Arse

That is how I feel today. I thought this was the usual, seasonal hayfever, but yesterday I realised it's probably not. It was raining outside and yet I'm the only hayfever sufferer still sneezing and blowing one's nose? Not likely. So I had yesterday off. And today I'm here but I feel like arse and want to go home. Perhaps I'll leave early. Mum and Dad are meeting me for lunch today so I don't see much point to sticking around too long after that's over. My boss is also sick (and was sick yesterday too). I was hoping to ask her for next Monday off, so perhaps I shouldn't push my luck with the leaving early today. We'll see.

Dad has to go to the tribunal today, something to do with his workcover not being paid by his previous arse-hat employers. You know, the ones that sacked him before Christmas. The lawyer believes the hearing is merely a technicality as his work shouldn't be allowed to do that, so hopefully she's right and the hearing will go smoothly today. God knows my parents could use some good luck. Centrelink is a bloody joke and haven't helped my Dad at all, but that's a whole other blog entry.

Maria was in a car accident on Friday. Nothing serious, but I think she's just had enough of the idiot drivers, as this is the third time she's had an accident and each time it's because of some other person who shouldn't have their licence. She was pulling out of a petrol station and had to wait for the traffic to pass, and some woman didn't, and plowed into the back of the car. Up there for thinking. Like I said, nothing major, but now Maria has to get the car repaired which means dealing with insurance companies, which seem to be an extension of the morons at Centrelink.

Anyway, not in the greatest of moods to write today but at least I've had a bit of a whinge.

Purple

I recently bought a new mobile phone and decided to try out the inbuilt camera. I couldn't figure out how to get the pictures off the camera but thankfully Alex set me straight. Thus, I present to you my work folders, ordered in my favourite colour.

Nothing!

Wooooo, it's Friday! WOOOOOOO! And better still, Friday afternoon, with me leaving in about 15 minutes!

What's even better is that this weekend I'm doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! The last few weekends have been chockers with all the camping and field surveys so I cannot wait to do anything but the following this weekend:
- read (4 magazines to catch up on as well as dozens of books)
- watch tv/dvds
- play on the computer (Dungeon Siege 2 and/or Black and White 2)
- eat
- sleep

Ok, so I do need to do a little grocery shopping and I promised Mum I'd go to church with her on Sunday but those things DO NOT COUNT!

Mid-week woe

Argh, it's only Wednesday, and only part-way through Wednesday at that. Sandra and Vicki are both at a training course for the next couple of days, and Natasha called up sick, so I'm on my own and feeling a tad swamped. Plus I was asked to fill-in at the front counter for an hour (which I'm doing right now) which I despise. Thankfully only two people have come in (a man selling roses and a woman dropping off a birthday card for someone) and the phone hasn't yet rang at all, although there's still about 10 minutes left so I'd better not jinx it.

Last night I went to the Griffin's Head Hotel for dinner with Tash. It was a good night and I had schnitzel for the first time in aaages. I'd parked on Rundle Street and walking to the parking lot, I noticed a man sitting on the corner wearing a mask to cover his mouth and nose (like people in Asia wore when the SARS thing was going around). He pulled a xylophone onto his lap, and started playing. When I got to Level 4 of the carpark, I could still hear the xylophone. A strange feeling, but very relaxing.

Hayfever sucks and blows!

Far out, this bloody hayfever is driving me crazy! I'm getting very little sleep as a result and am not a happy chappy at all! I suppose it doesn't help that I like being outdoors but I take those pesky tablets which help to a point, but are not completely effective. Anyway, that's my complaint for this entry.

The weekend was great apart from not much sleep due to hayfever. On Saturday I was at Mt Bold Reservoir for the final weekend of the NCSSA Annual Spring Survey. The number of people attending had significantly dropped off so for the morning trap check it was only Peter and I. We caught some more bush rats as well as a house mouse but little else. Apparently they'd caught a Southern Brown Bandicoot on Friday, shame I wasn't there then as I haven't had a chance to see one since finishing my Honours.

In the afternoon, Peter left so Misch, Tim, Leanne and I did the afternoon trap check and then collected them all and started packing the sites up. We then had dinner and I decided to stay for some spotlighting, so I got home just after 10pm.

Sunday morning wasn't as much of an early start seeing as all that was left to do was a truckload of cleaning. It also meant the day wasn't as long, so I got home and vegged out, completely stuffed. I was aiming to get an early night but then I started playing Black & White 2, and before I knew it, it was 2am. I love that game, and have a cow as my creature. It's so cute, it loves to dance for the villagers.

