Week in the Life – Sunday

Day 7 of a week in the life! I’m excited to say that I made it to the end with taking photos and documenting everyday life every day for a week, and managed to take another 65 photos today as well! Now to just get it all together in an album over the next 1-2 weeks.

Today has been a busy day. Bec and Samantha came down so that we could get bridesmaids dresses fitted. They were supposed to leave at 7.30am to arrive at 9am, but they left late since Zane and the boys decided to come along so that they could find suits. I got up at 8am originally and texted to see if they were on the way, but of course they weren’t, so I snoozed for a little longer.  They didn’t end up leaving until a little after 8am, and they had to pick Travis up on the way, so they didn’t get here until almost 10am. I had a simple brekky of tea and toast, and Michael dropped me off to meet them at about the same time as they would arrive. I still ended up waiting a little longer for them to get to the bridal shop, so I browsed a few shops and admired the autumn leaves.

Bec rung me just before I bumped in to them, to say that they drove past the bridal store and found out it didn’t open until 11am, which made things very rushed since I was supposed to be picked up by Michael at that time to head to his sister’s surprise birthday. In the end, he agreed to pick me up at 11.10am, so that I could quickly be measured up then rush out the door. So me and the girls went to a cute cafe for coffee and a chat, then we wandered over to the bridal store to be measured up and to place our orders. Samantha also tried on the bridesmaids dress for the first time today, and she looked stunning in it! I rushed out the door a little late, and met up with Michael. Now I just need to buy some silver shoes and probably a silver clutch, and I’m ready for Bec’s wedding! The boys had gone suit shopping in other shops to start with, so I didn’t end up seeing them before I left.

We went straight from the bridal store to his sister’s place to pick up some things to take around to the Bowling Club where we were having the party. Michael’s brother-in-law told us that he’s organised for everyone to be there at 12pm, but we got there at about 11.45am, Michael’s parents got there just before 12pm, and no one else showed up until at least 12.30pm. I thought it was a poor effort since it was supposed to be a surprise party! Luckily Kylie was running late herself, otherwise there would have been only 4 of us surprising her! It gave us plenty of time to blow up balloons and hang streamers and put out table clothes, since nothing at all had been done at the club when we got there. I love decorating for parties though!

There ended up being about 30 people all up, and Kylie ended up seeing us all before she walked in because of where she parked. She still seemed to enjoy the day though! Me and Michael were the BBQ’ers, and we did sausages and kebabs. Michael’s parents and Catriona had made the salads, and one of Kylie’s friends made pavlova. Kylie’s husband made her birthday cake. It was an awesome feast! I have to remember to get a copy of Catriona’s noodle salad recipe though, because it was so good! She teased me a little because I wanted to take some more food photos though, since she’s notice that I always take lots of food photos, but I don’t mind. She knows I’m pretty interested in taking photos, and I’ll continue to do it even if they tease me for it!

After lunch, dessert and cake, we headed outside to play a round of barefoot bowls. I’ve never tried lawn bowls before, so I was pretty clueless on how to play. We had 3 teams of 2 playing, and basically the way it worked was that there was a white ball rolled out on the field, then each team took turns to roll black balls towards it (4 balls per team). The goal was to get as close to the white ball as possible without hitting it. Each of the black balls was weighted so they curve as they’re rolled, to make it more challenging. The team that got the closest wins, and the points are based on how many balls they get near it. For example, if they have one ball as the closest, and then another teams ball is second closest, they get one point. If 2 of their balls are the closest to the white ball, then they get 2 points and so on, for a maximum of 4 points per round. I couldn’t get the hang of it though, although I did score one of our points in the last round. We won the most rounds, but we didn’t hit hug numbers of points each round, so we came second overall. It was pretty fun though, especially since it shaped up to be a decent afternoon, after starting out pretty grey and average looking in the morning.

Everyone started leaving at around 5.30pm, and by this stage, we were both a bit tired, so we headed home as well. When we got home, we both sat on the computers for a while. By this stage, I was wanting a nap so badly, but since it was already after 6, I decided it would be a very bad idea and would prevent me from sleeping. Michael left after a while to wash his work car (something he has to do every Sunday evening as the works cars are inspected each Monday), and I was so tired that I didn’t offer to help like I often do. I struggled to stay awake while browsing online for a while, and decided to knit a little more, although I only did a few rows tonight. I ended up waking up a bit later on in the evening, probably because Michael came up and started pumping some upbeat music. I’m not sure what half of the songs were actually called, but they were decent at least, compared to the usual music he listens to. He usually has his headphones in as he listens, and tonight was no different, but he plays it loud enough that I can even hear it in the bedroom most days!

