Two Long Weekends. One Post.

Weekend of Moving

Saturday

• My parents arrive early and help pack the last of our junk - I mean possessions, attempt to calm me down, buy us coffee, have a quick squiz at the new place and dash off (well, when I say dash, they did hang around for about 4 hours).
• The Friendly Moving Men arrive. And they really were very friendly, and helpful. And rather 'strapping' young lads (*drool*).
• One flight of stairs down, two flights up.
  
• 4 1/2 hours later our old place is practically empty and our new place is populated by boxes.
• We decide a Transformers movie marathon coupled with beer and pizza on the couch are in order.
• We receive our very first noise complaint. At 9:30pm. On a Saturday night. Apparently, even though we are on the top floor, playing our movies that loudly was like 'living on top of a volcano'. Go figure. We haven't heard from them since.
  

Sunday

• Unpacking.
  

Monday

• Went round to the old place to let the cleaners in only to discover that the housemate who should have been out of there on Sunday was only just starting to remove his belongings as we walked in the door.
• Very angry Aesophia shucked her lovely outfit and gorgeous hair (we had intended to let the cleaners in and then head out to breakfast) and helped move the housemate's junk downstairs.
  
• A very sweaty Aesophia finally gets the relaxed breakfast she was originally after.
• JB HiFi for some things we needed. We also walked out with things we didn't really need as well (5 new CDs for me!)
• Hardware store for those handy wall hook things by 3M - the best thing invented for renters EVER.
• More unpacking.
  

Weekend of Easter

Friday

• Slept in.
• Did mostly nothing.
• Oh, and dishes.
  

Saturday

• Went to the Prahran Market to shop for guests coming over on Sunday and had some gloriously different coffee.
• Unpacked shopping and watched Roju play God of War 3 (awesome awesome game - and I got to brush up on my Greek Mythology).
• Went bouldering (that's like rock climbing across instead of up and without the ropes) at Burnley with a friend who then came back home and we played Rock Band until the wee hours.
  

Sunday

• Even though daylight savings gave us another hour we only got up with an hour to spare before my sister and her boyfriend showed up for lunch.
• By the time they left we had enough time to clear up after them, do a few dishes and then relax on the couch for about half an hour before
• Our guests arrived for dinner and more geekiness. Yay!
  

Monday

• Did mostly nothing.
• Oh, and went to the supermarket.
• Watched some Scrubs.

All in all

• After moving house the Easter long weekend was the BEST break ever. Haven't got much to show for it, but loved it nonetheless :)
  

Boxes and exes, exes and boxes

We are Moving House this Saturday. We've hired the movers, we've booked the cleaning. We've sold the washing machine (the new place already has a spanking new one), we've got a new fridge (the current one belongs to the housemate).With any luck it'll all be done and dusted by early Monday afternoon and Moving House will just be a painful memory we don't wish to repeat any time in the near future. Of course, this whole ordeal means that the contents of the house are currently getting boxed up and you can barely move for the things. And they're not at all lightweight either *sigh*

Regardless, as aforementioned, with any luck, this time next week it will all be a distant and only slightly painful memory.

On to more gossipy topics: Last Saturday evening I was supposed to go to the Massive Attack gig at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Sadly our tickets fell through and I no longer had a good enough excuse not to go to a birthday party. I was still going to make my excuses when I received a desperate phone call from the Lovely Lari, gracing us with her presence, down from Shepparton* for the weekend, heading to said birthday party and in need of support**. So come 7 o'clock, she swings past and after a quick pause at the convenience store for some caffeine we made the trek out to Preston (I will admit it's not the hour long drive to Witchy's place, but certainly a long way from the cushy inner eastern suburbs I call home). As they were not expecting us, we were a welcome sight, it was lovely being a 'nice surprise' for a change.

However, we both - the Lovely Lari and myself - walked in and were confronted by our exes. One for each of us. I had seen my ex's car parked out the front, and on reflection should have expected it and prepared for it earlier as my ex and our Friend are pals, but had to look askance to the Lovely Lari, "am I looking ex-boyfriend good tonight?", thank goodness I was.