Yesterday I took a Family Leave day to spend some time with Mum. She's at home for 2 more weeks but is always doing better, and has a checkup at the doctor today so hopefully all goes well. I've loaned Mum a bunch of books to keep her entertained while she's at home and she recently read The Da Vinci Code so we spent about an hour discussing religion. It's so nice to be able to sit and talk to Mum about anything, I really value our relationship. The rest of the afternoon was spent helping her with some laundry and then we sat down and watched a video before I came home.

Tonight I'm staying back in town to catch up with Tash and have some dinner with her. Haven't seen her since before Christmas so it's bloody long overdue. Ofcourse, my eyes have been watering all morning and my nose has been dripping, so I look absolutely stunning for the occasion!

Christmas comes early

Last night Ivan gave me my Christmas present early - a Samsung mp3 player. It's even purple, my favourite colour! It's soooo small and cute, Karen here at work wants one too. It not only stores mp3s but also images and text files, can pick up FM radio and is also a voice recorder. Although I love reading, it was so refreshing this morning on the train to be able to listen to the new Franz Ferdinand album. It make the trip a lot more boppy and I arrived at work in better spirits. Coolest Gift Ever!

Free time? What is that?

I know I haven't updated since returning from camping but work has been absolutely INSANE lately. It's been non-stop, with me deciding today I really needed a breather so have decided to update my blog as part of that. Sandra is on leave so I'm filling in for her, but then the other Licensing Officer is on leave too so I'm doing two jobs and barely staying afloat. Vicki felt so bad for me today she bought me some flowers, so they're brightening up my workspace a bit.

The weekend absolutely flew by. On Friday night Alex came over and we had some Chinese food and watched a bit of the cricket before being joined by Eric who seemed to have some computer problems. Always nice to see the lads anyway.

The weather was pretty miserable on Saturday so I spent the day indoors catching up on some reading and DVDs (nothing overly great). Thankfully the weather cleared up on Sunday because it's the NCSSA's Annual Spring Survey at the moment so I was off to Mt Bold Reservoir at 7am for that. I got to spend the day trap checking and opportunistic searching with Peter and Ian, joined by a couple of different people throughout the day. It was a really nice day and I ended up getting home at around 6:30pm, and since then it's been non-stop work. I'm heading out there again this weekend and might stay for some spotlighting, should be good.

Anyway, suppose I had better go and get back into it before I lose all motivation. Dad's meeting me for lunch today and hopefully if Mum's feeling well enough she'll join him so if I can just make it to lunchtime...

A return to the normal routine

Well, after a week off work I'm back here today and so very pleased to be here, let me tell you.*

The camping trip was excellent but I'm still tired as a result. With Thursday off work as well last week I spent the day packing and then went to Mum and Dad's to see how Mum was doing and to collect a few last minute things. I left for Mt Boothby on Friday morning, stopping at Coonalpyn on the way and getting there just before noon. After pitching the tent and unpacking, I went for a drive with Rodney, Graham and Jill around the conservation park to see where to set our traplines. We went to the summit of Mt Boothby aswell which was a little disappointing and more closely resembled a small mound.

By Saturday morning several other people has arrived so we set out early to start digging the pitlines. Thankfully most of the sites were sandy so the digging went relatively quickly, and we were finished by lunchtime. The afternoon was then spent doing a bit more driving around and sightseeing, and a bit of reading while sitting in the sun. So lovely and relaxing.

On Sunday we checked the traplines in the morning. We were lucky enough to catch some pygmy possums which are smaller than mice and have the cutest little faces! We also caught some Silky Mice as well as the damn House Mouse which seems to be all across the country. After lunch I went out with Peter, Cheryl and Aaron to do some opportunistic searching for reptiles and managed to find a bunch of skinks and a couple of species of geckos and some dragons. Always plenty of reptiles to find :) On Sunday afternoon I went for a drive to Messent Conservation Park with Graham, Rodney and Cheryl and we spent a bit of time checking that out but didn't see anything too exciting.

Monday was packup day, so after a check of the traplines again in the morning, we collected them all, packed up our camping equipment and went our separate ways. I got home around 2:30pm very tired and smelly, and enjoyed that shower like you wouldn't believe. Ivan had heaps of TV shows for me to catch up on as well as a couple of movies so I spent the rest of the day lying on the couch frying my brain with television.

Tuesday was declared washing day, with not much else happening besides that. Very exciting stuff. But the night was a bit more exciting because it was Alex's birthday, so we went to have dinner at Spargo's and then went to the movies to see Serenity (a must for fans of the series Firefly). And yesterday I spent a few hours at Mum and Dad's and didn't do too much else. I could so get used to the idea of staying home and not going to work, so long as I got some money for doing so. Ah well. Better get back to work now I suppose :(

*May or may not be true.