ISTANBUL

I woke up at 6am this morning. This is officially my first day in Istanbul. I spent most of yesterday sleeping. I was seriously dead exhausted. The flight took alot out of me.

I'm waiting for the breakfast hall to open at 7am so I can eat. I'm starving even though I had a late dinner last night.

I'm actually glad I took my laptop now.There's heaps of networks here to connect to. Saves me going to an Internet cafe every second.

Not sure of plans for today. I wanted to go visit a few friends & relatives. Will keep you all posted...

I'M IN ISTANBUL...

I walked out of the plane thinking “Shit I’m in Turkey”. I couldn’t believe it. I walked over to passport control and showed them my Turkish Citizenship before walking over to get my luggage.

I picked up my luggage to notice that my suitcase zipper had broken. Fuck now I need a new luggage to travel with. I only brought this one 2 weeks before I left Sydney.

I walked out to search for my transfer. There was supposed to be a guy holding a sign with my name on it according to bellboy. Well like everything in my life it didn’t happen. So after 25 hours on a plane the last thing I wanted to do was be stranded at the airport!

I called Bellboy to see where my transfer was. Bellboy mumbled some crap and said he would be here in 10 minutes. 20 minutes later I wheeling around 2 suitcases trying to find bellboy outside of the airport at building A. He some how managed to stuff up my transfer and took the bosses car to come pick me up. Actually I don’t think he asked the boss for the car and practically stole the car to pick me up. God 2 minutes in Turkey and I’m already in a stolen car.

By this time I was dreaming for a decent shower and some bed rest. We arrived near Sude Konak where you turn into the street. Now this street has become one way since I was last here. Instead of going around the block we turned into the one way street towards an on coming bus! Fuck welcome to Istanbul. My life hasn’t been in danger for almost 2 years. I forgot how it feels until now.

We parked in front of Erboy and the first thing I noticed was that the Erboy bitch has created a small outdoor seating area like a patio to boost sales. Then bellboy pointed out Sude Konak did the same thing for spike.

There’s a new restaurant in front of Sude Konak. I think they make pizza’s, pides and kebabs. Looks nice from the outside but its not holding much of a crowd. Bellboy took me inside of Sude Konak and escorted me to the breakfast hall. I didn’t realise I was hungry until I sat down to have breakfast. The first thing I saw that I have been craving for was the tomato’s. The tomato’s in Turkey are so yummy. After grabbing breakfast bellboy showed me to my room.

I’m located on the 5th floor. The only room that has views of the water from far. Still it was nice that they are looking after me. I managed to grab a nice long shower before settling into bed. I fell asleep until my phone rang. My mum’s cousin from Sydney rang to see if I arrived safely. I remember looking at the current time in Istanbul and it was almost 1pm. I feel asleep.

I woke up at 9pm. That was the best sleep ever. I felt so much better after sleeping. I quickly got up to race outside to grab some dinner. I went for a quick stroll around the neighbourhood. The streets are still empty as its Spring in Istanbul. There isn’t much tourist floating around as yet. Give it another 3 weeks and I reckon the streets will be packed.

I walked into maccas to grab a bite. It took 20 minutes to get my order in. not because there was a queue but because there was lack of staff. There was a guy behind the counter on crouches serving. I swear that’s dedication. Working behind a cash register in Maccass while being on crotches. Only happens in Turkey!

I managed to grab my meal and head back to the hotel for more rest.

That my friends is my first day in Istanbul. The first day in the new chapter of my life….

SYDNEY TO ISTANBUL

After 25 hours I finally made It to Istanbul Turkey. This was one of the longest trips in my life. Either I am getting too old to travel or the journeys becoming longer and longer.

Back to Sydney on Saturday the 26th May, I was all packed ready to depart for the airport. We were waiting for Tugcen to come when my grandmother started running around like a headless chook. She hit panic mode when she couldn’t find her handbag. Apparently she had all her money and paper work in there. So a mad search started looking for my grandmothers hand bag.

This is when we all got into a big family domestic. My dad remembered my grandmother going to the chemist in the morning and took it upon himself to declare that she probably left her hand bag at the chemist and we had no chance of finding it. After much screaming and panicking we discovered that my grandmother put her hand bag into the car so she doesn’t forget taking it. After all this fuss it was time for coffee or a valum.

We drove to the airport like 5 hours early and check in, grabbed maccass for lunch and said our farewells. I boarded the plane to Singapore. The minute I jumped on the plane I popped a few motion sickness tablets and passed out pretty quick. It wasn’t until one of the flight attendants that came wheeling down the aisle and knocked over a can of coke on me that I woke up. I swear this only happens to me. I took another few motion sickness tablets and passed in and out of sleep.

