I've been in home for almost a week now and it feels like I never left.
The job hunt has slowed down a bit but I'm happy just making my way through the laundry and unpacking. I've also started going through old clothes and my wardrobe is already looking much more reasonable.
Sleep patterns are better than normal (ie. I'm awake when most people are and haven't turned nocturnal yet). I think sleeping with the curtains open is helping. It's hard to sleep when the sun is streaming down on your face.
Today Gene's dad, John, came to visit and spent the afternoon chatting with us (Mum, Gene & I) before we headed into town to meet Cathy, Gene's mum, and Dad for dinner. I think we may have ordered a little much which is likely to be my fault as I was keen to catch up on favourite Chinese dishes but it was an excellent meal!
It's looking to be a pleasantly quiet weekend. I think I'll finish reading The Amber Spyglass tomorrow. I'm not particularly far into it but it's been an easy and engaging read for the last two books.
I think I'll spend most of the weekend trawling through the photos from the last six months and posting the ones that aren't too terrible on my Zoto site. When I get bored of that I'll return to my sock knitting which is currently driving me a little crazy. I seem to have lost the ability to count.
I'm actually looking forward to going to rehearsals on Sunday to help Naomi out with her show. It's a show that I wanted to see while I was up in Brisbane last year but failed miserably to make it. So it should be good. Always happy to help. Especially since I'm not doing much at the moment. It'll be good to be back in a rehearsal space. It's been a while!
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Friday, February 23, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Gong Xi Fa Cai
I've been in Melbourne for less than twelve hours and I've already settled back into relative normality. It's almost like I never left. Except the part where we drove down the Tullamarine Freeway and I noticed that they'd added bits. Or even when we were landing and the city skyline looked just that little bit different.
The flight was a little late but otherwise uneventful. I was grateful to have slept most of the trip home because the people sitting behind were being really obnoxious to the flight staff and it was starting to really get to me. It would seem that immigration has gotten a teensy bit scarier. I don't remember the second officer asking you lots of questions after you'd made it past the first officer. It's not particularly fun trying to explain why you've been in Qatar for four and a half months, what the Asian Games were and what a production asssitant did at 2am. I had trouble remembering what countries I'd visited in Europe too... Wasn't expecting an interview!
Anyhow, made it through immigration and for a brief moment didn't think my bags were ever going to appear on the carousel. They did and I headed to customs and declared my kueh lapis, Indonesian layer cake, then it was out the gates to see my parents for the first time in six months. It was great to see them and when I did I knew that I was home.
Upon arrival home there was a small exchange of random items that I'd picked up on my travels, the ones I could find anyhow then Dad brought out the long awaited char siew. Mmm BBQ roast pork. It was good. We started watching a bit of the Opening Ceremony before realising that it was 4am and clearly bed time for all.
I headed to my room, spilled open my baggage and then made the unwise decision to start reading the first book in His Dark Materials. After three chapters I forced myself to put it down and closed my eyes. A couple of hours later the sun was rising and I woke up and watched it through the bedroom window. There's something nice about coming home and watching the sunrise. It's not something that I'm usually up for!
More reading followed that and I eventually got out of bed at 9am to say good morning to my folks before they headed out. Now up I'm in the study with two snoring pugs behind me and all is well.
Tomorrow is likely to be a big day of getting paperwork sorted and applying for jobs but today is going to be a quiet one I think. Just settling in and enjoying being in one place before I disappear off again.
Oh and before I forget, gong xi fa cai to you all. It's my year this year and I'm hoping it's going to be a good one!
The flight was a little late but otherwise uneventful. I was grateful to have slept most of the trip home because the people sitting behind were being really obnoxious to the flight staff and it was starting to really get to me. It would seem that immigration has gotten a teensy bit scarier. I don't remember the second officer asking you lots of questions after you'd made it past the first officer. It's not particularly fun trying to explain why you've been in Qatar for four and a half months, what the Asian Games were and what a production asssitant did at 2am. I had trouble remembering what countries I'd visited in Europe too... Wasn't expecting an interview!
Anyhow, made it through immigration and for a brief moment didn't think my bags were ever going to appear on the carousel. They did and I headed to customs and declared my kueh lapis, Indonesian layer cake, then it was out the gates to see my parents for the first time in six months. It was great to see them and when I did I knew that I was home.
Upon arrival home there was a small exchange of random items that I'd picked up on my travels, the ones I could find anyhow then Dad brought out the long awaited char siew. Mmm BBQ roast pork. It was good. We started watching a bit of the Opening Ceremony before realising that it was 4am and clearly bed time for all.
I headed to my room, spilled open my baggage and then made the unwise decision to start reading the first book in His Dark Materials. After three chapters I forced myself to put it down and closed my eyes. A couple of hours later the sun was rising and I woke up and watched it through the bedroom window. There's something nice about coming home and watching the sunrise. It's not something that I'm usually up for!
