Shitburgers

Oh my, I cannot believe I survived this week. It has been extremely busy at work, so busy that I feel like I have just been taking shitburgers, one after another. I have been working late most nights, at home of course, doing work on my laptop. Yesterday was such an interesting day. 

At 6.30am, Grumpy took off with his mate to the airport - and they were travelling to Malaysia for a bucks party! So that means its just myself and Little Bambi at home, to fend for ourselves. 

I dropped her off to creche at 7am. She was the only kid there. I swear I drove back home with a massive pang of guilt! It is too early in the morning, and most kids only start coming in at 8am or 8.30am. 

I rushed to work on the train, grabbed my favourite coffee , made it to my desk by 8am and did my work as usual. At 12.15pm, my ex-boss from my old work organised lunch for 10 of us who used to work together, also in the same bank, but lunch was in a different building. I work in 500 Bourke Street, lunch was at 700 Bourke Street. Walked there, had lunch, said my hellos, and walked back again to 500. At 2.15pm, I packed my laptop, cleared my desk (bloody flexi-desk policy) and ran for my life to my next 2.30pm meeting at 800 Bourke Street. Bloody hell. Weather was warm, OMFG I was sweating like an effing pig! Also, I barely know my way around 800 Bourke building, which made it nearly impossible to make it in time to my meeting. Meeting rooms in this building are, as an example, 'Meeting room 1234', which means Pier 1, Level 2, Room 34. I found myself stopping people to ask "Excuse me, where's Pier 8?????"

2.30pm meeting went great. It still have no idea how I made it there in time. Then the next meeting, also in 800 Bourke, was at 3.30pm. It had some fancy name called 'The Hub - Meeting Room 2345'. This is rocket science, isn't it? Again, I had to ask someone, "Excuse me, where is The Hub, Pier 2?" The 3.30pm meeting was an interesting one, a Board meeting, I arrived 5 minutes early, only to find out I am the second last person to arrive. There were ten people already seated. The last person was of course the Chairman of the Board. Anyways, got it over and done with. TICK!

Next stop, back again in 700 Bourke St, to have a quick cup of coffee with Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch. It started to rain. Shitburgers.

The final stop, back to the CBD from Docklands, was at Campari house for our team drinks, which is all paid for by work. After drinks, I took the train (a bit tipsy) and got home at 8pm. 

While I did all of that, in the back of my mind, of course, I was thinking of my Little Bambi. Thank goodness I had Dopey. He was kind enough to offer to pick her up from creche. I made a checklist for him, which meant that he had to bath her, feed her dinner and put her to bed. Dopey had to be in Adelaide for work yesterday, but I twisted his arm, and he changed his Adelaide trip to next week. 

Last night, as I laid in bed, my legs sore and my head mentally exhausted, I was just glad the day was well and truly over! With Little Bambi by my side, I kissed her cheeks and tell myself how blessed I am that she is such a good kid. I do owe my brother big time for helping me out yesterday too. 

10 More Weeks Til Christmas

Little Bambi at 2 years and 4 months

We had a weekend filled with catching up with my friends - from work (actually). 

On Friday, an ex-workmate invited us for a playdate at the park for Little Bambi and her son. I felt bad because while I had work that day, I could only get to the park at 6pm. So it was a pretty late playdate. We finished at the park at 7pm, and rushed home for a shower and dinner. It was still pretty fun.

Saturday we did the usual routine. All three of us headed to Chaddy at 8.20am. I went to the gym for the 8.30am RPM class, while Grumpy and Little Bambi went to McDonalds for breakfast and they did a Coles run together. In the evening, we invited some friends over for dinner, including Little-Miss-Sailing, a new friend I made at work. Little-Miss-Sailing is from the Hong Kong office and I thought it would be nice for her to come over instead of spending her weekends by herself. 

This morning, we drove all the way to Eltham to meet another ex-workmate (from my previous previous work) Little-Miss-Frenchie (she really is French) and her 4 month old baby at the farmer's market. While the market was not great, there was a nice big park which Little Bambi could play in. 

Grumpy and I have not been feeling 110% over the last week because of hayfever and a chest infection. I am getting better though, so lets hope next week will be a lot better! 

10 more weeks til Christmas! 8 more weeks til my mum arrives!

