365 project
65/365 Crazy eyes
by Catherine on Mar.09, 2010, under 365 project, Weekend Madness
We have just had a long weekend here in Victoria, I had big plans but a number of them fell through because of weather and tiredness. Working is wringing me out like a dish rag at the moment. Having not worked since September I feeling the strain slightly.
Friday night I collapsed and vegged out, Saturday morning i was prepared to beat the real estate doors but that turned out to be a difficult task with generally unhelpful real estate agents. I gave up in a huff when it appeared that time was not on my side. Instead I went shopping for important items like washing baskets etc. I now have storage system of buckets and no clothes on the floor. Saturday afternoon I searched for places to live whilst sitting with Aliz and watching almost a whole season of NCIS. It was very relaxing as we watched the rain come down, not really realising the damage that hail was doing to parts of the state. Later in the evening I caught up with Rikard, we don’t speak as much as we used with me working. We have been spoilt up until now. The very cool news that he has booked his flight to visit! Gosh. Still a little dumbfounded someone would come across the world for little old me considering recent history.
Sunday I was up fairly early, heading off to Ballarat to visit Joyce and Arnie. Joyce quilting gropup had an exhibition and i was going to see that. First stop was watching dad make some pens. Blog post about that can be found on the Nat and Cat Blog. Joyce and went to Spotlight followed by the Embroiders Guild Exhibition. This was lovely but the fact there were no photographs was more than a little puzzling when a lot of the pieces come from kits! Then it was a yummy pizza that the Golden City Hotel before heading to see the patchwork. Joyce had displayed four quilts, all exquisite works of art. Her Journal quilt producing a lot of interest. It was a good day.
The trip home was interesting, it rained for the entire trip but little blue car called Hank did very well.
Monday the day off started very lazy, I then wandered around the house in my PJs. Tried to fabric shop, could not find what I wanted. I then relaxed. I rearranged the Linen Press. I like organising things like that, I am odd. Homemade Pizza dinner and Man Vs Food television to cap off a Perfect lazy day.
Today, work. Hard work but the news Rikard is coming made my day.
58/365 Sleepy
by Catherine on Mar.01, 2010, under 365 project, Life, Update
Well, the job at LRC is going quite well, up until Friday I had no log ins for the computing system so that was made of fail. To be honest I was surprised it has taken so long but I have very little experience of large corporate environments. On Friday I was let loose on the unsuspecting customer base and answered phones. Very much the same as renewing books over the phone, take the details and hit the right buttons. I think I did okay, there are a lot of things to remember, although I did huge amounts of data entry last week, I have not really had a chance to explore all the options on a couple of the systems as I can not log into them. I hope that will change this morning.
Due to work, photos have lacked a certain amount of inspiration, I have been very tired when I get home. I am yet to work out how to take photos in the LRC without giving away where I work because the brand is displayed prominently. I have collected the DSLR, took some photos, cannibalised it for removable parts and packed in the box. I have taken some photos of Bato, the older kitten I shared with at Toby’s place. He is a delightful thing and loves to chase paper and purrs very loudly.
Friday night was very thrilling, I packed a bit and the decided transport two bottles of Gin and tonic was a little overboard. So I drank the part empty bottle, finished the tonic and then went onto mixing it with coke zero. Not as revolting as it sounds, rather like odd Dr Pepper. I spent an entire 5 hours chatting with Rikard, it was great fun, we exchanged youtube clips and other links. It was a fun night and was lovely catch up after his trip to Sweden. We are going to have re-evaluate our catch up schedule with my having to be up at 6am and not making much sense at that hour of the morning.
Saturday I managed to pack all my goods into the car and head out to the new place I am living.
I am staying with Aliz and Callum in deepest darkest Werribee. They have a large house out there and have offered me the use of their two spare rooms. I had a lot of fun putting brand new linen on the bed. I was in heaven. I bought myself a cotton quilt, after sleeping under polyester ones in the UK i found the movement of feathers irritating. I suspect the cotton one will be too light for winter but at the moment it is perfect and smells wonderful. I am grateful for Aliz and Callum putting up with me, it is going to make life that little bit easier and gives me somewhere to live whilst looking for a flat of my own.
On Saturday I looked at the unit in Strathmore I tried to look at on Wednesday. The real estate agents were made of fail and had no key and a lot of standing around happened. The unit was run down but not squalid, there is a water leak that worries me but other than that it was fine. It has a fair amount of traffic noise as backs onto Pascoe Vale Road but the bedrooms are away from the noise and considering I generally play music or put the TV on this should not be too much of a problem. There were a lot of people looking, singles, families and share houses. There was one couple and a companion looking which would have been very crowded. For me it is the perfect size, not huge amounts of storage but two bed rooms and pleasant set of units it is in. Will see how that goes later in the week.
