Riddance!

Some good news and some better news.

The good news is Jacqui has accepted our offer of employment and will be starting on April 27, which means I will be on my first part-time week on May 10.

The better news is that Erin has resigned, which means we will be getting a new junior writer in, particularly someone who can actually write and is actually interested in doing the job and who has some respect for co-workers.

Seriously, the girl wasn't doing herself any favours. Despite repeatedly asking me if she could help me (one more time and I could strangle her!) she has submitted a total of one (1) article in on time. Oh, but this is not at ALL affected by the fact that she comes in late, goes out for an hour for lunch, watches ABC iView for another hour (also 'lunch'), spends her time on Facebook and YouTube, spends five minutes every hour doing her makeup, another five minutes an hour talking to her boyfriend on the phone in the hallway, and then leaves on the dot of 5.30pm.

Sure, she would have gotten away with that if she'd delivered good work, on time - BUT SHE'S NOWHERE NEAR IT. My managing director was ready to fire her at the end of this week, once she'd handed in the pieces she owes me, but it turns out she does actually possess some inkling of doom and decided to resign before we could do so.

The worst part is, the WORST part is that she blames it all on depression. She has been going to a psychiatrist for years and is now on meds, and although I sympathise with the effect depression can have on one's life, including daily routine such as work, a depressive does not angle for a promotion and then emotionally manipulate people into thinking they should give them another chance and then breezily disregard behavioural rules. This is just giving depressives a bad name.

My father, when he was a nurse, worked with a lot of depressive patients and it was lucky if they could think past their own perceived inadequacy, let alone spend a long time thinking about other people and the ways to lie to and manipulate them. My sister, who went out with a depressive, said her ex couldn't even leave the house.

Then there's the watch. It's a long story that I'll tell in a short way: basically there was a $1,400 Seiko watch going into a Father's Day spread we have coming up. The PR for Seiko asked if we wanted a sample (ostensibly to photograph) and Erin said 'yes' despite the fact that we don't do shoots and we already had a hi-res image. It soon became apparent that she thought the watch was a gift, and she was planning to give it to her boyfriend (Jen said she'd blurted it out on Facebook).

The PR chick then wrote an email that said something like, 'just let me know when to send a courier to return it to Seiko'. Erin then asked me what that meant and I said 'I think it means they want the watch back'. Despite this, she took the watch home and (we assume) gave it to her boyfriend. The PR emailed her about it on the Friday, but she'd taken the day off because she was distressed about her grandmother being in hospital. Today, she didn't bring the watch in. Someone said she was planning to sell the watch and buy her boyfriend a cheaper one and keep the money. On Jen's request, the PR emailed again and said they needed it for a shoot and they'd send a courier to pick it up tomorrow morning. So, we wait to see if the watch reappears.

I think that's enough ranting for now. I just needed to get it out of my system. Jen and I have been exchanging baffled theories on whether she's just delusional or whether she really has a malevolent agenda. Well, she has an inflated sense of her own entitlement and will try to spin her way out of any potentially threatening situation, that's for sure.

In other news, I had a verbal stoush with Trevor, AIPM communications committee chair, over taking instructions. He accused me of not taking time to understand what the AIPM does or wants to do on the basis of me not following his instructions. Which is all very well and good for him to say except that he's dead wrong. Of course I DO care, which is why I'm continuing editorship of TPM, and the last time he wanted to change something, I double-checked with Ian, AIPM general manager, and Ian said Trevor was not to tell me what to do. So there.

DC came to his first writers group meeting, which was at Subsolo a nicely decorated but slightly out-of-budget Spanish restaurant (certainly not as value for money as the Market City food court!). Lots of notes for novel drafting.

Thursday saw another DC, Danielle, return briefly from the UK. We went to The Winery, another nicely decorated out-of-budget place, and I met her boyfriend Shane (a Kiwi living in London). Another friend of hers whose name I can never remember arrived shortly after, which was just as well because we were running out of things to talk about. Fortunately Reged (uni acquaintance) and Renee (book publicist) then arrived from the SWF program launch and rescued us. It's horrible because I get on much better with Renee than I do with Dan, but I don't want to 'steal' Dan's friend, especially as Dan lives in London now. ANYWAY...

Friday was the baffling 'Good Morning Mr Gershwin' at the Opera House with some schoolfriends. Assie had a decent time of it, despite believing said friends to be hella boring, and I found out that the twins dislike our (absent) friend Amanda for her inability to host anything without having to sell something to us (including Christianity) as its purpose. Agreed.

Saturday: yum cha and coffee with the extended family. Cutest moment was watching my niece try to feed leaves to pigeons. Then Bunnings (again) to pick up storage tubs. Then Victoria's Basement (again) because my mum wanted to have a look. This was preceded by a three-way argument between my mum, dad and I about parking.

Then a brief visit to the Surry Hills Festival to see Fergus Brown. I saw a stall there about adopting a greyhound and talked to one of the ladies behind the association. Am now seriously considering fostering greyhounds. Spent the night rearranging furniture in the living room - space is better used, I like it (thanks to my bro for the suggestion!).

Sunday: Listened to the Canvas program on FBi radio for the Craig Shuftan and Chip Rolley interviews, which were both fantastic (might mention that I have a small crush on Chip Rolley, but more on that later). Walked to Bicentennial Park in Willoughby to properly dispose of my batteries and then walked to LOOK (Koziol outlet) to buy wine racks and Victoria's Basement (again) buy wine glasses and plate holders. The plate holders are not to hold plates, actually, but have been used to hold up either end of my Doohat Ave street sign. Which makes no sense to any of you (I will provide a picture at some point).

The Chip Rolley thing... He's the interim director of the SWF while Wendy Were is on maternity leave. I met him last year when I was supervising in the Green Room and thought he was hot. I mean, he's not incredibly good looking or anything but he has a nice voice and is very intelligent and articulate, which is about the same as being really really ridiculously good looking.

Anyway, Matt Levinson, host of Canvas put out a tweet on Saturday asking us what we would ask Chip and I replied: @CanvasOnFBi Chip Rolley is hot... I would ask him: "What type of tea would you match with your favourite book and why?" Later on that night I found out Chip was on Twitter so I tweeted "Sleep time now, so I can wake up for @CanvasOnFBi and @ChipRolley and not miss a thing, including the tea matched to his favourite book."

Matt didn't end up asking the tea question in his interview, but then on Sunday arvo I was surprised to find a tweet to me: ChipRolley "@witmol Tea: Longjing. Book: White Noise or Jude the Obscure or The Road or ... But def Longjing." I'm not sure whether he read my initial comment (about him being hot) but I was pleased and slightly embarassed to find that he answered and he's started following me *blush*.

That's all folks. Plenty more where that came from this coming week. I'll be in Beijing this time next week, so I'll try and post on Sunday.