in this one i just babble.

so,  we’re trying to hire people for sydney and melbourne and one of the applicants forwarded us a link to their blog.  um, yeah,  probably not a good idea to do that if you’re going to post daily about your adventures in binge drinking and puking on public transport. 

it seems that i have a new responsibility and that would be writer.  my manager writes reports and sends them to me to re-write/wordsmith.  i’m not a writer, it’s not my thing.  it all started when i happened to see something he wrote (which was atrocious) and i crossed it all out and rewrote it for him.  i should’ve learnt my lesson.  if i didn’t have a job offer coming to me on monday then i might complain,  but i’ll keep my mouth shut…for now.

no job news today but i didn’t expect there would be.  monday is the day and it better happen that day or else  i will lose it.  ever see michael douglas in that movie “falling down”?  that’ll be me.  except cuter.  and in more stylish clothes.

it’s official,  i’m getting my permanent residency. i know, i know, i’ve talked about it in the past and my airy fairy deadline for getting the paperwork done but it’s getting done now for real.  my company is paying for half and they even hired me a migration attorney to do most of the work.  he actually sounds kind of dodgey but i looked him up on the immigration website and he’s legit.  i talked to him on the phone and he sounds like a portly man with a double breasted pin stripecd suit and massive comb over.  i’ll never know.  he lives in brisbane so our correspondence is via email and phone.  he says i should get it in 6 weeks.  yay…i guess.  the word “permanent” really freaks me out. 

once i’m a resident,   i’ll be eligible for the government run socialist healthcare called Medicare (oooh scary).   i’ll probably keep my private health insurance not because the public healthcare is bad, but because i’m american,  i like jumping through hoops,  and if i don’t have health insurance, i freak out.  oh, and it’s really cheap,  like $187 a month for the same type of plan i had in america that cost a trillion times  more.  the Brit is on Medicare and doesn’t complain.  can go to the doctor when he wants,  can go to specialists and doesn’t have to wait.  he says it’s not as good as the health system in england but it’s waaaay better than what we’ve got going on in america.  there’s nothing to be afraid of government healthcare but maybe it’s easier for me to say that since i’m on the other side of the fence.  and i tried to convince my parents that it was all good when i was home last time but i always get dismissed as the liberal black sheep of the family.  my parents and sister are die hard republicans.  it makes family get togethers fun.  we used to get into heated arguments but not anymore.  they just feel sorry for me and send me emails with religious overtones to try to make me more conservative.  i set up a rule in my outlook to delete those.

the dinner menu at work got sent around early today so i actually got to have a peek a few minutes ago.  the restaurant is asian but yet there is chicken parmagiana on the menu.  wtf?  chicken parma is on every frackin’ menu at every restaurant i’ve been to.  it’s at every takeaway place down the road from work – the ubiquitious chicken parma sandwhich/wrap/panini.  it is to Austalia what potato skins are to America.  not a bloomin’ onion in sight though.

it’s finally friday and i am thrilled.    we are seeing a broadcast of “la boheme”‘ from convent garden tomorrow at the cinema and other than that,  we have nothing going on.  i plan on lounging around in my jammies and watching period dramas and reading books.  i started “bleak house” months ago and i’m not even halfway through it.  i’m going to have to start it over again just to get the characters straight.  and i downloaded a “welcome to australia, life in victoria” booklet today from the immigration website.  maybe i’ll read that too. i started reading it and got up to the point where it said that “in Australia,  we do not kiss or hug people we don’t know”.  yeah, in america, if that happened, you’d get maced in the eye.  weird.

have a nice weekend peeps! i’ll talk to you monday.  peace out.

monday musings.

