Scones in Malls

Hi!

Well. That week was good. Fast. That's how they should be! Uneventful, as usual, but good.

So yeah. Work. Good. Little busier now. I've inherited two more little manuals to format and stuff........... And the big momma manual is getting closer to going to the printers.... The Project Manager got a new job somewhere else, so the Director (my boss) and I are going to figure out how to get it printed and stuff. So hopefully I can help as much as I can with never having really worked on something like this. But hey, it ain't rocket science and it's not like I have someones brain or heart to work on! But otherwise, all's well! Still no word yet if they'll keep me past the end of the month.... May ask in the next week or so.....

The little scooter still scoots pretty well. Was only really able to ride it into work once last week - rain. I know they need it desperately here, but hey, I'm not making monthly payments on my own wheels to spend more money on public transport! But I don't mind really. Saves me getting wet and dirty or dying on a slippery corner. Call me a wuss.

Oh yeah, Glen came down from Cairns for a quick night on Tuesday; on his way up to Hervey Bay to spend some time at his Aunt and Uncle's while his Uncle is visiting in Scotland (Glen & family are Scottish)..... Was a nice, quick visit. Nice to catch up and gossip. Last time I saw him was about a year ago. We met in Auckland working at a dive shop and at one point I needed a roommate, but unfortunately that was when I realised I can't actually live with people besides family really. No regular people, boyfriends maybe........ Sad, tough lesson, but now I know. We're pretty good friends now though, just can't ever live together!

And then there's the weekend! It's been pretty quiet. Saturday went to the (expansively carpeted) Carindale mall to look at furniture I can't afford (because there's a good chance I'll have to move in August when my lease runs out - rent might go up) and picked up a new cat toy for the spoiled fat cat, and to just wander. I hate malls, I've realised. More so on the weekends. I guess you just have to get in early before the strollers and screaming babies. Urgh.

And today, Pam from my old work came over and we went to lunch at the pub down the road and wandered around town for a little bit. Gossipped, etc. Was nice to see her. She was the only one to help me keep my sanity when I was working at "that school" back in March. Sounds like things haven't really changed - hooray for escape!

And really, aside from a quick visit to the grocery store to procure the ingredients to make your basic scones (from a recipe I got out of some magazine, which have just come out of the oven and they're bland as all get out. Tastes like eating a paper towel. Not that I eat paper towels. So now I have 12 scones that taste like paper towels that I have no idea what to do with) bought some cat litter, did the usual chores, man, it was a really quiet weekend. Nice, but quiet. Oh yeah, I know one thing I did last night, ugh, I colored my hair. It came out really dark. Am almost embarrassed to go to work tomorrow. I've done this before tho, always with a new brand of color. It was supposed to be pretty, light copper red. Maybe it'll be that color after about 20 washes. Maybe that's what they mean on the box - color will come right after 20 washes..... 'Cos the color my hair turned isn't even an option in those little 'before' 'after' photos on the box!!!!!! Hmmmm. Bumm-er man.

So am afraid it's got to be one of the dullest little blurbs I've written, well, for a couple weeks! Sorry. Must be the weather. It's been really warm for what they call winter, yet it's dark when I wake up and dark not long after I get home, and it's been trying to rain for the last 2 or so weeks....... seems like it wants to be spring!!!!! So my mood and sleep patterns are fuzzy at best. But, hey, silver lining - the shortest day is the 21st! And then bring on more daylight hours! That's probably when it'll get really cold!

Ahhhh well, I hope you're all well up there! I often look into coming up there for a visit and a dose of Mexican food, but until tickets come down below AU$2,500, I'm not going anywhere. You guys come down here! Don't make me come up there to get you!

BYE!
J!









Movie Quote of the Week...

"We're gonna need a bigger boat."
Roy Scheider, Jaws

Ex-cellent!

Cat-Shaped Starfish & Champagne

Hi!

Well. Whew. What a week that was. Busy. Quiet. Stressful, in an I-put-myself-in-this-mess kinda way. But otherwise, another fine week for the history books!

Work. Yeah. It's still good. Perhaps the less said (good or bad), the better for my work karma....... Suffice to say I still like it (bonus!), the people are all still really nice, I'm finished proof-reading the entire manual and highlighting key words for the digital search engine, and next week is compiling said keywords into a massive list, meetings with the Project Manager (also very nice) and additional assorted managers, wow, I'll feel somewhat important, for a few minutes anyways!

