Reflection

Since moving to Sydney, I've had a lot of time to reflect on my life, my friends and family, and also to think about my future plans and aspirations. I've evaluated how far I have come in the past few years of my life and what I have yet to still achieve. Being such a far distance from home has enabled me to take an outside perspective on my life and look at my life in San Francisco as a chapter that has ended; or perhaps it's better to say that it's just been put on pause. Beginning a new adventure brings certain levels of uncertainty and caution, but at the same time has allowed me to explore and reflect on all the positive and wonderful things that I have been through in my life, and most importantly the people who have been apart of the journey. I can't say that I'm home sick (I'm sure I will be in time), but it's funny that at the most random of times I will have a memory of a great moment shared with a friend and not be able to stop myself from having the biggest grin on my face. I've always known what wonderful people I have in my life, I have never been able to figure out how I got so lucky to have as many people in my life that care about me as much as they do. My friends all have hearts of solid gold.

This past week was my first week working for Kiehl's and so far it has been a nice experience. My co-workers are extremely nice and both companies I work for (Kiehl's and David Jones are in partnership) have good company vision and great management. The products I sell are really good and I have benefited from using a lot of the different things we offer. The only downfall is how expensive the product is compared to US dollars. The price here is double if not more. What's really great though, is the scheduling at David Jones; they alternate weekend shifts and late night Thursday shifts so that I have every other weekend off but still work the same amount of hours each week. Now that I have an income, I'll be able to get around more and take weekend trips to Melbourne, Perth, Queensland etc... This will hopefully make my blog much more exciting in the future :) Today was my first day off so I hoped on a bus to the northern beaches and got off at a random little restaurant on Pittwater bay and had a slice of delicious orange and almond cake with a pot of honeydew green tea. They had a lovely outside seating area on the water with sail boats cruising through as I sat and read. The temperature today was around 78 degrees, just perfect, and would have been a great day to spend surfing except for the fact that there were only killer 6 inch waves to be caught. Even more exciting however is the fact that I get paid tomorrow and I can't wait to buy a new surfboard with my first paycheck! Pics will be posted the day I buy it!

Finally, I got to a hip hop show... well, sort of. There's this old gnarly dive bar underground in Manly called the Boat shed. It's a notorious little spot known for the old guys that are the regulars and the sketchy stairwell you have to walk down to enter. My kinda place. Some kids from the area had a show there a few nights ago, and surprisingly it was better than I had expected. Of course, I was the only one dancing and having a good time, while the rest of the crowd didn't quite know how the handle the bay area moves I was doin. Then, out of the back corner by the bar, one of the regulars went up on stage and did he best to get down, and it was awesome. I have to admit, I've never been to a hiphop show where some old white dude took over the stage and then proceeded to be escorted out by the bouncer against the crowds popular demand to let him stay. I was just stoked that I got to dance to something other than the terrible house and electronic music that's continually played all over Sydney. I'm also equally excited that the event happens in my own town about once a month or so.

Well, I guess this is all for now. I'll leave you all with a few pics to bring my story to life. Take care and I hope you're all having a lovely hot summer where ever you are!!!