(no subject)
Hi Journal,
Just another update from my end, as we roll through December.
A strange and unexpectedly nice thing on Tuesday - I got promoted. Or, I found out that I am soon getting promoted... for the second time in a month.
Lets be a little more clear: so I was always set to be changing my job at the end of the new year. I'd originally applied for a suite of five jobs, and got offered two of them. One was more-or-less identical to what I'm doing (which is a very cruisy/easygoing and fun job, but with some jaded and kind of toxic / apathetic / pessimistic people). The other, a return to a former workplace in ITSD, but a slight 'promotion' in a way, undertaking a supervisory role there. Although it's a slightly more high-stress position, I felt really supported there and like I was doing a lot of good. Also, the people were great fun, which made a big difference.
Fast forward to Tuesday - and I had a call from a senior departmental manager, asking whether I would like to take on one of the more senior positions (one of the three which I initially applied for, and originally received a flat 'no', without an interview - as I'd always thought it a long shot that I'd land it). As opposed to a 'slight promotion', this is a 'considerable promotion', and a role that excites me. Naturally, I accepted :) So, next year, I'll be a 'senior technical consultant' (which even sounds good) - kind of a 'go-to' person who helps with training, oversees various projects and procedures, and helps out on the front line when numbers are needed.
Later I learned that a couple of former colleagues had put in 'good words' for me, some of which I'll be working closely with. What can I say? It was really nice.
---
For the time being, my current work has been great. That's a real strong point at the moment. This week I have been working very closely with the CSIRO, and it's been wonderful. My work is interesting, technical, challenging, and beneficial to many - it's what real science looks like. It's also been wonderfully unmanaged - I've been arriving late, and usually working a little later than expected to make up - although it's been largely unsupervised, and I feel like I've largely just been doing this work because I enjoy helping the people that I help. Indeed, in a way, this semester has been almost too good to be true, in that sense: it's been so easygoing that it almost feels like I've taken six months off, except that occasionally I have worked very hard for people. Perhaps I am nuts to give up this lifestyle - maybe its benefits are unmeasurable, but I am genuinely excited for my new role next year - and I think I will be really, really good at it.
---
My sea travel changed me. Now, I feel something strong and powerful and familiar and incredibly poignant, every time I pass the docks or when I pass a semi-trailer carrying containers, or one stationed in an overgrown corner of some sporting oval somewhere. Each and every container tells a story; as does each shipping company who fostered it. Maybe it's just my way of remembering Gina. I always try and stop and deduce which have come from where, what families were involved, and how much affinity I have to each of the companies that commandeer these things. I'm considering getting the Hamburg Sud flag tattooed on me somewhere. Or maybe Rory the Dinosaur. Probably more likely the Rory.
---
Speaking of travel, I'm off again. Last minute, and a long way for only a few days, but I'm going to the Blue Mountains. Confirmed now.
After a lot of deliberation, I'll be staying in Wentworth Falls, with the primary idea of visiting Wombatistan, should that come to pass with Mitch and Ayca. If not, then that's OK too, because I have books and a yoga mat, and am more than happy to meet locals and there's also the Cowra Japanese Gardens, which I've been to once and it's probably one of my most favourite places in the world, in a very sacred kind of a way. (It's the buddhist tea geek in me). At an outset, I might also wing a visit to either Tamworth (if Uncle Trevor is around), although I'm undecided - Tamworth will only be a "5hr drive up the road", but its still five hours.
Alternatively, I would also love to call past Canberra and thank Neha for being great this year. But I don't think she's going to be around - I haven't heard. Also, James (who I like a lot these days) lives there, yet he's abroad and shan't be back until Jan.
So, it'll be four days away - two on the road. But should involve some beautiful scenery and a great story nevertheless.
---
The last post. It's a high ideal. I'm working towards disconnection, but it doesn't 'just happen'. That makes me feel a little frustrated by the wired nature of my own existence, yet I am still working hard at seeing things differently. Again I've been playing with the idea of dating people, and with that has become the emotional ups and downs and everything in between that you would expect. (Plus, christmas). There's been the odd night of convincing loneliness, the odd day of pride. I sometimes wonder whether everyone is as concerned with their emotions as I am. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so, and other times I am ever thankful for it.
fixed front door
---
I write this from an overcrowded, delapidated middle of Bourke street (killing time before a happy interlude with Jake and claire). It smells like garbage here, because of course it does. My own fault for wandering into the pit of the lion's den a few days out from christmas? Entirely. Shopping centres always remind me of that beautiful Fear and Loathing quote... "this is what the whole hep world would be doing every Saturday night, if the nazis had won the war..."....
Brunswick West Carols happened yesterday, and it was a really happy day. Even better - my dear, long-lost friend Shona (who i'd not seen in person for about a decade) turned out to be one of the Trumpeters at the gig. Like all carols, the musicality was... mediocre, but it was great fun nevertheless. Chicken even had me singing improvised tenor vocals on a mic for most of the songs, which was a little awkward (and completely spontaneous) - I was nervous and sang more tonics than I would care to remember, but hey. It's nice to be considered one of the 'more musical' of our weird yet adorable little crowd.
---
I am back to serious reading, finally. At the moment, I'm rolling through "and then I thought I was a fish", by Peter Hunt Welch. I really like it so far - a story of the LSD trip which wrecked the young, lonely and depressed author's life (yet he is also bright and ultimately a wonderfully optimistic soul, who just wants wellbeing to be spread throughout the world, in a kind of constantly-nervously-excited kind of a way). It's also great for learning about neurology. A book that's not too serious, very enjoyable, and great for me and where I am right now.
