A job-hunting we will go

In my typical (pretty much everyday) online job search today, I came across a position that looked somewhat promising.  An international company looking for an accountant to be 2nd-in-command to the controller, and serve as the "technical expert."  It was advertised by a recruiting agency, and the description of the company and position were vague enough that I thought I'd call for further information.  The man on the other end was very nice, and actually told me the most helpful thing anyone has so far - there is an overabundance of commercial accountants in the area.  So, it would appear that the competition for the auditor who is looking to switch to industry would be from those who made the choice to work in industry from the start.

For those unfamiliar with the politics of the accounting world, the position of an auditor is the fastest track to a CPA, at least in the States.  It's high stakes, long hours, challenging, intense work, but you learn things every day.  It's client service, with high intellectual requirements; both sides of the brain are required.  The hope for many people going into auditing is that either they will love it and move quickly up the ranks, or learn from it and then switch to a less time-intensive job further down the road.

Frustrating, then, that in this case experience as an auditor is somewhat detrimental to my marketability.  But at least I know one of the reasons I haven't had much luck in the job market here.  Yes, there is demand for accountants, but there are plenty of people willing to take the nice analyst jobs and not so many to take the auditor jobs.  Employers look for people with experience in the specific roles for which they're hiring - and I can't necessarily blame them for that.  Combine that with the fact that I'm not from around here, and that makes me a complicated hire, to say the least.  

I can only hope that someone will give me a chance.  In the meantime, I keep hunting...

Heat, Celebrations, and Antics

This weekend was quite full.  Friday, Jesse and I left in the morning for Sydney, where we met up with friends to attend a one-day cricket match.  Once we arrived at "the cricket" (as it is referred to here), we were in the sun pretty much from 2pm until it went down, gloriously, around 8pm.  I have never been so hot in my life!  But Jesse had a great time, and I enjoyed watching it, during those brief moments when the sun went behind a cloud, or during the cool of the evening once the sun had set.  There was what appeared to be 2 families sitting in the row in front of us, with about 5 boys and 1 girl in total, ranging in age from about 4 to about 9, all dressed in Aussie jerseys and hats, waving flags and shouting things like "shot!" and "that was well fielded!" There is something incredibly charming about little children with an Aussie accent, particularly when it involves a phrase like "well fielded."  We had a lovely 20-30 minute walk in the cool evening back to Sydney Central to catch a bus back to our friends' house.  Great day.

Saturday, we got up quite early (for us) to head back to Maitland.  An elderly woman in the congregation had passed away this week, and Jesse was presiding over the funeral.  We arrived at our house in time to meet with her cousin, go over some last-minute service adjustments, scrub the temporary tattoos ("Go Aussie Go" and "Australia") off of our faces, and head to church.  The funeral was a great tribute to her life, and many folks hung around for the morning tea afterward to discuss remembrances and enjoy each other's company.  

It's interesting to contemplate grief, and how we honor the memory of our loved ones.  I may have blogged about this story in the past, but it comes to mind again.  I remember when we were putting together the services for my great-aunt Lois a couple of years ago, which included a handbell choir piece to honor her love of the handbells.  I was standing next to my sister as we practiced before the service, and it must have been particularly warm, or I was particularly nervous, or something.  At any rate, I rang one bell with unusual gusto, and it slipped from my hand.  I panicked, reached out, and caught the bell just in time to ring it again (and, honestly, to prevent damage to the bell and its surroundings).  My sister and I dissolved into laughter.  My grandmother commented that it was just such a moment that Aunt Lois would have enjoyed.  In that crazy moment, we honored her memory.

Saturday was one of the hottest days yet.  A couple from the church who have a pool took pity on us and invited us over for a swim.  It was glorious.  We had lovely conversation, watched a bit of the Melbourne Cup, had tea (dinner) together, and then Jesse and I headed home.

Sunday, Jesse began his sermon series on Leviticus, for which he'd given the congregation a reading assignment last week.  It seemed to go well, and it was nice to have the rest of the day to relax.  While job-hunting online, I found a couple of positions that seemed like they may be a good fit, and applied for them.  I'm optimistic; we'll see what happens, however.

