I have set myself a challenge. Oh how fun. To update this diary at least once a day for at least the next month. Being April Fools Day, I figured it was the perfect time to start. Ah, I am clever...pfft.
Yesterday afternoon it felt like I had won the lotto, although in actual fact I didn't win anything. To be honest, the reason why I have never won lotto is quite possibly because I havn't purchased any tickets. Funny that. I hear you have to do that to win. Oh well. What did happen though was that I got confirmation that I would be working until the end of April. I was also given the next four weeks of rosters in advance. I have got a massive amount of hours, and am happy as. I will be taking home around $4500 before tax for doing sweet fa. Beat that any brain surgeon types out there who spent all of mummy and daddy's money going to University to be a doctor or something like that. Bah.
This week has been cool as for me. I think that giving up Coca Cola and chocolate has made a massive difference. I just feel more awake, happy and alert I guess. Let's see if I can keep it up. Also...in other good news...I got a phone call tonight from a work friend who I hadn't seen for a while as she got another job. She called to ask where I lived and said she was coming around to drop off a party invite. This is the first party invite I have got since 2nd grade or something, so yeah I was stoked. I got a hug too when she arrived, so yay. Hugs are good.
The only downside of this week was knowing that whilst my extra hours for the next few weeks at work are awesome, it also makes me miss the Melbourne Comedy Festival. *cries*. I figured I could go for a weekend...but...arrrr...there's not enough time to fit in everything I want to see in a weekend, so I figured why bother. Still, there's enough time to change my mind...
Did some more socialising with another tenant here, although I really didn't want to. My first thoughts when I arrived here were that I didn't want to have too much to do with anyone because I didn't want anything to happen which may affect my chances of living here for a long time. When I got here, I was briefed by another tenant as to what some of the other tenants illnesses were. It made me a bit uncomfortable hearing it, as I figured if anything, it is information that is private and personal, and should come directly from the source, if and when they felt comfortable in sharing it with me. But yeah, now I know...
Apparently two have bipolar, another has epileptic fits and heart troubles. What a combination. There are more, yet they haven't shared their illnesses with me. Call me selfish and uncaring if you want...it's not that I have something against mental illness in particular, but these things can make people act in an abrasive/unsocial way, and I don't really want to bear the brunt of it - even if they can't help it. Although, from reading the definitions of bi-polar, it seems I wouldn't always get a chance in getting involved, whether I socialised with them or not.
Anyway...I talked to this lady for about an hour. Although it was interesting to hear her story, it was also bringing me down hearing it, plus I was tired so I said that I had to go. This lady is another example of someone who had it all and had lost everything that she thought was important in life. A car, a business, plenty of personal belongings. She said to me, whilst glancing around the room, that all the stuff I could see was all she had to show for her life. She said she was sad and depressed a lot of the time and has trouble getting the motivation to get up and do anything. She wants to work, but she doesn't know what to do or even how to go about it. She said she told her case worker she wanted to be a secretary again, but the case worker simply dismissed what she said by saying that it was not going to happen. Got to love positive reinforcement.
She started to tell me about her illness, and handing me a water damaged book, told me she had schizophrenia. I wasn't sure if she wanted me to take the book to read, so I just said that I would read up on it on the internet. We had this discussion about mental illness. I said that whilst I certainly, without question, believe that it exists, I think there are probably a lot of mis-diagnosed people out there, who don't in fact have anything - other than a few too many bad days in a row. I said, for example, if I went into the doctors on one of my bad days, they would probably have a field day with me. I would most probably leave with a fancy named illness with a big name that I couldn't spell, as well as handful of pills to make it better. She agreed with me about the mis-diagnosis. She also said that I also looked so happy
and could not imagine that I was ever sad. She also said that I looked like I was in my early 20s and that I look so young.
I've had a lot of people misjudge my age recently. I was chatting about relationships (or lack of them) with a girl from work. When I mentioned the age of one of my many unrequited, stupid crushes, she said, "Oh, you like older men?". I had to look at her and say, "...um what?" She said, "You're in your early 20s right?"...I'm like, "...errr no, I'm 28." Assumption is a funny thing. She started talking about how she was on the pill. She looked at me knowingly and said, "You know how it is when you go on the pill!". I think I shocked this early 20 something girl when I glanced back blankly and said, "um...no". I haven't really had to worry about the contraception problem on too many occasions. Really, to go on the pill for me would be stupid considering the lack of virtually anything male related going anywhere near me. Seriously, why bother...
I wanted to share a brilliant site that I found in my internet travels recently. It's called Post Secret. The idea is to post in a secret on a postcard and decorate it or do whatever with it you like. It is a fascinating project and dang I wish that one day I can think of something as simple, but as brilliant as this. One of the postcards says "Psst, Here's a secret...Your last mortal thought will be, "why did I take so many days - just like today for granted?". That sort of sums up my week. I think seeing how the lives of some of the tenants here have ended up, it's a wise saying to keep in mind everytime you think you are having a shithouse day and you will amount to nothing.
Work was fun today. I managed to stay awake for my entire 7.5 hour shift. I didn't do too much other than chat with my collegues, speak to a few customers, surf the web, and complete an entire magazine of That's Life puzzles. The complete opposite to yesterday really, where I actually (for the first time in a while) worked pretty consistantly through the whole day as it was really busy. It was good though, as the day went really fast.
Hopefully it will stay just busy enough to keep me working here for a while longer, after the end of these rosters in April. I won't be too devastated though if the end of April also means the end of work here, I just want to hang about for as long as I can cause it's a great place to work, with great $$$. The longer I stay here, the more money I can save. This job has been an absolute godsend for me. It has given me the opportunity to pay of the credit card which has been sitting either right on or above the limit for years. That debt is now gone, and it is such a relief. Now I can start saving. Combined with my $70 a week rent in my current happy home, it has made a huge difference to the pressure I have been under for so many years to try to get cash together for rent.
Still keeping with the ideas from my previous entry about djing again, I am also looking forward to going on a big spending spree in Brisbane or Sydney at their second hand shops to try to resurrect my cd collection that was sold off at the end of last year on eBay prior to me moving to Rockhampton. The longer I stay in this job, the more spare $$ I can spend, whilst still having savings in the bank. Savings in the bank for the first time in my life. Yikes. It is such fun getting one's shit together.
There is a girl at work who is a real girlie girl and she has set her mind to turning me into a girl as well. I was mildly interested when she first discussed her plans with me, although they were rather sketchy. Since then, she has sent me emails and chatted to me about it and I don't know if I want to be a girl anymore. But maybe I do...sometimes. I don't know. I like being able to walk out of the house with just jeans and a t-shirt. She wants to take me shopping. I said for her to leave it about a month to see if my giving up of chocolate and coca cola makes any difference cause in the event I actually lose some weight, I don't want to not be able to wear my new clothes.
Here's one of the emails she sent me:
"So with all this work we've been getting, you should be all ready for a big girlie shopping spree - makeup, nailpolish, stillettos, handbags, push-up bras and mini skirts!! :) The other important ingredient in becoming a girl that I neglected to mention is the G-string and in response to the wearing of one, a bikini wax. After doing a bit of research on the internet about waxing, my reply to that email was, "Yowchies. I don’t want to be a girl any more!".
