As a boring rat-race office worker, I ADORE daylight saving. Combined with actually working a rare 9-5 day has resulted in half the garden path being dug up!

Yes, my ambitious plan for this weekend is to build a brick path between my two street facing garden beds. I have wanted to do this for ages and have gleaned bricks from my neighbour's defunct chimney for the purpose. The reason I mean to build it now is that North neighbour and I have agreed to get the fence between us replaced. Thus I need to move anything near the fence so the workers can have access. This includes the pile of old chimney bricks. So rather than have to shift them all twice more, I shall try to get at least some of them to their intended home on the next shift. So what needs to happen?

-dig out the top layer of compacted weedy soil forming the current dirt path. I think this may have once been lawn
-barrow this away and dump in a corner
-get the remaining dirt level and smooth- spade, fork, scraping with length of wood or similar, tramping down, wish I had an old iron rake-anyone?
-shifting bricks, bashing off old mortar
-placing bricks, cutting bricks to fit perhaps?
-shovelling dirt around to reform the edges of garden beds
-also on top, then sweeping in to fill the gaps

I wonder what proportion of the bricks this will use? If I was friend R I would have calculated this! I thought I was analytical and accurate but not compared to some.

Well, do you think I will manage this? I wonder.

I've had two very productive days on the sofa with my laptop. The clag is receeding (or has emerged) and I have a bit more voice and energy. I am going to be brave and try the office today. I went to Kensington for a couple of hours last night as an experiment and because I was tired of my own company and my own cooking. One of the quietest craft halls I have seen. Only one poor fighter, a few of us sewing. Hopefully more will come next week. The experiment worked, I survived with a little energy left over, though I left at 9 and it was a good reminder to not forget the cough lollies.

is where i am today. I had no meetings so I decided to stay home and see how I was.  Blah is the answer. Respiratory stuff seems to have faded away, nice, but I have that  low energy, achey, wobbly, vaguely dizzy feeling that I associate with a virus. I get an attack of this every so often. Feel pretty good if I stay still but rotten if I move about too much. Hope it doesn't last too long.

I am moving about enough to feed myself and get a couple of loads of washing done. Other than that I am doing bits of work and worrying about how I am going to deal with this weekend- GSG  you know. I'm booked and due to teach three classes. Wish I knew when I will feel up to packing. Right now, putting a tent up feels like a very bad idea. I think I might have to day trip it.

I heard today that a really lovely chap from work died unexpectedly in his sleep a couple of days ago. So sad. Only 50something I think. Too young to be torn away from life so suddenlyt. Apparently he had a new partner and was very happy. A really great person, cheerful, helpful, appropriately serious, personable, knowledgable. It has really coloured my day. I keep drifting off thinking about it and being sad, even though he was not a personal friend. This sort of thing always makes me wonder what I should do differently about my life.

Does it say something about me that with that as a background I decided to rip back a sock to fix it properly than to live with substandard personal craft? I feel a bit disrespectful even mentioning that.

Yesterday at ~3pm, the network crashed at work. Well it did for about 80% of my dept but not the whole building. Somehow I still managed to need to be at work until 6:30pm anyway what with meetings etc.

This morning, our segment of the network was still down. Pox. I tried umpteen times to log on at diffferent desks, all attempts resulted in fail. Frustration. How useful does one feel in this day and age without internet, server files, email, print capacity etc? "Not very" is the answer. Anyway, eventually I came home and successfully logged on. If work thinks I'm planning to work 8+ hours from log on time, they are very much mistaken.

this morning means I am working from home.  Benefits include being able to read and post to LJ without anyone watching. Mwa ha ha! Downside is that I still haven't got an ergonomic set up for working at home. After only a couple of hours online I already have a sore back. Must give this some thought.

On the other hand I'm glad I wasn't in the ute that got squashed this morning. Instead I just spent about 30min stuck in the traffic, moved about 5 car lenths before I got to a corner and was able to give up and go home.

I do appreciate the traffic reports on the radio. Last night I had a leisurely drive across the north of the city - got warning just in time of a multicar incident at the big bridge. Maybe I should listen in prior to leaving the house? Except that means poisoning my ears with commercial radio. Not something I usually do outside the car.

