Will Bowl for Work

Hi!

Well. That was a week. Excellent weekend though! Which is why am a little late with the update here....!

So yeah, the week. Not bad, shortish. We had Wednesday off for Anzac Day (Veterans Day). I gotta say, they really respect and honor their vets a lot more than we do. And the little kids really get into it as well. It's really kinda cool. I went to the parade last year, it was packed full of all kinds of people and kids. Long. There was even an American Legion represented by a handful of Vets. Pretty neat. So that was a nice little break in the week. Felt like we'd had a weekend and then it was back to it - only to a shorter week!

Work. Ummmmm. Yeah. I guess all I can say is I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Film & TV production, with lots of experience in theatre production, a bit in TV, and then lots of other weird and random work experiences and skills. Some quite good and others, eh, not so much. But I'm learning that there are certain jobs I'm not cut out to do. Like reception, dictation, dish-washing, and just general personal/executive assistant (what I've realized is actually just babysitting grown-ups in suits). These jobs, I can no longer do. My bank is not at all happy about this. Maybe I should get a job in a bank......... Anyways. So yeah. I had to pull out of that University gig after all. Thursday, the guy who demanded I do their dishes (see previous little blog entry), well, guess he's not used to people saying 'no' to him so he took it as a personal attack and came up with a few very bitter and snide comments about America being a thoroughly "horrible country" and Americans thoroughly "awful people". I was sitting 2 feet away facing him as he said this to a gal standing next to him. Hey, I'm all for freedom of speech and opinions, heaven knows I heard four years of similar opinions in NZ. Nevertheless, I reminded the agency that my last day with that gig would be Friday. And Friday it was. So here I am now, no gig yet (which explains why I'm writing this on Monday afternoon - and it's not a holiday today!), but something will come up, am not too worried. Yet. I'm just hoping that the something doesn't involve babysitting.....!? Fingers crossed!

And then the weekend! Whew! Was good! Ran the usual errands on Saturday with Natasha and her friend Samantha. And then Sunday I met the girls (Cindy, Jan and Patricia) out in Patricia's 'burb of Banyo (a bit of a ways out, right near the Golden Circle cannery - it's where they can all the fruit and stuff) and we went and played lawn bowls! It's a very Australian pastime. You catch it on TV or in movies now and then, a bunch of guys standing around in all white rolling balls around a perfect lawn. And it's an apparently male-dominated pastime too. Which I don't get because it's very chilled-out, slow and kinda girly, I thought. They apparently, in some clubs, didn't allow women to join and play until the 60's! And even now they have strict rules about what the players wear, women's skirt-lengths and all that. Sooo funny. But it was a lot of fun! Hee hee, we walked into the club, which was mainly empty, and the gal standing at the bar looked at us (pretty surprised to see us) and announced "You won't find anyone else here - they're either all in bed or dead!" Hee, I muttered "Or both" just to the girls, we giggled. And yeah, we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. We were the entertainment to the 4 resident drunks (including one really tough-looking biker dude). It's hard to explain the place, and pictures wouldn't have done it justice. You have to go find a little Australian movie called "Cracker Jack" and that'll give you the best idea of what it's like. But man, we had a great time. No idea who won or how to keep score for that matter! And then we went out for Indian food, took it to Patricia's and gossipped until it was time to call it a night (school night, so we were all home by 7 or so); too late for me to write, but hey, here's one benefit to being unemployed!

So yeah, was a bit of a rough week, but an excellent weekend! And that's about it! So we'll see what this week brings..... !? Hope you're all well up there! If anyone wants to come for a visit, better do it quick while I have the time off, before I get a job!!!!!!

BYE!
J!

Moths with Jobs

Hi!

Well. Yeah. Nice enough week. Very busy and long. Looovely weekend doing nothing (but the usual), which is nice after such a hectic week. Work? Ehhh, yeah. Well. Hmm.

