Month: July 2006

An alarming week 2

Finally, after two months navigating the administrative maze, my manager in Shepparton was able to give me my own access pass. Hooray! No more time-consuming morning inductions.

On Friday, I used my new pass for the first time. I arrived at 7:50 AM, about half an hour earlier than usual. I waved the card in front of the back entrance.

Beep beep beep.

Hmm. Doesn’t want to open. Guess I’ll go through the front.

I walked about 100 m to the other side of the building, up the ramp and faced the glass doors. None of the lights in the building were on. I had never been the first to arrive before.

I held my card near the reader. Beep. That was more like it. I heard the familiar click of the door unlocking and pushed my way into the dark building.

Oooooweeeeeeee! Oooooweeeeeee! Oooooweeeeeee!

“What the- !” The piercing alarm seemed to be right next to my ear. I looked up and saw the siren.

Some people arriving at the door of an adjacent building looked at me as I stuck my head back out the front door.

“I’ve set off an alarm!” I said helplessly. “I don’t know how to turn it off!”

“I’ll see if I can find someone to shut it off,” a man said.

Alone, I stood in the darkness just inside the entrance. I must stood there for two or three minutes. Finally, Chris and Pat showed up for the start of their work day.

“What have you done, Joan?” they said, shaking their heads and smiling.

“I broke something,” I said in a small voice.

“Tsk, tsk.” Chris swiped his employee access card and the alarms stopped. Pat reached behind a tall filing cabinet and switched on the lights.

I declared, “That’s the last time I come early to work.”

An alarming week

At midnight, I cracked my eyes open, confused. Why did I wake up? Then I heard a loud beep, followed by another, and another. It sounded far away.

“Smoke alarm?” I thought. The pitch was too low for it.

I got up, cold, and followed the sound to the spare bedroom in our serviced apartment in Shepparton. The offending noise was coming from the alarm clock. Blearily, I whacked it a few times before my hand found the ‘Timer off’ button.

“Hooray,” I muttered, and padded back to my warm bed.

When the alarm went off again at midnight the next day, I spent half a minute trying to work out how to reprogram the clock, then finally yanked the cable from the power socket.

What I’ve decided

Thank you for the advice and support I got in response to my rant about my study choice. I really appreciate it. It was a small and benign choice to make, one that shouldn’t have bothered me the way that it did. Thank you for indulging in my hysteria.

The next day, after I had calmed down, I closed my eyes and decided to continue the subject. Nothing terrible can happen. Once the decision was made, most of my unhappiness disappeared and I could start thinking about other things.

I’m going to be as smart as I can about it by doing everything I can early. I’ve already scoped out an essay topic for the next subject. In fact, I’ll base the topic on some of the issues I’m working on in Shepparton. That’s a bit witty, isn’t it. If I can’t go the library, the library will come to me 🙂

Unfortunately, such was my eagerness to book flights, set up a bank account, get my UK visa, that I’ve jumped the gun. I had set everything up for my arrival in the UK on 27 September. Yesterday, I got an email saying my orientation is on 25 September. It means I’ll have to fly up a few days early.

Does anyone know what might happen if my UK visa starts on the 27th but I arrive on the 24th?

Stressed out

I’m distressed at the moment because I’m having trouble making a decision. I’m aching with indecision. The arguments are so finely balanced that I change my mind from minute to minute.

I am studying a Graduate Certificate. I have one subject left. I intended to finish it before I left for Cambridge but I’ve started to think this will be a bad idea. I’m still working on an essay for my previous subject and it’s taking up all my nights. I would really like to have my nights free in August and September so that I can pack up my life in Australia and say goodbye to my friends and family. My fear is that instead of doing that, I’ll be sitting in front of a computer.

“Let’s have some goodbye drinks for Joan!” they would say.

“Sorry, guys. I have to go home and write my essays.” The essays are thousands of words.

It’s even worse because I’m working from Shepparton. It’s been hard for me to look after myself in Shepparton and do my homework. My homework has been getting done over the weekend. That means no weekends for Joan leading up to going away.

AAARGH. THE AGONY.

Cambridge has made it a condition on my enrolment that I finish my Certificate. I’m almost certain that they would let me defer my studies if I asked. In fact, I have asked via email but I got a auto response vacation message.

I’ve also put a lot of effort in negotiating with my company to pay for half my subject costs. This funding would be lost if I decided not to do the subject this year.

Another very important issue is that I would have to take five days off to go to class. This pains me because it would take me away from my work in Shepparton. I already have to wind up my work in Shepparton early so that I can pack up my life. Do you mean I have to take even more time off?

WAAAH. It hurts!

I think of the hassle that I have to go through to do the subject: I have to do pre-reading and submit training request forms and a leave application form.

Then I think, “Maybe it won’t be so hard to study in the months leading up to going way. Maybe I’m exaggerating it all in my head. I’ve already scoped out a good research paper topic and will be writing the paper for the client. This is a great chance to make a good impression.”

YAAAAAARGH. I’ve changed my mind again!!!!!!!!!

In other news, I was headhunted today. Someone from another engineering consultancy called me and asked to meet up for coffee. We did and he said that if I was interested, his company would make me an offer. This was despite knowing that I was going to England in September.

No one trips over themselves to help

“For someone who dances, you sure keep falling a lot,” Vera said to me once.

That’s right, folks. I fell again. This time, it was on the steps leading up from the subway corridor to Platform 2 at Flinders Street Station. It wasn’t spectacular or painful. It was loud and awkward, though. I had been carting my luggage from Shepparton — a wheeled luggage bag, a backpack and a handbag. I fell forward on to the steps as I was trying to drag everything up to the platform. I might have shouted an expletive.

People saw me fall. No one asked if I was all right. No one offered to help. This happened last time I tripped at Melbourne Central as well.

As someone who falls a lot, I’m starting to get annoyed that people don’t seem to care. Did they ever?