on being unemployed

i thought i would miss working. not so much at my old work (although my clients, definitely), cos the atmosphere there had really got to something unhealthy, but going into work and seeing people. but after the first day, where there was a moment of panic over being unemployed, i was actually fine. it seems i have found a routine, consisting of job searching, networking, being visible on linkedin, going to meetings on aspects of job searching, and studying. i thought i'd have time to meet up with friends for lunch and coffees but actually, not really. i have to tell people i don't have time and they're clearly surprised, but looking for a job is a full-time job and i'm really not planning on staying unemployed for long.

Bondi Beach

we spent our first week in Australia in Bondi Beach. not because of the beach (in the end, i didn't even get to swim!), but because that's where my sister lives and it would be easier to stay nearby than have to go in and out of town every day. after our red centre side-strip, we were supposed to stay in the Manly Beach area - unfortunately, there was a bit of an accommodation mishap, which led us not to stay there after all. 

lots of people prefer Manly to Bondi but i must say i really liked Bondi. i can see why people like Manly but to me it seemed a little more snobbish, whereas Bondi was just nicely easy-going. for some strange reason, it wasn't actually overrun with tourists - in fact, the beach was pretty empty - but maybe that was due to the not so good weather.

incompetence

i was at the supermarket and was just finishing at the checkout, i.e. had put all the groceries into the bag and given the cashier the money, and it went downhill from there. she started talking with a colleague about something or other and when the machine chimed at her, she just clicked ok and then realised she hadn't actually put in my money. she was apologetic but we had to redo the whole thing. so i took everything out of the bag, gave it back to her, she did her thing...and came up with another amount than the original one. from 16 euros we were now at over 20. well that wasn't normal. she looked at her screen, looked at my groceries, tried to figure out where she'd made a mistake, deleted an entry, but we were still above 19. 

i could see this was going to take forever so i asked her to just repeat the entire operation once more. she argued she couldn't, as that required her supervisor's authorisation and would take time. i said that was fine. her supervisor came over, she explained the whole thing to her and the woman said there couldn't be a mistake as the machine automatically calculated. my point was that i didn't much mind how much it actually cost but would like to know the amount was correct and would thus appreciate it if the whole operation could be redone. she acquiesced and for the second time, i took everything back out of my bag. the final amount was 22 euros! at this point, having made sure it was done properly, i just paid. the way i figured,  a 6-euro item clearly hadn't gone through the first time. but still, 3 check-outs and 3 different amounts, ridiculous. not to mention the time the whole thing took...

the wedding

S. only proposed to his girlfriend back in November, so it was a bit unexpected to get a wedding invite just before Xmas, for just 4 weeks later! however, i don't think i could see myself not going. 

4 of us flew to the UK, drove a rental for about a hour and found the wedding location which was, true to the information received, freezing cold. the ceremony was quite short, followed by pictures and a tour of the building, which we would probably have enjoyed a lot more if it'd been warmer. 

the next day was spent in a nice cottage in the Peak District, which would have been even lovelier if i hadn't been ill and cold, so while the others went on a nice walk, i stayed inside playing games with another friend. it then snowed in the evening and we woke up to a white landscape and it took 15 mns and all of us to get the car back onto the road from the down-facing hill it was parked on.

sounds of silence

based on a friend's advice, we'd managed to move our Sounds of Silence dinner to the 31st, and it was magical. the dinner itself wasn't that amazing but having dinner in the desert, at equal distance between Uluru and Kata Tjuta, from sunset to star-rise and then fully under the stars, was truly an experience. there was some aboriginal dancing and didgeridoo playing, and the local astronomer came by to show us some of the visible stars. while the planets were mostly invisible, as was the moon and the Southern Cross at that time, the sky was clear enough that we could see not only the Milky Way but also the Magellan Clouds! there were also shooting stars (i saw 4) and just the general feeling that we were nothing, when faced with the immensity of space. absolutely an amazing New Year's eve.

the red centre

one thing i had insisted on was that if i was going to fly halfway across the globe to Australia, i was definitely going to see something that couldn't be seen anywhere else in the world. enter Uluru. i am so glad i put my foot down, cos it really was the best part of the trip. amazingly, upon getting there i wasn't quite sure what all the fuss was about but walking all the way around it the next day, and hearing the stories of the native population, it was totally worth it.

not seeing L.

before leaving for Oz, i'd got in touch with L.'s old best friend in an attempt to locate him - seen as i was unlikely to go back to Oz anytime soon, i thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up, and i wasn't going to let a minor detail like him having broken off all contact 4 years ago stop me. but when i talked to D., he strongly advised against trying to get in touch. last time he'd seen him, L. had gone reasonably psychotic on him and he couldn't see that this was a good idea - as far as D. was concerned, L. was now potentially dangerous. 

i heard what he said and i agreed with him that it would probably do more harm than good, but i couldn't help thinking i'd bump into him nonetheless. after all these years of bumping into people who looked like him in different parts of the world, it seemed odd that i wouldn't meet him in his own country. yet, that is exactly what happened. and when i saw the homeless people on George Street, i couldn't help think maybe one of them was L. and it made me so sad. i really hope he's ok.

summer in Australia

as my sister moved to Australia a couple of years ago, off we went to visit her for Christmas. it was great to see her and spend time with her, but the weather really didn't do its part. what happened to the hot 35°C and clear blue skies? out of ten days in Sydney, the top temperature was 25, we only had one full day of uninterrupted sunshine, then 5 days of partly cloudy and 4 days of rain, rain, rain!