Oh and some updates

So what's new in the life of K?

Not a whole lot really.

Uni's back this week, 4 good subjects, one dodgy one, last semester's marks very good (D's were better humph), best I've ever done!

Work's going along swimmingly, am now familiar enough with most people to actually have minor arguments with them , mainly based around the fact that I don't write someone off because they are quiet and I don't believe that being quiet means you have no personality. Why don't people just give others half a chance? Jeez....

Spent 4 days stuffing envelopes for the sales department as we are changing the hotels name shortly, 30 000 names on the database, and no I'm not exagerrating. It took more than 4 days to get them all sent out but I'd had enough by then and bailed out on them (feeling a wee bit guilty over that but seriously, should have been better organised and had more staff!).

Veggie garden area is cleared and ready for us to put the beds in, want to do it soon but D and I work all weekends (collectively) and uni times are inconveniant so we might just have to have half a day there and hope to get it done. Winter's running out!

So warm and Spring-like outside the last few days, been lovely :-)

Over enthusiastic post :-P

YAYAYA for Jetstar and promotional prices :-D D and I managed to land tickets to Phuket last night for less than half of the normal cost, the mind boggles :-o As a uni-friend put it, get in there before they go broke lol! Specials seem to have already sold out by today, managed to get SIL-A (as in Sister In Law A) a ticket too, same day, same plane, almost double the price but still very good so A will be coming along with us! She's been dying to meet Peter the Monkey ever since she saw his gorgeous picture a while back so it's all systems go from here!

Am over the moon excited, told everyone about our fabulous deal, even the girl who develops our photos lol! Trying to convince a pair of married friends to come along with us, I hope they do but at this stage I'm not getting my hopes up. Although Thailand is very cheap it's still a lot of money to come up with with only 5 months notice and they're still recovering from the wedding expenses so we'll wait and see.

Maybe this means I can get that Canon digital SLR I want so badly, hmmm...

To top of the high we're on right now, I won $8 on a scratchie ticket :-P

So yes, come Jan we'll be off to Phuket and not back in Aus until Feb 23, 7 weeks in total woohoo! fun fun fun. No idea what we'll be doing at this stage. We've never been to Phuket cos in my mind it's a sort of tourist hell but should be a good jumping off point to visit some of the more obscure islands around the place.Considering the Surin or Similan Islands near Burma at this stage. We'll actually be playing proper tourist for a while which will be fun. We want to go to Luang Prabang in Laos at some stage so will make that trip either on the way to or from Susan's house.

OMG I'm so excited! In 5 months I'll be eating Tom Kha soup until it comes out my ears :-D

Excitement plus! Katie's getting a garden! :-P

LOL! Sorta anyway.

Anyone who knows me well is aware of my constant lamitations over my lack of a garden and how badly I want one, I bore people over it.

D's dad, Digs (for short :-P) has a very large block of land south of Adelaide, 10 acres is total :-) Mostly bare (it's had sheep on it) and a few gums tress etc. Pretty degraded, lots of field weeds and on the side of a hill. He hasn't been living on it as he has a house in Adelaide which he's been renovating (not finished) but he plans to move down to the Southern place in the next few weeks and then full steam ahead finishing the renos of the Adelaide house.

Anyway, we were picking olives for D's aunt on Sunday and got to talking and Digs has said (without prompting from me) that I can have a veggie garden out at his place.

Now Digs is not one to do things by halves. He's thinking HUGE, like way bigger than I had in mind (he's talking about using his little backhoe :o whoah slow down man!) and is going to provide the means (ie the $$$) to do this thing properly, from scratch as an experimental family garden type thing :-) I have charge of the planning of it :-)

D's dad is not into gardening but does like to try his hand at new things that involve building (and interminable researching). He does tend to take his sweet time in doing things (hence why the current renovations have taken him so bloody long) but I hope he realises that with this chickadee behind the wheel there's no fart-arsing around with this ;-)

Sooo, that's my way exciting news, for me anyway ;-). I'm thinking raised beds, good irrigation, all organic of course and will keep you all posted on the progress. First thing we have to do is chose a suitable site :-)
YAYAYAYAY! I'm getting a garden lol

Back at work...

