I was driving home at 1 AM last night when I had an encounter with Hooligans. There were four P-plated cars (probationary drivers) and they had spread out in the three lanes of an 80 km/h highway. They were driving at about 35 km/h and making rude gestures, as well as cutting in front of each other.

I was among about five cars stuck behind them. I tried to change lanes once but one of the Hooligans swerved in front of me.

Because I wasn’t in a hurry, I wasn’t worried or frustrated. Mostly, I was amused. It was quite a funny prank because people normally associate hooliganism with driving too fast. I wondered how long these young people (men, I suppose) could stand to drive so slow. What kind of willpower did they have? The primal urge to floor the accelerator would take over pretty soon…

Anway, I turned off as soon as I could and got home only five minutes late.

In nearly all my uni subjects, the main form of assessment is group projects. We form groups of about four and take on the roles of consulting engineers. The greatest fun is inventing a company name – “Hydrogreen Consulting”, “GDJK” and “Steel-framed Carparks R Us” are typical.

When I did work experience, the environment felt familiar because engineers do work in teams. I didn’t understand why people complained that what they had learned at uni was useless in the real world of work because I was using everything I had learned in lectures!

Working in teams on psuedo-projects seems like the way to go for the teaching of engineering practice. It feels natural now, so natural that on the rare occasions we are given individual projects to do, it’s a shock to our system. “Whoa! We have to do this ourselves?”

That’s not to say that I enjoy working in a team. I like working in good teams, where everyone pulls his or her own weight. I actually find it easier to work by myself because I can work to my own schedule. But I also recognise that our most creative works have come from group projects.

After four years, we have become well-trained team players… Actually, I should qualify this statement. The environmental engineers now make excellent teams amongst themselves. Because we have worked so often with each other, we recognise each other’s strengths, respect and like each other. It’s comfortable.

This semester, though, I have a number of major projects that I must do with *gasp* new people. In my final year design project, there are five of us in a group. Each person represents a different discipline of the civil engineering course — transport, structures, geotechnical and water engineering, plus the enviro. Together, we have to design a conference centre for our university from the bottom up.

I’m working in an all-girl group. This could be a first! 85% of all engineering students are male. The odds of an all female group are (let’s see, 0.15^5=) less than 0.008%. I have lucked out. These girls seem hard-working, intelligent and they are more than happy for us to design a “green” building. In another sense, it’s bad because I am not challenged. The purpose of throwing us into unfamiliar groups is to teach us to overcome group conflict. No conflict yet…darn!

Don’t worry, there’s another project in which I am working with a loud, careless, obsessed-with-concrete-and-weapons male so maybe he can be my challenge for this semester

I have another job interview next week. This is an unusual and competitive position. The interview is actually for a company scholarship, which awards AU$20,000 to the “winner” to take a study tour anywhere in the world he or she chooses, once he or she has worked for the company for nine months. After the study tour, the person comes back to work for another two or three years, then gets an overseas posting for up to two years.

I’m one of four applicants to reach the interview stage. We’ve been chosen from all the applicants in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Exciting, eh.

I don’t even know if I’d take the scholarship if it was offered to me. I feel a sense of loyalty to the company I worked for over summer. They’ve treated me very, very well and I like the people there. They’re also Australian-owned. This other company offering the scholarship is British. The ownership would make a big difference to my decision, if I find myself in the not-unfortunate position of having to choose between job offers. I want to support Australian industry!

At the end of the phone call, the lady said, “Excellent, we’ll see you on Wednesday then. Oh, one final thing. On your form, you didn’t tick the box to say that you are a Permanant Resident…”

I paused. “That’s right… because I’m an Australian citizen.”

With obvious relief in her voice, she exclaimed, “Oh! That’s even better!”

HAHAHAHA! What a gaffe. I think it was partly my fault and mostly theirs. They should have written “Australian Permanant Resident/Citizen”. Look, HR people, if you’re going to unnecessarily capitalise words, be prepared for misunderstanding. Permanant Resident implies the official definition of the term. That is, people who have visas to live in Australia but are not citizens.

I guess if I’m so clever, I should have anticipated their silliness.

