lozzinoz

[lozzinoz]

Birthdays, Holidays & Some Rough Days               Jan.8.2016

Lots of good things happened in December.

We had our company Christmas party where we played lawn bowls in the boiling 30 degree weather up in Manly - a true Sydney Christmas atmosphere in the sweaty heat :)

Matt and I celebrated his birthday with a beautiful fancy degustation menu dinner at a nice restaurant in Surry Hills followed by seeing Coldplay the next night.

We spent just over a week relaxing and celebrating in Canberra for Christmas with his family and Matt's dad's 70th birthday.

Our new couch has finally arrived! And the apartment finally feels complete (although still pretty bare in the decoration dept.)

We've enjoyed walking down to Bondi beach most weekends and had some nice dinners out with friends.

We've got a lot to be grateful for and excited about for the new year but I've gone back and forth on mentioning the not-so-nice of the last month or so for fear of being overly negative or sounding dramatic. But in-between and even during all of the good things happening over the last 4-6 weeks I seem to have come into a significant depression with a heavy helping of anxiety that I haven't been able to shake on my own.

Some who know me well would know this happened once before about 6 years ago and so at least I feel better prepared in knowing what steps I can take to get back out of it and manage it but it’s been a scary and unsettling time.  I decided to mention it because talking about it and hearing from friends who have felt similarly has made me feel less alone and statistically speaking about 1 in 4 of you reading this would have experienced at least some of what I’m talking about so maybe it might help someone else feel a bit better about it as well.

It also feels strange and unnatural to write out a chirpy summary of the last month when in reality I’ve cried or been constantly on the verge of tears most days for no reason and have had very little desire to do much and generally don’t even know what I’d want to be doing if I even had the energy and motivation. I’ve worried constantly and been overly stressed and panicky at random times and my memory and ability to focus and process information seems to have taken a dive. 

If I really think about it I think another reason I’m writing about it is because hiding it would seem to indicate that I’m embarrassed or ashamed, which I’m not. I don’t want people to feel bad for me or to feel like I’m making them uncomfortable by over-sharing but I’m not embarrassed. I’m upset and frustrated and a million other things but being depressed isn’t something anyone should be embarrassed about. My brain chemicals aren’t working how they’re meant to but that’s not my fault and I’m doing everything I can to fix it.

I’m very lucky to have a great partner, family and circle of friends and I’m hoping that over the next month or two with some therapy and meds I can start to feel like myself again. I’m also lucky that my beautiful mom and dad already had a trip booked for early February so the timing works out nicely to enjoy some quality family time.

Anyway, I’m hoping that by the February post I’ll be feeling much better and brighter. I’ll chat to you all then <3

xx

Laura

[lozzinoz]

Ikea, Friendsgiving & Nudie Models   Nov.29.2016

So I got myself all psyched up to write this blog after work tonight so I could still just barely sneak a post in for November and then I came across a video that Chris Livingston (that’s right Chris I’m calling you out if you’re reading this) posted on Facebook about a guy having to put down his dog and all the nice things the dog would say to him if the dog could talk... So now I’ve instead been bawling to myself alone in my apartment for the last 5 straight minutes. So I’m in a great headspace to come up with colorful and entertaining anecdotes on how life has unfolded in my universe over the last 6 or so weeks. Cheers for that Chris! ;)  

(Lots of British people use that phrase sarcastically over here, I love it.. “cheers for that”.. so passive aggressive but funny at the same time. Thanks GB!

I’d also like to clarify the bawling was most likely due to equal parts emotional instability around all things related to harm befalling dogs and also the fact that I didn’t fall asleep until 1:30am last night with an early workday this morning and lack of sleep leaves me with a remarkably low threshold for tears.    

I also just took another 30 minute break (off to a great start here) as Matt came home from his boozy Christmas party on a boat ride around the harbor (tough life) and drunk Matt is very humorous and amusing to me and thus requires a minimum half hour of attention. Sidenote: That bastard gets like 3-4 different Christmas parties this year because Commbank is so big he’s part of about 3 different departments/teams/etc. i don’t even know. Whatever I’m not bitter at all so it’s fine.

ANYWHO. I really oughta get started so I’m not up til 1:30am again and prone to crying when someone takes the last banana from the kitchen fruit bowl at work tomorrow.  So let’s dive right in shall we?

Nothing remarkable springs to mind when I think back on the last 6 weeks, but I don’t mean that in a bad way – everything has just been cruising along pretty nicely. It’s just that every couple of days I usually jot down some quick notes in my phone on what I’ve been doing so I can remember for the blog. I’m a weirdo. But also it’s hard to remember!  I’ll do my best as I was a bit slack on my note taking this time around. Maybe I should just start screen-shotting my notes page and you can all decipher the plot line of my life – like a mystery! Somehow I don’t think mom would like that as much. I’ll include on of the screenshots sometime and you’ll see what I mean.

Anyway here is a jumble of the happenings I can recall!

I put IKEA in the title simply because of the sheer number of hours I have spent there since my last post it would be wrong to leave it out. I used to like IKEA. I dare say I even looked forward to going there. Not anymore. I’m on an IKEA hiatus. TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING. But the good news is the apartment is now just one couch shy of being furnished – hooray!  We even got the final chair (which IKEA has had out of stock continuously since we bought the first 3 of the set) last weekend with time to spare before Matt’s parents come up next week to see our new place and treat us to a home cooked dinner in our apartment for Matt’s birthday – hooray!

Matt’s birthday is Dec. 12th and I’m very excited but even thoughtI’m 99% sure he doesn’t read this I’m not gonna risk writing what I’ve got planned yet. Something to look forward to for the December blog eh? Riveting stuff.

Hm let’s see other things that have happened – 

I’m not sure if I mentioned the art class that my friend Arielle and I have been taking on Monday nights but it’s been a really good time.  A few weeks back I even got to model for the class for a 10 minute life drawing for a delightful fee of $20!

some of the classes ‘Laura’ interpretations

^^ I thought this one was actually pretty good!

The next week they had an actual professional nude model come to do different poses for us throughout the class which was cool.  He was a jolly and pudgy old dude who wound up having to keep his undies on due to a recent “operation” of sorts. I highly doubt anyone minded. Nice guy though.  No photo for obvious reasons..you sickos.

I’m well on my way to killing my beautiful new succulent friends as it turns out our apartment doesn’t get much direct sunlight this time of year, the sun mostly faces the side of our building with no windows leading into our apartment. Any tips on keeping indoor plants alive are welcome

^If only he still looked like this....

I went to a meet-up panel with some colleagues about women in FinTech which was pretty cool. We heard some badass ladies talk about the technology companies they’ve founded. Inspiring stuff. I hope I do something cool and badass with my career someday. Not necessarily start a company just something I’m really proud of. I’m trying to start figuring out what that should be..

We also went to a small BBQ at our friends Katy and Alex’s place to celebrate one of Matt’s old friends Kellan being in town from Melbourne.  Kellan is American – that’s not really relevant but thought I would mention it anyway. It’s very possible he and Alex and Katy have been mentioned here before but I can’t keep track of  distinguishing the things I say on here from my past memories so oh well. Alex, Kellan and Matt were all in the band together a few years back which ended when Kellan moved away. The guys hooked up some old cell phone footage off Katy’s phone of past shows and we watched it on the TV. It was funny because there was footage from the show where I first met Matt and Katy was filming and you could see me dancing a little bit off in the distance as Katy was filming herself and Kellen’s girlfriend dancing. Felt like some weird kinda time warp.

We celebrated the Melbourne Cup with the office again. I won no money this year but it was a good time nonetheless.  Plus no one really had to work that day so it was a double good time.

I made lunch club at work because I hit my monthly target so that was fun and delicious! Someone there (non-American) started talking about pro-Trump stuff which got frustrating.  As an American among majority non-Americans I’ve been asked so many Trump questions this year but of course particularly in the weeks since my last post that I will just go ahead and declare the rest of the this blog a Trump-free space as I think we’ve all had enough delightful political discussion as of late.

I also binge watched the entire 3 seasons of The Fall within the span of a few weeks and I recommend you do the same if you haven’t already. It made me want to have a Scottish or Northern Irish accent. I’d settle for either.

I’ve made some very horrible tasting dishes in the crockpot because I had the fun idea that a 5 hour recipe could surely be cooked for 10 hours since that’s how long I have to be at work. Turns out it’s not always as tasty that way. who fuckin knew?? People who wrote the recipes that’s who. I had the DRIEST, SALTIEST chicken for dinner AND lunches last week purely because I couldn’t force myself to waste the food and spend money buying lunch at work. I think I need to rethink my priorities though. That shit was nasty. Matt was drunk from a work function when he tried it (I promise not a daily occurrence despite the picture this blog is painting) and even drunk Matt didn’t like it – he eats everything.  I mean he still ate it but….

We went to a very Irish pub and watched the Conor McGregor fight which was epic.  Except the drunk tools behind us fake punching each other and knocking their beers into everyone like a bunch of idiots but alas that is our own doing for going to a very Irish pub for the Conor McGregor fight..

Arielle hosted a clothes swap for a bunch of us to unload our unwanted old clothes of which I had set aside many after the recent move. I wound up with a nice new work blazer and some cutoff shorts out of the deal. Love free stuff.

I won a movie gift card at work and used it to take Matt and I to see The Accountant with Ben Affleck. Despite being unrealistic in the way that all movies with elaborate shooting scenes where the protagonist consistently escapes unharmed it was a very enjoyable movie and I recommend it.

We had our 3rd successful Friendsgiving! The group may change a bit from year to year but it’s always nice to have a makeshift Thanksgiving being away from home. I also can’t believe I’ve now been here long enough to have had 3’s of annual things.. coming up on 3rd Christmas! Crazy. 

Other than that not a whole lot else to report.  We will be off to Canberra for Christmas this year to be with Matt’s family and also to celebrate his dad’s 70th birthday on New Year’s Eve!  I’m really excited.  Also we’ll be in Canberra for over a week this time so maybe I’ll even bring my laptop down and do a post.

Ah! One final positive note to end on is I finally got my skin checked today which has been on my to-do list for a solid 6 months and despite my numerous moles and that deathly hole in the ozone layer I am skin cancer free! Hooray.  Some parting words of wisdom from my doctor to you – “Don’t forgot to check for moles on the bottom of your feet!” ..I have one, and you could too.

Lots of love, Laura

PS I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving - Casey crew I was thinking of you as always!!

[lozzinoz]

America trips, Apartment Hunting & Yes I Know I’m Late Oct.18.2016

I’m sorry it’d taken me so long to write a post since our trip to the U.S. in August.  I think I’ve deliberately lagged in doing because there is just so much I could say about the trip it’s overwhelming.  Even 6 weeks later I still feel giddy and full of love from all the good times with you guys.  I’m going to do a very brief summary because really no summary could do it justice.  Here are the highlights…

1) SEEING YOU ALL

The taco party was incredible. A huge thank you to mom for putting it on and to you all for coming out and saying hello and admiring Matt’s accent.  I was so flattered to have so many wonderful people come out to hang out with us.  When people ask me what I miss most about American I easily say that it’s the friendships because you can’t just can’t replace those years goes into making it a deep and lasting friendship.  I have some great friends here but it just can’t compare in that amount of time.

2) Getting drunk with my friends at the races with my friends like old times

3) Listening to Matt be the ‘foreigner’ for once and say normal Australian things that Americans think are weird.  I encounter this plenty in Sydney so it was nice to see it go the other way.  A particular favorite was his frequent use of ‘thongs’ in reference to his flip-flops.  See below his exchange with an airport security officer in Las Vegas.

Matt walks up to the body scanner at airport security Security: “Sir, you need to remove your shoes please” Matt: (looks  down, confused) “Even my thongs?” Security: (deadpan/unfazed) “No….just your shoes sir”

3) Enjoying Vegas without a hangover and watching the US crush Australia in all things Olympics

4) Staying with Rosellen and Matt in San Francisco! I barely slept when we were in San Francisco not just because we went out 2 nights in a row until the bars closed (no longer a regular occurrence for me) but because I was so happy and overwhelmed so see all of my friends and to hang out like old times that I think my brain really just couldn’t shut off and I could barely sleep – too much excitement, too much love. And it was amazing. Matt and Rosellen were nice enough to let us stay in their amazing apartment in Portrero Hill and even threw a party so I got to see even more people I’ve been missing!

We also did some sightseeing galore

5) Checking out the Chicago skyline and getting to stay with Jeff and Steph at our awesome air bnb also in Chicago: TRADER JOE’S!!!! OMG HOW I MISS TRADER JOE’S. Please everyone in America go to Trader Joe’s as much as you can and just admire the amazing deals and wonderful offerings that they have because some of us out here in the world do not have such a luxury and we are sad inside every day because of it.

One of my oldest friends Jacque was an amazing tour guide along with her boyfriend Randy. They took us to a Jazz concert at the aquarium with amazing views of the city and joined us for a Cubs game!  By this stage in the trip my waistline was definitely starting to feel the pain – but it didn’t stop us from getting deep dish pizza, traditional Chicago hotdogs and of course a “cake in a shake” which is exactly what it sounds like. A literal piece of cake partially blended into a milkshake.  I order a small but they already had larges pre-made so….that decision was made for me. Cake on cake on cake.

The only sad part about Chicago was when the airport security confiscated my awesome little golden gate bridge snow globe I had gotten in San Francisco! I was so sad I almost cried because a) I loved it and it was the only souvenir I had bought for myself and b) because I’m a big baby

Apparently snow globes have too much liquid to be safe to bring onboard with you.  I thought if I gave the big sad eyes they might let me keep it but apparently I also look like the kind of person who knows how to make some sort of liquid-y bomb thingy to hide in a snow globe…

I also almost cried happy tears a few days later when I realized my mom found the snow globe online and had it delivered to our house because she’s the nicest and I’m spoiled and it was the best gift ever because I love it.

6) Enjoying the La Costa Spa while Matt and Dad golfed Love me some one on one time with Momma plus Matt got to use some nice new Callaway clubs thanks to Jeff and to play Aviara with Dad. Such a treat.

7) Seeing Don Van – one of the best guys ever – and introducing him to Matt

8) Thank you dinner with Mom and Dad for all their great hosting.  A beautiful sunset @ Jake’s Del Mar

9) Every single thing my mom made for us to eat plus Karen Casey cookies which are forever the best cookies. Ever.

We ate soooo good on the trip I can’t I didn’t gain weight I thought I’d for sure be coming home gigantic.  I was definitely feeling gigantic and it was also definitely worth every bite.

Another reason it has taken me so long to post since we got back is because we’ve been busy looking for an apartment together! We decided to get our own place a little while back and wanted to wait to sort it out until after our trip.  It took a good 3-4 weekends of apartment hunting and a lotttt of competition and stress but we’ve found the most amazing spot and are all moved in!

We were already only about a 10 minute walk from one another and our new place is about halfway between my old apartment and Matt’s old apartment which is nice because we can still walk to the train station to get to work and I can still make it to my gym in the mornings with my friend Megan before work and we are still close to the beach!

The best part is we have a little balcony where you can see the ocean and from the bedroom there are views of the city including the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House!  We got so lucky with this place because the ad listing had almost no photos of the apartment which is usually a bad sign so I think lots of people assumed it was no good and didn’t bother viewing it.  But of course it is decently priced for Sydney so there still a lot of competition but unlike the other places with saw which were shown by agents who couldn’t care less this apartment is rented out by the owners who are a lovely old Hungarian couple that just wanted to get some nice, decent renters (apparently us!).  Given the views they know they could charge much more for rent than they do but they said they simply ‘don’t want to be greedy” and wanted it to go to people who will still around and be easy to get along with.  I think it helped thank Matt’s grandma spoke Hungarian too ;) a nice tidbit he made sure to work into conversation.

I’m having the best time organizing and setting up the place!  The couch won’t be delivered for a few months so in the meantime we are using the outdoor bench we got for the balcony – once the couch is in we can have a housewarming shindig.

Last weekend we went up about an hour north of Brisbane for Matt’s cousin’s wedding and stayed with his family (including his adorable nephew) in an air bnb for the weekend.

There are a lotttt more photos from the trip that I could add to this post and I may keep adding over the next few days but my computer is in the twilight of it’s life and has grown averse to uploading my pictures. Thank you for bearing with me and for reading and for being all around amazing people that I’m lucky to have in my life :)

Xx,

Laura

[lozzinoz]

Excitement, Excitement & More Excitement                  Aug.1.2016

So right now marks 1 day, 13 hours, 2 minutes & 40 seconds until Matt and I board our flight to the U-S of A!!!!!!

The excitement has been creeping in more and more each day to the point where my current attention span is approx. 3.6 seconds. Very productive.  On that note I do have some packing to do tonight but I wanted to post a brief update as the next post won’t be until after the trip!  It’s been a pretty low-key month but here are the highlights:

1) I recovered from my devastating illness and enjoyed a productive week back at work where I promptly dropped my phone into the toilet.  Rookie mistake: never keep the phone in the back pocket! Some people keep asking me if I reached in to grab it to which i say: SERIOUSLY!? I DROVE MY HANDS IN THERE LIKE IT WAS MY OWN DROWNING CHILD! The toilet bowl was empty, people, c’mon now. But alas he could not be saved..  On the bright side I treated myself to a brand new upgrade to my spiffy new iPhone 6 - all the better for taking my vacation photos :D. Talk about your porcelain colored lining. 

^^A sad, sad sight. (photo stolen from the internet for obvious lack of camera during this incident)

2) We had an office party for the end of financial year where the office was split into teams to compete in various challenges. Our team tied with another and so we decided to settle it with a “plank off” for which I was our team representative.  It is with great bragging that I say I beat a very worthy opponent with a 5 minute 30 second plank. Now I am drunk with hubris and wish to plank-fight any and all takers. Bring. it. on.