We arrived in Singapore and grabbed our luggage to swap planes. Due to our flight arriving to Singapore late, this meant we had to run to our connecting flight as they had already started boarding. It was a mad panic in Singapore as the gate was on the other side of the airport to where we were. There was no time for duty free shopping but only to shove people out of your way in Singapore airport.

Finally made it to the gate in time to board the plane to Dubai. The minute I jumped on the plane I started popping more motion sickness tablets. The thing I like about the Singapore to Dubai flight is that its around 1am Sydney time so your ready to sleep. Plus with the help of the motion sickness tablets I was out like a light.

The only time I woke up was when they were serving dinner or drinks. I was in and out of sleep the entire trip until we arrived in Dubai. We had 40 mins if we wanted to walk off the plane before departing again. You had the choice of staying on the plane if you wished. I decided to go for a walk and stretch my legs. After a quick stroll around Dubai airport I headed back to the gate. I considered buying a coffee but I never know what currency these people use.

I walked back to the plane to see my hand luggage outside of the plane. I was in great shock thinking they evicted me from the plane or something. The crew gave me my hand luggage when I showed them my boarding pass. I don’t know why they took my luggage out. We had the choice of leaving the plane, I think they wanted you to take your luggage when you left the plane.

The trip from Dubai to Istanbul wasn’t that bad. It was like a 4 and a half hour trip. I slept for the first hour after popping more motion sickness tablets. I was woken up when they were serving hot cakes for breakfast.

After breakfast I watched abit of Prison Break on TV. It was the first episode of season 2. Somewhere in between I ended up falling into sleep again and woke up half an hour before landing.

When that plane landed in Istanbul I was soooo happy!!!

That was seriously the longest trip in my life.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I used to be afraid of so many things…

That I would never grow up.

I would be trapped in the same place for all eternity.

That my dreams would forever be out of my reach.

It’s true what they say. Time plays tricks on you.

One day you’re dreaming the next your dreams has become your reality.

I wanted to know that meeting people: who like you, who understand you, who actually accept you for who you are, will become an increasing rare occurrence.

All my friends who contributed to who I am. They are with me where ever I go and as history gets re-written in small ways, in each passing days my love for them only grows…

Because the truth is, it was the best of times. Mistakes were made, hearts were broken, harsh lessons learned but all of that has recited into fond memories now…

How does it happen? Why we so quick to forget the bad and romanticize the good?

Maybe we need to believe the time we spent together actually meant something.

We were there for each other in a time in our lives that defined us all…

That time of our lives that we will never forget…

Goodbye my friends, I’m sure we will find each other again some day…

5 DAYS TO GO

I can't believe I have 5 days to go in Sydney before boarding that plane to Turkey. I finally started packing last night and sorted out my passport and Tickets. It's going to be a quick countdown now to my departure.

Not sure how I'm feeling as I'm excited, nervous and scared of the plane trip. Yes my flying fear is back my friends!

I met up with Cherry on Saturday to do some speed shopping. I was all over the place and luckily Cherry took charge and planned my shopping trip out for me. It was like she had a blue print of Parramatta Westfields in her head. She knew exactly where everything was.

Half way through the shopping we decided we needed a sugar hit so we hit Max Brenner before returning to do more shopping.

I think I have everything I need now. Lets just hope the next few days go well

So much to do so little time!

BATTLE THERAPY

I received a SMS from Ben recently telling me about Battle Therapy. Those that remember Ben, he was apart of our movie Deadmans Creek that we shot a few years back. I've always liked Ben as an actor. Infact I really wanted him to play the lead "David" in Deadmans Creek however due to his schedule we had to cast him as "Kane". Kane was only in flashback scenes in the movie.

I only got to see Ben twice, once at the casting session and once onset. We had a ball that evening shooting the flashback scenes. After the filming session, I heard from Ben once or twice and then not for a very long time.

So it was a great suprise to receive a SMS from him telling me that his independent movie "Battle Therapy" is being screened at Fox studios. I really wanted to attend the evening to support him. It was nice of him to think of me and SMS me so it's the least I can do. Of course Oishii had to be apart of this evening. A film premiere at Fox Studios wouldn't be one without her hehe

So Oishii and I rock up to Fox Studios to realise a huge crowd turn out. In fact we were so shocked about it we dived into the nearest bar for a drink. Ok maybe it wasn't the shock but more the fact we needed a drink. Yes we have a drinking problem but who gives a fuck at this stage.

