It's Already Hump Day?!

Well, all of you who have been emailing me - First off, thank you for the updates. Second, you don't have to tell me you're enjoying the blog page - it's putting too much pressure on me to come up with good stories every day! And in case you can't tell from the past couple of days' posts, I am running out of stories.

Okay, I have to interrupt here. I am typing (those of you who work with me know I am a loud typer) in front of the TV, and I can still hear the neighbor's cat. I really need to meet this thing. For me to hear it through the wall and over my TV means that this cat has to be huge. (For those of you who have met my cats Hobbes and JJ, you know that for me so suggest a cat is huge is a big deal. Ooh - an unintentional pun!) Now, maybe the cat is outside, but I am 6 stories up. (On the 5th floor, but something I have learned here - the bottom floor is always the ground floor, the next floor up is the 1st floor.) So that cat has some powerful lungs!

But back to my ramblings: Those of you saying that time would start flying by as soon as I get sent out to a client were right! This weeks has been going by pretty quickly! I can't tell you guys too much about this client, but I can say that I am putting my CPA license to good use. CPA = Cut, Paste, Assemble. I am working on taking a big report and a series of spreadsheets, and coming up with a summary proposal on the inventory costing system. It's more interesting than it sounds, but then again, I am an accountant.

The funny part of this whole situation is the work arrangement. I have been seconded on my secondment. Read it again, it takes a minute. As a secondee to the Australian office, I have been seconded out to this client to help them out. I feel so used. Insert your own joke here...

But the guy I am working for is pretty nice. Oh, and never mind my comment about people not singing here. The guy I am working for sings a lot. I'm not complaining, and it's not like he's a bad singer or anything. In fact, it is kind of refreshing to hear. All in all, this client is pretty laid back. I mean, the project I am working on is kind of big and has to be done soon, but the employees have a lot of jokes going around, and they laugh a lot. It kind of reminds me of the office back home... Although I am not sure who the singer in the group would be. Maybe Carrie. I know she likes to rock out in her car, and I would wager that she sings if she is ever in the office when no one else is around... (Carrie: Congratulations, you have finally been mentioned in a blog post. You're now famous.)

The down side about this client (aside from people kind of keeping to themselves) is that it is freezing cold in the office. I really can't exaggerate this one. People are walking around in coats all day. I overheard a lady this morning tell someone that she brought two coats today because it was so cold in there. It doesn't help that today is a "cold streak." I heard on the radio that it was 10 when I was driving home. (That's 50.) Not terrible, but I am already getting used to the warm winter climate here! Of course, it was raining tonight, too. And yes, the traffic promptly responded to the harsher weather. I'd pay money to watch these people drive through snow and ice! But I can't complain - in the time I have been here, it has only rained twice. And I might have learned my lesson this time. (No, once again, I was not prepared for the rain - no coat, no umbrella.) I actually turned on the Weather Channel tonight (no, it does not come from the Atlanta headquarters) and checked the weather for tomorrow. (Back to 16 and sunny.)

So tomorrow afternoon (and Friday morning) I get to head to a conference here in town. I already got an email today from one of the girls at the conference today, saying that they were curious why I wasn't there. Nice to know they miss me. But the directors here were nice enough to let me out of some of the new hire training. Since the training today and tomorrow morning is on stuff that I have actually taught to staff back in the US, they figured I knew it enough to "get by" the next 3 months. I just have to go to some of the formal stuff, and the stuff for international hires on Friday. So they were nice enough to let me go out and make some money for the company, rather than billing time for a training class. But I am hoping that some good stories for you guys will come out of these training classes the next couple of days.

So since I have nothing else to talk about, I thought I might share some random things (shocking, I know):

First off, I heard on the radio today that The Bangles are touring here. I have now figured it out. Australia: The Land where the 80s go to die. Think about it... There are lots of 80s one-hit wonders who came from Australia (Midnight Oil, Kylie Minogue). There are also some two-hit wonders from here who you wish had stayed one-hit wonders (Men At Work), not to mention bands you thought were dead a long time ago (AC/DC). And, of course, some pretty decent bands of the 80s (INXS, Crowded House). Plus they have Olivia Newton-John who no one has heard anything from since 1985. But The Bangles aren't coming until October, so I guess I will have to settle for being here with The Pope, not Susanna Hoffs. I think I'll get over it. Maybe.

My other random story for you guys is about the TV commercials here. There are some really weird ones. The most advertised product are novelties for your mobile phone. I'm not just talking ring tones (although there are a ton of ads for those where you send a text and get to download random songs). But they also have numbers you can text and they will send you downloads of things where you can turn your mobile phone into either an x-ray machine or a fart machine. I figured out I'm getting old when my first reaction to the "fart machine" download was "What ever happened to whoopie cushions?" On top of the downloads, you can also send a text to find your perfect mate. My favorite is the one that says they can help you find your perfect mate and stop wasting your time on the wrong people. "Just text the word "KISS," your name, and the name of your ideal mate to ----." How in the world you already know your ideal mate's name? Obviously, they are just going to throw it all in a database and try to match up all the Janes who want a David with the Davids who want a Jane. If it were as easy as coming up with a name, I could save these people some time and a lot money. Here - it's a phone book, stupid. Geez. And the best part? It is some sort of subscription so that they keep sending you lists of "perfect mates" every week. Brilliant! I need to start one of these things up in the US when I get back. There are enough suckers out there who would go for it. And before anyone asks, no, I have not sent a text to any of these places. But I am thinking about doing it at the end of my stay just so I can have a story to tell when I get back.

There are also some entertaining commercials out there. I am surprised by all of the harsh commercials trying to get people to stop smoking. Some of them are rather gross, but you can tell the socialized medicine here doesn't want to keep supporting all of the smokers for the next 30 years. So they are doing some crazy advertising blitzes to get people to quit smoking. But my favorite commercial is one for chicken. That's right - chicken. The premise is as follows: It is a woman offering help from those suffering with an affliction. "Because if you don't like chicken, something is terribly wrong with you." The lady then offers the help of an institute working on this terrible malady. Their biggest self-help? Chicken scent. Chicken haters can spray the smell of chicken in their car, their house, wherever so that people think they just ate chicken and won't condemn them as freaks. WHO COMES UP WITH THIS STUFF? There is a website for whatever group came up with this commercial. I don't know what they are really selling, but it is a freaking riot. I will try to write it down next time so I can check it out and pass it along.

So I hope everyone has a great Wednesday. Hump day is here, the week is almost halfway over! And I hear that damn cat again. It's a sign that I need to go...