yodge

P and I went on a much-needed vacation to Japan and the Spore in the beginning of October.

It was a really great 3 weeks. Just relaxing.... eating.... enjoying each other's company.... buying cheap shoes....

Then we came back to Sydney and back to work, and figured we wouldn't be able to go back to the Spore for at least another year or two, since flying anywhere overseas out of Australia is just ridiculously expensive. Why does Australia have to be so far away from everywhere else?

However, I received a call this morning that my maternal grandfather passed away. It was rather unexpected, since even though he was getting on in years (as grandparents tend to do) and getting frail, he was actually on the up and up as far as his health was concerned. He was doing so much better in recent months (went from being bedridden & largely incoherent to mobile and totally lucid) that his passing this morning was strangely unexpected. Although I suppose going peacefully in your sleep when you are well is much better than going painfully when you are ill...

Anyway, P & I are heading back to Singapore for a couple days for the funeral and to be there with our family during this time. P's parents generously gave us their frequent flyer points to help us with the expense so that we could both go. (Have I ever mentioned how much I love my in-laws?)

So off we go on the plane again.

We'll be missing the album recording weekend at church, which is a little bit of a bummer, but family first.

Good night. xxx

...is hard work!

After tomorrow's wedding, P & I will have shot 3 weddings in 8 days.

THREE WEDDINGS IN EIGHT DAYS!!!

If we were expensive photographers, we'd be RICH.

Too bad we're pretty cheap (at the moment).

Time to raise the prices, methinks!

I really must start posting in LJ again... haven't done it in awhile! Too many things to look at and do online.

Brief summary of the past few months:
- P had a couple of gout attacks. Not nice.
- Lots of weddings.
- Spring is here in Sydney. Yay!
- We acquired a new fridge, which is so big I can fit my whole body into the freezer side. It's huge and looks absurd in our tiny kitchen. Oh well.
- We got a new camera: Canon 5D MkII. Yay!
- Same old same old at work.
- Got rid of the Honda Civic and got an older model Audi A4. Automatic, so I can drive it stress-free. I've told P that this is the last time we're changing cars, because it's getting ridiculous and is an awful waste of time and money. Since we've been together (3+ years) he has changed cars FOUR times!

Not much to report, really.

Oh, we're being good children and eating more veggies, if anyone's interested. We actually get a box delivered to our house now.

Well that's all for now, I think.

P visited me in the office and told me he had a present for me. I suspect it's really a present for him, since he can only change up to this once his current phone contract expires... so I get to have it instead.



iPhone 3G S.

I'm a little tentative since I really do like the sensation of buttons clicking when I type on my phone. And now it's all touch-screen... and I usually mess up when I use P's current iPhone. But apparently "I'll get used to it" and "I'll grow to love it" and "I won't know how I used to live without it"....

As you can probably tell, I'm a little bit ambivalent about this new acquisition.

But I'm willing to give it a shot.

I love Apple (I even converted my hubby and now he's a raving Mac geek), but this is something I've put off for a while. Don't know why. Maybe I'm averse to change. Hmmm.

On Sunday P and I went to the PMA Australia 2009 Imaging Technology Show at the Sydney Convention Centre.

We went as "trade"... we got in for free because we were "professional" photographers!

Woohoo!

It was fun indeedy... looking at all the different business vying for your business... all the cool products... and all the kinda-lame products. I felt like a proper photographer indeed.

I used to love watching Jon & Kate Plus 8. I thought it was the cutest show in the world, and those sextuplets were sooooo adorable, and watching those parents handle 8 little kids and have so much fun.... it was just delightful. I would watch it on TV. I would search for clips on YouTube.

But then, gradually, I found myself starting to dislike the show a little. Not the kids, who were still has cute as ever, but watching those "parent interviews", with Jon & Kate narrating and babbling on... it just started to irritate me. I just couldn't understand their relationship. Over the past year, Kate became increasingly mean, cynical, self-righteous and critical -- especially toward her husband -- and Jon simply... shrank. I would cringe at how she corrected his every move, yelled at him, scolded him like a child... and how he would simply roll his eyes and shrug and "surrender" to her simply to avoid the confrontation.

