9 - 5 Escape: One Year On

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It's been one year since I was flung headlong into the world of tentative employment! No more 9-5 slog at a job I could barely stand getting up for in the morning. No more endless routine. No more walking home past the cemetery each evening and wondering if this was all there is to life (morbid, I know). A whole year! Where do I begin? Working for myself has been a mixed bag, but I definitely wouldn't trade it for the 9-5 life anytime soon. Here's some things that I have learned along the way:

1. You need to be the cheerleader, goal kicker and coach all-in-one

Everything is your responsibility when you work for yourself. It's obvious, but after working in a team for so long, there are certain things I took for granted. Brainstorming ideas with other designers, having a manager who could (maybe) escalate issues and solve problems with clients (even when I was art directing, there was always a manager when things got ridiculous).

As a freelancer, you're often called to help when a team is under pressure and needs assistance desperately (usually after putting off hiring help). They're probably tired and anxious and cranky, and you need to go in and help get the job done, preferably with a cheer-everyone-up-smile on your face. Other times, when you're suddenly responsible for an entire project, sometimes the 'overwhelms' take hold and you need to give yourself a little pep talk during a time-out to keep the ball rolling!

2. You don't get paid for administration - and it needs to be done

There are endless email enquiries, quotes to be done, invoices, money chasing, coffee ordering... the list goes on. All of the little things you need to do to keep the 'business' going will be done on your own time. I knew this after running a dancing school a few years ago, but there's a lot more 'enquiries' and 'quotes' that need doing in this line of business.

3. Relationships matter

It's so important to make a good impression and do a great job so that you'll (hopefully) have a loyal client who will call upon your services again. I've probably had moments where I could have been more outwardly enthusiastic and outgoing in a job. People like to work with people who are:
a) good at their job
b) fun to work with

I'm naturally pretty quiet and withdrawn so I've definitely had to make a conscious effort to be more 'up' when I work in an office with others. Another facet of relationships is the value of word-of-mouth. Especially in design and animation, professionals often ask each other for recommendations on staff when they're looking for freelancers. If one company loves you, chances are, they'll put in a good word for you somewhere else, too. Also, you get to meet and work with all kinds of new, interesting and lovely people. And you might even have a strange blog-meets-life moment like I did a couple of weeks ago with Astred!

4. Keep a strict schedule

I'm still not perfect at this. When I work from home, making sure I work during business hours and have scheduled time off doesn't happen as much as it should. The next month or two will be spent working from home, so I'm really focussing on it now. Starting... tomorrow ;)

5. Don't worry, you're not going to starve

I'm sure it's not just me. Every time a job is wrapping up, the inevitable seed of panic starts to grow in my belly until it is a full-blown convulsing monster of fear... what if I don't get another job? How will I pay my share of the bills? Maybe I didn't do that last job as good as I could have... What if I never work again!?!? And so forth. Of course, it's ridiculous. I've been so busy the past 12 months, and I haven't had to resort to begging just yet. It's the one thing about freelance that I don't really like, the insecurity. But I'll let you in on my psychological safety blanket. Pretend that you have no work for the next 6 months. All the time. Pay your bills in advance, keep a savings account, whatever. Just have a 6-month buffer. Then, if the worst happens, it's not really that bad.

And just like that, one year of freelance life is done.

Kitty
xo

Work Your Way | Project Management: Concept.vu Review

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One of the toughest things for me as a freelancer is the amount of time I spend managing client feedback. Often there is more than one person that I am speaking to, they have meetings with each other, separately with me, and we often spend a lot of time re-hashing the same feedback and discussions multiple times. If I was the boss of the world, things would be more streamlined, but as it turns out, I'm not, and client feedback and project management can be time consuming and messy.

Have you ever worked at a job (any job) where you feel like you spend more time emailing, explaining and repeating yourself than actually working? Yep. Me too. As a freelancer, it's up to me to manage my time as best as I can and try to minimise the time spent on admin, so I can spend my valuable hours on designing rather than emailing.

When Concept.vu contacted me to do a review of their new platform, they definitely caught my attention! I signed up and gave it a test run. You can use Concept.vu to share audio, video and images with clients, which is awesome for me, since I do a lot of video work. The interface is really simple and intuitive, there's no fancy menus or complicated systems to figure out. To share your work with a client, you just:

1. drag and drop (or upload) your work
2. add overall comments
3. annotate comments directly on a specific part of the image
4. designate one client as the bossman (i.e. the approval fairy)
5. share with your client(s)

The Concept.vu interface is clean and easy to use.
You can see where the approval process is at a glance.

