so, i have been thinking about branching out into counselling. thinking about doing one year post grad, getting work to pay for it, at Latrobe, one day a week, get a diploma, might do a slight sidestep at work. only problem is that my contract finished at the end of this financial year, and while it's 99.99% certain i'll be staying at my company, the training department won't be able to pay for a year's tuition because of that .01% chance that i'll leave at the end of the contract, which would be halfway through the diploma.
what a pointless explanation. my point was this; i instead enrolled to do Lifeline's telephone counselling course. work is still paying, but it takes 4 months (i think). so it will fit in before July 1st 2009.
so - i rang Lifeline 50 times, left a bagillion messages, applied online numerous times (this was all 5 months ago) and heard diddly squat back from them. screw you.
then last week when i was off work sick i suddenly received a telephone call... congratulations! you have made it through to the next selection round! please come Wednesday morning... blahblahblah.
and then the lady said something really weird. she asked me if i have any problems disclosing information.
Me: uhm... no
Lady: ok, because the course can get quite full on
Me: (suddenly clicking that she meant disclosing personal experiences) oh, yeah, nah, i have no problem
Lady: but, i do have to really warn you, the course is extremely full on
Me: oh yeah, i know other worker's who have done it, they've already told me all the horror stories, i'm still up for it! (laughing)
Lady: so you're sure you're ok to speak and disclose? like, really, disclose everything?
Me: Yes. Yes. I'm sure
i called my friend J. from work (who has done the course) and told her that the lady is trying to weed out people with current personal issues. J. said that they get you to talk about personal stuff in mock counselling sessions with one another.
cool.
so i began thinking about what i would say.
and i came up with...
...nothing
...nada
...jackshit.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
fucking iPhone
i'm fucking over it. seriously. i used to do graphic design therefore i love apple everything but the iPhone is a piece of absolute shit.
i bought it and in the first week it froze on me.
then i discovered i couldn't send or receive picture messages - half of my fun in my life is sending stupid pics to my friends. big problem for me
then i discovered that the text messaging is screwed in a hundred different aspects. i can't forward messages - eg. invitations, addresses etc. i cannot cut and paste to combat the lack of forwarding functions. and worst of all - i cannot text message under my desk, or in the car etc, i need to LOOK at what i'm doing - it's decreasing my multitasking abilities.
i keep telling people not to get it. for a period of time, when i was having serious withdrawel symptoms from MMSing i was using three phones; work, iPhone and old phone.
and now this.
the only thing i've ever said was good about it was the iCalendar. it was great for my work appointments. awesome.
then this morning i decided to update my iphone to 2.2 before work.
and it was taking too long.
so i pulled the plug.
and now it's FROZEN telling me to reconnect to iTunes immediately.
SHUTUP. just turn on and tell me who i coming in to see me today! every client is a surprise and it's killing me cos i usually prepare before i see them. actually, i HAVE to prepare before i see them.
i'm miserable. this phone is killing me.
fuck you, iPhone
i bought it and in the first week it froze on me.
then i discovered i couldn't send or receive picture messages - half of my fun in my life is sending stupid pics to my friends. big problem for me
then i discovered that the text messaging is screwed in a hundred different aspects. i can't forward messages - eg. invitations, addresses etc. i cannot cut and paste to combat the lack of forwarding functions. and worst of all - i cannot text message under my desk, or in the car etc, i need to LOOK at what i'm doing - it's decreasing my multitasking abilities.
i keep telling people not to get it. for a period of time, when i was having serious withdrawel symptoms from MMSing i was using three phones; work, iPhone and old phone.
and now this.
the only thing i've ever said was good about it was the iCalendar. it was great for my work appointments. awesome.
then this morning i decided to update my iphone to 2.2 before work.
and it was taking too long.
so i pulled the plug.
and now it's FROZEN telling me to reconnect to iTunes immediately.
SHUTUP. just turn on and tell me who i coming in to see me today! every client is a surprise and it's killing me cos i usually prepare before i see them. actually, i HAVE to prepare before i see them.
i'm miserable. this phone is killing me.
fuck you, iPhone
Monday, November 24, 2008
hmm
| Greed: | Low | |
| Gluttony: | Low | |
| Wrath: | Low | |
| Sloth: | Low | |
| Envy: | Low | |
| Lust: | Very Low | |
| Pride: | High |
Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz
Monday, November 17, 2008
grrr
i'm still at home sick, so i call my clients and reschedule, i call my workmates to let them know what to do if my clients rock up, i call reception to let them know i'm off sick.
then i log into my work email to let my boss know that i'm off sick (i work offsite, so he wouldn't know)
i see a bright red email from him to me from early this morning. lo and behold, entitled 'Please read and then CALL'. hmm. i open it. obviously cos i was off for one day he went into my caseload to see how things are going with my clients. not good - never has been. my clients are lazy lazy lazy. but that's not the problem. the difference between my boss' caseload and mine is that I DON'T LIE OR PURPOSELY MAKE MISTAKES TO MAKE IT LOOK BETTER.