^^chick from this stock photo ain’t got nothin on me. I could take her..

3) Matt and I went to Melbourne to celebrate his nephew’s 1st birthday!  I didn’t drink for most of July due to the flu and just not going out so much, etc. but I decided to indulge for the occasion because I don’t believe a 1 year old’s birthday should be a sober occasion. That said..Matt’s brother and sister-in-law through a mean baby birthday and it was a pretty epic dinosaur theme. Matt and I had the honor of drawing the “dinosaur-prints” up the driveway in sidewalk chalk.  How good is sidewalk chalk?? mm the nostalgia.  We also smacked a few balls at the driving range.

^^at least one of us getting randomly selected for additional screening as per usual. 

4) Last Wednesday I had my LAST sleep coach session which is great new because although it’s been verrrry helpful it is not the most fun way to spend your Wednesday evenings... I have to say though that it was well worth the investment as I’ve been sleeping SO MUCH better.  Below is a photo from my FitBit on the average # of hours I have slept per month where you can see the obvious improvement since I started the sleep coaching in Jan/Feb. I used to consistently average somewhere between 4-5 hours a night and now I’m at 7-7.5!  So worth it.

^^my new and improved sleep - fitbit even geeks out and gives me a star when I hit 7+ hours.

5) last Friday we had a Christmas in July party for work.  It’s a big thing here because so many people are from places where wintertime means Christmas and feel deprived once they move out here. I can’t relate as much since San Diego weather isn’t exactly frosty but it’s true that when the days get shorter and colder you do feel a sense of lacking as far as the twinkle lights and the Christmas music. So this was our wintertime faux-Christmas celebration.

6) I stalked more puppies at the pet store near my house. Standard. 

^^Cavalier King Charles-es make the cutest mixes on the planet. Mix anything with a King Charles and it is guaranteed an 80% increases in cuteness. Except for Bella because she is 100% maxed out on the cuteness front. 

I literally just wrote that so as not to offend my dog who can’t read....what is wrong with me?

At the risk of sounding boring that’s about it!  Ever since we got back from Harry’s birthday in Melbourne 2 weeks ago all I can think about is our trip and seeing you all!  July was a great month at work and I’m very happy to leave on a good note and enjoy some long-awaited quality time with all my favorite Americans.  See you in 2 days!!!!

Oh and I also discovered Snapchat’s face-swap feature so there’s that.

xxxx

Laura aka Jeffaura

[lozzinoz]

Snowboarding, Sinuses & Security Checks!  Jul.5.2016

Heyy everybody, 

If you are reading this I’d like to start off by asking you to take a deep, magnificent breath in through you nose….seriously, please do..I’ll wait.

And now exhaleee through your nose.  No this isn’t some sort of meditation post, but wasn’t that just oh so nice?? Let’s all just take a moment to appreciate the deliciousness of nose breathing as I have been robbed of these capabilities the last 5 days or so during what has been the worst and perhaps only flu I’ve had since the glorious swine flu of 2009.  (yes me and both my roommates all got  the swine flu freshman year of college and got to wear the super cool white paper face mask at the doctors office).

This one isn’t as bad as that but only because I now at least don’t have 2 roommates who are also sneezing and barfing all over the place.  (I kid you not one of those girls was so weak with the swine flu she vomited in a Tupperware and hid it in our closet for a few days because she couldn’t get up to take it out…)  

I know you’re all really excited about where this blog is going..but now that the dramatics are over I’ll put all this lovely flu chat to rest.  The bright side is although I got sent home from trying to go back to work this morning I now have some time to write a post that would have inevitably been late yet again and there are lots of lovely non-fluey things to discuss so I’ll start focusing on those instead ☺

First would be the incredible snow trip we had to Queenstown, New Zealand in mid-June!  The best part was that we actually made it there given the few debacles endured on our way over. ..

Everyone knows by now I’m an anxious traveler.  Triple checking my bags..always worried I won’t be early enough or that I’ve somehow lost my passport between the 2nd and 3rd times I checked my bag.  Well Matt and I compromised on what time was “early enough” to arrive for our international flight to Auckland and coming off a seamless domestic flight to Hamilton Island in March I was feeling quite relaxed about it.   Fast forward to the next morning where we are sat in traffic on our way to the airport (no big deal, this was anticipated), go to check in to find out my bag is 2kg too heavy (again no biggie – Matt’s bag was 2kg under the limit so I moved some stuff over). All was going okay so we enjoyed a swift breakfast burrito before getting to international security. BIG MISTAKE.  I’ve only done one international flight since I’ve moved here and that was to Bali where our flight was verrrry early so the lines were nothing.  This time around we were getting there just as things were starting to get busy.  I started nervous laughing and bouncing checking my phone every minute as the line hardly moved.  Once our luggage was finally going through screening I was rushing to put my shoes back in preparation to start running to our gate when I heard the machine behind me beeping at Matt’s bag and saw them pulling it aside.  Not only that but I saw the security guy bringing over a younger dude who was very clearly a trainee.  As they both approached Matt’s bag the older guys starts the young one “okay.. So this is how you do it…”  NOOOOOOOOO.  They both started slowwwly plodding through Matt’s duffel as this guy started talking through the training on how to search a bag.  Matt tried to help and grab out his toiletries bag for them which only got him a stern “SIR – DO NOT TOUCH THE BAG!’”’

We then tried to explain as nicely as possible (while also stressfully semi-yelling on my part) how late we were and if they could please not do the training right now.  The guy was kind of a grouch (understandable as it’s not his fault we were late) but agreed to take over from the trainee and speed it up and once they finally found and took out his aerosol can of deodorant and put the bag through the scanner AGAIN we were off sprinting to the gate I had read off our boarding passes.

The only problem was that I had read the gate from the boarding passes of our connecting flight…not the one we were about to get on.  I honestly felt like I was in a movie when we arrived at what I thought was the correct gate only to see “ChinaAir” on the screen and looked down to see my mistake.  Then we were off sprinting AGAIN back in the opposite direction down another corridor to our actual gate.  I’m talking full Home Alone style weaving though everyone with my rolling suitcase clacking and flying everywhere behind me trying to keep my giant purse stacked with some of the extra 2kg of my crap from flying off my shoulder.  Luckily it seems the boarding for the plane was running a bit late anyway and people were still boarding once we finally arrived – sweating and coughing profusely.  2 long sprints with all those bags realllly dried out my throat the poor lady sitting next to me on that flight probably thought I was going to give HER the swine flu.

We got to Auckland just fine with a quick hour or so to get the gate for our flight to Queenstown.  We went through our 3rd round of security only to have MY bag now pulled aside.  I started laughing a bit with the security guy that my bag had already been checked twice and I really didn’t think there was anything in there.  The encounter then went a bit like this.

Security dude: Miss do you have a screwdriver in here?

Me: (chuckling) No there’s really nothing in there. We’ve been through security a few times today already

Security dude:  MISS. Do you. Have. A screwdriver in here?

Me: (Still chuckling) No. I really don’t.

Security dude: (while pulling out a 9 nine inch screwdriver and holding it up to a ruler) So not a large screwdriver with a green handle?

Me: shocked. Nervous laughing to Matt behind me “Babe it’s yours – I meant to give it back to you when...”

Security dude: (interrupting) MISS YOU CAN’T GO PLACING THE BLAME HERE! YOUR LUGGUAGE – YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.

Although his words were stern I think I saw a slight smile and heard some amusement in his tone.  I think it’s pretty clear I didn’t have any grand designs of shanking anyone at the Auckland airport. We were sent on our merry way sans screwdriver (which I really had meant to give back to Matt after he fixed up my bed frame a good 2 months back but it had apparently been lost in the deep abyss that is my purse – oops again). But also what is the point of all the headache that security causes if my stupid screwdriver can make it past 2 rounds of both domestic and international screening?? That first flight could’ve been shanked all over the place!

Anyway - another 2 hour flight, a car rental and a 1.5 hour drive to our Air BnB in Wanaka and we arrived safe and sound!  And look how cute the Air BnB was (and very aptly named, ‘The Snug’):

Finally at our destination we enjoyed some lovely NZ wine and the cozy electric blankets and rested up for our first day on the slopes!

We got up early the next morning to drive up to the ski resort (about 45 minuts away) rent our gear and get our lift tickets.  The drive up the mountain was an adventure in itself in our precious little rental Yaris.  I’ll put in a photo below which won’t do justice to the twists and turns involved:

^^The slopes are somewhere all the way up at the top there and yes that’s our wee little white Yaris (or “yair-is” as the Aussies and Kiwis seem to call it)

Once we had all our gear we started with the bunny slope which has this weird and also infuriatingly slow moving escalator type thing instead of a proper chair lift. See below:

It might look cool but it took AGES.

Matt was skiing much better than he thought he would considering he had only been once before so we moved on to the real runs and took in the incredible views.

^^end of Day 1 when the snow first started comin in!

It started to snow towards the end of the day so we decided to make our way down the mountain with the car before it got too bad and to get some dinner and mulled wine in town in Wanaka.  I haven’t had mulled wine in forever I felt like I was in heaven! Nice and tired from a big day on the slopes watching the snow and drinking the wine – so good.

There was a huge dump of fresh snow that whole night. We drove to the slopes again the next morning and opted to take the shuttle up the mountain this time since we had no chains.  Once we got up to the top we realized it was still snowing quite hard on the slopes and you could barely see a thing! We were excited to keep snowboarding (skiing for Matt) and so we tried to go down a run anyway but had a horrible time. The lift ride was FREEZING and windy and you couldn’t see 5 feet in front our your face when going down the run.  Once we got the bottom we took an intermission at the lodge and stocked up on some super nifty face masks to block out the snow:

^^killing time on the never ending bunny “lift” during the snowstorm

^pretty! no?

Luckily an hour or 2 later things cleared up a bit and we were able to enjoy the rest of the day and the fresh powder.  Not the mention the beautiful view as the sun started setting later in the afternoon. We then went back to Wanaka and treated ourselves to a nice Italian dinner and some more mulled wine.

^^No lift lines all weekend! There was hardly anyone there probably partly because of the weather and also because it was the first weekend of the snow season. 

^^that’s the weird tube-y/escalator-y bunny “lift” up there to the right

We woke up the next morning with plenty of time to spare for our DIRECT (hooray) flight back to Sydney and because we had to be out of the Air BnB by 11 we were actually 3 hours EARLY this time.  I wasn’t complaining.  The whole trip was more than I could have asked for and New Zealand was so so beautiful I’d love to go back again.

Some observations/fun facts about NZ: 1) There are more sheep than people 2) They will NOT accept your U.S. driver’s license as legal I.D. to purchase wine at the grocery store so bring your passport or make your bearded boyfriend buy it because they won’t even bother checking his I.D. ergghhh **However at least you CAN buy alcohol at the grocery stores there unlike in Aus where it all has to be separate – it’s a give and take I suppose. 3) There seems to be a decent amount of hitchhikers – we saw at least one on our way to the slopes each day.  It seems a lot of people travel there to work at the ski resorts for snow season but don’t have their own cars, etc.

4) Did I mention there’s lots of sheep?

Wanaka was such a cute small town all the real shops and restaurants where on a small strip near a lake I can see why people there would feel safe enough to hitchhike.  Not that I would, Mom! Don’t freak out.

^^ no filter..whaaaat

^^ Yes it’s in celsius but still....brrr

It was also incredibly nice to come back to a 4 day work week!  That Friday we had an early going away party for Kelsi who is sadly leaving us to move back to the states.  We had jokingly suggested to make it a fake bachelorette party weeks earlier but somehow the idea just stuck:

Ironically we were sat on the balcony of the restaurant next to a massive table of women who seemed to be in their late 30s/early 40s who actually WERE a bachelorette party.  Anywhoo, it did get us a free bottle of champagne from the manager.  We drank white wine and champagne all night which also resulted in a colossal hangover.

The next week I had a very scary encounter with a homeless lady while on my lunch break with Kathrin.  We were walking through a crowded alley/walkway where this woman was standing in the middle shouting at people.  Once she saw us walking in her direction she singled us out shouting that we were “FILTHY SLUTS! HEY YEA LOOK AT EM! I’M TALKIN TO YEW YA FILTHY SLUTTT!” So that was nice.  Kathrin used to do door to door sales and hence got used to lots of meth heads yelling at her so she breezed past the lady no problem.  Me on the other hand..this was a veryyy narrow alleyway and I was not about to have this potentially shank-wielding lady rub up against me.  I turned out and bailed while she yelled more obscenities at my back.  And I don’t regret it one bit! I do feel bad for her but I was also pretty genuinely scared.

That week I also got a new manager at work!  I was moved onto a new team my new manager Tegan was brought in and she had been doing my role for 12 years and managing teams, etc.  Now I’ve got myself my very own window seat! And Tegan is great which has made work and being on a new team really motivating and exciting.

^^my very own window view - ooOOOOoo

It was also Kathrin’s birthday that week so me and some girls went to see her pole dancing performance and went a surprise birthday dinner at a Brazilian BBQ place in Darling Harbor on Friday ☺

I’d like to also mention that though I didn’t do much the following weekend but relax (which I thoroughly enjoyed) I DID beat Matt and his housemate at Trivial Pursuit which is very difficult and I would like some kudos for. So thank you.

And I’d stay that’s about most of what’s been happening lately.  We have been doing a Tuesday night get together with my American girl friends to watch the U.S. Bachelorette and tonight is our last night that Kelsi is still here for it because she leaves to fly home for good tomorrow ☹ So sad to see another friend leave it’s been happening way too much already this year.  At the risk of spreading my flu germs I will probably drop by for a bit tonight just to say goodbye.

I hope all of you back hope are enjoying a great 4th of July and some clear nasal passages!  It’s actually less than a MONTH now until I am home!!! I haven’t let myself get tooo excited yet as I have to pace myself so as to stay productive and not completely explode.  Plus we still have a quick weekend trip to Melbourne coming up next weekend for Matt’s nephew’s 1st birthday so once that’s over is when the excitement for the states will probably really kick in.   I can’t wait to see you all then!

Xx

[lozzinoz]

Birthdays, Wineries and Scrotal Guards!                         Jun.6.2016

HeellllLLLLOOOO friends!

It’s seems I decided to celebrate the rare glory of producing 2 whole posts in one month by subsequently sitting on my ass writing absolutely zero blogs for the following TWO months…my bad, guys.

I really can’t believe it’s been 2 months already since that last post. As in I actually just double-checked the date on the last post and confirmed with my calendar. Surely there must be a lot of things that have happened since we last had a chat? I’d like to think I remember most of if so here we go..here’s the highlights:

1) Turning 25 is pretty rad

The festivities started off the weekend before my birthday with a girls trip up to the wineries in Hunter Valley.  A group of us dutifully got up at 5:30am to catch our shuttle for the 2.5 hour drive. Madison in fact decided not to bother going to bed after her big night out the night before and met us at the shuttle pick up in the city 100% hammered and 110% entertaining (to everyone but our shuttle driver).  Our group made up approximately half of the shuttle and needless to say quickly became the group of concern for our fellow winery-goers.   I’ve seen Madison far more ridiculous so by comparison I’d say they got off easy anyway.

Once we got to the first winery I remembered my recurring and irrational fear of not getting drunk enough at a wine tastings despite always being proven wrong…  I mean the taster pours are so small!  It seems impossible.  And yet somehow….it never fails.

Three wineries and another 2 hour bus ride full of unsolicited singing and we were back safe and sound ☺  Madison may or may not have nearly gotten kicked out of winery #3..

^^Madison approx. 6:45am

^^The only 3 out of the 6 of us from the old Bronte apartment who are still in Australia :( (now down to 2!)

^^Madison and Trish approx. 9:15am

^^ approx. 3pm

Lucky me I drunkenly arrived at Matt’s after a long day of drinking to find a delicious spread of Thai food from one of my favorite restaurants Rice Pot and proceeded to watch the Notebook for the remainder of the evening.  Nothing makes you feel a sense of achievement on a great quarter life complete like drunching (drunk-muching for those unfamiliar) on Thai and crying to a chick flick.  It was magnificent.

The next morning we reconvened  for brunch to rehash the events of the day before at another one of my favorite restaurants, Trio.

Matt then took me too pick up my birthday present which is the comfiest bedspread in the entire world, BEHOLD:

If you think it doesn’t look like the best duvet in the world a) it would help if I ever made my bed and B) YOU HAVEN’T FELT IT, IT IS A DREAM.

We then went down to the beach for what is probably my last swim in the ocean until September but we lucked out with one last weekend of swim-able ocean temps.

Pre-birthday weekend was then finished off drinking the one nice bottle of red I bought myself at the Hunter while watching Django Unchained..mmm so good. Christoph Waltz is amazing.

The next day I took my freshly 25 year old self and asked for a raise at work!  Spoiler alert: didn’t get it.  I was disappointed but still proud of myself for asking and I still feel I was justified in my reasoning.  I’ll get there eventually. Plus in the meantime there is still $4 wine which I bought when my nice bottle ran out (tasted great, not joking)

The next weekend birthday celebrations continued for both me and our friend Katy.  Katy and I are both April 17 babies and she had a beautiful picnic at a park near her and her boyfriend’s place in Balmain on Saturday the 16th.  The weather was perfect and such a gorgeous view.  We had some beers, some potluck and some Frisbee – a high quality afternoon.

The next day Matt went above and beyond having planned a whole day of surprises and making me feel like the most special little 25 year old there ever was ☺ It started with a surprise gathering at one of my favorite pubs in Surry Hills called the Beresford.  I have to admit I thought things were a bit fishy when he kept saying “I’m gonna take you for a coffee” and then the next minute saying “we’ll just stop in for a beer/drink” Like its 12:30pm is it coffee or booze?! I am also a girl and need to dress accordingly!

