Author: Anne S

Sorry I’ve been absent for a while – things are pretty hectic around here, and to top things off my modem has been playing up and not working … tonight is the first time in a week I’ve managed to get the darned thing connecting hmmm.

Anyway, this is just a really quick post to let you know I haven’t fallen off the planet just yet – I’ve been spending my spare time catching up with wonderful friends in Melbourne … last Sunday we had a ladies day out at Tannia’s home, with Mum, Sharon, Tannia and myself, and had a fantastic day out – as always, Tannia was the perfect hostess, and it was a great day in great company 🙂

Yesterday we hiked all the way over from Airport West to Lilydale to catch up with Frazier’s folks, which was another great visit.  We also caught up with Phil & Dawn, friends I made through Frazier a few years ago – they’re always great company, and the favourite of all of Frazier’s friends that I’ve met to date.

Tonight we spent a couple of hours in the storage unit in Highett before treating myself to a new duvet cover set in the sales at Myer at Southland shopping centre, then trekking out for almost 2 hours doing 15km/hour in peak hour traffic back to Airport West to feed the menagerie before heading straight out the door again to head back into the city.  We met Frazier and Jason for dinner at a pub where Tannia and her DH play – it was wonderful to finally see and hear them performing together … Tannia has a magical voice, and it was truly a pleasure to spend the night out there.  I hope it won’t be too long before we can catch up again 🙂  It’s been one of life’s treasures getting to know Tannia over the last year … and I hope there will be many more to come with our friendship 🙂

Tomorrow it’s back to work time, then I’ve been given Sunday off as annual leave, so we’re heading to the other side of the city again to Arthur’s Seat and the Mornington Peninsula to revisit the Enchanted Maze Gardens and Ashcombe Lavender Garden.  I’m really looking forward to seeing how different the gardens look now the flowers are in bloom (especially the roses etc).  Alas, then it’s back to work again right up until leaving on Thursday … ho-hum …

I have a few photos to share, but it’s now almost 1am and the alarm is going off at 7am, so I’d better call it a night – I’ll upload some piccies during the week hopefully and post again before we hit the road, as I have some lovely gifties to share – and one especially is very out-of-date as I received it weeks ago and didn’t get chance to blog about it immediately.  When you see it, you’ll understand why it gets shown off to everyone that will stand still long enough, though 😉

Rightio, off to sleep I go … fingers crossed the modem connection returns later … hope you’re having a good week – my apologies for not blog reading at the moment, but things are a bit frantic around here of late …

I’ve actually been struggling with a head cold the last few days, and ended up taking Wednesday night off work as I could hardly talk on Wednesday morning – spending the day in my PJ’s curled up on the sofa with Muffy seemed to do the trick, though, as by later Wednesday evening I felt loads better.  My voice is still a little croaky and weird, but I’m not as bunged up anymore.  I was supposed to have two hours overtime before work yesterday and today but I cancelled it, not wanting to push myself and make myself even more sick.  There’s waaaay too much to do to be sick while trying to do it! 😉

I chatted to Mum on Wednesday evening, and the outcome is that she’s flying over on Sunday to come spend the final week and a half in Melbourne with me.  The next two weeks will be spent frantically trying to catch up with people inbetween my crappy shifts before the big moving day.  The big boss can’t let me cash in all my Luv Ya Work awards in one day, as that would set a precedent (fair enough, I thought I was pushing it … still think they could have covered me to have two extra days off though so I wouldn’t have to cash them in hmmm) – so Mum and I will be hitting the highway up to Sydney on Thursday 8 November at 12 noon.  I’m on a 6am shift that day, and I have a carpark spot under the building at work so the car will be packed to the gunnels in the morning – poor Mum will just have to come into work for a while then wander round the shops to keep busy … it’s a good thing she reads and that she cross-stitches now, so she will have something to keep her amused 😉

So far the only ‘free’ days I have are this weekend, Sat and Sun – Sat I’m possibly driving back from Seaford back over to Airport West (I have to wait for a phone call to see if they need me a day early), and Sun I’m off to pick Mum up from the airport (so fingers crossed I’ll be at Airport West by then!) in the early morning.  We’ll then be heading over to Tannia’s around lunchtime for my final stitchy catch-up.  Then I’m back to 3pm-11pm shifts for 3 days, but having Mum here means we can spend the mornings seeing a couple of things locally that we haven’t managed to do yet, and just chill out or a couple of days.

