2008 has already started out to be a great year. I hope that it continues in the same vein for the remainder of the year. We took two weeks off this time starting the week of Christmas. By the end of these two weeks I am sooooooo relaxed that I am actually recharged and ready to go back to work. This would have been a completely different story if we had won any of the lottery jackpots during our holidays of course.
Let me catch you up since my last post back in mid December.
WORK: Well that just pissed me off. By the end of the month I was ready to go on holidays and not come back. My frustration levels had reached an all time high and I felt that I was completely trapped in a job that had no potential to go anywhere. I still think that the job has no potential to go anywhere but I have resolved to make the best of the situation this year and make myself more promotable by doing a few extra things this year. Not that doing extra things is a problem for me. My team ambushed me before the Christmas break with a beautiful gift and a card that they had all signed and written very beautiful comments in it about the extra work that I have done in 2007. What a great bunch - they almost made me cry. This team this year has been very good and I am hoping that in 2008 we will be left alone to do our work and do it well. If they just let me do things the way that I wanted to then we would all be a lot happier. I keep telling them that "Fiona's World" is a lovely place and they are more than welcome to visit.
I am also doing a course during this new year that will give me a current Human Resources qualification from Curtin Uni. This is being paid for through a scholarship that I was awarded from work so this is another incentive to stick it out until that is finished. It looks like a lot of hard work but I am always up for a challenge.
CHRISTMAS: We had a very quiet Christmas this year. My family are now very grown up with my nephews and nieces all producing sprogs (children) of their own. So my brothers and sisters were all doing things with their kids and grandchildren. We will all catch up in the new year.
We went to Dad's and caught up with one set of siblings there. Dad actually went to some effort this year which was nice but unexpected so everyone had made contingency plans and this left Dad with a lot of food left over. I am not expecting the same effort from him next time. Back to one prawn and a pickled onion each this year.
My wonderful husband bought me some wonderful gifts this year - he did have a lot of direction from me but that way I am guaranteed that the gift I get will be exactly what I want and the stress is taken out of shopping for him. We did the same for him as well. It is basically a win, win situation for us both. I got a BBQ apron (when you see the front you will understand why we picked this one) to go with our new BBQ and a bag holder. This is just the best. It is called a Handbag Hooker. This is not to be confused with the Happy Hooker as I did originally. I went searching for the website so that I could put the link in for curious onlookers. HappyHooker.com does not bring up the bag hook website that I was expecting surprisingly. However, if you go to www.handbaghooker.com you will see the item in question.
My Christmas apron.
Bag holder in action.
Rob got tools. He is such a boy. He is getting into woodworking and is amassing a range of toys, oops I mean tools, to help him in his quest to build stuff out of wood. He has started a chopping block for me which I am a bit excited about as it is big and chunky and looks great so far. He is also making a frame for me for a present.
We also decided to take off for a well deserved break this Christmas. On Boxing Day we headed off to Coral Bay. 14 hours later we got there. Who knew that the Pilbara was sooo far away? We passed through some very interesting places. I kept replaying scenes from Wolf Creek in my head. Coral Bay is lovely. We just relaxed in our tent (yes I WENT CAMPING!) and played in the beautiful water with the fishes and the turtles.
We went riding on four wheeled buggies a couple of times. The scenery was just spectacular but the instructors/guides left a little to be desired. The place suffers from a transient staff primarily made up of backpackers who are passing through and want casual work while they are on holiday. Hence some of the "local staff" are a little too relaxed and don't feel that they have to go to any effort to make you feel welcome. It almost feels like you are interrupting their beach time.
My self portrait on a four wheel bike. Rob is on the bike behind me. Ignore the dates on the photos - the camera was not set up properly then.
Rob chatting to our tour guide Mark on one of the rides to see the turtles feeding.
One of the beautiful bays in Coral Bay.
Other than that though we had a really lovely time there. We had a powered camp site which means we could have our fan going all the time - what a Godsend during the humidity and heat generated by a cyclone further up north from us. It was so hot and the flies were putting on a great show. There was so many of them but it was even too hot for them to do much other than land on you and sit. When you went to swat them they just sat there and looked at you with a hairy eyeball that said, "Do you really want to do that? Can't we just all sit here and enjoy ourselves? Why do you have to go and spoil it by being so violent all the time?" Not bad for a fly.
We had a very lovely time except for our air mattress that kept deflating in the middle of the night. Each morning Rob and I found our bums not quite touching the hard ground so it became a balancing act from about 4am onwards to see if we could lie really still and not hit the ground before the sun came up. One morning we got up and went and sat on the beach while we waited for the rest of the campsites to stir. That way we could make some noise and not feel too guilty about disturbing other people.
I thought that Coral Bay was lovely but I LOVED Monkey Mia. We stopped there overnight on the way home so that we could enjoy one night of luxury in a hotel room with our own shower with water that has been desalinated and air conditioning! I would go back there in a flash. We are thinking of going away again at the end of this year and staying there instead of Coral Bay.
The dolphins were just gorgeous. We watched them being fed in the morning and they are just such majestic creatures. You want to jump in the water and hug them - not recommended as apparently they bite if they don't want to be around you and they have very sharp teeth. Not quite Flipper-ish behaviour.
Shell Beach just before Denham. The water is crystal clear and the beach is all crushed shells.
Shell Beach again. See the fly in the picture? They wanted to get in on the action all the time!
Monkey Mia dolphin. They come so close to the shore line that you feel like you can touch them, but it is best not to especially during feeding time if you don't want to lose your hand!
Feeding time at Monkey Mia. This dolphin is adopting the "Feed me now and stop talking." pose.
So, here it is the last day of our holidays and it is back to work tomorrow. While this is not the best news, all I can hope is that the year brings new challenges and that I face them as best I can - I resolve to not let the turkeys get me down this year and to focus on those things that I can control. I work with a great team of people so at least going back and being able to catch up with them will be fun.
Let's hope that 2008 is more enjoyable and prosperous for us all than 2007 (if that is possible!).
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