Thursday, May 15, 2008

YL - 5 for the price of 1.

Who could resist a good bargain anyway? *chuckle*

1. Graduation was a day of silent victory for me. I felt like I was happy/pleased but I couldnt really cheer. I knew what I had gone through to be there that day ... and I think I just wasnt sure how it all added up. Dinner with family & people who made it imminently possible for me to finish this degree was lovely. I think everyone was happy and more so, everyone got along! I celebrated but it really felt like my heart wasnt in it. Hmm.
2. Work is blargy. I really dont enjoy working at any time (especially till 11pm weeknights) when I'm the only junior person covering the whole place! That's 200 beds. And more, I dont enjoy horribly menial tasks. There are jobs that do not require someone who spent 10 years at Uni to do! Argh. I do not want more random overtime!
3. I also resent being told that I need to have "better time management" when I express that there are more jobs than 1 person can do (re above comment) without being completely exhausted and unable to stop to eat/drink.
4. I miss being paid $22/hr at the labs. I now get paid $25/hr and $27/hr next year. The difference in responsibility is incongruent to the renumeration!
5. There's a beach 5min down the road from me, but with work - I've only been there once in the 6 weeks I've been here. That was the 1st weekend. I'm determined to go there in 1 hr before work!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Dan: 9 posts for the price of one

I've been lazy about updating any of my blogs, so here's the last week's worth of updates:
  1. Elora and Atticus were crook last week, with diarrhoea and a cough respectively - the thing about nappies is they make dealing with diarrhoea much easier :)
  2. Preparations to travel to the US are still rather byzantine. I'm still waiting on paperwork (Department of Immigration sent me a receipt for my payment for citizenship papers, but not the papers. I've ordered my new Oz passport.
  3. As of two minutes ago, I'm officially in my mid thirties.
  4. Work is hella busy. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I'm sure I've got about twice as much to do as I used to.
  5. Got a wireless Mighty Mouse for my early birthday present. Now I've got to upgrade to a modern version of Linux if I want to get it running (or buy a Mac).
  6. Finally up to date with watching How I Met Your Mother. Funny show. They'd better keep making it. Or I'll stab them. Now I've gotta catch up with all my other TV.
  7. Got myself an iPod Touch. I feel I ought to know how they work before going to WWDC, and develop something that runs nicely on one. It's a very nifty toy. I recommend them. Once the iPhone comes out I'll definitely get one of them (and Jen will get an the Touch as an iPod upgrade).
  8. Elora is a very clever girl. She has been counting! To four! (for a 15 month old, that's very clever). Also, she's super cute at the moment (which I guess doesn't really need to be said. Everyone know that already).
  9. Dante is a world of super itchiness. We've treated three different sources of itchiness, but he seems to have additional itch-causing ailments. At some point, I'm just gonna get a medical encyclopedia and list all possible causes of itchiness, and give the kid a super combo medical cocktail to sort them all out at once. Also, he's really enjoying his Extension classes. And we've had to have extensive (unrelated) discussions about how it's OK if other kids call you a nerd, and to not let it bother you. Peer pressure is starting to kick in, and he was quite worried for a while there when the other kids started hassling him out for being clever. I pointed out the irony of being called a nerd by a bunch of kids obsessed with Star Wars, Ben 10, and Pokemon.

Kit: Zilch for Greenie credits

Had a bit of brain idiocy last night. I thought: "Oh, I have a meeting in town tomorrow at 9am and 2pm-5pm. I know, I'll get a pool car and drive in. "

I awoke at 6am (having missed my 530 alarm), and thought: "What!? Why am I driving in? I should have taken the train, and then I could have slept in, *and* been able to snooze on the train, *and* not have to dance with peak hour traffic. "

1.5 hours later... I finally get into town (generally a 50min non-peak-hour journey).

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Anna : Can't see straight ...

In the thick of another training project, but this time Hivers get to share my pain because some of them have to attend (hey Jen, hey Joe). Only two days of work to go!

Paul at boxing has re-defined "hard", cutting out most of the breaks we used to enjoy so much. Had a family dinner that went well, olives were a motif, figuring in almost every dish and Guy's dad Steve may have been brought around to the joys of the chickpea.

and deja vu ... just now!

Becstarr : Early, but still not early enough

Still not getting up early enough to make 7:30am yoga. Used the time instead to clean my room a bit, and found my camera which has been missing since I moved! Also picked up mi pasaporte this morning - I think that makes the turnaround 10 working days. Good work DFAT!

Jaime and Shannon’s amazing powers

J&S have been and gone. The day they arrived in Scottyland was our first real spring day in weeks. While they were here the fog made 2 attempts to return but using their combined powers J&S let the sun shine. At one point it hit 22°! That's almost a heatwave. On Thursday we climbed Arthurs seat and Jaime worked up a really good sunburn. On Friday I waved goodbye to them at Waverly and within 10 minutes the rain had returned and most of the weekend was fogged in. I guess Jaime and Shannon need to spend more time in Edinburgh :)

Monday, May 12, 2008

Jaime - Let's party like its 1699

I had my nose smashed by a sword and got to fire a pistol. This holiday is awesome!