Hello from the tropics, from the Island

Yes I have arrived in Brisbane. Sorry for lack of proper emails and chats over last few weeks, the wind down in the mountains before I came here was quite frantic. Plus wasn't 100% sure that I could come or when due to work shennaginas (outlined below). As in me running to put the bins out (sudden brain flash = smelly 2 wk old bin not nice to come home to) as the cab pulled up and the taxi driver laughing (good naturedly, or so I like to think) at my frazzly Hi-NRG chit chat as I worried about mising the very last train down that I could possibly catch and still arrive at the house I was staying at by midnight ie. and still get enough sleep for the job interview the next day. It was one of those 'have I got the persents?? Have a I got examples of my work? Have I got my bathers? have I got my suit pants??'. But got here, had a lovely snoozy ride in the plane, and unwound delightfully on the other legs of the journey, including the short but stunning ride across the Bay on the ferry.

So fast forward a few days: I am quickly checking emails for any work bites, in the lull that happens when mum is putting the baby to bed. This is after food and bath and play time, which gets quite busy. It's heating up here again after a thunderous storm on Frioday night which rained so hard and so prolifically that mum and I were laughing and running down the jetty with plastered clothes in the dark with lightening and baby swadled in a towel to keep dry. Boys out at wet and wild today so no isues re television and remote control control, sneaking out to unsupervised parties and trying alcohol (and the parental fallout re trust etc on that matter), around food whims or around brothers belting each other around heads with cricket bats. Sigh, can't you just hear the peaceful quiet with only cicadas and my typing as background nouise?

Off to have a criosy afternoon and wait for sun to drop enough for another swim. Glad I got excited and cut my hair before I came - short locks much better for beach fun.

Chat soon Mermaid grrl and little mister, would love to catch up while here.

Happy summer all.

Contracts, questions, crime thrillers and ricotta canolli

Exhale after me - phhhhhhwaaah. Yep today was my job interview kiddoes. Not just a job interview but the job interview that I had to wrapmychristmaspresentstidythehousepaymybillspackmysuitcasehaveworkgoodbyedrinksgetthetraindownthehill (and still get into bed for an early night for). Because tomorrow I fly out to spend time with family for Christmas. And last week was my first week (what we might euphemistically call) 'between contracts'. As in the Friday before I found out that due to adminitrative /budgetary/ restructuring / tendering policy quirks and recent developments my reemployment was going to have to take a little Christmas holiday as it were. In short, where I had been expecting (and verbally assured of) either employment or engagement as a consultant in the next few weeks, it now looks like I can participate in a competitive tendering process along with everyone else in mid-late Jan. Most likely late. And in theory this is fine, this is understandable, this is laudable even, but in practice it was an absolute pain in my (moulded to the curves of the office chair) derierre, not to mention gobsmackingly surprising, not to mention highly impractical and financially disasterous. My manager was suitable apologetic and surprised herself, so I found it hard to be actually angry but distressed, yes that was easy! I felt like some character out of a Dickens novel, only there was no sick little Timmy, and I don't have consumption, and I have enough to eat and ...oh ok it's not really all that much like that at all..but unsettling nevertheless.

So.. now I've painted in the background we can skip forward to todays interview. OK so imagine this. At the outset I am told firmly that we have 20 minutes only - and I'm not used to anything less than 45 mins....ah ok I'm thinking, I need to rethink technique. 4 questions only, 2 focused on only on research...hmmm, ok. The last of the 4 questions is "what are you most proud of in your life?". Holy crap. As if interviews aren't bad enough without adding that kind of question. As if they aren't like some freakish mix of half date, half exam where you have to answer lots of questions and provide examples for the examiners but meanwhile wear your best outfit, smile nicely and charm a panel into wanting to call you back. Great effing idea whoever thought that up.

So how did it go? Visualise this: I talk like a race commentator to try and get all the details into my answers, I do the spectacular bungle of completely failing to mention any example at all (sorry, correction - any MENTION at all) of the research and policy work I did last yr OS. Sorry, just in case you missed that let me reiterate: this is a research consultant position working in a consultancy environment, and the one and only time I've worked in that environment was last year and I completely failed to mention it. A national project to develop policy that required interdisciplinary research into lots pof cool techie stuff and follows world best practice and I talked about BIRD MONITORING IN PARKS instead. Ahem.

And if you think that is bad, get this. Seriously this is actually quite funny. For a question about numeracy I gave the worlds worst example ever that sounded like all I was capable of was kindie style cutting up cakes to do fractions - without any mention of say,. stormwater flow modelling calculations that I've done, or the fact that I'm studying finance modules as part of my Masters, or say that I've used excel to do simple biological modelling, or used stats or anything really of any value to anyone. So, imagine that you're a surgeon asked to give an example of having manual dexterity and an eye for detail and rather than say 'ah well, there's the brain surgery thing' you say 'um, ah, I quite like throwing a frisbee and well that means you have to be able to catch...'. Aaaah, you have to laugh.

