my christmas and birthday present from papa...

now i'm ready to be a real country girl, well, once i get the sneezing and coughing when in close contact to grass... thing fixed...

oh and mine is red...

fine but more computer problems....

we got home fine and are having a great few days before work starts again, the only problem is that the compter decided to break something else, so now all the USB ports are broken meaning that i can't connect anything such as keyboard, mouse, memory stick etc etc..... for some reason the originally broken keyboard is now working... but for how long???
Anyway, don't want to use it too much and that's why i'm not writing....
more news once i figure out what to do now, love you all, laure

and christmas dinner......

A FIEST!!!!!!!!!!!!! hum mothe, maybe i should try to remember some of the table presentations I have seen here..... I mean... you know.... not that ours aren't as good but...

more photos....

i don't feel like writing much so i'm posting photos instead. yesterday was x-mas day, so we started by opening presents and then did nothing for a while.... but then, Rob, Melissa's farmer boyfriend invited us for a ride in his header while he was "stripping" or a better known version of this word, harvesting...
that was good fun and interesting, Here are a few photos to show where we were...

x-mas brekkie

i look a bit funny but anyway....
from left to right... the christo, me, Marie (Mum), Gav, Emma and Katrina.

nice photos taken at various occasions...

the two photos above were taken at Emma's 21st
and the ones below were taken at Leanne's with the massive king island double brie that Carol made Leanne get me for my b-day.... yum, i'm trying not to eat it all at once but it's difficult!!

dedication!!!!

i worked for 15 hours yesterday, which got me home a bit after 2 in the morning!!!! I just finished what I had to do now, around 1pm....

where do you start after so much and so long...?

the last time I wrote on this blog, it was to announce that I had gotten the job, and I was pretty excited about that. now, a bit more than a week after starting, i'm happy to notice that I am still fairly excited. things are going really well, the office is a great size and everyone there is really friendly and helpful (which is good since I need quite a bit of help). i've been given real jobs, which take me 5 times longer than if anyone else did it, but I think I am learning along the way, and generally going ok. my first conclusion about the purpose of work experience is to make you feel really stoopid and help you realise that everyone goes through that and one point or another... well I feel stoopid at the moment, and I wonder how long it is going to last...
there are two things I am finding harder to adapt to... and that's the fact that what I am doing is for real and not for some 5 minute long jury, which means that things actually have to work and be accurate, which i find pretty difficult still, and the other thing is that I still don;t understand when people are meant to do stuff outside of work, like writing emails, or food-shopping etc... I've been working until 6:30 or 7 every night so far... but it;s ok, i'll get used to that too....
Anyway, besides work, it has also been a really good week with lot's of stuff happening! I'll just quickly run through them, without too much detail...
saturday 3rd and sunday 4th of Dec : we went to Albury for Emma's 21st
Monday: 1st day of work
tuesday night: graduation exhibition opening night in Woolloomoolloo (pretty boring and bad bad food)
Wednesday: My B-DAY!!!! we had sushi on the beach in Coogee.... and Chris got me a wonderful new lens for the camera (28mm)
Thursday: office x-mas party: Golf in the arvo and dinner at night in Paddington
Friday: hungover at work....
Saturday: Breakfast bbq in Coogee with a small crew (that was really nice), clothes shopping at Burkenhead Point, beers at Kris' in Ashfield
Sunday: Heleana's b-day cruise, awesome as you can well imagine, lots of yummy food, drinks and swimming!!
and back to work.................
Well I hope that gives you a small idea of what;s been happening and gives me an excuse for not having been the best with emails.....
I love you all so much, your laura
ps: Caz, thank you for your email, don;t worry about being late, I know you were thinking of me and i was thinking of you too, wish you could have been here, but we'll have plenty more to celebrate together later, and in the mean time, you can travel the world and i can commute to work, but no matter what, our paths will meet again soon enough... I miss you a lot and love you even more!!
pps: I took many photos with the new lens of the bbq etc... which i will try putting on the blog sometime soon hpefully, doing my best at the moment...

quick news before we go

For those who don;t know the great news yet, I just want to let you know that I had an interview yesterday for a job. They mainly do commercial work like office buildings, restaurants, retail, hospitals etc etc... + some residential. Anyway, I am very happy and excited to announce that I managed to convince them that I was good enough and so I will be starting this coming monday at 9am!!! my job will mainly be drafting on Cad but that's ok since i still have a lot to learn from that.... and whatever else comes up for which i can be useful....
More details when we come back, we are just about to leave for Albury for Emma's (chris' baby sister) 21st. we will be back on sunday, before my first big day which will obviously be the subject of a posting on this blog in the very near future,
I have to go now, but will be back very soon,
Love, Laure the Happy Yupy

if i can....

- Beyond Real - Making a Scene is at the Australian Centre For Photography, 257 Oxford Street, Paddington, until December 24.

