A confession

So I will admit I have been slacking on updating my blog because of being busy with work and all that... but there is also another reason. His name is Phil. :) I met Phil through the AGSM and as he was in the class after mine. However he is finishing his degree in London - so I've been trying to spend as much time with him as possible. He left on Monday so I now have more time to spending doing things like updating my blog. :)

However as part of us spending time together before he left we've done some pretty cool things, which I haven't updated on my blog. So I'll do it now. :)

Over the long weekend in (which I wrote about a couple blogs ago) we were trecking up and down the coast together. Here is one of the good pictures from the weekend to let you know what Phil looks like.

Phil and I at Stanwell Park

Phil loves bikes - push bikes, dirt bikes, motor bikes, pretty much anything with two wheels. So we'd been talking about renting a Harley and taking a road trip for a while. We finally were able to pull together a weekend and went up North to Nelsons Bay. All up it was about 6-7 hours each day on the bike. Needless to say my ass hurt tremendously, however our bike was pretty crusy so I did have a back rest.

The bike

Our last triumph was a hike into the Blue Mountains. This was another mad plan of Phil's which I recklessly agreed to go along with. Initially it was described as a easy day hike which would have a nice camping site at the end. Only 3 hours in did we realise just how vertical the climb was going to be... with all of our camp gear! After much swearing and scrambling we made it and had a good time all up. Below is a picture of us when we were naive enough to still be smiling (aka the beginning).

Prior to beginning the trek

Not all of our things were grubby and without showers. We had a good night out with the guys in his class for their end of year session. Excuse the mo - Phil was the team captain for the schools Movember team so was 'forced' to grow a very hideous mustache.

Summit Bar

I now return to the single life and hope that Phil has a great time in London. Most of you will know how much I love the city, however Sydney has found a much warmer (literally and figuratively) place in my heart.

Look forward to more updates and general banter over the coming months.

Swimming with Sharks

For those who have been so lucky to receive my recent mass mailing, you will know I'm currently training for a 2K ocean swim in February. To help everyone follow along and support me and my two friends who are taking on this challenge, I've created another blog. This blog will help everyone follow our training and see our progress towards our fundraising goals.

The link is as follows: http://teamsharkbaitoz.blogspot.com/

My personal fundraising goal is to raise $2000 for Cure Cancer Australia, so any support people can give is not only going towards a great cause, but is helping me achieve my goal. Anyways, I won't post too much here but I do want to let people know to check the other blog to see what's been going on. :)

Halloween Flashback...

This year I decided to take a flashback to my childhood for my costume. For some reason this year I really wanted to do something where I was wearing a wig... after a quick internet search I found the perfect costume - Rainbow Bright!

For those who don't remember, Rainbow Bright lives with all the Color Kids and are in charge of all the colors on Earth. She rode a white horse named Starlite and defeated the Kind of Shadows. (I must admit I got a bit of help from Wikipedia on the flashback) The moral of the story is that she is cool, and I got to wear a blonde wig. :)

Long Weekend Mayhem

Firstly, I must apologise because I've been completely slack at updating the blog lately. Work is going well, I'm settling in with the routine after being there for just over a month. Aside from that there hasn't been much exciting going on in my life. However this last weekend was eventful enough that I felt it warranted a blog.

This weekend was a bank holiday so we had a much desired long weekend. A few friends and I decided it would be worthwhile going camping. There is a place about 2.5 hours north called Stockton beach which is good for camping and you can do a bit of relaxing. Things were looking great aside from a poor weather forecast. The drive up was a down pour of rain until just before the beach, when it stopped. However things wouldn't stay positive for too long... not even 10 minutes onto the beach and our truck was stuck.

About 30 minutes later (and luckily we had two cars) we were on our way to trying to find a suitable place to make camp. To set the scene a bit more... Stockton Beach is about 35 K long and is more than just your standard beach. Behind the waterfront bit there is a series of small dunes with some sparse bushes, then behind those dunes there are some serious dunes. Thing Sahara like desert on the water front and you'll have an idea of what it's like. We ended up finding a place in the first set of dunes around 10:30 and began setting up camp. By 12:30 we had a camp fire going and were enjoying some beers.