So yeah, the week started off pret-ty good. New gig, new people, always fun in an exciting, nerve-wracking kinda way, and then it kinda went from there. Long story short, must call the agency and have them find me a new gig. It's got me doing everything about working in an office I've ever hated - reception, dictation, minutes, one guy even demanded that I clean their kitchen full of their dirty dishes! I was so shocked, I laughed and told him "Oh, I don't do dishes." He looked at me and pointed at the dishwasher and said "There's a dishwasher." I replied, again, "I don't do dishes, even with a dishwasher." He just stared indignantly at me and huffed away to have a meeting with everyone in the (little) office that I ..."apparently don't do dishes". I just laughed to myself and waited for the temp agency to call and yell at me. But please. It was bad enough having the Director stand over me dictating the last meetings minutes 5 minutes before I was set to go home for the day. Just like in the little Cary Grant film from the 1930's called "His Gal Friday". Then he proceeded to leave me one of those little dictation tapes to type up. He filled both sides. Took me a day and a half to type up. I still have carpel tunnel from it. So enough whinging, the agency will be my first phone call in the a.m.. And I had such high hopes for this gig, being at the University and in the Creative Industries wing. No. I'm on the dullest branch in the entire faculty of Creative Industries - Research. No one talks to me all day because all the researchers have their noses in books and are too busy yammering deep thoughts and observations into little cassette recorders for little monkeys like me to type up. And their little research assistants are busy doing, well, not their dishes, that's all I know. Bummer. Funny thing is, the gal I took over for has left to work in film production (she's only young and not finished her degree yet, so she can afford to work for nothing); how ironic is that? Again, it's a shame I can't just suck it up and float happily along. But hey, life's too short to suffer this kinda crap really. Which is why temp agencies were created in the first place!

So, yeah, sorry for the rant.

Otherwise, the week was really good. Thursday, met the girls for pizza and wine at Cindy's house because it was her birthday! Ahhhh, was a lovely evening. Shame I didn't bring my camera as we had an extra guest - their resident possum came for a nibble. It even climbed up onto Patricia's lap to get a better view of the table!!!! Me, personally, as cute as it was, I was horrified. In my country wildlife like that comes complete with all kinds of microscopic nasties, but here, they don't even have rabies! So wild critters are fine to pet! I couldn't believe it. It checked me out (I had left-over pineapple from my pizza) and I gave it a little pat and it was fine, kinda like a cat with bad manners. Hell, this one was even better behaved than my cat because it didn't bite me! Crazy.

Friday I met Natasha and some of her family who are here visiting from New Zealand. Very nice. Met at the Paddington Tavern for dinner and then they were off to the rugby game between NZ and Australia. Well, little NZ lost. But it looked to be a good game though. Aside from the 20+ point difference. Ahhhh well. Glad I'm here and not there in NZ because they ended up losing badly in the cricket too.

And Saturday was errand day (collected the first 3 Harry Potter books from the library! Gonna read 'em again before the last one comes out in July - of which I've already put my deposit down for! What a dork, I know, but they're such good fun and so clever). And today was cleaning day. Whew! At night, while I'm asleep, Kona keeps the apartment free from moths. I wake up in the mornings to find little dusty skid marks on the windows and walls, and little puffs of dust on the floor where he stopped another moth from getting through. Such a good hunter! But man, he kills a lot of them. So cleaned all that carnage up..... And here I am!

And that's that! I know, it's pretty dull, no adventures, no nothing, but until the job thing settles itself down.............. You know the excuse......

So, I hope you're all well up there! Drop a line and let me know how things are now and then. And if any of you plan to drop by for a visit!

BYE!
J!

Off to Work We Go! Again!

Hi!

Well that was a nice, short-ish week - 4 days of work, Monday off because of Easter. Ex-cellent. Bad for bank account, good for kink in neck. I swear, every day I've been away from that last job, so many muscles have gone back to where they originally were before the stress and fun of all of that. Hooray!


So yes, was a lovely week, nice short temp gig with not much to do... Nice. So, now getting ready for brand new gig tomorrow at the Queensland University of Technology. Finally! A real University! AND, bonus, have been booked to work in the Creative Industries faculty, doing, I don't know, Monkey stuff. From the website it looks like the faculty where they teach the kids how to do film and tv, fashion, media, etc. Heh. And here'll be me shouting at all of them - "Get real jobs! Be an engineer! Don't get an Arts degree!!!! Don't do it!" Heh heh. So yeah, even tho it's Monkey work in yet another faculty, am looking forward to this one. Goes until June (with the possibility of extension, that's what they always say in case you turn out to not be such a good worker-Monkey; and if you be a good Monkey, they keep you for longer and give you more bananas!), so that'll keep the bank happy for a little while. So, again, fingers crossed it's a good gig!!!!!

Otherwise, the week was fine and quiet. Nice. Weekend was pretty much the same. Cleaned, went to the grocery store, and ran (scooted) all over town looking for a normal-looking kevlar motorcycle jacket. These people who design motorcycle jackets for women must think we really like pink. Or baby blue. Otherwise, that's it. You have to get small men's stuff which has, I don't know, dragons breathing flames, or naked chicks, or skulls painted all over it. So dumb. And I went to the biggest shop in Brisbane and the guy said if I went into business designing "normal" motorcycle gear for women, I'd make a killing because no other company does. Biggest shop in Brisbane and they had like 6 choices for women's jackets. They had a couple leather ones (one was stripes of black and white and baby blue, of course) and it cost $700!!!!! And it was little and ugly! They grow their own cows here, why is leather so crazy expensive??! Same as New Zealand! Sheesh. So just maybe I'll grab one of these little fashion students from my new gig at the school and make them design stuff for me and my new company! Hmmm.
(That picture on the left is from the first year fashion design students - their "sock assignment" - it's all made from socks!)