It was rather awkward. To say the least really. The Lovely Lari's ex was not quite so much of a big deal as mine, in terms of length of history and stature (being quite possibly literally half the size of my ex), however she had not seen him since the split some years earlier... My ex, M, has not been seen by me since our Friend's Thanksgiving party, and before then, another 12 months on the inside. In fact, last I'd seen him was when I was trying to be nice and polite, we'd caught up for a drink and he was attempting to impress upon me the many and wonderful ways in which he had changed for the better. Turns out this time was a variation on a theme.

Just to give you a bit of background (on my ex, because really, this blog is about me, not the Lovely Lari, as Lovely as she is), M and I were together for approximately 2 years. Once upon a time I was madly in love with him (even though he didn't really like Witchy, which should have been a big clue), he was The One for me. For about the first 9 months of our relationship anyway - I stuck it out for the rest of the 2 years in the hopes that with encouragement and basic evolution backing me up, he might change for the better. After that I woke up to the fact that he was not changing like he kept saying he was. He was, in fact, All Talk. Seriously. He had (and still has) opinions on everything. He thinks that because he has seen or witnessed a thing, or once spoke to a guy who did something he is subsequently and expert on the thing and therefore entitled to judge said thing with obstinate vengeance.

So after I got over the awkwardness of seeing him again, I decided that it has certainly been a while and perhaps I should just treat him like any other person again. This attempt seemed to be going well for a little while. We Caught Up and chatted about what we'd been up to, how his family was (his sister got married, cheated [before and during the marriage], got divorced***). And then when we'd finished doing that, being at a party I attempted to join another conversation, only to realise that M was attempting to monopolise my time and be the centre of my attentions, so I had to quite obviously turn away from him to get him to stop talking to me.

And then, after the party had moved from outside (cold) to inside (less cold) and we were all in on the conversation I noticed that he kept trying to comment on everything I said. Just so he could be Involved. He even backed down on something he'd said once I pulled him up on it (one of his ever famous Sweeping Statements), which has never in history ever happened.

All of this coupled with him leaving while I was indisposed in the loo made things very awkward. I'm trying to be Friends with him, and he's trying to impress me. Over 2 years after I broke up with him.

And then it hit me. I realised that he simply has not moved on, grown up, changed or matured since we were together. And not only that, he realises what he's missing and wants back in on the action. And it made me a little bit sad.

The Lovely Lari once postulated to me that it (generally speaking of course) will take a person half as long as the length of a relationship to get over a person. So that if a relationship lasted 2 years, then 12 months later it is reasonable to expect that the previously involved parties have moved on, gotten over things, learned their lessons, whatever.

By all appearances, M has not done this. I know it's not my fault, nor my problem, but I didn't feel that lovely glow of schadenfreude I used to associate with my post-relationship cameos in his life, looking fabulously slim**** and carefree. There was a bit of pity, and a bit of nothing... It was just very strange.

Anyway. Back to the real world. Oh, and boxes... *sigh*

*Or, as she likes to put it, the cunt-ry*****
**It's this Friend we have, he's... difficult... But that's a whole 'nother blog post.
***Mwahahahahahhahahahahahah! *ahem* I never liked her fiancé, he's always been an untrustworthy little worm and pushed her away constantly - totally unsurprised she cheated. Anyway... back to the story.
****I'm at least 10 kilos lighter now that I was when we were together. Go me.
*****It's her own damn fault, she can leave when she wants to, we're certainly not making her stay. Nyer :P

When WitchOne is too stupid to breathe unassisted (or Aesophia's weekend with Witchy)

I have to admit, that is my line, A would never say I was too stupid to breathe unassisted, and in my defence I was coming down with a spectacular flu but here is my take on our weekend of shenanigans!

The weekend was originally supposed to be us along with my kids, going to the Mordialloc Festival and from there possibly home or to a going away party for a friend of mine, depending on time, kids and so on.

Angel boy decided that morning he was too sick to go swimming and so I decided he was too sick to come out for the day, handy as his father who was going for a boys day out was actually going to spend the day at home after some last minute changes. Pixie girl refused to have a sleep prior to going out in the early afternoon and so she was dumped at home too, there will be no bad behaviour in public and if they can't behave at home, they certainly can't behave out can they?