All was going well until about 6AM when it became very windy... then rainy... then the wind and rain increased.... and continued. The wind was strong enough that my tent was blown completely flat, and destroy the tarp covered area with all our food. So this meant we had to try to move the tarp to an area which could withstand the wind and rain.

This misery continued until after lunch when we made the executive decision that with the weather not changing we would pack up and leave. As you can imagine packing in the rain and wind was as pleasant as waking up to it... So we then left to go to a house one of the guys has south of Sydney - a house with a roof, beds, shower, and toilet.

After another 4 hours of driving we were in shelter and able to begin the process all over again. :)

Needless to say the next time we have planned to go camping and the weather report looks disastrous we will rethink our plans.

No more Soccer...

With my new visa there is a statement which says that Deloitte will be the only company which I will work for. When I initially read this I didn't think much of it, but started thinking more about it as I debated on putting myself back on the schedule for soccer officiating... luckily I asked the question because it would be a breach of my visa if I do. I'm of two minds in regards to this... on one side I'm sad because I enjoyed that work and seeing the kids, etc. On the other hand I no longer have to worry about waking up at 6AM on a Saturday to potentially go run around in the rain and mud for 2-3 hours.

So I guess I'm stuck with just consulting and having my weekends free to play. :) Mean while, work is going well and I'm starting to get my feet under me a bit more so things will just keep getting better.

Back to the Grind Stone

Yesterday was my first day with Deloitte Consulting and things have started out amazingly. Everyone is super friendly and happy to help with anything I need assistance with given the fact I've been thrown into the deep end in a way. I had an interview with my client yesterday and my first day of meetings today, so I am hitting the ground running.
It is definitely a different situation than what I experienced at BearingPoint, where my first couple weeks were spent doing online training courses to begin to understand the organisation and how it operates. Whereas with a smaller office things are much more at my fingertips and if I have any questions I can ask anyone from the business analysts to the partners for help.
My client is a massive public sector organisation which is undergoing a public private partnership much like one of my projects in Virginia, so things are a bit more familiar. The most important thing is that things are going well and I'm enjoying things so far. With having a smaller area covered the teams are much more social which will be nice for gaining a larger feeling for the organisation outside of my project team.
Anyways, it's late and I should be going but I wanted to put a post up to give everyone an update.

Sunsets, Shopping and Cherry Chip Cake

Once upon a time I lived in Phoenix - the city of (relatively) inexpensive housing, endless shopping malls and breath taking sunsets... and now that I no longer live in the city which has a typical temperature of 100+ F on summery days with extreme dryness, I can see how people say it's hot. When I got off the plane I definitely felt as if I was hitting a brick wall of hot air and I immediately started sweating profusely. That was Saturday night, it is now Tuesday night and I think I've finally stopped sweating.

The last few days have been a whirl wind. Sunday we cleared out my storage unit and I was able to take a blast from the past and saw some of the old things my Mom kept for me. Old Halloween costumes, sports memorabilia, and general randomness. This made the process of getting ride of the majority of my things much easier as I was able to clearly see what was worth keeping and what was not. The things which I'm keeping will find their new home in either a closet or garage of my parent's new house in Dallas.

Monday I was able to get in a run, some pool time and 9 holes of golf. Today was spent shopping, which is always fun. I must admit that I am proud of myself because my reasonable gene came out when I realised it was a bit silly to be buying jeans when it's going into summer in Sydney. So I mainly hit up all the great summer sales. :)

Today was rounded off with my parents and I having my birthday cake - albeit a bit early, but I'll place money on not being able to find cherry chip cake in Australia. For those of you who are unfortunate to not know what cherry chip is I've taken some pictures to go along with my description. The best way to describe it is to picture a moist vanilla cake with bits of dried cherry freckled throughout. Now obviously the cherry bits aren't real cherries, but the taste more than makes up for this.

