the kids are alright!

There are days when I roll my eyes in disbelief at the younger generation.

I hate to admit it but yes I am of an age where I can legitimately say that. I have been (un)fortunate enough this past year to work with a lot of early 20something people and have been quite taken aback at their attitude. The over confidence and the "Why can't I do what you do?" attitude. It is a huge generalisation and of course it is always just a few rotten apples that spoil the whole bunch.

Was it the same when I was that age? Maybe I was that cocky kid once upon a time too.

I overheard a young couple on what I think may have been their first date in a restaurant this week.
28 is apparently "SO old", and this young med student didn't understand why doctors look like they do (ie tired). She believed that doctors should look better than everyone else. WTF?! All I could think was - she has no idea what a hard days work is does she. Then I put a few other clues together - Bondi, comes from money, Jewish - she hasn't done a hard days work in her short short life ever!!!

And then there are times the younger generation come through and really surprise me.

I'd like to tell you how proud I am of my niece and how honoured I feel to have been an influence in her life. I love being an aunt and it could be all I have if I never get around to having kids of my own.

My niece went to Thailand with a school program to head into the villages near Chang Mai and help them build basic facilities. It was an amazing experience for her and I am so glad she had the opportunity. She and her friends helped the village build 2 water towers in 5 days!! They ate local food and played with the kids and experienced a culture completely removed from their own - bathing in the river, squat toilets, a foreign language, sleeping on the floor of a hut while being eaten alive by mosquitos.

They did find some time to shop - as all good teenage girls should. She bargained with market stall owners on jewellery and souvenirs. She happily wore what she could tonight at dinner and brought presents for her grandparents and 3 younger nephews. She was not prompted by anyone to do this, just did it because she wanted to. And that impressed me too.

Festival Season has begun!

WOW, A good week! How was yours?

I had a lovely Sunday in the sun by the harbour drinking with my boys. If you know me on Facebook you probably saw some photos. Came home and went to bed early all prepped for Monday.

I'm not going to talk about work this week - I will just say that it feels as if a weight has been lifted and there is a smile on my face again.

The sun is out and the weather is warming up, festival season is starting up and today I headed over to the Marrickville Festival. It was great being out amongst it with my bestie, who happens to be a Marrickville local, for now. And what is a festival without Festie Food.

Move aside humble shish-kebab,  food on a stick seems to be a Festival Favourite.
Some classic food on stick staples are ice blocks, lollipops, fairy floss, toffee apples and pluto pups. You can get generally them year round and it doesn't have to be a festival to find them.

Corn cobs on sticks has become very popular over the past few years. I am a big fan of this - smothered in butter and salty, chilli sprinkles. yum! And kinda healthy - unless you smother it in salt and butter.

Fruit on a stick - your choice whether you get the big chocolate dipped strawberries or the simple seasonal chopped fruit on a stick. All very yum and again kinda healthy too.

I know - what's so great about food on a stick, you're not telling us anything we haven't seen before. Well today, I saw something I haven't seen before - Chips on a stick!! Sliced potato, lightly battered, deep fried AND served on a stick! How good is that?!

My personal Festival Favourite is turkish gozleme. I love the old turkish women working on the production line of this fried delicacy of the middle east. I think it reminds me of being surrounded by family in a small kitchen for major dumpling making sessions.

Now if only they would put it on a stick!!!

ps. these are my actual photos not like my cheater photo of wontons from last week.

Good morning SUNDAY!!!
The sun is shining, the weather is warm and I'm not hungover!!!

Why can't I dance before midnight? Am i showing my age when i ask what is wrong with wanting to dance sober before midnight, why does society make it difficult to do this? maybe I'm just hanging with the wrong crowd.