A finally turns up, she's signed her lease (yay, she's not going to be homeless!) and had lunch (I'm sorry WHAT? We are going to a festival, without kids, even with kids, there is food at festivals and it's always interesting! Why oh why would you eat first????) and we are raring to go. Well, I want to be raring but I manage a half arsed W00T instead. I'm so glad it's been mentioned that I offered my GPS because it makes what follows not my fault, man!

We're going through Boronia to get onto Eastlink, I call Eastlink and have A's car added to my account and we chat as we drive. I try to keep an eye out for a turn off that we should take but then all of a sudden we're in Frankston, so, let's say Boronia to Mordialloc via Frankston. Hmmm. As you do. Frankston is exactly where it should be by the way, the beach is still there and the roads are still paved with bogans.

The festival. Ahhh. We share a scone with jam and cream in order not to fill up too fast, we find a calamari cup, dear god! The Rebello Strawberry stand was lovely as they let us start from one end and drink our way to the other, we then bought one of everything, except the strawberry cream stuff. Ewwww. We held up the wood fired oven baked nachos stand and partook of the free pizza while we waited for our nachos, we tried more wine and while Ms Thug Chardonnay is a great name for wine, it doesn't make cats piss taste like Bolly, dahhhling. We loved the Outback Spirit stand with all the chutneys and jams and so on, spent far too much there too. The lemon pressed olive oil was a highlight. Absolutely delish and the old selling it just wouldn't shut up, he was lovely but I seriously don't care how many people buy cases of the stuff to give as Christmas gifts, I still only want ONE bottle. Thanks.

Onto the Fairfield Historic Boathouse, we're laughing we're giggling, we're having a wonderful time and we're at the Studley Park Boathouse. It's Melbourne, it's the Yarra river, why have 2 historic boathouses right next to each other with only 1 listed in the Melways? Hardly our fault! Sharing strawberry champagne, staying until the very last second knowing we are going to be late for dinner at Balsamic but having fun being irresponsible anyway, and I do love a hurry up call, makes me feel like my presence is required for the party to start.

Dinner sigh

A was right, they're the Centrelink Mums, but not in the way she means, they actually work there! It was all kids, ALL KIDS!!! The kids weren't even there! I'm not one to shy away from talking about my cherubs, I love them to pieces but sometimes I like to be out and about, so A and I went out for cigarettes and I flirted with some random men just for laughs and we ate and went home. Sad really. Meal was very average, company was ok, service was non existent and I felt ill.

Home to watch movies, A had more drinks than she admits to during the day and evening which I need to point out and next time we get up to mischief, we don't go out dinner with friends of mine that have kids. Plus I think we'll stay at her place so there is much less driving required.

The following day, we walked miles which when I was fitter, wasn't so far at all really. The cafe is one I've been to many times and I was horrified at how they have fallen down in food quality and service, then poor A went home. Sadly the weekend ended on a lowlight. Except for the fact the A was here and we did have a wonderful time laughing at all the things going wrong!

Let's do it again!! :-)

What WE did on the weekend

There has been some confusion as to who was writing this up. I assumed Witchy would, she assumed I would... It's nearly next weekend now so I figured someone had better do it before what happens this weekend eclipses last weekend and we all forget what happened to begin with.

Again, in point form, because I'm not feeling terribly verbose...

Oh, and I'm sure Witchy will interject with corrections (look, I can't remember everything!), I'm not apologising if I get anything wrong.

Saturday

The plan: I sign my lease, head to Witchone's place of abode, we go to the Mordialloc Festival, Jewels' going away do and then head to a girls' night out and get roaringly sloshed, head back to Witchy's, stagger in to bed, wake up hungover and eat something greasy commiserating each others' predicament before I head home and do boring Sunday things like washing.