i shit you not, i can't count the number of times i haven't been able to get in contact with a client so my boss tells me other 'ways' to make it look like i've seen them. it's bullshit. and i can't tell you how many times in supervision i've expressed that my only problem is that my office isn't centrally located and kids never 'drop' past; they only come if they're forced to. but that's still not the problem.
the problem is that my boss thinks it's perfectly ok to break the rules when it suits him. the bigger picture here is that if you look at my caseload it looks like i'm not working with a number of clients, which is breaking guidelines, obviously. if you look at his caseload, it appears that he's working intensely with his clients (he's not, sometimes he's only listening to their voicemail and he puts in the computer that he's spoken to them), and if you look at his exits they're all done incorrectly or can't be justified. but you have to take off a couple of layers before you can see what he's doing, whereas mine is all on the surface.
i don't know. i know that i have to be more of a bitch and really lay down the law with my clients, but they change their mobile numbers every two days that even if i successfully put the fear of god into them the first day, by a week later they've forgotten and i can't contact them to instill it a second time.
then i log into my work email to let my boss know that i'm off sick (i work offsite, so he wouldn't know)
i see a bright red email from him to me from early this morning. lo and behold, entitled 'Please read and then CALL'. hmm. i open it. obviously cos i was off for one day he went into my caseload to see how things are going with my clients. not good - never has been. my clients are lazy lazy lazy. but that's not the problem. the difference between my boss' caseload and mine is that I DON'T LIE OR PURPOSELY MAKE MISTAKES TO MAKE IT LOOK BETTER.
i shit you not, i can't count the number of times i haven't been able to get in contact with a client so my boss tells me other 'ways' to make it look like i've seen them. it's bullshit. and i can't tell you how many times in supervision i've expressed that my only problem is that my office isn't centrally located and kids never 'drop' past; they only come if they're forced to. but that's still not the problem.
the problem is that my boss thinks it's perfectly ok to break the rules when it suits him. the bigger picture here is that if you look at my caseload it looks like i'm not working with a number of clients, which is breaking guidelines, obviously. if you look at his caseload, it appears that he's working intensely with his clients (he's not, sometimes he's only listening to their voicemail and he puts in the computer that he's spoken to them), and if you look at his exits they're all done incorrectly or can't be justified. but you have to take off a couple of layers before you can see what he's doing, whereas mine is all on the surface.
i don't know. i know that i have to be more of a bitch and really lay down the law with my clients, but they change their mobile numbers every two days that even if i successfully put the fear of god into them the first day, by a week later they've forgotten and i can't contact them to instill it a second time.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
sick at home
this absolutely sucks. i hate staying home sick.
1- i'd like to think that it's a nice break from my clients and their problems, but it's so not, cos i know that when i go back into work that they'll have made decisions on their own and totally screwed any number of things up. so it just means more work when i get back, that could last weeks if not months to sort out, especially if it's housing.
2- i am losing money staying at home, despite the fact that i get paid sick leave. I get paid... hmm... not sure, around $230 a day before tax. Friday alone: i drove dangerously with an eye patch on to the local shopping centre, bought a coffee $4, bought macdonalds $7.50. then drove to the doctor's, bought iron tablets, eye ointment and eye drops $46. went home, was bored, bought André Rieu tickets in the Netherlands for 75 Euro ($147). so total expenditure for Friday alone was $204.50 which you'd think is ok - i'm breaking even BUT NO! because yesterday and today i have spent all day trying to work out flights from Rome to Maastricht and it's terrible, i'm going to end up spending around $600 to fly Rome to Brussels, take a train to Maastricht, then back to Brussels, then fly to Florence. Not to mention the $70 per night hotel in Maastricht. And the fact that I think i'm going to have to forward my large suitcase from melbourne directly to Florence as i don't think i will be able to take a local train lugging my large suitcase plus my hand luggage plus a handbag and stay on top of not getting robbed. This conjunctivitis is costing me an arm and a leg; it should know that when I am bored I do things like this.
3- I'm struggling to see because of my eyes, yet i've never blogged so much, spent so much time in front of my laptop, read so many travel brochures, studied so many maps in my life. I could have gone for months without doing all this, but the second i know it's difficult for me i suddenly REALLY need to read non stop for 12 hours a day. and i can't even tell if my eyes are hurting from it all cos i'm already in so much pain.
the trouble is - my eyes sort of feel okayish now, and i wouldn't mind going into work tomorrow as i have so many clients to see, but my eyes are blood red, i look like i've escaped from the set of 28 days later. so i might go to the travel agent and back to the doctors... have to stay away from shops and my laptop as much as possible; it only results in more spending.
