Dad's Birthday Tuesday

Tuesday 28 Feb 2012 - Today is my father's birthday. I spoke to him from work on the phone today, but gave him his present and had lunch with him and Mum on Sunday to mark the occasion. My Dad is the best - he would do anything for his family, give us everything he possibly can. 

The Birthday Boy

I got to thinking about the men in my life, or lack thereof. I have come up with a list of important ones:

• Dad
• My brother Sean
• My brother-in-law John
• My 11 year old nephew Mitchell
• My friend Mark
• My workmates Andy and Brett
• My cousin Ben and his sons, Declan, 10 and Bryn, almost 3
• My Uncle Pat

I wonder if it's a bit sad that I don't have many men in my life, or fantastic that the important ones are of such superior quality that nobody else measures up. The bad ones come and go - but as long as the men of substance, the constants, are around me, it's all good really. 

Moody Monday

Monday 27 Feb 2012 - I had a disturbing dream just before I woke up this morning, and it put me out of sorts all day. I couldn't get it out of my head. I was not helped by having to deal with taxes at work - taxes are fairly mundane, and not the best way of distracting my mind, so today was a bit of a downer. My poor workmates! Sorry everyone. Thanks for putting up with me. 


But - tonight I went back to Zumba with the suburban Mums at Everton Park, and really enjoyed it. A contrast from the class last week with the fancy footwork I couldn't do. So the lesson to be learned is to go with what I know and like. Change is not always good! Although, my arms will be hurting tomorrow, we did a whole song with our arms out like planes or birds - ouchywawa...

The Academy Awards were on today - no surprises, and no awards for anything I saw or liked. Except Bret from Flight Of The Conchords who won the best original song from the Muppet Movie - Man Or Muppet (heh - cute)

• Best Movie - The Artist (silent, black & white, French, looks tres boring); 
• Best Actor - Jean Dujardin from The Artist; 
• Best Actress - Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady; 
• Best Supporting Actress - Octavia Spencer for The Help (I did like that movie, and her character); 
• Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer for Sound of Music (not really - but he should have got one for that! I think it was for Beginners?). 
• Billy Crystal hosted. I haven't watched any of it - I don't even think any channel is showing the delayed telecast. 

Watched Revenge tonight on the telly - I really like it so far. A strong female getting back at the people who crossed her - MWAAAhahahahaaaa. Good stuff.
Anyway, tonight, I feel like I've been put through the wringer - physically and mentally tired. Tonight will be an early night. After I read up on Paris in the France Lonely Planet that Angela has kindly lent me. I have started researching flights to Paris and accommodation there - fun! And - the ever important STLFT (Something To Look Forward To). 

Ballina Weekend

Sunday 26 Feb 2012 - Really glad that I left Brisbane early on Saturday morning to avoid traffic. I left at 6:45am Brisbane time, and by 7:45 I was sitting in barely moving traffic on the Pacific Motorway, Gold Coast, in the pouring rain, as cars had to merge from 2 lanes to 1, taking about 45 minutes to move 5km. Workmen worked in the rain, fixing potholes, for about a 100 metre stretch, then the traffic pretty much disappeared and I was on my way again. Random. Then, I seemingly missed my turnoff to Ballina and ended up on the other side of town to what I was expecting. All up, the normally 2.5 hour trip took me 3.5 hours. So yeah - glad I left Brisbane early to avoid traffic!!

Ballina is definitely more laid-back than Brisbane - I love going there for weekends to get away from it all, so to speak. This weekend, we watched a Collingwood vs Western Bulldogs game from last week, an episode of Monk (family favourite), and Mum & I watched Revenge and Smash (which is on a channel I don't have, so I got to check it out - it's good!), and we went through Mum & Dad's upcoming cruise itinerary, which looks amazing, and I am quite jealous about it all... Today we all went out to lunch at Pelicans, a seafood restaurant on the river, for Dad's birthday which is on Tuesday, before I headed back to Brisbane.

