Ok, what’s the deal? Where have we gone to this time? Read on to hear installments about our latest phase of settling into Sydney...

BTW, our Sydney photo site now has some photos on it: www.jibafish.com/sydneyphotos

07.06.04

Well the last 4 months have felt more like 4 years for us! Unemployment, losing Zacky, going to adelaide twice, securing new jobs...wow, it's been crazy! But now that we're on the other side of it things have started to settle back into place...routine again!

Dan and i are both working at a games company called Perception here in Sydney. On a Stargate game! (Yes i did use to give dan shit when he watched that show...in the days that i didn't understand how kewl it was...heheh). Now we watch a few episodes most weekend mornings in bed (!!).

We had an AWESUM holiday in adelaide and the gold coast. It was fantastic to see everyone again. our family, friends, and the old ratbag crew. keeping it real in adelaide ;)

It's soooo good to be working at a games company again. I'm really enjoying it. I have a sweet office at the moment until the company moves to a larger premises. It'll be good to have us all on the one floor then anyway. I'm actually sharing an office with gary...who would've thought all those years ago when we shared a house in adelaide?!

Besides work we've been garage saling (i talked a kid down $5 on N64 mario kart the other day...and yes his mum already told me that was slack...but he did have an awful lot of toys to be selling at a garage sale!). We've both been sick...but tis the season for that! And we've been bowling with work and i got the massive score of 176. my highest ever. i'm officially a bowling geek! (or did that happen when i bought my bowling shoes?). Well in any case, life finally has a bit of sanity to it (altho i do enjoy the occasional insane day). Oh yeh, on the weekend dan bought computer parts to put a new computer together for me so now we have a desktop each...yay! and he built the new computer with a decent video card and 19" monitor for the low low price of $1,100. such a clever boy :)

i hope everyone is doing well. i miss having people around for drinks like the good ol' days...space we need space!

and on with the adventures...

10.02.04

Oooo it's 04 already. It's gonna get pretty boring pretty quick if I keep commenting on how long it's been between updates..but, well, it has been a while this time! Since the last update we've been to Melbourne for the Australian Game Developers Conference (an AWESUM weekend), I quit working at Spinifex (thank you Dan for convincing me to do that), we drove to Adelaide and had a brilliant time there (dan's birthday, crazy yummy christmas lunch, new years...friends, wine...you get the picture), mum came over to Sydney and stayed with us, then Dan lost his job, and now we're here in a muggy Sydney February once again jobless bums!

Life doesn't stop changing does it? :)

For a closer look at all that has gone on i've just updated the photo website with the last few months photos. We went to Canberra several times before Christmas to get out of the big smoke for a break and to hang with Matt and Amy. It's great how close Canberra is to Sydney.

The following is a rundown on a typical few days for us here in Sydney...

last wednesday night we met up with michael who i used to work with for drinks at a local pub. they were having a trivia night so we decided to go in it. we sucked really badly and came last but we got a toblerone for coming last and it was heaps of fun. saturday dan and i went to fox studios and i got some cheap black boot shoes just in case i need em sometime (there was a sale) and we had lunch there. then we walked over to centennial park (it's a BIG park) and lay on our travel rug for a while in the shade cos it was really hot. but there was a nice cool breeze too so it was awesum and relaxing. it's so nice going there when you don't have your own backyard to relax in :)

then on saturday night dan and i walked to the buckland (pub) and had a cheap cocktail each ($6 between 5-7pm) and had dinner there (asian crusted calamari salad). it's one of my favourite meals out. then we walked to phil and anais's place in newtown cos they were having a house party. and we proceeded to get drunk there and that was fun. i didn't have a hangover the next day (yay) but we were in a lazy mood so we just watched the italian job on dvd. anyway, after drinking on wednesday night dan and i had to get up early on thursday morning and be in town at centrelink by 8.40am for an appointment. we had the worst hangovers we'd had in ages...partly cos we hadn't been used to getting up so early and partly cos we'd drunk a fair bit at trivia. both of us were trying not to throw up on the train there! it was horrible. really horrible. i wasn't even sure if i was going to be in a state of mind to fill out the forms and answer all the questions. but it turned out that neither of us had to sit through the horrible video session cos we'd done it last year and the guy who was interviewing us didn't want to be there as much as us so he didn't hassle us too much. we spent the rest of the day veging out in front of the tv recovering :)

btw, dan has been enjoying dr phil almost as much as i do...heheh.

