Unfortunately my predictions from my last blog for the most part were true. Last Friday work said that the busy period has come to an end and they won't need me full time anymore. They had me come in one day this week and as of right now am needed two days next week. As you can imagine this is not nearly enough to keep me going so I am actively looking for new work. I am hoping with 9 weeks of experience at an Australian company now that will help. Thankfully last weeks work will pay this months rent which is great! I love paying my rent in Australian dollars versus dipping into my British savings!
Thanksgiving last weekend was a huge success! We started with a cocktail hour at about two. The Canadian couple brought a block of brie which they dressed in sun dried tomatoes and put it in the oven for 10 minutes. Once it hit gooey perfection we dipped crackers into it. Um yes just as good as it sounds. Around four we sat down for dinner and all the food was so, so good! My 16 hour marinated in honey sweet potatoes were a success! After dinner I took a turkey induced nap! After a refreshing sleep we played this crazy board game that went on for hours. We had a blast! Oh and of course enjoyed homemade pumpkin and pecan pie! Sadly an after dinner swim did not happen. I am so glad I got to celebrate Thanksgiving out here with such lovely people and such scrumptious food.
I was out for one of the Swedish networking events on Wednesday. I can honestly say I spoke Swedish 90% of the evening! It was a really great feeling. I have also been roped in to volunteering my time and assistance at the Swedish Churches Christmas Bazaar! Something I am happy to do as I love all things Swedish Christmas! There is also a chance I will be playing the fool or well the clown for a few hours. Will keep you posted. Also the Church is hosting a Santa Lucia night and a Scandinavian Christmas Carol event too. I plan to go to both. Continuing on the Swedish theme I finished The Millennium Trilogy last week which I was devastated to finish. I am going to miss all the characters so much! Ohhhh and one last Swedish related thing. I finally saw Låt den rätte komma in (Let The Right One In) the other night. I am not a fan of horror films in general but had heard very good things about this and it certainly is not your traditional horror film. I am dreading the American remake next year.
Tonight I am going to be seeing the new Coen brother film with the other American girl from my book club. I ended up joining that retro film group I talked about in my last entry and will be using my membership tonight for the first time! She is taking me to a popular Thai restaurant in the CBD beforehand which I am looking forward to. Tomorrow I am going to be meeting up with some friends from London who just moved here (he is Australian, she is American) at a Spanish fiesta near me! Lots of live music and food stands. Looking forward to it as I love all food Latino! It will also be good to catch up with the friends as I have not seen them since they hosted a wonderful Friendsgiving last year. Later in the evening I am going to a potluck dinner that one of my Swedish friends is having. Not sure what I am making or contributing yet.
Next week is my second book club. I still have half of the book to finish. I am enjoying it somewhat but it is also so hard to read! I can't remember the last time a book took me so long to finish! A week from today I am finally meeting a friend of a friend for drinks at one of the many rooftop bars in the CBD. We have been Facebooking for sometime so it will be good to finally meet up. And then on the Saturday I am going to a gay choral pop concert with my friend Shane! Another friend of a friend is singing in that and will be good to meet him as he is involved with a lot of theatre out here and would like to pick his brain about it.
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Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The problem with blogging is that if you miss a couple of weeks those couple of weeks can turn into a couple more if your not careful. Blogging can be very addicting but also sometimes something you don't have time to devote the energy to. At almost three weeks since I last updated I figure it was high time I got back into it! Especially as I have lots to share with you.
First order of business is to tell you about the Halloween party I went to that I talked about in my last entry. For those of you who are curious I went as a mouse. The party itself was at my new book club friends place. She has since left to move closer in to the city which is such a shame because her place was great! Unfortunately though it was in a kind of no mans land. The party itself was good. It was almost all American expats with their significant Australian other. I was one of three single people there? A personal highlight of the party for me was all the amazing cupcakes and American candy! Good thing I had been well good all week and was able to indulge. None the less I did meet some nice people and look forward to their next networking event. Sadly I am going to be missing there Thanksgiving picnic this weekend because I will be going to my first ever baby shower on Sunday! And....in December I will be going to my second! The first is for one of the Swedish girls I have befriended. The other is for the American girl I met working on 1984. Looking forward to them both.
