Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Sleep Tight and Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite!

Easier said then done, that one is! It's been an impossibly crazy week...I'm surprised I can still function.

I moved into my flat on Monday of last. Spent Tuesday boozing it up with a workmate and finally unpacked all my stuff on Wednesday and Thursday. Another later night of work drinks on Friday and I woke up Saturday to discover I had six or seven rather large red bite marks on me. They didn't itch, but I was slightly concerned because, despite my state the night before, I was pretty sure I had no huge red bites when I stumbled into my bed. Of course, I know I've panicked in the past about bites and they've turned out to be nothing, so this time I didn't panic.

I went downstairs and nonchalantly showed my bites to my German roomate and asked as casually as possible if he thought they might be bed bug bites. The look on his face said it all and next thing you know, he's telling me that they did have a bed bug problem a few months previous, but that he'd used an over teh counter bug spray that killed them all. Uh huh. Apparently not. We went on a hunt and lo and behold we found a little red bed bug all alive and well - probably digesting my blood at that very moment. Suffice to say his life did not last much longer.

So, after getting my hair massacred (made the appt before I knew I'd be dealing with bed bug crises), I did a lot of research into bedbugs and determined that the only way to ensure they were gone for good was to get an exterminator. Luckliy my flatmates were on board - Jeanie's lived here for three years and never had a problem until one of the former flatmates came back from travelling and had bed bug bites and a sleeping bag she'd borroed from the German guy (Marco). So there you have it -that's how they made it in here.

We are getting exterminated tomorrow. In the meantime have had to launder and dry ALL my clothes and am sleeping on the pullout couch downstairs. I 'may' have sprayed bug poison in my room and it 'may' be a bit smelly in there....I figure it's no worse than the pesticides I've breathed in on PEI over hte past 20 years or so!!

Yep, so that's about all the news...the weekend was basically a write off due to bed bug infestation. I've started hardcore pretraining for marathon and so far so good (ie. I have not collapsed on gym floor from exhaustion).

SO yeah, that's kind of a boring post. What can I say - bed bugs are boring and bite.

Sleep Tight and Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite!

Easier said then done, that one is! It's been an impossibly crazy week...I'm surprised I can still function.

I moved into my flat on Monday of last. Spent Tuesday boozing it up with a workmate and finally unpacked all my stuff on Wednesday and Thursday. Another later night of work drinks on Friday and I woke up Saturday to discover I had six or seven rather large red bite marks on me. They didn't itch, but I was slightly concerned because, despite my state the night before, I was pretty sure I had no huge red bites when I stumbled into my bed. Of course, I know I've panicked in the past about bites and they've turned out to be nothing, so this time I didn't panic.

I went downstairs and nonchalantly showed my bites to my German roomate and asked as casually as possible if he thought they might be bed bug bites. The look on his face said it all and next thing you know, he's telling me that they did have a bed bug problem a few months previous, but that he'd used an over teh counter bug spray that killed them all. Uh huh. Apparently not. We went on a hunt and lo and behold we found a little red bed bug all alive and well - probably digesting my blood at that very moment. Suffice to say his life did not last much longer.

So, after getting my hair massacred (made the appt before I knew I'd be dealing with bed bug crises), I did a lot of research into bedbugs and determined that the only way to ensure they were gone for good was to get an exterminator. Luckliy my flatmates were on board - Jeanie's lived here for three years and never had a problem until one of the former flatmates came back from travelling and had bed bug bites and a sleeping bag she'd borroed from the German guy (Marco). So there you have it -that's how they made it in here.

We are getting exterminated tomorrow. In the meantime have had to launder and dry ALL my clothes and am sleeping on the pullout couch downstairs. I 'may' have sprayed bug poison in my room and it 'may' be a bit smelly in there....I figure it's no worse than the pesticides I've breathed in on PEI over hte past 20 years or so!!