Today, Australia Day, we had a church outing to a nearby lake for a day of cricket, boating, cricket, barbecue, and of course, more cricket.  We had a great turnout amongst the church families, and played a few rounds (innings) of cricket with a group of guys enjoying the lake as well.  Jesse and I have the sunburns to prove that we were thwarted by the overcast sky for much of the day (I didn't put sunscreen on until about 3:15), but we felt like we had celebrated Australia Day properly.  

not off the hook yet....

Just when you thought you were done reading laundry posts.

I was thinking last night, as I threw a bunch of clothes in and set the delay timer on our fancy washing machine that, today, I would post a wonderful post on how we were getting along with the machine so well, and it was making our lives easier.  We've sorted through the technology, and are enjoying the fact that we don't have to babysit it all night long.

I got up at 8 this morning (which is early for me), and Jesse was still sleeping (which is late for him).  It was a rather hot night and I don't think he got much sleep.  Anyway, I turned the internet modem on and headed to the bathroom before booting up the computer.  I was greeted by - water.  Lint.  I stepped over the puddles onto the rug at the base of the toilet, only to splash in a puddle of water on the toilet-rug.  Apparently, the drainage hose had come out of the sink (there was an unidentified noise as we were going to bed last night; I've decided that must have been it) and drained the entire washer-full of water onto the laundry room floor, which leaked into the toilet room.

I procured a plastic bag, placed the dripping wet rug in it, and scampered out the back door, where I hung it to dry.  I mopped up the wet, linty toilet room, hung out the clean clothes, and placed all the wet dirty clothes inside (our dirty clothes were sorted into piles on the floor of the laundry room, which probably prevented the water from spreading further) for a quick wash.  I set up a fan to try to evaporate the mopped floor.  Jesse woke up and helped me hang out the clean clothes.

Adventures.

Food, Games, and a Happy 50th!

Today (tomorrow for those in the US) is my mom's 50th birthday, so you should all wish her a happy one, particularly if you're nearby and can give her a hug.

I made some cheese pizza for lunch from scratch, using a recipe in my "What to Eat When You Can't Eat Anything" book (a GREAT book for anyone with food issues).  I've been a bit food-sensitive lately, although I have to give credit to the Katoomba conference people, who are very accommodating with dietary restrictions.  Anyway, Jesse and I both loved the pizza, so it was well worth the effort.  I suppose I didn't technically make the tomato sauce "from scratch" (I used a can of pureed tomatoes), but all the seasoning was mine.  Mm, tasty; there's also a sense of accomplishment from making things "from scratch."

Since we received our Wedding List gifts, I now have 3 canisters on my counter, which have been put to good use:  white spelt flour, rice, and granola in the third one.  This is a far cry from sugar, flour, coffee, and tea, but they are the starchy staples I use most often.  I made the granola yesterday from the same cookbook, while we were watching tv, and had it for breakfast this morning.  I also made some peanut butter popcorn in the evening (Grandma's recipe) for a snack.  One of the best things about coming home after being away is cooking food again.

In terms of games, I've been improving at Wii Play; I have a platinum medal in the shooting range (although I still can't beat Jesse when we go head-to-head; he's just too quick!), a current record of 43 tanks in that game, and a new high score of somewhere over 50 in ping pong.  I'm 2nd to Jesse among my friends in Scramble (facebook version of Boggle) and improving at "Challenge Sudoku" which I recently discovered on facebook as well.  Since we were away for a whole week, we have a little extra bandwidth to play with this month, and I'm making use of it.

Our fancy washing machine is doing well; we're getting used to each other.  I can set it to delay start, so that it washes a load right before we wake up and we can just put the clothes out on the line when we get up.  That's a good deal; that way, we're not hanging them out in the middle of the hot day.

Well, I think that's about it for now.  Speaking of the middle of a hot day... I am going to figure out what's for dinner, make sure the ingredients are available, and possibly go to a few stores.  Hopefully many of you are receiving your wedding thank-you notes; sorry they're so delayed in getting to you!

A week away

We arrived safely around 9pm last night after a week in the Blue Mountains at this conference.  (Interesting side note; Jesse explained that the "Blue Mountains" are called such as a result of the blue hue given off by the eucalyptus trees certain times of year.)  The point of the conference is to train youth leaders.  It was exciting to be able to attend; there were 4 of us from church, and the church rallied to support us financially and in prayer to make it happen.  That alone was encouraging.