And today was cleaning day. So now the house is sparkly. Then I realized I should go check out where I'm working tomorrow, so grabbed my little map/directions and headed off. Well, it's not far at all, about 1/2 an hour's walk in the other direction from town, in the suburb of Kelvin Grove, the 'hood behind mine. That's a nice change not having to walk through the city to get to work. I get to walk through Brisbane Grammar School, built in 1868. It's pretty nice (I think it's where the rich kids all go). I guess a grammar school here is actually a high school. Also have to walk past the Normaby Hotel (pub, even though it looks like a car dealership). The place is massive. Fulla 18 year olds getting drunk (you can drink at 18 here. Crazy). Then it's along the inner-city bypass and then there's the University. Easy. Nice campus, the little bit of it I checked out while I was there. New "precinct", they spent millllllions on it. And there's a teeny little shopping center with an interesting set of shops - all fresh, gourmet cheeses, fruits, veggies, olive oils and meats and stuff. So I'm looking at all this nice stuff, that I can't afford, and I'm thinking, "If I can't afford this stuff, little ol' Uni students can't possibly afford it either!". Strange. But nice to know it's there in case I need a really rare Italian cheese to go with my ultra rare olive oil!
(That pic there on the right is where my new office is...!)

And yeah, that's about it. Boring, I know. And no real adventures to speak of. So now that the weather is doing it's best to cool down and behave more like Autumn, and if this turns out to be a decent, stable, long-term job, then yes, by all means, I will rent that car and take my butt outta Dodge for the weekend! Promise!

So I hope you're all well up there! Sorry for not ever writing an email. Again, if this turns out to be a decent gig, I'll get right back in the swing of communication again!!!! I know the little blog is kinda boring, but I hope it helps keep you posted with what I'm up to down here (not much, but you know how I mean)!

BYE!
J!

Scootin' Around Easter

Hi!

Well. That was another nice, relaxing week. Short week because of Easter, so that made it easy to bear the current temp gig. Nice weather, still trying to cool off tho not as gross as it's been. Took the little scooter out exploring, took some photos. I wish, if I have to work, we could just do 4 days a week. Mmmm. Get so much done!!!!!

So yeah, started the little temp gig last week. Ehh. Executive Assistant to some big Director of blahblahblah. They also call it PA (personal assistant) here. Either way it's doing stuff no one else can be bothered doing. Like printing out their own documents, telling him when his meetings are, making coffee for big meetings, ordering and setting up the catering, doing dishes, etc, I get to do all of that. And I've learned I don't like it. So am hoping the next gig isn't in the slave/waitress trade. Ahhh the curse of having an Arts degree!!!!!!

And then we had Friday off and tomorrow (Monday). Niiiiiice. So took myself out on Friday and discovered Newstead, which is the little suburb above Tenneriffe, right on the river. Not a bad little patch but reminded me so much of San Diego. Ehhh. But got to take the little scooter out and about and didn't have to worry so much about being killed as it was a holiday, no one was out (because everything was closed). It was nice to ride around places that are normally crowded with cars and buses going every which way.

Am suddenly a bit distracted because someone in the 'hood has just started violin practice. And they're not very good. Oh dear.

So drove around Newstead for a while, went on a little walk along the river, there's a lot of history tucked away in that little 'hood. There's the Newstead House, where the first Police Commissioner lived (nice place). And quite a few memorials to the soldiers of WWII, including stuff about the American troops coming and going from there and one plaque & obelisk to US-Australian peace/friendship. Interesting stuff that I had no idea was there. Then it was back on the scooter and rode around downtown and around my 'hood, and just drove aimlessly because it was so nice without traffic.

Yesterday met Natasha and ran errands (shops were open). Got a haircut/trim. Went to Kmart. Gee, stuff at Kmart here is more expensive than the Kmart's there! Then the grocery store and man, by the time we did all that, riding the buses and trains around, it was around 4! So got home, cleaned the house, watched Top Gear (British car review show - I love it) and that was that! That's why we need to have 4 day weeks because the weekends go so fast and it's not nearly enough time to get everything done!!!!!!

