My first CDDP brief

Friday at work was kinda good, cause I finally got my first brief! I got three actually, but you know what I mean.

Rat came in at 10 and sat down with me for nearly three hours taking me through one, and it was like blasting a million bits and pieces of information into my head and I was trying to catch it all but obviously couldn't. It's probably a guy thing, but I couldn't help but look into her eyes at times and think she was kinda attractive. Not that I wanted to do anything, cause she's going on leave to get married, but it was just a recurring thought.

I really appreciated her help. At first I thought she was going to have the "I'll get this quickly over and done with so I can do my own stuff" attitude, but she really went through it thoroughly and took her time to explain things to me. I was, however, kinda sad that it wasn't Alanna who 'inducted' me, because she was, afterall, my supervisor. Now all kudos will have to go to Rat.

After that I went out to lunch, I felt like that pepper lunch place again so I went. When I went in, there were three girls ordering together, and I lined up behind the one on the far right. I sensed some girls enter after a short while, and they lined up a bit to my left.

When the girls ahead of me finished ordering, the waitress asked "next" and the girl behind me just walked straight up and started ordering. I couldn't believe that she didn't even ask me if I was next. I just turned around and walked out. A guy looked at me, knowing what had happened, and gave me a sympathetic smile.

Seriously, you'd never get that type of rude people in Lismore.

I ended up going to a Japanese restaurant for lunch, had ramen and a lemon ice tea. It was good, but what had happened earlier had taken away my appetite.

I returned to my office and got started on the brief. I don't think it is as hard as it looks, once you get used to all the crazy looking letters (they look like html code).

I got a bit done before realising it was getting to the end of the day. Turk came over and had a chat with me, which I appreciated. We basically got to know eachother's past. Apparently she had a stint in Marsdens, so she knows Elleon and the other fat girl. We had both forgetten her name and were too embarassed to describe her as fat, lol. She's also heard of Nom's firm, and reckons we may have come across eachother in the past. I wouldn't be surprised.

When she was showing me how to read the letters, I noticed a ring on her ring finger. I wasn't interested in her (even though she is kinda attractive), but it was good to know that we were both only looking for a professional, platnoic supportive friendship. Because we're all a bunch of new grads, I feel that we're pretty compatible in terms of helping eachother out and sticking together through this.

Katie took the day off as leave. I wondered if she was going away for a romantic three day weekend with her boyfriend? Or maybe she just wanted a day off? Who knows? Stop thinking so much.

After work, I walked around the city a bit, bought Joe Black at JB H-Fi, then went home, got changed, and then Shuing came and picked me up for dinner. I had organised it with him the day or two before, but he told me earlier that it was Eva's birthday dinner, and I told him to go to that instead (no one else knows I'm back apart from him and Malay, who is in Malay), but then he decided to go to dinner with me instead.

We went to a Vietnamese restaurant in Marrickville for some pho. It was good pho, it's something you can't get in Lismore so I had been craving it.

Throughout dinner we talked about Spawn, and how we could resolve the problem. We both wanted to help, but the thought of help turning into harm always kept us at bay. My solution was to find a compromise, whereby we could just 'refer' Spawn to a group of friends. Of course, it'd be pretty hard to 1) direct Spawn to a group of people without actually going yourself; and 2) have a group of people accept a stranger without going yourself.

We touched on some interesting generalisations as well, about how Spawn and Michelle were similar in that they weren't grateful, which in turn made them hate the people who tried to help. The only difference was that Michelle is likeable, Spawn is not.

The talk dominated the night's conversation, and when we were finished, he insisted on paying, which I didn't like, so I said I'd buy him a Happy Cup. But that place was closed when we got out of the restaurant, so I said I'd buy him an Easyway.

We drove to his place first so he could drop off some food he had gotten for his parents, and then we went to Chinksford. It was embarassing because at Easyway, Shuing used his card and the guy told him that he could redeem two free drinks, lol, and I was thinking "god, that would mean he'd pay for the entire night" and I told him to just redeem one, so I only paid for mine.

We sat down and chatted for a bit, before the mosquitoes became too overwhelming for him, so we went into his car to talk. We talked more about Spawn/Michelle, and then it started raining. At first we ignored it, but then it got heavier and heavier, until it was so bad that I suggested we go home.

He drove me to my place, and on the way we could see that it was actually flooding! I was a little excited because I'd never seen it flood in this area before, and here we had water going up above the kerb!

