i'll be honest with you, this entry is going to be a short one.
i just got home from my second day of work so i now have that post work haze, which is a pretty relaxed place to be, as it tends to gently push me towards zero-movement activities.
i'm actually a little surprised at how quickly it's all turned around. i had an interview for a temporary position on tuesday and started working on thursday! and i found out this afternoon that i've been short listed for the permanent position that i'm currently filling!
even more surprising though is the sheer horror that people express at me when i tell them that i have to drive for 35 minutes to get to work. honestly, it's the equivalent of telling people you live in noosa and you commute to brisbane every day for work! god bless the english and their inability to understand what distance really means.
it feels pretty good to be back in gainful employment. and best of all, no more guilt when i sit down to watch tv!
that's your lot for this week. xx
Friday, August 27, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
it's the little things
it's election day in australia! or was. or still is. anyway, for those of you who don't know, it's a significant one for oz as we could possibly be on the verge of voting in our first female prime minister! and moving away from a conservative parliament as well. i've just counted the time difference out on my fingers and the polling booths closed about 15 minutes ago! exciting! well, it is for me.
and if it's election day it means that i'm a day late with my blog. oops. put it down to an overwhelming wave of laziness last night. once it rears its ugly head the lazy beast inside usually gets its own way.
the major theme for week three in o.b has been driving. originally i had thought that i would have to change my licence over to a british one before i could drive which meant that i had to rely on jeff to get around. but then when i actually took the time to read the information that the DVLA had sent to me, i realised that i was actually entitled to drive for 12 months on my aussie licence before changing it over.
so, woo hoo, right? mostly yes, however, i'm finding that it's all the little differences between oz and here (and japan too) that are starting to get to me. apparently the way that i indicate when driving around a roundabout is sufficiently scary enough to cause my husband to literally jump out of the passenger seat, grab the dashboard and yell at me! it came as a bit of a shock to learn that the logical use of a roundabout wasn't in fact universal! it would take too long, and probably several diagrams to explain the whole thing, but suffice to say it has to do with the appropriate situation to use your right side indicator. the end result of our rather lengthy discussion after the yelling incident is that i am now a cautious roundabout user, where as before i would sail through them with ease and confidence and a merry wave for my fellow drivers.
and english roads! what i would consider to be a one lane country track is in fact a main road here. i will film one for you so you can see what i mean! it can get a little scary!
keeping with the topic of driving, we drove up to see hadrian's wall on wednesday. it was built by the romans across britain to keep the marauding scots out. so i've seen my first roman ruins. it was pretty cool actually. here's a pic.
pretty neat, huh? i always find it cool to think that long ago this had been a place full of ordinary folk like me, probably hating their jobs (and the weather!), thinking about what they would do if they had more money.
and we drove on a roman road too, well, what used to be a roman road. man those suckers are straight! they would do any outback road proud!
well, i may have phoned this one in, but i'm starting to get hungry now, so it would only get worse if i pressed on.
till next week, gentle readers. kisses!
and if it's election day it means that i'm a day late with my blog. oops. put it down to an overwhelming wave of laziness last night. once it rears its ugly head the lazy beast inside usually gets its own way.
the major theme for week three in o.b has been driving. originally i had thought that i would have to change my licence over to a british one before i could drive which meant that i had to rely on jeff to get around. but then when i actually took the time to read the information that the DVLA had sent to me, i realised that i was actually entitled to drive for 12 months on my aussie licence before changing it over.
so, woo hoo, right? mostly yes, however, i'm finding that it's all the little differences between oz and here (and japan too) that are starting to get to me. apparently the way that i indicate when driving around a roundabout is sufficiently scary enough to cause my husband to literally jump out of the passenger seat, grab the dashboard and yell at me! it came as a bit of a shock to learn that the logical use of a roundabout wasn't in fact universal! it would take too long, and probably several diagrams to explain the whole thing, but suffice to say it has to do with the appropriate situation to use your right side indicator. the end result of our rather lengthy discussion after the yelling incident is that i am now a cautious roundabout user, where as before i would sail through them with ease and confidence and a merry wave for my fellow drivers.
