I haven’t felt like this for a while

As much as my resolution was to blog everyday, there were always going to be things that got in the way of that. A lack of internet and laptop were the cause of my lack of blogging this weekend.

Saturday was move day. Whilst packing things up and loading them into the car, I found a hard drive a friend had given me asking me to copy the contents from my flatmates hard drive (apparently there are 650 movies on there) and add it to her hard drive. Not being the most technologically able person in the world (I’m not bad, but not great either), I had avoided doing it…until Saturday when I realised it was now or never. So I hooked it all up (with the help of a friend) and then realised it was going to take 27 hours to transfer. Hence my laptop being hijacked for the weekend.

The move went well. I realise that I am not as motivated as I used to be. What happened to all that energy I used to have? I need to get it back as there is still so much to do! But the place does feel like home and that is something I haven’t had for a while.

On a more interesting note, Friday night was my joint birthday drinks with a beautiful friend. Another (equally beautiful) friend of ours, introduced me to her very hot, very gorgeous, recently single friend. Wow! It was like a dream come true. An absolutely delicious specimen of a man. Unfortunately for me, he has only just ended a very serious relationship and so it is not meant to be…for now at least. I agree massively that he needs time to get over his last girlfriend before he can truly give himself to someone else. I’m just still kind of hoping that someone might be me. I haven’t felt that comfortable with someone for a long time, so fingers are crossed.

Now, on to photos (I have some catching up to do). Saturday’s #fmsphotoaday is ‘delicious’ (pretty appropriate that I met a delicious man but, this beautiful flower was given to me by my favourite little man. A three and a half year old, who is just gorgeous (and when he comes running over to me with his arm outstretched holding out a flower for me, well how could I possibly want anything more?)).

A delivious flower from my delicious little man

Sunday’s #fmsphotoaday is ‘something you saw’. Well I saw my home. Not just my house, my actual home for the first time in a long time.

Finally it looks like home – a welcoming bubble bath after a hard day of moving

And today? Today’s #fmsphotoaday is ‘what you do’. So, what do I do? I keep trying, I keep going and I never give up.

This is my year!

Two things

I struggled all day with today’s #fmsphotoaday; “two things”. What on earth could I relate a blog post around which encompassed two things? And then, as I was signing the contract on my new place, I saw my two keys. The keys to my new house which will be filled with love and happiness.

The keys to my new house

Don’t stop believing

It has been a weekend of ying and yang (again, that post is really coming back to haunt me).

On Saturday morning I woke up to find out I had a place for me and the pup to live. Yay!!

Then I heard about a friend who had been stood up by a horrible boy. He had actually text her to tell her he was half an hour away and was looking forward to the night and then never showed up. Nothing bad happened to him. He just didn’t bother. Whether he thinks it’s funny to leave a beautiful lady, who is all dressed up and ready to go out, waiting, I don’t know. What I do know is I shed a few tears for her at the same time as calling him some names which I could not possibly put in writing. Boo!

Then I found out a good friend is pregnant with her second child. Yay!!

And then, finally to top the weekend off. The boy (the one I had counted as a good point when I was weighing up the good and the bad of my life) left my life. Boo!

There have been tears of happiness and tears of joy. And i guess that is the circle of life. I am hoping for a lot more tears of happiness this year with my friends and family, so tonight I lit a candle and sent up a little prayer for more good and less bad (after all, this is my year).

The candle is round and today’s #fmsphotoaday is ‘circle’, That’ll do.

I lit this candle thinking of all those I love and care about. Here’s to a good 2013.

Surprise – this really is my year!

With my #fmsphotoaday challenge, I try and think ahead for some of the photos. Today’s was ‘surprise’ and I couldn’t for the life of me think what on earth it could be. Then it happened ‘SURPRISE’! I woke up this morning to an email telling me I had been successful in my application for a property I had put an application in for. AWESOME!

There were over 40 people at the property viewing and there was a queue outside. To be honest, I nearly walked away without seeing the place and then I nearly didn’t put the application in. I thought I was wasting my time. Clearly not. You do have to just keep trying.

To add to the surprise, my landlord has reduced the rent for me, as he felt it was too much for a single person to pay. AWESOME! When does that ever happen? I knew this would be my year.

