Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Weirdo

With Fairfax being one of our major clients and we being one of theirs, our company along with Fairfax have a special training tour for all the new people who join Hudson. We begin the day in their beautiful city office at Darling Park and then head out to their print facility out at Chullora.

When I walked into the building my breath was stuck in my chest; it reminded me of Vegas! With the little lights in the roof, the big stairwell and antique furniture; the desire to be back in Vegas was overwhelming. If I can afford it I think I’ll go there again in 2005 and shout mum a trip while I am at it.

The printing plant is massive and noisy! It’s all done by machines and it’s really fascinating watching them refer to the robots as if they were human. To be honest I never really cared or thought about how newspapers were produced, but the tour really opened my eyes and I have a new found respect for the whole process. And as usual they finished off the tour with the most amazing lunch platters! I wanted to be really Asian and take home a piece of cake for Jacky…but that’s rather sad.

……..

It was 4pm and the sky was already dark, the clouds outside looked scary and then the thunder and lightening hit. Great! I didn’t have an umbrella, forgot to bring a change of shoes and had to make it back in time for New Years dinner; all on the day that I didn’t drive to work!

6:30pm – Stood on a crowded platform at Parramatta station with the board showing that the train would be half an hour late. The city rail guy suddenly announces that the train will now depart from platform 3. When things like this happen people suddenly become animals as they push and shove to get there first.

7:00pm – Arrived at Redfern station, there were no trains to Allawah and the next train to Hurstville was running half an hour late…just my luck…the station was rather empty and some big weirdo plonked himself right next to me when there were free seats everywhere! When we finally got on the train he sat next to me again and stared at me for the next half hour, I just thought it was another loser an ignored him.

7:50 – Finally get to Hurstville, have to get off and catch it back home. I walk to the opposite platform and who follows?? But the weirdo…ok starting to get a bit weird now…So my train comes and weirdo gets in the same carriage as me …yikes!

Comes up to me and begins telling me how attractive he finds me …and how at Redfern it wasn’t his train, but he saw me get on and followed me. Asked me what I did and introduced himself as Gabriell. He then pulled out some old business card that looked like it had been sitting in his wallet for the past 20 yrs….wrote his number down and said that we should ‘get together’ *puke* I said that I had a boyfriend and he made some ‘awww’ noise and told me ‘don’t worry forget about him!’.

The freakiest bit was when he put his arm on my shoulder pushed me back and said something like ‘oh your so beautiful..’ I flung his arm off and said ‘oh it’s my stop’ and got off the train….before the doors closed I heard him yelling out for me to call him…what a loser!

This is definitely worse than the Westfield incident 2 weeks ago…I swear I’m driving to work from now on!

Saturday, January 17, 2004

The Price of Beauty

In the 2nd round interviews for the Hudson job I had to do a presentation about ‘The Price of Beauty’. I discussed things like plastic surgery, liposuction and when things go wrong…think Michael Jackson. I also brought up the issue of ‘fad’ diets and extreme dieting, even by the most intelligent of people; all for the price of beauty.

Looking back the whole speech has turned into a bit of an irony. I work with people who I admire for their intelligence and quick wit. Who are all financially successful with most living in the Eastern Suburbs. Yet almost everyone in my office is on a detox program or a diet, with most of them in my opinion being on extremely unhealthy ones.

In the past I have always stayed away from the topic of diets, because as you know I have been blessed with a fast metabolism. If I were to ever comment that they didn’t need to diet, I am often told ‘what would you know? You’re a stick!’ But the situation at work is just ridiculous.

I do not have a problem with people dieting...as in eating healthier, drinking more water and doing a bit of exercise; it’s something we should all aim to do. However I do have a problem when my Manager sitting next to me is on a ‘grapes only diet’. She explained to me that she found this diet in a magazine, and so for the past two weeks I have observed her eating grapes and sultanas only; for breakfast, lunch and dinner…on one rare occasion she was allowed to add 4 cashew nuts for dinner.