Anyways, even if I do not become a girl, I definately need some new clothes cause my wardrobe consists of a heap of shit stuff, most of it full of holes that I have had for years. Whatever happens, all is good and it is nice to feel inspired about multiple things all at once.
I finished work at 9pm tonight, but stayed back for another hour to continue a rather riveting conversation that I was having with a workmate. I figured that I wouldn't get too many more chances to chat like this at work, so why not! The conversation got rather serious for a while there, particularly when she asked the question, "So, tell me about your family?". So I did. Poor thing ended up getting my life story. The only dumb thing about staying back was that I realised later that I ended up missing part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala on the telly. Ah well...not a huge deal...human interaction is good. Oh, and so was the lift home I got from her!
She's got some great stories about herself when she was a young, sweet, naive and innocent country girl. She said that when she moved to the city with her boyfriend, they put an ad in the paper saying that they were looking for a an open minded, easy going flatmate to share with. Anyways, she got a call from this guy and he said, "So are you swingers?" She goes, "Errr...yeah, we like to have a good time." He said, "So do you have parties and stuff?". Unfortunately, at that point in time, her definition of swingers was different to his. Her boyfriend had to then take her aside after the phone call and explain it to her. In addition to the swinger problem, she also said that she misunderstood when she was young, which way a womens pad went inside ones underwear. Instead of putting it sticky side down, she put it sticky side up. Ouch. Could be the answer to the waxing problem though I guess?
She has a great voice and is wondering what to do after the job finishes here. I suggested she could perhaps try to work on a phone sex line. Maybe she could even set up her own. Perhaps even make it a family business I said. Mum, Dad, and Grandpa all manning the phones. I don't think that she is going to take my idea on board, but ah...it's the thought that counts.
Oh, a funny April Fools day story I heard...Apparently a radio station claimed that there was a fire where they stored all their cds, and they were requesting people to bring in cds to the studio. To make what they were saying a little more believable, they said that they only had one cd left - Abba - which they just kept playing over and over whilst they were waiting for people to bring their cds in. Anyone who bought in their cds were promptly told that they were an April Fool. kekeke.
Anyways, I start work again at 5am tomorrow, so I need to get some sleep!
I walked to work this morning, half asleep for a 5am start. I was dozing off more and more as the hours progressed towards my finish time of 9am. Despite my less than enthusiastic start to the day, I did awaken quickly when one of my collegues gave me some advice on how to further bump up the hours I was working. This is the bloke who knows everything that's going on at work. If he doesn't know it, it isn't worth knowing! Anyways, I offered to stay back and ended up extending my shift right through until 2pm. Cool as.
This diary entry is a reminder to myself why I stopped doing daily updates. Doing the same thing every day - getting up, going to work, going home, sleeping doesn't always make for interesting entries. Today's entry seemingly proves my point. Will continue to write some crap every day though until at least the end of the month though! Hopefully something riveting will happen in my upcoming two days off which are Wednesday and Thursday this week...
I am sooooo tired. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz........................ Today has been riveting as, so I feel it is my duty to write about it. *insert sarcasm here*. I got up early at around 6am and did some washing. I also took care of the pile of dishes that have been sitting in the sink for a little too long. Went to work and actually worked. Crazy concept. I am looking forward to my two days off now. Got a huge walk to nowhere in particular planned for tomorrow. Been thinking of getting a bike so that I can ride around aimlessly, so I might look into that too. I'm not big on spending a lot of cash though - even though I have an ample amount of it courtesy of my fabulously paying job.
I have been good this week and have been cutting down the amount of takeaways I have been getting. My frequent laziness to cook anything was getting a little bit too much out of control. I have stocked my fridge and cupboards up with crap, so hopefully it will keep me away from the incessant takeaways. Why spend $10 on takeaway when you can get a packet of noodles for under a tenth of that price. Or a can of spaghetti or fish or something. Or cook up some chicken rather than stop at Red Rooster on the way home from work. Hell, I even bought myself a lunch box yesterday to take lunch into work.
Had a sort of lame, half assed attempt at selling on eBay again last week. All bidders paid quickly and didn't give me any grief, which was good...except for one who has not yet bothered to communicate with me or paid. There are a few more things that I have to list, but not yet listed cause I couldn't really give a shit, but will try to boost my inspiration enough to list them. eBay, being the kindhearted, generous folks they are, are offering a free listing day. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that there is a catch. You have to put your item up with a 99 cent start price.
There is so much bullshit in the email they sent to advertise this "special" promotion..."A lower starting price can help attract more bidders which can help you achieve a higher selling price!", "Starting an auction at 99c attracts the lowest insertion fee on eBay - 30 cents. So a higher selling price and lower insertion fees mean higher profits for you". Talking from experience, I used to start all my auctions at $1.00 and they always got up to a great price. Then eBay started messing with their sites search engines etc - check my diary archives for my thoughts on this - and things started to sell for $1.00, and I made my first ever losses. Too much of a risk, and such a lame promotion on eBay's part given their recent massive price increases to just list a single item. Pfftt...
I slept in a bit and woke up around 1030am today. I was still intent on going on a long walk, so left the house about an hour later. I ended up walking to the Pilbeam Theatre to get a ticket for the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow. I figured since I can't make it to the festival, this is the closest I will get to it. They haven't announced who will be appearing yet, but I am sure it will be brilliant!
Next, I walked to North Rockhampton and had a look around at the shopping centres over there. Without any intention of buying anything (yet), I forced myself to have a look at some girlie clothes shops. I didn't really see too much stuff that I liked, but yikes the couple of things that I found kinda okay were so very expensive. Yikes. I then had a look at Kmart and Big W, as I am in search of something really compact to store my cds in. Cd jewel cases take up way too much space. The main thing I really want is like a thin plastic sleeve/holder thingie. One which can fit the liner notes, and the cd in. I found a couple of things that sort of fit the bill there but not entirely. Will have to keep looking I guess.
One thing that I did find though, which I had to fight very hard not to impulse buy was a dj mixer thing. It was only $159 at Kmart. Big W had it for $179 I think. It has two cds and you can essentially dj with it. Yes, it's on the lower end of the price spectrum, so it's abilities and so forth are probably not exactly what you would get if you spent thousands of dollars on what people would consider to be "professional" equipment. But wow. This "professional" equipment is stuff I wanted for so long but gave up on it as it was so totally out of my price range. It's tough getting a stereo system for $159, so I figure this is pretty good value. Need some cds to play on it first though *smirk*.
Anyhoos, I left without buying anything, but still extremely tempted. I then wandered back home. I got home at around 530pm. What a day. Cooked my own dinner and then watched the telly for a bit. I'm tired now, which is good. It seems that giving up chocolate and coca cola has also assisted me in fixing up my crappy sleep pattern. Yay for me....
I woke up to the sound of a males voice this morning. Ah...how romantic I hear everyone say. Really, it's not anything exciting like that...honest! As if! It was just work calling me in on my day off. All that being said, I nearly said "I love you!" when he asked me to work a full 7.5 hour shift today - even though I wasn't too sure who he was until I got into work. It brings my hours up to 44.5 hours in total for this week. Was really busy again. No time to think or get bored, which I think may be a good thing.
I have just started an 8.5 hour shift at work and am feeling less than inspired to be here today due to lack of sleep. In order for me to stay awake, I really hope that it is as busy today as it was yesterday.
