2 posts tagged “work”

Well, I'm back from the work trip. It was NOT work.. or at least it didn't feel like it at all. I had so much fun, I don't know where to begin. I headed down to Hobart with Kel (head of another group) and Linda (the new girl), as Lindene (one of the admins) and Lorraine (my supervisor) were coming later or so I thought. Kel let me drive some of the way which was nice as it was a Uni car. When we got there we did the quick tour of our Hobart offices and found out that Lorraine was sick and wouldn't be coming down and that Lindene had a funeral to go to and wouldn't be coming down until much later. That was a little disappointing as I'd been looking forward to hanging out with the girls.

I hung out a lot with Linda instead as this was our first trip away and first 'Teaching Matters' conference. We wandered the Uni campus for a few hours, we went down to the beach, up through the Sandy Bay shops where we stopped for coffee 'n snacks. We walked MILES which I enjoyed, as normally I never got anyone who is willing to just keep walking and exploring with me (they all find a coffee shop and say they've had enough.. bunch of pikers!) I have 3 sisters but they're heaps older than me so I kind of grew up as an only child. Linda clicked into the big sister role and we spent the day laughing and gossiping. Anyway.. eventually we found Kel and headed to the hotel and checked in.

The hotel was a dank grey looking monstrosity from the outside but seemed quite nice on the inside. We walked up to the reception desk and Linda and I instantly copped a look up and down from the receptionist. Strangely, we both separately decided we'd get her back by dodgily filling in our forms.. altho, when I think about it.. I don't see how that would affect her but nevertheless, we felt better at the time. We agreed to meet in the lobby before heading off to dinner at the curry house with the rest of the CALT office. Just as I came downstairs I bumped into Lindene who had just pulled in. (She copped a look from Bitch-Troll on the front desk too) She looked tired and said she wasn't coming to dinner as curry didn't agree with her. She'd had a long day too so it was probably best that she had a quiet evening. 

We finally found the curry house, had to drive miles past it and walk back as parking was a bitch. We got there to find only 3 Hobart CALTers which was a little disappointing (Has anyone installed Firefox 2.0? It has an inline spell check which underlines your text as you type it. It's annoying.. as if I don't know CALTers isn't a word!). We had a banquet and continuously served a multitude of colourful dishes. I stuck my hand up as the waiter started to walk away from the table having delivered 5 dishes of different curry on the table. I asked him "Excuse me. Which one is the girly curry?" This got laughs from Kel and Linda and scoffs from the other 3 (obviously, some people approach situations ready to laugh, while others have something to prove). The evening was spent listening to stories from very highly intelligent and articulate people. Having said that, I can't say it was a rollicking good time.. it felt like the kind of evening you have out with your colleagues (which it was) and not the sort you have with friends which was disappointing.

We had trouble navigating the mindless one way streets of Hobart on the way back to the hotel and while we could see the hotel we seemed to keep doing blocks around it and never getting any closer. Then we came to a traffic light that refused to go green. We waited for ages and ages. I jumped out and ran to the pedestrian crossing, pressed the button as that makes the light change, legged it back to the car and jumped in just in time to see the opposing light go red, while ours stayed red. So the lights going both ways were red. Kel eventually just ran the red and we felt like hoons.

When we eventually got back to the hotel, we agreed on a time to go to breakfast and said our goodnights. I am NOT a morning person and I can't eat breakfast without feeling sick for the rest of the day. A coffee is all I can manage usually. They agreed to have breakfast at 7:30am. SICKOS!

I got up, showered, dressed, made myself as presentable as I was going to get without professional assistance and headed downstairs for breakfast. I got in the lift(I was on level 3) and pressed the ground floor button. Unfortunately, the lift stopped at level 1 to pick up someone and I wasn't paying attention so I got off. The doors of the lift closed behind me as I looked around the corridor thinking "Ummm.. ". I waited a few minutes to let the level 1'ers get to the bottom and walk away from the lifts before I pressed the button. I didn't want to look like a complete idiot! lol

I finally got downstairs and found Lindene already down there, looking very chirpy. The breakfast was laid out buffet style starting with coffee, cereal, fruit, fried stuff and then juice on the other end. I couldn't see the sugar for my coffee and by the time I got to the fried stuff I was feeling rather sick at the sight of food that early in the morning so I just went back to our table with my rather strong coffee and without sugar which didn't make me too happy. Kel and Linda joined us and they had fried stuff. I went to fetch myself a tiny bowl of muesli to nibble on but couldn't find the cutlery so I headed back to our table, with my muesli, admitting defeat.. only to I realise that the cutlery was on the table next to the sugar for my coffee which I'd just finished. The morning people at the table were very amused at this.