So the week, tee hee. Monday, fine, innocent enough. Didn't scoot in because "they" threatened rain (yeah, I know the new groovy scooter jacket is waterproof, but think of all that gunk that splashes onto your windshield while following cars in the rain, now picture all that gunk on you and your little scooter with no windshield, on a busy road.... yeah, on second thought, you wouldn't be so hot to try out that waterproof jacket either).

Monday night I get home from work to find a note slipped under my door from the building manager, Geoff (also a very nice guy) that it's that time of year - time to physically inspect and test allllllll the fire/heat/smoke alarms in every apartment. Oooooh, I've been waiting for this day for a year. Ever since adopting Kona, the illegal cat-roommate. Oh dear. So had to tidy and de-cat the house. Tuesday morning, hung around to wait for the inspector guys to show up... stuffed Kona in his box, into the closet (kicking and scratching the whole time)..... So the inspector-guy is standing in my bedroom explaining to me how, because I'm an odd-numbered apartment, on an odd-numbered year, (meanwhile I can hear Kona scratching at his box. I cough to try to hide it and steer the guy to the living room) I get the dubious honor of having them return later that day to physically test the actual heat and smoke sensors/alarms in my apartment. Oh dear. I'd already taken the morning off of work to keep an eye on the events, now I'd have to hang around all day. Maaaan. So fine. I hang around and wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. Finally, it happens all at once, I hear the guy coming up the stairs, I grab Kona to stuff him into his box, well, that cat is now wise to this and refuses by becoming a starfish. The guy has the key to my place and I can hear it in the lock. My cell phone rings, it's Glen, and I really need to talk to him but I can't answer it because I have to catch the cat to stuff him back in his box. The door opens just as Kona shoots under the bed. I say "hello!" to the inspector guy, as cool as I thought I sounded as I ducked into my room to throw the cat carrier into the closet and quickly shut the closet door as he comes in. Meanwhile, I'm looking around the apt for a streak of grey. Finally, the guy is finished, but what's this - the loud speaker in my living room doesn't work (what I hear the alarm bells from, just in case I can't hear the deafening ones outside)..... Oh dear, a return visit at a later date....???? Noooo, "That's it!" the guy says happily. "Really?" I ask, totally not believing him. "Yep! See you next year! Thanks!" and poof! - he's gone. So I don't get the deafening alarm bells blaring into my apartment every time some moron leaves toast in their toaster too long, that's perfect by me as they unnecessarily scare the hell out of me anyways. Yeah, I know it's their job, but they all wake me up perfectly sufficiently from outside. And trust me when I say that damn fire alarm goes off at least twice a month. It works fine and I know exactly how it sounds. In fact, just this afternoon it went off. Turns out some guys stove really did catch fire and the fire department actually had to put it out - with a little extinguisher. Smoke and everything. That happened a couple weeks ago too in another apartment near mine - stove on fire. Note to self - make sure stove is off at all times, may even flip the main power if it's that's prone to spontaneous combustion...........

Geez Louise.

So that was Tuesday. Wednesday, well, had to meet Natasha and some friends of hers over at a pub on Caxton Street.... her friends were going to the big rugby game - Queensland vs. New South Wales. Happens every year. It's a big deal apparently. Kinda like when the Mets play the Yankees I guess. So, 50,000 people and only 7 arrests that night. I find that really hard to believe, but that's what they said. Caxton Street and all it's pubs, is only a block long. Teeny tiny. So you can imagine the amount of people. It was crazy. And Caxton St. is only like 2 blocks from the stadium I might add. Crazy crowds. But once the game got under way, it was a ghost town. We hung out for a little bit at the pub, got something to eat, watched a little of the game on the big screen tvs and then I had to call it a night. School night after all.

