Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Techno Bimbo's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
7:34 pm	Tired There always seems to be so much left to do at the end of the day. I'm sure it wasn't always like this.  Work is busy, which leaves me brain dead by the time I get home. Uni is driving me nuts with so much work.  I have another assignment due next Sunday and I haven't started it yet. Not good.  I'm hanging out until the end of the year. Next year I only have one subject per semester, so I will finally get some of my life back.  To be honest, I've really had it with study.  I just want a life again. Matt is feeling the same way. He's stressed and unhappy. Everything is getting to him and he doesn't have time to do any of the things he used to. Neither of us do.  I can't remember the last time I baked something, or we spent some time together, just hanging out and doing nothing. Oh well, this too shall pass. All this economic doom and gloom is getting old too.  I just want some good news for a change. Sorry that my first entry in weeks is just a whinge. Maybe next time it will be a bit happier. Current Mood: blah (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
8:37 pm	Hmmm, there seems to be an awful lot of cobwebs in here.   I know I’ve been the world’s slackest LJer since I got a job where I actually have to do work, and for that I apologise.  I’m not about to promise that I’ll update more frequently because I probably won’t, and I don’t like breaking promises. So, in short : We now have an iMac. It’s very cool and I’m starting to get the hang of it. I still prefer the PC but I think that’s just because it’s more familiar. I seem to have developed an interest in digital photography, or more specifically photo editing software that can make ordinary pics look very cool. This doesn’t mean that I’ll start posting pics to flickr, as I will need to magically create time in my day to do so. We have started researching our next trip.  We are planning to go to the Middle East early next year.  Exact destinations are still being sorted, but we definitely want to go to Egypt and Turkey.  We may go to Israel, Iran, Jordan or even a stop over in Dubai or Abu Dhabi.  We’ll see what we come up with. In a couple of weeks my aunty and cousin from Hungary will be here. They are coming to visit for a month and will be staying with mum.  I will take some time off work so I can be with them. It’s really exciting. Oh, and we’re getting married on the 4th of July ☺ We bought the rings, the dress, booked the celebrant and are going to Melbourne for our honeymoon.  We are having a family-only ceremony and the reception will be in the dining room. We figure we’ll just do what we did for Christmas, but with fancier clothing. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 26th, 2008
9:19 am	Food, glorious food For Christmas this year I got an icecream maker, a new bowl for my kitchenaid stand mixer, a picnic basket and a tagine.  Who says women hate getting kitchen stuff for Christmas?  Dad surprised me with the tagine.  I had been wanting one for ages, but couldn't justify buying yet another item for the kitchen.  But he heard that they were good for 'one pot cooking' and saw them at Myer so he bought myself and Helen one.  Christmas day was fantastic. We had all the family over at our house - it was our first time hosting Christmas.  The ham glazed beautifully, and my very first attempt at roasting a turkey turned out extremely well, if I do say so myself.  I baked more cookies than you could poke a stick it at - the gingerbread cookies  were cows and teapots, because I don't own Christmas shapes. A good time was had by all.  Food was eaten, wine was drunk, presents were torn open.  I love Christmas. Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
8:47 pm	Christmas shopping is all done, yay!  We got the quotes for the bamboo floor.  The cheapest is $4500 for 33m squared area.  We are now looking into tiles. We've seen some we like, but we need to get some quotes for labour. We have the Christmas tree up, and a strand of blue lights on the front porch. It looks pretty cool. There area a couple of absolutely awesome houses near us that have gone all out with Christmas lights.  We drove past them, but will go back tomorrow night on foot for a better look. Matt ripped out our toilet today. He is re-tiling the floor and putting in a new toilet.  As a consequence we won't have a loo until sometime tomorrow night, because the tile adhesive and grout needs to set.  Luckily we don't have any qualms about peeing in the shower. It's my last day of work tomorrow before a couple of weeks holiday.  I'm really looking forward to it.  We had our work Christmas party last Saturday night. The company paid for food, alcohol and a hotel room at Royal Pines Golf resort.  It was a really great night.  Matt looked sensational in his new suit, and I looked pretty good in my black dress, if I do say so myself. I'm getting ready for Christmas catering.  I made a couple of batches of cookie dough last weekend, which are sitting in the freezer.  I will probably make another batch this weekend.  I've got an idea of what I will need to do for Christmas day, and will probably go shopping next monday night.  Being that it's my first ever attempt at roasting a turkey, I was very happy to find that Dominos pizza will be open on Christmas day. That's about all I've got for now.  Bring on the festivities! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 7th, 2008
