Easily Bored

Last night I put the first stitches on my new side project, The Fortunate Traveller. I find I suffer from a bit of colour fatigue when i’m working on Starry Night with all it’s shades of blue, so I’m hoping some different colours in a 2nd project will help.

The new project is also significantly smaller, which is a boost as well. SN has started to feel impossibly large. I did scare myself a little when I prepared the linen last night though. I’ve significantly overestimated the fabric needed, so it looks enormous! But once I blocked it out roughly, it became much more manageable. Phew!

Work is still doing my head and sanity in with it’s relentless pace and pressure, but we’re thinking about getting a nice new car and I’m thinking about picking up a new extracurricular activity or class, and these are the only things keeping me going at the moment.

Lately there’s been a bug going around seemingly all of Melbourne. It’s ripped through my team at work fairly effectively, and now this week I’ve been stuck at home sick for the last couple of days. The doctor I saw yesterday said that nearly everybody he’s seen recently has had it, so at least it’s not just me!

So I’ve been reading, stitching and watching DVDs for the last 2 days. Quite relaxing, apart from the being sick thing, and the thought of how much work I’ll have to go back to tomorrow (assuming I’m well enough, which I think I’ll just have to be!).

I picked up a copy of the new Jodi Picoult novel on Sunday, and I finished it this morning. It was an enjoyable read, despite the slightly heart wrenching topic. And the fact that I had an inkling of how it was all going to end fairly early on. Possibly not the best of her novels that I’ve read, but enjoyable nonethelesss. Now I have the dilemma of what to read next. I’m actually thinking about going back to the Twilight books for a second read, even though I only finished reading them for the first time late last year. Usually I like to wait at least a year before I re-read books, to give me time to start to forget the details.

I suspect the pull I’m feeling towards them has something to do with me finally having seen the Twilight movie for the first time in the past couple of weeks. It was released at the cinemas around the same time we moved back to Melbourne, specifically, the week that I was in Melbourne but Kev was still in Sydney. Although we definitely had plans to go and see it, it somehow fell through the cracks and got lost in our move. Later, I talked Kev into going to see it at Moonlight Cinemas in January, but it coincided with the week of ridiculous 45°C-plus temperatures, and it just seemed far too hot.

So I ended up seeing it via a dodgy copy given to me by someone at work. I still intend to buy the proper DVD when it comes out, so I don’t feel too guilty. But I love it. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is about it that I love … But I do. When I first saw that it was being made into a film, I had my apprehensions. Kristen Stewart wasn’t the Bella from my head, and Robert Pattinson certainly wasn’t the Edward I had imagined, in fact, I didn’t even find him particularly attractive. But somehow, it’s sucked me in. The casting suddenly seems perfect, and the movie beautiful. Edward is all he should be, the mood is perfect, and the music is stunning. Something about that score just grabs me. My piano is being delivered here from my parents’ house on Saturday and the timing seems perfect. Is it sad that I want to learn to play Bella’s Lullaby? Perhaps. But it’s a beautiful piece of music, and I’ve always been drawn to beautiful piano music, so as far as I’m concerned, the source is irrelevant.

Over the last few weeks I’ve fallen into a comfortable routine for my weekday mornings. Half open an eye or two while Kev gets ready for work. Snooze for another half hour or so after he leaves. Get up, shower, dress. Down some fruit or cereal for breakfast while I check my emails and read my RSS feeds. The mail usually arrives sometime shortly after that, and then it’s time to decide what to do for the day. 

But next week that routine gets blown out of the water, with my return to the loss of freedom associated with full time work. An unfortunate, but necessary, evil. Last night I actually had a dream that I caught up with one of my old co-workers and told them about this new job. And instead of being happy for me, they were really disappointed and upset with me for taking on a job so similar to the last one I had (that I was also very fed up with and happy to leave.). Ah well. Stepping stones to bigger and better things, right?

In other news, I put in the first stitches on Starry Night last night. It doesn’t look like much right now, just a few scattered (almost) black stitches on the fabric, but it’s going to be fab, I’m certain of it! I need to find a great big pillowcase or something to slip it into so the fabric doesn’t get dirty while I’m not working on it. Hmmm.

As for what I’m going to do with today, my very last day of my comfortable routine? Well, now that I’ve checked my emails and read my RSS feeds, I guess it’s time to sort out the rest of my day. We’re in for another scorcher today I believe (fingers crossed the fires that are still burning don’t flare up too much), so anything I want to do will need to be early. Perhaps the library, or the shops. Anything is possible today!

 

Yesterday was a fun day. The package of threads I ordered from Ebay arrived, so I finally got to finish the preparations for Starry Night. The solid colours are now all wound onto their bobbins in my box. That said, most of the solid colours aren’t actually used on their own, but as part of blends, which I haven’t pre-wound, so I’m sure that will slow me down as I stitch, but we’ll see. If it’s going too slowly I can always stop and do the blends as well. Meanwhile, the fabric is all ready to go, all I have to do is baste it onto the scroll bars and I can make the first stitch!

Apart from that, I’ve just been trying to enjoy the last few days I have left before my new job starts. I’m feeling quite apprehensive about it, but I suppose it’s normal to feel nervous before a new job. I’m trying not to think about it too much until it’s time to go though. No point in ruining the last few days of my holiday!

