I realised I haven't posted anything lately. I seem to think that I have, but only because I've been tweeting! I'm on my second week of 1030am shifts. I have two more weeks then I get normal shifts for four weeks then its welcome back, 700am. Sometimes I get tired of shifting but it could be worse, I could be on at night. I've discovered its really, really hard to go to the gym on this shift. I've been having trouble sleeping so I sleep between 1-3am. Even if I pack my gym bag with all intentions of going to the gym before work, it doesn't happen. Tomorrow I am determined to go after work, though. Let's see how late I'm awake this time.

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I haven't even left for New York and I've started to have to plan for South Africa. As we have 4 follow your team tickets, we have no idea where we're going and when we have to be there. FIFA doesn't announce which groups each team is in till November. So until November we don't know what date we have to be in South Africa by. I am hoping we'll start at a later date, because I think the most the other girls can stay is 3 weeks and there's a bit of a gap between some of the preliminary games and the group 16s.

I am planning to take 5-6 weeks off to do an overland safari, and they haven't released their 2010 July dates yet. I will actually have to walk into Intrepid next week and go over it with them.

Jason, being the super planner that he is, has booked flights, accomodation and 4 day Kruger safari already. Their group however is only watching the games in Cape Town, so they know when they are going and where they need to be. We're to meet them in Cape Town after the Group 16 game for about three days - a decision we had to make yesterday, with Jason giving me 24 hours notice to decide whether to join them for a while or not. Then we either go home or I start my safari. Or I could start my safari beforehand? I still have to check things out.

There's really quite a bit to do. I want to start figuring it out but I am limited by of all things, FIFA. (Seriously?!) However, I refuse to be paranoid or stressed. I'll start planning because I like doing things, but I will, as much as possible try to do things slowly as I really can't make any firm decisions till November.

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One of my dreams is to go to Zanzibar. Its an island, former route for both the slave and spice trade off the coast of Tanzania in East Africa. I figured, I'm already there, I'll go! But the flights from South Africa to Tanzania may be costly, and as I want to do a safari as well, perhaps I might just do a safari in Southern Africa. And, as my officemate says, "Zanzibar is for lovers. You need a man!" Thanks, dude.

I swore though, that next year I would go to one of the things on my top 10 places to go list - I took South Africa off when we got the World Cup tickets - and Tanzania is on that list. Also Libya & Tunisia which I could do instead (same continent, will that work :P). In fairness so is New Zealand, so realistically I could just buy a cheap flight and do it, hahaha. We shall see.


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Sleep, please do not evade me unless I'm at work :) Good night.

I've been rather slack in posting this week. Largely because 7am starts don't make for much brain power at the end of the day. I have to get up around 5:20 and make my way to the bus stop for the 5:48am bus on weekdays. Next week I start at the slightly later time of 730am. So while y'all are still sleeping or getting up or jogging remember that I am on my way to work.

And that tomorrow I might have to take the bloody night bus to get to work on time. (WTF)

Other than that things have been fine. Work is ok.

I've been really trying to sleep early but lately that's been one epic fail. The earliest I've made it so far is between ten and ten thirty. This morning while walking to the Marion/Norton corner stop (better lighting at 530 am than the elswick st stop) I realised that first of all there are no joggers at 530 on Saturday and second, it might be time to get a car. I work Sunday mornings too, the earliest bus is at 5:58am, I think (I'm not taking the one at 5:04) so I could be late for work. Also its hard to get up and make it on Saturdays.

Continued from Saturday

So we lost 3-0 to Valencia. I'm not sure I want to watch the game, hahaah. Iker will probably be "emotionally distressed" again, as Kickette refers to it. Poor bb. So Barcelona wins the liga this year, as expected. Seriously, I'm a madridista, but I am realistic and you kind of could tell from the way it was doing earlier in the year how it was going to go. I had hoped they would do better in the second el clasico, but as a lot of the RM fans said, it wasn't that we lost, its more that we performed embarrassingly. For the record, Barca has done really well this season and I think they truly deserve to win the title. And yes, I am supporting them in the champions league even if it is weird bec I effing dislike Man U (I'm sorry Man U friends, i do) and I think for once it should be a non-english team!

Thanks to my office mate, I got a ride to work today and got to wake up at 540 instead of being on the bus by then (YAY). I have decided that I should really get a car, because it takes 15 minutes to drive to North Sydney on a weekend and we get free parking and seriously this 5am shit is difficult. So if anyone knows anyone who is selling a cheap second hand still good car, lemme know.

Rudo y Cursi

Last night we saw Rudo y Cursi at the Spanish film fest. This movie has Gael Garcia Bernal & Diego Luna as two brothers who are total hicks that are kindov stupid and really funny. They are discovered playing football and are taken to the big city to make a name for themselves. The ending is bittersweet but the whole thing is utterly hilarious. Gael also thinks he could be a singer, and OMG he makes a video that is so cheesy, and so bad its crazy funny. Would highly recommend it to everyone.

Sue Ellen and I are now super excited to see other Spanish Films at the filmfest. Miel & I are watching "just walking" on Saturday evening (Trish do you want to come). It also looks like I might do a double movie and see Chef's special with Len right after that (eeeee! exciting!).

