First day as Crown

I must admit I was very nervous yesterday walking to work. I kinda felt like throwing up as I walked along the main in anticipation of working at a completely new place. When I got to the building I didn't know what floor they were on, so I ended up going up level by level. I finally found them on level 3 and rang the buzzer. I was greeted by a cheery old man who I thought was Brendan, the manager I spoke to on the phone, but turned out to be the office manager who was in charge of admin I guess.

He introduced me to a lot of people including Brendan, Alana (the girl I'm replacing because she got promoted), Amy (the admin lady), Ben (a guy I'll be working closely with) and a lot heap of others. I can't remember their names.

I was told that they'd ease me into the role so for the first two weeks all I'd do is watch Ben. Ben actually played a joke on me. He shoved me three files and asked if I could do them in court that day, and I said sure, feeling the pressure. I went back to my desk to read them to see what their status were, and after a bit of time he came over and said he was joking, lol.

So I went with him to court yesterday, and I watched intently as I tried to pick things up. There's only one D court judge here, so you kinda have a cosy aura around the courtroom. Later in the day Ben even introduced me to him, although he seemed a bit more concerned about Alana being "escalated" than me being there.

It got a bit tiring during the day because of the downtime. There was a time when we had to wait about an hour so Ben and I just sat in the room talking. We seemed to get along pretty well, but I was careful to not get along too well too soon, in fear of becoming friends. It was kinda like the DC situation. Did I see him as my new DC? Maybe.

He looks a lot younger than he is (40). He's from the city too, only been here for about seven months, but seems to enjoy it, saying he bought a large farm property and enjoys pretending to be a cowboy, lol.

I knocked off at five, and on the way home I spoke to Bush. I told her about how it was a bit of a redneck town and how I was lonely. That made me want to cry. She ended the call by saying I could call her whenever.

I then went to the supermarket to get some chips for the Melbourne Cup office sweepstakes (I had also put a $5 bet in to get more social with the people), and then got some Hungry Jacks to take back home to eat.

After eating I spent the rest of the night reading a case trying to helop Karen because it had to do with computers. I went to bed feeling good that I had exhausted myself to sleep.

This morning I woke up just like yesterday and went to work. It's an odd feeling to be doing everything yourself. I didn't go to court today because Ben was instructing Karen in a trial, but Amy brought my files along so I spent most of the day reading them.

There was also the Melbourne Cup today, so we all gathered around watching it. My horse ended up coming third, so I won some money, lol. After the race a few people talked to me about my previous case, and I could see that Ben was listening in from a distance. I tried to stay humble because I didn't want him to feel like the new guy was a threat. Earlier Alana said they were joking about the pecking order and said I was below Ben, and then added "just kidding". I mean, although technically we're on the same level, I do see myself as below him, because he's my mentor - so what? I really like and admire him for taking me under his wings. He took me through a sev appeal today which I really appreciated.

I felt like Chinese food today so after I got home I drove back out to a Chinese restaurant I spotted yesterday. I think you know it's not a good thing when you see a Chinese restaurant being run by white people. I ordered a curry beef with vegetables and rice, and it really had no curry flavour at all. Everything else was ok, but it had no taste.