I decided I had to do something with all this positive energy and set the next challenge for 2013, and then I recevied an email. eHarmony were inviting me to join for three months at a reduced rate. So I signed up and trawled through my matches (rejecting the majority and ‘smiling’ or sending eHarmony communication to some). Fingers crossed someone tall, dark and handsome responds soon.

My last online dating encounter didn’t exactly go well. I was talked in to joining POF (Plenty of Fish). Apparently this is a very popular site in the UK and everyone from my hometown is on it. So I gave it a go. The responses fell into the following categories

Cute (and cheesy):

“You need to be on here as much as Adele needs to be on x-factor”

 

“Hey there .. There is an alert in town ..An angel is missing … Looks a lot like u …Should I alet the authorities and collect my prize :)”

A little shocking:

“My name is Sam. I’m 38 and recently single. At the moment I’m just looking for a regular ongoing “friend with benefits”. I’d love to catch up with you if your interested.”

 

“Like a sexy chat?”

Downright outrageous

“Does it matter if I’m married?”

 

“may i lick ur arse????”

I’m hoping that this time round, I’m pleasantly surprised by someone rather than just totally shocked!

Our new house. Yay!!

Putting some ying with the usual yang

I’m a bit of a letter writer. When something is really unsatisfactory I feel compelled to get out my pen and paper (or in reality, my laptop and printer) and let Head Office know what they’ve done wrong. There are two reasons I do this:

1. To help improve customer service and hopefully to ensure someone else doesn’t have to go through whatever unpleasant experience I’ve been through
2. To resolve the problem and (if everything works out) be compensated in some way for the unpleasant experience.

Where I let myself down is I don’t follow the ‘ying and yang’ rule. What you do one way, you should do the other. I should be writing letters when I have had a really good experience to make sure people know how appreciated they are. Not only will this (hopefully) encourage good customer service but, it may bring a smile to someone’s face, ensure they get a pat on the back and are recognised as being good as the job (and we all like that, don’t we?).

So one week into 2013 and I have written no letters of complaint at all. What I have done is:

1. Sent an email to Nicole Gunther of Raine & Horne, thanking her for her polite email telling me I had been unsuccessful in my property application and wishing me luck with the property hunt. Since my last experience where no one contacted me, I felt it was worth saying ‘thank you’.
2. Written a letter to Pandora to tell them about their awesome sales assistant, Lauren (who has helped me out twice in the last week and is absolutely brilliant at her job).
3. Sent an email telling Peter from Skillful Minds telling him that I want to kiss him (apparently a bear hug will do when I see him) for changing the dates of the meditation and yoga retreat I inadvertently booked on a weekend I had to work.

‘Paper’ is today’s #fmsphotoaday:

Why not get your pen and paper out and write to tell someone how great they are?

It’s important to say thank you. And I hope to continue this positive trend throughout my year.

For five minutes

Yesterday I gave up hope…for five minutes. I put my head in my hands, I swallowed back the tears and I thought about just not trying anymore. I thought about just giving up, not trying anymore, and that feeling was nice…for five minutes. It felt like, despite all the positive energy I have been trying to put out into the world, someone, somewhere is trying really hard to knock me down. The problem is they are succeeding….for five minutes. So what’s happened:

1. I was turned down for my first property application of 2013
2. I lost a receipt which is worth $100
3. My brand new Pandora watch which my parents had bought me for my 30th birthday just stopped working
4. I found out that in order to be fast-tracked for permanent residency in Australia I have to be the most senior position in my field in my company. Being second in command gets you nothing, meaning I have to wait two years before I can get any security in Australia.
5. I booked a weekend away and then found out that I am have to work that weekend which means I just threw away $500
6. I was turned down for my second property application of 2013 (which was beautiful and which someone else will now get to call home)

Seriously? All in one week? I know it can get worse but I am not sure I can take much more. And then I took five minutes, and I counted up the good things that have happened:

1. I have kept to my new year’s resolution (so far) and have blogged everyday
2. I have a beautiful puppy whose health is getting better everyday
3. I have a home, a job, money in the bank and family and friends all over the world
4. I have begun building bridges with my evil ex (who may not be so evil after all)
5. Everywhere I look there are people who love and care about me
6. There is a boy…(more about that another time)

Writing and reading the good things has made me well up more than the bad things did and it makes me realise that I do have to keep trying.