Thursday, scooted into work. On my way in that a.m., well, long story short - the Merc that decided I wasn't going fast enough for him, passed me and missed me by that much.... the Porsche that decided no one was going fast enough for him yet nearly caused us all to crash, well, the Porsche hit the Merc. I laughed for days after scooting past that. There is justice in the karma world after all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then the rest of the week was fine and quiet and uneventful.Saturday I got shanghaied into going to (don't laugh) a Tupperware party. I only went because Cindy begged me to. That, and the usual suspects were shanghaied too. Aside from the Tupperware thing (didn't buy a single thing! Am very proud), the rest of the night was lovely. Chance to catch up with the gals, gossip, drink champagne and eat pate, ahhhhh it was nice. Cindy, Patricia and I have half-drunkenly threatened to go on a mini-road trip together down to Byron Bay one of these weekends. It's only like 2 hours away. Me and my not-so-good Australian geography and travel times, I thought it was like 8 hours away....... I hope we go, would be a good time.

And today, groceries, organizing the beads, fire alarm, and that was about it.

WHEW!

Next week "they've" threatened rain, so stories to come, I'm sure, from commuting on public transport......!

So I hope you're all well up there, happy with no fire alarms or gunk! C'mon down! You can stay with me! My place is certified fire alarm compliant and functional!!!!!!!!!

BYE!
J!









(New!) Weekly Movie Quote.....

"I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request."
"What?"
"Means no!"

Geoffrey Rush, Pirates of the Caribbean (1)

Ex-cellent!

Passing... People, Sunsets & Traffic

Hi!

Well. Boy, is it hard to work 5 days in a row after the luxury of only working 4 days..... What a work wuss I am. I love not being at work. I love not having to do anything if I don't want to. Ahhhhhh, but, to have such a nice, harmless, cruisy gig, bliss. Admittedly, it is about as exciting as watching paint dry, but I still love it. I tried my best to win the $30mil lottery last Thursday.... That's ten bucks I won't get back. Other than little hiccup, the week was fine.

But, some sad news to mention, my Uncle Doug passed away last Friday. Complications of a multitude of aliments, mainly after-effects of 2 strokes, diabetes..... Sad. He was young (57) but man, he put up a reallyreally tough fight. The stuff he lived through would've killed most people. But finally, he'd had enough. I mean really, how much more can you and your body take? I like the thought that ultimately, (in some cases) we have control over these things, where we can just take stock and decide, yep, enough, I'm outta here. So, hat's off to you Uncle Doug - you've proved the family come from tough stock! Via con dios (as my Grandad would have me say)!

So yeah. Work was nice, dull, lovely and easy. They're nice people, they all seem to get along quite well, no one is a drama queen/king, they laugh a lot (and no one tells them to stop), they play a lot of solitaire on their computers (and no one yells at them to get back to work or you'll be fired), they talk in quite voices, no one has to holler or talk excitedly, it's probably one of the most chilled-out places I've ever worked. Which is really ironic considering I work at the headquarters for the Queensland Department of Emergency Services. Excellent. I really hope they keep me and doing what I'm doing now. Ahhhhhh, I know good gigs never last, but I hope this one has a few miles left on it yet........!?

And the rest of the week was good. Lovely weather still, which is crazy because winter is due in like a week or two and it's still pool weather! So last week I put on my brave boots (as Jan says) and I rode the little scooter into work 3 days that week. Didn't ride it on Monday because I had to find out where I could park it without it getting towed so an ambulance or fire truck could park there instead. And didn't ride it Friday because the weather folks threatened rain (it didn't, but those clouds sure looked like they weren't messing around). It's excellent getting to work in 10-15 minutes under my own steam rather than the 45 it takes under, well, public transports steam. It's a pretty busy road though, with 3 lanes in either direction, but so far so good! The traffic is really hard to predict here. Some mornings/evenings it's absolute mayhem, and then others it's easyeasy. Weird. And never on the days you expect it. Tee hee, poor little scooter, it's only meant to go at a top speed of like 45mph (70kmh for those of you savvy with the metric system), so for me to be able to keep up with traffic, the poor thing is at top tilt. I get to work and shut it off and the little thing practically hisses with steam. But it goes and it goes well. So if anyone is looking into start in the little scooter market, I can highly recommend this little Yamaha Vino 50cc to start with. It rocks! Or, in the spirit of Ol' Steve Irwin - Scooters Rule!


And this weekend was lovely. I did nothing. Well, I cleaned, read Harry Potter, and then went over to Natasha's for dinner. She can cook. Sent me home with 4 containers of food!

