Procrastinator’s Neighborhood

Wooooooohoooo! I am currently blogging from Singapore airport, total excitement over here, I had starbucks, I went duty free shopping, and I went in their BUTTERFLY GARDEN! I know right? coolest airport in the history of airports! pictures to come hopefully!

And, I wrote a post the other day while I was on my way to Roma, check it out:

10/12/2009

Today was my last day in London. I felt I'd seen all the things I truly wanted to see and was down to the stuff that was a 'maybe' for me - I had intended on visiting madame tussaudes but the main fun in MT is getting your picture taken with the celebrities, so I didn't think it would be as much fun on my own,as I had no one to take my photograph, and equally, no one to take photographs of.

SO! instead I decided to have a really relaxing day doing not much instead. After breakfast I took my time packing since the hotel I was staying at had a 12 noon checkout. It was called the Seraphine Hotel, and was near Hyde Park (Metro Kensington High Street), and I was really quite impressed with it - the staff were incredibly helpful and friendly, and the room was really nice, although miniscule. I left my bag at the checkout desk and went to Kensington Palace, which is almost across the road. It was the house that Queen Victoria grew up in, and I was a bit disappointed there wasn't more information about her and her life inside. They were having an exhibition about the last season of Debutantes in London - in 1958, which was very interesting, and they also had a collection of Lady Diana's clothes but I would have liked MORE somehow.

After that I took a double decker bus to Knightsbridge and went to see Harrods again, looking for last minute christmas gifts. I didn't really find anything in there, I wanted to look for a pair of sunglasses as well and simply couldn't find any because they were hidden away - the Chanel counter had a pitiful selection so in the end I gave up and took a bus back to Kensington. I went to a pub close to the hotel, the Goat Tavern, and had a jacket potato and a half pint of London Pride for lunch, and then trotted a few doors further down to starbucks where I knitted until it was time to grab my bags from the hotel, print my boarding pass and get the tube to Heathrow.

I was so excited getting this flight, simply because it marked the first step in my  journey  back to Australia, as well as being just that little bit closer to seeing my family and friends.

It's supposed to take about 1 hour on the underground to Heathrow from central London, but after missing my train to see my Granny, when I had more than an hour and a half to get there, I wasn't fooled, so I left at 3:30, to get there by 5 (and I was spot on for this, I got to Heathrow terminal 5 at almost 5pm).I'd also left plenty of time to eat or shop after I checked in my bags, but his ended up being a very bad idea - my gate wasn't even listed when I had checked my luggage, gone through security and passport control etc. Surrounded by duty free, massively reduced priced, already-cheaper-than-in-Austalia luxury stores... I somehow came away with a pair of chanel sunglasses (to replace the black pair that I have a feeling got left in the changerooms at H&M).

It also seemed somewhat fortuitous (or is that ominous? doubtless some -OUS word anyway!) that there was a starbucks directly next to my boarding gate, and they had the CARAMEL DRIZZLE on sale there. I have never, ever seen it before even though I've looked many times, so I snapped it up, although what I will do with it, no clue. Use it with my cappucchino maker at home I guess! I have to remember to put it in my checked luggage though or they'll take it off me at the airport I imagine.

I am looking forward to shoving all my liquids into my massive suitcase, getting a long, luxurious shower, and watching movies in bed as soon as I get to the hilton!

And then tomorrow, I'm back to Sydney. I wonder what it will be like - will it have changed a lot? have I changed? Mum already said to me in a recent email that she wasn't sure she'd recognised me, and that in my facebook pictures I looked (direct quote) "different - more mature somehow" - I asked her if she meant that I'd AGED badly! I'll be interested to see if people think I'm different or not - I feel the same!

My arms are killing me, there is this strange tingling like the muscle wants to snap when I move them sometimes, probably from cutting off my circulation and almost dislocating my shoulders carrying my outrageously overstuffed country road bag on my back, and hauling my laptop and handbag in a cotton shopping tote on one arm. How I will stuff that handbag into my suitcase, and my laptop into my already straining hand luggage bag I shudder to think. When I'm coping with stressful things, I like to break things down into simple tasks and not look beyond that task. Then next hurdle on my list is definitely going to be sorting out my packing, which if you could only see in person, you'd realise what a herculean task this is going to be.