Picnic at the Tan

Little Bambi has been doing imaginary plays a lot lately. She pretends she is in a boat, in a train, in a plane, and most recently she has been playing pretend picnic!

Here is Little Bambi playing picnic in her
bedroom by herself, with all her toys.

And so... Grumpy and I decided to take her out for a REAL picnic, considering it is beautiful weather this weekend. He won a picnic basket from work about a year ago. I bought a picnic rug from last year's Christmas sale. So I am glad we are finally putting our picnic utensils into good use.

I googled 'Best picnic spots in Melbourne', and read up on local parks, places like Mt Dandenong etc. In the end, we decided on the Tan (the only place we were most familiar with, and also because we knew we would not be disappointed).

We packed our picnic basket the night before. And this morning, after my 8.30am RPM class in Chaddy, I stopped by at Aldi - picked up some cheese, crackers, dip and chocolate biscuits (for dessert). 

Here are some pictures from today.

Little Bambi munching on celery sticks with onion dip.

Trust Grumpy to bring the alcohol..

The vintage looking picnic basket Grumpy won from work. 

Cheers!

All three of us, captured in this photo.

Soaking up the sun.

Family portrait at the Tan

It was nice that Dopey and his girlfriend joined us too at our picnic. We laid on the grass, Little Bambi ran around on her bare feet, food was yummy, we played music from the iPad and Spotify, the temperature was still a bit cool by my standards (20 degrees celcius). Overall, the picnic today was absolutely perfect. 

Face Painting

The good news is that Grumpy has finished watching LOST! FINALLY! The bad news is that even though we both started out watching it together, I kind got lost myself with LOST, because it is so effing confusing and so, I have not been giving it my 110% attention and decided to sleep early that night (while he was watching the finale). 

I would like to watch the new season of Downton Abbey! I love Downton!

Last week was quite busy. I caught up with two old workmates. One of them was my old boss, whom I never used to like at the start, but after a while we both kinda just got along really well! I miss her so much! I really do, I love how open and honest we are with each other! My new boss is a guy, and its just not the same. He is nice and all, but we have yet to overcome the awkwardness of a professional working relationship.

Yesterday, at the last minute, I organised lunch at a german restaurant to celebrate Oktoberfest. There was face painting for kids, and so I asked the girl to paint Little Bambi as a cat. This has got to be one of the worst face paintings ever, but oh well, the girl that did it came personally to our table and offered it, which was a nice thing to do. When I said to Little Bambi 'Lets take a selfie', she saw her face and wanted to wipe it off immediately!

Okay, thats it for a Monday night!

XX
Jules

Part-Time Working Mother

When we returned from a four week holiday in Malaysia, I assumed I had used up all my annual leave for the year. Until a few weeks ago, my manager said I still had about 5 days of annual leave which I need to clear up before the bank's year end (which is 30 September). 

Therefore, for the month of September, I took every Friday off. And last week, being the final week in September, I had Thursday and Friday off. It was awesome!!! Now I know what it feels like being a part-time working mother! Working full-time while juggling a two year old can be quite exhausting!

As an added bonus, I squeezed in Volunteer Day today, so I only return to work tomorrow. I chose to volunteer at the Christian Blind Mission, writing Christmas cards for their donors. I love writing Christmas cards! My scheduled time was 10am until 3pm. I dropped Little Bambi off to creche at about 9.30am before I started at CBM. When I was done at 3pm, I stopped by at Coles and the chemist, and then picked her up by 4pm. We got home, ate ice cream and then walked the dog together. Oh yes, and not forgetting the fact that I made it to the gym at 6.05am this morning for a session of RPM Hi-Performance!

Usually Little Bambi is at creche from 7am until 5.30pm - which is such a longgggg day. We get home by 5.45pm and there's hardly any time to do anything apart from taking a shower and getting ready for dinner. 

At dinner today, I told Grumpy that the '10am-3pm' time really suits us, because at least Little Bambi is not at creche for too long a day, and we have more time to do fun things like eat ice cream! 

He looked at me and said "So do you want to do volunteer work everyday????"

Old Episodes of Lost

It has been nearly three months since my last post.

