The Last Hurrah

Most, or all, of you know that I (Melissa) was offered a job just over two weeks ago with a healthcare organisation. In an effort to keep some separation between our personal and professional lives, I won't mention the company by name on this blog since the blog can be viewed publicly. I'm very happy and grateful to have found a job where I think I'll be able to make a difference in the lives of people, build on my marketing skills and, most importantly, work at a place where the people seem really nice and the company provides a lot of training. Hopefully I'll enjoy this work and the people as much as I did in my last role before travelling.

I start my new job tomorrow. We decided to take advantage of the extra time together before one of us starts working. Since Klas and I loved camping during the three months that we toured around Australia, we bought a new tent and spent three nights in Port Stephens, which is a few hours drive north of Sydney. We had a nice, relaxing time walking, reading on the beach and seeing dolphins and penguins. While it wasn't our last camping trip forever, it was our last trip for this two-year adventure.

I've been asked how I feel about starting to work again. I'm very fortunate to have found a job that I wanted but I realise that ultimately it's a means to an end - at some point we need to earn money to live and continue doing what we like to do. I'm a little bit anxious because everything will be new. I worked at my last place of employment for eight years so I knew the people, the culture and what was expected of me. I learned enough about the company and people during the interviews and my own research to feel like this was the right job for me but I felt like I was on the show 'The Bachelor' throughout the process. I applied for the position; went through a screening process with the recruiting firm to see if I was appropriate for 'the show' or interview process; had two interviews where I felt like I was on the dates where the women try hard to show their personality, communicate their feelings and make the bachelor fall in love with them all while the bachelor doesn't show his true feelings because he doesn't know who he will pick until the end; introduced them to my 'family' as they called former bosses for reference checks; and waited anxiously to hear the final decision. Finally came feelings of jubilation when I found out they had picked me. After all of this, there is still so much that I don't know about my 'new family' but I will learn and things will work out for the best...they always do.

I know I'll do the job well and will get on well with the people there as long as they're nice. I also know that it will be a big adjustment to be away from Klas. We've been together 24/7 for just over two years. OK, we haven't done everything together the last six months since we've been in Sydney as we have spent time separately with our friends and playing sport. However, we've been together most of the time except for four days when I visited my cousins in London while Klas stayed in Sweden with his family. We'll get used to the routine of working again but I'm sure I'll miss being with Klas, especially in the beginning. I expect that soon a company will realise that they would be lucky to have Klas on their team and we'll both be busy adjusting to this new stage of our lives.

Happy Birthday to Me!

If you know me well then you know that I love my birthday. Last week I was at a luncheon with some old school friends who were complaining that they had just had another birthday and now they were one year older. I understand that maybe they don't want to get older but I don't understand why they don't want another birthday. In my opinion, birthdays are the only day when it's just my day so I love celebrating it with friends and family and getting what I want "because it's my birthday." Poor Klas, this year he had to hear the excuse "because it's my birthday" for the whole weekend since February 28th fell on Saturday.

I turned 32. I haven't celebrated my birthday at home in Australia since I was 17. I started my birthday weekend with some pampering at the hair dresser on Friday afternoon. Then in the evening I went with my wonderful neighbours Penny and Lauren and my Mum and Eunice to The Dolphin Hotel for drinks, dinner at Kylie Kwong's (chef on TV in Australia) restaurant called Billy Kwong, and dancing at The Colombian Hotel. It was a fun girl's night. Klas went to play poker with his floorball friends...but that wasn't all that he did...read on.

     

  

On Saturday, Klas took me shopping for my birthday in Paddington. After several hours of walking around and having a nice lunch, I had practically given up on finding something that I liked that was decently priced until I entered the "last store" (how many times has Klas heard that while we've been shopping?) for the day. Chantal B was such a cute store with a French owner who brings clothes home from France and Italy. After loving so many dresses that I had tried on, I picked my birthday present and couldn't help but give the owner a kiss because I was so happy with my present and her lovely personality. If you live in or visit Sydney, you must check out this store.

After a wonderful day with Klas, I got ready for dinner. The plan was to pick up Mum, Aunty Lisa and my cousin/brother, Rafe, at Aunty Lisa's place. I had asked Mum to keep the location for dinner a surprise since I had already known about some of my presents. For once Klas wasn't ready quite on time but his reason of an upset stomach wasn't totally out of the ordinary. Little did I know that he was just hanging out in the bathroom, killing some time, since I was actually ready early.

Finally we set off, arriving at Aunty Lisa's place about 10 minutes late. Aunty told me that Mum and Rafe were out the back looking at her new patio furniture. "Oh, I haven't seen it either. I want to see it. When did you get it?" I walked through the house quickly and Aunty opened the back door to a backyard full of old friends from school, tennis and travelling - it was an awesome surprise. Klas had helped the previous night to start setting things up. I thought Mum had been at work on Saturday to deal with some problems that occurred during the week but she was actually working with Aunty and Rafe all day. Two of my tennis friends, Angela and Emilie, had played everything very well as we had been on the phone that day organising dinner for Sunday night.

It was such a nice evening. I was exhausted on Sunday with all of the excitement. The weekend was topped off with lunch with my Grandma and Grandpa.

Thanks to many of you for my birthday wishes on email, the phone and Facebook. It was such a fun weekend. What a great way to start having birthdays in Australia again. Only 363 days until my next birthday!