My long weekend

Ryan feeding Peri, his little dog - while we made dumplings

The view of Ashleigh Webb's house paddock

Ashleigh learning the fisheye - me playing with Bear the puppy

The hills hoist

Sunset at Greenslopes

At the Orange food and wine festival (mmmmmm Venison Pie)

The view from Nyrang, at Orange

Bear, the pup

Picnic in the park in Orange with Imogen and crew. YUM

The Cooyal Pub

I packed yesterday. I originally had two bags out with the intention of half filling both, so I have two different practical bags whilst in Mongolia. After I weighed myself/weighed the bag/weighed myself/weighed the other bag, I decided to scrap that idea and shove as much as I could into one - thereby reducing my suitcase weight by half.

It worked. I now have a 30kg pink hard cased suitcase with three vacuum sucky bags and lots of pills and toothpaste in it. The only problem is some things wouldn't fit. Two pairs of shoes, PJ's, track pants, assorted things I can't pack until the day I go and everything else I forget. But the main suitcase is done up. It's not coming undone either. Mainly because I packed my white leather clogs and I know mum will make me take them out if she sees them. YES, mum - they ARE practical. I wear them everywhere and it's SUMMER in UB (p.s. UB = UlaanBaatar which is the coldest city in the world and where I'm going to be living, hence the title of my blog).

Apart from packing, I played with Minkey's pups although she doesn't like you touching them so you have to pick them up and put them straight back down. But it's worth it. I got some chicken out for dinner to no avail. Mum and Dad had a rough day in town and rough day = Cooyal Pub. They were gracious enough to call before I started cooking. I drove the 15mins to the pub.

The Cooyal pub is a bit rough. It used to be a local hub when I was in preschool and kindergarten. There was a general store and the pub was always busy. It was perhaps not as busy as I thought as I was probably blinded by the amazing chicken twisties that older girls on the bus used to buy me because I liked them, I was cute and my mum wouldn't give me money to buy anything at the shop (the bus used to stop at the shop on the way home so we could all go in and buy lollies etc).

It kind of went downhill until about 2002-ish when a new publican took over. It's again a hive of activity (sans the general store; plus dongas for the miners). Especially on Thursday night when you get a schooner of beer for $2 and a raffle ticket for the meat tray.

Dad couldn't handle my order for wine (not wooded chardonnay or anything sweet), so I went up to order with him. I asked what wine they had (specifically would like a verdelho or would drink sav blanc if necessary). Answer:
Barmaid: do you want cask or bottle?
Sally: Glass
Barmaid: do you want cask or bottle?
Sally: (upon realising she meant did I want the cask wine or a glass of wine from a glass bottle) bottle
Sally: what do you have?
Barmaid: (brings over a bottle of chardonnay)
Sally: what else do you have?
Barmaid: (goes to fridge, goes to kitchen, goes to fridge)
Sally: chardonnay is fine, thank you
Barmaid: (pours)
Sally: (sips and is pleasantly surprised! An unwooded, local chardonnay that is actually delicious!)

Whilst sipping my unwooded Farmers Daughter chardonnay and eating my rather chewy rump steak (just a little gristly, tis all), mum had visitors pop by our table. The standard introductions ensue: "this is Sally, my eldest daughter, she's going to Mongolia next week. And you remember Ebony? She's almost finished school so she's pretty happy".

Response: after looking at my ring finger asks me how old I am, why I'm not married and that I should hurry up or I'll be too old.

I arose this morning to a typical day at home. Galahs woke me; roosters made sure I was awake and then dad started pottering about and I got up. Ben, the guy that's helping dad out at the moment, took the dogs for a run and forgot to get Lace from her puppy pen. I ran up to let her out, she got all excited and then wouldn't go for a run. Turns out she just got super excited I was going to feed her. Nevermind.

I photocopied and organised all my paperwork today, and organised my budget (pretty easy, as we get the same amount every month).
It goes something like this:
$1120/month allowance
= $280/week

I still can't believe I'm getting paid (albeit an allowance) to do something I've wanted to do my whole life. It's extraordinary. And means I can actually do it. Without it, there'd be no Mongolia. So, woohoo to the Australian government for supporting AusAid who support AYAD who chose me to recommend to the World Bank who accepted me and are about to receive a thoroughly inexperienced pastural manager.