Truly, the excitement does not stop. I nearly got char-grilled in my sleep at 1am this morning, courtesy of some fool who either deliberately or accidently set some paper alight - only a couple of metres from my door. Luckily, I got up when I heard the fire alarm go off. The alarm went off briefly, and then stopped. I firstly thought it may have just been a faulty alarm. Not so. Luckily I thought to open my door and have a quick look around. Right outside my room was a pile of papers that were alight. They were not any flames, but it was still alight and smouldering, and more than enough to cause concern and scare the shit out of me.
Two of the other ladies ventured out of their rooms at about the same time as me. One ended up putting out the fire, and then discussion turned to whether it was deliberately lit, and whether to call the Police. I said that we couldn't really judge if it was deliberately lit or not, but that we should call the Police anyway. I called the coppers and while we were waiting for them to arrive, we sat around and had a chat. I listened to the other tenants that were awake say again that there was no way that this was an accident, and that it must have been deliberately lit. In their opinion, there was no way that the papers could have caught fire accidentally like that. In addition, they said that this was not the first time something has caught fire there, so of course it HAD to be deliberately lit.
I wasn't so sure, considering that all of the occupants except for me are smokers. Some of them are also not necessarily the brightest crayons in the box. It could happen. The coppers arrived, and although they did not say it straight out, they seemed to perhaps share my opinion. They said that if it was deliberately lit, there probably would have been flames. They seemed convinced it was an accident after it was confirmed that almost all tenants were smokers, and said that it could have started from a bit of ash from a cigarette that had fallen into the papers. The coppers left soon after saying that they would make a note of it and that they would add it to the file of any previous reports that had been made from the same premises.
It is scary to think that the consequences could have been much worse, regardless of whether it was an accident or deliberately lit. If in fact it was deliberately lit, it is frightening to think that one of the 7 people living with me did it on purpose. As the doors are locked at night, and new keys have been issued only recently (that are not able to be copied), the likelyhood of someone from outside doing anything is highly unlikely. Yikes.
I spoke too soon about the eBay bidders not giving me any grief. One person has emailed me twice this week saying they haven't recieved their item. Another person has emailed once. It seems that suddenly I am responsible to ensure that Auspost delivers their items within an exact time frame after their payment has been recieved. I posted both these peoples packages within 2 working days of their payment being recieved mid-week last week. Inbetween then and now, there was a weekend (which Australia Post do not work). In addition to that, Australia Post do not provide exact delivery times, only recommendations. The only way to guarantee the fast arrival of your crap is to use express post on the express post network. These people need to get some trust and patience.
Today is going to be interesting. I have been invited to two different shindigs (their word not mine, but I like the sound of it, so will use it here!). Firstly, I am having dinner with the people I work with, and then I have been invited to the 21st birthday party of a friend who used to work with me. I then get to start work at 5am on Sunday morning. Ah ha ha, that will be fun.
Today wasn't a lot of fun for me, and I didn't get around to doing anything even moderately inspiring. In fact, I felt quite morbid for most of the day. I woke up at 345am (for a 5am start at work) and was pretty tired. Work went quickly though, which was a good thing. Just chatted to my collegues for four hours. Got home feeling tired as, but hungry, so I cooked some stuff and then went to sleep. Then woke up again. Then went to sleep again. Then decided to force myself to go for a walk just to actually do something moderately constructive. That wasn't overly exciting though, so I went home and went to sleep again. Now, I am awake again and watching the telly, whilst writing this diary entry.
Last night was good. Started with an walk to the Glenmore Tavern for the work get together. I stayed for a few hours, had a feed, a laugh, and it was great. I then got a cab to my friends 21st birthday. It was a little weird leaving the work thing to go to this party when none of them had been invited - even though we all had worked together, but oh well. I am brilliant and stuff I guess :P. I told her about the others not being invited and she said that she didn't have their contact details. Kekekeke. Sure. I am going to roll with the I am brilliant thing. Not being sure what the etiquette is for going to parties and such, I got her a card and also a ticket to the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow. She gets to sit in the forth row, next to me. She seemed pretty stoked.
I felt a little uncomfortable when I first walked into the party cause I saw all these people I didn't know - they were also very beautiful, but they all made me feel welcome. It was interesting to see a photo wall of the birthday girl which went all the way from when she was a baby up till now. My photo wall of happy snaps would have stopped sometime in primary school had I had a 21st, or even an 18th birthday. It was good to see that not all families get stuffed up and how good kids can turn out if they have a nice stable home life with parents who so obviously care deeply and respect them. It totally blew me away.
I went to work today at 7am and was meant to finish at 4pm, but ended up staying until 5pm, making it a 9.5 hour day at work. There are some more jobs going here which are *allegedly* similar to those that I recently passed up on. They are only temp jobs, but with a guarantee of at least 15 hours a week apparently. I have now seen how busy it is here, as well as how many opportunities for overtime there is, so it may just be worth it. All I can think of is finally having the money to buy a house *sigh*. All of this weeks pay is going into my first ever savings account. I have been looking around for a place to open an account, but not sure where to go. Haven't had the time to actually call around to the banks and building societies to see who offers the best interest.
Was ambushed on my way home yesterday as I was about to unlock the door to my room after my walk. The schitzophrenic lady walks up to me. I have a feeling she was actually waiting for me to get home. She looked like she really had to talk to me. She looked quite nervous. I thought I got away with a brief hello/goodbye, but a few moments later there was a knock on my door. She's at my door, and the bipolar chick is sitting in the lounge, watching on. She started talking about the fire again. She said bipolar chick had suggested that someone could have come in and lit it. I scoffed and said, no way. If they would have come in, they would have at least lit the place up properly - not just lit some pissy looking fire! (to elaborate...even though I have described the fire as "pissy", it could have ended up much worse if it was not discovered).
She then went on to explain that the back door doesn't always lock properly. Again, I went "no way!". I mentioned that I had often gone out at night and dropped the rubbish in the bin and each time I shut the door, it shut just fine. But no, apparently it jams for her and bipolar chick sometimes. Bullshit. Even if it does, how much effort does it take to open it and close it again OR get the real estate to look at it? So, anyways, I listened to her for a while and then went look we have talked about it the other night when I got hardly no sleep as a result of it and there really isn't anything else to say. She said that she was thinking of leaving as she was worried it was going to happen again or that she was living with someone who is a firebug.
I honestly think that bipolar chick and schitzophrenic chick have both had a chat and decided it was me who set the place on fire. They then decided to approach me - hence the weird ambush that occured. I have been working a massive amount of hours and really I just want to go home after work, watch some tv, listen to some music, sing and dance stupidly around my room etc. I don't really want to feed off these lonely people even if I myself am lonely. Oh well...what more can I say other than stay tuned for the next disaster.
Work was quiet as today. Too much time to think. People are still talking about the new round of temp jobs up for offer, and I'm still thinking about them. I ended up emailing my employment agency to at least express interest. Figured the worst they could say was no. Back at work at 7am tomorrow...
I almost didn't write this entry cause I wanted to go to sleep instead...but yeah...here it is...
Today went well. Not busy really, but stayed happy all day. Fixed a problem this morning that others had tried to palm off which was cool. Always nice to achieve something . Got an email back from the agency about the jobs. They closed the day before I emailed them. Oh well. I was going to get a little snide and say, no worries at all, I see that your rival agency is still advertising them so I will go there instead...but I didn't.