Tomorrow the plan is to get in some pool time and indulge in some margaritas and Mexican food. Then its back to Sydney and straight to work. Its been great to be back in the states but I'm looking forward to getting to work and having a bit more stability in my life (aka a paycheck). :)

The obligatory birthday shot, unfortunately (or fortunately) we didn't have any candles

If you look close you can see the specks of red - this is all the yummy goodness, and yes that is cherry frosting (duh!)

My special plate which has been used at virtually every birthday or special day in my family

This is the view from my parents house, it's a gorgeous view and even if they do say the sunsets haven't been as good w/ the weak monsoon season - I still think they're great!

So much for travelling....

The 6-8 weeks that I was told would take for my visa to be approved ended up being a whapping 3 days! So it's a bit good news bad news. The good news is I get to start working more than a month earlier than expected - yay for a paycheck! The bad news is I won't be able to get around to see the fam, but also good news as this means I might be able to justify coming back for Christmas or the holidays. So I'm very happy I hadn't booked any of my domestic flights yet as I was able to very quickly change my plans so that I leave for AZ on Saturday and back to Sydney on Thursday.

Aside from spending my time rearraning flights, I've spent the last couple days playing with dogs and babies. Below are some pictures from my friend's wedding and my gorgeous nieces. Enjoy!


Hanging out with some of the girls before the 30 minutes+ of toasts began

Ryan and his ladies in teal

Sabrain, Jenni and I

Kirsten (my brother's wife) and I went to do some work in her classroom and brought the girls along. We setup some of the desks as a 'coral' and they enjoyed 3 hours of playtime in a new place. This provided the prime opportunity to take some pictures. :)

Mary hanging out

Lila hanging out - this is one of the rare moments she wasn't boosting herself up on the desks to see what was going on outside the coral

Hanging out, during a long day of play at school

This is a piece of randomness which I had to take a picture of... this 'taco van' styled pig was in a very posh shopping area and asking for its picture to be taken. Gotta love Seattle!

Back in the U S of A

As part of my getting a new job, I was forced to take a 6-8 week vacation back home - or simply out of Australia. I've been in Seattle for a week now and am loving being home, but missing the summer like weather they had two weeks ago. I didn't post anything because I was actually able to surprise a girlfriend at her wedding on Saturday who didn't know I'd be here... So now I am relaxing and helping my brother and his wife take care of my two very cute nieces and catching up with friends!

I'll post more about my travels but for now it is nice to be home and if anyone wants to give me a call feel free (206 - 384 0718) but just be forewarned that AT&T is retarded and I can't receive texts...

At Long Last

I have a job!! I've been offered a position with Deloitte Consulting here in Sydney and am very excited about the prospect. I will be sponsored which means I'll be able to stay in Australia for a bit longer and potentially apply for permanent residency so these visa issues become a non-issue down the road.

Things are still being processed but as I know more I will update everyone, as for now I'm just excited that I will soon have a job again!

The Exciting Life of Kerri....

I must apologise for the lack of posts lately. I have no excuse. I haven't been working, haven't had much going on. However there seriously hasn't been anything to write about. My day usually consists of me waking up around 9, doing a quick job search, applying for anything that looks up my ally, lounging around and watching the few cooking shows, then doing it all again the next day. The exciting days are usually when I have basketball (which would be Wednesday and Sunday) - and both teams are winning - and when I attempt to cook a new dish.

Hopefully things will be more exciting soon - I have a couple job prospects which are looking very good so hopefully there will be exciting news soon. Stay tuned!

In More Important News...

After having a fairly ok night at work in which the bumbling idiot of a boss I have first tried to lecture me on customer service then let one of the waitresses leave before we had a massive rush of people... my boss made the ingenious observation that I don't want to be a waitress. Needless to say I kind of smiled and said I completely agree with him... this of course wasn't the answer he was looking for as he is looking for professional waitresses who are jumping at the chance to work for hime.... Aside from his moodiness, inability to successfully manage people, and the fact that the other waitresses come to me when they have questions - not him - I pretty much took this as my que to exit stage left and quit. I'm not paid enough for what I do in that restaurant, he's a shitty person to work for and doesn't even realise it and so this show is over.