it's great to have finished our showreels. we spent the last 3 weeks updating them (since dan was made redundant). we've sent em to a few places and dan has an interview in march. it looks like they'll be hiring more people in a couple of months. if dan gets work and i don't then i'll keep learning 3D like i have been.

so yeh, dan and i are in the midst of another unemployed bum session in life and we're settling in to that quite well. i'll probably get back on the computer tomorrow morning and look for some jobs to apply for to put in that annoying diary ya get to fill out.

i hope you are all doing well. now off ya go and check out the photos!

www.jibafish.com/sydneyphotos

19.10.03

Wow, it's been almost a month since I updated this page and it feels like a week! Dan, Mike and I have been swimming in the lap pool almost every night. We're all really getting into it. It's been a while since I've done any regular exercise!

Still working at Spinifex. Only I have Fridays off now...yay! I worked late last night so I have this afternoon off. Long long weekend! We're driving to Canberra again this weekend to hang out with Matt and Amy. Then the following weekend we're off to Melbourne for AGDC. I'm really looking forward to that :)

19.10.03

This week was great cos we had Joey Joe Joe in town and caught up with him for larfs and drinks on Wednesday. And then on Friday night we went out for drinks cos Cam and Dunc were in town. They seemed pretty keen to get back up to Noosa (can't work out why) but it was great seeing a bunch of people out that Dan has known for years and we all had a really fun night.

And today we did laps in the indoor pool. Finally, some exercise! And some beautiful warm weather :)

10.10.03

time for another update me thinks. i'm typing this at work to save precious time at home for uploading images to the site (cos i realise you'd prefer to be looking at pretty pictures than reading about me going on about sydney!)
;)

so since you are here reading this, what have we been up to of late? work comes to mind but nothing much to report there except i am in the rugby footy picks for the world cup. WHAT?!!! am i crazy? what sort of world have i entered into and what have they done with sonia?

so yeh, i purposely picked italy n fiji n teams like that cos otherwise i'm just following the sheep and that's just BORING. besides, whoever wins is supposed to spend their winnings on drinks at the pub where everyone who entered the comp can go along and talk about...RUGBY. hmm.

last weekend was a long weekend and dan and i drove south to his dad's place in the araluan valley. i'm sure you've all heard about it before...we stay in a cabin on the property where ya have to light a fire in the stove to get hot water for the shower etc...it's really gorgeous country side around there and just what dan and i needed. our digital camera packed it in while we were there. 'err'. what the hell? it won't do anything except beep and flash 'err' now. i thought all my photos were gone! but we managed to get them off the card with our little mini printer (gotta luv being a tech nerd...well i almost am!).

so yeh, now there are photos for me to put on the site. and until we get our camera fixed dan and i have just bought ourselves awesum new mobile phones. mine is charging now...can't wait to use it! they are soooo kewl. and you can surf the net on them which is free for 2 months (then ridiculously expensive i'm sure) and just before dan sent an email from his phone to gary (lucky gary). how kewl is that?!!!

the point of me going on about our new phones is that they have digital cameras on them so i can still record part of our lives for you all to see (yay for tech!). they are those sony erricson T610 phones (as seen on big brother...heheh). ok, enuff nerdy stuff.

this weekend dan and i are gonna cook another japanese banquet. and here ya were thinking i'd almost forgotten to mention food in this update! let alone japanese. i'm really looking forward to it. and the weekend...which is fast approaching...but never quite fast enuff. might go on a picnic this weekend...outrageous stuff! hope everyone is well and doing 'spring' kinda things :)

off ya hop! go check out the photos...

28.9.03

the last week or two has been just like summer. around 30 degrees each day and warm at night. crazy stuff. except today, just before, dan and i ventured out to kick the footy at the oval and the deceivingly sunny day was cold! damn cold wind :)

so yeh, the weather has been good. work has been ok. dan has been sick with an alergic reaction and john spent the week with us. last sunday night dan came out in a big red itchy rash all over him and since it was midnight we went to the hospital to get him checked out. 3.5 hrs later we were on our way home with some medication. the rash lastest days and the medication made dan really drowsy so he had monday and tuesday off work. he's a lot better now but he wasn't having the most fun he could've been. especially with john visiting. tuesday night we took john on a drive to bondi beach cos it was so hot. wednesday night we went to the noodle and wine fair that was on in town at the botanic gardens. it was really packed so we decided to walk to a nearby japanese restaurant instead. gary and alison were with us and after dinner we headed to a pub in glebe where we all drank (except alergic rashed up poor dan).

thursday night we took john to the nearby japanese restaurant with mike. then john left early friday. it was fun while it lasted :)

this weekend has been a lot of working and cooking. last night dan and i cooked a japanese banquet all on our own :) seriously! we made gyoza, tempura, katsu chicken and green salad with japanese dressing. mmm, it all tasted pretty good. and took about 3 hours to make! we're really getting into this cooking thing lately...

and that about wraps up the past couple of weeks. dan is playing zelda right now on the gamecube which is lots of fun to watch (that's my job). so...back to it!

