So I’m back to steady breathing after a month-long huff and puff. I’ve decided to take a couple of weeks off the resto job. It was beginning to be more trouble than it was worth. It feels good to have a tidy bedroom floor and actually having a bed to sleep on instead of having to sleep on a blend of dirty and fresh clothes. I had a nice long proper shower last night and it felt GOOD.

Good thing I’m doing well with the lexi job but too bad the project ends in October. I’m totally crushing on my Irish colleague hihi and I can’t wait to be back at work tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll ask to keep me on for the next one, but I’m not holding my breath for that. When it’s time to move on, it’s time to get moving!

I overstretched myself with the 2 jobs and then schoolwork got definitively harder. I’m going to have to start taking that a little more seriously if I want to continue doing this at the end of the course.

Apart from that, I’ve been participating at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) since it started two weeks ago. Apparently there’s over 500 films and so far, I’ve seen about 10. Haha. Poor show maybe, but I like to think it’s not that bad considering all the other shit I’ve got going as well.

Okay what else? Hmm, well it’s been a great time so far. I’m certainly enjoying what the city has to offer and I feel more comfortable being here. For one thing, I don’t say ‘take out’ or ‘to go’ when I mean ‘takeaway’ and I bear to the left when walking around. Of course I’ve progressed a bit further than that since arriving here 4 months ago, I’m just really pleased with how busy I’ve made myself and am now beginning to reap the benefits of that effort.

The forecast for the rest of the week is: watch a lot of films, including that controversial one that made China pull out all their films at the start of the festival and enjoy breathing this weekend.

Sorry I totally didn’t get back to you. I kinda died from too much activity after that last entry. Worked all weekend but partied as well. Good stuff. Remind me to post separate entries on waitressing and computational linguistics (I finally know what the other job is). One is full on physically and the other mentally. Good vegetative-state inducing balance. And I may also be overdoing the social scene. It’s all good stuff, sowing seeds of opportunities I think.

Will be on a snowy road trip from tomorrow to Sunday then a full week of working my ass off again before next term starts. Back soon.

Wow I know it’s been a bit over a month since I last wrote but OMFG it’s been a helluva month. So much has happened that I actually had to go over the last few entries to reacquaint my now self to my then self. I feel so changed inside. Hm but then again I feel closer to my younger troubled self, when I was going through my emotionally distressing years at college (or at uni, depending on who I’m talking to). But I will get to all of that in due time, my friend. I don’t know why I don’t do it more often, writing is therapeutic and relaxing. Having said that, it’s always been difficult for me to write when I am going through particularly difficult times. I always have to quietly try and make sense of it all in my head before I can shoot off a good and coherent entry.

So yeah. Retooling. Yes, that’s what I’ve been busy with and it’s all been very good.

I’m going to keep this short for now, BUT I PROMISE I will try to be back later this week to get this blog rolling again. I have been feeling under the weather since Thursday night and although I’ve been resting all this weekend, it hasn’t been the long and uninterrupted rest that I think I might need. I do feel slightly better though. And no, I don’t think it’s swine flu.

I bet you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to all this time, eh? Don’t answer that. Okay, answer it quickly in your head.

So I’m in the last week of my first term at school and I am having a blast so far. I have been a bit better at updated the new blog for that. All the specific design-y and learn-y stuff are there. I’ll add the link to my blogroll since it’s all connected to me anyway.

I have been working as a waitress for over a month now and it’s what’s been keeping me afloat for the past few weeks. I make just enough to pay for transportation expenses and phone credit. Okay and maybe a few beers on the weekend. And some cups of coffee. Mhmm flat white sure is good here. More on the wait job later. I’ll have you in stitches.

I also teach basic French once a week, this is a more recent development. One of my classmates says he’s always wanted to learn and he tried looking for a tutor online and apparently it’ll cost like $44/hour, which is ridiculous really and I joked and said yo man I’ll do it for $20 if you’re so keen. And he was actually serious haha. So the first lesson went well, I think his head exploded a little bit but he’s game for another lesson tomorrow. He figured he spends a great deal of his money on alcohol, might as well set a budget for some form of self-improvement. Good on him, I say. And good for me. He may have a bit of a crush on me but of course that has nothing to do with his interest in learning French. That would just be silly.

And I finally landed a “proper” job last week, after over a hundred applications to over a hundred companies advertising on the Seek website, as well as on other less reputable job sites (which is a story in itself, I tell ya).

The new job is in Sandringham, which is at the end of the train line going southbound, it’s over an hour away from home (I live in the east), quite possibly 1.5 hours with the wait time between bus connections factored in. I get to work with linguists and geeky people and I think I’m going to have a fantastic time. I went over there for the interview and after like 5 minutes of chatting, they offered the job and I’m just through the roof at this point. I finally fucking get my self-worth back. Clearly I can find jobs in Melbourne. It feels GOOD to know that. Such a painful process, employment and the state of being unemployed.

