Long Distance ends Tonight

I'm flying back to Perth tonight for a couple of weeks over the Christmas break. 11 months of Long Distance with Michael ends tonight. I've had enough. I really enjoyed the first six months. It was so important for me to come to Canberra and have a year of independence, making new friends, learning to survive work and living out of home on my own, without anyone to go to or anywhere to escape to. There have been so many good times this year. But now I've had enough.

Over the past few months definitely, I've become tired of the single life and just want my fiancé here to spend time with and as I keep saying to Michael, I just want a hug! After I fly back tonight, Michael will fly back to Canberra with me on January 10 and God willing we won't have to spend months apart anymore.

The last week especially I think I've literally felt depressed at the thought that ending long distance was so close yet so far away. But now as it all ends tonight, I'm just reflecting on a significant year and feeling glad that I did this year on my own.

Office Christmas celebrations

I'm so tired. Again! Mel and I have been house hunting because we're keen to move out when our lease expires at the end of January. I've been rushing to home opens that only last for 15 minutes before work, after work and during lunch breaks. And work has still been really busy, but in a good way.

We've had a few Christmas celebrations already - last week we had the Treasury Christmas party which was pretty good. A few hours of champagne and canapés wasn’t a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon. And it’s always fun spending time with colleagues in a social context.

Yesterday we had the Competition & Consumer Policy divisional Christmas party at Belluci’s, an Italian restaurant in Manuka. I’ve never had a banquet with Italian food before – they had about 4 different courses – pizza, antipasto, breads & dips, and pasta & risotto, so we were all very full by the end of lunch.

My unit manager was sitting beside me at lunch and it was so nice to be able to catch up with her as I haven’t really talked to her much lately. I really admire her and think she has such a great work ethic and attitude to life in general. She’s very real and not pretentious, always wants the best for everyone, and doesn’t have all these boundaries or ways of acting just because she’s so senior. She loves to have fun with people in our unit and will chew anyone’s ear off who’ll listen. I think she’s great. Plus I love the fact that she’s a youngish Asian female who doesn’t at all conform to the stereotype.

Anyway, as things hopefully start to wind down next week, I’m just really looking forward to a break! I miss Michael, I miss my mum, I miss Perth a little… but not too much. I’m really looking forward to catching up with people back in Perth though and just hanging out with old friends a bit. It’s definitely time for a break from work.

Sydney Road Trip II

Five of the girls made our second (shopping) trip to Sydney this weekend for a much needed getaway and taste of a bigger city (and better Asian food). We shopped, ate in Chinatown, and shopped… I still ♥ Sydney. I think it has a great vibe and reminds me of big Asian cities.

We also saw the Borat movie. Someone at work had told me that the movie is so wrong you don’t even know where to start in describing it. I think there were two or three scenes that were a bit too mean, but a lot of it was really funny.

On Sunday morning, Yen and Ro took Mirren and I to visit Hillsong church. It was really interesting. Actually, I really enjoyed the service. There are a few things that I disagree with about Pentecostal churches, but then all denomination have their differences. Clearly, Hillsong has blessed a lot of people, done heaps of great work in the community, and has amazing services and dynamic leaders. There are huge advantages in having a lot of money, and they’ve used a lot of that for good. I couldn’t help being inspired and touched by the music and the preaching, even if I didn’t agree with everything that was said.

After church we went to Bills for brunch (one of Bill Granger’s cafés) and had delicious ricotta pancakes. Yen and I talked weddings and chair covers – I’m surprised that I’m enjoying the wedding talk. If you had tried to talk to me about chair covers or veils or floral arrangements 6 months ago it would have been a short conversation. I suppose it’s all on a need-to-discuss basis. Which is why I’m surprised to find the process almost fun. Weird.

Engaged to be married...

November 18

Michael came to Canberra on Saturday November 18, took me for a lovely dinner, and then a mysterious walk at Commonwealth Place between flagpoles and walls before reaching a point overlooking the War Memorial on one side and Parliament and Old Parliament House on the other, where scattered rose petals covered the ground and he proposed.