What actually happened:

• I signed my very first lease ever! Oh my goodness I'm liable for EVERYTHING!
• Drove to Witchy's place (got a call from Witchy: "are you still coming?!?!" - I was about 5 minutes down the road, sheesh).
• Dropped bag o' stuff off and greeted the adorable children (they're adorable because I don't have to wake up to them at 6am) and Velvet
• Jumped back in the car.
• Ooh, backtrack, on the way to the car Witchy offers the use of her GPS unit. I say, well, you know where you're going right?Famous last words I hear you scoff? Correct.
• She says sure, so off we tootle.
• Down the marvellously expensive yet barely used and much maligned Eastlink. I'd never been on the Eastlink until then, so it was pretty exciting.
  
• We started chatting...
• And before we knew it we were in Frankston.
  
• I got out the Melways - a tad late some might say - and figured out where we were, how far away from where we should have been and how to get there.
• Once we found Mordialloc (20 minutes up the road), we managed to find what was probably the only un-timed free park in town.
• Onward to the festival! It was as every smallish festival should be, crowded, hot, noisy and lots and lots of good food and alcohol to spend our well-earned-but-never-quite-enough money on.
  
• Sweet & savoury preserves, lemon infused olive oil, tortilla, beer, calamari, wine, wood-fired-oven-baked nachos, strawberry bubbly, strawberry liqueur and strawberry port.
• Time to head off to Jewels' thing.
• Back up the Eastlink.
• Second time lucky (Studley Park boathouse? Nope, Fairfield Historical boathouse) we found it and proceeded to share around the strawberry bubbly and socialise.
• Tore ourselves away to head to the girls' night out, you guessed it, back down the Eastlink (yes, I have now seen enough of it).
• Balsamic in the Mecca of the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Eastland, which really should have told me all I needed to know - don't let the fancy pictures fool you.
• We met up with three of the loveliest Centrelink Mums ever. You know the kind, can't talk about anything other than their children and husbands/partners/exes - even on what is supposed to be a debaucherous evening out where you forget all that stuff and let it all hang out (where appropriate, this isn't a hens' night).
• The most exciting part of the evening was joining Witchy outside to watch her smoke a cigarett.
• After three cigarettes, some very average food and worse service it was decided that I would start feeling sick, so we could actually have an enjoyable debaucherous evening on our own (Roju has filming rights), turns out Witchy started feeling sick all on her lonesome, which was both handy and unfortunate.
• We got home (me asking along the way, seriously, why are you friends with people like these?!)
• Halfway through 10 Things I Hate About You, Witchy piked. I waited 'til it was finished.

Sunday

• Breakfast at a lovely little cafe in The Basin (not the one in your bathroom). Sadly the food, coffee and service did not match the setting.
• Dropped in at my parents' place on the way home for food, little cousins and conversation.
  
• Got home, showered, left again.
• Visited the cousin and had what was my second drink for the entire weekend.
• Went to the Lucky Coq and had my third drink with some friends, for for a birthday celebration.
• Home.
• Bed.

Overall

• What started off as a fantastically fabulous weekend, sadly lost its fizz around dinner time on Saturday... We'll have to try it again sometime - this time with better food, more alcohol and without the Centrelink Mums.
  

Stuff and nonsense.

Wow, what a week so far. We ignore November and December because they were my first 2 months in this job but Jan = 15k, Feb = 30k and March is on track for 60k.

I'm in sales. Figures are all. I just wish I could count better.

Anyhoo, work is taking over my life, at a time when I want to be all into the Lara Bingle/Michael Clarke fiasco (who doesn't love a good bust up with nudey pictures and rude hand gestures?), I want to help Velvet start up a new business and get out of his crap job, I want to sort out Aus Post with their shit customer service in regard to lost mail and I want to read some good books. Here I am, at work. *sigh*

Oh, I'd love to spend some quality time with my kids too, just for laughs and stuff. Maybe stop Angel boy from going too feral. Starting school was not the greatest idea, they teach bad stuff and I'm not seeing a great deal of reading or counting improvement.

So, this weekend, A and I are going out! We are taking the kids as Velvet is also going out and apparently a boys day out with go-karting, pubs and the casino isn't kid friendly. I honestly don't see how but I'll let it slide this time and he can pay it back later. hehe

A doesn't know it yet but if she is staying at my place then it's fabulous as we have the Mordialloc Festival during the day followed by an evening saying goodbye to and celebrating the birthday of a good friend of mine, Jewels. She's going to live in Nepal for a year and so we must go say goodbye!!

