Weird weekend. Nothing terribly exciting happened but there has to be something in the water as everyone else seems to be going through some weird stuff.

 It was DJ’s birthday yesterday so they (Beth and DJ) held a breakfast at their place. It was nice, plus to see Beth up and about after being sick for so long was nice. I have great friends, they are awesome and if I could frame them and keep them on my walls forever I totally would.

 Saturday night was relatively quiet, I made quiche, I put on tracksuit pants, I was officially mooching at home. Until my buildings smoke alarms went off. I ignore them for a few minutes because jesus fuck, how many times do these bloody things go off. I decided to check though and when I opened my apartment door I couldn’t see further than a few feet for a thick smoke. But the smoke didn’t smell like fire and the smokey type stuff tasted foul and I had no idea what the hell it was.

 I closed the door and called 000. First time I’ve had to do that but seriously, what the hell was that fog/smoke stuff and how the hell was I going to get out of my apartment? I call the fire department and get out of my 15 year old Nirvana t-shirt and tracksuit pants and into normal clothes, lock Poppy on the balcony and hold my breath and get the hell out of my apartment.

 My apartment is above a row of restaurants and cafes, I make my very dramatic exit out of my front door with a plume of smoke scaring the shit out of the restaurant patrons seated in the outside dining sections. Fire guys come with the sirens and the lights, they clear everything, stop the smoke alarms and air the foyer out. I meet one of my neighbours, I ogle the insanely good looking fireman (I thought it was just a cliché – not a cliché, they were all insanely hot and wholesome looking) and then head back in half an hour later.

 Turns out someone (we think some kids) got into the building and let off one of the fire extinguishers. So no fire, apartment is safe, and Poppy has pooped in my basil plant to show me her displeasure with being locked on the balcony.

 I go back to eating my quiche. The end.

 I got a call from Sabine, the sister, last night. She was in a long term relationship with a guy Nathan for a few years, they split up maybe a year ago? He’s recently become single again and they’ve been speaking and catching up. A lot of things that probably caused their relationship to falter in the first place are now no longer there, and since it was a pretty amicable split there was a general vibe of trying things again.

 Except that Nathan got a call from his most recent ex over the weekend with news that she’s pregnant. And she’s keeping it. And Nathan, being a good guy, is going to support her.

 Now, Sabine is the nice sister. And by nice I don’t mean like pleasant, because please, as if that’s how we roll. But she’s the delicate one, and she’s beating herself up that she’s upset about this. Now, I’ve told her that if she wasn’t upset by this she’d be weird but I still think she’s wavering on how much this has upset her.

 So, I need a favour from you guys. Please comment and tell my sister that she is completely normal, and that being upset by this is completely normal. Please?

I have officially moved in. By officially I mean I could no longer ignore the large two boxes of books in the living room, and unpacked them last night. It is official, I live in a grown up apartment that has automatic sensor lights and shiny floors in the halls.

It’s seriously weird, as you walk the next light down the hallway turns on, if you run very fast the sensor still sees you. Unless you are the Flash. Which I am not.

(Evidenced by my putting on wool socks last night and realising if I ran really fast I would slide across my floor boards. Poppy decided she’d see what all that noise was and made me stack it. Stupid cat. Stupid lounge.)

My Foxtel installer dude also tells me there is also a rooftop area that I have access to, bless you Foxtel man for so much more than giving me just access to the crime channel.

So, it’s Beth and DJ’s birthdays this week (two Gemini’s in a relationship sounds frightening to me but it seems to work) but Beth still has whooping cough and now has the flu. That I’m almost positive she got from me. That meant she spent her birthday at home coughing and crying. And had to cancel the birthday dinner planned.

Best Friend – Fail.

I bought her one of these  for her birthday to try and make up for it, delivery is delayed.

Tiffany – Fail.

I am settling at the moment, things have still been relatively busy so I’m yet to have just a solid week of going to work, coming home to the new place so it feels more normal.