I was rather excited at the prospect of seeing Stewart Lee as a guest on The Glasshouse tonight. My excitement abated when they swapped guests halfway into the show. Stewart Lee was swapped with Peter Helliar. Not impressed. I got an email from the Henry Rollins mailing list today. He is coming to Australia next month to do some shows. Would love to check his show out if I get dumped from work at the end of this month.
I finished work at 9pm tonight after another 8.5 hour shift. I need to be there again at 8am tomorrow and I'm not feeling overly inspired to wake up early in the morning. Was very quiet again at work again. Got a feeling that the end is near...but I could be wrong. Copped a really irate customer again today. Whilst most people don't seem to like dealing with this sort of thing, I kinda like having games of verbal gymnastics with these people. Bring it on!
Saw an ad for Enough Rope today. This weeks guest is Craig McLachlan. It will be interesting to see what he has to say about the beating he copped in regards to his Footy Show appearance. If you missed it, check out a discussion about it here. Although I thought his routine was shit, I felt sorry for the poor bloke being crucified like that on national televison. Not just once, but twice when the Footy Show repeated it the following week.
I have not yet opened the savings account. I have been shopping around on the internet and have found a few that sound good, but they use terms I don't understand and they have not bothered to clarify them. Grrr. I will have to ring them I guess. Grr. Most of these websites are shit. You would think that they would make their sites easy to navigate - as well as put their opening hours and a faq page for dumbasses like me who can not comprehend bank-speak. The one site that would let me make an application online was Citibank but they would not accept PO Boxes as a mailing address. There's no way I want anything with my financial information going to my home address, so yeah...disregard.
I have done a lot more thinking today. Still browsing the real estate sites. Found a home that is listed for $29000 and is described as 'needs work'. It is in Mount Morgan. Mount Morgan is one of the places which I have talked about here before which has cheap houses, and is only 30 minutes from Rockhampton. I have decided to go there (finally!) to check it out next weekend.
I have emailed the agent to clarify exactly what they mean by 'needs work'. The 'needs work' doesn't really bother me to be honest. I have always figured that I would rather buy a house that needs work rather than buy a house that someone else has decorated to their specifications that I didn't really like. All it needs for starters is to be safe to live in. Any other unnecessary work could wait. It doesn't need to start off looking pretty.
I can catch a bus which goes to and from Rockhampton to Mount Morgan (and vice versa) every day, and its only $20 for a return trip. That being said, I still want to go on a really big walk. Mount Morgan could be the place to walk. I have a three day weekend not next week, but the week after...so yeah...could be something to do...
A lot of people knock Mount Morgan, but recently I read a great letter in the local newspaper. This family had not wanted to pay ridiculous amounts of money on a house in Sydney. They moved to Mount Morgan. Got sick of people giving them and their kids shit for living there, and they said that it is a really great place to live. They figure that the people who are complaining haven't been there recently. It may or may not be true, but certainly gave me hope anyway!
I am going out all day today, so figured I would write this entry before I left, as I probably will not be home until late. My plans for today are to go on a big walk. The highlight of the day will be seeing the band, The Butterfly Effect at an event called Rockfest. It's all free too. Mmmm. Will be interesting if I was to run into Clint (the singer) to see if he remembers Acid Rain's one obsessed fan from Mackay (ie me!). Kekeke. Ahh.
I'm also going window shopping. It's been a bit cold the last few nights here so I am going to try to find some warmish stuff to wear, as well as a few blankets, as I am sadly lacking in both. I have had the one moderately warm blanket forever and just it isn't cutting it. Set a task for myself also to have a look at some bikes too rather than keeping putting it off. Although, I figure that I have put it off as I have figured it will cost a bit.
I went on my big walk as promised in yesterdays post. I gave a friend a call whose house was on the way, and she said I was welcome to drop in for a visit. She was straightening her hair, so I got to learn how to straighten ones hair. She offered to straighten mine, but I said ah it looks great...yeah...but not today thanks! We then went for a drive to the shopping centre to take back a top she bought yesterday. After that, she went off to go skydiving (yikes!) and I continued on my journey.
I walked a long way, went through three bottles of water, was still really thirsty - and had a niggling feeling that I was lost. I went to a tavern to get another bottle of water, and the lady who worked there confirmed that the niggling feeling I was having was indeed correct. I had walked right past the Rockhampton Music Bowl, where the concert was being held. She said that it was easy to do as it was quite a bit off the road. Sooo...I trekked back for approximately another 15 minutes and finally got there. I was so excited you could say I was excited.
There was one problem. It was 330pm and it started at 500pm and no one else was there. For a second I thought hmmm...maybe I am just a little too enthusiastic and this is what I was to expect for arriving early. Then I thought some more and figured that there would be plenty of people around setting up, as it was only about an hour and a half until it started. Listened for the sounds of "check..check...check...check 1, 2.", but alas there were no sounds other than the birds chirping around me.
Despite the evidence mounting up that I was in the right place, at the wrong time, I then started calling friends to try to see when it was supposed to be on. One finally confirmed it was on tomorrow. Kekekeke. I am a dickhead. I could only laugh about it though. Six months ago I would have collapsed into a heap and cried, but yeah...ha. Just stood there laughing for a while and proceeded on my way home.
A couple of people I called offered me a lift home, but I said nah I'm right. I ended up stopping back at the shopping centre and figured it was time for me to purchase the dj system thingie I was talking about a few posts back. It was only $159. Unreal. I then called a taxi. A second after I had called a taxi, this car pulled up and I heard someone say hello to me. On closer inspection, it was the awesome family that was involved in helping me out massively on the riverbank the day that I (and all of them) got assaulted (you can read about that in my diary a couple of months back).
They had just bought a puppy and it was beautiful! They said that they were all okay, which was good cause I did think about them after it happened, hoping that they and the kids would all be okay. They asked me if I would like a lift and I said, ah no it's okay, I just called a cab. They said to cancel the cab as they would be happy to give me a lift. So..yeah...I cancelled the cab and they drove me home. These people are ureal and I was really happy to see them again. It was so unexpected!
After they dropped me home, I set to cooking myself some dinner, doing some washing, as well as setting up my new dj mixer. The mixer thingie has a few flaws, but wow, I am impressed. The major flaw is that you can not listen to a track on your headphones that you are cueing up. It does have a headphone jack on it, but it only lets you listen to the track that is playing. Which is a bit stupid. Oh well...anyhoos...I spent a few hours grooving away to the very few cds that I have left. Looking forward to replacing my entire cd collection even more now. This rocks so very much!
Last night, I was exhausted (but happy), and just wanted to relax. Unfortunately, an incredibly irritating visitor didn't seem to want to allow that to happen. Later I heard that apparently he started off by visiting one of the ladies, she got rid of him by palming him off to someone else, and so on. First knock on the door was after I dropped something. It was another lady from the units, with him in tow. She wanted to check I was okay. Now, I guess that was nice of her to check I was alive and so forth, so no worries I'm fine, lets leave it at that. The guy then introduces himself, shakes my hand and I say nice to meet you *cough*...seeya.