I was all geared up to go out with the girls last night- a week in the planning, names on door lists, that kinda thing. Saturday came and the plan was to meet at 10. All good, home form catching up with long lost friends at a christening and a good mid afternoon greek feed. time to chill for a bit, cancel dinner plans and get ready for that big night out. I was ready and out the door at 930 to find my friends were all still home grooming. No prob, let's go back inside and watch another 15 mins of an all-time favourite movie "the wedding singer".  It is soon past 10pm and I am way too comfy on the couch and there was only another 20 mins or so of the movie left. I take my heels off and make a firm decision that I am not going anywhere, I type a text to  a friend letting her know i wont be coming out and before i can hit send a text comes in saying "in cab, on my way". Seconds too late, sorry girls!!!

This is what my life has become. I don't want to go out late, binge drink and pick up strange young boys. I go to Christenings where i feel like a complete freak as a 30 something divorcee surrounded by families and couples. At one point I thought "should I have a 10 year old kid already?" Not baby or toddler but 10 year old? That is what went through my brain.

Sometimes I wish I was less ambitious and could just be happy with the simple things in life. My pre 20 boyfriends would have married me, I could of had kids and a house in the suburbs. I wonder how the me in that dimension is doing - is she happy? She is probably wondering what her life would of been like if she put travel and career before husband & family.

Anyhoo, I'm going to make a big batch of home made wontons now and then head to the pub with my mates.
(this is not a photo of MY wontons, but I'll take a photo once I've made them, ok.)

Sorry to disappoint but i don't think i have anything to say this week.

I miss sleeping in coz I didnt get a chance to this weekend.

Saturday I awoke early and drove out to Eastern Creek Dragway for a defensive driving course. They go over what feels like common sense kinda stuff but also some good reminders to check yourself on as a driver. You also get to drive really fast down a dragstrip and do emergency stops. No burnouts or handbrake's tho -  that's the next course. ;-)

Home for a nana nap then up and out for a birthday dinner at Ju Ju's in the cross. great sushi and sake cocktails but I can't recommend the hot food, DO recommend geting out before 10pm when it becomes a karaoke bar. Karaoke makes me shudder with fear!!!

Over to the Victoria Room for a cocktail. I say "A" cocktail because of the price tag that comes with them. Impressive and tasty but damn expensive! And I don't think it's really my place. I just don't feel comfortable in places like that - but I think that's just me these days.

Was excited that I managed to stay up past midnight now that my alarm tends to go off at 6am and my body clock has me yawning by 9pm. I think that's largely from the sedentary nature of office work. let's hope the sun comes out this week to get me moving more.

What else - Today my nephew turned 2. We had cake, candles, balloons and chocolate crackles - what a great party!!

And now an early night curled up with my laptop and series 3 of Being Human - the proper English version, not the crappy, commercial US version.

A friend did tell me about a movie that got me thinking - "What's your number?" looks like a cheesy predictable US rom-com but could pose some interesting relationship related discussion. "Crazy Stupid Love" was also recommended to me this week. Now, i just gotta find the time to fit in a movie or 2 this week.

Birthdays, Booze and Big decisions.

Right, so it's a blog you want huh?...

What's on my mind? What's really on my mind is this HUGE career decision that is hanging on my head at the moment but I can't really tell you about it coz it will bore you and possible reveal a little too much of myself.

So moving on, it's been a month of milestone birthday celebrations. There was my Dad's 70th, a friend's 40th, a friend's 30th and next week my nephews 2nd birthday. Yes, I know quite a range of people. There was also my sister (not a milestone b'day), my ex husband's (but we don't talk about him anymore) and a bunch of other friends - who if they did have parties, didn't invite me.

So of the 4 that I mentioned, I'll tell you what we did and see if you can figure out which goes with which.
- a restaurant dinner with 4 tables of close family and friends.
- a very well catered house party with music, dancing, a well stocked bar and an amazing cake.
- an intimate house party with food, family and balloons.
- a large pub gathering with food and a bar tab!!!
Guess all you want, I'm not going to tell you, but if you are a regular reader you'll know exactly what I did for my Dad's 70th and you were probably at at least 1 of the other 3 parties I mentioned.

I spent yesterday feeling rather poorly (yes, that's code for hangover) and watching back to back episodes of Being Human (the English version , thank you  very much!!), and today a good part of the day was spent 'having coffee' with friends. I put this in "" because I don't actually drink coffee. Instead I had a chai latte, a fresh mixed juice, some water and a cocktail.