I’m going to Paddington Markets tomorrow with the sister, should be good. I just spoke with Beth and her birthday celebrations have been postponed indefinitely, so no dinner and drinks tomorrow night. This is bad, not only for Beth, but because I made a dozen cupcakes for her birthday and she cannot eat them so I still have them at my house. I know exactly how much sugar, butter, cream and chocolate went into them and the icing so I really, really can’t eat a dozen cupcakes. Actually, switch can’t with shouldn’t. I totally CAN eat 12 cupcakes, but my arteries and body weight mean I really shouldn’t.

I also just had lunch with Meg, my little MormonHousewife and her two babies. All up today has been nice, and the weekend is looking good.

I’ve been meaning to post photos of the new apartment for a few days, but I just haven’t got it to the point where I want to advertise on the internet, i.e. I still haven’t unpacked my bookcase and need a new tv unit so my television is on the floor.

 But! I did take photos when I viewed it just before I moved in, excuse the building stuff scattered around.

The kitchen photo was taken by Sabine when she came over for a few drinks. That’s my big bum making guacamole for my people. It is shiny! (the kitchen, not my arse.)

Bedroom.

Living room/Balcony. I discovered the other day that the sliding doors to the balcony slide right over so it’s like an extra little room. Bless.

Bathroom.

So, yes. That is the house of Lucy.

I’m sick at the moment, in fact I’m just about to head off from work early because I can barely breath, let alone think. I am more dangerous trying to do work at this brain capacity so it’s safer for me to go home.

I was thinking last night about Paul. You guys remember him and the back story? If not, read here .

Enough time has gone past that I feel I can tell the whole story, especially since it’s been in my head a lot lately. I don’t know why. We met here, he commented, we started e-mailing and we met in real life. He’d met his girlfriend at the time just prior to meeting me so while I kinda dug him, he was a friend.

Obviously we hung out a lot and emailed a lot, and it got to the point where I couldn’t pretend I thought of him just as a friend. He was funny and smart and I liked him. I told him I couldn’t be friends with him since I liked him and he had a girlfriend. We didn’t speak for 6 months until he contacted me out of the blue and we got reacquainted. He’d broken up with his girlfriend at the time not long after we stopped talking, since I think he realised he kinda dug me too.

We spent a couple of weeks catching up before going on our first date. It was cool.

A few days later while planning date no. 2 he gets a call from his ex-girlfriend. This was a major recent ex, they’d lived together for years. I think they’d been about to break up and she was diagnosed with cancer. She didn’t have m/any family in Australia so Paul looked after her full time while she was sick and as she recovered.

Turns out the ex had been diagnosed with cancer again and was in hospital and it was pretty bad. She still didn’t have family here and was no doubt freaked out. It messed with Paul’s head, brought back a few things I think he’d thought he’d gotten over. But he is a nice guy, and wanted to help her. I don’t think he’d be capable of turning his back on someone like that.

He didn’t want to start a relationship with me while being in that situation with his ex-girlfriend again. I understood it. Didn’t like it, but respected him for it.

We had this discussion over e-mail one day and that was the last I heard from him.

He was a cool guy, a nice guy and completely affirmed my belief that there are good guys out there. It made me sad because there wasn’t much either of us could do, I mean who can ask, “Yeah, ignore your ex-girlfriend who may be dying of cancer so we can go on a second date, kthx.” It makes me sad more than anything.

I don’t know where this came from but yeah, I am sick and I think I just want a hug and someone to make me soup. Flu tablets mess with your head.

I have moved in and I have a fringe. It has been a productive weekend.

I only have two boxes left to unpack, both of full of my books, and I just couldn’t be arsed doing them. Apart from that everything is unpacked, my pictures are on the walls, my kitchen is unpacked and usable and I can finally find everything. Except where I have unpacked it somewhere and have no idea where I put it since my apartment is pretty much 50% storage.

I have 2 pantries. 2! I have so many built-in wardrobes that I have only half filled them and I shop a lot! It is seriously the shit.

