On Top of the World

I quit my job a couple of weeks ago! I’m starting my new job next Monday, so I’ve got 4 days left at my current place. I’m really looking forward to leaving (not that I’m trying to sound too joyous - there are some people I will miss); I’ve been unhappy there for the last year and a half or so (on and off, but mostly on), so to finally find something else was great. It hasn’t really sunk in that I’m leaving though. I’m not having a going away lunch, but my (soon-to-be-ex) work has drinks and a BBQ on the last Friday of every month, and since my last day will be the last Friday, I think that’s going to be my farewell.

I had thought about blogging about my interviews and all that sort of thing, but I had a silly fear that I’d jinx myself if I talked about it, so I didn’t say anything. My first interview was in mid-January, and although I was so nervous, I had the feeling I did ok, and that they were pleased with some of my answers. One of the guys there was really nice, and he sort of had the look of wanting me to do well, which was encouraging. I was called back in a couple of weeks later to have another chat and a bit of a tour of the place, and I was told at the end that I was going to be recommended for the position. I had to have a medical check and give them a couple of referees, and since all that went ok, I was made a formal offer. I called my boss the next day to let him know, and he didn’t seem to care too much - I guess that’s a pretty good indication that I made the right decision. I gave 3 weeks’ notice and now it’s down to 1 week left. The first half of my first day will be an induction at a different site, and then I’ll go to my usual office for the rest of the day to get set up. I’m looking forward to it, but am also a bit nervous - it’s been a long time since I’ve started a new job and I hope it will go well. I suppose I’m most worried about what the people will be like. The only person I’ve met is my new boss; I haven’t met any of the other people I’ll be working with. I’m confident that I’ll be good at it, and I suppose that’s one of the reasons I’m leaving where I am now - my confidence has been gradually sapped over the past year or more until there’s now virtually nothing there, and when you don’t have confidence in your abilities, the enjoyment disappears pretty quickly.

We’re going out for a celebration lunch on Saturday, and we’ve got a bottle of Moët et Chandon that we bought ages ago and thought that this was a good reason to open it, but we haven’t quite decided when we’ll do it.

Back again.

We had quite a busy weekend. On Saturday we went to see 49 Up. For those of you who might not know, this started as 7 Up in 1964, where a group of 7-year-old children were interviewed about their lives and what they hoped to do, and then every 7 years they were interviewed again to see what they were doing. So now they’re all 49, and since I’ve enjoyed the previous instalments I’ve seen, when I saw it on the cinema’s website I thought it might be good. I can’t remember the last time M and I went to the movies, so that was good as well.

So we drove into the city, got the tickets first and then went into Rundle Mall to look at a few things before the movie started. The ‘few things’ being the Apple store, as M wanted to see how stable the Macs are, running Windows. We didn’t think the new range of Macs would be there yet, but they were! I was pretty pleased because I ordered a 24″ iMac last week (it’s not due to arrive until October 3rd :(), and seeing the one they had in the shop confirmed that I had made a very good decision indeed. Mmmm. I also saw the new Nanos and iPods. Even though I already have a DAP, I’m sure I could find something to do with an 8 Gb Nano. I’ve been getting a lot of podcasts recently to put on my iriver in preparation for the trip to NYC. If I get 6 hours’ worth of podcasts, I only have to listen to it right through 4 times and I’ll be there. Gawd… I think putting it like that it makes it sound worse, not better. Why can’t Australia be a bit closer to stuff? Well, we are close to New Zealand, which is where we’re thinking of going for our next holiday, so that will be a much shorter flight.

Anyway, after we finished looking at Macs we walked back to the cinema. I enjoyed the movie, although I didn’t remember any of the people in it. When I told my mum later that night that I’d seen it, she asked several specific questions about what they were all doing - I have no idea how she remembered who was who! She couldn’t remember the names, but she could remember what some of them had wanted to do and asked me if they were doing it. Same with a woman at TAFE. I think my memory must be really bad.

There are a few movies on at that cinema that I wouldn’t mind seeing. They play a lot of movies I’ve never heard of before; it’s not one of the mainstream cinemas. Since I joined the movie club they have, for the next year I get 2 discounted movie tickets to any session, so that’s a good incentive to go a bit more often. Going on Saturday has almost paid for the membership already. No I’m not a tight arse, it just seemed like a good deal!

