There are also some other smaller projects that I’d like to work on in the next few weeks:

1. Book all accommodation for our trip to China in April/May. I’ve already worked out a rough itinerary, so would like to start locking in some accommodation!
2. Start brushing up on my Mandarin language skills. They’re very rusty as I haven’t used Mandarin regularly for the past four years. I’ve already borrowed some audio language guides from my local library that I want to transfer to my iPhone so I can practice on my commute.
3. Start reading up on research methods for my last unit of study for my Masters. I should receive this year’s materials towards the end of this month, but because I have last year’s materials already, I can start doing some pre-reading.
4. Learn how to use Kieran’s new Nikon D3100 DSLR that he won the day before he left for Japan. He left it with me, so I might as well teach myself the basics so that I can appropriate the camera whenever I feel like being “artistic”. Inverted commas are actually necessary, because I’m not artistic in the traditional sense.

I also have a monthly pass to a gym in the city that I purchased for $19 off a Daily Deal site. It expires at the end of February, so I guess I should start going. I need to go at least four times to make the $19 investment worthwhile. Wish me luck?

This anonymous comment I received shows why racism is still a pertinent issue. Anyone who claims it isn’t, is just delusional.

More importantly than the housewarming itself though, is the fact that I am a matchmaker. One couple that I put together a few years ago is now engaged, a second couple is dating after a long period of only being close friends, and a third potential couple emerged at my housewarming when a friend from my study break in China in 2006/2007 ended up going home with a friend of a friend. I have it on good authority that they were having lunch together the next day, suggesting that the “going home together that night” didn’t result in a “sneaking out the door before the other person wakes up”. It’ll be interesting to see if it morphs into “we need to name our first born after Amanda for bringing us together”. I think those successes far outweigh my previous attempt to bring two people together, only for him to be unable to perform at the last hurdle. Or my attempt to set my current boyfriend up with someone else two or three years ago.

Question of the Week: Have you ever been as meddlesome as me in attempting to matchmake, and how did it turn out?

I celebrated with a large family dinner in a restaurant with Kieran’s family last night – there were probably around 50 people in total. While we had the traditional feast foods like lobster on noodles and drunk chicken, we also had the choice of such foods like sea cucumbers, angel hair, chicken feet and jellyfish. Most people weren’t adventurous enough to try those options, but I got stuck right into it, and actually turned my nose up at the more Western sweet and sour pork option. There’s no better time than Chinese New Year to get your Asian on right?

I’m the lady in the red dress at work today (red for fortune and luck!), and have been trying to do my part in educating my colleagues about the Year of the Water Dragon…and of course, the most accessible way is through a universal crowd pleaser like horoscopes! I sent this link around in an email this morning for everyone to explore their horoscope for the year. Apparently, I can expect a year of popularity, more responsibilities at work, and growing to another phase in my relationship. What can you expect?

I want to be a giver. I am, comparably speaking, really lucky. I have my health, my job, my family and friends, a roof over my head and food on my table. I have discretionary income – I can take holidays, buy clothes I don’t need and see movies I’ll forget about in a month. Not everyone is as lucky as I am, and I am constantly reminded of that working in a charity. Every day, I encounter families whose young children can die overnight from hypoglycaemia. Mothers who get up every hour to check to make sure their child is still alive. I don’t have anything like that to worry about – I am one of the lucky few. So I want to give back. I donate my time on the weekend fundraising at events for the organisation I work for…but I can do more. I have more time and skills to contribute. I just need to find charities and organisations who need me after work and on weekends.

I want to be more of my own person. This was never really a problem for me when I was living in Melbourne. I was never dependent on a partner to the point of only spending time with him or his friends. However, after moving to Sydney where I don’t have an extensive friendship network like I do in Melbourne, it’s very easy to tag along to everything that Kieran does, and spend all my time with his friends. I don’t have a reason to turn down an invitation, because I never have other plans. This needs to change. It’s not healthy. So I need to build my own friendship network. I’ve been attending trivia nights on Wednesdays with a regular group of people who I met on Sydney Livejournal (who are now Facebook friends, who are coming to my housewarming, etc.), which is a great start. I’m very conscious though, of the fact that I can and should do more. I’ve signed up for an account at Meetup, and I just need to find the right group for me. It’s an ongoing project.

