the blank page of my blog has been staring at me with blind accusation for the last few days. perhaps i've been too wrapped up in contemplating my own future. for you see, i've quite my job. that is, i handed in my notice yesterday and i only have a month left to go.

and what an interesting response i've had from my coworkers. (incidentally, the preferred term here is colleague, which is weird when you'e in the supermarket and a call comes over the PA for a colleague from fresh produce!) most people are genuinely surprised and a few are even sad (one for the ego!), but all seem quite impressed at my bravery as i don't actually have another job to go. but i guess it's the fantasy we all have isn't it? you're at work, the boss is demanding something, the phone wont stop ringing, you've got enough work to last you for a month, but it's all due tomorrow, and you think to yourself, that's it, i'm just gonna walk out and never come back. and what a great feeling it is too. sod responsibility and being an adult, i'm gonna throw caution to the wind and put all of my eggs into one basket (or any other appropriate metaphor that teaches us about being responsible).

and the best bit? i've already been asked about a job that isn't definite, but wouldn't have been offered to me if i hadn't handed my notice in.

vaycay

well, i'm sure all six (no wait, seven if i include jeff) of my readers where devastated when i didn't post last week, but it was a choice between write up my blog or head down to the beach bar for another jar of sangria. it's a pretty easy choice...

i honestly, hand on my heart, almost started crying when we walked out of newcastle airport last night. it was about 3 degrees, it was dark, and most importantly, it was windy. the whippy kind of wind that blows directly into your face no matter which way you stand.

but i'm feeling ok with it all this morning. a week long of relaxing will do that i suppose.

in a way this is kind of the first vacation i've ever been on. i've been on holidays where i've toured around cities, we went on camping trips when i was a kid, and i've flown in planes big and small to visit family, but i've never rocked up to a resort village and spent the week doing nowt.

as much as i enjoyed it though, by the end of the week i was getting pretty antsy. i'm nothing but amazed by people who can do it for more than a week at a time. i should point out by nothing i mean we went for some long walks, read books, ate food, drank sangria. it seemed to me while we were there that there were plenty of people who did even less than that.

i suppose you're all expecting me to make some sort of disparaging comments about the beaches as well, as we aussies are want to do. actually, i thought all the beaches were lovely, and i was quite charmed by the beach chairs and umbrellas on the beach that you could rent for the day. that shit would never fly back home! the conversation, i like to imagine, would go something like this:

"oh look dazza, they have beach umbrellas and sunbeds to rent. ooo, how european!"
"hey, you're right shazza! let's find out how much they are. Excuse me mate, how much for a beach brolly and two of them banana chairs?"
"it's $20 for the parasol for the day, and $10 each for the sunbeds."
"how much?! you're joking right? why would i pay that much when i've got my own beach towel i can sit on. you're a joker mate! come on shazza, this guys a joker!"
"but dazza..."
"c'mon shazza! this guy's a stubbie short of a picnic if he thinks he can charge people that much!"

and so on, and so on. but the aussies and the brits do approach holidays differently, i suppose because of the landscape around us. people genuinely suffer from the winter blues over here, and the thought of escaping to warmth and sunlight, even if for a few days, is somewhat of a balm to depressed souls. in oz, particularly in the northern states, it's warm (well, hot) all the time. i think peoples desire to escape oz has less to do with the weather than for people who flee great britain. and i'm beginning to understand why.

i'm not sure what happened. i remember starting my blog, just not finishing it. somewhere in between writing my blog, and not writing my blog i obviously got distracted. but really, in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter? i didn't think so...

i'm thinking that i should probably change the day i write my blog. reluctant isn't a strong enough word to indicate how much i don't want to write my blog after a night out! of course i could always drink less...

i took my first real foray into the heaving behemoth that is the national health system last week. i had an appointment at a hospital and i was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people that work within the system. there seemed to be people whose sole job was to take files from one desk to another. i'm sure that isn't all that they do, but looking from the outside in that's what it looked like.

there was actually a moment where i was waiting for my check up, and i could sense the whole system ticking away above and around me, and i understood for the first time why people are so protective of it, and why they get freaked out at the thought of any changes to it.

i'm sure, like any other system, there are people who have a bad experience in it, but i was very impressed at how efficiently everything ran, despite the sheer number of people being seen at the clinics that morning.

of course, me waxing lyrical about the health system is, lets face it, barely interesting. but do you know what is interesting? holidays! jeff and i are off to tenerife on friday. here's a picture to give you an idea why i'm so excited!

where is this is what i've become accustomed to

can you see? to be honest, i'm already in holiday mode, which makes work interesting! bring on the cocktails i say!

