Bring Me Down

I'm writing this after work after what should have been an awesome, free-ing day!! Actually ended up being a day that felt like I was a leper or had foot and mouth disease.

I'll back-track and explain how I  got to this shitty day:
I moved to Aussie, as almost everyone knows, to pursue a career in animal welfare.  I've been applying for the relevant jobs that come up in my emails, but a lot of them say you need experience...so it's been a bit of a work in progress. I've had a number of rejection letters but never took them to heart as I knew there were plenty of more opportunities and I didn't want to rush things.
Anyway, about two weeks ago I got a call from my DREAM organisation - The Lost Dogs Home - saying they'd like to meet me for an interview for the Reclaims Office role I applied for before Christmas!!! Absolutely over the moon!!!
Through some crazy luck, I nailed the first interview and got a 2nd interview!!!! So many exclamation maaaarrkks!! I was absolutely so, so surprised and overwhelmed that finally, I may have the potential to be scoring my dream job. So after the 2nd interview, I walked away pretty happy but also 80% anxious because I felt so close!! A few days went by and for the love of GOD I got a call saying they'd done my reference checks and would like to offer the position! FUCK. OFF!! You cannot be serious??!!! Obvs I didn't swear but my emotions were all trying to come out of my mouth and I kept it together but did have a few tears. Like, holy shit batman, this is my dream!!!!!

So, back to present time...today I handed in my two weeks notice and official resignation letter after I got it last night from the LDH. Now, I didn't expect balloons, fireworks and tears, but I certainly didn't expect the frosty, non-chalant, no fucks given response that I got. Out of 9 team members, I got 1 "congrats"...ONE. Fucking ONE. Absolute sullen, never be happy for other FUCKHEADS they are. I spent the rest of the day - and I'm not even kidding - with a lump in my throat, tears now and then and feeling like absolute shit in a silent bubble.  Even worse, was the little madam who has just been a Legal Sec in our team and is being trained by me...literally said nothing to me ALL DAY after the news was dropped.  She gave HR the impression she was worried thinking I was quitting because of her but she in no way gave that impression or feeling to me. If she did feel like that, she would have spoken to me and tried to get into learning as much as she could!!

What a mother trucker of a shit day and shit workplace. If I get an exit interview, this will go RIGHT at the top. 

ANYWAY, I've spent a lot of time on Pinterest this arvo trying to remain positive and try not to let other people's jealousy or negative vibes affect me.  I guess I was just so disappointed that a day I was so happy about and looking forward to making my way out of there, went so horribly different. Why would they not be happy for me?!?! Jealousy or their own issues. Who knows.
But I found 2 great quotes on Pinterest that I'm trying to keep with me:

Whoever is trying to bring you down, is already below you.

Stop letting people who do so little for you, control so much of your mind, feelings and emotions.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day - I'll be armed with chocolate and Pinterest quotes!

Good Deeds

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a quote-whore. My pinterest is full of quotes and inspo and motivational pics. I can't get enough.  But I read a quote the other day and thought it was a great, non-cliché one to share:

“Anyone can perform good deeds for an audience; the best among us do their greatest work when no one is present to bear witness.”

I thought this was really awesome and thought-provoking.  So many people will do a good deed or help someone out,only to then post about it all over Facebook, Snapchat their friends or tell everyone back at the office within a 50m radius. Now don't get me wrong - sharing that warm fuzzy feeling you get after helping someone feels great and you wanna share it and let it out into the world like glitter and fairy dust.  But isn't it nice to just keep that moment to yourself, blissfully positive and unaffected by the opinion or thoughts of other people? Especially that One-Upper that everyone has in their lives - they always have to one-up your story with something they did but 10 times better.

It seems that the desire for self-gratification overpowers just the general want to help out fellow humans less fortunate than us. Since when did we need to have bragging rights in circumstances where we just help out another person like we're supposed to?! It makes me wild the hunger and drive for posting and publicising every tiny aspect of our lives instead of just knowing in ourselves that we did a good job, helped someone.