I've just realised how cold I am. I now have my heavy dressing gown on over my work clothes, the heater is on and I need to go get the furry slippers. Temp has climbed to a whole 13deg.

Why do I always feel so broken on Monday evenings? Like all the potential, happiness and confidence have been sucked out of me. Blah. Can't focus, literally sometimes. Want to cry. Other nights are usually not so bad, except sometimes Friday. I didn't even retire late last night.

But I did get some pinwheels made last night, hah! The centre block of the new quilt top for Master T is assembled and looks good. The corner blocks are part assembled and look promising. I think this will work. Lord knows how the recipients will feel about it but hey, I can't control that.

I have done too much knitting. My back is all seized up. Now there is edge of sharp pain if I even think about knitting. Bother. I plan to get a back massage tomorrow in the hope that will help. Actually I planned to get it today but didn't make it out of the office.

well, have survived another week. Busier than last on the work front which is good. Slightly more social too which was also good, and it's good that it was good, if you see what I mean. I do feel a bit pathetic that my life has few Fri nights out these days.

Tonight I tried an adventure on the way home. Travelled (very slowly) via Toorak Rd. Visited Spotlight. Bah, got there 10min before closing which didn't end up allowing the purchase of anything. Not too sad, I was there just long enough to convince myself they didn't have what I wanted and little enough to prevent being tempted by anything I didn't need.

Got home to another yellow card in the post box... I have a package to pick up! The only thing I know is coming are the DVDs I ordered in a weak moment. Ostensibly as a birthday present to self. I really shouldn't buy myself things prior. Never mind. I will try to leave these wrapped and can regift if needed. I'd tell you what they are but that would damage their regifting potential.

What I plan to watch tonight is.... an episode or several of the old BBC Hitch Hikers guide series. Yay! found today and purchased to both research for and probably play at,
the party.

This weekend I need to do whatever needs doing before the parents arrive next Sat. I have a long list but will try to have fun doing it rather than beating myself up about it.

And... last night I went to see Xerxes. FANTASTIC!!! If you like Handel opera you so should go. Tobias Cole so has a new fan(Counter Tenor of power, clarity, accuracy, delicacy and amusing acting talent. Not quite as godly as His Excellency Mr Scholl but really good). And so does the woman who played his brother whatever her name is (wonderful expressive contralto).  And possibly the dude who played the brother's batman (bass type, lovely voice though we heard little of it and really funny) REally, it was great!!! And, B reserve seats in the new recital place are just fine. Sound was grand and one is not far from the stage. And the panelling is growing on me. Looking at it is like finding pictures in clouds. There are more than one dozen hearts, strange pairs of eyes, shouting mouths, crowned agitated odd milk bottle things, landcare-esque  pairs of hands....

And, and... Red sock #1 is finito. Green/purple sock #1 is barely started. I am going with (Hometime's?) suggestion of knitting socks from alternating pairs for the interest factor. Actually, I think Hometime said she knits the same bit of each sock in succession which is different. Whatever, I really felt like trying out the contrasting toe and heel thing. I'll do Red sock #2 after.

a rather long and bitty post but I have days and days to talk about and a glass of wine to lubricate the words. Now to dinner.

I had a moderately productive day, the boss was away and I was real keen for the weekend to start ... so I took an early mark for a change. Left work at quarter to five. Strode to the station, meeting accidentally with several work mates on the way including a recent ex boss, doh. Anyway I was reading on the train for the first time in ages. I do like this book, so much so that I went two stops past mine. Bother!. So I didn't get home more than a few minutes early after all. Spent most of the extra time on a strange and boring railway platform.

I still get a weekend though. That is a grand thing. Really it is.

I just had some interesting thoughts. I realised a few weeks ago that one of the reasons I am not dressmaking so much these days is that sitting for long periods outside of work is less attractive. I have a greater desire to be up and doing. I think I have figured why this is...when I was in my most productive sewing period, I worked 8+ hrs a day on my feet, with some heavy lifting in a laboratory. Then, sitting for much of the weekend or evening sewing was much more appealing. That though was 10 yrs ago. Since then my work has been office based. So sewing is MORE sitting. Gardening (grin) is not.