Yep, so that's about all the news...the weekend was basically a write off due to bed bug infestation. I've started hardcore pretraining for marathon and so far so good (ie. I have not collapsed on gym floor from exhaustion).

SO yeah, that's kind of a boring post. What can I say - bed bugs are boring and bite.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

The 15 Minute Woman...

Phew. Life has been exhausting lately. Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely LOVING that my life now involves waking up to an alarm, going to a place of work, socialising and not having enough minutes in the day. Somehow it beats puttering around the house all day and spending countless hours on the Internet day in and day out.

So, what has this Shanadian been up to over the past wee while?

Well, let's start with the wonder of 15 minutes! I've finally moved into my new flat. It's brilliant in every respect - great flatmates (1 German guy, 1 Aussie girl, 1 Korean girl), it's super duper clean compared to the last place I was, it's got a great kitchen with an electric stove (no more fire hazard!!) and dishwasher. Best of all, however, is the location. I can step out the front door of my flat, walk for 15 minutes and be at the revolving doors of Citibank! Oh, how I heart walking to work and NOT relying on pbulic transit.

I had a few days of homelessness, but was fortunate enough to be offered the wonderful hospitality of Shannon Courtney. Ha - I still get a kick out of that and, apparently, so does he because he seems to thoroughly enjoy introducing me by my name(and his!). Anyways, it was nice to be out of the city centre for a few days.Shannon lives in one of the nicest areas of Sydney and, if it weren't for the travelling involved I'd love to live in that area.

Had a great weekend at his place, which basically involved doing a whole lot of nothing...aside from baking a carrot cake for the BBQ party he had on Saturday night. Good fun was had, cake was devoured and I made it through the night without doing anything too riske.

So work is going splendidly. I really should be leaving my temp position at the end of the week, as the woman I was covering is back from holiday BUT everyone seems quite taken with me, so they've found me another holiday cover for the next three weeks and after that I've been told I can move into another role for a few months thereafter. And all because I actually do things when people ask me to! Nothing I do is rocket science, but it does involve juggling a lot of different things. Anyways, I'm super happy to stay on with Citibank for the following reason:

1) 15 MINUTES!!!
2) FREE Gym access in the building (esp important given my plan - see below)
3) LOVE my fellow workmates (more about this later)
4) Will look GREAT on the resume
5) Steady income, steady hours
6) Lots of fun, social things organised - like last Friday when we were all given mini massages at our desks by professionals

Anyhoo, am so glad to finally be in a work environment where I can see myself becoming good friends with my workmates. Not that I haven't had brilliant workmates in the past - I've always been fortunate in this regard. This time, however, they are brilliant AND near the same age AND single. Went out for one drink last Friday night after work and left the bar three hours later. Last night we had an all-staff quarterly update at the Sheraton and many glasses of free wine, followed by more drinks at various bars in and around the city centre.

All the drinking is coming to an end though. More importantly, all the eating is coming to an end because I have a special announcement to make (this is where you insert a drum roll).....

I've Decided to run a Marathon.

I started training today. Acutally I am in pre-training mode because I am sadly, just that out of shape that I need to get back to a place where I can push myseld day in and day out without injuring myself.

Anyone who knows me well is probably surprised and more than a bit skeptical of my plan to run over 26 miles. Well, that's fine. I am doing this because I need to start challenging myself again. I've come to a point in life where I need to prove to myself that I can do something that seems impossible to me. I'm also sick of yo-yoing weight and not being careful with my eating habits.

I am giving myself 6 months to train. I've already found the marathon I will be running - it is in New Zealand. Actually they have a half-marathon option too, which I might consider if I think I need more training time. There will be a marathon in Canberra in April. Anyways, the NZ marathon is called the Buller Gorge Marathon - if you want to check out the website, go for it!

Well, me thinks it's time for bed, gotta get up tomorrow and start training for a marathon.

Life is Great. Remember that every day when you wake up.