Second week.

Took a photo at work because I forgot my keys so I went for a walk to find the swimming pool or a cleaner w keys. Still haven't seen the pool yet.

I feel like I have nothing to blog. My life is now unbloggable? 

Tocal is a really nice place to work, I'm super lucky. They are friendly. There is a group of ladies who walk around the property a bit in lunch break, I join them often. I call it the parasol club because they carry umbrellas for sun protection. Sometimes I wear my special hat and it is much admired. Yesterday was my birthday and although it was a little dull compared to the fun at mm on a birthday my boss did mark it, told ppl and put a candle in some leftover morning tea and that was nice.

I am digging into Ebook production. Trying to turn out some early results so that they can see my skills and feel validated about hiring me. I will be a world expert on bees pretty soon.

I'm pretty comfortable living with my parents. I'm starting to look at a place to buy, because it's affordable here and also I earn more. This is exciting, but I think I still want to live with a housemate. However all the single women are buying their own place so sharing is less likely. Can't have everything can you! 

There is also a boarder living here. Which is interesting. He's an unlikeable teenager who is silent and secretive and hard to understand. On the other hand he is clean and quiet. It's an uncertain situation . 

 

Swam here on the weekend, came back today but the pool is empty. 

I'm very glad I organised a party for this Saturday. When I was feeling a tiny bit lonely and uncelebrated yesterday I remembered I'd be seeing 50 lovely people very soon! I also loved the nice things on my Facebook wall. So turning 30 has been mix of weird and underwhelming and ok really.  

A first day.

 My commute actually did involve heavy traffic and some red lights because there is a new bridge. I need to experiment with time of day efficiency otherwise the longer way is provably faster. I took a sneaky photo while driving and while stopped at road works.

I forgot how much your first day at work isn't a real work day at all, it's meeting meeting meeting and trying to get your email and passwords working. I know my job title now, digital media and design officer. First things I'll publish are all about bees. Bees are trendy.

People are very friendly and the hours will be great.

After lunch I cleared put my new desk drawers. As a decluttering pro I sorted out some stationery to go back to the store and then threw everything else in the bin. A drawer with a packet of floppy discs in it is not a drawer that I should bother to sort carefully. 

Oh I just want to do so much decluttering but I have to wait til I get a sense of what people will come looking for and what has just been left here because it's a handy room. Speaking of getting a sense, this is one of those places where everyone speaks a different language, abbreviations and acronyms of all thing rural.

I don't have my actual computer yet, or an internet connection on the temp MacBook, or access to the software license, or the ability to do Anything. There is 1% chance of my phone having a signal at any time. 

But in the future I'm going to have a nice work mac and I'm getting a hand me down iPad newer than my current one.

On the bright side I have my own window!! On the other side, I could not find a functioning kettle. A day without tea 😟. But there is a tap for boiling water after all.

I'm investigating the frugal and efficiency ramifications of buying lunch because the staff kitchen isn't that great (coffee machine and microwave but no toaster) but you can order a salad from the dining hall for $4. I could bring wrap bread or stuff in and put put the salad in. No washing up!

Quiet day.

The move went great. Mum and dad came w wagon and trailer and we loaded it within the hour. D came and helped me and my housemate clean and pack the rest of my stuff into the commodore, a 2 hour job. When it was done I had lunch and watched the end of dark angel. An excellent rest. Then I drove up and unpacked the car.

This is the day after moving house and before starting new job. Other than going to Coles, it's been a relief to stay home and recover. H came over and cleared some of her stuff out which made it easier to fit my stuff in. And I blobbed.

Swimming.

Swimming in ocean pools is one thing I will really miss.

Engraving.

Source

How beautiful are engravings like this? I can stare at black lines for ages.

Home grown tea drinks.

My tea pot plants are living! They are doing quite OK on the windowsill with only morning sun. I bought some slow release fertiliser which has helped I think.  I occasionally harvest a cup of tea from one of them. This is mint tea.

Gold in them hills.

My usual favourite gloomy song is 'Rainy days and Mondays', which I love to play on rainy Mondays. But this is my new favourite, 'Gold in them hills' by Ron Sexsmith (duet version with Chris Martin from Coldplay). At first it was just a lovely piano song, but now I think it's really beautiful. It's not about love and breaking up with people, it's just about the mundane things that get you down. Bills and bad weather. And it's a very hopeful song.

Though our troubles seem like mountains
There's gold in them hills

Nearly all moved.

I took a carload of boxes up on Saturday, and what's left now is what I'm using and furniture, so now I just live normally for 2 weeks. Packing is a good distraction, I'm feeling at a loose end. Hopefully I can go swimming this week as much as possible and make the most of the end times. Something to pray for is a replacement flatmate. It's a great flat with a great flatmate! It seems like people have unrealistic expectations of rent in this area though. Anything over $200 is pretty standard if you want your own bedroom. And we're at the humble end of the market. But anyway, praise God it's all basically under control.