needing advice

22 March 2006 8:03am

On the train, heading to work yet again. day 3 of full-time work. i've only had one coffee so far this morning, and it wasn't even at a cafe. this is a situation that will need to be rectified as soon as possible.

people at work have insisted i bring one of my magic tiaras to work. one of the others has a magic wand, but i gave my wand to charity before i left. am starting to think i may need to invest in another as soon as possible. that can be a weekend mission.

does anyone out there in computer land know anything about feng shui? All 5 of us in the house have had money problems in the last few weeks, and we're determined to change this. send us your ideas.

oh, and if all those who keep complaining because i do all the writing on the site, and liz the slack arse poo does none, harass her about it. she has the password (the power) so make her sit here and write, dammit.

ok, i'm finally up to date with my part again, i'll try to post the photos as soon as i can.

much love and good luck in employment to all

Liv
tiara princess extraordinaire

Back at Errols

21 March 2006 6:15pm

once again at errols. i thought i'd gone a day without coming here, but remembered i was here yesterday before work. ah well, it's a little luxury i can afford.

thus far, i'm enjoying work. can't say the same for liz, but she'll have to write about that herself.

i spent today reading policy documents, sitting in on someone's group, and putting photos on the walls of my office. honestly, that's pretty much what i did.

everyone (well, the women, anyway) agree that scotty, em and liz are GORGEOUS.

one of the men saw a photo of liz and i with our flatmates nat and ange, and asked to move in, so in think everyone at work now has the impression i only hang with the beautiful people.

this is, of course, true.

i think i'm going to enjoy getting my hand back in to employment services. i also think i'll be very happy to leave it again in 3 months, but it will be fun while it lasts. i've already had some pretty cool challenges dumped on my desk (hand me the too hard basket, i say!)

we'll see how enthusiastic i am in another week or two...

back at work, dammit

20 March 2006 7:30am

My first day back at full-time work so i'm up early celebrating (drowning my sorrows?) with the drinking of coffee at my new favourite cafe in Errol St, Nth Melbourne (it's called Errol's, which i thought was impressively creative).

anyway, i've had coffee from here most days since we arrived in melbourne, and they've always been excellent.

i find myself getting really excited about getting up in the mornings, because a new day means a new coffee. well, that was until i started working again. now a new day means a rushed takeaway on the train if i'm lucky, a takeaway at my desk at work if i'm running late.

this morning when i got up it was pitch black and icy cold. is it weird to be scared of the cold? our bathroom is in a little out house thing - i'm intending to get a heater for it. people here complain of the heat and i put more jumpers on.

22 minutes till i have to leave to walk to the train station. that's another weird thing, i'm catching public transport to work again. SEE WHAT THIS PLACE HAS REDUCED ME TO?! I'm quite disgusted.

actually the truth is i'm looking forward to going to this new job - the people sound realy cool (lots of festival goers, hurrah!) and they seem really excited about having me there. it's nice to know that everything i do will be appreciated, but also that it's only short-term. i need to keep moving. melbourne's cool, but i don't want to stay here.

i don't think i've actually said what i'm going to be doing, have i? i'll be working for CRS Australia, a government agency who find employment for people with disabilities. i've worked for them before in brisbane, so know what i'm getting myself into (an open-plan office, unfortunately, amongst other things).

oh, almost forgot to write about our other adventure - we helped make a film for the 15/15 festival thing. you had to make a film up to 15 minutes long in 15 hours. liz acted and did some of the filming, while i played the soundtrack (with liz's help). the soundtrack was recorded by having me sit next to the camera while the action was being filmed. real hi-tech stuff. we lugged instruments all over melbourne half the day, then the boys went to edit it and hand it in before 11pm. it will be screened in may - liz and i haven't seen it yet.

i also made a cameo - sitting in the background of a fight scine in an alley playing djembe for no apparent reason.

the plot involves a cursed peg, a car chase, and an entirely improvised soundtrack.

well, the guys who made it (Martin and Greg) were french, so that probably explains a few things...

free haircuts rock

16 March 2006 1pm

Liz is at a training thing, and i'm at an internet cafe trying to get the damn laptop to access the wireless so i can update the site. doesn't look like it's going to happen for me.

i've done a fair bit of work (ha! ha! 7 hours in 2 months, most of that from home!) but from Monday I'm back to full time work AND part time work, so i can stop gloating.