I did a purse dump today as well. It’s been awhile since I’ve done it, but decided I might as well do it tonight. These happen to be the only photos from this week that I didn’t take with my own camera! What I carry in my purse doesn’t change much, but I figure in a few years it might, so I might as well record it. Even though I have a tiny bag, I always have my phone and camera in there. I don’t bother carrying a wallet at all, instead I have a metal case (the purple one in the picture) that holds my licence and bank cards. The 2 extra cards are a staff card for one of the groceries stores here, and a loyalty card for the same store, which is actually linked to Mum’s account and earning her points when I use it. I rarely carry cash around, and when I do, it’s usually very little. I always have headphones for the trip to work, and sometimes during my breaks if I’m bored, and a glasses cloth for my phone and camera screens. I keep my birth control in there as well, so I never have to worry about remembering it when I’m away for the night or out late, and I always have band aids since I’m accident prone. They came in handy today when I opened the metal seal on a tub of dip and managed to slice my finger on it too! Lucas pawpaw cream is my go to product. I use it as a facial moisturiser each day, and as a lip balm. It’s the only thing that seems to stop my skin from drying out! It’s also great for cuts, bites, burns, scratches and about a million other things like that! Lastly I have my USB key. This isn’t always in my bag, but I had it in there to print the stuff at Michael’s work last night, and I usually have it when I’m getting photos done. People are always surprised that I manage to fit a camera in my bag, and then when the see what else is in there, they are usually even more shocked! Usually I’ll also have my work building pass to get through the security gates, but I took it out this morning since I had no need for it today.

This evening I also updated our calendar. This is just a white board that we have on the bedroom wall, where we record all of out appointments and upcoming events. I usually keep it pretty up-to-date throughout the month, but at the end of the month, I’ll tidy it up and take a picture so that I have a record of a lot of the big things we got up to throughout the month. For example, this month, we had a wedding to go to, a birthday, Easter, celebrations at my work, Easter show trips and date nights. There’s usually a section for things we need to book that have an expiry, such as a day at the shooting range and some photography classes, and a section for upcoming events that are scheduled for months further into the year, so we don’t have to try to remember them and can avoid double booking our days, which still seems to happen a bit. It seems that everyone wants to do things on the same weekends… We can go a week or 2 without plans at all, and then suddenly we’ll have a weekend with like 4 or more things on. I don’t mind it overly much if these busy weekends are awhile apart, but they can be pretty exhausting. I still try to go to most things though, since I like going out and mixing with other people, especially since I’m such a homebody most of the time.

Other exciting news for the day is that Mum got a rainbow lorikeet! I used to have one named Ella, who lived with Mum since I couldn’t have a bird when I moved out at 18. Even though I moved back home for a year, she’d basically become Mum’s bird, and didn’t seem to like me as much. I guess she felt rejected that I deserted her. She was a seriously gorgeous bird, though! I found her back in Easter weekend 2005. Dad had taken me out to go text-book shopping for uni, and she flew on a taxi beside me. Dad thought she looked tame, and told me to reach out to her, and she jumped on my hand and came home with us. He told me later that he actually thought she would bite me, though! She was clearly someone’s pet, but we never saw any notices that someone was looking for her, so she became my bird. The day after I found her was the funniest ever… We had her out, and she was flying around my room and started saying “You’re an asshole”! I almost fell off my bed laughing at the fact that I had a swearing bird! Rainbow lorikeets truly are my favourite birds though, and I really wish Michael would let me have one! Unfortunately Ella passed away mid last year, and we’re unsure as to what happened. But anyway, Mum brought a hand-reared lorikeet today and named her Bella. She texted me about it, and said she’s the friendliest thing too, which is good. Since Ken has a parrot there, I think Mum felt a little left out since she no longer had Ella, so it will be good for her having a bird again!

Well, I think that about sums up my day today! It’s been so much fun completing a week in the life this week! Even on days when it’s felt like more of a struggle, I’ve still managed to get it done, and I truly love some of the photos I’ve taken. I’m looking forward to getting all the photos ready to be sent off to be printed over the next week, and then when they arrive, I can’t wait to get my album put together! I’ll post pictures again once I have it done!  I’ve realised that there were a few pictures that I’ve missed throughout the week, but they were generally when I was busy living in the moment, so I don’t mind too much. Next time I do this project, I think I’ll try to take more photos of people. I can’t believe I managed to miss getting a photo of me and the girls this morning though!

Week in the Life – Saturday

Day 6 of week in the life! I can’t believe it’s so close to the end! I didn’t feel like I took many pictures today, but when I cleared the camera off, I found that I still had 59 photos for the day, which is good!