I am going back to work now

sigh.

Computator!

Last Sunday I gave up & bought my Mac. I still love my PC and will keep dear old Damian till he decides to full on die and never turn on again, but he's got a few quirks like a wireless that will not turn on, some sound issues, and he hangs a lot. Also I think he's getting a bit tired. So I got him a younger sibling. And yes, I named my Mac "iker". I was kind of worried that I would open the box and get a girl computer - I know this is weird but I have had several computers over the years and it has not gone well for me when they are girls and yes my computers have genders - and I had no girl names. I was like, what will I name you? Fortunately, its a boy!

And yes, I am a geek & my computers are my babies.

I ended up paying half up front (thanks mum!) and putting the other half on my credit card. I was going to get financing but it was 24% interest (wtf!) so I just stuck it on the card as the interest was lower. My mum was very excited bec we will finally get to just use Skype, as the mic and camera are working but we are throttled, hahaha, so I said, uhm sorry mum we'll have to wait till Monday Apr 27, tho its looking a bit faster today.

I am still learning to use my MAC and would like to thank Sue Ellen & Gutsy for their extreme patience while I say things like, "But where'd it go?" "Haaaaaaa?". I promise to read MAC 101 soon, Len.


Work & Stolen ATMs

I started the week on a 7am shift. It was a bit strange getting on the bus at 540am each day. I missed it twice, and learnt that even if you get on the 6:07 bus you still make it to work. Its just that I don't get the extra time to walk leisurely and buy stuff. I also decided that I should buy fruit on the way to work everyday, instead of buying in advance so that I get fresh fruit and don't have all this random stuff sitting in my fridge kind of dying. I would also like to thank my team mate Kim, who got me coffee every morning because I got to work too early for coffee everyday. I do not know what is going to happen when we both do 7am at the end of May.

(PS: Ala, I get weekdays off from next week onwards, so if you're at uni & want to meet for coffee at some point on one of my days off, would love to catch up in Newtown, let me know!)

On Thursday, as I was walking to work a whole portion of the street got cordoned off and was full of police cars. A lady that was walking with me, stopped a cop and said, "Excuse me, that's my building. How do I get in? Should I just go home?" And the cop couldn't tell us what was going on. Later on we learnt that some guys had blown up one of the facade of the building - on the mezzanine level - where there were two ATMs, and somehow physically taken both ATMs out, and gone off with them.

The windows of the building up to 8 floors up got cracked or blown up. Dick Smith, the store underneath the ATMs had to close too, and I guess everyone else had to go do their business continuity plans and work elsewhere.

There have been a lot of attempts at random ATMs across NSW and beyond. Most of these attempts are not successful, but it creates a lot of hassle cos people blow up ATMs thinking/Ram into store fronts with cars, etc. thinking they'll get into safes but most of the time they just create a lot of damage and don't end up with any money.

Also, there have been quite a few skimming devices put on machines lately, so everyone please be careful, cover your hand when you put in your pin and check the place where you stick your card in to see if anything is suspicious. (Usually they put another card reader on top of the existing one and it juts out)

Surprises

On Tuesday I got my Kevin money! Thank you government stimulus. It promptly went to pay my credit card because of course I already spent it.

Wednesday Miel & I went to eat at Bills with Jason. We had a great dinner, I had a wagyu burger and she had pork belly. Jason had vego risotto, and we really enjoyed these risotto balls that were quite filling. They also had surprisingly good chorizo, better than half the Spanish restaurants I've been in, seeing as they tend to think grilled chorizo = burnt chorizo.

When I got home, I got a letter from the tax office saying, Kevin has paid you. (Yes, I know, thanks) And another letter that said, "We are delighted to inform you that we have accepted your application for citizenship!" YAAAAY Go Me!

I am finally, finally (almost) Aussie!

Now all I have to do is wait for the ceremony, which could take up to 6 months, and then I will be a citizen and can get my blue passport. I hope it doesn't take too long.

I also have to go to centrelink and advise them, so we can get our assurance of support back.

Then on Thursday, Jason called me to say, "My application has question marks next to the matches I have chosen. And my credit card has been charged"

So I went to FIFA saw my question mark, checked my card and even if I haven't received my confirmation email (Jason has!) I know thanks to the entry that says FIFA Johannesburg, I got my World Cup tickets .

SOUTH AFRICA HERE WE COME!

I am off to africa with Pia, Jao, Jason, Bec, Jojo, Rihan & possibly Madeline (who I don't understand how she could be Swedish and have to ask Jojo "What sport is this world cup for?" Look I know there are other sports that have world cups, but seriously?)

I got the news at work but I could not freak out because I was working. I told one team mate and I was going, there's a question mark do you know what this means? And despite being a massive football fan he'd never bought tickets so he couldn't explain it either. Fortunately my credit card has answered my question.

Jason is going to five games in CapeTown and I am going to do Follow Your Team/4 Games with Team Espana!!!
YAAAAAY!

