Friday Night

Epic Friday.
So many people and goodbyes and then so many drinks.
So many drinks.
We started at the Coro - it was packed FULL and we were stuck in a corner upstairs. It was convenient though as it meant we weren't being butted into all the time. The crowd started to peter out and eventually we moved on although the details become hazier. It was just the best way to say goodbye.
Mirasoul is a bar on Caxton Street in Paddington. It is SO cool. We drank and danced the night away. I hope I didn't say anything mean because I don't remember much. I remember smiling all night and being super happy. I still am, it's just a slower version of happy as I'm quite tired and hungover. There was a large contingency of Origin peeps throughout the night and it makes me sad to leave them - everyone's so much fun!

This morning I got home and Monica AND Sarah were also very hungover. We ate bacon and eggs and reflected on our Friday nights. We basically had fun and were feeling shit because of it. Nevermind. It was nice to share the feeling of "the sickness" as my uncle Brendo calls it.

I had a quick rest and ducked out to see Charlie and Rhiannon, their house is so cool. I can't wait to see it when I get back - the garden's going to be amazing. Now I'm watching a movie and eating pizza before I head to Clare's house party - it's tipped to be another epic night; my swag's packed in the boot of my car.

Happy last day! I couldn't have done it better myself!

Last day of work

I started working for Origin in September 2009. It was a great move. I went from a small town with no friends and nothing to do (but conveniently close to home) - to a large-ish city with lots of friends and too much to do.

It's been great! My job's been ....... well, apart from the shitty shitty shitty on-call nature of the job, it's been great.

And now I'm leaving - maybe forever, maybe not. Which kind of makes me happy because it's not definitive and it's a lot easier to say goodbye when people expect to see you again.

Nevertheless, I am very much intending on getting very drunk tonight, starting this afternoon. I'm pretty anxious about saying goodbye to everyone. I'm kind of over re-explaining what I'm going to do ("I'm volunteering through Ausaid with the World Bank helping to increase sustainability of pastures/creating risk management strategies/reassessing participatory resource management strategies and helping the government make some rules about land management") - but mainly because I get the feeling that people either a. don't care or b. get jealous that they've not organised themselves to do something similar.

So I've taken two anti-stress tablets today and treated myself to a delicious croissant and chai latte (consumed at the bus stop). My tongue's burnt because I was too keen to drink the chai.

Lai's last day today at her work too. It's so cool that we're leaving on the same day. It kind of feels like, if I had have had a twin - this is what it would feel like. Having someone go through the same things at the same time. It's cool!

The atmosphere at work today is pretty awesome. It is casual Friday but that doesn't usually make much difference. Everyone's happy and cheery and talky. I wish it was like this all the time.

I'm going to miss the view. The access to unlimited stationery supplies. Talking in English and learning things in English. My awesome two very large computer screens. My outlook calendar that organises my entire life. My amazing little work lapop. (most of) the people I work with..........

Nevermind. 24 days to go til I'm in Mongolia. It's -15degrees right now but it's early morning. I imagine it will get up to about +5 today, which is still kangaroo fur coat weather.

Oh and I didn't mention I'm wearing my beetle dress. Beetle dress = good day.

It's going to be a good day.

What I remember I'll miss

When I lived in Canada I remember missing (apart from friends and family):

(photo from when I lived in Canada)

chicken chips

cherry ripes

And that's it. So I just bought a packet of chicken chips and am gorging as we speak. I considered buying a stash of cherry ripes and saving them - but there's no saving them for Sally. They get eaten there and then. Nevermind, I'm sure the fermented horse milk, chunks of fat, dumplings cooked with fat inside them and vokda will keep me at bay.

Most common misconceptions:

Chinggis Khan was a very, very bad person (he did some great things)
Mongolia food is delicious (it's actually devoid of everything but protein, fat, calcium and salt)

Things I will miss in the year I'm away:

going home when I feel like it

(home)

eating vegetables
eating fresh fruit
making pretty dresses
wearing pretty dresses

(wearing pretty dresses; with my Mongolian peeps!)

cheap phone calls to friends
dogs with no rabies
driving my car
playing netball, hockey, touch and tennis
all my awesome friends



(okay, this isn't all of my amazing friends, but this one's pretty cool)

 my amazing, large house complete with backyard and resident ghost man and ghost cat
my amazing housemates
hosting BBQs and parties on my back deck
milo
hot water
loose leaf lemongrass and peppermint tea
my herb garden
white wine
Christmas

What I'm super duper looking forward to:

riding horses, a lot
going on holidays to Beijing, Kazakhstan, Lake Baikal/rest of Russia
understanding the amazing history
learning some basic language

buying some traditional Mongolian boots

wearing my antique kangaroo fur coat and not being hot in it

meeting all the other AYAD peeps

skiing

field trips where I get to talk instead of make maps

staying in a Ger

Nadaam

being stupidly excited about meeting my new workmates

moving into my Mongolia apartment

taking spectacular photos

And there's more. But that will do for now.

24 days to go.

To Monica

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Once you click on it, a new box will open up and you type your comment there.

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A day in the life of a mini bright green umbrella

I was made in China in 2005 and sent to Vancouver to be sold to a loving owner in 2006. The person who bought me was just 19 at the time. She was soaked to the bone as she hadn't yet afforded an umbrella (even though she was living in B.C). She was shivering cold by the time she found me.