Yesterday I also visited my friend Angela.. She has a little menagerie at her house, consisting of a very timid but lovely, fluffy cat called Dalai, a friendly puppy-like bunny called Milo, and a squawky bird called Alby. Ange and I got Thai takeaway, a bottle of wine and a DVD, for a good Saturday night catchup. Ange is a great friend that I've known since the start of high school. She and I travelled to Croatia and Ireland together a while ago, and to Hawaii with another friend, Sally, for my "big birthday" a couple of years ago. Ange is an excellent travel buddy as she is very "laid back and cruisey", and nicely counterbalances my "uptight and stressy"!

She is also a good Band Buddy, who got me hooked on Muse, and used to go to bands with me when we both lived in Sydney. We went to Sydney for a weekend when Green Day last came out to Australia. I managed to score box seats through Thai Airways and work, so we happily consumed free drinks and nibblies, and had great seats for the concert. Here we are beforehand:

Finally Friday

Friday 24 Feb 2012 - How is this for a good looking sunset?

and this?

I captured these images (that's a better way of saying "took these pictures") on Thursday night, on my way to pay rent. It was after a day of rain, and it was so lovely, and put a smile on my face. Brisbane can be pretty when it wants to be.

It's been a hard week. Being short-staffed at work some days, and getting to sleep quite late each night did not help. The reason for lack of sleep? This was the week of Sons Of Anarchy Season 2 marathons - 3 episodes Monday Night, 4 on Wednesday and 4 on Thursday (and out to the movies on Tuesday). Ridiculously addictive show! Well, at least I made it to Zumba on Monday and Wednesday, for a little physical activity...

Today has been very rainy and tonight is still rainy. Nice and cool though. Last night I slept under the doona and with the fan on... love it! I am off to Ballina tomorrow for a weekend with Mum & Dad. Driving in the rain is always a challenge, so I'm thinking of heading off early to at least beat a bit of traffic. I like a good drive to Ballina - I always have the music turned up nice & loud, and I holler along quite happily for just over 2 hours. It's good to get out of the city and hit the open road for a while.

Tuesday Movie Night

Tuesday 21 February 2012 - Tonight after work, Gemma, Lorraine & I watched a movie in the city, called This Means War. Action, mystery and interesting stories and characters (my preferred viewing criteria listed in yesterday's post)? Not in this particular movie!

Okay, there was some action. It stars Chris Pine and Tom Hardy as spy buddies who both take a liking to Reese Witherspoon's character. Her best friend in the film is played by Chelsea Handler, one of my comedy heroes, and she was really funny in this. So, the guys are extremely unprofessional as secret agents, using their other colleagues and resources to spy on Reese and to sabotage each other's efforts at getting her. There were some funny scenes and lines, and it was fairly light and harmless - not really Oscar-worthy, but a bit of fun. Although, Spoiler Alert - I reckon she ended up with the wrong bloke. Typical! Anyway, 7 out of 10.

Today is a very special girl's 1st Birthday. Taylah is my very good friend Sally's daughter, and she is a cutie. They live in Sydney, so I have only met Taylah once - it makes me a bit sad that I have missed so much of my friend's baby's first year, and that I haven't seen Sal either, but that's how life pans out really. Happy Birthday, little 1 year old xx

The birthday girl - clearly she is reading my card out to her folks.

Monday Catchup

Monday 20 Feb 2012 - This post is dedicated to Lorraine from my work.

I found out that she actually reads my blog regularly, when she asked me today if I'm not doing it anymore... Does anyone else read it? Feel free to post a comment, even if you don't want to join as a member. Anyway, for all of my blog fans (or, "blans" for short?),  here is a bit of a catchup since last week. Hang on, it's gonna be a wild ride folks! (no, really!)

