Fostering and the like

Again its been ages since the update as I seem to be on the very annoying but rather addictive facebook. Here I am though to all of you that don’t facebook but still want to know my relatively uninteresting news.

OK So a recap from my last blog. It only took about 2 months before my residency came through… a very LARGE HURRAH to that. It came through in December so I am now a fully fledged Australian resident which is great because it means Billy cant keep threatening to dump me and throw me out of the country without a visa… He can now dump me and I can now stay and haunt him for the rest of his life! In just under a years time I think I will be applying for Citizenship, so I can call myself an Ozzie and people will have to believe me!

Onto the fostering front. Well I had the biggest drama of my life (maybe not my whole life but you get what I mean). We had Cassidy, the foster dog for about 9 months and we fell head over heels in love with her and so did Sam. However there was this family that wanted to adopt her and I, stupidly gave her away to this family. In itself that’s not such a bad thing but when I gave her away I had no idea what an impact it would have on my doggie Sam. He hit the roof and turned into a recluse who didn’t want to do anything. I broke his heart so it seems. So when we figured out that getting rid of Cassidy was bad for Sammys health and wellbeing, we tried to get her back (this was the next day after she went to her new home). The bloke who adopted her refused to give her back and threatened to take the organization to court. To say I was devastated is a gigantic understatement. We fought for about 10 days, 12 hours a day to get her back, but to no avail. Sam, in the mean while is constantly sad which is heartbreaking.

In the mean time though we had to find him a new pal so we are back on the fostering path again and the next dog we got was a Retriever/Staffie. Her name was Beauty. We had her for about 2 weeks and she found a home on Saturday last week – which is great. She didn’t play with Sam at all so he’s still sad – poor sausage. My current furry mate is a Labradoodle called Ebony. She’s very strange looking and a bit of a weird dog but Sam is enjoying her company which was the point in the first place! Hopefully she’ll only be with us for a few weeks.

I’ve decided to learn by my mistakes though and when I find a dog that we all love, including Sam, then we’ll adopt it for ourselves.

Off of dogs and onto the shitty weather. Last time I was complaining about the Winter, now I’m going to complain about this crappy Summer we are meant to be having. Its been raining and hasn’t got above 25 degrees in about a month. My sun tan is non existent and I’m bored of the cold weather – wasn’t that the reason I came out here in the first place?!

I’m sure most of you know that we came home for a flying visit to London at Christmas to catch up with all and sundry. We had a lovely trip, slightly too short but still it was great. Apologies to everyone that I didn’t get time to see but it was manic whilst I was there. To all that I did manage to see, I miss you already – as I always do.

Other than the above news I’m just busy with work and that’s about it. Ill be in touch when something fun happens

Cassidy

Hello all,

Work update from last time, as of 6 weeks ago I am now a permanent employee of News Ltd, which is marvelous as they own practically the whole media world (with no exaggeration).

Since last time, winter arrived and now I’m getting bored of it. Apparently it’s been the coldest winter in something stupid, like, 15 years. Personally I haven’t found it that bad but I’m still bored of wearing so many clothes!

So the house eventually got painted which is a bonus as its the same colour all over, the deck is done but needs another coat of paint and I am now the proud owner of a veggie garden which has just been planted so hopefully in a few months time, I’ll have more veggies than you can shake a carrot at!
Sams trainer failed so we still have a very crazy pup who doesn’t do as hes told, fortunately for him, hes damn cute!

On the subject of dogs, we fostered this gorgeous little girl called Cassidy and shes delicious! Billy wants to keep her but that’s up for debate at the mo! They get on so well together its very sweet.

Other new news is that I have sent off all my residency forms to go ahead for my permanent residency. Hopefully it wont take too long to get finalized but ill keep you posted on that too

Over and out

my little family is increasing

Me again,

Updates ahoy, still no major news with work but I promise I will keep you posted, still plodding along as usual though which is nice, no complaints!

Billy and I are really good, winter is coming and quite frankly im not impressed, im wearing bloody ugg boots for Christs sake – admittedly its still about 21 degrees though :o)

Work on the house has begun again which is marvellous. The outside of the house is now not multicoloured which is a bonus and I nearly have a brand new deck on the back of my house, im just waiting for the boys to build a roof onto it and then it’ll be finished. Apparently its UN-Australian to not have a deck!

Sam is still as crazy as ever, he’s getting his very own personal trainer this weekend so hopefully that will help him a bit. My biggest news is that we are doing something right for the world for a change. Im not sure about how it works in the UK but over here, the RSPCA (or the pound) have so many dogs without homes that they give all dogs and puppies only 2 weeks in the pound. If they don’t find a home in 2 weeks, they all get put down. Its horrific. Anyway, Sam needs a pal, so I’m becoming a foster mum. Hopefully save a few furry lives. I’m looking forward to it actually. I think our first dog is going to be a Kelpie cross. She’s 7 months old. Obviously we will only take her if she gets on with Sam.

So that’s my news for now. Updates will be coming soon as im sure ill send some piccies of the new temporary family member

Annoying questions

Allo Allo

Still, as per usual things don’t change; I’m a boring old cow with not much of any excitement to note. I’m currently sitting on my sofa, in my lounge in front of the TV with my laptop on my lap. Getting a bit chilly which really isn’t that great. I’m a sun and heat lover and that fact that I’m wearing jeans and a fleece is not good news!