Since it’s the weekend and we didn’t head to the Central Coast to visit my family, the day was pretty relaxing. It started out with Michael waking me at about 9am for soft boiled eggs for brekky. Since I spent the time cleaning the balcony a couple of days ago, we decided to make the most of the weather being ok before it gets any colder, and ate out on the balcony. It was really nice sitting out there, although it was still a little fresh and chilly. I think brekky was even better today then it was on Wednesday as well!

I spent a bit of time on the computer in the morning, and Michael did as well. After awhile, he decided to head downstairs to do some work on the car again, and I decided I would teach myself how to knit today, since I want to knit a big aqua and yellow patchwork blanket. I haven’t knitted in years, and when I did as a kid, I actually didn’t like it at all. I got bored very quickly, and made it as far as knitting a bookmark. This time I tried it, and not only did I somehow remember how to do it without reading any instructions, I actually enjoyed it and though it was really relaxing! I only have one ball of wool so far, since I decided it was a small enough investment to give it a try, and if I didn’t like it, then I wouldn’t have wasted much money. Now, I’ve decided I need to find a wool shop so I can get a nice yellow that I like!

Lunch was a pasta that Michael made. I don’t really like pasta all that much, but I usually eat it once or twice a week since he likes it a lot. I don’t mind it when he makes it too much though. He uses sour cream, cheese, pepper and onion flakes, and it works alright as a sauce. I’m not sure if he adds any other ingredients to it though.

After lunch, since the sun had come out and it had warmed up, I actually sat out on the balcony to read the last of my book. I’ve now finished reading Crafternoon, by Maura Madden. It was ok, but nothing all that special. I mostly brought it because the cover looked alright and the book had a section on knitting, but it wasn’t all that in depth like I usually prefer. I do really love the idea of having crafty afternoons though, for things like making Christmas decorations or the invites for my sister’s wedding. I actually plan on inviting my sisters and Mum here to help make her wedding invites so she doesn’t have to do them all on her own. Turns out it was bright enough out there that I probably should have worn sunnies… At the very least, it would have helped with the scrunched up face!

I’ve decided today that I really should update my inspiration boards. I have a whiteboard and a cork board that hang in my craft room, with lots of different things on there. I’m trying to decide exactly what I want to do for them though. I love the magnetic whiteboard that we have in the bedroom to hold our schedule, so I’m thinking I might replace the normal white board with one, and then update the cork board with a coat of paint and some fabric covering it, maybe? I’m super undecided. I did watch an episode of the craft channel (one of the ones on Pinterest Inspiration), where they made chalk boards today. Although the idea is cool, I don’t really like the feel of chalk or writing on a chalk board, so I don’t know if that would be a very good idea for me. Maybe some clip boards? I do like being able to pin stuff up though, although the most of the stuff I have hanging has probably been up for over a year now, with enough new stuff being added to make it cluttered and less inspiring.  The butterfly will definately be staying though! Samantha brought me that years ago for my birthday, and I still love it!

More knitting as the day went on, while watching a couple of episodes of Supernatural. I love this show, but don’t really like sitting idly watching TV, so I tend to watch shows while I’m making things. It’s a great way to pass the time, since I don’t like crafting in silence usually either. I’m starting to get the hang of knitting! I took a break to take a few sunset photos off the balcony, as the sunset was full of oranges and pinks tonight. It looked really pretty! The photos do not quiet capture it though! I’m glad Michael pointed it out!

At about 5.30pm, we headed around to Michael’s sister’s place, since she offered to help us out with washing while we’re waiting for a new machine. We started the first load there and had to duck around to Michael’s friends place to pick up some car parts, and then to his work so he could reboot the servers there, since there was electricians there all day installing stuff and they needed to turn off the power. Since he’s the company IT guy, he had to make sure that everything booted ok and was up and running smoothly so that when everyone comes to work on Monday, there are no problems. I went along with him so I could print a couple of pages for my One Little Word project. I don’t mind going in there, since it has decent internet, and I can usually print a few colour pages for projects. We had grabbed subway on the way as well, so we ate that while waiting for everything to boot, and only ended up being there for about half an hour.

We headed back to Catriona’s place to check on the washing. She’d actually already put on the second load for us, which was really nice. We hung around chatting and had some apple pie that she baked earlier in the day. Her food is always awesome! I especially like her nachos and her choc-chip cookies! Once the second load was finished, it was about 9.30, so we headed home, and will pick up the last load tomorrow. We will have to remember to grab a box of chocolates for her as a thank you tomorrow, along with giving Mum a box when I see her next. It’s good that they’ve been able to help us out with washing while waiting for our new machine to be delivered!

When we got home, we hung out the washing and relaxed for a bit. I painted some more on my canvas, put together my one little word pages for the April prompt (I’m so looking forward to May’s prompt coming out in a couple of days!), and also knitted a couple more rows. I realised it was about 11.30 and that I was tired and decided I better quickly do my post, so I can go to bed, since tomorrow will be another busy day for us, and I spent most of the day tired anyway.

