Hard to believe on this day two years ago I moved to Amsterdam and I am now living on the other side of the world.

I have been wanting to write you all since the end of last week when I was offered a 6-8 week temp job!! The reason I have been putting it off is simply because I am still trying to figure out what I do. After a few days training (paid) I can kind of being to explain. I am working for one of the biggest companies in Australia (email me if you want their name/I figure with so much trouble on the net nowadays I best not name them) in their correspondence department. Australia has a very high proportion of share ownerships by all kinds of investors. My role is to answer shareholder queries by letter/email. I will need to investigate issues. It is definitely one of the more grown up jobs I have had! This week they have been teaching us all about the rights of shareholders, what they can do and of course learning about the Australian stock market. The company I am working for are very good to their employees. Sadly I won't get to enjoy many of the perks because I am only a temp but it is still reassuring to know I will be well looked after regardless. Also there is about 700 people in the office so I am hoping to make some friends! Will keep you posted as the job goes on.

I had a wonderful last couple of days with Amanda Panda. We spent a few hours at the Royal Botanical Gardens (I think I might host a birthday picnic there!) and the ANZAC War Memorial. Both were very impressive. That evening we had pints at the rather fantastic Curtain House which has a fab rooftop bar. I look forward to returning there for more drinks and their rooftop cinema series that starts in the summer. We finished off the evening with an average Wagamamas. My faithful number 43 was not up to scratch. Saturday morning Amanda Panda left far too early and far too soon. We promised it would not be that long again till we saw each other again. Since returning back to the US of A she has also realized that this is the longest we have spent since we started college! Crazy.

I am looking forward to a busy weekend with what is meant to be a lot of sunshine. Tomorrow night I am going to the Nest (theatre company I worked for) for drinks with some of the cast. Speaking of the cast I have put the lead and I on hold. We were spending too much time together and I was not meeting people! I think he is not impressed but he is going to have to deal. I am only here for 12 months (10 months to go) and I need to make the very most of it! Hopefully its not uncomfortable tomorrow night. Saturday I am finally going to go explore St Kilda. It is suppose to be a wonderful combination of Coney Island meets Brighton. I can't wait! In the late afternoon I am going to a friend of a friends barbecue. On Sunday my neighbourhood is having a all day festival with lots of live music and food stalls. It will be great because they are going to pedestrianize the main street near me for the event so it will be easy to walk around from stall to stall to venue and so on.

One final thing I will leave you with is a YouTube link. It is a 8 1/2 minute clip of the winner of Ukraine's Got Talent doing something rather special.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518XP8prwZo

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