Australia – the country, not the movie.

/ Lisa / 2 Comments

A few months ago, Jethro and I decided we wanted to take a trip to Australia. Just for a few days so I could see Melbourne, as I had never been before. When Jethro was booking the tickets he found it was cheaper to fly to Brisbane and back to Wellington than out of Melbourne again. So we also squeezed in a couple days in Brisbane.

This is going to be a bit of a picture blog post – I took A LOT of pictures. A combination from my phone and on my awesome camera.

We arrived in Melbourne after very little sleep and getting up at 4am (like WTF, why do they make one of those in the morning?)

Early morning Melbourne from the airport bus along the motorway. Big city, yo.

Once in the city we found our hotel and then decided to wander around a bit to start exploring the city.

Apparently getting hit by a tram is like getting hit by a rhino. But how do you know what getting hit by a rhino is like, if you've never been hit by one?

A great little place to find heaps of places to eat. It reminds me of Rotorua, where you can go get food from any place and sit in the street to eat. Only downfall was sitting right next to strangers - as in, you could elbow them.

After wandering around the city centre and having lunch, we began wandering out a bit. We ended up at the aquarium to see the pengys!

Pengys love the fountain! Look at 'em play!

I became quite obsessed with the penguins and didn’t want to stop watching them or look at anything else. Pengys are awesome! However, we did end up looking at other stuff.

Jellyfish, they kind of creep me out and I don't find them that interesting, but this is a rather cool photo.

We then got on the City Circle tram to get a good look around the city. A tram, and it’s free! I like trams.

From the tram, we got to see a lot of old buildings. This one is state parliament.

After the tram ride we had cocktails with @MissNickiBee at a bar called 1806. They had some pretty tasty cocktails and chips too. We then went to a Maylasian restaurant for dinner, which was pretty good – all within walking distance.

It was back to the hotel for some rest after walking around all day and getting up ridiculously early. Our hotel was pretty good – Citidines. I would definitely recommend it to anyone and will likely stay there again. We got a free upgrade, but it was clean and comfortable. The bed also happened to be a foam bed, which is my kind of bed! SO COMFORTABLE – it molds to your body.

Day two saw us start the day with meeting up with @MissNickiBee again and heading to breakfast at The Pancake Parlour.

This is called the 'it' pancakes. Caramalised banana and walnuts on pancakes with cream.

After breakfast we jumped on the City Circle tram again to head down to dockside for some shopping. I got my first look at Autograph and ended up buying a lot of clothes. We were introduced to a store called Typo, in which I could quite happily spend every and all my pay cheques in for ever and ever.

We headed back into town to find some lunch – Lord of the Fries! – which is an all vegetarian restaurant so Jethro was happy. It was quite tasty and barely noticeable it was all vegetarian.

We sat in this atrium to eat, it was pretty cool.

Melbourne currently has these weird demon baby statues. I just don't even know how or why.

We continued walking around the city for the afternoon, where I discovered amazing macaroons, was introduced to David Jones, Myer and Target. I went quite girly at David Jones – ALL THE SHOES.

Macaroons!

*swoon* Louboutin.

And then there was the Occupy Melbourne protests, which we ran into.

Horseys!

After this we were pretty exhausted so had a drink and headed back to the hotel. Jethro went and got us Pie Face for dinner. We should totally have one of those here. Awesome.

Thus ends Melbourne shenanigans. The next morning, it was off to Brisbane.

Brisbane river from South Bank.

Once we got to Brisbane, we checked into the hotel – Rydges – which wasn’t actually that flash. It’s like they had tried to upgrade it, but kind of failed. The shower was pretty bad. My measure of a hotel is now based on the shower and the bed. The bed was fine, the shower dubious. Thus average.

We walked around South Bank for a bit and then found a bar to have a few drinks. Jethro ended up inviting some of his Linux conference friends along to catch up with and we all had dinner at Grill’d, which was pretty amazing. Definitely a place to go, whether in Brisbane or Melbourne.

This is the mustard and pickled. It was delicious.

Jethro even bought be a rose. Nawwwwww.

We then went for coffee at this amazing  place called Denim Espresso Fashion. The hot chocolate was amazing and so was the pistachio and cranberry nougat.

The hot chocolate: you poor hot milk over chocolate bits. It is divine.

Best nougat ever.

Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, as we were both pretty exhausted.

The next day we met up with @Ilaeria, walked around South Bank, saw the markets and headed over the Goodwill bridge and into Brisbane CBD for some more shopping. Not that we really did any, we just wanted to see the city, which is pretty awesome with some of its old buildings, just like Melbourne.

We came back over to South Bank, said goodbye to @Illaria and wandered around a bit more. We ended up going on the Wheel of Brisbane to see the city at twilight, which was pretty awesome.

Not the best picture, but you can see the pretty, pretty sky.

Wheel of Brisbane.

For dinner we went to this great little Italian place and had gourmet pizza. Mine was pear and prosciutto. So delicious, I may even have to try and replicate it.

The next morning we had to check out of the hotel and as just so happened, the Queen was in town. The actual one. We headed down to South Bank to try and spot her, but in the end waiting was so painful. I did snap a shot of her on the boat arriving at South Bank. That was enough for me.

Oh hai.

Afterwards we wandered back over the Goodwill bridge, after getting an ice cream, cause damn, Brisbane is hot. We wandered around the Botanical Gardens and saw some cool old buildings. After that jaunt, we headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags, encountered the Queen again and got on the train back out to the airport.

At the airport I had some good old Eagle Boys – how I have missed thee! And we boarded the plane back to Wellington. After a spot of duty free shopping, where I picked up four OPI nail polishes for $50. Bargain. Considering here they are $25 each.

Getting back into Wellington was a bit of a relief and I just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep. However the taxis had another plan – we ended up waiting about half an hour for one after our flight got in. This resulted in not getting to sleep until around 2am. Then there was the early morning flight back to Auckland, oh joy.

Overall, I had a really good time. Did some pretty awesome shopping and got to spend a nice wee break with Jethro in another country. It was fun and exhausting and I can’t wait to travel again. Hopefully next time we will have a little bit longer so we don’t feel so rushed to try and fit everything in and can just take our time enjoying things.

For more photos of the trip, I will be putting them up on Flikr when I get a chance.

Life Updated

/ Lisa / 2 Comments

Well, it has been awhile since I last blogged. I have been super busy and just haven’t had the time to sit down and write.

How about I start with an update on life? Last time you tuned in I had just been offered a job. In a whirlwind few weeks, I traveled back to Wellington to pack up my things, then on to Hawke’s Bay to do the same there and finally heading north to the City of Sails.

I can officially say, I am now a resident of Auckland. (Yikes)

I had a rather enjoyable first week at work. I did get a few, ok three, articles up online. Not my best effort for the week, but I’m sure the number will grow as I get into things. There was a fair amount of waiting for people to call me back and the occasional twiddling of thumbs, which was more because I didn’t really have things to go on with in between people getting back to me. This will naturally change as I get more into the job, building up stories and contacts.

In a rather random first day, where I was essentially cold calling people. I just happened to end up talking to two people that I knew. The first was a fellow twitterer and the other was one of my good friends from university. Just shows how small New Zealand really is! I’ll also likely talk to them again during the course of my job.

I also got to go to court – now that was super scary and super fun at the same time. I hope to do more of it. Maybe one day I will be the court reporter I’ve wanted to be?

Man Piece and I got a really sweet apartment in Takapuna – I can join in and be a “Shore Whore” now. I think coming from Hastings will help me fit in well. There are several bonuses about this place – it’s only 15 minutes walk from work, it has a pool, two carparks, whiteware included, a balcony and is two bedrooms. It’s everything we wanted and more. I can’t wait to move in, alas, it’s another week away.

But in that week I have Australia to look forward to! On Thursday Man Piece and I head to Melbourne and then on to Brisbane on Saturday. We get back on Monday night and on the Tuesday I’m back in Auckland and can get into our new apartment!

There are a few things that I need to do; I just can’t seem to think of what they are. I bought a passport cover/holder thing, which was kind of unnecessary, but will be useful in identifying my passport and protecting it somewhat, as I plan to do a lot of travel on this one!

Not sure what else there is to tell you. It’s been fairly quiet otherwise. I’ve been far too tired to do anything else. Until next time then…

Where I will be blogging about my Australian adventure with Man Piece!

The one where I get a job.

/ Lisa / 1 Comment

Wow. Well, I think the headline says it all really. I have been offered a job.

