Coming to the end of the road

Today is a fine day. I woke up this morning, had a bowl of Special K (the chocolate kind, to feed my addiction) and then proceeded to ram my garish purple bike into the back seat of Matt's car. For the past 3 weeks I have been temping at Greyhound Australia - a bus company - in their charters department. This means taking inbound calls, following up on requests for quotes, data-entry, etc. For me to get to work by 8:30 am, I have to wake up at 6, be out the door by 6:55, catch a ferry across the Brisbane River to get to Riverside Pier - then catch the CityCat at 7:18 for a 1/2 hour trip down the river to Brett's wharf. I then get off the CityCat and bike for 4 km to get to 595 Curtin Avenue in Eagle Farm where Greyhound is located. On top of my daily 3 hour commute to and from work, I also took a paycut! This should give you a clear indication of how badly I needed to get away from Pareto! Greyhound has its perks though! This weekend, they're lending me the Platinum Key to the Australia Zoo, so Matt and I get free entry and other such goodies. Also, Eric (my manager) is getting me 5000 km worth of Greyhound travel vouchers for my trip up to Cairns. I'm even going to do the 10 km Bridge to Brisbane charity marathon with the Charters Team, so am amped up for that on the 29th of August! On September 1st, I move out of my apartment in Kangaroo Point and into Matt's place in Cleveland. I will spend the month of September out there and then I'll fly to Sydney on the 1st of October to stay for 1 week before my flight back to Canada on the 7th! Time seems to be rushing past now, and every time I realize I'm leaving this beautiful place I've called home for almost a year, I am filled with a mingled sense of fear, sadness and longing. Fear of what's to come, sadness for what I'm leaving behind, and longing - for all the things I've had and will have to go without. On a lighter note, to finish off my adventure, I'm planning a trip to Cairns on the 2nd week in September. I will be doing a 5 day scuba trip, a tandem sky dive at 14000 feet, a bungee jump, white water rafting and a day trip out to the reef. I'll also be doing a trip on the skyrail up to a small village in the Daintree rainforest and possibly a two day camp up to the more northern parts of Cairns. It will be an amazing 2 weeks, and will be a perfect ending to an amazing year. Matt and I have long-term, solid plans for our relationship. We are going to do the whole long-distance thing, which is hard, but (in my opinion) well worth the effort. I am head over heels for him, and look forward to the life we will have together in Canada which will hopefully commence in February. I just think, if my grandparents could live apart for 2 years during the war, sending letters back and forth the entire time, then there's no reason we can't manage four months with the plethora of communication mediums we have available to us. Anyways, should get going as I have an 8 km bike ride ahead of me and want to get home before it gets dark. All my love to all my followers. xxxx Claire

Braving the winter blues...

I don't know if I've mentioned but Matt's car is a heap of junk - The Magna. It broke down a few weeks back, stranding us, along with his sister Emily on the side of the road in Kangaroo Point. We spent 4 hours waiting for a tow truck and all in all the night was a complete FAIL! This weekend is taking that same route. Yesterday night, after 8 hellish hours on Cancer Counsil's cold calling to regular gift PIG program (trust me, you don't want to know) - we found (actually Matt found) a tick on his dog, Sully. Quite a big deal in the Redlands, where paralysis ticks are very common. Apparently, in the span of 24 hours, they can completely paralyze a dog - so we had to keep a vigilant eye on Sully all night, to make sure he was able to walk. We passed the time by playing Little Big Planet - a sweet game involving an adventurous sack person who travels through this strange and beautiful planet, collecting stickers and items of clothing along the way.

Today, we woke up bright and early, fully intent on spending the day out at O'Reilly's - It's a mountain range an hour and a half outside of Brisbane. Unfortunately, because the Magna is like a 90 year old man, we didn't trust it to climb the mountain without breaking down so we ended up going out to the small island of Coochiemudlo. It's just a short ferry ride from Victoria Point, about 10 minutes away from Matt's place. We were going to rent kayaks and paddle around the island but upon arriving, we found out the kayak place was closed. It did end up being a lovely day though. We did the 5 km walk around the island, on the beaches, and when the tide was too high, along the public roads. Saw some really cool Australian foliage, indigenous to the area. Saw a kid with no arm holding a coconut. Saw a train car in someone's back yard and an elaborate birdhouse/princess village made from mosaic glass and making good use of the color purple.

