Lemon Squash

Lemon Squash

It looks like my plans to make lemon squash has paid off, figuratively anyway. Earlier this week, I received a call from our HR Manager at Head Office to say that they had approved my request for 6months leave to travel.

I’ve pretty much decided what I want to do, but it’s still nice to have the security blanket.  I’m also glad that I did screw up and that things have panned out the way they have the last few weeks, because it has actually meant that I have had to  seriously consider what I want to do.

So, officially from Sunday there will be 2months or 8 weeks left.

Now’s The Time to Say Bye-bye!

I’m going to preface this by saying that, this is NOT going to be an ‘EMO’ post, so Amanda you don’t need to worry too much.

The title is actually in reference to a song that we sing with the children at the end of each group and is very fitting for this particular post.

The words are sung to ‘Here we go ’round the Mulberry Bush’

Now’s the time to say bye-bye, say bye-bye, say bye-bye.

Now’s the time to say bye-bye, ’cause that’s the end of <enter the name of the organisation I work for>.

With all the things that happened during the middle of last week, I’ve had to spend some time on the weekend to dissect my feelings.  The events were not as severe in magnitude as a few years back, plus I’ve learnt a lot about myself since then. I’ve surprised myself this time as I’ve coped pretty well with the break-up.

Moving on to the point of this post, in parallel to events a few years back I’ve also decided to resign from my job.

As many of you may know, I absolutely LOVE my job, I find immense joy, satisfaction and I dare say happiness in what I do.  Although, I love what I do I’ve also in recent times started to feel the monotony of work.  There could be a number of factors for this, including the fact that since the middle of last year I’ve only worked for the one organisation Monday to Fridays. Where as for the previous 2.5 years I had been working part-time across two jobs.  Whatever the reason maybe the fact remains that I’m yearning for a change.

As a result of a pretty big stuff-up on my part, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands and I have made a decision to resign.  Trawling through my ‘My Documents’ folders I’d started to realise that I’ve resigned from various places of employment 4 times in the last three years and by the end of all of this it will be a veteran number of 6 resignations.

You would have thought that by the time you’ve reached 4 resignations in such a short-time, that quitting would be ‘water-off a duck’s back‘ but given that I’m an overly sensitive soul, resigning has been incredibly difficult. In many parallels to the break-ups that have hurt the most, I’ve resigned from each work place, still really enjoying, liking and even loving my job. (Woolworths being the only exception).

It seems that I’m in quite an enviable position in terms of my love for the work that I do. Many people have asked, why? I can write a long list of reasons as to why, but…

…on Friday afternoon when I realised I needed to resign and when I finalised my letter on Sunday night, I felt a sense of relief, sure I’m extraordinarily sad about it, but I also felt excitement and for some reason it just felt like the right thing to do.

So in the next few weeks, I’ll be tweaking, editing and finalising this chapter of my life whilst at the same time, drafting and plotting the next.

Let’s hope the next chapter is as great as this last one has been!

Double Demerit – Backstreet Fail

Police Patrol

Early this morning at the end of my lovely overnight shift I decided to make my way home via mostly the back routes, to mostly avoid firstly having to think about speed cameras but also police patrols and red traffic lights. The plan worked wonderfully the day before, as it allowed me to freely and liberally get home without need to “think”. Don’t worry I am mostly always alert when I drive, but the stakes were higher as it’s “Double-Demerit” points in NSW over this long weekend.

Anyway, this morning in an attempt to miss “Carlingford Road” where a few years ago, I got caught speeding and subsequently had my licence suspended for three months, I took “Ray Road” and what were the cops doing? Those delightful smart-arses were patrolling in their shmancy police car (as seen in the picture).  I was lucky that I was able to see through the heavy rain, but also thankful for the RTA, in their near perfect placement of a speed bump, because it definitely saved me my licence and lots of money.

Graveyard Shift

Graveyard

One thing I have learnt about myself since after turning a quarter of a century old is that I am no longer cut out for all-nighters.

Saturday night was the first night I’d done an ‘overnight shift’ since finishing university and working full-time during the day and I’ve realised after one rather uneventful night that I’m NOT cut out for that stuff anymore.  I used to do crazily long shifts over the weekend.  With a pattern that resembled something like….

• Friday evening go out after uni til early hours of Saturday morning, sleep in car at work carpark.
• Saturday 4am to 4pm work at Woolworths
• Saturday after work – nap
• Saturday evening get up and go out from 6pm til 10pm
• Saturday night 11pm to 7am (Sunday) work at RIDBC Respite Service
• Sunday sleep til 12:30pm – Get up and have lunch
• Sunday afternoon 2pm til 2am (Monday) work at Woolworths
• Monday morning get up at 10am to be in time for 11am lectures

I somehow managed to cram 32hours of work (30 hours of paid work) into the space of weekend.  Oh and the rewards were enormous, especially since I have no HECS debt, a sound attitude toward hard work, where nothing is below or beyond me.

Again back to my original reason for posting, my first overnight shift was somewhat painful with a complete lack of stimulation and by that I mean entertainment.

• My work computer login account hadn’t been setup which meant NO internet
• Foxtel was DOWN which meant NO TV not even free-to-air
• All the DVDs in the house were children’s movies which I’d already seen because I’d been working with these kids for so long
• The radio reception in the house was pathetic with a lot of static.
• The internet I was trying to leech had a “poor” signal which meant in dropped out every 2seconds and thus created more frustration than relief.

I finished my ‘duties’ after a couple of hours and then managed to watch MILK which I’ll write up about later.

