Wave Aid Weekend and other things

This'll be a long post so those not interested can stop reading now.

I'll start with Wave Aid Weekend.

On Friday Bron came over around 10:30am and then Ivan dropped us off at the airport. We barely had time to sit down before we had to board our flight, which went smoothly. We got to Sydney at around 2pm and caught the train to Leticia's work. We dropped off our bags at her work and went for a MASSIVE walk of the city. We did a few laps of the same blocks because we got a bit disorientated and then ended up walking down to Circular Quay and checking out the harbour bridge and opera house. We then went back to meet Teesh at her work and catched a cab back to her place in Waverton where we were staying, lounging around and chatting for a couple of hours. For dinner we walked to this restaurant called 2060, drank too much wine, then went for a walk up to Ball's Head lookout, which gave a stunning view of the harbour at nighttime. We eventually sauntered home exhausted at around midnight.

Bron's brother works night shift during vintage season but got the Friday night off, so drove to Sydney from the Hunter Valley to see her. He arrived at about 1am, so on the Saturday he took us to see Bron's grandmother who'd 94 and in a nursing home, and it was good for Bron to see her. That woman was hilarious. She's fully alert mentally but has 4 broken vertebrae and is in a lot of pain and I guess the frustration of not being able to walk but being fully aware of your situation made her a cranky old woman. She proceeded to tell us all how fat we were, how angry she was for being put in the nursing home 18 months ago, how horrible Phil looked for not shaving that day, and so on and so forth, but I thought it was hilarious.

Phil went back to the Hunter Valley later that afternoon and us girls went to the SCG for the Wave Aid concert. All of the bands were great, with the only disappointment being silverchair, who weren't horrible but not great. They sounded good, and Dan looked very buff, but their set wasn't that great and they ended with a whimper rather than a bang. The ones that surprised me were John Butler Trio and the Finn Brothers. I didn't know what to expect from them and they surprised me by being excellent live. And Midnight Oil were the perfect way to end the night, the crowd went wild and everyone was loving it. In between the bands the highlights were catching up with Dusta and also the entertainment provided by the guys on the cameras and the ones putting text up onto the big screen. With their sense of humour they somehow convinced a lot of people in the crowd (both male and female) to flash for the cameras. Quite funny.

On Sunday I was a little annoyed because we got up early to go to The Rocks but then found that Teesh had decided to take us to the markets instead. Bron and I didn't really go with a lot of spending money, so we may as well have slept in, but no matter. After the markets we went to this Chinese restaurant and had Yum Cha, which is something that I've not seen in Adelaide before. Basically all you do is sit at a table and lots of people come around with trolleys with all sorts of Chinese food and you take whatever and however much you want. It was overwhelming for me at first but my goodness it was great because Teesh picked all the yummy food for us. I even managed to convince her to try chicken feet, much to Bron's disgust, haha! We caught the train to the airport and were on our way home before we knew it. I then drove home and got back at around 8pm, and now I'm back at work today.

The only downside to Wave Aid Weekend is the sunburn. We had assigned seats so we were in the sun for about 4 hours, and despite applying sunscreen twice and trying to keep in the shade as much as possible without missing the bands, I am in HEAPS of pain. I can't wait to get home and throw on a sleeveless shirt, as this rubbing is killing me. I even cried from pain in the shower this morning. But hey, all worth it I suppose!

So, moving on from Wave Aid Weekend now!

Dad had his conciliation meeting at the Industrial Relations Commission today and I spoke to him earlier and he's very happy. The company came to the meeting with a printed letter agreeing to give Dad 12 weeks pay, all he had to do was sign. The Commissioner said he had never seen a company so blatantly admit they were wrong and offer something straight off the bat. The Commissioner also told the company they were very wrong in filming my Dad on those days off as he had been a loyal employee for 15 years, and said something to the effect of "Well geez, if someone asked me what I did 3 days ago I wouldn't remember every small detail either!" which Dad was really happy to hear. Dad's lawyer asked for 24 weeks pay, the company raised their offer to 15, Dad lowered his to 20, and then they couldn't come to an agreement. The Commissioner suggested 17.5 weeks pay, at which time the meeting adjourned and the settlement will be next Monday, but now it's just up to Dad's lawyer to work her magic. Because Dad was under a Federal agreement, if they don't come to an agreement now it would have to go to Federal Court, which can take years and cost Dad thousands of dollars, and he doesn't want to do that so he'll be happy to make a settlement. He still has 2 other Workcover cases to go against the company anyway, so I think he'll be happy to get this behind him. Hopefully now the settlement goes well!

Anyway, suppose I should get back to work now...