Tina's wanderings around the world

Big sigh of relief. In my one month at the Heart Foundation, one of the main projects I've been working on is the coordination of a meeting for all of the fundraisers across the country to come to Sydney. Over the last three days, my planning and efforts have come to fruition and the meeting went down, if I do say so myself, without a hitch. It wasn't a terribly difficult feat since I coordinated board meetings at CSF for a good year and a half, and thinking through to the details is one of my strong points. But all the same, it was nice to get recognition for the success. Day one went just fine, aside from a catering snafu where our caterer delivered all of our order (breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea) at 9:00 am. I was not pleased, but I littered the kitchen and refrigerator with "Do Not Eat" signs and was lucky enough that the staff in this office actually heeded the signs. The meeting proceeded just fine, technology fine, presenters prepared, brilliant. When lun...

I just read this in the paper during my lunchbreak. Hilarious! http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/hopping-mad-stoned-wallabies-make-crop-circles-20090625-cxlt.html

Well, what am I up to lately? Work has taken a turn and I am now working full-time which has been quite nice. One of the fundraising strategies they have in place here is via "merchandise boxes". They have little boxes full of Heart Foundation swag that they pawn off to stores, organizations, offices, and people to sell. It is now my job to reconcile all of the boxes, money, and leftover merchandise that doesn't get sold--for all of Australia. It is a logic problem, to be sure, but I welcome the challenge and am happy to have something new and different to keep me occupied. Other than that, I spent most of last week at the movies. The Sydney Film Festival was on and I wanted to make sure that I got out to see a few, and the first I went to was called "We Live in Public" (or something like that) and it was a documentary about this guy who predicted the mass success and future socialization through the internet. He claimed that our entire lives would be surrounded...

It is very, very cold. It doesn't help that I'm sitting here, post-shower, willing my cold, wet hair to dry. It does help that I'm completely dressed in sweats and knee socks with a big feather comforter on top. I'm amazed at how cold it gets in Sydney. Before we left for Darwin (just a few days before Easter) it was still warm, so warm in fact that we were still sleeping with a fan on. As soon as we got back from the Northern Territory, the autumn chill had set in and it's only gotten worse since. Yesterday slammed in with icy breezes. Australians assume that because I'm from Seattle I should be able to handle the cold better, but it's the same problem I ran into while in South America--no central heating! In Seattle, I'd begin the day in my heated apartment. Next I would brave the cold to my car, and the heater was usually up and running by the time I hit the Aurora bridge. Gloves were employed only during the transition, then quickly lost in the clutt...

I don't know if it's my latest batch of peanut butter cookies or reading Alice in Wonderland before bed, but I've been having strange dreams this week. Last night I had a dream that I went back to the states to visit from Australia, and the people I visited were random semi-friends that I wouldn't dream of meeting up with if I were to go for a visit. So I started out there and then ended up back at good ol' West Valley high school playing basketball. A ball must have ricocheted off the side of my head (though I didn't feel it and thought I was just fine) because the coach came over to me with a look that said "something is wrong with your face!" I felt the side of my face, and it felt completely normal, no heat, no puffiness. Then I looked into a mirror and found the right side of my face had started blowing up into some kind of an allergic reaction. I cupped my face so no one could see the atrocity that lay underneath and ran off to the nurse's of...