The Georgie Gazette #2

Hello, hello! It’s my dad’s birthday today. 🎉 Sadly I haven’t seen him today since he works night shift and arrived home after I left for work, and when I got home he was gone again. I also had a handful of things on my mind this week. Not to mention I have been busy and busy, but it has been a fun ride. I am looking forward to having a good nap after this week’s antics!

6 months at Campaign Monitor

I’ve been working at Campaign Monitor for six months. It has flown by super quickly. It feels like I have been there for years. Time is really just a number, and of course it would be nice to say I have worked somewhere for a decade, but the important thing is that I love the company and the people there make it a beautiful place to work every day. :)

We had ShipIt today, which is our sort of ‘hackathon’ where we get to work on projects outside of our usual work. Our team will win, because we have thought of a solution that will really benefit our customers when they use our product – no matter their age, abilities, likes or dislikes. ;)

Brogues

I have never owned a pair of brogues and didn’t think they were really my style, but I want to own a pair. I want some flat shoes since I already have a lot of heels, and ballet flats really hurt my feet. A flat pair of shoes to wear for our trip to Europe would be nice, too… I like the look of brogues because they are practical and can be dressed up or down. They also aren’t high tops, nor do they cover my ankle – I want to avoid anything that is both flat and covers my ankle.

I have looked around but Australia doesn’t seem to sell brogues. I found one store, which I will have a closer look at tomorrow. Brogues don’t appear to be as common in Australia as they are in other countries. I have heard that they are popular in Europe. I asked around on Twitter and was given a few pricey suggestions, but Pauline told me about a shop named Schuh in London, which sells them for a much more affordable price. And they look like they are good quality too. I am excited to go looking for them!

Wavy hair

Since getting a haircut and having the hairdresser put waves/curls on the ends of my hair, I have taken to putting waves in my hair myself. I am really reluctant to use heat on my hair, even washing it with hot water. But I remembered I have moroccan oil spray that protects hair from heat, so I put that on after I wash my hair and before I use a hair curler to curl my hair a bit. I actually use a water spray to wash my hair with cold water.

Still, my red hair seems to be fading quicker than it did in years past when I had done it the same colour. :/

Gym stuff

I started seeing some defined abdominal lines the other day! I had a really intense workout… by that I mean I pushed myself and tried to lift or push more weight. I have been leeching free passes from work or friends recently, but soon I might have to go and purchase my own membership. I’m just so cheap, haha. I did find myself in stitches over an article about stupid things we don’t need but think we do:

Everything in the gym

Get some bricks and bits of elastic, and just figure something out like MacGyver would.

I know you don’t really need a gym, but it’s not easy to just find a bunch of machines or equipment that you can use to build muscles on. The gym has it all, and if you want to work fast and work hard, it’s a good option.

And to think in the past that I hated gyms!

Green and oolong tea

I drink so much black tea, and I like it really strong, but I wanted to move on to green tea and just… not black! I used to dislike green because I would often make it too bitter, and use shitty teabags. I have taken a liking to this oolong tea that my aunt gave me. It tastes great, actually. One of my friends at work said it is like ‘real’ tea, probably because it’s from China. Mmmm pure good stuff.

Bleeding noses

Most of you may not know this, but a few years ago I used to be extremely prone to having a bleeding nose in the winter. Brandon always got his in the summertime. When he was a lot younger, he would often have to sit aside in school and hold tissues to his nose because he would get frequent nosebleeds in the early or late school year (January and December, when it happens here). The heat was too much for his poor little nose to handle. He doesn’t get nosebleeds anymore.

I used to get them in the winter because very sudden temperature changes to my body would shock it. I would often wake up cold, pile on a lot of clothes to get warm, or sit or stand near a heater. This would often cause my nose to run a little bit, or it would have already been runny from the cold, but it would later result in blood pouring out of my nose instead. :P

One time I was on my way to an interview and it was a bit chilly outside, but when I sat in the car as it was warming up, I felt my nose get a bit runny but it turned out that blood was just dripping effortlessly from my nose.

This morning, the same thing happened! It was cold but not too cold, but I went into the bathroom and had the heater on, and when I walked back into my cold room my nose started bleeding. Ahahah.

My next presentation is at A11y Bytes!

I have a presentation lined up for one of our work lunches, but I might hold off for that because my proposal for a talk at the A11y Bytes event in Sydney was accepted!

I’ve got two weeks to prepare. I know what I’m talking about but I was not prepared to be accepted, so I literally only have two weeks. :P I’m passionate about accessibility (that is what ‘a11y’ means) and making sure everyone can use websites on the internet, so I’m excited to send a message with my talk. It can only be eight minutes and I am not sure how much I can cram in but hopefully I can get the message across.

The Best Friend Dinner #1

Though technically our third dinner catch-up in the past few months, Lilian and I had dinner tonight and caught up on various things. I’ll probably have a post recounting that later on. It was fun catching up!

Until next time. 🙃

Comments on this post

I read that blood rushes to places in our body where we’re cold to help make us warmer, so…maybe the blood that rushed to your nose was what was coming out? You just mentioned it starting to bleed upon contact with a heater, so I just remembered that. :s Maybe it’s the sudden change in environment, I don’t know. It’s still a nuisance, though. :s I cough up blood ever so often and have nosebleeds sometimes, too, but it’s more when I’m feeling stressed or after I’ve felt extremely groggy…doesn’t contribute well to my anemia, but…my skin is slowly fading into something golden, so MAYBE I won’t be anemic anymore soon. :3

Good luck with your speech!