So I’m on cloud nine and the lovely geeky people start my training straight after the interview and my head explodes a little bit with all the Prolog and the emacs (which I actually uninstalled from my computer a few months back because I didn’t like the multiple keystrokes for a lot of the shortcuts). They use Linux and I’m excited about that!

Incidentally there are 3 festivals I’m trying to spare some time for. I’ve already helped with some mailing for a writer’s festival, which is scheduled to run for about a week in August. Another is a design festival and I’m desperate to be a part of that. That is so right up my alley, it’s not even funny to consider being excluded from that. It starts in 2 weeks and I haven’t heard from the volunteer coordinator, so I may have to resign myself to being a mere guest this year. It’s just as well, it’s not like I’ll have a lot of time for that anyway.

The last one is a film festival and I want to volunteer because I get a nice T-shirt and 8 free film passes out of it. Haha. Good stuff.

So that’s a bit of a handful and I’m grateful that things are starting to come together for me here. While I’m lucky that I don’t have to worry about making the rent and having something to eat, it has often felt like an uphill struggle. This post is just one long sigh of relief. The trick really is to keep going.

I never enjoyed classes as much as I am right now. Well, the language courses can probably compete. First of all, can I just say that I’m loving the whole NOT WORKING part of being a student? But yes yes I know I should have be part time jobbing by now.

The school is new so it isn’t one of the more reputable ones around here but it has been doing well so far. I did have my misgivings in the beginning but the instructors have proven to be quite good, even though most of them have atrocious spelling, i.e. SAN serif, ocupational hazard, aesthitics etc. It seems to afflict the entire nation, to be honest. I’ve been doing my best to keep the snobby spelling nazi in me silenced. Rather discomfiting for a former spelling bee champ, as you can imagine.

The kids are alright, several are straight out of high school, so I think they’re moronic (I know I generalize this, yet I continue to judge). I will say this though, I sincerely do enjoy talking to most of them. What I do find irritating is that they’ve been using my laptop as the public cd writer and the default usb port for organising files. Oh and they also want me to convert their jpegs to pdfs. One stop freakin’ shop. A simple google search would sort them out. They’re really just either lazy or imbeciles (well it’s really just self-centeredness). Most are unprepared for this course, and this baffles me. Sometimes I help, when I feel like they’re making an effort and when I can see that they want to learn. It’s easy to distinguish those who are freeloading from those who are really trying. I start off by joking that I’ll have to start charging for my services, then I tell them off in the hopes that they’ll see the light and if I’m really fed up, I just flat out refuse to help them. It’s not my problem they can’t understand English (oh snap!). I guess there is such a thing as a bitchy pushover. Or maybe a pushover bitch. I remember being a lousy student at university but I never once inconvenienced other students with my slackering. I assure you that it was all a very dignified affair.

The Peruvian girl, let’s call her Yola because that is her name, tries very hard so I help her out most of the time. She works part time every weeknight and is struggling between that and school. She’s good and besides I can practicar mi español con ella. It amuses both me and her. I also don’t mind helping out Chinese Will and Vietnamese Jessica, (names anglicised duh) cos they’re my BFFs here. I particularly enjoy the boy’s company even though he remains unwashed most of time. I like the Japanese Tatsu as well because he did his best in submitting a tough assignment but that’s really only secondary to the fact that he is a boy that looks like a girl and he giggles like a geisha. I’m also very nice to the late enrollees and especially sympathetic to the ones who encountered visa issues so I patiently explain project assignments to them. I’m not as keen on helping some of the others, namely the overindulged brats and those who confuse their work/school priorities. I still help them though, even as I crab at them. It’s curious that I can’t help it, I must really have my father’s educator blood in me. He does come from a family of teachers after all.

Autumn is here, some trees are turning a pretty reddish brown and there are others that are well on their way to winter baldness. The weather is getting cooler and although we’ve had a few chilly days and a couple of freezing rainy ones, we’re still experiencing sunny days in the 20s. Still very nice weather, apparently uncommon at this time. In preparation for the imminent coldness, I’ve already bought a number of warm clothes and even a pair of sturdy warm shoes. So nono I’m not going to freeze my fingers and toes off this winter!

I’ve also settled in some more and am finally more comfortable and familiar with the area. Initially it felt like the middle of nowhere and I didn’t even know the way to the bus stop or tram. I’ve got a bank account set up, a registered tax number and even a couple of library cards. I’ve got two libraries which I visit quite enthusiastically for the free wifi.

