WEEK THIRTY-THREE

I woke up feeling incredibly refreshed – a sofa is a much better bed than a tent! So another week of doing not a lot was upon me, and my main aim for the week was to try and find a job – easier said than done. So, my first job on Monday was to slightly amend my CV, and add a few café jobs. As most of Yarraville is cafes I hoped this would give me more of a chance of getting a job. Possibly not the most honest way, but everyone does it so I didn’t feel too guilty really! Will also convinced me and Toni that more painting was a good idea, so we all set to work with our respective colours, and added more layers to what we had already done. Boring! Once we had done a good few hours of this, we all stopped for refreshments, in the form of good ol’ Quorn pasties – yum! I’m so glad they made it to Australia before I did - it’s these important things that matter! After our little break we went back to work – and more painting. That was the story until it started to get dark, as Toni had rather cunningly smashed the outside light a couple of days before – meaning that no work could be done after dusk! Good call! Also the little bitey bugs came out to play – so we all made a quick getaway, and retreated inside for the night. A job well done.

The next day was spent doing very little. The weather was threatening to rain which meant that no painting could be done, and instead I just pottered about the house for a majority of the day. As far as I’m concerned it was a good use of the day! We did all start the day with a nice brekky though – courtesy to Toni, so we all had a plate of poached eggs, yummy bread and spinach. Fantastic. It was her last day in Melbourne before 5 weeks of travels, so I think she was just trying to make sure she had some good food before she left! Always necessary! After this, I went into Yarraville to replenish the milk supplies – we were managing to get through about 2 litres a day, which even my my standards is impressive! I decided to take my comedy little bike into the village, as it still looked like it was going to rain. I’m not actually sure if it is quicker at the end of the day, after all the shenanigans of locking it, and unlocking it and blah blah blah, but it’s pretty cute and I don’t want it to feel unloved. Once again my evening consisted of watching TV and playing around on my computer – I swear having access to 900 channels is dangerous – and the ability to record stuff just means that even when I should be going to sleep I am up watching re-runs of stuff I have seen a million times before- this week it was mainly Sex and the City – dangerous!

On Wednesday Toni left for Korea (not the scary one) – and then there were two! It wasn’t long until Will was leaving too, and so we set to work with more painting! I may or may not have gotten in a bit of a strop at this point, and went inside for a little ‘calm down’ and to get over my little bad mood! Grumpy bitch that I am! Back in a good mood, I set off back outside to help again – and got given the job of doing some of the red – my favourite! Haha! So we both did a bit more, and then called it quits for the next four hours, until the next coat was due. I headed into Yarraville to buy some milk and some goodies for me, and also had a look around the op-shop. I may be saving, but the stuff is so cheap in there I would have treated myself if I found anything. Sadly it was a bad day for it, and there was nothing that even got close to being purchased – it is so hit and miss! When I got back me and Will both headed to Bunnings – he had to get his fix before he left, and he got a drainpipe for the house. This meant when we were back we had to try and attach it. Easier said than done. We very quickly hit a stumbling block – we had to paint behind it before we could attach it, so we wedged it in place, and went inside to hide from the cold. That was a job for another day – when we could at least see what we were doing! I wasted the evening in front of my computer, and the tele, and not doing much else. I did manage to create another 5Gb of space on my poor little laptop though – that might help it work better? Hopefully. So I went to bed feeling like I had had a productive day. Kind of.

In the morning I started the day with some pancakes – they are just too easy to make now. However, I had a slight hiccup, and my first one smelt, and tasted of onions, the problem of using the same frying pan as everything else. So, once I had given it another good wash, I started again, and came out with two brilliant crepes – the French would be proud! Haha! Me and Will then set to work on tidying out the garage – which took a silly amount of time, but once we were done it looked fantastic! And then we set to work making it messy again – or at least I did – and I did more sanding of the damned but of wood. However, on our trip to Bunnings we had bought even finer sandpaper, which meant I was on the final stage. Thank god for that, I don’t have the patience for woodwork! I may feel differently once it is finished, but it just seems to have taken an age, and a few tears too. It better be good! In the afternoon I punctuated my work with multiple cups of tea, and even ha the foresight to put it in a travel cup so it didn’t get filled with sawdust – not just a pretty face! For dinner that night we made use of Toni not being there and had lots of peppers in our tea – she hates them for some reason, so normally they aren’t in dinners – this night was special. I really must get out of the house more if I think adding peppers to a meal is exciting! Ha ha! True to form, I was busy doing nothing for the next 6 or 7 hours until I eventually convinced myself it was time for bed – at 3am.