9:14 pm	Christmas type stuff It's the first weekend of December and the shops are crazy with Christmas shoppers.  Today we just about finished all of our gift buying for this year.  Thank god I don't have any plans to go to a shopping centre until this madness is over. The tree is trimmed, the gifts are wrapped and we have some cool blue Christmas lights on the front patio.  I wanted white ones, but I grabbed the wrong box.  I have to say that I really do like the blue though. Not necessarily Christmassy, but very pretty nonetheless. I now want some for the back patio too. And maybe inside the house too, if I can decide where I'd like them :) In a moment of madness I decided to host Christmas this year. 10 adults and two children will be arriving for Christmas lunch. I don't know what I was thinking, but I think it should be a good day. I've got the menu planned, and I'm looking forward to it.  I bought a frozen turkey last week. I've never even roasted a chicken, so god knows how this turkey will turn out. I am led to believe that butter under the skin, chicken stock in the pan, and regular basting are the keys to a moist bird. I guess I'll find out on the 25th. We are planning on ripping up the carpet in the lounge room, and to that end we've had a couple of quotes for bamboo flooring.  It's not cheap, but it will look lovely.  We are also looking into tiles too.  We found some really nice ones, including some cool glass feature tiles (shades of green, with a little purple). We just have to work out the cost of getting them done. The area that we want done is about 62 square metres so it will be quite a big, and expensive, job. Another thing that we need to do is buy a new computer.  Ours is starting to do some not so great things. Last weekend it kept rebooting itself whenever we tried to turn it on. We had to unplug it from the wall just to turn it off. It's also rather slow too. I guess we need to do some research as to what's out there, and for how much.  This techno bimbo is finding that thought a little daunting. After last night's storm we saw that our back fence is just about to collapse.  There is a line of trees and plants which gives us good privacy from the neighbours, but we will still need to fix the fence. I can't imagine that we will get to it before the New Year though. We are both having a couple of weeks off around Christmas and New Year, as we normally do. Every year I think it will be great to have two weeks off. We can relax for a few days, then get into fixing stuff up around the house and tackling the big jobs that we've been putting off since we moved in (like replacing the toilet). But I know that come January, we will find that this year will be same as all the others - the time will fly, we end up busy with pre and post Christmas stuff and we have to go back to work with nothing accomplished.  Maybe this year will be different though, but somehow I doubt it. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
8:10 pm	So long sweet cat Current Mood: melancholy (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
5:59 pm	He's gone. He was hit by a car, just around the corner from home. I can't believe my beautiful cat is never coming home. I love you Macska. I miss you so much Current Mood: utterly devastated (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
8:28 pm	I always had a feeling that I’d lose our cat ,Macska, early, but I didn’t think it would be so soon.   He’s been missing since Monday, and it’s just breaking our hearts.   I know that it’s only been two days, and there are millions of stories of cats coming home 3,4 days later, or even weeks later. But I just can’t shake the feeling that he’s not coming back. I really hope I’m wrong.   And it’s not knowing what happened to him, or where he is, that is the worst part.   He is such a cheeky little bugger, gets into everything. He’s used up at least two of his nine lives falling out of trees and off roofs. He’s just a boofhead. But we love him so much. And we miss him so much that it hurts.   Maybe some kid whose mum won’t let him have a cat is keeping ours in his room in secret. Or maybe he’s been locked in a shed by accident. Or maybe he got bitten by a snake. All these maybe’s is enough to drive anyone nuts.   We searched the streets, the park across the road and the bushland behind it. I looked in the trees in case he’s up one of them. I’ve put posters up all over the neighbourhood, and spoke to everyone I saw. But no one has seen him.   I’ve registered him with the pound, the RSPCA and rang the vet.  I even ran after the garbage truck on Tuesday morning thinking that maybe he saw our cat on the side of the road.   At the end of the day our cat is missing, and we are both upset and worried; and as each day passes, there is less chance of him coming home.   I just wish he would come home. :( Current Mood: worried (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