Another related reason. The lab work was mostly doing with not so much thinking. Sewing, especially dressmaking and costuming requires thinking, figuring and decision making. My work in the last ten years has been.... thinking, figuring and decision making. So some mental down time is needed outside of work. Dressmaking is NOT mental down time. Quilting comes closer, except the design part. And suprise, quilting has been a strong feature of my more recent creative output. I have been finding with the black coat that I am shying away from the figuring needed. My brain is worn out after the week, a case of "not MORE thinking, please!"

Hmm. wonder what I will do with this apparent clarity?

My name is Montjoye and I'm a shoppaholic.
I am trying not to spend money at the moment-since this month's bills already have a television, a washing machine and my car rego in them. It's really hard to not go browsing in shops at lunch time when you work where I do. So today when I felt a real need to go look at stuff I decided that the Salvos was the destination for me because even if I bought something, it wouldn't be expensive. So look what leapt out and asked to be taken home:



You would never guess I hang out with Abbotsford. How cute is this little cauldon?   I'm sure it's meant to be ornamental. I plan to use it as my new coffee-table bin. As Erudito noted on Sunday, such a thing is most useful, for thread offcuts, chocolate wrappers and bones from dinner. This is rather more washable than the cardboard box I am using at the moment.

Now from this sweet classic double boiler, would you possibly conclude that I have been watching two fat ladies lately? Mmm there will be custard some time in my future. It even matches my regular saucepans really well.



Work is a bit stressy yet I probably only did about 1/4 of a day's work today. I was really sleepy until about 2pm. Now the sleepies have returned, bed soon. Must try to be more productive tomorrow. Chat on a challenging topic with the big boss hopefully. Still trying to figure out aspects of this job but this topic is one I am pushing from knowledge brought in from my old role. Hmm, how much will they let me work on this? an area that is not very broadly understood, complicated but needs fixing.

meeting until 7:10, home 8pm needing "food or the world will end"- I eat some weird things when needing to produce food in extremis like this, did manage to avoid nasty fast food though.  I had forgotten to take anything crafthall useful with me this morning so I had to come home and once here and fed, I would have got to crafthall 30min before needing to leave again. So I shall put the bins out and do the dishes- what exciting achievements. Well after an 11+ hour day I'm lucky to get that much done. A few stars appliqued would have been more fun and the company better but sadly not to be today. Bother

on brussel sprouts.

I used to hate them. However several times in the last few years I have had really good dishes made from them. Tonight I had what is probably my first ever go at cooking them. They replaced the potato in a good and yummy nicoise salad (hope I spelt that right). The trick seems to be to not overcook them.

On the work front. It turns out that I am so unused to working less than 10+ hours per day, I feel guilty if I leave before then. Two days this week I have managed to limit myself to 9hr days but it sure is hard. I feel like I am shirking.

I am having another go at trying to get more done on weeknights in an attempt to free up a block of time for project work on the weekend. If I don't, I will never get this black coat made. I need half a day or so to just get started. Tonight has gone well. Left office at 5:15. Have done a few groceries, cooked dinner and got a load of washing on. Feels like some kind of miracle. I even have time to do another thing or two before retiring, yay.

Matters have improved since Monday night. Especially since Monday night itself but lets not go there.

Slowly getting a feel for this new job. The people are really nice, welcoming  and seem devoted to their work- I like that. . There is more accountingy sort of stuff in it that I thought, not sure I am going to enjoy that. However people say one can mould a job to oneself- I shall try to move it in more practical directions or something.

Am feeling odd. Emotionally exhausted or something. I need to get my head around the new job before I can redefine some of  who I am? If I'm not the old me, then who am I? I like to think I don't define myself by what I do for a living but that seems to not be the case. Also, spending a full week at a new desk with completely new people around me was tiring. It was like my antennae had to be up all the time, could not just settle and work, partly 'cause I didn't know what I needed to do. This will all improve over time but is probably the cause of my reclusiveness today.