More reading followed that and I eventually got out of bed at 9am to say good morning to my folks before they headed out. Now up I'm in the study with two snoring pugs behind me and all is well.
Tomorrow is likely to be a big day of getting paperwork sorted and applying for jobs but today is going to be a quiet one I think. Just settling in and enjoying being in one place before I disappear off again.
Oh and before I forget, gong xi fa cai to you all. It's my year this year and I'm hoping it's going to be a good one!
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Last Night In France
It's 01:15 and I really should be tucked up in bed asleep but having had three days of solid sleep care of the Arctic Measles I've found I'm back to my usual insomnia. I like to think it's a sign I'm getting better.
We leave for Qatar tomorrow, some would say to tempt fate in Doha, which I'm sure will be fine. Gene & I are looking forward to catching up with our favourite limo driver while we're there. The whole day spa thing is a little out of the question in light of recent events. A pity because we'd been looking forward to it for most of the trip.
Am feeling much better and made contact with the world again today (ie. started looking for work and called family & friends). That was lovely. It's nice to be back in the world even though the world is currently still a little sore. The paracetamol's looking after that though.
In answer to Nick's comment on my previous post I must admit I didn't feel particularly medieval during the chicken pox although I did spend some brief moments gazing wistfully out the window at the happy people outside before hiding behind the curtains incase they saw me. More fairytale trapped in a tower due to being a disfigured, misunderstood creature than medieval but an interesting description of the experience of chicken pox from your family. I'll have to ask other Nick how he felt about it... He did go sledding though so I doubt it was medieval. Sorry Rami I don't think the story will be illustrated any time soon. You'll have to use your imagination.
So here we are. We've made it to the end of our whirlwind tour of Europe. It's hard to believe that we've been here since Christmas Eve. Time seems to flow differently when you're on holiday. It's been great fun having gone through a variety of countries where we've all spoken the language, not spoken it at all, or had one or two members of the party speak the language. Norweigan was a tough one to pick up. We've come away with only one word takk which means "thank you". Still it was a good experience for us to muddle our way across borders with our phrasebooks and we're looking forward to doing it again.
Tomorrow we start the journey home navigating our way back through Asia. We're still on the waiting list to get back to Australia so we're making plans to show Nick around Singapore for a few days. This largely revolves around all the great places and foods to eat as well as a tour of the Esplanade. We're theatre geeks at heart, how could we not?
We've already started discussions of the first things that we want to consume upon our eventual return home.
Gene - large Aussie with garlic and chilli
Nick - Boags draught
Me? I just want some vegemite on toast. Some biltong too (although it's South African so not particularly patriotic and I had some in the UK anyway).
Having been away for a few months now I'm expecting the city to be, as they would say in Doha, same same but different. My Dad posted some pictures he'd taken around Melbourne and it was good to see the city sights again. It's not something that I've really taken much notice of until we went away. While we were flying to Paris from Oslo I was reading the inflight magazine and there was an article on Melbourne. The photo accompanying the article was an old photo though. The old Gas & Fuel buildings were still standing opposite Flinders Street Station with St Paul's peeping out from behind them. No Fed Square in sight.
While it will be good to see the city again it really is the people I'm most looking forward to seeing.
Almost home but not quite. No ticket back yet and our house in storage. It's a little odd but strangely liberating.
We leave for Qatar tomorrow, some would say to tempt fate in Doha, which I'm sure will be fine. Gene & I are looking forward to catching up with our favourite limo driver while we're there. The whole day spa thing is a little out of the question in light of recent events. A pity because we'd been looking forward to it for most of the trip.
Am feeling much better and made contact with the world again today (ie. started looking for work and called family & friends). That was lovely. It's nice to be back in the world even though the world is currently still a little sore. The paracetamol's looking after that though.
In answer to Nick's comment on my previous post I must admit I didn't feel particularly medieval during the chicken pox although I did spend some brief moments gazing wistfully out the window at the happy people outside before hiding behind the curtains incase they saw me. More fairytale trapped in a tower due to being a disfigured, misunderstood creature than medieval but an interesting description of the experience of chicken pox from your family. I'll have to ask other Nick how he felt about it... He did go sledding though so I doubt it was medieval. Sorry Rami I don't think the story will be illustrated any time soon. You'll have to use your imagination.
So here we are. We've made it to the end of our whirlwind tour of Europe. It's hard to believe that we've been here since Christmas Eve. Time seems to flow differently when you're on holiday. It's been great fun having gone through a variety of countries where we've all spoken the language, not spoken it at all, or had one or two members of the party speak the language. Norweigan was a tough one to pick up. We've come away with only one word takk which means "thank you". Still it was a good experience for us to muddle our way across borders with our phrasebooks and we're looking forward to doing it again.