Things are looking more positive on the proper job front but if need be I'll start finding another part time gig just to pay rent this next week, but hopefully it won't come to that.

Will keep everyone posted, but as for now I'm really excited to have my Friday and Saturday nights back and to not have to put up with his shit anymore. There have been sooo many nights over the last few months were I've come close to quitting, this one was just the last bit which I could stand.

Pictures from Auckland

So I will forewarn everyone that there aren't any pictures of me in here... with the humidity my hair wasn't exactly looking good and I didn't feel the need for the stretched arm self portrait. But I did promise some pictures of Auckland and so will deliver. :)

All in all it was a good trip and it served it's purpose. :) Someday I'll go back and be able to do more than just roam around Auckland and see more of what NZ really is all about.

A maori carving - this is like the tatoos they would have had back then

View from the Auckland Museum

University of Auckland's business school building - which puts the Australian School of Business to shame (UNSW's overall business school)

Clock which looks like it'd be a church but is the U of Auckland student building

The water front

A Good Day in Auckland

After going to be at an elderly time of 9PM (aka 7PM Sydney time) and sleeping till 8AM I was up and running after a tea and breakfast at the local coffee stand (which also happens to have free wifi). My plan of attack was to make my way to the Auckland Museum. Once I was off and walking I quickly realised one thing... Auckland has A LOT of hills. This obviously made my trek much more arduous. Slowly but surely I got there and was actually pretty impressed. Not only is the building pretty spectacular but the content was good as well!

View of the main entrance

The newer area of the museum

I found it interesting to see the similarity between the Native American artifacts and those found here. It's something which I'm surprised is never taught in American schools or even noted here. The majority of their artifacts are much like what you would find in an American museum with the main difference being in the use of leather versus natural fibers and other things which are inherent with the difference between island life and land life.

Additionally interesting was their use of non-traditional means to support their displays. They used live showcases for some of the animals and plants which were on display, and also used smell and sound in very interesting ways. As part of their orchid show they had a couple different stands where you pressed a button and it released a smell which you were then asked a question about.

After a good couple hours at the museum it was time to head off. I wandered through a trendy little area of town and wound my way back to the city center. Last night I'd scoped out a place which has proper taco salads and so was able to take advantage of that for dinner. After having talked for about 5 hours I felt I had earned a pedicure so treated myself to one.

While traveling by yourself can be okay it does suck during the evenings (especially when you are on a tight budget like I am) so I took advantage of "Tight Ass Tuesday" and saw The Proposal. After the movie I went back to try to get some sleep... unfortunately it must have been social night at the hotel and there was a group of drunks outside making quite a bit of noise. If I'd been a bit more awake or at least a bit drunk I would have joined... but playing catch up is never fun when you feel like the walking dead.

I left my camera cord in Sydney so will post pictures when I get back. The best news is my visa was approved and so today I have a day of relaxed shopping and other random bits aroudn the city.... I might catch another movie to burn time in the evening but we'll see.

Talk about Weird Accents...

So I've arrived safe and sound in Auckland. This is after getting 2.5 hours of sleep (probably less with the tossing and turning), getting to the airport at 5 only to find out the flight is delayed by 1.5 hours to let the crew sleep longer (am still jealous!), more delays enroute, and a quick cat nap on the bus into the city. The hotel I'm in is more of an upscale hostel, which suits my purpose. I have my own room with a stunning view of the construction site next door, small fridge and bathroom which I don't have to share with strangers.

My new visa for Australia is now lodged, so now I just have to sit pretty here and wait to hear back. Luckily it's all online so it should be pretty easy to facilitate. It's almost 5 here, so now the big question is how long I can stay vertical without starting to bump into walls. I might try to take a gander down the main strip and take a couple pictures for my next post. So far my first impression is that (like I've been told) there isn't much here but what they do have is actually alright. The only strange bit so far has been trying to figure out what the locals are saying - they have the weirdest accent - and having a girl give me a survey at the airport all about nuclear power and genetically modified foods - the underlying premise was would I still visit a country which use those things, considering I'm from one that does what do I care?