Work is ok, I’m still at the same place but things are changing. We have just been bought out by Rupert Murdoch/News Ltd. This potentially could be good for me and my career and equally it has the potential to be quite bad. Still time will tell and I’ll keep you posted. Fingers crossed I’ll be ok because I do enjoy working there and I still find it amusing that I get paid for what I do! Hopefully only good things will come of the take over. You can check out my work website if you’re bored enough its http://www.fpc.com.au/

Other than photography, work on the house is still on the back burner. We managed to paint the majority of the outside of the house. When I say majority, I mean if you drive up to our house from one end of the road, our house looks great, yet when you come from the other end, we have a multi coloured home – rather classy as you can imagine! It’ll get done though but we’ve got to find the time and more importantly, the inclination!

My birthday was last week and I actually feel rather old now that I am officially a ¼ century. I was spoilt rotten by Billy and had a lovely day. Although honestly I find birthdays quite a depressing time of the year as its hard to be away from my pals and family. I suppose I should get used to it though and stop whinging.

Sam the Dog is still as lovable as ever and equally, still the biggest pain in the ass ever! He definitely hasn’t grown out of his puppy stage – not even remotely! He’s still Sam the Destroyer – that’s his most common nickname followed closely by Sam Houdini for his extraordinary escapes. The dog is making me age quicker I swear. But all of this still doesn’t stop me from thinking he’s the cutest thing alive, even when he moults so bad that I need to hoover every day!

Billy and I are good it’s a funny phenomenon that after you have been with someone for a certain amount of time there are certain things that are expected of you which, the truth be told, becomes VERY VERY irritating. Let me explain…

I cant begin to count the amount of people who I either know well, know as an acquaintance or even more amazingly, have just met who ask me when I’m going to get married or, even more recently, completely by-pass the nuptials, and ask when am I going to get pregnant. Why do people seem to ask these peculiar questions??? Seriously I think without exaggerating, I get asked either one of those questions at least once a week. I wonder if you get to a certain stage in your relationship, not sure what it is, maybe it’s the 2 ½ year mark, who knows, but everyone wants to know.

So heres my request to you, my pals. Please don’t feel the need to ask me, I’m sure you’ll all know if or when either of these circumstances do occur!

Anyway, there’s my rant for another month. Hope you are all enjoying life

Reversing

OK me again,

Just re-read my last post before the one i did yesterday and felt that i should probably fill in the gaps somewhat!

Ok so i was just about to go skiing, obviously i did that and had an absolute ball! The snow was pretty cool and the company was great. My skiing seriously leaves much to be desired and my snow boarding, well i wont get into that! Incidently, im the one on the left of the piccie looking much like a man :o)

Obviously, with the photos that i attached to my last blog, we got the house that we wanted and the whole process of exchanging contracts went pretty smoothly. The guy that we bought the house from let us in there before we exchanged so that we could start the mammoth task of making it habitable. Its getting there now and all thats left is doing the exterior. Its been pretty good fun but its taking up all the money in the world and most of our time. We have put a new kitchen and bathroom in it and painted throughout, its coming along a treat!

Another rather obvious fact is that i got my dog too. Ive been wanting to get one for years and the plan was that we were going to get a chocolate Labrador but when we saw Sam, a Labrador/Husky, we had to buy him! He's so cute but possibly the most hyper dog i have ever met. Ive attached a piccie of when Sam was 9 weeks old... too cute but he was just 6kg then and now hes nudging the scales at 25kg!!

Other than those revalations, not much else to note, we're both just plodding along working like troopers and trying to get the money back in. Mum came over for xmas which was lovely but feels like it was about a year ago already!

So thats about me, I hope one and all are well, would love to hear your news. Apologies for the length of time it is taking me to respond to your emails... i just dont have much time to sit in front of the computer these days

love and cuddles
me and sammy

Horrah im back in action

This is a very quick update...

I thought that id lost my blog and have now re-found the little bugger so im back in action.

Ok im not sure whats going on with my email or more specifically my photos. Ive tried to email a few piccies of my little pup, Sam and they dont seem to be getting through.

Im going to try and upload them and hopefully, at long last, share the photos with one an all. Ive also just taken a few shots of a couple of rooms in my house. Ill take some more but these were mainly for mum and mel as they have been watching the on going process of my house decorations!

Its pretty late at night so im going to upload and then go to bed but ill be i touch soon, i promise

love
me x

Check out my new home on the map...

Hey all,

Just a quickie, with a little help from my chum Suggs.

Copy and paste this ENTIRE link into your browser and this is where my new house is

http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&X=16864000.2999245&Y=-3920000.01178082&width=700&height=400&gride=16863953.2999245&gridn=-3920041.01178082&srec=0&coordsys=mercator&db=AU&addr1=&addr2=thelma+street&addr3=long+jetty&pc=&advanced=&local=&localinfosel=&kw=&inmap=&table=&ovtype=&keepicon=true&zm=0&out.x=7&out.y=12&scale=10000

Horrah!

love

Me x

You'd never believe it, I DON"T!

Well who’d believe it…?

Woke up this morning, thought it was going to be like any other normal Monday morning, not much achieved, rather boring, I’m like Garfield, hate Monday’s

Oh how wrong I was!