The day after the Halloween party I went and met up with a new friend I had been put in touch with through another friend back in London. We had met once before. This time we went and got brunch at a fantastic new restaurant near me. I had a Gorgonzola tort! Yum! He then took me to the fantastic retro cinema near my house to see the new Woody Allen film Whatever Works which I enjoyed. And as for the cinema inside. BEAUTIFUL! It is part of a group called the Palace Cinema which restores old art deco theatres in Australia. I am going to be joining them soon. For $19 a year you get to see a free film on your birthday and when you join and all films at their cinemas for $12 plus a friend pays that price too. Very good value and I just don't get to the cinema enough so this would be a good boost. Great timing too as Oscar season is just around the corner.
Last Wednesday my friend Lynn and I went to one of the 'hottest' restaurants in Melbourne called Cutler & Co. She has moved to New Zealand since then and wanted to have one last killer meal in this great restaurant city before leaving. It was fantastic! We shared our starter which was (I am taking these descriptions off of their website) : the salad Lyonnaise. A plate of of charcuterie with the traditional frisee salad : cubes of smoked tongue, garlic sausage, some crispy panchetta, a long thin strip of pig's ear and a scattering of confit duck gizzards. The poached egg is a duck yolk that's been lacquered with a thin, hard shell of bruleed sugar for additional wow factor. For my main I had Line caught snapper, broad beans, glazed shallots, and potato ailoli. The fish was cooked perfectly! For dessert we shared whipped ricotta cheesecake, pumpkin seed crumble. This was all washed down with aperol (yay!) blood orange spritzers which were fantastic. I am sad to see Lynn go as I have enjoyed our 'grown up dinner outings'.
Friday some of my colleagues and I went to the convent across the street from us that hosts various events through the summer. Every Friday through till February they will be hosting food and craft stalls. All the crafts have to be made within Australia and with locally sourced materials. Sadly though I did not find the particularly great. The food on the other hand was. I stumbled upon a brother and sister from Los Angeles who were making Mexican style street food from scratch!! I had one chicken and one pork soft taco with their fantastic watermelon and guava juice. I look forward to going back again.
Saturday I went on a big walking mission to explore other areas near me. I also finally joined the library near me which has a copy of my first book for book club! It is not great so far but I am not giving up on it. In the afternoon I went and got a $10 trim which turned into a chop sadly. But it is growing on me and with the very, very hot weather (it has been (35C/94F) for a week it does feel good and I can still do some things with it. And it is much healthier and will grow faster I have to remember. Lynn and I then went and had see you bubble tea which I had not had since I tried it my first time in China Town, Boston years ago. Better then I remembered and hope it won't be such a long gap till I have it again! That evening much later I went to go meet a friend from 1984 for a drink to catch up. I convinced the bartender to let me have some of the homemade hibiscus cordial (he was hiding it) with my champagne which was fantastic. It was only meant to be a few drinks but somehow I managed being convinced to go to a house party near me and ended up staying out til 6AM! It had been quite sometime since I did that and it was fantastic!!
This week has been more good food with $4 pizza on Tuesday and Thai food last night on a terrace. I am not sure how much longer I have my temp job. For example they said once again I was ahead in my work so was not needed today hence why I am writing you all in the middle of the day on a Thursday. I am going to try and get a concrete answer out of them tomorrow how much more work they have for us. I need to be realistic and figure out what step to take next.