On Saturday I went to the Gallery of Modern Art (we call it GOMA, so it kind of sounds like it's located somewhere like New York and not in Brisbane), with some of the girls, to see the Matisse exhibition. It was called Matisse - Drawing Life, and consisted of many, many of his sketches that he used to do to "warm up" or practise, or to get inspiration for what would become his great artistic masterpieces. Or something like that. It was a huge collection, but I think he possibly wouldn't have intended a lot of the sketches to be shown to the public - with some of them, I thought I might just be able to do a little bit better really. For instance:

But the complete sketches, if that's what they can be called, were wonderful, of course. He was quite a talented fellow you know! With only a few lines, he could create great images. So here are 2 that I quite liked:

Saturday night my AFL team, Collingwood, played the first round of the NAB Cup at Blacktown in Sydney, of all places, in a round robin against Western Bulldogs and then Greater Western Sydney (the new AFL team this year). And beat them both. Doesn't matter that the 2nd game was only won by 3 points, it was still a win, and the boys are on their way. Bring on winter and the new AFL season! I feel sorry for poor Brent Macaffer - firstly because his name is Brent; 2nd because he injured his knee pretty badly and will likely be out most of the season.

Anyway, Sunday - I had won 2 free tickets to see the new movie, Any Questions For Ben, so Kim and I went to see that on Sunday afternoon. It was pretty good - a bit long maybe, and I didn't really warm much to the main character till over half way through, when I grudgingly drummed up a bit of feeling for him and his predicament. But I don't really have a lot of empathy for men with issues in real life either, so no surprise really...  I did love that every word out of his mouth sounded like Rob Sitch - the co-writer and director, and part of the Working Dog team who also did The Castle (classic Aussie movie!) and The Dish, and TV shows like Frontline and The Hollowmen - champagne comedy. They create some quirky, funny characters that made this film more enjoyable for me. Rachael Taylor is lovely, but her character fell for Ben far too quickly in my opinion. Ben's friends and parents were great, and Alan Brough was funny in his scenes too - just by playing himself really. I gave this movie a 7.5 out of 10. Great value for the price of the tickets (free, remember!)

I went to Zumba at the Old Museum tonight. And then I left with 20 minutes to go. So disappointed - this class had the most frustrating, fancy steps ever! Just the actual steps - a combination of Eastern European dance, Riverdance and those little ballet steps where the feet have to criss-cross over one another on tiptoe as they move across the floor. I have never had more trouble trying to co-ordinate myself since I started with Zumba; I felt like a big Gumby, and got worse and more frustrated with each song that passed. See, the Zumba I like is South American/Latin dance-based, not fancy little quicksteps. Big steps, big movements for me. So, I think next week I will head back to Everton Park, as well as the fabulous Colombian Carol at Free Zumba on Wednesdays and Saturdays, going with what I know and enjoy.

Tonight, Debbie brought over Sons Of Anarchy season 2. I finished watching season 1 on Sunday, so tonight was a 3 episode mini-marathon. It is a strange show - it has mostly unlikeable characters with few redeeming features, violence, gore, but lots of surprises and twists, and I am completely caught up in it AND with the unlikeable characters, go figure. I've decided I'm not into romance in my movie and TV viewing at present, and am going for action, mystery, and interesting stories and characters instead.

Think it might be Thursday

Thursday 16 Feb 2012 - Today started with our weekly team breakfast at Queen Bean, which now seems to be our regular breaky haunt. Work consisted of checking on recently loaded taxes (yep, boring) and enquiries from the Infinity Consultants, all of which kind of did my head in. Bring on Friday, I have had enough of this week's tasks now.


So I was taking a small "Twitter break" from looking at taxes, and Craig, the Human Resources guy came up behind me and surprised me right at that moment, dammit -slightly sprung! But he told me I have been selected for a Certificate IV Tourism course at the new Flight Centre Business School! So excited and happy to be picked. I don't know too much about the course yet, other than it will be on line training modules and it will be an accredited course. I feel slightly justified after not being accepted by UNE Armidale for the Ancient History BA I applied for late last year. It really does not take much to make me happy. 


I also found out tonight that my Mum & Dad are going on a lovely 75 day cruise, and my sister, her hubby and kids are heading to Hawaii (our family's favourite holiday destination for sure) for a holiday and will be cruising back to Australia. I am so excited for them. I seriously need to get onto planning a trip too. So we will all have Something To Look Forward To.


And Debbie is home, back down from The Mountain! But she is off to Tasmania for a team getaway tomorrow. Ah well, I see her when I see her.


I just know that 2012 is going to be bigger and better than last year! Pick the musical number this is: "I've got a beautiful feeeeeelin' everything's going my way!" 