- Trent Parke's exhibition at Stills Gallery, 36 Gosbell Street, Paddington, is open until December 17.

- David Stephenson's Drawing Time is at Boutwell Draper Gallery, 82-84 George Street, Redfern, until December 17.

- Points of View: Australian Photography 1985-1995 is at the Art Gallery of NSW until January 29.

- Summer Heat is at the Australian Photographers' Gallery, 143 Beattie Street, Balmain, until January 31.

what the goss mags are saying

ok this is bad but i can't help it, i love reading this section of the smh..... evil...
so what exactly are the gossip mags saying this week...?

occupation deficit syndrom....

the jobhunt is NOT looking good, if i'm lucky it might change and otherwise, i won't get anything until january, we'll see, no matter what, i'm not giving up yet...
so anyway, to avoid becoming an unemployed drunk with a gambling problem, i've become the perfect housewife...
i know... weird!!
yesterday, i cleaned up and re-organised the house, my motto being " a place for everything, everything in it's place"
I know... weird!!
today, I am baking a cheesecake.......don't say it, I know!! it's still in the oven but if by some strange miracle, it is successful, then it will be a happy welcome into the world of cake baking... as it is my first attempt ever....weird? no not really, I am a city girl afterall, i don't DO cakes, I eat them!
anyway, the oven is my new best friend so i might go hang out in the kitchen for a while...
c yas

geezus, what a trip..!!!

this posting is a celebration to the fact that I am still here to tell you about a quite perillous week end......
As you know, we went camping with a few other people (9 of us all together) for Carolinna's 29th b-day. most people were her and simon's friends from Melbourne, and Chris and I were the little kiddies....
On saturday, the week-end's quality seemed a bit compromised by the amount of raining pouring dowm but as we travelled through the country, well the suburbs, the weather started clearing up and what were first patches of blue sky quickly turned into a bright, hot, sunny day!!!!! All our hopes were raised again and the party could start..........
The site where we were to spend the night belongs to the National Park, a bit south of Sydney, and to reach it, cars have to be left at the carpark, bags tightly straped to the back and an evil hill must be climbed. the journey took about half an hour and it was hard but we were then greeted by a delish VB offered by our first settlers there, so the pain was forgotten almost instantly.
The site itself was quite beautiful, and being the only ones there, we had it all for ourselves. it was surrounded on three sides by hills and on the fourth, we had a beautiful beach waiting just for us. life was good in those days, and we made the most of it, contemplating our luck of having such a beautiful weather after a rainy morning.
things went on like that for a few hours, first trying to consolidate a tarp to serve as a communal shelter. lots of engineering and thorough designing went into the process, but the tarp was standing as a sign of what was coming next............... basically, pretty shaky and unstable.
it didn;t keep us from enjoying the waves, although a bit rough for my liking, lazing around in the sun and covering our skins with sunscreen oil.....
we had a nice dinner mostly made up of sausages (snags for the aussies reading this) and as the night covered us with it's dark blanket, we were greeted with an amazing spectable. all around us, the most amazing lightning was taking place, and as we were rejoycing in the fact that the storm was moving around and not above us, we sat there and oooohed and aaaahed at the fierceness of the "fireworks". slowly but surely, a few of us started feeling a few drops and we all made the wise decision to seek refuge under the tarp. the only problem was that the wind was pretty fierce by then, and well the tarp was not anymore, it had changed from a safe and sound shelter to a big piece of blue material flapping around in the wind......
the drops became bigger and we had no solution but to run to the "taj", the biggest tent available and all 9 of us squeezed in there. what was nice and cozy for the first few minutes changed into a toasty leeking environment soon deprived of oxygen..... soon emotion overtook us, as i discovered two leeches on my leg and in a movement of panic sent them flying accross the tent. as of today, one of them might still be crawling around the "taj"....
After a little bit, everyone decided to go back to their tents to sleep until the next morning, convinced that the storm would be gone and we would have a bright sunshine to accompany our pancakes......
the storm went on all night, it was crazy with the tent fighting like a little soldier against the harsh elements. we managed to stay pretty dry although the side where the wind was blowing kept bending quite dangerously on top of us, going from a three men igloo to a one man typee..... the skies were going mad and when your only protection is a small piece of fabric attached to the ground, I think that the conscience of the storm is exponentially increased...
The next morning, after a pretty rough night, we took advantage of a small break in the weather to cook some pancakes. it wasn;t very long before it was pouring again and we all ran back to our tents. about an hour later, a decison had to be made and facing teh elements, we were all packing up. it was pretty cold, all our clothes were damp but there was no point waiting there and the thought of getting home where we could take a nice hot shower kept us moving.
so we went back the way we came, up the hill.... the only difference was that the steps were now covered in mud and very slippery. at least, the climb didn;t seem so bad as we were focused on not sliding off or flying away. the way down was very slippery too but at least, it wasn;t nearly as tirering as the way up.
once in the car, my little story is over..... in less than an hour, we were able to get rid of the damp clothes and warm up in the shower!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we then went on with our civilised lives, the memory of the storm still alive but as a new week starts, it already seems quite far away....