We ended up getting a pitcher of sangria and one by one my friends started turning up. It was so much fun and relaxed and perfect.  A nice rainy afternoon with great people and many great drinks. 

SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS

Sometime around 4 (the drinks have caused some confusion on exact timing) we took a cab to the contemporary art museum in Circular Quay and drunkenly admired and/or laughed at the various strange exhibits while killing time before dinner at a fancy schmancy Japanese place near Darling Harbor called Kobe Jones.   I think it was like 7 courses or something crazy – the kind of situation where by the time they bring course #6 your stomach is like NO DON’T DO IT! But you do it anyway because it’s super duper fancy and you’re drunk and it tastes oh so good.  

^^view from our walk from the museum to Kobe Jones!

The next day I also showed up to this at work!! :

And a beautiful scarf from some coworkers which also now doubles as an office blanket for me because I am forever cold in there. There was also an awesome birthday package from my mom hand delivered by flight attendant extraordinaire Donna Kane!! Thank you so much to both of you!! (And an extra thank you to the Kanes for taking me for an awesome dinner - always so great to see friendly faces from home!)

^^beautiful flowers from the roomies!

It was an incredible birthday to say the least and I feel so lucky for all the people who came out for the various festivities and made me feel so loved (that includes all the kind words from you lovely folks back home)

Hmm okay that was a lot of detail. I should probably speed things up a bit if I expect to ever get through the rest of the last 2 months..

2) I found Matt and I some discount iMax tickets on Groupon and we went to see the Jungle Book in 3D. Not usually my kind of movie but I do recommend! Though I was so distracted the whole second half of the movie not being able to the place the name of the actor who was the voice for the big ape  ‘King Louie’ and could only keep yelling at myself that it’s the actor who does the ‘More Cowbell!” SNL skit with Well Ferrell but couldn’t remember the name for the life of me. So should you find yourself in the same dilemma take note that King Louie is CHRISTOPHER WALKEN – god that drove me crazy.

3) The weekend after my birthday just when I thought all the gifts were done Matt showed up at my place with some flowers for no reason – am I making you want to gag yet?  I DON’T CARE THEY WERE BEAUTIFUL!

4) Then came a 3 day weekend for Anzac day!  I skipped dawn service this year because I have a sleep coach now and sleep is important alright!? (or maybe getting up at 4am for sad war stories is not something I necessarily feel the need to do multiple times..)

Instead we kept the celebrating to boozing and playing 2-up in at a bar in Clovelly.  

5) Some coworkers got a group together to start going to some workout bootcamps in Hyde Park after work and my body now hurts in all new sorts of ways.  I had forgotten the heinous creation that is The Burpee.

^^just an FYI only about 25% of the people in this photo are actually coworkers the rest are just friendly randoms.

6) We decided to mix things up an do some Go Karting with Matt’s friend (and Katy’s boyfriend) Alex.

I am proud to say I did not suck! I also beat Alex on round 2 not that I’m bragging or anything...  My arms were also dead sore the next day from gripping the wheel so hard around the corners..  Oh and they have paintball too if that’s you’re thing and don’t worry they offer all kinds of protection:

followed by an awesome roast dinner at Katy and Alex’s place:

7) WE BOOKED A SNOWBOARDING TRIP TO NEW ZEALAND!!! So the Queen has some sort of fake birthday in June which we celebrate by getting a Monday off of work!  So we took the Friday off too and fly out at the end of this week!!  I still haven’t been to NZ and haven’t been snowboarding in probably at least 3 years now so I can’t wait!! Updates to come in next post :)

8) Mid-May my dear friend Madison was deported as she was on a partner visa with her boyfriend here and they broke up.  But don’t feel too bad for her as she is now kicking ass with a new job in New York City! A whole new city for her to drunkenly terrorize and I know she is excited.  Always sad to see friends move away though which also seems to happen way too often here but we all went out for her going away party at Coogee Pavilion

9) Kathrin and I had some Friday night after work drinks with our new team members Annika from Germany and Triin who is Estonian.  So much blonde in one team.

10) Went to a wine festival with Kelsi, Megan and our new American friend Caroline who also came on the Hunter Valley birthday excursion.  She is out here for a work assignment with Ernst & Young will likely leave us by December but we are trying to keep her!

Also don’t judge me for all the wine this was over a whole month after the Hunter Valley...

Again I had “the fear” and yet again the wine tasting somehow did not fail to get us drunk - who’da thunk?? The wine festival ended at 5 and yet a festival goer offered to share his fresh new bottle with us and eventually we emerged from a pub down the road around 9pm. A wine festival well done I say.

11) Watched a movie called The Chopper. True story of an Australian psychopath starring Eric Bana.  Look it up – crazy shit!  I also couldn’t understand hardly anything that was said the whole first 10 minute due to the heavy Aussie accents.

12) The Bachelorette has begun!  We now have a nice group of ladies to convene at Caroline’s sweet EY-funded digs in the middle of the city. Corporate housing is nice!  Feels like I’m in a hotel suite – love it.

13) Vivid ha  started up again which is basically a big light festival throughout the city in May/June and we had a work boat party around the Harbor.

Hot tip: never trust an all-inclusive buffet on one of these cheap boat tours (I can call it that because we all paid our own way ok! Not being ungrateful) which is $40 and comes with 2 alcoholic drinks. You will either eat a dinner solely consisting of pre-made pasta salads or you will starve. But at least those 2 drinks will really kit in on that empty stomach eh?!

14) Work has been going pretty well and the beautiful Kathrin even captured a photo of me closing a deal on our Uber ride back from a great client meeting.  Something nice to remember when work gets tough

15) Have I mentioned that WINTER IS HERE?!  Last weekend was a massive storm so aside from the lovely Megan’s birthday celebrations Saturday night I have enjoyed the comfort of my magical duvet and streaming the new Game of Thrones episodes.

As much as I’m excited for a snowy New Zealand trip, generally speaking the cold weather can suck it. Sidenote: Major thanks to Rosellen, Callie, Lauren and my mom for your combined efforts to get my snowed clothes shipped over to Sydney!! Me and my bank account are forever grateful.  

16) I continue to own and occasionally wear these flip flops in public when they are the only non-high heeled shoes I have left at Matt’s and I need to walk home in the middle of the day

17) I also continue to create unnecessary diversions to the puppy store at the mall next to my apartment

To counter balance the extreme cuteness of this puppy I will leave you with the frankenstein created that is this face swap:

And that oughta be just about all the highlights! Hopefully I have bought myself at least another 4 weeks of sitting on my ass now.  I solemnly swear to also include a July post - no more 2 month breaks!

Also there is a delightful and plump young man that plays some of the all time greatest hits on his violin outside Martin Place and I must include photo if not video evidence of this soon - we’re talking Backstreet Boys tunes and the theme music from Titanic! He is a genius. I even tipped him a dollar and that’s 1/4 of a bottle of wine right there so that speaks to his talent.

I hope you’re all enjoying the Del Mar Fair and the beginning of summer ya filthy animals! <3 Love you all

[lozzinoz]

Island hopping, Workplace Victories and Double Posts!  Apr.7.2016

Hi Friends,

I must admit I am very proud of myself for posting twice within a month and I’m sure my momma is 10 times as pleased which is what really matters here. I’d also like to point out that I’ve added an archives page to this blog because I’m in the tech industry now so I’m fancy like that ;)  In reality I just Googled it…but if you’re like my mom and choose to re-read my post like they are a Jodi Picoult novel then you can find all my old posts by clicking the 3 bars in the upper left corner and then hitting ‘archives’.  It still doesn’t look quite how I want it to but it’ll do for now and even still I might just be even more proud of this than the double blog post..can’t decide.  Tech life is hard. So go there if you’re ever bored and want to revisit me complaining about seagulls or posting pictures of Matt without his consent.

The reason for this rare double post is due to the sheer volume of delights that have occurred in the late Feb to early April portion of 2016 which could not be properly explored in the March post.  So here we go:

Last we left off my wonderful mother had departed from Sydney back to join my dad and a probably very distraught Bella in San Diego.  Meanwhile I was back to work and enjoyed a team dinner out with my manager and my coworker Kathrin.  We went to a BYO Italian place where I ordered what may as well be call “whole octopus on lettuce”.  But it was delish. I’ll let the photo speak for itself

Then on that Friday I flew up to Hamilton Island with Megan and Kelsi for a girl’s trip!  Kelsi’s parents booked her a weekend stay at this amazing resort up in Hamilton Island as a Christmas gift and Megan and I were the lucky moochers invited to enjoy the goods – SO LUCKY.  I hadn’t been anywhere up north yet which is where so much of the good stuff is happening i.e. the great barrier reefs and all the beautiful tropical landscapes usually seen in National Geographic or as desktop screensavers in the early 2000’s.  You all know the ones I’m talking about..

^^No I did not take this in Hamilton Island.  However it WAS in fact my screensaver circa 2002.

I must start off the telling of the trip with the note that Australian airport security for domestic flight is a DREAM.  Many of you may know either from personal experience or past posts that I am a bit anxious about being early for things – I would say flights and job interviews tie for #1 highest level of anxiety in this category.  So the night before we left for our trip Megan, Kelsi and I were texting about what time to get to the airport for our 7:45am flight.  Now in my brain which has been conditioned over years of painstakingly long airport lines to always expect the worst regarding all things airport related agreed with the girls that 6:15am would be a good time to arrive at the airport considering the flight would be boarding around 7:20-7:30 this gave us a bit over an hour to check in, get through security and find our gate.  And then my neuroticism started to tell me: IT’S NOT ENOUGH.  I turned to Matt to ask him if I was being too crazy to think we might to show up earlier.  He asked about the flight time and when we were planning to get there and once I told him he immediately burst into the greatest fit of laughter that I have seen perhaps since I’ve known him. I truly cannot remember a time I have seem him laugh so hard and for so long to the point that I was afraid he was not getting enough air.  True tears down the face, gasping for breath hysteria.  And once we turned up the next morning I realized why.  Kelsi’s online check-in hadn’t work so we waited in line – time spent: approx. 7 minutes.  We proceeded to security where not single guard or person in uniform asked for ANY identification, boarding pass, shoe removal or incessant proof that all of your liquids had been removed and placed into baggies.  NOT A PEEP ABOUT THE FREAKING LIQUIDS IN THE BAGGIES!!! time spent : approx. 5 minutes.  We then moved on to find our gate – time spent: approx.:10 minutes (yes I’m ashamed to admit this part actually took longer than anything imposed on us by the airport procedures themselves – sometimes directions are hard..).  So there we were, 6:37 am and ready and rarin’ to go with a casual hour and 8 minutes to spare. Maybe Matt had good reason to laugh. What can I say old habits die hard – who knew Australian security was so cruisy? (technically I should have known since I’ve already done at least 2 domestic flights since moving here…but I digress). However knowing this and actually applying it to future airport arrival behavior are two very, very different things.

Now on to arguably more interesting things – 4 ish hours of flying later we had arrived!  Landing onto what is perhaps the smallest runway I have ever seen and looks like it a teeny island all it’s own stretching out into the ocean giving incoming planes juuuuuust enough room to squeeze you onto land.  

^^gotta love the window seat for optimal viewing of your oh so handsome city!

^^view outside the Hamilton Island airport

A short shuttle trip later we arrived at the gorgeous hotel.  First order of business was to hit the swim up bar.  Our room wasn’t ready yet so we booked it to the pool to enjoy the happy hour menu of margaritas and daquiris galore. Something about a swim up bar always makes me giddy.  It also has this amnesia-like effect where I forget all past swim up bars (*cough**Bali *cough*) and the damage (read: barfing) they induced.  Luckily there was no barfing this time around but I did show a bit too much enthusiasm during happy hour which resulted in a world of pain.  The logical solutions was a mid afternoon nap before we spruced ourselves up for dinner down by the water.  Megan and I were suffering from early on-set hangovers and were trying to keep up with Kelsi who has proved time and time again to be impervious to the negative effects of alcohol.  She is a bitch like that.  We had some tacos on the cheap at a cute little restaurant in the little “village” on the island (basically the only area with a few little shops and restaurants). Megan and I tried to keep our heads upright while Kelsi dragged our sorry asses to the only and only bar/club/form of nightlife on the island called Garden Bar.  We lasted a solid hour and a half before the 2 of us had the throw in the towel and leave Kelsi to go on without us– shameful!  

^^view from one of the hotel’s restaurants

^^view from our room in the morning! Whoa.

The good news is we woke up bright and early around 6:30 the next morning and wandered over to the “koala encounter” to enjoy our all inclusive breakfast buffet of champions amongst the koala bears toted out and perched in the decorative trees for our amusement.

These little guys looked as hungover and zonked out as I did post swim-up bar.  We were all very glad to be feeling back to 100%.  Next stop: paddle boarding (also included! Living the dream!)

 If you’re asking yourselfhow the 3 of us somehow got this group shot whilst on paddleboards in the middle of the ocean I will just say it involved an offer from a very kind but strange man, a lot of awkward and unskilled paddleboard maneuvering and the wonderful water proof phone accessories gifted to me before moving to Australia (thanks again Casey/Fagaly clans!)

Next we were back at the swim up bar because hey, I don’t hold a grudge.  Plus did I mention the amnesia thing?  We took a much milder approach to the cocktail menu this time around and after a few hours rented a “buggy” aka golf cart to do some exploring around the teeny little island.  We wandered upon this gem of a spot called One Tree Hill where we scored some beers and creeped on the wedding happening at the nearby lookout! So pretty ☺

^^view of our hotel from top of the ridge

^^some randos’ wedding!

^^beers at One Tree Hill

We then cleaned ourselves up real nice like and headed out for a fancy dinner down by the water (gifted by Erin Newton – thanks mom!).  I forget the name of this place but the seafood was amazing and we topped it off with some espresso martinis to complete the illusion that we are fancy pantses.  

We then walked over to Garden Bar for night out round 2 – much more lively this time around.

We awoke (and by we I should again clarify just me and Megan) with brutal hangovers.  I indulged in a Red Bull while we were out the night before and man my body doesn’t like that.  Not with the booze especially.  We took ourselves down for another full buffet brekky this time at another one of the restaurants by the pool followed by some much needed additional R&R on the pool lounges before grabbing our shuttle to the airport.  To complete the perfect trip we received a free curbside pick up in Sydney courtesy of Matt after which he proceeded to make me tacos!  What a win!

 I’ll try to wrap this up with a quick summary of the other joys which followed the Hamilton Island vacation.

1) Matt and I tried a new movie place near the city which is a vegetarian Indian restaurant which also has two theaters.  For $35 each you get to enjoy a full Indian buffet which is delicious with lots of healthy dishes followed by a movie in the upstairs theater which instead of chairs has big fluffy cushions for you lay on.  Just an FYI we saw the Steve Jobs movie – not the Ashton Kutcher one, the other one (why did they need two?) Anyway... I do recommend.

2) We also tried out a new Tapas place right near Bondi Beach.  BYO and very authentic – we will definitely be going back.  Who doesn’t love a BYO?!  I brought a $4 bottle that I picked up at Aldi and we both thought it tasted pretty damn good. As did the chorizo we drank it with.

3) I’ve bought myself a proper tennis racket so Matt and I have been playing again – especially since it’s something Matt can do one-handed for now while he’s still healing.  For those of you wondering, no we are not good.  But we can get it over the net to one another so that’s enough for me.

4) We enjoyed the 4 day Easter weekend (THANK YOU AUSTRALIA) by taking one of the days to drive down to the Royal National Park and check out the famous “figure 8″ rock pools there.  I would show you the photo but the surf was so high that day it was literally knocking people over and into the rock pools and I ain’t got time to drown my iphone so I kept it safe and out of sight.  I will however pull a photo from the net for you for reference along with the one picture I did manage to snap on our hike down.

They’re ‘supposed to look like this:

but the day we went looked more like this:

with poor unsuspecting people like THIS getting pushed right into the water by the surf:

^^the one photo I took..

5) The next night Megan and I met up with her friend Adam for a big night out on the town.  I had gone to the gym that morning and played tennis in the afternoon so the old woman in me took a lot of coaxing from Megan to get me to get my ass into a dress and some heels as I was feeling very tired.  But 3 espresso martinis later and the night really took a turn for the better ☺  We started at the Winery where I’d had dinner with mom and the girls during her visit, then had some margaritas as a Mexican place nearby then finished the night off with some Karaoke in the city.  This is where the tables turned on poor Megan as she was now the tired one and desperate to go sleep but drunk and caffeinated me insisted on “Just one more song” over..and over..and over.. Anyone that went to UCSB with me knows how difficult it is to take me away from karaoke.

6) The next day was a hangover far worse than anything I experienced on Hamilton island..or anywhere else I’ve been in recent history for that matter. Even worse than the swim up bar.  This was on Easter Sunday and I’d say I moved a total of about 10 feet from when I woke up on Megan’s couch at 8am until we finally met Madison for brunch around 1pm. I then went directly home to my own bed where Matt came and coddled with my sorry self until we met some friends for a nice English roast at the Lord Dudley pub that night (I certainly didn’t have any wine along with the rest of the group though I did join in the Messina gelato afterwards – mmmm)

7) I also hit my monthly target at work for March!  My target is to place 5 candidates per month and this is the first time I was able to get reach that goal since I started workig at Sirius in July.  This means I get to have a half day of work tomorrow to go on “lunch club” (a big, fancy, boozy meal somewhere in the city) with the 2 others who hit their target for the month – hooray. Things have been going much better at work since the new year and I will brag a bit just to say that 5 placements is not easy and I’m pretty proud to have finally done it.

