Back to work in the office....

Well I have been back in the office at work for two days and already I'm looking forward to my next holiday... All I need to do now is plan one! I have struggled over the last two days at work but have been really busy so while I was there had little time to think about it. When your away from the office for 11 weeks (no... not all holidays unfortunately!) you can expect for quite a few decisions to have been made as well as changes. I was very disappointed at some of things that had gone on in my absence but it seems to be the way of the world these days... my pay rise before I left ended up effectively being a pay cut once I worked out the entitlements I had lost.

Anyway... enough depressing stuff...

I never really talked about coming home from my trip. The day I arrived home was a lovely day weather wise in Adelaide... but the first thing that hit me was how dry everything was. Australia is in the middle of a drought and it was obvious even in the area I live in (we even had some regions that only had 1% humidity!). Thankfully my garden looked great and my house was immaculately clean. I would have to say cleaner that I left it! (Thanks Miss M!). Charlie also remembered me... and the first night back she was up to her usual bad habits of jumping into my bed and snuggling up to me... ok... so I let her... but it was nice to see that she still knew who I was.

As I only had 28 hours until I had to leave home for my flight to Melbourne the first thing I did was unpack everything out of the suitcase and wash the clothes.... my immaculately clean house was a pig stye within 10 minutes however I did have the load of washing hanging out to dry.

I had had very little sleep in the previous 3 days I had to push myself to stay awake so I made sure I was doing things all the time. My mobile (cell for the USA/Canadian readers) phone got damaged on the way back from Vegas and wouldn't turn on so within 3 hours of landing I was at Marion Shopping Centre taking my phone in to get repaired (I just got it back today and they ended up giving me a new one, but I lost all my numbers and SMS's from while I was away!). Next stop was work to pick up a few things for the course in Melbourne but thankfully I was in and out as I didn't want to do any work that day.

Even though Charlie did wake me up a couple of times during the night I slept soooooo well on my first night back in Oz. The Sunday was already planed for me before I even left... actually even before I booked the tickets.... Bathurst was on TV.... now for the non Aussies the Bathurst 1000 is one of our biggest car races of the year. I woke up at 8.30 am and from that point until I left for the airport later in the afternoon I had at least one of my tv's on watching (or listening to) the race.

The whole trip just seems like a big blur right now and it feels like it went so fast. I'll keep on writing my blog so stick your head in occasionally and you'll probably see more stories about my trip and also what ever I have going on in my mind at the time (scary stuff!). Last night on Getaway, a Travel TV show, they had a special on Hong Kong... and did it bring back memories.... I'll try to remember some more stories for you and also post things like my favourite places etc as well (plus there is the video which I am still to watch!).

Well take care everyone... just to make sure there was some colour in this blog entry I have included some pictures...

My front Garden just after I got home. I have now cut the lawn right back ready for summer and will soon start phase 2 of the re-vamp (subject to water restrictions that are being put in place soon)

I took this picture in front of the Melbourne Fire Station last week. That particular day it was 37 degrees which was the second hottest October day on record. It reminded me of the weather in Vegas.

This is just one of those "Arty" shots of an MSN chat window...