Anywhoo, will post more tomorrow as I actually have some fun things to update about now. :)

Auckland Here I Come!!

So a while back I identified another 12 month visa which I qualify which will allow me to do contract work... with my student visa running short I need to now switch to that visa. To do this I unfortunately have to apply for and be approved for the visa outside of Australia. So... Auckland here I come!! Not unfortunately this isn't the vacation or holiday which I would hope. Auckland was simply the cheapest flight outside of Australia. The weather won't be great - it's actually supposed to be pretty shitty weather - and there isn't much to do there. But this would put me in the position to start contract work and actually be able to starting having a justifiable income.

I will keep everyone updated as there won't be much going on so I'll update things as they go. Immigrations says the visa can take 2 hours, 2 days or longer to be activated for the visa.

Good Start to the New Year

The new financial year that is... Recent days, weeks, and months have been pretty quite in terms of the job front. This has been very frustrating as I'm qualified even without the MBA, but with it I'm surely qualified. However with the start of the new financial year things are looking a bit brighter. I had one interview yesterday and three today. These are in addition to the one position I'm already being considered for - where they are simply waiting for the contract to be finalised.

So now I just need to get all my visa stuff in order and make a quick jog over to New Zealand to switch to a longer visa. This visa will allow me to work for the next 12 months, hopefully with a sponsored position coming through in the next month or so which would allow me to stay for much longer. While the visa things are pretty important, I think the thing I'm looking most forward to is the prospect of having a real income again. Poco's cantina pays the rent but that's about it... Will keep everyone up to date but please keep your fingers, toes (and anything else you can) crossed that something comes through soon!

Time Management

I've had lots of time on my hands recently... You can only spend so much time productively job hunting each day so the rest of my time is left pretty much wide open. So I've managed to find a couple things to fill up the time.

One of things I miss from the US is the food channel... so to improvise I have found a solid 2 hour block of cooking shows on in the afternoon. First off is Ready Steady Cook - a show which I am trying to get onto and was supposed to be in the audience for. For some reason they canceled the taping so I am on hold till I hear back from them. :( This show is a competition between two chefs who are teamed with two audience members who bring in random ingredients. The chefs have to come up with a menu from the ingredients (which they don't know until the taping) and then have 20 minutes to make 4 dishes. After that the two chefs make 3 additional dishes from another set of ingredients in 10 minutes. It's fun to watch and they are quite entertaining.

Next up is Alive and Cooking. This show is a bit odd and the host is quite different, but its a cooking show nonetheless. After that is Huey's Cooking Adventures, where an older gentleman makes different dishes from different areas of Australia and the world. He is a bit of a Paula Dean without the extreme need to fry everything.

All of the shows use very Australian ingredients which aren't really used in the states so it's fun to see how they are prepared and used in cooking.

In the evenings my nights are a mix of basketball, work, relaxing and an occasional night of salsa dancing. I think I posted something about a year ago about this - but my flat mate dances as well so we've been going down on Thursday nights to put in a couple hours of dancing. It's been great so far, however our usual dance partner is moving to Perth so the next couple weeks might be interesting... hopefully we'll be able to find someone suitable to dance with that isn't too hideous. :)

First Official Day of Officiating! :)

Yes realise I have a previous post which talked about how that was my first weekend of officiating... that resulted in a very bitter me having woken up at 5:30, called the 'wet weather line' and being told the game were still one, traveling 1 hour to the fields only to find out the fields are closed because of the "rain" (it was sunny by the time I got there) and to top it off stepping in dog shit. So I've blocked that experience from my memory as much as possible and will now use today in its place.

