A return to blogging

It seems that my intentions of blogging properly have fallen by the wayside, and I suppose it's a tad late to resurrect them now - the primary purpose was communication with Ele while she's in Europe, and she'll be back in Australia this weekend (YAY!)

There have been days in which I've done things that were worth blogging about. For the most part, I didn't bother. Whoops. Tonight, however, I'd like to share the achievements of the day.

First thing is, I Skyped with Ele for a few hours. Not an achievement, but sufficiently wonderful that I couldn't leave it out.

Second thing (in roughly chronological order) is that I arranged to have my old car taken away. Yes, my defunct Telstar has been sitting helpless in the driveway since partway through Ele's visit some months ago. I was going to say "since Joe the tow truck driver ever-so-skilfully dropped it there", but then I remembered that I have moved it around a bit (by brute force) since then. Manually moving a small car on flat, level concrete is actually surprisingly easy. Either way, I've arranged to have it taken away. I was waiting for Peter Gardiner (a local mechanic who's an institution in his own right) to take it away, but he hasn't had the chance to. I've now arranged for someone else to take it away, and I'll even get some money - the scrap metal market tanked just before I cooked the Telstar's engine, but apparently I'll still get a reasonable amount of money. I just want it gone - any money is a bonus.

Third thing, I topped up the oil and water in my (fully-functioning) Falcon. I am determined not to neglect and abuse this car like I did the Telstar before it. I might note at this point that "topped up the oil and water" was more of an effort than you might think - it involved a fair while spent out in the blazing summer sun, with temperatures somewhere in the low- to mid-40s (Celsius) in the shade. I would complain about that heat (particularly since it's not over yet), but my brother in Adelaide says they've got temperatures in the high 40s. This, folks, is Australia.

Fourth thing, I chucked my bike in the back of my car (station wagon ftw!), took it down to the service station and pumped up the tyres. Haven't ridden it in ages, but now I can. Also got petrol, which is helpful.

Fifth and final thing, and easily the most exciting: I probably landed my first-ever full-time job today - I shall find out for sure tomorrow. Compared to the soul-crushing degradation and frustration which has hitherto marked my jobhunting efforts (at several times in my life), this was astonishingly easy. Saw an ad in the paper, rang the number, left a message, got called back, and am going in for information and/or training tomorrow morning at 11am. No hassle, no references, no resume, no tricky questions - the significant requirements mentioned were "honest" and "reliable". No worries there, and I think I'm in. I shall report further when I have more to report.

It's a "load out packing" job at an abbatoir in Kyneton, about 20 minutes' drive from here (the same town I worked in for a couple of years recently). I'll be handling carcases, which I suspect is why the job is available and easy to walk into. There's always a catch in any job - the trick is to find a job whose catch doesn't bother you, and I've done precisely that here; I don't mind the idea of handling raw meat all day.

A little more about my reasoning, for those who came in late...

For a while now I have had two jobsearches going on: the short-term and the long-term. The long-term one is for a career I can be happy in for a fair while, but I'm aware that it will almost certainly require serious training (probably involving university degrees). To support me in the meantime (and get me out of debt <.<), I need a job in the short term. The requirements for this aren't high: it has to be bearable (preferably not notably unpleasant), reliable (which my current job isn't) and pay me vaguely decent money (which my current job doesn't). This gap is of course filled by the abbatoir job, assuming I do in fact get that job. I did the numbers, and the minimum wages for full-time work is plenty of money for me. My information is that abbatoirs pay quite highly (because of the gore factor), so hopefully I'll be able to get a fair chunk of money behind me before I start uni next year (assuming all goes to plan).

I do have plans for the long term career, but I won't go into them here - they're not settled yet, and I don't need to actually do anything about them for quite some time. For now it is enough for me just to work and earn money.

Life is good, my friends. Life is good, in a way of which I'd been somewhat less confident lately.