h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Chocolate making course sounds too good, if there were such a think just think what it would do to your waistline!
Hope you have survived the office warfare for another week and that your job hunting turns something up soon.
My house purchase is proving more rocky and stressful than I had hoped, it is not helped by the fact that the couple selling the place are going through the mill as well - the wife is currently undergoing Chemotherapy, I don't think I could stand that and moving at the same time!
Must go lunch break over all too soon

Regards
Suzie

The evil boss has been promoted sideways. He'll be out of my life by the end of next week.

The slightly dodgy side of this is that we don't yet know what structure, and which manager, will be moved in here instead. Until someone tells us what's wanted, all we can do is come in, get paid, hang around, look busy, and then go home again. There's nothing especially distasteful about that, but it is quite boring and drab and dull and frustrating.

There is one single task that I could deal with today, but I can't do anything with it. I need one small piece of information, from a person who isn't here today.

*twiddles thumbs*

The job hunt continues. The rejection letters are flooding in. Well, OK, I've only had one so far so it's not too much of a flood. I expect more in due course.

Ivan

I was meaning to ask you in the last message what is (This can't possibly be what I ordered) addition to your name all about?

You sound like a pessimist about your change of manager and current job applications, i.e. see a glass as half empty instead of half full.
I follow the same philosophy, think the worst and then if it turns out better then expected it is a nice surprise rather than a big disappointment
The nights are starting to draw in now here, getting dark about 7:15, there is dew on the grass in the mornings, the first leaves on the trees are turning, and there are "daddy long-legs" about (I think the real name is crane flies but I am not sure), they always signal to me the end of Summer

Never mind, think Lucky (as our current Lotto add advises) and keep well.

Suzie

Oh, the tag on my name? That's nothing, really - just an existential response to Life and all that. I'll remove it one of these days.

As for the w*rk situation, it really is just pure frustration rather than pessimism. It's the result of knowing that I'm a damn' sight brighter than the people in charge, and being horribly afraid that I might lose self-control one of these days and tell a few people what I really think of them. That could be rather career-limiting.

Funny you should mention the glass-half-empty thing. I bought a couple of glass mugs from http://www.despair.com that hae a line etched halfway down and the inscription, 'This glass is now half-empty'. When someone says I have a glass-half-empty view of things, I can show them the proof that I'm right.

The glasses sound like a great idea. I am beginning to panic a little at the moment. I am having a stall at a Craft Fair for the first time on 2nd October, so I really need to get stock made or decorated and plan it all out. I am also one of the organisers of the event so I have eveyone else to sort out on the day as well! On top of that there is a family wedding the following weekend, and I have found a dress but still need all the accessories (it's a woman thing!), and if the house buying goes OK then I might be a homeowner again on 30th September - but there is lots of decorating needed before all the furniture goes in. My second night school course starts tomorrow evening, this one is for digital image manipulation, could be interesting but I think I would have preferred starting it in the new year!

Hope you are keeping your self control at work.

Regards
Suzie

The w*rk situation has changed slightly, inasmuch as we now know who the (acting) boss is. It isn't the ideal candidate, but it's a whole lot better than it could have been, considering who else was in the running. Now we just have to find out minor details, like what we're supposed to be doing and what the budget is. That could take at least another fortnight to establish.

I have had a few self-control issues here. This is mostly to do with the bowl of that someone's left within easy reach. There's also some Viennese shortbread... In combination with extreme boredom, that could be lethal.

Outside w*rk, I've been busy in the garden. I planted 21 things on Saturday, and removed three clumps of evil lavender. Things are looking good out there now. The drought appears to be over; I'd almost forgotten what green grass looked like.

Hope the details on your job get ironed out soon, and how you would like them to be. The combination of boredom and easily reachable chocolate is definately a fatal combination. I have so many things to sort out when not at work, but during work hours there can be long spells with little or nothing to do and that is the hardest time to resist temptation. I have been trying to loose a few pounds for the family wedding in a couple of weeks, I have lost about 3 pounds but I could have lost alot more if I was not bored at work!

I stood on the scales yesterday and they made a funny cracking sound, I tipped them up and one of the feet fell off. I lodged it back in but now when I stand on it I get a reading about 8-10 lbs at least lighter than I know I am - it's great to look at but really not much use anymore!

Should be completing the house purchase tomorrow - fingers crossed! I don't know what the house buying process is in Australia but it is quite a long and expensive process in the UK, and nothing is certain until completion day.

Regards
Suzie

Buying a house here is a tangled and involved process, and it varied between States. I haven't been involved in it personally; they don't pay me nearly enough to let me even consder it seriously. One day, maybe, I'll be able to manage it. Has your purchase been finalised?

I've found a shop that sells Belgian chocolate flavoured with pepper. Do you think I should try it? They also have with Earl Grey tea, but I'm not prepared to risk that.

Chaos reigns in the office; on top of the restructure, we're all being moved down one floor. Packing has started, and clouds of dust are rising. Some of us have been at the same desks for five years. It's alarming, seeing these people pack box after box with things that I, personally, would have discarded by now.

Yes, the house buying process is now finally over, now comes the physical hard work of getting it into some shape. Hope to do some decorating before moving in, but at the moment I am concentrating on getting the place clean - not that it was terrible, but the owner moved out in a hurry when she finally found a removal company that could come on the right day, and she is suffering from Cancer so she didn't do any cleaning up after everything was moved out. She even left the cat at first which was quite a shock when I pulled onto the drive and found a cat staring at me from inside! Saw a Woodpecker on the lawn this morning which is the first time I have seen one that close.