My hard work, perseverance and determination have all finally paid off to where I am torn between crying in relief or dancing around my room in excitement. Technically I have already done the crying, so I guess once I kick this flu thingy, the dancing will also take place.

It has been a long journey to get to this point. So much has happened in the last, almost, two years since I graduated from AUT with my diploma.

I have hit rock bottom more times than I can remember with my depression, but I have fought the whole way and come out on the other side with a very tame black dog as my shadow. I say shadow, because he will always be there with me, where ever I go in life.

It was needing to tame this black dog, which is why I took some time off after uni. I am all the better for it. Through all of this, the events of the last two years have been a roller coaster ride, which I have survived.

Our family felt the full impact of the Christchurch earthquakes, with my sister and brother-in-law experiencing it all and still doing so. I even felt a few myself in a trip down last October. I got a job and lost that job. I gained a Man Piece, who has supported me in my search for a job and helped me in the taming of the black dog. I lost my Grandfather, which has been a huge change to my family. I’ve struggled with job rejection after job rejection. I’ve looked after my mother while she was in and out of hospital for surgery and needed someone to administer medications.

There are most likely more things that have happened that I haven’t listed, but I’m just not thinking of them right now.

I can finally put down some roots and stop living out of a suitcase going back and forth between my parents and Man Piece. Obviously this means that Man Piece and I will be doing the long distance thing again, but we will work that out.

A big thank you needs to go to everyone who has supported me and told me to keep following my dreams, who have listened to me rant and moan and still stuck by me throughout this journey. Without that support, I would have given up (even though there were a few times that I almost did.)

So today, I end my journey of the #lifeoftheunemployed and enter the gainfully employed.

Tonight I am going out for dinner with my parents to celebrate, possibly have a drink (although I probably shouldn’t ’cause of the antibiotics) and breathe a huge sigh or relief for beating the odds.

So as my Granddad used to say in times like this, “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid!”

Oh, and cause I can’t do a happy dance, here is Neil Patrick Harris doing one for me. I guess I should tell you where it is too – I am to be a journalist at Pharmacy Today in Auckland.

Snot Watch: Day umpteen (I lost count a while ago.)

/ Lisa / 1 Comment

Gosh, I barely know where to start to update you all on what has happened this week – and it’s only Thursday!

One day at a time then!

Monday I had job interview number one. I don’t really know how my job interviews go anymore. I just know that I wasn’t a blubbering idiot. After the interview I went and did a CV drop around a few shops I had noticed had signs up. This was supposed to have been done on Friday afternoon, but  after the WINZ appointment I was not in a very great frame of mind to present myself, so postponed it. I think I dropped about 10 CVs in the Cuba/Willis/Lambton area. Not a whole heap for the area that I covered, but it was more than I expected.

Tuesday I headed up to Auckland for job interview number two. This one I think went pretty well, so I’m in the waiting phase – I’m essentially in the waiting phase for both of them. So it was a flying visit to Auckland. I got to catch up with @BitchAboutDevo and @TangThang and not much else. By the time I was on the airport bus and at the airport I was struggling. You know when you’re starting to get sick and your whole body hurts, you just have no energy and no idea how to even stand up anymore? Yeah, that. But as I managed to get on the Koru Hour flight (this is what I have been told it is) I got complementary bagel crisps, hummus and a wine. Did I mention I was on the black plane? It was awesome. By the time I got back to the flat the only thing I was capable of was shower, food and bed.

Wednesday is pretty much a blur. I was not feeling good when I, surprisingly, woke up at 7am. I was then very confused, thinking hours had passed when it was only a few minutes. The morning continued like this and eventually I got up because I was overheating. Turned out it was a bad idea and I got a lot worse. Cue shaking, headache, fever, no energy and coughing. Lots and lots of coughing. That type of coughing where you think your head might explode and chest rip apart. Even worse, was I had to take some Ventolin. I barely have to take Ventolin these days because my asthma is under control, so it just shows how bad the coughing is.

All of this lead to the decision to come home for a bit. Probably just a week. Today I caught the bus and this afternoon I went to the doctor. I’ve now got some steroids and antibiotics, cause my asthma has gotten quite bad and I’ve had this cold/whatever it is for about two weeks now.

Hopefully with medication and lots of rest I will kick whatever this thing is. Oh, and my Mum looking after me.