The reason for my lack of post is because Grumpy has decided to watch old episodes of Lost again, and while he roped me in to watching it with him, I have lost access to my Mac Book Pro at night. Each night after Little Bambi falls asleep, we hide in our bedroom on a cold winter's night, two mugs of hot green tea in hand and heaps of chocolate and junk food to share.. while watching a bunch of people run around an island fighting for survival.

Little Bambi has been doing really well. She has been in really good form this time round, compared to last year. She is getting on very well with her friends in childcare, always looking forward to spend the day with them. She is cheeky, as always.

My birthday this year, 32 years old.. Yikes.. it was extremely low key, which I did not mind at all. I told no one at my new work about my birthday. But I did take the day off. 

Work has been good as well. I am so very blessed that I landed myself in a good working environment, with nice and friendly people. The team is quite professional too, although it is mainly male dominated. I am really enjoying my role as well, it is a huge learning curve for me, so lots to take in.. and while I should really be reading up on financial news at night, instead I am watching an old TV show from ten years ago (ie Lost)! However, after going through two redundancies, a dozen restructures and the usual office politics in financial services, I know one can never be too confident or comfortable in a role.

I have been trying to improve my fitness level as well. I currently join my workmates at boot camp during our lunch breaks on Tuesday. And on top of that, I have been taking RPM classes at the gym. I bought my first cycling shorts yesterday, and am thinking of getting proper cycling shoes too. 

I have to run now, but looking forward to blog more in the coming weeks.

First Day At Work

8.01am
Sydney-Boy: Do you start your new job today??

8.24am
Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch: Good luck on your first day Jules! All the best!! Lunch sometime this week when you are settled!

9.44am
Grumpy: How is your 1st day?

10.44am
My 'new' ex-boss: Hows it going?

10.51am
Dopey's-Better-Half: How's your first day at work so far?

11.17am
Mum: Girl how are you? Liking your new place?

2.33pm
Little-Miss-Drink-A-Lot: First day of work? How's it going?

All the Whatsapp and text messages that were coming through today on my first day at work. I realise how blessed and lucky I am, to be surrounded by all these people who care about me.

Huge Relief x2

We are finally back in Melbourne again after spending three weeks in Malaysia for holidays. Overall, I had an enjoyable holiday. Even though it was three weeks, which seems like a long time, it still felt a bit rushed. We caught up with family and friends, which was a lot of fun.

I go back to work on Monday, which I am not looking forward to… BOO!!

A quick update on my work situation, I have secured a new role within the same bank, but its a completely different role! Its in Group Risk - which is so different from the past 6 years of my working life working in projects. I start right at the bottom, but I am prepared for this change. I received a phone call late on Tuesday evening to say I got the job, and was leaving for KL on Thursday morning. It was such a hugeeee relief… I wanted nothing else before my holidays, but to know that when I come back, I will have a job!

But back to my holidays, we did a short getaway in Penang. Penang is such a beautiful place. Clean and so well maintained! And after that we spent most of our time staying with my parents or Grumpy's parents. Little Bambi enjoyed being surrounded by her grandparents and the rest of the family.

I will have to say, when we landed back in Melbourne yesterday, I was thanking my lucky stars that Little Bambi was able to enjoy her holidays without any peanut allergy dramas! It truly was a huge relief! We found that some of the popular brands of cooking oil in Malaysia were a mixture of palm oil and peanut oil. A BIG NO-NO for Little Bambi. We were constantly asking restaurant staff, if their food contained peanut oil or peanuts, and most of them replied "NO NO! NO PEANUT!" so fast and confident that I just did not trust them. It felt like they did not even take the time to consider the ingredients in the food, etc..

We celebrated Little Bambi's second birthday in KL. We hosted a party for about 60 family members at a chinese restaurant. Party was a huge success.

Grumpy and I did our first getaway on our own without Little Bambi, but just for one night in KL city. We stayed at Traders Hotel in KL, which was a very nice hotel - and most importantly, the location was just perfect for us. My family members kept teasing us that we were on a honeymoon, haha, but just for one night! It was very good for the soul - nice to be able for Grumpy and myself to be alone and  enjoy each others company without any interruption.

Anyways, more photos to come, but here's one of Little Bambi and I in Penang.

Kiss Cam!

Cheer Myself Up

It has been ages since my last post.

This will be a quick one. What's happened so far? TOO MUCH!