07.9.03

today is sunday. a nice warm sunny sunday. which is odd considering there was supposed to be some rain this weekend. this week chris has been staying with us, a midpoint between him leaving adelaide and arriving in the UK. and we've been having sunshiny weather for him all week.

wednesday night we all went out for dinner with gary and alison. it was japanese (of course) and yummy and fun. last night dan and i tried making beer battered fish and chips for the first time with dan's patented ceasar salad (with chicken schnitzel). it was a feast and it all turned out really well (well except for my homemade mayonaise...hmm).

last weekend we went into the CBD to the chinatown area and bought awesum new mp3 players. they are small in size and hold 256mb of mp3s, voice recordings or data. so i can use it to transfer any files from home to work and vice versa just by plugging it into a USB port. how kewl is that?! very very kewl i hafta tell you. and they've come in very handy considering our car has been playing up and needing several visits to the mechanics. so i've been having to walk to work some days. but it's not so bad with my little mp3 player :)

we saw that fat guy from australian idol in the lift that day we were in town. he was in the lift with us and everyone just stood there looking at him. and george lucas told mike to have a good weekend the other week at work. it's funny living in sydney.

speaking of our car at the mechanics...every week it has been having issues. maybe it's taking offense at the array of water bottles and rubbish accumulating in it? yesterday we paid $320 for a new exhaust and tomorrow it's getting tuned. the other week it kept conking out when we drove it and we got it towed by the NRMA to the mechanics on a sunday night. the next day it started first time for the mechanic so they couldn't work out what to fix. crazy car. ah well...it's not stressing us like it might've in the past. just keeping us from getting new flatscreen monitors like mike did yesterday :)
(a very kewl set up)

so now we're all nerding it up in our little corners of the lounge room. each with a computer and all connected to adsl with a hub...sweet!

24.8.03

it's been a little while since i last updated this site. i've been very busy doing work for a company called Spinifex. i think they're trialing me out at the moment but i'm also trialing them out cos the first week i was sooo stressed with deadlines and getting a handle on flash (program). i work from home some days so that's not too bad.

dan is really enjoying work. even though there's been a milestone this past week and lots to do he's still really enjoying it. he's been working on some kewl stuff too (which we'll be pointing out when the game is released in a year or so).

today is exceptionally windy. just before dan and i watched a sheet of metal fly off a roof and then lots of bits of insulation fly out afterwards. crazy stuff! we also watched Cypher today at the cinemas...very kewl. we both really enjoyed it.

it seems our life is mainly work at the moment. full time during the week and then there's always work to be done on the weekend. we still get to fit in quality time at the japanese restaurant though. last weekend gary came over and dan cooked dinner (yay) and we all got a bit drunk and played with the rude magnetic words on mike's fridge (a present from his mum believe it or not). so that was fun.

chris (bevan) is coming to visit for a week next week so we're looking forward to that. john (johnno) is coming for a holiday in about a month so that'll also be kewl. yay, visitors!

ok back to the weekend (or what's left of it). we're making pizza tonight...mmm. pizza n vodka. might get the vodka started...

11.8.03

brrrrrrrr...that's the sound of us leaving canberra. we drove down there on friday night (along with 50 million other people trying to get out of the city) to stay with Matt (Dan's bro) and Amy (Matt's gf) on the weekend. it was about a 3.5 hr drive made longer by the fact that we pulled off the motorway to find a toilet at campbelltown (yes they have a suburb called that too but it's about an hour away from Sydney). our first mistake was pulling off the motorway. that suburb is nothing but roads! roads and no service stations! we drove around for about half an hour...not spotting one servo...before finally asking a local.

after that long toilet stop we drove on to canberra. it was very relaxing staying with matt and amy, not to mention COLD! people say it is cold there and yes they are very very correct. but i'm told that adelaide was 10 degrees yesterday so maybe i'm just being a cold woos (yes i think that's it).

we hung out with the guys, visited Emma and Erin (dan's cousins) and had a bbq for sunday lunch. the sun was out for a few hours and it was actually warm enuff to sit in the sun with a t-shirt. mmm, it was great having a backyard to veg out in too. about 3.30pm that day we started getting cold again and headed back to sydney...

