Hot Cross Bunnies!

Hi!

Well. That's another weekend gone. Shame. Was good.

So, yeah, the week was ok and then it rapidly descended into crap. I think I had one or two days with no headache. It turned out that after all of last week's hard work trying to sort out recruitment paperwork for the only gal we interviewed to take the place of a gal who's going away to have a baby, well, because it's the government and things move slower than snail's pace, by the time I called the gal's agency to tell her the job had her name all over it (hell, the gal had the job before she even came in for the interview), wouldn't you know it, because it took so long, she got another job. Hmm. So what does that mean for our fair hero? That's right, I get to go through the whole painful process again. Once wasn't enough fun, let's do it again! I about bust into tears when they told me. Good thing it happened Friday afternoon. So it looks like "hell" will be this week's theme. Oh. I feel my headache coming back.

But on another sort of connected note, talking with the 4 big temp agencies (trying to get more bodies to interview, again), they told me their folks are getting more job offers than they can shake a stick at. Which put the wheels of change spinning in my little head about just walking in tomorrow and handing in my 2 week notice. But, I've bought into that "we have sooooooooo many jobs" line of bull from those agencies where I've been 3 weeks out of work, no job in sight. Soooooooooo, tempting as it is, I'll suffer where I'm at. For now. We'll see how much fun the week is and then decide if Burger King (or, Hungry Jack's as it's known here) will be my next career move.

Other than that, the best way to kick off the weekend was that I met the gals (that I used to work with at my former gig with the scrubby little students) for dinner Friday night. Ahhhh, so good to talk to normal, friendly, cheery people in my same boat. We had an excellent laugh and catch-up session over a lovely dinner. Went by too fast though! Will need to plan for the next one I think. It's a good way for us to swap gossip, have a laugh over said gossip, and de-stress. A very good night.

Then first thing Saturday I took myself to Chinatown to stock up on A&W, when lo! I get there around 8.45am, and the shop is shut up tight! What?! I thought it'd be up and running full steam ahead at first light! They must be working to local time. So to kill time until they opened I had a wander through the little markets that are right nearby. Well. I've never been impressed with Fortitude Valley at the best of times and the markets do nothing to improve things. They're weird little markets in that they sell, well, crap. Iron-on badges, Grandma's old jewellery, scarves from the 80's (probably Grandma's), Grateful Dead posters, pirate flags (not that there's anything wrong with that, when I was 13), faded hard-cover books, also from the 80's, and so on. But look in any travel guide about Brisbane and they mention how great the Fortitude Valley markets are. I guess you have to wear patchouli to see the greatness of it (shudder).

And then today, I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and rarin' to get out and go for an adventure walk like I used to when I first arrived. Where I'd just walk and walk and walk and see new neighborhoods and figure out where things are. Well. Did I pick the hottest, most humid day of the summer or what (even though we're almost 2 weeks into autumn). And I know it wasn't just me being out of adventure-walk shape. Lots of people had that stunned/stewed rabbit look to them. Man it was GROSS today. But, I was good, I powered on through town, past the Art Gallery, the brand spankin' new State Library, and the even more spankin' new Gallery of Modern Art (where I was asked to check my bottle of water, hmm, so I left, not a huge fan of modern art anyways), and discovered the way west end of West End (the 'hood), covering a total of 8.32 kilometers (according to my little pedometer. I have no idea what that is in miles. Probably one.) And then, having decided I'd punished myself enough, I rode the ferry from one end to the other... which actually didn't really help the temperature factor, it was worse because I had to sit inside as I'd already given myself 2nd degree burns from walking. I'll just say, 30+ factor sunscreen does nothing in this country. I think they must use 80+ at least. I'll look in the drugstore next time. But, regardless, I love that ferry ride. So relaxing. And it's always neat to see what new, fancy-pants, high-tech condo complex or mansion has appeared right alongside the river. All that money just to have a house made of glass. Hmmm. I wouldn't throw the keys back if they gave them to me.

And that was that! Whew! And here I am, after having had a freezing cold shower and a root beer float, all is right in the world. The wind has picked up and the clouds have taken over in true monsoon fashion. Actually, in a weird kinda way, the clouds look like snow clouds. Hmmm. Maybe no storm, just cooler and still disgustingly humid. Ahhhhhhhhh, I wish I was the guy that invented air-conditioning.

So there you go. A very small, mini-adventure. Just like the old days! So I hope you're all well up there! Drop a line or a comment (about how yawn my little blog is) or, just to say hi!


BYE!
J!

P.S. Was just listening to the news' weather report, wish I hadn't heard that..... Turns out it was 38c - 100.5f degrees today with a minimum of 75% humidity. See? I knew it wasn't just me.