Life as a fiancée

Everyone has been so excited about it all, yesterday at work I just kept getting emails and people coming to talk about weddings and rings. It has been kind of fun! I am not one of those girls who knows all (or anything) about diamonds, and being asked about ring details I really struggled. Michael actually wrote down the specifications of the diamond for me before he left, but I looked at the piece of paper and promptly forgot half the letters and numbers, let alone what they meant. So on Monday one of the ladies in my unit came and sat down with me and gave me a diamond lesson, going through the 4Cs, listing the different colours and clarities and all the rest and drawing diagrams of what is meant by an 'ideal cut' etc etc... So now I know a little bit more! But I think it is the guys who learn an awful lot about diamonds because they're the ones who make the big investment!

Despite my cluelessness about the technicalities, I love the ring and think it's beautiful, and from what everyone has said, Michael has made an excellent choice :)

Let the planning begin...

Similarly to the whole diamond issue, I've never put a whole lot of thought into wedding matters, other than thinking I would enjoy shopping for a dress... I still think the whole project sounds daunting. But as I intend to tell myself 100 times over the next 10 months or so, it is about a marriage moreso than a wedding.

Snow

It snowed in Canberra today!

So glad to be here II

I said this before but I'll say it again - I'm so glad to be here. Yesterday after work Kylie, Maria, Mirren and I did the bridge-to-bridge walk together. It's only about 5 kms and it was so relaxing just to walk together and chat on a Friday evening instead of the usual rush to join the queues at OPH drinks. I really love these girls - they're sweet, real, and loyal. I think often when you're in a relationship, friendships tend to suffer, purely because you have less time to spend with your friends. This year has really given me the chance to spend more time with people other than Michael, and it's been a huge wakeup call and reminder that next year when Michael moves to Canberra, we really need to do things with our own groups of friends. And I think as you do that, you become happier and have a fuller and broader perspective on things, which brings a lot to the relationship.

So anyway, after the walk we went to the Hyatt to catch the end of drinks, and then into Civic to eat and help Kylie search for a mobile phone... later on we met up with some other grads for coffee (tea) and then to Hippo Bar for awhile. I really lament my failure to take any photos for the past few months, laziness has overtaken...

Today wasn't so crash hot - I'm still struggling with the whole working & studying thing, so always scrambling to keep up with both, with having a divided mind when in the past I've always given single minded devotion to one thing.

Last weekend Yen, Ro and Craig came to Canberra from Sydney to attend a wedding. It was really nice to have Yen & Ro stay over for a night, to catch up with Yen, and get to know her fiancé.

Not even mediocre

I just submitted an entirely sub-standard assignment for my trust accounting unit of Legal Workshop. It's not even mediocre - it's crap. It doesn't balance, the written answers are incomplete, and it's reasonably obvious that it was a very rushed job. I've had enough though. It's been so busy at work. This morning I researched, consulted on and fine tuned an Executive Minute to as near perfection as the limited time I had allowed. I churned out ministerials and Dawson-related work last week. I spent all of yesterday starting the commercial practice assignment for Workshop which is due a day after the accounting one I submitted tonight. My team has a pile of urgent deadlines to meet over the next few days. I don’t have any more capacity, so for once I am happy to hand in something crap. It’s just not that important.

The Dawson Bill - Historic moments

The Dawson Bill has passed! It has been the bane of our existence for the whole year, and had a lot of people horribly depressed after they spent years working on it and it failed to pass in October last year when Barnaby Joyce crossed the floor of the Senate, voting to take out large parts of the Bill. Well Barnaby crossed the floor again today, but it didn't matter. The Government secured the support of Family First man Senator Steve Fielding and the Bill passed in the House of Reps yesterday, then passed the Senate with some minor amendments today, then was back in the House this afternoon where the final version passed - marking the biggest overhaul of trade practices law in Australia in many many years.

There has been so much hype about this Bill - so many business groups, industries, law firms who have been pushing for it and wanting to know when it would happen. It was very exciting to be there watching the debate from the advisers' boxes in the House of Reps yesterday, and then in the Senate today. I learned a lot about the world of politics, about how outcomes are achieved and the tactics that are used. I got to shake hands with the Treasurer and sit in his office while my supervisor answered his questions.

