Ouuuuuuch! You would think I have never handled paper before...I just got my twentieth paper cut! Since I started my desk job, I have been surrounded by paper. Single paper, stacks of paper, pamphlets, brochures, big envelopes, small envelopes. I've been doing alot of paper handling and I tell ya what...these little things hurt! Last week, a woman called up and wanted to thank the lady who sent her the Christmas cards that we offer at the Stroke Foundation (so people can send them out). She wanted to see what they looked like, but she didn't end up wanting them. She said, "Look, (everyone says 'look' here when they start a sentence), Look, they are really pretty with the white snow everywhere and everything, but I would like to send out cards that look like Christmas here in Australia." A flash of dry and barren outback with a Christmas tree crossed my mind. Isn't it funny that even in a place that celebrates Christmas in the hotness of Summer and has only one or two places on the whole continent that may see snow (Southern Alps), they still associate the holiday with everything covered in white snow.
Well, speaking of snow, we didn't get any here in Melbourne, but we might as well have. This is the city of "Four seasons in a day" and they aren't kidding. It's cold and windy, then hot, then raining, then hot, then cold in a matter of a few hours. We have started to get some really nice Spring days, but by no means consistently. So Jaime and I were looking very forward to our first trip to Queensland! We decided to start our exploring with the Gold Coast which begins at the border of New South Wales and Queensland and heads North to Brisbane through many small little surf towns. We stayed in a beautiful little apartment in Coolangatta, southernmost town of Gold Coast and just over the border of Tweeds Head NSW. It was awesome. We had a great balcony with a beautiful view of the Pacific and the high-rises of Surfer's Paradise in the far distance across the water. It felt so great to breathe the warm, salty air. We had plenty of cute shops and places to eat within walking distance and driving up the coast was a straight shot taking you through all the little towns each one just minutes after the other. They all have their own beach and Surf Lifesaving Club named after their town. These clubs are local hangouts for members and anyone with food, drinks, events, and pokies (slots), to raise funds to support the lifesaving programs that employs the much needed lifeguards and specialty training for new lifeguards. As you may remember in my scary Australian animal blog, this is a highly respected and intense job, not only for saving people from the ocean predators but also frequent victims of the rip-tide. So, J and I tried to stop into as many as we could just to check them out and help the cause. :) The beaches were quiet and relaxing all the way up to Surfer's Paradise, which all of a sudden looks like a small Miami. Lots of high-rise hotels, shopping strips, and activity all around. During university holiday, this place apparently becomes similar to Daytona Beach at night. We grabbed a bite to eat at Pancakes in Paradise (?) and headed back to our beautiful, non-high-rise beach in "Coolie".
The next morning we drove south about 45 minutes to Byron Bay in NSW. This came highly recommended by all of our friends who have been to Australia. And it was awesome. We were told it used to be populated by hippies and while it still has this overwhelming hippie vibe, apparently it is becoming more "yuppie". In any case, the beaches were beautiful and we got a little sun, walked around and grabbed a beer with the locals at the open-air beach bar. We checked out The Pass (high surfing area) and Surfer's Lookout, and then climbed our way up stairs the length of 4 football fields (Jaime's estimate to get me to go) and took our picture at the "Most Easternly Point of Australia". There we were. Two little people at the eastern tip of a huge continent looking out into nothing but vast blue ocean. If we were in a movie, this would be the end where they would pull back and we would get smaller and smaller while the ocean and world around us became bigger and bigger. That's what it felt like. But here the adventure continues...
The next morning we woke up at 5:00 am Queensland time and drove 6 minutes down the road, where it miraculously became 6:00 am just over the border of NSW. QLD decided that they don't do DST. And we boarded our fishing boat for our half day at sea. I was very excited for our deep-sea fishing excursion, however, it was cold and windy and so incredibly rocky, that I was a little seasick and over the whole thing after fishing for an hour. I kept eating so that my stomach always had something to gnaw on and if I was sitting and holding my rod then I was fine. So I remained functional, but Jaime still baited all my hooks. :) The other lady on the boat kept going to the bathroom to quietly throw up and one of the younger boys couldn't eat bc his stomach was upset, but he remained functional too. Anyway, I caught a little blue mackarel at our first stopping point, which I was super excited about. They called it a "slimy" and instead of it being a prize, and my dinner, it went into the live bait box. However, it did tempt the best catch of the day! My mighty fisherman husband caught a HUGE King fish! This fish was a runner and Jaime expertly wore him out and reeled him in. It was awesome! Once on the boat, after the initial awe, I was switching from video camera to regular camera and as I came out from the hold I made it just in time to see the captain whack the fish with a bat. I was already woozy and I almost fainted.