Well I'm officially rehired and on the roster. It's weird up there because it's all pretty much the same except I dont know anyone anymore! But I do know the manager, the barman (of course) and one of the chefs still so all the bases are covered. Oh and the uniform is a little weird, kind of like a chef's jacket with a weird belty thing at the back.

So last night there were two weddings, one for 70 people and one for about 200-ish people which I did and I was kind of the float (ie just do everything where needed) and the manager was kind of like 'just do what you like', felt like I needed a bit more direction than that! :blink: BTW in case anyone is interested... the theme appeared to be mint green and brown with singpore orchids and it was absolutely gorgeous but the flowers alone must have cost the a fortune with about 12-15 sprays of orchids per table, christ! very pretty tho!

They had anstipasto, starter, entree, main, dessert, petit fours... I'm only telling you this because my arm strength lasted through to taking out the entrees and then my muscles (or lack thereof!) died completely! OMG! This is the girl who used to be able to match the boys clearing plates and I was struggling to take HALF of what I used to, all I can say is OWWWW...

From 11:30pm-2:30am I polished cutlery which was ok because my arms weren't going to hold out any longer. My back was aching like crazy and I was doing my impersonation of a flamingo; standing on one foot until it hurt too much and then swapping to the other, if anyone was watching me they'd have thought I was mad :rolleyes: I finished at 2:45am :wacko: and my gorgeous husband gave me a lift home, gotta love him! Got to bed at 4:30am...welcome back to banquets! Erggg....

Surprisingly, not as tired and sore today as I might have expected which is good cos it can only improve from here. Hoping that in a couple of weeks I'll be able to carry a reasonable amount of plates (it's verging on embarrassing how little strength I have now).

So that's my looong update. Thank you for reading :P

Reminiscence

[I 'rewound' this post for a Weekend Rewind at Pink Fibro. It was written over 5 year ago, before I learnt about grammar! I have edited the spelling, but I left the rest exactly as it was originally.]


One year ago to the minute I was an unmarried woman. I was in my mother's house, surrounded by family from near and far.
I was primped and preened, hair stiff and immobile, make-up weighing on my face and feeling strange in my own skin. The flowers had arrived and they were beautiful as all flowers are, sitting heavy, damp and dewy in their box upon the coffee table. The photographers were there and I was awkward and stiff in front of their lenses, I don’t enjoy being the centre of attention.
I put on my beautiful dress, pinned my gecko brooch to my hip as a reminder of my future, and the family dove brooch of diamonds to the fabric over my breast to remind me of my past.
The photographers hovered, trying to capture this transition from girl to woman but how can you take a photograph of the inside of someone’s head?
I slipped on my shoes, pretty, soft suede and aqua coloured, no heels for this chickadee. My shawl was placed around my shoulders, beads scratching gently at my skin, slipping down my bare back. My flowers were handed to me, surprisingly heavy, a dull weight in my arms. Beautiful but for what purpose? Flowers for a maiden, flowers to grip in fear and anxiety on that long walk? Or flowers just because it’s ‘what is done’?
We walk to the cars lent by friends and family and squeeze inside and begin the short drive to the garden where I am to be married. My heart beats fast, speeding up with every corner. We pull in to the long gravel driveway and it is so far I can see nothing at the end of it. By the manor house we stop and finally I can see people, all family and friends peering eagerly for the first glimpse of ‘the bride’. I don’t feel like a bride, I’m just me in a pretty dress with flowers. But there at the end of the short grass aisle scattered with rose petals is my beautiful boy, my Dylan. Cheeks wet with tears, eyes screwed up to slow the flow and face wreathed in smiles. Oh my gorgeous boy, why tears? But they come to me as well, in the instant that I see his face the tears are there unbidden.
My maid of honour goes ahead of me to the grass. I have my tall brother holding my arm on one side and my lovely mother holding the other and together we go down the aisle but I remember none of this. In this moment there is only Dylan and I, lost to the world. At the end of our little green walkway I pull away from my family and my maid of honour has taken my flowers. Dylan and I grip one another, first hands then tightly around the waist holding each other up, keeping one another afloat in our little world. The tears continue, tears and laughter.
The celebrant speaks words unheard, they are for our guests not us. We know what we feel for one another, we’re not even listening to some other’s interpretation of heart and soul. For he has my heart and has done since the day we met. I gave it to him in good faith that he’ll look after it for me. He took my heart and my trust and put them somewhere safe and in return he gave me his own.
We kiss and kiss hard, lips pressed together, damp cheek to damp cheek, nose to nose, tongue to tongue fleetingly. The sound of cheers and laughter breaks the spell. Girl and boy no longer, man and woman now, husband and wife but mostly we’re just Dylan and Katie he and I in our own bubble of two souls joined into one.And so the day continues, photos and yet more photos. There is food and wine, speeches and a cake covered in roses. There is family I saw the day before and family I haven’t seen in years, there are one or two people I didn’t meet until this day, there are friends who will always be friends and friends we may not know forever but they are all there in celebration of love, companionship and good food just this one day of the year. Life goes on but from time to time I look up and see those beautiful blue eyes and a face wreathed in smiles and I know he has my heart in his pocket and will keep it safe for me.

