9 Down, 5 To Go!

Holy crap, what a fast week! I apologize to everyone who was looking for more posts this week. I honestly just could not find the time to type up anything for you guys! But I did keep a running list of stories, so hopefully I can give everyone a quick update on the events of week #9.
So without further delay, here’s the story of my week: I worked. A lot.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. But work really is why I didn’t have time to post anything for you guys this week. Even though my current client kicks us out at 4.30 every day, it has been a busy week. Now, let me explain something first. I say we get kicked out at 4.30, but we still put in a full day, before you guys start giving my crap for my "slack" workdays. We get in as early as possible in the morning (8.15, since no one from the client really gets in the office before that time). We work through lunch. So we still put in almost 8.5 hours every day. From what I understand, that’s about what busy season is supposed to be like here.
Of course, my days have been more like 10-11 hours. I have been going into the office to work on my other client, in an attempt to get that audit completely signed off by the end of next week. The guy who is the main manager on the other job has been giving me a hard time about coming in and working “second shift.” But they don’t require Saturday workdays here for busy season, so in some ways, busy season here feels a lot like my regular work schedule back home. Of course, I was starting to get used to the 7.5-hour days! HA! But the work load is not too bad. It’s just that after working until 8.30 and then having a 45-minute commute home and having to cook dinner, well, I just haven’t had time to deal with the blog!
So other than work, not too much has happened this week. I do have some random stories for you guys:
On Tuesday, I was walking from the train station to the office (second shift). I had my iPod on, but I heard this weird sound coming up the road behind me. Then there was a weird smell. I figured out that the smell was like a lawnmower. Sure enough, this guy came blowing past me on his bicycle. The sound and smell were coming from the bike. This guy had a regular old bicycle, but he had put what I think was a lawnmower engine on the bike. I’m not sure why. I mean, he was riding on the sidewalk, so it’s not like he was going all that fast. But it was pretty funny to see the little cloud of smoke following him on his bike!
Wednesday was a little more interesting. Well, to me it was not so much interesting. The day started off really crappy. But things got better, so whatever. I got up, took a shower, and was getting ready when I had a phone call from Sally. Nothing big, and I was glad she called to say hello and ask me a couple of questions. But I was running a little late, and was scrambling to get out the door on time to make the bus. I have a habit as I am leaving to check my purse and make sure I have both my keys and my bus/train pass. The transit pass was there, but I could not find my keys. I dug through my purse three times. I looked in every place in the apartment when I might have set them down. (Because there are so many places in my apartment where these keys could be!)
As a note, I knew I had them somewhere in the flat, because I was inside. I mean, I had to have my keys to get in the night before. I checked the door to make sure I pulled them out of the lock when I got home. Not there. Still not in my purse (I checked two more times.) Nope, they were gone. So, in utter disgrace, I called the apartment management service to see what I needed to do to get a replacement set.
Now, to add to my bad mood for the morning, I picked up the phone to call, and I couldn’t get the phone to dial out. My apartment phone is still not working after a week of dealing with this crap. I can get income calls, but I cannot make outgoing calls. Yet another thing to add to my list of crap to deal with later this week. So I grab my mobile and call the apartment service, who then tells me that I have to call the apartment manager. I am picturing Schneider from One Day At A Time (I might have just dated myself there), but this guy is really just the one who deals with all the complaints and problems. I called and left him a message that I had lost my keys, and asked him to call me back. Then I picked up my stuff and started to walk out the door. I really didn’t want to lock the door behind me, so I decided I would do one more quick check. Sure enough, I found the damn keys tucked into my computer bag. I have no idea why I put them there. It was a pocket where I only keep my access card for the office, but at least I found them! I started to call the apartment manager back and tell him to ignore the message, but decided to wait until I got to work. But he actually called me right then, so it worked out okay. I think he was laughing at me, but whatever. I had my keys!