On the glass half full side, I think the panel were quite nice and friendly - 2 out of 3 in particular. I also promptly forgot about how frizzy my hair was and my vaguely mismatched accessories or the fact that my suit pants highlight my (don't have kids but none the less have a rather fetching) mum-belly and instead became engrossed in the task at hand. I remembered to smile, I made a few jokes and they laughed (no, not 'and a research consultant walks into a bar' kind, the lighten the mood comment kind), and I even answered the dreaded qstn number 4 after prefacing that it was a hard one and did they actually want an honest answer, and answered in a way that was honest and meaningful to me brather than shiny and pretty and point winning. So I retained some semblance of integrity (I reckon) and you gotta be happy about that. I also did not at any stage mention that I am in the middle of having a career crisis or that I secretly think working in an office is potentially not my cup of tea, and did not go off on any tangents about deep ecology, cosmology, consumerism, ecopsychology, felt making, the benefits of community gardening or how I never tidy my bedroom but am ok with that as I think it a sign of great tolerance and adaptability to find stuff in amongst the rubble. All of which is good.

Now I plan to relax over a ricotta canolli (that mum belly isn't going anywhere soon) and finish reading the Sue Grafton crime novel (C is for corpse) that I picked up at the Springwood book exchange. Nothing like some mindless holiday reading to get me in the mood for holidays!

Lookee here woman

Above words from a Nick cave song that I can't stop songing this last week. Song is 'Jesus met the woman at the well', gospelish from Kicking Against the Pricks. Which, btw, is the only NC album I own. This point was highlighted for me in a dream I had last Friday night. In the dream I was in the early stages of a whirlwind love affair with said singer, it was all flustery and fun, he was inviting me over, I was umming and ahhing as I had work the next morning (yeah right, like that would stop me). In the dream I had one of those work days where there is a deadline and heaps to squeeze into the day before it ends, so I was worried that if I took the morning off I wouldn't fit it all in*. He is telling me that we can have a tea party in bed and I think I've arrranged it so that I can go but then I am preparing in my head what I'm going to say to him and I'm thinking of how to best say 'I only have one of your albums, but I do like you as a musician, I do.. it's just that my housemate had all your stuff so i didn't need to'. So there you go Nick, you can sleep easy knowing that I do like you as a musician.

* my repressed anxiety at a romantic relationship taking up too much of time when I have other things i want to be getting on with? yeah yeah, I'm so transparent I'm like rice paper.

On the Stereo this week

I have a friend in Adelaide (ok so a friend of a friend who I claim as my own now! Thankyou Angel and Dr Jeremy) who does a regular music email - gigs, album reviews, reviews of books on music etc. I rarely know what the hell he's talking about, but it's a nice kind of not knowing, like being pleasantly baffled as a kid while you doze in the back seat of the holden as the adults talk in the front seat. Yes, I think that if there is gathering of music lovers then I am firmly seated at the kids table, as in I like it, I want to be part of it, but I'm probably eating with my hands and eating desert before mains, mixing up icecream and footy franks, while the grown ups are nibbling canapes and champers. But we're all having fun right? So that's the main thing.
Anyway, my point, if I had one, was to share with you what Stu is listening to this week in case you are inspired to try something new on the CD (oh MP3, hifi-pod, whatever it is kids store sounds on these days), as if it's on his stereo, I'd be happy to have it on mine. Also just flagging that if you want a nice local (adelaide or sydney), *in the know* gig guide / gig reviews emailed to you that doesn't make you feel stupid for bathroom cleaning to Culture Club on occasion, but gently forgives all your listening foibles and suggests new things, then email me and I'll send you his most recent.

On the Stu Stereo this week
GENTLE BEN & HIS SENSITIVE SIDE - The Sober Light of Day cd (Spooky)
THUJA - All Strange Beasts of the Past cd (Emperor Jones)
THE SILVERMINE TAPES - A Tenuous Thread cd (Patterns in Static)
STRAIGHT TO VIDEO - Black Solo cdep (Sounds from the Zoo)
YO LA TENGO - Electr-o-pura cd (Matador) CAN - Delay 1968 LP (Spoon)
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS - Armed Forces LP (Radar)
THE SHINS - Oh Inverted World cd (Spunk / Sub Pop)
THE SEA AND CAKE - One Bedroom cd (Spunk / Thrill Jockey)
LAMBCHOP - What Another Man Spills cd (Merge)

On the Sea Green Stereo this week*
STEREOLAB - Dots and Loops
JOHN PARISH & POLLY JEAN HARVEY - Dance hall at louse point
GORILLAZ - G sides
THIEVERY CORPORATION - Sounds from the thievery hi-fi
LEFTFIELD - Leftism
HAPPY MONDAYS - Bummed
LOU REED - perfect day
ELLA FITZGERALD - A Tisket a Tasket
and... no surprises for guessing.. WHITE STRIPES - get behind me satan

And talking all things stereophonic, and this is well cheeky, but hey a girl has to ask... if anyone has / wants to make copies of (or can teach me how to download in under 5 minutes before I get bored and go put a CD on) any: Jeff Buckley, Tom Waits or Leonard Cohen I would be much obliged.