For a day where everything seemed to be going wrong, it was actually pretty damn good! We're back at Matts place now, removing the skirting boards in his room so his parents can install hardwood floors. (fun)

Looking forward to Pizza Capers! (Matt just read this and said we're probably not going to have it so now I am a bit sad)

Aurevoir for now! (P.S feel free to comment on the haste of this most recent post.)

July Shmuly

No to ask. No to ask. Fuck off. No to ask. No to ask. Refused Call. No to ask. Wrong Number. No to ask. Yes, you guessed it. I'm still telefundraising (audible sigh). I am just past 3 months now and it's not getting any better. In my defense, I HAVE devoted countless hours to "seeking alternative employment" but unfortunately, as my work visa expires in 2 months I'm having trouble finding a suitable assignment. The silver lining is I'm down to part time hours (as per my own request), working only Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of each week so that's made the job a little bit more bearable. Quite honestly though, I am looking forward to getting back to Canada where I will be able to look for more suitable, long-term work. I have officially booked my flights back to Victoria for the 7th of October and am quivering with anticipation. It's been a long and eventful year but I'm ready for a little taste of home (aka Sharon's cooking, mom's hugs, RMRM, hot wings and bridge with Caitlin, maple syrop, etc. etc.) It's going to be difficult to leave this life I've built for myself behind - I will miss Matt and his family immensely, but Matt's looking at coming to Victoria in January so we will just need to spend a couple of months apart, see how we go. Since I last wrote, I've had a busy month and a bit. On the 18th of June, Matt and I went to a Cabaret about bi-polar, which hit close to home because it's got a bit of history in the family. Then, on the 25th, we went to a piano concerto at QPac (part of my birthday present) which was brilliant. The piano playing was smooth as butter and my favorite instruments in the orchestra were the crashing symbols and the double bass. For the most part our big, expensive nights out were in July, so for the past few weekends we've just been lazing about in Cleveland - working our way through the "Full Metal Alchemist" series, an Anime about two brothers on a journey to find a philosopher's stone. On the 5th of July, Magda and Zibby moved out of the apartment so we had a big send off for them - a Polish BBQ and a CRAZZZYYYY party. They've now been replaced by an English couple, Robbie and Lorna. Matt's just gotten a new job doing social media at EB Games and life in general is motoring along at a steady pace. Anyways, time's about to run out for me, so I will say goodbye for now :) Keep the comments rolling in, I always love to hear from everyone. xxxx Claire

I'm BACKKKKK

I'm sorry to all of my dedicated followers (cough) for the lack of posts over the past month. This is an old one - I wrote it on the plane on the way home from Melbourne. I hope it will wet your appetites until I am able to post again. xxx ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here I am, 37 000 feet in the air, hurtling along at a couple hundred miles an hour. An hour and a half left in my flight, and I am already seriously annoyed. I am in 6D - an aisle seat - and the busty stewardess keeps bending over to talk to the row opposite, whilst using my arm as a cheek rest. My next door neighbor (the dreaded middle seat) has bogarted not one, but both arm rests, and the guy behind me is built like a preying mantis and keeps jabbing his knees into the back of my seat. Every time this happens I snap my head to the side and make a face that would put a lemon to shame, but he remains diligent.

I am back to Pareto Phone tomorrow, after my long awaited 4 day weekend in Melbourne. I'll take this time to introduce you to my new and improved co-workers. There are around 10 of us in the PIG pen and we are a mixed bag. In the far corner is Mattemily, a brother and sister duo who work opposite shifts to one another. They sit on my left hand side and behind us are the Green Peace girls - Kate (the rageaholic with the bad back) and Hannah (the punk rocker with the killer pipes). Others worth mentioning are Dan and Claire - the Kiwis. Dan is known for crossing his zeros, has an inexplicable fruit phobia and spends most of the day with suspiciously bleary eyes. Claire, in her spare time, makes jewelry for blockbuster movies like Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and Transformers. (How cool is that?) Last but not least is Mert. He's our team leader and bears a close resemblance to a white, Rastafarian version of Jesus Christ, if you imagine that.

I suppose I should start where I left off last time so let's go with Luke's birthday. It was formal dress, so my little black thigh high dress I wore to last year's Christmas Party once again came in handy! With my newly curled, cut and brunette-icized hair. I slapped on some shiny bangles and off we all went to the Jade Buddha. The party took place in the Shadow Lounge, and with 16 dollar Mojitos and platters of everything from minced lamb rolls to salt and pepper calamari, it was a ritzy affair.