Whaddup Wednesday

Wednesday 15 Feb 2012 - I have been a bit slack with the posts this week. 

• 3 in our team at work on Monday. I worked late that day, whilst waiting out a storm in the city (see dislike of thunderstorms from previous posts). Unfortunately, I missed the chance to go to Zumba by the time it passed over. I did however, collect $50 from the crossword scratchie I won on!!
• Tuesday - Valentine's Day. As the day was designed, couples feel a bit more secure in their relationships and singles like me (not all singles, I'm sure) feel a bit more inferior at not being in a couple than they do during the rest of the year. I kept company with the Sons Of Anarchy and then the 5th Sherlock - the Hound of the Baskervilles episode. A great night in! OK, moving on, it's over for another year ;o)
• Today - had quite a frustrating day at work. Emotions were close to the surface all morning. Treated myself to an extremely healthy lunch of a Bakers' Delight custard scroll and a free Tognini's coffee. The afternoon was slightly better. After work, Gemma and I headed to King George Square for a free Zumba class! Love free stuff. Really enjoyed it, but like after the class last week, felt a tad nauseous once I got on the bus to head home... the not-so-healthy lunch, the heat and lack of water consumed today, would have contributed to that feeling, as well as my lack of fitness. All good. Hopefully I can go on Monday and Wednesday next week and feel good afterwards. 

By the way, my 30 day challenge to limit the swearing, went by the wayside about 3 days after I started... so I decided that I need a new challenge, maybe one that is not quite so - challenging? I decided on - giving up chocolate! And I am going to do it for Lent, which starts next week. That gives me time to prepare, probably by scoffing a heap of it this weekend!

Tonight I watched Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight on the ABC. I like Adam, and he gets some interesting guests most shows. I discovered Nick Vujicic on his show last year, and was so impressed and inspired by him. Check out how he affects people on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciYk-UwqFKA

Okay, it is an ad for his DVD, but he only flogs that at the very end. Nick makes me laugh, and cry (but what doesn't make me do that?), and I just think he is great. 

Anyway, tonight Adam had Kurt Fearnley as a guest (along with Judith Lucy and Adam Ant - '80s flashback!). Kurt is a paralympian who was born without the lower part of his spine. In his wheelchair, he has won 31 marathons and 3 Paralympic gold medals. And without his wheelchair, he crawled the Kokoda Trail. He was so interesting and so happy and funny - like Judith Lucy said, she had never felt quite so worthless in her life (or words to that effect) after hearing about his achievements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqjUCB_y_gk&feature=related

I wonder why it is that sometimes - and I just love - that these people, with obvious physical disabilities, can achieve such greatness and inspire so many people by just living their lives in such a positive and strong way. They have so many hurdles to overcome, and yet they would be living happier lives and appreciating life so much more than many able-bodied people. They are truly amazing people. 

Weekend Wrap up

Sunday 12 Feb 2012 - On Saturday, I made the trek to the property where Deb and our friend Patrice are house/pet sitting. It was a good 50 minute drive from my place, going up past Petrie and Dayboro, along Mt Mee Road and a very winding country road to get there. Not so accustomed to driving on narrow, winding country roads, I felt a challenge had been conquered by the time I got to "Deb's farm". Albeit driving like a Nana, in 2nd gear for most of the 4.6km of winding-ness.

Anyway, Deb cooked up a yummy BBQ, and it was a good catchup with her over lunch. Then we went out to the paddock to see the chooks, horses and ducks with 7 new baby ducks! Also known as ducklings. That family of duckies was adorable. Ah, the serenity of nature! During their time at the farm, Deb & Patrice have endured a week of non-stop rain which caused the pond to overflow and made the horses cranky; 2 of the chooks have started pecking at another chook, giving the poor thing bald spots; Patrice's dog Ben fractured his leg whilst frolicking with the other dogs, Atticus and Scout (who have also pulled all the stuffing out of a leather footrest). And bad phone & internet reception. Sounds almost as fun as camping for me (see my dislike of camping in a January post). But I enjoyed it for the 3 hours I was there!