We had already picked up the tickets on arrival, so we sip down some disgusting tasting wine and stroll towards the cinema's. We both look at the red carpet and hope to god that we don't have to walk it as we don't need the attention right now. It's quite funny as a few years back we were dying to walk that red carpet. Then I got free Premiere tickets from 2day fm while I was working there to attend the Triple X film Premiere with Vin Disel and we went totally crazy walking up and down the bloody red carpet like 3 times. hehe good times!

Anyway we stroll through the cinemas and enter cinema 3. When I read the synopsis of the movie I was quite intrigued. It was about a doctor (Played by Ben) who was trying to cure a bunch of his patients that had Obsessive Compulsive disorders. OMG this movie was about freaks. I was totally into it hahaha

I quite enjoyed the movie. There was a few dal spots but all in all it was well done. The actors were quite good, especially the guy that carried a womans shoe around 24/7. I would have to say I would have done some of the shots differently to what they did. The script needed abit more comic relief then what we got.

For example there was a scene were the doctor was fed up with his patients as they wouldn't leave him alone day or night, so he got them a new doctor. Her technique was alittle bit more interesting. She was tortuing the patients to overcome their issues. One of these was a girl who was a clean freak and walked around with gloves on her hands. She had serious germ issues. So the new doctor corned her in a street alley and squeezed BBQ sauce all over her. I think the script needed more tortuing like this to make it more comic.

However I must say the students did a fantastic job in producing their own feature film.

Congratulations to the team that worked on Battle Therapy!!!

THE SPANISH NIGHT

As the days are drawing closer to my departure it's getting harder for me to catch up with people before I go. I decided that I didn't want a big farewell this time as I had lack of time and I couldn't deal with the whole organising of a big restuarant or bar event.

So I decided to have dinner with my cousins before I left to say bye. We have been meaning to go to a Spanish Restaurant for so long now but haven't had the chance to organise it. I did some quick research and decided we should hit "Spanish Tapas" at Glebe. I have been driving past this place for years but have never actually dined in there.

The place seemed interesting, stylish and offered flamenco shows on friday and saturday nights. Hence the booking was made immediately.

We arrived at the venue to be escorted upstairs. The action seemed to be downstairs with the bar and all, however I was actually quite glad that we were placed upstairs as majority of the noise stayed downstairs. You can actually think upstairs and have a discussion. Where as you would be yelling your lungs out to have a simple chat downstairs.

With all onaboard we even managed to convince our Bosnian Princess to attend the evening:

NV & Ms Bosnia 2004

It meant alot to me to have the Bosnian Princess there as well as the poor thing as been through one witness protection program after another due to bank fraud! LOL

Upstairs was quite packed as well as downstairs. The only table that caught my eye was one in a corner that had a reserve sign on it. For some reason this table was reserved but the reservers never turned up. Talk about TEASERS!!! Who knows what the reason was but it was quite sad to see someone reserve a table and not turn up, especially to a place like this. Those people don't know what they are missing out on. Maybe it was too late to rock up?

The teasers table

The whole purpose of this evening was for me to spend some time with my cousins before my trip. So it was extremely important to me to be able to socialise with them as I have no idea when I will see them again. We are all in stages of making random decisions in our lifes and moving from one part of our lives to another. I know the next time I see them things will be different...

Of course the evening wouldn't be an evening without the alcoholics below:

Nez & Khan hit the bottle

One of the majar attractions to this place was the flamenco show. I've always loved the flamenco show I saw in Barcelona Spain. I knew it wouldn't be as good as that but I havent had a chance to see another flamenco show since.

I must say the girls were outstanding in the show at Spanish Tapas.

On another note I actually have to say the service at Spanish Tapas was excellent. It's very hard to receive good service especially on a saturday night at a popular restaurant such as Spanish Tapas. For those that haven't been I would strongly recommend it. The food was fantastic. The potatoes were alittle spicy but tasty.

All in all it's worth the experience~!

9 DAYS TO GO

I woke up this morning thinking "Fuck I'm going to Turkey soon". I don't think it started hitting me until now that I'm actually going. Even though there has been alot of running around trying to organise everything I haven't really had the chance to sink everything in.

Alot of people have been asking me if I'm excited? I keep telling them I'm excited, nervous, scared and a thousand and one other emotions at once. A part of me is scared to what is about to come and whether I am ready or not for it.

I know the minute I get to Turkey everything is going to be a drama and I hope I end up dealing with all the incidents that are thrown my way.