I guess you can't have a gigantic fish flopping around a boat. Jaime comforted me with physiological "fish don't feel pain" education. Anyway, Jaime's fish was the prize and at the end of the trip everyone took home a 1/4 of the fish. We invited one of Jaime's friends from high school (randomly currently living on the Gold Coast) and we had a fish feast. It was delicious and literally from the ocean to my plate!
We took a late flight out on Monday and had a wonderful day. I read in the sun with my new little beach hat. Jaime rented a board and caught a few waves for his first surfing day in Australia. We toured around and went to the wildlife sanctuary where we finally got up close and personal with some of the "Australian Icons." We saw so many koalas! They were super cute eating, climbing around or just sitting on random branches of the tree, what should have been awkwardly, but was quite comfy for them. We watched them for quite awhile, they look exactly like the stuffed animals. So if you have seen a stuffed animal koala, just imagine its alive, because they really do look exactly the same. Except for one, that as we walked away, I told Jaime "That one looks like Yoda."
We also got to see a Tasmanian devil, which btw, does not look anything like the cartoon character. They are actually a little bit cute, like small, black dogs. The bad news is though, that these little devils are endangered and are being killed off by a terrible plague, Tasmanian Devil facial tumor, that is spreading rapidly through the population. It began somehow due to pesticides on the vegetation they have been eating and it is just terrible. They are trying to contain as many as possible in order to protect them from the disease and keep the population alive. We then saw a Huge saltwater crocodile but we didn't spend much time there, but I didn't feel bad for not liking them because there was a girl trying to take a picture with a huge smile on her face, saying "look over here, look this way, c'mon." You would think she was looking at and calling to a furry little kitten and not a monstrous man-eating reptile. So, we left the crocodile canoodling to her and moved on to something a little more cuddly. Finally some quality time with the Roos! Once Jaime realized he was allowed to go in the kangaroo hang-out he was gone. There were kangaroos and wallabys hopping around and lying in the sun. I must admit we were a little timid at first. Random children were just running up to them and petting them and feeding them but it took us a little while to get close. A RN from Jaime's hospital told us that in the wild kangaroos defend themselves by leaning back on their tail and using their claws to rip up their attacker. But I figured these guys were declawed. The rules sign said to be sure to crouch down to their level when feeding them, so I would do one of those sit down and inch closer and closer. We were being ridiculous and once we settled in, we were feeding and enjoying our kangaroo friends. Some even had a little joey in their pouch and you would see a head or foot peek out every now and then. It was fun to be up-close and I am sure this is the first kangaroo meeting of many.
We didn't want to leave the beach, but it was a great trip and we still have plenty more of the Queensland coast to explore.
Arrived home sun-kissed and rejuvenated, we did.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
It's about dancing in the rain...
The other day I was telling Jaime a story about the grocery store and continuing to find subtle differences between Australia and home. I was looking all over the store for chicken broth. After no luck, I asked a worker, but he had NO idea what I was talking about. Together, we went and asked two more supermarket workers who also had no idea what I was talking about. I even said "You know, chicken broth, its soup, you can drink it or cook with it...you know, broth from the chicken?" Nothing. "Umm...chicken stock?" "Oh! Chicken stock, of course!" they all said and the first guy took me right to the aisle and said "Why didn't you just say that in the first place?". Hmmph. Really. Is it that different that they had NO idea what chicken broth was? At the end of my story Jaime summarized our experiences here and said "You are speaking English, but its still like your speaking a different language." So true!
So I figured I would write about some of my favorite random little things that are so similar/familiar, but yet so different and some things that just make me laugh.
