Life

Needless to say I haven't expanded on my holidays and now I don't think I will. So much has happened since I came back that my holiday seems a blur, and would be confusing for all concerned. If viewing this the following link, http://picasaweb.google.com/klperris/BalkansIrelandLondon2007, will take you to my album of photos from the holiday.

My big news of the past few months is I am now a permanent staff member. I have spent the past 3 1/2 years at the same business, moving from contract to contract. Then recently a permanent position opened up and myself and another woman had to apply for the position. I was the successful person. Apparently my interview went very well (although I didn't think so) and the panel was impressed with my commitment so I think I will be in the position for a few years now. I hate interviews and selection criteria so am happy to stay here for the near future.

Life after holidays

Its hard to believe that in just a day I will be back at work and then it will seem like a dream. The tour of the Balkans (Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania) was hectic, tiring but enjoyable. I was amazed that a lot of the historic buildings were only from 18th or 19th century, and of these buildings a lot had been rebuilt in the 'style of' using original plans. Mind you, considering the amount of times these countries have been in conflict it is not so surprising. The weather was hot for the first week and we had one day of rain early on. The scenery was great and the towns were pretty.

Ireland was great, in that we had great weather (one damp day) and we got to see all the things we didn't get to see last time (2001 - due to foot & mouth disease). The flowering hanging pots were absolutely beautiful and hung throughout the towns. It gave the towns a festive feel. Mind you I was astounded with all the building that has gone on in the past 6 years. Some of the towns we had visited before were almost unrecognisable.

London was great. Visited the British Library, caught a boat up the river to Greenwich and revisited the Victoria & Albert Museum. It was great to spend some time with my older brother. I'll put some photos up later and expound on the holiday in a bit more detail but I just wanted to put this up as a teaser.

Travelling

Its finally come. Tomorrow I leave the country, with my mother, on a month long voyage. First to eastern Europe (Treasures Of The Balkans & Transylvania: Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania), then Ireland and finally London before heading home. Its exciting but also scary. No matter how many time I go overseas I always get nervous when first starting off. There is the packing you have to do before you go, where you ask yourself: Have I packed enough clothes? Have I forgotten anything? etc. Then there is the first flight. I'm not a big fan of flying. I don't get scared but I never feel comfortable flying. Plus I can never sleep on the plane, which is annoying especially when you see all the others sleeping around you. Anyway I will update all when I get back because I do not see myself getting on the internet during the trip.

Organisation

I love this website. Library Thing. Being a bit of an organsiation freak such as CDs and books organised alphabetically I found I liked the idea of this site. Imagine having your books catalogued. I know its sad and it shows I work in a library but I get excited about this and playing around with the website. Just thought I would plug the website for all those people like me.

Being slack

I always intended to use this as a 'letting of steam' place but I also intended it to be used more than it is. I have spent the week interacting with my great aunt. This has had its good points and its bad points. Won't go into this but I have realised there are definitely some family traits or it could just be human nature e.g. such as telling the same stories over and over again even when they have told a hundred times already. You never know who has heard them and who has not.

I have also been working on my MP3 player. I never knew that getting a new hard drive would effect so many things. I have had to totally wipe my MP3 player because I couldn't access the music on it to delete music I know longer wanted and I couldn't listen to the songs I thought I had newly added. Frustration!!!

Life's little hassles

Boy, has it been a long time since last I wrote. In that time I had to experience writing yet again, selection criteria for a job that it is only contract. The good thing is I got the contract, which means two years full-time work I can depend upon. Bad thing is, in the meantime my computer crashed and I was unable to save this version of my selection criteria.

About computers, I can't decide if I hate them or love them. I hated being without it for what was essentially 4-6 weeks. This was due to trying to fix it myself, via phone with brother, then having to put it in for repairs. This took longer than expected (a week) and hard drive replaced, then Windows wasn't loaded properly so it had to go back. The computer techs had trouble loading updates so it was there for a week. Upshot was they were able to save most of my data e.g. irreplaceable photos, down shot they didn't save any of my word documents.

I have to give a big thankyou to my brother for providing computer support over the phone. It definitely put him out, what being a father of a young son and busy with his life, but it was greatly appreciated.

