31 posts tagged “work”

Once upon a time when I had a job I hated Mondays as Monday meant the start of the grind again. Now that I am one of the GREAT UNEMPLOYED I actually look forward to Monday. I get the house back to myself and I get some quiet time to set my own schedule - which often means do little but potter!!! Guilty pleasures.

I was a stay at home Mum for over a decade but that time was dedicated to my children, and there was no time to sit and think. No time to sit, full stop! Now they are grown, and though some still living at home, when they leave for the day, my life is my own.

I  could get used to this really fast. If we didn't need money....I would stay home forever. But we choose to want things, things such as travelling to see the world. And retirement money. We intend living long lives so need a little money to maintain us in the style we choose.

Two more weeks and I take up the student life so I guess Mondays will change again soon. For now I am enjoying the luxury.

Ever one is getting very edgy at work. Some of it may be due to the sugar high we all got from the pre-pre Christmas farewell morning tea we gave ourselves this morning. SWKK wanted it and said “lets do food and gifts” next Friday and we all said yes,  okay, we will, in that weak voice you get when you are being polite, but completely lack enthusiasm of any kind. Then  I decided god damn it I am going to take my flex day on Friday after all and changed my hair appointment to Friday and said I can’t make Friday for food and gifts, and lo, SWKK said what about Thursday? and hence the sugar high.

We came with our little gifts – except for SWKK who said something about bringing hers tomorrow, next week, whatever. We of course handed ours over…I have no doubt that she will produce something for us before she leaves next week, but I suspect, I know, it will be of lesser value. The Assistant gave her a musical snow globe, from one of the cheap and nasty shops we all love so much, only when SWKK went to play the music there was no key with which to wind it , so she just got to shake it….poetic isn’t it! Best big jolly I had this week!

SWKK also made a pavlova. Now, a good Aussie pav is always filled with cream and topped with fruits such as strawberries, kiwi fruit, passionfruit etc. Well, the Assistant wont eat fruit. She was traumatized by a banana at an early age and so won’t go near any fruit item. So SWKK, in her milk of human kindness mode, flavoured the whipped cream with chocolate powder and put chocolate flakes over the top. We all went, mmmm mmmm, lovely. And it was to a degree, but it just didn’t seem right. A pavlova has fruit, and chocolate whipped cream just seemed like blasphemy. Maybe it is the catholic side of me again. Some things you don’t mess with…however it was nice.

Now, with sugar pulsating through every vein and artery, we feel like punching people out. Especially the people who feign empathy or sympathy but it is really just a guise to gather gossip. GO AWAY. GO AWAY NOW, BEFORE I SMASH YOUR FACE INTO WHAT REMAINS OF THE CHOCOLATE PAV.

The End – may it be soon.

Three ladies from the admin team of one of our clients came to my office this afternoon to present me with these -

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They included a lovely card that they had all signed. One of the comments said that I was "one of the few people that can make a disaster seem like a non event". I really treasure their thoughtfulness and gift of gratitude. I have had the privilege of working with some fine people in the last few years and these people were among the finest

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.

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Dumbo IT man has left the building. We are still with Dumbo IT for a wee bit longer but “the man” is no more. One bright spark in our day.

The wellington boot was still by the side of the road this morning. It looked sad in the bright clear sunlight.

There is this baby kak yellow combi van that I see driving around town all the time. Actually I think it is stalking me. I even saw it way on the other side of Brisbane a couple of weeks ago. Possibly the owner lives out of it. I see it mostly on my way to and from the Basement of Discontent . I saw it again this morning – it was on the back of a tow truck. I guess it won’t be stalking me for awhile.

The Assistant has created a bitter and twisted jingle about how we are being made redundant on Christmas Eve. “Ho. Ho, home you go – and stay there”. I followed a city bus today that had an ad on the back for one of those navigation thingies. It said “Ho, Ho, Go”. I think the Big Whatever is sending me messages again.