**amendment: I typed most of this blog up yesterday and just today was awarded employee of the month!!!! This means $100 gift card to westfield and extreme happiness from me!  I always was a filthy grade grubber and it’s been a long while since i got an ‘A’ in anything so this feels about like that :) but with money! Honestly though it really means a lot to me to finally feel like I’m getting the hang of things and added value at work.  It’s nice to be recognized and to feel you’re needed and appreciated.

8) Matt and I spent last weekend in Canberra at his parents’ farm where I saw a real live Kangaroo joey just chillin’ its mom’s pouch! I should have gotten a photo but I’m ashamed to admit I forgot – too wrapped up in the cuteness.  Please forgive me.   

9) In a mere 11 days I will officially be the “adult-y” age of 25! (it’s probably not very adult to use words like “adult-y” huh? Eh well. I still feel like I’m 22 to be honest.  To celebrate I’m headed to the Hunter Valley for a day trip on Saturday with some girlfriends.  Hunter Valley is famous for it’s wineries so we’re doing a tour which shuttles us out there to do some tastings for the day and I can’t wait!

And that is finally about all of it!  I feel really grateful for this incredible lucky streak I have been riding for the past 50 days or so.  In that time I have gotten to hang out with my mom in the flesh for the first time in nearly a year, to fly off to an insanely beautiful island and drink myself silly with 2 great girlfriends,  to enjoy a 4 day Easter weekend with my lovely boyfriend and friends, to sing off key to my favorite late 90′s karaoke jams, to kick some ass at work and now to gear up for turning 25! I don’t know what I did to deserve all of this but considering this time last year I was terrified and anxious every single day that I wouldn’t even be able to stay in this country I am going to soak up every bit of this hot streak and appreciate and enjoy it as much as I possibly can.  I am so happy with the life I have here and the people in it and all of you back home who listen to me ramble on about airport security and octopus salads. Thanks to all of you for being a part of my life and I hope you’re all having a blast in America <3 Much love too all of you I will see you just under 4 months!!

Xx, Laura

[lozzinoz]

Home Is Where Your Mom Is..     Mar.30.2016

This last month has left me wondering what I’ve done to be so lucky to have so many good things come my way at once! 

Well one not so lucky thing happened at the end of Feb so we’ll get that out of the way first..  Whilst oh so diligently training for our mini triathlon Matt had a biking accident when someone opened their parked car door as he was biking past.  It was not pretty.  I suppose even this was a bit lucky though because it could have been MUCH much worse.  In the end he walked away from it with a broken left hand and all other limbs still in tact – and it is his non dominant hand too which is a plus.  Still, it was really frightening when he showed up at my place still in shock and spouting blood from his hand.  After some good painkillers, multiple x-rays and 5+ hours in the ER he was relatively fixed up though it’s still a 10-12 week recovery process.  At least he didn’t need surgery! (quick aside: When we stopped at the pharmacy on the way to the hospital for pain killers the pharmacist saw his bloody hand just gave him the legit big boy vicodin-level painkillers without any sort of consultation! Blew my mind..that would never happen in the U.S.).

Anywhoo – I lovingly took photos against Matt’s will to commemorate this magical experience forever and to exploit my boyfriend’s physical misfortune for this blog (okay maybe more for my own entertainment during hours of waiting rooms).  He warmed to the photos a bit once the meds kicked in.  Warning: bloody images ahead

^^After it was getting nice and cleaned up

^^ Post painkillers, pre-cast

^^the middle finger in the palm area of the hand

Please note that this was also officially documented as battle of ‘cyclist v. car door’ (can’t say I didn’t laugh at that)

To wrap up we are no longer do the triathlon and I have yet to get back on my own bike since because I was already a bit fat baby about riding on the road and this has just increased these fears ten fold.  Upsides are that Matt has taken it all like a champ and my bike makes a great living room decoration anyway.

In brighter news.. a few days after the accident my beautiful and truly amazing momma bear arrived in Sydney!!! We spent the following 9 days frolicking around the city and all of these days honestly felt magical.  It was fun showing the whole family all of Sydney last April but it was nice that this time all the major sightseeing was out of the way and we could explore more of the everyday activities and cools spots that the city has to offer.  We boozed, we walked, we beached and I truly couldn’t have asked for a better stay-cation (or a better mom for that matter).  I will try to give a run down of all the activities in a loosely chronological order with proper photo representation below starting with my inability to contain myself at work the day mom arrived.

1) Welcome drinks overlooking the city in Bondi Junction

2) Coastal walk from Tamarama Beach to Coogee

This was followed by grocery shopping and dinner preparations for a night in at the air BnB with Megan Kelsi and Matt! Mom make her famous ahi tuna and shrimp kabob mmm

^^mom whips up a mean appetizer spread! The girls are still talking about how good those bread/goat cheese/fig morsels were.

Also how cute was this Air BnB?? This was just the downstairs and garden!

3) Matt surprised us with free gift certificates for massages at one of the top spas in the city!  Someone was lookin’ to score brownie points with momsand I’d say it worked :)  I was just glad to be along for the ride - the massage was incredible!

We left the massages to go wander through some of the outdoor weekend markets near the harbor before we took the ferry over to Watsons Bay.  Ps did I mention it was Mardi Gras? See below :)

Now this story would not be complete if I didn’t mention the traumatic near death experience that was mom and I boarding this ferry.  Without boring you with too many details I will just say that one ferry had already come while we were waiting and it filled up too quickly to accommodate everyone.  So by the time this next ferry came around people were on edge trying to make sure they got a seat and wouldn’t have to wait another 20 minutes for the next ferry.  I have to imagine this is a feint whiff of what titanic passengers felt in trying to get on the lifeboats.  We were being smushed from all angles, a mother with her young daughter in front of us maneuvered their way on board only to find the dad stuck 5 ft back helplessly trapped in the fluctuating mob of human cattle violating all social norms of personal space.  The transport worker was whistling and screaming at everyone to stack back and tried to cut off all new passengers until smart bursts of people in the crowd started mobbing the entrance.  It was hectic. I’m proud to say that due to lucky positioning and skillful maneuvering Mom and I not only survived but somehow scored a seat up on the top deck. What a win! Essentially you could say we survived the Titanic.  Too soon?

^^Relishing our success ridin’ 1st class up on the top deck!

Once at Watson’s Bay we indulged in some incredible seafood and a few cheeky cocktails because we was on vacation and we deserve it dammit!  PLus it was mom’s treat ;)

To recap this day at this point consisted of a high quality massage, shopping, a cruisy ferry ride in the Sydney summer sun, amazing seafood accompanied by multiple cocktails and some sightseeing of the ocean views at Watson’s Bay…and it WASN’T OVER!  This might’ve been my favorite day of the whole trip.

Next we enjoyed with an afternoon cat nap followed by a short walk from the Air BnB to the Moonlight Cinema in Centennial Park!  The title was so fitting it actually almost makes me cringe a little.

^^Mom taking her wine on the road to the park .. she claims this was legal even though she’s a tourist and has no clue.  I’m still not convinced.  Love ya mom!

^^It is worth noting yet again that those are BATS you see in the photo up there - not birds! Dunno which is worse!!

Quote of the night:

Mom: Damn I got so many mosquito bites.

Me: You know here they call them ‘mozzies’

Mom: I call them BITCHES.    (she means business, people)

Lunch down at the Bondi Icebergs! Following by the ultimate Australian gelato experience – MESSINA. The weather started to get nasty so we spent the afternoon indoors watching Steel Magnolias and cooking lasagna ☺  

I could only really afford to take 2 days off work while mom was here since I’m taking so many days to come home in August so Tuesday I went back into the office while mom explored the botanical gardens but we met up on my lunch break with a few of my coworkers for salad in the city ☺  Followed by a dinner later on in Surry Hills with Kelsi and Megan at a cute spot called the Winery.

The next night we enjoyed the forever touristy Darling Harbour for some delicious steaks

I was quite pleased that our Chilean Uber driver on the way home was wowed by what it is that point my very mediocre Spanish speaking abilities.  Not as common out here as in good ‘ol San Diego.

The next day’s view from the bus ride into the city.  Did I mention it was Mardi Gras? Oh I did. Ok cool.

Friday morning was the 2nd day I decided to take off work because we were having too much fun and 1 day just wasn’t enough.  We took the ferry again but this time out to Manly and free of frantic mobs!  We had an amazing breakfast by the water and stumbled upon an impromptu fitness competition which was actually really entertaining to watch and also just what you wanted to see right after you’ve scarfed down a whole mediterranean omelet.

^^ Our breakfast spot - whoa!

^^ Mom reminding me what $100 dollar bills look like...hadn’t seen one in a while...

The next night I treated mom to a 3 course Italian dinner in the beautiful Queen Victoria Building followed by a walk down to Darling Harbor to see the fireworks and take a ride on what is (in my opinion) a terrifying device called the Ferris wheel.

We decided to make the most of our last full day and woke up early for the sunrise down at Bondi Beach followed by breakfast at a cute little farm-style venue in Alexandria called the Grounds.

We decided to make the most of our last full day and woke up early for the sunrise down at Bondi Beach followed by breakfast at a cute little farm-style venue in Alexandria called the Grounds.

^^Check out that moooon!

^^ Our shadow because too early for face photos says mom :)  Next stop: The GRounds in Alexandria:

Next up was another well-earned nap, a bit of shopping, a casual bucket of beers and a farewell sushi dinner with Matt at our favorite casual little sushi place in Bondi Junction called Sushi Train!

^^More like how the whole 9 days felt :) 

I wish I could update you all on the rest of March too but it’s taken so long to upload all of these photos that I am falling asleep at the keyboard.  Plus mom’s trip was more than worthy of having almost a whole blog to itself.  

March has brought all kinds of other incredible things like a girl’s trip to Hamilton Island and me kicking some ass at work!  But sadly these will have to wait for now as I fear my poor little computer can’t take anymore photo uploads tonight and my poor little deteriorating eyes can’t take any more artificial light.

It is probably a bit ambitious for me to promise to fill in the gaps next week but I’ll do my best - this weekend Matt and I are off to Canberra to visit his folks!  Dreading what kind of chilly temperatures we might be encountering down there..I hope you’re all enjoying the Spring time..

Chat soon ;) xx 

[lozzinoz]

Sunshine, Blindness and A Lack of Spatial Awareness Feb.22.2016

Why hellllo everybody ☺ A little birdie (or five) told me that it’s been too long since we last chatted so here I am with some updates on the last 5 weeks.  I have to admit I am flattered that you are keeping tabs on me and actually want to urgently hear about my exotic Australian life of excitement, which currently includes but is not limited to: a visit to the optometrist!  

That’s right folks.  You asked for the juicy details..and I have delivered. My slow descent into blindness continues as my prescription strength has apparently gone up yet again. (I had been a bit curious as to why I couldn’t exactly read the times on the train departures screen anymore..)  Mom says the Newton genes are to blame but I call shenanigans –  I’ve seen many a four-eyed Jonston family photo as well so I know this was a dual effort.  The good news is that I have some fresh new lenses on these peepers and, as I’ve let Matt know multiples times now, feel more or less like a bionic lady!  If you’d like to fly 15 hours to come visit me I will wow you with my abilities to now read full street signs with not a moment’s hesitation!

Exciting development #2 – I am now a proud new owner of a CROCK POT.  I’m not even being 100% sarcastic about the enthusiasm.  This is pretty exciting for me. And even more exciting that K-Mart brought this into my life for a mere $20. So far I’ve produced a very questionable chocolate brownie/cake as well as some beef and broccoli which was delicious until I had such a vast quantity of leftovers that I forced myself to eat it for 3-4 lunch/dinners in a row. I am also currently 2 hours in to an 8 hour production of orange chicken..results TBD.  

I’ve also started doing a few sessions with a “sleep coach” which has been interesting.  Those of you who’ve ever had the pleasure of living and/or sharing a room with me for an extended number of days have probably seen me wide awake reading/computer-ing/putzing around on my phone at all hours of night. Me and sleep have never gotten along that well and so I figured it’d be nice to find a way to finally sort that out.  I’ve only met with this sleep doc lady once so far but she’s seems to really know what she’s talking about so I’m excited to give it a go.  I’ll give you an update once I finish up the sessions unless I’m too busy snoozing like a baby.

^^I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that the sleep coach office has a lounge.  Much comfy.

I also decided to add to the efforts by procuring this awesome sleep mask on clearance for $2. For the record this sleep coach didn’t suggest or discourage this but I thought it was a good investment either way.

I have also suffered a near death experience on my beautiful bicycle.  Death by exhaustion I should clarify. Turns out you’re supposed to pump up your tires every few weeks..who knew?! (probably everyone but me).  Matt and I have been on a few rides lately and I was surprised at how weak I felt on the bike and I couldn’t even keep up with Matt for most of the way.  I figured I was just a weakling and was very distressed at this conclusion especially since the last few months I’ve really committed to getting to the gym before work at least 3-4 days/week. I’m not saying I deserve a prize for getting up at 5:45 but I’d at least like quads that don’t turn the jelly on a casual bike ride.. Particularly when we were trudging up some of the steep hills near Bronte I thought I might honestly barf.  Luckily Matt eventually noticed how deflated my tires were and it turns out I’m not a weakling after all!  We’re about 6 weeks out from the mini triathlon now – I’m not expecting an amazingly fast time but at least I’ll be able to bike up the hills!

Matt and I also went to some engagement festivities for his friends Tim and Karen (see below: such a cute couple eh?!)

Below is the only photo of us together from the celebratory barbeque (despite the look of this we were enjoying ourselves, I promise).  You wouldn’t know it but Matt is soberly enjoying the tennis final while I am simply drunk and needed an opportunity to sit.  There was also a dog nearby so I was looking for an optimal area to get a good couple of pats in.

On a related note I am beginning to feel that yearning that I hear women start having about wanting a baby…except I want my baby to have fur, and a tail.. and I don’t want to give birth to it.  Okay I want a puppy.  (I hope Dad was able to get through to the punchline there without passing out.  I also realize Matt has recently been given access to this blog too.. bless both their souls)  Okay so I know I don’t ACTUALLY want a dog because of the time commitment and the money etc. etc. but come on look at this thing:

It is so cute it feels like it actually causes my heart pain to look at it.   I also can’t stop myself from taking photos of strangers’ puppies on the street.  

This lil guy was unattended! Optimal puppy petting scenario so as not to freak out the owners with my extended stay/photo taking.

^^ I may also linger around the pet shop from time to time.. 

Even though sadly now is not my time – I have decided that my 5-year plan for sure has a puppy in it. Okay so maybe I don’t actually have a 5 year plan but I think a puppy is a good place to start.

Other things I have done this month:

1) I fell down while running in public. Twice. On two separate occasions.  This resulted in various bruises and scabs generally found only on those ages 5 -13  (think: rollerblading mishaps in the cul-de-sac after school).  I told people it was only once but I am ashamed and I have to come clean – it was twice folks. It turns out running at 5:45am is also a bit of a safety hazard..for some of us… for what it’s worth I give the uneven sidewalk pavement 35% of the blame. Coordination and spatial awareness conditioning is a solid contender for part 2 of my 5 year plan.

^^This is what I would consider to be the much milder of the two main scabs in the making.  The head honcho set up shop on my left knee and kept reopening and oozing stuff and took a solid 2 weeks or so to fully heal.  Just trying to be thorough here. This also brought me back to a big life question from my childhood which is if we aren’t mean to pick scabs then why did the universe make them so. freaking. ITCHY??!?!

^^The view when I run to Tamarama beach in the morning - worth a few scrapes.

2) I have also gone bowling with Matt to celebrate an awesome new position/promotion he got at work!  We went to this place in the Entertainment Quarter which you know was the hip place to be because we were 2 of about 9 people total who were bowling there that night. Joke is on the millions of other people in Sydney who were NOT there because it was a blast. Honestly. Except I ruined the first game by thinking the bowling ball weights were labeled in kilos but turns out it was actually in pounds for once and I needed a much heavier ball to achieve my maximum bowling greatness (yes I realize I should’ve noted this sooner just by the feel of it - shhhhhhh).   I just felt the need to get this out there because if not for the metric system always messing with my life I would’ve totally crushed Matt in the totals for the night but in the end I couldn’t overcome the great disparity created from shameful game #1.  It was nearly a tie in the end. nearly.  But Matt may have beat me by a hair. But I kicked some ass once I got my proper 11lb ball I’m tellin’ ya. And I have Clark Newton and our many father/daughter rendezvous to Eagles Lanes in San Marcos to thank for it.

^^ME CRUSHING IT (AND NOT BEING COMPETITIVE AT ALL!)

3) I also had a few big nights out with the girls.  One was for my friend Anneli’s going away as she is leaving us to go travelling through Asia and then back home to England.  The second was just for funsies..

4) I also had my best month of billings at work which felt great!  I placed 3 candidates one of which was my first female placement.  I just thought that was cool since there’s not nearly as many women in the tech world and this lady was really awesome.  I used my Christmas gift card from Matt to get myself a nice new work dress to celebrate.

^^Dresses with pockets are the best.

5) I have also been enjoying the last bits of summer and the long days as much as possible.  There’s been some good beach days with Megan and Kelsi in Bondi and Matt and I also went with Jasin and his girlfriend on a day trip up to Palm Beach yesterday (this is a really nice spot about an hour North that I have always heard great things about).  The water was SO warm, it was the best. We stayed in the water for probably over an hour just tossing the tennis ball and enjoying that the beach wasn’t too crowded due to the somewhat cloudy weather.

^^Bondi with the ladiez

^^Palm beach

Below is also Bronte beach at about 7:30pm the other night.  Megan and I went for a walk and the moon was out - so pretty.

