Monday is Sunday.

Today the Bugsplat Visitor Centre is officially closed due to Winter Hours. Yay!

There are plenty worse things that can happen to a visitor other than finding the Visitor Centre closed, you know, such as;
a) finding the Visitor Centre open but staffed by a deranged and belligerent emu
and/or
b) something else worse than that like... getting hit on the head by a rock
and/or
c) something not as bad as meeting the emu but worse than finding the Visitor Centre closed.

I am at home, drinking tea and Not Cleaning My Room Dammit I Wish It Would Clean Itself... hey, wait a minute... *looks crafty* .....
"Calypsoooooooo?"
"Where aaaaaaaaaaaaaare you?"

Shooting chores IS fun.

I've reduced the opening hours a lot. From 40.5 (4 + 6.5 + 6.5 + 6.5 + 6.5 + 6.5 + 4) when we started down to .. let's see .. 30 (4 + 0 + 4+ 4 + 6 + 6 + 6) but it hasn't just been reductions - I've increased the opening hours on our busiest day. It's always bugged me that we closed at 2pm on Saturday. Saturday afternoon is probably the busiest time for visitors in Bugsplat.

The resistance to change here is so strong that in order to make this change I've had to take Saturdays myself, for now. Once I have us all moved over to the new building things will be different. Hah.

*sneers unattractively*

(yes, actually, there is such a thing as an ~attractive~ sneer. thea)

Pipe down, peanuts. You have your own gallery. Go draw your wits there.

I like malapropisms.

The local MP-type person, the Member for Splat is always saying things like;
'that takes the kettle' instead of 'that takes the cake'.
He's funny.
The journalists at the Weekly Splat don't notice.
Thea dribbles in rage when she reads it.
( "How about that war then?" Is. Not. Editorial. Comment.)
I think she likes it.
(I do not, you little grot. Much.)
just jo: You do like saying "Reckless endangerment of punctuation."
(Yes. Maybe I do.)

Pipe down. Go and write something at Tricks of Memory.

mental note: attempt to do the linking schmizzle to Tricks of Memory at some point
mental note: give Thea the bird
mental note: give Thea the really disgusting one with several fingers involved
mental note: continue to describe it as 'bird' rather than 'finger' which she would prefer because she is an anglo-centric broomstick butt who hates americanisms.
mental note: this is fun
mental note: block Thea's attempts to google 'schmizzle' in an attempt to prove that it is inappropriate for us to use that word
mental note: this is STILL fun

Ah. It's been a good day for me so far.

Last night was the Bugsplat Visitor Centre Quiz Night and we made lots of money. That is very good. We got home late and tired, but thanks to our great new schedule we have today AND tomorrow free for chores and fun. We might go out to our block (yet to be named - that task/honour has been given to Hinchinbrook... so... um... don't.... hold ....... your.... breath... ) if it isn't too wet. To record. Gray is recording nature sounds for his job. He's a sound engineer now. Isn't he clever? Whatever next?

We went out to lunch together at the Chandelier Cafe. It was fab. It's Sunday afternoon now and laundry calls. Calypso, contain your excitement.

Early closing.

Our new hours are working well.
It's really nice to be home now.
I'm feeling a bit better about work.

Old boots gives as good as she gets.

So, Old Boots had her last day volunteering at the Bugsplat Visitor Centre today. I went in to give her a box of treats and a card. It was fun. She was pleased, I could tell. Honey signed the card too, and I know that will please her. She even made some vaguely encouraging noises about possibly volunteering at the new building. That would be great. She's a goodie. Now I must stop being such a pushover or soon I'll be asking Ms Ant (hropic) back! Emma, keep reminding me it is CRAZY TALK.

Magical invoices bring money.

I have a lot to do today. All this report writing has been slowing down my real work. I have many, many businesses to send invoices to. Hopefully some of them will send us money. None of these invoices are for goods received or services already agreed to so I just have to hope that they'll reply, with money.

I'll be offering website presence and brochure racking. My letters need to be slick.

Wheels turn.

Today I began and half-completed what will be a very large report for my boss detailing everything that has been going wrong, that is currently going wrong and will in the future go HORRIBLY wrong at work. It was very satisfying to do that. It seems much more like a problem to solve now than a great big traffic accident.

Ms Ant came in today, looking lively. She must have just been fresh from some satisfying mischief. Sometimes I feel an inexplicable wave of fondness for her. It crossed my mind, the thought : - should I ask her back? Maybe I should. To do Sundays perhaps.

Wait! That's CRAZY TALK!

One little light.

Just isn't enough.
I can't shine bright enough.

Gray came with us - he's just finished the website design for the Bugsplat Visitor Centre website;
"Postcards from Bugsplat."

(stay tuned for a future link! Oh wait, no, that can't happpen!)