Our division is having celebratory drinks tomorrow - it's been an exciting past couple of days as it happened so suddenly, and my unit rapidly churned out briefing after briefing for the Treasurer on last-minute issues, finalised the Explanatory Memorandum, Bill and press releases. We’ve all been a bit sleep deprived and nervous. But it's exciting to have played a small part in a piece of history and to be able to say 'I was there when the Dawson reforms were passed.' It won't be a big deal to most people reading this, but to businesses, the ACCC, commercial lawyers and anyone who's worked in or studied competition law, what happened in Parliament today was momentous.

Above all

It's been very exciting at work lately - potentially groundbreaking events are being set in train. At this time, it's so easy to get caught up in the moment and see all this as so important. I was listening to the lyrics of Above All on my iPod and was reminded that in the midst of all that seems to impressive and significant, there is Jesus who is above all.

Above all powers, above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began

Above all kingdoms, above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what you're worth

Crucified, laid behind a stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all.

Michael in town

Michael was in Canberra for 4 days, starting over the weekend. It was fantastic to be together again and I am really looking forward to him moving here. In the first half year or so, I was very glad to have come here on my own - it gave me a chance to find my feet, make some good friends, go out late, become more independent. If I'd done this for a few years earlier, it probably wouldn't have been a bad thing either. But despite all the benefits, being with Michael again is so different and special, and it'll be so good next year when we're living in the same city again.

Had a ball

The SNoG ball was on Saturday and we had heaps of fun dancing, eating, drinking, talking... Unfortunately the next day was a complete write off, but it's all well worth it once in awhile.




Together again

Maria, Lukas, Chrissy and me

Dave, Phil, Heather, Rithy, Kylie and me


Floriade

Michael and I went to Floriade on Monday, a flower festival held in Canberra each Spring. It was essentially tulips - very pretty - anything different to do here is good!

So so so so tired!

Working girl

Why didn't anyone ever tell me that working life would be so tiring? That I would never again experience the flexibility of uni - doing work when I felt like it, going to lunch for as long as I liked, shopping when I felt like it, being able to run errands more than twice a year! Of course, never mind the burden of guilt often at the back of my mind about my uncompleted Honours thesis in fifth year, the last-minute cramming, the weekends and evenings spent studying in the weeks before exams... OK, so there are benefits to finishing uni!

But lately I have realised how exhausted I get by the end of a day at work - even those days that aren't particularly busy. This whole week, for example, has been relatively quiet - yet I have still come back on 2 out of 4 nights feeling like I couldn't be bothered to lift a finger - hence the laundry basket filled with clothes needing washing, the ironing basket filled with wrinkled clothes, the Legal Workshop papers strewn across my desk and the surrounding floorspace... About the one thing that gets done without fail is the washing up and the cooking - because these are shared chores in our household so I have no choice!

So I've been a bit of a recluse since coming back from Perth - only went out once this week, on Monday night (and that took it out of me for the rest of the week!) and have been holing up in my room after dinner each night, not chatting to the flatmates...

Home time

Going back to Perth for 9 days last week was fantastic - such a good break from everything, and so relaxing. Caught up with quite a few people, but also had time for relaxing things like watching DVDs, hanging out with Michael, chatting with Mum, dinners at home, visiting my former home (according to Sasha), Garden City. It was soooo good to eat my mum's cooking again! Perth hasn't changed - it never seems to - but I guess that's one of the good things about it. It's still very pretty, and much warmer than Canberra!

Photo catchup

I realised this blog is low on visual content... so here are some photos from the past couple of months!
















Edwina and I during her visit to Canberra in July
















Simon, me, Edwina, Yau Hing and Mandy at the Kingston Grind for lunch
















The Taichemel household, at our house party in July

Update

It's been over a month since my last entry - I had kind of forgotten about this blog but every now and then someone will email or ask about it, reminding me that people do actually read it! Just a quick update - the last month has been quite eventful - I got really sick and ran a temperature over 39 degrees, I had my first skiing experience at Thredbo, we had a huge party at our place that was a big hit(!), I went to Sydney to see Michael for the first time in 3 months, we saw an incredible concert at the Opera House, and I am going back to Perth tonight for the first time since Graduation in April.