Perhaps what caused the most pain was the fact that I was the only one on, where as in the past there were two staff on allowing each person the luxury of 45minutes rest in between each check. With just me and no one to share those half-hourly checks, I couldn’t really take a nap.

I’m going to give myself a couple of months, where as in this past I would say that I’m doing it because I really care about the kids, I’m going to be frank and say that I’m doing this so I can finally reach my goal and travel the world!

Melbourne

Melbourne Skyline

As with any trip, its just never quite long enough. Our days in Melbourne were always going to be limited but it was a much needed ‘holiday’ where not much really happened. I probably learnt after drinking a Coffee, Ice Chocolate and then a Mint Hot Chocolate from Max Brenna that I was at the very least mildly-lactose intolerant.

The most important thing about the trip was the opportunity to reflect on the last 6months which have absolutely flown. It seemed like only yesterday that I was planning and organising my trip with Tim and Kieran. Its now July again and I’m looking towards what might be of 2010.

Many of us have chopped and changed our plans for next year, many of us have decided that next year will be the year that travels is on the agenda, its no different for me I guess. I’m still seriously considering what I want to do with Africa and The Middle East and whatever else that might occur afterward, but back to Melbourne…

The very first night we were there we ate at Oriental Tea House, they happened to be having a “Duck Month”. It was pretty good and for 10 entree sized dishes it wasn’t priced too badly, our only criticism would probably surround the often ambiguous description of the dishes, but I guess if you compare it to most Chinese restaurants it was pretty darn good.

Whilst on this trip I managed to visit the Old Melbourne Gaol for some good old colonial and Australian history, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) twice, once for the supposed “Jane Austen” exhbition with Amanda and her blog-buddy Carmen and the second time for the Salvador Dali exhibition which was absolutely amazing and recommended to anyone visiting Victoria.

Probably the most exiciting news on the trip was Kieran’s win in the Vivid Student category for Best Student Product in Vivid’s Awards for Excellence in Design. I have to say that I gave him only a very slim chance of winning, so slim that I didn’t even bother turning up to the presentation at the Furnitex show. A great show of support from his trusty friend no-less.

Lots of drinking, eating and being merry took place and may eventually be documented, but for now we’ll have to live with this very short summary of the trip.

One job, One employer and One team

This probably sounds more like the ‘One Country, One people, two system’ slogan from the reunification of Hong Kong, but in the 7~8 years of my working life. I’ve always had multiple jobs at one point I remember having up to 4 con-current paid jobs. If you counted voluntary work I would have almost always had 4 jobs and at its peak probably 6 jobs at any one time. In terms of paid employment this year has been the year where I’ve started to cut down the number of jobs, not all by choice.

In April, the Respite and Recreation Service for which I continued to work for long after finishing university finally closed down and although I went through the interviewed process and offered a casual position at the new Respite Service, I ultimately declined the opportunity to work in care again.

Finally at the end of May I was offered the opportunity to work full-time at Lifestart which I have worked for since I graduated. Incidentally, I’ve had an association with Lifestart for a number of year now, as I used to volunteer there as a student.

From the start of this month and hence for the last two weeks I have been working at the one place.  It was a hard decision to make in leaving The Spastic Centre, but now after having endured a month of wrapping-up and wondering what it would be like, I have to say I’m feeling the benefits in terms of stress and overall happiness in the work place. The Spastic Centre is undergoing a number of changes and on top of that, my own frustrations with the limited resources for my caseload was getting to me a bit. There wasn’t one reason that contributed to my decision to leave, but for those who decide to make decisions based purely on finances I urge you to read on.

I would have been significantly better off in the long-term had I remained at The Spastic Centre, but happiness and the reduction of my stress levels far out weigh the benefits. I guess my point there is that unless you’ve got some exuberantly large debt and you can do without some of the materialistic ways in which we live, choose the option where you know is going to be ‘health’ wise better for you. I guarantee that you’ll be a happier person.

The Source

Hand, Foot and Mouth

So today I returned to Lifestart for the first time, in three weeks (we’ve had school holidays ) I was glad to be back, but a bit mentally exhausted and overwhelmed by the workload that I had left for myself.

It’s nice to walk back into an office where everyone is genuinely concerned about your well being, and not JUST because they need you to do the work and complete your role. It’s a really good feeling. I guess its why I enjoy working so much.

I found out today the source of my ‘Hand, Foot and Mouth’ disease. In fact I found out about two possible sources of the outbreak. The first in China which is a possibility, but highly unlikely. The more likely story was that a local preschool that I visit quite regularly recently had an outbreak of the disease. Apparently, there’s a incubation period for the disease hence why I only got it on the last week of school holidays.

Either way, I’m much better now, I’m on a full diet of solids and thin fluids and I’m going to discharge myself.

On a tangent though… lately life has been pretty good. Aside from being sick and a little exhausted as a result, I’m feeling that I’m getting my rhythm back in life and I’m enjoying the move out of home.

I also discovered the other night that I have a few standards when dating…

1. Must not be a FOB
2. Must not be a religious fundamentalist
3. Shall not have parents who are crazier than mine (though not strictly)
4. Also someone who thinks for themselves
5. Prefer not to have someone who works in finance/accounting/economics etc, but I’m not strict on this rule. Mostly because there are clearly diamonds in the rough
6. Must enjoy food (This is a definite and I don’t think this is negotiable)

I think they’re very good basic rules, nothing that really eliminates anyone, but also something that helps me realise just a little of where my preference lye. Obviously, there are things you look for when you’re dating such as your caring personalities, humour etc, etc but I think you soon get to realise those when you meet and talk to the person.