After that, it will be begging the check in desk not to charge me for excess luggage, assuming I arrive on time, manage to get my flight on time etc!

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And! high five, they so did not charge me for excess luggage, even though my suitcase weighed 30 kilos! yeah baby! butterflies, chanel, no excess luggage charge, free wireless internet AND! only 10 or so hours from Sydders! massive high five kids!

So I caved & got on Cafe World last night.. I'm sure my kitchen is a huge mess right now but since it took a long time to load each time I would do a command, I'm not so sure about this game anymore.

Day 11.

Legs 11.

Two fat ladies.

One fat lady.

Subo Who?

Oh, isn't that game where you write the numbers in the grid?

No Subo! Susan Boyle.

Ah right the fat hairy woman who can sing a bit and now seems to have taken over the world?

Yeah that's the one.

Now call me a chauvinist or shallow or call me what you will but I prefer to listen to a record where I can actually look at the pictures on the inlay card without feeling the need to wretch on my breakfast!

Now, what's been all over my YouTube in 2009...

I'll be a millionaire.

Lots of content on my hard drive, just the motivation to do some editing and put together the words have been lacking.

Well time to put a stop to that. We did a small trip to Margaret River a few weeks ago. It was supposed to be more of a chillout trip, but I did manage to practice some trad skills.

Me and Mark did an early morning assault on Willyabrup, I lead Inner Space (grade 17) on trad and even though it was only grade 17, it was the first time I was on the climb and there were some runout sections that had me second guessing myselt and the crux was the last move (or atleast that's the way I saw it). I made two false starts on the move, chickened out each time to climb back to the rest, before finally hitting it on the third attempt.

I also lead Stainless Steel (grade 21 mixed trad and bolted), I'd done it before on pre-placed gear and was happy to have ticked it with my own gear. Once again the crux is at the top on the last moves, moving out from a bulge to top out. The funny thing was that I probably did it faster than Inner Space which was only 15 metres and grade 17, versus 30 metres and grade 21. Go figure. :P

We did encounter a new friend:

Fred?

~

It's hard to blog on the road and when one is racing around like a maniac trying to fit in visits with all one's relatives and friends - so apologies to my virtual friends for not being a very good neighbour at the moment.

The morning after the wedding, and 4 hours sleep, we hit the road to Coonabarabran and the Anglo-Australian Telescope because the manservant was going to play astro-dweeb at Siding Spring Observatory.

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I was standing on a tree stump taking photos of the lodge room we were staying in with the telescope in the background - this was our little room -  that's my coffee cup on the ground:

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when I heard a sort of rustling sound and then a series of weird grunts.  I turned to see a large kangaroo very close to me.

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It was intently staring at me with almost evil looking eyes. It did not budge as I lifted the camera to take a shot.  It was starting to freak me out.  I sneaked a look towards our room and wondered if I could outrun it .... ha ha ha.

I thought about calling for the manservant but then realised that my image as a tough Aussie farm girl would be seriously tarnished if I had to call an American for help with one of our native creatures.

I slowly backed  off the stump and skulked backwards to the room never taking my eye off it -  and it never took its eye off me.

That night, sleeping in that room alone, I'm sure I could hear it using those little hands to tap on the window.

I can't believe I've been here for 3 days already. Yowza.

It's gone quick.

Anyways, its awesome. I mean I think everyone is expecting the Sydney City Boy to freak out and go postal (ha ha ha yes I still use "postal" and let the "god get out of the 90's" comments begin. The 90's were cool and you know it!) Everyone seems to very surprised that I went all out and sold all my car and everything to move over here.

But I will admit there are a couple of things that well I wouldn't say if I were told about them I wouldn't have taken the job, but it would've been nice to know.