Of course, I was now running way behind for work, and I have the key to get into the conference room where we are sitting. Oh, and I don’t have the number for the staff I am working with or the client. Oops. But I got there, and the receptionist had let them into the room, so it all worked out okay. And I was only about 20 minutes late, so it could have been a lot worse! The rest of Wednesday went a lot better… Although I had an interesting ride home. The bus was packed at 8.40. I don’t know why; I think the people in the back just weren’t standing very close to one another. But there were three of us crowded around the driver in the front. I was standing and had nothing to hold on to. The poor lady beside me was holding on to the window frame. And the lady on the other side was trying not to swing around and run into the door. So I stood there and just tried to balance, while holding onto my computer bag. At one point, I was thinking that there was a good chance, the way the guy was driving, that I could tip over into the lady standing on the other side of the aisle. Sure enough, the bus driver takes a sharp curve, and off I go. Luckily, I had thought through it ahead of time, and managed to catch myself on a bar next to this lady to keep from falling over on her. She smiled at me, and the lady by the door laughed. I think she was worried about swinging into the door and flying out, based on how tightly she was holding onto the bar! I get the feeling the driver was trying to turn as hard as possible just to see if he could get someone to fall over… I mean, if I were driving the bus, that’s what I would do!
Thursday was pretty much the same – just work. One of the guys working with me was giving us a hard time. He is still in school part-time. The office over here has some sweet deal for Uni students. Apparently you get to leave in time to make your evening classes. But you also get 4 hours off each week to study. So this guy got to leave at 1.00 for the day! I told him I was going to try to take a class at one of the local schools, just so I could get that kind of deal! I think I could talk them into it. Take some sort of car maintenance class, and tell them that it will save them money later, because I won’t have to take any time away from work to deal with car service repairs. Hmm…
After job #1, I headed into the office. The train was pretty packed, and people kept bumping into each other. When I got to the office, I put my bag down, and realized that one of the pockets on my bag was open. Crap! I was carrying my camera around so that I could upload some photos while I was in the office! (No, I did not get them uploaded, yet.) Now, it ended up that nothing was missing, and I think I accidentally left it open from when I pulled my lunch out earlier that day. But I have to say that today was the first time I had really even thought about the threat of having something stolen. I have felt perfectly safe while I have been over here, and there have been no threats of people picking pockets or anything like that. So while it was a quick search to make sure I had everything, it was also a nice reminder that Sydney really is a pretty safe place!
I wrapped up my work on client #2 and headed home. I decided to walk to the bus station, instead of taking the train over, just so I could get some exercise in, since it is not too far of a walk. (Not only have I been unable to write any blog posts this week, but my attempts at exercise have suffered, as well.) On the way to the bus, I hit a milestone. I got to the end of my iPod. I have officially listened to every one of the songs, at least once. Kind of scary that in just over a month, I can blow through that many songs during my travel time!
But today is finally Friday. And, of course, it is a bit colder and is raining. And, since I was going to go walk around tomorrow on a new little adventure for you guys, the rain is supposed to continue tomorrow. I guess my trek will have to wait until Sunday, and tomorrow will be errand and cleaning day. Yippee! I took it as a bad sign this morning when I hit the snooze button on my alarm, and the alarm did not go back off. Then I got off of the bus to catch the train, turned and looked back at the bus, and figured out that it went all the way to Central station, so I should have just stayed on. (I get on a different bus to the city pretty much every day, depending on which one shows up at my bus stop first.) Oh well. At least the train breaks the trip up a little. Plus it gave me a chance to see Daffodil Day in action. Daffodil Day is some national thing. There are volunteers in yellow and blue everywhere (mostly teens) who are selling little trinkets in exchange for a donation. The money goes to some sort of cancer research group. Of course, I didn’t know about this stuff until I got into work and asked. Plus there were emails about it going around the office. But it was interesting to see all the people putting down money to buy some cheap little teddy bear or flowers or a football. At least it all goes to a good cause, even though the sales tables took up a ton of room in every public transport station!After work at job #1, I headed back into the city, but did not have to go into the office for job #2. (Hooray!) So I decided to take advantage of the early evening, and I walked around the city a little bit. It was kind of scary to see how much I am getting to know the downtown area. I walked from Town Hall to Circular Quay, and saw some new places of the city. It was a nice walk, and a good end to my week. The ferry ride was pretty smooth, and it was a perfect time of day to be out on the water, just as the sun was setting. Wow… I only have 5 weeks of this commute left!