With 9 days to go I still haven't started packing and I have no idea where to begin!!!

THE BREAKFAST MEETING

Our Managing Director sent out an email a week ago informing us that we are having a Breakfast meeting at 8am on friday. I couldn't believe it. I struggle getting to work at 9am let alone 8am.

I spent the whole week stressing out about getting to work for the meeting. My boss telling me 3 times on Thursday about the breakfast stressed me out more. I knew there was no way I could be late. Following the embarrasment of entering the conference meeting late was bad enough.

The worst part was I couldn't even get to bed early the night before as I was at the Spanish Film Festival with Gus & Cherry. I knew I had to leave home extremely early to miss all the traffic. So I set my alarm clock for 4:50am, giving me plently of time to press the snooze button.

I finally roll out of bed at 5:30am half asleep that I manage to smack my head against something walking to the bathroom. I was ready in less than half an hour and the only thing on my mind was I need coffee.

I remember getting into the car and driving off and Kyle and Jackie O was starting their breakfast show. I've always wanted to listen to them from the start of the show but never bothered to wake up in time. It was quite funny as they were claiming to have only slept for 3 hours due to their Priscilla show at Star City. Looks like they were in a worst shape then I was.

I arrived at work at 7am. I loved the fact there was no traffic and I got here within an hour. I walked to the office to realise that no one else had arrived and the door was locked. Now if I swipe my card and go in I have no fuckin idea what to do. You see the first one in needs to turn off the alarm. Knowing my luck the alarm would go off and cause a massive scene. It was way to early in the morning to deal with that right now.

So I decided to do the next best thing. I walked down to Dave's cafe. I know he opens at 6am. I settled in at Dave's cafe for a coffee before going back to the office.

The breakfast meeting started and one of the important issues was the fact that our lease is ending and there is a possibility of us moving. There are talks that we might actually move into the Clemenger Building in St Leonards but it's nothing concrete.

All I know is I needed coffee and more coffee......

SUMMER RAIN - El Camino De Los Ingleses

Hola Amigos!

We all know how multi cultural I am, infact I'm too multi cultural that I get accused of having cultural issues. LOL

Last night I met up with Cherry & Gus to catch a Spanish flick at the Palace Cinema's on Oxford St. We all agreed to watch "Summer Rain" directed by Antonio Banderas. We don't know why on earth we chose this movie from the entire list. It just seemed appealing at the time. I knew the movie was similar to a romantic comedy centered around a bunch of guys living in Malaga, southern Spain in the 1970's. We were all hoping for high level sex scenes with the Rated 18 rating haha

So I met up with the crew in the middle of World Square to catch a bus to Palace Cinema's when Cherry took charge and started the walking marathon. Gus and I had no idea where the Palace Cinema was but Cherry indicated that she had been there before.

We start walking towards Oxford St, thinking this is a short walk. For fucks sake, 15 minutes later we are still walking down Oxford St towards the cinemas. We have past DCM's and where the shootings happened at Gloria Jeans last week and I swear we walked past three Toolsheds. I can't believe Oxford St needs 3 toolsheds for crying out loud.

By the time we arrived at the cineama's it felt like I had just competed in the City to Surf. We stroll into the cinema's with 20 minutes to kill. Gus throws his backpack and jacket at us and claims his going to buy a kebab. With Gus out of the picture Cherry and I manage to find a seat.

The doors open prior to 6:30pm so Cherry and I decide to race in to grab a seat. We manage to find a spot we like as Cherry has forgotten her glasses at home. Meanwhile Gus walks back into the cinema's with his kebab. Well he pulls it out to reveal his decided against the kebab and brought back half a pizza for all of us.

So picture this 3 nut cases sitting in a film festival with a pizza slice in their hand munching away while the previews start. Some people have issues. In fact I was thinking it would be mad if the cinema's actually sold Hot Chips. How nice would that be?

Before the movie started Cherry decided to go to the toilet again and leave us to battle for her seat. Following the incident at Palace in Leichhardt, I really didn't want to go through that again. The difference this time was there was plenty of seats available. This means there should be no problems. Wrong!

Two random blonde chicks decide for some reason to pick the seats next to Gus and I. This is when Gus hits panic mode and fights for Cherry's seat informing them that's for Cherry and they can't have it. We get a disgusted look from one of the chicks. Mind you the girls were pretty good looking and I had no fucking idea why Gus was rejecting them. For crying out loud woman how often do we get two good looking girls wanting to sit next to us?

