notice how chipper the brit looks. he’s preparing me a sandwich from leftover ham. and notice how clean the kitchen is. he cleaned it this morning. he’s a machine.

the kiwi and the other asian are over helping us finish off the left overs.  we’re supposed to see “cloudy with a chance of meatballs” at the imax down the road.  oh, i don’t know if i can watch a movie about raining food after last night…in 3D.

last night was a success.  the turkey turned out a treat, the best i’ve done so far. everyone went up for seconds and thirds so i knew it was good.  i wasn’t hungry after all that cooking. i was exhausted on my feet since 8am cooking. it was a good night though. i had a really nice time.  after everyone left, the Brit and I totally pigged out on the leftovers.  at midnight, we were sitting half drunk on the couch, watching Grand Designs, eating cold ham and turkey and apple pie and just chatting away about the night. i think that was the best part.

this was the first thanksgiving where i didn’t make anything out of a box or pre-made (stuffing, ham).  i did everything from scratch. the effort was worth it.  the final menu?

roast turkey
glazed ham
BBQ pulled pork
mashed potatoes
green bean casserole
walnut and apple stuffing
apple pie
mini pumpkin pies
shoofly pie
bread putting with whisky sauce

’twas a feast.

preparation for my turkey has begun. i just finished cooking the brine.  i will let it cool overnight and then submerge my little turkey in it before i leave for work.  by saturday he’ll be ready to cook!  yum.  the brit is cooking 2 pies (apple and pumpkin) and bread pudding. it’s going to be a feast for six people!  we’ll be eating leftovers for 2 years.

i finally got christmas gifts for my team.  for four of them, i got gift vouchers for afternoon tea for two at the windsor hotel which is very poshy and yummy and then for my preggers gal i got her a baby bag from oroton. i  still need to get one more gift but i think i already know what that will be.  i can’t believe it’s almost christmas!  i even got super nice guy something even though he’s technically not on my team. i got him a holiday fruit cake from a fancy schmancy gourmet foodie place down the road from us. i thought he mentioned at our christmas party that he really liked christmas puddings but now thinking back on it, i think that was someone else. oh well.  at least it’ll keep til next year and then he can give it to someone else…or he can use it as a door stop or something. i am truly thankful for my team because if it weren’t for them, i don’t think i would’ve survived.

speaking of work,  i honestly think super nice guy hates DB way more than me.  amazing.  i didn’t think anyone despised him as much as me.  poor guy. preggers girl is beginning to hate him.  she said that when she called him on tuesday to tell him she was too sick to come in, his response was “oh, so do you think you can work on sunday?” nice, right?  and no one likes him…because…?? DB was chasing after me with a camera all day trying to take a picture of me with my award for our newsletter.  i wouldn’t let him so he told me to send him a picture i liked.  i sent him a picture of a wombat.

there’s a weird looking green bug on our light with with long wings and super long antennas. i hate it and i want the brit to kill it. the brit says that it’s just a long winged thing that won’t hurt me.  he doesn’t even know what it is. australia is full of all sorts of strange bugs and i’m not taking my chances with this one.  it’s probably just a larvae and it’ll grow to the size of a kangaroo.  we’ll come upstairs in the morning for our coffee and it’ll be lounging on our sofa, smoking cigarettes and laying eggs.  it’ll say “g’day mate.  i’m taking over.” and that’ll be the end of the american and the brit.  i can visualise it in my head!  i’m going to spray the hell out of it with fly spray.

the Brit and i went grocery shopping for our thanksgiving glutton fest next week.  i had the most fascinating conversation with the chappie who worked in the meat department.

ME: hi.  do you have turkeys?
Meat Boy: um, we have chicken.
ME: Yes, i see that, do you have turkey?
Meat Boy: did you try the deli?  They’ll cut if for you.
ME: I need a whole one for roasting.
Meat Boy: Oh, we just have chicken.
ME: uh, okay,  do you have ham that’s not already cooked?
Meat Boy: all of our pork is over there.
ME: I know but i don’t see ham.
Meat Boy: Well, there’s a pork roast.
ME: but I need a ham.
Meat Boy: well it’s all the same.  pork and ham. they’re all pork.
ME: Ham is cured pork from the leg.
Meat Boy: but it’s all pork, right?
ME: i’ll just go to the butcher.

i walk back to the brit with an exasperated look on my face.
ME: we have to go the butcher. they don’t know what ham is.
Brit: i can’t believe you actually asked him. they’re dumb here.
ME: but everyone knows what ham is, right?
Brit: Apparently not

god help me. this is why i don’t go out very often.  i’m surrounded by dumb people.  he really got to me though.  i had to go home and google “ham versus pork” to make sure that i wasn’t the one in the wrong.

it’s that time of year again and i’m even taking the day off tomorrow!  here is my list for 2009 of things i am thankful for

• the Brit – forever and always my best friend.  he is always looking after me (because i need it… wait, the Brit says it should say because i demand it)
• my australian friends – kiwi, andrew, the other asian…  you all know who you are. you make living so far away from everything bearable
• my friends back home  and in london- you better know who you are.  you make the $2,500 plane ticket home well worth it.
• my family
• the Brit’s family
• my a job
• ms. marple, maigret, house of elliot, arrested development and bleak house. oh, how you’ve entertained me this year!
• my loyal blog readers – i didn’t know that being so lame could be so interesting to others
• the people who write the blogs i read – work avoidance would be nothing without you
• the fact that amazon.com ships to australia
• wombats
• the Brit – yes he is so good he gets mentioned twice