i feel really washed out today.  my sinuses were horrible yesterday for some reason so i spent the entire day sneezing and blowing my nose.  i had to sleep sitting up or else i couldn’t breathe.  it sucked.  i choked back two nasty cups of lemsip (that’s like theraflu for you americans) and that seemed to help.  can’t tell the brit that the lemsip helped.  every time i have a sniffle,  he insists i drink it.  he loves the stuff.  he’d drink it like  a cup of tea even if he weren’t sick.  i think it’s nasty and smells like lemon furniture polish so i refuse to drink it but i begrudgingly admit that it works.  another “cure” that the Brit had was to not blow my nose and let it run.  he’s reading I Claudius right now and that was one of the things that Claudius’ greek doctors recommended.  like i’m going to take the advice of ancient romans that ate peacock tongues and married their sisters… okay, i admit i tried it for ten minutes.  i was desparate.  it didn’t work.

i am feeling much better today but my nose is sore and i’m really sleepy.  i stayed up until 3am drinking lemsip, trying to breathe and watching Judge Judy and Jerry Springer.  i just want the day to end. 

so here’s a rundown of the weekend.

friday night
the Brit had leaving drinks for someone at work so i had the night to myself.  i bought myself a bottle of wine and finished about 3/4 of it by the time the Brit got home at 10pm.  i also watched two Ms Marple movies and ate cereal for dinner with my wine (mind you, it’s friday night) thus cementing my title for “lamest person ever” (until the Brit does something to take away my title.  please read on, i’m sure it’ll happen).

saturday
the weather sucked.  we had tickets to see Phedre at the cinema.  the Brit was really looking forward to it and i was  getting grouchy just thinking about walking in the wind/rain.  to curb my grouchiness,  the Brit turned on the next episode of “house of elliot” (i am a sucker for costume dramas) and i forgot all about being bratty for an hour.  i spent 45 minutes trying to figure out which of my pajamas looked the least like pajamas but then realised it didn’t really matter since i’d be wearing a coat and the theatre would be dark anyway.  then i had thoughts of Lifetime/Hallmark movies i watched on my days off where the housewife doesn’t care how she looks anymore so her husband ends up sleeping with the super hot babysitter.  not like it’ll ever happen (the kids, the babysitter or the brit cheating) but it went through my head so i put on a pair of jeans.  i wore slippers.

Phedre was really good.  i quite liked it.  i read it in French when i was in school so it was nice to hear it done in english.  people were randomly laughing at times when nothing funny was happening which i found a bit annoying.  the dude sitting across the aisle from me fell asleep and he was snoring through most of it and people kept fiddling with noisy wrappers.  it was like the typical opera crowd.

that night we watched Moliere (because we were feeling so french).  i read the misanthrope and tartuffe in school… but have no idea what they are about because i had to read them in french.  the movie offered no insights but it was still good. 

the Brit also spent about a gazillion hours trying to catch a chicken-like creature on his video game (or at least it seemed like a gazillion hours).  he has now hooked up the Gamecube to our TV but is obsessed with getting the same picture as with the Wii so he ordered a special cable from Japan.  he is now the lamest person ever.  my reign was short lived,  but it always is with the Brit around.

sunday
in between sneezing and coughing,  we watched the worst keanu reeve’s movie ever.  i can’t even remember what it’s called.  he played a corrupt cop who makes good.  so bad.  he’s not cut out for speaking roles.  he will always be ted (or was he bill?).  “i am a cop, dude.”  doesn’t work for me.

…

and now it’s monday.  i’m wearing a skirt that i realise now, after sitting in it for 6 hours,  is probably a bit too tight.  i asked the Brit if it made me look like an overstuffed sausage and he said no.  but i feel like an overstuffed sausage so now i wonder if the Brit even looked up from his Excel book this morning to look at me.  i have a hole in the toe of my pantyhose and it’s cutting off the circulation of the one toe that has managed to bust through it.  i tried to fix it during a meeting but wearing a too-tight skirt didn’t help.  i was wriggling around trying to use my other foot to fix it and i almost slid off the seat.  and then i kicked my shoe to the other side of the table and couldn’t reach it without completely submerging myself under the table so i had to wait until the meeting was over,  pretend to shuffle my papers about as people started leaving the room and then crawl under the table to grab my shoe (and crawling in this skirt is no easy feat).  i bumped my head.  a great start to the week. 

