Um, ok...

So, yes, I got myself up the duff (as they call it here in oz).

13 weeks and counting.

It's still all a bit odd.

There are no words

The death toll is over 130 and still counting. This is heartbreaking.

3 Weeks Ago

This a really delayed post but I wanted to put up pictures from my birthday BBQ.

D and I decided to drive up to Sky High Mt. Dandenong (one of our favourite picnic spots) to have a picnic BBQ. For once, the weather cooperated and it was a gorgeous spring day.

And yes, the lettuce is from my garden.

The weather was perfect, the food was yum and I had my D. It was a good birthday.

P.S.
Obviously the pictures have been edited. Picnik is a great site for photo editing dummies. It's too simple for words.

Friendster is Bizarre

So, I logged into Friendster after a long, long while.

It feels so dated. Maybe because it was the first ever networking site I got acquainted with. Or maybe because most of my "friends" on that site are from the olden days. I mean, seriously, ancient. Some go as far back as high school.

The bizarre thing is friendster allows you to take a peek into other people's lives. People you may have known in a previous life, but are now virtually strangers.

Take the case of M2. I had the most serious crush on him back in my early uni days. I thought myself half in love with him at the time. Of course, he didn't know I existed. We caught up once a couple of years after graduation. It was very random. I remember he lent me money (100 pesos I think) because my wallet was stolen on my way to meet him. I told you it was random.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. My point is, M2 has become blah. How horrid. To think I spent a lot of hours pining after him. Now, I don't think I would give him the time of day. Well, maybe. I don't know. All I know is he hasn't aged gracefully.

Oh, and another bizarre thing, M2 and I have 1 common friend and I would never have picked it. The common friend was someone I knew from work. Don't know how M2 knows him.

Another guy I "checked out" was someone even further back in history. We "flirted" when we were in high school. I say flirted because we never actually hooked up. I mean, c'mon, we were 14 for chrissake.

Anyway, his profile says he's single but all the pictures he has on his page are with this girl (who was part of the group of girls I hung out with back then) that he hooked up with in high school. Which makes me wonder what their relationship is. At least on facebook, you've the option of choosing "it's complicated."

So, friendster is bizarre in that it makes me wonder about other people's relationships -- people I had forgotten about until I logged on.

Anyway, he's not what I would call blah but he seems cheesy. Cheesy in the I-think-you-think-I-look-good-and-I-know-I-look-good kind of way.

So, that got me thinking. I hope I haven't become blah. I had to look at my posted pictures to make sure I didn't look blah. I don't think I look blah but what do I know?

Ugh, I hope I'm not blah.


_ _ _ _
Did you notice I didn't have a point in this post at all? Yeah, I did too.

Blog Holiday

I'm going on a blog holiday for a couple of weeks. I just don't have much to say. Or feel like it anyway.

I'll be back.

Check back in a couple of weeks. I should have my head sorted by then.

Work Meltdown

Work's been a bitch lately. Too much work, too much stress. I usually manage my work load pretty well, mainly because I'm efficient. And I become bored easily. So I try to work quickly before I get bored with a task, any task.

But lately, more and more work has been piled on my plate and I've already cried uncle a couple of times with no relief. I know everyone's under the pump at the moment but that doesn't mean I pick up their slack. Pay me more and maybe I'll consider it.

I've been having trouble sleeping lately and that's a clear indication of my stress level. Today, I had a meltdown (in the privacy of a cubicle in the loo) because it just got a bit too overwhelming. The thing is, there's no end in sight and that's starting to tax me.

I'm starting to dread going to work and I haven't felt that in a while now. I don't know what to do. One reason I'm stressing is I don't like doing shoddy work. But with the work load I have, there's only two ways to go: either the work suffers or I suffer. And no job is worth suffering for.

I need a holiday.

(Slightly) Green Thumb

I've never had a green thumb. I tend to kill most plants I try to grow. I think I got it from my mom. Between the two of us, we've probably become mass murderers to plants by now.

Which is why it gets me all excited when plants actually grow, and even thrive.

I had my doubts about this rosemary as it was on life support for a few months but come spring 2 years ago, it started growing and growing and growing.

My parsley has also managed to come back from near death and although it's not exactly thriving, at least it's not dying.

My coriander is the one I'm most proud of just because it's the first seed to fully grown plant I've ever managed not to kill. I even transferred it to a bigger pot because it was growing so fast.

Not all are success stories. Just ask my oregano and mint plants. I'm hoping they come back to life, somehow. It's spring! Grow!

I've also planted some more plants in the hope that I'll have a fully fledged garden come summer.

These are my tomato plants, which have not shown any signs of life at all.

