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I'm off
May 21, 2005

My visa arrived two days ago, I guess that means I can go! It's taking me about three days to get to DC, via Japan and LA - about 20 hours in each .

Be good, look after the place, I'm sure I'll pop my head through at some point.

(56 replies, Latest reply: Aug 25, 2005)

The second time I've had to make the "I'm fine mum, but..." phonecall
May 13, 2005

Tuesday night I had to drive four hours to meet the school group I was working with, I'd been up since 5am packing trailers with them and then had spent a good chunk of the day sitting around the US consulate waiting for my visa interview.
I was about 20 minutes away from my destination, only doing about 80km/hour cos it's dark and I'm sleepy and then a pair of fricking roos appear out of nowhere in front of me - I managed to slow down pretty quickly (with no front brakes - eat your heart out, roadworthy inspector!) but one of them jumped into my left headlight...there's glass flying in the air and all I can see is this poor roo flying over and over through the air in front of me. By the time he stops flying I've stopped my car - the engine's still going and the radios still going, which shocked me last I had an accident too - I got out and the poor thing was trying to crawl away from me, he's got blood pissing out of his nose and his legs are screwed. Within a couple of minutes a car came past and I flagged it down - I was shaking and starting to fall apart - one of the guys in the car was the ranger's son, so he called his dad to come out and shoot the roo while I called the RACV to come and tow my car (the radiator was shattered - Matilda would waltz no more), then my boss from the school to say I'd be late.
Long story short; the tow truck driver was a freak ("jump in before you freeze your...well I won't say it but you'll freeze your t*ts off"!), my car is being sold for scrap, and I was very lucky to write my car off and score not even a bruise.

Moral of the story? Powernaps, kids. Powernaps save kangaroo lives, and possibly even your own.

(6 replies, Latest reply: May 15, 2005)

and then...?
Mar 4, 2005

Alright, I've been in this 'real world' place for a whole two months, and it's been ok so far. I spent a couple of weeks in Vietnam with my mum and brother (courtesy of an internet competition ) which was obviously just amazing - such an incredible country, friendly people - words cannot describe it.

I've been working with a few different schools and organisations, the last couple of weeks I've been on year 7 surf camps which have been tiring but a blast - next week I have a year 8 camp doing the same sorts of things, although I think they want me to drive the bus on this one which could be scary - I got my coach licence (yes, that's right, coach) but I'm terrified of driving one packed with kids...I'm praying for a minibus! On weekends I'm still working at the store in the city - it's keeping me horribly busy but hopefully it'll mean the cash keeps rolling in, cos I found out today that I got a job at a summer camp in the states, and I need to save up my pennies to get there! It starts in June, I'm in the tripping department, which means that I take kids out for three days at a time, six days a week, doing anything from rafting to climbing and everything in between!

All in all, the real world isn't a bad place to be.

(2 replies, Latest reply: Mar 10, 2005)

It's chritsmas in retail...
Dec 20, 2004

So after three Christmas seasons in a row of swearing to never work in retail over Christmas again, here I am, back in the centre of the city...a sucker for punishment. We have a new boss, and he's a control freak - the kind that tells you to do something you're already doing just to have told you something.

Today was an interesting one - we had someone try and steal about $60 worth of stock, he didn't make a fuss or anything but came back in and paid for it, he had clearly been checking to see which items would go off as they went through the door so we knew he was up to something!

As soon as we got rid of him, we heard this huge bang outside, it sounded lke a car accident - the staff near the door yelled to call for an ambulance and ran outside, so I dailed 000 and got them on their way, then went to get the portable phone from the manager so that I could go out to whatever had happened outside and give the emergency people more information - my friend and I have both been trained in intensive first aid, and there were nurses from the blood bank there (the lady had fallen down an escalator after donating blood next door), but the manager insisted on completely taking over, sending us all inside while taking over from me on the phone with the operator. There was just no need - one of those pointless control-freak things to do - it's so infuriating to work with someone who doesn't respect what anyone else is doing!

Ah well, the money is good, and it's not for ever!

(8 replies, Latest reply: Dec 21, 2004)

The raving mountain woman makes a return, degree (almost) in hand.
Nov 26, 2004

Well that's it, uni is all done with and I am returned to the world of regular internet access and needing to find job(s) with which to fund my next exciting venture. It's very daunting to have finished everything (apart from this one teensy assignment which I still have to do - old habits die hard ), they're going to have to give me one of those degree thingies and I'm going to have to work out what comes next .

So how to sum up the past 6 months?

There was a lot of skiing there for a while, while the snow lasted - tele skiing of course, none of this fixed-heel business for me! A couple of trips were back-country camps, one was teaching kids and the other just for fun, but most were day trips up to a resort nearish to us. I've been busy with assignments and with catching up with everyone before they all disappear into the never-never, a friend and I organised our course ball, which was a night of fun and debauchery - 220 hippies all dolled up in one place and nary a tree to be seen. I've also had to move out of my house and vowed to never again accumulate crap - you know, the 'I might want this someday' type of crap which takes up space and you just end up throwing out anyway - we took three ute-loads, a station wagon and trailer load to the tip (where we were pulled over by the cops for a routine breath test and they failed to notice that a) my car is unroadworthy, b) the ute is unroadworthy, c) the trailer lights weren't working, and d) that it was 10am on a Tuesday morning and they would be bloody lucky to find anyone who had been drinking by then) and two ute-loads to the op-shop...yes, that is between 5 girls, but still a lot of crap. In the future I will lead a 'crap-free' life.

For the past week or so I've been galivanting around the cliff faces, had one *scary* fall (you should see the bruises! ) and was pulled over by the cops for speeding...and then let off (it had absolutely nothing to do with the top I was wearing, honest) - and now I'm just killing time until I start work next week - they've given me about half the shifts I was after, so I'm still looking for high-paid cruisy jobs, if anyone hears of any.

Come January I'm going up north for New Years - mates have a house near the beach and we're going to live the high life for a couple of days, and then my mum is taking me and my brother to Vietnam after she WON a trip there! Who wins anything off the internet, let alone a holiday?!

So in the meantime, I will probably be around a lot more than I have in the last three years, doing my best to catch up with y'all.

(40 replies, Latest reply: Dec 21, 2004)