enough already.

it’s only wednesday…  ugh.

was the big announcement yesterday at 5pm life shattering?  no.
was it important?  no.
the announcement?  we won new business.
does that mean we get raises?  no.
so…do i care?  emphatic NO.
did my boss bring me donuts? no.

it’s been a wonderful week so far.  on a positive note, i’ve been such a grouch at work that i have co-workers buying me lunch to sweeten me up.  makes me thnk that coming into work grouchy is the way to go from now on.

Project Runway Australia starts tonight and while i hated last season (because nothing will EVER compare to the American version, right?) i have set the DVR to record it every week.  there’s a trailer for it that lasts about 15 minutes that they’ve been showing for the past week.  it looks ghastly but i love crap TV.  i made the Brit watch a Mrs Marple movie with me the other day.  I thought he would enjoy it simply because it was British but bad TV is bad TV no matter where it comes from and he couldn’t help but laugh the whole way through and make narky commentary. 

The Brit can laugh at me all he wants for watching old people shows on TV but i caught him washing a paper plate the other day and that’ll give me weeks of “you’re weirder than me” mileage.  The Kiwi baked eclairs and brought some over on a paper plate (mind you this is a paper plate, not one of those disposable plastic plates).  the next thing i know, i see the Brit scrubbing the chocolate off of it and running it under the tap to return to the Kiwi.  WEIRDO.

crap. boss back from meeting.  gotta look busy.

i heart tuesdays.

not.

ah, it was a glorious 4 days off.  having to go back to work is a real buzz kill.  again, i should get paid to stay home.

eating animal products on sunday was extremely anticlimactic followed by spending the entirety of monday feeling horrible.  I am back to being a vegetarian.  the thought of meat on monday made me wretch. maybe i’ll ease back into meat, red meat especially.  me and a friend went out to a curry place for lunch today and i all i could eat was dahl, some rice and naan.  I did partake in some delicious haloumi cheese and i made cinnamon buns for everyone for easter breakfast.  that didn’t give me any problems thank god.  mmm, eggs, how i missed you. 

we totally nerded out and watched all three Lord of the Rings movies.  i was just felt like watching them. the Brit said he would watch them too – but he’ll do anything i tell him to do (that’s what i tell myself anyway).  it was good – could do without the tender moments between frodo and sam but what are you gonna do, eh?  also watched a few more movies i can’t remember the name of (which must mean they were really good).

my predictions were correct and i spent the entire four days in my pajamas.  it was great.  i got dressed once thinking i would have to make a supermarket run but the Brit went for me.  life is good. i am not wearing bedsheets.  i thought about it though, not because i had eaten too much this weekend but because i had nothing clean/wrinkle free to wear to work.  but who am i kidding?  i’ll call in sick before i wear bedsheets to work…  i’ll call in sick if i have a run in my pantyhose and no spares.  yeah, it’s like that.

today i have gotten three more invites for facebook.  that is a total of 16 invites over the past couple of weeks.  that is 16 more friends than i thought i had.  who are you people??  and how come they are just now doing facebook?  hasn’t that thing been around for ages?  it figures that my “friends” are a bit slow to jump on the bandwagon.  some of them i haven’t talked to in years.  others,  i’ve actually emailed directly since being in australia and haven’t heard back from them (feeling the love guys…thanks).  maybe it’s because i’m not their facebook friend.  maybe if i write them an email and CC the rest of the world on it, they will reply.  i think i actually have a username for facebook…i set it up ages ago when someone said they had a message for me (which, consequently was “hi”… wtf??).  anyway,  i thought i’d use it occassionally to lurk/stalk others,  but i can’t be bothered.  i just lurk around other people’s blogs.  much more fun.