It made me sad when they showed a rerun of an episode that showed footage of them as a dating couple, then an engaged couple, and then at their wedding and the first couple years of their marriage. They were like different people. They joked around and laughed with each other. They were happy.

And now they've announced that they're splitting up, after 10 years and 8 kids, but continuing the reality TV show circus. One wonders why they didn't announce that they were quitting the show to work on their relationship and marriage instead... but oh well. After watching their relationship and communication disintegrate in front of the camera for a year, one wonders why there wasn't an earlier outcry from the public to get them into counseling. But nobody bothered. We just kept watching, and they fell apart.

And it makes me sad.

... I decided to dose up on vitamins.

And now my pee is fluorescent!

Weeeeee!!!

(Sorry, mum.)

Tried to make a wrap thingy to take to lunch for work. Filling: meat sauce (leftovers from pasta), ham, shredded cheese, barbeque sauce. Lebanese flatbread.

I overfilled it a bit and couldn't really roll it.

It's going to be one messy lunch tomorrow!

P and I went to the Blue Mountains a couple weeks ago for the annual staff retreat.

Relaxing. And COLD. Like 5 degrees. Brrrr.



That's me on one of the walking trails near the hotel. I got to wear my nice comfy Uggs. Yay!

Friday Night + Payday = Date night.

Well, most Friday nights are Date Nights... even if it's a DVD at home.

Anyhoo, tonight P and I had a very conventional "date". Dinner and a movie. Oh aren't we old fashioned?

Dinner at Black Stump. It was disappointing. The shared entree was okay, but the mains... left much to be desired. Ribs were dry and stringy. "Grilled" fish was fried to death, not even grilled. My side of "buttered vegetables" were just unseasoned boiled vegetables in a cold bowl. The only upside were the chips (fries) which were quite good, although that might have been simply compared to the rest of my disappointing and thoroughly unsatisfying meal. And it cost nearly just as much as Outback, which, although it isn't my favorite place to eat by any means, seemed miles ahead in terms of food and service. And we nearly went to Outback, but decided to try Black Stump since I'd never been and Paul hadn't been to a Black Stump since he was a kid. BAD decision. Oh well... live and learn.

Movie: Night At the Museum 2. I really did enjoy it. Except for the fact that there were about twenty 15-year olds running around the cinema and yelling at each other and swapping seats and running up and down the aisles... I enjoyed the movie anyway. I really wanted to trip one up or slap one or something... but fear of retribution from the other nineteen hormone-charged 15-year olds caused me to hold back and concentrate on the Ben Stiller's squinty face.

P is going to pick up our dryer tomorrow morning!! We bought it last week but need to borrow the in-laws' car to pick it up, since it won't fit into our little Civic. YAY we're getting a dryer that I can de-lint my towels in!! And there's nothing like putting on warm socks and jammies just before jumping into bed... Mmmmmm.......

Went to watch the new Star Trek movie.

My inner trekkie (trekker) rejoiced.

I hope they make sequels!! I am such a nerd.

Church on Saturday was good. I led worship. All good, considering that we've had some problems with rehearsal times recently, after we implemented the new in-ear system for the musicians. So much tweaking. So much time wasted. Gah.

Tonight P and I made dinner for the in-law family (his parents + his sister + bro-in-law). A really rich creamy vegetable soup (onions, garlic, celery, carrot, tomato, pumpkin, random herbs, s&p, butter, CREAM... and an immersion blender), and caesar salad with roast chicken and homemade croutons. The homemade croutons were DELICIOUS.

Success!!

And then I used the in-laws' dryer to de-lint our new towels.

We need to get us a dryer.... if only to de-lint our towels and sheets and to shrink my jeans back down to their original size.

It's getting cold in Sydney now. It's about 10 degrees (Celsius) right now, as I sit at my desk with a blanket around me. Darn these Australian houses with their cardboard walls and non-existent insulation!!