1- i'd like to think that it's a nice break from my clients and their problems, but it's so not, cos i know that when i go back into work that they'll have made decisions on their own and totally screwed any number of things up. so it just means more work when i get back, that could last weeks if not months to sort out, especially if it's housing.
2- i am losing money staying at home, despite the fact that i get paid sick leave. I get paid... hmm... not sure, around $230 a day before tax. Friday alone: i drove dangerously with an eye patch on to the local shopping centre, bought a coffee $4, bought macdonalds $7.50. then drove to the doctor's, bought iron tablets, eye ointment and eye drops $46. went home, was bored, bought André Rieu tickets in the Netherlands for 75 Euro ($147). so total expenditure for Friday alone was $204.50 which you'd think is ok - i'm breaking even BUT NO! because yesterday and today i have spent all day trying to work out flights from Rome to Maastricht and it's terrible, i'm going to end up spending around $600 to fly Rome to Brussels, take a train to Maastricht, then back to Brussels, then fly to Florence. Not to mention the $70 per night hotel in Maastricht. And the fact that I think i'm going to have to forward my large suitcase from melbourne directly to Florence as i don't think i will be able to take a local train lugging my large suitcase plus my hand luggage plus a handbag and stay on top of not getting robbed. This conjunctivitis is costing me an arm and a leg; it should know that when I am bored I do things like this.
3- I'm struggling to see because of my eyes, yet i've never blogged so much, spent so much time in front of my laptop, read so many travel brochures, studied so many maps in my life. I could have gone for months without doing all this, but the second i know it's difficult for me i suddenly REALLY need to read non stop for 12 hours a day. and i can't even tell if my eyes are hurting from it all cos i'm already in so much pain.
the trouble is - my eyes sort of feel okayish now, and i wouldn't mind going into work tomorrow as i have so many clients to see, but my eyes are blood red, i look like i've escaped from the set of 28 days later. so i might go to the travel agent and back to the doctors... have to stay away from shops and my laptop as much as possible; it only results in more spending.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Classical music, boring Australians and conjunctivitis
So i went to see André Rieu last night at Telstra dome. I went with my mum, dad, nonna and auntie. I was one of very few people there that was less than half a century old - even my parents were looking pretty hip and happening. So the show begins on time (unusual - most things i go to i can easily rock up an hour late and it still won't have begun, but i guess old people are more punctual) and he begins his beyootiful music.
and it just reminded me of how BORING Australians are at concerts. It's like as if no one knows how to act - and no one is willing to act spontaneoulsy or attract attention to themselves. if you just want to listen to music, and sit still... well go listen to the cd at home! if anyone has seen Rieu's concert's on dvd - well they're not very normal - his waltzes MAKE people jump out of their seats and dance. when i first watched a dvd of his from his home town it made me so happy i wanted to cry. i love, LOVE that in europe everyone is crazy - his entire town was dancing, everyone crashing into eachother, parents dancing with their children, older couple swaying slowly with smiles stretched across their faces. And last night, we, as an audience, as an Australian audience, were just so boring i was surprised to see that André and his orchestra remained energetic. we couldn't even clap for the duration of a song. we fail miserably at being a good audience - he's so never going to come back to Australia.
anyway, just before intermission, my eyesight in my right eye suddenly clouded over - i thought a bug had flown into my eye.
Me: Mum! Mum! what's in my eye? over my pupil? i can't see!
Mum: uh, hang on stay still for a second... oh it's just some sleep. actually... i think you have conjunctivitis...
Me: ew! (wiping it away, totally grossed out that it was quite yellow) nah... oh... shit...no
the last 4 days just came rushing back to me - me meeting with a housing worker whose eyes appeared to be weeping, followed by the last few days where i thought my hayfever was playing up big time cos my eyes were really scratchy and painful, followed by yesterday morning where i laughed so much i cried and i thought that my eyes felt cleaner - how the hell did i not notice sooner? ok so i haven't had conjunctivitis since i was 7 but still - who feels 'cleaner' after crying?
so i tried my hardest to stay focussed on the concert, but 4 hours later on the drive home i was a blithering, swollen mess. I cleaned my eye with saline, and because the light was really killing me (i can't believe i did this) i put an eyepatch on to sleep. woke up this morning at 6am feeling like there were razors between my eyeball and the lid - washed again with saline. took 30 minutes to even get my eye open - YUK!
anyway - called in sick, spent all morning sending disgusting pictures of my eye to workmates, they messagesd back pirate jokes. Happy happy joy joy.
went to the doctor's at 1pm. she totally freaked and ran all these other tests on my eye cos she thought it had to be way more than just conjunctivitis - nope, turns out i just have the worst case in the world.
went home and no one was responding to my messages or answering my calls. within 2 minutes i was so bored that i would have taken my eyeball out to look at it properly just for something to do. started googling André Rieu when i began writing this blog to check the spelling of his last name.
