So ... undashing.

Ok, so I thought I would share with you something that happened to me tonight to lighten up your day. For some reason it always cheers us up to hear about something slightly bad (but not actually terrible) happening to other people - I guess it makes us feel as though we aren't the only one whose life doesn't go according to plan. Well, anyway, I'd better get on with my little story.

I was just leaving my friend's house after having dinner with her and another one of my friends and I was wearing the shoes that I affectionately refer to as my 'clodhoppers' - they have very chunky heels and, so, they take a little concentration to maneuver on uneven surfaces. Apparently I wasn't concentrating enough as I walked down the steps from the front door. It was also dark and wet and there was one more step than I thought there was - I'm sure you can figure out what happened next... I fell down.

But I didn't fall down in any normal sort of way, I fell down in slow motion - you could even say it was almost (almost being the operative word here) graceful. I was carrying the plate I had brought with me in my arms, so I didn't want to drop that and, as I was falling in slow motion, I had enough time to figure out how to fall without putting the plate in jeopardy or falling flat on my noes. My solution (and might I say, considering the circumstance, I think it was quite a good one) was to land on my knees. I landed, fairly gently, kneeling on both knees in a puddle (which was already there from the rain and had nothing to do with me, in case that needed clarifying) at the bottom of the stairs. I was then able to stand up with only wet patches on the knees of my jeans to show for the whole adventure.

My friends, Myounghee and Tullia, who had been standing at the top of the stairs and watching me for the whole performance then, of course, immediately rushed towards me to see if I was OK. After managing to convince them I was fine (Tullia was sure I had injured myself), I continued on my way home, with my pride only slightly dented.

As I was driving home, this quote came to mind:

Black Books, Series 1, Episode 4: The Blackout

Bernard: (having explained how he broke his arm by falling down some steps) Hence...
Fran: So why were you embarrassed to tell me?
Bernard: Oh, well, I fell. You know, it was so... undashing.
Fran: And of course, going to the toilet through a wicker chair, well, we've all been there.

If you are familiar with Black Books, I'm sure that just made you giggle. :) Have a good day!

In which Emma rejoins the league of the unemployed.

Most of you already know that I have resigned from work. Most of you seemed to be quite surprised by this and have expressed a desire to know why I would do such a thing. There are two main reasons why none of you were expecting me to resign - firstly, because I was not actually expecting myself to resign either, and, secondly, because I had quite deliberately not told anyone about the problems I was facing at work.

I didn't (and still don't) want to bad mouth the company, or portray any of the other employees in a negative light. These problems were not the real reason I resigned anyway - I had been facing them for the past few months and would have gone on facing them. I was expecting that once I went back to uni I would be quite happy at work, being able to just turn up at work, do my shift, and then leave rather than working full time as I have been for the last few weeks. I was actually really looking forward to this. The real reason I had to resign was because my boss couldn't accept that I have to put uni as my first priority and work around that rather than study around work. She couldn't (well, wouldn't) give me the shifts I needed to be able to continue working there while I was at uni. My choice came down to uni or work. I chose uni.

I found this out on Monday and I had a long talk to Mum and Dad on Monday night before I resigned on Tuesday. Tuesday morning, before I had a chance to resign, I was (finally!) given my work uniform trousers (I only had a shirt), my name tag, and a log-on name on the computer system. That made it even harder to actually resign, but I did it. For me, quitting wasn't the easy option. It would have been easier to stay at work, but my study would have suffered.

Anyway, today (Thursday - yes I know that's only a couple of days after I actually resigned) was my last shift at work. I have now finished and all I have to do is drop off my (brand new) uniform and name tag on Saturday. I have had to promise to visit the girls at work regularly and they have promised to give me free food when I do. Pity I don't eat any of the stuff from the bakery :)

I am having a Saturday.

A real Saturday. And I like it.

Going Home ...

So, I finally managed to go home to Mum and Dad's for the weekend. We are not sure, but we think that I may have not been home for the past 3 or 4 months.