Last Sunday, Jaime's attending took us out to dinner with his family. I ordered a salad to share, which turned into 4 salads for the table since we had 8 people. The salads came out before the meal and we were educated on how in Australia people eat their salads during the meal and not before. However, this dinner, they came out before. Like I said before, salad and veggies are so hard to come by that I so strangely crave them. So I had two servings of the salad closest to me and then once I realized everyone else was done eating salad, I finished off the rest of the bowls. Professor Heggie's 9 year old daughter, Caroline, noticed that I was seriously into salads, and for the next 30 minutes we talked Salad! She went through lists of salad add-ins to find out what I liked. And offered up the things she put in her salad that day, like Mint and Coriander. Brilliant! I never thought of that. I proceeded to tell her about all the things that I have just recently discovered that I love while living in Australia. I am pretty sure one could find these things in America, I just never noticed them.
Like butter lettuce! I freakin love it!! I hope its good for me because I don't buy anything else now.
Mini Roma tomatoes, just like the large oblong ones that are good no matter how you eat them, these are spectacular. They have regular mini and aromatherapy mini. I stick with the regular mini, since we are on a budget, and actually I am a little skeptical of aromatherapy tomatoes in general.
Lebanese cucumbers, the smaller and much sweeter version of the much loved cuke. Little Caroline, whole-heartedly agreed.
She then proceeded to ask me about the fruits I like to eat and to add in my salad:
Blueberries, strawberries, mango. Yes, I absolutely love mango, but they are rather expensive here so I usually find a way to drink most of my expensive fruits via smoothies and healthy drinks.
I actually think drinking my fruit is at the top of my favorites list and its not difficult to find a good fruit drink around here. :)
My next favorite thing is definitely my new Universal Steamer! This thing is awesome, it magically fits into just about any size pot and steams away! Its very handy and Jaime had no idea I could make snow peas.
Living in the Italian heart of the city, I have this great little food store that sells fun Italian foods and wine. I found a little personal bottle of Moscato (Sweet champagne, similar to Prosecco). It is the perfect size to have for my "private stock" as my dad used to say. As Prosecco lovers, my mom and mom-in-law are going to love their personal Moscato when they come to visit!
One thing that I am learning to love, my little clothes dryer. This little box was donated to us by our friend Peter, which was really nice. It is the size of a small hotel bar fridge and just has a power cord and a timer knob. No vent. I was really puzzled at this no vent situation and did some research online to figure out where to put the thing so it wasn't blowing out all sorts of stuff into our little flat. The only place it was listed was on an antique chat room. Apparently, I have a much coveted dinosaur dryer. People who found one or two of these things that worked were so excited, but no one really talked about where to put it. The one thread that had the same exact make as mine said that they used theirs for years but it finally broke and "the repair guy wouldn't fix it because of the asbestos." hmmm....not putting this in the house. Peter's cousin, who had been using the dryer, kept it in their basement. So I had no choice but to put it on the balcony. So now whenever I need it, I have to run the extension cord out onto the balcony. The balcony is open but quite protected from normal rain so I just cover the cord with a tight plastic bag when its not being used. As much as a hassle as it is to actually use the dryer, it is probably the best dryer ever. That little thing pumps the heat and gets clothes dry in less than 20 minutes! If those antique people only knew! On my day off last week, I was doing things around the apartment and started the laundry. When I took the wet clothes out of the washer outside to begin the hooking-up-of-the-dryer process, there it was...light Melbourne rain. Well, dang it. I can't dry the laundry in the rain with my dryer outside on the balcony. The funny thing here is that anyone I talk to about my dryer situation reminds me that no one here uses a dryer. It gets so warm that clothes apparently dry very quickly on the clothesline. "It is a HUGE energy saver", I was told. Most people denied having an issue with sheets or towels getting crunchy. I did finally get one person to admit that the towels definitely get crunchy on the clothesline. So, as you can see, regardless of common sense, I absolutely could not use the dryer in the light rain. I can see the headline now..."American, electrocuted, doesn't care about the earth. Why was she using a dryer anyway?!"
My mom loves Dr. Oz on tv. She loves him because he was introduced by Oprah, and she really loves Oprah. She often passes along home-remedy tips discussed on Dr. Oz if she thinks I could use them. I do like home remedies, but only if someone can vouch that they may actually work...so if it applies to my situation, I'll give it a try. This often results in Jaime saying things like, "Why do we have a bar of soap under our sheets, again?"
