the last

Today is my last day at work - for reals this time! Cowabunga!!

Shan

small and wise

August 6: Today my workplace threw me a "goodbye morning tea". There was catering, speeches and gifts. It was all very unexpected, especially considering I've only worked here for 6 months! My bosses gave me a scarf and a brooch. My workmates had a collection and gave me the cash in Canadian dollars - score!

It was a lovely morning, I felt very lucky.

August 5: Today was Zanne's last day at work. We celebrated in fabulous style at Ric's.

Note Zanne's use of her bargain tissues in the top right photograph - read about the bargain tissues here. Also note the lovely couple in the bottom right photograph - we met them at some point during the night. They were cool, so we invited them to stay with us in Vancouver.

Shan

tramps like us, baby we were born to run

July 26: Today was my Stepdad's birthday. Lunch at a local country pub was followed by a family dinner of birthday nachos.

Happy birthday to Ned!

PS. There are pics here of little Noah celebrating his Grandad's birthday. Noah enjoys "helping" now - helping to cook, to eat our dinner, to dry dishes, to put candles in the birthday cake, etc. Note Noah's first black eye! He fell into his Mum's bed frame, poor chook. July 25: We attended a wonderful lunch today at Dame Sybil Von Thorndike's home. Dame Sybil is a 70 year drag queen named Laurie. Zanne became acquainted with Laurie and his partner of 30 years, Wayne, during her organising of the inaugral Queens Birthday Community Awards. The Community Awards were borne out of the Queens Ball, an annual Brisbane Ball established almost 50 years ago by Laurie and Wayne.

We were invited to lunch, along with Martin and Gary and another lesbian couple, Carol and Annie. Carol was the lead singer of local band Railroad Gin in the 70s - my Mum was impressed by this! Laurie and Wayne have a wonderful home, complete with two chandeliers, and were perfect hosts. Considering we were seedy from our night out though, it was a bit of a struggle to keep up, especially when we were handed a margherita almost immediately upon arrival!

We particularly enjoyed the conversation during lunch... The other guests were a generation or two older than Zanne and I and recounted tales of the "old" days (only 30ish years ago) when homosexuality was underground - the Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen days, the days of police informants and poofter bashers - stuff that, thankfully, we have no experience of. And I'm so grateful for that.

So what has a picture of a cat got to do with any of this? Nothing. But our camera died after taking this picture of Zanne's workmate's (Dave) cat this morning.

PS. Thank you to Dave for letting us stay the night!

July 24: Zanne's workplace had a picnic in the park this Friday afternoon, which quickly became a very drunken and fun night out. Here are various pics of everyone in various poses and states of soberness. Such fun peeps!

Shan

less than a month

It is Friday 24 July today - this time next month we will be in Vancouver! Oh boy, if only the days could pass faster. This week I've been distracted by thoughts of new creative projects, new community projects, a new career, new excursions and fun ways to pass the time - but all of that is on hold for now. We're still here, and we have to finish up our jobs, and save last minute cash-ola, and continue putting our various paperworks and documents in order, and pack our belongings and, and, and... I'm just keen to start the next part of our life is all. I'm so excited for the first day we wake up in Vancouver...

In other news, Zanne's replacement started last Monday and the handover is well underway. My replacement begins next Monday. My job really isn't very difficult so I'm not sure how I'm going to stretch the training thing out to two weeks. I fear my last week might involve a lot of sitting around. Luckily I am a master in the art of time suckage.

Enjoy your weekend, peeps.

Shan

I don’t like Mondays

Today is Friday and I’m relieved. Relieved because I’m looking forward to two happy days at home with my love; relieved because we’re another week closer to our Vancouver relocation (155 days to go!). The thing is, I don’t like my job much. At first the lack of challenge was a novelty, but now it has become a challenge in its own right! I’m bored and frustrated. Previously I was a legal secretary for 3 lawyers and had control of my own workload, which included dealing with multiple,simultaneous deadlines and producing complex legal documents, etc… I’m lucky if I write one letter a day here. And if I were to write a letter it would be after one of my Officers explained their self-explanatory handwritten notes to my Coordinator who then explained them to me. Everything is convoluted and inefficient here. Gah. I shouldn’t complain though, I’m well paid and my job is secure. Damn the current economic climate! I was made redundant from said previous job at the end of last year and as a result, job security currently ranks higher than job satisfaction for me - which doesn't mean I won't whinge about my lack of job satisfaction!

So anyways, to pass the time while I’m at work (and to help pretend that I’m not at work!) I do a lot of daydreaming. I daydream about Zanne: hanging out with, planning secret dates for, moving to Vancouver with, marrying, having babies with, owning a home with – you get the idea. I daydream about screen printing and establishing our business and writing a film and finishing my degree and my fabulous future jobs and word plays and my family and being a part of a book club and winning the lottery and Vancouver (always Vancouver!). I read the news and study and do research and complete the weekly tasks for each of my uni subjects. I listen to music and google lyrics and write blogs… I do all of this daydreaming, etc and still manage to complete my work. I’d like to say this is due to my wonderful ability to multi-task, but really it’s just an indication of how light my workload is.

Shan

PS.

The above brings to mind an Ani Difranco lyric: “my distraction is my defense against this lack of inspiration”.

Just quietly, I anticipate the other side of the weekend will bring a different lyric to mind: “Tell me Why? I don’t like Mondays”.

Sulky McSulk

I’m at work and I’m sulking. I’m sulking because my Section has just been “shuffled” and now I’m working for the only two high maintenance, micro managing Officers of the group. I’ve been totally shafted – damn being the new kid! My colleague, who previously was working for one of said Officers, is so happy with the new arrangement she is literally bouncing about the place. I kinda wanna punch her. I know I can cope with a greater workload/more complex working arrangement but that doesn’t make it fair right? Grr!

Shan

an interesting and recurring cast of characters

The day-to-day life of me involves a regular "ride to work and go to the gym" routine. The two excursions have come to reveal an interesting and recurring cast of characters…

Riding to work I see:

The lawyer-looking muscle man who struts along chewing gum and wearing a bandana
The shirtless old bike riding man with saggy pecs
The unicycle guy
The guy who looks like my friend Travis
The guy who rides with his infant son sitting in a little seat on the crossbar of his bike (like a joey in a pouch – it is so sweet!)

At the gym I see:

The Great Wall of China Marathon woman who is so skinny she makes me feel uncomfortable
The ladies man RPM trainer who always plays to a packed house

I see these people almost every day and they have become familiar to me (in their particular settings), even though we don’t know each other. It makes me wonder whether we are all an interesting and recurring character in the day-to-day life of someone?

- Shan

knifeknife

Jan 23: amongst the party goods for tomorrow's cocktail party a packet of forks labelled "knifeknife"

Jan 22: day one of my new job - induction material, induction material and more induction material

Shan