Going Mental

Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like your head is going in a million different directions and everyone wants a little piece of you??  Today was one of those days for me.  I feel like my brain has run a mental marathon.  Maybe it's just under excercised from all the vegging out I've done in the last few months.  I seriously just want to put on my "fat pants", curl up on the couch, and have someone spoon feed me my dinner while watching episode after episode of anything on HGTV or Animal Planet. 

YUMMY

Dinner at Toko was awesome and I was able to take some pics.  We had tempura fried soft shell crab with wasabi mayo, braised scallops with pickled cucumber and jalapeno garlic, grilled mushrooms with honey butter and an awesome selection of sushi to include ahi tuna, wild salmon, baramundi, and pacific oysters.  For dessert, white chocolate panacattoa with macerated berries and passionfruit foam. 

Here are some pics:

So good.  Almost as lovely as just having a some time alone with my Aussie.  The excellent dinner was just the icing on the cake.

Belated Valentine's Dinner

My Aussie and I are going the non-traditional route this year and celebrating our Valentine's Day tonight.  On the actual day, it was my first day of work and I was exhausted and just didn't feel up to battling the masses for a reservation, getting dressed up, etc.  So tonight we are going to this awesome sushi restaurant called Toko in Surry Hills. 

The only sushi I've had so far here is "sushi train" which is okay, but not the real deal.  For those of you that haven't tried a sushi train establihment, it's exactly as it sounds.  You sit at this bar and individually plated little dishes of sushi move past you on this conveyer belt.  You simply take the dishes that look good to you as they pass by, collect your plates at the end, and then pay based on your plates.  The plates are color coded and some cost more then others.  It's a nice way to get a good sushi fix but by no means an amazing sushi experience.

Toko has it all- the ambiance, the amazing cocktails and saki, and the menu looks incredible.  It'll be my first sushi experience since moving here and I'm so excited.  If it's not too crowded, I'll take pics of what I order (but I don't want to be "that girl").  If you want to check it out, visit their website here. 

I hope to have a lovely evening with my Aussie and I hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm Back

I'm back and boy, am I ever.  I took a bit of a hiatus with landing the new job and I'm happy to announce that I am back in all forms.  Back with new zest and new zeal.  My first week of work went great and it flew by.  I'm supposed to have three weeks of training but I'm doing so well that it might just be a couple more days and I'm on my own.  I just received my first paycheck too, which my Aussie and I are already allocating to the appropriate parts of our new budget. 

I had a great couple of weekends since I last blogged as well.  Last weekend was the Good Vibes festival.  A group of us went and although it rained all day, the shows were great.  I saw The Ting Tings, Kelis, Alo Black, Phoenix, and Ludacris, plus a number of awesome DJs.  This weekend we went to the beach, had friends over for a BBQ and then just vegged and got ready for the week on Sunday. 

And on an awesome high note, I was cleared today medically by my GP so the medical check for my new visa application is complete.  My Aussie also discovered that the FBI charged our credit card for my background check on Feb. 10th so hopefully I'll be getting those results back soon.  So all that's left is my letter of clearance from NY State Department of Criminal Justice and we can submit the application.

So it looks like Mom and Dad were right.  Everything will work itself out in its due time.  You can't rush it, manipulate it or control it.  And although I hate to admit this, I do know it's true.  You can plan but be prepared to throw out those plans and start over.  Or at least save those plans in a color-coordinated and properly labeled file for another time...

Bittersweet

I had my second job interview today and it went really well.  So well in fact that within two hours the catering company called me back and offered me the job.  I was riding the bus on the way home from the interview when I got an email from a friend that a mutual good friend of ours passed away last night in a car accident.  All I can think of right now is that I need to count my blessings, every one of them.  I look back on these last few weeks and all my gripes about not having a job, not having money, not being stimulated enough and it's so incredibly trivial and ridiculous in the grand scheme of things.  I have an amazing family, my health, strong friendships and a partner in life that loves me for who I am and despite all my anal idiosyncricies and hard-headedness.  I am so blessed.

Sending love, prayers and strength to A. today.  Some of my fondest memories living in Amelia Island include you and G.  He will be missed so much.

Updates

I should have posted yesterday but my Aussie took a sick day so we could watch the Superbowl together.  I was really excited about having the day alone together and also having a little piece of Americana with the Superbowl being on.  I was rooting for the Steelers because I have a lot of friends that like them but truthfully I had no emotional connection to either team really.  I was most interested in the commercials and the halftime show.  I thought the halftime show was great.  The Black Eyed Peas were awesome and the surprise performance of Usher was super cool.  The biggest disappointment was that they didn't show the US commercials here, we had Australian ones instead.  And they sucked.  So I'll have to go online to find out what everyone thought the best commercials were.