Work has been really good - we have had a pile of new people join our unit to replace the mass exodus a little earlier, and I really love my team. I never knew much about the team environment that you get in a workplace before this year, because my previous work experiences didn't involve much teamwork, and I wasn't much of a group studier at uni. But I can say categorically that I love working in teams, and especially in my current team. Our unit is very male-dominated at the moment, but it actually works out really well because I think guys are great to work with. There have been many moments of general hilarity in the office - one of the guys frequently seems to break into song at his desk (yes it's like a musical over here!), we have spent ridiculous amounts of time on algebraic equations (of great relevance to work of course) and discussion of television shows, actors, and Ipods, and just general banter over the partitions and across the desks at Treasury. What a great group, I really like these people and am really impressed with their intelligence, attitude and supportiveness.

TPA Workshop - Famous Faces

I have to write an entry on the Law Council's Trade Practices Workshop that I'm attending this weekend. I've spent the last few days complaining about how I have to give up my weekend to attend this conference and hang around with these people who will be 20 years older than me and will have no interest whatsoever in talking to me. Plus it started on a Friday night, and would wipe out my whole weekend, starting again at 9am on Saturday, finishing at 11pm that night, then restarting at 9am on Sunday. It would have been great to sit in the Hyatt hotel listening to academic debate on the Trade Practices Act on a weekday, but not so much on a Saturday morning...

But I retract my previous reticence. The conference started tonight and it was great! SO much of it was relevant to the work Treasury does, and so many of the speakers wanted to know what Treasury's position is, or what Treasury is doing. The conference is attended by solicitors, barristers, ACCC commissioners and officials, judges, industry bodies, agencies, business groups, firms, academics... and they are all applying the Trade Practices Act which Treasury is currently working on reshaping. So they all wanted to know what is going to happen to the Act that they work with every day, which we're reforming in lots of ways.

I talked to Stephen Corones who is a bit of a celebrity to me because he wrote the textbooks for my competition law unit and about 20 of the articles I read when I was working on my honours thesis. Graeme Samuel, the Chairman of the ACCC was there and gave a talk, plus there was also Russell Miller (who has written Miller's Trade Practices Act, the TPA Bible, for the past 20 years or something), Allan Fels, the former chairman of the ACCC, barristers from WA who were household names at law school, plus some youngish people, incredibly, from law firms practising in competition law.

We had awesome food and fantastic wine - it was basically a cocktail at first, with wines and champagne and finger food, then later we had a buffet in one of the Hyatt ballrooms. People have flown from all over Australia to attend the conference, and most of them are staying in the Hyatt so having everything there is convenient. And it's also directly across the road from Treasury so we just walked over after work today.

That was my excitement for the week anyway - and completely unexpected too! I shall not whinge until better informed in future :)

Back to school

It's been awhile since I've written - I don't know where the time has gone! Last weekend I went to Sydney to catch up with Elizabeth. Hey Elizabeth!! Hahahah.. I know you'll be reading. We went to the Lindt cafe and had some delicious Lindt chocolate cake and hot chocolate. And the end-of-financial year sales were very impressive. And we saw an apparently very famous Korean actress filming a juice commercial, but Elizabeth you'll have to fill in the name for me because I can't remember.

I was again struck by how much I like Sydney. I don't know if it's one of those places which is great for a holiday, but when you actually live there is hell. That's what some people say about New York City.

Over the past 3 days, I've been back at uni! I'm doing Legal Workshop, which is equivalent to Articles/College of Law/whatever your state calls it. Treasury is supporting it, which is good, so these 7 days of the first intensive unit I'm doing are claimable on study leave! I have so many 'extra' days of leave this year that I'm wondering how and when I will use up my annual leave. So we're at ANU this week doing submissions, appearances, applications to have default judgments set aside, client interviews, negotiations, cross examinations, drafting... all that stuff that is very familiar from law school.