In a nut shell, I am pretty much out of a job… My role has been made redundant. There is no pay out, because they expect us to find another job within the bank. I found another job outside, but had to turn it down. For reasons unknown… and I still can't stop shitting myself for doing that. I know I know, one should not live a life of regrets, 'should have' 'could have' 'would have'..

I am feeling very overwhelmed at the moment. All sorts of things are running through my head. The project that I am working on, is coming to an end. And the big Go-Live weekend is happening next weekend. As much as I want to give it my best, after all, I have been working in this project for a long time… On the other hand, getting treated like crap by the company, its like HEY Thanks for all your hard work, now GET LOST! All I have to say to them, despite all the motivational talk on gearing up for this Go-Live, is GO FUCK YOURSELF!

We are due for a family holiday in Malaysia at the end of the month, for three weeks. We are all looking forward to it. As much as I want to enjoy myself, on the back of my mind, not having a role when I return… is pretty shitty.

Anyways, hope you all had a lovely weekend. Grumpy and I just went to the movies and we watched Bad Neighbours, in La Premiere! We had free tickets, and yes it was two hours of my life I will never get back. In La Premiere! Haha Dopey was kind enough to babysit our Little Bambi. He is very good with her, I will give him that.

Now, here's a song to cheer myself up!

Budget

If there is one thing Grumpy and I do badly, it has to be sticking to the allocated budget.

But then again, I think about my job now, working in projects, and how a project manager never delivers a project on budget and on time, and also, never delivering on what that was asked for.. Well, clearly we both make excellent project managers!

First, we set out to buy a car within a budget of $50,000. Well, it did not happen. Instead we spent an extra $20,000 on top of what we were meant to.

In terms of timing, we did set out to buy a car before my parents arrive next month. We have a planned road trip to Adelaide in April, and after our previous trip to Loch Sport during the Christmas break with Grumpy's parents in the Audi A3, and me squashed in the car with my knees up to my chest for the 4 hour drive, we said we definitely need a bigger car for this 10 hour drive (one way)! So, the project manager in us did meet the timeline of the project. Unfortunately again, at a cost of an overblown budget.

And finally, we started out our car search for a station wagon. We were tossing between the Audi A4 Avant wagon, and the VW Passat wagon. And what did we buy? Something that is NOT a station wagon!

So what did we get? A shiny BMW X3… that is a bit posh, and I think we will be the only BMW owner on the very humble street that we live in… my, my… what will my neighbours think?

After we bought this new ride, Grumpy drove Little Bambi and home, screaming YOLO!!!! Yes my friends, we have lost the plot.

Here are some photos of my weekend after the disastrous splurge on a new car.

Little Bambi with her favourite uncle and aunty

While Little Bambi was on the swing with her uncle, her parents were on the see-saw

See-saw fun

We spend most of our weekends in parks

Dinner in the city with friends on White Night - my gorgeous girl

Good night!

Jules, the project manager

Sick

I called in sick at work today. For a variety of reasons.

Firstly, Little Bambi woke up numerous times last night, for reasons unknown. I picked her up from the cot, cuddled her, and asked if she wanted some music as she usually sleeps to Baby Einstein. She replied "Gabba gabba". We also have Yo Gabba Gabba on her iPod, which she loves. But no, I was not going to play Yo Gabba Gabba at 2.45 in the morning.

My health - I had a bit of a red eye yesterday, and my back. My back is killing me. Two knots on my back and it is so sore!

And finally, I am just OVER work at the moment. I think I need a change. The mummy in me is saying No, Jules! Only because I have the flexibility of working from home and the ability to finish work early each day. But it does not give me the sense of achievement or satisfaction. Others could say, work harder then… yes I guess so...

Oh well, life goes on.

Little Bambi & I at the beach

Loverly Time

This weekend has been such a fulfilling one, on so many levels! Relaxing - Check, Friends - Check, Family - Check, Good Food - Check, Little Bambi loverly time - Check check check!

The weekend before, I had to work the entire Sunday, which was my 3rd Dress Rehearsal. Grumpy had Little Bambi all to himself that day, and I swear, all he did was watch TV with her and feed her chips and Doritos.