Ho hum 15/04/06

We'll here we are again. Bored mindless, can feel brain cells dripping out of my ears.
It's easter weekend, D is working working working. I'm sitting at home on my bum being unemployed. More than 2 months without work, eep! Still, no one's fault there but my own cos I've made no effort to go and get a job yet. ALTHOUGH I did drop of my resume at the old Rad last tuesday, shock horror, gasp, what is the world coming to? My gut says it will come to nothing and my head says why the hell do you want to go back there to work anyway? Short answer is $$$, and the fact that I have none and I'm tired of watching pennies and never having anything nice anymore. Plus of course we want to go OS at the end of the year again and it'd be nice to actually be able to do something about it. Love might make the world go round but the axel is greased by cold hard cash.
Stopped taking the pill the other day, first time since I was less than 13 years old that I haven't been on the bugger. We will see what we will see. But no babies yet! Unless of course something happened, and then we will see something else entirely :P
Been a bit of a loose cannon these last few weeks, started taking more anti-depressants in an effort to keep the downers at bay. Oh what fun depression is. Laugh? I laughed so much I cried, again and again and again.

Adelaide 09-02-2006

Well, we're back home in Adelaide. It always amazes me how quickly you settle back in. We go away, see all these amazing things, have amazing experiances and when you get back home it's as though you never left.

We're feeling the cold a little, it's supposed to be 35 degrees today (I'm sure it's not there yet) but I'm in jeans and a long sleeved top and thinking about getting a jumper. Maybe it's because it's not humid here, and although the humidity in SEAsia sucks when you're not used to it and I thought I hadn't adjusted maybe I did more than I thought.

Another thing I'm finding a bit weird is that its so quiet here at night, and during the day as well for that matter. No insect noises, no traffic, no animals rustling in the night. Asia - at least the part I know - is always noisy. I've had to put the fan on at night in our room because it feels so eerie. Give me a week and I'll be back to normal.

I've busied myself hanging up the bits and pieces we brought home with us, filling and sewing our thai-style cushions and catching up with family and friends.

We dropped over 50 rolls of film off at our photo shop at uni, almost giving the poor woman a heart attack when she saw how many there were. She gave us a good discount tho, just as well because it's going to cost a fortune!

In a matter of weeks we'll be back at uni and back at work and this will all seem like a distant dream with only the photographs to prove we ever went (that, and my badly depleted bank account ).