um, yeah. so I haven’t written forever. if anyones wondering: sorry.
I am actually not ok.
I couldn’t keep writing and keeping up what this blog was all about while I was going through a really shithouse personal time.
then something so bad and personally devestating and wrong made that seem like a picnic.
so I’m sorry if you’re here because you liked hearing about how bad the bus is or somthing. I don’t think i’m that Jacki any more.
maybe I’ll figure out who new Jacki is and what she has to say. til then. j

…and if that last post interested you, photo diary is pretty much up to date over here

My sister Mel recently had another baby: Mateya Adele. I took a quick trip over to WA to visit her and my other nieces and nephew (aka cutest kids in the world!)

Here are some of my favourite pics from the trip.

Crazy dust storm blanketing Sydney this morning. It felt like waking up on a different planet. Combine this with the fact that yesterday it was 32 degrees and I spent the day by the pool, then last night there was an insane thunderstorm, and it’s been a very strange couple of days indeed! 

I took some photos in the park across the road from my apartment last weekend, then the same views this morning…check it out!

The airport

...and the usual view

Looking back at my apartment complex and where the view of the city normally is

Normal View

I was out and about yesterday afternoon, doing a couple of chores and about an hour’s walk from home, when my fairy godmother came calling.

Well, actually it was a recruitment agent that I have done contract work through and have worked with quite a lot recently. But the point of the story is that it came with an invitation to the ball being held for Prince Charming.

Well, actually, it wasn’t really a ball. It was the ATA NSW awards dinner. But it did involve formal dress, so it was kind of like a ball. And (truth be told) there wasn’t really any handsome prince ( I already have one of those, anyway) but there was the opportunity to network with over 400 people in my industry, and given that I’m looking for a new contract at the moment that seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up.

So I accepted the invitation. All good, right? Except that a girl usually needs a little more than 4 hours notice for a formal event. Particularly in winter, when…um…certain personal groom habits tend to slip a little.

Luckily it’s also one of my other very mild super-powers that I am surprisingly quick at getting ready for things.  So yesterday afternoon (remember to exclude the hour it took me to get home – although that did give me time to plan my attack) involved…

1. Pull party frocks out of storage. Contemplate, try on for size (curse yo-yoing weight), decide on dress. Settle on silver patterned baby-doll style. Not too revealing and something I bought last year and still haven’t had the opportunity to wear.
2. Repeat with shoes. Decide on silver diamante stilettos. (Decide at this point to splash out on a taxi, as walking any distance in these shoes will be a recipe for disaster).
3. Leg wax. Imperative after being more than a little neglected of late.
4. Layer one of tanning lotion (see comments on step one).
5. Trim and file toenails. Apply coat one of nail polish to toenails.
6. Eyebrow wax
7. Hairdryer used to finish off steps 2 and 3.
8. Layer 2 of tanning lotion
9. Second coat of nail polish
10. That hairdryer trick again.
11. 30 minutes to ensure everything is really dry and set.
12. Shower with hair wash, deep condition and full body exfoliation.
13. Full body moisturise. (Lucas Pawpaw ointment, from the biggest tub it can be bought in, in case you were wondering)
14. Deodorise and perfume.
15. Do hair – brush, blow-dry (my hair dryer saw more action yesterday than it has in months!), spray and wax.
16. Make up…I haven’t forgotten how after all!
17. Dig out my favourite party handbag. Marvel again how versatile it is, how cute it is (even after having seen a couple of year’s of use) and what a bargain it was as I bought it at markets yonks ago for the huge price of $10.
18. Pull regular handbag contents out onto the table and repack essentials into party handbag.
19. Slip on frock, shoes, handbag, jacket.
20. Out the door, downstairs and into a taxi!

What a mammoth effort!

And the ball went well, the food and wine was great, I managed to be a grown-up and not embarass myself by drinking too much or doing anything too uncoordinated in my heels, and managed to swap business cards with plenty of prospective employers.

And I was home by midnight!

J.

Actually from a couple of days ago, but it kind of stuck with me…

“My snake is a morning person”

As a bit of background, the anonymous quotee of the day does actually own a pet snake.

OK, I’m going to share something a little strange about me with you.

It’s probably the least I can do given my recent radio silence.

So anyway, I’ll confess that I have a (very mild) super-power.

I know, I know. It’s a big shock. Breaking the code of silence for super-heroes and everything. But deep breath and all, I’m (drumroll please…) Electric Girl!!!!

I can hear the collective gasps and raising of eyebrows at this amazing revelation, so let me elaborate.

I’m not sure exactly how it works, but I’m electric. Not all the time. It seems to have something to do with the weather and the colder and the drier it is the more likely it is. I just seem to hold this constant electric charge and then discharge it whenever I’m earthed. Any time I touch a light switch or a door handle. Every time I touch a power cable or something plugged in with a power cable. I can generate a pretty big charge. It’s particularly noticeable if I’m in the dark an reach for a light switch. Unfortunately I’m also doing a good job of pavlovian conditioning on NTB. Have you ever had an electric shock on your lips when you go to kiss someone? If not, I can highly recommend against it. And I definitely know what I’m talking about.

Unfortunately it also seems to be having an effect in other unpleasant ways.

Yesterday was pretty much as bad as it gets. I was sparking like Zeus himself. I’m talking like a good 40-50 shocks over the course of the day. So do you think it might just be related that yesterday all of the following appliances managed to flip out on me at least once:

• My PC. It took about 4 hours of my day yesterday getting my PC into any semblance of working order.
• My iPhone. The thing is not even 2 weeks old and it just decided to do all sorts of bizarre things. note: hard to fix if your PC is also playing up.
• My wireless internet. Just. Refused. To. Work. Saying it was connected but really wasn’t.
• My vacuum cleaner. OK, this is a stretch as it’s not really electronic. And it’s been kind of on it’s last legs for about two months. But I’m counting it anyway. Because I can.

Alright. I’m off now. Wish me luck. And the microwave…it might not survive!

New trolleys at the supermarket. Brand new clean, wheels-all-work, separate easily from the others, wheels lock in properly to the travellator trolleys.

Bliss

In my defence, an incident later in the afternoon made me realise I’m not the only one who does the odd funny thing.

After the seminar finished, Kogi and I had tentative plans to go see a movie. Unfortunately nothing we were interested in seeing was on at the movies, so we decided to do something else.

I had read in the weekend paper that there was an exhibition on Charles Darwin showing at the State library, just up the road from where we were, so we decided to go be a bit cultural and have a look.

The exhibition was quite interesting. As with many of these sorts of things these days, there were a few interactive things that you could do to enhance your experience of the show. One thing they had was a bit of wall with two phone handsets on it that you could pick up and listen to some historian talking about the topic at hand.

We got to that point in the exhibition and picked up the phones for a listen. It wasn’t all that interesting after a few minutes (kind of dry to be honest) so we kind of looked at each other and both hung up.

Kogi’s comment:

“I thought It was going to be Darwin himself”.

I know my knowledge of sound recording technology is far from comprehensive, but I’m reasonably certain it was a touch later than when Darwin was sailing around the world and visiting Old Sydney Town…

Just to prove my point from yesterday, here’s an exact transcript of a text message exchange between me and my friend Kogi, who was also attending the same seminar:

Kogi: Hey mate the course is at 1pm right?

Jacki: Umm, yes. It definitely is. I know cos i got confused and turned up at 10.

Kogi: Oh u did a Jacki! Ha ha. C u soon, u are soo funny.

I rest my case.