Where We'll Be

Yesterday was the day that the contract on the centre settled. It happened at about a quarter past four. I got the call just on 4:20. I blazed up. Or not.

It was a bit of a surreal day yesterday. I cleared out some of my stuff. I took a couple of pictures off the walls. There weren't any more tears yesterday, but there were times when I felt sad. I still feel sad. It's a shame. I had a good talk to quite a few of the parents and they had some very kind words to say to me about their family's time at the centre. Stories of when my mother was around. Stuff like that. It was good.

I've been eating a lot of biscuits and chocolates at work this week. Leftovers from the Christmas concert and also gifts from families. I've had to remember to drink lots of water, otherwise I start to feel a bit ill from all of the sugary foods.

So yesterday afternoon I stuck around til the last child had left. It was just on 5:30, which is extremely early for a Friday. It was a very strange feeling to walk away from something that has been such a big part of my life, not only for the past 4 years when I've worked there, but from the 8 years before then when my mother was working there. And now it's not mine anymore. It's someone else's concern.

All sorts of things are starting to break there at the moment too. There's a fan that only goes in one direction. There's some guttering that needs to be fixed up. A kid jumped on a plastic bench seat and cracked it at a quarter past five. The usual sort of things. They're not things I need to worry about anymore. They're for somebody else. Oh well.

Today is the staff Christmas party. We're going to Mowbray Park and then heading over to the East Brisbane Bowls Club for some barefoot bowls. It should be fun. Pretty casual. I don't really want to get too wasted too early. Kapila doesn't need to see me like that. I don't think that she'd approve.

I need to go and buy some stuff to eat soon. I hope that Stuart turns up with the car soon. He said that he'd be over in half an hour an hour ago. We were at Nanna's last night for David's going away dinner. We had lamb. It was awesome. I had a few drinks. I didn't abuse anybody this time. Well, not vocally. I was wearing some pretty obscene shorts.

Bicycle Pump

It has been a bit of a slow week. Not slow as in there hasn't been much going down. More slow as in it feels like Thursday night, when it's only Wednesday. In fact it's been so slow that it felt like Thursday on Tuesday.

On Monday my Dad came down to the centre and told everybody that they were going to have some new bosses from next week. Some people were surprised, some people weren't. There has been a few clues. Back at the start of the process when we had those real estate agents coming through. Men in suits. Then a few weeks back when Louise and I did an inventory. There was also the guy who came through to do an appraisal on the centre. He's going to Furano with his wife this season, then onto Canada for the Olympics with his kids for 2010. There's also been all of the out of the ordinary phone calls I've been receiving. And apparently I haven't been myself for the last little while. Anyways, there were some hints, but it was still a bit of a shock to some.

So yesterday was a bit of a weird day. Talking to the staff about what's going on, trying to start tying up some of the many loose strings, liasing with the incoming owners. Ha! Liasing.

Anyways, it was a pretty long day. I was up early with rowing. We were training at Southbank, on Kodak Beach. Or is it Streets Beach these days? Either way they've only just re-opened it. The sand already had that great cat poo and bleach smell about it. It was awesome. Still, it was nice for a change, and there were some interesting specimens of the human species around Southbank at 5 in the morning.

On Tuesday evening my grandmother and my aunt came over. We had a frittata. It was pretty awesome. While I was picking up the ingredients for the frittata I ran into someone that I hadn't seen for a long time. In my mind I had rehearsed what I was going to greet him the next time I saw him. In the end I decided against punching him in the face and crash tackling him to the ground while yelling obscenities at him. It was the fruit and veg section of Woolworths after all. Still, I did kind of yell an obscenity. It was a very strange meeting. Like meeting a ghost.

The dinner went well.

Today has been a bit of a rough sort of a day. I think that I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that I will be unemployed very soon and I have no idea what I am going to do. I am also coming to terms with the fact that the centre where I really enjoy what I do is going to someone else. It is making me sad. And cranky.

Today I had to write the letter informing the families at the centre about the changes. Writing it took me about an hour and made me sad. I didn't know what to say, or how to say it. I didn't want to be too doom and gloom because I am sure that the new owners will continue to provide high quality child care. Still, I guess it is the end of an era. The letter made some of the staff cry and a couple of the parents too. It may have been my wonderful way with words, but I doubt it.

So I guess the next couple of days I've got some more questions to answer. It should be a fun time. I've just about got the spiel down pat.

This afternoon with the afterschool care the children gave Kapila and I a lovely tribute. It involved singing and some dancing. And some speeches. Kapila cried the whole time, which in turn set off a few of the kids. It was pretty emotional. Still, a nice moment. I think that Kapila was a bit sad all day. I thought that she was cutting up onions for afternoon tea, because I kept hearing this sniffing noise. When I went to see what we were having, there wasn't any onions. She was just sad. I was sad, too. Sad that we weren't having onions for afternoon tea. Just kidding!

Oh. Have I said anything about David spewing on himself in a cab on the weekend? No? He did! And I went on an hour long rant using extreme language about people and situations that I really shouldn't have been discussing at that late hour. Good times!