9:43 pm	I'm not dead It wasn't until I found a busy job that I realised how much personal internet stuff I did during the day.  I can't even remember when I posted here last.  I just don't get time to stuff around at my new job.  It's good, because I'm not bored out of my brain for most of the day. It's bad because I am too busy to keep up with my net stuff. Another negative aspect about such a busy job is that by the time I get home, my brain is pretty stuffed.  Not very good for pre-exam studying. I've only got three weeks before my exams, and the panic is setting in.  Not so worried about my Law subject. It's open book, and I did really well on my assignment (20/20!). But Economics is going to suck hard. I don't get it, I am behind in my reading, and I have to remember everything - formulas, concepts, terminology, supply and demand curves, etc, etc.   But I still love my job, been there two months now. Things are starting to slow down. Partly due to the sudden economic shitstorm that has affected the construction industry (and everything else), partly because I'm starting to catch up on the stuff that wasn't done before I was hired. That's all I really have at the moment. It's nearly 10pm, I still have to wash my hair, and I'm tired.  Matt is away for work in Victoria for the next couple of days.  He's in the Yarra Valley. I hope he brings back a nice bottle of wine for me :) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008
5:57 pm	Busy Bee It’s now week three (I think?) of my new job. Things are so hectic. My ‘to do’ list seems to be growing and for the first time I feel like I’m starting to sink.    But I’m really enjoying it. The fast pace is such a refreshing change from what I’m used to. And I’m learning so much. I’ve even started just taking the reins and running with things without checking with my supervisor. I’ve never really had that type of freedom before.   The downside is by the time I get home, I’m pretty brain-dead. That doesn’t really help with my uni studies.   There are a few frustrating matters, like recruiting for a foreman, then being told that they don’t actually need one anymore.  But it’s all good experience.   The problem with being so busy is that some of the other stuff is falling by the wayside. Organising and tracking training has become low on my list of priorities, as has updating spreadsheets for uploading into our new HRIS. But hopefully when the current flurry of recruitment dies down, I will be able to attend to these things. There’s also the stack of work that I have to catch up on that wasn’t done by my predecessor.   Speaking of the HRIS, it should be online by the end of next week, ready for us to start loading stuff into it. We had a brief training session today and it looks pretty good. Setting up job descriptions and then linking them to people will be very effective in monitoring staff training needs.   I had a quick look at the recruitment side of it, and it looks like it may make things run a bit smoother. We should have a session on that in the next couple of weeks.   But so far, I’m enjoying things. It’s such a different environment and I’m really thriving on the challenge. I don’t know why I didn’t change jobs sooner!   (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
8:03 pm	It’s Week Two at my new job.  It’s still good.  It is really busy and I’m not all that used to it.  My old routine was - get to work, settle in at my desk, check work emails, check personal emails, surf my Favourites sites, then actually start work about an hour or so after I arrive. Now it’s – get to work, check emails in two inboxes (there are dozens each day), start sorting and actioning them, then check in with supervisor when she arrives, do more work, stop around 11 because I’m starving and haven’t even had a coffee yet.   The good thing is because I’m so busy they days are flying by, and I’m getting a sense of satisfaction from my work. The bad thing is because I’m so busy I’ve nearly forgotten to go home on time twice this week. Hopefully when the new HR system is online things will get a bit calmer.  Our processes are a bit messy at the moment and there is some double handling that needs to be eliminated.  I feel bad because I am still learning the ropes, and I am already starting to fall behind in a couple of things. I was supposed to update the Training register and send out a couple of notifications and I haven’t had a chance to do that yet.  My ‘to do’ list seems to be growing each day.  It doesn’t help that I’ve only just been given full access to all the files and databases that I need to do my job.  I still haven’t been hooked up to be able to scan to my computer, so things are piling up in that department too. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will be keeping on top of things.  It’s definitely a learning curve, and I’m really enjoying it. They have thrown me in at the deep end, and I’m learning to swim pretty well.  I’m kind of proud of that actually.    Another good thing is that I really feel like I’m part of the team.  K and K both keep me in the loop and we liaise with each other all the time. I don’t feel like I’m the assistant, if that makes sense.  I feel like I’m the administrator, with my own role and I’m doing things that I have ownership of, not just being asked to type this letter or make a cup of coffee.  I am allowed to take initiate, rather than being told how to do everything.  It’s very refreshing.  Uni on the other hand isn’t going so well. I just feel a brain dead by the time I get home and I have not been doing nearly enough study.  I have an online test to do on Monday and I don’t really know the material.  It’s not timed, so I figure I can do it ‘open book’ if I have to.  But the following week I have a 1500 word assignment due for my Law subject.  I am behind in that too, and I haven’t even started to think about the assignment. It’s worth 20% of my marks, so I had better pull my thumb out.  Luckily I have two weekends between now and then (but I have a couple of social commitments so I can’t lock myself away for the entire time).  I’m sure I’ll get there in the end.  Somehow, I always do. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