A 20CAD splurge later, I was all hers. I was pretty lucky, really. I was kept in my jacket when I wasn't being used and I kept her dry when it started raining - no matter where in the world. A symbiotic relationship, really. I got free trips to the UK, Europe, Thailand, Chile, New Caledonia, Kenya, Tanzania, Vietnam, and best of all - Australia. It's all part of the job. I guess I got lucky, being born as a pocket-sized umbrella.

Umbrellas have a short lifespan. My mum warned me that I'd probably get neglected, and not to take it personally. I'm turning 6 this year and I'm starting to feel it. One of my arms won't open and close properly and I have to be coaxed into doing anything. I mean, a 6 year old umbrella - my mum would be proud and I've done my owner proud; it's time for retirement.

So retire I shall. As of April 1, 2011 I will no longer be acting as a functional umbrella. I hereby retire and will not be called upon for any duties henceforth. I have enjoyed my role thus far and appreciated all the opportunities to serve the cold and wet. I wish you all the best in your search for a new umbrella; please do not choose another lime green one as I wish to be fondly remembered.

Sincerely,

your mini bright green umbrella
xox

Birthday Weekend

I've never been a fan of claiming more days for your birthday than just your original day of birth. I guess with the exception of the unfortunate late February leap year babies who conveniently only have a birthday every fourth year and thus are entitiled to claim any day they wish as their celebrated birthday in the off years.

This weekend just past turned out to be a long birthday weekend. Including Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

I slept very well on Monday night.

In summary, Friday was busy drinking with Lai&Co re: her last legit Friday in Brisbane. It wasn't an emotional night, which is just how I like it. After a work lunch (sans drinks; what oil and gas company doesn't provide at least a drink... nevermind), I continued to the pub and drank steadily until 9pm when I started spreading rumours, caught myself doing so and promptly stopped drinking. I remember arguing that no - my ass isn't smoking hot; I AM smoking hot. Not just my ass.

I'm really glad I stopped drinking early. It was in a bid to a. maintain composure (although I did get kicked out of a bar for doing laybacks with a guy who couldn't dance, when some cool latin music was being played) and b. prevent an epic hangover.

Turns out I may as well have been super hungover, as I didn't actually sleep much. I had to wake up my friend to let me in my house because I'd managed to give him both my house keys and couldn't get in. Then I slept on Monica's couch and moved to Sarah's couch. The beauty of living in the largest house in history means you have a lot of choice as to where you sleep when your bed's been taken. The shitty party was just that I only had 3 hours to sleep before I had to get up to cook breakfast and start the rest of my weekend - AND enjoy my birthday.

And enjoy I did. Grandma had arrived early on the Friday night and got drunk at home with Monica. Matt and Jen had arrived from the airport courtesy of Alicia. Monica and Sarah were ready for breakfast too. I'd inconveniently packed my cookbooks away and still scarred from my last crap attempt at making pancakes sans recipe, I googled a recipe and we made some very fat and fluffy pancakes. Delicious but didn't help wake me up.

The day continues. I send grandma and matt to get their teeth cleaned with Monica. I go and get a haircut (which: I have to admit is pretty nice; definitely a lot more hacked out than usual but this time I don't mind as I've got an entire year to regrow it!). We make mini chocolate mud cake cupcakes with awesome ganache icing (see above) and mini oreos.

Jen and I decorated and cleaned up and organised and prepared food and all that jazz. The daiquiri machine started producing nice clumpy daiquiris and people started arriving. It was about 4pm and the night went on from there. Mum arrived which was super exciting. She was wearing bright yellow, as was grandma. I was also wearing bright yellow, but instead in the form of the most amazing Cue dress I own. Genuine mistake; we didn't care enough to get changed.

35L of daiquiris, 6kg of pizza, 5kg of sausage rolls, 4kg of chicken wings, 100 mini cupcakes and a pavlova later, I got to bed. It was 3am. I had the most fantastic night. 50 people all up - which is 37 up on the turnout of last year's 24th birthday. I must admit; a pretty impressive increase in friends. I love Brisbane! I love living somewhere that I can meet people I actually love to be friends with. And that I can do so many things and make so many new friends! Tennis lessons, hockey, netball, touch football, ballet lessons (albeit the two classes I went to; I was too busy!), photography courses, shopping with new friends, gym sessions, work drinking sessions...... Who would have thought there's enough time to do things as WELL as work.... *bliss* (that's a bit of a poke at my previous job; if you don't get it).

Without going in to too much detail of the happenings of the night: we forgot earth hour til the last 5mins (obviously not important for exploration geo's working in oil and gas. We know we've got lots); we ate a LOT; we made a MASSIVE mess, we spilt a LOT of green daiquiris everywhere including on the washing machine; we laughed and talked all night........

And then woke up 4 hours later and made bacon and eggs and mushrooms for breakfast. Delicious. Matt and Jen went home - Grandma, mum and I attempted to go shopping but it was pretty dismal due to my bad (aka tired) attitude. We sat in front of the tv and were glad we cleaned up early instead of later.

Monday morning - mum and grandma left and my furniture got moved. Sarah's got it now, which is a relief. I know she'll look after it and hopefully love it while I'm gone. Monday avo - work. Joe's (new operations geologist taking my role) got it down pat.

Now: I'm organising myself and I'm so anxious my anti-stress tablets aren't even working. And I can't go to the gym because I'll puke because I just ate a second breakfast. Nevermind. I brought that upon myself!!!!
Now: Photo time! there were some fantastic photos from Saturday night. These are my personal favourites

Right. I think I used up my photo limit for this page. They're not my favourites; I was too lazy to find them. But these are definitely my almost-favourites! Will add more as time allows (which should be fine as the last week of work is pretty sweet!)