I walked past their room as I was returning from the bathroom, and joined in to their conversation for about 5 minutes. It wasn't too long before I realised that joining into this conversation was a mistake, and that this guy was an absolute moron. He was going on about how he was on disability pension and had made an invention that would give anyone free power and free travel, and that he knew all these people that I am sure that he probably does not know. He peppered his conversation with swearing and whilst I don't usually mind swearing, he was beginning to creep me out. Particularly when he said that he has done bad things in the past and got away with them. I had heard him say how nice this other ladies smile when I was in the bathroom. Next thing, he was telling me the same thing.
At this point, I decided to retreat to my room and play some more music. Then, not long after, I heard a knock on my door. Stupidly I opened it. He asked me if I could smell smoke. I said no. He said he could. I said, given that all residents bar me are smokers here, you will always smell smoke. He wanted to check out my sound system. I said no. He said that he liked my music and asked if I had many cds. I said no I don't have many cds but that I was looking to go to Brisbane to the second hand shops to get some more. He then said that we should go to Brisbane TOGETHER (!), either drive or fly down. I said no way and went seeya. He then went on to the next ladies room where they chatted for a few hours, and thankfully he did not knock on my door again.
What a day...bahhaha! Oh yes, and today I am doing exactly what I had planned for yesterday, and am going for another trek to the concert - I can't wait!
It's official. Friday 29th of April is my last day at work. I got told today that they are keeping a few people on, and getting rid of a few people. I was one of the people they are getting rid of. Oh well...the money was fun while it lasted. I guess it is time to move back into eBay, and also concentrate on my webdesign as well. Ookies...onto what happened yesterday...
I started off my walk pretty early, as I had planned to meet up with a friend. This friend let me down, so I was left with a couple of hours to somehow fill. I was stumped. I didn't know what to do. After feeling sorry for myself for around half an hour, I decided I would check out The Heritage Village. I had walked past it the day before when I got lost, and as it looked interesting, I figured that I would go back. It is a short walk from the Rockhampton Music Bowl where the concert was, so was pretty convienient, and it wasn't like there was anything else I could do out there anyway!
I wandered into The Heritage Village at 315pm and there was a sign that said it closed at 4pm. The lady at the counter let me in for $4.00 rather than $6.50 as there was only a short time left for it to be open. I went in and saw three cockatoos which all talked. Cool as. Doesn't take much to impress me. I then wandered around aimlessly. This place is cool as. It is full of heaps of old stuff and houses and stuff you can walk right through. Some of the buildings are actual original old buildings, that have been moved to this site (eg the church & the school, etc).
There's even a hospital set up that you can walk right through. The iron lung machine was the weirdest piece of medical technology that I saw in there. Yikes. I only saw one iron lung, which was freaky enough, but check out this link where there is a whole room of them. Anytime you think your life is shit, imagine living in one of those, in that room, with everyone around you in one as well. I reckon you will cheer up pretty fast and realise life isn't so shit after all.
I got through most of the buildings on this site, which is absolutely huge. I definately want to go back there again. They have markets there every so often, so might go then. Was nice to be pretty much the only person walking around this huge, amazing place. Pretty special. As I was leaving, the lady who was looking after the shop tried to get me to bond with the cockatoo. He held his claw out, and she goes, let him hold your finger, it doesn't hurt. It grabbed my finger, wouldn't let go, and omg shit it hurt. Haha. I am pathetic. It didn't even draw blood!
Next I walked back to the Rockhampton Music Bowl to the concert. The concert rocked. Well...correction...The Butterfly Effect rocked. Omg. Clint is still a rock god. Pity he it didn't get warm enough for him to remove his shirt...but ah well...pfft. It rocked anyway.
Prior to The Butterfly Effect starting there were a few bands from Rockhampton, as well as a band from Brisbane. None of them really did anything for me. I just sat in the dark and thought about stuff and observed, whilst waiting patiently for The Butterfly Effect. I suspected that the majority of the population of Rockhampton would not be into any of these bands, and found out I was right, judging by the rather pitiful "mosh" pit that was happening at the front of the stage.
Most people just sat on the hill like me. The mosh pit was remarkably still. People stayed there though, waiting for the free stuff the mc's were chucking out at them (glow sticks and minties). I don't think a lot of their ears were able to stand staying put until the headline act was on. It really puzzles me, trying to understand why councils throw so much money at events like this and not something that more people are musically open to. Oh well, seeing The Butterfly Effect for free suited me just fine, so won't harp on about it...
As I had been on a huge walk that day, I had drunk plenty of water and consequently had a few visits to the toilets. They are the weirdest looking toilets I have ever seen. The toilets did not have seats and were simply these steel things to sit on. Scarey as. Positioned convieniently nearby the toilets was the merchandise stand. I purchased a Butterfly Effect cd. Something that I have been trying to get a hold of for ages.
I approached the front of the stage just prior to the start of The Butterfly Effect. At that point, I was about 3 people back from the front of the stage. By song 2, I was right at the front. I went a little nuts. Today I have a sore neck, as well as sore legs from jumping around too much. Anyway, the concert finished up at around 930pm. I was a little hyper, as well as a little bewildered - trying to work out what was the best way to get home. I had figured earlier during the day that it could be a problem getting a taxi from there due to its location and the amount of people around, and who'd have thought, but I was right again.
I decided to trek for about 15 minutes to the Glenmore Tavern and then call a cab from there. It all worked out well and I got home just after 10pm after an awesome day out which cost me bugger all.
I started the day less than inspired, and finished the day in much the same way. I did not feel like another 8.5 hours of work today, given the news about my job yesterday, and also because I was still aching as a result of my weekend adventures. Yes, I have said that it doesn't worry me when this job finishes up, but nonetheless it still leaves a bit of a dint in ones ego knowing that you are one of the people that is not staying on.
Another person who has also been booted along with me asked one of the team leaders if these jobs would come up again this year. They were told to contact them around August/September to see which job agencies were handling them. So...that is a good thing. If they let me back, I can do this job again for six months, and it pretty much works out the same (or more) pay than a full time, permanent job.
I went for a walk to the supermarket after work, and walking down past the car wash on Canning Street, this dick knob of an employee decided to put their massive sprinkler system on the footpath where I was walking. Absolutely no warning and I was left half soaked. Why, thank you. The only minor bit of excitement today was seeing the clock hit 530pm at work. Oh, and I got a new tap installed which was a bit of a surprise. The place I live only had one cold water tap in my room, so yay, now I have hot water. I am off to sleep now and am so very enthused about getting up at 545 am in the morning to go to work. *cough*.
Today, I was a little more inspired than yesterday, mainly because today is pay day. I finally got around to opening up a saving account and put $1000 in it for starters. Yay for me.
For the second time this week, I started the day less than inspired. I went to work at 7am and finished at 4pm. The day was a bit weird for me. One of the managers was telling me something simple - ie nothing that caused me any concern. He suddenly said "are you okay?". I was like...um...yes. Fine. Seriously, I was fine - other than being a little tired and bored - and I'm not sure what made him ask. Oh well. Yawn.
Had a bit of a gossip with my next door neighbour today. This neighbour is 60 something, has an amazing attitude, and isn't stuck in the negative state most people here are. She was telling me of her latest run in (of many) with the newest resident here. Apparently the new girl now has the job of cleaning the bathrooms and is on a bit of an ego trip as a result of it. I told her that she, or no one here else here has really given me any major problems...yet. She mentioned that I was hardly here, so haven't really seen anything. I told her my job finishes on the 29th and I would be around more often. Ha ha ha. Bring it on.