We headed off to the venue of this conference and were given a few basic jobs to do. We were "tech support" for the day, which amused Lindene and Linda because they're not very technically inclined at all. The day was a series of lectures and workshops about teaching and learning.  The talks were generally really interesting and I sat there thinking "Wow, maybe the fact that I was a shit student wasn't ALL my fault!"

We all stopped for lunch and foyer suddenly filled with probably close to 150 people. I found my library buddies sitting in an adjacent foyer with coffees so I joined them. My library buddies are all the librarians that I worked with when I worked at the university library. I really like them, they're heaps of fun to hang out with. They asked me if I was enjoying myself with CALT and we discussed whether the library was 'cooler' than CALT or not. The general consensus was that CALT was cooler, as when you say "Oh, I'm a librarian" at a dinner party it seemed to be a conversation stopper. I argued that it would be a conversation starter as that sentence led off into heaps of questions like "What library?" "Do you specialise in a particular area?" "Have you even been up to anything kinky in the stacks?".. and they agreed that it should be a starter as they had lots of stories about the latter question but it didn't work out that way. The head of the Hobart library arrived part way through that conversation and although I didn't know her (I'd only seen her once before and never been introduced) she gave me a big smile and jumped straight into the conversation. This seemed indicative of the entire day really, everyone smiled and made eye contact and was willing to talk to you. This is foreign concept to me as a computing student where staff and students rarely make eye contact, never start conversations with people they don't know really well and rarely smile randomly at people.

At the afternoon break, CALT's exec assistant that's buggered off to the education department (see a previous post about secretaries) caught Linda, Lindene and me chatting away near the coffees. She tried to convince Lindene to go shopping in town with her. Lindene said she had an afternoon session which I volunteered to take for her if she wanted to go shopping. I was worried that she was missing Lorraine as those two seem to be thick as thieves sometimes and this whole trip had been talked up as a great group bonding experience, that would give me a good chance to get to those two specifically outside of the office environment. Lindene got this naughty grin on her face and handed me the iPod to record the session and came with me to check I knew about everything. The workshop had already started but the presenter was a pro in that particular room so Lindene left, leaving me the keys to yet another Uni car and telling me to pick Linda up and she'd meet us back at the hotel.

I was of NO USE WHAT SO EVER to the presenter. She knew where everything was and she was a wonderful presenter. The talk was about giving good tutorials and I would have shot someone to have her a my tutor. She was vibrant and interesting and kept everything flowing without becoming boring. I realised what crap tutors we have to put up with in the school of computing and how interesting they could have made it if they'd had the tools to do it. Afterwards, I found Linda, said our goodbyes to all the Hobart CALTers we could find and made our way to Lindene's Uni car.

Lindene had complained that the seat was really low and with her being short meant that she couldn't see the front of the bonnet for the entire trip down to Hobart the day before and there wasn't a lever to raise the seat. I sat in the drivers seat and said "Wow, she's right! It's low.. I wonder if.. oh, hello.. a lever" and raised the seat straight away. Linda was practically doubled over in laughter at how Lindene had complained so bitterly about it and how quick I'd found it. She decided that she MUST tell Lindene when she saw her 'cos that was just too funny. We got back to the hotel and I backed it into a parking space.  Just as we got out of the car, Lindene appeared with her shopping.She was amazed that I'd backed it into a parking space (I don't know why, it didn't take any effort) and muttered something that I didn't catch when Linda excitedly blurted out that not only was there a seat raising lever but it worked.

We sat in the foyer for a little while and tried to decide where to go for dinner. We talked about the day and how things had gone for us. I said that I'd scored some guys number.. Linda laughed as she knew that it was some random lecturer who had decided that I knew everything there was to know about iPods, eventually realised that I didn't but wanted to know more and had given me his card so I could pass it along when I found out who he should be talking to. Lindene was silent for a couple of seconds and then leaned back in her seat, crossed her arms, looked over her glasses at me and in her best motherly tone said "More information please".. that set the tone for the evening of Lindene being the mother hen to Linda and my naughty girl attitudes.