I hope that this post reaches even a handful of people and that we stop posting and publicising good deeds and just enjoy the warm gooey feeling in ourselves, silently and deliciously, without telling a single other soul.
🍵

Go-To Foods!

Every week it seems there is a new fitness/healthy eating regime bombarding our newsfeeds and twitter accounts. New hashtags, new fads, new ‘super foods’, new fitspos.

I however, tend to live by the 90-20 rule. And the 20-90 rule. Whatever.

Anyway, I have a bunch of go-to recipes that have minimal ingredients and are really good for work snacks or general on-hand treats. I also whip them up when I have little ingredients and energy.

Boiled eggs w paprika, salt and cherry toms

Pretty simple and explanatory. Boil eggs for 8mins.  Run under cold water before peeling. Slice eggs and cherry toms how you prefer. Pop in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and paprika!

Chicken w grilled lemon and butter asparagus

Literally needs only 2 ingredients from the supermarket – chicken and asparagus – the others most people have in their pantries.

Choose a lean, boneless and skinless piece of chicken breast.  Cut into small squares or tenders and cook in olive oil (lemon infused is good!). Season with salt and pepper. While cooking, bring a pot of water to boil. Cut asparagus spears into approx. 4 sections each and toss into the boiling water. Let boil for 1 minute, then quickly set into cold water to blanch.

Strain, serve over the chicken and spread butter over the top. Season w salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Cooked apple w cinnamon and cranberries

Cut up an apple into approx. 1cm cubes. Sprinkle cinnamon and cranberries on top and cook in the microwave for about 1min 30 secs.

Serve w icecream or greek yogurt!

Egg, spinach and feta cups – makes 6

Whisk 4 eggs, salt, pepper and a splash of milk. Add chopped up spinach and crumbled/cubed feta. Spoon into muffin tins and bake @ 180 degrees for 2 mins or until a skewer comes out clean and the tops of the cups aren’t liquidy.

Blended banana ‘icecream’

Although this is a little high in the carbs compared to say plain Greek Yogurt, it is infinitely better and more of a treat than the punishment of Greek Yogurt.

Slice a banana up into circles and freeze in a bowl covered with gladwrap. Once frozen, take out and let defrost a tiny bit. Blend in a food processor/smoothie blender til broken down a bit. Add 1-2 tsp of yogurt and continue blending until it forms a sorbet-y texture – it will happen! It takes a while but eventually changes form and becomes smooth and delicious!

Hope you enjoy! 

Starting Again

I feel like I've started and restarted a bunch of blogs and blog entries, only to run out of things to write, feeling like an idiot because I'm writing crape, or to just never be excited  about things enough to write.

I tend to write with gusto and excitement, only to soon feel uninspired or pointless. And although I am writing for myself, it is weird not having anyone read this when it is an online sharing platform.

Anyway, I had to start this blog somewhere so basically here's where I am at the moment:
* living in St Kilda East and absolutely loving the area. I live with 2 other girls - Meg, who is coincidentally a crazy cat lady into her fitness, men, wine and of course cats! & - Sarah, who is basically like an 18 year old, has no idea about social responsibility, is a massive scatterbrain (aka idiot) and loves Passion Pop..enough said. Despite saying she had a fulltime job prior to moving in, she actually has only like 2-5 clients a week at the massage place so she stays at her folks most of the week to eat their food and live off them. A win for us I guess!

* trying to embrace singledom and do things I enjoy and be a kick ass single lady - mostly at which I'm failing.

* missing my sister like fucking crazy

* trying a Roster as males do so easily - currently have a whopping 2 on my list. 2. Not to be confused with 20.

* after a massive crisis in November, I'm regularly seeing a psychologist and hoping to sort my shit out. Not exactly kicking goals there but we're making progress.

Anyway, that's basically me, my life right now. A mixture of fun, fitness, bullshit, mistakes, tears and laughter and some very unwanted drama thrown in. All in all its not the worst life, but I'm definitely not off Struggle Street and ready to move to Perfect Place.

All for now, ciao! 🍵