This afternoon I went in to town and bought me some PJ's and track pants; ginger for the curry and went to the gym. The gym is a perfect size for two people. Which suited me perfectly until another 5 big blokes walked in and started hogging all the equipment. I generally try to be good with the boy/girl fairness thing - but at the gym it seems to go out the window. It just feels like I'm a girl so I don't need that bench or those weights or that machine. I'm glad I plucked up the courage to stand my ground in the gym though - I totally love it (LIE. I love the results).

I dropped into Westfund, our health fund to drop in a receipt. Westfund share their office with Country Energy (just bought out by Origin, might I add. Go Origin!). I was chatting to the lady at the counter (who does a remarkable job of remembering my name - usually people just go with 'which Mayberry are you?' because apparently 4 completely different sisters are hard to tell apart). Chatting, chatting, chatting away.

Garry walked in, to pay $40 off his energy bill. The lady at the counter was trying to locate his bill in the system. She asked Garry if it's 'Garry with one r or two r's?'.
Garry replied 'I dunno, it says two r's on me birth certificate but I dunno, but I don't know why and I dunno'.

Fortunately the Country Energy lady could find him despite him not knowing how he prefers to spell his first name.

After an eventful trip to town I got home, lit the stove and started chopping and cooking. Nikki sneaked inside and asked me in a doey voice 'this might sound like a really stupid question, but could you please chop me some wood?'.
Nikki's 21weeks pregnant and lives down the road in nan and fa's house (nan moved to town a bit after fa died). They've got a rip roaring wood heater but it needs wood to feed it. She had none cut and she can't chop wood. I'd usually get really angry and I guess I was a little bit. But you're not allowed to be because she's pregnant so I went and chopped wood (which, by the way, I SUCK at) and loaded her ute while she chopped and cooked my chicken curry.

All's fair and Nikki got to light her fire to keep her warm, and I just ate a really delicious chicken curry (with a buttload of sweet potato and not much chicken). Yum.

David's stew

  I was planning on starting my packing yesterday after lunch, until Minkey had to go to the vets. She still hadn't had any more puppies and was starting to get sick. So I took her and her little puppy in to the vets and she had a caesarean. One pup died but we got the other two. They're outside back in the carport with Minkey. They're real fatties. There's a boy and a girl. The boy's name is Caesar.

So no packing got done yesterday but I managed to con Sarah and Ryan into staying another night and they came and had stew. Ebony and her boyfriend + friends were camping up the back so they didn't come. But we had delicious stew without them.

David's stew is usually a concoction we eat while we're camping. They were burning off a fence so they made use of the fire and cooked a stew. It was beef and vegetable with hot sauce. And damper rolls with burned bums. Just the way I like it!

Please note I haven't figured out how to put portrait photos onto this blog yet; they all come up as landscape so I'll stick to the landscape. I had another couple of cool photos but alas, they were portrait.

Two bags out; one for clothes, one for shoes + drugs/toothpaste/other random necessities. The clothes are going in my new pink bag.

Tuesday

I beeped in Pop's front yard for two hours trying to find his wedding ring. I dreamt about the beeps last night. To no avail. There was no ring to be found.
Thai for lunch with mum at work, was quite yummy but EG was pretty poo-ey which was annoying.
Lunch followed by dUMPLING MAKING at nan's. We bought all the stuff and made about 60 dumplings with pork, lemongrass, ginger, soy sauce, egg and shallots. They were safely the best dumplings I've made thus far. Nan has some in the freezer now and we had them for dinner to.
YUM.
Minkey was starting to get a bit shaky last night. This morning she had one pup. It's a tiny little girl. She won't let us touch it yet. There are more to come. EG and I are hanging out for them. We check on her every 10 minutes. She's having them in the carport. Better than under the house like Lace did.
TJ and Bron would be in the UK by now, at their house probably sleeping a LOT.
We just got a phone call from David Stokes. They're burning off at the moment so he's making a stew today for dinner (on the fire) and we'll head over tonight and have some stew by the fire before they head off to the bushfire brigade meeting. Shit has hiteth the fan at Cooks Gap BFB. Well, people aren't being friendly and that's what it's all about! So there's an emergency meeting to try and poke some sense into some people and maybe come to a resolution. I can safely say I will be at home watching TV and checking on the puppies.