I was considerably relieved that our planned harvest festival was postponed at something like the last minute. Not that I don't want to go, I DO. I just didn't want to go TODAY. Instead I have spent the day alone at home being domestic. Most unusually, I could not even bring myself to seek company for tonight. Don't have the energy to converse. Didn't really want to write this post but wanted to record something of this state of mind.

It seems I am slowly doing an (Autumn ) Spring clean. In some ways it makes sense. Want to get the house nice before I spend the winter shut up in it. One does spend more time at home during winter. As I haven't cleaned or tidied properly in a LONG time, and I live in a house that is far bigger than necessary.... there is plenty to do.

Of minor note today
-finally got brave and washed the two festi gowns (and one favourite underskirt )that needed it. Won't really know how that went until I try pressing them
-cleaned and polished the 2pairs shoes worn at fest and were rather the worse for wear
-tidied the back yard some. Including disposing of the plants that didn't make it through the summer heat.
-plant the new parsley seedlings out to the herb garden. Grown from seed and had already been potted up once
-lots of boring laundry, dishes, groceries
-some jewellery assembly. Might write more on that tomorrow.

Tonight I am cooking a monster pot of curry. I am trying to empty the freezer so I can defrost it but I keep making more stuff to put in it. Maybe tomorrow I will use the esky and go ahead to do the defrost anyway. Possibly  not the best day to pick- coldest forecast in ages. But It always seems mad to reject an impulse to actually do housework. Mostly I hate it so any actual inclination to do it must be seized or live in squalour.

Oh, and isn't it nice to be at home safe with storms going on outside? I have always liked that. Hasn't been enough proper weather lately. Go the rain!

well. First day of new job= 10.5hrs, much IT frustration and a very broken montjoye at the end of it. Haven't felt this broken for ages. Eyestrain, backstrain, low blood sugar, the works. Think I over did it, first day back and all. May matters improve from here please. Do I try too hard or what?

I am feeling a bit distressed, rejected etc. I got in to work today to find my replacement logged on at my desk! Actually not a bad idea but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

I feel I could burst into tears any moment. I think this has something to do with the fact that my start date seems to be confirmed for the new job. So now I feel all shaky and wibbly. One consequence of this is that I dragged the side of the car against the gatepost again on the way into my back yard. Sometimes I am just a bit too delicate.

So. a couple of positive pics to show the world is not so bad

The first of the autumn crocuses growing luminously through a pile of mulch. I planted 4 lots of autumn flowering bulbs, umm, last autumn. Not suprisingly, none had flowered yet. Wonder if any of the others will. This is a meadow crocus, supposed to be hardy. certainly beautiful. The flowers are much larger than I expected, no bad thing.


Got back from Pt Fairy Monday night. House is still full of camping gear in the wrong places and lots of laundry, some washed, some not. Spent pretty much all festival working on a pair of these:

this is the black and pink remake of the Durer "walking frock" or so I dub it. Maybe i will remember to post a pic of the etching when you eventually get a pic of the finished gown. Amusingly that is a corner of sheet you see pretending to be a chemise sleeve.

Oh, my replacement at work has been announced. He starts on Monday. I actually have some confidence he will be up to the challenge. I then have two weeks leave to go to festi and start the new job after that.....Wibble. It is good, so why do I feel so feeble? relief? fear of the next thing? whatever,  I had better get over it I suppose.

I now understand why there is a cliched character- usually a father figure- who comes home from work, says "Ugg" (or words to that effect) pours himself a drink and stares at the wall for a while. I even left work at 5 today and am still suffering that effect. Must prod myself into putting dinner on.

came out today. Yes, it's official, I have a new job. Starting approx 1st March after they find someone to do my current job. Mwahaha.

Lord I'm tired.

The strange path to my new job (?) continues. Both current and future boss made cryptic comments today about notes going out tomorrow so looks like I have a new job for Christmas. Don't congratulate me yet. Be sure I'll tell if it really does become official.

Sorry to be posting this just after ms_kilian  's post about hiring freeze.

Work is mad, need I say it? 7:30am to 6:45pm today. Eye strain and general exhaustion ensue. The idea of 4 days off is blissful.

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