CONGRATULATIONS!!

Came into work this morning to be greeted by this email and just wanted to share it with everyone (with Christina's permission of course).

From: Christina Ioannou

Sent: Thursday, 31 March 2005 1:07

Subject: Hello Girlies

Just wanted to say a quick hello and let you know I got back safely, sorry for not having my phone on!!

Hope you are all well and your fantastic selves!!

Had a beautiful time!!! On the Tuesday last week, arrived at Whitsunday Coast and spent the day looking around the coast, which is populated with sugar cane plantations. You can't swim in the water at Airlie beach because it is full of sting rays, but they have a lagoon for the local residents. I was very worried at this point because I thought we were going to spend 8 days here, and I wanted to swim in the unswimable water!

Anyhow, I eventually found out that we were headed for somewhere else on the Wednesday.... we boarded the ferry in the afternoon and only half an hour later arrived at the beautiful Hamilton Island resort! We stayed in a cute little palm bungalow!

You will all be very proud of me.... I participated in activities including kayaking (okay for half an hour, before I had a heart attack in fear of the deep blue sea), I also sunbaked alot and managed not to get burnt thanks to my trusty 30+ Le Tan sunscreen- which makes you brown without the red sting! (my new discovery!!). Stephen was a very good boy he kayaked everyday!

We visited, the Great Barrier Reef yesterday, a two hour ferry trip away on rough waters. Let me say, that it is beautiful!!!!! The reef is a strip of coral (actually multiple strips of coral) located in the middle of the pacific ocean. They have built a floating plank there called reefworld, which is where you disembark from the ferry and can either use the plank to sunbake or to snorkel/scuba dive in the water. We went in a semi-submersible submarine and had a look at the reef- it was amazing! Stephen was so cute, he got so carried away snorkelling and looking at the beautiful blue angel fish, that he went floating off course.... eventually the speed boat came to get him!

And the highlight of my trip, would have to be on March 26 (the Saturday, which is was our 3 year anniversary day!). We got up and Stephen had hired a helicopter for us, it took us to Whitehaven beach, which has the whitest and softest sand in the world, it was amazing. We set up our sunshade tent, and lay there just the two of us (as it is an unoccupied island). Stephen then gave me our anniversary present which was a book which he had made - he had painted pictures using watercolour paints of all the things we had done together and things he would like for us in the future- it was so special that I started crying.

And before I knew it he took out a beautiful ring and proposed to me! I said YES! So there you go ladies, I am finally engaged! I found out later that he had asked mum and dad for permission like 3 weeks ago or something!!!! SO they all knew but me!!! Everyone is happy, and apparently the whole of Cyprus/Syria/Adelaide know!!

Love you lots!!

C.

I shall post a picture of the happy couple once I am home. All the girls let me hear you say 'awww....'

For She's a Jolly Good Fellow..

Wishing Mrs Westwood a very Happy 50th Birthday!

You've known me since I was 5, thank you for being a 2nd Mum to me.

Lots of Love xoxx

Em

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Also Big Happy Birthday to Nat! Hope that you had a fantastic night, can't wait to see the rest of the pics.

Drinks @ The Loft 24/03/05

Team Building with a Pinch of Salt

We headed out to our city office for an afternoon of team building. Our task:

• Partner up and learn as much as you can about the other person
• Spend the next 20 minutes painting a picture that tells a story about your partner.
• Give a speech to explain what you have painted and why.
• Allow our paintings and speeches to be judged by a team of staff in HR.

This is the painting that my partner John painted about me.

This my painting about John - I won best painting!

This was understandable - see below

Later that afternoon we caught the ferry to Manly to have a round of drinks at the Manly Wharf Hotel, where we spotted the very handsome ‘Tom’ from the show The Great Outdoors and more recently Dancing with the Stars. When it was established that no one would have the guts to ask him for a photo we headed across the road to dine at the restaurant Pink Salt as featured in channel 7’s My Restaurant Rules.

Having cameras film you whilst you sit, drink and eat is an interesting experience but not one where you are left feeling uncomfortable. As we get settled in, there is a little lack of atmosphere which is usually created by surrounding music. But as Evan explained, they are not able to play music due to the constant filming by the camera crew.