Sunday I went into town with Rachelle attended the Sydney Road Street Party. Lots of stalls and people. A pair of excellently decked out stilt walkers. One as a Scots man, resplendent in kilt and hat, walking on well made leg extensions, the extra bend in his leg not being noticeable with his kilt. The other costume was an excellent mascot costume, a dog that walked on all fours with the aid of stilts. Very nicely designed and very anatomically correct with bum hole, balls and willy that the operator could shoot ‘pee’ terribly accurately with. Spraying the crowd to the merriment of the people. I was very impressed with both outfits but the dog from a design point was a wonderful shape but I have no idea how hard it would be to walk in but I suspect the word difficult comes to mind.
All in all it has been all a great deal less stressful this week in many ways. Work, I think will become more interesting, I understand the need for data entry but it is really not for me. Tonight I am attempting to go swimming, this could be either fun or embarrassing as I have put on weight and may not fit into my bathers, oh dear. I am trying to get a handle on the eating, now my head seems a little less crowded I should be better at stopping the craziness of food being the all powerful source.
Ohhh, another achievement is I have hit 60 days of self portraits, I have missed one day, I am rather pleased with that.
Here is day sixty, I went swimming.
54/365 i have a head ache
by Catherine on Feb.23, 2010, under 365 project, Photography, Social, Update, Work
Well, I start with large retail company (LRC) today, this is what they will be called as i have signed stuff saying I won’t talk about them on the internet. Also I think the secret squirrels of LRC may read this. You never know, well I do and hence being on good behaviour.
I am exhausted, i still hate full on data entry as it is guaranteed to give me a head ache and I make mistakes and there are no red lines. That is possibly a Gin in the background to help sooth my nerves. I know this is training and it will change thankfully.
So the last few days in pictures:
Yesterday job and house hunting, really depressing. I went out for dinner.
With Catherine whom I went to High School with. High school, for me was not a very happy time of my life and my first year out of school was up until last year the horrible year from hell. Catherine and I had a great summer 1993 to 1994 and we rocked it country girl style. Since then lots of things have happened and we lead busy lives, we have now an agreement of catching up every three weeks for dinner and and seeing how awesome stuff is.
I have done a little pattern drafting but am finding it hard to settle, just a lot of stuff in my head. I will be okay once I have some space.
Rikard is in Sweden, we are not communicating that much which is very strange, I miss him but he is taking photos, stunning ones with his camera phone. I can not wait to see what he does with film!
He has a lovely eye and although he is unsure of himself he seems to have that in built geek talent for photos.
I have also had the most flattering photo job offer of my life as well, but more on that possibly much, much later.
Tomorrow i pick up the camera and send it off to the insurers.
Time for change.
by Catherine on Feb.21, 2010, under 365 project, Life, Work
This week is going to be a bit mad. New Job at large retailer, thank you the fairy who helped me get my foot in the door.
I am in two minds about the job, yes it is a job but it is not in the industry I want to be in and i am very concerned about getting stuck. The retail giant is well known so comments about my job will be kept to a minimum, I am working in the call centre which could be moderately exciting.
I have moved into Melbourne which is very pleasant, I am most likely going to be fairly transient until I find a place to live. Looking at the rental sheets has been very disheartening and I am having to rethink being on the Ballarat/Melton side of Melbourne. Trying to find property in my price bracket is hard. I have found on place, will have to call the estate agent again to find out about it.
i really am not wanting to compromise and take a place to have to take house mates for. I need some space that is mine, for my own mental health.
So onwards and upwards, hopefully a unstable month followed by some stable ones.
Bonus it there is a three month old kitten living in the house I am staying at the moment, he is lovely.
48/365 We are watching you
by Catherine on Feb.16, 2010, under 365 project, Family, Update
The last couple of days have been quite funny, there was a job interview but there has been other stuff happening after that. I am in Ballarat with Joyce and Arnie, in my old room that is the guest bedroom. There are some leftovers, my Cabbage Patch Kid and sampler cross stitch from 1990. Wow, 20 years ago, hells bells. The bed is the frame from their bed before they replaced it with a queen bed.
My father has become involved in cosplay, of all the odd things, he is making wooden swords for a girl who dresses up as computer game characters. She has won a lot of competitions and is heading over to Japan. So, yesterday and today Arnie constructed a sword that may come straight out of World of Warcraft. It is not actually WoW, it is from another game. It is quite funny to watch my dad carving out fanciful shapes because he likes a challenge.