and english roads! what i would consider to be a one lane country track is in fact a main road here. i will film one for you so you can see what i mean! it can get a little scary!
keeping with the topic of driving, we drove up to see hadrian's wall on wednesday. it was built by the romans across britain to keep the marauding scots out. so i've seen my first roman ruins. it was pretty cool actually. here's a pic.
pretty neat, huh? i always find it cool to think that long ago this had been a place full of ordinary folk like me, probably hating their jobs (and the weather!), thinking about what they would do if they had more money.
and we drove on a roman road too, well, what used to be a roman road. man those suckers are straight! they would do any outback road proud!
well, i may have phoned this one in, but i'm starting to get hungry now, so it would only get worse if i pressed on.
till next week, gentle readers. kisses!
Friday, August 13, 2010
summertime, and the livin' is easy
in osaka, august is the hottest month of the summer. in brisbane (where the seasons are the right way round) february is the hottest month. so by rights, august should be the hottest month here right? WRONG!!!! a house across the road has actually decided that it's cold enough to light a fire. in summer. when it's supposed to be hot. the weather has been miserable today...
i have actually decided to rename the seasons. well, just summer at the moment. seeing as i have as yet to actually feel hot, i have chosen to name this season wimmer, which i feel appropriately sums up it's whimpy attempt to be summer (and is a clever play on words, do you see??)
oh dear, i seem to be complaining a lot about the weather. shoot, say something more interesting!
the weather does, however, lend itself to spending hours indoors, hunched over the keyboard, trolling through job sites, and trying to convince myself that three years in japan does not represent a great gaping hole in my relevant experience.
the job hunt has officially started. so far the score is days of feeling upbeat and positive: 1. days of feeling despondent and barely qualified to wash dishes: 4.
a depressing rant about my search for a job. oh yeah, that's much better!
at least my drive and resolve to find a job are high. i want to go to work so that i can start actually enjoying watching tv instead of feeling vaguely guilty that i'm not out knocking on people's doors, obnoxiously asking if there's any work going!
it really isn't all doom and gloom though. from last saturday, jeff and i are the proud owners of an allotment. (what is an allotment you say? i can't be bothered to explain. just wiki it. it'll be quicker for everyone involved)
here's what it looked like last saturday.
we spent a couple of hours on saturday cutting down the weeds with hand scythes and making a giant rubbish pile. so here's what it looks like now.
we have all the way up to the green house looking thing, which is currently weed choked, but belongs to someone else. anyway, we got sick of trying to get rid of all the weeds by hand so we had a mate come round to spray all the plants with weed killer (die, you suckers, die!!) once they're all dead we'll clear it all out then basically get everything ready to plant lots of veg in the spring.
oh my god! gardening?? really?? who are you??
as lazy as i can be, i've actually enjoyed it so far. i'm looking forward to making it into an actual garden, something i can stand in the middle of, with my hands on my hips, and look proudly and fondly on, possibly whilst chewing on some grass. or a pipe. something provincial anyway!
i don't even know you anymore.
that's all there is really. week two was much the same as week one. well except for the new wiz bang phone i got today! it's a sony ericsson xperia x10 mini, and is the coolest phone i've ever owned. jeff is deeply jealous, which of course only makes it more attractive to me! much of tonight will be spent trying to work out how to use it!
god i thought that would never end...
i have actually decided to rename the seasons. well, just summer at the moment. seeing as i have as yet to actually feel hot, i have chosen to name this season wimmer, which i feel appropriately sums up it's whimpy attempt to be summer (and is a clever play on words, do you see??)
oh dear, i seem to be complaining a lot about the weather. shoot, say something more interesting!
