Nothing much

We don't have much news at the moment, but I'll give you what we've got. Oh, and don't look for the pictures to match the text. There are no pictures that go with this entry, so I'm just rocking up some left-overs from the zoo and other trips.


For myself, I'm still unemployed, or underemployed. I'm still answering the phones (or not - most of these places don't have much phone traffic) at various offices around Melbourne. I heard nothing last week from the guy who called two weeks ago about the possibility of a sub-editing job. I kept calling him to check up on the status, but I got his voicemail three times and left messages. Once I got him and he said he was in a meeting (I gather this was untrue, or else he wouldn't have answered the phone) but would call me back (also untrue).

After more than two weeks and four fruitless phone calls, I was pretty sure nothing was going to come of the offer. But I kept hounding him, more out of stubbornness and the desire that he have to deal with me than from any real hope that I could get anything from him.

Today he called me back. The first thing he said was "I suppose you think I've been avoiding you." I said "The thought had crossed my mind."

He said that he wasn't avoiding me at all, but had been terribly busy. He'd assumed that because of the distance from here to their offices (it's 45 kilometers. There is a train, but no reliable public transport from the train station to their office) that I would probably not want to take the job. But because of my "persistence," he realised that he shouldn't make decisions like that for me, and that I should come in to do a few trial shifts and decide for myself if the commute would be too bad. He says he's very busy this week, being Easter week, but he'll call next week to set something up for me to try out. If he doesn't call me, I expect he knows by now I will call him, so I'm guardedly optimistic.

Perhaps being annoying and pestering this guy might just get me what I want.

Leslie and I went to some friends' of his' house the other day for drinks. They're a couple, Ryan and Sara, and Ryan's in Leslie's course. They're Canadian and have moved to Melbourne about as recently as we have. Sara is doing a Masters in political science at Melbourne University. They're both really interesting, fun and easygoing people, and good conversation was had all round. They're interested in meeting our possums, so I think we're going to have them round soon and they can experience the joys of possum-feeding. It's a cheap way to spend an evening.

Neat trick (and I learned this from Faith, to give credit where credit is due). Go to Google Maps and ask it for driving directions from New York City to Dublin. Read step 23. It's very funny.