I got my leave!

I got approval  today for my 19 days' leave over the Christmas/New Year period. Hooray! I cannot wait. Only 15 working days and I'm there. I'd better get started on that holiday to-do list, and get a wriggle on with planning our road trip, too. 

Astounded, self-assembly, Sydney

You'll never guess what happened to me today! I got a phone call from the bank near my work asking me if I took $50 out of the ATM on Monday. 

Me: Yes

Bank Lady: And did you leave the $50 in the machine?

Me: Yes

Bank Lady: A man has handed it in. I just had to go through the ATM records to find out who it belonged to.

Me: You. Are. Kidding, Me. 

Bank Lady: I shit you not* 

Can you believe that?! That man is the most honest person in the world. I wish he'd left his details so I could thank him. Bank Lady said it's happened before. Someone recently handed in $200 that had been left in the machine. Astounding. 

* Possibly not her exact words

Luke picked up our new bookcase this afternoon. He's almost finished assembling it as I type. I did some self-assembly of my own. I call it Foamiture™.

It was kinda like making house of cards. (Does anyone still do that? Here's a how-to if you want to try).

I forgot that I'm meeting Mum in Sydney for Christmas and New Year's Eve. I've never been there for New Year's Eve, so that will be exciting (for those who don't know, Sydney has the most spectacular fireworks show in the country on NYE). We went to Sydney for Christmas about six years ago, so we've done most of the touristy things.  I'm compiling a list of other stuff to do. So far I have climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the coastal walk from Bondi to Bronte, which passes Waverley Cemetery, which sydney.com describes as "one of the world’s more scenic operational cemeteries".  

This is hard....

Hmm....*scratches head*....There are 37 working days left until my Christmas holidays. I'm going to visit Mum near Port Macquarie in NSW for a week before Luke and I head to Tasmania for a week. I'm counting down the days, though I realise a daily countdown isn't going to cut the NaBloPoMo mustard.

Hopefully tomorrow is a more gleeful day. 

Last day, first day

Today is my last day of work for three weeks. Hurrah! Tomorrow I'm catching a plane to Port Macquarie to spend Christmas and New Year's Eve with my mother, whom I haven't seen since last Christmas. I'm looking forward to it.

At the start of the year, my mum moved from Port Macquarie (a bustling city of about 70,000 on the mid-north coast of New South Wales) to a little town inland called Wauchope. I've been there before briefly a couple of times, but I'm looking forward to exploring it properly and taking some photos.

We're also planning to spend some time up in the nearby mountains. It's such picturesque country up there - so green and lush all year round, which is a  welcome change after the drought and dry grass down south.  (Click here for some pictures...goodness me, looking at those photos makes my camera finger itch!)

Of course I'm also looking forward to putting my feet up, reading some books and enjoying some maternal spoiling. Oh, and NOT  BEING AT WORK!

I'm not sure when I will have a chance to blog again - partly due to being away and partly due to more laptop problems (*shakes fist at 'puter*) - so I will wish you all a gleeful Christmas now. May your festive season be bursting with the simple pleasures that make this time of year special.

Finally, thank you all for reading and commenting and sharing your glee with me throughout the year. Looking forward to more of the same in 2010!

Happy happy joy joy

Happy happy joy joy #1

There was a letter in the mail box from my real estate agent when I got home tonight. The sight of it made my heart pound. You see, my lease expires in less than two months and I've been preparing myself to get a notice to vacate so the new owners can redevelop the building.

Fortunately before I opened it I twigged that a notice to vacate would have been sent by registered post so the poundy heart stopped. I opened it and -YAYS! They're putting new carpet in the stairwell in January!

No, I'm not especially thrilled about new carpet - the expenditure on new floor coverings means they won't be redeveloping any time soon and I get to stay! Hurrah! *happy dance*

My flatmate (who's now back from her trip) told me last night she's going to look for a place of her own when the lease is up. If we had to vacate, I would have done the same, but I love living here so much that I'd prefer to stay and get a new flatmate.

This is such a relief. I've lived here for five years - hard to believe it's now the longest I've lived anywhere since I left home in 1992 - and for probably three of those five years I've been living with the possibility of vacating so the owners can redevelop.

Of course there is always the possibility they will still redevelop in the future, but you'd think after spending money to carpet three flights of stairs, they won't be doing it for at least a couple of years. It's not like the existing carpet is a safety hazard or horrendously worn out.

Hopefully when the time comes to find a new flatmate it will be as effortless as it was last time, and the new flattie will be as good as Anna.

