me, myself and i - day 5

mixing it up
architecturally
(a poor attempt to provide
continuity with yesterday's post)

Remember when I said I wasn't eating rubbish?  I spoke too soon because I had Fruit Loops for dinner tonight (if CNN was here, he'd point out that at least I got in one of my five servings of fruit and vegetables).  I had it all planned out - baked sweet potatoes for dinner and Japanese pumpkin for tomorrow's dinner (I must be craving carotene) - but when I got to the supermarket, I completely forgot to buy sweet potatoes.  I blame working 9.5 hours today even though that was my fault too (the whole not understanding flexi-time thing).  I also have to admit that I did have soup in the freezer... so maybe the contents of my dinner was more down to choice rather than necessity.

The best I can do today - a joke, from one of the young people I work with:

Everyone knows Gandhi was spiritual but did you know he had really bad calluses and really bad breath?  That's why they called him super-callused-fragile-mystic-extra-halitosis.

 Boom, boom!  Like I said to the kid, it's so bad, it's good.

me, myself and i - day 4

picture taken by my daddy
the home of the
tiger balm mogul
(well, his hong kong home)

Hello internet.  I must apologise sincerely to you for the cancellation of this week's 'what we ate.'  Everything I ate was rubbish.  Okay, so it wasn't rubbish.  It was good, healthy, yummy food but it was all easy peasy stufff - stir fries, noodles in soups, scrambled eggs, pasta (oh and I had take-away sushi when I went to the cinema last night).  I also had a mini-failure trying to make muesli bars.  CNN's camp is 'nut-free' (crazy, right?) so I decided I would make my own muesli bars, substituting dark chocolate for the nuts.  I forgot to let the mixture cool before stirring the chocolate drops so they all melted.  Ooops.  The muesli bars are still perfectly tasty but it just wasn't what I had in mind.

Trying really hard not to sound like a whiny mcwhinerson, I am now working flexi-time.  It's great to be able to fit my job around my life but I think my inclination to have more life than job means I'll be doing a long day tomorrow to catch up.  It's also hard getting into the habit of keeping track of the hours.  When I was a teacher, I just worked until all the lessons were planned and the books were marked.  The next job I had was pretty similar.  Working hours were 9-6:30 but more often than not, we would work longer than that without financial compensation.  No one minded because we were working for a cause we believed in and because it was such a human, caring, genuine place to work.  It's not that my new job isn't these things, it's just that I need to adapt to the way in which the financial side of it works and the implications that has on how I approach work.

In other news, I have now completed 60% of my nights away from my buddy.  He called yesterday.  Such happiness in speaking to him even though I did feel a little blue afterwards.  Two more sleeps until CNN is home!

catching up is hard to do, part two - walking

It is appalling that I am only writing the second part of my catch up when part one was written a month ago.  A plague on me and both my houses!  (Apologies to all for bastardising Shakespeare; also, CNN and I do not have two homes, but my mamee's house is always my house, right?).

It might come as a surprise to some of you, but CNN and I love walking - specifically, urban walking.  Give us a map and something interesting to see

like this deliberately ambiguous couple
in the gay quarter in brussels
it's on the comic book/street art walk
can you see the rubbish bin pretending to be a beer?

and we'll be off.  When we were in London, we were big fans of the Capital Ring, a circular walk around the city.  It takes you through hidden parts of the city very few people see - wicked graffiti, disused railway lines and leafy parks.  We only got serious about the loop the summer before we left and didn't finish - though walking from Hendon to Falconwood isn't too shabby.  Londoners, do it now!  You won't regret it.

if you go in late summer
you might get to pick blackberries
though i hope you are careful
and come away without scratches

i was very proud
(and very sweaty, sorry)
i was also looking forward
to cooking up tasty treats



me, in the woolwich tunnel
underneath the thames
(it was cold and damp and pee-smelling
but still kinda cool)



So CNN and I decided to find a substitute for the Capital Ring right here in Sydney.  We knew about the Bondi to Bronte walk - but did you know you can walk from Clovelly to Cronulla? (when I say Cronulla in my head, I like to do it with my best, most nasal Australian accent - I don't know why but it amuses me.  Maybe because of all the different vowel sounds?  I am sorry if this is rude or offensive but I can't help my thoughts)  Now this is a size of challenge more in keeping with our excellent striding skills!

So, nearly six weeks ago now, CNN and I walked from Coogee to Maroubra.

my apologies for my unusual stance
CNN has decreed that we must
have interesting poses in all future photos
but aren't the colours of the seagrasses pretty?

this bit was my favourite
clambering over rock pools
peering at scuttling crabs
you can't cross this section at high tide

ignoring my silly husband
the jogger in the distance
crossed the rocks in two minutes flat
it took us about ten

So now you are all caught up with our adventures.  We'll complete another stretch of the walk when the weather cools down.

my very best 'editorial' face
for those of you who have never watched
America's Next Top Model
it just means grumpy

I am very sad that I never bought any Matryoshka dolls when I was in Russia.  We saw some in a souvenir shop in Moscow but I was holding out to buy a set from a local craftsperson.  Needless to say, said meeting did not occur.

biggest burgers ever
and the coolest names too
mine was cat stevens
CNN's was aussie crawl

It was a perfect storm - a pub with acoustics so bad you had to screech to be heard, a very early phonecall on Saturday morning that we couldn't get back to sleep after, and lingering germs from CNN's cold all combined on the weekend to ensure I developed a cold on Sunday, making it nice and ripe for my interview on Monday.  Yes, that's right.  My one and only Australian interview thus far and I had to be incubating germs.  Lovely.

Never fear, I didn't let those pesky viruses and bacteria get the better of me!  I am the preferred candidate pending references!  All I need is for my old bosses to say nice things about me... I'm pretty sure they will; wouldn't you?