Now when I questioned Gus on his actions, he sadly revealed he was scared of Cherry and her actions if he gave up her seat! LOL

Once the fuss was over, Cherry returned to her seat and the movie started. The stories followed the lives of the 4 guys during that Summer with plenty of sex, growing up and finding one self.

At times it was hard to follow the storylines as there was way too much happening. At one stage I wasn't sure whether I should throw up or not. 10 minutes into the movie there was a raunchy sex scene. Only we were all disgusted. Two of the guys were banging this fat chick in the bush. Now this chick was like size 26 or something. Even though she added comic relief to the movie, her going down on her knees to suck cock left, right and center was disgusting.

Things started to pick up with a massive 5 minute sex scene involving 4 people. The four main characters entered a lounge room after swimming in the back yard. Two of them started having sex while the other two watched. The girl couldn't help herself but start touching herself below encouraging her boyfriend to go down there with her while watching the other two fuck.

It was probably one of the best scenes in the movie as the next scene involved a 50 year old woman fucking a guy half her age. She had wrinkles popping out of her face. I still can't believe the guy went down that road. I could have understood if she was a yummy mummy but trust me she was far from it.

The movie seemed to drag on a bit and the character development was abit all over the shop. None of us couldn't understand why one of the girls killed herself. Overall I would rate this movie a 5 out of 10. It get's a 5 because of the 5 minute sex scene in the lounge room. It was well shot leaving alot up to the imagination. Abit more nudity could have been great.

PLAYING IT SAFE...

Since everything has been getting cancelled and rebooked in the last week I decided it was time to play it safe. I logged onto Erboys website and booked out the entire hotel in Istanbul under Christine's name.

The plan is if our booking in Istanbul fucks up then the hotel next door will be free because Christine has booked out the entire hotel and hasn't shown up.

It was all going to plan until Christine received this email:


"Dear Ms *****,

I need the credit card info to guaranty the reservation.I can not hold rooms and organize a free transfer without a credit card guaranty.We will not charge anything unless you do not show up.You can pay cash upon arrival.I can confirm the whole group for 4500 Euros."

Reserved Room List

Selected Rooms

Amount
4 x Single Room x 6 night(s) accomodation with Queen Bed and
864 EUR

12 x Double Room x 6 night(s) accomodation with Queen Bed and
3384 EUR

4 x Triple Room x 6 night(s) accomodation with 1 Queen + 1 Single Bed and
1392 EUR

Total Amount = 5640 EUR

In order for them to confirm the booking Christine now needs to pay 4 500 Euros.

What's 4 500 Euros between friends?

VIRGIN'S FREE FLIGHTS OFFER

I have been through hell and back to claim my free flights from Virgin. A few months back Virgin Mobile had a promotion on their website. If you buy a mobile phone online you get a free flight to either Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne or Adelaide.

Thinking it's time for me to upgrade my parents mobile, I decided to purchase a mobile each for them as well as my grandmother. The phones arrived and the deal was you need to activate your phone and they SMS a promotion code to you, which you logon to the website to enter. Once you enter the promotion code they mail you out a booking form.

I followed all of those insturctions as advised. My grandmother received the booking form where as my parents didn't. So I called the Virgin Free Flights phone number and spoke to some random chick who told me they have posted out the forms but she will organise to send out another booking form to us. She also advised if I dont receive them within the week to call her back.

A week later I still have no booking forms. So I call the Virgin Free flights phone number again to speak to another chick. She tells me they have posted the form to me twice and refused to post it out again. She stated that I was running out of time to get the forms back to her. Apparently I only have 60 days from activating the phones to get the booking forms in. I fuckin would of got them in if I got the fuckin booking forms in the first place.

After much arguing she tells me that she will fax the forms to me if I have a fax machine. I tell her I will call her back with a fax number within 5 minutes. 5 minutes later I call her with my work fax number for some other chick to tell me they are not allowed to fax the forms. After much arguing she takes my fax number and ensures she will pass it on to the other chick to fax to me.

Two days later there still isn't any fax and I'm on the edge of ripping someone's kidney out from Virgin. Due to the fact I was in a conference meeting for 2 days I have limited time. So I rush out during lunch hour to photocopy my grandmother's booking form and I mail in the photocopies to Virgin to ensure they receive it within the time frame.

Fed up with their shit I write a one page complaint letter to Virgin and email that through to them in hope of solving this issue.

A week later I sill haven't heard from Virgin in regards to my complaint so I decide to complain to consumer affairs but before I do I decide to call the Virgin Free flights phone number again to check if they received my booking forms.