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On Sunday we went to a BBQ with some people that M knows and who I’d never met before. I quite enjoyed myself - there were 4 women there, and the wife of the guy who organised the get-together wanted all the women to go into another room to chat and leave the guys to talk about their ‘guy stuff’. I would have been happy staying as one group but didn’t feel I could say no. It was nice, but I’m not really much for girly chat. I suppose that’s a result of being in male-dominated environments since my second year at university. But it was a great afternoon.

OK, so most of you won’t care, but I think it’s pretty cool - it’s a game controller for my PDA! Yeah, I know… “what?” Since the buttons on Sony PDAs are completely useless for game playing, Sony thought they’d benefit from their lack of foresight and sell an accessory to make gaming easier.

So I found this on eBay and since it was only $20 including postage from the UK, I thought why not! I’m not planning on getting rid of my PDA any time soon, so I may as well dress it up a bit. It’s fun to accessorise.

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In other news, my throat is giving me trouble again. It’s not the same thing I had last time, it’s just really sore and is giving me a really bad earache. It started yesterday, and I went to the doctor tonight. He said that it was a viral thing, and gave me a medical certificate to stay home for the rest of the week since it could be contagious.

When I told M that I’d had to wait half an hour to see the doctor I wanted (it’s a bulk billing practice with several doctors, but I’ve found that you can see the doctor you want to if you ask) when I could have gone in straight away if I’d been willing to see the first available doctor, he said, “Oh well, you got the outcome you wanted.” (ie the days off work). I’d actually been hoping for some drugs, but this works too.

Tafe has finished for this semester, so I am now officially on holidays. Well, I’m not really because I still have to go to work, but it will be nice to come home every night rather than go out to classes 3 working days out of 5. The only downside is that I really have to do that assignment that’s due on the first day back next term, that I’ve been putting off for 5 months. Eh, that can wait another week and 6 days. I’m just glad that I get a two-week break from the people I want to slap. I’ll try to start next term refreshed and tolerant.

Now that I’ve stopped giving him his tablets, I think Jack loves me again. He hates the food that I’m giving him, though, because he’s meant to be eating that and only that and he’s understandably quite sick of it. I’d be sick of eating the same thing day in, day out for 6 weeks straight too. So tonight I gave him some normal food (naughty me!) and he wolfed it down. Poor boy.

M’s taking the day off tomorrow to go down to his house and put all the crap in the skip that was meant to be delivered yesterday. The tenant told us that he’d arranged with the council for it to be picked up, but of course that was rubbish (hee hee).

Oh, in other groundbreaking news that I should have shared before now but don’t think I have: we have a new electric blanket. My side was still working, but M’s stopped so it was time for a new one (what a wuss). We upgraded and got a fleecy one, so it’s all nice and squashy. It’s quite bizarre lying in bed and feeling the sponginess underneath. Mmmm. The only bummer is that it doesn’t get nearly as warm as our other one did. That might be a good thing from a safety perspective, but I no longer get into a super-toasty bed when I’m freezing.

Today is Australia Day which, for many Australians, means a barbeque and several beers. For me, it meant (other than having the day off work) staying inside and trying to keep cool in yet another day of 40-degree heat. We went to a café for lunch and then went to try to find some indoor plants, but other than that we stayed at home. Fortuanately it cooled down enough to go for a walk tonight, and being in the study is bearable now that I can open the windows and let the breeze in.

Lots of people at work are taking the day off tomorrow to make a 4-day weekend, and I’m debating whether to stay home myself. M is going to work, but I’m strongly leaning towards staying home. Yesterday felt like a Friday because we had our end-of-month drinks (due to so many people staying home tomorrow), so Wednesday night felt like Friday, and I’ve spent all day thinking that today is Saturday, so the thought of going in to work tomorrow doesn’t hold much appeal.

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When M and I were at the supermarket the other day, I saw some King Island Dairy Chocolate Creme Dessert. I’d heard good things about it, so I thought I’d give it a try. I also got some Belgian chocolate desserts, and some Emporio mocha-type biscuits. As you can see, I didn’t contribute much of any nutritional value to the basket that day.

