I’ve just spent a really nice weekend hanging out in Sydney. As usual we started it with brunch in a nearby cafe, and then we headed to Victoria Park in in the distict of Camperdown where the Live Green festival was being held. Lots of tips on living a green lifestyle and organic produce – we bought rhubarb. In the evening we went to a local Thai resaurant for a really nice meal.

On Sunday we woke up early to some fabulous weather. We did a blitz clean on the apartment, ate breakfast in the sunshine on the balcony and then headed to the driving range . We’re off to Wellington to see John’s Mum, Kate, and her husband Al next weekend, and apparently spending quality time with them invariably involves playing golf, so John gave me my first golf lesson. Afterwards I signed up to 3 golf lessons in September – too late for the trip to Wellington, but what the ‘eck! After the driving range we had to hurry back to the apartment because John has 6 hours of back to back sport to watch on the TV. My plan to leave him to it and spend time over a lazy lunch and a swim with Marian was scuppered when Marian got called in to work this morning – so I made chocolate brownies and played around on the internet whilst listening to John’s own commentary on the games.

Hi Karin, 

1) From 7 Sep to 20 October 2007, you should read the sports section of the newspaper so that you are aware of what is going on regarding the World Cup, and that way you will be able to join in the conversations. If you fail to do this, then you will be looked at in a bad way, or you will be totally ignored. DO NOT complain about not receiving any attention.

2) During the World Cup, the television is mine, the VCR and DVD are all mine, at all times, without any exceptions. If you even take a glimpse of the remote control, you will lose it (your eye).

3) If you have to pass by in front of the TV during a game, I don’t mind, as long as you do it crawling on the floor and without distracting me.

4) During the games I will be blind, deaf and mute, unless I require a refill of my drink or something to eat. You are out of your mind if you expect me to listen to you, open the door, answer the telephone, or pick up the baby that just fell from the second floor…it won’t happen.

5) It would be a good idea for you to keep at least 2 six packs in the fridge at all times, as well as plenty of things to nibble on, and please do not make any funny faces to my friends when they come over to watch the games. In return, you will be allowed to use the TV between 12pm and 3pm, unless they replay a good game that I missed during the day.

6) Please, please, please!! If you see me upset because one of my teams is losing, DO NOT say “get over it, it’s only a game”, or “don’t worry, they’ll win next time”. If you say these things, you will only make me angrier and I will love you less. Remember, you will never ever know more about rugby than me and your so called “words of encouragement” will only lead to a break up or divorce.

7) You are welcome to sit with me to watch one game and you can talk to me during halftime but only when the commercials are on, and only if the half time score is pleasing me. In addition, please note I am saying “one” game, hence do not use the World Cup as a nice cheesy excuse to “spend time together”.

The replays of the tries are very important. I don’t care if I have seen them or I haven’t seen them, I want to see them again. Many times, and record them.

9) Tell your friends NOT to have any babies, or any other child related parties or gatherings that requires my attendance because:

a) I will not go,
b) I will not go, and
c) I will not go.
10) But, if a friend of mine invites us to his house on a Sunday to watch a game, we will be there in a flash.
 

11) The daily World Cup highlights show on TV every night is just as important as the games themselves. Do not even think about saying “but you have already seen this…why don’t you change the channel to something we can all watch??”, the reply will be:“Refer to Rule #2 of this list”.
12) And finally, please save your expressions such as “Thank goodness the World Cup is only every 4 years”. I am immune to these words, because after this …………………..comes the 20 Twenty Cricket World Cup!!!Love /  John

This weekend John and I went out for lunch with my friend Simon Lowe, who I’ve known forever – our grandmothers were friends. He has a job and a sponsered 4 year visa, and arrived with his girlfriend Iwona just over a month ago. For those of you that know Simon – he’s full of enthusiasm about being here and now has a considerable amount of facial hair. It was really good to see him, as despite us both living in London over the last two years we barely saw one another.

My Mum and Dad are also coming to Sydney – just for two weeks in December unfortuately, but it will be great to see them. I got some travel plans under way for their stay this weekend. First I’ll be going with Mum, Dad and John to Tasmania, and then Mum and Dad and I are going to the Fraser Coast in Queensland, complete with an eco-visit to Fraser Island, Australia’s largest sand Island. Apparently Fraser Island is really beautiful with lovely freshwater lakes to swim in, which is just as well as the surrounding sea contains man-eating sharks. 

I realised today that I hadn’t posted on my blog for a week – that’s because I’ve been doing lots of stuff. We’ve had John’s friend Nige staying with us from Saturday night to Tuesday night – he was over here for some work this week and took the opportunity to hang out with John, and no doubt check out that John hadn’t shacked up with a rubbish girlfriend. I think I won him over with my brownies and apple cake (still using up those apples).

On Saturday night we had one of John’s colleagues and his girlfriend over for dinner – they are also newly arrived and live in the same apartment complex as us. On Sunday we went to see a thrilling rugby league game at a stadium nearby with Nige.

I took the day off on Wednesday to go to the bank and the doctors, and then afterwards I went down to Coogee beach to meet up with Marian for a late afternoon drink. On Thursday evening we went to the Comedy Store, which is walking distance from our apartment, as one of Nige’s friends was MCing this week.

Other news this week is that I joined Facebook and I have tickets to see Sydney FC v LA Galaxy (complete with David Beckham) in November. 

So a mega busy week, but a quite weekend coming up – in fact on Saturday night I’m home alone as John is going to a Sydney Swans game (Australian football) and he couldn’t persuade me to go – I don’t understand the game and don’t have any inclination to understand it. So Saturday night is a good time for a chat if anyone wants to call me.

I’m doing a project for a Commonwealth department. As part of this project I was asked to facilitate negotiations between two government departments. They set up four 2 hour weekly meetings for the negotiation process. I was less than thrilled by this prospect as this meant I would have to go to Canberra on a weekly basis which, as previously mentioned on my blog, is a very underwhelming city. Further if you go to Canberra at this time of year for a morning meeting you need to travel down the night before as they regularly have lots of fog in the mornings and planes cannot land, and I’m not a fan of staying on hotels for work purposes and eating in restaurants on my own. I am sure that the incentive of not going to Canberra every week might have enabled my bringing the two parties to agreement after just 45 minutes into the first meeting, meaning all subsequent meetings could be cancelled – hurrah! – that and my amazing negotiation and facilitation skills of course!

Yesterday I had my first meeting with a new client – the Director of the National Association of Community Legal Centres. I have been put on this project because of my background in doing civil justice projects in the UK. When I met her and explained my background it turned out that she was familiar with a number of the reports I had written whilst at Matrix. She told me that she had been forwarded our reports from her UK equivilant and she in turn had sent them on to the Australian Attorney General’s Department. In one of the reports we reviewed the effectiveness of partnership bodies called Community Legal Service Partnerships – it turns out that they were about to develop similar partnerships over here but our the findings of our report influenced them to rethink. I’m pretty chuffed really!! 

John’s company, Mainfreight, have this odd tradition of giving all their staff a bucket of apples every year. Consequently, we currently have lots of apples to eat. So far I have made an apple cake, which turned out well despite my father’s reservations when my mother suggested that I just made up an apple cake recipe. Last night I attempted my first apple crumble. We still have lots of apples left though so give me your suggestions for apple recipes.