It will just not do

Had another one of those humdrum weeks where I refused to pick up the pace despite the fact that I am majorly behind for the October issue. Instead, I fantasised about all the things I'm going to do in Melbourne, including doing lots of nothing much in a different city.

As for actual events and incidents of the week: went head-to-head with Andrew from sales and my MD over Andrew's propensity to overpromise things to ad clients without consulting with me first when said promise involved a heavy, prolonged editorial relationship.

In a nutshell, I was not prepared to debut someone as a partner to the magazine as there was no way I had the authority to back them as an 'industry leader' without it looking like I'd sold out to (not even) the highest bidder. But Andrew had already offered it to them without my knowledge.

The solution was to have a third party (namely the institute) endorse the client, separate to the magazine, which would make our offer less about money and at least vaguely related to what I'm supposed to do, which is produce quality journalism for exporters.

Seriously, I understand it's a 'tough climate' for sales but the whole point of editorial is that it can't be bought. My stance on the fact that it was not for sale shouldn't have surprised anyone. I quit the last time it got too much, and I'm prepared to do it again.

We can argue til we're all blue in the face as to who has the most difficult job, sales or editorial (I think it's sales, but that's why they get paid commissions) but it's a moot point when sales aren't even doing their job, that is, selling the pages that we've allocated to them. You know, selling their pages first, before asking me to sell mine.

Asking for editorial help is a freakin' lazy way to earn a sale anyway. Besides which, I have enough of my job to do without doing theirs, and there's nothing in it for me except more work doing it their way.

Ah. Our production manager had her farewell on Friday. Went to the Tilbury at Woolloomooloo. Of course we didn't have anything to eat beforehand, though we managed to get some snacks on the tab.

I didn't drink much anyway; due to the threat of hayfever I am once again on Biminne and I'm not sure whether it has the same effects as drinking while on antihistimines but I don't like to risk it. Anyway, I left around 9:30pm as everyone started to get silly and I couldn't think of anything but getting home and writing.

On Saturday I did some writing while researching some Melbourne things, then went to Sushi Rio with Ness and Russ before meeting Pape at Cheers for a beer, prior to going to The Metro for Dappled Cities. With some relief, have come to understand that Pape has no special feelings for me.

Gig was fantastic: Philadelphia Grand Jury got the party started and were worth the cover price alone. FBi radio play them quite a bit, and I have a passing interest in their music, but their live set was something else.

Dappled Cities were quite polished and played a few old hits as well as most of their new album, 'Zounds'. They screened a couple of Alphabreaks in the interlude as well, then played dressed in a suits of flashing lights, which was... special.

Afterwards we walked up to The Rocks and went to meet some extraneous friends of Sue's (Ness' work friend who had come during the gig) at The Orient but that got boring so we went to Reuters (which is also boring but whatever).

I left just before 2:30am because I knew I had to go see my mum in the morning. Luckily the Nightride was at 2:35am from Wynyard - only it drove past full. So I decided to walk down George St and if a taxi stopped first, I'd get it, or if I reached Town Hall first, I'd get the Nightride from there as it was a stop earlier.

Would you believe, TWO taxis stopped and REFUSED to take me to Waverton. Like, sure, it's a small fare, but it's a quick and easy run. And the worst part is they get around the whole thing about it being illegal to refuse passengers by turning off their vacant light and making it look like they're doing you a favour by even stopping. Seriously, recession? Whatever. If they can refuse a paying customer, I'm not going to feel sorry for their lot.

Eventually I made it to Town Hall in time for the next Nightride bus. Would you believe, it was also full? A handful of people, myself included, missed out on boarding. By this time I was really fed up and didn't want to wait another half hour. Fortunately I had picked $20 off the ground at a bus stop near Wynyard so was even more willing to pay for a taxi.

I nabbed one as a guy got out at Town Hall and didn't tell the driver where I was going until I was buckled in. Actually, I think he would have taken me anyway, but you can't be too cautious.

Yesterday I went to see my mum. We went for a picnic with my aunt and cousin at Cumberland State Forest. It was supposed to be an afternoon of bushwalking, but it ended up being two 10-min walks punctuated by about 3 hours of eating. The worst part was that in the evening I met up with Dina and Desiree at Belmonte's in Pennant Hills (they now live in Thornleigh) for pizza.

Not much else. Need to spend tomorrow evening on writing, I have two chapters near the end that are both half-written and that will just not do.