Saturday night was spent with Kim, watching a film called Shame. As in, Shame we went to see it. Or, Shame about the 2 hours we lost by watching it. This movie got such good reviews from Margaret & David (on At The Movies), I thought we'd be onto a winner. Even though it was rated R and was about a sex addict and his freaky sister... I think it was just a bit too arty and/or highbrow - which I can handle, if the conclusion is satisfying and there is an explanation for why the characters had their issues, or why they did what they did... This movie didn't explain any of it, and I was left scratching my head at the end.

After a particular sex scene, which seemed like it was never going to finish, (and I actually knew why it was so long, and that it was pivotal to the story, etc, I comprehended that much!), I felt like we were watching porn and was thinking "enough already"! The main actor, Michael Fassbender, won some Film Festival award for Best Actor, and even though he was very good looking, and you got to see a lot of his lovely body, the character was so intense, it detracted from his looks and was kind of creepy. And this guy also played Rochester in the recent version of Jane Eyre, where he was also very intense, so it seems he does broody, moody and intense/creepy very well! (Bit of Fassbender Trivia there). I would say for my "overall experience", a dirty 5 out of 10.

Today was a bit of a repeat of last Sunday - involving grocery shopping and an afternoon on the lounge watching numerous episodes of Sons Of Anarchy. Then to avoid the impending storm (see my fear of thunderstorms in a previous post), I headed to Stafford and watched a 5pm session of Man On A Ledge. Not quite as dramatic or hard-to-follow as Saturday night's effort, it was a good flick. Sam Worthington was good, although I could swear he reverted to his Australian accent for a good 10 minutes there. It was also nice to see the kid who played Billy Elliot all grown up and in another movie in an adult role. He even did a little dance like Billy, for about 5 seconds... I always like seeing Elizabeth Banks, though she seems to get a lot of work - she must be popular in Hollywood. But she's good, very likeable. And there were a couple of surprises in the storyline, and good action scenes. I give this one a 7 out of 10.

A new week starts tomorrow!

Thursday Tidbits

Thursday 9 Feb 2012 - Today started off well. A man on the full train offered me his seat. I prefer to think that he was being a gentleman, rather than that he thought I looked old or pregnant (the reasons I would offer my seat to someone!). Our weekly team breakfast was good, except for everyone's bacon being a bit eww, but that got resolved...

I think I achieved a lot at work today, getting something finished that I thought would take a couple of days. Focus is the charm - I occasionally have it! 

I spoke to my Mum tonight, she fills me in on what the rest of the family is doing. My 11 year old nephew did really well at his swimming carnival, and my 13 year old niece will most likely do well at hers tomorrow, whilst she deals with challenging early-teen issues so well. I am so proud of my nephew and both nieces - they are braver and more confident than I ever felt at different stages in my childhood! Such a credit to the parenting skills of my sister & her hubby, and my brother & his wife - and I know it is not easy raising well-balanced, lovely kids, but they are doing a great job of it. 

I on the other hand, am footloose and fancy-free, and I am happy being the favourite auntie(!)

So I am looking at positives today. Some positive things in my life: 

• My family
• My friends
• Travel - this year, mini-breaks to Newcastle, Canberra, Hunter Valley, weekends with the fam, and hopefully a trip to Spain later in the year
• Music - live bands; singing loudly in the car; MP3 headphones in my ears when I go walking and when I am trying to concentrate at work
• Movies - so far this year, The Descendants, Sherlock Holmes 2, Breaking Dawn at Moonlight Cinema, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and am looking forward to seeing Shame, Any Questions For Ben, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Man On A Ledge
• TV shows - currently getting into Justified, Sons Of Anarchy, Homeland and Community; love 30 Rock, An Idiot Abroad, Downton Abbey, Game Of Thrones, Glee, Modern Family, The Office, Entourage, The Big Bang Theory, Offspring; old favourites Friends, Sex And The City, Eli Stone
• My bed!
• A job I like
• My AFL team, Collingwood - here they are (with me), bless 'em each & every player <3

Wet Wednesday

Wednesday 8 Feb 2012 - This is kind of a test page. I added my blog to Google+ and tonight Blogger, where I started my blog, says it does not support my page anymore, and parts will not work. Hmm. What to do.