but what do you mean??

hello. are you having a nice sunday? i am. i've somehow managed to shake off all the stress and unhappiness from work and reach a point of calm laziness. this was, of course, helped along by having friday off, and therefore enjoying a 3 day weekend!

i had actually had something in mind to write about this week, but it would seem that all the relaxing has lead me to forget.

i could talk about houses, and how even the word house has different connotations for people. you know last week when i was ranting about things i couldn't get used to? well in part it has to do with language, and how two people, both from countries that speak the same language, can have no idea what the other person is talking about.

for example, a bungalow (according to jeff) is a house that has only one level. it isn't a house unless it has two levels. hence my husband describing australian houses as being mostly bungalows. to me a bungalow is more like a cottage, although it could have more than one level and still be a cottage. but the defining factor is that it's small. most australian houses aren't small, so i would describe them as a house.

a flat is different to an apartment, although the only explanation i've been able to figure out for this is that an apartment is a posh flat. i've always used those words interchangeably, and unit as well, as in "it's a nice 2 bed flat/apartment/unit." so when a colleague of mine at work was complaining about a property she had seen advertised, i was confused when she said "i hate when they advertise a flat as an apartment, when it's quite clearly a flat!"

language, i think, is as much about the picture in your head, as the word that you use. which i guess explains why most people look confused when i say i chose to live here rather than australia, because this is all they see...


ps happy australia day for last wednesday!

things i can't get used to:

shops that open at 10am on a sunday, but don't open the till until 10.30.
the indicator in my car being on the left side of the steering column.
pants are underpants, not trousers.
lollies are called sweeties (which, incidentally, makes me feel like a creepy old man every time i say it).
there is no milo here.
cordial is called squash, and most juice is made from concentrate.
journalists are overly aggressive.

there are more, only i can't think of them first thing sunday morning before i've had a cup of tea!

ok, i'll freely admit that this is a bit of a rant, but i guess i'm surprised at how i expected this place to be more like australia. generally speaking it is, but there are more little differences than i thought there would be.

of course, it's not all irritation and annoyance.

things that i love:

beautiful, green countryside.
jacket potatoes with baked beans and cheese.
cider.
people calling me flower.
that the geordie accent now sounds normal.
that i work near the seaside.

see? if you look hard enough you can always find something nice.

i've spent the last week glued to the internet looking at photos of the flooding in queensland. what's been surprising for me is the amount of media coverage the floods have gotten over here. although i guess it's not so surprising given the number of people that have told me about relatives/friends they have over there.

all the flooding does help to put ones own weather into perspective, and it has made me somewhat reluctant to complain about the rainy weather here. not completely mind! i am finding myself becoming somewhat acclimatised. jeff almost laughed himself silly the other week when i commented on how warm it was at 4 degrees! before you know it i'll be like one of the local geordie lass's, heading out for a night of binge drinking and misbehaviour, dressed only in my shortest dress and my tallest high heels!

goerdie lass's are something of a phenomenon in england, known far and wide for their tolerance of the cold. i kid you not, i have seen girls at the bus stop waiting to head into town in mini dresses and no coat when it was minus 3 or 4 outside!

here's a random pic from the net that'll give you some idea of what i'm talking about.

yes, i know one girl is wearing a coat, but i'd like to draw your attention to the snow on the ground. and the length of the blond girls skirt!

the newcastle centre for life, which is an organisation that researches life and how it works (their words, not mine) have apparently undertaken a study in the past to see why geordie girls are more tolerant of the cold than their southern counterparts! they think it might have something to do with how thick skinned they are!

and they amount of fat they eat too. I mean, after all, anywhere that classifies a baked potato with beans and cheese as a healthy lunch is probably going to be chucking down the starchy, fatty treats with wild abandon!

i've mentioned communication before, i know, but i had an interesting experience at work this week, whereby something that i said was completely misunderstood with the impact that i've been shifted from one floor to another. since then i've been thinking about whether or not it is just a cultural communication breakdown, or my inability to correctly use the english language. it has been pointed out to me, with some glee, that english is a second language, given that i learnt australian!

and i did have a strange moment when driving to work one morning listening to the radio. the bbc was interviewing some people in queensland about the floods, and i thought to myself "eeee, listen to that accent!". I hadn't realised before that the geordie accent now sounded normal to me. i never really had that moment in japan, what with my united colours of beneton group of friends.

so with the locals sounding normal, and with me approaching my six month mark, you think that i would be better at getting my point across, right? apparently not.

but it's an interesting challenge, teaching these lot how to understand me. i'm thinking of making up some flashcards. no point in letting three years of language education go to waste!