For the sake of research, I pretended to be my own client (hey, a girl can dream, right?) just to see what the process is like from the client side as well. It's really easy, actually. The client receives an email with a password to access the project (no account setup required!) They just log in, look at your notes and then add their feedback. Again, the client can add annotations to specific spots on the image, or they can add overall comments. Each time a comment is added/amended, you get notified, so you know when the client has done their thing. No more back and forth asking where the approval is at. Once everyone is happy, the designated approval fairy simply clicks the big green "Approve" button and you'll receive an email to let you know it's good to go.

Another great feature of Concept.vu is that you can add multiple versions of the same file to a project. You can address the feedback and upload another image as a new version, keeping all notes and versions in a handy dropdown menu (together) for future reference.

I've been using Concept.vu for a couple of weeks now and I'm loving it. I can see it being a really useful tool to keep projects running smoothly and (hopefully) removing a whole lot of email thread-searching for feedback and client review notes.

If you want to try it out, you can get a free trial for 30 days. After that, there are a variety of options from the Freeloader Plan right up to the Agency Plan for companies with 50 active projects going (phew, glad that's not me!)

Have you ever used a project management system like this? I'd love to hear your experience. If you don't use a project management system, what are your tips for handling client feedback, deadlines and communication?

Full disclosure:
Concept.vu has provided me with a 6 month plan in order to trial and review their product. As always, all opinions and words are my own (including approval-fairy™) and not influenced in any way.

Kitty
xo

Work Your Way | Creating a Work Schedule

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Back when I worked full time I used to be pretty organised when it came to calendar planning and my schedule, but now that I'm freelancing, I have to be on top of it all the time. Keeping track of various clients, appointments and deadlines as well as a social life (hopefully!) can become extremely complicated. Even nail painting time (procrastination) is booked in (jokes!)

There are lots of productivity assistants out there and I've tried many of them. The one thing I can rely on myself to check regularly and keep up to date with is my google calendar. It's not perfect, but I have a few tips that make it work just that little bit better for what I need.

Overall tips

I try to make each block on the calendar and accurate representation of the time required for the task. That way I have a realistic plan for each day. Colour coding is also really helpful. At a glance I can see if I'm designing, blogging, going out for a social event or doing housework. Appointments have their own colour and I even go so far to highlight my commute in another shade so that I know that time is pretty much lost (except for reading, and today, writing a blog post!)

Daily schedule

Like most people, I just slot in my work days into the daily schedule. It makes it really easy when I get a call or email from a prospective client to glance at my calendar and see if Im booked with work, or if it's something more flexible like my blog plans. Big orange blocks say "no way, I'm busy on that day!" In addition to work, I add in any commuting that I might need to do, meetings, lunch/dinner breaks and chores. With everything having a time, I'm theoretically less likely to spend a whole day folding socks.

Sometime Schedule

This is my own personal system, I wonder if anyone else does this? I have a section at the top of my calendar that has "all day" items, though for me, the items aren't related to a particular day. I just have seven bonus chunks of information to work with. These sections are split into:

• Someday (things with no deadline that I'd like to do)
• Design // To-Do (for current tasks)
• Design // Waiting (waiting on client feedback)
• Design // Me (personal work)
• Chores
• Recipe Ideas
• Post To-Do

I repeat the tasks each week, so they are always there until I cross them off (delete them). It's perfect for long-term projects, ideas for blog posts and my wish list of things to-do. They're always on my calendar so I don't forget about them. I also might add notes into the item "description". If I have notes, I * the item so I know there are notes inside.

Tasks

One thing I like about google calendar is the collapsible tasks bar. You can use it as a to-do list for the day so that if you have, say 4 hours blocked out on "blog design for Kitty & Buck", you can expand in more detail on the to-do list, and check off items as they are completed. I don't always use this, but it's handy.

My biggest piece of advice for you is to be realistic about how long things take and don't overfill your calendar. I read somewhere the other day to plan for 4-5 hours of work a day and the other few hours will fill up naturally. It's so true! When I try to plan a 12 hour day (it happens) I could end up working 16 hours and not finishing everything.

