Coogee to Bronte

The weather this weekend has been wonderful. Unfortunately we didn't make the most of Saturday after our Friday night out but today on Sunday we certainly did a lot better by doing the Coogee to Bronte walk. We set off about 10:30 and the day was just perfect; blue skies, beautiful temperature and just enough breeze. We even found it easy to find a park in Coogee which was a bonus.

Take a look at the day....

Gordon's Bay

Jo at Bronte Beach

The pool at Bronte, don't let it fool you that water is freezing!

Kebabs & Bellydancers

Saturday night we headed back to Surry Hills for Neil & Nicci's birthday party at Amira's Palace Lebanese Restaurant. At first we had trouble finding the place as downstairs is a pizza take-away but upstairs is the 'Cushion Room' were we found many of Neil & Nicci's friends waiting.

Nicci enjoying herself

After the Noiseworks night on Friday we stuck to the water this time! Nicci was fashionably (and typically) 20mins late and when all 20 of us had made ourselves comfortable on the cushions the banquet began!

Nicci and I in an extreme close-up!

We started with bread, hummos, baba ganoush, then chicken and beef kebabs, falafel, more bread, lamb koftas, and the food just kept coming until we couldn't eat any more. Not bad for $35 a head and no corkage fee! Good job too judging by the amount of wine bottles everyone went through!

The belly-dancing was great fun!

Towards the end of the night, the belly dancer arrived and ensured that everyone (except me, hehehe) got up to have a go. Some surprising performances from Jamie and Jason ensured we all had a good laugh!

We finished off with a sing-a-long of Happy Birthday while Neil and Nicci blew out candles stuck in Turkish Delight and Baklava - Yum!

Noiseworks

"Reach out! Reach out and touch somebody...."

We headed off after work on Friday to meet up with Donna and co for a girls night out to the very glam (not!) South Juniors in Kensington to see the Choirboys and Noiseworks.

We arrived at Donna's place about 6:15pm and enjoyed some nibbles and champers before all heading out to get taxi's to take us to Kensington. We did very well and all managed to get 3 cabs in about 5 mins, not bad in Surry Hills on a Friday night.

We got to Souths and had to sign-in as it's a leagues club and took up position at the front of the stage and got in some cheap drinks ($4.50 for a Pure Blonde, not bad!). There were three bands on; Move Trees (fronted by the Muldoon-look-a-like bassist from Noiseworks) who I really enjoyed. They seems a little Audioslave cross Soundgarden. They were followed by the Choirboys (of 'Run to Paradise' fame) and then finally Noiseworks (fronted by ex-INXS stand-in Jon Stevens).

Donna took along her camera and we all took turns taking shots and we got some great ones. I've added some shots above. And how funny is this! Donna was in Bondi the next day getting these printed out and who does she bump into? Yes!! Jon Stevens himself, so she got that black and white shot about signed for us! Hahahaa!

Unfortunately, we were all a little worse for wear by the end of the show and Jo and I did feel the need for a little McPick-Me-Up on our way home, but we did have a ball.

Mahjong

We enjoyed a great day yesterday learning how to play Mahjong properly. About 3 or 4 weeks ago, Jo and I wandered past this place called Mahjong Room on Crown Street in Surry Hills were people were all learning to play Mahjong and when we enquired they said they did this once a month and it included a Yum Cha lunch - sounded good to us! We booked for the session September and invited Nicci and Joe to join us.

We arrived at 11am and sat at our table for 4 (you need a minimum of 4 players) and we started our lesson. The "class" was really well run and once we started to play, all of the rules eventually started to make sense even though we did confuse our "pung" and "chow" most of the time!

The food they served was fantastic. Really fresh and yummy dim sum, dumplings fried rice, steamed asian vegetables and endless Chinese tea - we've already booked in for November!

TV

This weekend we decided to treat ourselves and we bought a new TV from our mates at Bing Lee in Alexandria :) After much deliberation we opted for an LG LCD that has built in HD, Digital etc etc. Anyway, it looks really nice!

Busy few weeks

It's been a busy few weeks since my last post. We've been to Bryon Bay and back with Bo and Claire - staying in a really nice house close to the beach. The weather was a bit wet and windy and our flight home was cancelled due to the the rain and poor visibility but we made the most of our time there and all the yummy food on offer! We also took a drive to the famous Nimbin, home of all things marajuna! What an odd, odd place it is.

Nimbin: Subtle as ever

The following weekend Jo and I finally got around to having our massage that was bought for us by Dad and Maria. We went to Endota Spa in the city at Martin Place and were treated to a 1 and a half hour full body massage. It was fantastic!!