I just giggle. :)
Last Tuesday, I took a cab home from my late-night basketball game. My cab driver was very chatty and wanted to talk about America. He was from _________, which I couldn't understand due to his foreign mixed with learned Aussie English accent and he would get a little perturbed whenever I asked him to repeat himself. I would guess that his first language was Arabic and he has been in Oz for 3 years...3 1/2 years, don't forget the 1/2, he told me. I told him that America and Australia were similar yet very different and he wanted to know specifics. So I remained vague and said categories like food, expenses, etc. He would then zone in on America with typical negative stereotypes..."Well food, I guess its different because people in America just eat the fast food." I told him that some people may, but I rarely eat fast food, and alot of the people I know rarely eat fast food. Plus the city McDonald's here is always packed. (And we did try a cheeseburger with "Australian grass-fed beef", we had to see if it was the same!). My cab driver, now turning into a judgemental cabbie, went on to talk about American "Fads" and how everything is a fad "like not eating Gluten" "and thinking organic is best" and "how are Americans going to be healthy, when they (still) only eat fast food.". He asked if we had any culture and how could we have so many religions? Hmm...I remained positively vague. I then redirected him and asked what he was doing in Australia. He came here for University to study Horticulture. I said well, how can you do horticulture in the city? Well, he doesn't do horticulture anymore, he didn't like it. He does enjoy living here with his Aunt while his family is back in _______. There have only been a few occasions I have felt the need to stick up for being a proud American. Once in awhile I say something odd like "shave a sheep" instead of "shear a sheep" and I get a response like..."Oh, you Americans." Please.
And then there are always the much loved "map" and "geography" jokes, Thank you Miss Teen USA. But those are easy. This cab ride though, was full of judgement. When we arrived at my corner, before I go out of the car I looked right at him and I said, "Ya know, life is not about surviving the storm, its about dancing in the rain."
I am not sure why I said it...maybe I wanted him to realize that he was a judgemental fool and we are all humans, connected in some way, or maybe its because I do and say random things all the time and this was the quote on my calendar this month. I don't know. But he just looked at me, dumbfounded. I figured he was contemplating whether I was so profoundly wise or just really ridiculous. But with that, I gave him a quick, righteous nod, got out of the cab and walked to the 7-11 to pick up some milk for Jaime.
1% milk, produced by organic Australian cows. 1% milk per product label guaranteed to be 100% free of hormones, preservatives, pesticides, added sugar, msg, gluten, and high fructose corn syrup. :)
You know, I think like an American but I currently purchase Australian, and sometimes...we are pretty similar.
Think Globally!
lol
So I figured I would write about some of my favorite random little things that are so similar/familiar, but yet so different and some things that just make me laugh.
Last Sunday, Jaime's attending took us out to dinner with his family. I ordered a salad to share, which turned into 4 salads for the table since we had 8 people. The salads came out before the meal and we were educated on how in Australia people eat their salads during the meal and not before. However, this dinner, they came out before. Like I said before, salad and veggies are so hard to come by that I so strangely crave them. So I had two servings of the salad closest to me and then once I realized everyone else was done eating salad, I finished off the rest of the bowls. Professor Heggie's 9 year old daughter, Caroline, noticed that I was seriously into salads, and for the next 30 minutes we talked Salad! She went through lists of salad add-ins to find out what I liked. And offered up the things she put in her salad that day, like Mint and Coriander. Brilliant! I never thought of that. I proceeded to tell her about all the things that I have just recently discovered that I love while living in Australia. I am pretty sure one could find these things in America, I just never noticed them.
Like butter lettuce! I freakin love it!! I hope its good for me because I don't buy anything else now.
Mini Roma tomatoes, just like the large oblong ones that are good no matter how you eat them, these are spectacular. They have regular mini and aromatherapy mini. I stick with the regular mini, since we are on a budget, and actually I am a little skeptical of aromatherapy tomatoes in general.
Lebanese cucumbers, the smaller and much sweeter version of the much loved cuke. Little Caroline, whole-heartedly agreed.
She then proceeded to ask me about the fruits I like to eat and to add in my salad:
Blueberries, strawberries, mango. Yes, I absolutely love mango, but they are rather expensive here so I usually find a way to drink most of my expensive fruits via smoothies and healthy drinks.