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First order of business is to tell you about the Halloween party I went to that I talked about in my last entry. For those of you who are curious I went as a mouse. The party itself was at my new book club friends place. She has since left to move closer in to the city which is such a shame because her place was great! Unfortunately though it was in a kind of no mans land. The party itself was good. It was almost all American expats with their significant Australian other. I was one of three single people there? A personal highlight of the party for me was all the amazing cupcakes and American candy! Good thing I had been well good all week and was able to indulge. None the less I did meet some nice people and look forward to their next networking event. Sadly I am going to be missing there Thanksgiving picnic this weekend because I will be going to my first ever baby shower on Sunday! And....in December I will be going to my second! The first is for one of the Swedish girls I have befriended. The other is for the American girl I met working on 1984. Looking forward to them both.
The day after the Halloween party I went and met up with a new friend I had been put in touch with through another friend back in London. We had met once before. This time we went and got brunch at a fantastic new restaurant near me. I had a Gorgonzola tort! Yum! He then took me to the fantastic retro cinema near my house to see the new Woody Allen film Whatever Works which I enjoyed. And as for the cinema inside. BEAUTIFUL! It is part of a group called the Palace Cinema which restores old art deco theatres in Australia. I am going to be joining them soon. For $19 a year you get to see a free film on your birthday and when you join and all films at their cinemas for $12 plus a friend pays that price too. Very good value and I just don't get to the cinema enough so this would be a good boost. Great timing too as Oscar season is just around the corner.
Last Wednesday my friend Lynn and I went to one of the 'hottest' restaurants in Melbourne called Cutler & Co. She has moved to New Zealand since then and wanted to have one last killer meal in this great restaurant city before leaving. It was fantastic! We shared our starter which was (I am taking these descriptions off of their website) : the salad Lyonnaise. A plate of of charcuterie with the traditional frisee salad : cubes of smoked tongue, garlic sausage, some crispy panchetta, a long thin strip of pig's ear and a scattering of confit duck gizzards. The poached egg is a duck yolk that's been lacquered with a thin, hard shell of bruleed sugar for additional wow factor. For my main I had Line caught snapper, broad beans, glazed shallots, and potato ailoli. The fish was cooked perfectly! For dessert we shared whipped ricotta cheesecake, pumpkin seed crumble. This was all washed down with aperol (yay!) blood orange spritzers which were fantastic. I am sad to see Lynn go as I have enjoyed our 'grown up dinner outings'.
Friday some of my colleagues and I went to the convent across the street from us that hosts various events through the summer. Every Friday through till February they will be hosting food and craft stalls. All the crafts have to be made within Australia and with locally sourced materials. Sadly though I did not find the particularly great. The food on the other hand was. I stumbled upon a brother and sister from Los Angeles who were making Mexican style street food from scratch!! I had one chicken and one pork soft taco with their fantastic watermelon and guava juice. I look forward to going back again.
Saturday I went on a big walking mission to explore other areas near me. I also finally joined the library near me which has a copy of my first book for book club! It is not great so far but I am not giving up on it. In the afternoon I went and got a $10 trim which turned into a chop sadly. But it is growing on me and with the very, very hot weather (it has been (35C/94F) for a week it does feel good and I can still do some things with it. And it is much healthier and will grow faster I have to remember. Lynn and I then went and had see you bubble tea which I had not had since I tried it my first time in China Town, Boston years ago. Better then I remembered and hope it won't be such a long gap till I have it again! That evening much later I went to go meet a friend from 1984 for a drink to catch up. I convinced the bartender to let me have some of the homemade hibiscus cordial (he was hiding it) with my champagne which was fantastic. It was only meant to be a few drinks but somehow I managed being convinced to go to a house party near me and ended up staying out til 6AM! It had been quite sometime since I did that and it was fantastic!!
This week has been more good food with $4 pizza on Tuesday and Thai food last night on a terrace. I am not sure how much longer I have my temp job. For example they said once again I was ahead in my work so was not needed today hence why I am writing you all in the middle of the day on a Thursday. I am going to try and get a concrete answer out of them tomorrow how much more work they have for us. I need to be realistic and figure out what step to take next.
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