If we are the outsourced, what does one call the organization  who are taking over? No, not the evil empire. Not their fault. The Acceptors?  The Perpetrators? Anyway, I digress as is the routine. We just got a press release that their CEO is flying the coup – new challenges and all that. Confidence building isn’t it? Have been told that the jobs should be advertised today and we can apply if there is anything there that looks remotely like our position. Oh, and if none of their existing employees want it first. As I have diminishing choices I will apply and in my usual style if anyone tries to outmaneuver me I will knife them in the back with my trusty, fluffy,  pink flamingo pen. I may even find that baby kak combi and stalk them, armed with my trusty stick. I just want this little adventure over please. I so want to apply for my own job and ask to do it for less pay…

Daughter2 on the other hand has just got a great promotion, and apparently in record time for her organization. So, may I bask in mother pride for a moments,  please, folks? Thank you, thank you, thank you for much.

Son and I are working on my new blog site. Well I am working on it and he is ignoring my entreaties. “MUM! I have other things to do too you know”. The sleeping in to 3pm? The visiting of friends until 1am? Anyway, it will eventually be unveiled. It is not connected to vox. I want to have some fun so have got my own little spot. All will be revealed. However, when the move is made I will be making this vox blog neighbourhood only. I hope you visit me on the other blog, but I would miss you all too much to close the door.

Daughter1 has picked up a corner computer desk for gratis so Mr FD and I have to go and help her collect it over the weekend. The same weekend that I am to help Daughter2 move. Still in the neck collar too! Mr FD is borrowing a ute (truck) from his workplace and so we will motor on down the highway and collect the said thing. So much for that weekend!

The END

My office plants are talking about me behind my back.

On Saturdays we make our tea in a teapot. We spoon the leaves in, allowing them to settle and steep. I bring the newspaper in and place it on the table, while I make toast, and pour the lovely dark tea into my favourite cup, the pottery one, a gift from a friend that declares “Queen of the World”. It makes the tea taste best. Then I sit and read and eat and sip. The teapot sits on the bench, holding a promised second cup. Nectar

The rest of the week we hastily throw teabags into mismatched china mugs, giving it a quick dangle before splashing in the milk. There is no time the rest of the week.

But on Saturdays, there is time. Time for tea.  Time for me.

Tomorrow is Saturday...

Got a big jolly today.

Apparently MegaBoss, Boss. and the gent who is "acting" for Mega Bitch now that she is no more, and has never been part of our organisation and is MERELY a friend of MegaBoss, have been meeting over the past few days trying to find a way to compile some specific information.

Being men they did not think to ask the person who is actually the specialist in that area - YES, MOI! The one and only Flamingo Dancer!  Finally the Acting One phoned me from his throne room and asked me if he could do this or that and I said "what is it you want to do actually?" and lo, it was so simple I almost burst ou laughing. Within half an hour I had the report on its way to his kingdom. I did enjoy the fact that I calmly made it look so simple, well it was actually, but they were stupid enough not to ask the right person in the first place so they deserved to sweat for a couple of days.

The jollies don't come often these days, but rare jewels that they are, they are still there to be enjoyed. And I did! Happy, happy little flamingo dance...it is a small life, but someone has to live it.

Life lesson 483 : Take your enjoyment, no matter how small, where and when you can! They don't often get offered twice.

Mental Health Day, Doona Day, Chucking a Sickie, No Show Day, call it what you will but I am not going to work today. I can't take the Cry Me a River Sisters (SWKK and The Assistant) Today.

not playing today

Besides we don't get paid out for our accumulated sick days so in the great Australian tradition we all plan to use them up before we are shown the door on, Ho Ho Ho Home you go, and stay there Christmas Eve!

I saw that Sarah Palin is still featuring on Fox – talk about news junkies with an addiction! I heard her saying that she doesn’t know whether she will run for President in 2012 or not, that she just asks God not to let her pass an open door. I wished some door would open for me.

The garbage man came this morning. It was a two bin day – garbage and recycling. Always a highlight of the week. I walked out of the house to go to work and noticed that the fine garbage man must have had an off morning and quite a bit of our rubbish, had missed his glorious garbage truck and was now spread about our footpath. So I picked it up and brought the wheelie bins back to their little home against the side fence.

I thought more about Sarah’s open door policy as I drove to work. I always ask the Big Whatever to just take me somewhere I will be happy. Obviously not working all that well. Maybe time to adopt a more “unlock the door and let me in” attitude.

I arrived at work and found that outside the front door a newspaper had quietly settled itself, page beside page. A number of staff had already walked passed it, over it, but all those lunch times spent picking up litter under the menacing glare of the  Sisters of No Mercy kicked into memory and I set to picking up the paper.

