Day 336: bikini fever.

Summer is on the way in this part of the world (even though Sydney just had the coldest September in five years), and that means hot, steamy weather (hopefully) - and bikinis. This fact has triggered a kind of hysteria in the office. Suddenly everyone is running, pilatesing, yogaing, biking, body attacking and FREAKING OUT about what they're eating left, right and centre. Some people are exercising three times a day, and no one's touching the jube snakes. I am of course enjoying every minute of it (I LOVE this stuff) and engaging in the activities and freak-outs wholeheartedly. What's funny though, is that the boys who sit in my pod are totally into it too. They've taken to emailing each other the calorie counts of chocolate bars and items they might have for lunch. And tonight when I told one of them I might have fruit salad for dinner (in a moment of impulse madness I bought a fruit salad with my regular salad at lunch time and then had no idea when to eat it! It was a disaster! See, FREAKING OUT), his whole face lit up and he suggested I have it with some yoghurt! Well I guess it just goes to show boys care about how they look in their bikinis too - and the boys in my pod are on track for looking great.

Day 335: perfect timing.

I just found out that my best girlfriend (probably in the whole world) Jane, who lives in NZ, is going to be arriving in Sydney for a visit on my very last day off the piss. What timing! This means she'll be in town to clink a glass of the finest French bubbly to celebrate my achieving the unbelievable. And not only that. Since we last saw each other, Jane has produced and popped out one of the cutest human beings imaginable - her baby boy Arlo - so we'll be toasting that herculean effort too. Hooray, so happy. Good times ahead.

Day 334: what it means to move halfway around the world.

It's been close to ten years since I last moved countries. I remember when I did it then, I was pretty gung ho about it, only realising afterwards what an enormous, life-changing and challenging undertaking it actually is. Even moving from New Zealand to Australia revealed lifestyle differences on just about every level, and this from two seemingly very similar cultures. Everything from the TV shows people watched as kids, to the name for the blanket you sleep under, to making yourself understood over the phone, presented some opportunity for alienness. And now I'm readying myself to go and do it all again, but this time in a place much further away and in a culture much less close to home. There will be shit to pack up, get rid of, maybe even ship. There will be accounts to close and open, rules, regulations and laws to know about and abide by, jobs to get, insurance to acquire. But as daunting as all of this seems, I feel completely ready to take it on, and excited as all hell about it. What's more, I have a good six months to get my head around the general concept, and its finer details. So bring it on baby. Here I frickin come.

Day 333: bowling not boozing.

It really is interesting with this non-drinking malarky, just how little you care about alcohol after a certain point. You will have noticed that these days I hardly have a thing to say about booze. I know I was getting pretty excited about getting back on it a little while ago, but now I can genuinely say I never find myself wishing I could be drinking like the other kids. More of the time I just find myself feeling very happy it's not me stinking of wine or slurring my words (white wine in particular is quite smelly). And it no longer matters what activity I am doing, or if it's something that once upon a time I would have had to have drunk my way through. I just don't need or want the piss. What's cool about it is that you can go out for an epic day - exercising, ten-pin bowling, lunching, watching a rugby game, dinnering - and arrive home 100% together, happy, unashamed, and ready to have a good sleep and another great day tomorrow. I know I sound like a nerd. But I'm a frickin happy nerd.

Day 332: Ben lends a hand.

You remember Ben, my best mate and former drummer? Well apart from drumming, there's another thing he's quite good at: getting stuff done. Unlike me, Ben has a habit of breaking tasks down into manageable bits, putting them in a line and working through them one by one. I prefer to leap forward in my mind to the enormous glittering prize I imagine will be at the finish line, freak out because it seems too enormous to bring into being, then scamper away and do nothing. Anyway, today I dropped in to see Ben regarding my music project. I figured some of his style of approach could come in handy, seeing as getting stuff done is a necessary component of my getting anywhere. And sure enough, I walked out of there with some little, decidedly achievable tasks to carry out, that should see me with at least one and maybe two more songs recorded and ready to go. Radical. So off to work I go (hi ho, hi ho).

Day 331: good shopping.

My online shopping arrived today, packaged up beautifully in a black box with black tissue paper and tied up with a black and white bow. Nice. And having now done a try-on of all items, I am happy to say that it must have been a charmed shopping day because they are all decidedly ace. Which is good, because there will be NO MORE SHOPPING now until NYC. Or at least, there will be DECIDEDLY LESS shopping until NYC (we might as well be realistic about it).

Day 330: here's what I'm going to do.

One of the good things about being single, without mortgage, without child, and employed in advertising is that you tend to have a fair amount of disposable income to work with. Now, I'm not smart with money. If I was, I'd be in a far better financial position right now than I am. However, just because I haven't used my income to full effect in the past, doesn't mean I can't start using it now. So here's what I'm going to do. Instead of frittering my money away willy nilly (no more bikes, bikinis or espadrilles!), I am going to save like a maniac for six months. And then I'm going to fly to New York (via a family shindig in Hawaii) and live in New York for three months. Whether I come home after that three months depends entirely on what I do with my time there. But whatever happens, that is what I'm doing.