I'm still in my job, which is a good sign and am slowly getting more and more comfortable with the idea of being in charge and am getting my hours under control as time goes on. Unfortunately, as my job started to be managable, Jo's job is going completely bonkers as they give her more and more people to support, I think she's up to 5 now. They are slowly making people redundant but Jo is hanging in there still.

Today is a public holiday due to the APEC Summit (Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation). World leaders from 21 countries are in Australia at the moment, as the city is in complete lock down (well, except for the 11 comedians from the TV show 'The Chaser' that pulled stunt including a fake motorcade whilst dressed up as Osama Bin Laden and managed to breach the $250m security crackdown! Hahahaha). So we're avoiding the city today and are off for brunch. Yum.

Bring on Byron Bay!

This week is going to be a short but hectic week.

Tomorrow I have a new starter joining my team, I will be up to my eyeballs with meetings as we are gearing up for the end of year performance reviews and no doubt a zillion other things that will pop up at the last minute.

But come Thursday I won't care as I am off to Byron Bay for 5 days with Jo, Bo and Claire for some well earned rest and relaxation. We'll fly to Ballina and hire a car so we can get around and I seriously looking forward to spending some time away from Sydney and work to recharge my batteries.

Thanks Bo for booking us the flights (birthday pressies) and you couldn't have picked a better weekend!

New Toy

My Sony Ericsson T-610 has been going strong for about 4 years now but it is looking somewhat tired so I've decided to upgrade.

As I've changed jobs and am using my phone about 100 times more than I used to (and also because I've been working sooo much) I decided to treat myself :)

HTC Touch

Say hello to the HTC Touch. I have to say, I was somewhat persuaded by some people at work who got this phone last week and it is very cool.

I'm not a real phone techno-geek and I'm sure this phone/pda has it upsides and downsides but for me:
a) It looks good (and it's small and not at all bulky)
b) It makes phone calls
c) It can send text messages
d) It has a camera
e) It comes with a 1GB memory card
f) It has lots of other stuff which I can play with and keep me amused
g) I can claim it on my tax return next year

Sold.

Sydney Weekender

After what feels like a hundred years, Jo and I have spent what used to be the norm; a nice relaxing weekend in Sydney.

It's been so busy no for so long that I'd forgotten what it was like to wake up with no plans on a sunny Saturday morning. We made the most of the beautiful weather this weekend and made sure we got out and about.

We spent most of Saturday walking around Surry Hills, enjoying a nice coffee in a new cafe and discovering the changes in the shops along Crown Street. We stopped off for some lunch, a really nice pizza slice with caramelised onions, fetta and salami at Bird, Cow, Fish before deciding to walk through the Domain to the Botanical Gardens by the water.

After our discovery afternoon we got home and booked dinner for a restaurant that Jo has been investigating for her work Christmas party. It's called Singapore Heritage Restaurant and it's at the top of Bourke Street in Surry Hills. We arrived at 7:30pm, got a parking space right out side and were seated into our little booth where you sit down and cross your legs on the floor on cushions.

The place is beautifully decorated and is very dark and peaceful inside, so much so that they give you little torches to read the menu! We picked two entrees and two mains to share. I chose the calamari with banana and pineapple and the sambal prawns. Jo opted for the soft shell crab and a spicy fish dish.

This is where things started to go down hill. Our drinks arrived promptly, a great glass of Clifford Bay savingon blanc but the food was very average. Not great flavours and when our mains arrived before we had even finished our entrees I was even more irritated. The whole thing felt extremely rushed (even though they weren't even that busy) and we did complain. The staff were very gracious and offered us a complimentary drink, which we accepted as by this time it was too early to go home but I have to say I wouldn't be back.

Jo's Asian Holiday

I thought I'd post some pictures of Jo's trip to Singapore and Hong Kong, they had an amazing time, bought so much stuff I can't believe but they managed to squeeze in so much in their 2 weeks.

At Singapore Zoo

Raffles Hotel - Home of the Singapore Sling!

Repulse Bay, Hong Kong Island

Hong Kong from the Hotel

Two weeks

These past two weeks have been a strange one for me, I've been completely out of my comfort zone not only with work but being home alone without Jo as she spent 2 weeks with her Mum in Singapore and Hong Kong.

I've been working heaps and trying to come to terms with the new challenges my role brings, while still doing my old role and trying to cope with the workload.

