New Job: Day One

Egad, sorry, LJ, I owe you many updates.

OK, lets see. If you'll cast your minds back to the Monday of this week. The 21st. I started my new job, at a little company you might have heard of called Tabcorp!

I was less nervous than one might expect. I mean, I've been around the traps, this is in fact about the fourth or fifth time I've had a "first day". And at least this time I didn't send out an email to the whole company saying I'd like to be known as "stud muffin". (That, unfortunately, is a true story!)

In my new hard-working guise, I decided I'm going to get to work early every day - well, early-ish, about the best I can usually manage is getting on to the 7.48AM train to the city from Merri. After that, one has to take one of a series of trams down Swanston Street. Then I remembered why in the past I've tended to get the trains later into peak hour - the Epping train at 7.48 is always packed like a sardine can! The trams, not a lot better... Ah well. I will tolerate this unpleasantness. It's also, I can report, a fair hike from Northcote to Bowen Cresent (which is south of the Shrine, sort of around the corner from the St. Kilda road police complex. The train in takes about 20 minutes (to Melbourne Central) and the tram down the road takes about another 20... I don't think I'm going to get a) a seat or b) much time to read :-(

I actually had a good day. There was the usual drill - here's a new PC, here's a desk, here's a some office supplies. Sign all these documents etc. etc. Actually, the last part was more than usual - they need background checks of one sort or another if you're gonna work in this industry. I'm also going to need a gaming license.

It was intense being back at work. Especially since now I have a kind of determination to prove certain other companies wrong about me...

Another Satisfied Customer

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There's an interesting retro store down the road from my place. I hate stepping in there, 'cause it's full of interesting shit - for example, new old stock Casio calculator watches from the eighties!

Yesterday I decided I needed a clock in my kitchen/living room. Not just any ugly clock, I needed something cool. And I knew this shop had a bunch of these old flip clocks. In fact they had about ten, of various generations. Fake wood panelled ones, models with radios. But I spotted this one - utilitarian brown, an oddly shaped case, a light that still worked, and a "seconds" dial. This was the one for me!

Waaaaaay back in the day, I had a flip clock when I was a teenager (yes, I'm that old) which was red and which I kept until it simply stopped working. So I'm a bit sentimental about them. And in fact, I acquired a really old one when my family sold our beach house about a year ago, but it stopped working a few months back :-( Ah well. I'm unreasonably delighted about this new toy, even thought all it does is hum and show the time :-)

The Rest of my Working Week

Lets see, how did the rest of my week back in the Work Force go? Tuesday I actually go my work email going, sent a couple of messages. Met some more people. Got out of the lift and was totally disorientated as to where my desk was.

And got to read some specifications! I mean, they already had a project plan, and it had my name in it. I was weirdly happy to see this, I was weirdly pleased that, for starters, they have a project plan and secondly that I featured in it!

Amusingly, the first project I'm working on is called WORMS. I kid you not! Can't remember what it stands for, although the "RM" part means "relationship management"...

Wednesday and Thursday, some four or five of us got sent on a course - talk about investing in their people - learning about something called MD CRM. Which, of course, stands for Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management. Don't say this three times fast! :-)

...which I can now pretend to be an expert in... In actual fact, it was quite interesting, and I'm looking forward to playing with it.

The course was in the city, it was nice-ish to be back in town. The guy running it was a small mountain of muscle called Ivan. Damn, I wouldn't have arm wrestled him for money!

Thursday evening, after the course finished, I went for a wander. A strange sensation came over me. I had no interest in buying things. I needed, need, for nothing! I was wandering around thinking "here I am, what can I buy or borrow to complete my life or my flat". And nothing came to mind. Nice. I do keep trying to think of fun things to get Deb, but what do you buy a coeliac vegetarian greenie cyclist with a taste for silly hats? Another silly hat, I guess!

Met up with some of my now ex co-workers at the Rooftop bar (on top of Cookie) for a drink on Thursday. It was kinda funny, of the seven people there, four no longer worked for 'em. Good. And I strongly suggested to the to the others they think about bailing - the more I think about that place, the more I hate it.

Rooftop is nice bar, if up a lot of stairs. They serve a limited range of Japanese food, and SMS you when it's ready! Great view, and I got to sit in a deck chair.