2013 already

It is already 2013, and the last actual post on this is from August last year.

In the interim, a lot has happened.  Not a lot of stitching, quite a bit of gaming (a bit of D3, a bit of Torchlight, a bit of Torchlight 2, a bit of NFS Shift), but other than that, not really that much.

We just came back from our first trip 'home' in 2 years.  It hardly feels as though it's been 2 years, more like 5 weeks.  The flights were long, but tolerable.  No major disruptions and THANKFULLY no screaming kids.  But it's long, flying and losing 4 days total travel time just to get there and back.  But anyway, it was lovely being back.  And surprising too, as very little has changed.

The only visible difference that I saw is they now have upgraded the bus stops, as in, they've built bus stops around the place, which are identified by red poles.  But other than that, not much has changed.

Which makes it weird, as if we have a dual-bubble life and our presence just shifts across and expands the bubble in which we currently are located.  Our life here in Aus shrank down while we were there and I had to remind myself in a way that we have a whole life here, I now have a car in a garage (yes!!  I have my own car now!!! :D), we have a dog, a bird, a fishtank, furniture, food, etc).

It was good seeing everyone again.  It makes it feel less distant.  We spent some time away from home though, taking an actual break from running around seeing everyone.  Best thing to do ever.

Piggly (his name has morphed) stayed over at his breeder's place, so he got to spend time with 2 sisters, his mum and probably an unrelated uncle.

Work has morphed too.  I now don't just do travel, I do conference registrations too and also now 'welcome' new students.  Although not much of any of that so far this year as I was away most of Feb and January is notoriously quiet in Aus generally.

I'm loving my car.  It's a little hatchback... manual!  Yes, I am getting to grips with a manual and it's becoming easier.

Somehow, possibly due to the jetlag, but possibly because my heart doesn't seem in it these days, I don't feel like going into much detail here.

Perhaps it's time to retire this blog.  Will have to see.

I did stitch a little before the holiday, but the progress on both Wedding Blessing and Gentle Strength are not visually noteworthy so I won't put a pic up just yet.

Wowser

And the post below is from March 2012.  Time certainly has flown.  Not sure why this was saved as a draft for so long.

Time... certainly has flown.

It has already been over 2 months since I blogged last.  What all has happened?

Well, the break from work refreshed my soul a whole lot.  The 'stressed out' situation involving Rigi was defused:  he used to bark in the morning to be let out of his crate which worked on my nerves humungously.  This was solved by G's getting up at the same time as me and letting him out - somehow Rigi gets overexcited if it's me letting him out, which leads to him barking in anticipation.

Work is back to the same.  I can't believe how robotically retarded (and I don't mean that as a diss to anyone with mental disability) some people at work are.  The one PA says pretty much the same stuff EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.  'I'm just going for a lunchtime cigarette because I don't get a lunchbreak" is one such thing.  It's actually quite dumb.  It's like groundhog day, actually.  I kinda feel as though I'm working the same day, every day, except the work isn't the same.  I have only a few months left until I've been there a full year, which would look decent-enough on my CV for when I search for a new job.

Oh and I cannot get over (not literally) how childish the people at work are.  It's like being back at primary school, the way it's so gossipy and immature.  Talking behind people's backs, while being super-nice to their faces, or even just friendly/civil.  Surely, if you're going to gossip SO HORRIBLY, you actually despise the person... why be friendly even?  I just don't understand.  There's being curt but civil, and then there's chatting to the person seemingly happily and then rolling your eyes and saying something nasty once they've left... sheesh.  Primary school, wow.  I don't miss it.  I know, another workplace would be similar, but this is just beyond what I reckon would be out there elsewhere.  Well, I can hope and keep trying.

What else.  Various inconsequential things happening with the house (roof leak, repaired, etc).  The only thing which bugs us and would lead us to move out, is the fact that it has a mold issue - it's pretty damp downstairs I think finding a drier, better ventilated house would be a good thing.  Also, it's damn dark.  We bought floor lamps (with 300W halogen bulbs), which are great.  But still, the fact that it's dark during the day is a serious turn-off.  You can't really justify using a 300W light, eating up the electricity, when it's bright midday outside.

Ok, this post isn't meant to be a rant/grumble!! There just hasn't been much going on, really.  I find that my evenings, after work, are eaten up by sitting down and watching 1 or 2 TV programmes.  It's quite mentally tiring, actually.  There's no 'coming down' from being at work, and then 'coming back up' and doing something (like stitching), once my energy has been refreshed - it's just dullness and lethargy sitting watching TV.  I guess still in CT, we didn't actually watch any TV and I was able to spend an entire evening stitching, or surfing the net finding out Aus-move info!  Maybe it's time to kill the TV habit, even though we've only had it for about 3 or 4 months!

Mid-November

It's nearing the middle of November, and once again time has flown by.

I have no excuses, I've just been caught up in other things and things like blogging, stitching and even playing computer games have fallen to the side.  I'm not sure why.  There hasn't been anything hectic going on, I've just been mentally drained and end up default sitting mucking about half-brainedly on the laptop.

I dug out Wedding Blessing on the weekend.  Gentle Strength has been on the dining table waiting any spare stitches thrown his way, whereas Wedding Blessing has been in a box since we moved.  I repacked my stitch-stash into a plastic storage container as I noticed (gecko-? I pray to god not cockroach-) droppings on the box I was storing them in.

The above post is dated mid-November 2012.  It was a cockroach by the way!