We each gained some practical tips throughout the conference.  Workshops on packaging a youth talk and serving in a small youth group were particularly useful, and working through an Old Testament Bible Study in a small group for a few hours each day was enlightening and challenging in some ways.  We were exposed to some more reformed concepts of theology, which we're still chewing on and have proved catalysts for us to discuss and refine our own thoughts on the various issues.

Jesse and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening speaker, who preached soundly the first night (text: Gen. 1) that Christians need not be afraid of science, and in fact, those with scientific interests should explore them to the fullest.  His strong position that the Genesis account is meant to be poetry, with emphasis that God created, and that God set up a rhythm in doing so, was a refreshing perspective in light of what I've heard from 'Creationist' speakers in the past.

We enjoyed getting to know some new friends, and catching up with a couple Jesse had met on Iona.  We visited Echo Point, which overlooks the Three Sisters rock formation and the beauty of the Jamison Valley.  A few at the conference had encouraged participants to head out that way early in the morning.  While we never made it, the other 2 from our church hiked out to watch the sunrise over the valley one morning (from another lookout), and reported it had been breathtaking.

The conference finished midday yesterday (Friday), so the four of us did the tourist thing.  We went to Scenic World, where we rode the world's steepest train (450 meters of track, 250 meter drop, or something) down into the valley, walked around, visited a few exhibits on the coal mining that had occurred around the early 1900's (sidenote 2 - I've now explored, or at least viewed from the outside, caves/mines on 3 continents: Mammoth in KY, that one we went to in Wales [does anyone remember its name?] and now this one in Katoomba), examined the flora of the area, saw the biggest termite mound I've seen yet, around my own height, then returned to the top via cablecar.  We also took another cablecar-type contraption with a glass bottom (the glass bottom was only in the middle, though, not all over like the London Eye) across the valley to another cliff point and back; it was cool to have a view of the Katoomba Falls (think Bridal Veil Falls, but with 2 streams of water, and 2 main platforms) from above.  We grabbed dinner at a local cafe (Jesse had a kangaroo burger) before hitting the road for Maitland.

I have yet to see a wild kangaroo.  I saw a few more kookaburras and a white cockatoo (heartily pecking at and killing a tree), but no new Aussie animals for me.

Now, it's off to breakfast, as we purposely left very little food in the house for the week.

Let the Sporadic Posting Continue!

The weather this week has ranged from unbearably hot to reasonably cool (it rained yesterday; so nice!).  We had a family over for dinner on Wednesday evening; we let their kids play on the Wii after dinner, and they returned home and promptly pooled their money to buy one of their own :)  It was nice to get to know all of them, and have some company for the evening.

Wednesday was a big day in our house; not only did we have the "dinner party," but our brand new washing machine was delivered!  We didn't hook it up until yesterday, and haven't used it yet (but plan to today), and I am quite excited to say goodbye to the days of twin-tubbing.  It's a combo washer/dryer, which means when it rains for days on end, we can still have clean clothes.  Exciting times!

Thursday was reasonably uneventful, despite a frozen pork fiasco that resulted in the disinfecting of the kitchen, but also in a tasty dinner.  Our volleyball team won a decisive victory in the evening, which was awesome.  We played well and had a lot of fun.  I'm pretty well used to the new rules now, and Jesse's game is steadily improving.  His cricket team did fairly well, too, so it was a winning night at the indoor sports center for J&J.

Yesterday, I hung around the house and got some much-needed cleaning done while Jesse ran a few errands.  A girl from church came over to hang out, and we ate leftovers (pot roast, canneloni, and sweet and sour pork) for dinner and watched Music & Lyrics, which she hadn't seen, and is a movie I greatly enjoy (one of a handful of movies I actually own, aside from Jesse's collection).  We followed that up with an episode of Numb3rs and then Law & Order before calling it a night.