Well, Billy and me decided to buy a house. Yes you read correct… a goddam house! It’s been on the cards for a few months now, we’d been umming and ahhring about it but hadn’t really seen anything that suited what we wanted. We had specific ideas in mind about what and where we wanted. Anyway cut a long story rather short, we spotted this property, which is literally less than 500 metres from the beach in a really good area. The house is an absolute shitter but we are planning on knocking it down and re-building in a few years time. The plan is either to sell it for an (enormous!!!) profit or to rent it out… time will tell though. Very important factor in buying this house was when we walked in and shut the front door, you could hear the ocean… horrah to that! One other point to consider is that I can now eventually buy a frickin dog. Now everyone knows that this is a rather important factor in my life. Oh and the beach that is LESS THAN 500m away, luckily for me, is a dog beach, couldn’t be better (most beaches you aren’t allowed to take the leach of the dog when you walk them). It was meant to be :o)

So the conclusion is: the vendor accepted our offer and we put a deposit down on the house and now putting all our faith in the solicitors hands to make it a speedy process. There is a guy renting out the place at the mo and we are trying to get him the hell out of there so we can make the place a bit more habitable, paint etc. Anyone that likes a bit of DIY is more than welcome to come over and help us in the process. I’ll have to send photos soon when it’s all official. I don’t want to get too excited until we have exchanged on it.

So with that rather crazy news out of the way, we had a lovely anniversary, Cirque de Soleil was spectacular, the new show is called Varekai, anyone who hasn’t seen it, I fully recommend going. We ended up going out for dinner and drinks after that with a group of mates and then checked into one of the best hotels in Sydney, called the Observatory. Quite spectacular. Ate in their award winning restaurant that night and spoiled ourselves rotten. It was shame to have to go to work the next day. Lovely weekend had though.

All else is pretty cool, still on the countdown to go to New Zealand and hopefully when we get back mid-Sept, we will have a house to move in to. I can’t wait to be able to say to one and all that you will be officially allowed and invited to come and stay whenever you want. Only problem is that the place is so tiny you could just about swing a hamster so we may have to convert the lounge into your bedroom but hey… its still a place to sleep for free, so bookings will be taken when we exchange on it!

Love to one and all

Smurfette's anniversary

Allo allo,

Here’s another update in my oh so exciting life! Well sadly not too much to tell co sim boring and the most exciting thing I seem to do as of late is work! Cant complain really as the money is always a bonus!

Just thought id drop you all a quick photo or two that are rather amusing to say the least. It was our mate’s 30th birthday last weekend and it was fancy dress – 80’s themed. So Billy and me thought we’d pull out all the stops and go a bit funky. As you may be able to tell from the photos, I went as a smurf and Billy was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle – Leonardo to be precise!! It was a rather amusing night to say the least. We were most definitely the best dressed if I don’t say so myself!

Other than that, all is pretty quiet over here. Just trying to save as per usual for one thing or another. It’s Billy and my 2-year anniversary in a few weeks – where has time flown? Not sure what we are going to be doing for it yet. Billy had some elaborate plan of what we were going to be doing and then we found out that we had organised ourselves tickets to Cirque de Soleil and had completely forgot about them… ooops, so now we don’t have any plans – any ideas welcomed!

The count down is now on till my ski trip we are leaving at the beginning of sept and I can’t wait. Even better than that is that Mel is coming out to visit me in sunny Oz a few weeks after I get back so lots to look forward to!

Just found out that mum is coming out for a month over Christmas so that should be cool too. To all of those talkers who claim to be my friends – stop talking about it and come out and see me, there will always be a bed and maybe a feed, so make the goddam effort – ive been away for 2 years now, stop being so lazy :o)

OK, enough from me, over and out

IT'S A BOY!!

Dear all,

As usual I haven’t been in touch for ages. I know, I’m lame, but I have massive news for you all.

I’ve had a boy… his name’s Max…

Obviously there’s no real need to panic, as Max is my new Jeep! I’ve attached photos for one and all. He’s very handsome and I am madly in love with him. I got it about a month ago and have been working like mad and haven’t had the time to email.

I’m all grown up now, I’ve got my own little business and now by business car to boot. Very surprising even for me!

I’ve been looking for ages for the right car and I was perusing a few websites (we found a few on Ebay but I wasn’t happy about buying one online). I saw this one ages ago, months and months ago and really liked it but it was too expensive so I forgot about it. After months of going back and forth with the bank, they eventually gave me a business loan and I found out that this car – Max was still for sale. The woman was due to give birth and needed to get rid of the car ASAP, as it’s not a good family car. We managed to knock about 4 grand off the price, I was ridiculously happy. Gotta love taking advantage of a pregnant lady!!! I’ve wanted a wrangler for as long as I can remember but never thought I’d really have one, as they are so impractical in England. BUT now I’m over here and will make use of a 4-wheel drive, I thought why not? I’m only young once and its way too much fun. I’m counting down to the summer so I can go topless!

I’m currently saving up to add some additional bits and bobs to it like fat wheels, bull bar etc etc but I was so lucky cos the woman before me put about 6 grands worth of extras on it like leather interior and central locking. I cant wait till I can take the hard top off, the car also comes with the soft top too so I can change between the two.

As you can probably realise, I love it to bits!

