It's been a L-O-N-G working week for the Barleys. It's Steve's busy season and January in Australia is no different to January in UK in the audit world. It was my first week back after the festive break and I want to get to the stage whereby I am working 08:30 - 17:30 but in order to do that I need to invest some time into my job now to get things up and running and then ticking smoothly. At least we're both busy at the same time which hopefully means we both get to be a bit less busy next quarter. In spite of the long week, I am enjoying the role. There are difficult issues as there always are with recruitment; temps not getting paid because they don't submit their timesheet in on time or because they enter the wrong info, temps complaining about their assignment, candidates wanting to know why there are no jobs for them, all those fun things which are the same no matter where one works. However in spite of all this stuff, work is still good. I get a lot of help and support from colleagues and they seem like a fun bunch so so far so good!
Although the nature and demands of our jobs don't change just because we're on the other side of the World, one thing that is different in January is the weather. This week we've had torrential rain Monday through to Friday but it's been really hot too. Friday the rain cleared up and the blue sky appeared along with Mr. Sunshine and just in time for the Friday drinks trolley to come round! I am definitely enjoying the Friday drinks trolley tradition. A glass of wine at 16:30 on a Friday is a good way to end the long week.
During the week we've been following the cricket naturally. The first 20:20 was pretty exciting; even I have to say that. Australian coverage though is not so impressive. They didn't interview the England winning team and when Australia won the second match they got the celebratory flames and fireworks. When England won there was nothing of the sort. I guess that's the way the sports World turns here in Aus. At least we get to see the game on TV.
Although the nature and demands of our jobs don't change just because we're on the other side of the World, one thing that is different in January is the weather. This week we've had torrential rain Monday through to Friday but it's been really hot too. Friday the rain cleared up and the blue sky appeared along with Mr. Sunshine and just in time for the Friday drinks trolley to come round! I am definitely enjoying the Friday drinks trolley tradition. A glass of wine at 16:30 on a Friday is a good way to end the long week.
During the week we've been following the cricket naturally. The first 20:20 was pretty exciting; even I have to say that. Australian coverage though is not so impressive. They didn't interview the England winning team and when Australia won the second match they got the celebratory flames and fireworks. When England won there was nothing of the sort. I guess that's the way the sports World turns here in Aus. At least we get to see the game on TV.
Friday evening was about recuperating from the long working week. Steve finished work about 20:00 and we headed out for dinner and a bottle of wine to help aid sleep of course. A sunny Saturday dawned and we did a market shop and cleaned the apartment before rewarding ourselves with a relaxing afternoon by the river in the sunshine catching up on some leisurely reading. Saturday evening we headed out to an area known as Lygon Street which is a busy strip with lots of mainly Italian restaurants and cafés. We caught up with Charlotte and her boyfriend Nick and Emma and Vida over some food, wine and cocktails.Sunday dawned bright and sunny and we had plans to go to the Melbourne Aquarium. It's a good place to spend a couple of hours although for next time I'd try and avoid the weekend and the school holidays. My feet were trampled on several times by little kids and run over by numerous buggies. There were some interesting fish and related species there. The penguins were cute and different to the ones on Philip Island. They had gentoo and emperor ones at the aquarium.The baby hammerhead sharks are strange looking creatures. I then spent the rest of the afternoon by the river enjoying the sunshine whilst Steve did some more work.
And now it's Sunday evening and my usual blogging time. We've had a delicious dinner of home made Thai red fish curry with sticky rice and we're in front of the TV watching a bad film - like a Mighty Ducks movie but about baseball and with Billy Bob Thornton. It's a good Sunday evening!
And now it's Sunday evening and my usual blogging time. We've had a delicious dinner of home made Thai red fish curry with sticky rice and we're in front of the TV watching a bad film - like a Mighty Ducks movie but about baseball and with Billy Bob Thornton. It's a good Sunday evening!
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