I love that today has been crafty and relaxing. It’s just what I’ve been needing! And it’s good to learn something new, especially when it turns out to be something I enjoy so much!

Week in the Life – Friday

Day five of week in the life. While I’m loving the photos and words that I’ve been collecting throughout the week, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t glad that the end of the week is coming! I  really love taking photos, but I did project 365 last year, where I took a photo every day for a year, and I think that burnt me out a lot in the end, something I’m still recovering from! My camera we being a bit of a pain today, so while I took quite a few pictures (58 to be exact), I will end up deleting a lot. The again, there is a lot I plan on deleting from each day… Blurry ones, duplicates and the ones I just don’t like. And I’m honestly ok with that. I said from the start that this project wasn’t about taking the highest number of photos, but about getting together a group of photographs that truly represent my life and that I love.

Today was a pretty uneventful day overall. I got up, showered and washed my hair, packed brekky for work and walked to the bus stop. I tried to get some photos of a group of rainbow lorikeets in the trees on the way to the bus, but every time I tried to snap the shot, they’d either duck behind branches or fly off. It was a little disappointing since they’re my favourite birds, and the tamer ones around here haven’t been to visit me on the balcony lately. It was gorgeous weather this morning though, and the sky was super blue!

The bus was on time again this morning, which really is unusual for the buses around here. It seems this bus driver is the only one who can stay on schedule, since he’s arrived on time most days so far since I’ve been on the 8.10am bus. I since the bus ride takes up an hour or more each day, I realised I should probably get a few shots!

I took a few random shots at work today, like the pattern on the wall as you enter the work building and one of me. Nothing too interesting today, but like I said, today was pretty uneventful. I was cursing that at lunch I was chatting and distracted and forgot to take a picture of my burger… One good thing about Olympic Park is the kebab shop downstairs has good burgers. Nowhere in Parramatta that I’ve found does anything that great, and I love burgers. I decided for my last day here, I’d celebrate with my favourite lunch here! I did get more excited as my shift came close to the end though, since it meant I could pack my stuff completely away to be moved over the weekend to Parramatta for work on Monday. Everyone seems to be pretty excited and renewed about the change of scenery again. It’s much better for most of us being located at Parramatta, for the fact that it tends to be closer to home for most of us too. Less travel time is always a win! I’m excited to start walking to and from work again. I used to walk before moving buildings, and it’s the best way to wind down in the afternoon after a long shift. Much more relaxing than the bus, that’s for sure!

I tried to convince Michael to pick me up from work when I finished, but he was too tired to drive out, meaning I had to wait 45 minutes for the bus that was half an hour late. It was super dark by the time I got on the bus, and the bus ride seemed super slow. It pretty much lulled me to sleep, so I was glad when my stop came and I could be on my feet again. The walk home is only about 10 minutes, which is good since it was already almost 8pm.

Tonight I didn’t feel much like cooking, so I ended up eating leftover sushi. I’ve heard this is really bad to do, so if I get sick, I’ll know why. It didn’t taste bad at all though, only the rice was more dry than usually, and it’s almost midnight and I don’t feel at all sick, so I think I’ll be ok. Writing this, I realise that I don’t really have any food photos today, which is unusual, but I don’t mind.

It’s been a cold evening so far, so I hopped straight into pajamas when I arrived home, and ended up with my fluffy slippers to wear. Tonight is also the first night I’ve pulled out one of the spare blankets to snuggle into so far this year… Winter’s definitely on its way! I spent most of the evening online and messing with the computer to upgrade the ram on here to see if it helps any. It seems to have helped a little, but since the laptop is 6 years old, it didn’t make that much of a difference overall. When not on the laptop, all I managed to do was to snuggle up and read, which suits me just fine!

Week in the Life – Thursday

I woke up today and could not think of a single thing to photograph and I panicked a little. I don’t know why, but it felt like I’d already photographed everything. For the 10 minutes or so before I completely woke up, I questioned *HOW* I was going to manage to finish this project for 2012.

I got out of bed and had a shower. Apparently I do good thinking when I’m in the shower (and usually right as I’m trying to go to bed at night, but that’s a whole other dilemma!) I went from having no ideas at all, to taking another half a dozen photos before even leaving the house! It’s the best feeling knowing that I manged to push past the block and keep snapping! One of the pictures ended up being my nice clean balcony that made me smile when I came outside… I’m really looking forward to brekky out there over the weekend!

The walk to work was pretty peaceful this morning. I was off in my own little word, just enjoying the fact that the weather is actually warm this morning, compared to the last few days. I’m really dreading winter since I don’t like the cold at the best of times, and if Autumn is this cold, winter is going to be horrible!