Outside of the car, work has picked up quite a bit and I am now the official Advertising photographer for all of the papers, which basically means that I am working practically full time. Generally its about 4 days a week up to 7 days. I’m very happy with myself!

The weather is really starting to get progressively colder which is depressing, I hate the winter. Thankfully it’s not as bad as London Winters, but nevertheless, its still cold.

So that’s about the update for now, I hope everyone is well

Not much

Hello lovelies,

Well after complaints of me not writing my blog for ages, i'm back!

Sadly i've got to be honest, nothing too spectacular to report on as of late. Work has been very up and down, some weeks i'm working 70hrs and others about 3!!! No consistency what so ever. Cant complain though but i'm turning into a bit of a slob on my days off.

It’s Easter this weekend, we are thinking of going up the coast to go on a camping trip with some pals but its not finalised yet, knowing us we’ll end up staying in bed the whole weekend, achieving nothing but bedsores!

It was Birthday on Monday and it was a very quiet event, not much to report but another year older and not much wiser. Autumn is definitely on its way and the weather is starting to turn. The swimming pool is starting to collect too many leaves and I have the distinct feeling that it’s going to get covered over for the winter in the next few weeks. That’s a sad thought… I still hate the winter, even if it’s not as cold as London.

We’ve booked a trip over to NZ in September to go skiing for 10 days, which I am really looking forward to, and getting excited. Unlike my usual holiday planning, this year looks as if it’s going to be a lot more quiet than usual. I've only got the one holiday booked. No doubt we’ll go somewhere for xmas but its quite odd not going on multiple holidays. As I’ve said previously, this year is all about saving and concentrating on work. Sounds very grown up I know, but even I can be sensible sometimes.

I'm also trying to get back in shape for the aforementioned ski trip and have dragged my lazy ass to the gym and joined up. Admittedly I’m nowhere near as committed as I used to be and i'm well known for. I’m so lazy its comical.

So that’s about how exciting I am at the mo… Thrilling I know, I’ll be in touch when I have exciting news, i.e. winning the lottery!

muzac

Allo campers,

Well as per usual, its been ages since I have updated everyone with whats been going on. Last time I mailed I had just arrived back from my trip. Well I am well and truly back in the swing of it. Work did call me back in which was a complete relief! I’ve been working about 3- 5 days a week. Not as much as I was working before I left but still enough to get by.

I’ve had a couple of interesting jobs, meeting some very impressive and interesting people, all with amusing storied to tell. Tomorrow morning I’m eating breakfast and photographing Sydney FC, (Dwight York has moved from England to play with them) so should be quite amusing no doubt!

Work aside we’ve been kept pretty busy with all the music festivals that go on at this time of the year. Not sure if any of you have heard but I went to the ‘Big Day Out’ a few weeks ago. It was a rather large night, rather large day and night to be precise. Lots of big bands and big DJ’s playing. T’was very humorous. Also went to see an Ozzie singstress called Missy Higgins in the vineyards in the Hunter Valley. Really lovely day, went with a group of mates and threw together a massive picnic, loads of wine (for everyone but me) and deck chairs. Really lovely way to spend the day and evening. Last weekend we all went to another music festival called ‘Good Vibrations’. This was more of a DJ fest than anything else but the big act of the night was James Brown. He was absolutely crap which was a bit of a let down. Anyway that finished at about 10pm and then we all went our and painted the town red and caused serious chaos in Sydney. Trust me, you wouldn’t have wanted to be in the vicinity! Also met up with an old travel pal that I haven’t seen for nearly 5 years, twas absolutely wicked! (Thanks Suggs for the amusement)

So that’s about it. What with work and a bit of play… that’s what has been keeping me occupied. Not many plans for the time being other than trying to get as much work as I can and save up some money after my rather expensive Europe trip.

So that’s about it for now… I’ll be in touch
Cuddles and stuff

After the Travels

Hi there strangers,

Well I have to admit that it has been bloody ages since I last wrote and an awful lot has happened in the interim…

As you know from my last update I went away. The boat trip in the Mentawais (just off the coast of Sumatra) was really cool and ultra relaxing. The weather wasn’t as great as it should have been but I just enjoyed hanging out and not doing much at all. There were 8 of us on the boat, the majority of them were surfers and me and Billy were the only divers. Sadly, the surf was WAY too big for little old me so I didn’t have the balls to go in but I did manage to go for some dives which were pretty cool and also took more photos than you could shake a stick at!

Then it was off to very sunny London, no sarcasm intended – it really was lovely! It was so wonderful to catch up with everyone but I still was strapped for time and still didn’t meet up with everyone I wanted to. Apologies to Eve Mac, ½ of Team Kiwi, Anna ‘n’ Matt, John Cappello and all others that I cant think of right at this moment!! Although I was in the UK for 4 weeks, I actually wasn’t there for a great deal of it. I spent 3 days doing a short road trip of the UK, followed by 4 days in Rome, followed by 6 days in Europe. So really, 2 weeks of the 4 were anywhere but at home so it was such a rush to fit everything in – as I knew it would be. To all of you that I did meet up with, it was SO lovely to see you all but I just wish that I had a bit longer to catch up on cuddles and news.

