Had a pretty cruisy week despite it being deadline time. Think I may have finally gotten the hang of this part-time thing. And delegating where necessary.
On Tuesday night Boff met Mr Newcastle for the first time. They opened with an stupid argument about how much tennis players get paid and it pretty much went downhill from there. I did expect some fireworks because Mr Newcastle is such a wanker and Boff has a low tolerance for people like him but I would've found it more amusing if Mr Newcastle hadn't brought along his protege Daniel, who was a very sensible person, around my age, trying to stay out of the heat generated by the two 40-somethings. I felt kind of embarassed on Daniel's behalf, actually. After we parted, Boff concluded of Mr Newcastle: "He's a prat."
At some point that night I'd developed an eye infection. Well, I didn't know it was an eye infection yet but my eye felt swollen and bruised overnight. (Of course I had to go and renew my drivers licence, so now I'm going to spend the next five years with an ID photo containing misshapen eyes...)
I spent a large part of Wednesday in discomfort, not only because I was at the fine proofreading stage of editing, but because I had to go to an editorial meeting to dissipate any potential tension between the new editor and a client. It appears the client doesn't like the new editor, or at least has been deliberately unhelpful to Gill since she took over, and we're trying to get to the bottom of it.
The evening worked out well. Went to see 'The Philosophy of Monsters' as part of the Socrates Meetup group and met a few nice, intelligent people. It's always pleasant to meet nice people and usually interesting to meet intelligent people so it stands to reason that it's awesome to meet nice AND intelligent people. Berkelouw Books (Newtown) is also a great venue that I'll need to check out in greater depth.
On Thursday I went to the doctor, who told me I had an eye infection and gave me an ointment for it. The ointment is ergh; it's a gluey kind of texture that I had to squeeze INTO my eye. It recommended application every three hours but the vision in that eye stayed blurry for almost two-and-a-half, which made proofreading hella difficult, as you can imagine.
The afternoon and evening was spent farewelling a colleague who has been there some four years. By the end of her time there everyone had decided they didn't like her, which was interesting to witness. That was at Dr Pong in Darlinghurst, then I went to meet Boff at Newtown for 'Cohen Koans' at Notes. We polished off a vegan salad together. He doesn't like salad but wasn't hungry enough to get something else. 'Cohen Koans' was really good; Ali Hughes had such a rich voice and her interpretations of the songs were nicely rendered as well.
I went to work (late) on Friday because I'd taken longer than expected on proofing due to my eye but I got everything done and bludged about for the rest of the afternoon until Fi's real farewell. Boff stayed over and we both went to the Balmoral to Spit walk (a Meetup event) on Saturday.
Actually we hit our first rough patch because of it. At one stage some of us started crossing a rock platform before it was revealed that it was the wrong way. I'd scouted out front and had decided it wasn't a good idea to go along the rocks and turned back to rejoin the sensible group but he said he'd forge ahead with some of the more adventurous ones and meet me later. I was at Chinamans Beach when he called and said to forget about meeting at the Spit, why don't we meet after the walk at Angel Place (we had tickets to 'King Arthur')?
I agreed, not happy about this but not really seeing an alternative if he couldn't make it, then realised that he'd convinced me to bring a smaller backpack because he could fit all our food in his backpack, so it turned out he had all my provisions. I tried to call him but he didn't pick up, so I sent him a text and he then decided to come meet me at the Spit. I ended up waiting for him for almost an hour at the end of the walk. I was quite pissed off about it and I think he knew it, but neither of us could change the past so I just let it go.
A few of us then decided to kick on to Manly (a walk of about 2-3 hours), which was a much better walk than the urban sprawl of Balmoral to Spit, and then we met with some others at the Bavarian Bier Cafe for a drink and a bite. Due to a public transport calculation error, I then realised on the bus to Chatswood that we weren't going to make it to 'King Arthur' on time so we ended up doing a relay of bus, taxi, shower, taxi to get there. The show wasn't great. I mean, the performances were good but it was at least half an hour too long and both of us were exhausted; so much so that we forewent food and just went to our respective homes to sleep.
Yesterday I managed to squander a morning before meeting with the YHA Meetup group at M.Fest (the Malaysian Festival). They weren't too impressed (it was mostly food stalls and student bands) so we disbanded early and I was able to make it to Volleyball in the Park for an hour of play. I then met up with Boff in Newtown and we wandered down to Marrickville for 'Violent Delights', which was basically a collection of violent/love-filled scenes from Shakespearean plays. Good performances.
Boff asked if we were okay. I wasn't sure what he meant, but it turns out he was still dwelling over what happened on the walk. I told him that I was angry at him at the time but also that I don't hold grudges, especially when I can't change the result of what happened and he seemed all right with that. Maybe a bit wary. I am a bit scary when I'm angry, aren't I? I hope I don't turn into my mum.
Today the highlight was going for a massage and seeing Emi again. She let me pay part of her fee in yuan because she's going to Shanghai soon. I'd brought over my spare money from my Beijing trip - I just wanted to give it to her - but she insisted on calculating the exchange rate and taking it off my bill, which was a nice surprise.
The rest of this week is bits and pieces; I should be relaxed for the long weekend, which is of course TINA time.
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