My coworker Kathrin and I also decided to take advantage of the nice weather but heading to Opera bar after work last Wednesday and splitting a bottle of wine.  And then another one.  Worth it.  Except for the part where I tripped up some stairs (not a full 100% ‘fall’ though might I add) and cracked my phone screen like a noob.  Maybe that part and the $130 repair fee wasn’t exactly worth it..that’s alright – easy fix at least.

I’m really hoping the great weather holds out just a liiiiitle bit longer because if you’ve spoken with my mom in any capacity in the last few months you probablt know that she gets to Sydney in just 3 DAYS 11 HOURS AND ROUGHLY 59 MINUTES! And after the epic storm that took over what was the Newton Australia trip 2015 she really deserves some proper beach weather and sunshine.  I cannot wait to finally see my momma in the flesh again!!

I will be sure to post a follow up on our adventures by the end of March. There’s a LOT happening in the coming weeks. - the next 4 weekends are actually fully booked.  The next 2 weekends my amazing mother will be here and then the following weekend I fly to Hamilton Island with some friends and then the next weekend Matt and I will head down to Canberra to see his family.  A few weekends after that is the triathlon and then the next weekend marks a quarter century of my tenure as a human! So I’ll do my best to report on all of this in a timely manner.  Sending love and mental hugs to all of you xx

UPDATE: I actually started this blog yesterday so here is the outcome of the aforementioned orange chicken.  Verdict: A little too salty/too much soy sauce for my liking.  Also the recipe called for coconut nectar and I dunno what that is so perhaps this cause a great misbalance in the whole recipe.  Or maybe the fact that I ate it with sauerkraut.  Don’t ask me why sauerkraut. I got distracted in the olive aisle at the grocery store and it seemed like a good idea.. If you fly 15 hours to come visit me I will also make you this delicacy:

[lozzinoz]

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Almost Australia Day! Happy Everything!      Jan.14.2016

I have to admit I’ve been slightly dreading writing this blog post as I’ve had to wait longer that usual between now and my last post and so much has happened in the last month and a half that I fear my elderly little Macbook might crack under the sheer volume of photos to upload.  However against my better judgment the post will go on:

Let’s start from the beginning of December, shall we?  I met up with my former manager and some work friends to do a festive secret santa swap at a cute little restaurant/bar called Dove & Olive in Surry Hills.  It was a gag gift secret Santa so I wound up with a mini Santa snow-globe which is still proudly displayed on my desk at work because I’m not going to let a little something like“January” tell me what to do (and a few restless co-workers seem to really enjoy stopping by and aggressively shaking it once or twice a day – it’s not that I particular like or dislike this but it does amuse me..)

In case you were wondering my secret Santa contribution was a large ceramic piggy bank in the shape of a French bulldog wearing sunglass. To my pleasant surprise the recipient, my delightful coworker Kathrin, is not in fact fake smiling about this gift.

The next day was beautiful outside. Matt and I walked down to Bondi Beach to throw the frisbee around before grabbing some lunch with Jasin at a nice little French café on Hall street.  Later that night we met up with Matt’s parents who were visiting Sydney for the weekend to do an early birthday dinner with Matt in Darling Harbour.  I have no photos of this as I have yet to subject those lovely people to my picture taking but it was a beautiful evening and we have a great table near the harbour for the weekly firework show they put on in that area.

The next day me and some of the girls went out for day drinks in Watson’s Bay for Danica’s birthday. Danica’s boyfriend was buying everyone all types of drinks and though I can’t remember all the different types of alcohol I mixed whilst boozing in the hot sun that day I’d wager it couldn’t have been less than 6.  Safe to say I remember only bits and pieces of my taxi ride to Matt’s place afterwards though I do clearly recall the delicious Indian food delivery which followed. MMMMM

Danica (Austrlian), Lynsey (Scottish) & Me (You should know dis by now)  Just a few of the many nationalities present.

Lynsey and her boyfriend from New Zealand - they are pretty damn cute

^^Bloody mary accessory or appetizer for Indian meal?

The next week primarily involvedChristmas shopping and getting things ready for Matt’s birthday that weekend (oh and going to work blah blah blah).  That Friday I took Matt out for a schmancy birthday dinner at O Bar which I have mentioned on here it the past.  It’s a very fancy pants restaurant about 45 floors up that rotates and has views of all of Sydney city.  

The food was amazing and we got a great table by the window which wound up being in the perfect position by the time the sun was setting.  I’ll admit that was by far the most expensive dinner I’ve every paid for but it was worth every penny especially because Matt was surprised and had never been there before.

Sunset view

lots of people have asked about this dress since I posted a photo on Facebook but sadly it is not mine.  I borrowed it from my lovely friend Kelsi - I loved it though, always good to get to wear something new without spending $$ :)

Hot tip: be sure to tell the expensive restaurant it’s your boyfriend’s birthday and they will bring you a free desert approximately the size of a golf ball.  Only half joking..free food of any size is appreciated.

The next morning  was Matt’s actual birthday so I gave him his present (a nice golf shirt which instantly doubled his previous golf wardrobe) and then we went down to Bondi to have a birthday brunch with some of his friends.  A lot of people were already out of town for the holidays but it was still a great time and of course an opportunity to make yet another chocolate tofu pie (which was a roaring success yet again might I add)

^the sparkler candles I got spelled out 3-1 but apparently tofu doesn’t hold tall candles all that well....who knew

We took a quick nap and then drove out to Alexandria for yet another birthday celebration for a now 1 year old named Jake that belongs to one of Matt’s best friends.   Apparently babies are pretty fucking popular - little Jake had about 3 times as many people at his birthday lunch than Matt did. I mean Matt’s had a whole 30 years on this kid to meet birthday party attendees! But I digress..Jake would put my birthday attendance count to shame as well. Baby birthdays are only fun for so long so we had a few beers and then went back to watch the Shawshank Redemption.  I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to watch this movie - so good!

The next week continued up with X-mas shenanigans included a secret santa swap with the girls at Anneli and Lynsey’s on Wednesday. That Friday was also my work’s Christmas party which was an afternoon boat cruise around the harbor.  The food was pretty sub-par (or maybe I’m an asshole with a fancy new palette post O-bar experience..) but the champagne was free.  This resulted in me seasick and asleep on my couch by 7pm. 

I spent all of  the next day across the Harbour in Manly with my friend Kelsi.  We encountered a nice Spanish lady along the way who was lost and couldn’t speak much English.  She told me (in Spanish) that she was meeting a friend in Manly but lost her public transport card and didn’t have enough Australian money on her to buy a ferry ticket to get across the harbour to meet up with her friend .  I know it sounds a bit like a scam but if you met this lady you’d be able to tell that it wasn’t.  So I bought her a one-way ticket and was pleased to know that my extremely faded Spanish6 vocabulary not gone completely down the drain just yet.  Ole!

^Awesome view from the Manly ferry as usual

I also enjoyed earning my first massive sunburn of the summer which has left a delightfully confusing design along my back and the backs of my legs.  In fact you can still distinctly see the shape where my bikini ties were lying across my back.  I am a work of art.  Abstract.

The next week Matt and I drove his car down to a suburb called Eltham about 40 minutes outside of Melbourne to spend Christmas with his family which consists of his brother and sister-in-law (whose house we stayed at), his sister, and his parents who drove down from Canberra.   The drive took about 9 hours but it really didn’t seem that bad – nothing a good podcast can’t take care of. The next few days after were a delightful blur of home-cooked meals, wine, admiring Matt’s beautiful new nephew, Christmas presents, drunken scattegories, a Christmas morning 5k with the family and an AMAZING Christmas lunch feast.

^a real christmas tree! My fave- pretty sure most Aussies do fakes.  Americans too nowadays for that matter..

^table setting for Christmas lunch. Super spiffy.

Me with Matt’s fam - how cute is that bay-beh??

^^DId I mention Lauren’s side of the family came to Christmas as well? She has some crazy little nephews but it was fun seeing them get so hyped up for Christmas and their frightening new toys including a boy and arrow and some light sabres.

A few days after Christmas Matt and I set out to pretend to be outdoorsy along the Great Ocean Road.  Matt organized a 3 day trek for us to do where we hiked to a new campsite each day and carried a pack of all our stuff with us.  Anyone who knows the Newtons knows we are not a big camping family but I genuinely enjoyed this.  The views were absolutely incredible and it was really nice to hike along the coast and just relax for a few days with no plans to get to and no cell service.  We packed the frisbee to throw around in the evening and some playing cards and attempted a swim in one of the rivers before remembering that the water further south is still freezing.

Day 1:

^The Great Ocean Walk only permit hikers to go from South to North so we didn’t pass many people.  Whenever we overtook strangers I made sure to take advantage of a good photo-op.

Day 2:

^An Echidna! (more on this later)

^Matt enjoying 30 seconds of icy bliss

Day 3:

I will say that hiking for 3 days straight with a heavy pack and no real breaks or distractions from the one other person you are with is a scenario probably ripe with potential to at some point want to punch your partner in the face for one annoyance or another but luckily this did not happen for either of us (well I guess I can only speak for me.). 

Matt was however a bit horrified to discover that I did not know what an Echidna is.  Can my fellow Americans back me up on this or have a really just been alone in my oblivion all these years?  Whatever man, it’s basically a porcupine meets anteater but cuter, not much new to see here.  See above for visual evidence.

After our we finished the walk we drove up to the 12 apostles because Matt had never seem them before and we were too close to pass it up.  I lucked out as well because the weather was much better than the time I had been before.

We came. We saw. We took a photo.  And then drove directly to Lorne for a real bed and showers.

Lorne is a beach town along the coast about 1.5 hours from the Apostles where Matt’s sister-in-law’s family has a house and very generously offered to house us for the night while we were in-between camping and our air bnb the next day.  The place is beautiful (see below)

^Our awesome little guest house!

^View from the deck off the main house

The next day we drove another few hours back to Melbourne but this time to stay at an Air Bnb near the city.  The apartment was super cute – all kinds of funky orange décor, even orange throw pillows with David Bowie’s face on them (RIP).  The next few days were pretty lazy but in the best way.  We ordered in sushi, we watched Orange is the New Black, we napped, we cooked.  We did bring our road bikes down from Sydney so we took an afternoon to bike over to a nearby aquatic center and swim some laps to train a bit for the mini-triathlon in April.  

^a light reading for us left on the coffee table for us

The next day we woke up slow and went shopping in the city. We both lost patience for shopping pretty quick so we wandered over to the casino across the river and ordered some coronas while Matt gambled (gambling scares me and my bank account but cheering and people-watching from the sidelines suits me just fine with beer in hand).  After a few hours we decided to go back to the amazing Asian restaurant Chin Chin with the massive wait times that we had gone to the last time we were both in Melbourne together.  The wait was an hour and half so we went and killed 3 wines at a pub around the corner.  And I really didn’t think I drank that much this holiday season until I started writing this post…..  The food was freaking amazing and we decided another bottle of wine would be a good idea.  This then resulted to a drunken post-dinner search for a gelato shop.  No easy feat on New Years day – most everything is closed.  But we were determined none the less and I used the final 6% of my battery google maps-ing any store with gelato in the title which we then ran to with no success.  Thinking back on it we probably looking like freaks zig zagging across random city streets yelling at various closed gelato shop doors but I regret nothing.  I hadn’t had gelato or frozen yogurt in ages and the drunken heart wants what the drunken heart wants.

The next day we have brunch with an American friend of Matt’s before setting off on another 9 hour drive home.

We’ve been back in Sydney about 10 days now and are back at work.  Aside from a romantic bout of joint food poisoning the other night things have been somewhat uneventful but in a nice way.  Some nice beach days, a bit of paddle boarding, mostly just business as usual.  Work has been good, life has been good and the countdown to America trip 2016 has officially begun (in my head…only 6.5 months to go!) See you all then ;)

I hope you all had the merriest of Christmases and happiest of New Years.  Much love to all of you.  

[lozzinoz]

“Vud you liek twooo boyfrens?” Nov.30.2015

^^A very generous proposition from the persistent, old, portly (and very possibly drunk?) Italian man outside the grocery store.  Nothin’ like hearing “You ar beyoootiful - do you hav boyfren?” as you’re packing up your groceries from the self check-out-- just warms your hard dudn’it?  Matt should be scared. (Though to be fair the groceries I was buying were to make him pizza that night..he did not love the pizza...maybe I should’ve given Mr. Italiano a shot after all..bet he’d have liked my pizza.) But I digress.

Important update #1: I am now officially an award winning hotdog.  But we all knew this was coming, yes?  Look like an idiot for a day, get free bottle of wine. SOLD.

Important (bragging) update #2: I won the office pool for Melbourne Cup day! HOLLA.  Melbourne Cup is basically like the Kentucky Derby here, in fact I’m sure I mentioned it in a post when it came around last year so I won’t bore you with the details. Basically some horse with 80 to 1 odds or something crazy won the whole sha-bang!  A few people in the office won $400 or $500 bucks and one of my coworkers’ roommates raked in $20k off it!  (my $72 bucks from the office pool may look measly by comparison but I care not - $72 dolla richer!)

Important update #3:  I put those 75 glorious dollars towards my brand spankin’ new (new to me...it is in fact lightly used from the Aussie version of Craigslist..) road bike!  Most of the rest of those dollars for the bike came from Matt though as helping me buy the bike was my anniversary present - I am a lucky lady.  Below you will see this beauty of a road beast.  What a fine specimen!! I love her.

It even came with a hideous purple helmet (don’t care, it was fo’ free..) so bring on the triathlon training!  The only downside is I’m still terrified of riding on the road...and I look like a real asshole riding a fancy road bike on the sidewalk.  The catch 22 is also look like an asshole riding it on the road and not knowing what I’m doing half the time... Luckily Centennial Park is very close by and takes limited road travel so I can just bike laps around there in peace, no cars.  I kid you not I am genuinely more scared of riding this thing in the bike lane than I would be of driving here (which I’m also very scared of and have refused to do thus far..mostly for the safely of others’ vehicles which they should know better than to offer to me for use). Anyway, wish me luck in the bike lane..I need it.  

Important update #4: I dunno what the movie theater prices are doing in the states, but that shit costs $20 here a person now - and it’s not even Cinepolis! THE SEATS DO NOT EVEN RECLINE YOU ARE SPENDING 20 DOLLARS TO SIT UPRIGHT AS USUAL WITHOUT EVEN AN OPTION OF AN OVERPRICED FOOD AND DRINK MENU. Wut.  I’ve found that smuggling in your own personal bottle of wine eases this pain.  Such is what Matt and I did when we went to see Legend with Tom Hardy a few weeks ago and I highly recommend both the movie and the wine. (be prepared for mild to moderate judgement from moviegoers sitting next to you as they listen to the heavenly slosh of red wine into your elegant plastic cup freshly pulled from your purse. They’re just jealous anyway).

Important update #5: My friend Julia came to visit earlier this month and good times were had all around :)  She’s from San Francisco area but moved out here around May this year to be with her boyfriend who is Australian (they met in Vegas..long but not so long story which I won’t ramble on about here).  The point is she’s now a relatively quick flight away in a tiny leeetle town which shall remain nameless because it’s name has been forgotten..by me.  It was so good to see a familiar face and Julia was happy to be around the big city after being a bit of the middle of nowhere up north for the majority of the last few months.

Festivities included: Opera bar (but of course) for the night of her arrival on Thursday.  We had some delicious cocktails and some of Julia’s childhood American friends who now live in Sydney came to meet up with us as well.  We wound up at a big table full of 8 or 9 Americans..a somewhat common theme for the weekend really.

 Friday night we went to The Baxter Inn whiskey bar (which I’ve mentioned before) Michael was with us and claims it was apparently once voted best bar in Australia.  Or maybe he said in the world?  Either way I figure he’s full of it because who knows all of the bars in the world...anyway...it is pretty awesome.  We got a nice few ‘whiskey apples’ where they juice the apples right there fresh in front of you..amazing.

Saturday we hit up Manly for a nice Kangaroo burger before heading over to Megan’s place for her housewarming shindig.  Megan has moved a very literal stone’s throw away from me.  As in if my apartment were on the other side of this building she could probably see my every move from her living room window.  That made it sounds creepy but it’s actually quite convenient and I am delighted :) Another large gathering of Americans ensued as one of her new housemates is also from the states.

^^seagulls bombarding leftovers.  My utter disgust is a given -No other comment necessary.

^^Best burgers ever.

Sunday we had a very hungover breakfast at a place called Bitton in Alexandria so Julia could meet Matt and his friends who we meet up with for breakfast once a month or so.  The meal was amazingggg as usual. They have the best scrambled eggs and usually bring out complimentary creme brûlée for the table afterwards. (I think this is mostly because the semi creepy old French owner has a crush of sorts on one of Matt’s friends’ girlfriends. I’d be super jealous and all but I have my old Italian suitor anyway so it’s cool.) 

I could tell Julia was really happy to meet everyone throughout the weekend and to be out of the small country town for a bit.  Her town has about 8,000 people and 2 bars in total so I was happy that she was enjoying all the perks of the city :)

We had had a long three nights of drinking already so we opted to skip the boozing portion of my friend Kirren’s birthday festivities that afternoon and to turn in early with some sushi. It’s probably been a year since I’ve done that much consecutive drinking and even though it was more than worth it it’s not something I aspire to do again anytime soon.  My tolerance from the good ol’ UCSB days is long gone.  RIP.

Important update #6: FLIGHTS ARE BOOKED for our U.S. tour 2016!!  I’m so excited to get to take off nearly the whole month of August (3rd-26th) to head back the states!!!! I know it’s a long way away but it’s almost nice having that much time to look forward to it.  It’s nice to enjoy the excitement.  It’s crazy to me that by then it will have been nearly years 2 since I’ve been back to the US.  I really do miss it.  Not so much in a homesick way but more just nostalgic a bit I suppose.  Really looking forward to seeing you all!