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Ok, now this blog is being written as of todays date... I do apologize for all the confusion.

The next notable event in my somewhat "mediocre at the moment" life came about on the Wednesday following Luke's birthday. Wednesday, for those of you who do not know, is Trivia Night at the Jube, a pub down the road from Pareto. It has become somewhat of a tradition for the PIG pen to head down there after work and grab a couple of jugs. Now, nothing notable "in itself" actually happened that fateful night but for me, it was a momentous occasion. If you remember MattEmily, well... minus the Emily you get Matt, and that was the first night him and I got to connect outside of work.

I'm sure you can all guess the rest but to make a long story short, we have been seeing each other for a little over a month now and I have never been happier. He is a brilliant human being - a talented musician (he plays the flute and piano) and voice-over artist. We went on our first proper date to "Dante's Inferno" on the Wednesday before my trip to Melbourne. It was an outdoor theatre production about the 7 stages of hell. Very......... memorable. I will give you five defining features of the play and then you must all use your imaginations. zombie tour guides, flaming bow and arrows, loin cloths - most likely stolen from the set of the jungle book, tortured screams of agony by the bucketful, and ummm... eye liner. (Throw in a pair of skinny jeans and you have a Good Charlotte concert!!) lol

After my trip to Melbourne, I got back and a couple of days later Matt set off for a voice conference in LA. I spent the week he was away catching up on laundry and waiting anxiously for his return.

He got back on the 9th of June and I went out to Cleveland, a suburb 40 minutes outside of Brisbane to spend the weekend with him and his family. We celebrated my birthday with A LOT of Tequila on the 12th of June at Chilli Con Carne - a Mexican party that Emily threw at her place. Matt glued tacos onto his sombrero and I ended up in the downward dog position by the end of the night (that sounds bad) ...

The following night I cooked Matt's family and a couple of family friends a big roast dinner and then we all sat out by the bonfire and ate apple strudel for dessert and finally, monday being a public holiday was the most epic LAZY day everrrrrr!

Kay's birthday came and went yesterday, so all the roommates went out to a classy joint across the river and bought 40 dollar steaks and now... FINALLY! you are up to speed on my life in a nutshell as of late. I'm sorry I'm a shit blogger :( Either way, hopefully this post will sustain you for the time being and I will try to keep it more regular from now on.

Love you all,

xx Claire

Sub Zero!

Today is Wednesday, the 5th of May. My how the time flies! Well, I think last I left off I was in the process of moving in to Unit 11 in Kangaroo Point. I was also on my way to Big W to buy a fan. Now please, if you will, imagine Brisbane for a moment. Hot, muggy, 27 degrees, IMPOSSIBLE to sleep without some sort of air agitating device present. Now, picture my face when I walked up to Customer Service after a long and fruitless search. "Excuse me, where might I be able to find a fan?" I asked politely. The large woman behind the counter chuckled jovially, "Not this time of year honey, it's winter!!" All I could do was sputter in disbelief. Despite being in the depths of winter in Australia (pause to roll eyes) I never thought I would say this but I actually miss the cold. I miss rugging up in an oversized sweater (jumper) and woolly blanket (duna) and the numbness of my cheeks when I've been out in the cold for too long! I can't believe I have been here for 6 months already! Things have changed erratically once again so I will fill you in. I have got a new job (my fourth in 4 months!) at Pareto Phone. We are a fundraising company and do a lot of work with a variety of Australian charities. I am campaigning on 3 at the moment. Life Flight (the equivalent of Stars Air Ambulance in Edmonton), Canteen (Camps for adolescents suffering through cancer) and my FAVORITE (NOT!!) Green Peace (an organization which takes direct action to prevent environmental crimes like whaling and pirate fishing.) My job is to phone potential donors, explain the values of the charity and ask them for donations. The job comes with the good - I was calling on Green Peace and an elderly woman donated and then asked how she could send a little gift along for me to keep me motivated to the BAD - on the same campaign I spoke to a man named Mr. Snowball (I kid you not) who asked me what PARROT fishing was repeatedly and then said he had to go because he was right in the middle of his whale burger. (Gasp!) One of the really great things about the job with Pareto is that, because the wage is so good, I've been able to quit Strike Bowling and have most of my weekends free to do whatever I please. I've even decided to pamper myself this weekend coming with a pedicure, a back massage, and a new hair do! As well, I have started Biggest Loser - Unit 11 : Kay, Ziby, Magda and I are all looking to shed a few pounds (or Kilos) and have started training and dieting - so far I've been quite good (I am choosing not to count the 3 consecutive roast beef dinners I ate in a drunken stupor last Saturday night!) Whoever loses the most weight at the end of the 6 week weigh in gets 100 big ones so the pressures on. I've got a couple of big weeks ahead - Luke's birthday on Saturday at the Jade Buddha, then on the 21st of May I'm flying to Melbourne for the weekend. Anyways, it's time I get going here but I will do my best to keep you all up to date on my comings and goings. Love your comments as well, they make me happy! I miss you all so much. xxx Claire