He drove past my place accidentally, and the road in front of us seemed to be too flooded for cars to proceed, as a lot of cars had stopped and refused to go past that point. So I suggested he just park at my place and come up, so he did a u-turn and parked on the driveway.

Again, two things here which suggests Shuing's flaw as lack of knowledge or coordination about certain things: 1) when we were sitting in his car talking, he tried to turn the air-con on so the windows wouldn't fog up. The windows kept fogging up until I realised later that he had only switched on the air flow, not the actual air-conditioning; 2) I told him my drive way was the left of the Saab, but he parked on the right of the Saab.

Anyway, he came up and we watched Meet Joe Black. It was all good until Michelle called him. He looked at his phone and then looked at me, and didn't answer it. From then on, he wasn't focussed on the movie at all. He was thinking about what she wanted and why she was calling. She called again and then he answered. He went away to talk for a while. I checked my phone and saw that she had also called me twice and left a message, something about a legal problem.

Shuing came back and said Michelle's house was flooded, and wanted him to call her back so she could talk. I returned to watching the movie, but Shuing kept wondering whether he should call her back. I told him to just ignore it, and use the excuse that his place was flooded as well so he didn't have time to call her back.

He liked the idea and used it. This was another example of Michelle's selfishness. Even though it was midnight, just because her house had flooded, she didn't give a rat's ass that I may be sleeping, so she calls me up wanting to know her house insurance situation re floods. Surely something like that could wait until after the flood?? I mean, when people's houses are burning down, they don't call their lawyers asking what their legal position is, do they? They try to stop the damn fire!

We checked on the weather and the rain had stopped, and it was ok for him to go home. I lent him the movie and he drove off.

Yesterday I was in the lounge room putting on my shoes getting ready for a jog. My door was open, and when I glanced out I saw a sporty blonde woman coming up the stairs. I think she was looking in as well. Anyway, moments later she came to my door, and asked if my place flooded and looked in. It was a mess, but it wasn't done by the flood, lol. She said it might come back and to sweep the water out or something if it did. I noticed her big smile as she spoke.

I told my mom and she said someone had moved in next door, so hmmm.

I went for a mile jog, then had breakfast and shower at home, before going to the gym. I only went on the bike for 15 minutes this time, deciding that I'll proceed slowly with my knee.

After gym, I went home and grabbed my frames and went to a framing place to have borders cut. The guy seemed a bit shonkey, but he said he'd do both for $30 and would be ready today, so that was a better deal than last time when the guy said it'd take him two weeks. I told him I'd get it next week anyway, and paid my $30. He didn't even give me a receipt. I hope this isn't his way of getting ugly, cause I left my certificate there.

I then went around wanting to watch Invictus. I went to the shopping centre near me, but they weren't even showing it, which seemed a bit weird. I drove out to Broadway, and in the shopping centre, as I was parking, I saw an old lady, maybe in her late 40's to 50's, looking at me. She had a very distasteful look on her face, like I was some young punk or something. As I was reversing, she yelled "stop!". After I got out, I saw that I still had plenty of space left behind me. I wondered whether I should appreciate her help, or be annoyed at her being a busy body and making the assumption that I couldn't park properly.

When I got to the cinema, I saw that the movie had just started, and there were too many people there to get a ticket quickly. I thought, "screw this, I just drove all that way and parked, so I'm gonna use my three hour free parking", and went looking for lunch.

I walked out of the shopping centre and down the street, knowing there were some good restaurants there, but there didn't seem to be any to suit my taste, so I settled for Subway.

After that, I went to K-Mart and bought a can of tyre shining thing, and then remembered that I hadn't returned the DVD The Hangover! I feared I had lost it, but then returned to my car and saw it in the front seat under some papers. Phew.

I really had nothing else to do, so I decided to go to that massage place. It was daytime anyway, so it was cheaper, and also, I was up to that 'free' period in my card, so I only paid $90 for the hour.

The girl, Vivian, as soon as we entered the room offered me this Korean cake thingy, because she was eating one as well for her 'dinner', as she claimed. It reminded me of the one Jenny/Emily gave me.

I think I went there more out of loneliness than anything else. I didn't need a massage, and I didn't need 'relief'. I just had nothing to do.

Afterwards, I went to return the movie, went home and had dinner. The thought of going to the casino had crossed my mind a few times, but the temptation wasn't really there.

So that's my first weekend back in Sydney.