Author: Anne S

Just no time to sit at the computer … commuting is really taking it out of me, and I don’t seem to have any real spare time these days.  So 1000 apologies but I’ve had no time to catch up on emails, or blogs, or anything really … I’ll be back again when I have more to share, and time to share it!

In the meantime, I can say I finally have a PO Box in Sydney now – after a major error from Australia Post (that I don’t have time to go into now) … I’m sorry I don’t have time to post an email to everyone just yet, so I’m posting the new address here in the interim (I’ll do proper change of address notices as soon as I get chance to breathe).  My new mailing address is:

 (same name obviously)
PO Box 688
Mascot, NSW 1460

Now I’m off out for the day shopping with Brenda – I’ve decided last minute to go to our work’s Christmas party tonight, and need to buy a top (all my summer clothes are in storage in Melbourne, so I’m desperately in need of clothing right now!) – and I’m off to Quakers Hill to find kiwi munchies and L&P!!

Will be back soon with an update hopefully … no stitching done yet, though, so not a great deal to show and tell … although I did complete the finishing off of two quilted wallhangings for Christmas – will take a photo as soon as I can.

Hope everyone out in blogland is surviving the last few weeks before Christmas – I may not be online, but you are in my thoughts! {{hugs}}

A very quick post before I get dressed to head out to the post office … I haven’t made mention of how the new job is going, so here goes …

Work is OK – to be honest I’m still unsettled where that’s concerned, but it’s more to do with the circumstances than anything else.  The problem is that there are so many projects and changes happening in our department, and resources are so thin, that I haven’t had much time for someone to sit with me and show me the ropes.  I keep getting taking into this meeting and that meeting so that I can get an overview of what’s happening around the place, but that just seems to be confusing me more when I’m not technically involved in the project work itself.

Last week there was one person supposed to be sitting with me, but she kept getting interrupted – but she was the only staff member available as the other two were on training courses all week (plus they’ve been accepted into a new department, so they’ll both be leaving anyway shortly hmmm).  It will get better once I can get my head around what it is that I should be doing.  I was doing some computer testing of a new computer integration system last week for a while, so at least that was something – then inbetween times I potter and try to answer the simpler queries that come through that I don’t need help to answer.  I must say, though, it’s an extremely friendly team I’m working with, and the office environment is great!  And it’s quite nice not to be chained to a phone anymore! 😀

The first couple of days I felt like a fish out of water – it was a culture shock to move from a staff of about 400 to a staff of probably 1000’s.  Moving from an office building of 2 dedicated floors, to an area housing 5 separate office blocks, all housing my company’s staff … that was a shock in itself!!  I most definitely felt like a very little fish in a very large pond!!  It’s been wonderful meeting people that I’ve been dealing with over the phones for years – one girl came over and introduced herself with a big kiss and a hug … she used to work in the job I’m now doing, and we had a great rapport – she’d sing “take the shackles off my feet so I can dance…” to me and we’d both have a giggle.  Anyway, I’m sure as time goes on the work will get more interesting as I can contribute more to the team … and learn the ropes a bit more.  I’d better hurry up as two new team members are likely to be joining us very very soon, and in January I’ll be one of the longest serving members of the team … hahahaha.

Rightio, it’s now 8.04am, which means it’s time to jump into the shower and get dressed – for today I open up a PO Box so I can start receiving all those bills that have been piling up in Melbourne.  I still need to get to the Mascot PO at some stage after opening my account today to pick up the actual keys, though – but one of the other girls at work also moved from Melbourne and has a PO Box there too, and she’s offered to pick up my mail for me at the same time if I give her a key (she drives to/from work) … I might take her up on that offer, as I think it will be a good half hour round trip for me to walk there and back at lunchtime, and in winter it will be fine, but right now it’s stinking hot and sticky …

And that reminds me of another difference between Melbourne and Sydney – the weather!  Melbourne is well known for its four seasons in one day … Sydney, I realised on my first day here, is like Auckland to me but with much higher temperatures.  Sydney is more ‘sub-tropical’ in that it has a high humidity level.  The first few days here nearly killed me, and we’re not even in the height of summer yet – yikes!  Thank goodness for airconditioning, is all I can say!!  I dunno how I’ll survive when I move into a place with no aircon …

Rightio, time to get moving to the Post Office – then my next challenge is to find some new sandals/shoes for work and two new tops (my summer clothes are still goodness knows where in my storage unit in Melbourne ho-hum) – then I’m settling in front of the TV or my laptop to watch a DVD or two and stitch … my goal to finish blocks 1 and 2 of Snapperville, as I’m really close to doing that … that will then leave me only 2 blocks left before it’s finished yippee 😀

Well, what can I say, I’ve survived 1 1/2 weeks of living and commuting in Sydney … there are a number of differences (both good and bad) between Melbourne and Sydney that I’ve experienced so far, but I’m getting a handle on things and starting to feel a little more settled.