Anyways, the cleaning job here is usually done by one of the residents. My neighbour did it originally. She said that the real estate was giving her $50 a week for it. Even though I have never had aspirations to be a cleaner, considering rent is only $70 here, taking a further $50 per week off rent for hardly doing anything would be massive. That brings it down to $20 a week. Hardly no work to do do either. Keep the bathrooms clean and take the bins out. Simple as. I said I would mention to the real estate that I was interested in the job the next time it came up.
My original plan when I moved to Rockhampton was to go to Sydney at least once a month to get stock from my supplier for eBay. Unfortunately, that only happened once before everything went terribly wrong. I am looking at trying to do this again though, starting sometime in the next couple of weeks hopefully. I intend to fly to Sydney for the day only and bring all the stock back with me on the plane. Hopefully it will all work out this time.
My main line of stock has always been books, and they usually do really well. It was when I strayed onto other things (ie bubblewrap) where my eBay business went wrong and I began to lose money rather than make money. I am definately not going there again. I'm going to spend some time browsing the US eBay site also, where I picked up some great stuff in the past which I made a massive profit on. Going to try dvds again also, as they have been quite successful for me in the past. Above all though, I am going to approach all of this eBay stuff with caution.
Thinking if it is perhaps better to get a professional to do up the flyers for my webdesign business. I am somewhat artistic, but have not yet had the inspiration to make my own flyer up. Figured it might be easier to get someone who really knows what they are doing to sort it out. I also spied a colour ad on the front page of Rockhamptons paper and figured that would be a great spot to have an ad. Figured it would be pretty pricey though. I will go into the paper to have a chat about what would be best. Probably start with a cheap ad in the classifieds. I will work it out I guess.
My aim is to have $1000 to go into savings every week. Which means I want to (somehow!) make $1200 a week. Whether it is going to happen is totally up to me, but it is possible if I really push my eBay and website stuff, and perhaps even get some more work from my agency. Then, in September - which is only a few months away - they will be after temps again for the job that I am doing at the moment - hopefully something I can do again.
I can't wait until work finishes tomorrow. Three days off in a row, then another four days to go and it is all over. I got an email back from the agent in Mount Morgan about the $29 000 house I wrote about the other day. It has already been sold. I figured I still might go to Mount Morgan on the weekend though, just to check out the place. I still want to walk there (or maybe catch a bus there and walk back), but copious people have tried to talk me out of doing it. They have suggested that I climb Mt Archer instead. Pfft. Will see what happens and how bored I get on the weekend I guess.
Meanwhile, here's another $15000 cheap house in Norseman. Whilst looking at the Dundas Post website (the post office in Norseman), I found a link to a site where there is a fascinating book written by Isabel Storey. I have not yet finished reading it as it is very long, but if you want to check it out, click here.
Today, three of the girliest girls at work ambushed me and said that they were taking me clothes shopping tomorrow, and by the end of the day I would be a girl. I am quite hesitant, and truly scared (and no, they are not even making me get anything waxed!). They were stunned when they mentioned makeup and I said I have never worn it. They said that that was going to change. They even said that they are going to collect photographic evidence. Yikes. Even me saying that I was trying to save money didn't work. They said that if I didn't buy anything, I could borrow one of their dresses. Then they are doing my hair. Then they are taking me to a party - if I don't run screaming from them first.
The shopping expedition began at around 11am. On arrival at the shopping centre, it appeared that we ran into absolutely everyone from work. The three girlie girls who took me shopping are currently in training for a new job at work, and they ran into the person who is doing their training. Apparently they had actually talked about turning me into a girl for most Friday in training, so she already knew the story.
Firstly, they took me into a shop and got me to try on this extremely girly top with thin straps. I didn't love it, but it didn't look so bad I guess. They said it was a bit big. The size of the top was small. Yikes! They suggested quite a few things that I didn't really like, and I was beginning to feel uncomfortable and sound like one of those difficult disbelievers on the show, "What not to Wear". I figured it was time for a decoy.
"I'd be happy to get a haircut", I stated. This was met with a positive response, and they took me to the hairdresser before I could change my mind. I told them to let the hairdresser know what sort of haircut I should have, and they did. They explained absolutely everything they wanted done for me, so yeah kekeke. They looked on whilst the hairdresser cut my hair as requested. The hairdresser said it had been a long while since I had had a haircut. Then it was was done. It only cost $20, and omg it looked unreal. I now had a new passion for going shopping like a girl. The hairdresser (at my friends request) had put all these layers in my hair, as well as got rid of the nasty split ends. It was now much lighter, looked completely different, and was going heaps curly as well. There was a bit of a curl in it before, but because it was sooo long it wasn't really obvious. But now...yikes. It was really curly and looked brilliant.
We ended up in Big W (of all places!) and there was more of me sticking up my nose at stuff I did not like. I did find a Felix the cat shirt that I liked though. Mmmm. Hardly girlie though. I went into the change room to try it on, and then was given a heap more clothes to try on that they had picked out for me. Skirts. Girlie Tops. Bras. OMG. Yikes. I was terrified. We were there for around an hour. These girls are so unbelieveably patient. Not knowing a thing about being a girl, I had to get them to help dress me too. Cries of "your skirt is on the wrong way!", and "omg where is the strap, I lost the strap!" would have amused the long line of people waiting at the change rooms to no end.
We finally left with a girlie top, a girlie skirt, and a new bra. This was so that I would not go around hi-beaming everyone in this nice, rather flimsy piece of fabric that was doubling as a top. I was really happy with my purchases though. Total was $72.68. This included the Felix shirt, which they tried to put back :P Next was on to the shoe shop. "How about these shoes?". No. "How about these ones?". No. "Do you like these?". Nup. It went on like that for a while, and then finally they found a pair that I actually liked. They were pink, open toe, slip on shoes, with a small heel (yikes!), and a sequinned flower near the toe. They were only $20, so I tried them on, was happy, so bought them. I have never worn any shoes that were open like this ever before by the way!
I have had this Elmo bag which has doubled as my wallet for a little too long. I have thought about getting rid of it for quite some time, as I figured I was a little over it. They agreed, and took me to the bag shop to try to find something more suitable. I ended up getting a really nice pink wallet with a little embroidered butterfly on it. Earlier they had showed me a bag that they wanted me to purchase, but it was at the stage where I was still saying "no" to everything. I told them that I had decided that I now wanted this bag. It was only $10. It was a big bag, but like a girlie sort of black bag rather than the icky backpack I carry around everywhere. Unfortunately the shop had closed, but I said I would go back and get it another day!
Next, I went to one of the girlie girls places for a party. The other girlie girls would be arriving later. As she drove up to her house I was like "wow, what an unreal house!". I walked into the house and saw this massive tv. It was taller than me. Truly amazing. I asked her when I could move in. I got to meet her boyfriend and other daughter (she took her older daughter shopping with us). We went to drop her kids off at her mums place, and I got a hug from her little girl which was pretty special. My friend said that she doesn't usually do that so yeah. She must have liked me!
People were starting to arrive that I didn't know, and I was starting to freak out a little bit. I tried to pike out about getting dressed like a girl, but couldn't get away with it. I ended up putting the new clothes on and they looked awesome. I managed to get away with them not putting any makeup on me though, even though they tried to change my mind! I suggested we can go shopping on another day and buy some and then they can teach me how one is supposed to put it on. I watched one of the girlie girls getting ready though, and I don't think I will ever have the patience to put make up on as it takes sooo long. I was happy enough about how I looked without makeup anyway!
