After working his second 14 hour day on Thursday, Fenton arrived home to announce that he had to work in Melbourne (aka spo0t-town) for 2 weeks. They promised it would be 2 weeks, but last time this happened 2 weeks turned into months. So its Nancy and I this week – and Nancy is begins the dreaded half-yearlys this week – for which she is spectacularly ill-prepared.
On Friday afternoon at the Land of Freaks, Acronyms and Meetings, our division had its inaugural after work “drinks”. “Drinks” was in inverted commas in the invitation email (in lurid magenta and lime text) because it was a non-alcoholic occasion – so we were served fake beer and fake champagne (for reasons unexplained, we are a dry office) and a great deal of time was spent by all avoiding being sucked into conversation with our robotic GM. We strongly suspect that she bases her interactions with her minions on books she has read on how to successfully deal with minions (but sadly these attempts fail miserably).
During the “drinks” Abby, ultra-interesting-uber-bubbly-alternative-grrl whispered to me that she had accepted another role – her dream job. I’m happy for her, of course (although, in my experience, dream jobs tend to not be all they are cracked up to be q.v. batshitcrazyorg)- but she is one of the only people I can actually have a normal conversation with! Damn – the ratio of normal people to freaks is rapidly diminishing.
We now know far more about te Arctic than we would have wanted to, due to a Joe/Frank assignment, which we helped him complete on the weekend.
While waiting to collect the sprogs on Saturday, I browsed the thrift shops – not terribly much to be found, although there were a few gems – such as the rather nice Veronika Maine skirt for $6.90 – sadly I will need to mend the torn lining. Why do I invariably purchase garments with torn lining? Fortunately I don’t mind watching mindless teev and stitching away.
Other bargains were the beautiful and very girly navy velvet dress for Bess, which when I arrived home, removed the drycleaning label (which was pinned over the tag) to reveal … ta da … Laura Ashley – it was a joyous occasion indeed, given it cost me $8.
I also couldn’t resist picking up a couple of John Wyndham’s – The Kraken Wakes & The Midwich Cuckoos for $0.50 each. I just adored Day of the Triffids (although it has been quite some time since I last read it) and I’m loving The Kraken Wakes (his characters are immensely likeable).
Fenton and I have been amusing ourselves by reading some totally hilarious Hardy Boys books (only the earlier volumes are acceptable for maximum humour value). We’re reading the Armada paperback editions, the very same as those I adored in my youth – interestingly, the Armada versions have been totally anglicised – something which completely passed me by in those younger years – they have lorries and number-plates and favours and colours. Now I must try to get my hands on some early US versions – for comparative purposes. One of several things that have struck me (no pun intended) is the astounding amount of times Joe and Frank are either knocked out and/or hit in the head in each adventure – and yet they appear to remain completely free from mental impairment! I’m thinking of keeping a tally of head injuries as I read (but like most things I think of doing, I daresay it will all come nought).
