Terminated . . but I will Survive

Well I officially moved yet again within my place of work. Hopefully to a more permanent hidey hole within the Business Services area reporting to the woman I first reported to when I started there which is a good thing. She and I get on just fine and the team of girls are lovely plus I still get to work with my five men.

There's no shame in being offered a lesser position rather than being asked to go.

However at 11am this morning. All managers were called into the boardroom and told that my big boss, the troll bitch, the one that's been upsetting everyone and behaving badly has 'left the building'. Yep, she was given the shaft, shown the door, sacked, fired, terminated, given the flick . . . I'm not gloating. I take no pleasure in someone else's dismissal. I know what it's like to lose your job and it's no fun but in this case, the decision was a good one. Shame it cost me $7,000 a year in a demotion!

Will she be replaced? Will I get to be a well paid EA again? Who knows.

I think the learning curve has been steep, people have their noses well out of joint and generally, everyone seems very happy to see the back of her.

I do feel in some small way vindicated. I was beginning to feel useless, lacked self-confidence, doubted my ability in all things . . . I can start over now. I'm still looking for something else and had two interviews on Friday which seemed to go fairly well For now, I'm settled, hopefully for a few months.

I have never in my 37 years of working met a more loathsome, back-biting, lying, insidious, intolerant, rude, deprecating and vulgar human being. I'm ashamed that it was a woman who adopted such behaviours just to 'cut it' with the men. Clearly her tactics did not work and I'm happy that she is no longer there.

The big tragedy . . she will have walked away with a handsome sum since her contract was terminated prematurely. And I've had to take a $7,000 a year pay cut!

Feeling a Little Moist

It's a little moist down under . .steady!!!!!

These times are the February of my past. Hot, wet, warm. Great if you're with the love of your life but not so pleasant if you're trying to get your washing dry.

El Ninio and El Ninia seem to have beleaguered our fair nation for years. We've had 10 years of drought, water restrictions and hot brown weather but this February takes me back 15 years. It's sticky, humid, grey, wet . . .GREEN . . just in a matter of 3 days the landscape has lushed up.

My kids lament the lack of sunshine but this is 'normal' to me. The past two weekends have blessed us with rain. I know that in the green north this is no big deal but when your dams are below 51% and your land parched, your back yard a dustbowl, your ewes sold off for meat instead of lambing and your farm on the edge of obliteration . . .rain is a lifesaver. And it's falling in abundance.

Rain is our salvation, always welcome, relished, enjoyed and unusual.

This weekend, it has poured, Lily is in her element because labradors love water. I've had to lock her in her enclosure adjacent to the laundry to avoid her royal sogginess jumping on my bed and smelling like an old rug.

Clare and Adam were a little disappointed because they'd arranged a picnic with the Groovy Grannies and had to resort to the dry refuge of a central coast restaurant instead of al fresco by the beach. I'm a little pissed because my washing isn't drying. Having said that, I'm sitting here in a T Shirt and my glasses fogging up every time I open the oven to check the progress of my lasagne.

Bottom line, the frogs are chirping at a deafening level, the trees are palpably saying 'thank you' to the watery muses and my pool has topped up to overflowing. Rain is a blessing, a sign of renewal and drips positive energy, everywhere . . .

There's nothing more soporific than falling asleep to the sound of raindrops cascading on your hot tin roof . . .I love the rain . . .

So does my orange jasmine . .dripping with luscious moisture

Sheering off the gutters . . .

Soggy ponies . . it's not cold so don't feel too sorry for them. At least the flies aren't bothering them . . .

What you lookin' at . .I'm just drying out . ..

There are children here who have NEVER seen a puddle

Yeh well washing can be a problem . . .

Hanging out to dry, but not too successfully . .could be damp knickers on Monday.

So we hunker down and play games . . .

And watch movies . . .

Friday Fuckwit in Transit

Actually, one of my bug-bears whilst sitting in bumper to bumper traffic are the fuckwits who drive in the transit lane with no passengers, just to queue jump. Not fair and not nice. Although some will go to great lengths to deceive and look like there is more than one person in the car. This fuckwit isn't the first but she did do it with style:

A New Yorker faces a $135 traffic fine for using a mannequin as her "plus one" in the high-occupancy vehicle lane of the Long Island Expressway.

An alert sheriff's deputy on Long Island became suspicious this week when he saw the "passenger" wearing sunglasses and using the visor. The problem: The sky was overcast.




When he stopped the vehicle, he found the torso mannequin, fully dressed with a long dark wig, blazer, shirt and scarf.

The 61-year-old driver left with a summons.

Now if they could get Hugh Jackman to stand in the ladies loo with a terry towelling jump suit on . . . .