We decided to head down to Salamanca which is the main restaurant, hip area of Hobart. It's right down on the waterfront and has a very old feel to it. We walked miles and finally decided on this place called Sal's. It was a very nice place and we were seated. The food was nice but the conversation and company was better. We laughed heaps about silly things and I thought it was a great change from the night before when it had been work colleagues and had felt like it, rather than this that felt like friends and family.

Linda and I decided that we should take Lindene cruising for guys rather than heading straight back to the hotel but as Lindene paid the bill we realised that she was chatting up the young good looking waiter who had hardly given us the time of day, so rather than let her show us again we escorted her back to the hotel. We had drinks at the bar and I tried a vodka cruiser for the first time. I don't drink a lot so I'd never got around to trying one before. I was rather concerned that it tasted like cordial. About 20 minutes later Kel turned up and asked if we wanted refills. I said I'd have a Strongbow, which is a cider. Everyone looked a little panicked that I was mixing drinks and Lindene leaned forward, looked over her glasses again and said "You're not going to be sick in my car tomorrow, are you?" .. I assured them all that I'd be fine.

We decided that breakfast should be the same time as Lindene and I would head back to Launceston in her car in the morning and Kel and Linda had meetings in Hobart until lunch and would head back later in the day. I turned up 20 minutes early for breakfast, having not taken another detour around level 1. I had coffee with sugar and actually managed a decent bowl of muesli before the rest of them arrived. I was NOT feeling queasy until they brought out the fried food. I started feeling rather uncomfortable at that time and they discussed the fry-up and how lovely the mushrooms were and how juicy the tomatoes were until Linda said she didn't like the colour I'd turned and Lindene said she was not explaining to Bruce (the uni vehicle fleet coordinator) about the puke in the car. Kel just giggled.

We departed breakfast and as I'd already packed I was first down into the Lobby for checkout. I'm standing behind this guy who is waiting at the counter and this old woman on crutches slowly cuts in infront of me. I was tempted to say something but as she was on crutches (not that I believe that should excuse rudeness) and as I wasn't in a rush I didn't say anything.

Is this the longest post ever?

Lindene and I left and drove to Campbell Town, which is around about half way home. We had a coffee and a muffin. My muffin looked like they'd scraped the top layer of tar off the road on a really hot day and tasted somewhat similar.. Lindene said I was just taken with the fact that it said "Double choc" and I hate to admit it but I was.

She let me drive home which is brave after Linda had spread vicious and vaguely untrue rumours about the whiplash she'd sustained on the trip with me from the uni to the hotel the night before. Plus, Lindene gets motion sickness so I did my best chauffeur driving most of the way home. We got to Perth which is about 20kms from home and I thought I knew the way so I took a right turn. Lindene's voice raised an octave as she asked where I was going. I told her this was the way home.. and sounded really certain for about 500metres at which point I stopped seeing familiar landmarks. By about my fifth "Ummm.. errrr... " Lindene started laughing. We kept driving as she said she knew where she was, although I had NO idea. We eventually came out on a road about 1km from where I had thought we were going to appear when I made my fateful turn. Lindene said she was going to have to tell everyone in the office this one.. with some creative embellishments. I can see it's going to be a running joke in the department.. oh well.. it could be worse I suppose.. lol

That's about all really. It was the best fun I've had in quite some time and it's made me look forward to going to work on Monday, if only to rebut Lindene's "scenic route" stories.

I start a new job tomorrow. I have a job as a tech officer for the Centre for Advancement of Learning and Teaching (CALT) at Uni. It's part time but the part-time wage is enough to keep me more than happy. I'll still do casual hours at the library though. I'm feeling a bit sick about it. My boss from the library keeps saying things like "Do well." and "Don't abuse the fact that your supervisor is really nice and patient 'cos you are on probation for 6 weeks".. I don't know who he thinks I am but his lack of confidence in me is starting to unnerve me. I'm sure he wants me to succeed, just a strange way of showing it.

Anyway, I'll be fine. I just need to stop psyching myself out about it and get in there. I'm usually fine in most social situations (with the exception of the whole male prostitute thing, right D?) so I just need BE there rather than THINKING about being there. If that makes any sense.

All my assignments are now handed in. I never have to hand in another assignment ever again... unless I do honours.. and then.. well, I'm just stupid if I do honours. What kind of person signs themselves up for another year (2 years if I do part time honours) of torture. I have 3 exams left and hopefully I don't flunk anything. Then I graduate with a bachelor's degree in computing. Yay!!