Melbourne

I just got a random email from someone saying they love reading my books and I am one of their favourite authors ever.

I figured it was just a spam email since I get them frequently - usually wanting to sell me something - and its too my author outlook email which is advertised in the books and on my twitter profile, etc.

Check the email address and it's from an education email address - so the ones they give assign to kids at school.

Could still be a bored student taking the piss, but I choose to believe I just got my first ever fan e-mail.

So I've completed 3/4 knowledge assessments, and submitted 2/4 practical assessments. Tomorrow is prac day, so I can ask the questions I need, finish up the one assessment I still need to do, and then submit those. Then I'll check the last quiz tomorrow afternoon, and attempt it, note down any questions and save it for Friday. Once that last one is done, I'm finished with my classes for the semester and can enjoy some holidays!

I still can't believe I've changed my trajectory.

Not long back from the vet.
Results of second and more comprehensive ultrasound - Sammi has pancreatitis.
Hopefully they'll be able to control it with cortisone injections.
Also she got a bravery award from the ultrasound people and the staff said she was a model patient and love her. Which is nice. 😊

ta da, I finished the little cabinet and have loaded up some of my shell collection. I think it looks pretty cool and I'm well pleased with how it turned out. 🙂

spoiler

Onto my sixth load of washing today and I might squeeze in a seventh as I think the sheets will dry quickly (been doing clothes, towels, oodie, blanket, doona cover/pillowcases...) What a relief, i havent changed my bedclothes in ages and the whole house feels so much fresher now that all of this is getting washed.

Going in and out has also definitely helped break the monotony of today's work, which I just have no mood to do at all. People suck!

E: that was a long day and I didn't get everything done. But I do have heaps of laundry to fold tonight after dinner! Even the cuffs of the oodie are dry which is a surprise given it was only out for about 2 hours.

I've been watching Los Espookys after enjoying Fantasmas so much and it's a nice low key fun show in Spanish. I really hope Fred Armisen's characters daughter gets impaled in the second season though, the aggro shtick didn't fly as humour

Surprisingly easier to disconnect from work thoughts with this job.

It only matters when I'm sitting in front of the laptop, and then, it's over.

Kinda nice for a change.

I’m normally happy being frugal, it’s been a way of life for so long. But I have to say I’m getting really sick of it being so severely enforced. Especially as disability = hard mode.

I’m not happy with the direction Australia is going for any of us. As much as people tighten their belts it’s pointless. Corporations and banks just take more, the government just cuts more. The severity of this could have been avoided.

All meetings cancelled. Party time 🎉

Government House. I think the photo didn't load. Here for a friend's OAM.

I have been well fed.

Nothing beats a simple beef sausage and bread with tomato sauce with some coleslaw.

I’m now kicking back on the coach trying not to fall into a coma now.

It's so nice how little my work have for my regard they schedule some randoms to have a meeting in my 'office' and not tell me.

So work from home today.

pakige...

Two days with "we couldn't deliver". Two days I've been here all day. Either they are not trying or they can't figure out how to operate a buzzer.

EDIT: more ranting Oh and now they have cut me off from the phone line three times in a row. I'm now on chat to Amazon making a complaint. I've never had anything delivered by Dragonfly couriers before - this is terrible

EDIT EDIT: Ok I know amazon are evil and all that, but 3 mins in the chat and they are sending me a replacement with a new courier company. THat is nice

Training is draining. Today is day 8 of training in new job and I'm tired. Still another week and a half at least of just training. Feels like my cup is full but they just keep on pouring, and now that stuff theyre pouring is spilling out of the cup onto the table, dribbling off the table onto my pants so it looks like I've peed myself. Peed myself with excess knowledge.

Today's little "hobby from a distance" is looking at vinyls and high end hi-fi equipment I can't afford

A Baku can dream

Any of you sewing types successfully Re-elasticated a bottom sheet? I suspect attempting such would be economically inefficient and I should rag bag it.

How is it that some people can give you a pep talk about looking after yourself and not getting dragged by other people, then text you a rant about their own dramas an hour later? How much time do you think it takes to get my brain de-stressed and back on track, Doris*?

*Apologies to any actual Doris's out there.

Bailed on work early to get to GP appointment. My lovely GP is running behind 30min+ and counting. I need to be elsewhere at 5.45pm. I also parked in the city to make my appointment.

I could have gone home and walked in if I knew. Damnit.

When I was a teenager I was learning German and saving money to go. Disability put a stop to that, it’s not a realistic option now, but I wonder what life would have been like if I had been able to emigrate.

I’m aware that the living costs are also high in Europe. You don’t necessarily get an aged pension as an expat. Jobs could be competitive and social norms difficult. Nowhere is a utopia and it’s likely that wouldn’t have worked out for me.

But you know. Longer term leases and tenants rights. Building standards. Dental. Less of an overt meth problem. You wonder.

I'm reading the Alien 3 screenplay by William Gibson after watching Alien: Romulus. It's great to see Newt and Hicks get proper character moments in a follow up story. And from what I understand, the story does things with the Aliens we haven't seen on screen yet.

Also, it sucks that they killed off Newt at the start of Alien 3, but something had to be done about her. At the end of Aliens she went into the sleep pod, so she would look a lot like she did once she came out.

The movie languished in development hell for years. As a teenaged girl she'd look very different in Alien 3 to how she did in Aliens. With all the production problems behind Alien 3, it seems like the easiest option than come up with an in universe reason why she's aged. If they went with Gibson's script and got Alien 3 out 2 years or so after Aliens they could have covered it up a lot more.

Forecast changed to sunny today, best time to be wfh. Washing machine running overtime after having taken a break for 10 days. The air is bitingly cold though, not sure how dry my clothes will get

Azaleas popping

Always wanted to try mad honey (in low doses) but it's stupid expensive.

I was craving lasagne but don't have any lasagne sheets, so I've made a mock lasagne with layers of fettuccini instead. Now I just have to wait for it to bake.

Found this on yt. Nellie-specific info starts after 8.30 mins. Good if simplistic overview of marsupials in the early bit. numbats