job safari

life is a jungle but it helps having a phone...
yesterday was pretty disastrous in terms of working possibilities, i called 15 places again, didn;t send many resumes and got rejected by the one place who had available positions.... i sent a 2nd email showing my great determination but haven't got an answer yet.... they wanted someone who can use archicad and i can use autocad, which could be a problem except that for minor adaptations, they all really work the same so i could learn......
anyway, today is looking a bit less gloomy as a few people asked for my resume, including one place looking for someone... so lets all cross our pretty fingers and wait.... again, they use a progam that i don;t but the guy was nice and said that really, it wasn;t a big problem and that previous students had converted quite smoothly.... there is hope my friends, there is hope!!!!!
now i better get back to calling the other 13 firms on my daily list.....
a new update soon as I doubt this is the end of the adventure..... oh sorry, safari (hey caz, i wonder if our great humanitarians theories apply to the work force or only uni....)

oh goood!!!

as i have announced earlier, today was the big day to start looking for a job a bit seriously, and god, it's not gonna be a piece of cake, here are some statistics to give an idea to my dear readers:
-15 phone calls
- one "good luck" (much appreciated)
- one friend on the phone (charmaine)
- about 10 "no jobs available but send us your resume to keep on file", yeah right....
- and about 3 or 4 absolute bitches who would be better off jumping in a lake and smashing their heads against a rock
- and overall 15 places where i won;t be working....
with x-mas and new year coming up, it's not looking so good for me to get a job right now but persistence pays and so i will keep going.... before i start crying....
i don't believe there is a god watching on us, but i think i can use some prayers anyway, so pray for me as, and i know that will sound weird to a lot of you, i actually want to work.......!!!!! god damn it!!!!

who am i?

Originally, I am full of food, then I am used to carry a million trees (poor things) cut in flat white rectangles with lots of meaningless black traces on them, and finally, I go to the beach carrying a towel and water..... who am I?

born again... not christian

after a quick trip through drakness, i have finally seen the light, but it's just the sun waiting to fry up my skin all afternoon on the beach..... and boy, does the idea just sound delightful, my dears!
they say that it's not about the destination, but the journey... well, i disagree completely with that theory and obviously the people who came up with that never had to take a "building services" exam. the journey was treacherous, no sweet flowers to bend down to and smell, just the needles, and not acuponcture needles either. the ones that will give you a sore neck, an upset tummy and strange dreams full of service cores and vents (not even making that up, i swear I had such nightmares, and well, it's mostly disturbing to draw vents and pipes to the rythm of the alarm clock....)
yesterday was obviously the moment of epiphany where we had to combine all the confusions and mis-understanding about air-conditionning, with single or multi-zone AHUs, VV or CV, CWS or DX etc etc.............. into 7 hours of panic, unrelated thoughts and sun withdrawal effects. let me just tell you that aussies are not trained for the deprivation (if that word even exists) of the precious sun rays, we're not in bloody finland for god's sake!!!!!
Anyway, the 7 hours went by like a watch on speed, no one was able to properly finish the damn exam and so we all went to drown our sorrows and the end of another year of uni (4 now) into the grog..... and boy does life taste sweeter since..........
the birds are singing, the sky is blue, the book I am reading at the moment (color, thank you mothe) is divinely inspiring and from my ground floor apartment, I am feeling on top of the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I said joyful news would be coming any minute, well while it lasts, here they are, love you all, fb the conqueror!!!!!

brain dead on D-4

Only or still three days to go before the D day...? that is the true question really.
on one hand, I am still far from being ready for this exam, it's huge and i don;t understand half of it....
on the other hand, I just want to get it over with and be free of uni work for ages.......
right now, all i want is a nap and i might as well take it since i don't have the capacity to think about toilets and air-con.... and that will probably be the case for the next few hours. i feel exhausted today, i'm not sure why since i've been sleeping really well and much lately but still.... a bit like shopping centres, long hours of studying suck the life out of you.... and i've been studying for way too long now..... but i can see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel..... i'm afraid a 7 hours long trip to hell will be mandatory before being born again....
the sky is blue and the sun is hot today, i should be at the beach but no, i was stuck in the ressource centre for most of the day, and now i am here, undecided between sleeping or reading, or reading and sleeping for a couple hours before i can get back to it........
more joyful news soon, i promise,
love, fb

hey mothe, check out the quiche we made for dinner tonight, spinach, ricotta et tomato... please....

tarantula tarantulaaaaaaaaa

no caz, i'm not singing the french national anthem, i am screaming for my life as chris is on the bus going to a party and i'm at home with a huntsman spider locked in the bedroom.......