It's beautiful. He's done a great job. Hours and hours of work. All a gift from Gray. They just sulked and nit picked until someone remembered their manners and led a round of applause. That was nice.

When I got home he said, incredulously;
"Are they always like that??"

"Yeah. They were actually quite good today."

They are very bad, as a group. There's a culture of blame and defensiveness and general bad temperedness. It really sucks. I've tried to change it and then, when I couldn't, I ended up not attending the meetings - just delivering reports. The worst of them has gone now but there a still a couple of grumpy toads left, and that's all you need to ruin a meeting.

It was just so exhausting and boring and sad, when it could have been an occasion for celebration. It's so disheartening to work with passion and zeal and to be met with such ignorant grumpiness. And poor Gray - having to deal with that!

He did okay.

Still bored.

The board meeting fell over due to lack of quorum and was re-scheduled for ...err, about five minutes time dammit.

Bored of that joke, but I'll make it anyway.

Board meeting tonight.
My report is pretty short. It's only been three weeks. In that time I've had a knee injury, a membership drive and a work experience student, Wes. That'll have to do.

Monday coffee.

Gray made coffee and instead of having it on the front verandah as we usually do we huddled by the heater in the kitchen. It's a cold Monday morning and I'm off to work.

No more Wes this week. I'll miss him!

I'm sans brace and crutches today. I will take a crutch with me just in case I get tired in the afternoon, but I'll try to last without. I have birthday lasagne leftovers for lunch and birthday date and pecan cake for morning tea. There's a lot to catch up on at work this week.

See you all when I get home.

Day done, week done, two weeks in.

Home safe.

Wes (work experience student) had a great time, he said, and we shook hands at the end and I gave him a magnet and a 100% on his assessment (which he thoroughly deserved) and the day is done. The week is done. Two weeks of work since my knee injury and I'm much more mobile now. It's the mid afternoon that's hard, 'round about 2.30pm it starts to get really painful and I feel tired. I wonder how I'll go next week.

Hopefully okay.
My week is done. My work is done. It is Friday and I'll turn the evening over to other people I expect, to talk and cook and drink some wine. I hope they have a nice evening.

Trouble.

At the vineyard.

The vineyard is so beautiful. Gray drove. Wes came too. There were lots of crows. Crows make me feel lonely.

Friday today. I'm tired and need this day over.

Bang the rocks together, guys.

Work was surprisingly okay today. Wes did lots of interesting stuff and was helpful. We had raffle takings to count and a few passes and tickets. We sent off lots of mail and he went on plenty of errands. He did some gathering of kindling too.
He's a nice lad. I like him.

Tomorrow he's going on a free four wheel drive trip and then I'm taking him to a vineyard.
I drove home this afternoon - first time since my knee injury.

Just Jo at work.

Just Jo says Wes, the work expererience student, is about as lovely as a year 11 boy can be. He's been running lots of errands and he's been talking to the visitors and answering the phone. Just Jo says he's sweet and that it's nice to have some company at work.

We've been doing a subcription mail out. I guess he's been useful. Mostly licking stamps. He seems to be enjoying himself. He likes counting money. It's weird - I'm the boss of him! He seems much older than me.

Just Jo is with me ~all~ day when he's there on account of me not really being an adult. *snort* I'm not a Claudia either. I don't know what I am. I'm just me. Trouble. He's all right, I suppose.

Bugsplat Visitor Centre is Closed.

We drove past work this morning and I told Gray where to find the sign I wrote on Friday;
The Bugsplat Visitor Centre is CLOSED.
The Manager has a physiotherapy appointment in Bigsplat and we urgently require volunteer staff. Please leave a message on ########## if you can help.
We apologise for any inconvenience.
The centre will be OPEN from 2pm to 4pm today.

This is the sign I wrote in my head:

The Bugsplat Visitor Centre is closed. Manager gone mad.

Manager gone Mad.

I put OPEN and the times in big bold letters to emphasise the positive as I have been taught. I know there'll be lots of complaints about this. Fuck it. Those appointments are impossible to change and it's time people realised I already work too many unpaid hours.

I love this job but the pay and conditions are really crappy.

When we drove home at about 3.30pm I saw my boss's car - yay - so I know he made it in for the afternoon to meet err.. Wes, the Work Experience Student. I'm imagining a cute young Wil Wheaton/Star Trek style boy - let's see how wrong I am, tomorrow! He sounds sweet on the phone. I have a free trip lined up for him on Thursday.

Not really much of an idea about what to do with him until then. There's always archiving, filing, packing stuff up, sorting out the filing cabinet, reorganising the stock, solving the financial problems and finding me some pet monkeys. That should keep him busy. Oooh, I hope he finds me some monkeys. I like monkeys.