Monday

Monday was a big day.

Not only because I spent 45minutes whisking home made hollandaise sauce for Tegan's last breakfast, but because we drove to Sydney and back in a car that we used to fit into 10 years ago. It's a bit squishier now.

Eggs benedict was surprisingly yummy. I wasn't expecting the hollandaise to work out as it kept separating and I yelled at Tegan while she was watching tv "HEAR THIS WHISKING; YEAH, THAT'S ME - NO MATTER WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY THAT IT'S DELICIOUS".
And she did. So I had to try it, and it actually was. Good one, Sally.

Post - breakfast we had the obligatory family photo. Mum was in charge, with my good camera. Her task was to continuously click. So click she did, and now I have 250 photos to go through of the SAME thing. Nevermind, she did what she was told.

We drove the 3.5hours to Sydney and dropped TJ off. Bron, her best friend was there waiting - she's SO nice. They laughed a lot and the lady at the counter was super nice. We sat and drank a coffee and eventually said our goodbyes. There were lots of tears, but it wasn't REALLY sad. We'll see her lots and it's so easy to keep in touch. It was more exciting I guess, knowing she's going to have the bestest time EVER.

TJ and Bron checking in

After waving goodbye we went to the suitcase shop and got me a much more practical suitcase (not just because it's pink) than my free Origin waterproof bag. Then we headed home via Blaxland McDonalds.

Sunday

Sunday, the day of rest.

No rest for the wicked.

Not really. After I told Pop I'd bring round a metal detector on Tuesday, TJ and I headed down the street and she had breakfast with Lizzie and he adorable son Blake. I bought the paper and headed to the Butcher Shop Cafe. I couldn't eat all my breakfast as there was too much. My chai latte wasn't much chop; I don't think anything will ever live up to Comfort Cafe in Milton's chai tea. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm So delicious.

Breakfast over, we headed home - picked EG up on the way (she was staying at her boyfriend's place at the old Farmer's Daughter vineyard - but we picked her up at Abercorn Vineyard. Turns out Farmer's Daughter is still in operation and Abercorn is old). Got home and I had a good rest.

Tegan decided she wanted pavolva for dessert and EG decided that's what we were going to make. So we got the ingredients in town, and post-nap, we started whipping. Mum's 27yo mix master is a bit worse for wear. She's actually going to replace it with a kitchenaid because dad's getting a new John Deere tractor and this other forklift-y thing. So it's only fair that in retaliation, she spends money on the most ridiculously priced mixmaster available.

Anyway, so we whipped and whipped. We wanted mini pavlovas for 12. We debated re: the instructions. What is a 'moderate' and what is a 'cool' oven. We learnt the hard way.
Pav1 turned out like mini cow shits. They were burnt on top and flat like a pancake. We'd followed the 'easy' recipe.
Pav2 turned out very similar. We lowered the temps and they still looked like mini cow shits.
Pav3 turned out half okay. The front ones obviously didn't get as hot so maintained some kind of shape.
Pav4 turned out AMAZING. We used the 'classic' recipe with extra cornflour, vinegar, lemon juice and no water. The secret: 'Moderate' means 120degrees. 'Slow' means 90 degrees.

Man, they were freaking amazing.

Mum doesn't even like pavlova and I generally hate it. But these were amazing! We had a lovely, lovely night. Pop and Margaret came out. Nan came out with Ryan and Sarah. And we ate roast pork and chicken (thanks Nikki) and mini pavs. We laughed and drank and had a great time. We love you Tegan!



Saturday

I posted early on Saturday morning. A lot more happened on Saturday so I feel I should update. I don't really remember what happened on early Saturday; I went and visited Nikki and played with the puppies a bit more. I went for a pretend-bike ride to the bus stop (I told Nikki I'd pick up her ute from the neighbours but I was too lazy to ride in the end so I got dad to drop me {it's a 7km ride}).