Work was slow today. We don’t usually get many customer’s calling through, but today I think I had every annoyed customer coming through to me, going off at me for stuff that we don’t even deal with in this department. I’m in a credit card team yet was yelled at about travel insurance even… What was worse about that call was the fact that the previous staff member that was helping him actually could have helped him more than I could and I just had to connect him back after being snapped at for 20 minutes. It’s been draining, that’s for sure!

Lunch was awesome! I spent my break chatting to Maryline, who was in my team when I first started and helped with training when I came over, but had now changed teams. It was nice to catch up. After lunch, I was bailed up by other people in her team to have chocolate cake, so I wasn’t complaining!

This evening I headed to the shopping centre since I have a $30 grocery voucher to use by tomorrow. I figured I’d grab sushi for both me and Michael for dinner, and then head in to buy a few groceries so I can make Michael a nice dinner on the weekend, since it’s our date night for the month. I realise now that I forgot to get candles like I was going to though, so I might have to do that over the weekend if I’m near the shops again, if not, I’ll use tealights. Michael met me at the shops, and then we didn’t end up getting home until almost 8.30pm.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I actually like sushi. I never used to, but about 6 months ago I started walking past a sushi place each time I was at the shops and one day decided to buy a tuna and avocado wrap. I used to hate the seaweed texture, but I realised that day that I didn’t mind it any more. I started buying them every week or 2, then started bringing them home for Michael as well. Now, ever 1-2 Thursdays, I’ll got to late night shopping and bring home 6 tuna and avocado wraps so that we can have it for a full dinner. I love this tradition, and have decided I really love this sushi!

Once back home, it was pretty much a lazy night… Neither of us felt up to doing much of anything, and since my laptop was playing up again, it took me forever to get anything done on here. I did get a cute photo of Michael messing around though! And managed to spend more money on bills.

Even without being inspired to take photos today, I managed to get a couple of photos that I really love. Overall, I took 51 photos today, which makes me happy! I didn’t feel much up to journalling today either, but still managed to write a fair bit in the end. It definitely helps to split the writing up though out the day on days when I struggle, though!

Week in the Life – Wednesday

Day 3 of week in the life and still going strong! Me and Michael both had the day off work today since it was a public holiday for ANZAC Day. I was thinking about going to the dawn service, but forgot to set an alarm and ended up sleeping until 10.30am. It’s rare that I manage to sleep in that late anymore, so I must have needed it!

I ended up lying around online on my phone until a little after 11am, when Michael came in and said he was making us both brekky. He makes the best soft-boiled eggs with toast soldiers! Usually it’s a weekend thing, so I felt quite spoilt! It was a seriously good start to the day!

Today was a lazy morning. I sat around online in my pajamas until about 1.30pm. Michael had already gone downstairs to mess around with an engine for his car, so I didn’t really feel bad about being lazy and staying online. I played frontierville for way to long, but I did get up every now and then to tidy random bits around the place. Overall, the place is tidier, we have clean washing in the draws and cupboards plus another load to put away, and the kitchen is clean. I then finally hopped in the shower. I’m not usually this bad though! Usually I’ll be showered and dressed by about 10am, rather than waiting until so late!

I spent some time organising my bookshelf today as well. The cookbooks are now in the loungeroom rather than on my bookshelf, and most of my travel books fit on the bookshelf now, rather than my desk. I realised I have *a lot* of books though, including quite a lot that I’ve never even read. I really need to make more of an effort to read more of them! One of my goals for the year is to read 52 books, and so far, I’ve read 6 and I’m half way through another, so I’m well on my way! I think I’ll start the Hunger Games Trilogy next! Top photo is the before, and the bottom one is the after picture.

After tidying my bookshelf, I decided a cup of tea sounded nice. Since I know Michael likes having a coffee with him while he’s down working on the car, I figured I’d make him one and take it down to him to surprise him, since he was so sweet at brekky time. He was hard at work attaching things to the new engine and trying to figure out how everything would fit. I didn’t stay down there too long though, since the garage is always super cold, and I was only in jeans and a singlet.

When Michael made it upstairs, I got his help clearing a few things off the balcony. There was an old bar fridge that’s lived out there as long as I’ve known Michael, so I convinced him to finally get rid of it. He didn’t want to try to carry it down 3 flights of stairs, so he decided it would be a good idea to throw it off the balcony. It was so loud! I was surprised that the door managed to come off it and the whole things kind of bent, too. We went down to clean it up, and afterwards, I gave the balcony a good vacuum and mop, and cleared the cobwebs. We still need to wash the windows, and I want to buy some coloured lanterns to hang out there, but it’s looking so much better! Since it was pretty dark when I mopped, I may have to go over it again on the weekend, but at least it won’t take much work at that point. Either way, it’s a million times better than it was, and if you saw the water after mopping, you’d understand why!