I have gone out and met new people and had a few good experiences and some groan-inducing ones. I’m inherently an antisocial person but because of a past job that required me to talk to all kinds of people, I’ve developed a part of me that can be socially pleasant and intriguing for an entire evening. A social animal that switches on and off at will, if you will. Too bad for me that my social best seems to give out all the wrong signals here. I’m beginning to discover massive differences between men in their mid 20s and men in their early 30s. The older ones are kind of keener to get in my pants and are less romantic about it. A bit worrying, I want to make friends, not contract herpes.

I’m also becoming an AFL enthusiast, which is a cross between rugby and football. It’s also called football or “footy” and European football is referred to as soccer or “that girly sport.”

So I could head in two directions here. On one hand, I could become a beer-guzzling footy hooligan (which I already am sometimes at home, it seems like there’s a game going on every day). On the other hand, I could be the lucky Asian dream girl to a single 30-year-old professional who’s looking for the one who “gets” what he’s all about.

It’s around the same time my plane landed at Tullamarine airport a week ago. It’s been busy busy busy. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had beautiful weather so far. Sunny and mild weather yay! It’s autumn and I half-expected it to be colder. I’m happy it’s not!

I’ve been nursing a wrist injury for about two weeks now. I played soccer a few days before I flew out and I had sooo much fun. But I’m not very good at it, or maybe I am because I prevented the opponent from scoring a goal, but anyway a player plowed into me and I fell on the ground hard. I stuck my arm out to steady myself (wrong wrong wrong) and my wrist bore the brunt of the impact. Pain.

Luckily I didn’t break anything but it was very very sore and swollen after that. And it was my left wrist too, which is my main. I did very well looking after it, cold compress, then warm compress then keeping it immobile and bandaging it nice and secure (thanks to boxing, I am excellent at wrapping bandages).

So yeah it was healing oh so nicely and was nearly back to its tip top shape when I totally strained it while travelling. With my 7kg handcarry and 2 luggages AND a tennis racket. Haha. It’s a miracle I didn’t tear the damn thing off. Ruined my french tips too, bastards. I know it’s not a very sensible thing to get a french manicure just before travelling but it’s going to be a while before I can afford beauty services here so just leave me alone!

It’s much better now though and it should be okay very soon. It better be. I don’t want to think I’m too fragile to do any sports! First my elbow and now this!

I’ve been busy with a number of things. We are moving house this weekend and I’ve been helping them out with a garage sale, which took place last weekend and was a smashing success, and packing packing packing.

I have also started another blog, one that keeps track of my study progress. I thought it best to keep that separate from this more general rambleness one. I took some books out from the library and have been reading a lot on typography, VERY good stuff.

I’ve sent out heaps of job applications and will eventually go back to volunteering. Didn’t think my 2007 productivity here would come in so handy. I’ve been reconnecting with friends I made here, it’s been good. I need mates! One of the places I volunteered at (a gallery of contemporary art) is wonderfully situated; it’s a block down from my school. How very convenient. And there is a theatre next to it that serves a good flat white and I enjoyed one immensely after my school visit (more on that later).

English Breakfast or Earl Grey.. occasional Boh tea YUM. Oh Lychee Rose where are you! Black tea with LOTS of honey. Probably my favorite food next to pizza and cereal.

I have discovered the Wii and today will be my fourth day doing yoga. Man, I can really feel those “deep” muscles. At the rate I’m injuring myself, it’s probably a good thing I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would. I’ve always thought it was boring. I’ve also come close to tearing my shoulder off playing bowling and I did a few rounds of boxing that made me realise how much I miss it.

Ok I’m going to finish my tea and look for my center of gravity.

(Warning: Long post, a bit rambling)

On packing: My last day of work has been eventful so far. I woke up early as usual and hung around the house, started sorting out my preliminary packing and ended up nearly finalising everything. I usually have a couple of packing rehearsals before fixing the locks on the luggage and calling it done but I’ve been dragging my feet for a week now. I take packing very seriously. All that’s left to do is double checking on Sunday night, ideal so I can keep Monday and Tuesday for last minute errands and arranging final meetups with people.

I may have overpacked since I’m wearing a previously worn and currently unwashed shirt today and the jumper I’ll be wearing on my flying day. I’ve also been wearing the same pjs for quite some time now. I’ve been blessed with sweat that doesn’t smell straight away (it’s probably all the gallons of water I drink daily) and I admit I am sometimes guilty of reusing clothing. My motto is “till it starts to make me itch”. Except panties. Ok maybe I have done that once or twice, but that was during backpack travelling and it was the norm.

