Sunny, windy, rainy ... Melbourne

Well, I'm standing at the booth, stealing a little net time while I write this. My feet are killing me and boredom is looking over my shoulder.

I left Brisbane bright and early on Sunday morning. I had booked the taxi for 08:20. Just to allow a little extra time in case it turned up late. But guess what. It turned up early. I had to phone my travel partner and let her know. Cause, like, she wouldn't have been ready otherwise.

We made the flight in good time. As a member of the Qantas club, she is allowed a guest, so once checked in - priority of course - off we went to the club. I was disappointed to discover that they let children in there. And oh joy, weren't there plenty of them too. Annoying little buggers.

And hey presto. They swarmed our flight as well. Don't you love school holidays? And the baby cried. Of course. Is there any other outcome? Luckily for me, the flight only lasted about three hours.

So I've been here for two and a half days now. I haven't seen anything of Melbourne. Oh, apart from going out to dinner last night. A quick taxi ride up to Bridge Street, a short stroll along the block to pick a restaurant. We ended up at a little Nepalese one, and I had a curried prawn dish. It was an entree, and cost me less than $10. And it was delicious.

The conference dinner is tonight. It's scheduled for the venue. Which means we won't be travelling anywhere.

Oh, and the venue. It's one of those fading beauty ones. It looks quite grand, but when you look closely, you can see the faded patches, the discolourations, the chips in the wood finish....





We have my room, looking back toward the entrance; the view from my window - I was on the fifth floor; looking down on the lobby from the balcony on the fifth.

On another note, and I'm not sure if I mentioned it before. So I will tell it again. The Teen does have a full time job. She went back last week. Wednesday. She managed to contact the boss man, and he told her to come in Wednesday, and make sure she's wearing a smile.

So I guess she must have. She finished off the week. And it seems that on those days, she enjoyed herself. And maybe the people she will be working with won't be so bad after all....

The quiet. I has too much of it.

It's late afternoon on a Saturday; the regular crowd has all gone...

I'm home by myself. All are out. The Teen is with Wogboy for today and tomorrow. Sunny is away. MOTH is doing his neighbourhood watch thing. And the phone has just woken me from a nanna nap. And it wasn't even for me.

It's been a strange week all round. Work has been busy. I was supposed to be going on a training course next week. And the week after that work is finally sending me somewhere. I have to mind a stand at a conference. In Melbourne. So I am required to do all the prepping and packing for that as well as my normal tasks.

I withdrew from the training course. I couldn't see my way clear to finalise travel for one trip, do costs for another, finish typing minutes, organise everything for the booth at the conference, do a tape run, organise flights for the boss and me to Melbourne all in two days. I'm bloody good. But I'm not that good.

So I have been busy.

On Thursday, the Teen went into the salon to start work. The girl on the front desk told her that she was going to call her to ask her to come back on the Friday at the same time. The Teen was ok with that. She was given the paperwork and we left.

I had managed to sneak away from work for the morning.

We walked down to Roma Street to see Sunny off. He's gone north to visit for a couple of weeks. When he returns, he will have Judah with him.

So, he doesn't like travel much, and he'd apparently never done a trip by himself of that distance before. We saw him off. While waiting, the Teen started sneezing.

She does these little cat sneezes. Cute they are. But there are many. And she didn't feel well. Uh oh.

Sure enough, Friday dawned. And she had a sore throat to go with it. Still, she went to work. About lunch time, I got a call. They've sent me home sick. Can you take me home? Oh. The story came that they didn't want sick people working for them. Oh dear. And if she still wanted the job, she was to call next week.

That doesn't sound promising. At all. I don't know if she has a job to go back to. And she's now telling herself that they were all bitches; they didn't talk to her, they didn't show her anything and they all talked about her clothes and her hair behind her back. She was there, what, two hours? And she noticed all this?

I was so proud of her. Now I hope she doesn't talk herself out of it because it required a little effort. I think what I feel now is disappointment. She's screwed herself over.

And to top it off, MOTH got a phone call. His mother is in hospital. Fluid on the lungs. And heart problems. We are waiting to see what happens now. At this point, it could be a trip to hospital here to have an external pacemaker fitted.

Gosh, it's quiet here...

A great weekender

The weekend just gone was sort of strange.

I can't remember if it began on a strange note or finished on one. The Teen got into one of her moods. And when she's in those, anything goes. She can be positively hilarious. And of course, totally irreverant, crude and doesn't care a jot what others think.

I don't know what triggered it, but I found her talking to the Elder on msn. Hello Elder. *sighs* Misses that girl.

And next thing I know, she's wrapped her head, turban style, in a pillowcase. An old scarf covered the lower part of her face so only her eyes were visible. She had suddenly become O Hannah bin Montannah and it was all Bang Bang and the blowing up of things. Complete with accent and sharp gestures. I wished I had a photo to upload for your viewing pleasure.

As if that wasn't hilarious enough, a day or so later, she was in her pyjamas, rolling around the floor. She was a drunk aboriginal man. Complaining about his wife, using a goon sack for a pillow, and life in general. And how things were back in the Dreamtime. Complete with accent and swear words.

I think the couch narrowly escaped a wetting, and I thought I would have to call the ambulance for Sunny. Poor chap couldn't breathe.

-------------------------------------------------------

The Teen went out on Friday night. She and Wogboy were to attend a gig in an area where they hadn't been before. After careful route plotting, I emailed her the details. She printed them out. And left them on the desk when she left the house.