Then I’m off again on Thu 1 and Fri 2 Nov – back over to the other side of the world on Thu to visit Len & Carole (Frazier’s folks) during the afternoon, then Phil & Dawn in the evening (one in Lilydale and one in Croydon).  Fri will be spent in the storage unit going through whatever boxes and suitcases I can reach and loading up the car, before heading back into the city to have dinner with Fraze and Jason while we’re listening to Tannia and her band sing.

Alas, then it’s back to work again on Sat – although I’m invited to a party at a work colleague’s place not far from work that I “must” attend (they’re having a race day party seeing as we’re coming into racing carnival stride here in Melbourne when cup fever hits!) – it’ll be a nice way to say cheerio to a few friendly faces.  At this stage I’ve requested Sun 4 Nov off as annual leave, which I think they’ve actually approved (shock, horror) although it’s not confirmed in the register yet – if that’s the case Mum and I are driving over to Arthur’s Seat to see the gardens I went to a couple of months back now the flowers will be in bloom – it will be wonderful to see how different they both will be.  We’re also hoping to catch up with Sharon during this time as well, if it can be organised.

Of course Mon 5-Thu 8 Nov I’m at work every day – I may having a quick drink at the local pub on Mon 5 Nov for my farewell, as that’s the only chance I’ll get, but I’m undecided whether to or not.  I’d probably prefer to go somewhere to dinner with my favourite pals from work, but it’s much harder to organise.  Tue 6 Nov is Melbourne Cup Day, and I move to 6am shifts on Wed, so no chance of doing much on that Tuesday.  Wed will be spent packing up the car pretty much – my house owners aren’t sure if they will getting back on Wed or Thu … seeing as I can’t get the Thu off now, that causes a bit of a problem – it means we may have to get a cabin or something on Wed night, but I’ll cross that bridge closer to the time.  Hey, you never know work may feel sorry for me and come to the party and give me the day off … yeah, I know, there’s more chance of me becoming President of the United States!!! 😀

My apologies to anyone I won’t have chance to catch up with – as you can see, it’s a pretty rushed itinerary over the next two weeks, and only so much I can cram into it.

Anyway, enough waffling on … there’s housework to be done … I’m waiting for a text message from the house owners from this house to see if they got on the flight out of Hong Kong today – if not, I’m here for another night, but if so I’ll have to pack up my car before work so I can drive to Seaford after midnight tonight … ah, the fun and games of housesitting for airline staff travellers 😉

Wow, I’m absolutely blown away by all the comments I’ve received about my move to Sydney – thanks everyone, it felt really good to read all those positive vibes.  It’s funny, but one of the girls at work the other day started saying how this could be “the big plan” for me … it does seem strange that everything that has happened recently has lead me to this opportunity, ie that my Elwood flat became dangerous so I started looking for a new place, then got put off flatting with Sheree and decided to put my stuff into storage to go housesitting … if I hadn’t got my personal belongings in storage I never would have looked at this job twice!

A few of the people at work think I’ll never return to Melbourne again … and that my career will skyrocket haha.  All I can say is that I have no plans beyond the next 12 months – and I’m not taking my personal belongings with me until I know where I want to be after that 12 months is up.  If I find I’m loving it in Sydney at that time, then I’ll look at moving up ‘formally’, but until that time I’m just going to enjoy the challenges the next 12 months will be bringing me, and so far anticipate moving back here again at the end of it all.

Another great thing is that this time I have some friendly stitching faces already in Sydney – thanks so much for your offers Tash and Gail … I’d love to catch up when I move up there.  It look me a couple of years after moving to Melbourne before I started blogging and meeting some lovely local ladies (starting with Sharon and Gina, then later on Tannia, Mel, and Junette) – so having some like-minded people already in contact is a wonderful feeling.

I must say I’m really really looking forward to having ‘all’ my stash accessible in one room again – it also means I can get back to stitching on my rotation again, and working on those BAP’s I’ve had to put in storage temporarily.  I won’t say my entire stash will be coming with me, but definitely every single one of my kitted up projects, along with one ringbinder of extra unkitted charts, and all my fabrics and threads. 

Of course the other great thing is that I’ll have Brenda and Nigel in the same city – Nigel is my best friend Vicki’s brother, and I’ve known him for just over 30 years now, and his wife Brenda for many years too.  It will be amazing having people within driving distance that know me and all my history … that’s the one thing I’ve missed here at times, and it’s easy to take that sort of friendship for granted.  Of course the other great thing is that there’s a huge kiwi contingent in Sydney, which means I’ll be able to satisfy my yearnings for L&P and Griffins gingernuts etc more easily haha.

