I’ve been to Ikea today…

Not once but TWICE today. I’m sitting on my sofa with a rather large glass of red wine (which incidentally got me into this mess in the first place) wondering what the hell happened to my Sunday. Let me start from the beginning. This time last year, we were in the throes of packing up our lives to move over to Australia. Having read that Australian beds tend to be larger than those of the UK, Jordan and I set about measuring each component of our beloved bed. (In hindsight, carrying out heavy duty measuring after a trip to the pub is probably never a good idea. You should write that down somewhere if you are planning a big move. You can thank me later). We figured that we should just about make it and so waved goodbye to comfortable sleep (and £500+) when we shipped it over last year July. We have since slept on airbeds, fold out couches and the floor. So it was with great excitement that we unpacked our shipping when it arrived after New Years… the joy was short-lived as the last screw was put into place and we realised that our new snazzy Aussie mattress was about 3cm too big for the frame. Despair and sailor swearing ensued. And since we haven’t had a free weekend since the beginning of the year, Jordan has been sleeping on the sloping bit (by morning, he has rolled down the mountain into the middle and I’ve been violently wrenched from my sleep with the realisation that something rather large and heavy is cutting off the blood supply to my arm).

So today we took back our lives by heading to Ikea early to pick up a new bed. We broke the first cardinal Ikea rule by doing this on an empty stomach. Not to mention the entire Sydney population of cranky and mis-behaved toddlers was in the bedroom section at 10am this morning. Tempers were frayed, bad decisions were made and as a result, we ended up having to go back there later this afternoon. I need peace and quiet. I’d sell my soul to spend the weekend at Christian Liaigre’s St Barts pad.

Images via Elle Decor

The night we saw Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson–Banana Pancakes

The first thing Jordan did when he got a job was buy tickets to Jack Johnson who was playing on the steps of the iconic Opera House a week after my birthday. It was extravagant and risky as he hadn’t even signed the contract yet but after months of worry and stress we needed a little frivolity and carelessness. If you have never heard of Jack Johnson before (and you live anywhere remotely near the beach) then I am about to climb through the screen and bitch slap you. Even on my worst of worst days, I find it hard to be in a bad mood when listening to him. We danced, we sang at the top of our lungs (apologies to those standing within a five mile radius of us), and when he brought out an electric guitar and showed us how it was done (in flip flops no less), I swooned. It was the perfect date night.

What they didn’t tell me about Australia

I heard many things about this great land before I embarked from the plane. I heard tales of spiders the size of dinner plates, long car journeys, blisteringly harsh heat and smiling friendly faces in the grocery store. But I missed one vital story. The story about Sydney being full of fat juicy roaches who are immune to Mortein and nuclear disasters. On my very first day at work, whilst training with a work colleague, a giant bush cockroach darted across my feet. Let’s just say I revealed A LOT about myself that first day (starting with my sailor mouth). I relayed my horror to a friend over dinner and she sort of nodded and said, yep well that’s Sydney for you. Cockroachy. It went from bad to worse when we moved into our new apartment and discovered that they are fans of things like kettles, microwaves, kitchen sinks. I’ve become a pro at wrangling them (and by wrangling I mean ending their existence swiftly) – I even have a resident flip flop that lives in the kitchen ready to strike when one of them makes an appearance. Mornings will never be the same.

Totally off topic and only relevant because I am sure she doesn’t have to put up with cockroach shit, but have you heard of Donna Hay? She is a food stylist, author and editor-in-chief of her own magazine. An all round Australian institution and I am completely awestruck.

All images via Donna Hay

Everything and more

I am getting beach withdrawals. It’s been well over a week since I felt the sand between my toes and I am all pale and shaky about it. A few months ago, I couldn’t even fathom a life where my day started with a sunrise walk on the shoreline, now I would feel like my liver was missing without it. I have a beach bag that lives by the front door, various jars dotted around the house filled to the brim with treasured shells and driftwood and most days when I get in to bed, I usually have to get out of it and brush the sand off the sheets. It’s everything I had hoped for and more.

I can’t take any credit for these pictures. These are all Jordan, who managed to drag me out of bed kicking and screaming before the sun came up to take photos…. before the coffee shop even opened. And shockingly, turns out half of Sydney is up at that time on the weekend anyway. Jogging, yoga-ing, boxing and surfing. Without coffee. Sickos.

Blog-worthy

See? I’m back twice in one week. Baby steps people! I mentioned that I am still trying to figure out how to introduce blogging back in to my new life in Australia and well, I am still working on the finer details (less screen time, more me time) but I’ll find that balance soon – thanks for sticking by me and saying hello. It was just the encouragement I needed to fire Wishful Thinking up and re-start cataloguing my favourite finds once more. My current situation of an overflowing scrawled notebook and random folders entitled ‘new folder’ littering my desktop is just not cutting it anymore. And frankly, Daniella Witte’s drool-worthy kitchen needed to be shared with the masses, not hiding under a mediocre yellow folder on my laptop. Don’t you agree?

Photo: Daniella Witte

Um hello there

What I’ve been up to? Drinking Coopers and hanging out in flip flops and MC Hammer pants.

Hi. Remember me? It’s been a while but I'm back. I’ve missed this spot. I’ve missed you guys and truthfully I haven’t gone far – so if you have seen a visitor from NSW Australia popping up in your stats lately, chances are it was me. Just stopping by to get my fix.

There is lots to say, I’m not sure where to begin really. I’m just testing the waters, seeing how much I can commit to this corner of the internet so let’s just take it one day at a time hey? In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this…

Prolonged absence

Wow, this feels different. I can hardly believe that it’s been 2 weeks since I wrote my last post. I don’t know what happened but I just stopped blogging. In the 3 years since I have written this blog, I have never ever just disappeared. I guess I should probably explain myself then. The week that I stopped writing was a bad one for me. Dealing with interviews upon interviews, making potentially life-changing choices and consequences and still suffering from jet lag just put me in a shitty frame of mind. I didn’t have anything nice to say, so I decided not to say anything at all. I had a particularly difficult interview that brought about a few revelations about myself and where I thought my career was going and it required some serious pondering (I have written a post about it but given that I seem to have weathered the storm, it seems irrelevant now… I might still post it though as I feel like I am talking in code)! But what a difference a few weeks makes! In 2 weeks, I have landed a job at a really nice firm right on Darling Harbour (I start today…. eeek) and we have done the impossible and secured a beautiful apartment a street away from our little studio.  We are finally putting down roots and settling in. What a crazy, crazy few months. So I apologise for disappearing, I missed you guys. I’m hoping that I will be back to my normal blogging schedule but with a new job starting and a new place to furnish, it might be sporadic at best! In the meantime, want to see where I have been contemplating life and solving my problems?