Brown Eyes - Hypnotise

I did something a little bit silly this morning. Actually, I've been doing a few silly things over the last few days. I haven't been engaging my brain before I've been acting. This morning it was something reasonably minor. I was going for a run for rowing over at Kangaroo Point. We start off at the stairs near the TAFE, then head over to Southbank, over the Goodwill Bridge, through the Botanical Gardens, along the water at Riverfront Place, through the shadow of Admiralty Towers, up the steep hill of Ivory Street, over the Story Bridge and then back down onto walkpath at Kangaroo Point. We finish up by racing up the stairs to bring us back up to where the cars are.

That's the usual routine, but today I was unable to participate. I had brought the wrong shoes. In the early morning gloom I'd picked up Ria's shoes by mistake. I had to turn around and go home. This was okay though, as I was able to wake Ria up and we went for a walk together. I ran up the hill at Main Ave a few times. Afterwards I was very sweaty. It's a nice view from up there though.

The other day I was driving home from work. I've been having a bit of a dilemma about which way I should go home, there's a way that's probably a couple of minutes quicker, but you need to be a little bit lucky with the traffic. The other way, down Cavendish Road and then along Stanley Street cutting back up near the Norman Park train station to Lytton Road, is probably more sensible, but you can get stuck at the lights and also at the rail crossing. The quicker alternative is from Leicester Street, making the difficult crossing of Old Cleveland Road and then up Bennetts has been my way of choice recently, but after a recent incident I'm going to miss it I think.

The incident in question involved a Subary stationwagon and myself to start off with. Then it involved a whole other line of traffic. I'm not going to lay blame, partly because I put myself in a dumb position, but the stationwagon in front of me wasn't playing the game properly and tried to change the rules. The stationwagon saw a bit of a gap, went for it, then chickened out halfway across the road. I had also seen the same gap, decided that there was enough room for me too (which there definitely was) and followed them. When the stationwagon stopped in the middle of the road to take stock of their position, I was left hanging out with my bum in the wind. I ended up having to go right around the stationwagon. There was a motorcycle rider who was not very impressed with me.

The sale of the centre is going ahead. Apparently next Friday is going to be the day. I've had to fend off a few questions the last couple of days about the future of the centre. The questions were from the staff, who haven't known about the sale. I might have to tell them today. I feel pretty bad about leading them up the garden path, but I haven't been able to tell them about it before now. It's just starting to dawn on me what these changes are going to mean. It's making me a bit sad.

Tomorrow is the Christmas party for the children. I'm not worried about it this year. I'll be making the sandwiches tomorrow morning.

In The Belly Of A Shark

Ria's got a job in Broken Hill. She's pretty excited about it. I'm not quite as excited. I'm probably just being a pussy. Time for me to grab my nuts and get out there.

So she's moving down there halfway through January. Her job will be writing and reading the news with 2BH. It should be a pretty interesting time. I don't think that I'll be going down straight away. I've got commitments with rowing for the next few months. After that I'll get down there. Anybody got any ideas with what I can do with my life for the next little while? I've got some. I don't know how keen on them I am though. I kind of like the life I've got at the moment.

So that's probably my biggest thing. I really like what's happening at the moment. Sure, I will be unemployed soon, maybe even as soon as next week, but I'm happy. I really love the apartment here. I really like that it's all set up now. I really like where it is and how I can walk to the supermarket and the cinemas and things. I really like that there's a place that has just opened up where I can get a burger (Grill'd). I really like rowing. I really like the pool. I really like the gym. I really like work. I really like the people I work with. And now that's all going. So much for choices.

I had a pretty good weekend. It started off with a haggis on Friday night for St Andrew's day. I enjoyed it. There was also cranachan for dessert. That was also rad. Unfortunately I left a cooler bag behind. I've got a bad habit of doing that. I've never really owned a cooler bag before, and just in the past couple of months I've picked up a couple. And now I've lost them both. It was short and sweet.

Saturday was a day of auctions. They were interesting. The first one I thought was going to be go off with a real bang, but it was a fizzer. The second one had a bit of more action. And some quality Alf posters. And nicotine stained walls.

On Sunday morning I managed to pass my proficiency down at the club. I'm now able to rescue people again. I've got some patrols coming up. I might even get down there Saturday and Sunday.

When I returned from the coast I was pretty tired. So I had some hamburgers. I only wanted one, but there was some confusion in the store. So they gave me two. But neither was really the burger I wanted. Then later they brought out the one that I did want. But I'd already eaten the other two. I couldn't face another. I'd also eaten a burger at Off The Wall on Saturday, so I was kind of burgered out by that point. Still, they were all great burgers. And not terribly unhealthy ones. They chips may have been.

I had some training this morning. It was good. My muscles are a bit sore now, but it's that good sort of sore. I need to do a bit more upper body work though, as I'm not strong enough there yet.

Anyways. It's time for work now. This Friday is the kid's Christmas party. It's traditionally a pretty rocking time. This year should be no different. Louise the director informed the staff yesterday that she's going to be finishing up. I haven't told them about the sale yet. The contract hasn't gone exclusive yet. It will, but I don't know when. And the settlement may be as soon as the 14th. I wouldn't mind if it was the 21st.