Brad helping out in a tackle

We got dressed and headed into town to watch Brad (Nikki's boyfriend) play rugby. League that is. He was playing for Gulgong and we expected to lose by a lot, which would have been sad because I hate watching people get flogged. But they didn't! They played really well and only lost by a couple!

Nikki bought me some crinkle cut chicken chips (my favourite) because I won't get to eat them for a year. We sat at the grandstand and I took some sneaky photos before I ran into Toby; haven't seen him for ages and promptly lost him - but not unlike the usual. I haven't seen Toby since the field days last year, and that was only for about one minute, so we had a bit of catching up. Nikki and Tegan totally cashed in and stole my chicken chips. I only caught them trying to replace them so they looked like they hadn't been eaten. Bitchez!!! Then sat and chatted to Haley Rhodes. She's so cool. She inconveniently (for me) left for the States yesterday for a couple of weeks so that was the extent of our catching up. Nevermind, it was still great.

Haley dropped me at Pop's and Tegan, Nikki and Brad were getting ready for tapas. I wasn't allowed to do my hair because we didn't have time. We got to tapas after a row about who's car we were going to take (one or two; ute or car). Tapas was delicious. We ordered one of everything and before everything even came out, we'd ordered a second round of everything as it wasn't enough to fill our bellies. Ryan (cousin from Sydney) and Sarah (Ryan's girlfriend) came too, which was awesome.

Post - tapas, (and extra olives for Nikki) we headed to Roth's Wine Bar. I'd previously heard great things about Roth's but had honestly never gone because I thought it looked too small. Turns out it opens up to massive outside/inside enclouse out back. THAT's where everyone sits. Mudgee's at the very bum end of the Hunter Valley and as such has wineries to boot. Roth's promotes them, I guess, by selling just about every winery's vintages by the glass or bottle. Delicious. I had Thistle Hill Sparkling Rose. YUM!

Roth's was a little pretentious for what we were seeking - TJ's last Saturday in town deserved a bit of non-pretentious dancing. Plus we didn't know one person there, which was weird for Mudgee (I lie; I knew two people but they actively snobbed me).

So we headed to the 'tah (Waratah Hotel). They had a pretty loud cover band on that played everything standard from AC/DC to Lady Gaga. We danced and drank and went upstairs to the back-to-the-early-00's music pumping very loudly on the restaurant floor-cum-dance floor. Dance dance, drink drink and the occasional (but much more rarely than usual) 'OMG HOW ARE YOU, I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU FOR AGEEEEEEEZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz'.

Ryan is a musician and didn't go much on the Mudgee dance club scene music

Tegan, Sarah and Lizzie (Tegan's best friend) on the <very busy> dance floor

At 1am Tegan said that she wanted to stay and cry, just because she could. That would generally be okay I guess, but I was getting sleepy and I didn't really understand why she needed to stay and cry. Turns out, there were about two tears and they were mosly happy ones.

The crowd started petering off (is that how you spell petering, as in getting smaller and smaller?) and the band played their last song. We shuffled outside to the taxi rank which conveniently has a line a LOT smaller than any other large town's taxi line. AND they have two ladies in charge of making sure everyone stays in line. AND there are seats to wait on.
We got home at 2:30am and Tegan told me three times that there was a girl who she remembers that was in year 1 when she was in year 6. 'IT'S WEIRD' and 'SHE SHOULDN'T be allowed out'. Nevermind the fact that she's 18 and it's just us getting older and older.

Tegan was up before me in the morning (we stayed at Pop's; taxi's aren't an option back to our place!) which is actually a lifetime first. She was in a hurry to get to breakfast with Lizzie and told me I had to stay and search on my hands and knees for Pop's wedding ring in the garden. Fair trade... (?!?!?!) After consulting Poppy re: the location of the ring I immediately decided hand searching wasn't going to cut it. Instead I opted for the 'leave it til later' strategy and offered my services with a gold detector on Tuesday.

At the Gunshop Cafe for lunch; Sally being 'edgy'

Outside the Gunshop cafe; Lai being 'edgy'

Triple exposure; Lai x 3

Ebony Grace - double exposure

Farm times - pretty sure it's a quadruple exposure

Rig 67 - double exposure/splitzer photo

Holding hands by the Cudgegong River; Mudgee






Moolarben mailbox

Mudgee P.O.