So far we have absolutely no freaking clue where we are going to end up because its follow your team and we could go anywhere, plus they don't have a group yet, so we have no dates. I am presuming that because Spain won the Euros they automatically qualify (not that they haven't yet anyway) so there is no danger of ending up watching another team bec they don't qualify. [Does anyone have any idea when the groups are going to be released? crazy_girl_86? gaeuko_izar? promakos?]

I am planning to get a round the world ticket and taking my full five weeks (hell, six if my boss lets me) spending three ish weeks in Africa then heading over to Spain and some part of Europe. Jao & I plan to go to San Sebastian, and before that I will meet Sacha somewhere, because she is moving back to Europe this July.

And then somehow I'll go back to work! bwahahaha.

And that's all the exciting news for this week. Back to our regularly scheduled program :)

My proudest moment today:

Nirav (Arsenal) & Ryo (Liverpool) talking about the match at work

Ryo: something something Yossi
Me: Are you a scouser?
Ryo: Scouser? (laughs) Yeah, I am. Are you a football fan
Me: Yes!

Ryo: So what's her team?
Nirav: Madrid
Ryo: Really? She likes football?
Nirav: Yeah, she's pretty good actually.

I'm sooooo proud :) I am not just football frufru anymore hahaha

"Only a show of outstanding one-man defiance from Real keeper Iker Casillas stopped Liverpool from running riot even more in front of a delirious Anfield gallery."

I seriously need to download this game later.

And no, I don't really feel bad.

What's happening with Barcelona?

From a completely objective point of view, they were top, and I thought they would win the Liga. The fact that we've managed to catch up and are nipping at their heels shows that something, somewhere has gone wrong. Despite being a Madridista and all I quite like them, I like too many players in that team to not do so. I think I'm supposed to hate them, but I think they're quite good, and will be supportive if we're not playing. (Forget about that when we're playing each other, though. Or you know, in the end when we're fighting for the league title.)

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I am really, really craving uhm something like an empanada.

My halfhearted attempts at stopping smoking aside, I am quite hungry. I've had random days where I didn't smoke, but it hasn't been any more than two consecutive days. When I do smoke I never generally smoke more than two, or four for the whole day, which is not a lot but still a bit sad. I am feeling very wishywashy about it, I think that I need to really want to (like the last time) to stop it. It will happen soon, I have promised myself, everytime I walk up that hill in the morning :) It shall be so, but first I have to decide that I want to do it.

I need to have heavier breakfasts so I stop being hungry. I think a peanut butter sandwich just isn't cutting it anymore. Yesterday I had our leftover thai, which was like half a cup of rice and bits of this and that (Ga Pi, I heart you. I can see myself coming back for you even if Len isn't there, hahaha) and I was full for ages and ages.


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Today is the first day of direct charging, i.e. the day that ATMs start charging you fees on the spot for using other people's ATMs. There are balloons all over the office and they were expecting us to be mega busy. To be fair there have been a lot of calls but not about that. I have been doing all sorts of stuff today.

We got mini quiches, samosas and pies today. At first I thought the samosas were filo pastries so I was like, ok I can't have anything with dairy. Poor Kim is on a 19 day Bahai fast and was really hungry but couldn't eat. So that sucked. I thought I would be joining him in his not eating the quiches but the filo pastries turned out to be mini samosas so I managed to have one.

Now I have to get back to work...

Wednesday

This year's lenten sacrifice is:
1) dairy
2) fast food, including crisps (goodbye, KFC :( )
3) artificial sugar (e.g. chocolate, muffins, cupcakes, etc)
I am allowed one sugar in my coffee, only because i think nutrasweet is too sweet. (does that make sense?)
4) chorizo

I decided not to give up pork this year because it wasn't hard to do last year. Also its really just chorizo, i think. The sugar is a refined version of my yearly chocolate sacrifice. I try to up the ante every year, and make it harder. The dairy is really something I have to do because its so much better for me (and Miguel the fat cat) to not have it.

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I am so sleepy at work. I haven't been getting enough sleep so I'm going home early to make sure that I get to bed early. Plus I have to figure out what I'm having for dinner. (Aha! I have veggo burgers!)

I also want to do something charitable for lent. Someone in my old office is collecting shoes for soles4souls, an organization that sends shoes to impoverished locations. The shoes she collects are going to Afghanistan, Tajikistan (kizkumay, anyone? :P), Iraq and other places. If anyone would like to donate their shoes, lemme know. (you can give pia your office clothes for her charity drive too! ill take the shoes, heels included!)

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I want to travel again. But the way things are looking for the World Cup, I think I should save money and travel locally!!! Its going to be v expensive, all up. I'm looking at safari options and the cheapest I've found is something like 1600 for 2 weeks in Kenya & Tanzania - If I don't go to Zanzibar I will feel very very bad - and that includes 9 days camping. How I will survive I don't know. I better book Jason's sleeping bag ahead of time!


I should mention tho, that locally includes New Zealand! hahaha

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I still haven't booked Bar at Buena Vista tix. I kind of think, well I've seen them already. But then they might die. (Cos one of them already did) So I don't know. I'm starting to have second thoughts.

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Thursday

I WANT MY INTERNET TO WORK DAMMIT

I want to download Real Madrid vs Liverpool. Now.