In a period of two weeks she went from a bubbly person to someone who looked drained, tired and snapped at people easily. So I confronted her about this one lunch time, saying that if she deprived her body of ‘normal’ food it’s only going to make her crave it. If she were to eat normally again it would be a shock to her body, and the weight would come on even quicker…which is why she should just eat in moderation. She then told me she had lost 5kgs and she thinks the diet is great! Her menu is now watermelon, so for the next 3 weeks it’s watermelon only… then back to grapes, this is to create ‘variety’ in the diet. O_o

The HR team from the city came to pay our office a visit on Thursday; during morning tea I offered some fruit to one of our visitors who’s this gorgeous British girl with the looks and figure to die for! She looked at me with absolute shock and announced that she was detoxing! She’s not allowed fruit, only string beans and water for 2weeks. Any diet that makes fruit a bad thing is a bit of a worry I think.

But no, it’s not just the women in my office it’s also the men. I don’t think I will get started on them. The funny thing is, watching my friends go on these roller coaster diets, many lose the weight and not feel any better about themselves because they failed to address the underlying problems in the first place. Diet and exercise should go hand in hand because you want to improve your overall health, if losing weight comes as a result then that’s an added bonus.

Thursday, January 15, 2004

(Title goes here)

Surprisingly A lot more people actually read my blogs than I thought. I was really happy to run into an old high school friend who I had not seen in ages. So here I was ready to tell them the dramatic changes in my life and see what they had been up to since we last spoke...when instead they gave me a hug and congratulated me on my new job....needless to say that I was shocked that they knew. This same situation happened to me 4 times in a 2 week period (thanks for spreading the word Rodna! ahha). So I thought I really should make an effort to update my blogs for those who are nice enough to show an interest in me.

So I’m happy to report that work is still going great! I mean it's tough, but all jobs come with its pros and cons and for the most part I really can’t complain. I've finally been given my own portfolio so that's been a bit of a highlight to my week, you really get out of it what you put in. I have to work pretty hard, and I think I prefer it that way if I did nothing I would die of boredom, though some days can be really trying.

Went into work today thinking it was going to be rather dull, because the day was allocated to updating our own client relationship Matrix's. Walked in, and as a morale booster the company had set up this terrific breakfast for us...fruit platters, chocolate filled croissants, different pastries, bacon and egg muffins....there was heaps of stuff and it was just the best start to the morning; I was pleasantly surprised! And there was more food for me since every man and his dog is on a diet where I work (I shall share my views on this in my next blog) .

I’m not sure whether I’m allowed to take my annual leave all at once, but I have my fingers crossed. I have itchy feet again and we’ve still got our free frequent flyer tickets to use up. So...if all goes according to plan I might be heading off to Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand at the end of 2004. I love travelling; I kinda wished I had the guts to take a whole year off to do it the last time I went. But it’s cool… Jacky and I said that the next time we go, we’re going to do it in style!! So the only way that’s going to happen is a bit of hard work now.

And yes I’m still at Baku on Sunday’s, my boss made me an offer that I would be stupid to refuse it puts a lot of extra money in my pockets too! So yeh if you’re shopping in the city on a Sunday don’t forget to drop by!

Anyway really need some sleep…till next time

Emz

Saturday, January 03, 2004

Welcoming 2004

After spending the last New Year in Times Square New York everything else just seemed quite mundane. However we still wanted to make the most of it and not end up staying home and regretting it. We headed out to Circular Quay to watch the fireworks, but while driving out it started sprinkling. Waiting for about 6hrs I could tolerate but getting wet while waiting I couldn't so we decided to go to our friend's who has an apartment on the top floors of the Summit on George St.

We spent the first few hours making cocktails and playing drinking games when the fireworks started we all headed up to the roof top to watch it from there. Since we didn't have the security swipe card to get to the upper floors we had to quietly climb 12 levels of stairs on the fire escape. These stairs were narrow and steep; I don't remember the last time I had such a work out!

Now no one is actually allowed up on the roof top, not even if you have an apartment. But my friend whose apartment it was had been up there many times before as the door can be easily flicked open with a pocket knife. The view from the top was just breath taking and well worth the effort. You can see everything from up there from Darling Harbour right round to Circular Quay. (Click here to check out the photos if you are interested).

Little did we know that security had decided that they wanted to come up to watch the fireworks too (best view in town). They had the biggest shock when the door opened and they found us all up there! I think most of us were too happy to bother about getting in trouble and after 50 000 questions about how we got the door open we simply told them it was unlocked. They didn't believe us of course and he was convinced one of us had a secret key. When he tried to kick us off we all cried out 'it's New Years!!' so he let us stay till it finished!

It's so fun to act like an idiot again! Don't forget to check out the pics on my website if you were there!