Tired, Tips and Trying new things.

This coming Wednesday we will have been back here at the Rock for 24 days. I will have had only 4 days off in that time (Mandy, I know this is typical of you, but remember, I am a LAZY girl)! And... at work for almost 9 hours per day sometimes! I am getting tired!!!!! My head is kind of spinning. Yet, I am still having trouble sleeping (you think I would just be crashing unconscious every single night.... but noooo!)

The reason I am working so much (remember, this is the job I was suppose to be working only three days a week, because, yes it is true, I AM a lazy girl) is because:

a) the gorgeous Karen (Spa Therapist colleague) has RSI (or something similar) in her wrist, so she cannot do any treatments (however she is doing a super trooper job of reception at the Spa - Go Karen!)

b) the gorgeous Kerrie (another Spa Therapist colleague) is on holidays, attending a family wedding

c) the gorgeous (I am assuming gorgeous, because I haven’t met her yet, but I feel she is going to be gorgeous) Erin, was meant to start last week at the Spa, but she has an ear infection and she cannot fly (fly to Yulara, not fly in general!!!!).

Therefore, I am helping out the Spa, taking on extra hours in the short term, to help them through this rough-ish, low-on-therapist's patch.

Yes, on the negative side, I am very tired, but on the positive side, I am getting even better at massage and facials! Also, the tips are rolling in this week (just over $100 for this week), AND I won the October ‘retail’ competition (although this happened before we went back to Melbourne, so doesn’t really have anything to do with the extra hours I am now working, but it is still EXCITING because I get a majorly good prize for selling the most beauty products).

I have found it ethically hard to compete against my gorgeous colleagues to see who sells the most retail products, as I don’t like winning at the expense of someone else losing. I spoke to my manager about this, and she was really open to including an incentive to the person who comes second in the selling.

Kristy (the girl that loves a good meal, and even better if it is free!)is mega happy that I won the dinner prize, because it means that her and I get to go to a fancy restaurant, and the prize includes dinner, AND all drinks, and there is NO $$$$ limit (although I have been told that it won’t be looked on favourably if I order a 10 bottles of the $500 champagne). Personally, I am looking forward to oysters and cocktails. And whatever else takes my fancy at the time. My mum has advised Kristy to not eat the bread rolls, as they are ‘fillers’ and they take away from the ‘real’ (= expensive) food.

Another exciting event is about to occur - Kristy, God bless her, has secured us an excellent discount (approx 20%) on a helicopter trip over Ayers Rock. So that is what we are doing next Thursday. I have never done a helicopter flight, and to do the first one over the Rock will be mind-blowing!! I am hyperventilating at the thought of it!!!!

Last Thursday, Kristy and I went to the Sounds of Silence dinner. I sent a number of people some photographs from that night, however due to size restrictions, some of you didn’t get the pics, or the email!! Sounds of Silence is a dinner, in the desert, with the Rock in view. It also involves a Star Talker, who points out the night sky constellations. Kristy and I felt so special on that night! We were firstly greeted with champagne, beer, wine and canapés. Then we all walked down to the dining site, where we ate and were topped up with wine and beer all night long. We were at a table with a honeymooning couple from Germany they were very funny AND they kept disappearing into the night (and the toilets!!!!) to do ‘you know what’), and another couple from Holland (she was terrified of bugs, which was interesting to watch her cringing as the desert bugs came out at dusk), and another couple from Malaysia (he set up a BIG camera on a tripod and snapped pics of us all night – of us at the dining table, not the naughty German couple!!). As usual, I ate waaaaay too much (it was there, what else would I do??) but this time I did stop myself before I wanted to vomit. AND... I got to see 4 of Jupiter’s moons through a telescope!

On one of my days off this week, K and I went to the closest pool (there are about 5 pools in very close walking distance) for about an hour. God, it was nice to submerge in water, to drink wine by the pool edge, to listen to music while basking in the sun. I need another day off! By the way, if you are wondering, yes, Kristy is still obsessed with the weather (mind you, that worked out very well for booking Sounds of Silence, because it is not very good to do on a cloudy night - no stars!).

Tonight, after my last client left the Spa, the gorgeous Karen layed me down on a massage table and tinted my eyebrows and my eyelashes. Now it looks like I am wearing mascara even when I don’t have any on! I love these little extra bits of this job! Ta Karen - you're a doll!

Kristy has changed jobs (thank goodness!!!) and she is now driving the Night Shuttle Bus. This is a free bus service for all guests and staff around the resort. Basically, Kristy now picks up very happy (which translates to drunk) people from whichever pub they are at, and drops them at their accommodation (or the next pub they are going to). She tells me that there is sometimes lots of singing on the bus (I am not sure it is worthy of Australian Idol, but I am sure that whatever it lacks in talent, is more than made up for in volume). And, Kristy even got a $10 tip on the Shuttle Bus the other night – which is very rare to get on the bus!

I made chocolate chip cookies last night. They were a disaster. One batch was very over-cooked (let’s be honest, quite, quite burnt) and the next batch had too much flour. They were all meant to be thrown away, but Kristy took them to her work, and all the bus drivers ate them within 2 hours! Greedy Gus’s!

Poor Kristy, she has been doing most of the housework for the last 3 weeks. I am working so much that I am just not home a lot. There are many days when I leave for work before she gets up, and I get home after she has left for work. K does have a 45 minute break on this new job, so she ducks back to see me then. And then we talk 100 to the dozen to get all of our news out to each other before she heads off again to work! Each night, I try to make her something to eat (tonight was pikelets with jam) so she has a snack for when she comes home... although there is an ulterior motive to this – because while she is eating, I get the chance to talk! We just have so little time for catch up, and K has lots to say, so I have to make sure that I get my 2 cents worth in too!

Kristy has made us a garden, outside of our apartment. To me, it reeks of permanency, which is very scary, because (while there is lots of great things about Yulara) I don’t want to live here permanently. However, the garden does look nice, and even the sharp sticks surrounding every plant kind of look cool (K put them there to stop the rabbits eating the succulents). Aside from a truck load of Aloe Vera, we also have Jade, chillies, spearmint, parsley and some other red leaf thing.

Tonight was another big storm in the desert. I sat outside, so I could ‘experience’ the fullness of the storm, in all its glory. The wind was severely whipping up all the red dust, the lightening was flashing at 360 degrees. The rain started coming down and it smelt delicious. By the time I got back inside, I was cold, wet, and covered in red dust. Seriously, I am still picking out the dust from my ears – true!

I like it here, which is lucky, because we are planning to be here until at least the end of Jan 2011, and it will be fun to do NYE at Ayers Rock, however I am REALLY looking forward to the West Coast, Perth, Coral Bay, Exmouth, Broome, Darwin, and all the other places here and there and in between that have sea and beach (and maybe shops every now and then would be good too).

Also there were two big weddings this month in Melbourne. Congratulations to Peter and Katrisse Wilson, we can't wait for your Thailand photos. And also a friend of Kristy's - congratulations to Kate and Paul! We can't wait to see your photos also. May you guys all have many years of happiness and love together.