An old rule for estimating on design jobs is to work out your estimate and times it by 3. So if you think something will take one hour, allow three hours. It seems excessive, but after years of experience, it definitely works! I'm sure the rule applies to other kinds of work too. Any time left over is a bonus! I generally block out the time in my calendar so I'm not tempted to fill it with other things, and then plan for the 5 hours of work in the 8 hour block (and inevitably fill it up through the day).

I'd love to hear about how you schedule your time, and any tools that you use. I've tried to streamline my scheduling process into one place to save me forgetting to update apps here and there, or keep track of tasks on a million post-it notes. What's your technique?

Kitty

xo

Work Your Way | Time Management

image via: Death To The Stock Photo

Since I started working from home, I'm more accountable for my own time. There isn't someone standing over my shoulder checking how many hours I work (good), but there also isn't someone there to leave the office and remind me that my day is done (bad). There is also the distraction of just about anything... oh, look, is that a dirty sock? I might do some washing... or, hm... a coffee would be nice right now. So. Easily. Distracted. It's one extreme or the other with me!

I needed to figure out a system fairly quickly, but I don't think I've perfected it just yet. I'd love to know how my fellow designers, working from home folk, or organisational freaks in general get sh*t done.

What gets in the way of your super organised day?

• Clients | Ha! Ironic, right? That unplanned conference call? Other things that are a normal part of office life seem to throw me right off track at home. It's hard to re-focus and get back into the zone.
• Obligations | Working from home allows you the freedom to schedule things during the day, which is awesome. But it can become easy to fill up a day with Dr. appointments, trips to the post office, bank, supermarket, hairdresser, cooking a feast for lunch... you name it.
• Chores | I have a great view of the rest of my house from my desk. I can see if there are dishes that need washing, clothes that need folding, sweeping that needs doing, cats that need cuddling (not that that's a chore!) It's easy to drift onto the menial tasks that need doing instead of tackling that difficult problem blinking at you from the computer monitor.
• Freedom | Nobody is stopping you from taking a long lunch break, or heading out to the beach for the afternoon. It's dangerous.

How do I avoid distractions?

• Willpower | That's a big one. You have to be professional even when nobody is watching. Don't check personal emails or surf Pinterest during work time, it just slows you down, and you pay for it later.
• Schedule | If I have more than one client on the go, this is essential for allocating time and sticking to a strict schedule in order to fit things in. I use Google Calendar, but that's a whole other post!
• Pomodoro Method | I use the desktop app from TeamViz (it's free for the lite version). You enter tasks for the day, double click on the number next to each task to increase the number of "pomodoros" expected to complete the task (I have them set at the default 25 minutes), and run through the list. Every 25 minutes I get a 5 minute break, which I use to stretch my legs, check emails, and rest my eyes. If I'm going really well with a task, I simply skip the break so I don't interrupt my train of thought. It's been working really well. The app runs a little stopwatch on your desktop, so you can see the minutes ticking away.
• Plan | If I have to go out to buy supplies for lunch, or to an appointment, I make sure that I start an hour earlier on that day, or allocate the time elsewhere. Try to set appointments during a time that would be your lunch break, or before/after the working day where possible, to avoid unnecessary disruptions (It's amazing how many things I could find to do every day if I don't treat this rule seriously)
• Don't be too hard on yourself | What's the fun of working for yourself if you're a jerk boss? I allow myself to linger on lunch, with the understanding I will work a little later that evening. If I need time out to think, I might come back to work after a couple of hours. Afternoon nap? No problem. As long as I get in my hours for the day, I'm cool with it. The only problem with this is, a work day can stretch from 9am until midnight. It's best to try and stick to some semblance of 'normal' working hours in order to give yourself a good chunk of time off each day, instead of bits and pieces all over the place.

There's something else I'm wondering about, and this might be an Australian thing (despite our reputation as beach bums, we work long hours and do lots of overtime here). Whenever I pitch a job, I'm generally asked what my 'day rate' is. When I tell people, they respond with "Is that a 10 hour day? Or an 8 hour day?". I am really strict on this. It is a standard 8 hour day. You do not get 2 free hours a day (10 free hours a week, 520 free hours a year!) If there's a deadline, or I'm just having a productive day and I'm on a roll, sure, I can work 16 hours or more if I have to. But the expectation that a standard 'day' at work is 10 hours is not cool with me.