It was then that I started to think that maybe The Big Whatever was opening a door for me – garbage collection. I have always leaned towards a job with a leaf blower – I really like those things. The power of blowing leaves and various detritus about seems like a good gig from where I sit, with no window. I could probably master working with one of those little spike things and stabbing various bits of rubbish. No sure how I would go mastering a truck with a hydraulic arm though, and left hand drive as opposed to our usual right hand drive vehicles. I am not all that coordinated – yes folks the Flamingo Dancer cannot catch a ball! Shame, horror. I have so much need for ball skills in life too…

What if this is the only door that is coming my way? What if that is it and here I am dissing it off? Will I get to the Great You Know Where and find the door shut and when I ask “Why?” will I get the answer, “Well I opened a door once for you, what more do you want?” When will I know what is the right door and what is just delusion?

On a normal “work” morning the alarm goes at 5.30 am and Mr FD and I play snooze alarm tag for awhile before I roll out and start the day. Mr FD continues the snooze tag game until 6.30am.

In the meantime I dress and go down stairs to start my day. If Daughter 1 or I haven’t made lunches the night before I will make lunches for all three of us. Every morning I still have my private joke about how even though Daughter 1 is 29 I am still making school lunches for her (she is the teacher, not caught in groundhog remedial class!)  Most mornings I take the kitchen scraps out to the large compost bin in the garden, empty the water that has dripped our of our air conditioner into a watering can and water a couple of pots with it – I am endeavoring to be the water recycling queen – and decide what we are going to have for dinner that night, and sort out whether things have to defrost or not.  If it is a day for the milk man I bring in the milk and move things around in the fridge for a few minutes. Then onto emptying the dishwasher from the previous night and stacking whatever has been used since then. That job done, I start the kettle going and make tea, including a thermos cup for daughter to drink on her 45 minute drive to work as she is always running late and misses a cup of tea!

Next job is making breakfast for Mr FD and I. I usually make him toast and eggs for breakfast, but if he doesn’t come down as expected he gets it cold – he knows better than to complain. Sometimes I make breakfast for Daughter 1 depends on whether I want bonus Mummy points or not that day. I stack everything into the dishwasher and wipe the kitchen down.

This morning Mr FD is away so no breakfast for him. Instead I took the wheelie bin out to the footpath in readiness for tomorrow’s collection, so I don’t have to wake in the middle of the night to the sound of the garbage truck in the next street and do a made dash in my pjs to get the bin out in time. I also dead headed my gardenia bushes to assist them to continue flowering. Please.

The yellow pages phone book, two volumes for Brisbane, was left on the footpath so I also had to walk that back into the house and find a home for it, and wonder why Mr FD has a collection of yellow pages books, 2 volumes for each year and going back the last 6 years. No wonder his study looks like the city dump. It is the city dump – why did I waste time taking the rubbish bin out to the street?

Then I spent a good 7 minutes running about the house trying to find my black shoes. I am a creature of habit and always return things to the same spot – as the memory lapses get with worse this is becoming more important – but my shoes were not in any of the 3 usual spots. So I tried to think as a Flamingo Dancer would and chased about the house like a mad thing – only to find my shoes about a foot from their usual place. Someone must have moved them! Death to the intruder.

Backed my car out the house, but as my remote clicker for the garage door has ceased working, and somehow son and heir has purloined the remaining one, I had to hop out of the car and walk back into the house to close the garage. Locked the front door and then realized that I had not set the alarm. Back into the house and set the partial alarm. Partial alarm because son and heir is asleep upstairs and no doubt will be until about 3 o’clock this afternoon. He is amidst university exams and still keeping his crazy hours – up all night, asleep all day, which I think is his way of avoiding me, why I have no idea as I am the perfect mother – and I know that he will sleep so soundly that any burglar could come in with an earthmover and empty the bottom floor and son would not even murmur in his sleep. So hence the partial alarm.

Back to car and I made the gross human error of brushing against a trumpet flower and bright yellow pollen went all over my black pants…. Mad brushing and stomping and a high degree of Flamingo Dancing would have been viewed by the neighbours had they been watching, though it is probably no different to what they normally see when they look our way!

Semi-clean I hit the road. It was 7:15 am. Another day in paradise.