On Saturday I had an appointment to go and see the lady who is in charge of hiring Front of House staff for a majority of the main theatres in Melbourne, and I was really hoping for good things. Kane had managed to organise it for me, and I was very pleased about it. This meant a relatively early start – well at least it felt early after my routine of getting up at about midday. I didn’t quite get out of doing a bit of painting though, and we managed to get another layer on before I had to go into the City. Despite the arrangements, when I got to the theatre I was told she had just left, for the one up the road, and to give her 10 minutes and then go up there. As I didn’t have any tobacco at this point, and I was going into a job interview, I quickly bought some and dosed up my nicotine levels before heading up the road. I got slightly lost, despite the iPhone, and got pretty angry with it, until I realised I was standing about 10ft from the main door. However, as I was on the pavement, I didn’t see the massive awning with the theatre’s name on it. Dammit! So, with the place located, I headed into the reception, and was told she would be down in a couple of minutes This turned into about 15 minutes of me standing in a very bare corridor, just waiting. When she came down from her office, it didn’t go much better. She said she may have job, in about a month, which really didn’t help me much, and even if she did, facial piercings aren’t allowed – a rule which never fails to annoy me. With this news ringing in my ears I headed to ‘Punktured’ to get scaffolding done – they were doing all piercings for $25 and it seemed like the time to do it. I kind of forgot how far it was, but when I eventually made it I was told that it would cost me $110 – god knows what their adverts were all about – and I couldn’t even get it done that day. Not that I wanted to for that price! Will had given me the name of another theatre (which wasn’t under the witches command) so I went there too, only to find that it was empty. The only people there were a coupel of ticketing people – who I asked for a job, but alas no. At this point, in my rather silly wild goose chase I went to treat myself with something from Lush – it’s been so long since I had a relaxing bath, and I thought now was the time – I was cold and disappointed, When I left the shop, with my little bath bomb purchased I saw someone who looked incredibly familiar, but lives in Edinburgh – when I looked again I realised it was one of my friends I had worked with a few times, a couple of years ago. Small, small world. It was her final day of her holidays, and I managed to bump into her. So we had a little catch-up, and then agreed to meet up in Edinburgh once I get back – more than likely, very drunk! The rest of my day was very uneventful, and I went home feeling slightly disheartened – I had warmed to the idea of working in a theatre – I’ve never done it before. Ah well, there’s plenty more opportunities.

As I had managed to avoid painting for a majority of Saturday, Sunday held more in store. And that is what me and Will did for the day, until it got too cold, and too dark to continue. The one thing that was getting me through it was the idea of a lovely bath! Simple pleasures! The only problem with my Lush choice was that it didn’t have bubbles – it smelt nice, and it made the water bright pink, but as far as I’m concerned its not a proper bath unless it had bubbles. Regardless of this I enjoyed it, complete with candles and a cup of tea, and felt much better afterwards. Next time I will have to get something with bubbles though! What a nice way to end the day. Because of this, I actually went to bed earlier than normal, which was nice, and was asleep by 3am, instead of considering going to bed at the same time!

And so that was my incredibly uneventful week – I planned more of my trip, did some painting, and did a lot of just sitting in front of the fire watching TV, and was still unemployed. My only excuse for being such a hermit is that it was getting cold, and I am saving money for my trip – the more I look at it, the more pricey it seems like it is going to be – never a good sign! But, until then, I have one more week of company, and then I am in sole charge of the dogs for a month when Will and Toni go on their European adventure – they will love me more than Will by the end of it…maybe!?