Do you work a 10 hour day? Am I living in some 1950's utopia, putting my foot down and demanding 8 hour standard working day? I'd love to hear your tips on staying focussed and managing your time as well!

Kitty

xo 

Creative Workspace Inspiration

inspiring office space from Design Love Fest

Welcome to my new series "Work Your Way". It's all about inspiring each other and sharing knowledge to help us all work better and smarter. Since I started working from home, I've been thinking of ways to optimize my workspace. It's been a little haphazard as I've been based all over the place, from various offices to my own desk. I'm now on a 2 month contract working from home, so it's about time I organised my workspace properly! I've been peeping at some beautiful creative spaces online and dreaming about what I can concoct at home.

The most important things about you home workspace are:

• Comfort - making sure you have a proper chair that won't send you to the chiropractor every few weeks! I'm even considering setting up a standing desk. It's the way of the future
• Light - I'm a night owl so I am not great at this one. But making sure you have adequate light for the task at hand. While natural light is ideal, adequate soft lighting is also good.
• Space - Ideally I need a spot for my laptop, extra monitor (a must for animation! The laptop screen is way too small), Wacom tablet and a notepad. It's important to have all of your everyday tools at hand, easily accesible but not cluttering up your space.
• Storage - I'm sure like most of you, I do way too many things. Even for a single job I might need to draw and scan storyboards, characters or lettering. I might need to set up a little photo studio, cut out paper, fabric, and many more things! To keep my workspace pared down to the everyday essentials, I need a good storage system for extra stationary, fabric and other supplies. Easily accessible, but tidy and out of the way when not in use.
• Inspiration - staring at a white wall will probably squash any creative ideas you might have had. Create an inspiration board, where you can pin anything you collect for inspiration, photos, magazine clippings and business cards. Sometimes the greatest ideas sprout from an unexpected glimpse at your collection of tidbits.

Here's some more beautiful working environments for you to enjoy. I'd love to know your tips on having a successful space to work from, six months in and I'm starting to know what I want (and need!)

1 // Remodelista ◆ 2 // source unknown

(please let me know if you have the source)

1 // Style Files ◆ 2 // source unknown

(please let me know if you have the source) 

1 // Truck Furniture, Osaka ◆ 2 // 79 Ideas

Kitty

xo

How I Quit My Day Job: The Great Escape

I've been wanted to share this post for a long time now, but I haven't had much time to gather my thoughts and get them together in an organised way for you. It's been 3 months since I left my full-time job, so it's high time I wrote this post.

Late last year, I decided that I needed to escape my job. I was full of self-doubt though. Why did I deserve to leave this lifestyle? What right did I have to work on my own terms? Why should I be 'free', leaving behind others to 'suffer' the 9-5 fate? There's nothing wrong with working in an office. So many people thrive in that environment, but I have always struggled with the corporate grind, wishing away the days and only feeling truly alive for my 4 weeks holiday each year.

I really should have realised all the way back when I first left school. I had worked through high school, but my first full-time job was in an office. It was stifling, and I lasted only 6 months before deciding that I really should go to uni. I applied and was accepted into two courses: Forensic Science and Interior Design. I'd always been fascinated by psychology and forensic science and was thinking I might pursue a career in crime scene analysis and/or criminal psychology. I decided that the design degree would be more fulfilling to my creative longings I'd been having, and the rest is history. Surprisingly (for me), I found all of my 'creative' jobs were not much different from my first office job. Yes, I was designing instead of filing and answering the phone, but I was designing on someone else's terms. Always corporate, always someone standing over your shoulder, and worst of all, always surrounded by office politics.

For the past 12 months, my work situation went from bearable to absolutely miserable. I don't want to go into details publicly, but it was very immature high school behaviour, and things got nasty. I decided that I didn't need to put up with it and that I would be able to survive working for myself. It was tough to keep positive when I was being told every day that I was no good as a designer, that I was worthless and lazy. I knew that the criticism was coming from a minority of people who I worked with, who were insecure, jealous, or covering their own mistakes. One day I saw Jess tweet about a company called Paid To Exist (this site is a fantastic resource). I immediately checked out Jonathan's site and subscribed to their newsletter. On his advice, I created a document that stated the day that I would quit my day job (it was August 13th, 2013). 