we can gloat about something else though - our fabulous haircuts! FREE - YAY

we also saw the com games baton and for once neither of us had our cameras, so we can't bore you with photos of it (or anything else, bloody stupid wireless crappy poo).

liz and i appear to have swapped personalities recently - i've been taking heaps of photos, liz practically none. i took about 40 on cd to be printed so i can have cheesy shots of my friends around my room to cheer me up.

we seem to have hundreds and hundreds of photos of em. we think she stole the camera and took heaps of shots of herself. em, we got some great ones - we'll send them to you. there are also dozens of shots of scotty, most of them crap. this is mainly because he either won't stop moving, or he pulls funny faces.

ok. i think it's well and truly time to mention our groovy flatmates. Nat (who's moving out soon, dammit), Steve and Ange have taken us in, and we've taken over, as is our habit.

today i'm off to buy cleaning products and flowers - and another jumper. may need more than one for work, i think. it's already been pretty cold.

anyway, when i finally get to post the crazy dog photo, you'll understand. that's how we live.

no photos yet, sorry

as you might expect, we have heaps of photos from port fairy, but as yet, haven't been able to post them because of computer probs. but don't fear - they're coming.


one thing i forgot to mention -

liz, scotty and i went mutton bird hunting and we did end up finding heaps, one of whom shat on scott (good luck according to liz), and another who did a kamikaze dive bomb in front of scott and i. it didn't seem to be hurt too badly because it hopped away.

scotty decided it was probably the one that shat on him - karma will even get birds if they're not careful...

so we've now experienced the delights of kamikaze mutton bird spotting. what next?

3 loads of washing

14 March 2006 11:11am

yep. 3 loads of washing is what you get when you camp in the rain. we're at a laundromat near home, and have realised one of the really good things about melbourne is the coffee. there's a great cafe near home that sells really good coffee and biscuits, quite cheaply.

before i rant and rave about how amazing kate is, i feel it is vital to inform everyone of yesterday's adventure:

EXTREME SIGHT SEEING!

This involves driving alone the great ocean road, stopping at each tourist site, getting out of the car and running (literally) to lookouts and taking photos for 2 minutes, then running (again, literally) back to the car, before bolting to the next one.

we managed to see everything we wanted to see - although scotty and liz refused to let me go to the national wool museum, which irked me considerably. what's the point of sight seeing without wool, i ask you?

anyway, we managed to do all this and still get scott to the airport early enough to have a drink with the others before the plane left. for once, liz and i both got to be passengers and see the sights because we were being chauffeured by scotty, which was wonderfully decadent for us. cheers scotty!

on the way to port fairy we drove with our delicious Em, and girly gossiped the whole time. well, the whole time we weren't singing tragic 80s songs, at least.

anyway, i know this is all out of order, but you'll work it out. Kate's cd sales were awesome - on the first day, at her first gig, we only had 100 cds ready for sale. we sold out in 5 minutes. overall, liz and i sold about 350 cds for her, plus what she sold at the shop.

yay kate!

everyone was raving about her and calling her the "find of the festival" to which we said, "yes, we know".

actually, liz and i seemed to be getting quite well known ourselves by the end because we wore tiaras to all her gigs so people could find us easily to buy cds. we were known as the "tiara girls".

the festival itself was awesome but weird. lots of rules (you had to bring your own chair, and if it was higher than 35cm you had to sit at the back. we took a sarong and always sat at the front, or backstage). the coffee was truly shit, but the company was excellent. no dancing though - weird.

at some of kate's gigs liz and i would be dancing in our tiaras at the side of the audience, while everyone else sat still. luckily for kate, they showed their appreciation financially.

our next mission is to get the transport boys and em's sales to the same level - it can be done!

Port Fairy Folk Festival

12 March 2006 9:55am

Sitting listening to a Christian singer at Port Fairy. We're at the folk festival.

the background - as you know if you've been keeping up with our blog (if not, why not, slack bastards...) we worked for kate miller-heidke doing merch in sydney. anyway, after that, she and her manager leanne got liz and i free tickets to the port fairy folk festival to do her merch there. we danced many a happy dance after that phone call. the story continues...

All these Christian songs sound the same. Seriously. they have the same chords, the same rhythm, and almost the same words (Jesus is my saviour...) I understand the message, but a little variety would be nice.