I spent the whole game checking twitter for promakos live tweets, never mind that we have opposing teams plus the offside live blog on their real site. Apparently the defense was shit especially Heinze, who I never really liked anywayz.

I can't even check all my shit! I have trouble sneaking things at work cos I got told to be careful as the boss has seen me sending email (from my work account even!) and even if I do work, and sneak this in only every now and then it just so happens that the boss was there when I did check! And seriously, I am v busy at work. Honest. I don't email as much as I did when I was at the other job.

And arrrrrgh I just want to read the match overview by marca in spanish. Or as or el pais or el mundo or something but nothing will load and TPG is "experiencing a high volume of calls we cannot address your query please try again later". I came home to get the internet people to check our phone line (oh God Telstra again, I get enough of Telstra at work, utang na loob) and file a complaint, check when our contract was expiring, etc etc but its not happening they can't help us it sucks.

Last night I finally started watching Spain vs England and it was so weird not to have the commentary in Spanish. I am not fluent by any means, and while I can understand it when I'm reading or writing mumbled super fast commentary in Spanish is not the best thing. However when you are cheering for a Spanish team, its really, really weird to have English commentators speaking. Also I'm not used to it anymore because my streaming (even for the tennis!) was in Spanish.

I have to say after watching the first half, England was so kalat! Event he commentators say they were too spread out. Spain was really tight and OMG I was like watching all the amazing passing and I was like, they are so good. Even Pia was like, OMG ang galing nila and she is a massive England fan (who ironically knows more players on my team than hers! hahaha). It also helped that they closed up a lot on Senor Alonso, which lead to much sighing on both our parts.

Anyway, I am going to attempt to fix the internet now. Somehow, someway.

Not having internet except on my phone this weekend kindov of made it hard to read the football reviews. I swear I will just sit down and read the match reviews really soon. However I still found out that Barca lost (wtf?) and we won 6 points, vs Betis. Not that I don't think we're really good, but Betis must've sucked big time. I mean, that's 6 points. That only happens in Bundesliga :P

Anyway, spent the weekend at the Australian Romance Readers Conference - yes I read romance novels - in Melbourne. Had a lovely time, bought 10 books, then won 4, Miel won 4 and bought 2, plus we got all these free novels. So we came home with like I don't know, 20 books or something.

Also I got to hang with a lot of the lovely chicas over there, meet some fabulously nice authors, stay in a nice hotel (the jasper, v. pretty) and see my Melbourne friends, especially Cat-cat who is moving to London for a couple of years. I didn't get to eat at a lot of my favorite places - at one point we had KFC - because we didn't have enough time, but no visit is complete without passing by Brunetti's, which I did, for the best soy chai latte I have ever had in this country.

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Today, embarrassingly enough I found out that I had been coming in at the wrong time. Kim, my co-trainee and I have been doing 9-5 because we're in training and were told we would not be on shift. So we didn't think we were in the roster - or if we were it always just said TRAINING in big letters with no time - so we didn't think it was a different time. Suddenly today we find out I was meant to be in at 8am (from last Wednesday!!!) finishing at 430. I was so embarrassed. My boss was all, so this is why you guys have always been late. Saves me the trouble of talking to you! And I was like, I know you're kidding but really?!??! They seriously didn't notice either but I felt that I should know better having had oh I dunno, 5 years of call centre experience?!?!

Plus, I've been coming in early! Like 20 minutes early at least everyday to set up my system, get myself organised etc. Little did I know 20 minutes early was actually what, 40 minutes late!??! NYAAAARGH.

Sigh.

__________

Sacha came over today to pick up my SIM cards. I hope they still work. I have both an american and a spanish sim. She is going to Utah for a conference, then to Maryland - Amsterdam - small town near Dusseldorf - Barcelona - and back again. Maryland & Amsterdam are to visit friends and family and the rest are to look at research opportunities, as this is most likely where she will be ending up next. I will miss Sacha very much when she goes, she is one of my closest friends here, and one of my very first friends here.

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Feel rather accomplished, as even if I skipped my spanish class (I was really tired) I cooked my meals for the week and ironed all my clothes. I think that was about 8 or 10 shirts. Go ME!

Must be off to bed now as I have to wake up freakishly early. Hahaha
(If only the football was this early, then I could watch while getting dressed. Oh wait, I'd be late for work, hahahaah)

Last night I decided to go through my citizenship booklet one more time before I went to bed. I fell asleep right in the middle of Australian values. (Equality, diginity, etc...)

This is very long, but I promise it is funny.

I dreamt we were in a football (soccer) team. Everyone (almost) was in this dream.

The dream opens with Pia in a dark blue football shirt - the blue that's between navy and cerulean - white shorts, socks with shin pads and white football shoes. She is filling square and rectangular take away containers at our sink, which happens to have filtered water now. She says, "Lars, pupunuin ko to para eto yung iinuman natin sa game, ha?". (I will fill the takeaway containers so we will drink from them during the game) I nod. I am wearing same shade of blue, shorts & top, black football shoes with blue tips. Miel is outside on the verandah hanging the whites on the washing rack and Lorea is fussing around the dining room table, as she does, in her pajamas, fixing stuff. I do not, in any way, find it bizarre that we are drinking water out of takeaway containers, even if logically we could fill water bottles instead.