In my last job interview I was asked for a time I had to make a decision in a short time. Well, yesterday it happened and I discovered that I suck at making decisions quickly.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to buy a 1996 Suzuki Cappuccino convertible. They’re tiny little cars, about three metres long, so cute! They handle very well, look unusual and are very cool. I’ve always wanted a scooter but had reservations about riding in wet weather, not being able to carry a passenger or carry any luggage. The Cappuccino solves all these problems… and gives me street cred

I already have a modern, spacious, reliable car. Most people think it’s very nice and are envious. The only quibble I have with it is that every third car out there is the same model. I spent all day yesterday, agonising about whether or not to by this rare and special Cappuccino. There are only three people whose opinions have any weight in this situation: Jason, dad and Damjan. Dad and Damjan told me to be practical. Jason scorned practicality and convinced me that cars can be fun.

In the end, after three calls to the dealer, I set up an appointment for him to drive the car from the city to my home in peak hour traffic so that I could inspect the car.

Of course, the dealer called me back two hours later to tell me that the car had just been sold. Snapped up, like all the other Cappuccionos out there! Opportunity lost!

…I was relieved. No decision required. Jason was disappointed, big time.

Now that I think about it, I can relate this situation to many times I have been in a fantastic book store or music store or when choosing a movie. Whenever I am surrounded with many equally attractive choices, I become confused. I throw my hands up in the air and declare, “It’s all too difficult!” I usually leave the store without buying anything, figuring that I was happy before I walked in, so I won’t miss anything if I don’t buy it. Being indecisive is a great way to save money.

I’d like to write a bit more about my day yesterday.

I heard an interesting conversation on the train to the city. A Taiwanese girl and a Korean girl were talking about a South-American lecturer they have. They felt uncomfortable with how close he stood to them and when he touched them. From what I could gather, he wasn’t being rude. The girls understood it was because Latinos and Asians have a different sense of personal space. Europeans, such as the French, are similarly familiar. Asians are distinctly more stand-offish. On the train, the two girls decided that they would speak to the lecturer to let him know how they felt.

I went to the Arts Centre to see ‘Daphnis and Chloe‘ performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Romantic era music is my favourite so I had a good time. During the second movement of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 2, I was struck by a bolt of recognition. One of the themes was exactly the tune for the verses of ‘All by myself‘, sung by Celine Dion. I loved that song! It’s the song that was playing as Cher/Alicia Silverstone in Clueless dramatically realised that she was in love with Josh, her ex-step-brother!

After the concert, Leonie T and I accosted James and convinced him that he wanted to go to Joel H’s party that night. James is an extremely accommodating fellow so all it took was a deliberate nudge from us and he agreed.

To kill time, I accompanied James on some errands at his university then we took the train back to my car. Before we got into my car to drive to Damjan’s house, I was taken by the urge to visit my old high school. So we wandered over to my school and I gave James a lightning-quick tour in the dark (it was night time by then). One of the caretakers approached, gave us an odd look, then went away.

At Damo’s house, we had yummy moussaka for dinner, then we went to Joel’s house for a 22nd birthday party. I had 6.5 hours of the most random fun. We

- Separated out two packets of M&M’s into colours… Supposedly, there’s no aphrodisiac like green M&M’s

- Ate Joel’s famous home-made crab dip

- Drank a bit

- Sang karaoke

I talked so much! I wouldn’t be surprised if Leonie, James and Damo were sick of my voice by the end of the night. James and I were yak, yak, yak from 4 PM to midnight straight. We get along really well. I think it’s because I like asking questions and he likes answering them.

I wish Leonie had been able to stay for karaoke and Vera could have come. She loves bad pop music! We got Damo to sing ‘YMCA‘ and ‘Don’t Stop Moving‘ by S Club 7. James sung ‘Murder on the Dancefloor‘. I love karaoke and can carry a tune. My tonal quality is not so great, not smooth, untrained but I do well enough at karaoke that it’s no fun for others when I’m on the microphone. There’s no point singing at a party if you’re going to sing well.