the weather does, however, lend itself to spending hours indoors, hunched over the keyboard, trolling through job sites, and trying to convince myself that three years in japan does not represent a great gaping hole in my relevant experience.
the job hunt has officially started. so far the score is days of feeling upbeat and positive: 1. days of feeling despondent and barely qualified to wash dishes: 4.
a depressing rant about my search for a job. oh yeah, that's much better!
at least my drive and resolve to find a job are high. i want to go to work so that i can start actually enjoying watching tv instead of feeling vaguely guilty that i'm not out knocking on people's doors, obnoxiously asking if there's any work going!
it really isn't all doom and gloom though. from last saturday, jeff and i are the proud owners of an allotment. (what is an allotment you say? i can't be bothered to explain. just wiki it. it'll be quicker for everyone involved)
here's what it looked like last saturday.
we spent a couple of hours on saturday cutting down the weeds with hand scythes and making a giant rubbish pile. so here's what it looks like now.
we have all the way up to the green house looking thing, which is currently weed choked, but belongs to someone else. anyway, we got sick of trying to get rid of all the weeds by hand so we had a mate come round to spray all the plants with weed killer (die, you suckers, die!!) once they're all dead we'll clear it all out then basically get everything ready to plant lots of veg in the spring.
oh my god! gardening?? really?? who are you??
as lazy as i can be, i've actually enjoyed it so far. i'm looking forward to making it into an actual garden, something i can stand in the middle of, with my hands on my hips, and look proudly and fondly on, possibly whilst chewing on some grass. or a pipe. something provincial anyway!
i don't even know you anymore.
that's all there is really. week two was much the same as week one. well except for the new wiz bang phone i got today! it's a sony ericsson xperia x10 mini, and is the coolest phone i've ever owned. jeff is deeply jealous, which of course only makes it more attractive to me! much of tonight will be spent trying to work out how to use it!
god i thought that would never end...
Friday, August 6, 2010
the turning wheels
i was going to start today's entry by describing me, at the desk, the sun streaming in through the window, birds wheeling in the sky, but in the space that it's taken me to type this the sun has ducked off behind a cloud for some private time and the birds have buggered off to somewhere more interesting!
which brings me to my first observation. the weather here is very mercurial, it's actually difficult to guess what the weather will do hour to hour, let alone day to day. this has, so far, remained novel, but i imagine it will irritate the snot right out of my nose down the track. (sun's back...)
but really, the weather has been a side note in the last week. i actually feel like it's been relatively productive, and once the jet lag wore off i even felt a sense of, not exactly excitement, more like anticipation, about life here. of course this hasn't prevented me from doing the inevitable embarrassing things that come with trying to sidle your way into a new culture. whilst purchasing slippers the shop girl said "that'll be 4.99" which i mistakenly heard as "what's your name?", and rather than question why the shop assistant would need my name to sell me shoes, happily went on to announce my name proudly and loudly. the girl, bless her, didn't even bat an eyelid and preceded to give me my change.
i had actually been nervous about the language barrier before the shoe incident, (and for those of you who loudly protest that they speak the same language as me, i would reply firmly with you've never heard a geordie speak) but now that i've actually done something stupid i don't feel so concerned about it.
the second embarrassing thing had to do with a small plant in our yard which i mistook for a mint plant so i tore off a leaf and held it up to my nose for a whiff of it's scent. at which point the leaf suddenly became a stinging nettle and promptly stung my nose. jeff, of course, thought this was funny and then told me, a number of times, that he'd pointed out stinging nettles to me before. in my defence that was a year ago!
but, embarrassing moments aside, i have actually got the wheels turning. i opened my bank account on tuesday, which was relatively straight forward, although my account is not. i've got the forms to change my licence over to a british one, the forms for my national insurance number are on their way, and i even registered with the australian embassy.