We went to watch Wolverine tonight!! It was fun. Much better than I expected, actually. Yay for the X-Men... It's still my fave comic book franchise.

Took the day off tomorrow and going to Sisterhood in the morning with antares84 and then out shopping!!! My GOODNESS I get to go SHOPPING!!! I'm excited! I haven't had a proper shopping session in a while! Creative rehearsals are on Thursday now, so most of the time I can't make it to "late night shopping" on Thursdays - the only day the stores in Australia stay open beyond 5pm. Frustrating.

I'm going to buy a dress. I've bought 2 pairs of boots recently, and have lots of tights... but no nice dresses or long tops to wear on top!! And I can't wear my nice boots with normal jeans coz they're all baggy around the ankle. Gah. OH and I need new jeans - I have the bad habit of finding 1 good pair and wearing it until it falls apart (and rarely washing it, so I smell...)

My current jeans are wearing out in the crotch area and there's a weird worn out part now. Soon it shall become a hole. I need to find a replacement pair ASAP until I become the crotchless chick.

Thank goodness for Australia's economic stimulus money!!! Woohoo - $900 to stimulate the economy with!! (I bought my first pair of real UGG boots yesterday. Real Aussie-made ones - not the silly "Made in China - but Australian, promise!" ones. See, I'm doing my part for the economy!

I might as well enjoy it now, since my children and grandchildren will be paying taxes to fix the deficit for the next few decades. Oh well!!

So I'm STILL sick. So I've taken another day off work. I took 2 days off last week and went back to work on Friday, which made me seriously crash. I got even worse on Friday and over the weekend... thought I could go to work yesterday (Monday) and I did all right, except for the fact that I was wheezing and coughing and sniffling and blowing my nose in the office. That's not just gross, but I just think it's highly inconsiderate to my co-workers, especially when quite a few have been getting sick recently. Not to mention that I felt like crap.

So I've taken today off. Still coughing (little chunks...) (SORRY!) but at least I got to sleep, and I'm not in a stuffy enclosed office...

Anyhow, in my boredom, I've been looking through a whole slew of photos that my mom sent me, and thought I'd share some of my childhood with you...


This is what big brothers are for, really.

( 3 more under the cut... )


Past entries from the Archive of Qyoot:
http://yodge.livejournal.com/27565.html
http://yodge.livejournal.com/27669.html
http://yodge.livejournal.com/38429.html
http://yodge.livejournal.com/51416.html

Yay for the long weekend!! I like Australia. Good Friday AND Easter Monday are public holidays. Yay!!

Went to church today, and then had a lovely long family day with the hubby and the in-law family.

Here's a picture of the niece sorting through her loot....



Happy Easter everyone!! Peace and love and chocolate for all humanity!!

So I've been kinda bored at work...

So I've started a Twitter! Wa-hey...? I think.

Past couple weeks have been busy. Did a wedding (photos to come) and lots of photos from album recording!!

And I'll be doing photography for Colour Conference too! YAY!

The cameras are heavy though. My wrist aches.

So the past 3 weeks, briefly: Weekends have been crazy, and work absolutely dead.

Woohoo!

*yawn*

...kinda depressing.

Last week we went to the City for lunch to celebrate f-i-l and s-i-l's birthdays. We set the sproglet loose and she had a grand time toddling around.



So happy and pink.

So after the crazy work week where I had the crazy crying fit and then the weekend after that where I found Rach to be my temporary PA, work calmed down a bit. The actual workload was crazier than ever, but at least I had somebody else helping me with the time-consuming blah (sorting out multiple sets of keys for dozens and dozens of houses, labeling them, filling out details on rental contracts) while I handled the high-priority stuff and fielded the bombardment of people and phone calls and endless 'emergencies'.

And we actually got through like 25 people in 1 day (a record) before 5 o'clock without any dramas. Wahey! I was feeling optimistic. Jovial, even.

Of course I was still staying in the office til 8.30, or even 9 (on Friday) finishing up all the admin and paperwork... but at least I didn't feel like the sky was falling.

