Work food, an afternoon tea – and my news about work
Work lunches
First, let me bombard you with food! The special of the day, chicken schnitzel and chips. There was more cheese on my schnitzel originally, but the guy who was served just before me ordered the same thing and when his schnitzel was lifted off my schnitzel, it took half my schnitzel’s cheese with it – and the lady serving didn’t appear to notice. So bonus cheese for him, less cheese for me! With the cheese and tomato sauce on the chicken I suppose they were more like parmigiana than “schnitzel” – but I’m just calling them what the lady serving us called them.
Another lunch, another chicken kebab. I asked for barbecue sauce and mayonnaise as my two free sauces in the kebab but I think the guy who served me only heard barbecue – oh well. It was still good.
Chilli eggplant with fried noodles and fried rice. The eggplant was very greasy (as you can see!) but extremely tasty.
Chilli chicken, curried vegetables and noodles. The fried chilli chicken is tasty but a little messy to eat, as I really need to pick the pieces up with my fingers to get all the meat and skin off those tiny bones. But I’ve ordered them on a number of occasions, so obviously the messy eating is worth it! The curried vegetables were quite mushy – very disappointing. Not one of the better meals I’ve eaten.
More chilli chicken, this time with chilli potatoes cooked with beans and red capsicum, and beef and potato stew, on rice. I rarely order beef, but this was beautifully tender. I usually order a small combo (rice and/or noodles plus two dishes), but on this day I felt extra hungry and ordered a large (rice and / or noodles plus three dishes). I really had to fight the napping urge that afternoon!
Red curry, stir-fried vegetables and rice – the red curry was disappointingly bland. It didn’t taste like red curry at all. The vegetables, on the other hand, were crisp and garlicky and very good.
A quick lunch of takeaway soup, which came with buttered white bread cut into triangles!
It was potato and leek soup. I liked that it was peppery and there were chunks of potato at the bottom of the cup. When I described the soup to Jac, she said “Oh noooo, I like my pureed soups to be completely smooth”. Funnily, she likes smooth, blended soups, but I like chunky soups; she must have crunchy peanut butter, and I must have smooth. :)
Afternoon tea – at my old workplace!
I returned to my previous work place a couple of weeks ago to join my old team mates for afternoon tea to farewell R, who was leaving to take on another job elsewhere. It was fantastic catching up with everyone again. A couple of bottles of wine were opened, white as well as red, and there was lemonade for us non-drinkers (all two or three of us! :-P). We had cheese and biscuits, peanuts, dips and chips. The dips were tomato salsa and “basil with cashew and parmesan”.
Of course, everyone fully expected me to take photos of the food! I snuck in while R and J got everything ready so I could take the photos before people started eating.
J cut squares out of the chip packets, so the packets themselves functioned as chip bowls. Very clever! I couldn’t stop munching on the Doritos. I’m very partial to corn chips. I even love plain salted corn chips – I can eat those by the truckload.
These crisps were Red Rock Deli honey soy chicken crisps, which are yummy – but my favourite Red Rock Deli flavour is lime and black pepper. I just love the tangy lime flavour and bitey pepper.
My news about work
So here’s the news I’ve been hinting at. The big decision I made recently. I feel like it will be a weird bittersweet sort of day – it is my last day at my job. Yes, that’s right – I started at this job (I will call it “Current Job”) in early April, and I’m finishing up in July. To sum it up, I had the opportunity to return to my previous job (“Previous Job”) – and I took it. So that means I’ll be back at East Perth on Monday. This was not an easy decision, and there was much soul-searching and discussions with Jac and friends, with multiple pro and con lists written. The most significant factor was that I realised (and it wasn’t easy to admit this at first, because no one likes to admit that they chose to leave a job that they’d now actually like to go back to) that my heart remained with the Previous Job. Sounds corny and all soppy movie-of-the-week, but it is true. And it’s not often you do get a chance to go back.
My work at the Current Job has definitely been fun and interesting and everyone has been friendly and kind and helpful here, but given the choice between the two jobs, I picked the Previous one. My boss and team mates at the Previous Job are overjoyed that I’m returning, and while there’s a lot of work waiting there for me, there have been plans already made for a celebratory Stuzzico pizza lunch, and workmate J is hanging out for us to devour big bowls of laksa and greasy crispy fried chicken noodles at Munch Terrace! If course, my boss and team mates at the Current Job are sad that I am leaving (well, they’ve told me this :-P) – but I think they understand that ultimately I had to make the decision that I felt was best for me. There’s a lot more detail that I won’t go into here, but I hope I’ve explained this well enough so you get where I’m coming from.
So I handed in my resignation four weeks ago, and today is my last day. It’s been a busy four weeks at work – and at home, as you know! I’m bringing in a couple of cakes to share – I would’ve baked mini muffins for the occasion, but my muffin pans and other baking gear are packed away in the garage and won’t be unpacked until after we’ve moved. I wouldn’t have planned for things to happen this way either – we’d been looking at houses to buy but didn’t expect we’d find one we loved so close to the time I was changing jobs, but there you go. It’s been (and will continue to be) a hectic time for us, but once things settle down, I think we’ll be happier than ever.