Happy Birthday Ashley

Here is a photo of Ashley cutting his Freddo Frog Icecream Cake on his birthday last Friday night. He had a quiet gathering at his house with a few friends and family. I hate to admit that I drank way too much and got completely blind. I discovered later in the weekend that I was sick and this may have contributed to my glass and a half effort.

I hate to admit but I have been extremely slack at keeping this up to date lately. I have been sick on and off (nothing serious - just viruses) and my memory is just out right failing (must be all that drinking from my younger years). I was supposed to meet a mate for dinner on Tues night and forgot. I didn't realise until they rang me from the restaurant after I had just finished eating dinner at Pam's mum's place. Although I am not blonde any more I am sure I am suffering some residual effects.

I may have found my sporting passion, in terms of participation. Those who know me well know that I hate exercise. I had yet to find the sport or fitness venture that I enjoyed, however I went to aqua aerobics last week with Pam at the Somerset Pool in Vic Park....... and I enjoyed it. At first I wasn't sure as I felt a bit pooped and noticed that only 15 mins had passed of the hour long class. Then before I knew it we were starting a warm down and there was only 5 mins to go. I have purchased a pair of chlorine resistant bathers (which make me look white and fat), but I aint going there to impress any one, and they will last a lot longer than normal bathers. My plan is to go twice a week, but so far I have only managed once a week in the first two weeks.

My house mate is moving out in a couple of weeks. He is off travelling with some friends who are coming over from Ireland. I am now on the lookout for a new housemate and have started by joining Flatmate Selection. However they have given me a bit of the run around by not placing my ad on the net and then when I emailed them they said it was the East Vic Park advert, to which I emailed saying that it wasn't my ad at all as it contained none of the details I gave. I really hate the fact she lied to me and would have preferred if she just fessed up and said sorry. She also gave me 6 people to contact and the 4 that I was interested in and contacted have all found places. I am thinking that I have just wasted $75 and that I might give her a call on Monday to voice my grievances.

Looks like I will have to spend more money advertising in the paper again. The whole thing just shits me!

Anyway good to see that everyone else is keeping their blogs up to date - thanks. I thoroughly enjoying reading what everyone is up to and it sounds like everyone is well and enjoying themselves.

The computer is back

Finally I have the computer back!!!
A couple of weeks ago my housemate Neil told me the computer would not connect to the net. When I checked it out and couldn't get it to work I rang my provider (Iinet) and after much discussion and clicking around on stuff as advised (I have no idea what I was being told and considering it involved MSDOS stuff I was was clueless) it started to work. However I was advised by the iinet guy that he thought I might have a virus.
The next day it wouldn't work again. ARGH!! So I phoned dear Mikey and organised for him to have a look at it for me. I dropped the computer off at Ashley's place on Sat (4th Aug) as I was there for dinner. After hearing nothing I sent a text to Mikey on Wed 15th Aug. Mikey got back to me Friday and said that he couldn't find anything wrong with it and thinks it might be the modem.
So here I am connected to the net, no problems (YET) and finally able to pay my bills on line (thanks Pam for letting me borrow your computer). I didn't realise how much I used the damn thing and how frustrating it was not to have it.
Lots has gone on in the past couple of weeks and I will add other posts over the next few days telling all.

The New Job

My promotion took effect from Thursday this week. On Wednesday my team mates of CVC organised a morning team for my leaving. There were sausage rolls, pies, spring rolls and cakes galore, not to mention speeches from my Team Leader (Priscilla) and colleague, Barry. I even got presents and a card signed by most of the staff in the office.

As Barry said in his speech they wanted to find me a present that represented my hobbies and likes, and that only meant one thing - wine! I got 6 bottles of mixed white and red wine, plus an engraved pen (To Rosie from the Hot Shots Team - an in house joke) and a book called The Queen Bitch. The presents were perfect! I even got given a lift home as the wine was too heavy to carry on the bus, plus I feared I would be mugged for my wine.

Reality checked in on Thursday morning as I made way to the Northbridge Office (I was working on St Georges Tce before). I didn't know anything about my new job or have any experience with income tax and large corporate businesses, plus I didn't know one person in my new team.

I made sure I started later than normal so that my team leader would be there. I was introduced to most of the team and then the wheels felt like they were falling off. I couldn't remember any of the names of the people I had just met, my boxes of my desk stuff had not arrived (as expected), I could login to the system, but had no access to the data bases I needed.

But one of the guys took me for a coffee at 9am to talk to me about the work he does and how the team worked. His name was Mark (I think), but everyone calls him Nip ???? He has only been back 3 weeks after being on long leave to work overseas. I felt better after talking to him, but not totally settled.

By lunch time my eyes were popping out from reading info about the new business line I work for on line, so I emailed a friend who works in the building and begged them to have lunch with me, which he did. Thanks Dan!

Back to the grind and I was told that one of my team members needed a court document photocopied. The team leader reluctantly agreed and I was designated my first task, but wouldn't be able to do it until Friday as the colleague was using the document. I tried to look busy all afternoon and struggled and headed off to catch a new bus home (#220).

Today (Friday) I caught my new bus to work. Got the stop way too early - I will have to check this out and see if I can catch an earlier bus. This bus was brand new (like yesterday arvo) and almost empty. Got to work at 7.30am after grabbing a paper and milk on the way from the bus station to the office. I started checking out some induction information and got bored quickly, so decided to start the photocopy job.

OMG!!! This document was huge and bound. I could not take the binding apart as the pages weren't numbered and if an accident happened I would not be able to put it back together in the right order. So I copied each page by page. This job took me the best part of the day. I ended up copying 450 pages. How do I know - I had to count them as the office has this stupid thing where they are monitoring what people are photocopying! I also had to label the sections (all 64) as done by my colleague with post it tags. What a mundane job and my team leader could not apologise enough.