 

I meant to blog about our Valentine’s Day plans over the weekend, but of course when I sat down to write the post, that was when I discovered all the problems that were going on!

Anyway, we had a fairly low key Valentine’s Day, on account of my being unemployed. We didn’t exchange any gifts, only cards, although Kev did insist on buying me a box of anything I wanted from the Haigh’s store we wandered past whilst out during the day. Awww.

That night we had a quiet dinner at a local restaurant. I had the job of booking the restaurant (again, on account of me being unemployed!), so I was a little nervous about taking us to a place we’d never tried before. Luckily, the food was delicious, the service was lovely, and the prices were extremely reasonable. Even better, it was only a short walk from home, so we were both able to enjoy a bottle of wine without having to worry about driving home.

A phone call from one of the companies on Monday morning confirmed this, revealing I’d been the frontrunner all the way, until I got pipped at the post by somebody who simply had several years more experience than me, all in Victoria (my experience is all in NSW - makes things even trickier in a tight market!).

However, today I got a call back from the other company, offering me the job! Great news in these times. I have to admit my feelings are quite mixed about the job. As I said when I interviewed for it, my dream job it is not, but I really can’t afford to be too choosy at the moment, so at least it’s some cash in the bank while I consider my options.

It also means I get to order the rest of the floss I need for my Starry Night project as a reward - yay!!! I’m getting so excited to start. This week I’ve been gridding the fabric, which still isn’t quite done, but when it’s all done I’ll need to trim the fabric to size and finish the edges. Hopefully by the time all that’s out of the way, my floss will have arrived. Fingers crossed!

Meanwhile, yesterday saw me out at Flemington Racecourse in the morning. Their offices are based right at the very far end of the main straight, looking allll the way down towards the finish line. This is the view you get from their reception area. Imagine looking at this every day while you worked! The sky also gives you a bit of an idea of the smoke haze that’s been hanging over Melbourne for the past couple of weeks, due to the bushfires still burning in parts of the state.

Well I’m sure nobody noticed, but my blog was down for a few days.  In typical helpdesk fashion, it has taken me approximately 48 hours to receive the responses required to get things back up and running. Apparently my DNS servers were outdated. Well gee guys, thanks so much for telling me you were changing them! Love ya for that.

But then of course when I went to log into my domain manager, I vaguely remembered something about my domain account getting locked back in December because I couldn’t remember my password too many times. And of course, I was dealing with moving from another state and looking for a place to live at the time. Which was high stress stuff. So I filed the email without taking the required action to unlock the account. Of course I should have known that would be coming back to bite me later.

So that led to further helpdesk requests and more waiting, along with more guessing about which credit card they might possibly have on file. Fortunately, I guessed right first time - whew! Fortunately I had my customer number filed away in my old email account, which, even more fortunately, was the email they had on file, or else I would have had to go through the rigmorole of faxing them a change of email form. Errugugh. 

Anyway. It’s a long story, obviously, but everything seems to be working again, and the moral of the story is that you should never file away that email saying your account has been locked, because you I can guarantee that in about 2 months time, you’re going to need urgent access to it. Sigh.

Image from: Victoria’s killer fires | NEWS.com.au.

Like many people, I am astounded by the devastation caused by Saturday’s firestorm here in Victoria. That morning we went out to a shopping centre to escape the searing heat, and commented casually on the smell of smoke in the air, obviously drifting in from the many fires burning around the state. We had no way of knowing then, what kind of devastation that smoke had left behind.

Kev and I are fortunate in that we haven’t been directly impacted by the fires. Nobody we know lost either their home or their life, and I am so thankful. But my heart goes out to those who are living this nightmare. Loss of property is bad enough, but the loss of life we’ve seen this weekend has been something else. It will take these communities many years to recover from this, if they ever will recover. Entire towns have been destroyed, whole families killed or split apart. And we still have no idea what the final death toll will be.

On Saturday, I complained about having to go to an outdoor wedding in 46°C temperatures. Complained about having to dress up in silk and heels in such heat. Complained about having to sit in the sun with sweat running down my back. 

Today I am grateful I was alive to see our friends take their vows. Grateful that my family is still intact.  Grateful for many small wonders that I take for granted every day.

The Australian Red Cross has set up an appeal to assist those affected by the Victorian bushfires. Donations can be made online.

 

This is our new little succulent plant, named Bert (it just suited him!). I picked up Bert a couple of weeks ago at Ikea (I hadn’t even realised Ikea sold house plants until then - go figure!). He cost a whole $2.50, including the white pot, and I figured that even if he died, $2.50 for the pot alone still wasn’t too bad!

Two weeks on, Bert is still going strong, living happily on our kitchen window sill. Yay!

 

Today I had a job interview, which was fine. But as I said yesterday, I get the impression there are a lot of people interested, confirmed by some of the things they said today. Which is fine, I totally get that it’s a tight job market, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Anyway, after the interview, I popped into Lincraft in the city to start stocking up for my upcoming Starry Night project. I picked up a new set of (BIG!) scrollbars, some thread storage options, and the first 30 skeins of thread. Only 76 to go. Not so bad, right?

Anyway, I just love all the different shades of colour, and how bright and shiny they are. They were just screaming out to be photographed.