in The Age this morning,  i read this article “Money in bra saves woman’s life.” the gist of the article is that some woman in Brazil had a wad of money in her bra,  gets on a bus,  shootout ensues,  she gets shot in the chest but the wad of money absorbed the blow of the bullet thus saving her life.  not like i plan on being involved in a mass shootout (or riding a bus for that matter..eww),  i’m going to start packing some notes in my bra.  i guess i’ve been doing it all wrong with kleenex.  money is way to go.  god, australian news is so good.

relaxed and serene.

ah, yes. back from the long weekend feeling refreshed and well-rested.  by midday i’ll be feeling like i never had a weekend.

saturday we went to the opera.  “lucia di lammemoor” is the one we saw and it was very good.  the Brit loved the fact that it took place in Scotland but yet everyone was named lucia, edgardo, and raimondo. we were the youngest ones there as expected and all the oldies were in full grouch mode, complaining about every little thing – the lights, the seat numbers, the time, etc , etc.  i wonder if i’ll get like that when i’m old.  can’t wait.

sunday we went to the Imax to see “watchmen.”  being a movie based on a comic book,  i fully expected the crowd to be on the dorky side and i was not disappointed!  the brit, the kiwi and i got there an hour early,  secured a place in the queue and proceeded to play with our nintendos.  we looked like tecchie nerds but we were not even close to the other geeks surrounding us.  the kiwi swore he saw two or three cute ones but i told him that he can’t count us.  the movie was okay.  very violent and lots of unnecessary blood and guts. 

monday we were ultimate lazy lumps and did nothing.  hey wait,  i actually did chores!  i did two loads of laundry and some dishes!  i made sure the brit recognised my achievements.  i even worked out.  i’m so good. but for the parts in between, we stayed in and watched TV,  played Wii and ate food.  lovely.

vegan life is going well. i’m actually feeling very good and quite healthy.  i may actually try to maintain some aspects of it after easter since i’m feeling so good.  i’m dying for a piece of cheese though.  i almost bought soy cheese at the supermarket but couldn’t bring myself to try it.  sounds gross.   loaded up on fake hot dogs and tofu though. 

have i mentioned that i have the best husband in the world?  i was such a grouchy pants yesterday but he still cooked me a lovely breakfast. he so deserves the vacuum i’m getting him for his annivesary gift.  seriously, that’s what he wants. first the iron for christmas, now this.  nothing says i love you like a dyson handheld vacuum.   oh yeah, if you talk to the Brit, don’t tell him.  i mentioned that i would get it for him (he excitedly said “do you want me to send you the link??!!”  -  i felt like friggin’ santa claus) but i think maybe he’s forgotten.

movies with the brit.

i’m blog crazy today.  that’s because i’m bored out of my skull and i’m trying desparately to avoid work.  the sound of typing always implies that you’re busy – that’s my belief.

it’s 3.30pm and i’ve been thinking about home time now since noon. last night i recorded “27 dresses” on the DVR and i’m contemplating whether it’d be mean of me to make the Brit sit there and watch it with me.  i know he’ll try to find something else to do – some ironing that needs to be done,  dishes that need to be washed.  i made him suffer through ”the wedding planner” a few weeks ago – hmm, we both suffered through that one and i immediately apologised after.  i actually think he secretly loves chick flicks and searches the movie channels for the week for ones to record (he says he records them for me but i know the real story!).   i return the favour and search for any movies with english people in them.  i’ll scroll through the movies and say “mr. bean’s adventure,  that’s got that kooky british guy in it with the funny eyebrows.  do you want me to record it for you?”  or i’ll say “ooh, look honey. a movie about queen elizabeth.  do you want me to record that?”  i’m sure by the third or fourth movie i yell out, the brit wants to tape my mouth shut but he just laughs and asks if i used up all the memory recording movies on the Hallmark channel.   Man, i record ONE movie on the Hallmark channel and he won’t let me forget it ever.   it was a light-hearted feel-good comedy.  i was sold by the write up.