Queuing for Fortnightly Fairy Bread
The last time I looked at the calendar it was early November. Turkeys were frolicking freely, pumpkins nestled against warm pie crusts and marshmallows were melting atop mashed sweet potato. (Let’s just quietly add this to the ‘Culinary Crimes I Shan’t Partake In, You Foodie Heathens!’ list, shall we?)
But it is now January, Christmas has come and gone, 2016 has rolled in and New Years resolutions, a mere 36 hours old, have been made… And broken.
To what, praytell, do you owe the lack of Californian inbox-inundation?
Development of RSI from all my colouring-in? (My shading technique is coming along nicely)
Perhaps eviction from our apartment following the Black Friday sales at Kate Spade? (I’m a shoe-in for Best Dressed Hobo in Golden Gate Park 2015).
Nope. It’s official. Funemployment is over.
It only took 2 months for my A-type to champ at the bit for busier days. For those of you who had money on 8 weeks or less, congratulations! Your cheques from Tom Waterhouse will be arriving shortly.
In my universe, ‘middle ground’ and ‘Middle Earth’ are equally realistic so my days are now less ‘Law & Order’ and more ‘Actual Law’ – as a Volunteer Attorney role at a public interest law firm. And because one job wasn’t enough (See abovementioned Middle Earth analysis), I’m also assisting at a new advocacy organisation for paid leave rights in the US.
For your edification, I present Working People’s Paid Leave Rights: A Summary:
What paid leave rights?
Fin.
While continuing to await work authorization (because I didn’t truly know incompetence until I discovered US Government bureaucracy), I can happily paddle in a swamp of busy that, it appears, I am unable to function without.
So, apologies for the delay in lovingly spamming you all but I’ve had to re-enter the land of the productive, whilst it seems, learning how to speak English again…
- See you in a fortnight? Nope. It’s biweekly (Which can unhelpfully mean every 2 weeks or twice a week).
- Jumpers remain the domain of babies in onesies. (Incidentally, onesies? Down Under vernacular at it’s finest.)
- Queues are reserved for software engineers elbow-deep in coding. Otherwise, get in line.
- Fairy bread – Shockingly, from the land that gave us the piecaken (The dessert form of the turducken), the classically simple addition of sprinkles to buttered white bread never occurred to anyone… But White Chocolate Pringles? Sure.
- And for the rare occasion when I’m not clutching a home-made macchiato courtesy of the Nespresso machine, I’d like a take away cappuccino please. But ma’am (Yes, I’m old enough to be in ma’am territory now) Don’t you mean, to go?
At least our supermarket speaks a universal language…
It probably didn’t help my linguistic assimilation by having our wonderful Australian friends, Tim & Kane come to stay after Thanksgiving – replete with boozy brunching, long walking tours up those glute-forsaking hills and pasta degustation at Flour + Water (to refuel after the hills).
(UPDATE: Vindication! Ordering a ‘cappuccino to-go’ last week, the excellent barista happily advised me that he lives with an Australian and that I shouldn’t succumb to the linguistic stylings of the ‘Muricans. Speaking of ‘Muricans, no-one believed me when I confirmed that we have affectionately dubbed the populace ‘Yanks’ – and through the guffawing and laughter I didn’t even get to edify them about ‘Pom’ for our non-convict cousins)
While I relish standing at this digital lectern without a time limit in sight, it’s probably an appropriate time for a GKT Update
George: Over 3 months have passed since we arrived in SF. Arriving in late August, my first three weeks were spent setting up our new apartment and getting settled in to my new role at Wandera while Nat wrapped things up back in Melbourne. After no less than four trips to IKEA, I can officially say that this power drill and allen-key fiend found his limit – and all it took was a bed base with drawers, 2 side tables, a coffee table, TV unit, side table, chest of drawers and 2 lamps. At least the dining table was assembled by the delivery team! Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, ably assisted in decking out our place, but all were trumped by Amazon.
With 2-day free delivery it certainly made our transition here that much more painless. (Somehow, a pair of Kate Spade shoes also miraculously arrived from Amazon on my first day in SF…)
Turning up at my new office in the downtown Financial District I was warmly welcomed by the Wandera team, especially as there is now one more for company at 7am for those early morning conference calls with our office in London!
While there are a huge variety of options for lunch, only a few of us bring in food from home (we like to call it the ‘healthy option’). Lunch delights of choice vary between the local Filipino Burrito Food Truck “Senor Sisig” (the “Californian” burritto comes stuffed with bonus fries #cleaneating), to Sushirito (Japanese-Mexican– the final fusion frontier), to the latest in “I can’t possibly leave my desk for 10 minutes”: Uber-Eats. Yes, Uber now delivers lunch for $10. Apparently it’s not that bad! And no, I haven’t tried it. Yet…
September and October blessed us with what the locals refer to as their “Indian Summer” with most days hovering around 20-25 degrees (68-77 in local Fahrenheit speak). Absolutely the best time of year to visit. HINT HINT.
More updates imminent – especially now that I’ve co-opted GKT into contributing some musings of his own!
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