Tomorrow we start the journey home navigating our way back through Asia. We're still on the waiting list to get back to Australia so we're making plans to show Nick around Singapore for a few days. This largely revolves around all the great places and foods to eat as well as a tour of the Esplanade. We're theatre geeks at heart, how could we not?
We've already started discussions of the first things that we want to consume upon our eventual return home.
Gene - large Aussie with garlic and chilli
Nick - Boags draught
Me? I just want some vegemite on toast. Some biltong too (although it's South African so not particularly patriotic and I had some in the UK anyway).
Having been away for a few months now I'm expecting the city to be, as they would say in Doha, same same but different. My Dad posted some pictures he'd taken around Melbourne and it was good to see the city sights again. It's not something that I've really taken much notice of until we went away. While we were flying to Paris from Oslo I was reading the inflight magazine and there was an article on Melbourne. The photo accompanying the article was an old photo though. The old Gas & Fuel buildings were still standing opposite Flinders Street Station with St Paul's peeping out from behind them. No Fed Square in sight.
While it will be good to see the city again it really is the people I'm most looking forward to seeing.
Almost home but not quite. No ticket back yet and our house in storage. It's a little odd but strangely liberating.
Saturday, January 22, 2005
There's No Place Like Home
Typical that the one day that I needed to jump on City Link the freeway was closed... I ended up running late because I didn't know about the detour until after I'd left. Mum and Dad looked pretty excited to see me and I think my grandparents were just tired given that it was 3am. We managed to get home at about 4am and then spent the next hour talking tiredly about the trip. I got given my new phone and mp3 player but was so tired I couldn't remember the PIN on my phone...
Having gotten to bed at 5am... I decided to wake up at 8:45am to play with my new phone. It's a Sony Ericsson K508i which is the first non-Nokia phone I've used. Aside from the rather strange predictive text (the space key is in a different place) it's really good. I still can't recognise my ring tones though... I'll have to work on that!
Mum and Dad brought back a whole heap of fascinating things to play with... like the papyrus note paper that I can was and reuse... the distilled oils for helping with stomach problems and pure perfumes. Mum also got me some great earrings. Dad came back with some great t-shirts too from The Esplanade. They've also got some great photos from the trip which I'm looking forward to seeing.
It's good to be back in my own place. Gene and I have made an effort to settle back in here after moving all our stuff back from Mum & Dad's place.
Today I attacked the hedges in the courtyard with the new hedge clippers... they're shockingly blunt... I should have remembered to spend a little more on them... would have saved my arms a bit! We're going to need to jump up on the fence to cut the front and top of the hedge too... I did't do too badly... It's my first time cutting a hedge and I'm hoping that I didn't do too badly by the plants! There was this rather annoying creeper though that's grown... I should pull that out... it just tangles into the hedge making it hard to trim. I don't think it's meant to be there.
I should be at a going away party tonight. Gene cooked a deliciously large steak for dinner tonight and we ate until we were bursting (not a smart move) and then I ended up falling asleep. I'm still feeling rather groggy and tired from the hedge cutting. I think I'll spend some time going through more of the stuff in boxes/bags. We have patches of floor that aren't covered in boxes in our room... it's getting better. Gene's supreme effort has reclaimed some of our floor back. We hope to have conquered the carpet space again in a month's time at latest.
Paperwork, here I come.
Having gotten to bed at 5am... I decided to wake up at 8:45am to play with my new phone. It's a Sony Ericsson K508i which is the first non-Nokia phone I've used. Aside from the rather strange predictive text (the space key is in a different place) it's really good. I still can't recognise my ring tones though... I'll have to work on that!
Mum and Dad brought back a whole heap of fascinating things to play with... like the papyrus note paper that I can was and reuse... the distilled oils for helping with stomach problems and pure perfumes. Mum also got me some great earrings. Dad came back with some great t-shirts too from The Esplanade. They've also got some great photos from the trip which I'm looking forward to seeing.
It's good to be back in my own place. Gene and I have made an effort to settle back in here after moving all our stuff back from Mum & Dad's place.
Today I attacked the hedges in the courtyard with the new hedge clippers... they're shockingly blunt... I should have remembered to spend a little more on them... would have saved my arms a bit! We're going to need to jump up on the fence to cut the front and top of the hedge too...
I should be at a going away party tonight. Gene cooked a deliciously large steak for dinner tonight and we ate until we were bursting (not a smart move) and then I ended up falling asleep. I'm still feeling rather groggy and tired from the hedge cutting. I think I'll spend some time going through more of the stuff in boxes/bags. We have patches of floor that aren't covered in boxes in our room... it's getting better. Gene's supreme effort has reclaimed some of our floor back. We hope to have conquered the carpet space again in a month's time at latest.
Paperwork, here I come.
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