Interesting situation with Austrade. They've been faffing around for ages about supporting the magazine. The previous agreement was that they'd pay us a few grand to distribute copies of our mag to all their Australian offices. Then they terminated the agreement because of budget cuts but still expect us to send them magazines. Um, what's in it for us except a huge postage bill?
Anyway, so Andrew and I went to see Marija (chief purse-string holder) on Wednesday, who my boss had already warned was a bitch. Well, in my opinion she wasn't a bitch, but she was definitely not warm. I could tell she was playing us, and I knew we weren't going to get any money from her.
So here's the truth about how the magazine works. If you support us financially, I'm not necessarily going to say nice, glossy things about you unless they are true. That's advertorial and not my game. But what will happen is that nasty things about you will lose priority and may never get reported unless big enough to hit the wider media (see Stern Hu, Indian student attacks etc).
Case in point was the John Finnin story, which originally broke in the Fairfax papers. Note that the linked article does nothing but parrot the Sydney Morning Herald, and is therefore not untrue. This is, by the way, how to ride an exclusive and cover your arse.
Marija was faffing, so I posted the story on my boss' instructions. Turns out that Austrade had a list of refutations that Fairfax hadn't taken into account, the reason I was given, off the record, was that CEO Peter O'Byrne was approached by the journalists in question while preparations were being made for Craig Senger's funeral. Hence the related link to the Austrade media release as a salve to keep good relations going between me and the Austrade media team, particularly Sam, who I like, despite the uncooperative nature of Marija.
Which puts me in a pickle. Austrade were on our expert panel in the mag. They are most people's first or main source of market information. Replacing them with another organisation with the same level of credibility (who will pay the requisite rent) is nigh impossible. In the meantime I have to explain to everyone that they're no longer on the panel at the ed meeting tomorrow. How annoying. Enough about freaking Austrade, it's making me miserable.
Had writing group at Pocket Bar on Wednesday, which was very pleasant, even though the only two people who brought writing were Lee Tran and I. Still, who can go wrong with crepes and cocktails and opinions on everything from the Kyle & Jackie O affair to what Lee Tran thought of the Harry Potter 6 film ("you come out with a Dumbledore-length beard").
On Thursday I was going to see 'Public Enemies' with Sir but she had to work late, so instead of going by myself, I convinced myself it was a good day to go for a swim. Surprised myself by swimming the full 2km set AND walking the 2km each way. After dinner, I then spent the night finishing reading 'Harry Potter 7', which was as neatly tied as I remember.
Friday cruised smoothly. Had a good meeting with AIPM, my darling clients, and then got back to work only to flit out again to have lunch at the pub, followed by my appraisal with Jen who basically said I shouldn't change anything I'm doing because I'm so good and I should get more money.
She'd already had appraisals with the other two in the team. The real interesting stuff was when she was talking about KatBear and her attitude, how she wasn't a team player and didn't care for anyone (and how much the design department loathed her). And how she only wanted to do her magazine and not write for mine, even though that was half of her job and in her role description from the beginning.
So I said 'you should just make her part-time so she can just work on her magazine and then use the money you save to let me pay for a freelancer'. And Jen went to Colin with it, thinking it would benefit all involved. Not sure whether they're going to propose it to KatBear soon, but I can't think of why she wouldn't want to, given that she hates the office environment so much.
Later that night I went to my parents' place where my mum was hosting her birthday dinner party, at which I played the role of the dishwasher. Dinner was followed by dessert and karaoke, which explains why I have snatches of Neil Diamond's 'I'm a Believer' in my head even today.
Saturday was lunch with school friends at Castle Hill, redolent with high school memories. We then went to see 'Harry Potter 6' at the cinema, which as Lee Tran rightfully pointed out, was worthy of a Dumbledore-length beard. The problem was that it is is such a good-looking film that it forgets it's supposed to be telling a coherent story. I doubt anyone who has not read the books or seen the other movies would understand what was going on. There were plenty of directorial blunders, in my opinion. Might get worked up enough about it to write a review.
Got home at about 7.30pm, then realised I was supposed to be at Sally's flatwarming. Sally's a girl from work. We're not particularly close, but she seems to like me well enough, plus her place is 10 mins walk from mine so there wasn't a good excuse to skip it. Baked some melting moments and trudged over there. Not much to note, except for a strange group discussion in which I discovered I was the only one at the table of seven not to have gone to a private school.
Yesterday I went to the India Australia Friendship Fair. I was going to go anyway, but then a PR contact sent me an invite so I could get in for free and attend the VIP lunch with a guest, so I invited Ass, who came with her mum (we managed to smuggle her mum into the lunch with us).We had henna tattoos done, and Ass had her eyebrows threaded, which was a fascinating process. Met the Mayor of Auburn Irene Simms and her daughter Amy when they sat next to us at lunch. Also had photo taken with Tania Zaetta (above), who I interviewed some time ago about exporting to India. But all in all not that great a day out, bar the company.
Today I turned down a custard tart because I thought having pastry flakes down my black top would not impress the lovely Frenchman I met at the Chinese trade event this afternoon. Still trying to decide whether it was worth it.
Also, Pape called me today in response to a text I sent him re: whether he'd like to go to the Dappled Cities gig. He does want to go. Loves Dappled Cities, in fact. And listens to FBi radio. He knows Scott's in Queensland, and he sounded a bit disappointed when he found out that Ness is coming to the gig too. Hmm. I feel like I'm playing him by accident.
Lastly: shame, shame. I haven't progressed my novel since last week, yet I am so tantalisingly close to finishing. Will dedicate this week to finishing the first draft, as I promised I'd have the end to my writing group by next month. That is all.
No comments:
Post a Comment