I actually think drinking my fruit is at the top of my favorites list and its not difficult to find a good fruit drink around here. :)
My next favorite thing is definitely my new Universal Steamer! This thing is awesome, it magically fits into just about any size pot and steams away! Its very handy and Jaime had no idea I could make snow peas.
Living in the Italian heart of the city, I have this great little food store that sells fun Italian foods and wine. I found a little personal bottle of Moscato (Sweet champagne, similar to Prosecco). It is the perfect size to have for my "private stock" as my dad used to say. As Prosecco lovers, my mom and mom-in-law are going to love their personal Moscato when they come to visit!
One thing that I am learning to love, my little clothes dryer. This little box was donated to us by our friend Peter, which was really nice. It is the size of a small hotel bar fridge and just has a power cord and a timer knob. No vent. I was really puzzled at this no vent situation and did some research online to figure out where to put the thing so it wasn't blowing out all sorts of stuff into our little flat. The only place it was listed was on an antique chat room. Apparently, I have a much coveted dinosaur dryer. People who found one or two of these things that worked were so excited, but no one really talked about where to put it. The one thread that had the same exact make as mine said that they used theirs for years but it finally broke and "the repair guy wouldn't fix it because of the asbestos." hmmm....not putting this in the house. Peter's cousin, who had been using the dryer, kept it in their basement. So I had no choice but to put it on the balcony. So now whenever I need it, I have to run the extension cord out onto the balcony. The balcony is open but quite protected from normal rain so I just cover the cord with a tight plastic bag when its not being used. As much as a hassle as it is to actually use the dryer, it is probably the best dryer ever. That little thing pumps the heat and gets clothes dry in less than 20 minutes! If those antique people only knew! On my day off last week, I was doing things around the apartment and started the laundry. When I took the wet clothes out of the washer outside to begin the hooking-up-of-the-dryer process, there it was...light Melbourne rain. Well, dang it. I can't dry the laundry in the rain with my dryer outside on the balcony. The funny thing here is that anyone I talk to about my dryer situation reminds me that no one here uses a dryer. It gets so warm that clothes apparently dry very quickly on the clothesline. "It is a HUGE energy saver", I was told. Most people denied having an issue with sheets or towels getting crunchy. I did finally get one person to admit that the towels definitely get crunchy on the clothesline. So, as you can see, regardless of common sense, I absolutely could not use the dryer in the light rain. I can see the headline now..."American, electrocuted, doesn't care about the earth. Why was she using a dryer anyway?!"
My mom loves Dr. Oz on tv. She loves him because he was introduced by Oprah, and she really loves Oprah. She often passes along home-remedy tips discussed on Dr. Oz if she thinks I could use them. I do like home remedies, but only if someone can vouch that they may actually work...so if it applies to my situation, I'll give it a try. This often results in Jaime saying things like, "Why do we have a bar of soap under our sheets, again?"
I just giggle. :)
Last Tuesday, I took a cab home from my late-night basketball game. My cab driver was very chatty and wanted to talk about America. He was from _________, which I couldn't understand due to his foreign mixed with learned Aussie English accent and he would get a little perturbed whenever I asked him to repeat himself. I would guess that his first language was Arabic and he has been in Oz for 3 years...3 1/2 years, don't forget the 1/2, he told me. I told him that America and Australia were similar yet very different and he wanted to know specifics. So I remained vague and said categories like food, expenses, etc. He would then zone in on America with typical negative stereotypes..."Well food, I guess its different because people in America just eat the fast food." I told him that some people may, but I rarely eat fast food, and alot of the people I know rarely eat fast food. Plus the city McDonald's here is always packed. (And we did try a cheeseburger with "Australian grass-fed beef", we had to see if it was the same!). My cab driver, now turning into a judgemental cabbie, went on to talk about American "Fads" and how everything is a fad "like not eating Gluten" "and thinking organic is best" and "how are Americans going to be healthy, when they (still) only eat fast food.". He asked if we had any culture and how could we have so many religions? Hmm...I remained positively vague. I then redirected him and asked what he was doing in Australia. He came here for University to study Horticulture. I said well, how can you do horticulture in the city? Well, he doesn't do horticulture anymore, he didn't like it. He does enjoy living here with his Aunt while his family is back in _______. There have only been a few occasions I have felt the need to stick up for being a proud American. Once in awhile I say something odd like "shave a sheep" instead of "shear a sheep" and I get a response like..."Oh, you Americans." Please.