This month we also took another visit down to Canberra to stay with Matt’s folks for a weekend.  We went to a Cuban themed 30th for one of Matt’s friends and I am devastated that I forgot to get a photo of our outfits.  Let’s just say we deserved another free bottle of wine. 

Things have been a bit up and down for me with my job so it was really nice to get out of Sydney for a bit and not think about it so much.  I have to admit I’ve let things at work get me down this month for longer than I would’ve liked.  For 4 or 5 days I felt particularly down and just out of it and upset.  I know I’m very lucky to have my job and my life here and I’m not trying to complain I’m just being honest that it’s not all koalas and rainbows here all the time either..just like everywhere else I suppose. 

Luckily I’ve snapped out of it and am really enjoying the onset of another “beyoootiful” Sydney summer.  Last week it was still warm and light enough out after work that Matt and I were able to bike down to the beach for a run on the sand and a quick dip (okay the swim part was just him...I forgot my suit and wasn’t really trying to go full drowned rat look before dinner anyway). Then we grabbed some Asian-style tapas and wine and gelato just down the road from the beach.  It was one of the best nights I can remember in a long time.  Not for any particular reason, it was just a random Wednesday but it just had that intangible pre-summer buzz to it where you look around and everyone just seems to be on the same page, everyone looks happy and relaxed and excited all at the same time.  Maybe that sounds corny but it was true.  The wine sure helped as well..along with the great company <3

Important update #7: Australian Friendsgiving is alive and well!!  This year we feasted over at Bronte Beach near Madison’s new apartment.  I was going to try to just buy a pumpkin pie because I felt like I was too busy to cook or bake anything.  That was until my chocolate tofu pie was specifically requested by my fans and thus I decided to contribute properly and not let them down. Because let’s face it: I’m not that busy and flattery will get you everywhere.  We had a good group of about 20 this year (including a whopping 4 Americans).  It’s pretty hilarious seeing what non-Americans bring to a Thanksgiving potluck sometimes (and amusing having to explain the phrase ‘pot-luck’ to them).  Some “sides” included personal mini-pizzas and a lasagna. Random..but delicious.

^^the 4 Americans..we really should’ve considered getting a full group shot..selfish Americans..standard.

I hope everyone had an equally delicious and satisfying Thanksgiving.  In fact I’m sure you did because to be frank as much as I love Oz Friendsgiving there’s just no competition with real deal back home.  It’s definitely the holiday I miss the most. And as usual I am still missing all of you <3 Sending lots of holiday love to all of yas.    

I’ll leave you with a random smattering of other photos from the month which I am too sleepy to fit coherently into this blog post. Enjoy.

^^Halloween costume runner-ups - glad I went with the diggity dog

^^My cheap sandals broke on the way to Manly so I am now the proud new owner of the most authentically Australian footwear known to man. I still wear these..people are really lucky to get to be seen with me.

^^The Jacarandas are back in action!! Love em.

Matt accused me of taking sneaky pictures of him while I was actually just innocently checking my email on my phone. So I then proceeded to take this sneaky picture of him.. 

^^Random selfie as I was planning my Cuban outfit. It came out better the night of but alas I have no photo.

I don’t even like Reese’s that much but this was just too absurd not to take a picture of.  A DOLLAR FOR ONE?!? Sydney you still amaze me..

^^Evidence of my chocolate tofu pie. You gotta give the people what they want ;)

^^Matt’s mom gave me a tour of the private school she teaches at in Canberra and I was amazed! Looked more like a mini college campus to me. It’s a K-12 all boys school, she teaches 3rd grade, much fancy and so so pretty. 

^^Christmas has landed at Martin place!  The poor workers were up there for days putting it all together in the blazing heat - worth it. (easy for me to say eh)

P.S. We’ll be going to Melbourne for Christmas this year to stay with Matt’s family at his brother and sister-in-law’s and to meet their adorable new baby boy (yay!) so we’ll be gone from the Dec. 23 - Jan 4 (double yay!!).  So there won’t be another post until at least after then :)  SO MERRYYY CHRISTMAS and I’ll catch you guys in 2016 ;) 

P.P.S. I am officially too tired to re-read a single word of this so be amused at the likely many, many typos  <3

[lozzinoz]

High Tea, Pole Dancing & All Sorts of In-between Oct.26.2015

Happy (almost) Halloween, World (and by ‘world’ I mean the select few humans that read this blog)!  You 4 people may remember that last year Rosellen and I were - shall we say - in the very small minority of Sydney siders dressed in full costume.  Never fear, though, as I for one have forgiven Sydney for its lack of Halloween spirit and will not let this incident lessen my enthusiasm for this Friday’s Halloween festivities at the office.  I am fully prepared.  

Oh and can you believe I got my costume at a place called The Reject Shop? Go figure....

**Can you also believe it only cost $20?! 

You wanna take Halloween from me, Sydney? BRING IT ON.

Should be an interesting commute to work that morning..although given the extensive head coverage of this masterpiece I think people will be too busy trying to figure out my gender to have even the slightest idea of who I am. 

Other delicious and exciting things have been happening this last month.  I’ll try to let the photos do most of the talking this time around..

On multiple occasions I received various drunken photos/snapchats from friends who ran into my lovely freckle face of a brother out and about at Encinitas’ finest drinking establishments. Always a delight to wake up to these people..so keep ‘em comin ;)

Kate’s sister Emily has greatly spruced our apartment which now even includes the ultimate luxury of A KITCHEN TABLE!!!  I almost don’t feel worthy - it’s too much! IT ALSO HAS CHAIRS! All hail IKEA.

I mentioned last month that my coworker Kathrin was to be having a bunch of the works girls out to her pole dancing studio for a group session and I must say it was worth every penny!!!  It was tough to pull off some of the moves but since it was a beginners class it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it’d be although I did receive a lovely constellation of bruises across my legs from it - I kid you not some of these appeared instantly after the first few spins.  We got nice and drunk beforehand which was then assisted by the complimentary champagne which comes with the session.  Warning: your blood alcohol level will then tell you it’s a good idea to put on one of the ridiculous outfits they lay out for you all to wear in the studio..

^^Kathrin lent me some shorts to rock under the skirt so poor Annabel back there didn’t get an eyeful

I’d put up more photos but on the off chance there really are more than 4 people reading this and/or I decide to become a significant public figure one day it’s better than the internet doesn’t have any more images of me in this get-up..

That weekend some friends had a housewarming at their new place just down the road from the racetrack which made for a nice day of more champagne and some ponies. (I put my money on the Corona for this race because beer is a sure thing)

October 10th was also the 1 year anniversary of the day Matt and I met at his battle of the bands gig last year.  I’m sure I would’ve mentioned it in the blog from back then which is really weird to think about - I’ve never been a loyal diary keeper but I guess that’s what this essentially is..it’s strange to think some seemingly insignificant things I write about could turn out becoming a big part of my life and strange to think how some random dude at a show is now some random dude I’m in love with :)  

**edit: Actual excerpt from last October’s blog post  “Had to run to catch another bus pretty quick to meet up with my first solo date in Australia.  The date went well but I’ll spare you the details because a) my mom will freak out and think I’m already planning to never come home and b) my dad likes to think I will grow old in the attic and never date anyone ever and I’d like him to be able to keep that dream alive. (hi Dad! And hi Mom..still coming home)” HA! Sorry for lies mom and pops..

To celebrate Matt drove us up to the Blue Mountains for High Tea at a schmacy restaurant.  I’ve never felt strongly one way or another on high tea but it. was. AWESOME.  In true form we opted to have no tea and to get pass up the more traditional pastry/scone/tea sandwiches - centered selection for the Asian-inspired one..I have no regrets because the spring rolls were magnificent and my chai latte tasted like Christmas.  We were also at least 35 years under the average age of high tea patrons in attendance and it was delightful.

^^doesn’t do justice to the epic view of the blue mountains from our table.  There was a massive storm that rolled through with thunder and lightning while we ate which was awesome and beautiful to watch - all the colors of the valley changed completely and then changed back again..it was like two different views.

Only outdoor photo I got though as it was actually raining decently hard in this photo.

^^all kinds of elaborate pork buns and spring rolls topped up with more traditional dessert plate. (note the balding white haired man in the mirror bringin’ that average back up - you go, sir)

As I am now a  high tea expert I can enlighten you on this decadent dessert arrangement.  Here we have some delicious macaroons, square lemon ma-bobs, cinnamon crusty muffin poofs and lime (mint?) infused custard jello-shots.  Try not to be intimidated by my newfound sophistication as I assure you I’m still just your average girl in a hotdog costume.

^^mmmmm it’s like I taste Christmas all over again just looking at it.

That night we went to a friend’s 30th birthday celebrations at this new place called Crane Bar near the city.

^^for the record that’s not actually the birthday girl..the house photographer was just getting a little overeager during this conversation with our other friend Sarah... seriously that guy must have a quota to hit or something.

Lots of Canberra folks we went to Bali with last January with came up for the festivities - such a fun night despite the fact that my hearing is on par with your average 80 year old.  All drunken energy was focused on trying to listen to people or to sufficiently convince said people that I was hearing than...am I getting old? do I in fact belong with the blue-hairs at high tea?? 

Australia also had its labor day weekend this month which was ohhhh so appreciated.  Matt’s friend Jasin put on an awesome Spanish-themed dinner for the big rugby final playing that weekend.  It was no football but I was surprised that I actually devoted some real attention to the outcome! Baby steps..

The next morning was even better because I was able to watch a Chargers game for once..and they WON (for once)!!!!  Usually with the time difference it winds up that they are playing on Monday morning over here but good ‘ol labor day meant no work to drag me from bed and instead I woke up around 6:30 to stream this beaut of a game.

okay maybe it doesn’t look all that beautiful but to me it was a delicious taste of home.

In other news I’ve also gone back to the dark (light) side of dying the mane..I tried to stay away in the name of thriftiness but alas I cannot resist.  

^^You gotta pay the $$$$$ to look this gewd.

^^3.5 hours later... yes it took that long.  If my eyes look red it’s because I was exhausted from sitting in a salon that long and from my first world problems of paying to sit in a salon for that long.

Matt and I have also started training for the sprint triathlon in April which has meant a purchase of a beautiful swim cap and goggles and caused the resurfacing of memories of my glory days as an exemplary member of LCC’s junior varsity swim team. Surely that school has a plaque someone in memory of my excellent aquatic performance.  

^^the old familiar echoing screams of children and pungent smell of chlorine.  (very grateful for the latter due to the large number of the former..)

I haven’t picked out a bike yet but Matt verrrrrrry kindly offered to get me one as an anniversary gift.  Meanwhile my gift to him was a scrapbook full of all the photos I have taken of us over the last year which ought to remind him of how much he loves me shoving the camera in his face <3  But I know I don’t need to tell you all again what an amazing girlfriend I am.. 

Me getting Matt’s attention to take photos for no apparent reason at all - which I’m sure is oh so appreciated...

I’ve also been trying to fit in some more running for the training which has meant going to the gym before work.  I always told myself I didn’t have time in the morning but it turns out getting up at 5:45 ain’t so bad.  Especially when you get to catch views like this:

I’ve also discovered a new favorite spot in the park I sometimes walk through to get to Matt’s.  Just a little off the path is a bench I never paid much attention to before but overlooks parts of Sydney Harbor to the left and Bondi Beach to the right.  The weather wasn’t the best this day and I didn’t fit the whole view in so you’ll just have to take my word that it is epic.  Or better yet, come visit!

Luckily my obliviousness to details of my everyday surroundings means there is always new beauty around here to “discover”. 

I will leave you with a photo that tells a harrowing yet all too familiar tale in my life and the lives of many helpless others...

Opera Bar - Salmon Salad - Oct. 16 - approx. 6:45 pm 

And you better believe I was hugging that salmon salad to my chest because I know what these miserable little thieves are capable of, I was on defense from the get-go.  It didn’t matter. IT DID NOT MATTER. These are conniving and filthy creatures unafraid to dive-bomb 3 inches from your face into your delicious half eaten salad and disperse it’s remnants on you and any strangers within a 2 foot radius of you. Don’t worry if that did not get the strangers’ attention, your shocked shrieking will have.  

Change may be inevitable in life and I am learning to adjust to this, but one thing always remains the same: Seagulls are the fucking worst.

[lozzinoz]

Zombies, books & visas! Sept. 25.2015

It seems like the last month has flown by so quickly – and a week from now will mark a full year since I left California.  It’s a strange feeling, I can’t believe it’s been a whole year and yet it does seem like ages ago since I was driving through the streets of La Costa. (Or driving at all for that matter! I haven’t touched a steering wheel since I got here).

Speaking of driving…just yesterday Matt and I got a ride up to the Central Coast with his friend Jasin and his girlfriend so Matt could pick up his new car!  I’d never been very far North of Sydney before so it was nice to take a little day trip even if was a bit rainy. We’re a bit spoiled that we live just a 10 minute walk away from one another but it will be so nice to be able to get around the city on the weekends and take some more trips!!   This weekend we’ll head back to Canberra to see his family again ☺

Some other excitement of the past month has included a trip to my coworker Kathrin’s pole-dancing studio where she takes lessons twice a week.  She invited a few of us to come see their end of season performance, which certainly made for an interesting Tuesday night.  They was also some burlesque dancing as well (see below)

They let us common folk play around on the poles after the show and damn it was hard!. And a delightful reminder of my bicep strength..which is: nil.  Turns out you can rent out the studio for a private group class so we’ll all be heading back in a few weeks! I’ll be sure to report the good, bad and the ugly as I’ve heard the poles can bring on some serious bruises – should definitely make for a good laugh.  

There was also a nice round of work drinks a few weeks back to welcome some of the newer people to the team.  Things got extra interesting when the newest guy who hadn’t even officially started yet got so drunk he was hitting on one of the managers!  Then when my coworker tried to gently tell him he’d had enough to drink, homeboy tries to FIGHT HIM!  People be crazy….  As previous blogs will show I may not be an expert at finding myself a job but I certainly know well enough not to hit on/attempt to fight my future coworkers!! Like I said..people be crazy. Shortest employment ever for they poor English ‘bloke’

We’ve had a couple of nice home-cooked dinners over the last few weeks as well.  We attempted to host a roast a few weeks back before realizing we never actually send out the messages inviting people to said roast until the day before….if you can believe it people had plans!  All was not lost as Matt made his grandma’s famous chicken schnitzel which we enjoyed just the 2 of us plus one of his roommates.  A bit of an extravagant sit down meal for the 3 but hey, I wasn’t complaining. The next weekend people showed up because they were actually informed to do so which was even better ;)

^^mmm schnitzel

^^mmmm roast chicken

The day before that the same group of us went out to Boonieville, Nowhere!  To do what you ask?  Why a zombie run of course.

For those of you who haven’t heard of a zombie run (which I hadn’t).  It’s essentially a 5k interspersed with random obstacles like mud crawls through electric wires and sliding through “pools of blood” (sugary red water).  In between the obstacles segments are also contained areas with anywhere from 5-20ish “zombies” which you had to run past without them grabbing one of the 3 flags attached to your waist.  The craziest part is that these zombie people pay and register for this thing the same as the runners!  So they pay $70 bucks which gets them some form of Halloween-esque zombie costume complete with make-up done for them by people running the event which includes fake flesh pieces falling off their faces and plenty of fake blood.  Oh and then they have to stand out in the hot sun for an hour and a half and get pummeled by the runners (I may or may not have accidently pushed down some zombies in my frantic and unsuccessful attempts to make my way through unscathed..)

The funny thing is that it sounds kind of intense but everyone wants to run through the zombies in a huge group to give themselves the best chances of not getting caught but that means everyone has to stick together at the same pace.  Hence the pace inevitably winds up being: slow.  Very slow. People are basically walking from obstacle to obstacle and then sprinting through the zombies as one big group.  So while it was certainly no city 2 surf in terms of being strenuous it was also definitely not like any other race I’ve done.  I’m more than a little ashamed to say I was the only one of the group to get “infected” by getting all of my flags stolen by the end of it.  It’s not my fault that I look like an easy target. And that I am one…

A few Friday’s back we met up with a guy Tommy who is a contractor for the bank Matt works at and flies in from the states every so often to do some work for them.  He invited us to some drinks at the Shangri La Hotel in Circular Quay where they were putting him up for the trip and the place was AMAZING!!  36th floor with incredible views of the Harbor Bridge and Opera House – I also think he sweet talked to waitress to get us one of the best tables by the corner window.  I went for 3 or 4 of the fancy schmancy “Thai Me Up” cocktail complete with cayenne pepper and a chili in it.  Sounds a bit funky but it was delicioussss. (No pictures of the view because I was either too busy drinking or I am too jaded to take more harbour bridge photos...can’t quite tell)

The next day we went to my manager’s engagement drinks at this place called Regatta in Rose Bay which is absolutely beautiful and now that I think of it was also bankrolled by the future bride and groom so another afternoon/evening of free booze!  They even had fancy pants wait staff coming around to top up your champagne (which was appreciated but also dangerous! All of a sudden one glass of champagne quickly blurs into 9..) We didn’t know too many people there but manager was nice enough to invite me along with some other girls on the team so I definitely wanted to go and it wound up being a great time.  Kathrin who does the pole dancing came along with her boyfriend as well so it was nice to be able to carpool together and her boyfriend and Matt got along really well so the four of us went off to grab some dinner down the road after the sun set and we were nice and boozed up.

Luckily the drinks had started pretty early for the engagement party so I was in bed at a reasonable hour and feeling much better than I deserved to when I woke up Sunday morning!  It was beautiful outside as well so I went with Megan and Kelsi down the coastal walk – spring is FINALLY here!!

^^nice sentiment on some stranger’s front porch :) I went with Forty, Fat and Fired - sounds inspirational!