New Digs

I am delighted to report I have finally escaped the totalitarianism of Jun's house and am happily settled in my new apartment in Kangaroo Point. On Friday, I called a cab, and with all my belongings in tow, watched happily as Spring Hill, Jun's house in particular, faded behind me. I pulled up to my flat 20 minutes (and 20 dollars) later and Kay met me at the door and helped me load all my stuff upstairs. Magda and Ziby (a couple) and Luke (Kays boyfriend) were all away over the long weekend so Kay and I spent the rest of the day watching television. A luxury I've not had for months. We discovered a mutual love for Australian Soap operas and cooking shows and so, to celebrate this, on Saturday we decided to cook a nice Easter Dinner, just the two of us. Saturday morning, after a trip into town on the ferry, we cooked a chicken and stuffed the skin with a lemon, butter, sage, rosemary and garlic. Then we chopped up brussel sprouts and mixed them with mashed potatoes and loads of butter, and had cooked carrots, lemon and hot buns on the side. We then demolished the Easter candy Dani (my friend and their old roommate) had left behind. 5 or 6 chocolate eggs (the big kind) and then, to top it all of we drank a bottle of Rose and one of white wine and floated effortlessly in the pool for hours. We then mosied down to the Story Bridge hotel (a local drinking hole) for a drink or two. Ross, a friend of mine from work showed up and plied us with alcohol. a 350 dollar bar tab and 2 barroom brawls later, we said goodbye and stumbled home where we needlessly demolished the rest of our Easter dinner. Sunday was a hangover from hell day. We watched the Devil wears Prada and grunted conversation. Ziby and Magda arrived home last night after a trip to Fraser Island and Luke arrived early this morning (after he missed his flight back home from Melbourne by a day and had to stay an extra night.) I just finished getting my new key cut and am heading to Woolworths (Aussie version of a grocery store) to get food for the week, then to Big W (their equivalent of Walmart though not half as good) to buy a fan and then home. happy as a clam.

Who put my life in the washing machine!?!

For someone who has always been deathly afraid of even the smallest of alterations in her life, I think I am handling the constant change of life in Australia quite well. Over the past month, I have acquired 3 seperate jobs and been let go from one (the Share Market College - 1 month and 2000 dollars later, they decided they were downsizing and sent me packing.) I diligently looked for work and ended up finding another job within a few days right next door with another finance company. Still Telemarketing (she says while preparing her toaster bath) but its a much bigger call centre (20 some people) and the atmosphere is a lot more fun! There is a ping pong table, vending machines and Saul! The most hilarious manager I've ever had. He had us rolling on the floor in our orientation, so I hope he will provide me with many months entertainment. I am on a trial period at the moment, so have to get at least 1 appointment out in the first 3 days... It's day 2 and still no luck. It seems as though the people in Adelaide are even more pissy then the ones in Brisbane!!! I actually had a woman answer the phone and say (no hello or anything):"I don't mean to be rude, but Fuck Off!" ... (Gasp) Oh welll, I reckon, if nothing else, being rejected 253 times per day is a sure fire way to grow a thick skin! (Although, I did almost start crying at the bank today because they couldn't put my credit card payment through so maybe I should be questioning that theory!) In other news, I have given my two weeks notice to my current landlord (aka the toilet paper Nazi) and will be moving to Kangaroo Point next weekend. It's a ferry ride everyday to and from work, but the apartment has a pool, sauna, gym and hottub and I'll have my own room so I think it will be well worth the extra 40 something bucks a week. It's probably for the best anyways, as my next door neighbor, Ricardo (also the guy I've been seeing for 2 months) and I have decided to go our seperate ways. I will miss him very much as he was a constant companion, as he was extremely kind and took very good care of me. Alas, some things are not meant to be. Anyways, just a quick update today, but I'm sure I'll have more in store in the next week. Until then, goodnight mom and Caitlin (and whoever else is following this blog) lol!