It's been funny being back at uni again because I think when I left after 5 1/2 years, I was so glad to be out of there and vowed to never study again. But after only 6 months of the working life, and being stuck in a centrally-heated office for the majority of the daylight hours every day(Canberra's winter days are short), staring at a computer screen for 7+ hours each day, and being expected to be efficient and on the ball all the time - well, it was actually really nice to be at uni again! It was nice to be on a university campus, walking between classes, breathing the fresh air and seeing the sky and sun and trees during the day, being able to zone out during lectures, taking notes and listening to the lecturers run the show. The course is pretty interactive so we don't sit around all day but it definitely was nice to veg sometimes. And being able to take a lunch break without feeling rushed! That was great!

It all made me realise that I often don't appreciate or enjoy things fully until they have passed - and it was a good reminder to me to value all the fantastic things that are going on now - at work, with friends, at home, in Canberra generally. Because you can spend all your time looking to the future when things will be 'better' and completely miss the wonderful things about living in the moment.

Escape to the Coast

Jervis Bay

We had a long weekend in Canberra last weekend and 14 or so of the grads headed to Jervis Bay (about 3 hours drive from Canberra) to see some coastline. We rented a house for 2 nights that came fully equipped with beds (for most of us), a barbeque, cooking utensils and dining ware. It was like a big sleepover - or a school camp where you don't have to do anything you don't want to.

We played Twister, 20 Questions, UNO, Poker and some games of our own invention, took walks along the beach, watched Grease, read books and magazines and shared secrets until the early hours of the morning.















Lukas, Mirren, me, Tara and Catie at the beach




















The boys get active














Twister - some not so flattering views

It's getting cold in here...

Canberra has suddenly plunged into the beginnings of super-cold weather over the weekend. It's been -7 degrees overnight and in the mornings. This morning I had the not-so-brilliant idea of going for a jog (it looked sunny outside!) - I lasted for about 15 minutes before retreating back to the apartment. When I got into work I found out I had been running in -5 degree weather. Arrrggg.

Our car windows have been frosted over if they're left outside overnight - I got into my car this morning and couldn't see a thing. I stood there for ages trying to scrape the ice off the front, back and side windows. Yesterday, a driver actually hit and killed someone because they were driving with frosted-over windows.

Land of the Acronyms

It has occurred to me that all the weird and confusing acronyms I encountered when first starting work for the Government and living in Canberra in general have become part of life (and speech) now. At first we all complained about how coming to work here practically involves learning another language, and that people who have been here for a long time sometimes pack a sentence with more acronyms than real words. So initially all the grads had to ask for a translation every other sentence when speaking to people in the Department. But now...

We all abbreviate the areas we work in - I work in CPFU (Competition Policy Framework Unit), which is part of CCPD (Competition and Consumer Policy Division), we work on TPA (Trade Practices Act) matters as well as NCP (National Competition Policy), soon to become the NRA (National Reform Agenda). Each morning, I read the SCD (Strategic Communications Division) media report, each week I coordinate SoP (State of Play) for our unit, and we regularly write QTBs (Question Time Briefings) and EMs (Executive Minutes) for our Minister or his advisers. Speaking of which, the Treasury portfolio has 3 ministers - the Treasurer, the MRAT (Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer) and the PST (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer).
We've worked closely with DCITA (Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts), DOTARS (Department of Transport and Regional Services) and PM&C (Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet). Our legislation is being drafted by OPC (Office of Parliamentary Counsel).

My housemates work at AG (Attorney General's Department) and Finance (Department of Finance, which used to be abbreviated to DoFA, some say appropriately, but this acronym was banned because it was considered offensive). On Friday nights, we go to OPH (Old Parliament House) or the NGA (National Gallery of Australia) for drinks.

Now, I thought I had most of the acronyms worked out already, until yesterday when my supervisor was going through her old files and said, 'I should PA these files'. I sighed and contemplated letting it pass, but curiosity got the better of me and I asked, 'What's "PA"'? And she said, nonchalantly, 'Oh, it means "Put Away"'. Of course.

What's been happening

Interstate Travel!

