Sushi!

No, I've lost it. My train of thought, that is. Not that the train of thought has been derailed or has started chugging along the wrong track but the entire train has actually disappeared without a trace. There's something Bermuda Triangle about the whole situation. Unfortunately my train of thought was carrying some precious cargo - my brain for starters. And I don't have any insurance.

So I was just sitting here tapping away at my keyboard inexplicably looking at shoes on eBay (#1: I don't need shoes; #2: I don't have money to buy shoes; #3: I hate buying shoes; #4: it's hard enough buying a pair of decent shoes when I try them on in the shops so what makes me think that buying them off eBay will do me any good?) when I thought 'I could do with a cup of tea'. Then halfway down the stairs I realised that I'd already made the tea half an hour ago and forgot to bring it up. So now I have a rapidly cooling mug of tea. Bugger refraining from chocolate, three pieces of Lindt should propel me somewhere.

This morning I woke up at 8am but, after trying to block out the wail of a power tool, waved and echoed liberally across the valley for half an hour, I decided to have breakfast instead of attempting to regain lost winks. Who power tools at 8am on a Monday morning? Renovations I can understand, but seeing as the sound stopped at 9am it isn't renovations. Notice also how I turned 'power tool' into a verb. Anyway, so I was up. After reading the papers I started shuffling work around until 10am when I realised (shit!) that I was supposed to call an interviewee at 9:30am. Who schedules interviews for 9:30am on a Monday morning? You can still taste the toothpaste. Evidently the answer is me. Fortunately I realised that the dude lived in Brisbane so any mix up could be blamed on time difference. I called him at 10:30am and didn't mention the time. Neither did he, so I got off the hook.

Last week was pretty busy. Just doing bits and pieces for the charity challenge commission, then spent all of Thursday helping Jade's company by doing fashion parades. Basically it was dressing models for two Westfield fashion parades (one at Chatswood, then at Hornsby). The models go out, twirl, pose then come back and strip while you hold out the new garments and prevent the previous outfit from being trampled. Wasn't too bad, though you have to be organised. Made me realise how unrealistic model's bodies are, though - these girls were a good 175cm tall wearing XXS clothes, which is just unhelpful for real people who want to buy real clothes.

Finally got paid by YEN, which means I can lift my ban on pitching to them. Unfortunately because it was an older invoice it went to my least-used account and I had to transfer the money over to my transaction account, which for some reason takes 3 days to show. Why??!! I thought we were technologically advanced!

On Friday night I went to the Big Runga concert, which was good but not rave-worthy. Then headed to Stuart's place for the night and spent Saturday with him. He's still sick from last week and god knows how I've managed to avoid falling ill from all the sick people I've been hanging around (there are coughing commuters and feverish models everywhere). Touch wood.

Sunday I sorted through clothes that I then put on eBay, which all look pretty good. Wouldn't have a clue how much I'm going to get but there are a few people who are bidding/watching already. The evil thing about selling things on eBay is that I tend to buy too (see above comment about shoes). I did actually end up buying a bunch of stuff I do need, like a new laptop bag. It's a girl's laptop bag fit for an Apple Powerbook. No clunky 'bloke' designs for my Drew. Keep finding more and more things in my wardrobe that I wouldn't mind getting rid of. Whether or not someone will pay money for these things is another matter altogether. I think I'll have to impose some rules; purchase prices cannot exceed selling prices and for every two items I get rid of I'm only allowed to buy one item.

Last week I also landed another big commission with Dynamic Business mag (who pays on time) so I spent the rest of this morning talking to various people, setting up interviews and leaving messages. I'm getting bigger commissions more often, which is a good sign. Maybe this freelance thing can work after all. I do have an interview on Wednesday for a financial mag but I really, really want the CHOICE gig. Applications closed today so hopefully they'll call me for an interview soon. If POL pay me, my immediate financial problems can be alleviated (I have my health insurance up for renewal). I called today and Phil made as if he hadn't received my pointed email (ignored it, more likely) but NOW HE KNOWS AND HE SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Pity I hadn't hounded earlier - I might have been able to go to the Freelance Convention and Emerging Writers' Festival in Melbourne. Boo.