I've also lost my social planner and it's been very different for me to organise catching up with people! I started out well though as Claire and I went to see 'Another One Night Stand' at the Capitol Theatre - a comedy night hosted by Red Symons and starring Jimeoin, Judith Lucy, Corrine Grant etc

I've caught up with Claire twice since as we've started our "Management Meetings" as we both have the same crap going on a work and they are basically a work whinge session over dinner and wine! We've had two so far, both extremely successful! If this is the best that comes of my promotion then I'm happy as they have been such good fun.

I managed to catch up with Carl and Martinette too as I took a trip to Manly, it was such a beautiful clear winter day and we took a nice walk to Shelly beach and back. It was great to catch up with them both again. I picked up Lisa and Christian (and the twins) from the airport as they were back from their trip to Germany to see Christian's family and had dinner with them on Sunday.

I managed a night out at the pub with my team on Friday night and I also had a work offsite with my new management team which ended up quite messy in Surry Hills!

So, I've managed to keep myself busy but I'm now exhausted! I picked up Jo and Mrs B on Saturday morning at 6am and we had a very quiet Saturday after the shopping show and tell. Sunday morning we all went for brunch to Wah Wah in Waterloo, I met Chiara (a friend of Steven) for the first time and she joined us for brunch. It was great to meet Chiara finally as Steven has talked about her so much and we got on really well :)

I can't believe the weekend is nearly over again, I'm trying to brace myself for another week at work, wish me luck!

One girl, two cats

This week wasn't as bad at work, that was because I only worked 3 days and I was in bed sick on Thursday and Friday. This is preferable at the moment.

I started to get sick on Tuesday night and it got much worse on Wednesday. I tried to shake it off and even went out for dinner at planned with Carl and Martinette to Radio Cairo in Cremorne (bloody fantastic food, sort of north African, I had one of the best curries I've had in a long time) for Carl's birthday.

Thursday morning though was a different story. Stupid me left my laptop at work the night before so I went into work and picked up and came straight home to bed. That's were I've been pretty much since.

Yesterday afternoon, Jo's mum came down in the afternoon and kept me company. We were all up early this morning as they jetted off to Singapore and Hong Kong for a nice holiday. I just received a text from Jo saying they had arrived safe and sound and that it's really really hot!

Hot Water!!

Not the most exciting of news to report but it is for us! At our flat, the so-called hot water takes approximately 2-3 minutes to come through in the morning for a shower and when it does, it's usually just warm.

Lately it's been getting worse so I called strata, who called a plumber, who arrived yesterday morning. He tried a few things but said it might take some time to fix up. We left for work and left him to it and when we arrived home Jo had to try out the shower to see if it was working.

The water is now scorching hot and he has probably doubled if not tripled the pressure! We're so excited. How pathetic! We both can't believe we've been living with such crap hot water and pressure for so long!

More Manager updates

Well, if this doesn't sum up my week I'm not sure what does. It's 11.21 on Friday night and I've just finished work.

This week has been extremely intesting as tomorrow is end of financial year here and working for a superannuation, investment and insurance company, coupled with massive incentives for people to invest in super due to federal budget changes things have been somewhat hectic!

It has been suggested that over the past week we as a company has taken 3-4 times a much money as usual and our systems are getting hammered left, right and centre.

I have resourcing issues, people problems, a mobile phone number that won't port over to a work account, no credit left on the stupid phone, a million unanswered e-mails and to-do items....ahhh remind me again why people want promotions!!??

My birthday continued!

Well, my birthday surprises didn't stop there as when Jo and I got home from the Hilton on Sunday there were some other little goodies in store!

Firstly, I opened all my cards from family and friends and Jo gave me my birthday present; a brand new Babolat tennis raquet! Looking forward to trying it out soon, when it stops raining in Sydney!

Jo had also arrange for heaps of our friends to join us for dinner at Govinda's in Darlinghurst for dinner and then for a movie in Govinda's legendary lay-down-on-beds-and-cushions movie theatre.

We arrived on time at 5:45pm to find Kate, Vanessa, Guy, Josh, Phillipe, Jade, Carlos, Brenton, Janet, Nicci, Joe and his son Rory all ready to tuck into some yummy dinner.

Some of us then rushed up to grab some spots for the movie Pan's Labrynth but we weren't quick enough to get the cosy beds but we did get two cosy lounges at the back so that was good. The movie was odd but very enjoyable, kind of a mix between fantasy and adult drama, I was surprised as I wasn't expecting to like it but by the end I thought it was great and forgot about the subtitles!