In June, I had a meeting at work that changed my carefully laid plans completely. I did something I have never done before and walked out. Never to return. It was scary, but I simply could not put myself in a position every day where my physical and mental health was suffering. It was surreal sitting on the train coming home at lunchtime, knowing I would no longer be dragging my sorry butt into that place every day. As I walked home from the train station, convinced I had made a terrible mistake, my phone rang. It was a company who I have freelanced for on and off, wondering what my availability was like for an upcoming job. I cannot tell you how I felt at that moment. It was the perfect synchronicity, a sign that I had made the right decision, and that everything would be OK.

I spent the first week of my 'unemployment' cutting a new showreel (I do motion graphics primarily) and creating a personal website. I published the website on a Tuesday night and emailed some former colleagues, letting them know that I was available for freelance work. The following morning, I received my first job offer. Throughout the day I had to turn down 5 more jobs. Honestly, the relief I felt was incredible. I now have the freedom to pick and choose who I work with, when I work and when I travel. I will never take my work opportunities for granted, I know that I need to continue to work hard to remain employable and I will also need to manage my life around the busy times and the inevitable downtime. But I feel a sense of possibility that was completely lacking before, my only regret is that I did not do this much sooner. I feel like a wasted a lot of time doubting myself. Please don't do this too!

Here's some tips on how to make the escape:

• Figure out how much money you need to survive - mortgage/rent, utilities, food, transport
• Cut down any costs that are not 100% essential (I changed my phone plan, stopped my organic vegetable delivery and was preparing to cancel my gym membership)
• Figure out how much money you need and save up to cover your expenses during a potential period of unemployment (my time-frame on this is ideally 6 months)
• Oh yeah, pay off all of your debt. It's probably not a great idea to take the plunge if you owe some dollars to your credit card company. Better yet, scrap your credit card altogether, or bury it under a rock in the desert somewhere, only to be dug up in case of an emergency (not a ModCloth sale emergency, either)
• Make sure that this is your passion. Make sure it will cover your expenses, and make sure that you have the skills to pull it off. Before you quit your job you will be already making money from your 'side project'. Ideally, it will be enough money to cover your expenses before you strike out on your own.
• Don't rely on one source of income. I do freelance motion graphics, blog design, graphic design for print and web as well as earning a teensy bit of money from this blog. It's really important to have some backup, in case your primary income has a slow period.
• I'll pinch this one from Sarah - (I hope you don't mind!) Consider the worst case scenario. What happens if you (hush) FAIL? Figure out what you would do if you were about to lose your house because your escape plan is not going so smoothly. You need to have a plan B, but you will also have the buffer of savings (see point #3) and enough time to take action - like getting another office job, if it comes to it.

I know that list might sound daunting. This has been my life for the past year (or more):

7.45am - Commute to work, working on blog/freelance design jobs on the train

12.00pm - Lunch break spent working on my laptop (bringing lunch from home to save time + money)

6.00pm - Commute home, working on freelance jobs/blog on train

7.00pm - Arrive home, head to gym (valuable 'off' time for my brain!)

8.30pm - Dinner and pack lunch for next day (I'll admit that C often did this for me!)

9.00pm - Work on blog/freelance jobs

1 - 2am - collapse deliriously into a fitful sleep while brain refused to turn off

Weekends consisted of blogging and more freelance design work. I feel amazed that I made it through, it has been seriously draining. The end result is SO worth it! I don't want to give the impression that I've had to do this alone, either. I've had so much support from C. At the end of the day though, I'm pretty fiercely independent and have never, ever been comfortable with taking it easy while someone else paid my way. I know people who are quite happy to take 6 months off traveling while their significant other works 6 days a week to support their lifestyle. That's just not MY style! I'm a Libran, what can I say? Plus, between the two of us, we are in a position to help out friends and family when they are in need, which is one of the best feelings.

Normally I try to keep my blog less personal than this, so I feel a little vulnerable about this post, but after reading similar experiences, especially Sarah's story, I feel like I need to share my experience to give a little hope to someone out there who may be drowning in a job that they hate, or the victim of a toxic work environment.

Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions for me, I'm more than happy to chat more about any thoughts you have. I have a couple of posts coming up that go into more detail on how to manage your time while you hatch an escape plan, let me know if there is anything specific that you want to know and I'll do my best to offer some useful advice!