But, sadly, no adventures. Not unless you count standing at the bus stop near Natasha's house for an hour at 11.30 at night waiting for the bus to not arrive, watching drunk teenagers at the house party next door pass out in the middle of a fairly busy sidewalk, and then me getting fed up and hailing a cab home, as an adventure, then yes, a little one was had. It was certainly entertaining. And, there were police cars everywhere and none of them stopped to pick the little teenagers up and put them back in their house! Crazy! But then, these kids can legally drink at 18 here. Hmmmmmm.

So there you go. A nice, quiet week with a hint of sadness. Ahhhhhh, well, none of us lives forever! Might as well see it all while you're here! So hurry up and get down here and see it!

BYE!
J!

Dull Boas (on Scooters)

Hi!

Well. That's that for short weeks for the time being. I guess we don't get another holiday until June 11th, that's the Queen's Birthday (well, not really, I guess they thought it just sounded like a good day to honor it), so that's something to look forward to. Otherwise, the week was nice and short and hassle-free, just the way a week should be!

So, work, yeah, it's good. The project manager was down from Gladstone (somewhere up north a ways) to help get me on the right track and to help with little bits I didn't know how to do. Since it's the government, they love their acronyms (initials for everything under the s.u.n.) and they refer to a lot of them, so he helped me decipher them all. Boy, only two weeks into this gig and if any of you ever need to know how to set up and run a volunteer rural fire brigade - I'm the gal to ask! And, next week, I get to read the entire volunteer manual (the thing I'm editing & etc) to highlight relevant words and phrases so they can go into a digital search engine. Yawn, I know, but hey - I like it! It's not babysitting!!!!!!!!! Hooray!

So what else...... Kinda dull week otherwise. Quiet weekend. The last couple of weekends I ran around so it was nice to just hang around in my clean little apartment and throw crumpled up bus tickets at the cat (it's his favorite thing next to shredding anything with feathers, hence the blue feather boa - cat toy). I'm a dork, but the new/last Harry Potter book is coming out at the end of July (have reserved mine already!) so I've been getting all the others out of the library so that I'm up to speed when the new one comes out. Tee hee. I really like them. Good, fun and easy to read. So spent a bit of the weekend reading those. All I can say is she sure hit gold with that series. Good for her. Pretty clever stuff really.

And what else..... cleaned, grocery store visit, etc. Today it's been raining off and on but I managed to make it down to the Riverside Markets to meet Natasha for her fresh veggie fix. Then we had a wander around Queen Street Mall and that was enough. I got home and decided that I'd take the little scooter out to figure out how to get to work. It's along a pretty busy main road, but man, it only took 10 minutes! What takes me about 45 every morning to walk to the train station, ride the train, then walk from there to work - hell, it only takes 10 minutes on the little scooter! But far more exciting in a busy traffic kinda way. So we'll see how brave I'm feeling this week. That and the weather. I know I got all the cool waterproof gear now (with body armour!), but rain is rain and people are idiots in it no matter what. Maybe once the weather clears up.......

So yeah! That's that! Quiet, dull, no adventures (unless you count figuring out how to scoot to work, which is kind of an adventure), well, like I say, until the job thing.......... blahblahblah..... But I did just realize the other day that I haven't had a vacation in a really long time. I mean vacation vacation, where you sit around drinking fancy drinks with umbrellas in them on a sunny beach and do nothing more strenuous than go for a swim kinda vacation. Hang on, I don't think I've ever been on one of those come to think of it! Oh sure, some of you would say "but being in Australia is a vacation in itself!" Wrong. It's the same grind, just different real estate. So yeah, I'm really hoping the job thing settles down so I can go away and chill out and not worry! Someday!

So there it is! Hope you're all well up there! Let me know if anyone needs a boomerang or a cork hat!

BYE!
J!

(P.S. No, I'm not pulling a Muriel. I just thought this display was way wierd with the skinny, mini-bride. It's kinda creepy, in a Tim Burton kinda way.)

New Gigs, Shrimp & Buddha in a Motorcycle Jacket

Hi!

Well. Nice week. What a difference a decent job makes. And the addition of another 3 day weekend (Labor Day) just made the week even better. So it's been a day off with no pay, I don't mind. Was a busy weekend, which is why I'm checking in on Monday instead of yesterday.