I had intermittent emails from my old team mates telling me they missed me - sob sob! I was told that they felt like some one had died. I can't believe they miss me that much, considering some of the grief I gave them over their reports. At least I get to catch up with some of them on Tuesday as my new boss has said it is ok to go to a lunch with them for as long as I like! I could really get to like this!

Sorry for the delay in my post. I have been busy with trying to wind up at the old job and stressing about the new one. Plus I have the added burden of a new house mate. Lets just say he is not even close to Antonia, however I had a big chat with him about it and he has pulled his finger out. He has also replaced my tim tams and wine, plus he has stocked his pantry shelf and bought some fridge stuff. I think he has a good heart, just been mothered too much! He aint gonna get looked after here!!!

A Local Pub Experience

Last night I went out with my sister to her local pub... Hmmmmm.... that was different. She was going there as some of her work mates were going as one of them was singing in a band there. Where to start......

I got to Bianca's house and still had to straighten my hair and put on my make-up. Then a couple of Attila's work friends showed up as they were going too. Attila took the kids to his mum's and we went with Attila's work mates, who are a couple of 20 year old girls. The ride to the pub was interesting to say the least, with me feeling like a nanna in a "P" plated car and the stereo blasting (I recalled memories of doing this), but found the whole experience too loud, feeling scared of the driver's driving and basically feeling like a complete twat.

The pub is literally a local - quite a dive and full of unsavoury types. There were bikies with lots of tatts, 18 year olds off their faces, sleazy old men and the occasional smell of pot in the beer garden. We even arrived while the skimpies were still on. Nothing quite like ordering a drink from a girl dressed in a piece of dental floss. It was all class!!!!

The band was not bad, consisting of 3 guys, being a drummer, and 2 guitarists. They played easy listening music and Bianca's work mate (nicknamed Princess) sang quite well. I must admit that he will not live it down at work after singing Brittany Spear's Hit me One More Time. That was a crack up!

It was an ok night and best of all Bianca made me cheese on toast when we got home! However I prefer my locals to hers - Sorry Bianca!

New House Mate

I am losing my housemate Antonia - sob sob! Antonia has purchased a 3x1 house in Forrestfield (Congratulations!!) which she is going to lease. She is moving in with her fiance Boyd as she can't afford to live with me any more.

Antonia moved in about 18 months ago and has been the bestest house mate ever. She is very clean, considerate and friendly. She is a pharmacist and has brought home many a goody for me from the chemist, mostly perfume and make-up. I will miss her a lot, however we have agreed to stay in contact and will catch up for dinners.

I met my new housemate yesterday. His name is Neil, he is a 27 year old plasterer and is Irish. He will be moving in next weekend (6 July). The poor bugger was living with a girl who told him she was moving out of their place to go back to England and only gave him 4 days to find a new place. He is going to have to stay at a friend's place from Tuesday until he moves in here.

I will give more updates once he moves in, but he seems like a really nice and fun guy and I reckon he may join us out on the piss sometimes.

I got a Dyson!!!

Who would have thought some one could get soooooo excited about a vacuum cleaner? Well guess who has???

I went to the Harvey Norman sale at the Convention Centre during my lunch break on Thursday and low and behold they were selling Dyson Vacuums (DC08 Origin) at just $399. I could hardly contain myself, but I did. I went back to work and phoned all the electrical retailers I could think of and none of them could match the price, apart from the Good Guys, who offered $398, but it had to be a cash payment and I had to show proof of the price. I didn't have proof, so I returned to the Convention Centre, purchased by new Dyson with an extended 4 year warranty, paid by credit and organised to pick it up on Friday!

I sent Pam and email about the great special as we had checked out the Dysons in Myers a couple of weeks ago. I thought she would never read it as she is on her holiday in Germany and Russia, but fate came into play and she did read it, and on Friday when I picked mine up I bought one for her.

I built it on Friday evening, but I haven't used it yet. It looks so clean and new that I don't want to get it dirty yet. I think I will use my old one tomorrow and then go over everything again with the Dyson to see what the old couldn't pick up. I have never been this keen to get out the vacuum cleaner. I am sure the novelty will wear off pretty soon!

So here is my new baby. Isn't she pretty and aren't I sad?

How to Remove the Pasha Bulker or Not?

Just testing how to add a YouTube video.

Christening of India

On Sunday 17th June 2007 I attended the christening of India Adelaide Lynette Carmichael. She is the daughter of Karen (my work friend) and Chris. She was christened at the King of Christ Church in Beaconsfield and wore a beautiful dress made by her grandmother. I heard that the lace used on it was 70 years old!

India was the perfect baby throughout the christening - wide awake, no tears or screams and smiles all round. She maintained this angelic behaviour at home whilst we all snacked and drank champagne and coffee. Karen kept waiting for the "wheels to drop off", but it never came whilst I was there and India was well and truly overdue for a sleep.

Who's that Girl???

Here is a sneak peak for all those dedicated fans of mine (how deluded??) of the new hair colour. It feels pretty radical at the moment, but I am sure I will get used to it. This post will be deleted soon as the photo is a shocker!

Engagement

A group of us (about 20) attended Charmaine's birthday dinner on 26 May 2007, only to realise that

ASHLEY AND CHARMAINE GOT ENGAGED!!

Apparently they got engaged on the Friday night after the Dockers win over the Saints. I was one of the first to arrive with Angie, Pam and Nicole. I spotted the ring first and started pulling faces at the girls. Nic was the one to ask.

So there you have it. Ash is getting married - never thought I would say that! No date has been set for the wedding, but I will keep all posted when I hear anything. Here's a photo of the couple.