This weekend was completely different, of course. Friday I worked from home, but there was hardly anything on at work, apart from one conference call in the morning. By 11.30am, I had already logged off and was off to the gym. Then I grabbed a massive takeaway briyani lunch at a local Sri Lankan restaurant. I also stopped by DFO to do a bit of shopping. I decided I needed some new Lululemon goodies to improve my running (As if!). Then it was back home, eating my lunch in front of the Kardashians. I am so behind on KUWTK (due to Grumpy's dad hogging our Foxtel the past couple of weeks). Then the rest of the afternoon I cooked Little Bambi vegetable spaghetti, and prepared Nasi Lemak for Grumpy and myself. Our version of a Valentine's Day low-key dinner. Hehe.. At 4.30pm, I picked Little Bambi up from child care and we were off to meet some friends at our local park.

Little Bambi with Little G (his mum and I work together) and Little C (from Mothers Group)

Saturday morning we had an Asian breakfast with Mr Happy and his wife (whom we bumped into by chance). Then we bumped into more friends at the Asian markets, before we dropped Grumpy off to work. Yes, he is working Saturdays again, after-effects of overspending while his parents were here.

I cooked Little Bambi a nice Spanish omelette for lunch, which she did not seem to like. Great! Then we went to our local library to borrow some Wiggles CDs and Baby Einsteins CDs, and we borrowed every Spot book we could.. spot. Then we came home and both took an afternoon nap. We had to pick Grumpy up from work and then we did a bit of car shopping. I can't believe we are considering a BMW, haha as we are currently team Audi.

We had dinner at a local Korean restaurant with Dopey and his girlfriend, and Mr Happy and his wife again. With Little Bambi around now, we no longer head to bars for drinks but instead we visit gelato places (sad isn't it?). We drove to Gelato Messina for some gelato goodness. The queue was incredibly long, but we joined the crowd. Little Bambi was happily dancing to the soft lounge music there and prancing away, even though it was clearly past her bed time.

Little Bambi with Mr Happy and her favourite uncle, Dopey at Gelato Messina in Fitzroy

This morning we woke up to no power in the house. No hot water as well! We upgraded our hot water system recently, and it only works with electricity. But that did not dampen our weekend at all. Finally power was restored at 9.40am, and we made a mad dash to church for the 10am service. We caught up with my cousin and her fiancé, and we had a yummy souvlaki lunch after. Then it was nap time again for Little Bambi and her parents. Geez.. (lazy). Then park time, and to end the weekend, Grumpy cooked us all a delicious hearty meal for dinner - Mee Hun Kueh (my all-time favourite after the Nasi Lemak). Did I mention that he uses the KitchenAid mixer for the dough? 

Good night and feeling so blessed for such an awesome weekend.

Happy Australia Day

Happy Australia Day and Happy New Year! Four weeks late… but better late than never!

I must say that this blog is not getting the level of care and attention it deserves. I have been very occupied with TV shows lately. After Breaking Bad, I got hooked on to Girls by Lena Dunham. This TV show is brilliant! I LOVE IT! Grumpy avoids watching Girls because he says he can't stand watching all the sex scenes but thats okay because I enjoy watching it alone! And then, there is Downton Abbey. So how many books have I read in the past couple of months? NONE! How many posts have I posted up on the blog? NONE!

But here is a quick summary of Christmas and New Years….

Work was winding down before the end of last year, which was good because that gave me more time to spend with Little Bambi … and all the Christmas activities that came with an 18 month old - Santa photos, child care parties, dressing her up etc.

This Christmas was a lot more meaningful with Little Bambi compared to the previous year, only because she is a bit older and she enjoys it all! She really does! She is truly a bundle of joy and I really am so blessed to have such a gorgeous little girl in my life.

My out-laws came over to visit before Christmas and they are staying for an extended period of time (yes, they are still here!). I must say, having our families stay for so long is a challenging time for both Grumpy and myself. We have to cater to both our needs and theirs, making sure we have the right balance - important virtues to keep in mind - respect, tolerance and patience. One more week Jules, one more week. Hang in there!

In between Christmas and New Years, we did a short family getaway to this far far away place called Loch Sport. We were given a holiday house to stay, thanks to the generosity of Grumpy's client.

And for this week our focus will be on Chinese New Year.. I hear the Year of the Horse will be much better than the Snake. Good things to look forward to!