After a long chat with the woman on the phone addressing my complaint I actually discover that Virgin has outsourced their free flights promotion to a marketing company. Now this is where it gets good. The company running the Virgin promotion is infact my marketing company. It's our warehouse in Sliverwater looking after it.

The funny part is the chick on the phone realises its actually me on the phone. This will hopefully speed up my free flights claim now!

It's a small world!

I want my fuckin flights before I leave!

YOUR FLIGHT TO ROME CANCELLED

It just keeps getting better. I got a phone call yesterday asking me if I want the good news or the bad news. I didn't know which one to pick. Honestly what would you pick?

It follows, Your flight to Rome from Istanbul has been cancelled. Like what the fuck? The airline has gone bankrupt hence your flight got cancelled. The chick at flight centre had booked my flight with Air One. It was cheap flight to Rome but now I had no flight. How the hell does an airline go bankrupt. Why do all these things happen to me?

Apparently the good news was they managed to get me on another flight with Air Italia 10 minutes later than my original booking. I supposed that was a good thing. As Oishii had put it - You should treat it as an upgrade. Now this worried me more than ever.

Those that remember a few years back we had booked accomodation in Marmaris when Flight Center called me to tell me that our booking had been cancelled as the hotel over booked and they had upgraded us a 4 star hotel next door.

When we rocked up to Marmaris we were told the hotel that claimed to be overbooked now had a room for us - so we got down graded. When we entered the hotel we realised not only did we get down graded but we got further down graded.

Some how I'm starting to think someone doesn't want me in Italy! Let's see how this unfolds!

18 DAYS TO GO

I have 18 days to go for this trip and I feel like there is a whole heap of stuff I need to do before I leave as I will be gone for a long time. Some how I need to find time to catch up with all my friends before I leave but it's starting to get stressful as time is running out.

Meanwhile there has been a small delay in my replacement starting. The replacement was supposed to jump on board next monday for a 2 week hand over. However it is starting to look like a one week hand over. What does this mean? It means I will be stuck at work on the last week till 9pm every night trying to train the replacement and some where in between doing my work.

Stressful times are ahead so lets hope I manage to cope with it all.

THE PHONE CALL

The days to the trip is drawing down fast and I'm trying my best to ensure everything is well organised before I leave. Everything was pretty much organised, confirmed and paid for until I got the phone call.

I was planning a short getaway in Italy after Turkey. In 2004 I had travelled Italy and fell in love with the place and knew one day I would be back again. I was hoping of doing a tour of Sicily as I have heard alot of good stuff about it.

I found a tour of Sicily which was perfect and fitted in with my short travel time. It was all confirmed to go until the phone call.

"The tour has been cancelled"

Now when the tour was booked the chick at Flight Center said "This is one of our most popular tours and there is no history of it being cancelled".

Well my friends history is now being created. The tour has been cancelled. The tour that was stated it wouldn't been cancelled has some how been cancelled.

We all know I have no luck in travel and where ever I travel disaster follows but I swear this tops it off.

It's only the begining!

SPIDERMAN 3 CHALLENGE

Work had offered to send me to Spiderman 3 opening night. The catch? I had to go to Castle Hill. Now normally I wouldn't have a problem as I would leave work early to ensure I get there on time. The problem was due to the conference we had things dragged out and I didn't get to leave the place until 4:30pm.

The challenge was to get to Castle Hill by 6:30pm in peak hour traffic. So I leave the office at 4:30pm to go to Ashfield to pick up the bitch slapping Italiano. Time is on my side as I get to Ashfield around 5pm. That was until I stupidly entered Fredrick St rather than Liverpool road. There was a traffic pile up so I had to sit and wait for that to clear up. By the time I got to Ashfield it was like 5:15pm. I quickly had to race into Ashfield Mall to pee and find the bitch slapping Italiano.

The minute I spotted the bitch slapping Italiano we stormed towards the lift to get to the carpark and then it was a mad race to the car to drive off.

Random decisions had to be made in the car. What direction and what roads to take as we were approaching the M4. We had an hour to get to Castle Hill now and the stress was on. Meanwhile the bitch slapping Italiano telling me he hates me every 5 minutes didn't help the situation.

You see he skipped uni tonight and lied to his group in order to come and watch Spiderman 3 with me. Thats dedication for you!

So we both agree that the M4 will be jam packed with traffic at this time of day so we make a random decision to continue on Parramatta Rd until we hit Sliverwater Rd. Good choice. The traffic wasn't that bad getting here. The plan was to take sliverwater Rd to Victoria Rd. However once we got to Victoria Rd we both knew we hit rock bottom and there was no way in hell we would make it to Castle Hill with this traffic.