Last night was really brilliant. I met all these great people, as well as got quite an ego boost when told by multiple people how nice I looked. Certainly was a change from jeans and t-shirts - very different. They did want to take me out to the clubs, but I was a bit tired, as well as the only one who didn't drink, so I called it a night at around 1130, and got a cab home. The girlie girls boyfriend was snapping a lot of photos, so will try to post them here when I get a hold of them. The girlie girls want me to wear my new outfit to work, but I think I am too scared to cause I think it shows a bit too much skin! They said it was fine to wear to work though cause you can't see anything! I really don't know lol.
Today I got up early and intended on going for a big walk to nowhere in particular but got bored and went home and went back to sleep. I am going to the movies tonight with a friend to see the new Jimeoin film, "The Extra". I decided to give the new clothes another run tonight - definitely back to the jeans and the t-shirt tomorrow though!
It seems that my decision to quit coca cola and chocolate has been successful. Since I gave up both a month ago, I have lost around 3kgs. Yay for me.
I went to see The Extra last night. I loved it - it was so sweet, brilliant and funny. It was a particularly nice touch I thought to add the entire list of extras to the closing credits. Oh...and omg I never realised how buff Jimeoin is!
Before the movie, I put on my girl clothes, including my new scaffolding, and was picked up by my friend. She was so shocked and so very complementary about how I looked, I swear that an onlooker who didn't know that she was straight and had a boyfriend, could have sworn that she had turned. She apparently got lost trying to find my place, and had driven past earlier, not realising it was my street, as it is a really dark street. When her car stopped, I was a little hesitant walking right up to it, as I was scared that it might be some bloke who saw me whilst they were driving up the street, and had decided to stop and say something like, "So how much do you want luv?". But it was her, so phew all was okay!
She asked me what fragrance I was wearing, as I apparently smelt really nice. I was like umm...nothing, just this dodgy roll on deodarant stuff that I have been using forever which isn't supposed to have a smell. I thought some more and then said maybe it's just cause I had a shower. Something out of the ordinary for me. Anyways...I do have this shower gel stuff that smells nice, but I didn't notice think that anyone else would smell it. But now I know I guess. Kekeke. Mmmm.
I have finally got around to listing some eBay auctions today. Am going to try to list 100 (or more!) items again per week by the end of next month.
I was so exhausted today, I nearly went to sleep without making this diary entry. I switched the light off, prepared to go to sleep and went, "oh shit, forgot to write a diary entry!". So, I woke up and wrote this. Now I can go to sleep. Yay for me.
No interesting news to report today except the fact I proved yet again I am a dickhead. I was rostered to start work this morning at 830. I misread the roster and turned up at 800am. Doh. None of the bosses went apeshit about my early start though, so all was good and well in my world today.
I'm really tired. I started the day at 545am and again worked all day. I felt extremely wiped out, and wanted to go home the minute I started. Somehow, I managed to make it through another 8.5 hour day though. I have been hoping that Friday is not going to be my last day at work. From my own observations, I have lead myself to believe that perhaps there may be more work available. This may indeed be the case, but whether work wants to share it with me, I do not know.
Leaving work on Friday is okay with me, but I guess I am disappointed that it is finishing just as I was getting all sorted with the credit card paid off, and a healthy looking savings account as well. Yes, I can do eBay and the webdesign stuff, but there's that risk involved of "omg what if I screw it up again and end up where I was before I got this job?" - ie with no savings and a maxed out credit card.
I usually do not go for the dole until things get really really really bad. This time I decided to go on it straight after my job finished. I called them today and they would not help me start an application as I was still employed, even though I have been told that I am finishing on Friday. I wasn't overly impressed by that. Maybe I will not need to worry about applying for it on Monday as I will still have a job. *smirk*
Got home and got filled in with the gossip from my next door neighbour. Apparently the police were here (again!) and they had to break a few windows to get into one of the other tennants rooms today. She didn't know why they had to get in there so urgently though. I said to her, don't worry I will keep you up to date with all the gossip when I am around here more often after my job finishes.
Sometimes I am left lost as to the point some people are trying to make. Today was no exception. This morning I awoke to see a message in my guestbook, which reads as follows:
Yes I do have a comment. I've been looking at the comedians listed in this site and although you DO have some great ones you also have some souless hacks. but what upsets me is the lack of my favorite comedians eg Chris Wainhouse, Paul Brasch, Steven Head, Hollywood Brett and the list goes on. Have you not heard of them? Have you not yet had the pleasure of their comedy? If not do yourself a huge Fav and get out more.
What upsets you is the lack of YOUR favourite comedians? Did you miss the bit on the page which said "these people make ME laugh". If you are so hurt by the display of comedians on my website (particularly the talentless hacks), why not make your own website. Yes, I have heard of the comedians you mention. No, I have not seen them. I am sure that there are plenty of comedians whom I, or even you have not seen, that are hilarious, but I just have not seen them yet. I live in Rockhampton. I can go out every night, and I can tell you that I will not see anything vaguely comedic here except on the very rare occasion someone bothers to tour here. Instead of writing this paragraph, I could have just eloquently said "Fuck you!", but yeah, thanks for your comments however unconstructive and moronic that they may be, and have a nice day!
I am just back from the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow. To be honest, I wasn't incredibly impressed with what I saw for my $35. The first half of the show did not do a lot for me, and I was only left mildly amused. Initially I wasn't impressed with MC Justin Hamilton. He started with a joke stolen pretty much word for word from the Doug Anthony Allstars about all the new words the young boy in the front row would be learning. Oh, ha ha ha. Pffft...whatever!
In addition to this, whilst I don't mind any amount of swearing or naughtyness if it has a context, he used the f word so incessently, it became annoying. I was not offended, just irritated by the pointlessness of it. Next up were Damian Clark and Jackie Kashian, whose stage prescences I found were both quite likeable, but not overly amusing to me.
The second half of the show was brilliant, with the highlight being comedy legend Greg Fleet, as well as Damian Callinan's dance moves, which were pretty special. I also didn't mind Justin Hamilton's material this time around. Maybe I just started off the night in the wrong frame of mind, as I was so tired after working all day again. To balance what I have written though, I will say that my friend who went with me (I bought her a ticket for her birthday) loved it.
Anyhoos, I must go to sleep as I am exhausted (again!). As far as I am aware, tomorrow is my last day at work, although I am still hoping that that may change. *sigh*.
I spent most of today feeling sorry for myself. The person at work who I asked about the possibility of staying on longer was away yesterday and again today. I found out today that they do not get back until Wednesday, so, I figure that is about it for work. Oh well. Blah...
I had been thinking of whether I should go to Mount Morgan this weekend or not, considering that I could really do with a sleep in. I found out today that they are having a festival thing there on the weekend, so decided that I might as well go. After all, it looks like there now will be plenty of opportunities for me to sleep in next week! The bus leaves at 630am tomorrow. The bus back to Rockhampton does not leave until 7pm, so I am still considering walking back as I have no idea of whether I will be able to keep myself occupied there for 12 hours! The (approx 40km) walk, however, would probably take about 5-6 hours!