In the next part of the dream we are in a locker room much like the ones in american high school movies. There is a long, narrow brown bench in front of silver grey lockers, except they are not the long lockers but the smaller ones, which are one on top of the other, so there are two lockers per panel. Andee is sitting on the bench, in a football uniform that matches mine. She says, "Nakakainis, papano ko makikita yung bola with my new fringe?!?" (How sill I see the ball with my new fringe) And blows the fringe out of her face. it kind of reaches past her nose. She says this to Len who is sitting next to her on the right, in full make up, with her hair in half pony. Len's shirt says #26. She's the only one whose number I remember. She is wearing black havaianas, left leg crossed over right, and she is eating a pack of chocolate eggnogg buscuits from the philippines. She spends the entire dream, just eating that bag of eggnogg that never seems to run out.

From the locker room, you walk up three steps, step out and you're on the pitch. Its a very very large one, like Old Trafford or something. Everyone is wearing blue. Even the other team. We all look exactly the same, I do not know how anyone can tell the difference, but in while I am in this dream, it does not bother me, at all. I also do not know what it says on the backs of our shirts, but its not our names, or anyone's names, while I can't see them I somehow know that they are ordinary words like, "turbulence" or "work" or something random like that.

I walk out into the pitch and behind me there is this place where all the coaches sit, except it looks like a baseball dugout with all these old men in dark black coats, like in football games in europe, it looks cold and rainy but its not raining. (None of them are Jose Mourinho or Pep tho so never mind)

Miel is standing there in a full kit except her shoes are the shoes for the gym in grey and blue and she is wearing this dark raincoat all the way up to her knees. I have some awareness that she is on substitution due to injury. Len is sitting there. still eating eggnogg

Pia comes out and stands at the middle edge of the pitch, on the line near the dugout thing. Miel says, "Pia bakit hindi mo palitan yung shorts mo, they're kind of baduy and hindi bagay with everyone else?" (Why don't you change your shorts they don't match everyone else)

Because Pia is wearing white shorts. Pia says, "Eh hindi pa ko naglalaba eh. Mamaya na lang" (I haven't done the laundry, I'll do it later)

At which point I realise that Pia is a playing coach just like Jaworski. Which is what randomly popped into my head in that dream.

Have I mentioned that Pia is the only one wearing proper socks because the rest of us are wearing ankle socks?

Andee is the goal keeper. Except she is wearing baseball pitcher mitts instead of regular gloves. The goal is shaped like a cave and is only a little bit taller than her. (Maybe 2 hands higher) She is standing squat in the middle of the goal, the ends of both goals are probably only a little longer than her arm's length. And she keeps blowing at her fringe.

At some point I see Tiffany, playing on our side. I have some awareness that Liz & Den are in the stands, except Liz is dressed like a normal person, and Den is in a football shirt. And everyone in the stands is wearing blue.

And then I figure out that Jojo and Gutsy are our strikers!!! Both of them are wearing white, all white, still ankle socks, and glasses! Jojo has the ball but all he does is run up and down. I have some awareness, as I run, look down and see my ankle socks that I am a defender/right midfield/some kind of the ramos position and all I do is run. Run up and down, run up and down, looking at my shoes. Not at the field, not at anything, just.my.shoes.

All we do is run. Up and down the field. One goal to the other goal. And Jojo has the ball. And Gutsy keeps running after him beside him but Jojo doesn't pass the ball, doesn't do anything, he runs up and down with it, that's it. Pia is already screaming stuff in three languages, (english, filipino and spanish curses) from the edge of the field and at some point, Andee smacks her gloves together like a pissed off pitcher and goes, "Ohmyged Jojo!!!" and Jojo turns to Gutsy and says, "What am I supposed to do ba? Diba I'm just supposed to run?" And he keeps running and Gutsy says something like, "Jojo you have to pass the ball you pass na to me."

And we keep running and running up and down and somehow I remember that I have to study the history of Australia and I wake up, with my hand on the Australian Citizenship Booklet. I get up and pee and then go back, try to study and fall asleep.

And that was last night's dream.

First of all, Spain whupped England's ass 2-0. And everyone got to play! (As in, even Iker got subbed by Pepe) YAAAY. I am so looking forward to getting home and watching the replay if i can find it. (help, someone?) Thanks to aristeia for live tweeting so I was able to check it during tea break and get all the goss bwahahaha. David Villa FTW! And Llorente! Yaaaay!

Only thing I have to say: Marca, please stop calling them Armada Invencible. The Armada sunk, remember?!?!

Second, i am in training till Tues and have limited access to internet/email. I will only be able to respond to you during lunch/tea break. So don't be upset if you don't hear anything! Just text and will get back to you when I am done.