Belgian chocolate with PEPPER!!!! what a terrible thing to do to chocolate - why improve on perfection!!

Have the family wedding this weekend, but I stood on the scales and they broke! so I don't know how my 'diet' is going - but I can guess, and it's probably a good thing they are broken!

Have a good weekend, and I hope the dust is settling in your new office!

Regards
Suzie

The house-moving process is a drag; I've done that far too many times, but not lately, for which I'm grateful. Good luck with it.

I threw my bathroom scales away some time ago when I was feeling fatalistic. I hope never to stand on a pair again. Life without scales is blissful. I keep track of diets by checking how far I can tighten my belt, which is quite reliable. Weight doesn't matter too much, as far as I'm concerned; volume does.

I have one more week at w*rk, in the appalling new office, and then a week of liberty. Only one week, but it's better than nothing. In fact, it's better than a lot of things. I'm getting quite excited at the thought of it.

Actually, not only is it better than nothing, it's also better than one week. As we're so un-busy at the moment, my semi-boss suggested I take two weeks instead... So, that'll be one week in Melbourne, one week in the garden here, and a day-trip to Sydney. Perfect heaven. And only one more day of w*rk to get through.

Hope you had or are having a great break from work. I had last week off work to get the house in shape. By the end of the week it hardly looked any different. I have finally got all the wallpaper off the lounge walls but uncovered alot of patched up holes and when I tried to remove a small trial stretch of dado rail I created alot more!
Looking on the bright side I have plenty of opportunity to learn the new skill of plastering. Booked the removals van yesterday for the 29th, so I at least have to get the place back in to a habitable state by then, and then I can work on it in situ.

Suzie (need the energy boost at the moment!)

Plastering. I don't envy you. Oh, the sheer hell of trying to get a truly flat surface. How did it go? And how did the move itself go?

I'm back at w*rk this week, and hating it already. Hence the shortness of this post. I can either say what's on my mind, in technicolour detail , or maintain a dignified silence.

Despite my holidays, the garden's suddenly been overgrown with weeds. The drought's officially over; this is the proof.

Hope you have your garden back under control. It has rained alot here lately so our new garden is quite soggy and muddy at the moment. I need to paint doors that have been put on an underhouse bike store - so that some small amount of the overspill of posessions can be crammed in there, but with the short days, rain and total lack of time and energy I have not yet undercoated them so I hope they don't start rotting!!

The move went OK I suppose, but I just don't know where to put everything I look at everything and think I need to get rid of something, then I can't decide what to get rid of because everything could be useful at some point in the future - one problem is too many hobbies taking up too much space - oops!

As soon as I find a hiding place for everything I then go back to the rental place and bring another car load over - and there is still plenty of car loads to come - and it's less than 60 days to Christmas

Hope your job is not getting you down too much - do you get much time off at Christmas? I get 3 bank holidays (inc New years day) but will take 2 more days between Christmas and New year - maybe I will be able to do a bit of sorting out while I am off!

Suzie (stresed)

I'll have a few public holidays over Christmas; I actually like being there while everyone else is on holidays; it's so lovely and quiet.

Life hasn't been too good over the last week. Here's a journal entry I made, and keep adding to as events unfold. It's quite a long thread now, but I can't bring myself to type a quick summary. F1697644?thread=1391650

This weekend, I'm hoping to relax, somehow.

So sorry to hear your sad news - read your thread but it ended last week so I don't know how you are feeling now, but once the shock wears off other emotions tend to take over. It always seems such a waste when someone dies in an accident - he sounded like a really nice guy.
Hope your friend Moira is coping OK. It puts life's troubles in perspective when you think how easily it can end... hope yours is on the up.


Suzie

The thread is still going... There's good news in there too. Another friend of mine will become a mother in May, which is as close as I'm going to get to being an uncle. So there you go - for every exit, there's an entrance. Life goes on.

Moira will be OK in the long run.

I'm feeling a little more stable now, but I did have to take a couple of days off to rest and regain my composure...

Glad to hear Moira is going to make a full recovery, physically if not emotionally, and it is nice to hear you have had some good news to even life out a bit.
My house is still a tip, too much stuff and not enough space to put it, plus I need all the major trades in at some stage to do some jobs around the house. I know it will get straight eventually, but I think it will take a while!

Turning my attentions to Christmas now - more stuff to buy and store!!

Hope you are getting on OK at work now, any other job opportunities on the horizon yet?

Suzie

The job situation is a bit strange at the moment - if I start to explain it I'll just start getting distressed and whimper a lot.

Today was a strange one; in amongst some awful meetings and things, I heard from my ex... H's OK, but the car's a write-off. I sincerely hope I don't hear about any more accidents for a while.

Yours,

Rattled.

Just got into the office today to find out that there was another office move, and I have had to move desks to another part of the office. Not a big deal really but it is quite irritating, I think they live to move people around for the sake of it sometimes - helps justify the 3-4 hour team leaders meetings they disappear into on a monthly basis - and when you ask them what was discussed they say "Oh nothing much"

The weather has turned really cold and wet here, it snowed on the way home last night but it was too wet to settle. Turned the gas fire on for the first time last week and the room filled with a strong smell of gas so I had to turn it off again. Got a guy coming round Friday at 7:30am to look at it - another unexpected bill!!

Chin up!

Regards
Suzie