Let's see. This afternoon the sky turned black, and there was a lot, a lot, of rain falling. Luckily, it stopped before we all had to walk about 15 minutes to Limes Hotel in Fortitude Valley for our work Buzz Night (a monthly awards night). It was a nice venue, enough food and drinks to go around, and a Perfect Match game to go with the Valentine's Day theme.

I also saw my friend Kim tonight, having a good catch up and a cuppa, and then I came home to hear the last 30 minutes of my friend Mark's radio show, on 4ZZZ Brisbane.

A late night. Time for bed. Hope this post has worked!

Movie Monday and Tired Tuesday

Tuesday 7 Feb 2012 - Monday: work was flat out with no real break. It was another hot day, and not the best day to try a new Zumba class, which turned out to be the hardest class I've been to so far! Luckily, the instructor was filling in, and some other girls there assured me the usual instructor is not nearly as hard on them! Situps and pushups? Not for me, which is why Zumba is (usually) my preferred exercise activity of choice! The body is a bit sore, and the limbs are like jelly today...

My friend Mark and I took in the 9pm session of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (English version). I have never read the book so I didn't know what it was about or what was going to happen. I really liked this movie. It had some disturbing violence and themes (not to mention completely unnecessary, gratuitous sex - in my opinion!), but the storyline was really interesting, and I've gotta say, revenge is SWEET. A good 8 out of 10.

The movie just went for so long, and I really need to stop myself from going to late  sessions, as I didn't get to bed till about 1am. Then it was too hot to sleep. Eventually got to sleep and it seemed like my alarm to wake up, went off about an hour later!

Tired today at work. Not much happened - except work. And today was the anniversary of the horrible Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, 3 years ago today.

I hadn't seen Mark for a long time, and I have missed him. My friend Kim has been away for a couple of weeks, and I have missed seeing her too. They are 2 of my "Rocks" - of which I luckily have a few - people who support me no matter what. I am so grateful to have true friends like Mark and Kim, in my life.

Mark and I at the Adelaide Crows vs Gold Coast Suns (??) AFL game at Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast. The coldest fricking day of Winter 2011! I go for Mark's team, Adelaide, whenever they are not playing my team, Collingwood. He will never go for Collingwood, except against Port Adelaide. I don't get it, as my team is fantastic, but I am quite gracious about it, I feel...! 

Kim and I at the outdoor performance of Romeo & Juliet at New Farm. Yep - we're pretty cultured chicks!

Stuff to do Sunday

Sunday 5 Feb 2012 - Warning - extremely dull description of my day to follow.

Today I washed sheets, went to mass, then to work for 5 hours to try to make a dent in the workload for the start of the new week, then made my bed with fresh new sheets (lovely) and watched episodes of Sons Of Anarchy and Justified, then got Thai for dinner. That was my day.

Mia Freedman (Mamamia) has some really interesting posts on Twitter, and I found this wonderful youtube video on one of her tweets today, just thought I'd share it. Watch it and try not to have a smile on your face at some point. I call it "feel-good".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc8ZbVcdHpg&feature=player_embedded

Have a great week everyone - including me!

Sunny Saturday Sessions

Saturday 4 Feb 2012 - Today is my nephew Mitchell's 11th birthday, bless him. He and his family were going to Hard Rock Cafe in Sydney for dinner tonight, which makes me a bit jealous. I love Hard Rocks.

This morning after ringing him for his birthday, I headed off to Zumba at New Farm Park, my first session this year. I know, I said in January that I was going to go a couple of times a week, but then it got really hot, then it was rainy, etc... Anyway, I went this morning, and it was pretty hard going and pretty darn hot. But I felt good having done it, once it was all over.

This afternoon, I went to my friend Zoe's birthday party at her place. It was a good day, sitting on her huge outdoor deck and having drinks and nibbles, then a BBQ with her friends. Dani, Matt, Jo-Leah, Casey, Toran, Rohan, Brian and various partners were there, and it was nice and relaxing and fun.

Zoe is a great girl, very funny without trying, and especially so when she is a bit tipsy. A good friend that I worked with at FCGP, along with Jo & Dani.

