for the odd person who is still reading

You must be very odd, because I haven't updated in ages! I know, I know - very bad pun, but I've been hanging around with engineers too much lately.

Well, my life has finally slowed down a bit. This is in part because I've made it (after a couple of months of 60+ hour weeks, going up to 70+ in the last few, I decided that I wanted a life again dammit!), and in part because I've resigned.

Yep, you read me right. I've resigned. Well, sort of. I've got a job with another government agency (still Queensland Government), so officially it's a transfer within the same organisation, but as far as they're concerned around here, it's still a resignation.

I finish up at the end of this week and I'm trying to darndest to keep my hours down to less than 9.5 hours until then. Which has been surprisingly easy since my main duties this week have revolved around supervising other staff and transfering my files. Such a nice way to wind things up! ;o)

A thought: the problem with having a secret fling is that your friends end up hitting him because they think he's available and you're not interested. :o(

a new toy

It's my birthday this week, so I went out and bought myself a new toy as my present to myself. It's an iRiver, more specifically, this iRiver.



It has 40GB of memory, which is just over a quarter full and I've put all of the CDs that I've ripped on there. Admittedly this isn't even half of the CDs I own, but it's still about 2000 songs and enough to keep this little chickadee happy on shuffle for a VERY long time.

As a result, I rediscovered the wonders of Brothers in Arms the other day. I haven't listened to my Dire Straits albums in ages, probably years, and probably wouldn't have for another couple of years if this song hadn't come on in my shuffle as I was walking home. I'd forgotten the power of the lyrics, the clarity and beauty of the guitar, and the emotion of the song in general. It's funny how you do forget these things when it becomes a popular song and how you can rediscover them once a song is no longer so popular and you come across it by accident and can appreciate it without all of the hype that once surrounded it.

Listening to: My new toy - last song: Taxi - Easy Way Out

update of my life

I haven't gone anywhere, but I'm still very busy at work (I actually had to work last Saturday to catch up! That's almost unheard of for a government employee) and haven't been blogging or reading blogs.

In addition to work:-

- I'm seeing a chiropractor twice a week to try and fix my spine (degenerative changes at my age is not a good thing);

- I've been talking to a work-sponsored counsellor to see if a professional's opinion can help to fix some of the problems I've been having with my work situation (ie trying to deal with a difficult colleague);

- I've started another volunteer role - it's with a newly formed group, so it's pretty time intensive at the moment;

- a couple of my mates are leaving these shores for foreign ones - some are going home, some are going overseas to live, all of which I won't see for at least another 2 years unless I start travelling again myself. This has meant that I've had a heap of going away parties to attend;

- it's birthday season - most of my friends are Capricorns or Aquarians, so this is the time of year when I'm constantly juggling birthday parties;

- I've formed two new groups of friends - one out of my volunteer work, and one (well, sort of two, but they overlap) from Woodford - who I've been trying to stay in touch with along with my usual social activities and all of the abovementioned parties;

- I'm still doing salsa lessons and trying to get to my contemporary dance class at least once every couple of weeks;

- my new year's resolution was to spend more time and money on myself, so I'm getting a full body massage about once a week/fortnight.

I've also been applying for other jobs and attending interviews, which all takes up a lot of my extracurricular time. Hence why my life is too full for blogging right now. ;o)

Most of my friends are feeling a bit neglected at the moment as well. My Mum has asked "when are you coming up to see us" at least the last two times she's called. I haven't gone on a date since before Christmas, but since Woodford (where I got enough male attention to last a girl a lifetime), I have been picked up at the pub a couple of times by guys I would date (and got their phone numbers), and have been spending time at the various parties etc with guys I have dated in the past, so haven't really missed the lack of actual dating.

The social stuff starts to calm down again this weekend, so hopefully I'll start blogging again next week or in early Feb.

Listening to: The Boat People - yesyesyesyesyes

The WFF Weight Loss Program

1. Take one heat wave (40 degree celcius with 80% humidity).

2. Spend a week at the Woodford Folk Festival with very little relief from the heat or sun.

3. Camp on top of a hill (2 minutes walk downhill to the festival, 10 minutes walk uphill from the festival). Visit your camp at least 3 times a day.

4. Work an average of 6 hours a day lifting kegs and slabs.

5. Spend the rest of the day either sweating in your tent & trying to sleep, or grooving to the excellent music (and sweating even more).

You will find that you eat hardly anything since you're continuously filling up on water. You are doing more exercise that your poor little office-job-accustomed body is used to. You will find muscles that you didn't even know existed and daily reiki and massages do nothing to relieve.

And if you're anything like me, you'll lose 5kg in a week and collapse from heat exhaustion before the festival ends. :o(

But it was still all worth it. :o)

And I'm still planning to do it all again next year! ;o)

Listening to: Bernard Fanning - Tea & Sympathy

On holidays - ahhhhh

I must say that I really, truly love being on holidays. I'm not even doing anything - just lazing around the house at my parent's place, eating lots of food, reading books, and when I get up some energy, I occassionally take the dogs for a walk and go for a swim. But it's been great. I usually spend my holidays going to places and seeing lots of stuff, so it's been kind of nice to just do nothing for a week when I'm not sick and can really enjoy it.

Mind you, it's only been a couple of days and I'm already looking forward to the bustle of the Woodford Folk Festival with an almost obscene amount of pleasurable anticipation. I'm looking forward to Woodford more than I'm looking forward to Christmas. But then, Christmas is going to be bigger than Ben Hur this year and it's going to be at my brother's house - which means a pool, but no air con. On a day when it's meant to hit 36 degrees Celcius. I just hope my brother puts up a shade cloth over the pool so we can all sit in it without frying. He probably will. He knows how grumpy I can get when I'm too hot. ;o)

Actually, the problem with Christmas is not my family. I love my family. I even like them. Living with my Mum for a week probably isn't going to be the hell I dreaded. So far, we've managed to avoid getting on each others nerves. We've been enjoying each other's company too much.

No, the problem is my sister-in-law's family. I love my sister-in-law. Sometimes, I even like her. Mostly, I just cope with her, since we have absolutely nothing in common other than the fact that we both think her kids are just adorable. But her family drive me nuts. Especially her mother. I'm already wondering if I can somehow develop temporary deafness before Christmas Day. The kind that will be gone again by Boxing Day since I don't want it to ruin Woodford for me. She just has one of those voices that grates on my every nerve. And she talks about nothing. Constantly. And on repeat. My stress levels are increasing just thinking about it. *sigh* Oh well, hopefully a houseful of excited kids will distract me.

But thank god I had that full body massage before I left! *g*

Listening to: the dogs snoring