I See Red

I so cheated because I'm having a shit of a week:

And I can honestly say that I've never seen a red kangaroo in the wild. . . shame . . .shame . . .shame. Hey, it fits the Thursday Theme Red . . I'm sure others have much more to say.

I Haz Lubly Dawgz

I don't actually celebrate my dog's birthday. She's just a dog and I know she was whelped sometime in December but we doggy types have a habit of gravitating towards each other...Tom at Half Moose With a Twist is celebrating Toby's first big annual event so any excuse to post pictures of the Lilybabe. Happy birthday Tobes . . we're helping you celebrate from 12,000 miles away . . Lily says "You can eat poo . . . just for today" . . . No comments required, just go 'Awwww isn't she lubly"



PS: It's Toby's Birthday Party over at Half Moon With a Twist. . . join in his party and Tom will link pics of your pets!

The Fuckwit and la Femme Fablious

Slightly different slant on the Friday Fuckwit tonight since I'm in a total spin . .I mean . . hot flushing and spinning . . .

After much toing and froing between HR about my future at my workplace due to the breakdown in civilities between my boss and I, the HR manager informed me that the Troll Bitch does not want me back under any circumstances and that because I am a valuable member of staff and she is a very 'difficult' person to work with and my current department are over the moon with my efforts, I have two choices. Stay where I am with my five men but drop $7,000 a year, because only General Managers get a Level 4 EA . . . or give 4 weeks notice and leave. The news was delivered gently and positively but I still can't believe that I'm paying because of a total fuckwit who won't lose a cent of her six figure salary because she 'can't get along' with me or anyone else for that matter. I'm beginning to feel that nice girls really do finish last.

Naturally, I have taken the embarrassing demotion because I need a job and despite still applying for other positions have had little interest. From March, I will be a level lower. Buggered if I'm working 45 hours a week for $7,000 less!

Now for the fabulous Femme . . my daughter, up on hearing my 'news' declared a surprise that she's been sitting on for the past couple of months. She declared that she's been rather 'crafty' and would explain all when I got home.

Turns out she's been saving like a mad thing and squirrelling cash away over the past 7 months and has amassed a small fortune so has reserved two tickets to Paris in September including accommodation and a free 'Paris to anywhere in Europe' return ticket as a belated 50th birthday present. Providing she can get leave with her new job which starts in March . . we're off to Paris in September! If leave isn't an option, we'll still go in 2011. Can you believe her! I'm stuck between tears and fears. She offered to either pay off my credit cards (boring option) or treat me to four weeks in PARIS and environs. . . .get me a dart, I need to throw it at a map! Tangiers looks nice . .Rabbat . . Barcelona . . Seville . . .

No not this Paris!

. . I am speechless, I cried, I laughed, I looked dumbstruck, I hesitated - I'm just flabbergasted! Nobody has ever done anything so nice for me. So, the booking has to be paid for by the end of February. I have four weeks to think about whether to be totally sensible and reduce my debt or to be a total fuckwit and enjoy an all-expenses paid trip to France and Spain in September . .

THIS PARIS!

What would you do?

Akubra - It's Australian for "Hat"

Theme Thursday again and a double whammy with "Felt" and "Impression" as the theme. I'm struggling with a dicky keyboard because my nice sleek Apple job has decided that "Y" needs a holiday!

Most people probably consider felt as a type of cloth - smoother and tougher than cotton or woollen fabric, but cloth nonetheless. But really there is little similarity. Unlike cloth, felt is made up of many short, single animal fibres. These fibres interlock; they have a natural tendency to "crawl" and twist when kneaded and manipulated in hot water and steam. Pressure, heat and water are used throughout the felt making process.

Here in Australia there is one famous felt hat. Greg Norman is frequently seen coming in under par in one, farmers wouldn't think of hitting the midday sun without one. . . hell even my son wears one when he's mowing the lawn. Yep, you have to have an Akubra.

Although preferred in country areas, everyone here understands the charm and sheer Aussiness of a genuine rabbit felt Akubra hat. And before you start throwing fake blood at us . . rabbits are a feral pest here. Millions of them cause havoc in semi rural and rural areas. Cute as they are, we aim for them when driving down the road and Lily doesn't mind a bit of road kill for breakfast. I have rabbits under the shed, in the paddock, on the road, in the hedgerows . .they're everywhere. It's not their fault but they are as damaging as any other pest and continue to make a very negative impression on our landscape. And remember, I live in the burbs . . I still find them on the lawn in the morning and literally grazing just outside the carport at dusk.

So when you visit, among your Taiwanese Koalas, non indigenous boomerangs, tacky imported T shirts and fake flags, take home a real Australian . . an Akubra Hat! You'll be sure to make an impression. It's so Aussie . . .we don't even add the word 'hat' you just put on your Akubra.

Now go and visit the others who don't have to bang the shit out of their keyboards to make an impression. My fingers have really felt the pain!