Things are up

Above: My dad and I at the NSW vs WA match, North Sydney Oval

Last week motored along pretty nicely despite my growing apprehension about the busy period looming.

On Wednesday I was told I made the shortlist for the Austrade job, so I will be going to an interview with them this coming Wednesday morning (which basically means no heavy boozing on Melbourne Cup Day tomorrow...). There will be three of them interviewing me, and a scribe. This stage will involve the criteria they set out in the role description, plus they want three samples of my writing. If I get to the next stage it's a practical assessment of some description. I take it they may put me in a room and tell me to write something.

Also on Wednesday was the NSW Export Awards, at which I presented two export scholarships. It was a very pleasant affair but nowhere near as fun as the PMAAs in Adelaide. I was quite conscious about having to network all night.

Friday was also doubly eventful: KatBear was finally let go. In the end my boss decided to retrench her rather than fire her. Well, he is going to replace her with someone cheaper, ie me (although I will be getting a pay rise). He also knows I may not stay if this Austrade thing turns good, so is cautious of that.

Anyway, so it turns out (according to events revealed today) that in breach of her contact she contacted the client directly and sent them an email, which she then deleted from her sent folder. In fact she deleted her entire sent folder and all her contacts (most of these were later salvaged by our tech guy). A bunch of us will be going to see them on Thursday morning to smooth things over (and introduce me).

In the evening was Jen's Girls Night In for breast cancer fundraising. Twas a good night: we bagged out Whitney Houston in 'The Bodyguard', then watched 'Bridget Jones's Diary' ate musk sticks and drank bubbles. I'm all for fundraising nights that are social, though I've just realised I've spent about $500 on various causes this month, in addition to my regular donations. AND my mortgage repayments just went up.

Saturday night was Jo's burlesque class' graduation night at the classy Marrickville Bowling Club. It was actually rather good, except for one girl who decided to do two songs as solo performances but couldn't actually sing. I mean, why would you unless you were completely deluded about your lack of talent? I found out that it's really difficult to look at an acquaintance when they're in their knickers and a pair of pasties. There was a cute guy there whose name was Chris (Jo's boyfriend Ryan's friend) but he was a man prop for about four acts so clearly was more interested in girls with less clothes on.

On Sunday I ended up going to the cricket with my dad. It was NSW versus WA at North Sydney Oval on an absolute ripper of a day. I got a bit sunburnt on my shoulders, even though I reapplied sunscreen, largely because the sunscreen was really difficult to apply (very thick) and didn't seem to be very absorbent (a lot of ghosting). I paid quite a bit of money for it because it's all natural, but I just had to throw it out afterwards because if you can't spread it, it won't work.

It was a reasonably good game. NSW bowled WA out for 179, though there were a few sixes in the innings. I'd never seen NSW win at the ground so was dismayed when David Warner holed out in the first over, but after that the team steadily compiled the runs. The best part was it was a short game (because WA was bowled out and there were less runs for NSW to chase), which NSW won by 7 wickets. Woot!

Also got to see Simon Katich and Stuart Clark, who are two of my favourite players at the moment. And just because I love them so much, you can have a photo of the two of them (below).



Sunday night I spent writing the second last chapter of my novel ('version one' - doncha hate it when your characters go off and do something they're not supposed to?) and preparing my writing samples for my interview because I know tomorrow is going to be busy with Melbourne Cup lunch and further boozing. Am going to try and get away at around 4:30pm because I just have way too much on, plus I can't drink lots anyway due to meeting Austrade the next morning.

Today was spent being interrupted and reading amusing job applications for the person who will effectively be replacing me.