Moving was okay, here’s Poppy and I waiting for the movers. I will miss those tiles. Except when they got wet and made me slip many times over. I will also not miss finding a Redback spider in one of my pot plants. That fucker could’ve killed me, so I killed it. Survival of the fittest fucker.

I got my new washing machine delivered, it is also sweet with its auto detecting thing of the size of the load. When it’s determined the size of the load it tells me how much washing powder I should use. The only thing that would make it better is if it transferred things to the dryer automatically.

I have destroyed many forests over with the emissions from the dryer and dishwasher this weekend as well. I can live with this as I now have clean clothes and dishes.

I fucking love this place.

I went and got my fringe cut on Saturday, I personally like it a lot. I’m also a big fan of theoretically never having to wax my eyebrows again because you can’t see them. That’s a big win in my view.

(Please excuse the emo-esque photo, I only have little arms and this was the best photo of the few I took.)

I get Foxtel put on tomorrow, I cannot wait. I wasn’t able to watch any TV this weekend and let me tell you what I discovered this weekend, I watch a lot of TV. Instead I started and finished this game on DS. I am awesome. And by awesome I mean lame.

Yeah, things haven’t changed much since the last update.

I finished the report and submitted it and the director loved it. This is a very good thing for me since my current managers are not the most effusive with their compliments and you pretty much have to deliver the world to get recognition.

I move tomorrow. I saw the new apartment earlier this week when I signed the lease and it was almost done. It’s nice and I’m really looking forward to picking up the keys this afternoon so I can pop in again to see it finished and cleaned up. Awoohoo, new surprise apartment!

Packing sucks balls. I’m not too stressed about the actual move or the logistics of everything, I am stressed about how messy my house is and how I can’t find a fucking thing. I have been dressed like a hobo this week because my dressing routine in the morning involves rifling through packed bags of my clothing trying to find anything that’s vaguely work appropriate. As a result? I look shit.

I cried last night. I had packed all of my utensils away and left out just a fork, spoon and knife for the last few days, trying to be efficient and stuff.

Then my fork broke and I had nothing to eat my pasta with. So I cried. Granted I am a little stressed at the moment but fuck, I can’t find anything, I look like shit, my apartment is covered in boxes and bags and I can’t even eat my dinner? Jesus fuck!

My Dad’s coming up to Sydney tomorrow to help me out with the moves. This is awesome since otherwise it would’ve been just me and I had to be in two places at once a couple of times. Plus he’s my Dad and I can’t undo my bed on my own so he can help with the whole having somewhere to sleep thing.

Because I like to live dangerously I move tomorrow, have a hair appointment scheduled Saturday morning and have my friends coming over for drinks Saturday afternoon. Since I hate the idea of a house warming I thought I’d just get it over and done with when the expectations are low. I mean, house is a mess? Yeah, I just moved.

I’m still trying to decide with the hair cut whether I do a blunt fringe. Granted, I have curly hair so the potential for disaster and for daily maintenance of it to keep it straight/neat is high. But man, Lily Allen is just so cute I want her hair.

I haven’t been shopping in over a month, this makes me both a shopaholic and also makes me sad. All of this stupid saving is getting in the way of getting new shiny stuff. Like new bloody forks!

Jebus, I have been stressed lately and I am not enjoying it.

I have this report to do for work, it’s kind of important and the main advice I received from my manager was “Lucy, do not fuck this up.” So, no pressure or anything.

Essentially if I do it well the benefits will be awesome, if I don’t do it well my career is likely to remain where I am now without the chance of advancement. I quite like my job, and the company I work for, so I’m a little panicked.

I also get to move next weekend. This is awesomely exciting, but also a little sad. I’ve been happy in my apartment here, I like my neighbours, I like the neighbourhood and I’ve been here longer than any other place I’ve lived in. I will miss my ceilings most of all.

Plus, because I last saw the new apartment mid-renovation I have no idea what it will look like once it’s finished. It’s like my own private surprise apartment. Will I have carpet, floor boards or tile? What colour will the walls be? Who knows!