On Wednesday I made my first work trip - I flew to Sydney for a COAG meeting! For those who don't know, I love Sydney, and don't subscribe to all the Sydney-bashing that goes on in other states at all. I flew from Canberra on the 6.30am flight, and was in a so-metropolitan cafe in the heart of Sydney city by 8.30am. I'm sure it will fade off after awhile, but I totally loved sitting there in my suit, drinking a macchiato and reading the Fin Review magazine before the meeting. And what do you know, on the front page of the Fin that morning was an article about the legislation we've been working on in my unit. Full of errors and misinformation, but it's always just a bit exciting to see discussion of our work in the press, and knowing that different groups in the community are watching the developments with interest.

Anyway, at the meeting it was great to get some exposure to how COAG works and how the states, territories and Commonwealth reach agreement on issues. We also had some delicious food. I was back by 4.30pm, it really just felt like a trip to the north of the river in Perth!

Mecca Bah & Silo

On Friday we ended up having dinner at Mecca Bah, this awesome Turkish restaurant in Manuka. We had fish wrapped in vine leaves, roast lamb pizza, tagine, and more… the food was great. Mecca Bah also has a restaurant in Melbourne, and I’m guessing the Melbourne one came first.

The other great place I went to this weekend was Silo – a bakery/café in Kingston, the suburb where we live. Our gym was having this psycho ‘challenge day’ where it ran 9 classes nonstop, and after going to 2 of these, I ended up at Silo with Rithy having great coffee and eyeing some delicious-looking food. The place is so crowded it’s really hard to get a table. If you’re interested, google these 2 places, I will take you there if you come to Canberra!!

Afterwards, it was blissful just to wonder around in Kingston and Manuka, into the bookstores and overpriced specialty shops selling $200-water jugs and $100 candles. Even though Canberra has such a small population, it feels busy enough because I guess it’s less spread out than Perth and people congregate in a few areas.

Staff turnover

There are a lot of people leaving my unit over the next month or so, in the next transfer round. Things are fairly mobile within Treasury – people tend to move to another section of the department after a few years. While it’s exciting to be getting new people, I can’t help wondering if our good run with an amazing team will be ending! Because I truly like the people in my team, they have been so good to talk to and work with. I wonder if we were just lucky having a great bunch of people, or if it’s like this Treasury-wide.

So glad to be here

The past week I have just been alternating between bouts of energy and enthusiasm, and verging on collapse from exhaustion. On Friday night I just stayed in all night, and ended up on the phone with a Perth friend. We were talking about how it's important to experience living away from home and being independent of people you have always relied on... I have definitely found that being here I have been pushed to extend myself in some ways and not always do the comfortable/easy thing. I definitely have made some choices here that I wouldn't have made back in Perth, because in Perth I would have taken the safe option. I think you miss out on stuff when you do that all the time.

On a different note, on Saturday morning a few of us went to the National Gallery to see ‘Crescent Moon’, the Islamic art exhibition. They had weavings, weapons, items of jewellery, dining ware from Indonesia, Malaysia and India. It was really interesting to learn about the history behind the items and the influences of the time period on the different items. We ended up at Gus’ for an extremely late breakfast at 1pm (!!) and then Mirren and I wandered through the city looking at shops.

Last night we went out to Trinity Bar to celebrate Rithy and Maria’s birthday. The place is classy – filled with candles and red colour tones, and with a HUGE cocktail menu that is really quite delectable. They have a cocktail degustation menu – for $30 you get 5 cocktails in half-measures. Later we ended up clubbing in the city – it was lots of fun being out with everyone.

Tonight we’re having a visitor – Justin has come all the way from Cambodia (but originally from good old Perth) to Canberra for training and it’s going to be a dinner party at our place.

Photo Time - Reminiscing

I'm feeling sooooooo unwell. I think I have been out a bit too much and sleeping far too little lately. Anyway, being holed up at home, I thought I would post up some photos that have been floating around ... be prepared, you might make an appearance!















Law girls @UWA Graduation ceremony in April this year - me, Sasha, Jess and Dinah. Still smiling after 5 1/2 years.















With Mum
















Dinner with church and family friends during the April trip back to Perth




















Michael's graduation dinner last year















At Cottoesloe beach in January - enjoying my last views of Perth beaches (or any beaches!)