This is when the bitch slapping Italiano hits the street directory while cursing me for missing Spiderman 3. A random choice is made to take the Park Rd exit to go through back roads. We end up on Kissing Point Rd which evenutally gets us to Old Northern Rd. The time is ticking.

6:25pm and were travelling on Old Northern Rd. Castle towers is extremely close but we still can't get to it. The problem was I had to watch the previews. Don't ask. I like my previews but the whole point of working sending me out to Castle Hills was for the previews. There was no way in hell I could miss the previews.

Stressing in the car and the bitch slapping Italiano stressing me out more we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel - CASTLE TOWERS. Now luckily because I used to call upon Castle Hill for Warner I know where to find parking on a thursday night. I know that if we enter the cinema parking level that there would be a high chance of us wasting 10 minutes looking for parking.

So I decide to hit the other parking and luckily for me I enter the first spot I see while the bitch slapping Italiano is complaining about beer cans in the parking space. I tell him to shut up and deal with it while we both storm out of the car running like lunatics to the cinemas.

Now I know the cineams is all the way on the other side so we start running through the thursday night shopping crowd. Meanwhile the bitch slapping Italiano is trying to convince me to watch the 8:30pm session instead if it isn't sold out. I'm determined to make this fuckin movie if it kills me. Knowing my luck I'll collapse soon and have an asthma attack smack bang in the middle of Castle Hill. The race to the cineams honestly felt like I ran the city to surf.

We finally discover the cinema's and storm in like were about to pull out guns for a robbery. I demand the box office when we approach the ticket collecting guy and he points to the candy bar. I had to exchange a print out for cinema tickets. We approach the chick behind the counter as I'm struggling to get my breath back.

This is when the stupid bitch tells me that they have 2 cinemas and we need to go to the other one once she gives us the tickets. She informs me its a 2 minute walk. 2 minutes my ass. We ran crazily to the second cineama and that felt like a good 3 minutes. Can you imagine if we walked?

Who the hell has 2 cinemas under one roof. I hand my ticket to the bitch slapping Italiano who gets them collected by the guy as we run towards cinema 2. By this point I'm ready to collapse and can't handle another step.

We enter the cinema and I throw myself on the seat unable to speak. I sit down trying to breath and calm down. I feel like I just entered one of those cycle classes at the gym and I'm dretched head to toe in sweat. The poor Asian woman next to me probably suffered the most.

It was allocated seating and we didnt even get to our seats. We took the first available seats in our row. If anyone was to claim these seats there would of been hell to pay after what I went through getting here.

Meanwhile the previews just started when we entered. While I sit to watch the previews the bitch slapping Italiano informs me his running to the toilet and rocks up 2 minutes later with coke and popcorn. God love him, his good for something finally!

After all that stress and driving we relax to enjoy the movie. I Still can't believe we made it to Castle Hill. That is gold!!!

When spiderman 3 came to an end I felt alot more relaxed than I was previously. Still feeling all gross from the running around we did to get here. It was a long movie but I must admit I loved it. Usually sequels get worse and worse but I think part 3 of Spiderman was well written and well shot.

There was a scene where I thought I was getting motion sickness due to the shot structure but overall I think it's a winner. Plus one of the scenes at the end was quite emotional. I won't give the ending away but trust me I was on the edge of tears haha

OMG we made it to Castle Hill!!!

THE 2 DAY CONFERENCE

Once a year we have a briefing session for the new financial year. What this meant was being locked away for two days in a conference room with all my National Account Executives (NAE's), Sales Executives (SE's) and State Managers (SM's).

This was a great opportunity to meet some of the guys I deal with on a daily basis that live interstate. I was looking forward to putting faces to names like Ash, Simon, Rosaria etc..

On the morning of the conference I got up super early to ensure I was in North Sydney on time. The conference was due to start at 10am on the dot. At 8:30am I received a phone call from my boss telling me that the conference has now been moved forwards to 9:30am. I was currently in Enmore Park and thought I had an hour to get to North Sydney which is plently of time.

At 9:20am I'm still stuck trying to get onto the bridge. For fucks sake, of all morning there had to be an accident to block the entire traffic. I'm sitting in my car stressing to the max, trying to calm myself down. Finally traffic starts moving but due to the back log were not exactly going far.

