Fool on the Hill

First things first. This is for Rachy.
It's a shout out at the Clyde and it's on THIS Saturday. I may be there with my camera (hidden and otherwise). Actually, just remembered I have the kid that day. I'll see.

Anyway, be there or be talked about.



OK... the following is pretty dull so you have been warned. I treat my blog as a journal for my kid to read to me when I'm in the sanitarium she puts me in.

Anyway, these are the chronicles of my job hunting the past fortnight. The dull starts here. My contract ended here on the 28th Feb and I'd got a job offer from a mob in the building 5 doors down and it was in the building of this girl I knew and that just added to the complexity/excitement/novelty. I dont think she'd have minded but her wife might not have liked it, BUT that's another story. "Start anytime in March", they said. Work wanted a 1 week extension. Sure, I said. Asked the new mob. No problems. Then another week extension. Same thing. Then a third. Emailed the new mob. No reply. Not wanting to seem 'too keen', I rang them up 2 working days later. 'Dont worry. We got someone else.' Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh...... I said. Ahhhhhhhhh, I said again. I was *so* annoyed at myself for not asking for the job offer to be on paper, annoyed at them for not telling me that they werent willing to wait anymore (I'd have ditched the current work) and annoyed at the current work for extending me 1 week at a time (5 times!). Granted, I'm getting a farewell lunch every week but the turnout has been pretty poor lately.

Job interview #2. I'd worked with this person before. Got the job email Thursday night, interview Friday evening. They were desperate. MUST deliver in 4 weeks. It would be stress city. They want me to start Monday morning. Told them I'd need to go back a day or 2 to hand over stuff. They cant allow that, they say. I told them morally (whatever that is), I cannot accept the job then. Immediately after the interview, I rang my current work commiting myself to them for another 2 weeks. 60 seconds later, I get a call from the interviewers. They say, OK, I can go back to hand over stuff if I still want the job. "Dude, you are 60 seconds too late". Crazy really. They get me, they lose 1 day this week. Today is Wednesday, they still havent got anyone, so they have lost 3 days already. Loyalty? Gawd, I hate having it. I dont know if I did the clever thing, but I think I did the right thing. And I'm relieved it worked out this way.

Job interview #3. I found out that the person who would be doing the phone interview was someone I worked with 4 years ago. I will refrain from saying too much cos I remember reading somewhere that employers sometimes do online research on job applicants. So apart from expressing a curiousity as to *why* he would want to interview me and asking you guys what the polite word is for stupid, I will leave it at that. O.K., just this bit then. I got 30 minutes worth of questions like these... "Chai, have you ever been really busy and your colleague asks you for your help. How would you handle this, Chai?" and "Chai, you are behind in your work and your manager hands you even more work. What would you do, Chai?". I was beginning to wonder what sort of technical position I had applied for.

Anyway, I did finally get a job. I start on the 10th April. It's with some people I used to work with. Yes, I know I'm professionally promiscuous. Anyway, the offices are the poshest I've ever seen. The work environment is like a hotel lobby, lots of space. It's really new and really well furnished. No expense spared. It'll be different from what I'm used to. Hope I can wear jeans not have to wear a tie, cos the elastic on my tie is a little frayed, from old age. Bow tie, you say?

Good eh? So have been very busy with work, looking for new work and as usual, preparing my tax for the ATO and trying to fit in a semblance of a social life in there somewhere. Frigging paper work. Next job, I'm going permanent even with all these new IR laws. Just need to work for a company with > 100 employees.

And I lost pennant racquetball to an 18 y.o. GIRL! The guys now want me to wear a skirt next time I play. Sure, no problems, I said. I already do that at home.
Is there no end to my humiliation? But anyway, 2 of the guys on the Australian C'wealth table tennis team, I've beaten before in competition, so there. Nyeh, nyeh. Oh yeah, I may have forgotten to mention the small matter that they were little kids then. Take that, you snotty little 12 y.o. OK, one was 17 and the other 15.

Live On My Mind

See you standing in the door against the dark
Fireflies around you like a crown of sparks
You blow me a kiss that blurs my vision
Blurs the human condition

You're the ocean ringing in my brain
You are my island ripe with cane
Catch the scent of strange flowers when you pass
Fluid motion like the wind in grass

It's your eyes I want to see
Looking into mine
Got you live on my mind
All the time

Light me like incense in the night
Light me like a candle burning bright
Light me like a searchlight in the sky
Time means nothing when I look in your eyes

It's your eyes I want to see
Looking into mine
Got you live on my mind
All the time

It's your eyes I want to see
Looking into mine
Got you live on my mind
All the time


* I love this song so much right now. Only version I can find is by Elbow though.

Random observations

As the world turns, (+ other midday TV serial titles), check out my restaurant review.