Post-university trip with Contiki gang - with Sophie in Switzerland, and Michael, John and Tess in Paris

Catchup Post!

It’s been awhile since my last post! Last weekend was the usual dinners and drinks – I’m really enjoying our Friday night drinks at Old Parliament House – it’s such a great hangout spot, day or night, for drinks, dinner, breakfast or lunch… During the day it’s very pretty too and I’m determined that we must have breakfast there sometime!

Fun-run

On Sunday morning I dragged myself out at 8.30 am for a fun-run with some other Treasury grads. Most of us only did the 4km option, and surprisingly it wasn’t very hard at all – the gym membership must be paying off! There was a big age range – from kids around 12 to people over 50 – I was really impressed!






Team Treasury








Budget LOCKUP

On Tuesday night, as you probably heard, the Federal Budget was released so our whole grad group got to help supervise the Budget Lockup. Basically the press, opposition parties etc get to go to Parliament on the day the Budget is to be released and read the Budget statements and so forth before they are actually made public.

For 7 hours they’re locked up in Parliament under extremely tight security and are allowed to read through all the Budget documents and prepare their analysis/feature article/reply speech, as the case may be. I was allocated to the Fairfax room which housed the Financial Review, the Sydney Morning Herald, Illawarra Mercury and Newcastle Herald. It was great to see the journos at work (especially the hardcore reporters at the Fin Review). The Treasurer came to each room and answered questions from the journalists, and seemed to know them quite well.

We got to go to the Treasurer’s press conference where he went through the Budget highlights and then fielded questions from the media. There were the usual jibes about whether this was his last budget, but I think it’s all getting pretty old by now.

Budget BINGE

After it’s all over, everyone heads off to the Budget Binge, where there’s apparently a keg of free beer (which apparently only lasted for 15 minutes) and food… but it’s really a chance for everyone who worked on the Budget to relax and reward themselves after some hard weeks/months at the office. For me and quite a few of the grads, it was just an excuse to go out after the Lockup, and just be part of the whole Budget environment that involves Treasury and Finance at this time of year. A lot of people in Budget group had been working until past midnight so they really deserved a good break.






Note Tai's headwear...








Budget QUESTION TIME

The next day we were back at Parliament for Budget Question Time – but it wasn’t really Budget Question Time because, as pointed out by Downer, it was the first time in 11 years that the Opposition ran out of questions on the Budget after just 6 or 7 questions. I don’t know whether this says more about the strength of this year’s budget or the weakness of the opposition party…

Anyway, it was awesome to be there seeing the Ministers we work for in the flesh and watching their antics. There are some true comedians, great debaters, skilled strategists and plain rowdy characters in the House of Reps, and it was great to be there to watch the show.

The weekend gone by…

This Friday we went to see Bell Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet at the Canberra Theatre. Saturday we went to see the Constable Exhibition at the National Gallery, and at night we went out for dinner and drinks/dancing. Sorry no photos this time!

Weekend adventures

Uniform Housewarming Party

On Saturday night we went to yet another grad housewarming. The theme was, wear a uniform of some description. There were some interesting creations - a few SES members, nuns, doctors, marching band members, a curling team, and 'school uniforms' for those of us who were lazy.

Craig & Dave - 2 members of the 'Ijong St Curlers'















Me with Rithy

Tree Planting

On Sunday we went tree planting at Cotter Dam - about half an hour out from the city. It's a bit of a regular event for Greening Australia, and part of an effort to replant some of the plant life burned down in the ACT bush fires. It was definitely something different, being out in the bush, digging holes in the ground and putting little plants in, hoping that they will somehow grow into big trees to cover the hills again.
















Yes, it really is the bush out here!!














Nicole and Mel watering a newly planted tree

Working at Treasury

I haven't said much about work yet, but everyone has been asking. I can honestly say I love my job, as much as it is possible for one to love working! I actually look forward to walking into the building every morning, and to seeing my colleagues, and being in discussions about issues that are so interesting and affect so many people. None of the concerns I had about the perils of working life have really arisen here - there is no office politics in my section, everyone is supportive and helpful, people are appreciative of each other and give credit where credit is due, the whole work/life balance thing actually exists rather than just being an ideal, there's a good balance of policy work, academic content and interaction, and there are regular dramas to keep us entertained and brainstorming, either from the Treasurer's office, something said or done by the Opposition, or in the media.