I cant get over how quickly the time flew. I’m home now, arrived 2 days ago and I feel like it never happened already (how depressing!). On the plus side, cos I had Billy with me, I managed to get more done in the way of traveling than i ever would have by myself. The UK trip was short but sweet, I managed to see Bath and Stonehenge, 2 places that I had never been to before, among others. The Europe road trip was again, brilliant. We went to Amsterdam, picked up the car and drove through Luxembourg, Switzerland, France (The Alps), Italy and then drove through the Italian Riviera into the South of France. Too many funny and amazing experiences to list but high on them was staying in a 1000 year old castle in Northern Italy. Absolutely breathtaking. If anyone wants an unusual place to get married, this is it, I highly recommend it! (http://www.thebestraffaello.com/uk/hotel/hotel23.htm)

Anyway, as previously mentioned, I’m back home again in Australia and am just getting over jet-lag, for the millionth time this year! Thankfully this time its not as bad as it usually is. I’m waiting around to get my first assignment from the paper, they called me in the other day but I was still in London, so fingers crossed I’ll be working next week. To be frank, I’m not in that much of a rush as I really want to enjoy some summer sunshine, but alas, its completely overcast here!!

Anyway. Have to get on and continue with my getting home chores, hope all is well with one and all
Love always

3 More Sleeps

Well time is ticking so quick that I cant seem to keep up. It’s been a while since my last update mainly because I have been so busy working that I haven’t had time to write and also haven’t had that much to write about either!

Much to my pleasure, I have been working practically full time at the newspaper, sometimes working up to 7 days a week. Its been tiring, stressful and hard work, but ultimately I absolutely love it. The work is so varied and I meet people from all walks of life, from famous movie directors and sports star’s to little kids at school. The hours are pretty flexible too which is lovely. The best part to the whole job is that I don’t have to wear a suit to work… now that’s a pleasure you cant measure!

Other than working I’ve been preparing myself for my forthcoming trip – I leave on Monday… the countdown is most definitely on – only 3 more sleeps to go! I hope that the weather in Indo will be stinking hot and sunny. I feel like I haven’t laid out in the sun in ages and I look so pasty, white and ill that I’d be embarrassed to tell people that I’ve been living in Australia! After the boat trip, we’re basically flying direct to London and into the freezing cold. Not quite looking forward to the weather but absolutely cant wait to catch up with one and all.

The plan is to try and get some trips away to Rome, Amsterdam and maybe Paris – possibly may also squeeze in a ski trip somewhere too. So I should be really busy.

As for next year, to be honest I have no idea what we are both going to be doing. There are lots of options which are being thrown into the ‘ideas pot’, but nothing set in stone. A few of the ideas are: buy a house (very sensible I know but even I can be sensible sometimes!), buy a car (the Volvo is still alive and kicking but I think its about time to get a makeover), rent a house in Sydney (we both work down there and commute) or just sod all the work shit off and travel (always a great option and something that we regularly discuss). So now you know some of the ideas, we’ll see which ones come into fruition.

So my question to you all is this… who wants to meet up? Drop me a mail

Looking forward to seeing you all

Izzy Wizzy Let's Get Busy

Hey there,

Well these past few weeks have been absolutely manic. I’ve had no time to email anyone, so without exception to one and all, sorry I haven’t responded to your emails, i've read them all, but haven’t had the time nor energy to respond.

Well life has taken a strange old turn since about 6 months ago. I’ve gone from being the biggest layabout, lazy, good for nothing backpacker to a very hardworking chappie who is juggling two jobs. Who would have thought it!!!?

The photography is going pretty well I’m pleased to note. I’ve worked Sat, Sun, Tues, Wed and today, Thursday. So, yeah i'm pretty busy! I had my first ‘Social’ Event to cover on Tuesday evening. It was the launch of Dom Perignon’s Vintage 1998. T’was very odd swanning around one of the poshest joints in Sydney snapping the ‘It’ girls! All that aside it’s an absolute pleasure to be raising some funds once again! I was beginning to feel as if my brain was slowly evaporating.

Good news too, I have eventually pulled my finger out of the proverbial and have booked my flight over to not-so-sunny London. For all of you that care, heres the schedule…

WEDNESDAY 14 DEC 05 QANTAS AIRWAYS FLIGHT QF9
DEPART - SINGAPORE/CHANGI INTL 2320 NON-STOP
ARRIVE - LONDON/HEATHROW 0530 15 DEC 05
Terminal: TERMINAL 4

Copied straight off my itinerary!!

For all of those who are quick off the mark, you’ll notice that I am flying from Singapore, there is a reason for this. Billy and I are taking a short holiday before going on ‘holiday’ to London! We thought it would be rude to miss a lovely Australian summer to go to London therefore we are booked to go on a 2 week boat trip around the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia. Its basically a surf trip for the boys and a dive trip for me! It’s a couples’ trip so it should be fun. Lots of exploratory diving in weird and wonderful places and fingers crossed, lots of sunshine to boot! Also staying in Singapore for a few nights to do a spot of shopping – it’s tough i know!

Well I fly back on the 12th January, so I hope that I can catch up with all and sundry when I’m home. Write it all in your diaries and email me if you want to catch up!

OK its 8.30pm and I’ve just got in from work and am starving so again, I cant be bothered to email anyone tonight individually but I promise I will soon. Need food.