It is a pain! I think it is the sudden change in environment, a colleague of mine said he used to work somewhere where he had to go into a walk-in freezer every now and then, and had the same problem. The nose just tries to adjust to different temperatures and eventually gives up.

I’ve had anaemia on at least two occasions. I don’t remember doing a great deal to fix it, but I remember eating a lot more vegetables and it seemed to bring it back to normal on my next checkup. Nick keeps saying that I am not getting much iron since I don’t eat red meat, but there is iron in other things. :)

How long you have worked someplace is such a trivial factor compared to more important things, like the fact that you are happy and love your coworkers and job as a whole. I’m hoping that (soon!) I can find a place to work where I look forward to going to work every day, which makes it easy to stay at a company for a long time and give them your loyalty. :)

Wavy/curly hair for the win! :D I don’t use a lot of heat on my hair except when I straighten it, but I don’t do that very often because it takes a lot of time and I usually straighten on day-old hair, which I can’t do since I’m running every morning. I don’t always wash my hair after runs, but I at least rinse it to get the sweat out. I probably do a lot of other things that are bad for my hair though :/

I have really mixed opinions on gyms lol. I’ve never been fond of them because I’ve never felt comfortable working out at one, but I like going with friends. My sister has a gym pass back home, so I bum off her a lot when I went to get a good workout in, but not enough to actually pay for my own. :P They are great though because of all the special machines! It makes focusing on certain muscles a whole lot easier.

My hair is the type of hair that doesn’t really need to be washed a lot. Twice a week does me, most of the time. I also don’t sweat… like barely. Even if I try to work up a sweat and feel exhausted, I might get sweaty in the chest area a bit, but that’s it. :/ Haha.

I tend to wave my hair on day-old hair as well. :) It tolerates it much better compared to just after I have washed it.

I like going with a friend to the gym as well. I used to hate gym a lot. Actually I have just been using Nick’s gym pass that he got for free from work! But he will be changing jobs soon and neither of us will have a pass. I looked into it and it’s so expensive to go to one! I have been looking at free online workout plans that don’t use equipment, since I suppose you don’t really need the gym. I do agree about the machines focusing on certain muscles though! I love them.

If you’ve been at Campaign Monitor for 6 months then I must have been at my job for 7 months now, as I remember you starting there shortly after I started working. It has definitely flown by!

I second Pauline on the Schuh recommendation. We have two stores in Liverpool and the customer service is always excellent. I was going to say they have a really good 365 day returns policy but that might not be so easy when you go home, haha!

I’ve never been to a gym (I think I have a fear of “gym people”) but I’ve recently started working out at home as we’ve bought some weights. I only started to build the muscles around my hip but to my surprise I’m really enjoying it and so I’ve started working out my arms too.

Wow time really does fly!

That is awesome haha (maybe I will visit England again in the next year!). I did have another look at their shoes but I hope they have more in store than what they show online. I am not a fan of the brogues that have the weird rubber soles. :P

I had a bit of a fear of ‘gym people’ but there seems to be a nice community of fit young girls out there. Not that I really like interacting with people, but I see women working out at the gym and feel a bit less intimidated. And I go there when it’s quiet, like early in the morning, or on weekends. There are fewer people and everyone minds their own business.

Whoa lots of stuff! Pretty crammed week!

Congrats on being able to speak on something you’re so passionate about though! Hope it goes well!

I love anything with argan oil in it. =3 Its great for nearly anything.

I had no idea you were prone to nosebleeds :( I can understand why it would happen in the winter time. My hands used to crackle and crack in the winter time due to my skin condition that I had as a child, but I have no idea why it cleared up. I have wavy hair and HATE it to such a point, I just shave off most of my hair to prove a point to myself and also to feel free of being a woman. I feel the societal pressures of being a woman, and hate it. Also, why not try something different?

I don’t like gyms. I think personally they can be a waste of time for some people like myself, but for others they help. But everyone is different :D

If you hate your hair then do something about it – I am glad you did! It’s the reason why I got my current haircut. I was sick of it being so damn long, but I didn’t want it super short. I was also sick of having layers, I hated them and I felt like I always always trying hard to be cool. I just wanted plain jane hair. :) So yeah, whatever works!

Happy belated birthday to your dad!
Annnd happy half-year mark to you! It’s awesome to hear that you’re really enjoying your workplace! Workplaces that encourages employees to think outside the box while giving the opportunity to do so are awesome (:.

Have fun with venturing out to find a pair of brogues when you’re out in Europe! I see brogues being sold in stores, but I haven’t seen anyone actually wearing it so far!

Good job with your accomplishments at the gym so far! The gym isn’t mandatory, but it helps being in at atmosphere where everyone is exercising- especially if you’re shy. That’s how I see it! Somehow, the gym helps me skip judgment because everyone and I are exercising in some form.

Congratulations on getting your proposal accepted! Go kick some butt at your presentation ;).

Haha I have seen a few brogues here and there, but there are so many for men and not many for women. I also see a lot of shiny ones but I hate the shiny ones. They look weird.

I agree about the gym – I have just been using free passes actually. It is so expensive to pay for one. :( I do enjoy the machines that focus on different muscles, though. :)

Thank you! I did my presentation yesterday and it went well! I am relieved that it is over though. xD