She told me on her return that the place turned out to be easy to find. And the gig was Osssum! On reflection though, that's probably more a term that the Elder would use. But it was good, none the less.

She was gone Friday to Sunday.

Sunny went out on Saturday. He had a movie date with his mum, and a sleepover at a friend's place. He sent me a beautiful text message which I received just as he walked into the railway station. He always does that for me, and I really love him for it. It's wonderful to be told often that you're loved and appreciated.

So, Saturday night it was just MOTH and I. And it felt strange. I can't remember what we did in the morning. Probably went to the local shopping centre. That's what old people do for excitement. We decided that we would get takeaway for dinner and later that evening rocked up to KFC. It's not my favourite, but there was no sense driving all around the place for food. And I managed to have a Summer Hummer for dessert - vodka, raspberry cordial and lemonade.

For some reason, Sunny flipped me the bird when I told him that....

And Sunday MOTH decided he needed his 'smiles'. He gets those from the girls in the bakery at the shopping centre when he buys his coke. And he treated me to a plain meat pie. And for a round pie in a foil tray, it wasn't too bad.

Sunday afternoon, he decided to break out in a big way. He took me to Maccas for a sundae. Now that, people, is a break out indeed.

So, that was the sum of my weekend. Very quiet and very boring in an old person sort of way.

I'm thinking that maybe that's what I'm going to find the scariest of all when eventually I am an empty nester. I will have no one to keep me young....

A rousing chorus of Money, Money, Money...

Just lately, the Teen has been putting in resumes. Fair enough, at places she's found on the web. But that's a start. The bargain was, that if she found herself a full time apprenticeship, we would let her leave school. No point her wasting her time, our time and the school's time.

So early this week she got a call. Come and see us on Wednesday at 2pm. She accepted. She got another call - talk about spoiled for choice. Come and see us they said. She turned that one down because she didn't think she could have another day off school to see them.

I'd never heard of either salon. The first one can be found on the web www.heavenonadeliade.com.au

The second offered to teach their apprentice make up as well.

She found out afterward that she would have been allowed to have the day off school.

But she attended the 2pm session. It lasted about 5 minutes. And she was asked, if offered, would she work full time? She said yes....

So, she goes back at 10am next Thursday. We aren't sure yet if this is a proper start or to fill in paperwork or for, heck, a second interview. We shall see.

But she proposes to visit the salon on the weekend and confirm everything.

*sniff* my baby is all grown up and savin hair....

Wha? Was that time rushing by?

It seems to have been some small time since I last updated this. A couple of weeks in which so much seems to have happened. And yet, in reality, nothing.

Work has been so busy, I have barely had time to think. Again, it was into crisis mode to get some travel organised. I haven't even had time to read any of my regular bloggy reading. Does that give you an idea? Add to that a manager who was hassling me to complete a task which was about two weeks overdue. Gravfield suggested that I ask for a day to work at home. It was something I hadn't considered before - the GTs do it all the time, but we're just admin. Why should they let us do that? But I asked, and hey! They let me! So I worked from home on the Friday. All day. With just a couple of small breaks and about 3/4 hour for lunch. And it still took me all day to complete the task. I got the travel crisis completed last Thursday though.

---------------------------------

The Teen went to a cocktail party yesterday. I know, a cocktail party. There doesn't seem to be any way to avoid that kind of thing these days. It is a little disconcerting though, when she casually mentions that there were drugs there. I know, again, it's something that you can't avoid these days. You just have to close your eyes and cross your fingers and hope they have the maturity to choose to do the right thing.

She's still with Wogboy. And sitting in the lounge chair watching Juno. It's such a cute movie. If you haven't seen it, you might like to.

---------------------------------

Sunny doesn't have a job yet. But it hasn't been long. He's been looking and has some leads. He doesn't get out of the house much though, and is beginning to feel trapped and lonely. He has a no go on some extra cirricular activities which his friends indulge in, and that's making getting out and socialising a little difficult.

---------------------------------

The Elder seems to be settling in well. God's Waiting Room doesn't offer much opportunity by way of gainful employment, so she isn't working yet. Apparently they are waiting for the tourist season when work picks up. If she can grab a job during that time, it should keep her out of trouble until the new year. They are thinking of relocating to the big smoke then. Just considering at the moment. We will wait and see.

---------------------------------

And one of the GTs who has been there like, forever, has been given the chance to move on. And he's grabbed it with both hands. Pfft! That's right. Move on and take your free dvds and fudge with you. Damn Canada.

But he brought his children into the office for a public viewing last Friday. They are named Sophie and Ferris. Wriggly, furry, smelly, bitey things they are. And oh, so cute!!! I didn't hold them; to wriggly for me. But I did get to scratch and pat them. Nnnaaaawwwwww.

---------------------------------

Urgh. I hear slurpy noises on the couch behind me.... gross! Wonder who that could be?

---------------------------------

It's Father's day today. MOTH has been busy. He is supposed to be taking it easy, but I hadn't moved yet, so he's stripped the bed and done the washing. Tch. Naughty. The Elder sent him a tin of shortbread. The brand is Mac's. I don't know where the hell she got them from, but they would have to be about the best I've tasted. Sweet. Not soft. Hmmmmm.

The big kicker though is that I have to phone my father. I love him dearly, but oh! How I hate that phone. It's lunch time and I have yet to work up the gumption to actually dial. I don't know why I hate phones so much, but my heart pounds and my palms tingle. Why can't I just gridlink and send a message that way? Better just get it over and done with I suppose...