8:00 pm	Day 2 I've been at my new job for two days now. And so far so good. (For some reason the comma on this keyboard has decided to stop working. Seriously annoying.)  I think I have come on board at a very interesting time.  The company has experienced massive growth in the last few years and HR have been playing catch up with the policies and procedures to try and maintain operations.  We are working towards Strategic Management whereas a year ago it was still very reactive management.  The new HR information system is due to be fully functional by November and I will have a lot to do with the set up of that.  I've already been given a couple of projects to work on regarding the training and recruitment processes.  When the systems were set up a few years ago they were sufficient to handle that volume of people. But seeings as staff numbers have nearly tripled in the last four years the systems are not coping anymore. I have to say that I really feel like I'm a member of a team now. Before I was the secretary. Work was delegated to me and that was that.  But I am having input into what I'm doing now.  I am being shown the big and small pictures so I know where my role fits in and how the things I do will have an affect on a large range of people.  It's pretty cool.  And because the HR manager is a 'big picture' person she is leaving all the little details to me to work out.  The HR Advisor is also encouraging me to set things up the way I want. It seems that my predecessor was rather slack and stopped actually doing any work a long time before she left. There is stuff that I need to follow up to see if it's been done.  Processes half constructed that need to be finished or revamped.  Procedures and processes need to be flexible so that when the new HRIS is up we can either transfer them across or can easily adapt them to fit. I know it's only been two days but so far the impression has been positive.  I hope it continues this way. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
9:13 am	2 days to go I start my new job next week. I'm very excited about it. My current bosses are very sad.  That makes me sad too. At this point they have not even held any interviews for my replacement.  They have been out of town for most of last week and this week, and the Company Director (who is organising the recruitmen) has been interstate for the past couple of days too.   I am trying to be as pro-active as I can and prepare stuff for next week that will make their lives easier, but there is only so much I can do. However, it's typical that  since I accepted the new job I’ve had two calls for interviews.  One was for a government department, the other was 5 minutes from home. Both were jobs that sounded great.  The government job was Assistant HR advisor.  I remember that it sounded great, but I didn't think I'd have a snowball's chance.  I guess I was wrong. Maybe I should have gone to the interviews anyway, despite the fact that I start my new job on Monday.  But I have too much integrity to do that.  I coudn't, in all good conscience, go for interviews and possibly accept another job after having been offered this one.  I know that perhaps it would have been a good career move, but it would have been a shitty thing to do for the company that hired me.   At least I know that if things don't work out there, I will still have options.  I will stick it out for a year or so, then I will have experience too. That should make things easier for next time. (Comment on this)
Friday, August 1st, 2008
2:54 pm	Quick update   Matty was away for work overnight, so I got the bed all to myself... for a while.  It wasn’t long before Koshy decided to sleep on me. Not next to, but on.  He’s cute though, and warm, so it was ok.   Going to an underwear party tonight at R’s house.  Good timing as I need a couple of new things.   Can’t believe next week is my last week at work.  Excited and scared at the prospect of changing jobs.  But I’m looking forward to a new environment.  They have advertised for my job, and should be interviewing next week.   Already behind in my uni work.  Only one chapter, but it’s not a good way to start the semester.  Hope to catch up on the weekend.  Still need to familiarise myself with the assessment pieces for this semester.  Doesn’t look too taxing, but you never know.   Was checking our bank account online and there was an eftpos transaction at a place called ‘Industrial Needles’.  I asked Matt about it, but he had never heard of them.  A quick look on the ABN website solved the mystery.  It is the corporate entity name for Inglot, the place I bought my make up from.  I never would have made that connection!   Speaking of Inglot, I really like the stuff I bought there, and have been wearing it just about every day.  So nice to get back into make-up.  Must resist the urge to spend more money on the stuff.  I have a ton of it already!  (If you have an Inglot near you, check it out. Cheaper than MAC or Napoleon, and just as good apparently.) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