I’ll miss shift work to a certain degree, but it will also be nice to have regular sleeping patterns again – the latest roster I’ve been working over the last 6 months has been exceptionally tiring, I’ve really hated parts of it with a passion.  As much as it will be a right royal pain driving in peak hour traffic regularly again, it will be nice to be able to watch my fave TV shows regularly, catch up with people for dinner without having to block a night in your diary 3-4 months in advance, and I could even join in some more SAL’s now.  Not to mention I could join the local Guild and have a regular stitching session each month … crikey, that would be something! 😀

I think I’ve decided what my celebratory treat to myself will be – I’ve decided to stick to my 50 project challenge until finished (‘cos after all, there’s not much left to go now), and I’m going to treat myself to a French book I saw at Crewel Gobelin when I visited in April this year.  I didn’t buy it then as it was over $50, but I really loved it, and what better treat than something that will reside beautifully on my bookshelves for years to come (unless of course it’s sold out now)?  The other thing I really want to do is to get my Friendship Quaker RR framed for my new room so I can sit it on an easel (if I don’t have a wall hook) – that would be a wonderful testament to my online friendships, and give me the warm fuzzies in my new surroundings.

I have to admit, I’m really quite excited about it all – there are so many positives, they sure outweigh the negatives at the moment.  For those of you wanting to know how far away I’m moving to … I’ve been checking a few websites, and if I take the Hume Highway route (which is very direct, and very boring driving from memory the last and only time I did it), it’s approx 9-10 hours driving time, and just under 1000 km (I’ve seen a couple of maps showing between 870-960 km).  Personally I’d love to be able to take the coastal route, and drive up with two overnight stopovers to have a sort of ‘mini holiday’ on the way … but I’ll have to see if that’s feasible.  It would also be really good to have two full days off when I arrive in Sydney to relax and chill out and get my work clothes unpacked etc as well.

Here’s a link to two driving maps … the first one up the Hume Highway and the 2nd one following the coast … I’d dearly love to do that second one.  There is a bit of tourist info about the coastal drive here as well.  Here’s a map of where I’ll be driving (approx):

View Larger Map

This is all Rissa’s fault … I thought it would be fun – the idea is to do a screen dump of your desktop and post for all the world to see.  Well, I’m sure you’ll not be surprised that I’ve chosen a wee duckling as my current desktop piccie … isn’t it cute?!!  I also have a piccie of a grown-up duck that I swap around and use from time to time as well, but this one remains my all-time favourite one … perhaps because of the blue background as well as the duck 🙂

… ‘cos … I’M OFF TO SYDNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG, my head is spinning off my shoulders big time!!  I got the call this afternoon offering me the promotion, and I accepted, and now it’s sinking in what I’m actually doing … OMG!!! 😛

My starting date is Wednesday 14 November, and my last day at work at this stage is Friday 9 November – and I have to pack up my car and take the looooong drive up to Sydney after work (where I would break the journey in say Albury or somewhere – or I could get a motel or something overnight in Melbourne and head up the next day).  And I have to do all the important things like get the forms to forward my mail etc (I’ll open a PO Box somewhere in Sydney for the year, and leave my PO Box in Melbourne open, I guess).

Anyway, I just thought I’d let everyone know the news – now I just have to work out how the heck to catch up with everyone that I want to before I leave Melbourne … when I have very limited time available to me compliments of some crappy shifts (such as 4pm-midnight all next week!).

I have the next two days off, so I think I’ll start making up some lists of things I need to take with me, and things I need to organise changes of address for etc – and I’ll need to find somewhere to live, which is the next critical stage, so I’ll be phoning my friends Brenda & Nigel to see if I can bunk in their spare room until I can find something closer to work (I think they’re about a 2-hour commute from the airport hmmm).  The fun thing about my new office is that it is based out by the airport, and you can see the planes coming and going out the window … it’s definitely more in the ‘hands-on’ area of the airline, it’s going to be a major challenge, and perhaps the biggest work challenge I’ve ever had to date … time will tell anyway.

Well, enough rambling, as I know that’s exactly what I’m doing … I’m going to sit now and break my rotation and work on Snapperville for an hour.  Muffy has finally settled down on the sofa next to me after going mental and jumping up and down and trying to french kiss me when I first arrived, she was so excited to see me come home haha.  Time to kick back and try not to think for an hour or so 😉

Just think, though, of all the exciting new LNS’es I will get to explore … Karen at Dragonfly Dreams, here I come!!!! 😀

In fact, I think a bit of stash enhancing just might be in order by way of celebration teehee … 50 project challenge, I hear you say … um, what’s that??? LOL 😀