I still had to get up at 5:30, but found a shortcut to the fields which will allow me 20 more minutes of sleep in the future (yay!). The games did go - granted it was freezing for the first two games - but it was really fun! The first game was for girls which were around 12-13 years old - which I was a side ref for - the second was for around 10-11 and I actually was the center ref. It was a pretty one sided game (the final score was 7-0) but I was given an 'A' from the guy watching and am now approved to ref harder games (which means more $$). The last game I was supposed to do the side but ended up being center for a completely other game (again more $$) and then ended with the side of the Aussie equivalent to Varisty game.

While I know this will sound cheesy but it was fun to ref the younger girls as I feel like I have a part in helping them learn the game. :) I won't comment on the state of the varsity teams soccer skills - but just say our JV would have killed them.

I've found some pictures of the fields I was at as I know people like pictures. Will keep you posted on how everything goes in coming weeks!

This picture makes the fields look much nicer than they are - but this is where all the little girls play

This is where the big kids play - and is actually in the center area of a greyhound race track of all places....

My Australian Drier

So for those people who have ever had to live without a clothes drier you know that it is a bit difficult to dry clothes when it is cold outside. They take about 4 times as long to dry even if you have them inside. I ran into this problem last week when my flatmate's clothes had been on the rack for more than 3 days and were still not dry... my work clothes from the last week weren't washed and I was in dire need of getting them clean before another round of work. I then had what I see as a brilliant idea and fashioned my own sort of clothes drier. :) While it's not idea, the clothes dry in 'standard' time and come off the line a bit warm - which is better to put on opposed to the cold clothes you'd otherwise get. Plus we get the added bonus of it heating up the flat!


Essentially what I've done is taken a very cheap heated fan and pointed it at the drying rack. It works great and I get clean warm cloths in less than a week! :)

Steph - don't you wish we had thought of this in London???

What a Difference a Day Makes!

Here is a picture of the mountain which I show in my previous blog which you could barely see the snow... This is the bar where my picture was taken from today after 1/2 meter of snow.

Hooky + Road Trip = Good Times!

For those outside of Australia, this weekend was the long weekend to celebrate the queen's birthday which means Australians either flock to get out of town or those who live outside the city try to get into the city. As I may have mentioned earlier in a post my original plans were to stay in the city... but a friend convinced me to play hooky from my very important waitress job and go on a road trip. It was very worth it! We went to Jindabyne, which is the local town for the snow fields of Australia. While there was no snow on the ground we did manage to see snow falling and not freeze to death. Here are some pictures of the weekend away.

View from the house

It's hard to tell but it's snowing in this picture

Emu's! We actually saw some wild one's but wasn't able to snag a pic of the sneaky birds

Wombats - my favorite Aussie animal :)
A spectacular view on the way back to the city

On the way down to Jindy we actually stopped in Canberra and saw the Parliament building and war memorial. It was really cool to see the Pariament building with something like 400 clocks and it was actually a really cool building. The war memorial was more like a museum and had tons of information and wasn't the most uplifting experience - but a good one for anyone going to Canberra.


An artsy picture under the flag pole

It's hard to tell but there are actually 3 clocks in view in this picture

Poppies at the war memorial

View from above the war memorial down towards Parliament building

Front view of parliament building

It is possible to be jealous of eyebrows??

Ok so maybe jealous isn't the right word, but every time I see this advertisement it 1) makes me laugh hillariously and 2) makes me want to enroll in an eyebrow exercise class. :)

Click Here to view

Kerri Meet Bob...

I had been procrastinating about cutting my hair (as a result of financial strain and pure laziness) and made an appointment last Friday. This is when I discovered it's probably not a good idea for me to go get a cut when I'm feeling ambiguous... While I was sitting waiting for my stylist to be ready and noticed how much I liked one of the other girls hair cuts.... then proceeded to get that same cut. I figure since my hair was already short a bit shorter wouldn't hurt and I now officially have a bob. So far the reviews are good and people seem to like it. It's different - the shortest I've ever had my hair - but I like it so far. Have included a couple pictures from a night out the other night to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Am going away for the long weekend so should be able to post some more soon.

