Random Ramblings - What Else?

Another cold and rainy morning. What is going on here??? Although it felt a little bit warmer today. It might have actually hit 16 instead of 15. But another morning of the same routine. As sad as I am to admit it, I rode on the same bus again today as yesterday, just because I was running a few minutes late, and it was the first bus to get to the bus stop. Although today, I snagged a seat closer to the front, so I wasn’t as close to the pre-teen girls in the back. (Hooray!) I probably should mention something here, though... As I said in yesterday’s post, the bus is relatively full when I get on, and more people get on over the course of the next few stops (the bus gets to a certain point where people stop getting on at the bus stops and start getting off). When the bus is getting full, the kids jump up out of their seats and move towards the back of the bus, where they stand while the people getting on are left the seats to sit in. Each of them is carrying a backpack and a gym bag, so it’s not like this move is all that easy for them. It really is kind of interesting to watch how considerate these kids are. Although I have to wonder if it’s not a little more safe if the kids were to sit and the adults were to stand. But what do I know? On Monday, the bus driver was on a mission. She was hitting the brakes hard, and I watched a couple of kids fall down because they couldn’t stand in a really secure spot. Today wasn’t as bad, but there was a girl holding onto the seat next to me, trying not to fall over as the guy driving turned some hard corners. Funny to watch (it’s almost always funny when people fall down), but I still feel kind of bad that they are forced to stand up.
I got into the office and checked my Charlotte email. Apparently word is spreading about my secondment. I had an email from a manager in another office who I get to work with every once in a while, and we usually catch up at conferences. She emailed me and said that she had heard I was in Sydney to work for 3 months. She wanted to know how to get in on it. Glad to see that my reputation around the Firm is preceding me! What can I say? I’m kind of a big deal. HA!
At lunch today, I had to run over to the Post. (The post office.) As I stood in line and made my way to the desk, I looked around and noticed that this place is no normal post office. Yes, they have boxes and envelopes, and all the other stuff you need to mail off packages. But they also sell some random things! On one display case, there were stacks of movies you could buy. Big feature? Smoky and the bandit collector’s pack – numbers 1, 2, and 3. They also had a display case of books you could purchase. The biggest stack? Aussie sheep shearing stories. (Yeah, I didn’t pick the book up to see what kind of stories were in there. Didn’t really want to know...) The other display case I saw was stacked full of CDs. The most recent CD I saw was the Mamma Mia soundtrack. It was next to the ABBA collection. All for $30. Of course, you could get the “cheap” CDs for $20. All the popular ones: The greatest hits from The Jackson 5, Tom Jones, and Michael Jackson. I really thought I had fallen back into the early 80s, but then I saw the price for the CDs and realized I was firmly planted in 2008.
After my lunchtime excursion, I hopped on the elevator to go back up to the office. The elevator made a funny noise and took off for the first stop. We got there, and the elevator doors tried to open. Nope. Tried again. Nope. People were obviously waiting on the floor, as we could hear them waiting for the doors to open. Once more time – nope. The girl next to me was the one trying to get off. She scanned her key card and pressed the floor again. Again, the doors opened a little and then slammed shut. The lady on the other side of me was getting really nervous. Someone pressed the next button, which was my stop. The doors opened, and several people jumped off the elevator and walked up to the next floor to catch a different lift. Everyone looked pretty nervous – it was kind of funny to see... It’s not like alarms were going off or anything!
My last story of the day for you guys comes from my time making dinner tonight. I thought I had bought a can of regular corn. Turns out it was creamed. And creamed corn, well, let’s just say after opening the can and seeing what was inside, I promptly threw it in the trash. But the funny part was the writing on the label of the creamed corn can: “Great on Toast!” Yuck! Those of you who have eaten with me know that I can only eat one thing on my plate at a time. Needless to say, I will never buy creamed corn here again.
Without further ado, the mX update...
TEXT VENTS:
“Al: Stop whining about headaches, catching the train home with school kids. I’d put up with the headache to finish work at 3.30.” – Liam, Woonona
“To the eight transit officers that got on the 5.36 train on Friday from Wolli Creek to the city: Considering you guys work on the trains every day I thought you would know that in this country it’s common courtesy to let people get off the train before you enter the train.” – Justin, Hurstville
“I’d take copious amounts of drugs if I was dating Amy Wino. Just look at her. It’s enough to send you to rehab.” – Spiro, Hurstville (And I said: Yeah, yeah, yeah!)
STORY OF THE DAY:
It seems that all of the good stories are coming out of the US these days. Apparently there is a Pray at the Pump movement in St. Louis. There will be two prayer services held at a Mobil gas station there, where people will thank God for lower fuel prices, and will pray that the prices continue to drop. The participants will buy gas, pray, and then sing “We Shall Overcome,” adding a new verse for “We’ll have lower petrol prices.” Yeah, I’m sure that verse is exactly the thing that everyone had in mind during the Civil Rights Movement. Geez...