Joyce and I spent last night sitting on the couch giggling; we were making origami butterflies and gold fish. We are not sure if cutting makes it real origami. We also watched the Top Gear winter Olympics special, the ice hockey with the Suzuki swifts and the flying mini being favourites.
We have been mother and daughter bonding with cake and fabric shopping, there is a new patchwork fabric shop opening in Ballarat. It is called Victoria Street Patchwork. It is not quite open yet but the array of fabric and the lively owner look promising. I am planning a steampunk outfit, western and Japanese combination, there is a thing in March I want to go to.
Yesterday Joyce was given a letter, hand written from my grandmother to a friend when her husband passed away. I have not read much of grandma’s writing, her handwriting is different to either Joyce’s or mine but the tome of the writing is very similar to my mother’s and I think to my blog writing. Very interesting.
I have been doing some sewing, finally putting together a dressing gown, it is satin, I had forgotten how slippy it all is. There will be a photo, no doubt. The next couple of days will be putting together some orders of adult aprons.
Joyce and Arnie are off to Queenscliff this morning, there is banging around and stuff. I am looking after the house whilst they are away. Tudor will hopefully sleep on the bed more whilst here, she is already spending more time with me. I need to pop to Melbourne at some point and pick up my camera which is being replaced. That was a surprising outcome, let me assure you. Also taking some rings in, including my engagement ring, to be remodelled, the promises are broken so it holds no emotional value in the form it is now.
45/365 I may have issues.
by Catherine on Feb.15, 2010, under 365 project, Love, Navel gazing
So, St Valentine’s Day, dislike it, move right along beside the fact Joyce had a lot of fun being the assistant in lighting this of the heart.
Nat and I have scoped out a number of craft markets and will be trying out luck at those next month. Hopefully we will do well.
Really, that is about it, I have spent a lot of time writing job applications, universities, councils and tourist parks. It is a little mad. I have some interesting choices with a large retail firm and university. I it is all a little mad really, quite stressful. I have applied for a number of jobs and worked hard at honing my applications into finely tuned things. I find the application writing hard, the proof reading is nigh impossible and I am thankful to the people who have proof read for me.
I am bored of not working but i am not going to take just anything right at this moment.
40/365 Double Trouble
by Catherine on Feb.09, 2010, under 365 project, Family
Arnie was making Relish at home today so Joyce escaped.
We went to Geelong for the the day, well the afternoon. We bought fabric and found a big boob bra shop which was fantastic but averaging $90 a bra.
We went looking at clothes, where one remark heard was “Who would by a dress for $130 when it make the mannequin look fat?” this of course was me.
We them went down to have coffee on the foreshore and I discovered the Baywalk bollards. Something that slipped my attention all those years rowing in Geelong.
Here is the set, have a look, they are very cool.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjsteele/sets/72157623263337253/
We got lost coming back. Oh dear.
Going back to work, if I get a job will curtail these exciting trips.
Yesterday’s photo was a bit of a fail, I did have a lovely day visiting Flo and her baby but the rest of the evening was a bit meh. A lack of inspiration followed.
38/365 Bad Swedish
by Catherine on Feb.08, 2010, under 365 project, Family, Weekend Madness
This weekend has been busy.
Friday night saw me out, going to Gulag, a goth night. It was very nice, I will be going back as it felt like it could be a tiny vagabonds or B-movie.
Saturday Natalie and i along with Fergus and Ewan headed off on along drive to see the Redhill craft market. It was very interesting and we are going to put ourselves down for it.
Saturday night I was in Kyneton playing board games, I had a lot of fun doing that. I won one and lost badly in the train one. It was A’s birthday celebration and a lovely time.
Sunday was another craft in Gisbon markets, they were not quite for us. There were people selling aprons but at really cheap prices.
Most of the afternoon was spent in the Corner hotel beer garden in Richmond with camera people. It was lovely but I must get into taking photos of other things besides me.
The sign in the photo is meant to say “Rikard thinks I am awesome” there is no Swedish word for awesome so it is bodged together. the reason for this is he sent me a list of self portrait suggestions and this was one of them and i hacked the Swedish from online translators. It is a little nod to meeting 12 months ago.
Today is shopping for fabric for a couple of custom aprons and lunch with F whom I went to school with.
36/365 Snip, snip
by Catherine on Feb.05, 2010, under 365 project, Update
It is late, i am curled up in my bed after going to “Gulag” a little goth night with good friends, bowed out early as we are off to check out craft markets.
Today, I got my hair cut and applied for Jobs, what an exciting life I lead.
35/365 The endless hunt
by Catherine on Feb.04, 2010, under 365 project, Work
In the Melton Library, hunting for work.
The large public library turned me down.
Meh.
sucks to be me.
good news, ummm, it has cooled down and I got my e-tag fro the car.
