Have been working my butt off. Actually, more like working my eyes out. Haven't had a workless day in more than three weeks and there is still so much to do. It's spawning when I'm not looking, I swear. Whenever I sit down and write a list of things of stuff to do, it's bigger than the last list. Like swimming against the tide.
Well, what do you do when you're caught in a rip? You swim parallel to shore and then you don't get so tired. Then when you find calm ocean, you head back in. I hope when I head back in I get to lie on the beach for a little while.
Added to all of this is the fact that I haven't been sleeping too well. I'm getting the hours but not the depth. I'm one of those people who rarely have sleeping problems so when I do, I can't cope. I have taken myself off caffeine for a week to see if that changes anything.
I've also been doing the work-life balance thing, like going to the movies, taking an hour out to lie in the massage recliner and listen to music and *shock, horror* I even gave in to my strange compulsion to play violin for a couple of hours last night (don't ask me where that came from - my jaw is regretting it because I'm not used to clenching the chinrest any more). On Wednesday I'm going for a massage. And still the tide comes in.
And I haven't even touched my massive TAFE assignment, which is due in next Thursday.
Hmm, well other stuff... since I've not had anything on except work there's not much to report. Melissa, my desk neighbour, resigned and had her last day on Friday. Her replacement is a lady called Katherine, a bit older than most of us (early 30s) and she's quite nice. Worked in law, then the music industry, and was a freelance writer for a while and now wants to get back into publishing.
Colin also let Jodie (sales) go on Thursday afternoon. He told me that he was going to, the morning before he did (I don't know WHY) and said it was because although she worked really hard, she just wasn't bringing in the sales. Then he went and told everyone else she resigned, so I have no idea what to think about that. We had a new guy called Andrew start today. Apparently there's been an ad out for a while.
I bought tickets to Raggamuffin for my sister for her birthday (today). I bought them ages ago, like a few months ago, because I know she and Anton like reggae. Only problem was, the Sydney show was on a Wednesday so I wanted to get the Saturday show, which was in the Hunter Valley. When I went to Ticketmaster the lady confused me and convinced me that what I wanted was the Australia Day public holiday show (Monday), which was in Byron Bay. So I bought them. And then realised my mistake.
See, there's a big difference between driving to the Hunter Valley (2-3 hours from Sydney) and driving to Byron Bay (9-10 hours from Sydney). Add the trip from Canberra (3 hours) onto that and it's a long way to Tipperary, it's a long way to go. (I'm just in a silly mood so forgive my outbreaks of random lyrics). Then the fact that they have to take a day off to come back after the show and my whole thought process has been screwed over.
So I get an email from my sister "Thanks for the tickets, but why Byron?" And then I realise Anton will have just come back from his trip to South Africa, which means he'll have no leave, and the two of them now have a mortgage so the money for the transport and accommodation and day off will have to come from their tight budget... What the hell was I thinking?
Rach and I then had a discussion over email about my general stupidity, which largely consisted of her going "What the hell were you thinking?" and me going "I'll change the tickets to Sydney or Hunter, I'll get a refund and get you something else - argh!" Anyway, they are flying up rather than driving and the result of all that was: "It's alright, I got a fairly chunky tax refund so it'll be a fun holiday, and I really like Byron Bay." Though some spending money for Christmas wouldn't go astray.
BTW it looks like I'll be getting around $1,400 from my tax return. The benefit of doing a tax return so late in the year is that I feel less guilty about spending it on Sydney Festival tickets, which may be around $500 for the 2009 gigs, having gone through the program already.
Speaking of spending obscene amounts of money for entertainment, this afternoon I went to Ticketmaster tres excited about Leonard Cohen coming to town, only to have to shell out $140 for one of the crappiest seats at the Ent Cent because all the gold tickets had been sold. I was truly prepared to pay almost $200 for a gold ticket and am so disappointed that there wasn't a SINGLE seat in that area. What makes me even more sick is that I just had a look on eBay and tickets in that section are now going for around $300 each. YOU BASTARDS PROFITING FROM TICKETS THAT GENUINE FANS WANT.
I seriously thought about getting VIP tickets to his A Day on the Green show at Bimbadgen, but then realised the whole round trip would cost me at least $400, even if I stayed at the Newcastle YHA, plus I would have to miss out on Sydney Festival gigs that weekend. Excuse me Leonard.
Hope this has been a long and pointless read for you. I'm off to do some more work.
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