Here are some non-sequitur bits milling around in my brain (cos there's lots of room there).

* The USA is pushing for US infrastructure to be made US owned only. Implications? I think most of the private electricity companies here are US owned.

* It's better for one to be part of the team in opposition than for the team to be in government but without said one.

* Oil spill in Alaska. Hmmm... maybe I shouldnt have driven in this morning. Didnt feel like riding in the rain and the trains are running on Sunday timetables.

* The Queen is in town. Hmmm, hmmmm and hmmmm again.



* Last week, I saw Jana Pittman when walking in from the train station (near the CAE). She had a half smile on her face but was avoiding eye contact with all. Which got me to thinking, if I wanted to keep a low profile, I shouldnt be wearing a flourescent yellow tracksuit in the city at 9 a.m. in the morning.

* I picked up the plane tickets for the kid and I to visit her grandparents in June. She is really excited. Mine is more a mixture of mild dread and extreme dread.

* I am at work on a public holiday. Which is not that bad as I'm taking Tuesday off instead, to look after the kid.

On a lighter note, check this out dude. My restaurant review. Granted, it was done hurriedly cos I wanted the blog to have a constant flow of 2 reviews a week and the well is dry.

This band is becoming more prominent in my playlist. I should try and find out why the unusual name. Having said that, Steely Dan's Peg is my current ear worm. I think it's the funky rhythm.

Finally, I am happy but I hope the rest of my life is not going to be like this (while maintaining or exceeding my level of happiness, of course).

Point of this post? None.

The Glass Shatters1

exhales [Note this is not a downer post. It's just a snapshot of my life in February. In the words of Team America, Everything is bon. I am happy'ish. This was added post publishing after seeing the first few comments received. :-) ]

It has been a hectic and horrible month, and thus setting the tone for this post. My contract ends² this Tuesday, on the 28th February and of course, to finish up, I am working like crazy and late (8pm? 9pm?) almost every other night, and that's only because I have the kid over and racquetball on those other nights.
I'd added some new functionality into our system and then it suddenly all stopped working. Eeeek. Indeed. The customer was pretty pissed. Words like lawsuit kept popping up. 8 working days later with 2 of us on the case, it was some stupid obscure configuration problem. Bottom line, the system now works. Yayyyyy! More importantly, it WASNT my fault. What a frigging waste of my life. Almost 2 weeks, pissed down whereever, for nothing, and it was a very tense and stressful 2 weeks. One's self-belief takes a bit of a pounding. And all that hair.



When I was a kid and my Dad was my age, I always got the impression he was so in control, confident and in charge of what he did at work. I wonder now if he was ever semi-hysterical, a blubbering mess and full of self-doubt, just another cog in the wheel of inconsequentiality. I sometimes wonder how I appear to my kid. She thinks I work in a paper clip factory. "Really?", I ask her. "Always have, dude", she says.

I got called in for an interview at a job agency, which is like a frigging waste of time anyway, cos they only want to see you so they can tell the client they actually met with you and that they're not just a resume forwarding service which is what they are anyway. I dont like the idea of them. They take like 20% off the top of what I get, which I think is way too much for the service they provide. Anyway, they asked me if I'd used XYZ before. There was a 2 second window there where I had to decide either to be surly and say things like 'Did you read my resume at all?'. I decided to be nice. It was touch and go there. Apparently, one becomes less patient with age.

I think I need a job like what this lady has. I reckon anyone can do a better job than her. Frigging waste of my tax dollars. How can a person with that attitude and that level of awareness, ever get a job like that? And Mr Costello too? Perhaps it's some clever ploy to distract everyone from the AWB conga dance. We get nothing from them, I feel. Nothing.

Funny how everyone wants something for nothing. My housemate, my employer. Details? Just the usual money thing.

And is it wrong to feel (very) slightly uncomfortable if I were to go see Brokeback Mountain with just a male friend, as opposed to a group of male friends. Maybe I have issues. I do want to go see the movie.

And thus ends this months blog of my life as a dog.

Postscript :
I still have to do my quarterly BAS which is due this Tuesday. Procrastination? I guess this is what this blog entry is all about. I'm off to vacuum now and then change the sheets and about a quarter to midnight, I'll start on the BAS.

¹I have stepped from the virtual and into the real world and have met my first blogger. Feel weird? You betcha. In the sense the depth of the conversation was more than what I..., never mind. Humble apologies for the size of the pic (500kb).

²No need to worry, if you were. There seems to be a bit of work out there. Just a matter of $$$. I've actually got a job offer, 4 buildings down the street, at $X, but I said I wanted $X + $20. No harm in asking, I thought. Lunch money. They were supposed to ring me on Friday, but didnt. Ah well. Sometimes the train leaves without me too. But I'm happy to potter around for a while.

A thousand words