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You are here: Home / 2010 / Archives for September 2010

Archives for September 2010

She works hard for the money, so hard for it honey

September 28, 2010 by Jen

switchboard
Creative Commons License photo credit: misterbisson

Years ago when I first starting working I missed out on a job. I saw my interviewer at the pub one night and after I’d finished moaning to my friends that he didn’t give me the job I went over to see how it had all worked out. He said that the person they’d hired was more interested in her boyfriend than her work.

He asked me to give them a call, which I did, and then went in for a chat with the Director and he offered me a job on the spot. If I hadn’t got off my backside at the pub that night and chatted to my interviewer goodness knows where I’d have ended up.

This article talks about following up with the hiring manager if you didn’t get a job you thought you were suited to. This wasn’t quite my scenario but it’s something to keep in mind.

My experience was going back some time ago where I was the ‘office girl’ amongst a goup of men. It was my job to make coffee which I did willingly except when I was busy. During my time in this job we got a computer at the front desk to replace my typewriter (see I am going back a bit). So at the beginning I had to type all the correspondence on a typewriter and because my accuracy was a bit questionable I had to do a lot of retyping. My accuracy improved a lot.

For one of my first jobs I didn’t mind it but it all went quite sour when there management interstate took my boss to court over something or other. He ended up being thrown out of the company and it all went downhill for me after that. I stayed on for a little while but ended up quitting without another job to go to because it was literally making me sick and I didn’t have much work to do so I was quite bored.

I had two months out of work which coincided with living in my first share house so I lived the life of a night owl which suited the clocks of my housemates who worked in the hospitality industry. The downside was of course that I didn’t have much money to play with.

I’ll never forget going on a second interview with a patent lawyer during this time and one of the lawyers (interviewers) told me point blank that they wouldn’t hire me because I would probably go and have children soon. Of course these days they’re not supposed to say that! I’ve always wanted to go back to him and tell him what a mistake he made because it wasn’t for at least another ten years that I would have a child.

At the job I ended up leaving after the management infighting I was sent on a receptionist course after my boss heard me say ‘okey dokey’ to someone on the phone. At this course we learned how to use some switchboards including those old plug ones, but in a couple of jobs later we had a secondhand switchboard at the front desk which I had to occasionally use. It was really clunky and awful and I had a hard time putting a caller through one day. Quite a few expletives audibly left my mouth while trying to put this man through which unfortunately he heard. I told him that I wouldn’t be saying who I was then would I? I can’t even remember apologising – poor man.

I lasted a couple of years I think in this job but they were the type of employers who expected you to work really long hours with no paid overtime. They weren’t paying me enough to compensate me for this extra work and then I found out that they were paying other office staff overtime so I refused to come in on weekends after that. I was hoping they would sack me but because I was really good at my job, they didn’t.

I resigned when I went overseas on an extended backpacking holiday glad to be gone. My holiday was a time for me to have a good hard think about what I wanted to do, including what I wanted to study because I could see a university degree in my future.

When I left high school I’d thought I wanted to be a social worker and at that time you couldn’t study social work until three years or so after you left high school. All I can say is thank goodness for that. There was nothing else I wanted to study although I wish I’d just done something because higher education was paid for by the government then.

Nowadays I’m miles away from the office girl that I used to be but those typing skills sure do come in very handy.

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My photo on the news weather segment

September 22, 2010 by Jen

Storm coming in - photo featured on ABC news weather photo of the day 15 September 2010

Sometimes I’m so busy thinking of content ideas for work that I forget about my blog. I just realised that I’ve forgotten to share something.

A few months ago I emailed the ABC TV and submitted a photo I’d taken a month or two prior for their weather segment. Each night they show a viewer’s photo and say who took the photo.

A week ago it was me.

The photo above shows a beach scene with storm clouds coming in over West Beach. The person walking along the beach is my son and his mood was as stormy as the weather coming in.

He’d been at a friend’s place for a day and night while The Surfer and I went to see Tom Jones at A Day on the Green. I don’t know why he was in such a snit when we picked him up but he was. A comedown from having a good time with his mate perhaps?

Anyway, I hoped like crazy that I wouldn’t have to run and grab him to then run back to the car as a storm hit. Luckily I didn’t.

