It’s weird to be back in America.  I didn’t realize just how long I’ve been away.  The big freeways and enormous grocery stores make it obvious that I am completely insane.

Second Summer

Although we got married six months ago, my husband and I have not yet had a honeymoon.

Ok, that’s not totally true. We had a one-day honeymoon at the Intercontinental in Sydney.  One incredible day of peace amongst the wedding madness. We ordered room service, drank champagne and enjoyed the view. It was glorious and heavenly, yet fleeting.

My parents, who had already been living with us for a month, stayed for another two months. As much as I love my parents, I never envisioned spending my first months of married life under the same roof.

Six months later we’re having a proper honeymoon. We leave in three days and I can’t wait!

We’re taking our new Dell netbook on the road with us and will both try to blog regularly. My husband started a blog this morning:

Second Summer

There’s not much on it at the moment but he plans to catalogue our adventures as we escape the chilling Winter and spend our second Summer of the year abroad.

Now I should really get back to studying. I have an exam the day before we leave!

Hybrids

My husband only recently discovered Microsoft Paint.  That plus boredom plus pictures of our dogs make for an hilarious combination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honeymoon Help

Althought we got married in December, we haven’t gone on our honeymoon yet.   The plan is to visit family in the US for a week, fly into London to meet up with friends for a few days, spend FOUR WEEKS (!!) in France, swing by Barcelona then come back to Sydney via Hong Kong.  We leave mid-June.

So…do you have any tips on where to go and what to do in France, Barcelona and/or Hong Kong?  I’d love to hear your suggestions!

Follow me on Twitter

Blogging for lazy people.  Works for me!

http://twitter.com/slosydney

Things I love

I’m not one to attach sentimental value to things.  I’ve moved 7 times over the past 10 years and as a consequence have become adept at culling my stuff to the point where I’ve developed a hatred of stuff and things.  If it’s not useful or it doesn’t make me happy, I don’t want it in my home.  That’s not to say that I don’t like any things.  There are plenty of things that I like.  Here are a few I’d like to share with you.

I got this bear for my 16th birthday.  He has notes on him from my aunts, uncles and cousins.  The bear was something tangible to remind me of my family on the other side of the ocean.  Now that I’m only 1,000 k’saway I get to see them far more often.   My grandmother passed away in 2002, just a few years before I moved to Sydney.  She would have been so happy that I moved here. 

 

 

 

 

 These are the shoes I wore on my wedding day.  Peep-toed slingbacks make me happy, but throw some blingy jewels on them and I’m elated.  I keep them on the stairs so I can see them every day. 

 

 

 

 This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it.  I found it at a weird store in Tokyo.  It came in the frame and we carefully transported it home in our carry-on luggage.  My mom took it off the wall when she was visiting but we promptly took it out of hiding when she left.

Stick what in my eye?

Advice from lady mags is often laughale but I found this gem from MSN lifestyle hilariously terrifying.

Don’t have an eyelash curler on hand? You can use a sturdy plastic spoon instead, says Mary Lisa. Just press the curved end into your eye socket so the edge flips up your lashes, then swipe on your mascara.

Stick a spoon in my eye socket?!?  No thank you!

Remote Control

A remote control for your cat is available at ThinkGeek. 

“Simply point at your cat, press buttons on the remote and hope for the best.”

Alas this is not a miracle device.  The website says, “No batteries required – powered by wishful thinking.”

I sent this to my husband for a bit of a laugh.  He sent back this:

It’s the Slosydney remote control!  All the middle buttons are unnecessary of course because I’m programmed to do them anyway.  They are an insight into my daily life.  Except the drink champagne button.  That’s a weekend thing.  

My favourite button:  Get off Crack.  Ha!

I Am Gonna to Make it Through This Year if it Kills Me.

We’ve been going through a lot of changes at work lately.  Redundancies, acquisitions, outsourcing, organisational structure changes…needless to say things are pretty tense and hectic.  Fortunately – or unfortunately, I haven’t figured out which yet - I still have a job.  And for the same amount of pay, my workload has tripled.  Woohoo!  Your sarcasm meter should be going off the charts at that exclamation. 

Although I’ve known about my new responsibilities for about a month now, it’s only just hit me how much work I have to do this year.  And when I say just hit me, I mean that about 30 minutes ago I woke up, came to this realisation, booted up my laptop, did a half an hour of work and am now blogging about it.  It’s 2:30AM. 

As if the increased work load weren’t enough to keep my busy, I’m also doing two masters courses at uni next semester instead of the usual one.  So two nights a week I’ll be attending lectures and the other nights I’ll slogging through the reading and working on assignments.

Ever the optimist, I can see one bright spot in this year that will help ease the pressure of all this hard work: our honeymoon.  If I manage to survive until June I will be rewarded with 4 romantic weeks in France.  When my eyes have turned rectangular from staring at spreadsheet after spreadsheet or when I’m pulling an all-nighter to finish an assignment, I can take a moment to daydream about wine, patisseries, chateaus and museums and maybe, just maybe, I’ll make it through the year.

Slosydney needs…

I typed my (real) name into Google followed by the word ‘needs’ and these are the results:

Slosydney needs…

1. to have a good reason or incentive to participate
2. your help!
3. plenty of exercise
4. to come to Illinois
5. a temporary foster home
6. open space and a friend
7. a little introduction
8. another rock
9. some washing powder
10. some buddies

This is more accurate than most horoscopes.  Try it.  What do you need?