That next week at work turned out to be pretty rough as my manager resigned on Monday, which I didn’t see coming at all.  We’d been working together very closely since I started and this really threw me for a loop.  I still am definitely getting used to this job and know I’ve got a lot to learn and was excited to learn from her as she’s really experienced and great at training.  Our whole team was feeling a bit scatterbrained for most of the week.  One of the other managers has absorbed our team and things have been going better this week.  To be honest I’m not loving the job like I was at the beginning but am staying hopeful that once I get some more training and experience and start doing better that I’ll get more enjoyment out of it.  I also have to remember how only a few months ago I was desperate just to have a job and a visa to allow me to stay! At all so I know I am very lucky to have this job and that I get to work with some lovely people. All I need to do now is stay positive and learn to kick ass at it.

Luckily this job keeps me in this amazing country and that on its own brings all kinds of benefits and things to look forward to.

I’ll wrap this up with a not so humble brag about one of those benefits, which is of course getting to be with Matt.  The other weekend we were leaving the movies walking through the mall next to my house when I noticed the bookstore that used to be there had recently gone out of business.  I mentioned what a bummer that is because there’s not that many good book stores around and there was a book in particular I really wanted to read and had been meaning to buy from there.  The  next night I turned up to Matt’s apartment to hear “I got you something” and he gave the me the book I’d been talking about.   Maybe that’s a small thing to some people but for me that was really special. I’ve dated some lovely people don’t get me wrong but also guys whose main focus was just to be impressive (i.e. bragging about their jobs or blatantly throwing money around) rather than just being thoughtful and sweet.  Few have really listened to me and gone out of their way to make me happy the way Matt does on a regular basis and things like this remind me of that.and how lucky I am..  Sidenote: the book is Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and I highly recommend!

I know I said I’d end this blog there but I wrote all that up a few days ago and just this afternoon at work found out that my work visa has finally OFFICIALLY been approved and I am legally allowed to stay in Australia for at least the next 4 years if I want!  Great way to start off the weekend ☺ I hope you all have a great one as well!

[lozzinoz]

Running Far & Other Things - Aug.22.2015

HeeellllooOOOoo there!  Welcome to more life ramblings :)  I’m still geeking out pretty hard that I get to stay in Australia and that I have a job that I like. ! am admittedly the weird girl sporadically smiling to herself walking to and from the train to work... On a side note Martin Place in the city (where I get off the train) has inexplicably smelled like actual dookie for the last week or so therefore smiling even through that is a true testament to my happiness.  But seriously someone is straight up pooing near the train exit or something..

^^looks pretty but smells like poo 

I can imagine you’re all already very excited for the direction this blog is going.  Anywhooo it really has been awesome an awesome month. I’m not sure if I mentioned my manager and another girl on my team asked me to join in on a 3 day juice cleanse with them for the bargain price of $250.  SPOILER ALERT: I declined. That is approximately $245 dollars more than my current juice budget and also solid food is nice.  Nevertheless I was still delighted to be invited along to their celebratory post-cleanse breakfast that Friday where they were reacquainted to the world of eggs and toast and other delicious non-liquid things.

^^ one of said juices that my coworker didn’t like and gave to me as a freebie!  I think it was like beetroot, lemon ginger - I thought it was delicious.

^^ such a cute breakfast cafe with the little chalkboards for the reservation name.  Also my excellent sideways breakfast coffee - even got treated to the meal fo’ free!  This juice cleanse turned out to be a real bargain for me.. 

Our manager also surprised the whole team that day by ending work at 3 and taking us for drinks because we’d hit our monthly target - weeeee!  This was also my first payday so I had planned to treat Matt to a nice dinner in Surry Hills and thus didn’t want to get too drunk during the work festivities.  2ND SPOILER ALERT: I failed.  Not like I was messy in front of work folk or anything but by the time I got home around 6:45 the vinos were definitelyyy setting in.  I tried to down a bunch of water and compose myself before I met up with Matt but I half-tripped and nearly fell on my face as soon as we saw each other so that kind of blew my cover just a little bit

.       We went to this Mediterranean place called Nomad which was pretty good but we both agreed it wasn’t amazing considering the price and such.  But the atmosphere was nice night though and I even tipped and Aussies never tip, so there!

Saturday morning I realised in my drunken rush to drink 5 gallons of water before rushing out the night before I also managed to leave my keys on my nightstand. And Milli wasn’t home and didn’t have his key anyway..And Kate was away for the weekend..And Milli’s girlfriend who had his key wasn’t coming back ‘til 5....so, shit. Locked out again.  Some kind stranger/neighbor let me in from the cold and into the building at least but then I got to my apartment door and sat in shame for a few minutes before realising my property management building is just down the block where a very nice lady gave me a shiny spare key to unlock my lovely apartment.  I was then able to nurse my mild hangover in peace and forget this magical little incident ever occurred. Ahhhhhh, delightful.  The next day Matt, his friend Pete and I did about a 10.5k practice run along the coastal walk for the upcoming City to Surf race and then we met up with some others for breakfast in Coogee.  I suppose I could elaborate on that but I think that about sums it up and I took no photos..so that’s that.  Oh the coastal walk is also really hilly and steep at points causing me to almost barf/pass out on the last hill near the end - so there’s also that.. You are welcome.  Matt’s also a bit faster than me but I made sure to keep no more than 2 paces behind him so he could hear my heavy breathing and be afraid that I might just past him up at any minute.  I’m a nice and caring girlfriend and not at all competitive.

^^Coogee breakfast/post-run fuel.  There’s eggs and veg under there somewhere.

^^ Pete’s baby Jake joined the breakfast crew and proceeded to entertain himself with my iPhone.

That Monday I made my first candidate placement - hooray!!!  I was really excited because the client was interviewing 3 people for the role - two of those were sent by us and of those two was one guy I found and one my manager found. Picking either of our candidates would have been a win but of course I was pumped it was my guy! And that I headhunted him from his current job - he wasn’t even actively looking on the market..muhwhaha.  PS his current boss was super pissed he quit - oops!  But now he’s got a better job and making more money and I just so happened to make some dolla bills off the deal as well - everyone wins! (except his old boss).

Wednesday evening after work I went to a “meet-up” in North Sydney for web developers.  Basically a monthly gathering of techies who watch presentations etc. on a given technology/topic/etc.  Sometimes there’s a few recruiters sprinkled in (and you can tell who they are) to network with candidates and potential clients and also to get more familiar with the technologies.  I’m not gonna lie it was kind of a snooze fest because the presentations were long and way over my head.  Kind of like what I imagine trying to read a novel when you don’t know the alphabet yet would feel like.. But they also serve free pizza and beer so...

I’ll fast forward to that weekend where we finally ran the City to Surf!! Just us, Peter and 65,000 of our closest friends running 14k from the middle of the city out to Bondi Beach.  I actually felt it was almost easier than some of the other runs we’d done beforehand because of the atmosphere and all the excitement. There is a massive hill about halfway through that goes for almost 2k but I still don’t think that compared to the coastal route from the weekend before. It was an awesome experience and we were both really happy with our times (70 mins for me and 67 mins for Matt) even though I was secretly hoping I might beat him..

^^Matt and Pete pre-race. Approximate time - 8:23am Approximate temperature: freezing

^^tree of abandoned sweaters as runner ditch them before getting to the starting line.  There were HUNDREDS scattered along the sidewalks, etc.

^^super awesome photo of me near the finish line which I clearly paid for.

^^oooOOOooh yeah!  Feelin’ and lookin’ like a million bucks.

^^finish line at Bondi Beach!

Highly recommend the event to anyone and we’d both like to go for round 2 next year.  There were so many crazy costumes and all kinds of people.  Charity groups, work groups, walking groups just there to enjoy the atmosphere, even blind runner who were attaching to “guide” runner the whole way - and they were really fast, too!

I also made mom’s famous guac again recently to bring to a shindig at one of Matt coworkers’ houses. Behold!

You’ll have to take my word for it that it tasted much better than this photo looks..  It was quite a festive evening over there.  The girl hosting used to work at a brewery and had lots of leftover beers and ciders to go around.  Along with any other type of booze you could possibly want - and she made sure glasses were not left empty for long.  The whole group was playing cards against humanity which for those of you who have played will know is an excellent choice for highly intoxicated folks.  Definitely a good night.

And a not so good morning.. ufffffffffff.  I’d bought tickets to go to the “Sydney Dog’s Lovers Show” because I’m weird and also feeling serious dog withdrawals over here without Bella.  So I walked my hungover butt to Moorepark to check out so cute puppies for the afternoon.  (And yes it was still kind of weird. See below..)

^dog art.

^ rainbow dogs

^”barf” dog food?

^^cutest pup of the day.

I had an interesting time but I think i’ll cure my withdrawals the good old fashioned way from now on.  By stopping strangers on the street to pet and snuggle their adorable pups - for free.

All in all things are goooood.  And spring is finally upon us!  Exciting times :) Love and miss you guys!

[lozzinoz]

New Chapter, New Blog Name..  26.Jul.2015

So much has changed since I landed in Sydney last September I figured it was about time I updated the blog to reflect that.  Lauranrozzinoz was about mine and Rosellen’s adventures moving over here and now that’s she’s back in San Francisco (and greatly missed, might I add) this blog will be just me now and  how things are going while I’m settling in Sydney more permanently (or for the foreseeable future at least...don’t want to freak mom out too much with the whole ‘permanent’ business).  Hence the name change - Loz is actually a popular nickname over here for people named Laura and Lauren (lazy Australians shorten everything) and there’s a few people over here who refer to me as Loz so lucky me I still get to keep the rhyme..it’s the little things.  Do be aware the there are two Z’s in the url though as the one Z version seems to have been taken by another youngish blonde white girl’s blog not to be confused for this youngish blonde white girl’s blog. No one’s ever the first to think of anything on the internet anymore....erg!

In other news, it’s been a glorious 2 weeks of full-time employment and I couldn’t be happier to be here.  Here’s some highlights :)

I lucked out that my first day of ‘work’ was a Friday and happened to be the office’s ‘End of Financial Year’ party.  So basically I went in at 10am to fill out some paperwork and by noon we were all sent a scavenger hunt in the city which ended at a karaoke bar with a company tab - did I mention it was also Friday?  Work is so exhausting sometimes.. It was a perfect day to meet everyone - the whole office is so friendly and of course nothing puts people in a great mood like a short work day with free booze!  I left around 6 so I could get home in time to get ready to work what will probably be one of my last BBQs in a quite a while.  It’s still a great way to earn some tax free cash but I don’t imagine I’ll have as much time on my hands now that I’m working full time (yay!).

Saturday I went for a quick run down to my friend Anneli’s cafe at Bronte beach to have some coffee with Megan.  In the evening Matt and I headed into the city to celebrate his friend Tim’s birthday at an amazing English pub/restaurant.  (note the espresso martinis..mmmmmm) 

Tim’s wife just got her permanent residency approved (and thus his by association) so there was lots of celebrating of getting to stay in the country for everyone! 

Sunday we went up to Manly to meet up with an old roommate of Matt’s and his fiance for lunch and drinks.  We intended to stick around Manly and have dinner just the two of us to celebrate my new job but we both got a little too boozy and a little too tired so we opted to do a drunken venture to SushiTrain in Bondi Junction instead and save the fancy celebrations for another night.

The first two days of work flew by!  The company does recruitment for various industries and I’m working with the technology division which is split into two teams with 5 guys doing the contract IT roles and 4 of us ladies doing the permanent IT roles.  Everyone has been nothing but friendly and helpful I feel so extremely lucky to have gotten the job with this agency. 

On Wednesday Matt and I had our celebratory dinner at Meat & Wine co. in Circular Quay.  He said the steaks are amazing there so we each got one and split some amazing red wine and sides. It was a perfect night complete with some gorgeous surprise flowers!

Well I should say it was a perfect night until about 1am when Matt started barfing up a storm from food poisoning... I guess you could say that was slightly less than perfect.  Poor guy - am I an asshole for eating my steak leftovers in front of him the next night? Just because the rib eye was bad doesn’t mean I ought to let my perfectly good filet go waste! I regret nothing.  And I ate it with ketchup as per usual - no shame. 

Thursday my manager took all the ladies on our team out for lunch at this suuuuper swanky place in the city because they’d hit their target last quarter.  I obviously playedd no part in that achievement but was more than happy to be along for the free food and champagne!

^^Ahi and other things too posh for me to have heard of and/or pronounce.

^^mysterious chocolate dessert thingy.

Friday finished off my first full work week! We had a weekly wrap-up video conference with the Melbourne team complete with some office beers and then I went home for a mellow night in with the recovering food poisoning victim re-watching old Breaking Bad episodes.  

Saturday I did about a 10k run down to Coogee Beach in an attempt to get in better running shape for the City to Surf 14k which is just a few weeks away now.  I want to finish in under an hour twenty but I’ve heard the course has some pretty intense hills so we shall see..

My friend Megan found out that day that she was also getting sponsored so we celebrated that night with some champagne at my place before heading over to our friend Danica’s housewarming party.  I left a little early to make it to Matt’s friend Jasin’s birthday festivities in the city.

I woke up feeling like shit the next morning thinking I was hungover but throughout the morning started having a fever/chills and horrible body aches.  I stayed in bed all day while Matt went golfing and brought me back some snacks and meds (ohh how the tables had turned - perhaps my karma for eating the steak leftovers in front of him...) I didn’t get up until 4 and finally got a little food down in the evening but I can’t exactly go taking sick days yet (especially on a Monday) so I was relieved I could still sleep through the night and woke up feeling better the next day.

This week we went out to dinner at Cafe Sydney which is just as fancy as the work lunch was and has an incredible view of Circular Quay.  It’s right next to my old office at Dimensional and we got the best seats in the house sitting out on the deck with some glorious heat lamps to fight off the chilly Sydney winter.

My fish was so good I wanted a box for the leftovers (naturally. see: steak leftovers) so the waitress had the manager come over so he could tell me that the seafood “was not allowed to leave the premises.”  Some sort of liability or blah, blah blah..super weird.  I felt like I was under investigation for wanting to smuggle seafood.  Kinda strange but whatever it was all delicioussss.  We also had some scallops and sweet corn soup and some amazing tandoori trout. Mmmmmm.

Friday we went with some friends Alex and Katy to a ‘virtual golf’ bar in the city.  You can pick virtual renditions of different golf courses around the world and we just so happened to be ‘playing’ the Aviara in Carlsbad! 

^^does the course look familiar anyone?? 

I had had a few wines with one of my coworkers before meeting everyone there and then smashed 3 more at the bar to make the golf more interesting and had a few more when we all went to dinner after so I was feeling prettttty drunky by the time we got home.  Luckily woke up feeling not too shabby.  I got to make good use of my Saturday with another run and some Skype time with mom and dad!

^^accidentally ran into a very sneaky mud swamp - the damage shown here does no justice to just how swampy this mud pit was.  I’m sure it was quite a site for those that got to witness this near death experience.

I was probably tracking mud through Woolworth’s when I went to pick up supplies for taco night!  Im ade mom’s famous guacamole with roasted corn mmmmm we downed it so fast I didn’t even think to capture photo evidence.  Today I’ve had a lazy-ish Sunday just putzing around, got some lunch and coffee with Megan and wrote this blog.  It feels nice to have ‘real’ weekends now.  Heading off to the gym soon and then gearing up for another work week weeee.

If you’d like to continue hearing the mundane details of my life here you now know where to find them ;) miss you guys!

[lozzinoz]

Happy (belated) birthday America! I haven’t forgotten about you.....  Jul.8.2015

Hellllllo friends and family!

I hope you all had a great 4th of July! I am aware it’s been over two months since I’ve last written a single word on this blog and I have no real excuse except that I’ve been in a bit of a funk (with the occasional unwarranted pity party thrown in) and since I’ve wanted to keep this blog positive for the most part I began to put off writing anything at all.  But I really want to keep this going and figure I may as well just be honest that I have been struggling at times to stay positive.  Being unemployed is even more daunting when every day you remain unemployed is another day closer to potentially being deported.  But that shouldn’t be enough to keep me down - I have so much to be grateful for and so many wonderful things in my life over here that most of what was bringing me down was also guilt from not appreciating all that I have and letting the job hunt get the best of me.  I kept feeling like I should be doing more than I was or that I ought to be better at staying upbeat.  So to recap I was feeling kind of shitty - and then feeling even shittier about letting myself feel shitty - if that even makes sense....

Over the past few months I sent out about a zillion job applications and got a few responses that all promptly ended in rejection once I was asked about my residency status.  As expected, many employers are not jumping at the chance to hire foreigners who need sponsorship because it’s expensive for them and if they can find an equally qualified Australian candidate they may as well save themselves some money - it makes sense - but that doesn’t mean it’s not annoying!!  Because of this I decided a few weeks back to start applying for jobs as a recruiter since recruitment is one of few industries over here that regularly sponsors foreigners, even in entry-level roles.  I had been putting it off because I’d heard it can be very intense and cut throat in Sydney.  The city is flooded with zillions of agencies and many are known for having pretty toxic office politics and for working people into the ground and hearing these things really put me off for awhile.  But as I began to really feel the pressure increasing as the clock ticked down on my time here I realised I’d be willing to give almost anything a shot if it meant that I’d get to stay here.  And since there are so many different agencies in the city (it is literally one of the largest markets for recruitment in the world - maybe the largest even) I hoped that I could find one that would suit me. 

