Diet Fail

First day at the office was as first days always are, get to know the accounts, the clients, their websites.  I spent most of the time studying client's websites more than once, more than five times even.  By midday I had used 50% of my phone's battery and even without a game of Angry Birds.

I came out of a Monday morning meeting knowing that I am not supposed to surf the net, have to be in at 8.30am and my boss will be keeping tabs at what time everyone turns up to work.  Well with about seven or eight of us, it's not a very hard task to keep up to date.

I of course turned up at 9.00am not knowing what the agency start time was, and as Dad said to me later on , "you should've asked".  Assumption, dare I say it's one of my worst enemies.

The day went well though, it's nice to be valued, to be heard and to be able to give input into a campaign.  I was given an account which is to be my new 'baby'.  An excellent challenge, a chance to shine and actually put my skill set to use and most of all to be able to think and be challenged, and to know that what I have to give, my experience will be appreciated.

Then came the fail.  First day of my attempt at the South Beach Diet started well.  Two egg omelette with asparagus, mushrooms and 97% fat free champagne ham, topped with coriander and pepper.  Delicious and I snacked on almonds before lunch time.

Lunch time... oh dear!  I met up with a friend of mine visiting from the UK, bless his cotton socks and all 5"1 of him, he actually came to see me at work.  I met him at the train station and on impulse decided to have McDonalds for lunch.  I thought the McChicken meal was the best option rather than my preferred Quarter Pounder meal, and I tried to forget the large Big Mac meal I had yesterday as a snack after lunch.

I am not doing very well am I?

To make things worse, after my failed attempt to have dinner and red wine with Janey, I got myself a cheese and bacon roll from Bakers Delight and ate it on the platform in 3 minutes before my train arrived to go home.  I even by passed the gym, I promised myself a session today and for the rest of the week ... fail!

I even had dinner when I came home, brown rice which was not too bad I guess seeing as I was on a massive fail of a diet day today anyway.

Me and Janey promised via text message that we would start tomorrow.  I asked her if she wanted me to buy an online deal for us - a starter to share, two large pizzas or pastas and two desserts for a ridiculously awesome price of $19.  She reminded me of that damn diet.  I sighed and closed the window.  I've had their pizzas before, they are outstanding.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

Give me strength somehow.

Yours truly,

Miss A

Photo ref: Pizza and wine in Johannesburg before my flight back to Sydney. 

Moving onwards and upwards

After having two weeks off, tomorrow I will head back into the advertising world on a much smaller scale.

I have pretty much downsized from the big well known internationals, housing anywhere from fifty to a hundred people to a local, small sized agency with a team of people that I can count on with my two hands.

I feel like there will be a major culture shock, I have had to be strong, assertive and thick skinned in the big agency environment, you have to or you will not succeed and be noticed.  That's what big agencies are about, being noticed, being the gun account handler, the star.

I was told that I would have to tone that down now, that my strong personality will cause angst, stress and it will effect the rest of the team.  The thing is I never even thought of myself as being able to project that sort of vibe, and have never realised how much my personality can affect others around me.  It was a little weird to be told that I am a 'powerful woman'.  When I think of a woman with that sort of power and influence I think Oprah, Madonna, but me?

I am a little nervous about tomorrow, I hope that this has been the right decision.  My heart is set to go overseas, but now, it will have to be put on hold again for the third time in two years.  When will I make it?  I gave myself a goal of twelve months, but it will probably have to be in at least two or three years.

The last two weeks, I lived and let myself go, closed the last chapter and now tomorrow begins the new. Like I said before I feel like this year has only just begun.

I have also decided on surrounding myself with positive people, I caught up with an old friend this week and I found all we could talk about was the past, and on things that were not even positives in life.  I felt there and then that if I was to continue our friendship, things would not be better for me, it would only cause a halt with what I needed to do to progress and get everything I need to in my life in place.  By staying in this friendship a lot of my goals I wanted to reach have stalled, and this has been over the last two or three years, and I am still trying to reach those same goals I wanted to achieve in twelve months.

I woke up this morning and realised that I needed to cut contact and deleted the phone number.

Tomorrow the 28th March:

1. Start of a new job
2. Two weeks of no carbs
3. Two weeks of no alcohol

I'll let you know how it goes.

Yours truly,

Miss A

Maya - keeps you wanting more

I'd like to tell you all about a little place on Toorak Road in Melbourne called Maya.

It's a tequila bar with a Mexican inspired menu to die for.  I am really enjoying tasting menus at the moment and Maya has just that.

The chicken ribs for example are absolutely divine.  Whenever I think of ribs I think American style pork ribs. Or even beef ribs.  I would never have thought of these dainty, extremely meaty and tasty chicken ribs.  Whats more, they were not greasy, marinated and served in a finger licking tasty sauce that I would continue licking from until the plate was clean.

Another share plate on the menu is the grilled corn on the cob.  This isn't usually a dish I would expect to find on the menu either, and I must admit it does require some level of skill to be able to eat it properly.

Simple but delicious idea, but as I said it does require a certain amount of skill to eat.  See below for exhibit A - how two pieces of corn have been eaten.

