

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Step back in time

Posted on December 17, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Today I had the absolute pleasure of meeting with one of the current MBAs.

It was pleasurable for a couple of reasons. It was great to think about this time last year – quickly remember how stressed I was -  and then reassure someone else that it is possible  to pass the Finance and Accounting exams coming up in January. To also hear about all of the changes, news and intrigue of the current year.

The chat has also made me think about what I have learned from the experience and what I am applying at the moment. My job at the moment sits me in front of a computer with a bunch of spreadsheets – and at the moment is reminding me just how grinding I find the experience. I am just not good at it. I do miss being in a team no matter how dysfunctional and I want to get out there and make things happen. Explore ideas with others.

My contract has been extended for another 3 month slot – this is good. As it is not all grim and there is possibly light at the end of the tunnel.

But gees the next job is definitely not involving any spreadsheets!

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Christmas in London

Posted on December 14, 2008 by | 3 Comments

The Northern Hemisphere at Christmas time is quite nice.

The lights twinkle in houses, down streets and at every other opportunity.

You could almost be forgiven for being confused about whether it is actually dark.

Today we went skating at Somerset House. Pretty setting, ice, Christmas trees and 60 odd people going around and around and around. Fun for a little while. The kids are always amazingly confident with their low centres of gravity and when they fall their feet seem to be spin in the air. They land. They bounce and are off again. Impressive.

It is all enough after half an hour and it doesn’t take much encouragement to head in for a cup of coffee or better yet mulled wine!

Anyway at the end of the week I am off home, not so traditionally Christmasy but warm, sunny and what I think about when I think of Christmas.

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cookie chocolate

Posted on December 14, 2008 by | 1 Comment

cookie chocolate – sounds like ice cream? Could be paint? May be a sauce? Clearly a biscuit flavour is another option?

Well – it is closest of all to the paint actually?

I have cookie chocolate coloured hair. I am not sure I like it but it hides the grey that has been sprouting like weeds in my otherwise thick hair and stops me looking quite so ghostly pale because it is ever so slightly warmer in tone.

Anyway, I guess the real test of how weird or wonderful it is will be when I get off the Plane in Tullamarine!

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Back pain… well kind of

Posted on December 11, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Ouch – my back hurts. It feels a bit like an elastic band being tightened about my hips and sacrum. Generally pretty crap.

So as a physio I know that in part it is to do with the complete lack of abdominal muscles, the lack of exercise in the last month and missing all of the yoga and pilates stuff I started to correct the back ache. I think that there are two other factors.

The first is that I have the worlds most inactive job…. well maybe that is a small exaggeration…but goodness this is my first static-non-physio-job and I sit at a computer for more hours than I care to consider. I don’t like it much.

The second is that whenever I get tired, worried, anxious it seems to get worse – to the point of inability to walk!

Quite mad!

Anyway, important to find a solution – so today I left work at 5 (although did start at 8). I am cooking proper dinner and sipping wine. Plan to watch a little bit of telly and be tucked up in bed by 9.30……….

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no TV news IS good news

Posted on December 7, 2008 by | Leave a comment

This is going to be one short blog….. I am constantly amazed at the horribleness of the TV news having just had a blast of it on the Heathrow Express of all places.

After September 11, I cut back on my TV news watching, after the bombings in London I just about stopped but I think I will now actively abstain.

This is not to say that I am going to not read newspapers, or magazine that talk about the world, I also intend on continueing with my new habit of Radio listening….But I am just going to actively avoid the high repetition, low on facts, high on supposition news found frequently on the TV news.

And as a friend said this weekend – Even the weather doesn’t contain good news in this country…….

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