For the entrée we began with the Pink Salt Sample Platter where you had the opportunity to try a little bit of all the entrées listed plus more. The platter is good if you are brave enough to try new things and have a liking for seafood. The Zucchini flower and corn fritters with tomato & fennel ragout was by far the best entrée dish – be sure to eat it while it’s hot!

For the main meal I ordered the Wagyu beef rump with roasted eschalots, baby spinach & béarnaise which was fabulous! I would go as far as to say that this would be their best main dish. The salmon was also very nice and I would recommend it over the swordfish. The corn fed chicken is very well presented but tasted rather ordinary and my colleagues felt that the risotto tasted quite bland.

The service is exceptional and is probably due to the fact that their every move is being filmed. Evan and Bella are very friendly and make every effort to mingle with customers. Bella is indeed very beautiful and even more so in person, to our delight they posed for a few happy snaps.

The mocktails were quite nice I had the Mango Suite (i.e. Fresh mango and passionfruit shaken with peach syrup and ice cream) which I found to be rather sweet. After having a sip of everyone else’s mocktail we all came to the consensus that the Apply Mojito (i.e. Fresh green apple, mint, lime, palm sugar shaken with apple juice and topped with soda) was by far the best.

The overall price of the dishes is rather expensive for what it is, the side dishes such as chips or mash pumpkin is ordered separately with an extra $7 charged per side, this is on top of the $33 for the mains. Our bill for 14 people was just under $1000 (not including alcohol as it was B.Y.O) thank goodness our company footed part of the bill.

Overall the night was good, so support Pink Salt by dining or voting for them!

Engrish

*edit - 16/01/2007* I took my last name off this post because my name kept coming up in google searches which then linked to my blog. I'm still trying to keep a level of anonymity =P

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Today was one of those days… it was already 5:55pm and I was ready to call it a day. As I was about to log off a candidate with a heavy Asian accent calls through in relation to this job.

The conversation went something like this:

Mai Ling: “Hello? Can I please speak to Emily Cong? It’s Mai Ling calling.”

Me: “Hello Mai Ling, it’s Emily speaking how can I help you there?”

Mai Ling: “I calling for role, I called before. Emily Cong where is he??”

Me: “It’s actually Emily Ch**g and yes, I did get your message but I was in a meeting and didn't have the chance to return calls yet”

Mai Ling: “Emily Ch**g?!? Where is he?? When does he come out of meeting?!?!”

Me: “ No no, I’m Emily Ch**g you’re speaking to her”

Mai Ling: “But I need to speak to Emily Ch**g!! Is he out of meeting yet?!?!”

Me: “Emily Ch**g is a ladies name and you are speaking to her…”

Mai Ling: “EMILY CH**G!! Oh Emily is a WOMAN!?!?....hi Emily, I’m applying for your job...”

The conversation was very painful and went from bad to worse, needless to say that the candidate wasn’t successful.

*For the record I have not used original names to protect the candidates identities.

Warning!

To those Currently working at Macquarie Bank Beware, my friend Betty joins tomorrow! What she lacks in height she makes up for in volume and personality. Her voice was once described by our english teacher as 'penetrating'.

Macquarie Bank...you won't know what hit ya!

Busy Weekend

I had intended on writing a long post about the weekend but I'm too tired...so here are some pics for now.

Dinner @ Dolcissimo Haberfield - Sunday Night

After all the talk of going to Dolcissimo to try their chocolate pizza we finally went...chocolate pizza is very rich and I recommend the mini as opposed to the larger size.

Larissa's B'day @ Piar Crows Nest - Saturday Night

Really good night! Made some new friends and caught up with the old. The food was really different, I could bearly walk by the end of the night

Drinks @ Mint Bar Friday Night

Met up with the usual bunch of girls to celebrate Katina's 23rd...getting old Kat...getting old

Pink Salt

We recently had a reshuffle of office seating and I now sit right in between two managers (lucky me...not). On the bright side I do get to hear all the latest office goss and I think that my manager is trying to organise a team dinner at Pink Salt. This won’t mean anything to anyone unless you are a fan of ‘My Restaurant Rules’.

It amazes me what people will do to try get seats, name dropping, exaggeration - Neil can talk the socks off anyone! and if anyone is going to get us on TV it’ll be him!

Easter

Only 3 weeks till the Easter Long weekend - I'm counting down the days!

Did anyone notice how cold it was this morning??

My sister turned 18 today....Happy Birthday!