I would have loved to have eaten a lot more especially the Fundido Con Chorizo but with our pre-dinner drinks and snacks earlier on, I could only order a few small dishes.  But the Fundido Con Chorizo does come highly recommended.  Pan fried chorizo, with cactus, spinach and mushroom, topped with melted cheese - what is there not to love?  My mouth is watering thinking about it and I am quite upset that I didn't get to try a lot more this trip.

It is the best excuse however to head back over to Melbourne soon, very soon, as it won't be long until I start craving the food and margaritas again at Maya.

Yours truly,

Miss A

Maya Tequila Bar and Grill

74 Toorak Road

South Yarra

Melbourne 3141

To make a booking: 03 9866 8836

Dishes range from: $11.50 - $30.00 

Drunk sexing - V2

I did have a previous post on this subject which I have deleted as I wasn't happy with it.  On reflection, in addition to the structure and content, perhaps I also deleted it as it wasn't true to my heart.

Let's start again.

It's been awhile since I participated in a drunken one-night stand.  Usually whenever I did have sex, even if it was casual, I at least participated in conversation, knew a bit about him and we both had an understanding that we did like each other or at least found a mutual attraction.

This drunken sex act however did not even have any conversation involved, yes we talked but it was social talk, and as you get after a few more drinks and shots of tequila, everything becomes nothing more than a blur.

I thought it was a little too easy when he said to me out of the blue, 'I think I should come home with you'.

And when I'm drunk and I think you're cute, I'm not going to say no.

I don't know if I can remember much of what happened, it was dark, we fumbled with clothes, we passed out and I woke up with him next to me.

He left with a short goodbye, no exchange of numbers, no conversation in bed, no next steps.

Back in Sydney and I just feel a little lost, a little weird that it all happened that way.  It has been such a long time since I have done anything like this I wasn't sure how I should deal with it.  No biggie I say to myself but I would have maybe preferred to find out if we did have a mutual attraction, if we really did want to sleep with each other rather than me believing that what happened meant nothing at all other than a drunken spontaneous decision.

Sometimes I do wish I could turn that button off in my head and in my heart, where I can just mindlessly pick up and get it on with someone, a total stranger and not even wanting to know their name or something interesting about them.

Well I actually tried and well, the button didn't stay off and I wonder about the whole idea of it happening and if it was all a forced effort and if there was any attraction there at all.  It could very well and in which I truly believe it to be, an easy set up between friends, something that was a sure thing.

I wouldn't say that I would be too keen to get myself into such a position and make such a rash decision again.  What probably did it was the excitement of being in a different city, and the idea of having sex with someone new instead of constantly heading back to my ex even if it was just to satisfy sexual urges and needs that we all have.

At the end of the day what happened was just a whole lot of fun, even if I do not recall most of it, I just need to remember that the excellent hangover that I got the next morning was definitely worth every bit of it.

Yours truly,

Miss A.

Melbourne Bound

I'm off to Melbourne in a few hours and hopefully this time I will actually head to the Great Ocean Road.  It is meant to be a beautiful drive and in the past I have not had the time to make a day out of it.

I am really looking forward to seeing my best friend and also to have more than a few margaritas.  I'm pretty excited about finding out what's on the menu at one of my favourite bars in Melbourne, Maya.  Their food is Mexican inspired, and the bar has always got such a great vibe about it you could easily spend the whole night in there and not realise it.

Melbourne has also always been about trying out new things, visiting new places and of course the shopping is always great.  I will be spending a week there so I hope to be able to experience new bars, new restaurants and work out the card on new outfits.

But I better pack, I am always so last minute, I need to be at the airport in a few hours and here I am, still in bed, room a mess and without a suitcase in sight.

See you when I am back from Melbourne, I always have the best intentions of blogging whilst I am away, and I will try but it doesn't always create the right environment for me to do it properly.

Until then,

Miss A.

Dating part 2: Tequila saves me again

Last night I had a date, another 'blind-ish date', well we have been chatting for about a week.

No Janey around this time, but tequila came to the rescue once again.  After a few margaritas, and an introduction to mezcal, I went off to Pocket bar to meet up with him.

I ordered another drink at the bar and saw this guy on his phone, looking like he was busy, I laughed silently and realised that I was going to have to do the approach and the initial hellos.  To put it in a nutshell the conversation was full of contradictions and he just decided to pay me out the whole time.  Which is fine initially, and I could laugh along but after awhile it got really exhausting!

Here is a snap shot of the conversation:

1. "I really don't like it when people talk about work because I think that's what makes them boring" - but then he kept asking me about work.

2. "I think you're a dork" but then follows it with "I think you're really cool" - but couldn't explain the reasons why he thought I was a dork.

3. "Oh is that an i-phone that you have there? Oooo that's an i-phone?" - annoying much? He had one too.

4."You live at home? Your cred just went down. You're in your 30's? Your cred just went down. You grew up in Maroubra? Your cred just went down" - why was I still hanging around?

5. "You went to Good Vibes? How old are you?" - and why was I still hanging around?

6. "I think you're really cool, you're interesting to talk to" - is this guy for real?

7. "I really feel like beer, pizza and a dvd, let's go" - how about no and how about, see you bye!

I left him on the street and went back to tequila.

He sent me a text later on in the night.

I ordered a round of shots.

Yours truly,

Miss A.