This is my rocket pot, which is showing some potential.

You have to look really hard but the buds are there.

I'm also growing lettuce and they're the ones that I'm getting real excited about. D made me put in a gazillion seeds in my pots and now I think they're going to get crowded real soon.

And then there are the unknowns.

I planted this without labeling it and now I'm not exactly sure what it is. I have a suspicion it's rocket but then when I planted it I didn't have any rocket seeds. Go figure.

This one's even more bizarre because I thought it was sweet basil. It doesn't look or smell like basil at all. I have a feeling it's a weed. =(

So that's my garden. Thanks for visiting. Come back again in a month's time and hopefully I'll have more progress to report on.

License to Travel

One of the drawbacks of being pinoy is we need a visa to travel most anywhere (other than South East Asia of course and Morocco!). Other than the hassle of providing documentation, I've hardly had any trouble getting a visa (if you exclude the bleeping USA, that is).

My European visa was surprisingly easy to get, given that when I applied I was an unemployed design student. My Australian tourist visa was easy enough to get as well when I first applied for it about 5 years ago.

So imagine my surprise when it took almost FOUR WEEKS to get my visa from NZ. Four freaking weeks. When their average turnaround time is 7 working days. No reason given at all for the delay.

I was ready to call the NZ visa office (or whatever they're called) to follow up and ask what the hold up was. I was also about ready to tell them to forget about it and just cancel all our travel arrangements to NZ(which would've been a pain but doable). I was going to give them until Monday next week before I rang. Thank goodness my passport arrived today stamped with my new NZ visa. A limited one-time entry visa at that.

I'm still excited to travel to NZ for our holiday but given the grief I went through getting a visa, I don't think I'll be travelling back there any time soon. Until I get my oz permanent residency that is.

Btw, out of interest, it doesn't cost Filipinos anything to apply for an NZ tourist visa. Some reciprocal agreement between our governments, I think. Just be prepared to wait if you do apply.

Living in the Dark Ages

I have been noticeably absent from this blog for over a week now and it's mainly because we haven't gotten our internet connection sorted yet. That's a story in itself, actually.

D finally broke down middle of last week and called Bigpond to complain about the lack of network access. After being on hold and on the phone for the best part of his life, the customer service person (this would've been D in a previous life) said a technician was going to come on Saturday to check it out. D was pleasantly surprised as this type of prompt service was not the norm, at least when he last worked there.

The tech dude (TD) was scheduled to come between 7.30am and 12noon. Very big window, but that's how it works here.

D, being D, was up bright and early on Saturday (Saturday!) morning to make sure he was awake when the TD showed up. Before 7am! How rude.

Of course, TD arrives at 10.30am. He comes into the house, checks the modem and the connections, goes outside to check cable stuff, comes back into the house to check the modem and connections again, and then tells D that there's something wrong with the local area connection which had nothing to do with us.

Since this was not in TD's scope, he had to call it in for another TD to come and check the area connections.

Surprisingly, TD2 came that same afternoon to check on the area cables. I was about to leave for my massage at around 3pm, when TD2 knocks on our door and tells me he has bad news. Very bad news, apparently.

Our (idiot) neighbours had renovated their house a couple of months back and in the process of re-paving their driveway, paved over Telstra's access pit. This meant that TD2 couldn't access that particular cable section.

Of course, as you might have guessed, the faulty cable section had to be right under the inaccessible access pit. They would have to break through the repaved driveway, access the cable and then pave it back again.

Yes, what a nightmare. The good news is, as I was driving to work this morning, I noticed TD3s setting up in front of our (idiot) neighbours' driveway, getting ready to dig.

Hopefully, we'll have access by tonight. Yeah, right.

UPDATE: 6.30pm same day
Woohoo! We're back in business. We got our connection sor'ed.

Lost and Found

I was leaving for work when I grabbed my bag and realised my wallet wasn't in the bag. I thought I had left it at home and had gone the whole day without it.

I got home and looked half-heartedly for it in the usual places but didn't find it. I wasn't too worried cos I misplace things all the time. But, after dinner, I decided to do a serious search but came up empty. I racked my brain for where I could've put it but my brain is like a sieve. I retain nothing. Hehe.

D was getting worried for me but I wasn't stressing cos I really couldn't do much about it and worrying won't solve anything. I transferred the little money I had in my day-to-day account to my savings account just in case someone tried to use my atm card or debit card. I was fretting about having to go get a new license and medicare card but I hoped I could do it all online.

I still held the hope that I had left it in the office but I resigned myself to the worst case scenario.

I came in to work today and found my wallet underneath the pile of paperwork I have. Woohoo! Crisis averted.

