Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 271 - Spiders group!

Off to my writing group tonight, spidersgroup, so named because someone's mother misheard the name one day, and as usual, little writing will be done. We will, however, talk about all manner of pop culture fun, I'll announce my big news, eat over priced food at City Extra, and go down then to sleep.

They are an awesome bunch of people, and it's fun whenever I see them. I expect tonight to be no different!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 270 - BIG NEWS!

I have resigned my job!

No, I have not taken collective leave of my senses (St George Bank if you're reading this, and I wouldn't be surprised if you were since Google and Facebook like to read everything I do, I am moving to another well paying job so please relax, and worry about Greece defaulting instead please) but rather I  have finally found my dream job which will involve assisting the owner and director with her writing/speaking/blogging/book authoring/magazine editing duties, as well eventually getting to write material for all those fora myself, which is even more exciting! Somewhere in there will be the mundane stuff too, but I am excited about finally having a job that marries up all my acquired skills, with my passion and love for writing, and I am beyond happy that a job I tagged as 'aspirational' actually exists and that I have managed to snare it!

One of the thrilling aspects of this is that the resume I wrote with my career coach, and which was written purely as an exercise for an aspirational job that I thought I'd never land, or at least, not for a number of years, didn't have to be amended at all! It is like God, or the Universe, knew even then at the start of the year that this job was mine. Exciting too that I was handpicked from the 18 short listed people invited to an information session last Wednesday night for an impromptu interview with the owner and her business manager straight after the session. Thank goodness I had Googled the hell out of the company, my new boss, and everything she'd ever done and written so I was well prepared for an interview I didn't know I was happening! The interview was warm and friendly but chock full of great questions and it was probably one of the best, most engaging interviews of my life. My new boss is very friendly, with a ready laugh, and quick wit, and I think we are going to work very well together.

The second interview was also lots of fun over coffee at The Kirribilli Club in Milson's Point. We talked for two hours, back and forth with ease, in what my new boss had decided was like an RSVP date where we could tell each other anything, and should since we'd be such a close knit team. What was truly exciting about this interview was that she seemed genuinely excited and thrilled about what I could offer, what we could do together, and where it could lead. She even got up from her side of the table, ran around and hugged me when I accepted the job. It was a lovely moment and really sealed the deal for me! (All witnessed by my lovely guy who was parked out on the street and saw us talking animatedly like two old friends!)

This is a very happy day! (Thus far only a few close friends, and my bosses know I have resigned but I am sure word will spread fast as it always does in any work place.)

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 269 -

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 268 - Wet Baby Wet!

It rained a LOT today.

gloriously so...and it was cold. Normal people hate this kind of weather but I love it. Cold, rainy weather has a lovely snuggly vibe to it and that's just what my guy and I did all day.

He pottered around his apartment reorganising his bookcase, I blogged and blogged and blogged, only venturing out to get vittels including pies from the local Vietnamese bakery which weren't too bad really. High praise indeed right?!

Anyway it was one of those delightfully chilled days that make the weekends so relaxing and good for the soul.

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 267 (Saturday 24 September) - I Love Me a Sausage in my Mouth

Quite the foodie day really!

We had a very late brunch, called Lunch by normal folks at Post Cafe in Marrickville Cafe and the food was DIVINE DARLING DIVINE! Seriously yummy lime and dill beer batter on barramundi fillets with the most perfect chips, and my gorgeous guy's brioche stack with thick slices of haloumi cheese was impressive too. I could have just sat on our stools at the window side tables all day and waited for dinner....

....BUT dinner was out somewhere else entirely! After a badly needed nap (and some bookcase shopping), my gorgeous guy, Fahmi and I went to Bench Wine Bar on King Street, one of the new micro bars that are sprouting all over Sydney town, for pre-dinner drinks with Warren, Ian and Stephen. The service and ambience were top notch and I could have happily stayed there all night......

Fahmi and Stephen seated in front of the funky POP! culture mural

Sausages YUM, Mash YUM, mushy peas YUM!!!

Ian, Warren (hiding behind Ian), Fahmi, Stephen and my gorgeous guy

BUT we had dinner reservations across the road at Smash Sausage Kitchen, a gourmet sausage place with all sorts of cool flavours, fantastic warm friendly service, great wine and the yummiest apple crumble I have had in ages. It came to about $45 per person but that was great value considering we had all entrees, mains, 2 bottles of wine, and dessert..... plus a ton of fun catching up with each other!

....and yes we made all sorts of innuendo-laden comments about sausages....like we could let that opportunity slip by!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 266 - TGIF? Honto ni!

Fabulous night out at Kujin Restaurant in Elizabeth Bay for me and my gorgeous guy with the lovely Justin and Cam - champers to celebrate an exciting development in my life (all to be revealed soon I promise), soft shelled crab, okonomiyaki cabbage pancake and teriyaki chicken, white wine, and 'desert'. Well we might have had dessert, except that of the items on the list, only 2 or 3 were available so a perfectly delightful relaxed night of TGIF conversation, we retired to Anderson's Ice Cream on the corner of Macleay Street and Darlinghurst Road for yummy waffle cones of ice creamy goodness, farewell kisses and hugs and a quick drive home.