Since our new washing machine won’t arrive until 5th May, Michael decided that he wanted to pull the old one apart to see if he could get it working again temporarily while we wait for the new one. He loves tinkering with things! Parts ended up all over the laundry, kitchen and part of the lounge room. He realised that there is no way to fix the washing machine though. The barrel seems to have bent, and caused part of it to wear through the plastic, so it had a big crack that went about 30 centimetres around the barrel, so it would no longer hold water without leaking a lot. It’s a shame, since it would save us hand washing all the work clothes over the weekend!

We decided since the balcony was clean and we skipped lunch that we’d have a good dinner, so Michael got the BBQ going. He cooked some gourmet lamb sausages, chicken kebabs and fried eggs, while I made up a big salad. We had lots of stuff in the fridge to try to use up, so the salad had lettuce, tomato, cucumber, capsicum, carrot, mushroom, pineapple, beetroot, avocado and cheese. Since I cut the salad and dish it straight up on the plates, they ended up really massive and I ended up putting half of each one away for lunch at work tomorrow. Neither of us got through the kebabs, either, so I now have chicken salad! It works really well, since I’m avoiding buying lunches and brekkies at work for now. It was a seriously good dinner though! I’m glad we made it, although I was feeling super lazy and just wanted him to make a basic pasta instead.

We finished up a carton of eggs this evening too, which worked really for me, since I brought a dozen plastic eggs on sale a week or 2 ago for me to use next Easter, but had nowhere to store them. They now have a nice new home for the year, and don’t roll around everywhere and annoy me. They’ll stay on a bookshelf in my craft room. I didn’t take a picture of the shelf since it’s horribly messy, but I like everything on top of it, so you’ll have to settle for that!

I thought I’d end up with more photos today than I did since we were both home, but I only ended up with 67. I’m ok with that though, since I managed to get more photos with us in them than I have previously. I realised I still don’t have a picture of us together though! I’ll have to try to get one or two over the next few days.

Week in the Life – Tuesday

Day 2 of week in the life and still going pretty strong, with another 53 photos today. I got up this morning and went through the usual morning routine of making the bed, brushing my teeth, wiping down the bathroom counter, having a shower, getting dressed, opening the blinds, packing my work lunch and heading out the door to the bus stop. The weather was really nice this morning as well, so I didn’t need to worry about gumboots or raincoat. I managed to make it work in time today, too, which was good! The bus driver was actually the bus driver I had the very first day I caught the bus out to Sydney Olympic Park, who I haven’t had as a driver in months. While I was on the bus, I realised since I only have 2 more days left going to Olympic Park, it’s better for me to buy a new bus ticket each way at $4.50 each trip then it is to buy the weekly ticket at $28. It made me even more excited to change back to Parramatta for work!

I got to work really early today, even earlier than usual when I get the bus. It was nice to get to sit down and have a relaxing morning eating my breakfast. I had over an hour to fill between getting to work and starting work for the shift. I love having brekky at work each day. I have to get there early because of the buses, since missing one or a bus being late means I can end up late for work, and it means that I don’t have to get up any earlier to have something to eat. While eating brekky, I tend to listen to podcasts, browse the internet, look on pinterest, and whatever else I feel like doing on my phone. I’m completely away from my desk, and seem to get the same table each morning. I sat around with Belinda, from my old weekday team, for part of the morning, since she was also at work early, and it was nice to have a chat.

We were short-staffed again for work, with a few people off sick and too many on leave. It wasn’t as busy today though, which was good, since yesterday had 10 minute wait times for the calls coming through for most of the day. I managed to read most of my usual sites and spent some time browsing the forums on big picture classes. It’s nice to get time to do it all at work, since it means I don’t have to check the sites when I’m home and can spend my evening how I want.

My lunch for the day was leftover honey chicken. I was alone for my break, which was good as I kind of needed a break from people after some of the calls I’d been having. I spent the time reading through some of my Cleo magazine and browsing on my phone. It was a relaxing lunch break. I really like having 45 minutes for lunch breaks each day though, since it means I don’t have to rush eating, and I’m pretty much always a slow eater.

Just after coming back from lunch, there was a quick storm in the afternoon. It didn’t last for more than half an hour, and once it stopped, there was actually a nice rainbow out the window. I still can’t believe how hard it can be to take a photo of a rainbow though. The colours always end up looking washed out for me. I realise now that I probably could have tried the colour pop setting on my camera to get it to work though. At least I’ll know to try it next time!