I want to be recognised for my abilities. In other words, I don’t want to make excuses. I’m only going to use one example here – and that’s my ability as a cook. For the longest time, I’ve always claimed that I’m not a cook because I was never really allowed in the kitchen growing up – it was very clearly my mother’s dominion. I’ve loudly and proudly proclaimed my expertise in creating beans on toast or two minute noodles. That’s all a dirty lie. I’m actually a really good cook. I don’t follow recipes, and I don’t meal plan. I cook from instinct, and it always turns out well. Case in point – my attempts at salmon and chicken. I need to stop hiding behind a facade of incompetence to lower people’s expectations of me, and admit that I’m actually pretty awesome.¹

I want to be realistic about my capabilities. More often than not, I’m my own worst enemy – I think I’m capable of doing more than what is actually humanly capable. Case in point. I’m also Captain Possible at work – no matter how much work people throw at me, I won’t stop to say that it’s not manageable – I’ll find a way to do it all even if it means staying till 8pm every night and taking work home on weekends (which believe me, I don’t get paid enough to do). So I need to a) learn to say no/stop; and b) be realistic enough to look at what is actually possible. This is not only for my own benefit in terms of stress levels, but also for others around me as they recognise what is possible and in what timeframes.

I want a lot more. But this is a start.

¹Note: I still think it’s perfectly acceptable to make an excuse that you’re not strong enough to carry heavy things up two flights of stairs. If a stronger person can do it for me, then that’s definitely preferable!

We can all do with improvement in at least one area of our lives. I’m interested to see what people are doing to become better people. I have some ideas of what I’m currently doing, and what I want to do more. I’ll share these in the next entry.

The problem with the La Niña weather that Sydney (and much of eastern Australian) has been experiencing in recent months is that it does affect our supplies of certain produce – tropical fruits like mangoes being a prime example. The relatively cool weather and near constant rain changes everything. I mean, we haven’t yet had a day over forty degrees, which is practically unheard of at this time of year! While there have been some mangoes in store, there hasn’t been the proliferation that you would see in better years – there’s been no boxes of a dozen mangoes for $15.

I have to admit, I miss the hot weather to some extent…I’ve learnt to appreciate the Australian summer since I spent the summers of 2005, 2006 and 2007 overseas in a Chinese/European winter. Life isn’t quite the same without at least one forty degree day in summer.

My question: What food do I make? We are unfortunately limited in Australia as to the variety of DIY Mexican food available to us. Outside of the white-washed Old El Paso range in supermarkets, there isn’t much available. You would be hard pressed to find anything of real authenticity like the Mexican food I had in Tijuana that made me pass out in a chilli coma.

My initial thoughts are that I prepare corn bread and nachos for dipping in guacamole, salsa verde, salsa roja etc for snacks. For more substantial food, I’ll set up a “make your own burrito/taco” line, with empty taco shells and burrito wraps. The options would include: cooked spiced mince, grilled chicken, chopped lettuce, tomato, beans, cheese, etc. Drinks would obviously include mojitos, margaritas and tequila straight. I’d like to make churros for dessert, but I don’t think I could be bothered to go to that effort if I have twenty plus people attending.

Do I go the easy way out and just have a barbecue, but marinade all the meats in a Mexican salsa? Does anyone have any quick and easy suggestions (I don’t want to spend all day in the kitchen) that won’t require big bucks and/or a specialist Mexican supermarket range?

…and for my next themed party, “Dress Up Like Your Favourite Food”.

I started off the year with a short week long holiday in Sydney. That holiday helped me to decide the next step I wanted to take in my life – a move to new horizons. I got a new job in Sydney which meant moving cities and finding a new apartment. I also got Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy. Comparing kitten Darcy to grown Darcy is really quite amazing – you forget how small he was to begin with!

2011 was a year of focusing on myself, my needs, and what’s best for me. I got rid of a toxic drain in my life, and upgraded to a newer, shinier, more in tune model. I tried to look after myself a bit better. I started with beauty treatments, and then started working on my fitness.

I tried to collect some new experiences a bit too. I went to Mildura in country Victoria for a weekend, and then drove out to Gippsland (country Victoria again) for a night at a B&B. I spent a day in the Hunter Valley when I got to Sydney. I jumped out of a plane, got a new tattoo and went skiing. I reminded myself that travel is what makes me happy, and as a result, went to America (with ensuing controversy) and booked tickets for Beijing.

Looking back at all that…I had an absolutely massive year!