That's all for now .. post a comment if you're reading, I'd love to hear from you!

ANZAC Day celebrations

Tuesday was ANZAC Day and we used the day off to have an interdepartmental lunch at our apartment. We had about 35 people over from our interdepartmental household - Treasury, Attorney-General's department, and Finance.

Mel and Sarah at AG had come up with the idea of having roti - a type of Indian flat bread. Now we were too lazy (and cautious) to make the mixture from scratch, but we did drive all the way to the 'town' of Tuggeranong, about 25 minutes from where we live (VERY far by Canberra standards) to buy pre-made roti dough from an Indian grocery store. It was great - you get this long roll of dough, which we cut into pieces, rolled out, and cooked on the barbeque! I guess most Indians would be horrified that we bought pre-made dough in the first place, let alone dared to cook it on the barbeque, but it was so easy and quick, and when you're trying to cater for so many people, it helps to be able to cook 20 roti at once!
















Barbequeing the roti

Everyone brought great food - we had about 8 curries, salads, other barbeque meats and vegies, pastries, ANZAC biscuits, pavlova, lamingtons (yes a real Australian-food focus in the spirit of ANZAC day), cakes, muffins, chocolate, mooncake, ice cream sandwiches... we were really stuffed by the end of the day.















Mel and Sarah

Easter road trip

We spent 4 days in Sydney over Easter. Yen was really nice and let us stay at her apartment in Randwick which was a great location, and a great apartment - thanks Yen!! Friday night Maria and I went to the James Blunt concert - it was awesome. Unfortunately the pictures don't do justice to how close we were - I could see him blink! He was very different in concert to how we expected from his album - much less mellow, more energetic, charismatic. It was only a small venue (maybe 6,000 people?) but totally packed, there were people literally standing on me at the beginning. He has such a beautiful voice.

Anyway.. unfortunately I have hardly any other photos from Sydney on my camera - most of my paltry 128MB memory card was used taking video clips at the concert.



We spent most of Saturday at DFO (Direct Factory Outlets) in Homebush where a couple of the girls spent crazy amounts of money. Saturday night we went to a few places including The World, a pretty cool bar that is famous for its 'Teapots' - they serve cocktails in Chinese teapots! It was pretty hard to get one because they were so popular but we persevered!

On Sunday we caught the ferry from Circular Quay to Manley beach - it was such a nice day to relax, have lunch in front of the water, and walk around the markets. In the evening we had dinner at Coogee beach... because we know we will be beach deprived back in Canberra!




Mirren and Rithy in a Sydney cafe

Welcome to my world

HeLLO! I've been in Canberra for over 2 months now and people back home have been asking to see pics of the apartment or the place in general ... and I realised how few I have taken! But this is my attempt at updating you all on some of the things I've been doing since moving to the nation's Capital.

I'm staying in a 3 bedroom apartment with two friends from Perth - Tai and Melanie - and we have been getting along famously ;) Well maybe not exactly, but we really are pretty good friends - we cook, eat and shop together, and have such long conversations over dinner that I am often sleeping after midnight on weeknights these days... such a change from the Perth days! And then wandering into work the next day half asleep...




I just took a picture of the living area in our apartment - it's not particularly tidy at the moment but it's OK. We are in the process of getting approval to put hooks in the wall to hang up Tai's paintings :P It's such a huge living area we don't know what else to do with all the empty space!





Maria, me, Heather and Shaz at Skyfire. Lee Harding played which was NOT exciting. But a couple of weeks later there was a free concert with Alex Lloyd that was way better!








We made a trip to Sydney a couple of weeks ago, and I'm going again this Easter weekend with some of the other grads. We're going to the James Blunt concert and to hit the shops!















A couple of pictures from my birthday on March 20 - we had dinner at a place in Civic (the city) with the Treasury grads - you can kind of see Mel, Heather, James and Phillip. And Kylie, Mirren and Chrissy made delicious cake :)