We were told in the afternoon that we get to wear mufti for the week rather than dressing in business attire, which is nice. I much rather wear jeans and runners, although the tops I wear on mufti days are pretty similar to what I wear the rest of the week to work anyway. We also had the packing boxes and supplies passed around today as well. Makes it seem much more real that in a few days, I’ll be back to walking to and from work rather than catching the bus and spending an extra 2 or more hours out of the house each day! I haven’t really bothered to start packing yet though, since I know I’ll need most of the books and folders before Friday. I figure I’ll start doing it about half an hour before my shift finishes, since it won’t take long at all to put everything in a box and seal it up.

I texted Michael about an hour before leaving work in the hopes that he would pick me up, since it was so cold and dark. When I actually finished, I tried calling him as well, with no luck. I really was not wanting to catch the bus, but since I couldn’t get through, I had no choice. The bus was naturally about 20 minutes late as well, so I sat around shivering listening to Paperclipping Roundtable again. It was actually a relief to get on the bus where it was significantly warmer. It was even worse by the time I got off the bus at the other end, so I walked home super fast. It was seriously a relief to get inside!

Michael he was on dinner duty tonight since I cooked last night and am cooking tomorrow, but he wasn’t around the apartment when I arrived home. He was actually down in the garage messing with a new engine he brought for his car, and he’d left his phone inside, which is why he didn’t answer. It was a little frustrating though, since I was super hungry already. In the end, I ended up making a batch of microwave popcorn, and then proceeded to eat the whole lot! Michael came inside a little after 8pm, and decided he didn’t want to cook and that we’d go and get pizza. He ordered us a thin crust pepperoni pizza and some spicy chicken pieces, and he drove us down to the shop, since it was way to cold to walk over. He ended up driving around for a little bit, and we ate in the car at the park while chatting. It was a nice kinda date! I had a good laugh at how dirty he was though, since he managed to smear grease all over his face while working in the car. I love that we’ve been making more of an effort to eat together and chat rather than watch shows on the laptop, although most Tuesdays we still watch House while eating.

We stopped to get milk on the way home, since most shops will be closed tomorrow, and then when we got back, we both relaxed online for a while. I also got up and painted some more on my canvas. I still need to do at least one more coat of white, but I’m liking how it’s looking so far!

I’ve come to the realisation that I really need to try to post earlier each day, since it’s 11.30pm right now, and I’m only just getting all my photos and words sorted for the day. I’m super tired, so as soon as I post, it’s sleep time! Today has had more rhythm for me, so it flowed better with taking photos and writing though, so I’m happy! I definitely don’t take as many photos in the evening at the moment though, since it’s so dark by the time I get home, but I do appreciate the morning light more!

Week in the Life – Monday

Day 1 of week in the life today! I think it went pretty well overall too. I woke up at 7.30am to get ready for work, and to be honest, I almost forgot that I’m needing to take pictures since I was so tired after only getting 4 hours of sleep. My first stop each day is to brush my teeth before I shower, and when I went to do it, I realised that the toothbrushes magically bred to create a new pink toothbrush for me. I guess it really did bother Michael that my toothbrush was grey and he kept going to use it! I got ready for work and came out to pack my work lunch and brekky. Since it was raining all morning, I got to wear my new gumboots for the first time. It was nice not having to dodge every puddle on the way to the bus stop, and actually making it to work with dry feet!

I managed to miss the usual bus that comes at 8.10am. It seems it was a couple of minutes early for once, and drove past as I was at the corner. I ended up sitting around waiting for half an hour for the next bus, since it ended up being late. The bus ride itself was pretty uneventful today. I spent the ride listening to the Paperclipping Roundtable pod cast number 79, where they are talking about Meyer-Briggs personality types. I plan on looking into this one day at work this week, since I’d be curious to learn more about my personality. Ali was on this episode too, which I think is awesome considering she’s the idea maker behind week in the life in the first place.

By the time I got off the bus, I realised I was cold and not wanting cereal with milk, so I ended up heading to McDonalds for brekky for the first time in a while, and brought a Boston deli bagel meal. I’m surprised I like these, since I always disliked bagels, but this one with its tomato and avocado goodness is awesome! I took my brekky into work to eat, since it was better than sitting around at McDonalds, and changed in to my work shoes while there. I felt a little weird taking photos of my brekky, since their were so many people in the kitchen and my camera was noisy, but I’m glad I did.

I went around to my desk at about 9.30am, only to find out we were down to half a team for the day. 4 people were on leave, Stacey had her last day on Friday, and 2 people were sick, so it meant by the time I logged in, we were flat-out. Even out team leader and assistant team leader were out on leave or sick! It meant that we had an absolutely flat-out morning though. I didn’t have much time to do anything all day. Usually between calls I’ll check blogs and browse online, but today, it didn’t happen much at all. On a positive note, I had a really great stats today at work, especially the one that I’m usually worst at, so that made me pretty happy.