Today, well, the house is spotless (minus the leg and piece of wing from one Kona's overnight bug-killing episodes), the laundry is all done and almost put away (a few more hours of fresh air can't hurt it), so I might have a little Grandma nap and then am supposed to meet Natasha and a group of her friends at a pub down the road (The Normanby, very popular tho I've never been) for a late lunch and to kind of celebrate no work tomorrow!!!! I don't get paid, but you can't argue with a day off! Anything to make the week shorter! Hooray!

And that's really about it. Last week of work until another gig comes along, hopefully. So we'll see what the week brings there. Am trying to write my little business plan. Have yet to start any of those screenplays that are dancing around in my head begging to get out and make me millions from selling-out to Hollywood. Work just gets in the way!!!!!!

So there! Hope you're all well up there!!!

BYE!
J!

Spare Change?

Hi!

Well. That was a fine week if I do say so myself. And a nice, relaxing weekend too. Weather was nice, not so unbearably hot and gross; I think we could be getting past this whole summer thing. I had two, count 'em, two in a row, mid-week paid days off - had to use 'em or lose 'em, ahhhhh the Queensland government, so I used 'em! Was busy tho, signing up with two more temp agencies (sigh, that brings our grand total to five). And basically the weekend was just lovely and chilled-out. Just right really!

So the week was pretty good, as far as last week's at steady employment go. Was sorry to leave everyone, aside from the little devil in heels. Such nicenice folks. Oh well. If only they were in charge! And yeah, took Wednesday and Thursday off because, well, I could, so I signed up with two more agencies. And amazingly enough, by Friday afternoon, I had a gig for Monday. Through one of the new agencies (those gals were pretty nice and normal). So it's only for 2 weeks, diary management and general monkey stuff, so what? It's more than the other four could cough up! And that was with my harassing them all week! So yeah, start that tomorrow. Ooooh! Change! I hope it goes ok. Don't get me wrong, I love change, but work-change? Short-term? Eeeehhhh. You have to be nice all the time, no one gets your jokes, you don't know where the toilets are, some offices are mazes so the hazard of getting lost is always a stark reality............... Otherwise, change is good! Ahhhhhh, am looking forward to a change of venue. Whatever. Keeps the money coming in and the bank happy!!!!! So here's hoping it's a decent gig and that they're nice people!

And yeah, so Saturday was spent sneezing all day, hmmmm. Allergic to something I guess. I'm not allergic to anything....... yet. And yes my house is clean! Funny, every time I sneezed Kona meowed. Tee hee. So couldn't really do much more than, well, blow my nose and surf the 'net for gainful employment. Can't believe how much kleenex I went through..... Must write letter of praise to Sudafed.........

And today was really nice. Got up early, cleaned the house (that's not that dirty!) and went into town to meet Natasha for breakfast. MMmmmmm. Went to this place I've been dying to try since I got here.... y'know, wouldn't you know it, I've totally forgotten the name of the restaurant... (might be Pancake House, maybe?)! Dur. Anyways, their claim to fame is apparently, pancakes! So we gave them a try. Not bad! It wasn't IHOP or Denny's by any stretch, but it has potential. Hmmmmmmmmmm, another business idea.... J's Diner! Mmmmmm. Frito pie for everyone! Garden cinema first, then the diner!

And really, that was about it. Gave the little scooter a bath. Well, water restrictions the way they are here (bad drought and all), I didn't need water. Heh. For little bikes like mine they make this spray stuff. So you just spray it on and buff it off. And now man! It's shiny and sparkly!!!! Like new! Not that it was that dirty anyways, but it had a far bit of dust, dirt and bug guts. Ahhh, the groovy thing about leaving the last gig is no more dicey rides to work!!!! Geez, now I'll be lucky to take the little scooter out once a week.... Hmmm. It was the dicey ride that gave me confidence, now that I think of it.... Hmmmm. Will have to go out on weekends and discover new places then (bring back the adventures!). Keep the little battery from dying! Ahhhhh, the little scooter is pretty cool. But I have to say, when I was at the Yamaha dealer last picking up my $$$$ helmet, I was checking out the bigger motorcycles. Pret-ty cool. So I don't have $12,000, a girl can dream!? I've decided I quite like "cruisers". Not big, spread out handle bars, or lying down over the thing, but just chilled-out, normal, sit up straight stuff. Yeah. Well, in time. Gotta master the little 50cc before conquering the 1,200 or whatever it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And that's it! So yeah, here's to change!!!!!!! Hope you're all well up there!!!!! And if you guys need a change, I'm sure there're deals for flights down here, you just have to look!

Bye!
J!