Blah blah post about work

Am being seduced by a consultancy firm at the moment. Whilst the people who work there are of top quality and it's kinda like working with the best of the best, I just don't know if I am ready for the power suit and I wasn't blessed with glossy thick perfect hair so I'm not sure whether I can pull off the look. It's all under the table, the partner I'm friends with doesn't want to be seen to be poaching me so we meet in dim coffee shops. Yesterday he told me I was a 'known person of substance'. I sure hope he was referring to my work and not my weight. This time he actually asked me directly if I would like to work for his company. They don't take just anyone so it is flattering but they want me to go permanent and I just want to go contracting and have a couple of flings before settling down with another company.

I emailed the head of HR yesterday (well if they wanted me to go to someone lower down the chain then they should publish their contact details on the intranet). I requested a review of my bonus calculation two months ago now and I still haven't got any answer. My email was something like 'I still have not had any response after two months, clearly management are not taking this matter seriously and so I have commenced looking for work elsewhere.'

Well boy did that get a response, I've never had so many phone calls from HR, I ignored them as I want them to respond in writing. I got pulled into a manager's office and was told they had been looking into it and they had found an error but they weren't going to tell me anything till a correction was approved. I felt like I was being told off for being a petulant child.

So I'm gonna get the rest of my bonus but I'm still planning on quitting on January 4th. I've got my permanent job offers to fall back on if I can't arrange contract work.

Guess who's getting a new car?

Me, me, me!!! I just have to wait 2 months for it to be delivered. I've never had a new car before.

I'm giving my car to my mum when I get the new one and she is very happy with the price (that would be $0). Just doesn't feel right to take money from my mum when she needs the money way more than I do. It's still in pretty good condition so she's as excited about getting my old car as I am about getting my new car.

No trick or treaters

So what do I do with these?

Then & Now

Like John Farnham, just because I say it's the last time, doesn't mean it has to be... ;-)

I've got a 4 day weekend, had planned to garden today but it's already almost 30 degrees (86 Fahrenheit) with a predicted top of 30 and its only midday, no clouds in the sky so I think it may exceed the forecast. Plus UV levels are rated as very high so best to keep it to indoor activities only today.

Think I might have to go shopping. It's Halloween today which is not really celebrated in Australia the way it is in America. Sometimes you get a bunch of kids trick or treating but most of the time you don't. So I'm not sure if I should buy lollies just in case, I could end with a huge pile of lollies and no one to eat them but me. I made a batch of witches fingers and took them to work yesterday. Try carrying a see through box of fingers to work, lots of stares on the train, the woman sitting next to me told me they were gorgeous and everyone at work was quite impressed.

Took a couple of photos of my backyard to compare to what it was when I moved in. It's still a work in progress.

Daisy bushes before

Daisy bushes after

To blog or not to blog?

I have been contemplating ditching my blog. I think I'm running out of things to say and even I am over hearing me complain about work.

Also, I am constantly worried someone I know is going to come across my blog...

I think I might just switch to facebook, yeah I know, I resisted it and now I find that I actually like it and it's actually refreshing being able to say things as me. Of course I can't complain about work or my mother (I really shouldn't anyway) but I think having to be more positive in my comments will help me be more positive.

In short, I'm over complaining... if you're interested in being a facebook friend, let me know. I'm going to deblog in a couple of days.

Dinner & a movie

Went and saw Julie and Julia this afternoon (caught up with my work pretty quickly with no interruptions). I thought it was a nice enough movie, not great but not bad.

I had an eggplant and some rainbow chard that I had to use up so tonight I made eggplant cutlets with tomato sauce and olives (from Vegan Italiano) and cooked the chard with garlic, olive oil, white beans and a little salt, tasted pretty good. Well tasted much better than it photographed.

Sunset Walk

Keeping the tradition of leaving at 4 on Fridays, my team and I left at 4 and caught a tram out to St Kilda Friday afternoon. Went to a vegetarian restaurant on the beach and had a couple of drinks, then one of my colleagues and I decided to go for a walk. It was really a beautiful evening, sunny and warm walking along the beach at sunset, so nice we ended up walking all the way to Port Melbourne.

Daylight Savings is great but

it takes about a week to adjust... it's quarter to 11 (quarter to 10 if not daylight savings) and I'm wide awake. I have a 9am meeting in another building which means I must be up at 6:30, thanks to my new alarm clock that climbs all over me and stares at me purring loudly and willing me awake at the crack of dawn, I have been managing 6:30 the last few weeks, but 6:30 is really like 5:30 for the first week.

Yes the all of a sudden longer days are an exciting sign that it's halfway to summer but how does one just switch their clock forward one hour and start going to bed an hour earlier.

And one does not really feel summer coming on when the forecast is a top of 14 with rain, hail, thunderstorms and possibly lightning for the next two - three days.

Gardening

Spent 6 hours working on my backyard yesterday, relocating herbs, planting new ones and covering the backyard with mulch. My soil if you can call it that is dense clay, the top couple of inches look better after 6 months of applying gypsom and clay breaker and I think a year of two of mulching will improve it further. In the meantime, digging to plant anything is back breaking work. I went to get out of bed this morning and realised I could barely move. I'm chilling in front of the tv for a bit before I go back out to finish this weekend's jobs. Gotta get things done before it's too hot to get out there.

Oh and I've covered the pergola with solar powered fairy lights, they are so pretty and it makes me feel like Christmas.

I shall take some after photos when I'm done.

I'm on facebook

Yes, no longer am I the only person I know who is not on facebook. I signed up so I could follow a friend on her travels. Yesterday I started by adding 2 people, that then multiplied to 5, today it's multiplied to 10. Unfortunately one of them is into online gaming so I am getting constant posts about their game scores. Really, who cares?

Only thing is I used my real name so I really gotta sensor myself.