At 1 AM, Damo got a call from my dad. Dad and mum were frantically worried about me. They thought something had happened to me because the last train back from the city was over an hour ago. They didn’t know that I was travelling around by car. It was all the more worse because I didn’t pick up my phone, which I had typically left somewhere because girls’ pants have no functional pockets. At the time of dad’s call, I was annoyed, guilty, frustrated that my parents were so worried about me. After they explained it to me, I understand why they were especially worried this time. I guess that’s acceptable.

Damo dropped Simon and James home. I drove home from his place then crawled into bed about 3 AM.

All in all, a good day.

Today, I danced more than I ever have in a competition. I was only meant to dance once in Theatrical Troupes. I ended up being roped into Hip Hop Trios, Couples Cha Cha and Jive, Couples Merengue and Mambo. It was fun while it was happening but now I’m tired and annoyed.

I had a very good time at a party last night. It was a fairly low-key 22nd birthday. I was warned that it might degenerate into a drinking party but it didn’t get close to that. I spent most of the time talking to James and Leonie T. There are some people that I consistently have wonderful talks with — Damjan, James, Kate, Vera, Megan and my brother Jason. These people I just bounce off. It’s very satisfying and I wish I could hang out with friends all the time.

I’ve noticed that I have become more and more “girly”. I used to take pride in my rationality, sensibleness and well-considered actions. Yesterday though, and typically, I was silly, energetic, blunt, relationship- and personal-history-oriented in conversations and usually laughing. It’s more fun to be like this but I am afraid that people will get the impression I’m shallow and rude. I guess I can be a bit more careful and diplomatic from now.

I’ve been rejected. I waited two hours to donate blood, then as I lay there on the bed, they told me that my blood pressure was “much too low”.

*sob* I wanted to save twenty lives today!

Last night, I spent ten minutes analysing the root causes of my current listlessness. I think I’ve traced it to “bad attitude”. Having determined this, I have decided to put in an effort to flick the mood switch to “Cheerful”. It will be more work than being despondently lazy but on consideration, the happy chemicals will be worth it.

So, get ready for the switch flicking…

*FLICK*

I like donating blood. It makes me feel like a productive member of society. Australia has a very low donation rate. About 3% of people donate blood regularly. I think that it’s not the blood-giving that people object to, rather it’s the cost in time and convenience. I’m lucky in that the Blood Bank comes to my university and I have breaks between lectures. I like lying on the padded teal beds while the machine rocks beside me, dripping away my red stuff. I have no choice but to relax. Relaxing without guilt is a luxury during semester time.

For the record, I have A+ blood. Yay! The top grade! About 31% of people have A+ blood. It’s the most common blood type after O+.

I call it “running the interview gauntlet”. Today, I had my second interview with the engineering company I want to work for. It was mildly successful. The interviewer asked to give an example of a time I had to make a decision in a short time. I blanked. I had used up all my cool examples, like the time I had to fire a dance teacher, dealing with a horribly mutated final year project, working with international students who couldn’t understand me…

So, I said, “Well, I suppose you’re more interested in my thought processes and the steps I take rather than the actual decisions. I’ll use the example of deciding how to get to this interview…” And I talked for about three minutes about why I ended up taking a train to the city instead of driving.

I’m CRAZY.

I also had to do a group exercise with three fellow gauntlet-runners. I was the only engineer. The others came from finance, marketing and law backgrounds. The exercise was meant to test our ability to work in a team. Now, normally I am a very capable group member; I’ll take charge if there is a leadership void and sit back if things are chugging along without me. Today was almost overwhelming, though. As soon as the exercise began, the other three immediately took over — Rapid-fire talking, scenario analysis, statement of assumptions… They didn’t speak over each other but I could almost hear them tapping their feet impatiently until there was a break in the discussion so they could interject something insightful. I could barely get a word in edge-wise.

“Hmm,” I thought, “There needs to be quiet people in a team. I’ll be a quiet person.” I have learned that if you are quiet during discussion, then when you do talk, your words carry more weight. The importance of your words have not been diluted by previous waffle. However, I suspect that in a twenty-minute show-off-fest, being strategically quiet does not win you brownie points.

Don’t worry, friends. I did manage to say some things. Heck, I managed to use the word “promissory” completely in context. Who wouldn’t give me a job after that?