And then there are always the much loved "map" and "geography" jokes, Thank you Miss Teen USA. But those are easy. This cab ride though, was full of judgement. When we arrived at my corner, before I go out of the car I looked right at him and I said, "Ya know, life is not about surviving the storm, its about dancing in the rain."
I am not sure why I said it...maybe I wanted him to realize that he was a judgemental fool and we are all humans, connected in some way, or maybe its because I do and say random things all the time and this was the quote on my calendar this month. I don't know. But he just looked at me, dumbfounded. I figured he was contemplating whether I was so profoundly wise or just really ridiculous. But with that, I gave him a quick, righteous nod, got out of the cab and walked to the 7-11 to pick up some milk for Jaime.
1% milk, produced by organic Australian cows. 1% milk per product label guaranteed to be 100% free of hormones, preservatives, pesticides, added sugar, msg, gluten, and high fructose corn syrup. :)
You know, I think like an American but I currently purchase Australian, and sometimes...we are pretty similar.
Think Globally!
lol
Monday, October 4, 2010
Chocolate and Headsets Part 2
"Good Morning, Strokeline, this is Ashley." This is what I say when I go to work at my new part-time job! In America, I have only worked in a hospital setting where I am on the go all day, running around answering consults and seeing patients. I love the fast-paced environment, but I always wondered what it would be like to have a desk job. And ta-da! Move to a new continent and have the luxury of working a random part-time job. I have enjoyed my reflection time, but I was about to go insane without some daily social interaction with people other than store clerks. So I hooked up with a locum agency that places me in per diem or part-time positions as a speech pathologist. My first opportunity popped up to work at the National Stroke Foundation Australia as a "Stroke Advisor." Basically I sit in my little cube and answer questions about stroke (education, resources, referrals, counseling) for the general public that calls in. Its easy, I do get to use background knowledge regarding stroke, and its an interesting change. I've always wondered about foundations and toll free numbers and who answers the phones etc...well now, it is me! Surprisingly, I have only been asked a few times about my "accent" and if I was located in America. The office is friendly and social and the best part...I get to wear my little headset! If I am returning calls or busy getting calls, or just wanting to look busy, I spend most of the day in my headset. I put together packets of information to mail to my callers and I can't tell you how many times I have wheeled my chair around to grab material from the wall behind me without first taking off my headset. This is usually followed by a tiny squeal from me or loud clatter from my phone or other desk objects being knocked around by the cord. Otherwise, it gets stuck in my hair or I can't get my microphone out of the way fast enough for a sneeze or cough. So as you can see, its fun and actually a little ridiculous. And no one bothered to mention the dangers of wearing a headset in my 30 minute work-safety tutorial (literally 30 minutes!). "The hot water faucet is very hot", "Don't put anything in front of the fire door," except maybe my headset. Its one of those love/hate relationships. :)
When I speak to a caller, I log personal details and our conversation into the computer database. The keyboard is similar except for a few exceptions. The left shift key is quite small and the right enter key is vertical and not horizontal and the slash key is next to both of them (\). So for awhile things looked like this;
\y name is \shley.\ My pinky is now trained to stretch that extra mm. My callers range from young to old and may be stroke survivors, caregivers, family, friends, or just interested in keeping themself 'strokesafe'. Alot of older people have difficulty hearing and I have to talk loud enough for them to hear me but still quietly enough that the whole office is not in on the conversation. Often co-workers say..."I tune you out because I am so used to it, but you have a lovely phone manner." Thanks for listening, I guess!? Most people have accents and usually have to spell out their street names and cities like Toowoolong, Ballacara, Coolagarlie, Ulladulla because I can't understand the strange name and their accent on the phone doesn't help. When spelling a word with the letter 'h' it sounds like "hey-ch" so, my name would be A-S-hey-ch. The other day the woman in the cubicle next to me said that sometimes she likes to speak in an "American accent" but its not to offend me, so don't be offended. :) ??? I told her not to worry, no offense taken. (giggle..what?!).