Happy thanksgiving to my friends up and over.  we’ll be celebrating down under soon enough (i couldn’t be faced with preparing a turkey this week so i’m doing it next weekend).

x

the brit came home.

i told him about my day in five minutes.  “it was crap”

he told me about his day in ten minutes.

i said “i have a pressie for you”

and that was the end of it.  i didn’t even try.  all i kept thinking about was the box in my closet.  i thought if i could find some wrapping paper i could wrap it up and then it would be easier to keep it until christmas.  see what i’m like?

i know i shop no matter what the season but xmas is really the only time of year i can justify it. 

i went out during my lunch and bought my first gift for the Brit.  i don’t usually buy things so early.  i’m normally so woefully unprepared for christmas.  but now i realise how my preparedness is really a downfall.  i want to give it to him NOW because it is that good.  i won’t be able to keep it a secret.  anyone that knows me knows what i’m like with gifts/surprises:  c-r-a-p!  i’m tempted to just give it to him tonight.   now it’ll be torture for me until christmas.  i’m buying him other things so perhaps i can give him this one now and hold on to the other ones until then…  what do you think? 

nothing says christmas like 30 degree heat and flies. i’m contemplating getting a tree this year.  not a real christmas tree. i don’t know if you can get them here.  i saw some conceptual, arty fary ones on the neimen marcus website.  the brit rolled his eyes but actually liked the nativity scene i wanted to get.  the whole thing cost way too much for something i would onlyput out once a year, but i was almost tempted because if i didn’t buy the baby jesus, mary and joseph,  the price was actually quite reasonable.  i dismissed the idea.  i imagined my mother and father finally visiting us in australia for christmas and noticing that our nativity scene had a camel with spectacles and top hat in the centre instead of a baby jesus.  that wouldn’t go down well. 

i’ve been slacking off.  i know.  it’s been a horrible week and my manager was down from sydney on tuesday and wednesday so that means no goofing off (not like i had time to).  i was so over it all i faked a migraine and went home early…at 4.30pm (which is my usual home time). 

i actually have nothing to say.  i just wanted to say hi and acknowledge my crapness for not updating regularly like a good blogger.  work has been sucking the life out of me.  as soon as i walk into the doors in the mornings i’m fatigued.  by mid morning i want to cry.  by early afternoon i’m ready to pick a fight with anyone who tries to give me extra work.  by 4pm i’m ready to give up but i have to force myself to put my head down and work to inch closer to the end.  then i go home,  sleep, and wake up and it starts all over again.  when will this project end?

but that’s just work.  things are good otherwise.  i’m still reading one book a week or thereabouts.  the weather is getting nicer and that means i can walk home in the evenings.  halloween is coming up which isn’t a big deal here in australia but i’ll make some treats for people anyway.   i’ll make cupcakes with black icing so everyone in the office will walk around with black teeth and tongues.  hee hee.

yesterday,  the brit and i played a game of Risk with the Kiwi and Andrew.  i thought my experience of playing Lego Battles on Nintendo DS would be to my advantage but i still lost.  i abandoned my usual tactic of keeping Siam as my base (a tactic that is often ridiculed by the others) and decided to concentrate on africa.  another tactic that i used was pouting to put off anyone from wanting to attack my countries.  it only worked with the Brit – i even got him to make me a sandwich!  andrew proved to be way too bloodthirsty and power hungry and my armies eventually crumbled.  i demand a rematch. 

hey, i finally downloaded some pictures from our holiday.  a whopping four…which is all we took really because  we’re crap –   you can say it loud and clear,  we know it.

on our way to the baseball game

oooh, baseball.  about as mind numbing to watch as cricket.  at least i was drunk.

and this is what made me drunk.  they’re really good but you can really only carry one of these around if you’re a girl.

me, the Brit and birth control my niece and nephew

dude,  all of our luggage is overweight.  how the hell did that happen?  we’ve had to borrow two suitcases from my parents.  too much shopping.  what’s worse is that we have a 7 hour layover in LA so we’re going shopping in beverly hills (rodeo drive baby!). 

i am so not ready for 24 hours on a plane.  

melbourne here we come!  see you soon.

this is our last full day in america before flying back to oz tomorrow afternoon.  i am faced with the horrific task of trying to pack everything so it all fits and is underweight.

the weekend at my sister’s house was lots of fun.  three days with my parents is a little rough but i got through the other side okay.  the Brit and I wanted to take the kids on a shopping spree at Toys R Us and i envisioned the doors of the store being flung open and the kiddies just running around like crazy picking out anything and everything.  it was quite the opposite.  they were waaaay too polite and concerned about the prices to be blood related to me.  they finally picked out some toys and then we went to Gap kids and my sister picked up the slack by picking out a new wardrobe for both of them (yep, we’re definitely related).  the kids are so cute and we had such a good time with them but it’s also such good birth control.  the kids only have two types of speaking voices – loud and louder.  my sister tried to tell them to use their “inside voices” but that made them yell louder.  poor thing.  they are good kids though.  i’ve seen a few episodes of Supernanny and my sister’s kids are absolute angels.

we got back last night and then the Brit and i caught up with two of my friends for some drinks and food.  i had such a good night last night.  it was karaoke night at the bar we went to so that provided endless entertainment for us.  we had to go when some drunk chick started to butcher my favourite Go-Go’s song.

this holiday has flown by but i am relieved to be going back to Oz tomorrow.  I could do with more time off from work though…