Can’t wait to catch up with one and all

Nothing too Exciting

Hey campers,

S’me again. Not too much to tell but thought I’d update you all anyway. Well I’m well into the swing of my 2 jobs which is a bonus as for the first time in over a year I have a regular income coming onboard which is greatly appreciated I can tell you. It’s also keeping me out of trouble too which is an added bonus!

I’ve been ill lately, well for the past 2 weeks anyway which is rather irritating as I haven’t been sick in quite a long time. I forgot how annoying it is! Nothing too major, cold/cough and other such exciting stuff.

News my end is odd really, my brother has followed in his little sister’s footsteps and has decided to move out to Australia for a year. He arrived a few days ago. It’s all very odd really. Its like a mass exodus of the Butters clan!

Other than that snippet, all is very much the same. Still haven’t booked my flights but will be doing so soon-ish. We are trying to squeeze in another holiday in the sun before we come over, it’s all ideas and dreams at the moment but as always, I’ll keep you posted when I know myself. Over and out.

BLAG's Ville

Dear all,

Well my newest update is rather interesting. Isn’t it much more fun when I have things to write about?!

Well what can I say? My blag into the world of Photography seems to be coming off slowly but surely (much to my utter surprise and amusement). Don’t get me wrong, for all those who don’t know me too well, I can take photos and have done a diploma in Photography so its not a total blag – but still, despite all this, I’m no Pro!

OK, well I should continue from my last update. As promised I did get my first day at work and amazingly it ended up being 2 days after the interview. To say that I was shitting myself is a complete understatement. So nervous it was a joke! I had to go and take 3 photos; an upcoming swimmer, a hypnotherapist and a football player. I had such a ball. I mean I have to be honest with you, if I could make this a full time career its gotta be up there with the coolest jobs. The stressful part to the day is actually getting to each session. Finding your way around a city by car when you have absolutely no idea where you are going gets pretty unnerving. I don’t know how I didn’t have multiple car crashes but anyway that’s beside the point!

My boss left me hanging for a few days with no feedback so I, being Danielle Butters, immediately thought the worst, that he hates my work and was never going to get in contact again. Till he called. Told me that he was happy with my photos… and I was so relieved! Still, though, I was interested to see when he’d call me back in for another days work. Luckily I didn’t have to wait too long. I worked yesterday again and fingers crossed, he’s still happy with my images.

The plan is this, I’m going to start work at the surf shop on Tuesday and will work when I can with the photography. Basically I have told my new boss (the surf shop) that my priority is the photography so when I get called in, I’m going to have to go – even if it’s a last minutes notice. He seemed fine with this, so all is very well in camp!

Still on course to come over to London for Christmas, am hopefully booking tickets within the next 2 – 3 weeks so I’ll be able to give you all my dates so I can arrange to meet up with one and all.

That’s it for now

The Jobs

Dear one and all,

Well after only a few days with the visa in hand I went on the job hunt. It’s funny when things like this happen; jobs seem to fall into your lap. I’ve got a mate who is a manager at a surf clothing shop and she needed some help. Just good for a bit of cash and a good way to ease my way back into the world of work without too much brain power being used up! Got to take these things slowly!!! Well I went down to meet my mates boss and ended up getting the job, the company is based about 20mins away from where I live so its pretty local and the hours are 9 – 5 which is easy.

Well that’s just the first stage of the job hunt… now comes the interesting bit that I left the last entry on with such a cliffhanger! To all of you that know me, you all knew that I left London to go and try and do something a little different with my life. Now that really doesn’t/didn’t mean work in a surf shop instead of an office. I was trying to get away from the office lifestyle and do something that I love and try and get paid for the pleasure…

With that in mind, another opportunity fell into my lap. A mate of mine is the production manager for the 3rd biggest publisher in Australia. He gave me a contact name of the chief photographer to get in contact with. So I did. I dropped him an email with a little bit about me, trust me, it was filled with lots of white lies and padded out to the extreme but low and behold, the guy got back in touch with me and asked me to go and meet with him yesterday.

As luck would have it, I have managed to BLAG a job as a freelance photographer for the same company that publishes Vogue and GQ. Now if that is not absolutely hysterical, I can’t tell you what else is! I’m completely pooing myself for my first job which may be as soon as this week!

I don’t want to get too carried away at the moment and to be honest I wasn’t going to write to you all and tell you just yet but I couldn’t contain myself!!! Let’s just hope that I manage to pull this off and take some good photos so they ask me back again!!

So that’s the update for now, I’m sure they’ll be one very soon with either good or bad news to come!

The Result

Newsflash (as promised)

On the afternoon of Tuesday 30th August, exactly 3 working days after that shocker of an interview, I, Ms Danielle Butters acquired my shiny new visa which has been stuck into the shiny maroon British passport! Horrah to me!

To say that I was flabbergasted is a rather large understatement! I am so chuffed it’s as if I’m a seven year old with a brand new bike!

I got the dredded letter through the post and I really didn’t want to open the damn thing but I knew it wasn’t going to open itself. So off I trotted, got comfy and peeled back the envelope. What’s amusing is that it took me about a minute to read the damn letter before I had realized that I had been accepted. A little squeal and jig around the room and I was smiling from ear to ear.

I went down to the immigration office in Sydney again today to get the actual sticker put into my passport and I have to say, this whole process has been so painless its quite unbelievable. They were so prompt it put the UK government to shame!