Happy happy joy joy #2

I have got a whole three weeks off work, starting on Christmas Eve. I'm SO hanging out for it. I haven't had a full week off work all year (mostly because I've been trying to save my annual leave). Not that I've been working hard or anything. I'm not burnt out...just sort of drained by the boredom. 

My office closes on 24 December and re-opens on January 11 so everyone has to take that time off, but I'm taking a couple of extra days.

I'm going to visit my mother in New South Wales for about 10 days over the Christmas-New Year period and then the rest of the time I will be having a staycation in Melbourne, which, as many of you might recall, I love to do. I get almost as excited by that as the prospect of having a proper holiday.  

I'm already compiling a list of things to do with my time off...

Champagne and Reefer

Can't recall if I've posted this video already, but I love the song so much I'm gonna do it again. This is from the Rolling Stones concert doco Shine a Light - the Stones featuring special guest Buddy Guy.

Love the blues. Love Buddy Guy's enormous voice and his guitar work. Love the harmonica. It gives me goosebumps.

Christmas greetings

Before I head off to bed before Santa's arrival, I'd like to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas with your loved ones and a gleeful New Year.

Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing the glee. It's been a fabulous few months and I look forward to more in 2009.

Jayne x

Gleeful anticipation

I remember when I was a kid saying to my mother that I wish it was my birthday already or Christmas or the school holidays or some event that I was excitedly looking forward to, and she would tell me not to wish my life away.

I've always been quite impatient and found it difficult to happily wait for much-anticipated events. But - somehow, without intending to - I seem to have learned to relish counting down the hours, days and weeks until a Big Day arrives. Maybe it's part of getting older.

I'm so excited about so many things at the moment - small things and big things - that I'm practically bouncing. I feel like a little kid before Christmas.

My favourite show Scrubs returns tonight. Yay! I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for it all year and now it's finally here! (It's on now actually, I'm typing during the ads).

I have drinks after work tomorrow night with a group of people I "met" through the Ask Sam dating/relationships blog on The Age newspaper website. Some I have met in the flesh once or twice, some I only know through the information they have divulged online - which is sometimes a lot. There are some amazingly intelligent, wise, funny and quirky people who comment (the blog itself is rarely worth reading) and I'm looking forward to meeting them offline.

Saturday night I am going to see one of my favourite bands, The Grates, perform. I have seen them once before and it was an awesome, high-energy gig so I have high hopes for this show. (Oh, and I'm having a fill of tasty dumplings with a friend in Chinatown beforehand.)

And next week I'm on holidays! Wooooo! I'm not going away. I'm sure people at work think I'm dead boring because I often have "home holidays". I love Melbourne so much that I'm happy having a week off work without leaving town. I have heaps of stuff planned, much of it aimed at catching up and getting on top of things, including having a great big clean out at home. I know, it sounds boring, but I love the catharsis of cleaning out the clutter and having a neat and orderly home. I got rid of a lot of stuff about six months ago but this time I'm going to be even more ruthless. I like the idea of paring things right back to the bare minimum.

I have also been in touch with someone from my past who has suggested we catch up over dinner, and I'm cautiously excited about that. (For anyone who read in my first ever post that I had just emerged from an on-off relationship, it's not that guy!)

And, that's on top of the other things I've written about recently, including going shopping with a cheque from the tax man to buy myself a flash new camera, and having a whole month off over Christmas. I'm also considering rearranging my flight home to visit friends up north for New Year's Eve.

I can't wait...No! I can!

Do you enjoy anticipation? Do you like having home holidays? Are you a hoarder or declutterer?

Something to look forward to

I found out today I'm going to get a WHOLE MONTH off work over Christmas/New Year this year. Yayeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Four glorious weeks of summer time rest and relaxation.

I had already arranged to have a three-week break at Christmas instead of my usual two weeks, beginning mid-December and ending when the office opens again on January 5. I was pretty happy about that and looking forward to it. But today my bosses decided to close the office for an extra week, until January 12. The business manager asked me if I would have a problem with it and I laughed and said, "Are you serious?!" A problem with an extra week off? No way, baby!

I haven't had such an extended Christmas break since I worked in publishing more than six years ago when everything went into a six-week hiatus over the festive period. I'm so excited about it. I'll be up at my mum's in beautiful coastal Port Macquarie for about 12 days and I'm starting to think about what else I can do to make the most of the free time.

Someone once said the key to happiness is to have something to do, someone to love and something to look forward to. When I'm feeling a little glum I like to think about the good things that are up ahead in my life (as well as being grateful for what I already have). A month-long summer holiday will ensure a smile is never far from my face.

What are you looking forward to?