We also finally got a break in the record high temperatures.  On Sunday, it literally went from 106 degrees to about 73 degrees in one hour.  It was the freakiest thing.  We left the house to go to Star City Casino to watch the Silva/Belfort UFC fight and by the time we were walking in to the casino, I was freezing.  But it feels great now.  The best part about this weather is that I won't sweat when I wear my suit to my SECOND JOB INTERVIEW tomorrow!!  Woohoo!!!

I have another interview with the catering company that I've mentioned before so hopefully this is it.  Please cross your fingers, channel good vibes, say a prayer, etc. because I really, really need this to be it.  Wish me luck!!

I Think I See Light!?!

Yay!!! It's Friday!!!  In all fairness, it's Friday every day for me and has been for the last two months however it really is Friday for all those hardworking Aussie's I live with.  In about two hours, my Aussie and the roomies will all be free and ready to grab a couple of drinks and I'll have fellow human contact for a solid two days.

On another great note, I think there might be a light at the end of my unemployment tunnel.  I got a call on Wednesday from that catering company I mentioned and the position that I originally applied for is still in progress as far as getting the appropriate people to sign off, a formal description generated, package established, etc. but they mentioned another role that had opened.  So they are supposed to call me today to set up a second interview next week.  Now it is almost 4:45 PM here so I'm not confident that I'll get the call today but I'm starting to realize that although Australia is a helluva huge country, it still is an island and people here operate on "island time" for sure.  So I'm not going to get freaked about it; if anything I'll call them tomorrow to remind them.  Annoying but I guess I have to acclimate.

So in celebration of this potentially awesome opportunity, I took Bailey to Coogee today.  We went to our favorite spot, Gordon's Bay, and did some rock climbing, had lunch and of course swam and tossed the ball around.  It was great.  Bailey is now pooped and passed out on the floor next to me.  Here are some pics to illustrate.  See you next week!!

Bailey on our rock, looking out to sea.

He gets his own towel. Ha!

I'm in his sun.  Major tanning faux pas.

And here is the end result of massive day at the beach.  A bathed and droopy eyed Bailey.

Wildlife Photos

As you know, I've been getting in a lot of walks with Bailey during the last few weeks and finally just started taking my camera along with me.  There is so much incredible wildlife in this country, some of which us state-siders would only see in zoos.  Most of the shots I get in the park we walk in is of birds but I got in some arachnid shots too (those are actually in my house, ick).

Here are black swans which I've never seen before.  I have yet to see a white swan, only black ones.

These were a pair of cockatoos I saw on the power line on the way to the park.  Just chillin'.

 And here is another one hanging out in the tree.  It's really cool in the early AM to see these guys flying in a big flock.  They are really noisy though.

And here is a daddy long legs in the corner of the kitchen ceiling.  It's about 4 inches long which is hard to tell in this photo.  At my Aussie's insistence, I do try to not kill them as they eat mosquitos, etc.  It's only when they come down to my level that I take off my flip-flop and demolish them.  It's funny, my brother used to eat these things when he was a toddler.  Did you know they are actually one of the most poisonous spiders in existence?  Their mouths are just to tiny to pierce our skin and kill us.  Awful!!!

And last but not least, here is a lion I saw in the wild.  Hee hee....

Inspiration

I just finished reading the last two days worth of blogs from my friend M.'s blog, Shooting the Moon, and got a good dose of inspiration.  I think about her a lot lately because she went through quite a bit of character and strength building last year, and she also is an actor which I find to be an extremely gutsy profession.  I feel like my recent move to Sydney is definitely requiring strength and patience and I currently have no profession.

I was reflecting over the weekend on how I have been rejected on a few different job applications and simply not heard from a few others and I really take those things to heart.  I've been very fortunate in my career history to have only been passed over on one job that I applied for.  All the other jobs I applied for, I landed straight away and had great success at.  It seems that all the right doors have opened up for me at all the right times so this recent barrage of closed doors and even no doors is really bringing me down.  Reading M.'s blogs about 'finding your bliss and doors open' and her most recent blog about being an actor brought me some peace and some inspiration to get back on my horse and kick some ass out of rejection. 

I logged back into my job posting website account and just had a marathon application session.  There were heaps of good postings today and I literally applied to 8 new jobs in the last two hours.  I feel awesome!!!  And in this awesome-ness, I decided to take a break from the apartment search.  I'm really two weeks too early to even be looking so all I'm doing is looking at places I can't have and it's causing stress and mild bouts of depression over my entire situation.

Instead, I went and got my filling replaced this morning and I'm going to catch up on some laundry, do a little reading and when the temperature drops down a bit from 97 degrees, I'm going to take Bailey out for a nice long walk.  These are things (with the exception of doing laundry) that bring me total bliss.  I love getting lost in a book and there are few things greater than walking through the woods and parks with Bailey, watching him rub his back in the grass or run ahead of me smelling trees and flowers, all the while looking back to make sure I'm close.  So I'm going to find my bliss today and see what doors may open when there were none.  Thanks, M.