The minute I got the letter through I went straight down to apply for Medicare which is like their National Health Service. That was stupidly painless too. Another thing that sprang into my mind just today was that I needed to apply for a tax File Number for when I start work. So online I went only an hour ago, and can you believe it, within 5 minutes, I filled in an online questionnaire and my number is on its way in the post. What a wonderfully easy-to-use, customer friendly-nation this is!

So here I am, all ready to go and trying to sort myself out some work… that’s another whole episode in itself which will be told in due course! Trust me, what I’m planning is hysterical!

Another wonderful cliffhanger!

The Interview

I was WAY too confident!

Well, I’m adult and mature enough to admit when I’m wrong. This time is one of those wonderful occasions. Well as you all know, I had my dredded appointment/interview with immigration yesterday arvo – Thursday 25th August. I will remember it and have nightmares about it forever!

Ok let me give you all a short run down of it all. Here I am, confident as anything that they (customs) are going to just welcome me in with open arms; another pommie backpacker to add to the millions living here. I’m reasonably intelligent, can speak English adequately, am willing to work and am rather unlikely to claim off their dole. Now you’d think with that in mind it would be a walk in the park. Alas… no such luck. See, the way I look at it is like this, if I couldn’t speak English, wanted to rape their benefit system and had no intention to work, it would seem that they would let me in with open arms. Trust me, all you had to do was look around at the others in the waiting room to know that this was true. I was the only English speaker there. There were translators, lawyers and other such folk lurking around every corner and little old Billy and me – the outcasts!!!

OK, I’m waffling but I have to set the scene for you all so you can experience just what I did on that fateful day! OK so we get there early, being the punctual people we are!! (No sarcasm intended I promise!) Tore off one of those tickets, you know the ones, the things you get at the butchers so you wait in line for your steak! I should have known from that, that it was going to be a shambles! Appointment was at 2pm, got called up to an open counter and with reasonable confidence, sat ourselves down. The girl looked like my brothers nasty ex, which should have been clue number 2!!

The witch a.k.a brothers ex a.k.a immigration chick asked me for all my forms… check…Had those no problemo, then came a few other easy to find bits. Then came the fun transaction, how will you pay "oh just pop it on the credit card” She asks me if I knew how much this tiny little visa stamp cost, “$2 grand”, I promptly reply. To which she says, “You know it’s non-refundable, if they don’t give you the visa you lose the money”. I knew that joyous news already. Then came the question, quite simple to be honest but felt like a knife digging into my kidney. “So next thing I need is proof you’ve been living together for the full 12months”, she says. “Well, erm”, big pause from the both of us, “well, we only have proof from November as we were living together out in Asia before then, but we were here for 2 weeks in August but obviously we weren’t renting so we don’t have any rental agreements as we were staying with his family and friends”.

Now tumble-weed was free flowing through the office, me and Bill looked at each other and it looked liked we just flopped at the first hurdle. Completely unexpected and unplanned for. OK so now the sweat starts to bead off both of us, no exaggeration at all, we looked so guilty – even though we aren’t! We were stuck as we really didn’t have any proof to cover us for the first 3 months that we were living together. “Right, well then Danielle, if you cant prove that you have been together for the whole 12 months period prior to today then I suggest you don’t go forth and see the case officer as you will loose your money”, the witch explained.

Billy looked at me as if to say, lets not bother, 2 grand is too much money just to loose, lets just wait a few more months. I looked back with devil eyes as if to say, not a chance sunshine, I aint no gambler but this one I’m going to stick on the nose (so to speak!). Now, ever so slightly rattled, sweating and now shaking profusely from anger that the Witch has put an enormous stumbling block in my path, I resoundedly told both of them that I was going to see the case officer. I didn’t come all the way down here to get turned away at the first hurdle. The decision had been made. I was prepared to fight. Anyone who knows me well will know just what I mean. The battle had commenced. Adrenaline was pumping and I was shaking like a leaf. Not a pleasant sight I can tell you.

Ok so we wait what seems like an hour to be seen. It was probably only 20mins but it felt like I was on Death Row! Oprah was playing in the background and she didn’t make me feel any better! Billy and I were going through the whole thing in our heads, we must have looked hysterical, if only someone would have caught the moment on film!

Anyway, we get called in to a closed off office and were introduced to Steve. Thank the Lord, Steve was lovely. Here’s me in my battle outfit, stern faced, sweating and shaking, Billy exactly the same… and then there’s lovely Steve who welcomed us in with a big smile and hand shake. Immediately I dropped the daggers!

We went through everything that we had, all the evidence, all the paperwork and told him our story of the past 12 months. Now here’s some advice to one and all, my whole visa was in the balance and do you know what could have saved me? (Incidentally it didn’t). You know when you arrive into a country you have to fill in an Arrivals card and on it, it has an intended address whilst you are in that country? Well here Steve was with all and I mean ALL my arrivals cards into Australia over the past few years. Now see, if I was sensible, on my August 13th Arrival card you’d think that id put Billy’s address as my intended address. Well clever old Danielle, I put f***ing Sydney down. You can just imagine how irritated I was! Now if I would have put Billy’s address, the interview would have been over and I would have had my f***ing visa… So my advice to one and all is this;

BE SPECIFIC WHEN FILLING IN THOSE ARRIVAL CARDS, YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO NEED THEM

Ok, with that complete mess up on my part, I was lucky enough to have kept a printed statement from the Flight Centre when we booked to fly from Australia to Bali in August. This one piece of paper may just have saved the day. On the itinerary, it had both mine and Billy’s names and our address and luckily enough it also had the date that we went in there to book the flight – 26th August. 364 days ago. So it proved that 364 days ago we were living at the same address. Admittedly according to regulations, you have to be living together for 365 days, but he thinks that the 1 day can be overlooked! My god, was I happy that I kept that tiny, eeny, weeny piece of paper.