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Bali

September 20, 2010 by Jen

Dreamland Beach shopping

It’s nearly three months since we arrived home from Bali. I remember that Monday morning. It was cold. I hadn’t slept at all the night before on the plane. I had horrible holiday comedown and when I went to do my grocery shop to get food for the week I had to keep wiping the tears away from my eyes.

Below are the posts I wrote after we got back from Bali – all in the one spot.

Bali – the shopping

Bali – the food

Bali – transport

Bali – the beginning

Now it’s just a memory but people keep throwing it in my face by going to Bali. Why is it that so many people I know have just been or are going very soon?

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It’s easy for the young

September 9, 2010 by Jen

Learning to skateboard

Whenever we stay at The Surfer’s place we usually go for a walk of some description. When I say some description, I walk and the kids scooter, bike ride or skateboard. The Surfer has three skateboards so he lends it to JJ on these occasions.

And JJ picked up skateboarding just like that. He’s well and truly used to scootering so that might help with the whole balance thing.

I’ve had a go on the scooter once or twice and not bothered to go back there.

When I was about 12 I went ice skating when we were on a school camp. I was the girl clutching the rails on the outskirts of the ice rink. On one of my rounds there was a group of about three boys in a row which meant I had to let go of the rail to get past them. I didn’t do too well and started to fall. To break my fall I grabbed one of the boys by his top. It helped to slow me down so the impact of bum on ice wasn’t as bad as it could have been but my red hot embarrrassed face nearly melted the ice. There was no graceful exit from this because I couldn’t just skate off.

So when I see JJ just take to the skateboard like a natural it makes me a bit envious that I was never able to do that myself.

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Over 1000 posts on this blog

September 7, 2010 by Jen

Steps

This will be my 1008th 1009th post on this blog. I don’t think that includes pages either, and I have a section that are pages rather than posts (sorry a bit of WordPress blog speak).

This post will therefore be a bit of a short retrospective through those 1000 odd posts and six years.

It all started in April 2004 when I had a sick day from work. I wasn’t bed bound, but wasn’t well enough to go to work either and my first post was about why I was spending the day home. I setup up my blog on Typepad to begin with and eventually moved over to self-hosted WordPress so I could have the flexibility to do what I wanted.

I had visions of winning all sorts of blogging awards for being a fabulous blog but that hasn’t transpired. I used to vigilantly check my stats but don’t worry about that as much any more. I’ve been listed on a couple of top sites for this and that for Australian bloggers during my six years or so blogging and that’s made me feel good. Those sites don’t exist any more otherwise I would link. I was, however, chosen to be part of the 9rules network.

I have built up a readership and some of those regulars still visit and I appreciate it. I have read lately on others’ blogs that they’ve noticed the amount of comments has dropped off and I think that’s probably due to people Twittering and Facebooking. I do both those things and I know I’m guilty of not commenting as much. I also note that I’ve removed some of the more personal blogs from my reading list either because I got bored with them or the partial feeds gave me the willies. I’m always on the lookout for new personal type blogs so feel free to recommend them to me.

My most popular posts are not really ones that I thought I’d written particularly well, but there they are.

  • How to make Tomboy Stitch
  • The best banana cake ever
  • Sometimes it all gets too much for him (about the tantrum thing that kids do)
  • Where I spill a lot on my About page which I need to update.
  • How to pose for photos without showing your double chin.

I started this blog as a place to write and I was usually pretty good at keeping it updated. It became a place to write about raising my son on my own and some of the struggles and joys I experienced. Just have a look back through the parenting section to read about that if you’re interested. I don’t write as much about him now as he’s getting older and it’s not really fair to spill my guts about him any more.

About two years ago I started incorporating more of my photos into the blog. I’ve always been interested in taking photos and I like to include images within my posts. A few months ago I even got paid to take photos at one year old twins birthday party. While I enjoyed it I realised it’s not something I want to do professionally because it’s something I like and I don’t want that ruined.

Also about two years ago I was offered a product to review so I started a reviews/giveaways section of this blog. I don’t have offers of products to review flooding in but that’s okay because I haven’t got the time to do that anyway. I like to pass things on but haven’t had much success in getting interest for things to giveaway so am not sure that I will continue with that part of it. The reviews bit works because I still get searches on those things so I think they are useful. And they are honest reviews, hopefully a bit like a friend telling you what they think of a particular product.

If you still do read this blog, thanks again, and I’d love it if you took the time to comment and tell me so. It will make me feel good and serve as a reminder to get my ass over to your blog to return the love.

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