Right, this is my blog so dammit i'm going to preach. I just have to express how TOTALLY APPALING THESE PUPPETS ARE!

They're singing a song to the tune of the Addams family theme about how we're all sinners, and that's why the world is so crap.

now they're singing "help me jesus" to the tune of "help me rhonda", about repentance, and asking for help to "get the devil out of my heart". correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't that an exorcism?

this just gets more appaling. they're getting kids to do actions to a song, including pretending they're crucified and hanging dead like jesus.

apparently the most important thing about heaven is that "everybody knows your name".

Favourite quote so far: "heaven must be a great place because God is good"

This shit sickens me.

(this is the opinion of liv, and does not reflect the opinions of any other person, organisation or planetary body associate with this blog)

ok. let me clarify my rant. anyone can believe whatever they want to believe. but preaching this shit on the street and telling me i'm a terrible person because they have decided it is so, offends me to my very core. they are harming their children in the most insidious and repulsive ways, and don't even understand that they are doing it.

right. rant over. back to the story...

this is ridiculous

nothing will work. the photos won't post. the emails i try to send won't send. nothing is bloody working! aaaargh!

i'll try again tomorrow. until then,

AAAAAAARGH!


liv

The boaties at the rob roy

3 March 2006 11:08pm (i bought a watch, so i know now!)

it's been a very strange time the last few days and weeks. lots of emotional shit, which thankfully is passing, and a very difficult time, but also lots of fun in other ways.

we're in melbourne. Actually we're at a boat people gig, and we've just been hanging out with james.

i've tried to post a photo with james, but true to form, i'm having dramas with posting photos. we'll see.

i feel like melbourne is so much like brisbane. the people and plaves, to me, are so similar. that, and talking to james about people from home has made me feel a bit homesick for the first time. i think it's partly because we're starting to settle, we're in a city again (with live music, hurrah!) and making comparisons with home is natural. for those of you who know melbourne, we're living in west melbourne, a few blocks from the Vic Markets, very near the city.

We're currently living with 5 other people, a cat (named puss puss), and a dog (named puppy). puppy is just like a small version of my dog, doc. probably another thing contributing to homesickness. oh well, it will pass.

we nabbed some boaties posters to decorate our very bare walls and some street press with kate on the cover.

oh, i forgot to mention, until the 2 awesome brazilian chicks move out next week, liz and i are sharing a room yet again. oh well, at least it's cheap.

are we ever getting out of canberra?

Ok, today we left Canberra, on the way to melbourne. tonight we're in Albury at a motor inn. we crossed 3 states today (hardcore!). this place is very clean, lots of space, and little wall squeezie things with shampoo and conditioner and soap wash and hand wash and body lotion and shaving cream. i'm planning to make use of all of it tomorrow.

i got to spend most of the day yesterday with lucy, which was great, although my professional recommendation, lucy, is a week off and a day in a day spa, followed my a weekend in melbourne with us.

thanks heaps to lucy and dave for putting me up in Canberra - i'm looking forward to the shots of the rug luce, and if possible, would love a photo of you being the token customs grandma with it.

liz arrived back from Qld today, but she'll have to write about that herself.

today liz and i were tourists again - we went to the dog on the tuckerbox, drove on the road to gundagai, and visited the real ettamogah pub (and had a beer on the balcony).

other than both being tired, and a bit on edge about the whole having to go back to work thing (very unenthusiastic about having to work...) we had a great day. i've started taking loads of photos again - on my camera this time. i really need to learn to use it properly. the delay REALLY irritates me. we saw an autographed poster of the beatles today so i hope the photos of that turn out. am yet to work out how to turn the bloody flash off.

we've been coming up with lots of money making schemes lately so epect to hear all about them

still in Canberra

22 February 2006 12:45pm - ish

One of the things we have been experimenting with is how far you can push food before it REALLY goes off. i do believe our immune systems must have buns of steel by now. I am indestructible, hear me roar!

ok, now the universe is probably going to make me really sick, to get back at me for gloating.

still in Canberra

22 February 2006 12:45pm - ish

One of the things we have been experimenting with is how far you can push food before it REALLY goes off. i do believe our immune systems must have buns of steel by now. I am indestructible, hear me roar!

ok, now the universe is probably going to make me really sick, to get back at me for gloating.