Once I set my sights on recruitment roles suddenly my calls were getting returned and I was finally getting interviews!! I also met with a ‘rec to rec’ agency which is a recruitment agency that places recruiters in others agencies...very meta, I know.  But they helped get me an interview with an awesome and more laid back agency called Sirius Technology and to make an already very long story marginally shorter I’ll just say that 

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It all happened so quickly!  Yesterday morning they called to tell me their offie wanted to interview me and asked if I could be in the city in less than two hours to interview.  I ran (literally) home from the gym and tried to get my sweaty self showered up and presentable in time.  I could tell almost as soon as I got there that this place was much warmer and friendlier than the other agencies I’d been to and I felt I hit it off with the hiring manager right away.  Because they knew I was in the final rounds of interviews with a bigger agency they expedited the interview process and had me interview with two others while I was there.

By the time I was on the train home I was already getting a call telling me they wanted to give me an offer and they would make it official as soon as their immigration lawyer could confirm that I meet all the sponsorship criteria.  I barely slept all night and in the morning got a call with the official offer!  I’ll be going int his Friday for their end of financial year party where the Melbourne office will be flying in to meet in the city for drinks and a big lunch - not a bad way to start off and meet everyone!  Once I start I’ll be on the IT team helping bring in and manage candidates in the .net area.  Im assured that lots of people start in tech recruitment knowing nothing about IT so the fact that I can barely turn on my computer sometimes shouldn’t be an issues.  Phew.

I just can’t believe I finally have a permanent job and that they’ll be looking to sponsor me!!  I won’t be fully relaxed until the sponsorship is final which will likely be a few months from now but at the moment I am just so ecstatic to be starting a job I’m excited about and that i get the chance to stay here!  NOT GETTING DEPORTED WOULD BE AWESOME!

ANNNYYYWHOOO unemployment wasn’t allll bad (easy for me to say now) - but there’s definitely been plenty of good times since I last updated.  It’d be hard to lay it all out in full but here are some highlights and photos for now and I”m going to aim to get back to giving more frequent and detailed updates in the future :)

In May Rozz came back from her travelling adventures with the girls around Asia!  She and our friend Javaneh stayed with me for about ten days and we got to reprise our roles as Sydney tour guides and roam around the city.

^^ babes on a train!

^^views from O Bar - a fancy ROTATING bar/restaurant in the middle of the city

^^the always beautiful Watson’s Bay

^^nothin like a nice stroll down to Bondi Beach.  Just like old times in SB :)

Sadly it eventually came time for Rosellen to leave Australia for good :(  I really miss my best friend but even in the short time since she’s moved to San Francisco she has already gotten an amazing new job and a new apartment with our friend Callie where she also gets to be closer to her boyfriend (I supposed anything would be closer compared to Australia!) so it’d be hard to be anything but extremely happy for her!!  It definitely makes it feel like a new chapter has started over here (and perhaps a new blog title will be in the works) but I’m happy for all the memories we made over here together.  America is lucky to have her back..Miss you rozz <3

At the end of May it was finally time for my birthday trip with Matt down to Melbourne!!  We stayed at this placed called the Langham right on the Yarra river in the middle of the city.  It was soo beautiful we actually felt a little out of place due to our ‘un-fanciness’

^^Our hotel in the one all lit up on the left with the big yellow “L” - so pretty!

Matt’s brother and sister both live in Melbourne so we met up with them and his sister-in-law and sister’s girlfriend for dinner in the city our first night.  We tried to go to a super popular Thai place called Chin Chin but called it quits once we heard the wait was 1.5-2 hours and they don’t take reservations!  We scored an awesome dinner at a different place down the block but vowed to try Chin Chin again the next night to see just what kinda of curry is worth a 2 hour wait!

We had a big delicious breakfast the next morning to hold us over until our early dinner at the infamous Chin Chin’s but time got away from us..we did a little window shopping around the city, hit up a driving range for a bit and did some exploring and by the time we got to Chin Chin’s it was 6pm and sure enough it was yet again a 1.5-2 hr wait.  But we’d be damned if they were going to let them scare us off 2 nights in a row.  We were pretty starving since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast but we went to a pub around the corner and got a nice little buzz going while we waited on the call that our table was ready.  It really did wind up taking an hour and a half to be seated but I’ll admit it was worth it.  I’m sure the food would’ve tasted incredible under normal circumstances but especially when you’ve been starved and filled with a few wines....we couldn’t get enough.  And almost ordered the entire menu if not for some cautionary guidance from our lovely waitress.  I think we barely said a word for the first 10 minutes after the food arrived - it was that good.  And we were that hungry.  In fact maybe this is part of Chin Chin’s strategy.,...who knows.  But if you ever find yourself in Melbourne, I highly recommend.  

On Sunday we went to the baby shower for Matt’s brother and sister-in-law who are due to have their first later in July!  Neither of us had ever been to a baby shower but I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that it was at a pub.  A pub with a tab for the party - say whaaaat?? My kind of baby shower, people!

There was some delicious food too. See above: delectable slider making Matt look like a giant.

Such a fun weekend pretending to be fancy and eating all kind of delicious things - it came at the perfect time.

In June we also went to see the band TV on the Radio perform at the Opera house!  Neither of us had seen any performances there before and it definitely didn’t disappoint!

And a few weeks later I got to see my first live Rugby game!! Still trying to grow a real affinity for the sport but any live sporting event is generally a good time and this was no exception! (even if Australia lost..I tried my best to care!)

Below is a New Zealander proudly celebrating his country’s victory:

Very proud indeed.

And that’s about it for now.  Lately I’ve been doing a lot more running since we’re going to run the City to Surf 14k race in early August but other than that I’ve been doing a lot of this still:

It’s been pretty chilly!  And it’s a lot easier not to spend the money you don’t have when you stay inside! But I’m extremely excited to ditch the robe and get into some work attire.  Bring on the pay checks and bring on the sponsorship! So excited for what’s to come and will try to keep the updates coming as best I can - sending my love to all of you! :)

[lozzinoz]

Newtons down under!

Hello world! Wow what a few weeks it has been – I am writing to you from my bed on a leisurely Monday morning decked out in a luxuriously fluffy robe recently purchased from K-mart! Why you ask? Well a) Sydney’s temperature has dropped to a chilly and rainy 16 degrees as of late (sorry about the rain-hate CA..not trying to rub it in!) and b) because I am recently unemployed and I figure a robe is as good a uniform as any for this newfound position.

 The 17th was my last day with Dimensional and though I was sad to go it wound up being a really amazing and memorable day.  This was of course largely due to the fact that is was also my 24th birthday and just a mere 24 hours before my beautiful family was set to arrive in Sydney!But also I was somewhat surprised at just how much love I received at work and by all of the kind and wonderful things my coworkers had to say.  I was also grateful to have my birthday and my family’s arrival to talk about to deflect the countless questions from everyone about whether or not I’d found another job yet.  In a company of nearly 100 people explaining that- no you do not have another job lined up and no you’re not sure if you’ll get to stay in the country-gets old by about person #3. Of course I know they mean well and it’s the natural question to ask but it was also stressing me out.  Luckily once I mentioned my birthday or my family’s visit I got to swing these conversations in a lighter direction.

As one of my first orders of super mature and adult 24 year old business I managed to lock myself out of my apartment once I got home from work which was very exciting!  I went inside to bring in the flowers and gifts my coworkers had given me and noticed the trash was full.  I went down to the parking garage to take it out (oooh so responsible) only to come back and find that the door had jammed and my key was no longer working-weee! Good thing I have nice neighbors!  A nice man on my floor was able to work the key enough to get me inside – crisis averted.  Semi seriously though..I hadn’t taken my phone down with me and realized that even if someone in the building had let me use theirs I know exactly ZERO phone numbers of anyone here! I barely know anyone’s back in the states either for that matter.  Now this isn’t to say I’ve gone out of my way to memorize any since this clearly dreadful incident (too much work) but rather have resolved to never detach myself from my phone again..ever.  

Luckily I was able to recover from this hardship and get myself cleaned up in time for birthday dinner with Matt.  We went to a cool Mexican place around the corner from my building.  The highlight was definitely hearing Matt order his “arroz con pollo” as “polo”.  Have I mentioned Aussies don’t understand the concept of the double L as a “y”. Oh I have? Still hasn’t gotten old..  I should say that was the highlight right behind his gift to me, which is a weekend trip down the Melbourne for the two of us in May! SO EXCITED!! Also worth mentioning is the Playstation game he got for us – Crash Team Racing (aka CTR for those who have the privilege of having played).  We have been arguing about who has the greater prowess in said game but had no way to prove it..until now! Anyone who had the great misfortune to go against me in CTR growing up knows that I like my chances ;)   

After dinner we headed to Surry Hills for some drinks and some live tunes.  A great way to head into year #24 :)

 The next morning the fam bam flew in bright and early and met me at my apartment around 8:30am. Because their Air BnB wouldn’t be ready until the afternoon we decided to mosey on over to a nearby café so I could prepare them for the kinds of tiny coffees with the high price tags to come over the next 8 days! As folks who typically enjoy a nice 20 oz coffee for $1.69 from the local Circle K gas station I think this difference was quite the shock indeed. In the name of killing more time and properly fulfilling everyone’s caffeine needs we then wandered over to the café that old housemate Lynsey works at for coffee #2 and some delicious lunch before heading over to the Air BnB.  It was right by the beach in Tamarama and what a view!!

Once there my mom experienced the delight of blowing a fuse with her American hair dryer placed on “high”. A very real struggle I still fight every time I turn mine on..either you buy an Australian blow dryer or you live your life on the “low” setting – life is really hard here sometimes..I like to keep you guys updated on the big issues. You. Are. Welcome.

Mom and Dad were understandably pooped from their journey around the world.  Jeff on the other hand promptly went on a 5 mile run followed by inquiries to what bars we would be headed to that night.  I was pleasantly surprised by how well he was holding up so we met my friends Megan and Anneli in Bondi and got some drinks (including his very first espresso martini) at a few local bars to finish off the night.

On Sunday we woke up and grabbed some coffees from the cute little beach café near the Air BnB and then hit the gym (talk about same shit different country!)  But I miss going with to the gym with the family on the weekends and we were all happy to start off the day with a good workout.  We then headed back to our place to do the coastal walk down to Coogee where we rewarded ourselves with some good eats at Coogee Pavilion.  

The coastal walk is pretty amazing although I did hear some comparisons from the fam between the views from the coastal walk and those of the bluffs La Jolla… ay yi iy Californians just always have to one-up everyone, don’t they?!

After getting home Mom and I started prepping some chicken parm for dinner that evening when Matt would be coming over to meet the fam :)  It’s always nice to get to cook with momma and the dinner turned out lovely and of course the family loved Matt because what’s not to love?  Dad was, however, disappointed that as an Australian Matt has never seen any kangaroos box each other out in the wild…something dad apparently feels essential for anyone from here.  Luckily Matt helped make up for this horrific flaw by bringing us beer and gelato. MMMmmm,

Monday was a shit show. The worst storm in what feels like probably ever (as if I have to right to determine these things) hit Sydney so we were pretty limited on what we could do.  So much of what is great about Sydney is best enjoyed on a nice sunny day! (though I guess the same is true for oh I dunno..everywhere).  We made the best of it by having a nice breakfast at home, reading and finally venturing out into the dark, windy abyss to get some lunch at Trio in Bondi.

And some post-lunch drinks at a nearby bar across from the beach

 This was followed by another meal at home because the weather and public transportation were pretty awful. I was frustrated trying to show the fam a good time but they were great sports and tried to keep me from feeling like a shitty tour guide.  (Despite the fact that not being able to even give a tour is probably the ultimate definition of being a shitty tour guide..) That is love, folks.

 The rain kept on through Tuesday and Wednesday as well.  All night you could hear the windows rattling and our place was so close to the beach that all the strong, sideways wind was blowing water inside and drenching the carpet near the doors and making the power lines spark outside.  We still made it to the gym and some restaurants on these days and even took a nice (though EXTREMELY bumpy ferry ride out to Manly beach) but still we were forced to resort to lots more time sitting on our asses reading and just generally looking at each other indoors. Which can get old..pretty fast..especially when you’re itching to show off the beautiful city you live in to your family that just flew around the world!! But again, it was still great just to get some quality time together.  (And I made some great progress catching up on Game of Thrones, which was of course a personal victory and nearly just as important)

^^Mom, Dad and I had to borrow some rain gear from our Air BnB host Wayne..did I mention Wayne is about 6′8? Luckily his girlfriend has some slightly more fitting jackets around as well..we look GooOOOoood! Oh and we had the whole restaurant to ourselves! Sissy Australians not roaming out in the storm of the decade for their Thai food fix apparently..wimps.

^^dreary ferry ride out to Manly

^^It was a great beach day out there!

^^despite what it looks like I am in fact enjoying a Game of Thrones overload-induced nap and not being choked out by Clark. 

Thursday was our first full day with some tolerable weather and even a bit of sun!  To celebrate we enjoyed a nice breakfast down in North Bondi before heading out to Newtown to check out some shops, etc.  (The fam was impressed with my ability to navigate the trains and busses with such expertise..I don’t think I fully got across the fact that my expertise is mostly due to effective and frequent use of Google Maps..thank you iPhone! Like I said..never letting it leave my sight again.)

^^We think we’re cute cuz it’s (almost) our name!

 After Newtown we headed back into the city to get some drinks and enjoy the view of Darling Harbour.

 For dinner good ‘ol Air BnB Wayne arranged a reservation along with a very generious gift certificate to a nearby Turkish restaurant as an apology for all of the water damage and for being stuck indoors for a lot of our stay.  I felt bad for the guy because of course he can’t control the weather but the dinner was much appreciated -and delicious!  My dad is pretty famous for not liking anything too out of the ordinary food-wise so some of us were a bit skeptical at first for his sake but the food was really amazing! Matt joined us for the dinner and afterwards we all went to a nearby comedy show with some stand-up comedians from the upcoming Sydney comedy festival.  I arranged the tickets because it was a nice weeknight activity I could actually afford that I thought the family would really enjoy and luckily I was right!  This was the same place I had taken Matt for his birthday and we learned the comedians there can be pretttty hit or miss but we all agreed it was actually quite good and there were some great laughs.  Probably one of my favourite nights with everyone actually :) Finally I was starting to feel like a successful tour guide. Plus luckily for me, after 3 days inside everyone’s standards for a good time were pretty low!

 The show ended around 10:30 and the fam shocked me by asking what bars we could go to afterwards.  I was exhausted but being the youngest in the crowd I’d be damned if I was going be the one to call it quits so we capped the night off with some drinks in Bondi before heading back (although I confess I only ordered waters..my family apparently parties harder than me..)

 Friday we did the infamous Sydney Bridge Climb which did not disappoint!!  The whole ordeal was about 3.5 hours and it was really amazing.  I don’t think any extra words on it would do it justice so all I can really say is I highly recommend it if you’re ever in Sydney!

 We rewarded our very strenuous climbing of steps (only half kidding) with an early dinner and drinks at Opera Bar – it was definitely a full day taking in the beautiful harbor view!  Mom and Dad went back to the Air BnB while Jeff and I stayed in the city to meet up with my friend Michael and hit up some of the bars!

 We didn’t stay out too late because the next day was Anzac day which is essentially Australia’s memorial day except they do a somewhat better job of keeping the emphasis on the military veterans and not just day drinking (although don’t get me wrong..there is a LOT of day drinking).  Jeff and I got up at 4:30am to meet up with my friends Megan and Leah to go to what they call “dawn service” where old war stories were told along with songs and verses to honor the Australian war veterans.  I’m not going to lie a lot of the stories the leader of the service told were downright depressing.  I know war is never a sunshiny, happy topic but this was some next level depressing..I will give you a brief synopsis of the most memorable tale:

 “A man who served bravely on the front lines returned home to his family after the war.  Then the depression hit Australia some years later and he could never really financially recover..until one day he went out on his porch and shot himself. And the was sad.”

That is literally verbatim how they ended that story! “AND THAT WAS SAD.”  It was so absurd that I had to keep from laughing a little.  Which would’ve been super awkward.  Not the mention disrespectful… ‘And that was bizarre..’

Afterwards we went back to sleep for a bit before the more American-style Memorial Day festivities started up.  By 9:30am we were at Megan’s pounding mimosas and gearing up to go into the city to meet up with some of our other friends for more booze and some gambling.  Anzac day is the only day where this game called “2-up” is legal.  Essentially all you do is put your money against one other person on heads or tails and they flip coins for the crowd and whichever one comes up..wins.  Not highly complex but highly entertaining.  Especially after a beer or 6!

^^Megan and I got to go up on stage and flip some coins for the crowd! 

We worked hard at drinking and gambling until about 4:30 when some more downpours greeted us along with the some hail.  It was about time to pack it in anyway so Jeff and I went to meet up with Mom and Dad back in Tamarama before heading off for dinner.  I do not think they were impressed to see me arrive at the Air BnB only to promptly take down any food in sight (mainly cold pasta meat sauce) before heading off for dinner. But we hadn’t eaten since 9am and I was starving after some long hard hours of drinking! …it’s called “drunching” Mom and Dad. And I’m sorry you had to see that..

 The next day was already the fam’s last day in Sydney!  We kept it pretty mellow as everyone was a bit tired and the rain was coming back a bit. We hit the gym again, grabbed some lunch and pretty much relaxed until going to Matt’s place for dinner.  He and his housemates were putting on a cook-out and were nice enough to invite the Newtons along.   The food was delicious and the company even better. A great time all around :)

After dinner I parted ways with the fam as they were getting up at who knows what horrendous hour to catch their flight and I did not feel the need to be a part of that joyous time.  It was a great night to round out the trip though and although I was sad to see them go I’m so glad to have gotten to show them my new home and some bits of my life out here!  And yeah..I think I’ve rambled on quite enough on all that as it is and there’s only so many ways I can say how amazing it was to spend some time with my awesome family.  I love you guys and I can’t believe I’m cool enough for you to come halfway around the world to hang out with me in the rain.  THANK YOU <3