Getting the heifers ready to film for Neville's dog sale

Neville and his dog trailer

On the way north - Mudgee to Brisbane

Clare's tea party

close up

TJ's last Saturday

TJ (aka Tegan Jane, my 23yo sister) is moving to the UK on Monday. We're all driving to Sydney together, which means we have to borrow someone else's car as mum's Triton doesn't fit more than 5. Tegan's a nurse and is heading over to fulfil a dream with her best friend Bron, whom she met in Wagga whilst studying to be a nurse. Interesting.......
She's ultimately hoping that she'll marry a Pommy doctor. Fine by me. Maybe he'll pay for me to continue roaming the world at my own peril. Hah. Jokes.


Tegan Jane

Today we're heading in to watch Nikki's boyfriend play football in Mudgee. Ryan (cousin) and his girlfriend (Sarah, who alerted me re: puppies!) arrive this afternoon and we're going to tapas at the clock with TJ's best friend Lizzie. I imagine we'll head to the Waratah or Woolpack post-tapas.

We're looking after a yappy maltese dog at the moment. I got sick of it trying to help me make pancakes, and she doesn't come to her name so I tied her outside to a couple of long ropes so she couldn't run away. She's just chilling out there now. She got to go on an unescorted tour because the rope's about 30m long so she's pretty happy. And I got raspberry pancakes in peace.

Minkey's pups are due tomorrow. Exciting!

I am with puppies

A few days before I arrived home, my cousin's girlfriend Sarah (she's a city girl but she's so cool) posted on facebook about some puppies on the farm. I didn't get too excited because we haven't had puppies for ages.

Turns out, THERE ARE PUPPIES. Lace the kelpie has 6 adorable puppies. Black, and black and tan with white boots. I visit them a lot. They're only a couple of days old and she's a new mum so she's not so keen on us crashing her puppies but she'll get use to us.

It gets better.
Minkey the favourite working dog was looking really fat and lazy yesterday and I told dad he should probably stop feeding her so much. BUT NO. He should! Because she's having pups too! They're due on SUNDAY, so not only do I get to play with six of Lace's pups, but we get Minkey's too! Minkey's more friendly - she goes and works with dad and leaves the pups behind for a few hours so we have free range. Lace's were apparently an accident; nevermind - it's a VERY welcome accident.

The last few days were pretty stressful. Saying goodbye to people, getting rid of excess food that my not-so-foody housemates would have used (I left some chops in the freezer and cheese in the fridge, and some sweet chili sauce), packing everything, cleaning things, organising thing in the house so they were out of the way. Blah blah. The only tears were when I got hung up on twice from the ANZ insurance guys. I gave up because I didn't have time to cry anymore.

I picked Ebony up on Tuesday afternoon, Monica cleaned my teeth (oh so shiny and smooth now), I continued packing my car and then we cooked up a storm. Tacos for dinner and an awesome steak salad thingy for lunch the next day.

6:30am, EG and I drove off. No tears either; Sarah and Monica waved us off and that was it. Twelve hours later we arrived home (Moolarben) and finally got to cuddle the pups. The drive was slow at times (EG's on her L's therefore it was 80km/hour), but really beautiful - everything's still so green from all the rain. We took some videos of different towns so I can make a video of 'Australia' to take to Mongolia. We ate our amazing picnic lunch in Moree and used their crazy automatic door/water/toilet paper dispenser/flusher/hand dryer.

Now I'm at home, which is so nice. It's just such a huge sigh of relief. I've got all my gear from my car and now I'm prioritising things. I've vacuum sealed one bag of essential clothes weighing 6.9kg. Tonight we're having the neighbours (from all around - Stokes' and Swords') over for dinner - mum's been cooking all day.
Tegan leaves on Monday for the UK. It's weird. She'll have a bloody awesome time - it's just so weird it's coincided so nicely that we're leaving at the same time. Mum probably doesn't think so.

Lai made me some beads. My favourite one reads 'M  iss you xo Lai'. I ordered a bracelet to put them on but our mail only comes 3x/week so it's a slow wait!