1. Barge duty - this is part of my role in Purchasing. And yes. Let me just say that its one helluva workout. Basically all our goods come to the island via a barge every week on a Wednesday (theoretically) and all these items need to be unloaded and placed in the respective storage areas. It is hard, sweaty, hot work. I can honestly say doing that once a week will give me the body I have wanted for a long time, but god its tiring.
2. The Birds - okay its a national park resort, and they did say that there are a lot of birds on the island and to bring earplugs if youre a light sleeper (which I'm not, unless someone is sleeping next to me, but that's another story) I guess I should've extrapolated from that, but I guess I was just too excited. Basically what I'm leading up to lots of birds=lots of bird poo. I mean lots. Especially in the more older residences (which I would've been living in had I not gotten a promotion) it is rank, its not overpowering. You don't dry retch or anything, and the sea breezes usually wipe the smell out. But still it's there.
3. Living conditions - again not something I have to worry about personally since I'm living practically in a mansion by comparison (its a bedroom with a bathroom and an air conditioner, thats it), and they had me stay in one of the resort rooms while it was being sanitised. But just walking thru the employee village, the houses are really bad. No aircon, communal bathroom. I mean damn... thank god for my promotion :P

But other than those 3 points I really have no complaints. I am trying not to get sucked into the whole drinking group they have. And also keeping my distance from the few girls that looks-wise I would be interested in. I WILL NOT shit where I eat this time around :P

So to sum up. If I can get you a job as a manager or head of department, you will LOVE this place. If you're still willing to work here as a pleb despite the warnings above... I might have a position for you.

Seriously.

PS photos of my helicopter flight over to come :)

Ten days in and I'm still writing. I'm rather impressed... are you?

Today on Vox the question of the day is about guilty pleasures we watch on TV. I'm not really sure I have any guilty pleasures. By the time I get home in evening I generally only have time to watch one show before bedtime or other work takes precedence.

So rather than waffle on about guilty pleasures I decided to make this my top five of shows I watched in 2009. Then halfway through compiling my list I realised that I haven't actually watched that much TV from 2009 in 2009. So rather than a list of hits of the year this is just a little insight into what I've been watching.

05 CSI Miami
The Vegas based one has gone to the dogs since Gil Grissom left and was replaced by that dull guy from The Matrix. This has left room in my viewing schedule for the brilliantly explosive new series of CSI Miami. Next week is the season finale and we'll finale see who lives and who dies. Someone always dies in a season finale, right?

04 True Blood
As usual I didn't have time to watch this when it was on TV so I've only got as far as episode four while trying to cram the entire first series into a week of intense DVD action. It's pretty well written and has a great theme tune although occasionally it has the drawback of having to convince other people in the house that you're not actually watching porn.

03 Lost
Most other people I know have long since given up on this show but the last series is just about to start and it'll all finally make sense. I hope. Matthew Fix has been interviewed on TV saying he knows the final scene and it's iconic. I have a bad feeling that iconic might be TV producer code for shit but we'll see. At least it hasn't completely jumped the shark like Heroes.

02 Flight of the Conchords
If you're not watching this you're missing out. The second series has seen every character mature into their roles. It's wittier and better structured although the songs are a little weaker. This time around the songs have been written to fit the script whereas season one was a sitcom written to fit around a bunch of songs. Murray gets to do some vocals this time around and the episode about the Australia versus New Zealand xenophobia is one of the greatest things I've watched this year.

01 Flash Forward
It looks like this is going to be a natural successor to lost. It's full of English people playing Americans, bizarre plot twists and conspiracy theories, car chases and shoot outs. Add to that a whole lot of geek talk about astrophysics and other fabricated nonsense and it's compulsive viewing. They've completely overhyped the fact that there is no relevance to the kangaroo in the first episode which leads me to believe the kangaroo is actually important... Kinda like when they said Lost didn't involve any time travel. Other than knowing the kangaroo is involved I haven't a clue what's caused the blackout. Any ideas?

As well as this new stuff... Which may not actually be new, I've really been enjoying Spaced which has started showing on UK Freeview channels ten years after it's debut on British and Irish terrestrial television. If you don't know Spaced but have seen either Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz then you should try to get the Spaced DVDs. Timeless humour... Ten years on and it still cracks me up every time!