One of the girls that I used to work with when I working weekends with the bank, Ruchi, sent me an awesome email today too. I haven’t heard from her in a couple of months since I’ve been working at a different site, but it turns out she’s got a position in my team, starting in a couple of weeks! She’s on of the sweetest girls from my past teams though, so I’m really looking forward to it! She was only just starting the role when I left that team to go to weekdays, so it’ll be nice to get to know her a bit better now. I’ve also been organising a coffee date with Bel, since it’s been ages since I’ve seen her around too, and it will be good to get to catch up again. I really can’t wait to get back to Parramatta again to be able to see all the awesome people from my old teams!

During my lunch break, I was bored and brought some magazines to read. I brought Cleo, which has a career section that I was reading at Mum’s, since it had some information on starting a business, and also a puzzle magazine for when it gets quiet again and I need something to do. I didn’t get to read much during my break though, since I actually had a break that overlapped with Mary’s, so it was nice to get to string together a conversation, rather than the disjointed attempts we usually get between calls. Lunch was leftover mushroom and chicken pizza from the weekend, so it was pretty good. I’ve been trying not to spend money on food at work all last week and this week.

When the day finally quieted down a little, I managed to catch up on most of my usual sites and also messed around with my camera settings to see if I could turn off the sounds. I actually found out how to do it, so I now have a quiet camera again!

It was my early finish at work today, so I left at 5.30pm. The bus was late as usual, so I continued listening to the podcast from this morning. For once the bus didn’t make me feel really sick or tired, although to be honest, I’ve been tired on and off all day.

I got home and didn’t feel up for cooking, so I came online for a bit and then fixed my work pants. I finally decided to stop being lazy and made honey chicken for dinner. It was only a packet mix, but it turned out ok enough. I swear it’s just plain honey for the sauce though! I’m going to try to make it from scratch next time though.

The rest of the evening has been pretty lazy too. I read one of my new magazines for a bit, tidied up a little, traced the ampersand I want to paint onto my canvas and I’m now online again catching up on emails. I’m pretty happy with how I went with photos today considering how little light there was most of the day, since it’s coming into winter and well dark here by the time I get home. I took 45 photos for the day, and that’s missing a few that I know I’ll be taking later on in the week. I didn’t want to stress to get every shot in, since I know I’ll need ideas later in the week, especially since I spend so much time at work where it’s hard to get many photos.

Week in the Life 2012

Well it’s that time of the year again. Ali Edwards is doing a week in the life next week, and I’m planning on participating again. This year, I’ve decided to simplify the project a lot more than I have in the past, since I’ve never finished the project completely in the 2 previous years I’ve tried.

Both times, I’ve taken down the photos and the words for the project, but when it comes to actually printing the photos, it hasn’t happened. I plan to actually have the 2011 week in the life finished by the end of the year though, since the journalling is done, and I’m just needing to print the photos and slip them in the page protectors, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever finish 2010 since it was so complex with printed journaling cards that I never even finished typing up. Below is the basis for my 2011 album, and I love it! Especially the different colours and the days of the week. The journalling pages are double sided, and I used the daily sheets that Ali created.

To keep it simple this year, I’m thinking of continuing with the 8 1/2×11 inch pages that I’ve used previously, and the We are Memory Keepers divided 9 slot page protectors. I’ll be using the same American Crafts 8 1/2×11 black cloth album to keep it in, which is where I keep the previous 2 years of this project. As for the layout of the pages, I’ll be doing one main photo for each day, which I’ll print as either 8×10 or 6×8 for the left hand side of the page, then the divided page in the middle with photos and possibly some basic journalling, and the right side of the page I’ll type my journalling out each day, which will probably just be my diary entry for each day, possibly with a few extra interesting details. I think this format will be easy enough to keep up with throughout, and I’ll have the photos photos printed in one batch at the end of the week and will assemble and share the finished product by the weekend after. Below is a basic sketch on how I plan on doing my 2012 album.

I’m super excited about having 2 good cameras to use for this project this year as well! It’ll be fun to test them out some more! I plan on sharing my photos and journalling each day of the week so that anyone can see what a week in the life is like for me at this point in time. I’ll be trying to really capture the details of my day-to-day life, so there will be lots of everyday photography, which I actually quite like doing. For anyone who struggles with everyday photos, Elise Blaha has a great post on her blog today with ideas and tips. Please excuse all of the crappy pictures today. It’s been getting dark by the time I get home each day, so I didn’t have good light by the time I took  the pictures. I’ll try and take better ones when I finish the album!