My 30 year old friend has discovered just what being in your 30's can mean - 2 day hangovers!!!!
My lesson learnt this week - Absinthe, it may look pretty and feel harmless but it sure can hurt the next day!!

The Work - Life Balance Battle

Last week I told you all about my adventure in the rat race. I may have gone beyond the rat race. This is what I thought as I was catching the train home at about 8pm on Friday evening with people all dressed up and heading out for the night. *sigh*, that used to be me....

Anyhoo, got me thinking about the work - life IMbalance in my life at the moment. I tried to get a friend of mine a job with me, but she declined because she chose life. Many thought she was crazy to turn the offer down, myself included. BUT after a bit of a rough week - I stopped and realised I was living on 6 hrs sleep  again, drinking a can of V in the morning, skipping meals, not getting outside, not moving or exercising as much as I'd like and my eyes hurt from staring at a computer screen for 10 hours a day in a fluorescent lit office. Doesn't sound healthy does it? It's not!

So to fight back at work and try and swing some more life into the mix I did get out to The Comedy Store last Thursday, a movie on Saturday and a birthday party on Saturday night.

The Comedy Store - my cuz invited me along to a night of comedy. Exhausted from work, I decided I needed a laugh and amazingly managed to get out of the office in time to make it to an 815pm show. Can you believe this was my first time at The Comedy Store?? I have lived about 10 mins drive away for  the last 8 years and worked with comedians who perform there regularly for the last 5 years. So I really had no excuse. I digress -  A great night, lots of laughs with some new up and coming Aussie comedians and thrilled to see my friend Anthony Salame on the stage. I have seen him perform many times now but enjoy it every time. It's great seeing people doing what they love.

Beginners
A film by Mike Mills. A lovely drama about life, death, art and love. No explosions or special effects but a beautiful film with a quality cast and script. I miss these films sometimes.

The Eastern Hotel
I love the upstairs cocktail bar here. I celebrated my marriage AND my divorce here. A friend's 40th birthday. An absolutely wonderful guy in a room full of family and friends from all different areas of his life. It's a monumentous occaision. I can only hope that I will be able to fill a room with as many people when I celebrate my 40th.

Your homework assignment for the week - I suggest you look at your own life and think about whether you are truly happy. Coz, ultimately that's all we really want, isn't it? If you find your work - life balance a little out of whack (like mine has been lately), DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!!
Good advice - now I just have to apply it to myself and decide which path I should take.

Thanks to Clair for inspiring this weeks topic.

RAT RACE

This week I joined the public transport Rat Racers of Sydney.

Monday morning I was up bright and early and up to the bus stop, bus to the train station and then a train to "the office".  I have not used PT regularly for at least 5 years.

I was so excited on Monday and couldn't understand why everyone looked so miserable. Is no one happy? Ok, given it is 7:43 in the morning. Newspapers, books, ipods, i phones, ipads, (Apple - you have changed our lives!) applying your morning make up or just snoozing, BUT no one talks to each other. It's just the way it is! Despite the fact many of these people probably see each other every day of the week a the same time in the same place. 

I love that my train trip takes me across the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge. I used to do this commute years ago and while everyone else has their heads buried in their own little world I look out to the harbour and smile to  myself.  I have a job in my chosen profession , I live in Sydney and it's a nice day. That's  a hell of a lot more than some people can say so I consider myself very lucky and I think we all need to remind ourselves of that from time to time.

By Friday (or possibly sooner) the novelty had worn off a bit. I drove 1 day, that was even worse due to the lack of parking available and Friday I was running around with a few cab charges - which was good on the transport side, but somehow allowed SO many other things in to zap my spirit. The 10 hr days had me travelling home in the dark which makes it harder to see the beautiful harbour. Instead I popped on my headphones and blended with everyone else. 

The plan is to move offices pretty soon to somewhere with parking. I am very much looking forward to that day. But for now its back to the PT rat race for me tomorrow! If you see me - come say HI, it'll put a smile on both our faces.