Today has been a lazy day so far.  I've been playing Scramble and the Typing Speed application on facebook, and Jesse's playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii.  At some point, we'll start getting ready for the youth leadership conference, for which we leave very early Monday morning.  It's in the Blue Mountains, where I have not yet been, so I'm quite excited to visit there.  I'm also looking forward to getting some instruction on working with the youth, and hopeful it will reinvigorate Jesse, the two leaders, and me to better teach them.  Needless to say, I will be incommunicado beginning Monday, but let's face it; I haven't been that consistent with posts anyway, so perhaps no one will notice ;)

post-holiday

The climate seems to do crazy things to my sense of balance/stomach.  It had Jesse down for the count last Sunday (aside from getting up to preach), and pretty much did the same to me yesterday.  I'm still feeling a bit strange, but hoping I can work through it today to get the house cleaned up.  We're having people over Wednesday evening, and the house is not in any kind of shape for that to be happening.  The paintings we'd been planning to hang about a week ago are still sitting on/around the love seat, and various other items need to find homes for the place to be picked up.

As I look around on facebook, everyone is gearing up to go back to work, it seems.  For the past 3 years, I have done the same, and have been approaching the busiest time of year.  December/Christmas/New Year's were always bittersweet, because they represented a last hurrah of minimal control over my life and schedule.  I went into some kind of work-hibernation for 3 months, and emerged gasping for vacation time.  As much as I appreciated my time in public for the things it taught me about accounting, people in general, and myself in particular, it's nice not to spend quite so much time at work.  Right now, I'm not spending any time at work, but I'm hoping to find a happy medium with a job I can enjoy.  Pipe dream?  Perhaps.  But I'll keep looking.

first days of 2009

It's a new year!  We were some of the first to ring it in, with a fantastic fireworks show just a quick walk from our friends' house near Sydney.  No, we didn't brave the crowds in Sydney to look at the Harbour Bridge, but the fireworks display we saw was quite good.  Not to mention the company; we had a couple rounds of Cranium, during which my crowning achievements included recognizing a Nirvana song (after my husband didn't think I would) and remembering that 4 of a kind beats full house (thanks to an unfortunate incident in North Carolina summer 2005, during which I neglected to realize that if I had a full house, someone else might have four of a kind).  We used the Cranium game Jesse and I got for our wedding; it's "Cranium WOW" and comes with cool players and new cards.  Sparklers, glow sticks, and confetti poppers were involved, as was some great conversation.  Good times.

We headed back up north around noon on New Year's Day, and I tried to do Wii Fit to stay awake during the afternoon.  It worked, kind of.  Jesse took over on the Wii and was playing Raving Rabbids while I "watched" on the couch.  I woke up to "Honey, do you want to be sleeping?"  :)  Woops.  We watched some Boston Legal and called it an early night.

Today has been good; I slept in, then did Wii Fit (and unlocked a new balance game; it's some kind of zen/candle thing and it's weird), then was feeling extremely light-headed.  I rested for a bit, Jesse made me some oatmeal, and I felt better.  I sifted through cookbooks and planned out our meals for the next few days, and Jesse and I left to run errands.  We ate lunch out, mailed a bunch of thank-you notes to the US, then hit the grocery store.  It was about a 2 hour trip total, and we were satisfied that we got a lot done!

Upon our return, I hit the kitchen and made some pasta.  I received a cookbook from an Aussie friend for Christmas, so I decided to try out spinach-ricotta canneloni.  I even bothered to shape the pasta into "canneloni," although some of them kept trying to fall flat.  This endeavor resulted in approximately 3 hours in the kitchen from start to finish, but I'm feeling quite accomplished for having cooked the whole meal from scratch (with the assistance of my wonderful KitchenAid mixer and Pampered Chef Food Chopper, of course).  We'll see how accomplished I feel in 10 minutes when the canneloni comes out of the oven, but at least I tried! :)

I haven't been one to make New Year's resolutions; if anything, I tend to make birthday resolutions.  One I've been working on for a couple of years now has been remembering others' birthdays (and not just on facebook!), so I suppose, if anything, I'm hoping to continue getting back into that and also to writing more personal letters.  We shall see.

No real news on the job front; there was one possibility that I was quite excited about, but that seems to have fallen through.  There's still a ray of hope, but I'm not holding my breath.  As for "accounting" news, I've been asked to join a volunteer team headed to Papua New Guinea in May for some auditing.  I'm quite excited about this prospect, and although Jesse won't be coming with me, looking forward to the chance to help an organization I respect and appreciate.

Now the moment of truth... I'm off to get the canneloni.