Bank issue: So I set off for work at noon and headed to Unionbank Ortigas, where my payroll account is handled. I realised yesterday when I was trying to clean out my account that I had a loose Php 67.61 in the balance. I remember the finance department inform me awhile back that our ATM account has a lot of limitations, including inability to make transactions over the counter. Apparently it’s a remittance account and I don’t have the option to deposit money into it,  it doesn’t even earn interest. I wondered hmm how could I get that money out if the lowest unit of money ATMs dispense are 100 peso notes? I grew worried and decided I needed help in damning the man. So I relayed my concerns to my finance department and I consulted them for half an hour. They were not able to assuage any of my fears! Basically they said I wouldn’t be able to withdraw that amount and that I would have to forget about it. Huhu! Of course this piece of news vexed me greatly and made me feel very alone. The Man is in cahoots with the finance department. But I couldn’t give up. I wouldn’t. There was no way I was giving that 67 pesos and 61 cents to Unionbank.

Filled with grim determination, I headed over to the bank and politely explained my concerns with a jolly teller. He suggested that the bank deposit 33 pesos (or rather 32.39) to round the account balance off to a hundred and that I give him the money to square things off. I was heartened by this bit of news and was happy I wouldn’t have to and so I happily waited while he spoke with his manager. Upon his return however, he seemed a bit more subdued and informed me that because there were restrictions imposed on my stupid remittance account, he would not be able to help me. I expected this so I wasn’t the least bit ruffled and asked him what I could do and he directed me to another dude, this one was seated and had a desk. This guy, let’s call him Bon Christian Belleza, seemed distracted and wasn’t too interested in my tale of woe. He waited for me to finish and repeated what Jolly had told me, that there was nothing they could do. I got all dramatic about it and said, “Your bank is stealing my money, do you know that this is a criminal offense?” He just stared at me and said that there was a contractual agreement between my company and the bank and that he could not help me any more in the matter. So I said, thanks a lot, Sales and Service Officer Bon Christian Belleza, it’s been a pleasure, may I read this contractual agreement? Keeping my feelings of anger and helplessness under control, I asked to speak with someone else and to his credit, he directed me to customer service.

So off I went to the 31st floor in the same building and quickly found someone who would listen to my problem. He was infinitely better than Bon and he listened patiently and after I’d finished, he said he would look into it. He returned 10 minutes later and said that the only way around the problem is to have my company ring the bank to authorise the Php 32.39 deposit, thus enabling me to withdraw all of the money. I said what a great idea, and I shook his hand and said, thanks Val Deem of Customer Care for a very satisfactory service.

On last day of work: Finally I could go to work but before that, I bought some pizzas (Pizzas!) and told them to deliver to the office. I’m going to miss my team! Once I got settled in, I went to my accounting girls and tried to sort everything out with them. At first they thought I was joking but I was quick to correct them and said nonono I actually did go to the bank and complained about my unfortunate situation, now you must help me. They agreed to deposit the Php 32.39 into my account and include that in my back pay computation. All in all, I’m pretty satisfied and it was well worth the hour. I’m sure they find me ridiculous and countingey but I’m pleased as punch about having made a point and perhaps having passed on the backbone tradition. Feeding them pizza softened them up and I think we’re still cool. Otherwise, concluding my back pay will take a looooong time.

On the Replacement: I stopped working properly since last Friday to give the new guy some space and let him do his own thing, only offering assistance when he needs it. I’ve been chilling, redditing, transferring files and eating pizza since. Well worth that bank fee, I might add.

A few remarks I have:

1. He is a terrible speller. While that’s really kind of okay in our line of work, the tendency to misspell words makes one seem just a little bit incompetent. Pagination not Paganation, spread is not spreed and for Strunk and White’s sake, learn how to use quotations properly.

2. He enjoys giving out instructions but is rather bad at following them.

3. He gets defensive when corrected or reminded.

I know he’s only been at it for two weeks and he will probably get better in time but I’m just incredibly bothered by his lack of attentiveness. Yesterday, projects nearly blew up and the UK dude raised hell, apparently telling my bosses that he was surprised that a new project manager would be taking over my responsibilities. What a dick. Fortunately for me, I don’t delete emails, I just archive them and I still have the email introducing the new guy and saying that he would be in charge starting this week. It is also because NG didn’t do as I had said. I said the UK guy might be a prick but he’s a client and he likes his own status update email and it doesn’t take a large amount of time to do that. I also told him that keeping him happy gets the bosses off your back. I suppose he wanted to learn this lesson on his own.

This month has been tremendously trying at work. It’s been good though, initially I had misgivings about resigning early and flying to Melbourne a month before classes start but I have pretty much adjusted to my newfound status as unemployed and eagerly await my studenting years.

Julien Doré – Les limites

Awesome eyebrow dancing. Awesome all around.

Shantel – Bucovina

Stefan Hantel is a German producer and DJ.