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