SueEllenz, If you are reading this:
a) I finish at max 430pm
b) Think na of a name you want to use when we blog about tonight's speed datingz. Miel has one na! hahahaha

First, I would like to thank angelthorn for my latest set of rafa icons that I have yet to upload and for sending me all these lovely pictures. (You know i'm going to ask for another set of icons, right?!?! hahahahahahah)

Work is getting more and more complicated and interesting (and truly so, not in the fake way that my last job was) even if half the stuff is still going over my head. We had a meeting today, where we discussed knowledge management and how all of us would be assigned different areas to become Subject Matter Experts in. Kim (the other new guy) and I didn't even know what our areas meant, hahahaha. Each area is composed of three of you that have to develop your skills. One of you is going to be the point person to coordinate with the boss. I volunteered to be the useless point person that knows jack shit. Hahahaha.

In fairness, we do start atm training next week. I should explain first that the company I work for mainly manages ATMs along with other financial solutions. We have 30% of the market share in ATMs (basically we own all the ATMs that don't belong to the big banks) and my job is in second level helpdesk support where mainly we handle the difficult tech issues with ATMs and do heaps and heaps of projects. (as evidenced by today's subject matter expert assignments...)

Hopefully I will get all this in my head and truly become a subject matter expert.

In the meantime I am very very happy that we are business casual which means I can wear fancy long shorts to work with heels. YAAAAAAY

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In other news I am fat. Seriously my high waisted skirt is tight. It may also be due to the fact that I have forgotten to take my pills for the last four days which means I could probably be getting my period - I give up, and will go back on them when my period comes.

I am reaching a point of saturation with all the junk I've been ingesting in the last three months and I think that's a good thing. I need a detox really badly. It will happen soon, I promise myself.

Today was my first day at new gym and I did aqua class with coolbananas. It was not like the nana aqua classes you see on tv. Seriously there was so much jumping around and push ups on the side that I could feel my abs and my triceps working. I am really getting excited by the prospect of the pool and hope to get swimming lessons soon so I can full on do real laps.


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In other news I went to my first Spanish-English Conversational. I suck. I think we knew that one already, hahaha. While I can read and write Spanish rather well, I not good at conversing, primarily because I have crap vocabulary. Because of the amount of time that has been between lessons (I started in 1996, stopped in 2000. I did 3 months in about 2002, then 6 months in 2006 then stopped again) I sometimes still muck up basic stuff, like direct & indirect objects. I also don't know enough conjunctives and for fuck's sake I can't bloody figure out "lo que" (Hello, someone explain?) other than that its so that or that which. Or some bloody thing like that. Also the spanish I have learnt is not consistent. I started with castillian spanish but living in Australia (with Mexicans and studying with latin american spanish at some point) has made it a little different.

Anyhow, I had a lot of fun. I joined the beginner group, where half of us were not beginners, I think. I think that if it was your first time to go, you just naturally joined them! I found that I could understand everything that was said, completely except when it got really loud and I couldn't hear a thing (which happened to all of us). I met yet another student from sydney uni physics but who didn't know sacha, derek, brendon, or everyone else and I couldn't really remember Andrew's last name so that bit was hard!

In the end it got me thinking that I should stop waiting for Instituto Cervantes to open (which I have been, for like, a year and being spanish they are so late) and just study Spanish. I don't want to keep saying I speak crap Spanish anymore. So I will go check out the Spanish Cat, I think I can manage one class a week, and then go to Spanish Conversational night twice a month. I think that sounds doable.

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In other news, Miel & I want to do the soccer class offered by the community college but utang na loob its at 8am on Sundays. I tried to google other classes but they are mostly for groups that ask you to join teams and if you've never played before hello. I even tried futsal but all I found were full on leagues.

Also on my news feed I found this.

If this happens I swear I will become a Liverpool fan. This will be like, OMG my EPL team. Right now I'm pretty neutral, I like players more than teams tho I think Liverpool is the emerging underdog and should win, I am very excited about Arshavin joining Arsenal and I quite like Van Der Sar. (What is it with dutch players? They are so good but their national team doesn't really win!) And while I am not Rio Ferdinand fan I find him really entertaining when he shows up in the blogs I read.

Also, on the side, Iker is in a "film"which am sure is really just an extended infomercial. Apparently they make him sing. (Oh noes, he can't, seriously.) Also he appears to be dating this new girl and I like the way she looks, she seems normal! (right, crazygirl_86?!?)

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Tomorrow my ex housemate arrives from Melbourne. She'll be staying with us for the weekend and attending Sacha's picnic. In my heart of hearts I hope she brought Koko Black chocolate even if I forgot to ask, hahaha.

Should go to bed now.

Our house has been invaded by insects. To the right of our house, if you are facing it, is a small dinky house with a lot that used to be full of junk. I presume it was owned by someone that died and his heirs sold it, but not before cleaning out the junk. Once they did that it seems like they disrupted the lives of all the insects that lived in it so we are getting dead cockroaches by the mile. They just show up, and prolly about 70% of the time are dead by the time we see them. Recently, every day there seems to be a bloody new one. This morning I woke up and the dead roach was being eaten by ants in the living room! Hello.

I've been meaning to call the real estate to get them to exterminate for a bit but we thought we'd wait till caro & aliosha had taken all their stuff to see if it was just that, etc. etc. It stopped for a while and then now its back so am definitely going to deal with it on Monday. As well as calling the council to have the backyard trees branches cut.