Bless Steve; he looked as relieved as us that we had it. He kept saying to us that he really wants to give us this Visa but he has to cover his ass incase he gets audited. Which is understandable.

So after about 20mins, Steve said to us that he thinks its pretty positive and that he’ll send us a letter in the NEXT FEW DAYS to tell us whether it has been granted. I nearly fell off my seat, FEW DAYS????!!! Here’s me dredding the 2 month wait and this time next week I’ll know whether I got it or not.

I’m, still not 100% sure, he still may ask for more information and proof from us but I can cope with that. As long as we don’t loose that money I’m not that fussed. I came out a hellava lot happier than the first chick, the witch.

So after that huge step by step explanation as to what happened I’m going to leave you all with this cliffhanger…

WILL SHE OR WONT SHE GET IT!!!

I’ll keep you posted!

The Return To Oz

OK,
Well after what seems like an eternity since I emailed last, here I am again. I arrived back in Australia on 11th August and was severely jet-lagged. I wasn't impressed! The rest of my trip in London was quite laid back, as I knew it would be. Managed to catch up with some pal's - not as many as I would have liked but that wasn’t really the reason for my trip.

So I have to share my jet-lagged-ness with you all. Considering that I didn’t get even remotely affected when I flew from Sydney to London I thought I may have grown out of it…. How stupid am I! So jumped on the plane with 2 sleeping pills to hand ready to be taken. Didn’t manage any sleep on the first leg as I was sitting next to quite possibly the most irritating 2 people on the plane, a fidgety 10 year old boy and his even fidget-ier grandmother. Now really, the question one must ask is how many times do you REALLY need to get up to go to the toilet? Well apparently, between the two of them, it was every half hour. Thought I was going to commit a crime. Luckily I managed to move seats on the second leg and thought I was being clever when I dropped 2 sleeping tablets in unison. Well, I got sleep, about 4hrs which is amazing for me! When I arrived however, I felt refreshed and ready to take on the world, only problem was that it was night and I was meant to be tired and ready for bed. 4 days later, I was still waking up at 2:30am and not being able to get back to sleep. I was not a happy chappy.

It’s been nearly a week now since I got back. In that time, I have celebrated my year anniversary with Billy, (where has time gone?) got no sleep and started up my fitness regime again as I have no excuse to be this unfit when I’m not working!

Just booked in for my visa interview which is in about a week – can’t wait to get it sorted as its been consuming so much time and effort. I think I’m nearly sorted now, got all my paperwork in order and even I’m reasonably impressed with my top notch organization skills!

Weather here is absolutely amazing. Don’t get me wrong, my fingers feel like they are going to fall off but take in to account that it is smack bang in the middle of winter. However what differs from a London winter is this one important factor. The sky is blue. When I say blue, I mean blue, the sun is shining and it hasn’t rained in weeks. The days are around 20 degrees but mornings and nights are cold. These winters I can cope with!

Currently trying to plan some ideas for how to spend the rest of my life – the general sort of thing that I end up doing every now and then. Too many ideas and there is one main conflicting factor, to I just travel or do I try and be sensible? Pretty much the same sort of questions I ask myself and always go for the non-sensible, irresponsible option!

I’ll keep you posted though and start throwing out some ideas for you all to comment on. But in the mean time I’m off to bathe after my sweaty work out!

The Beginning Of My Blog

OK, well this is the first in what I hope to be a regular installment of my life for all those who are bored enough to read about me!

Sadly, as I’m sure most of you know, I’m back in London on a not-so-pleasant visit as my nana sadly passed away last week. I'll be here until 10th August when I’ll be hopping back on the plane. Can't wait (serious sarcasm intended) for my rather unexciting and rather brain hurting journey back to Sydney. There's nothing like a 20 odd hour flight to make you happy!

Currently having real issues with Hewlett Packard customer services as some hardware is broken and have time on my hands in front of the laptop while they respond! Could be here for a while so I thought I’d be productive and write to one an all. The weather over here is surprisingly nice, I even saw the sunshine for 20 mins which threw me a bit - I know it's summer but, 20 whole minutes?! I was mightily impressed.

Spending my days at home with the family and the evenings catching up with friends. Time is flying by in an instant which is always a worry. This time next week I’ll be outa here. Planning on another visit back to London and Europe as a whole at Christmas. I can't seem to get away from this place! Dragging Billy over with me as he has never been here before. Think it's going to be a shock to his system! When I get back to Australia, I’m just focusing on getting my visa application sorted. Hopefully the whole process will only take a month or two; otherwise I’m going to get rather stressed out. Having to leave the country every 3 months is starting to aggravate me!

Anyway that's enough from me, I’ll be catching up soon, need to get back to HP and start kicking some proverbial ass...