9:40am I storm into the conference room so embarrassed it's not funny. I'm 10 minutes late and were in this tidy room so It's not like I can sneak in from the back. I had to open the front door to run smack bang into the Manager. It's bad enough I'm late but now I'm causing a scene entering.

I sit down, sweating to the max during to listen to the big boss. The only problem was because the room was really tidy and packed to the bone with people, here I was sitting in the front row with the big boss presenting like less than 1cm away from me. Him swinging his arms while speaking meant me trying to duck to avoid being hit.

Once the big boss was down the NAE's were all next to present. One by one they took the stage and it was interesting in watching the different techniques of presentation skills. Some were good and some well had no fuckin idea how to present jack shit.

I must admit the NAE"s presented well, it wasn't until the SE's started to present that I wanted to rip out my arm so I can be rushed to hospital and not deal with this shit. One of the SE's went to present with no presentation slides, sounded like she was on dope and represented Pauline Hanson or something.

By 3pm I started getting a massive headache. I thought it would get better but it kept developing in a major headache. We came to finish the conference around 5:30pm. They had organised dinner at this Italian Restaurant in North Sydney for us at 6:30pm.

All the NAE's & SE's went to their hotel rooms to freshen up while my boss and I ran to the nearest bar to drink. We were both suffering from a headache and thought the only thing that could help is alcohol. Yes I know before you say anything I am starting to develop a bit of an alcohol problem. I've started drinking more and more during the week now but trust me it helps! hahaha

After getting down 2 Vodka's and OJ we walked to the Italian restaurant. This is where I hit rock bottom. I started feeling really sick. I think it's because I drank without eating first. I started feeling like I was going to vomit. One of the SE's offered me panadol. When she went looking through her bag she couldn't find any but found something similar. She handed over some pink tablets which were pain killers. I was in so much pain that I decided to take them regardless.

I only managed to shove a tomato and half a pizza into my mouth before I had to excuse myself to go home. I had to catch a cab to my car before driving home. I dont even know how on earth I made it home. I was in so much pain I had tears running down my face.

I barely get headaches but when I do the only thing that helps is to take panadol and sleep it off.
I got home and ran into my room and jumped into bed.

DAY 2

I woke up at 6:00am feeling a lot better. I was starving as I had no dinner the night before due to the headache. I managed to get ready and get to work by 9am. Day 2 was alot easier as it was only my boss, all our State Managers and myself.

We finished up around 1pm to head out for lunch. We rocked up at the Oaks in Neutral Bay for steaks. This is where it gets interesting. MJ offered to go place the order for all of us. Our faces were priceless when she got back. She rocked up with a plate of raw steaks. Apparently we had to cook our own.

Our first impression was who the hell wants to cook their own steaks now but it actually worked out for the best. We actually enjoyed throwing our streak onto the BBQ and sipping away on our drinks.

It was a great opportunity to get to know my SM's alot closer. My NPM couldn't make it so we thought this would be a great opportunity if we all chipped in some money to buy him a bottle of scotch to say thanks.

When we rocked up to the office I think we embarrassed him or caught him off guard when we presented our gift to him.

I was hoping to leave the office at 4pm to head to Castle Hill for Spiderman 3 premiere but I didn't get out of here until 4:30pm. Now this is where the story begins my friends!

26 DAYS TO GO

I have 26 days to go and 26 days to continue to stress. I can't believe how fast this year has gone and the fact that I am boarding a plane in 26 days is freaky. There is still heaps to organise and I'm flat out trying to make sure I leave without looking back.

It feels like 2004 all over again. The weeks leading up to the trip in 2004 was quite hectic and I was struggling to stay on top. When the day came in May 2004, I threw myself onto the plane like no tomorrow.

My 2005 trip was easier as my parents would be here to deal with anything I couldn't take care of before leaving. I couldn't believe the amount of bills I had to organise to get direct debited from my credit cards. Then I had to organise my credit cards to get direct debited from my savings accounts. It's a never ending hassle. This time I've decided that I'm leaving everything on direct debit.

I finally picked up my ticket on Saturday, which took over an hour to do and I was on the urge to kill someone by the end of it.

I've been having sleeping problems for the past week as work is getting more and more hectic and I'm getting more and more limited time to organise things for the trip. I go to bed exhausted but can't sleep thinking about what I still have to organise.

To add to all of this we have a 3 day work conference this week, which gives me one whole week to prepare documents for my replacement and then also continue doing my usual work. We are hoping to have my replacement start on the 14th of May, which gives me 2 weeks to fully train them.

If anyone has stress relief ideas contact me immediately!!!

The count down is on..... 26 days to go.,.... OMG