we've about 80% settled into the house. jeff and i spent an hour or so on wednesday putting together a chest of draws that we bought from ikea. it was time consuming and fiddly, and made just that bit more difficult because we didn't have a hammer, but, more importantly, neither of us wanted to kick the draws to bits and then smack the other in the head with the spanner (a common complaint, i'm told, when putting together ikea furniture).
so my first week is done and dusted and i feel happy about being here.
oh, wait! i forgot to mention the leaking shower!
so, the morning of my second day, jeff and i both had showers, then went down stairs only to notice water running down the kitchen wall, straight into an electrical socket, which was now making an alarming buzzing noise! we, sensibly, flipped off the fuse, only to discover that this meant all the appliances in the house were now off, which for the jet lag sufferer meant no tv to stare vacantly at whilst feeling myself slip slowly into a coma! we called jeff's dad and he came over the next morning to help us fix it. well i say us, but i actually didn't do anything, apart from make cups of coffee, and occasionally turn the mains switch back on when phil (jeff's dad) accidentally tripped it! so jeff's dad fixed the buzzing socket and jeff fixed the shower. fixing the shower meant that i wasn't able to have a shower for three days. nice...
which brings me to my first observation. the weather here is very mercurial, it's actually difficult to guess what the weather will do hour to hour, let alone day to day. this has, so far, remained novel, but i imagine it will irritate the snot right out of my nose down the track. (sun's back...)
but really, the weather has been a side note in the last week. i actually feel like it's been relatively productive, and once the jet lag wore off i even felt a sense of, not exactly excitement, more like anticipation, about life here. of course this hasn't prevented me from doing the inevitable embarrassing things that come with trying to sidle your way into a new culture. whilst purchasing slippers the shop girl said "that'll be 4.99" which i mistakenly heard as "what's your name?", and rather than question why the shop assistant would need my name to sell me shoes, happily went on to announce my name proudly and loudly. the girl, bless her, didn't even bat an eyelid and preceded to give me my change.
i had actually been nervous about the language barrier before the shoe incident, (and for those of you who loudly protest that they speak the same language as me, i would reply firmly with you've never heard a geordie speak) but now that i've actually done something stupid i don't feel so concerned about it.
the second embarrassing thing had to do with a small plant in our yard which i mistook for a mint plant so i tore off a leaf and held it up to my nose for a whiff of it's scent. at which point the leaf suddenly became a stinging nettle and promptly stung my nose. jeff, of course, thought this was funny and then told me, a number of times, that he'd pointed out stinging nettles to me before. in my defence that was a year ago!
but, embarrassing moments aside, i have actually got the wheels turning. i opened my bank account on tuesday, which was relatively straight forward, although my account is not. i've got the forms to change my licence over to a british one, the forms for my national insurance number are on their way, and i even registered with the australian embassy.
we've about 80% settled into the house. jeff and i spent an hour or so on wednesday putting together a chest of draws that we bought from ikea. it was time consuming and fiddly, and made just that bit more difficult because we didn't have a hammer, but, more importantly, neither of us wanted to kick the draws to bits and then smack the other in the head with the spanner (a common complaint, i'm told, when putting together ikea furniture).
so my first week is done and dusted and i feel happy about being here.
oh, wait! i forgot to mention the leaking shower!
so, the morning of my second day, jeff and i both had showers, then went down stairs only to notice water running down the kitchen wall, straight into an electrical socket, which was now making an alarming buzzing noise! we, sensibly, flipped off the fuse, only to discover that this meant all the appliances in the house were now off, which for the jet lag sufferer meant no tv to stare vacantly at whilst feeling myself slip slowly into a coma! we called jeff's dad and he came over the next morning to help us fix it. well i say us, but i actually didn't do anything, apart from make cups of coffee, and occasionally turn the mains switch back on when phil (jeff's dad) accidentally tripped it! so jeff's dad fixed the buzzing socket and jeff fixed the shower. fixing the shower meant that i wasn't able to have a shower for three days. nice...
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