The stragglers then headed to The Piccadilly pub in Kings Cross for a nice nightcap :)

Priscilla Hilton

This weekend we've been celebrating my birthday in style!

I bought Jo and I tickets to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (The Musical) for her birthday and she thought it would be cool for us to stay at a nice hotel in the city to make a weekend of it. Jo found a great internet deal for a night at the Hilton that included breakfast at Luke Mangan's Glass Brasserie and a drink at the wonderful Marble Bar.

We spent the morning with Ryan who drove down from Newcastle and we all enjoyed some great Thai for lunch in Newtown. He gave us a lift into the city and we checked in at 3pm, dropped off our bags in our room and then headed out for a bit of afternoon shopping at Myer and David Jones.

We spent some time getting ready and headed downstairs to check out the Marble bar for a nice glass of wine before hopping in a cab to Star City where Priscilla is playing in Sydney. We took our seats in the dress circle and looked forward to the show. In our performance, the character of Bob (usually played by Michael Caton from The Castle) was played by Home and Away's own Alf Stewart!

The show was fantastic, the costumes were amazing and the musical did extremely well following all the main plot lines of the movie and keeping all the great one liners such as "That's all Australia needs...a cock, in a frock, on a rock!". The music had the crowd going and there was a great atmosphere in the Lyric theatre - this show has been a huge success for the producers and Star City alike and is in it's final run in Sydney before it moves to Melbourne.

We enjoyed a great breakfast in the Glass Brasserie, I've never seen so many type of bread, muffins and cakes! And for $39 per person for the full buffet you'd bloody well expect quality! Luckily, this was included in our deal as I think most people would struggle to get their money's worth without feeling sick!

It was a great way to spend the weekend and my birthday :)

Gold Class

Jo and I finally made it to Gold Class at the Greater Union, Bondi Junction last night. We had a call from Nicci who had two vouchers and asked if we'd like to go see Shrek the Third with her and Joe and we thought why not!

We arrived at 7:15pm and thought we'd get something to eat from the yummy food court at Bondi Junction Westfield but they were all shutting up shop for the night. We then wandered Bondi trying to find something open and eventually found a Thai Restaurant so red curry beef, chilli and basil seafood, vegetarian pad thai and asian greens it was for dinner.

We made it just in time for our 8:40pm showing of Shrek and the usher took our tickets and showed us to our front row lounge chairs. I've never been Gold Class before but god it's great. First, the cinema must only seat about 30 people. All the seats are like massive cosy lounge chairs that have a button that reclines the chair and extends a foot rest, there is a table with a wine cooler between each set of two seats, wait service for food or drinks if you would like. Basically, why ever go to the normal movies again!

My first week

I'm officially at the end of my first week as a manager (or people leader as we tend to say now) and it's been interesting to say the least.

My first day involved attendance at the monthly People Leader's Forum from across technology meet for a whole day for education sessions, working groups all that sort of stuff. As I'm trying to replace my old role I was only able to stay for the morning but I was welcomed into this clan-like group :)

Apart from that, I really have been just getting used to the idea of what this change means for my (and my team). I certainly have lots and lots to learn and to be honest am quite daunted by the challenges that are sure to come my way. I can't say the week as been smooth, I've experience many bouts of self-doubt and I can feel my usual confidence ebbing away at points but I suppose we all have to do things once and time will be the thing that will give me the experience I need.

Facebook

Strange co-incidence this week as I was pointed in the direction of Facebook by two completely unrelated friends!

I had no idea what this whole facebook thingy was all about (it's like an online community where you can keep in touch with friends) but after I signed up I instantly had 3 friends linked and after 4 days I can proudly say I have 13 friends :) Quite an acheivement.

I'm now back in touch with people I haven't heard from in ages, including one (my good friend Andy) to find that his wife is expecting their first baby any day now!

The real value of technology :)

I'm that Twat!

You may remember from this post that my team is being split off, will need a new manager and that I was hoping that person wasn't going to be a twat.

Well, I'm that twat! I finally plucked up enough courage to put myself forward for the role (after some conversations with my manager and his manager who practically told me to apply!).

I had the interview last Monday, about 3 hours after I found out that Nell had died :( and I was interviewed by my manager and his manager. The interview only lasted 30 minutes but felt like an age but I did heaps on preparation and it definitely paid off as I answered all their questions well and presented my vision of the team going forward. I'm sure this much have looked impressive!

I found out on the morning of last Thursday that I had been successful and am now (well from tomorrow as it hasn't been announced yet) promoted from Senior Business Analyst to Development and Support Manager with 15 team members!! Wish me luck!