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Yesterday had a great catch up with the girls. Have to say tho that every time that happens I start out feeling very masculine cos initially its always very girl let's talk about emotions and stuff which I am used to, but I don't know, inevitably I always start out feeling like a guy. And if I'm with people that are really girly and talking about shopping and bags and the like the guy feeling does not go away and I just wait for the topic to change, ha ha ha ha. I suppose I'm just used to having guy friends and the uncomplicatedness of it all. Also maybe I just have too much testosterone. That said I love my girls, and I am quite happy to hang out and chat about whatever.

Last night was very sex in the city without the sex. We were four girls in black drinking champagne but strangely not talking very much about sex. We had the funniest stories about dates gone awry (Ala wins the jack in the beanstalk award for this one! Also extra props to Pia for knowing the lyrics to Be My Lady.) My wittner shoes killed my feet for reasons I don't know, because I used to wear them fine. I need good high heeled shoes that I don't need to wear socks with hahaha.

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One of my LJ friends is trying to get a scholarship to study in Argentina, with difficulty. So I started looking up scholarships to see if I could help her find some, and on a whim I popped by the beca (scholarship site) for Spain that my friends have used to get to Spain. And oops there are scholarships available but everything is due on Wednesday! I was not actually thinking of applying for myself - this takes a lot of effort and research because you have to go through all these universities and pick one, apply to them directly and then once you get acceptance apply for the scholarship and the going back and forth (plus having to think in spanish OMG) it takes a while - but now that it is there, and there are three days left I feel a strong urge to do it just because its there .

So we shall see.

I suppose it can't hurt to fill up a form and see how far it takes me. I won't cry if it doesn't happen, because as of yet I had no intention of applying in the first place. (I did plan on giving it a go in about 2 years or something, in fairness)

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Speaking of Spain, ONTD futbol has this picture of Iker with the girl he's supposedly dating. They look like they are pretending they don't know each other or they have had a fight. It is very funny. I mean I know famous people do these things to avoid unecessary attention but seriously the more you do that the more people suspect, so maybe they should just act natural and well I guess deny, deny, deny hahahaha. Or maybe they should just meet in secluded parking lots and make out. Like the Beckhams did, ha ha ha.

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Tonight is the free cat empire show. I feel like I'm coming down with something (which is good because that means I will stop smoking) and don't think I'm keen on doing anything that involves much activity. However, my friend Miriam does not have that many friends in Sydney and Taz and I feel bad if she doesn't have anyone else to go with. So we shall see.

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Also, why is my wireless internet not working?!?! Ano baaaa! I have to have my laptop plugged into the modem or else I can't go online. Sigh.

Off to cook longaniza now!

Leche! Akala ko naman kung anong nangyari kay Xavi Alonso dahil ang laki laki ng foot cast niya yun pala may stitches lang siya sa foot. Ano buzz.
(Translation: I thought that something major had happened to Xavi Alonso because of his giant foot cast thing and it turns out he's only had stitches on his foot. Fuck that shit.)

I reformatted my computer so all the spyware is gone. Sadly for some reason I have lost my effing wireless. Fortunately we have a cord so I am plugged into the modem and it is working quite well.

I decided to treat myself to a nice brunch so I went all out and made corned beef, egg and sinanag (fried rice in garlic). The sinangag my first attempt did not turn out too well, but it doesn't taste like crap (It just doesn't taste like Pia's, ha ha ha). However I am now short on time because I have to get my ass to the city by 1.

I also have to find my Tax File Number.

Okay I have to go now!

Today was my 30th birthday. Go Me!

I had dinner last night with some friends and welcomed midnight with a glass of vodka listening to Smashing Pumpkins' 1979.

I celebrated today by having high tea at the Gallery Tea Lounge at the Sheraton. The confusing-ness of their tea aside - they kept asking me for details on how many stands i wanted, then they changed from buffet to ala carte only to change again when we got there - I had a great time with excellent company.

Each tea stand came with three tiers, savory on the bottom, scones, jam & cream in the middle and then dessert on the very top. I quite loved their scones. And the desserts. :) I also appreciated the little sandwiches. Actually let's be honest, I loved everything.

I had a really really happy day and I want to thank all my wonderful friends for making my 30th birthday so special. Also, thank you to all the wonderful people who said happy birthday from all over the world. I love you all!



Here I am with the top tier of the tea stand!


( More pictures here! )

Today's bonus moments!

1. Today, on my 30th birthday, I went to buy bacardi breezers at the bottle shop and got asked for an ID :)

2. I discovered that there is a football team with the same name name as me!!! Seriously.

Ergotelis Larissa. I knew there was a town in Greece that had my name but I didn't realise it was a whole region with a Greek Superleague Team. I presumed that it had a larger significance during the Greek city-states period and that its size diminished later on but apparently not! (Yet another reason why I should go to Greece.) Also my knowledge of the Greek league is limited to whoever ends up in Champions League games! (My name is Greek/Russian. I am presuming this can be explained by the Byzantine Empire.)

