And She's Off ....Soon!

Another week of work, another week of gluttony, sin and stress. I 'almost' quit my job this week. Really, I did NOT come to Australia to find myself burnt out by the demands of a corporate job, ESPECIALLY when they are not paying me nearly enought to be as busy or stressed as I have been the last two weeks. If I wasn't just temping to make some money before I take off in January I would definitely be looking for another day job. But enough whinging about the job

The week was ALL about the horse races. Tuesday marked the biggest sporting event in Australia - the Melbourne Cup. It's actually a holiday in Melbourne, but most of Sydney's white-collar workers could be found in the pubs adn bars around the city from one o'clock onwards. Citi employees were no exception - our entire department headed down to Darling Harbour for a spit-roast lunch, bevies and some canapes. I swear I was only going to have ONE drink - the complimentary one - but somehow found myself being passed drink after drink after drink until I became suspicious that my coworkers had bets on how drunk they could get a Canadian before she did something utterly foolish or embarassing. The Australians will make a wager on ANYTHING.

Anyways, it was a great day, everyone was dressed to the nines again and I made some new work friends. Apparently I also lectured one of the senior managers on his work-life balance(as his wife lives in MElbourne). Oops.

The rest of the week at work was nuts and I sadly missed my half-way there fitness test for Bootcamp. I did, however, manage to sneak in a hardcore workout post-Melbourne Cup celebrations and determined that it is possible to throw a decent punch when one is hungover. Whether it hits its intended target is another story...

Friday at work involved another bloody activity aimed at making all us Cards employees become obscenely overweight. Yes, that's right, we hada bake-off. First up in the team heats was TElesales vs. Finance, which meant I was tasked with baking. And boy did I bake. In the end I went for the always well-recieved Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing and went a bit risky witha batch of Peanut Butter fudge (didn't think Vegemite fudge would be all that tasty). Anywyas, our team kicked butt and ended up winning by a mile. THere was too much to sample though. Way too much. And what did we win for our efforts? The chance to bake again in the finals. Yay!

SO obviously by Friday evening I was ready to be carried home in a wheel barrow but opted instead for ONE non-alcoholic beverage with Sara (coworker who just happened to be on the losing team so was drowning her sorrows in alcoholic beverages. Oh who am I kidding? The british don't need a reason to drink!)

Anywyas, one drink turned into three (Diet Coke for me) and next thing you know we're being joined by two guys from work and heading to the Spanish quarter for Tapas and Sangria. Just what my waistline needed.

Saturday was brilliant. I ended up goin to teh Sydney raceway again - dressed to the nines and ready to make $2 bets. Was invited by another gal from work, whose birthday it was . She had a brilllliant group of friends and I had a wonderful afternoon in the sun meeting new people and losing small amounts of month of horses who had nice names, but apparently could not run for shite.


And that about sums up my weekend. Today I got my haircut - always an interesting event, but not tear-inducing this time! Yay!