So yeah, decent gig made for a really easy week. I ended up at the Department of Emergency Services, in the Rural Operations branch, which deals with rural fire brigades. And my job is to help proof-read, edit, format, etcetcetc the newly-updated rural fire brigade manual to get it ready to be printed and distributed. So I just sit in a nice, quiet corner with my headphones and stare at this massive document all day and make sure it looks pretty. And keep track of everything on a massive spreadsheet. I love this gig so much I could marry it. It sounds dull I know, but I really like it. I don't have to do anything else, my hours are fairly flexible, no one asks me to do anything, I don't have to babysit anyone... This gig is bliss (compared to the last few). It's only supposed to go until the end of June or whenever the project (manual) is completed. But am hoping they'll find something else (similar) for me to keep doing. Fingers crossed! Maybe they'll even bring me onto their books permanently! Ahhhhhhhh a decent, steady job....... I wouldn't know what to do with myself! Save and plan adventures!!!!!!! Hooray!

So that nice, easy week lead to a nice weekend. Saturday I ran errands, the usual cat food, me food, etc and then decided I'd had enough of being paranoid about riding the little scooter in my little sorry girly pink work jacket and scooted myself over to the Yamaha dealer to buy a proper little scooter/motorcycle jacket. It's awesome! It's light grey with a reflector stripe across the back (but it's not obnoxiously big), it's rain-proof, lots of pockets and zippered vents and it's got removable body armour on the shoulders and elbows! Cooooool. And, bonus, it's not girly or macho and it fits perfectly! And even more bonus, the gal gave me $10 bucks off! Hooray! Then the guy wanted to sell me boots. I laughed and said I would when I bought a big-daddy motorcycle. Which he tried to sell me too. Am not that gung-ho, yet! So am now that much safer! I know, sometimes I feel a little overboard when it takes me longer to put all this gear on just to go not that far. But then I think of the time and money I'd have to spend in the hospital on broken bones and skin grafts and I decide that the 5 minutes it takes to suit up is actually fine.

But Saturday night was excellent - Went through Southbank where they're in the middle of the Buddha Birthday Festival; so went and had a good look around, ate some interesting food, watched a dragon dance and then went to go see Dylan Moran. He's an Irish actor/stand-up comdian. I first saw him on this BBC tv show called "Black Books" where he wrote and acted in it. Man. It was reallyreallyreally funny. Basically it was about this perpetually hung-over guy who ran, but didn't really want to, his own little bookshop. He had a kinda wierd, burned-out hippy named Manny (Bill Bailey, also a really funny guy) help him run the shop and a gal named Fran ran the little gift shop next door. It was excellent, but only ran for about 3 seasons. So then he ended up going into stand-up and he's hilarious. He came and did something like 4 sold-out shows here in town and my friend Linus and I got tickets for the Saturday night. Ahhhhh, man he's so funny. Good show.

And then Sunday I met Natasha and Samantha at the Caxton Street Seafood & Wine Festival. They have this every year. Bands and food and stuff. Russell Crowe and his little band played last year but I missed it. So went this year because Natasha lives down the road and they give residents 4 free tickets (otherwise it's $10 bucks to get in). It was good, but bloody hot and no chairs (I guess so they don't become airborne by the end of the night). But I gotta say, the food & wine were quite expensive for what it was - little tiny plastic glasses, grilled shrimp skewers and an awful lot of fried stuff. Sam had some food and had to throw it out it was so bad. Oh dear. We stuck to the cheapest beer we could find ($5) and wandered around checking things out and listening to the bands. A lot of girl bands which I thought was pretty cool and they weren't half bad. But the funny thing is, for such a big-deal festival, it's only a block long and on for one day! We got there around noon and by 2pm you couldn't move for the crowds. It was crazy crowded. So we left there and headed to the Normanby Hotel, just up the road. That was fine for about an hour and then it got packed-out. So I gave up around 5pm and came home, because I've learned in my old age that I don't do large, crowded, noisy bars anymore. Hate it. So I rented some movies and fell asleep on the couch! Ahhhhhhhh!

And then today is a lovely extra day off, to ponder our labor I guess. The weather isn't as hot, the clouds are out floating around....... The laundry has been done, tho there's vacuuming to do......... Maybe a root beer float can inspire me......So there you are! Hooray for a decent gig! I'm sure you'll all be pleased to hear it and no more whining about rotten gigs! Hooray!

BYE!
J!

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!