Today’s #fmsphotoaday is ‘something beginning with “t”. Now I struggled with this for a while. Trees, tip-ex (or ‘white out’ as Australians call it), toilet(!), tissue, t, t, t,….what on earth began with ‘t’ that I could relate this blog to? Then, as I was sat on the bus on my way to work, it struck me, ‘traffic light’. I hope the metaphorical traffic lights in your life, are always green, just like this literal one!

Here’s hoping the methaphorical traffic lights in our lives are always green

This is my year, I will not give up. I will keep trying until every traffic light is always green (and so should you).

Lots of eggs, lots of baskets

So, here it is. Today will either be filled with disappointment or gleeful smiles and jumping around the room. Let’s hope for the latter.

I have two property applications in. There were lots of people at both viewings (which took place on the weekend) but I am still hopeful that the real estate agent and landlord, look at my application and see something special and offer me the place.

As we all know, it would be silly to put all my eggs in one basket (which is why there are two applications in) but also, I have started to push the door open on another opportunity. An opportunity to return home.

I am not originally from Australia and I arrived here originally in December 2007, then left in January 2009, only to return in July 2011. When I came back, I thought this was it. I was engaged, I had the puppy I had yearned for my whole life with me and I had secured the best job in the world. What could go wrong? In truth, everything. 2012 saw me lose it all (including custody of my beautiful puppy who I still have access to but without a good property I cannot have full time).

Losing my job (which was all down to a very bitter and messed up reverse takeover between two accountancy firms) has meant that I have ended up in another job (great news) that I don’t like half as much as my last job (not so great news). It also means that I have to wait another two years before I can get permanent residency (“PR”) in Australia and therefore any security in my position here (without PR, if I lose my job, I have 28 days to find another one or get out of the country). But, let’s not dwell.

This has made me rethink my plans to stay. Can I cope two years with no security? I don’t think so. Could life be better at home? Maybe.

With this in mind, I have activated recruitment consultants in Bristol, England and Cardiff, Wales as well as looking into costs and process to take Jess back with me.

Our #fmsphotoaday photo today is ‘street’. Pretty approriate considering this property related post!

Where will the road take me in 2013?

This year, my year, both the ‘stay in Australian door’ and the ‘return home door’ are being knocked on. I wonder which will open?

Today I read, and wanted to share, someone else’s blog entry which I absolutely adored. Another one about new year’s resolutions which made me smile and feel all positive again. So here it is Sarah’s blog and here’s Neil Gaiman’s picture (from his Twitter account) which I absolutely adore:

Love, love, love this! Let’s try and live by it!

Yesterday was plain awful

Annie was one of my favourite musicals as a child.  I knew it word for word, had the soundtrack and sang and danced my way around the house (often, I’m sure, annoying my Mother).

Yesterday I had some bad news.  Before Christmas I had applied for an apartment to rent (in Sydney, the rental market is pretty tough, if you’re a single female with a large dog and limited budget, it’s even tougher).  I was hoping for good news.  I found out, by looking on the real estate agent’s website that they had leased the apartment to someone else.  No email or phone call to let me know.  Nothing.  This follows them calling my manager to ask details about my salary and to confirm my job was secure.  Details I don’t really want to give to just anyone.  They received the best reference in the world and still, they gave the house to someone else.  It made me angry (that they hadn’t bothered to contact me).  Then it made me sad.

Today’s #fmsphotoaday is “heart”.  When I heard the news that I didn’t have ‘my’ house, my heart broke a little bit. 

One black, one red. One bad, one good?

But then, I remembered two things:

1. This is my year.  I will not let these things get to me.
2. As Annie and Daddy Warbucks sing in the final song, “Yesterday was plain awful, you can say that again.  Yesterday was plain awful, but that’s, not now, that’s then.”

Then, just when I was feeling better I read about someone else who was suffering from a broken heart. A heart far more broken than mine. After reading Cilla and Jessie’s story, I held my own fourteen year old puppy a little closer and said a little prayer for Cilla’s owner, Jodie and companion Jessie.

Here’s to 2013 bringing some better news (and a bit of luck) our way.  Our paths may be stormy but there must be sunshine ahead.

Don’t confuse your path with your destination. Just because it’s stormy now doesn’t mean that you aren’t headed for sunshine.