01.8.03

uh oh SPAGHETTIO!

Hi I'm Sonia and I'm applying for the position of...well by that you can tell what i've been doing lately.

this week my cousin and her friends were in town on a roadtrip from brissy. we had drinks tuesday night and they stayed over on wednesday night. it was great fun having them here. MORE VISITORS PLEEZ! sydney is fun, and even more fun when i'm catching up with some of you guys...

i've done a bit o writing today. a first for me in a while. should ya wanna read it click here. on second thoughts click here.

as well as being busy here on the comp i've also become a regular daytime tv junkie. just about to see what's on oprah today. i must say that dr phil has been kicking arse over oprah on a sonia ratings survey i recently did in my head.

*click click*

(that's the sound of the tv turning on)

YAY it's the weekend!

25.7.03

earlier this week our furniture arrived. it arrived intact (yay) but with only 1 removalist (shite!). we could've waited around to see if the guy could get anyone else but we wanted it over and done with so dan offered to be the other removalist (yay...well, not for dan).

we managed to dump mum's old sofa lounge in the corner of the basement downstairs (with permission from the ground keeper) so that was a bonus. i have no idea how it would've fit in this place. as it is we're walking around boxes to get anywhere :)

ouch! i just burnt my lip on the coffee. i haven't drunk coffee in quite a while but i didn't think i'd forgotten how to sip it.

i also had an interview this week. they wanted someone who knew javascript so i think that counts me out but the interview was great practice. and the room i was in had an awesum view of the harbour bridge.

this week has been very money intensive. not only with removals but the water pump on our car, timing belt and fuel tank all needed replacing. the garage we took it to just said to drop the car off whenever, then they fix it and you can pick it up whenever. we were unsure if we'd ever get our car back. but we did and $800 later we're pleased to report no more gagging from petrol smells in the car! yay!

highlight of the week:
being reunited with our furniture for the first time in over a year (and my toys). making home made pizzas again now we've gotten our pizza trays unpacked. and drinking the black label vodka mike bought. that stuff rocks!

18.7.03

noteworthy events of this past week include...dinner with david and sue at an expensive restaurant. i used to work with david and hadn't seen him in at least 5 years so it was great to finally catch up. the restaurant we went to near their place in the city was on the expensive side but the food was absolutely brilliant. highlight of the night was spotting gabriel from the secret life of us at the restaurant (obviously not her real name)...getting old amiga games to run on the xbox (including leisure suit larry!)...overhearing a guy in the post office tell another girl that pat from big brother was walking around the shopping centre (i missed the opportunity to gawk at his blinky eyes unfortunately)...cracking my mobile phone screen whilst leaning on it to close the car door (i've put a clear case on it now and it looks like it's supposed to be a bit messed up)...no.5 is alive!

oh yeah and we saw T3 last night (i really enjoyed it but the ending was a bit flat). all in all a good week. bring on the weekend baby!

15.7.03

last weekend was the best weekend we've had here so far. on saturday we drove over to the north shore (over the harbour bridge...yay) and down near taronga zoo. we found a road in a conservation area and parked our car there. we were right near some old unground...um...tunnel structure thing. lots of really old stone stairways going down into the ground, leading to passages that were blocked off with metal gates. it was right near the military base. we explored more of the area and found a beautiful grassy patch right next to a cliff overlooking the ocean. it was awesum! and really weird cos noone was around and it was a really nice spot and we are in sydney.

we also went to ikea and refrained from buying too much as the apartment is going to be well overfull once our furniture gets moved up from adelaide. which should be this weekend (another yay). last sunday we explored the large park across the road from the apartments. i can't believe we haven't gone walking there before! there's a big hill which you get a good view of the city from. must remember to take the camera up there. the weather has been gorgeous the past few days. sunny and warm....mmm.

we were bored about 8.30pm last night until dan came up with a brilliant idea to go swimming at the indoor lap pool in this complex. so off we dashed in our bathers in the cold night air. the pool is heated so the temperature was perfect. and we slept so well last night after our swim. dan and i are really warming to this apartment now. pity about the guy living here already :P (sorry, bad joke mike!)

mike has been working hard and when he's not doing that he's playing basketball. 4 times a week! crazy shit.

dan is happy at work and i've been working on a couple of projects here at home so the days cruise along nicely. oh yeah i almost forgot...i'm finally free of centrelink! YAY! they weren't paying me anything now dan is working so i got them to take me off the system. no resume writing day for me!