So the peak week is over... and only 1 week left! YAY!

And the weekend was lovely. In brief:

- Slept in.
- Church was fantastic. Led worship and rocked the house. The sermon was fantastic. High fives all around.
- Dinner at a new Thai restaurant. Not too bad. Fried fish = yummy.
- Slept in.
- Had dinner with P & the in-laws at the new-ish Ribs & Rumps at North Ryde. Lots of meat & fries. Mmmm. Chocolate cake for dessert at Towers.
- Bought garden tools. P spent the afternoon ripping out the huge bush and creeper on our back fence, while I whipper-snippered our overgrown... well, everything. Still one more section of fence to clear, but good golly our backyard looks a LOT bigger now.
- Having fruit for dinner because of our ridiculously calorific lunch.
- P's blending watermelon for juice.
- Tuna-mushroom-bacon pasta bake in the oven for the week's lunches.

Maybe I'll go to bed early.

So work on Thursday wasn't better-er as I hoped.

In fact I got so frustrated by the non-stop bombardment and sense of impending doom that I had a tearful breakdown at my desk. However working in a nice Christian environment meant people gave me hugs and told me to take a break.

Anyhoo... after the severe gulping weeping episode, I got back to work and was generally dreary for the rest of the day.

Friday was much better, and I was just as stressed but more like a cheerful I'm-so-stressed-I-don't-care-anymore stressed. Worked for 12 hours straight, without a lunch break. And considering I didn't eat breakfast to begin with, I think I deserved my very late and calorie-enriched dinner of fried KFC goodness. So all I ate that day was 1 mug of tea (2 sugars), a mini Milky Way bar, and then 3 pieces of fried chicken. Mmmmmm, healthy.

Thankfully I wasn't rostered on to sing or lead anything at church today, so I spent some time out under a tree, in the sun, reading Njal's Saga, which antares84 sent to me from Iceland for Christmas (along with Daim... mmm.)

And after church I was chatting with a friend and discovered she needed extra work, and hey, I need extra help AT work, so basically I recruited her to be my PA! I'd been given permission to look for temporary paid help (after my ugly-cry breakdown in the office) but didn't know who needed the work. So YAY - we've killed two proverbial birds with one stone and I am slightly more optimistic about going back to work on Monday.

Then it was to a family reunion dinner at the in-laws, which we were very late for (because of church) but they'd put aside lots of food for us anyway, so we had a good dinner and lay about on the couch watching Iron Chef America.

And now I'm ready for bed.

Ok so I'm a week late. Deal.

I like Australia over the Christmas/New Year period. Everyone stops working and just relaxes for a week and a half. The whole country literally ceases to work.

And everyone gets fat.

Anyhoo. I'm finally back to work, and OH MY GOODNESS it is stressful. Having to deal with the students who left last year, dealing with the new students arriving, catching up on all the financial stuff from the past 2 weeks, gritting my teeth while talking with nitpicky, condescending landlords, negotiating with real estate agents... and all with the deadline of 12 January, when all the new students start pouring in and wanting homes, and when I'll no longer have time to actually FIND them homes, because I'll have to be dealing with them face to face and placating their parents on the phone.

I nearly had a tearful breakdown in the office yesterday at my desk. I was teetering.

But then when I was just about to crack, I decided to reach out and ask for help from a bunch of people. And then I felt so much better.

Monday was the worst.

Tuesday was better.

Today was better-er.

Hopefully tomorrow will be even better-er.

*sigh*

Who needs to unpack when you've got the PS3 and TV set up?


Here's P (blue shirt) & our great friend Bobby (one of P's best men) who now only lives 5 mins away, now that we've moved into the neighborhood. He's got the pool and we've got the PlayStation + cable TV, so I foresee a lot of time spent visiting each other...

(The "good" camera is packed away somewhere, so I couldn't use the wide-angle lens... so I made a collage using my old Lumix. Heh.)

We're practicing staying up late, so we can be sprightly over New Year's Eve celebrations.