3. I made a list of all the planned book purchases I am making for the first half of the year. (Romance novel related) This means that I have started to budget, somehow! Also I got some more borders vouchers as gifts so I can buy them when they come out! Yaaay!

Good night everyone, and thanks again!

All right.

After 10 players have come down with injuries at the same time and people have started to recover, now the last two players who haven't really been injured have the fucking flu?!?!? WTF!!!!! Is there anyone left in my team who has not been injured? (iker does not count, clearly he is depressed or something)

Ano buzz.

This one is all about futbol so you can skip it if you are not interested :)



Eto'o (the ninja) vs Iker ftw!

( my pseudo analysis here )

And if the game was based on the hottest coach we know who would win.

you tube via the offside

okay the idea was go around europe have a great time and come back (flight out approximately the 28th) to madrid and watch a real madrid game on the 26th. granted it would have been real vs bilbao, not super duper exciting but it will do.

and then this morning they released the champions league draw. and i found real drew juventus for their first game and i got so freaking excited. i don't know if we've done well against juventus for a while, the live blogger that i was reading was worried we would get them. so i was all, yes, madrid here i come. and then pucha naman. its in freaking turin. turin, in italy as in the shroud of turin. okay so fair enough i could probably get my ass over there but first of all how would i get tickets? at least in madrid i know someone and i know the ticket sites. and italian soccer fans are a bit crazy. i'm a bit afraid to show up like you know with my scarf by myself with this legion of crazy soccer fans (which i am going to do anyway but at least they most of them will be on my side!!!)

and then while real is on an away game there is an atletico vs liverpool game. which i knew without even asking anyone (yay go me) is gonna be a good one and its champions league. which means, i could go, stay for two days and then go with liz to sevilla. which means i miss real vs bilbao. or i could go to real vs atletico on the 19th and then the game on the 22nd figure out what to do for 2 days and then meet liz. i don't want to spend a lot of time in madrid cos i have just been there and i don't want to be bored. yes i could take a day trip to toledo or even salamanca, but after enough time there i may be all spained out.

i need a life, i have been screaming about this for the past three hours. i seriously thought, ok we'll just go to liverpool vs atletico cos you already saw iker earlier in the year. pia said "if the goal is to see papa iker, then _see_papa_iker". She is correct. That said, I want to watch the champions league game. (At which point I would cheer for liverpool because I would feel very disloyal cheering for atletico.)

Anyway.

I will decide on the perfect combination once I've got all the visas sorted. Visa first.

Enough ranting now.

Please everyone pray and do the secret for me to help me get my last pay and my visas to the places I want to go to so that I can go away for a bit starting September. Thank you.

In other news I have spent the past few days running around trying to get the documentation ready for my visas. I've also been catching up with anyone and everyone who wants to make sure I'm still alive. Thanks for your support, guys.

Today I decided to just stay in bed and not move until its time to go see Len. In theory I will go to the gym before that. In reality I think that will not happen.

I have a plan for the next few weeks, and I hope to put it into action. It involves alternately staying at home and being a hermit and going to the gym plus hiking. Yes, hiking.

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In other news, Pia joined the english premiere league fantasy football thing at her work and we spent some time over the weekend discussing who should be on her team. At some point we ran out of money so we just randomly started buying cheap players.

Me: Pia, basta russian yung last name bilhin mo
Pia: Bakit?
Me: Mabenta sila ngayon according to my chismis site.

Today Pia and I were discussing:
a) the world cup and who we wanted to see
b) how we are not going to uzbekistan
c) her fantasy football team.

Me: Pia, ibenta mo na si Rooney, bilhin mo si Berbatov
Pia: Binenta ko na si Rooney, ano ba! Pinapatawa mo ko dito sa office mauutot na ko.
Me: Basta bilihin mo siya ngayon habang mura! Paglumipat na siya ng MU mamahal na yon! BIliiiis!
Pia: ok, ok wag mo na ko ipatawa.

This really is what happens when you have nothing to do and you sit at home and read chismis sites. We can have the same exact conversation regarding Britney Spears, Lindsay & Samantha, The Hills or Gossip Girl (Even if i have never seen a _single_episode_ of either), Brad & Ange, George, and well, anyone, really. And to be fair, I can even discuss the news with you.

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I've gone through a few different stages in the last week and I think I'm still going through a few things. I cried over Colin the whale but haven't shed a tear over my lost job - though I don't discount that possibility.

I've realised that its okay not to know what you want to do in life. Its okay not to 100% have that giant corporate job that will keep you happy and healthy and well funded into retirement. That said, I think I would still like the security a long term job affords tho. And I still want to travel so for now I have been thinking of long term contract jobs. But we shall see. I don't plan to hatch a job hunting plan until next week. This week is all about idleness, lethargy and reading books.

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I was meant to go to the Whitsundays this weekend but Taz, my best friend at work who was supposed to go with me had a family emergency. Her mum found a lump and as of today they don't know what it is. The specialist won't get back to them till Saturday or Monday at the earliest. The whole family is understandably freaked out. We cancelled our trip. I am going to see if I can meet up with Taz this weekend to offer some support.

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Also Miel your mother's just offered me malunggay pills.