We tried the King Island Dairy dessert that night, and may I say: mmmmm. It just tasted like really thick, chocolate flavoured cream, which I guess is what it was, being made by King Island Dairy. M had a look at the ingredients but I didn’t really care what was in it because all I knew was that it tasted gooood. I could easily have scoffed down the whole lot (mmm 42 grams of faaaaat), but I made myself put it away while there was still some left.

*****

When we came home from work a few days ago, I was walking from the carport around to the front door, when I heard my neighbour talking. He said that ‘we had a visitor’, and was pointing to a tree in our front yard. I looked into the tree:

and saw a koala having a snooze on one of the branches:

It was so cute! It’s the first time we’ve seen one in our own garden, although we hear them a lot when they’re being vocal in the park near our house. It was quite strange to see one there, because it’s certainly not the kind of tree that koalas usually go for. M and I went inside and got our cameras and took way too many photos, considering that all it was was a koala. But, hey - it was a koala in our garden! I took the top two photos, and M took the bottom one - his camera has a lot better zoom on it so I couldn’t get in as close.

The koala stayed in the tree for at least an hour or so. We went for a walk later that day and he was there when we left, but had gone by the time we came back.

I didn’t get around to posting about my birthday as soon as I was planning, but here’s what happened…

I woke up at around 8:15 and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I woke M up - I figured I was allowed since it was my birthday after all! We lay in bed for a little while before getting up. I had the day off work so it was nice to have a little sleep in.

After we got dressed, M gave me my presents - I got a 365 Days of Kittens calendar, and a gorgeous 18ct gold necklace, imported from Italy. It’s a plait design, with each strand of the plait comprising its own intricately-woven stands of gold. It’s beautiful.

We then went downstairs and M made me a coffee, and we had half a piece of toast each - we were going out for lunch so we didn’t want to ruin our appetite. Later on I got dressed for lunch, and put on a top I bought in Sydney, and M put my new necklace on me. I felt very swish indeed!

For lunch we went to a really nice Italian restaurant in the city. The only problem was that there weren’t many places to park for the length of time we were going to be there, so we ended up parking in a 1-hour spot, with M having to move his car a bit later. Soonish after we got there, M asked if I wanted to go into the city on Saturday night. I asked why, and he said, “Oh I don’t know, maybe we could spend the night at The Embassy [the hotel we stayed at on our wedding night]?” Yay! We’re staying in an executive suite with a spa… mmm spa. So we’ll be spending another night away from home this weekend - the cats won’t know what’s going on, with us disappearing all the time!

We had our entrées, and then M went to move his car. Fortunately he got a 2-hour park this time, so he didn’t have to move it again during the meal. Soonish after he came back, he said that his pants were a little tight, and that he must be putting on weight - this was of course a lead-in to him bringing another package out and handing it to me.

I opened it, and it was a bracelet to match the necklace. It looked so lovely, sitting on the black velvet in the box. He put it on me, and I felt even more swish! He has a habit of springing surprise presents after you think the present-giving has finished. I confirmed that this was the last one, and he said it was! The rest of our meal was really good - I had a fillet of beef for the main course and we ordered a couple of side dishes. Afterwards we were both really full, but managed to share a dessert - flourless chocolate and almond torte. Yummy. After that and a coffee, I was completely stuffed.

We went home afterwards, and I relaxed for a few hours before getting ready to go to my parents’ place. We got there at 6, and more present-opening began. I got a Cat-A-Day calendar, but not quite the same as the one M gave me because this one sits on the desk and you tear off a sheet each day. I also got a set of really cool coffee spoons, and some gorgeous diamond earrings. I put them on, and felt like an advertisement for a jewellery shop! La di da. I also got some perfume and some chocolates.

We had dinner consisting of pizza (although I only had 2 tiny pieces because I was still comfortable from lunch!), and then a brilliant birthday cake, which consisted of a centimetre of chocolate sponge on the top and the bottom, sandwiching a couple of centimetres of chocolate mousse. Mmmm.

So that was my day! I wore my new necklace and bracelet to work on Thursday, and put up my two cat calendars, so I was surrounded by presents.