Freecycle

I just want to say how much I approve of freecycle. Freecycle enables you to give away stuff free to others through using the Internet. My parents have been talking about getting rid of our electronic organ, that all three kids learned to play on. It was already second-hand when it was purchased in the early 1980s, so didn't know how to put a price tag on it. They didn't want to just through it out so that's where I came in. I had heard of freecycle from my brother and thought it was the best option. We got rid of the organ, it goes to a good home and we don't have to organise moving it. One Sunday I posted a notice to my local group not expecting much of a response. Within 24 hours I had six responses, two of which (after seeing photos) were still interested. By the end of the next Sunday the organ had been collected and we had a large empty space we can now fill with more stuff. It was great!

Hands

Two days ago I was drying my Fredo frog work mug when a piece of the handle came flying off. To begin with I thought that was the only thing wrong. Then I noticed the blood. I had managed to cut the top part of my middle left finger, on the inside, right over the fist knuckle crease. It didn't hurt too much but boy did it bleed. I won't describe further except to say that it eventually took three band-aids ,on top of each other, to get it under control. Anyway the whole point of this story is that I hadn't realised just how often I use this finger considering I am right-handed. I use it to hold things, keep things balanced e.g. dishes when dish washing, and just general hand stuff. It just goes to show just how difficult it would be to readjust doing things if you lost the use of part of finger, no matter what handedness you are.

Thursday Thirteen #2

Thirteen places I'd like to travel to or revisit 1. Petra in Jordan. Where some of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" was filmed. 2. Ancient ruins in Syria. 3. Parthenon in Athens. 4. Other ancient Greek ruins in Greece. 5. Pyramids in Egypt. 6. Versaille in France. 7. Gallipoli in Turkey. 8. Prince Edward Island, where "Anne of Green Gables" was written. 9. Rome in Italy 10. Walk the length of Hadrian's Wall in Great Britain 11. South Island of New Zealand (I've been to the North island but not the South) 12. Kakadu National Park in Northern Territory, Australia. I am an Australian, born and bred, and have yet to get there. 13. Safari in Africa Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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Cats

Sitting here on the computer I just had to share with you all my current situation. I share two cats with my parents (seeing I live at home) and Minty (the pound cat - domestic tabby) is helping me. She is currently sitting in front of the computer screen, which makes life interesting when you are trying to read from it. I don't mind too much :). Sumalee (purebred Siamese) is sleeping on the end of my bed. She wanted someone to go to bed and as I was working on the computer in my bedroom she decided this was good enough.

Thursday Thirteen #1

Thirteen Things about YOUR NAME 1. My blog name is the first three letters of my first, middle and surname 2. My name is Kirsten but was originally going to be Kirsty Ann 3. My dad wanted to give me a Norwegian name but mum thought it would be to difficult a name to give a little girl 4. My name is often shortened to Kirst or Kirsty 5. Only close family can call me the above nick names 6. As a teenager I hated being called Kirsty, I thought it was too childish 7. When I went to pre-school there were two other Kirstens, one Kristen and one Kjirsten 8. In Grade One my best friend was also Kirsten, made life confusing 9. A lot of people put the 'r' before the 'i' so it becomes Kristen, which is annoying but I've come to live with it. 10. When I lived in the USA ameicans would pronounce it as "KEERsten", while Australia it sounds more like "KURsten" 11. Kirsten is the Scandinavian form of the name Christine, which is the feminine form of the name Christian 12. Kirsten means "follower of Christ." 13. I love my name and wouldn't want to change it Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Sick parents

I live at home with the parents, which most of the time is a pretty good life, but when one gets ill it becomes less fun. My dad had an eye op last week for a detached retina, which meant he can't go to work for two weeks. He is finding the enforced time off not to his liking and has the added aggravavtion of having limited sight, for the moment in one eye. Added to this is the fact that mum hates having to nurse family members. She finds it really frustrating. So between the two of them it makes life at home interesting to say the least, and makes me glad to be at work most of the day.

First entry

To start off with I thought that as so many other people blog I might as well add to the useless bits of information that are currently floating around the internet. The title of this blog is representative of me in that I am an avid reader and always have a book on the go. I read before I go to work (with a cup of tea), at work (morning tea/lunch/afternoon tea) and in bed before going to sleep. Its not all I do but it is a large part of my life.