Beth is, as I type this, in surgery. I am also slightly worried, read: panicky. She’s gone in for a relatively normal kind of procedure to get some funky pre-cancerous stuff removed (we do not talk of the C word) but man, she’s got the flu at the moment and I’m all worried about her being anaesthetised while being sick. DJ will let me know once she’s out but I am worried.

We had dinner at Beth and DJ’s house last night, I made a flourless chocolate torte that was insanely chocolately and delicious, DJ and K want to marry me. K is aware of the fact that I am not a lesbian and would cheat on her constantly with the penis, she is okay with this as long as I continue to cook for her. So I have options.

My uncle’s partner also passed away earlier this week, she was not well, had cancer, and it spread to her liver. I didn’t know her that well, so I’m not hit with the full force of the grief but it still makes me sad. Funeral is next week so I guess we’ll have another Antilogy reunion at a funeral.

All up though things are really busy, really stressful, a few sad things but generally all is well. I do have to break Poppy of the habit of this though, she likes sleeping in the drawers even though she has a bed, lounge and cat bed all available to her. But why would she sleep there when she has a drawer full of my cardigans to sleep on. And yes, she knows how to open the drawer if it’s closed.

Poppy Houdini.

Sorry guys, I only have time for haiku’s today. I gave notice on my apartment yesterday and have a massive report required at work that if I do well at will cement my position here. The flip side is if I do shit at it, I’m kinda toast.

I am so busy

Work is trying to kill me

Send halp – SOS!

I move in 3 weeks

My new house is so pretty

Dishwasher AND Dryer!

Dude has a new site

He won’t tell me the address

What an utter knob.

So tired today,

Do I need more sleep or do I

take iron tablets?

Oh Poppykitty,

Stop sleeping on my black clothes!

Looks like a penguin.

I went and saw this place this morning, it’s close to where I live now and it’s a nice new place and I wanted it.

I was prepared, I was working from home today so I could pop over and see it without interrupting work too much.

Except I’d left the application form at work.

So I had to get up at my usual time (stupid bloody 5:00 a.m.) and head into work. Before I realised that I’d left my access pass on my desk at work. So I buy a coffee and wait outside the office waiting for someone to come in. I realise that I start work very bloody early because I had to wait at least half an hour before anyone else in my office came in.

Printed everything off, photocopied all of my ID, now have everything I need.

I turn up and there’s another couple waiting, this is fine. One other person as competition is far far easier than the 20+ people that you’re usually competing with. I see the apartment, as per the photos, and I like it.

Except it’s on street side of the apartment block and while not overly noisy it’s noisier than my quiet little apartment I have now. But I can live with that. So while the couple is looking at the bathroom I give my application to the real estate agent and say I’d like to put a deposit on it.

Go Team Lucy!

I head back to the real estate agent and start chatting with the front office lady who I get along like a house on fire with since I very politely and nicely harassed her for a few days so I could see the place before the standard Saturday viewing time. She, luckily, thought I was being friendly and flips through my application (all the way the other couple is frantically filling out their application form – you snooze you lose bitches!) she gets to my salary and winks at me and tells me well done. I’m thinking this is looking really good, and this is why you are always hella nice to the receptionist/admin people because they will fuck.you.up if you’re rude to them but will be your best friend if you’re nice to them.

She looks at me and goes this is great, but……she looks over at the couple and beckons me closer. She whispers that there’s another apartment in the block that hasn’t come on the market yet as it’s been completely gutted and is being renovated as we speak. The apartment is slightly bigger, has 2 balcony’s and is on the quiet side of the apartment block. I tell my new best friend I would totally love to see it, but I’m concerned that if I wait to view and apply for the second apartment that I may miss out on the  first apartment. his would be bad if I don’t get the second one. She looks at me, looks at my application form and then at the other couple, and then back at me. She tells me that with this application I can choose between the two, and which ever one I don’t like can go to the other couple.

Do I know why she had it in for the couple? Who knows, she could’ve been a raging discriminator because they were obviously gay, she could’ve liked my name, they could’ve been wearing something that offended her.

I do not care.

