Birthday stuff

No posts for a while. I haven't been busy really, just lacking in inspiration recently. The same old things happen, day in, day out. I'm sure there must have been something remarkable about the past week....

On Monday there was cake at work for my birthday. On Tuesday there was a card and flowers for my birthday. I think they didn't realise it was my birthday until after the event so there was a lot of amusing apologies etc. I don't mind, it's not their job to celebrate my birthday, I just work with them! The people whose job it IS to celebrate my birthday did a pretty good job on the weekend. Sunday night there was a rather grande dinner at Assaggio's on King William Rd. It's an Italian place with a short but tasty menu. There were so many random things going on in that restaurant, I was kept in pretty much constantly amused by the wait staff's comings and goings. The best part by far was the electronic pepper grinder that had a light on the bottom, it was like a UFO was coming in for a landing on my food! Then of course the electric parmesan cheese grater, no light on that one though, boo. And between courses a little carpet sweeper thingo goes rolling over the tablecloth picking up all our crumbs. It was hilarious. The waiter was wearing little white gloves so she wouldn't get finger marks on our plates and the side serving of potatoes was on a shelf!

After all this I have come to the conclusion that fine dining is wasted on me. We had a bottle of white wine and a main course each, granted they were pretty yummy meals, but at the end of the day I was just not hungry any more - just like I would have been not hungry had we eaten pizza in the loungeroom. Probably it's nice to eat in a place where you're not surprised to get bad service and simply shrug your shoulders in resignation when you find a hair in your food, but to do it all the time would be quite boring I reckon.

Today is the 29th of February. Apparently it is the only day when it is OK for a woman to ask a man to marry her. I wonder how many chickers are going down on bended knee around the country today? I reckon 17, what do you reckon?

Poker Shark

ON Saturday night I went to a fundraiser for a touch trip. It was a poker night and I wasn't looking forward to it that much because I know nothing about poker but in the end it was fun. They had some dudes there from the national poker league or some such who taught us the ropes before the real games got under way. It's a pretty basic game, the hard part is getting the right cards! We weren't really taking it very seriously and when people lost all their chips they just went off and socialised and gradually the number of tables diminished until there was only one left, and I was on it! I ended up coming 5th overall and got 4 movie tickets as a prize! Pretty nice aye. It wasn't all so bad after all :)

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On every corner this week there's been the Wilderness Society people trying to sign us all up to the cause. I am already a member and that's exactly what I say when they try and reel me in. I wonder if they really believe me when I say it though? It would be a pretty thankless task I reckon, standing out there, even people who are just trying to give away coupons get a fair amount of shit.

!! My boss just came in and gave me a pay rise!! Oh yeah

Soupy

Today there's been a lot of the kind of eye gougingly tediousnous that mades me really irritable. I think I just need new things all the time to be kept happy. As soon as I start to get accustomed to a task I am sick of it and want to learn something different. Instead of marking assignments I have been planning a trip to Melbourne with BVR for May. Shopping, drinking, general poking around; nothing sounds better at the moment. Of course, we can only afford this if Jetstar coughs up the cheap tickets in 10 minutes time.... I think I migh tbe making Mulligatawny soup tonight. Wish me luck!

A purple rage

Yesterday I received an email from a woman who runs an editing and tutoring service in Adelaide. She wanted me to send along an application containing the usual pieces of info and also a photograph. Why a photograph? I'm not applying for a modelling position. Only those with an inflated self image include a photo on their resume and if anything it should only serve to put off employers. Attaching a photo to your resume says not only "I think I'm pretty damn fine", it also says "I think being pretty damn fine is reason for you to hire me." Obviously the reality is that a person's appearance may have an effect on their possibilities as job candidates, but let's not assume that everyone who hires is quite so shallow and ignorant of more important attributes like personality. But for a potential employer to request such a photo is absolutely ridiculous; by implication the requirements of the job are to be pleasing on the eye. I don't think I want such a job, or such an employer. I was tempted to send along my resume with the most ridiculously unprofessional photo I could find, but unfortunately I have a problem with burning bridges; Adelaide is such a small place after all.

I decided not to apply after all.

Friday

I went to BDO! I saw Silverchair and Regurgitator and Rage Against the Machine and Augie March and etc etc... Drank plenty beer, ate plenty doughnuts. Happy as clam.