Chocolate, Sydney Day 1 and Little Miss Sunshine

I've been here a month? Already? Time is flying by at rapid speed as I moved from job search to job training, roommate locating and apartment hunting. Squeeze in a few late nights (at Bimbo's, Little Creatures and Cookie) , a couple of day trips (Yarra Valley, Heallesville and the Vic Market) and a long weekend trip (Sydney) and that pretty much sums up my month in a nut shell. Not to mention the great books I have had time to read (Water for Elephants and The Hunger Games series). I can't complain about my time spent here so far. Especially now that Melbourne has been ranked by BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14716442 as the #1 Most Livable City!

So to play some catch-up on this last month. I have accepted a job as the Marketing Assistant for The Chocolate Box, a family-owned Chocolate retailer based in Melbourne that has been around since the 1950's! I started last week, working in one of the shops in Collins Place in East end of the CBD with quite the pair who have been part of the Chocolate Box team for a while now. They were there to train me (in the most entertaining environment possible with their jokes and gossip ) on how the stores operate. Hence, the reason I have felt like a Christmas Elf for the past two weeks. Each store packages their own merchandise, and have to package back-stock to store in the warehouse until Christmas. Enter Bethany: given a scale, scoop, 5kg box of loose chocolate, spools of ribbon and a handful of clear bags. For the next 6 days, my job is to fill, label and tie bows on 100's of pieces of chocolate. Next week, I will begin training in the corporate office on my official duties. I must impress them with my mad marketing skills!

Sydney was a planned long weekend trip to meet up with some dear friends visiting from the U.S. Bethany playing "mum" for the week was a huge dose of birth control for me (only solidifying that no, I am no where near ready to get married or have children anytime soon) but at the same time, the motherly instinct kicked in that (yes, I do want children one day and they will be my precious darlins'). Getting 3 dressed, packing lunches, remembering homework, racing to 2 different schools and getting to work on time was only half of it! God bless all moms out there! That is when Friday rolled around. Same routine, kids at school - I still had to pack for myself, vacuum all left over crumbs off our spectacularly red (yes, red) carpet to prevent an ant invasion, finish laundry, load the dishwasher and have a bite to eat. All before having to pick up the kids and get back to the house before the cab to the airport came to get us by 1:30. By the time I whirred down Nungerner Street, honked at the cab already parked in the driveway ( b.t.w. - you don't "call a cab" here, you "hire a taxi" ) and ran inside, frantically running from one end of the house making sure all lights were turned off, throwing suitcases out of the garage into the driveway and remembering to lock the door - we were 10 minutes behind schedule and I had worked up a massive sweat. Kids buckled in, finally barreling toward the airport - I forgot one minor thing that could have ended in not fatal, but a difficult-to-handle catastrophe: my cellphone. Insisting that the cab turn around so I could run back to get the, re-set the alarm and re-lock the door, we were now 15 minutes behind schedule and the cab driver must of thought I was a crazy person with the insanity of loading the cab to my profuse apologies the whole way to the airport.

Inside the airport, approaching the security line I chucked all the bags onto the security belt, pushed the kids through the metal detector and started taking off my coat and shoes when a large security man stepped in front of me. I asked politely, "Do I need to take off my coat?" His lips curled up in a sly smile, "Are you in the habit of taking your clothes off in airports?" Turning bright red I replied, "Well yes, in the great city of Atlanta!" He chuckled and turning to his fellow security guard yelled out, "Well, guess I should go work there!"
Mortified I politely grinned, grabbed the kids and fled down the ramp to Gate 4, headed to Sydney. Arriving to the gate a little early (quite an accomplishment considering the panicked rush I left in), Dailey wanted to visit her favorite Smiggles store (yes, "Smiggles" - selling stationary, pens, pencils, makers, etc - way over priced for the product, but a novelty that took off here in AUS. The name literally originated from Smile + Giggles = Smiggles. Gag me. ) All Austin cared about was watching the large LCD screen showing flight patterns located at our gate so while perusing through Smiggles with the kids, one minute I am looking at a $5 hot pink eraser ( or rubber as they call them here ) and the next minute I am in a mortified panic because Austin is gone! He had run back to the gate to see that stupid screen and left me almost in tears at the thought of losing one of these kids!

20 minutes later, we are settled into Business Class with 3 glasses of juice, hot towels, 2 coloring packs shaped like Little Miss Sunshine and a hostess flirting with the heartbreaker Austin with his baby blues and enormously long eye lashes. A hot meal, more drinks, (bread, crackers and pretzels for the kids) and 1 hour later, we land in Sydney. Steph was waiting for us at our gate as we are expelled from the exit ramp looking a tad like Jackie O with her two kids, it was quite the spectacle.

We settled into the hotel and found a deliciously spicy Thai restaurant recommended to us, Spice I Am - feasting on Duck Curry and Basil Chicken. Because of the large numbers of Asians now living in Australia, they have a the best authentic Thai, Japanese, Chinese and Sushi everywhere!

The next few days were spent eating great food, drinking good (but not Melbourne good) Mochas and skinny caps, and visiting all the tourist spots around Sydney (more to come complete with pictures).