Some Sydney bloggers meet up, and other stuff

Well, most of the others who were there have already blogged about the Blogger meet up last night. I'll leave it to Karen to list who was there. It was wonderful to meet everyone.

I decided to go at the last minute because I wasn't sure, after the very busy and eventful weekend that I had, that I'd have the energy to make it. And today I was training students all day - and you need all your energy for that! But I did.

What I found interesting that bloggers that I tend to read (such as Karen, Doug, Justin and Craig) are also incredibly interesting people! It's definitely more fun to meet them in person because the flow of conversation is so interesting that the time goes really quickly.

I guess it's no surprise that people who are used to thinking and writing are also good communicators in general. Other things that were lovely were that it was not too noisy and I could hear what people were saying, I didn't have to say much at all to carry the conversation as it carried itself, and the $10 pizzas! Yummmy.

By the end of it though, I was flagging badly and Doug dropped me at Central (thanks!) and I caught the bus home. I got home at 9.20pm and was asleep by 10!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I really wanted to write about some other stuff.

The weekend

Well, to say I was worried about this weekend would be an understatement. Two major events - a wedding and an exam. Both with considerable anxiety attached. And both navigated successfully.

My stepbrother was getting married so I drove up on Saturday morning to the wedding. I stopped in at Maitland and went to this little cafe and had a fantastic club sandwich. I was quite surprised as my experience of country cafes hasn't always been very positive.

I drove about 20 minutes out of Maitland to get to the venue and got completely lost, as there were 2 distinct possibilities. Eventually I ran into Dad and my stepmother so they took me back to the motel with them.

The wedding itself was held in the grounds of Tocal college. And Saturday it was very windy, quite cold, and threatening rain. The ceremony itself was very reminiscent of a church wedding - a lot of the same phrases, but everyone was standing up outside instead of sitting uncomfortably on a pew. It was great timing from God because after the "kiss" it bucketed down and we all took shelter in the old homestead.

After that I studied in my car for an hour until the reception began. The reception was held in a converted hayshed which from the outside looked very ordinary. Inside though it was fantastic. Lovely wood everywhere, beautiful lighting from the many candles. It was just a very comfortable feeling venue. The food was comfortable too - a buffet, so you could pick what you wanted, and just homestyle food. No fancy stuff. Not that I don't like fancy stuff (Andrew (DVM) your wedding comes to mind), but it was nice to have ordinary food.

And I had a surprisingly great time. It was lovely meeting some extended family I hadn't seen for years or even ever met, and I got to dance with my Dad which was so much fun.

By 9pm all the official stuff was well and truly over, so I hightailed out of there and drove back to Sydney. It took about 2 1/2 hours and I overdosed on sugar but got home fine. Of course I didn't sleep until about 2 because of all the sugar and caffeine I had eaten/drunk to keep me awake :)

So the next day we had our exam. We all giggled uproariously at the hideously drawn map (it really did not represent the map in the book and it was very difficult to determine what each line was being pointed at) and the crazy table, but otherwise it was a good exam and I definitely passed. All that worry and now it's over.

Then it was onto church for singing (I really like singing with M as she can hold the tune while I do some groovy harmony) and then church and dinner after church. I left to go grocery shopping and then home to wash clothes. I currently have 3 baskets of un-put-away clothes strewn across the house. Oh well.

Then today was the first of 3 training days for the Peer Network. It was a really long day - we had to be there at 8pm and then I left work at 5.45pm and went to the gym until 7.15pm and then drove home. I bought a chicken on the way home and that was dinner.

But friends, I'm feeling a bit better. I'm somewhat sad, but not too bad. And today at training S did the exercise where you stick post-its on people to tell them something you enjoyed about the training or their personality or something. These are the post-its I got today:

"Thank you. I learned a lot today."
"Nice to work with you! Look forward for more!"
"I loved your anecdotes" (Always nice to hear because I try to be entertaining)
"Thanks Georgina. The training day was G8"
"You're a great instructor. Thank you!!"
"You are very funny"
"You are really energetic"
"You're very energetic and made this training fun!! :) "
"Thank you!! Hope I'll put your ideas to use!"
"Go Giorgina"
"Thanks for being a wonderful trainer"
"Great communicator and lovely personality"

Awww shucks.