I had to work on Friday night so I didn't manage to go home until Saturday morning. My big plan was to leave as early as I could, drive as far as the Bridgewater McCafe where I would stop and get a Soy Caramel Latte, and then drive to Mum and Dad's enjoying my coffee and listening to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio plays. My plan failed.

I was able to get up and ready to go quite early as I was quite eager to go home, but the problems came when I was trying to get my coffee. McDonald's had run out of soy milk (me having real milk and then being stuck in a car for hours would not be a very good plan). The Bakery in Brighton had also run out of soy milk. I was not happy. I was almost ready to give up and just live in the back of my car in the bakery car park. I didn't feel like driving anywhere without my coffee.

But I did anyway. I finally managed to get my coffee in Campbell Town, by which stage I really, really needed the caffeine jolt, and I continued with the rest of the plan.

While I was at Mum and Dad's for the weekend, I got to catch up with my family (including a random uncle and cousin who were over for a while on Sunday), eat my mum's cooking (including roast pork, lamb casserole, chicken soup, and chocolate cake), go through all the family photo albums reminiscing and looking for photos I want copies of, spend time with my gorgeous cat, and generally be mothered and looked after. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

I also took Barry (the Barina) and Larry (the Laptop) with me for the weekend, and I think they both had almost as good a weekend as I did. My brother took charge of Larry for the weekend and gave him a full service, completely wiping everything and then rebuilding it all. He is quite useful for computer stuff. And my Dad took charge of Barry and gave him a service as well. He is quite useful for everything. Daddies always are.

I had to go back to Hobart on Monday morning as I had to work from 12:00 to 7:00pm. I wasn't anywhere near as enthusiastic about going back down the midlands to work as I was going up the midlands to see my parents so I took a bit longer packing the car and leaving Mum and Dad's than I intended to, and only got about 2 minutes at home (just enough time to put the food Mum sent down into the fridge) before I went off to work.

The weekend was way too short. I really didn't want it to end and have to come back to Hobart. Not that I hate Hobart, or I don't love my friends down here - just that I haven't spent enough time with my family recently. Nowhere near enough time.

If it wasn't for the fact that Mum and Dad will actually be on the mainland for a couple of weeks, I would be heading straight up the midlands again this weekend.

Anyway, thats my story. And this is the end of it.

Everything goes bang!

Well, not literally 'bang', but 'bang' in the sense that it all stops working.
Most of you already know that I had a situation last week in which I was powerless. Not powerless in the sense that there was nothing I could do, but powerless in the sense that I had no electricity. Well, thats not actually true, I did have some electricity - just half the power points in the apartment stopped working all of a sudden. Most of you have already heard all about that story, though. I'll just give you a quick reminder of how it went

" It was a dark, cold, stormy night ..."

I'm sure its all come flooding back to you now. Well, anyway I now know why the fuse blew (blew? Is that spelt right? It seems wrong. Oh well, you know what I mean). Turns out there must have been a considerable power surge because it managed to melt the insides of one of my heavy duty surge protector powerboards. Good thing I have surge protector powerboards, otherwise it may have melted the insides of my TV and DVD player and everything else.

Anyway, just after getting all of that sorted out, my telephone (and, much more annoyingly, my internet) died. But not just my telephone - all the telephones in the street. It took them about 5 days to get it all sorted out before I got back online.

Well, that got all sorted out, but then, of course, something else had to go wrong. Now, my washing machine isn't working. Well, its pretending to work, but its only pretending. It fills up with water and then it just sits there for half and hour and then it spins all the water out again. The only part that isn't working is the part that actually washes the clothes. The annoying part is that, as the washing machine came with the apartment, I cant just get it fixed like a normal person would. I have to call my property manager who has to call the landlord who has to call the maintenance people and then the landlord has to call the property manager again so that she can call me so that we can organise to get it fixed. I called the property manager a couple of days ago, but haven't heard back yet. I'm not sure where in the chain of phonecalls we are currently up to, but I hope to get it fixed soon because working 5 days a week with only one uniform and no washing machine is not all that much fun.

Now I'm off to Aydens to bribe him with bakery goods so that I can use his washing machine.

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