10.7.03

hi guys..still in sydney. the sun is shining. the rain has stopped. so what have we been up to this week?

last saturday my cousin and uncle were stopping over in sydney for a football match on their way home to brisbane. we drove down to cronulla to have a drink with them. the last time i'd seen my uncle was in hong kong so it had that kind of surreal thing happening. we were by the beach so dan and i decided to have dinner at a hog's breath restaurant on the beach front. on sunday we had lunch at a pub on oxford street then went for a stroll in centennial park. mmm, i could lie on the grass in the sun all day. in fact we did for most of the afternoon. the traffic home was great (yes that's sarcasm) because of a local footy match ending around the same time. i'd heard a lot about sydney traffic over the years and i definately understand why now. regardless of this i still love being in sydney. it has a natural energy to it that i love at this stage in my life. i'm amazed how quickly i've adopted the cursing reaction whilst driving at other cars..."what the f*&k does this person think they're doing?!!"..."now what the f%&k is this person doing?!!"...and why the hell did they stop like that?!!!!!!!!!!!!!".

as for parallel parking...it goes hand in hand with living in inner sydney unfortunately. i think i've had 2 bumper to bumper taps so far. and then I quickly dash off down the road...

dan is enjoying his work at microforte. he's been working really hard and the team he's with are quite experienced. he found out the other day that his grant application was successful so we're looking forward to getting that project properly underway on the weekends. nerd it up baby!

damien, mike's friend, is currently asleep on the couch next to me. he's staying here for a few days and so far my typing hasn't woken him up. MAYBE IF I TYPE WITH CAPS ON. yep there's a bit of a rustle on the couch.

til next time...

30.6.03

we arrived in Sydney about a week and a half ago. the first few days were spent looking at houses, eating out and drinking with our new flatmate mike (well an old flatmate for dan). we've got a new favourite japanese place called asakusa on king street where you can get dinner boxes for $8.80. and the sushi is really good...mmm sushi.

driving in sydney is as crazy as everyone says it is. but i'm getting used to it. so long as i don't hit any pedestrians on all those crossings. people just walk out onto them without looking if there are cars coming and the traffic is just supposed to stop. no lights or anything! i'm getting better at slowing down near them. i don't remember seeing any crossings like that in lil old adelaide!

dan has started work at microforte now. they seem really organised there and i called in an said hi to gary last week. he's working on some great concept drawings at the moment. very impressive!

now what else was there to report? oh yeah the rabbits are no longer with us. mike's old flatmate had a couple of rabbits in the apartment and cos they didn't get along one spent all of it's time out here in the lounge room where we were sleeping. they eat everything! the rabbits moved out on the weekend so that gave me the opportunity to set up this laptop on our little desk here in the lounge room. i can put cables on the floor now! yay!

we have a bedroom now at mike's place but a severe lack of furniture. that's only the case until we find another apartment to move in to (yes don't ask about the rent p/w!). which is what we've been doing on saturdays...driving around house hunting. at least i'm getting to know inner south sydney better.

speaking of that, i went to the centrelink in redfern the other day. for those of you that know sydney you'll know how dodgy redfern's reputation is as a suburb. nearby we drove past a cordoned off, weedy area being searched by a police rescue squad. later that day i heard on the news that a guy had been found dead in a rubbish bin. this isn't where mike lives but it's the closest centrelink to here. lucky me!

on sunday the weather was really warm and sunny so the three of us hung out at cockle bay wharf in darling harbour having a drink. i really love the vibe in sydney. i'm looking forward to checking out some clubs with gary. i'm already impressed with the number of pubs and restaurants.

we're missing zacky a lot (tha dog) which was to be expected. don't think he'd enjoy it too much being on the 5th floor of an apartment. i can still picture his little sad face at the window as we drove off...
at least we're not in a different country now. so all you party people have no excuses about coming to visit us when we're settled in! and thanks to everyone who turned up at our goodbye drinks. coming back to adelaide just to turn around and say goodbye again is fast becoming a habit! but it's always fun seeing everyone again.

and stay tuned cos i'll be updating this site every week or so instead of sending out mass emails. i bet you're all excited about that ;)

i hope everyone is well. life can be so surreal. i think i'm in another one of life's weird moments. and to that i say...keep em coming!