8:57 am	Brrrrr It's cold in Brisvegas today.  So cold that I could wear my beautiful, ankle length, black, wool coat today.  The one I bought in London for 40 quid. It brought back memories of crisp London mornings, walking to Paddington tube station.  The air pinching my cheeks, the sun rising above the terrace houses.  Holding gloved hands with Matt as we walked down Devonshire Terrace, past Gloucester Mews.  *sigh*  I miss London. :( (Comment on this)
Monday, July 28th, 2008
9:49 am	Mmmmm Just having some lovely home made shortbread with my morning coffee. Can you believe I've got a guy who not only cooks and cleans, is dead sexy, and treats me well, but he also bakes? I think I hit the jackpot with this one! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
8:52 am	One life down, 8 to go   When Matt came home on Friday he found Macska on the bed. When he went for a pat, Macska growled at him. Very unusual.  On closer inspection the poor cat had a scratch on his nose and a gash on his forehead, about 2 inches long.  Luckily the actual skin wasn’t broken, but there was a thin bald strip in the middle of his head.   When I got home we took him to the vet for a ‘once over’.  In the car he let out a couple of horrible meows.  We thought that he was in pain.  It turned out he had wet himself, and was very unhappy about it. (Poor kitty.)   He had some grass stains on his fur and the nails on one of his back paws were shredded.  The vet said that he seemed ok. He didn’t appear to be in pain during the exam, had no temperature, and was able to walk without any noticeable limp.  When she went to use the stethoscope he started purring so loud that she couldn’t really hear much else.   Whether he was chased and hit his head on something, or fell of the roof, or was playing chicken with a car, we have no idea.  But on the whole he’s ok.  It’s amazing how worried you can be about a little four-legged fuzz-butt.     In other news, on Saturday we went out and bought a Dyson vacuum.  Now, we didn’t really want to pay $400 for a vacuum, and most people would call you mad if you did.  But with the cats and carpet we needed something that was actually going to clean, not just make lots of noise.   The amount of hair and dirt that came off the carpet was unbelievable!  We felt like grotty pigs, but justified it because we hadn’t vacuumed in a week.   When we demonstrated it for Matt’s mum the following day, it still picked up a bunch of dirt and hair.  That was when we truly felt dirty. Just how badly had our previous vacuum been working?  And thank goodness neither of us have a dust allergy!  All in all, I think it was worth the money. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
10:40 am	Happy Dance Guess who's got a new job! I start in two and a half weeks as HR Admin with a Tier 2 (medium level) construction company. The hours and pay are the same. The location is closer to home. It's in an industrial estate so I will have to be more pro-active with bringing lunch to work, as I don't know what buying options there are nearby.   They have a coffee van that comes once a day, a staff gym, and will be giving me health insurance!  Awesome! So in two and a half weeks I will be starting a new phase in my career!  I am sad to be leaving this place, as it's been my dependable rock for the last 7 and a half years.  But it's definitely time to move on.   It feels weird to have been in one job for so long and not made any progress.  Almost embarrassing really.  But I've had my reasons for staying.  I have gone through some large changes in my private life (divorce, uni, home ownership, engagement) and it's been good to have one steady thing throughout it all. But I am very excited about this new prospect.  My first job will be setting up their brand new HR information system.  Talk about learning curve! I also have a cold, and have been away sick for the past day and a half.  But that's not important right now :) Current Mood: excited (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 18th, 2008
8:42 am	Splurge   I have been going through a bit of a make-up phase the last few weeks.  I have no idea why, I just want some new make-up.   Last night I splurged on a customised eye shadow compact and lip gloss. Inglot sell the compact and you select the colours you want.  They have about 150 colours and it took me literally two hours to decide!  I have a feeling I may go back to pick up a couple more colours on the weekend   :)   When I got home we had a ‘new’ washing machine in the laundry.  Matt’s parents have upgraded theirs and given us their old 7.5 kg one.  It’s huge compared to my 5.5 kg one.  It will definitely cut down on my washing time.   And in the lounge room there was a 50 inch LG plasma TV.  We’ve been thinking about upgrading for a while and were going to do it later in the year, but Matt said this was on sale, and talked the guy down another $80 and got a $25 voucher as well.  It’s huge!  I think we need a new cable or something because it is a little pixelated, but Matty can stuff around with the settings today.   I guess we’d better get our taxes done soon to pay for our massive new tv  :) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
12:56 pm	Shake, shake, shake   I think I have a new favourite drink.  Cointreaupolitan.  Like a Cosmopolitan but without vodka.   15 ml / ½ oz lime juice 30ml / 1 oz Cointreau (or triple sec) 60 ml / 2 oz cranberry juice.   Add to cocktail shaker with handful of ice.  Shake and strain into a martini glass.   Yummy!  Matt and I had about three of these each last night. They are so good!   What a great way to end a Monday. (Comment on this)