Graduate successfully from my Masters with a High/Distinction average: I didn’t graduate from my Masters. Instead, I did the complete opposite of successfully graduate, and instead I deferred my last semester of study. I did get a Distinction for the first semester of study though. I start study again first semester of this year – starting late February through to mid June. I’m a bit worried about it actually – I will have been away from study for the past six months and I hope that my motivation hasn’t suffered as a result.

Take the next step in my career to a 10% increase in salary and a step up in position title: I didn’t get a discernible increase in salary nor a step up in position title. What I did do was find a new job in Sydney that is probably more focused and relevant to what I want to do in the long-term, as opposed to the work I had been doing previously. I’m doing work that involves a degree of higher level thinking – of strategy, analytics and planning. It’s a step up from the purely administrative, logistic and “doing” work that I have previously done, and offers more opportunity to broaden my skills for appeal to future employers.

At this point I don’t know how long I will stay with the role. It’s becoming clear that it’s not enough money to live comfortably on for the type of lifestyle that I am accustomed to. It is also clear that while there may potentially be long-term scope for growth in the role, it’s not something that would happen in the next two years, nor something that could allow for any short-term substantive growth in income. Yet there are clear pros to the role – I enjoy the work, my colleagues and the organisation. And if things go according to plan, staying at this organisation would make sense as they are very family-friendly and offer great maternity leave and “back to work” options. But I can make more money elsewhere for similar work within a similar not for profit environment. At this stage…I don’t know what I’ll do. I imagine I’ll see through a twelve month cycle however, and make a decision towards September of this year.

Pay $5000AUD off my mortgage, additional to the regular fortnightly payments: I actually paid an extra $18K onto my mortgage in 2011. However, I’m currently chewing up any benefits I earned by not paying my ongoing mortgage amounts (in agreement with the bank) as I work through my current money problems. My additional payments allow me to stop paying my mortgage until September. I hope to get back on track by March though (by which time, I would have chewed up $10K of my additional payments), and to start paying my mortgage again at that point. I’m still stressed about money, but I’m hopeful that things will turn around soon.

Finally fully furnish and decorate my apartment, with photographic evidence: Well, technically yes, I did this. I did fully furnished my apartment in Melbourne and showed off some of the key features of: my bedroom, living room and kitchen. But then I moved out of my apartment in August and in with my parents who pretty much claimed all my furniture to replace their old furniture. Moving up to Sydney in September, I had nothing but my personal clothing and kitchenware. I took no furniture or whitegoods with me.

When I finally moved into my own apartment, I’ve had to essentially start this resolution again and furnish an apartment from scratch. I think I may have just made it – I picked up some pieces on Friday. However while I’ve got most of the furniture, I still lack the personal touches that make it a home…and I’m struggling with ideas of how to make it feel like home when it’s a rental property where I can’t hang pictures on the wall, repaint, or do anything else that alters the physical state of the property.

As for resolutions for 2012?

I recently spent some time setting objectives for the next six months at work. Each objective had one guiding principle, they had to be SMART objectives: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. Using the same concept, I wanted to look at my personal goals for the next twelve months.

1. Graduate successfully from my Masters with a High/Distinction average (repeat!).
2. Get down to Melbourne at least twice this year to visit friends and family.
3. Get back on track financially with a strong $5K in savings by the end of the year.
4. Go overseas twice.

The first three are pretty self explanatory. I need to finally finish this Masters…no more delays! I’m also feeling a bit homesick. Having my brother here for a week helped, but really, I just miss home and my mum’s cooking. Even though I’ve been eating my way around Sydney trying out new places, I’m yet to find anywhere with food as amazing as my mum’s cooking. I’m also not used to being in this kind of a financial situation – I’ve always been the responsible one, and I want to be again.

As for going overseas twice, I already have that super cheap trip to China planned, which Kieran has now also booked tickets for. I look forward to showing him around a country I consider my second (and original) home. I’d also like to look at going overseas again towards the end of the year. I’ll have about three weeks of leave accumulated by Christmas, which would be just enough for a whistle fast tour of Argentina, Chile and Peru…or India and Sri Lanka…or Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia…or anywhere really! I know now what experiences make me happy and I want to do it all especially now that I’m with someone who is similarly inclined.

I should probably make a resolution about losing weight and/or doing more exercise, but we all know that kind of resolution never works. ;)

And just for your enjoyment – the fireworks that I got to watch last night.