We also have birthday and going away parties with "Afternoon tea". This is usually very exciting since the conference room becomes overcome with australian party/tea foods. Like trout and cucumber or egg salad sandwiches, profiteroles, tiramisu, quiche, and sponge cake...which is very popular here. There is a constant rumble of "Ooh sponge cake!" "Who made the sponge cake?" And apparently it is an authentic Aussie food that you don't venture to make if you don't know how to make a good one. This came about from the Country Women's Association. Anytime there is trauma or disaster, the country women come to the rescue and bake a sponge cake!
Outside of my new gig, I am keeping very busy! Its a little surprising how I managed to put together a schedule! I have joined a great non-profit organization called carpets for communities (http://www.carpetsforcommunities.org/) where we sell these fun and colorful rugs at open-air markets around Victoria. It is an organization that empowers women in cambodia by giving them work and the opportunity to support their family so that the children do not have to beg at the border. Each carpet sold, sends a child in Poi Pet to school. Its really cool and since I have some time I decided to join the small group here and take a position, Volunteer Coordinator and Social Chair! (they didn't have one, so I added it!). It is exactly what I was looking for and I sold rugs at my first market last week! I also joined a women's intramural basketball team. Jaime gets a big kick out of this. Like I always say, I can play basketball, but I am not a basketball player. Well, I have no idea what I am doing. I grew up with two brothers and my father who played basketball in high school. I called dad to ask him for some tips and he said "Ash, you've been around a basketball long enough to know what to do."....right...???
I am guessing he may be referring to the pop-a-shot we had in our family room when we were younger. It was just like the actual arcade game but you didn't have to use quarters. I still to this day wonder how my brothers convinced my parents to buy a pop-a-shot and build it in our family room. It lasted quite awhile so we could have DeTillio pop-a-shot competitions, until mom decided it was a goner. Anyway, dad and Jaime gave me some tips and in my first game, I still had no idea what I was doing but I made it out ok! No elbows to the face, I made a few good passes (quick hands dad said), one was actually through my legs which I thought for sure was illegal, but only got a few giggles, and I fouled some chick. Otherwise, I hustled up and down the court in my little blue jersey for twenty minutes until I thought I might die. Two days later I was as sore as could be in random places that I don't workout in my regular routine. One of those places being the soles of my feet. And so I told Jaime that I will definitely be needing some new shoes, those new Nike Hyperdunks are looking pretty good, I mean now that I am a basketball player. :)
We finally had some really great Spring weather this weekend. The footy Grand Final rematch was on Saturday and so we met up with some of Jaime's work friends. It was fun being at a bar for Gameday! It was a different type of gameday as the bar was not packed (it was just right, compared to home where every sports bar gets packed) not many people wear gameday colors, and girls don't usually drink beer. Well, I did both! And we taught our international friends how to play Flip Cup! They loved it and we made a mess. :) We had then had the BEST thai food...the restaurant smelled like sweat socks, but the pad thai was super awesome (and this was way after flip cup so it wasn't the beer talking). One of our friends did not want to drive all the way home so we had our first guest at the Kraus House. We had an interesting time opening up the mattress in a box, which is as weird as it sounds, but out rolled this mattress and puffed right up into a really great night's sleep, per guest report. The next day Jaime and I had a coupon for a massage and then we just laid in the park for the day and got some much needed sunshine. Our weekend was complete with the exciting purchase of our first car!!! We were referred by a friend to a specific used car dealership and we purchased a nice little 1998 Audi for a great bargain price, low kilometers, new tires, and works perfectly for scooting us around. So many milestones...
And we're Off!!!