The biggest shock to my system is having to leave home at 6.25am to catch the first of two trains at 6.47am – eventually I finally walk into my office building at 8.00am pretty much on the dot … it’s quite a ‘quick’ trip (in comparison to the one going home) because it’s an express train with limited stops.  To get home it can take me 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours after leaving work … that means between 3-4 hours travelling time each day being wasted sitting on public transport, whether it be standing shoulder to shoulder with dozens of other commuters on the actual train or standing on the train platforms waiting for the next train to arrive.  Oh how I wish it wasn’t so crowded that I could make better use of that time by stitching, but as it is I count myself lucky if I can find enough space to put my book up in front of me for reading!!

One difference between Melbourne and Sydney is their trains … Melbourne have single-level carriages, while Sydney have double-level ones – doesn’t make any difference, though, in both cities they’re all overcrowded at peak times, and I’m certainly not doing the trip each day for the enjoyment factor!

Another difference between Mel and Syd is that train tickets in Mel are issued for 2-hour time periods or all day travel, and stations are separated into zones of travel.  There used to be 3 zones, but now there are 2 – you could buy a ticket for travel just within one zone or between all zones, for one set price.  This is great value if you spend a fair bit of travelling and want to pop out at a couple of different stations – you can hop on and off as much as you want … and something else I LOVE about Mel transport is that the same ticket covers you for not just trains, but trams and buses as well!  In Syd you pay sector fares for your journey instead, and basically buy a one-way or return ticket … you leave the station at your destination point and that’s it, your ticket is finished.  This can be a cost-effective way to travel is you just want to travel point-to-point, but not in other ways.

 Take last Monday as an example … Monday Mum returned home, so she came in on the train with me in the morning – when I spoke to the gentleman in the ticket office about my personal options for buying a ticket (I wanted to buy a weekly ticket, but needed to travel two extra stops to drop Mum off at the airport, then return to Mascot again to start work), I had to pay $17.40 for a one-way ticket to the International terminal (bearing in mind it normally costs me $16.80 for a return ticket to work for the day!!) … then I had to buy another ticket just for two stations away at another $13.40 (yikes!!
), followed by another $8.40 to return home again at the end of the day.  Daylight robbery, is all I can say!!! 😦

Talking about Mum, unfortunately the poor love got stuck at the airport from 8.00am until 4.30pm due to a cancelled plane service to Christchurch and people having to now travel via Auckland (darn-it) … eventually though she got home, but is no doubt even now still recovering!

Before Mum went home we had some wonderful social outings – it was Brenda’s birthday last Thursday, so we went out to a Malaysian restaurant at Castle Hill for a delicious dinner with all of us plus one more of Brenda’s closest friends (who I like a lot) … then on Friday we had a BBQ at home with some of Nigel’s work colleagues.  This weekend I’m being a lazy slob and hoping to get a tiny bit of stitching done, so no social outings for me this weekend!  I get home too late and too tired to do anything during the week, so I need to start making use of my spare time.  Tomorrow, though, my first job is to head out to the local Post Office to open a PO Box at Mascot so I can organise my mail to be redirected (it’s been piling up in Melbourne for a couple of weeks now!), and pick up my Sydney “e-tag” for the toll roads here.  Yes, that’s yet another of the differences between Mel and Syd (cash toll booths and many toll roads).

Anyway, I’m feeling a bit wrecked, so I might call it a night – I started off writing this quite eagerly, but my eyes are half-closed already and my mind has become extremely foggy … so time to sign off before I fall asleep in a pile of drool at my keyboard!!

My apologies to people I owe emails to, and also for the fact I’m not blog reading much at the moment … with my lack of spare time blogs are a bit of a low priority for now – hopefully, though, things will change eventually 🙂