Backup

Last week was not too bad, mainly because the volume of work seemed to have died down and my business partner was away, so that always lightens the mood in the office. Even better, autumn has finally set in and I am loving the cool temperatures in the mornings and evenings. It is really the best of the year in Brisbane and the weather on the weekend was utterly sensational. Sam was away for work on Wednesday and Thursday. It was really strange not to see him on Wednesday night but it was kind of nice picking him and a colleague up at the airport on Thursday night. Usually, if I am away, it doesn't feel as weird but when he was away while I was at home, it felt rather strange. Friday evening Despite the lighter feel of the week, I was still quite busy. By the time Friday evening rolled along, I was quite happy to get changed once I got the last of my work done and went to meet up with the boys for Friday night movie. As usual, we had dinner at Grill'd. While Sam came ...

It was another crazy week. When I am in a frenzied frame of mind, everything seems so much harder and more overwhelming. By the end of the week, I was starting to fret about the volume of work I had to do between now and the end of the financial year. Yes, I am stressed but I am always stressed at this time of the year. Meanwhile, even my volunteering position is throwing up new problems. Between that and my day job, I am seriously worried about how I could get everything done. Friday evening Ryan and Jake went to Melbourne, so Friday night movie was only going to be Sam and me. We couldn't be bothered to stay in the city, so we texted each other and decided to meet at home instead. When we got home, I decided that we should have some fresh sashimi at Fresh Sushi Co . It was a great decision. Not so great a decision was that we forgot to bring wine, or rather, I forgot to bring wine because Sam was doing a de-tox, so he was off wine for a few days. Anyway, the food was amazin...

It was a stressful week again but it was mostly self-induced. I had a new gig for an organisation and had this all-day presentation to do on Friday. I don't usually have problems doing presentations; I have done many of them and given that I lecture every first semester, speaking to a large group of people has not been an issue. However, given that this was a new gig, I just wanted to do well and because I didn't write my own material (I had to use theirs), I was just a bit anxious, in particular having regard to the fact that this was an all-day facilitation role. I am glad to report that I did very well, I think. I got a lot of good feedback during breaks and afterwards, even though I finished about half an hour earlier. I am yet to hear back from the organisation about the formal feedback result, so at this stage, as far as I am concerned, I could still have sucked and don't know about it. Regardless, I enjoyed the experience and wouldn't doing them regularly if th...

Here we go again - Malcolm Turnbull confirmed his intention for a 2 July 2016 election today by triggering a double dissolution, so game on!!! Politically, I don't affiliate myself with any party. Every time there is a vote, I vote on policy based on what I think are the most relevant and critical issues the community is facing at the time. On that basis, I think the ABC's Vote Compass has attempted to label me just about right (without weighing the results):

Last week was only a 4-day week, so it shouldn't have been as stressful as it was, only that one of my clients tried to do a deal by themselves and really screwed it up. By the time they came to me, I was like, you've already compromised your position, so there isn't an awful lot I could do now to salvage the deal. To make it worse, the issues were complex and highly technical, so it was really hard for them to understand these issues despite me trying very hard to explain them. At this stage, we have only spoken over the phone but they are coming in on Tuesday, so my blood pressure is likely to go up some more. Other than that, I have been a bit anxious about running an all-day workshop this coming Friday. While it is relatively easy to lecture for an hour or so, it's going to be a completely different kettle of fish to facilitate a session for the whole day, so I am not sure how I am going to perform. Even so, I have gone through the material and am quite confident...

One thing I find out about myself is that if I have free time, I tend to cut myself off from the rest of the world, which is totally unlike me when I am in my work mode. Doing what I do, I find myself 'out there' all the time, connecting with people and finding out what is going on around me. But when I don't have to work, like today, being another Monday public holiday, I just want to crawl under a rock and indulge in Wilde Kitchen, movies, TV shows, and computer games. Friday evening I think there is such a thing as too many days off, which happens at this first half of the calendar year. While there was an air of excitement for a long weekend just before the Anzac Day public holiday last week, everyone was a lot more subdued by the time Friday evening came along. Last week was a patchy week. I had enough to do but they weren't necessarily productive work. I had a few things to finish, so I didn't get out of the office until about 6:30 pm. As usual, we met...