You're probably wondering how in the world I didn't see my wallet, which isn't small, on my desk, which isn't big.

This is why.

It's Spring!

Woohoo! It's spring! Winter's gone!
Although today wasn't the best indication of spring weather, what with the mostly overcast day and random freak showers, I'm still feeling hopeful.

Speaking of freak showers, I was on my way to the post office during my lunch break when it started drizzling. And then the drizzling quickly turned into pouring down real hard. And then I got drenched. Of course I didn't have an umbrella. What do you take me for?

I got to the post office looking like a drowned rat. And then, guess what? When I came out, it was bright and sunny, the world looking like it had never rained. And I'm standing there, completely drenched, completely out of place.

Ah, the wonders of Melbourne. Four seasons in a day and don't I know it.

General Update

I've been sick since the hot springs -- I firmly believe my flu was caused by the public bathing. Either it was the cold/hot/cold/hot combination or I caught someone else's bacteria/germs/virus. I've been sick for 4 days now, which is crap.

On another note, I've been addicted to Australia's Next Top Model (Cycle 3) via YouTube and Spooks (we're up to Season 5 now) via some loaned DVDs. I've also been watching Project Runway Philippines and Project Runway Australia. Hehe.

If I slack off blogging in the next few days, at least you'll know why.

On Getting Fit

I'm trying to get myself motivated enough to start exercising. This morning, I pulled out all the DVDs, books and equipment I bought a couple of weeks back in my bid to get motivated.

Kick ass pilates mat, 1kg weights, exercise ball and accompanying book and DVD,
Pilates book with DVD
(Yes, I went all out. What can I say? Rebel Sport had a sale. They did! No, really.)

I'm going to try and set aside 15-30 minutes every week day. I think I'll start with the pilates as it's designed with 15 minute exercises. And it's not as scary as the ball exercises.

This is the screen shot of the Pilates Workout DVD
(disregard the mess around the TV)

I still have to figure out how to make space in the lounge room so that I can easily do my workout. And how I'm going to get up earlier than 7.30am in the middle of winter. Give me a break, it's still dark out at that time!

My goal this week is to actually start the routine. Let's see how I go.

Ties That Bind

We went to see Hancock tonight and I was going to blog about it but decided it didn't merit its own entry. It wasn't bad. Just not good enough, imho anyway. It was a somewhat different concept, I give you that, but at the same time it was familiar in that it was still a Hollywood movie with rehashed themes. Oh well, not a bad way to spend a couple of hours with the hubby.

Right after the movie ended and we were getting up to leave, my bag started buzzing. I was about to answer my phone when the ringing stopped (voicemail). I looked at the screen and it said "withheld." I knew immediately it was my dad. He's been after me to edit some of his stuff (he's recently retired and is setting up his own consultancy which I think is absolutely fabulous) and I hadn't had a chance to look at them yet.

We weren't even out of the cinema yet when D's phone starts vibrating and, sure enough, it was my dad. His first words to me were, Why aren't you answering your phone? A continent away and he still manages to be demanding. I love that man so. I consulted with the consultant-to-be (my sister's words, not mine) and then it was my mom's turn to ask me advice on some of her stuff. Then, of course, my sisters had to get on the phone to me.

You've gotta love technology. Sometimes I feel like I haven't left Manila at all, what with my family just a phone call away.

But, then sometimes I feel like I'm a million miles away from them, especially on days I need a hug. That's when technology falls short cause nothing can take the place of a simple hug of a loved one.

I miss my family but what I'm trying to accept is, this is home. Melbourne is my home. At least for now.

And on that senti (pinoy speak for sentimental) note, I leave you with another Bamboo song (you have to bear with me, I'm obsessing about them at the moment). A cover of a Carole King classic. Fitting, eh?

Before I Freeze to Death

Just wanted to give an update on our heater situation. The repair man came around this morning to check it out and discovered that the motor has died.

He has to go see whether they have a replacement motor in stock in Melbourne, otherwise, he will have to order the part from Adelaide. No idea on how long this will take. A week?

If my body is discovered in a frozen state, at least you know what happened.

Bizarre

Today I found this blog and thought it was utterly hilarious.



It's called Lost in Emoticons and it's about "Online conversations between a mother and her daughter. The mother is from China. The daughter was born in America. The language barrier gets wider by the day. Thank god for emoticons."

I was reading it at work during one of my rare lull moments and I was giggling like an idiot at my desk. Actually, trying my darndest to stifle the giggles. I was a proper professional office person after all.