* Did I mention that a houseguest a few weeks back said 'do you have any music that isn't ironic?' and I was speechless. Actually I wish I had been speechless, instead I said 'oh did you find my Ricki Martin CD?' to which there was stunned silence. Bum! Just made it worse!

NB yes I am not at work this week - counld you tell? Blogging up a storm...

Adendendum
Got email from music friend confirming that indeed I would be sitting at the kids table, fortunately he tells me i would be in good company!! Ah bless that open honesty of the straighforward fella.
Got v generous emails from a few people offering to lend or ahah me hearties the above mentioned CD/s.
I discover that B-sharp on tour (who is lappping up glaciers and sea lions and going great guns in esdpanol) is having trouble posting comments. date line issue? the commments go the other way around the sink when you pull the plug out? Transcontinental Blogspot techno foibles? Who knows. Sorry pet - post instead if you like.

Community service announcement

Hey did you know this week is National giving week ? No neither did I till I was burrowing away through the web looking for a conference in Melbourne next year, came by it by accident. Has a list of where to buy Chrissy cards from community groups, how to give to a community cause etc.

rain. rain?

Thanks to the lovely Merrryisa for these two, which she provided on request (meteorology nerd info... as she delightfully called it!)

this one you can zoom out to 256km, and can see where rain is actually falling as opposed to just cloud cover.

roosters, bannana chips and dapper moustaches

My friend had a giant white cock painted on her car windows. And no, not as in a celebratory "I am born in the year of the rooster" mural piece either. She was quite tacken aback, especially as every car load of 20-something boys sniggered at her as she drove around town today. Then she had the indignity ofhaving to tell police officers about it as in 'so, was it a tag?' 'um, no, not exactly..' '...?''well, it was a giant peepee' (not what she said,but I think that would have been funnier). her elderly neighbour told her over a cuppa that she'd seen some grafitti on the car, my friend said ' did you know what it was?', the lady said 'no' and on being told said 'oh I haven't seen one of those in years!'. My friend laughed and explained that it was a cartoon, not anatomically correct, andproceeded to draw a picture of it to show her. the neighbour giggled and said she couldn't wait to telll her soon about it.

On a completely different note, went muesli shopping this arvo (yes you guessed it, no biting social commentary in this post..) and I have to share with you all the fact that I have always thought and continue to think that there is no rightful place in muesli for bananna chips. Yuck. And this is from someone with a notoriously open mind (stomach?) about food. I ate meat from street stalls and uncooked salad greens in mexico (yeah ok and lived to regret it), tried durian and went back for more, have no problemo with eating raw anything,spicy anything, weird textured anything but ef me if I don't think bannana chips are a vile counterpoint of an otherwise quite pleasant breakfast experience!! I stood at the supermarket aisle (I know, why wasn't i at the co-op making it up from scratch - just too lazy today - did go there for veg) holding a bag of museli with furrowed brow and pondering why anyone first thoughtto add them. The texture just doesn't go, the weird chalkiness that comes after the crunch is just wrong, andthey don't even taste like banannas, in my humble opinion. I went for apricot and pecan instead.

Finally, high jinx in the mountains today aint it?, I was sniffing some incense, big bundles of long black incense (you know where this is going, don't you?), realised just in time that it was coming off on my fingers, laughed, rubbed a fingerunder my nose just case it had come of there too. Phew, I thought, smiling, lucky I realised and wiped that off. So then I went into a second hand shop (hmm, I can see that I am accidentally revealing the high paced day I had today!) and chatted to the guy behind the counter at length about vintage buttons (you had to be there..), bought my buttons and then sauntered home, whistling, saying howdyto the various toursists and dapper older ladies taking an afternoon stroll. Got home, realised that I had a very nice black snubbed cartoon style bear nose and a bit of a dappper mo (well, that is to say I have a bit of a dapper mo anyway, but the black smearreally highlighted nicely the existing foliage). Noice, different, unusual.

Dear resident of apartment number 761

(a few notes i haven't got in my letterbox but keep expecting)

If you feel compelled to listen to 'get behind me satan' by the Whitestripes loudly on Sunday nights could you please at least restrain your listening impulses to one full whirl of the albulm and not three. I think any reasonable person would agree that this is excessive. An unreasonableone may feel compelled to retaliate with loud Kenny Rogers early on a Monday morning, but lucky for you, I am not an unreasonable person.

and

Dear miss. I note that you left your window open the other afternoon and allowed a pigeon to fly into your kitchen. I note also that said pigeon seems to have knocked off a petite pink teacup from your window ledge onto the courtyard below. I note also that you have not yet seen fit to collect pieces of cup and dispose of them. May I suggest in futurethat you find a better location for storing your tea cups and or refrain from inviting stray birds into your kitchen. I like our winged friends as much as the next person but there are limits. Yours etc. Kevin (number 64 - we met on the stairs, you lent me your grater).