hmm... i wonder if he's doing a concert in Italy when i'm there?
let's check.
oh my.
he seems to be performing in his hometown of Maastricht on Denmark on the 10th, 11th and 12th of July.
now, i don't know, but as far as i'm concerned that enough to be a coincidence for me. because i'm getting to Rome at 7am on Friday the 10th but i can't check in to my florence student accomodation till Sunday afternoon. i was trying to work out somewhere i could go for 2 days but i wasn't interested in Rome, been there done that. i was wanting to go to somewhere totally new, i was thinking of Perugia.
and this concert seemed to fall in my lap, right?
well i bought a ticket anyway, spent the rest of the evening trying to work out how i'm going to get there. i think, in the end, i'll just end up going to my travel agent that booked me the tickets and pay a change fee to go singapore - copenhagen instead of rome.
waited till my parents left last night to tell my brother and sister what i'd done - they were rapt. woke up this morning and mum said 'so... i hear you're going to see André Rieu in Denmark?' the craziest thing is that neither sibling told her... and i didn't write about my secretive purchase on Facebook - cos i know she stalks me on there!
and it just reminded me of how BORING Australians are at concerts. It's like as if no one knows how to act - and no one is willing to act spontaneoulsy or attract attention to themselves. if you just want to listen to music, and sit still... well go listen to the cd at home! if anyone has seen Rieu's concert's on dvd - well they're not very normal - his waltzes MAKE people jump out of their seats and dance. when i first watched a dvd of his from his home town it made me so happy i wanted to cry. i love, LOVE that in europe everyone is crazy - his entire town was dancing, everyone crashing into eachother, parents dancing with their children, older couple swaying slowly with smiles stretched across their faces. And last night, we, as an audience, as an Australian audience, were just so boring i was surprised to see that André and his orchestra remained energetic. we couldn't even clap for the duration of a song. we fail miserably at being a good audience - he's so never going to come back to Australia.
anyway, just before intermission, my eyesight in my right eye suddenly clouded over - i thought a bug had flown into my eye.
Me: Mum! Mum! what's in my eye? over my pupil? i can't see!
Mum: uh, hang on stay still for a second... oh it's just some sleep. actually... i think you have conjunctivitis...
Me: ew! (wiping it away, totally grossed out that it was quite yellow) nah... oh... shit...no
the last 4 days just came rushing back to me - me meeting with a housing worker whose eyes appeared to be weeping, followed by the last few days where i thought my hayfever was playing up big time cos my eyes were really scratchy and painful, followed by yesterday morning where i laughed so much i cried and i thought that my eyes felt cleaner - how the hell did i not notice sooner? ok so i haven't had conjunctivitis since i was 7 but still - who feels 'cleaner' after crying?
so i tried my hardest to stay focussed on the concert, but 4 hours later on the drive home i was a blithering, swollen mess. I cleaned my eye with saline, and because the light was really killing me (i can't believe i did this) i put an eyepatch on to sleep. woke up this morning at 6am feeling like there were razors between my eyeball and the lid - washed again with saline. took 30 minutes to even get my eye open - YUK!
anyway - called in sick, spent all morning sending disgusting pictures of my eye to workmates, they messagesd back pirate jokes. Happy happy joy joy.
went to the doctor's at 1pm. she totally freaked and ran all these other tests on my eye cos she thought it had to be way more than just conjunctivitis - nope, turns out i just have the worst case in the world.
went home and no one was responding to my messages or answering my calls. within 2 minutes i was so bored that i would have taken my eyeball out to look at it properly just for something to do. started googling André Rieu when i began writing this blog to check the spelling of his last name.
hmm... i wonder if he's doing a concert in Italy when i'm there?
let's check.
oh my.
he seems to be performing in his hometown of Maastricht on Denmark on the 10th, 11th and 12th of July.
now, i don't know, but as far as i'm concerned that enough to be a coincidence for me. because i'm getting to Rome at 7am on Friday the 10th but i can't check in to my florence student accomodation till Sunday afternoon. i was trying to work out somewhere i could go for 2 days but i wasn't interested in Rome, been there done that. i was wanting to go to somewhere totally new, i was thinking of Perugia.
and this concert seemed to fall in my lap, right?
well i bought a ticket anyway, spent the rest of the evening trying to work out how i'm going to get there. i think, in the end, i'll just end up going to my travel agent that booked me the tickets and pay a change fee to go singapore - copenhagen instead of rome.
waited till my parents left last night to tell my brother and sister what i'd done - they were rapt. woke up this morning and mum said 'so... i hear you're going to see André Rieu in Denmark?' the craziest thing is that neither sibling told her... and i didn't write about my secretive purchase on Facebook - cos i know she stalks me on there!
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