Reporting back

I’ve had such a crazy few days … even for me.

I am a bit shattered.

I flew to Melbourne on Thursday afternoon to attend the Australasian Reporting Awards. The timing of the awards serendipitously coincided with DD’s Melbourne-based workplace hosting a big celebration dinner, so I scored a free hotel room and transfers to and from the airport!

DD’s colleagues couldn’t believe there were such a thing as annual reporting awards, but they are! In fact they’re such an institution they’re celebrating their 75th year.

The awards were ostensibly black tie, but no one seems to pay attention to those rules these days. While there were a smattering of ballgowns, one attendee was wearing a denim trench coat and many others looked like they’d come straight from the office.

I decided to wear a sequined singlet, pencil skirt and moss green velvet evening jacket.

I didn’t want to crumple the jacket so I wore it to the airport. The hostess and steward showered me with compliments as I stepped on board the plane and I confessed I felt a bit embarrassed to be wearing a velvet evening jacket at lunchtime. But then thought if I was a rock star I wouldn’t have given it a second thought.

They declared in unison: “You ARE a rock star!”

Bless them.

And while reporting awards might sound a bit staid, a minor scandal erupted when the entertainment, a self-described “corporate comedian, comic hoaxer and corporate imposter” managed to offend everyone in the room in different ways.

But things took a more positive turn when the annual report that I worked on got a bronze award and was also one of three finalists for online reporting!!!

Woo hoo go us!

Fingers crossed for silver next year.

The next morning I slammed out a few hours of work before heading to an annual reporting seminar. I attended both the awards and the seminar with my very stylish and gorgeous colleague Alyse. We decided to turn up late when we realised the corporate imposter from the night before was giving the opening keynote address …

An official apology was issued to everyone after the corporate imposter left.

I wasn’t expecting the annual reporting world to be so eventful!

I was also thrilled when a fellow seminar attendee came up and introduced herself as a long-time HouseGoesHome follower. We had a lovely chitter chat during the morning tea break.

Such a small world.

I raced back to the hotel after the seminar to get ready to be DD’s plus one at his work celebration, which was held in the private dining room of a very fancy restaurant called Vue de Monde.

It’s on the top floor of a skyscraper with spectacular city views. Here are some of our dinner highlights …

The courses included cured kingfish with yuzu and lemon myrtle, aged duck breast with radicchio and red cabbage and a blueberry and jasmine desserty thing.

Then on Saturday DD and I had brekkie together at a very on-trend cafe called Hardware Société, which follows the philosophy of “No Eggs on Toast”. Instead it serves exotic fare such as pork belly and fried eggs with chorizo and manchego croquettes or beef bourguignon with smoked potato puree, roasted baby carrots & onion and poached eggs.

After our big night out we were keen for something fairly simple and shared ham and cheese galettes.

Oh, and the coffees came with little donut holes on the side. Yum!

After a spot of shopping in the CBD we met the eldest for pizza at DOC Southbank, went for a tour of his art studio at uni and rounded out the afternoon with an impromptu drink together in Hardware Street after stumbling across a restaurant with a $10 cocktail special. The waiter joked that they were “1991 prices!” as he reeled us in from the street.

All too soon it was time to head to the airport, where I scored a spot in the business class lounge due to DD being such a frequent flyer (he turned around and headed to London yesterday afternoon, blimey),

I am a bit unschooled in the ways of the biz lounge, so I was very confused when a nice woman came around and offered us afternoon spritzes … but apparently it’s all part of the service.

Thank you very much!

I finally got home around 8pm, walked the dogs, collapsed in bed and rose again at 6.30am to walk them dogs again before doing six hours work throughout the day on an urgent project.

In between flurries of frantic typing I took the youngest out for lunch to thank her for minding the dogs and went for a short walk and a long cheese plate with my friend Suse who I haven’t seen in forever due to the insanity of life.

The fun starts again at 6am this morning with a few urgent pages needing to go live on the corporate website, then I have a full day of work ahead before going on duty in the Vivid Sydney control centre from 4pm until 11pm or so tonight.

These here are crazy times, as per usual.

But at least I’m not on a plane to the UK. Poor DD.

Now it’s time to detox from all that fancy food and wine.

How have you been?

Song of the day: Bangles “Manic Monday”