The Small Things in Life

To some people this may be a piece of chocolate with their dinner, a smile from a stranger, a hug from a baby... in my word it's the fact that I can buy junior's sized athletic shoes - saving me around 50%. :) Ah yes it is the little things in life that make it great... and in my case, help the pocket book.

I first encountered this back in December when I was shopping for basketball shoes in Seattle with Sabrina. None of the adult shoes fit me, so I gave the juniors a go - and they FIT!! My junior Jordans have served me well so far and have actually been the cause for some envy as it is hard to find women's basketball shoes here.

My latest encounter was the other day when I was shopping for soccer cleats (or boots as they call them here). First off, the selection (as with basketball shoes) wasn't all that you'd hope it would be so I was limited to begin with. Then the sizes were extremely limited... However one of the two sizes of juniors shoes fit like a dream. Considering the adult equivalent was 100 and my pair was 40 I found this a very good sign.

You might be wondering why I am buying soccer cleats - and I must admit this morning I had the same thought - but I am actually not a certified soccer referee for the Sydney School's Football Referee's Association. There is apparently a need for more women ref's and they pay is pretty decent so I have now added a 3rd job to my current list of employers and ever Saturday morning I will be getting up at an ungodly hour to go ref soccer matches in various parts of Syndey. They even game me my own set of flags and red/yellow cards - technically I had to buy them but they're MINE!! Oh the power!! :)

Now if only I can line up a proper job and be able to stay here long enough to make this job worthwhile....

Post Graduation Update

Things are busy but not quite the type of busy I'd prefer.... I've picked up 2-3 weeks of full time work around the school so am doing that in addition to job hunting and working at the restaurant. I'm also doing a soccer referring course this weekend and will begin reffing games the following Saturday.

Graduation was okay... I say this because the ceremony was pretty blah - 1 hour 15 minutes, pretty straight forward. The after party was good to see some people and catch up but not the raging night that I had been looking forward to - apparently some of those who have jobs actually have to get up early the next morning and didn't feel like going hard. (boo!) So I've made up my mind and the next time I'm back in the states I'm having a massive graduation party because I know there are some reliable partiers who would most likely help me throw back a couple in celebration. :)

I have managed to hijack a couple pictures to show you, along with one from my camera. There are more but I'm still waiting for them to be sent to me... so I'll post those when I get them.

In front of the AGSM building - where I spent the majority of the last 1.5 years

The formal pose

The picture guy snapped this at a not so attractive point... but that's me getting my diploma!

New Take on Hunter Gatherer

Ok so this may be a one woman type of hunter gatherer, but that is what mode I'm essentially in. Which also explains the lack of posts - as there hasn't been much to update on. My days are now spend looking for jobs both here and back in Seattle (this is the hunter bit) and seeing how far I can stretch my money and food (my current version of gatherer). I often surprise myself as to how little I can spend and still maintain a fairly healthy diet and less that exciting social life. It does help that I tend to work on Friday and Saturday nights which limits my willingness to go party to the wee hours after running around the restaurant for 4 hours.

But on the happy front - graduation is this Thursday. Yay me! Their graduations are less than spectacular here and from the amount of time, effort and resources they put into it they come off as more of a hastle for the schools. Our ceremony is set to last a wopping 1:15 minutes. No speaches, no words of encouragement, no people interesting coming to present - just calling your name, getting your picture taken, then off you go -> straight to the pub :) I will be sure to have some people take some pictures of my in the cap and gown so everyone can see (especially seeing as how I didn't partake in UW's 4 hour ceremony for undergrad). And I know everyone will be here in spirit! I'll have a drink for each of you as part of the celebration ;)

Pictures from Don and Julie's Visit

Here are a couple highlight pictures from my parent's visit to Sydney.


Sydney Swans Game
Illawarra Tree Walk
Manly Beach
Ferry to Manly

There are many more pictures but I wanted to just give a quick sample. They have headed back to the states and I am back to trying to find a job and visa which will let me stay here. So keep your fingers crossed and hopefully I'll have more visitors and be able to have more posts like this!