When I speak to a caller, I log personal details and our conversation into the computer database. The keyboard is similar except for a few exceptions. The left shift key is quite small and the right enter key is vertical and not horizontal and the slash key is next to both of them (\). So for awhile things looked like this;
\y name is \shley.\ My pinky is now trained to stretch that extra mm. My callers range from young to old and may be stroke survivors, caregivers, family, friends, or just interested in keeping themself 'strokesafe'. Alot of older people have difficulty hearing and I have to talk loud enough for them to hear me but still quietly enough that the whole office is not in on the conversation. Often co-workers say..."I tune you out because I am so used to it, but you have a lovely phone manner." Thanks for listening, I guess!? Most people have accents and usually have to spell out their street names and cities like Toowoolong, Ballacara, Coolagarlie, Ulladulla because I can't understand the strange name and their accent on the phone doesn't help. When spelling a word with the letter 'h' it sounds like "hey-ch" so, my name would be A-S-hey-ch. The other day the woman in the cubicle next to me said that sometimes she likes to speak in an "American accent" but its not to offend me, so don't be offended. :) ??? I told her not to worry, no offense taken. (giggle..what?!).
We also have birthday and going away parties with "Afternoon tea". This is usually very exciting since the conference room becomes overcome with australian party/tea foods. Like trout and cucumber or egg salad sandwiches, profiteroles, tiramisu, quiche, and sponge cake...which is very popular here. There is a constant rumble of "Ooh sponge cake!" "Who made the sponge cake?" And apparently it is an authentic Aussie food that you don't venture to make if you don't know how to make a good one. This came about from the Country Women's Association. Anytime there is trauma or disaster, the country women come to the rescue and bake a sponge cake!
Outside of my new gig, I am keeping very busy! Its a little surprising how I managed to put together a schedule! I have joined a great non-profit organization called carpets for communities (http://www.carpetsforcommunities.org/) where we sell these fun and colorful rugs at open-air markets around Victoria. It is an organization that empowers women in cambodia by giving them work and the opportunity to support their family so that the children do not have to beg at the border. Each carpet sold, sends a child in Poi Pet to school. Its really cool and since I have some time I decided to join the small group here and take a position, Volunteer Coordinator and Social Chair! (they didn't have one, so I added it!). It is exactly what I was looking for and I sold rugs at my first market last week! I also joined a women's intramural basketball team. Jaime gets a big kick out of this. Like I always say, I can play basketball, but I am not a basketball player. Well, I have no idea what I am doing. I grew up with two brothers and my father who played basketball in high school. I called dad to ask him for some tips and he said "Ash, you've been around a basketball long enough to know what to do."....right...???
I am guessing he may be referring to the pop-a-shot we had in our family room when we were younger. It was just like the actual arcade game but you didn't have to use quarters. I still to this day wonder how my brothers convinced my parents to buy a pop-a-shot and build it in our family room. It lasted quite awhile so we could have DeTillio pop-a-shot competitions, until mom decided it was a goner. Anyway, dad and Jaime gave me some tips and in my first game, I still had no idea what I was doing but I made it out ok! No elbows to the face, I made a few good passes (quick hands dad said), one was actually through my legs which I thought for sure was illegal, but only got a few giggles, and I fouled some chick. Otherwise, I hustled up and down the court in my little blue jersey for twenty minutes until I thought I might die. Two days later I was as sore as could be in random places that I don't workout in my regular routine. One of those places being the soles of my feet. And so I told Jaime that I will definitely be needing some new shoes, those new Nike Hyperdunks are looking pretty good, I mean now that I am a basketball player. :)
We finally had some really great Spring weather this weekend. The footy Grand Final rematch was on Saturday and so we met up with some of Jaime's work friends. It was fun being at a bar for Gameday! It was a different type of gameday as the bar was not packed (it was just right, compared to home where every sports bar gets packed) not many people wear gameday colors, and girls don't usually drink beer. Well, I did both! And we taught our international friends how to play Flip Cup! They loved it and we made a mess. :) We had then had the BEST thai food...the restaurant smelled like sweat socks, but the pad thai was super awesome (and this was way after flip cup so it wasn't the beer talking). One of our friends did not want to drive all the way home so we had our first guest at the Kraus House. We had an interesting time opening up the mattress in a box, which is as weird as it sounds, but out rolled this mattress and puffed right up into a really great night's sleep, per guest report. The next day Jaime and I had a coupon for a massage and then we just laid in the park for the day and got some much needed sunshine. Our weekend was complete with the exciting purchase of our first car!!! We were referred by a friend to a specific used car dealership and we purchased a nice little 1998 Audi for a great bargain price, low kilometers, new tires, and works perfectly for scooting us around. So many milestones...
And we're Off!!!
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