Then to catch some much needed end of the week ZZZZZs.

Crazy Fun Friday Things

Its Friday y'all and here's more hilariously goofy stuff from http://theambiguityreport.tumblr.com/ which is awesome, fabulous and must be checked out! Why are you not there yet?

.... and what would Friday be without a couple of cartoony words of wisdom from the insanely talented folks at Vimrod? Not the same that's what so here they are....

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 265 - I Slept

Yes people after a frantic week, including a Wednesday to remember (more on that soon but for now it has to be all tantalisingly secret squirrel-ish!), I was so tired that I eschewed shopping at MYER for new Christmas ornaments (shock horror and gasping disbelief!) and headed home to eat chocolate, lentils for dinner (not together although I was so tired it is possible I did do just that), watch an episode of Warehouse 13 season 13 (just for the record, Aiden - my house mate - we watched episode 2; we keep forgetting where we're up to!), and head to bed by 9pm, asleep by 9.40 and pretty much sound asleep for almost 8 hours.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

(Yes I will take any excuse I can to feature cats in just about any blog posting!)

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 264 - Zara Zhoushes Up Her Hair

Zara, my gorgeous cute niece, now has hair long enough to style sort of, and she is making the most of it. Looks like she is employing her girly girl genes to great effect!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 263 - Sushi After a Busy Day

It was a typical crazy mad Tuesday, exacerbated by being off sick yesterday getting my tooth all fixed up, nice and proper like (yes not sure why I lapsed into English accented colloqialisms at that point but it seemed like fun...still does really) so stressed and exhausted by the end of it, what did I do?

Why I went shirt shopping at David Jones, where I discovered a fantastic designer by the name of Nigel Lincoln (thanks to the very lovely Jeannie, DJ Sales Assistant extraordinaire), who's shirts fit beautifully, look gorgeous, and could well become my next sartorial love affair. I followed this up with sushi at Makanai on Pitt Street with my beautiful guy and life was suddenly, deliciously good.

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 262 - Crown Me With One Last Crown

The dentist's waiting room - today was my last visit to the dentist for some time I hope. I got a new crown moulded and lasered and put in place over 2 sometimes painful hours (not so much the tooth but the apparatus to suck all the liquid out when kept digging into my soft pallette).

While the tooth was created in a whiz bang German-made machine, I sat back for 40 minutes of non-invasive reading, although it was odd to sit back in a dentist chair and just read

Here I am in the bastion of pain and soft pallette bruising

I tried to make the sterile dental instruments look vaguely arty and stylish. Not sure I succeeded but I had fun with Instagram trying!

Then it was off home to nurse my sore and battered mouth - my dentist is awesomely good, and very gentle but even so all that poking and prodding, no matter how well done leaves you feeling a tad brusied. I did stop off on the way home to get smoothie supplies so I didn't have to trouble my mouth too much with chewing, and then I sat back, watched The View, napped, read and updated my blogs. Sore mouth aside, it wasn't too bad a day really.

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 261 - IKEA gods

A gorgeous sleep in then I chilled on the couch watching Wacky Races (which I hadn't seen in years) and reading Saturday's Herald while Steve called his mum and dad to see how she was after she fell and broke her arm on the previous Thursday (she is OK but uncomfortable and quiet immobile)

Then we attacked the IKEA Besta unit aiming to get it finished once and for all!

The drawers were done the day before and lie ready for insertion into the Besta (think they're called Inreda)

I am now a dab hand at screwing things in (no jokes please of the innuendi variety, though they would be fun), having been schooled by my gorgeous guy in the proper technique

Yeah man! We're building IKEA things!

The finished item with the TV and stereo in place (blue plastic film is to protect the white gloss look of the shelves)

....and finally, the It Gets Better video has been publicised by Same Same, a major gay website and yours truly made the page. Not the best photo granted but then my personal vanity isn't the issue, and saving LGBTI kids lives is, so any publicity is wonderful!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 260 (Saturday 17 September) - Manly Night Out

Started the day off with brunch with Waz @ Straits Kaffe in the Motto building, Erskineville

 I read the paper for a little bit while Steve called his folks in Melbourne (his 78 year old mother had fallen a couple of days previously at their holiday home @ Phillip Island and broken her arm, poor thing) then I napped while Steve constructed the remaining drawers of his IKEA TV entertainment unit, after which we put some more of the actual unit together before...

The hazards of kneeling on the carpet to lift the unit without seeing a stray screw that shredded my knee

 ... we caught the train from St Peters (see immediately below) to Manly for a birthday dinner at the 16ft Skiff Club (with the world's most stressed and rude doorman who initially wouldn't let us in due to a capacity crowd watching the World Cup inside) for Steve's old work friend, Ann who along with her partner, Jeff, is absolutely delightful. Steve once worked with most of the guests, all part of a project years ago where they became quite close, and they were all so friendly, warm and welcoming. It became quite obvious why they got on so well.


We drank lots of wine, caught the ferry there and back (on the way back with Gary and Janet, and another Jeff), enjoyed the peace and calm of being out on the Harbour, had some brilliant, conversations, and got home very late (try 1 a.m.) from an awesomely enjoyable night.