It helps that both Jewels and A are vego, no, I don't know why, I just think all vego's like all religious people, should know each other by first name and be friends. Am I unreasonable? Possibly. Do I care? No.

See you next week!

What I did on my Labour Day long weekend

Saturday:

• ENJO demo
• Coffee at my cousin's place with his recently-out-of-hospital partner
  
• Braved the weather - navigating a marvellous detour to cross the railway line as all the underpasses were flooded - to get to a friends' going away do
• Continued said do at the GB (I won the best-of-three-rock-paper-scissors-who-gets-to-drink match) with a couple of beers
• Grill'd for a late dinner

Sunday:

• Fresh bagels with delicious home grown tomatoes for breakfast
• Drove through more weather to Hepburn Springs (just past Daylesford)
• Lunch at Reuben's
• Bought a hat
• Coffee at Breakfast and Beer
• Assassin's Creed when we got home (turns out Roju loves it when I steal the controller and get all geeky on him)
  

Monday:

• Trained into the city with the lovely Roju
• Coffee with said Roju
• Mag Nation and loads of magazines waiting for friends
• Undies Monday
• Lunch at Camy Shanghai Dumpling House on Tattersalls Lane
  
• 1000 £ Bend for a coffee and the Letterhead exhibition (one artist per letter of the alphabet - pretty awesome)
• Attempted a couple more galleries but they were closed (what do they think this is, a public holiday?!)
• Found a cool Japanese t-shirt shop
• Max Brenner - Mexican Spicy Hot Chocolate (dark chocolate with a blend of red chilli, nutmeg, pepper & cinnamon)

All in all:

• A lovely weekend, caught up with friends, got to be all lovely-dovey with Roju all to myself for a change and got out and about. All in the space of three days - it was almost like being on holiday!

A small boast and other short stories.

In this, the first 3 days of the month I have sold almost 15k of product, now, taking into account that fact I earn 1% commission, that's sweet fuck all but, taking into account 15k is all I sold last month I anticipate this months crappy commission cheque to be less crappy than last months.

Just sayin'.

Now, remember that crush I talked about a while ago? Good. He's back. Hmm. I don't care now. So there.

What else is going on? I'm unwell, I thought it was hayfever, it hung around like a bad (lack of) smell, and then I got worse and thought maybe it's a headcold, but now it's even worse and I think it might be the flu. See sales figures and payment terms above, I can't take time off and so I shall keep plugging on. Cheers for me.

I need a new car. I am driving a small Hyundai which I don't own as I don't own a car but that's ok because I have a fiancee with 2 cars and since he can't drive both I steal one every day. He may or may not realise this and I doubt he'd care in any case but the fact is he has never said that I may drive his cars. Nevertheless, I need a new car. I'd prefer new, I like the Getz and there's a car out with a shoe rack in it, I'd like that one, if it came in blue. The car not necessarily the shoe rack however, having the shoe rack match the car may not be bad at all. Unless the car interior is another colour adn then having the shoe rack in the car but matching the outside of the car could very well get confusing after a few drinks when I'm looking for different shoes to wear and realise they are still in the car. In the shoe rack.

I really like the idea of a shoe rack in the car. How many pairs do you think it can hold? Would I start leaving for work shoeless because I've left my shoes in the car? Or would it be possible to install a shower and coffee maker in the car as well so I could just get up in the morning, get the kids going and then stagger out to the car to get ready for work? Time saving, especially if I also had a chauffeur so I could shower while tootling along the freeway.

No, that way lies madness, madness I tell you!!

Has anyone noticed small children are demanding? 4am I wander out, check the house, search for the missing fiancee (youngest childs bed) and have a cigarette before wandering back to bed. Youngest child (Pixie girl) comes running out of my bed (hadn't realised she was in there) and yells at me. ME! She's 18 months old, I'm 33 and she can just quit the role reversal now I say, as I hurriedly put my cigarette out and meekly carry her back to my bed to continue the (apparently) interrupted cuddle we were having in my sleep.

Now. Back to work you.