HREinternational’s Weblog

So, i’m finally on my holiday. After 3 flights and 2 layovers (one in LA, another one in Aukland) I have made it to Australia. Honestly, the flying wasn’t that bad. Leg 1 from London to LA was during the day so i didn’t try to sleep or anything. Just worked a little (a giant pain to be on a laptop in Coach but i managed just fine) – the inflight movie stuff wasn’t working very well so there wasn’t anything else to do anyway. I had a 5 hour layover in LA and that’s where i met up with Sasha. We had a seat between us on the flight from LA to Aukland so that made the trip pretty tolerable. And i took and Ambien right when we took off so i was sleeping and drooling all over myself before they even made the first pass-through with the drink cart. Once we arrived in Melbourne we just got our stuff (Sasha got her snacks confiscated when we went through Customs – she tried to smuggle almonds and walnuts into the country. tsk tsk. she was told that if she tried to pull that again she’d be facing a stiff $250 fine. hahah. He DID let her keep her Mike-and-Ikes, so it wasn’t a total loss) and went outside to catch a ride. We got a taxi to Ceci’s place and she was here when we arrived.

My feet and ankles swelled up cartoon-style from all the flying. I think i was in the air for a total of something like 25-27 hours (can’t be sure. i stopped paying attention because it was never-ending). I’m into day 2 already and they still haven’t gone down. and, Mom, if you’re reading this… i drank tons of water and nothing overly salty so no giving me grief! Anyway, Ceci lives in this really cute high-rise apartment in downtown Melbourne. It’s really close to the Yarra River and a random giant casino. So, after a shower and a 5 hour nap, Ceci got home from work and we headed to dinner at a place called “Automatic” along the riverfront. Honestly, i was kind of out of it so i was kind of dragging – jet lag you know.

I only woke up once last night around 3:30 a.m. I have absolutely no concept of time. I’ve had to look it up about 5 times now (but the ignorance is probably better. i have no idea if i should be tired, when it’s daytime or nighttime at home – so maybe i can trick my body into just getting used to it without too much issue). I did wake up at 6 a.m. today though – which i would never do at home. 7 a.m. is pushing it usually.

Today we’re just going to walk around Melbourne and check out the city. Ceci has to work so we’ll meet up with her later this afternoon. We’re going to a Halloween party tonight. Ceci is making us dress up. Ceci sucks. Luckily, the ever-prepared Sasha brought down costumes for us. We’re going to be doctors. Haha. At least that’s an easy one. And tomorrow we are going to Derby Day at the Melbourne Cup. I’m really excited to go to that… i have my hat and my dress all ready. it is going to be so fun! We are going to be in a marquis too, so we’ll sort of have our own space with cocktails and lunch and everything the whole day. I’ll post pics of everything later. I don’t have my camera with me and I’ll have to wait for Sasha and Ceci to send me their pics.

All right – i’m off. i have eaten cookies and pop for breakfast and now don’t feel very good (shocking) – time for some real food.

i shouldn’t even be writing right now. it’s late. i’m tired…. not in the greatest of moods. i’m not going to rant about all that is affecting me negatively – i’ll look at the good stuff. first of all – and i know some people may have thought i would have forgotten about them by now – not a chance, by the way – my cats are less than two months from their little scary plane ride over here. Poor little guys. they’ll freak, i’m sure. but i’m a selfish person and i really need to have them back with me. it feels like it has been forever. i’m sure they’ve completely forgotten who i am – and now i’ll be the mean lady who kidnapped them from their new comfortable home. Great.

Other goodness… going to see the Chargers next weekend! yay!! i am so excited to go to this game. i can’t even tell you. partly because it’s something i know – i’m a football fan – but i also love the Chargers. So it’s a double win for me! It’s going to be great!

I leave for Australia in about a week and a half now. I’m really looking forward to the vacation aspect of it – and of course looking forward to seeing sasha and ceci and getting some time with them to hang out. weird how you take for granted that you see people every day until you don’t get that anymore. Really makes me appreciate my friends. I’m impressed with how many of mine have stayed in touch with me. I have good friends. lucky girl, i am.

Yeah, nevermind that i’ll be gone for almost 5 weeks. gone from the UK – i’ll still “get” to work the rest of the trip. (booooo ) Another CAB meeting coming up. I’m not quite as nervous about this one as i was the first one. The group is really good and the concept of it worked out well for our business unit so it has been a success so far. Maybe i should be a little nervous – got to stay on my toes. We also have another one of those panel events at PASS. i don’t really know why, but it’s turned into something i do every year and i take the success of these very personally. I’m getting all that sorted way ahead of time – because really, i only have about another week to make sure all my ducks are in a row so i won’t have to fret about it too much when i’m on vacation. But, anyone reading this who actually knows me… you know i won’t be able to cut the cord. i suck.

I’m looking forward to the weekend – i have said it the last few times, but i’m telling you. i love the Fall season. it’s really the best. I love sweaters (errr. jumpers… ), scarfs, gloves, hats… as long as it’s just cold – and not raining, i’m good to go. yay.

i know this was a lot of fluff. i haven’t really done anything exciting – no falling down, getting deported, inappropriate dress for the weather… sorry folks. i’m getting used to it over here now, so i’m not being quite as lame. Stick around though – i don’t stay dull for long.

ciao.

H

it’s definitely autumn here now. it’s cold and rainy – but when it isn’t raining it’s really great. cold and crisp, like a proper Fall. I actually love it. I haven’t had weather like this forever. SoCal doesn’t really have seasons. it’s either summer or later that summer… it’s kind of nice. I woke up the other day not feeling too well, so i have been lying low this weekend trying to encourage whatever bug got to me, to go away. I got cabin fever yesterday though, and it wasn’t raining very hard, so i bundled up and went out for a walk.

View of the Long Walk from the monument

The walk i took was on a path i’ve been on before – it’s called the “Long Walk”  – that leads from the town centre to a monument. What i didn’t realize when i started was that the path is a straight line to Windsor castle. I don’t know how far it is – maybe a round trip of 3 miles. It is a fantastic walk. at one point you go through a gate and i was surprised to see at about 100 yards into that gate, some deer. But not just a few deer. At least a thousand (and this is not exaggerating). They weren’t too bothered by the people on the path – i’m sure they’re used to it. But there were even some good sized bucks. The biggest rack i saw was 7 points on each side.

It took me about 2 hours to get from end to end. I like doing things like this alone – good thing… i find that I am entertaining myself a fair amount of time so far. Anyway, the wind was blowing and the leaves are starting to turn and fall, so there were leaves blowing everywhere and it was just a really nice feeling to be out there enjoying it. It was on the verge of rain the whole time, but only sprinkled, so it ended up being just perfect.

Today was much less interesting. It was raining the entire day and i still don’t feel fabulous, so i just stayed in. I watched something like 4 movies. i started to feel guilty and a little stir crazy again, so I managed to do some laundry and it’s all hanging outside in the rain. lovely. That isn’t annoying or anything. Goodness knows when it’ll stop raining long enough to bring it in. oh well. something else to get used to i guess.

Well, not too much else interesting enough to share… just over three weeks left until i head out on my 5 weeks of traveling. Split apart, i’m looking forward to all the sub-trips that i have in there. I’ve got a holiday in Australia, weekend in LA, a week in Seattle for a trade show, then a few days in San Francisco, then the olive harvest and Thanksgiving at my parents. All good stuff. collectively though, i’m not looking forward to travelling, flying, hotels, etc. for that long.  i think i need to start mentally preparing now…