This is one of my favourite photos of Zoe, Jo and myself, taken on Australia Day at Dani & Matt's, 2011

Old Friends Friday

Friday 3 Feb 2012 - Tonight after work, I met up with some old work colleagues from my days at Infinity Holidays, my first area of Flight Centre.  A girl I worked with, Michelle, had drinks celebrating her last day at Infinity - she is going to go to Uni full-time and into a new experience.

I was at Infinity for 6 years, and during that time, worked with some fantastic people, and made some wonderful friends. (Same with working with the Brochures team and in FCGP, my next couple of jobs). We spent long hours at work, and had stressful and fun days, weeks, months together. Since I left, I don't see them as much, but it is always good when I do see them.

When I walked in to see the familiar faces of people I haven't worked with for a while, I felt a sense of the old cliche, "coming home". Seeing Micho, Gemma, Matt, Lisa, Nat, Wendy the Wonder-Temp, Kristy and Yo (hope I didn't miss anyone!), I felt like I'd never been away. There just wasn't enough time to catch up with everyone, which was a shame. Then I saw the lovely Anna, who had been in Canada for over 2 years, and has been back in Australia for just a few months. It was so good to see her too, and I was actually surprised at just how happy I felt to be around these people again.

I just found this quote, which kind of explains it better - “The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.” Ashley Montagu

Anyway, I got a bit nostalgic when I arrived home. I haven't added any photos for a couple of days, so here are just a few of the super-fabulous friends I have made in my previous jobs at Flight Centre. (My current team can rest assured, they are my newest friends and their photos are already gracing my blog pages!)

Tough Thinking Night Thursday

Thursday 2 Feb 2012 - I am having a serious lack of inspiration and creativity today. I was going to give the Blog a miss tonight, but felt like it would be giving up way too early on my commitment. If I miss one day, chances are, I will get lazy and miss more days, then weeks at a time. So I need to be motivated!

So yet again, I trawled (not trolled) the internet, and found another "getting to know you" site, called www.sparkpeople.com. Doing a questionnaire is fairly unoriginal, but at least I have something to think and write about! I always quite like getting the Forward emails to fill in, so this is another version of one of those. 

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? No. My parents had trouble coming up with a name, so they asked the nice midwife what her name was - Beryl. Thank the Lord they kept thinking a bit longer. My brother and sister love bringing that story up for their own entertainment.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
This morning. Not to worry, it happens fairly regularly, and can be brought on by an ad, a puppy, a sad story, a happy story, I am just a teary person.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
It's okay.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Um. Chicken?

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
No thanks. Just 2 lovely nieces and an adorable nephew.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Most definitely. I am a great friend. In my opinion...

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?
Um, Ya-hah!

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Yes. But not my gall bladder.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
No way in the world. Wussy.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Crunchy Nut Cornflakes - I'm a Crunchy Nut.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Usually.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
Physically? Not really. Emotionally? Not really. Mentally? Yes I think so.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Hokey Pokey

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Hair. Then eyes & mouth.

15. RED OR PINK?
Red.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
Appearance.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
Well, the people that are worth missing - My sister in Sydney. My long-distance friends. My friend Mark. 

18. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
The Ellen DeGeneres Show on the telly.

19. WHAT COLOUR SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
None.

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
Dinner - chicken and veges. Healthy!

A QI Wednesday

Wednesday 1 Feb 2012 - Today I went to a funeral for my friend's mother, at Maroochydore. It was a lovely service, with poetry, lots of photos and her favourite songs, which was a very nice, personal touch. Kim and her family did so well to organise such a wonderful tribute to their Mum.

Tonight I am watching QI, short for Quite Interesting, on the ABC. I like Stephen Fry, the host, and Alan Davies, the one regular, and they always have 3 other QI guests, and I always find out something new and interesting.

Tonight for instance: The country where you are most likely to see a tornado, is the UK, which has over 100 per year - not the USA as I would have thought. Also, if in a falling elevator, the best thing to do is lie on top of a fat person - who will cushion the impact when it hits the bottom... Fascinating stuff.