Kitty
xo

(keep up to date with Kitty & Buck with Bloglovin')

Kitty & Buck on Etsy

Well then, I warned you it would happen (eventually), and I've finally done it. My Etsy store is open for business!!! Currently there is not a huge amount of stock available, but I plan on adding it step by step instead of trying to create everything in one big hit. Right now, you'll find some limited edition hair bows, which I have lovingly (read- slowly) sewn from vintage fabric remnants. Many are 1-or-2-of-a-kinds, due to the rarity of the fabric that I've been able to source. I also have a range of color-blocked bows which are made with new 100% cotton and can be custom ordered in your color preference.

The entire store isn't going to be about hair bows. But it is for now. I have a big stack of incredible fabric ready and waiting in the wings, and I'll be adding new items and product ranges as I'm able to create them. I've also got my hands on some amazing vintage jewelery-makings, which I'm dying to get created and into the shop! I'm bursting with ideas, my only shortfall in the process is time, so - slow and steady, I'll introduce new precious things. If you'd like to check it out, just click. Here.

Kitty
xo

p.s. Once I have built up my stock a little, I'll be doing a little promotion on this here blog, and you know, maybe throwing some freebies and discounts your way!

Photo A Day #101 Success

Wow! I've surpassed 100 photo a days! It's a good way for you guys to know, I have officially reached my 101st day of blogging! How exciting is that? Now that I feel a little more sure of what I'm doing, and since I've had so many new readers in the past month or so, I thought I'd do a post this week, like a monthly recap, but for the whole 3 months. Just in case you missed something ;)

Today I attended the Etsy Success forum (part of the Vivid Festival) in Sydney, which was a full, exciting and tiring day! I learned a whole lot about selling on Etsy and a whole lot of things that can be applied to pretty much any creative challenge. I'll be sharing some of the top secret things I learned on the blog soon, they deserve their own post, and I need to compile my phone-book sized swathe of notes into something more digestible! I also met a bunch of lovely people, so if they are reading - hi! It was wonderful to meet so many creative and motivated lovelies in one spot.

I love this picture and haven't done ANYTHING in photoshop. The venue had all these cherry blossom fairy light trees and this one came out just right :)

I'll leave you with a quote that Chad Dickerson, the CEO of Etsy shared with us today, as I felt it was quite poignant, not (necessarily) for selling on Esty, but just for living life! I seem to have been thinking about this idea a lot lately, so here goes:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, "Man in the Arena" Speech given April 23, 1910

How good is Teddy? I love that last line, life is all about doing, even if you fail or make a mistake, at least you've lived :)

Kitty
xo

Photo A Day #91 Show 'n' Sell Markets

Hello! I hope you're having a swell day :) My photo (s) (it's rarely just one, now, is it?) today are from the Sydney Etsy Team's Show 'n' Sell Markets that I popped in to see tonight. It was a sardine-can packed an intimate occasion. There were a few really cute stalls, unfortunately it was a bit hard to get a good look without being jostled, but I spotted some sweet pickings while inside!

Also, remember those awesome tights I featured here? Well, I had the pleasure of meeting Penny who designs and creates these lovely tights (she is a sweet gal!) and flipping through her fabric print sample book like a crazy lady! All the designs are so cute... and she has CAT print tights... shhh... I don't want them to sell out... they're ALL MINE!

1. Penny of Uptights (cute sparkly collar!) // 2. (and 3.) Uptights stand amidst hordes of people

3. Browsers (the shopping kind, not the Firefox kind) // 4. The room with the bar that was virtually impossible to enter!

I wish I could have stayed longer for the free BBQ (do you think they had Soysauges?) and lucky door prize (I really wish I could have stayed for the lucky door prize!!) But unfortunately, after driving around for about 30 minutes, I gave up on street parking and opted for the $9 per 30 minute parking station that smelled like a urinal. I did not want to leave my car there too long, and you know, I'm a tightwad and spending that much on parking just KILLS me! But I had a great time, and it looks like the night was a success. I'm imagining next time, there may be a bigger venue, and I'd love to go along again :)

My car was safe n sound right where I left it. Unfortunately C and I got trapped in the blue-light urinal disco stairwell and almost had to axe the door down like Jack Nicholson. We found one door (out of about 15) that opened and burst out into a dodgy dark alley covered in broken glass. We made it back, after many trials and derring-do. Ah Sydney... you're fun!