Anyway, since I needed to share the laughter, I decided to send the link to my sister and to my friend K. They found the site as hilarious as I did. At the same time, I sent out the link to a few of my work colleagues for a Friday afternoon laugh. The bizarre thing is: NONE OF THEM GOT IT. It's not age, cos a couple of them were younger than me and one was older. It wasn't gender, cos 2 were females and 1 was male. The only thing they had in common was that they were all Aussies.

So, K and I were discussing why there was such a disparity of reaction to the site. It was an American blog which I found via a link in another American blog (who's writer found it amusing as well) so it wasn't an Asian thing. (K's Indonesian, btw.)

We decided to do a social experiment to test our theory that it probably just wasn't Aussie humour.

She sent the link to her Indonesian friend and her Aussie fiance.

This disproved our theory as her Indo friend didn't get it while her fiance, T, got it. T is a fair dinkum Aussie bloke (K, do correct me if I'm wrong with my perception).

Another theory we have, which was probably debunked by the same 2 mentioned above, is that it's a bicultural thing. You won't get it if you haven't lived a bicultural life.

Now, I'm really intrigued.

Terrorized at Dawn

I woke up this morning to the smell of burnt plastic. And my husband berating me for not caring enough that the house might burn down.

Let me explain.

Shortly after 5 o'clock this morning (an ungodly hour if there ever was one), my husband nudges me awake and asks me if I could smell plastic burning. I take a sniff and say yes. I promptly fall back asleep.

I wake up again (seemingly 5 seconds later) with him scrounging around my side of the bed and saying words which my sleep-deprived brain cannot decipher. He won't go away. He's asking me whether any of the multitude of cords I have on my side of the bed has shorted. I say, mhmghym, meaning, I don't think so.

I try to go back to sleep again. He is now insisting that I help him locate the source of the smell as he does not want to come home to a burnt house. I say, jtvnysprqnm, meaning, just unplug everything and leave me be. He goes away in a huff, muttering that I am not taking this house burning down situation seriously.

I fall back asleep and wake up to the sound of my alarm clock. There's still a faint smell of burnt plastic but it doesn't seem as alarming. I get a call from the husband, who's already on his way to work, saying he thinks it might not have been any electrical shortage but could've been our ducted heating dying. He is duly sorry for terrorizing me so early in the morning.

The good news is our house hasn't burnt down. Bad news is it looks like the smell was caused by the heater and it is now dead. I'll be a frozen popsicle by the morning.

I've just thought of the best news

I completely forgot to write about the best news ever in my last post (shows how much I'm slipping in my blogging skills).

I've lost 5kgs!! For real. D and I went on this 21-day "wonder" diet where there's a recipe for every meal of the 21 days, which made it super easy to follow. There was also a weekly shopping list at the back to make it even easier. After 21 days, I had lost about 4kgs and then D & I decided to continue the meals but less stricter. It's been over 2 months since we started the diet, I've lost and kept off the 5kgs. D's lost around 5-7kgs (his weight fluctuates) so it's been good for both of us.

I want to lose another 5kgs but I think I need to start exercising for that to happen. I've bought myself a pilates book & dvd, a kick-ass mat, an exercise ball and some weights. Now all I need is the motivation to go along with all that. I'll get there. Eventually.

Yes, I've disappeared

I haven't blogged in a million years. And it's not like I have a good excuse at all. I've thought of blogging. I've read a dozen other blogs. I've even looked at my blog to see if it had changed from the last time I looked at it. But, amidst all that, I was still blog-less.

After we got back from holidays, there were a gazillion of things to do -- work was hectic, caught up with friends, organised the house and our lives -- that blogging just never became a priority.

Now that I haven't blogged in 3 months, I do think about not blogging altogether. If it's not fun and something I enjoy doing, why bother doing it at all? I have to think about that.

In other news, I very recently got a windfall from our health fund (random but very welcome) and I've earmarked the money for a massage chair from ebay. I SO want one. I have to go check it out in their showroom first but I really really want one. This is what it looks like:


Doesn't it look amazing? I'm sure you want one, too.

Home Alone

D has left me.

For the weekend that is.

He's flown to Canberra to watch Crusty Demons with the boys. Don't ask me what it is. I don't know. It has something to do with bikes and other boy stuff.

All I know is I'm home alone with my eyes googly from playing too much Scrabulous on facebook. Waayyy too much.

I really should go to sleep but I don't think I can yet. On nights when D's away, I find it incredibly hard to psyche myself to go sleep. What I do is tire myself out by doing silly nothings so that I have no choice but to go to bed.

I don't think I'm at that point yet. So more Scrabulous and maybe some reading of Stephen King's Different Seasons (LOVE this anthology).

Meanwhile, I need to come up with a better plan for tomorrow night...