Whiplash!

Or...I'm now gainfully employed in Australia!

I was getting a bit depressed, the HR departments around here are very prompt in their rejections.
Evidently, if you're a good match they're just as quick in the other direction as well. I applied for a job that I wanted at a company I wanted to work for Monday of last week and had a verbal offer by that Friday. Signed my contract this week and I start next Monday.

Thanks to everyone who supplied leads, references, and support!

What is wrong with this photo?

Dazza just located this photo. Here I am, arriving in Australia, clearing customs...see anything odd?



Other than my carryon and my computer, no luggage. My luggage decided it wanted to spend some time in LAX.

Lesson learned: NWA counter agents don't realize that Northwest does not have a luggage agreement with Qantas.

When I showed up at the counter with five pieces of luggage, my carry on and my computer bag, the agent says (in reference to the luggage): I'm checking these through for you.
"Great! I don't have to find them in LA and check them back in through customs? (I had to switch from the domestic terminal to the international terminal last time...that entailed finding my bags and lugging them down two terminals.)
No, you just check back in yourself. Your bags will go straight through.
"Great!"

In LA I checked with the counter agent there: "Do I have to go back and get my bags?"
"No, they're checked straight through."

Only on paper baby, only on paper.

When the five pieces of luggage were delivered two days later (always always carry a change of clothes in the carry on!) one of the pieces wasn't mine.

That one didn't show up until I'd been in OZ for a week! It was damaged...badly...but nothing inside was broken!

Qantas seems to be on top of the replacement process though, we dropped it off at their claim service and we're waiting on the settlement. The best part of the whole experience was when the poor luggage guy who I was dealing with the evening I landed said to me:
"You're the most reasonable woman I've ever dealt with in this situation, most of them are screaming by now."

Ah, but I was on the ground safely. Yes, I did pack things I wanted to have with me at the start of my new life, things I didn't want to have to buy again, things that had some sentimental value to me...but it wasn't his fault that they weren't with me. It was partially my own for believing the people at the ticket counters of two different airlines. It all worked out, and screaming just would have upset the nice dinner that Wisey and Kay brought over to share that night in celebration of my arrival.

Kangaroos - not a hoax!

"So, tell me, why haven't I seen any of you outside a park?"



Darrell suggested we do a touristy thing on my first Sunday afternoon in O so we wandered on down to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary: http://www.koala.net/index.htm

I've now met a kangaroo or two. I'm still suspicious, but they appear to be real. These guys aren't too big though. I suspect as they allow small kids into the enclosure, they keep the large ones apart.


Here's a cute Wombat for Lisa!




And of course, the koalas. I passed on cuddling the koalas, they seem to be quite happy hanging around in their trees.





And we met some interesting local birds
A wedgetail hawk


barn owl


sea eagle


quack


Darrell has one of these purple flowered trees in the backyard, it's beginning to flower



So, my goal is to find all these critters in the wild and take pics of them there as well.

Saturday Morning at the Westend market

T-minus

Well, time has come and the house is not empty. How does one amass so much stuff that needs to be looked at and decided upon? There's not much else to do now but let some very fine people take that project over. Thanks so much for rleasing me from the stress of just one more box to go through.

Time to pack the bags!

Meals with family

There is no replacement for the connection of family. My lovely Aunt took my sister, cousin and I out to lunch at Inn Season in Royal Oak yesterday for a "bridal shower" because I should have one of those before I go. The things you say in the company of people with shared history, family history, are a bit different than what would be understood in mixed company. It's the lifetime family connections that seem to spawn those simple phrases or a look at a comment that can set the whole table laughing. We always get some nasty looks from others in a restaurant...but Yes. We do this at home too.
And the flannel PJs are fabu. No. I'm not posting a picture.

(There might be something to that Italian good luck charm given by an Italian...I received a call in the afternoon for a second showing on the house...Thanks!)


Ceoliac note: Inn Season has their menu marked with wheat free options, ask the server if those items are gluten free as well. Most of them can be made gluten free, but some can't.

A Public Service Announcement

Never ever ever purchase an HP with an AMD chip. Ever.

I needed to get that off my chest after spending yet another interlude with HP technical support after a MS live update rendered my HP unusable.