Even if it's Bourke St.
Just another update from my end, as we roll through December.
A strange and unexpectedly nice thing on Tuesday - I got promoted. Or, I found out that I am soon getting promoted... for the second time in a month.
Lets be a little more clear: so I was always set to be changing my job at the end of the new year. I'd originally applied for a suite of five jobs, and got offered two of them. One was more-or-less identical to what I'm doing (which is a very cruisy/easygoing and fun job, but with some jaded and kind of toxic / apathetic / pessimistic people). The other, a return to a former workplace in ITSD, but a slight 'promotion' in a way, undertaking a supervisory role there. Although it's a slightly more high-stress position, I felt really supported there and like I was doing a lot of good. Also, the people were great fun, which made a big difference.
Fast forward to Tuesday - and I had a call from a senior departmental manager, asking whether I would like to take on one of the more senior positions (one of the three which I initially applied for, and originally received a flat 'no', without an interview - as I'd always thought it a long shot that I'd land it). As opposed to a 'slight promotion', this is a 'considerable promotion', and a role that excites me. Naturally, I accepted :) So, next year, I'll be a 'senior technical consultant' (which even sounds good) - kind of a 'go-to' person who helps with training, oversees various projects and procedures, and helps out on the front line when numbers are needed.
Later I learned that a couple of former colleagues had put in 'good words' for me, some of which I'll be working closely with. What can I say? It was really nice.
---
For the time being, my current work has been great. That's a real strong point at the moment. This week I have been working very closely with the CSIRO, and it's been wonderful. My work is interesting, technical, challenging, and beneficial to many - it's what real science looks like. It's also been wonderfully unmanaged - I've been arriving late, and usually working a little later than expected to make up - although it's been largely unsupervised, and I feel like I've largely just been doing this work because I enjoy helping the people that I help. Indeed, in a way, this semester has been almost too good to be true, in that sense: it's been so easygoing that it almost feels like I've taken six months off, except that occasionally I have worked very hard for people. Perhaps I am nuts to give up this lifestyle - maybe its benefits are unmeasurable, but I am genuinely excited for my new role next year - and I think I will be really, really good at it.
---
My sea travel changed me. Now, I feel something strong and powerful and familiar and incredibly poignant, every time I pass the docks or when I pass a semi-trailer carrying containers, or one stationed in an overgrown corner of some sporting oval somewhere. Each and every container tells a story; as does each shipping company who fostered it. Maybe it's just my way of remembering Gina. I always try and stop and deduce which have come from where, what families were involved, and how much affinity I have to each of the companies that commandeer these things. I'm considering getting the Hamburg Sud flag tattooed on me somewhere. Or maybe Rory the Dinosaur. Probably more likely the Rory.
---
Speaking of travel, I'm off again. Last minute, and a long way for only a few days, but I'm going to the Blue Mountains. Confirmed now.
After a lot of deliberation, I'll be staying in Wentworth Falls, with the primary idea of visiting Wombatistan, should that come to pass with Mitch and Ayca. If not, then that's OK too, because I have books and a yoga mat, and am more than happy to meet locals and there's also the Cowra Japanese Gardens, which I've been to once and it's probably one of my most favourite places in the world, in a very sacred kind of a way. (It's the buddhist tea geek in me). At an outset, I might also wing a visit to either Tamworth (if Uncle Trevor is around), although I'm undecided - Tamworth will only be a "5hr drive up the road", but its still five hours.
Alternatively, I would also love to call past Canberra and thank Neha for being great this year. But I don't think she's going to be around - I haven't heard. Also, James (who I like a lot these days) lives there, yet he's abroad and shan't be back until Jan.
So, it'll be four days away - two on the road. But should involve some beautiful scenery and a great story nevertheless.
---
The last post. It's a high ideal. I'm working towards disconnection, but it doesn't 'just happen'. That makes me feel a little frustrated by the wired nature of my own existence, yet I am still working hard at seeing things differently. Again I've been playing with the idea of dating people, and with that has become the emotional ups and downs and everything in between that you would expect. (Plus, christmas). There's been the odd night of convincing loneliness, the odd day of pride. I sometimes wonder whether everyone is as concerned with their emotions as I am. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so, and other times I am ever thankful for it.
fixed front door
---
I write this from an overcrowded, delapidated middle of Bourke street (killing time before a happy interlude with Jake and claire). It smells like garbage here, because of course it does. My own fault for wandering into the pit of the lion's den a few days out from christmas? Entirely. Shopping centres always remind me of that beautiful Fear and Loathing quote... "this is what the whole hep world would be doing every Saturday night, if the nazis had won the war..."....
Brunswick West Carols happened yesterday, and it was a really happy day. Even better - my dear, long-lost friend Shona (who i'd not seen in person for about a decade) turned out to be one of the Trumpeters at the gig. Like all carols, the musicality was... mediocre, but it was great fun nevertheless. Chicken even had me singing improvised tenor vocals on a mic for most of the songs, which was a little awkward (and completely spontaneous) - I was nervous and sang more tonics than I would care to remember, but hey. It's nice to be considered one of the 'more musical' of our weird yet adorable little crowd.
---
I am back to serious reading, finally. At the moment, I'm rolling through "and then I thought I was a fish", by Peter Hunt Welch. I really like it so far - a story of the LSD trip which wrecked the young, lonely and depressed author's life (yet he is also bright and ultimately a wonderfully optimistic soul, who just wants wellbeing to be spread throughout the world, in a kind of constantly-nervously-excited kind of a way). It's also great for learning about neurology. A book that's not too serious, very enjoyable, and great for me and where I am right now.
Even if it's Bourke St.