We just got back from the hotel, and it was excellent. We wandered around town yesterday afternoon, then came back to the room and relaxed before going out for dinner. We went to a pub up the road and had quite a nice schnitzel (although still not as good as The Earl of Leicester’s schnitzels), then came back and opened the bottle of wine we took with us. I took a few photos of the sunset, although the photos didn’t look as good as the real thing.

Today we went into town again, and I bought a watch with my birthday/Christmas money. Well, I’ve almost bought it - the woman’s getting it sent to a jeweller to have a couple of links taken out. She initially had a go herself and scratched up the band a bit, so if it’s not perfect when I get it tomorrow I’ll ask her to order a new one for me since she’s the one who stuffed it up in the first place. So I’m a bit worried about that, but hopefully it will be ok.

The cats didn’t miss us at all - as soon as we got home, all they wanted to do was go outside! It’s so nice to be loved.

Last night on the way home from work we bought a new scratching post for the cats. They took to it quite well! Of course I took some photos, so if you want to have a look at the album, click here. But if you can’t be bothered, here’s one of Jack showing his appreciation.

Oh, and there’s another theme in the sidebar if you want to have a look.

Yesterday there was a dog that escaped from its yard, and decided to run all over our property. Unfortunately, our cats were outside at the time. Frisky shot straight up a tree, and I found Jack cowering in a spot where the dog wouldn’t have been able to get to him. Poor babies. Since Frisky was so high up in the tree, she couldn’t get down, so M climbed up to get her out.

Easier said than done, especially when the cat is still traumatised from the dog, as well as being scared at being so high up. So M picked her up to try to get her out, and she turned into a wildcat, flailing around trying to grab onto something. While he was trying to lift her out, the trunk was nearby, and she grabbed on with all four paws, similar to the way Maggie grabbed onto the doorframe on that episode of the Simpsons where she didn’t want to be babysat by Patty and Selma. Poor girl.

I had to get some towels to wrap her in because she was clawing everything, as evidenced below:

We got both of them inside, and while they were a little subdued for a while, they’re ok now. The stupid dog owner didn’t come by to get his dog, and it’s probably lucky he didn’t because M was getting ready to give him a piece of his mind. My poor babies.

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On a happier note, we got something cool in the letterbox yesterday. Very occasionally, instead of the boring old junk we usually get (although I do actually enjoy reading through junk mail), we get samples for various things. Check this out for cool mail! It’s even creatively packaged, which I always appreciate.

When you turn it side-on, you can see that it’s…

Yay! Play doh! Even I’m too old for it, though, so we ended up giving it to some friends who came around last night for a party pie party (which is held when South Australia’s two AFL football teams play against each other). They have a young son, but they didn’t seem too appreciative. Made me want to grab it back! But alas I couldn’t. Still, play doh in the letterbox is pretty cool!

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Last Sunday was Fathers’ Day in Australia, but since my dad was interstate, we had Fathers’ Day today. M and I put on afternoon tea at our place, and I think it went quite well. I managed to find the perfect coffee cup to go with his USB mug warmer, so I was really pleased.

The only good thing (if there is a good thing) about getting injured is the bruise. Bruises should be worn like badges of honour - if you don’t have a huge bruise, then you weren’t really hurt so stop your whinging.

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I fell down the stairs, and got a bit of a bruise. Well, it is now growing to maturity. On Sunday it looked like this:

And today it looks like this:

Cooool.

Right now I’m looking at images from various cameras around New York City. I think it’s really interesting to watch people go about their everyday lives. Voyeuristic, I know. I’m watching cars going through traffic lights, pedetrians crossing the street or milling about on different corners.

The camera I’m looking at at the moment is focussed on Central Park W @ 96th St. The location means absolutely nothing to me, but I like the fact that some of you will read that and think, “I know where that is!” Wouldn’t it be so cool if I were to tell one of you New Yorkers that that’s the camera I’d be looking at at a particular time, then you go there, stand on the corner and hold up a huge sign or wave frantically or something! Heh heh. I doubt anyone would pay attention - a friend of mine walked through NYC wearing nothing but a pair of boxers with the Australian flag on them and noone batted an eyelid.