After work, I went to try to find some more girly clothes. I tried on a few things, but they just didn't look right. I did try on a skirt that looked nice, but I had no idea what to wear with it, so left it be. Oh well. I also tried on some size 10 jeans and they fit - yes, they were a little tight, but omg omg omg, they fit! When I left Sydney last year, I was wearing size 14, so....pretty happy with my achievement of being able to get into size 10! I didn't buy them, but wow! Kekeke.
Next, I went to the bus terminal to purchase a ticket to Mount Morgan. The guy behind the counter was staring at me with a look of disdain as I walked up to the counter. It was all very uncomfortable. Anyhoos, I said, "Do the buses that go to Mount Morgan leave from here tomorrow morning?". He looked at me like I was some kind of moron and said, "No, they do not. You need to contact Young's bus service." I thanked him for being so nice and then left.
Usually, I would have said, "Um, but it says they leave from here on the internet", and pushed the conversation a bit...until he admitted that I was right and he was wrong. But, I was already feeling pretty bad, and didn't want to make myself feel any worse if indeed I had somehow misread the information on the Greyhound website. I chose instead to go home and check the internet again. There it was - buses DO leave from the Greyhound terminal that I was just told that they do not. I ended up ringing Greyhound to confirm, and yes - I was right, he was wrong. I bought a ticket, and the lady I spoke with asked me if I wanted to make a complaint about the person I spoke to. I said ah, why not.
I got home, tired as usual (nothing new). Decided to do some washing. Stupid doing washing at night, but I haven't really had any other time to do it recently. On my way back from putting the washing in the machine, I was asked to go into one of the other ladies rooms. She said she was worried about another one of the ladies (my neighbour), as she had apparently been in the toilet for around an hour both vomiting and with diahorrea. This lady wanted to call an ambulance, even though the lady who was sick didn't want one. She asked me to go and talk her into getting an ambulance.
Rather than walking away, and simply saying, "If she doesn't want an ambulance, do not call her one", I chose to get myself involved. Really only because the lady who is sick is cool as (she's my neighbour - I have written about her in here before), and I was a little concerned. I went and knocked on the toilet door and asked if she was alright. I tried to be as bubbly and lighthearted with what I was saying to her as I could, as I think that this other lady was causing her more grief by hassling her about getting an ambulance.
Anyway, she ventured out of the toilet with a bucket and another of the ladies washed it out. I can't handle anything like that. I remember having to watch over a few pools of vomit, whilst waiting for the cleaners to dispose of it when I was working at Segaworld. I was nearly sick myself. I was talking to her in her room and then she said, "Quick, Quick get me the bucket!". I wasn't sure why she needed the bucket as she was standing next to the sink. Surely she could chuck up into that? Anyways, I got the bucket and soon realised why. She wasn't going to throw up. What she needed the bucket for was to catch what was coming out of the other end. Unfortunately, I didn't get the bucket fast enough, and copious amounts of shit were soon all over the floor.
I was pretty freaked out and just about threw up. I had to retreat to the door whilst the other ladies came and helped her. I couldn't help it. If I would have stayed in the room with her, there would have been both shit and vomit to clean up on the floor. What a combination. The human body is a scarey thing. Whilst I retreated, the other ladies cleaned her and her floor up. One of these ladies always is saying to me that she is depressed and that she doesn't know what to do with her life. Watching how she looked after my neighbour tonight, I said to her that I think that her answer is in looking after people. I chose not to say that she would be good at cleaning up peoples shit though, as I figured that would be a bit less inspiring.
On that note, I must go to sleep so that I can somehow wake up nice and early tomorrow.
I managed to get up early enough to catch the bus to Mount Morgan. When I got there at around 7am, I was amazed at the first thing I saw. Right next to where the bus pulled up was the big building that I was interested in purchasing about six months ago. It is a 3 bedroom house upstairs, and downstairs there is a hall. I figured it was good value for the $60 000 they were asking for it. I thought it would be good to have under 18 dance parties there. Unfortunately, my hopes of owning this were shattered courtesy of the mother who had promised to assist me in securing a home loan, getting my hopes up, and then did not bother to help me.
I took a photo of the building, then went for a walk into town where I saw a few people around setting up their stalls for the festival. After wandering around aimlessly for a while, I ended up at the Mount Morgan Railway Station/Tourist information centre. I was hoping that there would be some sort of tours running today so that I could kill some time. Unfortunately I was told that there were none. There had previously been tours to the mine, and to see dinosaur footprints, but the tours stopped a few months ago after the owners went broke.
The lady at the information centre gave me a map and went on with a rather long and unprovoked speil about the (alleged) many attractions of Mount Morgan. She said that the lookout was pretty good, so I said I would check it out. The most interesting story she told me was that there was a pub, which was turned into a church, then it was turned into a pub again, and now it is a private residence. I can't remember the name of the pub, but she said people were saying that it was interesting that firstly it was a pub which sold spirits, then it turned into a church, which was inhabited by a different sort of spirit.
I went to check out the local supermarket to see how prices compared to those in Rockhampton. I purchased two 1.5 litre bottles of water there in preparation for my walk home. The prices were not much different, and there was quite a variety of stuff, so I was impressed. Something pretty important to me if I was moving there. There's a whitegoods/electrical store on the main street, and Australia Post is just around the corner. Perfect. Checked out the Mount Morgan museum. Was okay, but nowhere near as good as The Heritage Village in Rockhampton which I visited last weekend. I went to the lookout and checked it out. It was cool to look over at the old mine site.
It was around 11am and I decided that if I was going to walk home I had better get going. I walked for around half an hour down The Range, and then a car pulled up about 100 metres in front of me. The person got out of the car and my immediate thought was "Omg, I'm going to die!". I couldn't see the person properly, but they were walking towards me. It turned out to be a lady who had stopped and she asked me if I would like a lift. I took her up on her offer and got into her car, hoping that she was not a serial killer.
She said she was going to Allenstown and asked me where I wanted to go. I said that I lived near the Mobil service station, but anything was fine. She ended up dropping me at Maccas so I was almost home. Unreal. She was telling me that she had bought a house in Mount Morgan for $19 000 and she was currently renovating it. She said she had a family of builders. I said that I would definately be in contact with her if I got my shitheap of a house in Mount Morgan, and thanked her for the lift.
I got home just after 12 this afternoon, happy to have packed almost everything I wanted to do into the first five hours of the day. I bought a pedometer recently to see how far I was actually walking. Today I walked about 10 kms whilst I was exploring Mount Morgan. I might be going to the Heritage Village tomorrow again as I have a friend who was interested in going after reading my diary. She said she wasn't sure if she was free this weekend, but if not this weekend, it will definately be another time.
When I got home, I figured that I had better check that my next door neighbour was alive. She was, so that was good to know. I then went for a walk to the shops and ended up being so tired that I got a cab home, even though it would have only been a 15 minute walk home. I then went to sleep for a few hours, woke up, went and got takeaway, then had a shower.
I was then ambushed in the hallway by another of my housemates. This one wanted to read the starting chapter of a book she had written. She didn't say, "Have you got a spare moment, do you mind if I read you this story?". She just started reading it. It was a story about God. Whilst I would have rather not have been bothered by her, nor do I have any interest in God, I did tell her that she seemed to be good at writing. I hope that does not mean that I get to read the next 15 chapters of her book.
