fuchsia fragments

In the whirlwind that is December, it has been a crazy month of working, trying to bake and organizing a very short trip home for the holidays.

It started with what to get everyone in the office for Christmas (next year, I will be more prepared and get things when I am back in Australia!). I managed to make a few gingerbread houses and some gingerbread trees for everyone as well as safe bets of nuts and hand cream! Think it went down well...

Then there was the last minute decision to fly home for 6 days whilst supporting SEA at the same time! So short, so tiring but so worth it. There is truly no place like home with crazy family gatherings that seem to grow in size every time.

And every time that I come home, there is usually a flurry of the same announcements. When I was home from Japan, it was wedding invitations and this time, it was the "I'm having a baby" announcements. So far, know of 4 babies due in July and 1 coming in April... how exciting!

Then, as it is still a PH in Sydney today (not that I get Australian PH anymore), I came back to work to a whole bunch of gifts and warm wishes on my desk. Certainly makes coming back to work a lot easier! And got some pretty cool stuff (and lots of food).

it doesn't feel anything like the year before...

i have been working my ass off these last few weeks and i am getting tired!!!

we had to postpone our compliance audit halfway through the actual audit because we (they) realised that a lot of things weren't up the scratch / completed / ready for audit. i am so unsurprised. i think they weren't either.

wednesday night, caught up with madison for a couple of drinks at harts. so happy that she's doing well. :)

thursday night was our client/ contractor party. and despite all negative instigations about it - boring, best behaviour, no excessive drinking, must mingle, etc - i thought it was a lot better than our christmas party. i had a great time!!! finally got to meet a lot of our clients and contractors.

towards the end of the night, met a couple of senior managers from CBA - they are so switched on, intelligent and just full of worldly experience. and they just said some things that helped me understand who i am and where i want to be. :) :) :) really really interesting to hear what they had to say about the CBA glitch on wednesday and what they had to do, the steps to implementation and the time it takes to fix issues like these whilst at the same time understand that there were a lot of angry customers who couldn't access their money!

and so, we talked for ages.. and haha it looked like we were going to party on at the ivy afterwards too. but we didn't - stole away - and it took AGES to find a bloody cab. was after midnight when i got home.

and i was neither hungover nor tired at work on friday!!! some of the others, not so lucky! lol.

friday was a rather bitter day for the ops team. so many unfair things coming to light but hey, let's not talk about that! it was h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s to talk about the night before though!!! hehehehe :)

it was also our ops team dinner. (yay...) ez and sare and i went for a drink at 5 on-the-dot. could not be in there a minute longer with the other two. and it was good went to the brooooooklyn and had a wine. then we went to the same old spice (can you tell i'm getting bored of the place).

another girl who use to work here, right when i started came too cause she's going to be temping for us in the near year for a couple of weeks. hm. yeah. more bitterness here but hey, not my decision or problem!

anyway, ez and sare and i as the only members of the ops team who actually went to the WHOLE contractor party and STAYED, were by this stage, quite buggered. anyway, we managed and it was good (as it could be) and thank goodness it ended early!!

NOT THAT I WAS ABOUT TO GO HOME AND CRASH...

no.. i went to cronulla to amanda's 21st cause i havent seen her in ages and ages and ages and jan said she was driving so i could get a lift home. woo!

it was so good to see her with her new bf (they look so happy together) and to see her doing well post-target (everyone does well post-target!!!) and just to catch up. it was even better than avril was there cause hadn't seen her in ages either! yay!

however, i never, never, never NEVER want to go to northies again. felt so out of place. it was pure low-IQ minded bogan zone. no thanks. and the floor was so sticky cause of all the spillages i thought my shoes were going to get stuck there! lol

finally came home and crashed around midnight.

went for an eye examination this morning... everything's still good. and i didn't have the heart to correct the optom when he suggested i sit closer to the front in lectures. :) :)

just wrapped all the girls' xmas pressies. woo!! and going to make gingerbread men and ladies tomorrow. if you would like some, you better shout out!

x

went shopping with my sister today. basically just country road where she bought her much wanted everyone-has-one black bag and where i decided not to get my no-one-has-it clear plastic one (yes.. even when it came down to $20, i decided not to get it). esprit was supposedly on sale too but the stuff wasn't that cheap despite their "up to 50%" off advertising. the 30% all merchandise sale the week before was much better.
we walked all the way down to central for lunch but it was worth it. the place that everyone says, 'we'll go there one day' cause of the massive lines outside - i'm talking about the little jap place on the corner opposite market ct - well, it was really good. and the price was good too.
went home and monkey went to watch her boys play bball while i went to the gym. and lol, her friends are going down next time i see them. how dare they diss my dragons. anyway their bball outing gave me a sense of deja vu with our soccer thing all those years back.
then tonight, went shopping with mum. yeah, we braved the traffic and the crowds to battle it into the centre. didnt even see mandy until she was caling out to me.. lol. im so lost. at least we managed to get everything we needed. and i managed to get some new gym gear. omg.. i never thought it would come to the day where mums like.. i'll pay for it. and im like 'no, its ok' and shes like 'if u dont let me pay for it, ur offending me.' and im like fully arguing with her that its my stuff so i should be paying for it. LOL
yet again bored...