She likes me and arranges for me to see the apartment being renovated so I can the layout and dimension and whether I like it. I go and see it an hour later.

I like it, it’s lighter, there’s a second balcony just off my room, I don’t get the kitchen island bench I really wanted but I get the dryer and dishwasher (I’ve never had a dishwasher!) there’s plenty of sunny places for Poppy to nap in (and no, they do not know I have a cat and I plan to keep it that way for a little while) plus let’s be honest everything is going to be brand new when I move in. I head back to the agency, put in my deposit, she changes the apartment number on the application form and tells me they’ll be in touch in a few days to give me a completion date on the renovation for when I can move in, calls me darl and sends me on my way.

And THANK CHRIST I AM NOW DONE WITH APARTMENT HUNTING.

(Also, because I am apparently a bit of a nerd, while I was waiting for the agent this morning with the other couple I was a bit nervous and feeling psyched out. So I read your comments you guys left on the last post and it made me feel better.

This is probably the lamest thing I’ve said to people I’ve never met, but it was nice to have your support there, so thank you.)

Dudes. I forgot how awesome, and how shit, looking for a new place to live is. It’s pretty much the ultimate in shopping, except rather than just going into a real estate agency and putting my money down to ‘buy’ it I have to jump through hoops and put money down to possibly, maybe get it. Maybe.

I did not get the nun place. Getting a place to rent in Sydney involves nothing but timing, sheer luck and sometimes being sneaky. So when I saw the saw the nun place at 5:15 p.m. (when the house opened at 5:00 p.m. for the viewing) there were already 2 applications and deposits in.

Apparently living next door to nuns is not just my dream….

I had a great weekend, I headed to the homeland (i.e. the central coast) to hang out with Meg, the Mormon Housewife. She is wrong on so many levels and it’s why I love her. Saturday we had a thing for her birthday involving a bbq, many people and many children, a jumping castle and no alcohol. Surprisingly I had a great time. As soon as the kids went home Meg and I demolished the jumping castle. Her babies just slay me, I love them and while it just reminds me that I’m not ready for that I do know that I want children.

Just as soon as they invent unconcious childbirth.

Work is busy, a lot of stuff going on. The whole global financial shemozzle is hitting closer and closer each day. I was a kid the last time Australia had a recession and let’s be honest had no idea what was going on, but it’s not much fun looking at one square in the face as an adult. Especially one who is very crap at the whole saving thing.

Poppy is going to stay at Sabine’s house for a week or two while I get things sorted here and get the landlord off my case. I don’t want her to go, as I type this she’s laying curled up next to me twitching in her sleep. I love having her furry little face around, so the upcoming few weeks is just going to be good motivation to get this new house locked in and sorted.

Wish me luck.

It appears my landlord really is a spawn of satan (in the form of a elderly Italian woman) as she’s not budging on the cat rule.

Unless she has a last minute change of mind when I hand in my notice, which I’ll do over the next week, I need to find a new apartment.

I actually went and saw one on Tuesday night, it is gorgeous and quiet and private and just as close to the city as I am now. It’s also just been renovated and is gorgeous and would cost me a grand $20 extra a week. Also, the next door neighbours? Nuns. For real, nuns. I want to live next door to nuns!

I put in an application for it so we’ll see what happens.

I really wasn’t looking to move, really do not want to move. I love my apartment and have been happy here for a long time, I hate packing, I hate stressing about moving, I hate being poor because all of my pay goes to paying cleaners and movers because I am far far too lazy and weak to do it myself.

But with important stuff like this I need to be forced to make a decision, I’m not a huge fan of unnecessary change. Actually just change generally gives me hives.  But it’s been a good run here so I figure I’ll just focus on the good parts of moving and finding me and Poppy a new (cat-friendly) place.

So, how’s everyone doing? Your hair looks good….

Update – Gah! No next door nun’s as neighbours for me. Onwards and upwards and all that.

I’m off to hang with the Mormon Housewise tonight, a.k.a. Meg. It’s awesome.

Have a great weekend kids!