Leaving Brisbane

I'm starting to get really worried. I'm leaving Brisbane! I still have packing to do! I HAVE to go to the gym or I'll go crazy ( I haven't had time for a week). I get to pick EG up (Ebony Grace; 17yo super cool sister) at 2:30pm but I have a lot to do before then. I've made a list but I can't seem to prioritise it. For example: yes, it is very important to get to BigW to get my Diana film developed just to see what the photos look like. BUT I do realise it's not THAT important.

I'll mull over it for a while longer.

Last night - Lai's farewell dinner. It was great! Great turnout; unfortunate table setting meant it was hard to talk to anyone but the person in front of you. The food was fantastic (if a little over priced and over salted) and the atmosphere great. I got to go for a ride in Martha's new little Mazda (or, new to her) and with Han as well. We chilled out at Lai's for a bit afterwards and I got home at midnight-ish. All in all, a good night. Thankfully incomparable to my farewell night, else Lai and I would get competitive. (okay maybe not, I think we're good enough friends that it doesn't matter PLUS we shared both anyway, which is cool)

Above: eating in action.

I kind of feel like I'm still recovering from Friday night but I know that's not true. My room is vacuumed and empty. I've got little bits of the loungeroom and kitchen to go, as well as my massive pile of things for Vinnies. Cam's coming over tonight to collect my remaining food (he's so generous like that) and I'm hoping I can wake Ebony at 5am and head off as early as possible. I THINK I'll be able to get it all done.

Lai's last day

Okay, it's not really - she leaves the same day I do. But I'm about to head to mundo churrasco to eat all I can from the meat buffet. I was suppose to starve myself from lunchtime but I'm not a friendly person when I'm hungry, so I ate a plum, some biscuits and dip and some ice cream (which has conveniently lessened in quantity since the last time I looked; thanks Monica, from saving me from a brain freeze and extra calories).

My jeans were a massive struggle. I don't imagine it's going to get any easier - eating Mongolia foodstuffs.

I got to spend more time with Bec this afternoon which was lovely! And Lai and I had an awesome lunch date at the gunshop cafe. It's suppose to be amazing but we were unimpressed. Good atmosphere, great menu - overrated food. When a menu says 'ham off the bone', don't feed me 'champagne ham from Coles'. You lose brownie points.

We drank the bottle of wine that Fransie gave me for my birthday; it was absolutely delicious. And then we took a roll of film worth of photos in my Diana in an attempt to find somewhere cheaper to develop my film. It's a Russian camera; it's designed for cold climates. I have to take it with me. I just am worried I won't be able to afford the development. It's not cheap!!! Especially seeing as no one takes analogue photos anymore AND it's going to be in Mongolia. So, if BigW does good tomorrow with the film of Lai and I (and really, how could they not - with such beauty to work with) - it's going to be totally feasible!

My jeans are still tight. I was hoping after sitting in them for a minute or two, they'd be less restrictive. Right now they'd be suitable for a muscle strain or something that requires a very tight compress. SNAKE BITE. They'd be perfect for a snake bite. And I haven't even EATEN yet.

Tomorrow I have a lot of packing to do. All the little things. I get to pick Ebony up, which is fun. Monica's cleaning my teeth and I have NO plans for breakfast, lunch OR dinner. Oh man. Awesome.

Piker

I've spent much of the past year and a half bitching with Simon and Lai about people piking on different events and the etiquette of piking. Last night I became a piker; I feel so bad. I was feeling horrible and tired - self induced, of course. I had a cat nap that was not a good idea. It made me just feel worse. So I piked and I woke up with what I can only described as a hangover hangover. Coupled with procrastination.

I had some chicken and fish flavoured tofu for lunch today. I don't go much on it. I ordered some mushroom rice and it was pretty disappointing. Mind you, the dumplings were delicious.

Lunch and dinner to share today; Sarah's new house is ridiculously cool. Bec and I will be eating so many rice paper rolls tonight. Tomorrow is another dentist appointment (I may as well open up shop), a massage (thanks Bec), gym and packing packing packing.

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

To comment, you have to click on the '0 comments' hyperlink at the end of each post. If someone's already commented, the link will say '2 comments' or '3 comments' etc.

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

It won't pop up straight away as apparently I have to read it before it gets onto the blog.

Lesson to all:
COMMENT please

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!)