The main part of why this is such a good idea is that it can be DIYed at home, unlike the ice cream version which just turns into sludge unless you have an actual cold rock (or a frozen chopping board).

I need to get some Violet Crumble and chocolate sauce!

Anyway, I am on holiday. I am having a nice holiday. (Perhaps especially because) this is the first time in a long time that I have been on a holiday with a job on both sides of it! I just finished up a term’s contract at a very lovely school with very lovely students who I was sad to leave. I am afraid that I have been a bit spoilt by it! Next week, I am starting at another school where I’ve got a contract for the rest of the year. If it is as nice as my last school, I will be a very happy girl! But either way, it’s a load off my mind to have work lined up.

Josh and I are off to Clare tomorrow for a minibreak. We are going to start off exploring historic mines and gaols, and will finish up sipping wine by an open fire, and it will be cosy and nice :)

I think I’ve been keeping up morale for a really long time, but all I can really think about is that all my money is disappearing, it’s really unlikely that I’ll ever own a house, it’s so long since I did anything I was good at that I’m not really sure if I’m good at anything or ever was, and everybody else is able to get a job so clearly the problem is me. If you’d told me ten years ago that I’d be in this position at 26, I wouldn’t have believed you.

I’m so ashamed that I got to be such a stuff up, and I don’t know what I’m going to do.

Edit: Oh, never mind. I got a job.

- shower
- buy some grout
- buy a hammer
- browse Kmart for some cheap clothes that don’t look cheap
- perhaps browse Kmart for a doormat
- buy a new goldfish
- mop the kitchen and bathroom
- clean up the big stack of papers on my shelf
- clean up generally
- do exercise
- go to my parents’ place to borrow a reasonably-sized suitcase*
- work out an appropriate art-and-degrees configuration and put some picture hooks in the walls in the study and lounge room*
- go to the doctor for a minor procedure this afternoon (that hopefully won’t leave my arm looking bruised for a fortnight?)
- apply for at least one, preferably two advertised jobs (probably SA Health medical administration ones)
- try to work out what Act I am actually employed under as a Relief Teacher so I know if I can apply for internal government positions or not?
- send some letters to various TAFEs telling them I want to be in their availability pool

*if time permits

Pretty much this is the same as my to-do list for yesterday, except all I achieved yesterday was:
- play Tropico 3
- read
- nap
- look at pictures of funny bags on the internet

I was skeptical that the flowers would ever happen, because those little plastic cards promise all kinds of wacky hijinks. So I told him, no, I am not waiting for my cactus, you must buy me real flowers! (N.B. he did good.)

Then on Sunday night, I came home a bit crankily after the beach to this:

!! Surprise!

So pretty!! Thank you, hot weather and Josh!

Tomorrow is a day of promise. Not only is my cactus pretty, but also I get to do the (relatively fun task of) doctors’-letters-typing at work, my internet is supposedly getting connected at last, it’s late night shopping so I get to go and buy some flowers to plant in my flowerpots, there are turkey burgers for dinner and Beauty and the Geek is on TV!

Also excited by this 30-second sample from Brand New’s new album up on Amazon.com. I don’t hate it, and it’s Brand New so I’ll probably grow to love it. New Brand New!

Here is a picture of some justice.

Mope mope mope.

My plan, one way or another, is to move out of my parents’ house in October, and they’ve been nagging me to make up a budget to see if I can afford it. Hi mum and dad, I only have employment until the end of September, of course I can’t afford it!!! I am going to just cross my fingers and hope I can get another job in term 4, and otherwise live off the “Centrelink and my savings” (i.e. “don’t spend any money”) budget, supplemented perhaps by tutoring but mainly by the overwhelming determination not to still live with my parents when I turn twenty-seven in 2010.

I am still pretty bitter. I did six years of university; I’m not asking for a million dollar salary, but surely a little financial stability isn’t too much to wish for :(

Also my sister seems to be making an effort to be nice to me (because my mum asked her to), and I do not actually know how to react :-/

I do not know if this kind of mood arises from the stress of preparing for teaching, or if I actually am just particularly unlikeable to everyone except my dog lately.

Mope.

My dog and I are getting along great, at least.

A. Today I went to work and then played the Sims
B. Today I hung out with Josh
C. Today I went to work and then hung out with Josh

I think that the picture this gives of my life would be fairly accurate.

But! News! Last week I got a teaching job for term three! Full time, teaching ESL at a high school. It’s exciting and also I am a bit terrified! So tomorrow is my last day of my old job, and then I have next week off for preparation. And then EEEEK.

I’ve been doing a bit of tutoring. If anyone’s looking for a tutor in Italian, Spanish, ESL, or general essay-writing et cetera let me know?

My head isn’t in a particularly great place at the moment. Problems I don’t know how to fix. Nothing okay to blog about.

Lessons learned after several hours poring over it:
- I used to be a lot more interesting!
- I used to have much more sass?
- I miss travel a lot :(

Still need a job. There were no ASO2s to apply for this week. Possibly going to apply for local gov job where the job is to scan things, and write down what was scanned. Or, possibly going to try to dream bigger.

What else… someone let me know that FreeRice.com now lets you practise foreign language vocabulary (matching words with English synonyms) as well as your English vocabulary. It turns out that there’s a subjects page where not only can you pick a foreign language, but you can also choose to practice English grammar, chemistry, geography, maths and art history. I would recommend this site to anyone!

This morning I dropped Josh off at work as part of the new Claire’s Unemployed Chauffeur Service. Now I am at home eating frozen peas and writing job applications :(

Edit: And this!

My job interview was yesterday. It wasn’t a terrible interview as far as I could tell, but the receptionist told me that they’d had at least ten people through, so… not very good odds :(

Meanwhile, I have encountered the primary peril of casual employment and been laid off from my current job :( Today is my last day :( I am going out for lunch with my managers and also going to have a big cake… it’s pretty sad though, since this is the best job I’ve ever had by just about every measure.

So the job-seeking is full time starting next week.

Last night, my friend Marcie took me to see a movie about a dog where the dog dies at the end. THIS IS NOT WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR IN A FRIENDSHIP :@

Anyway. If I can pass a typing test this week, I have a job interview! Not in DECS, but elsewhere in the government. Yay!

Have a plan, kids.

I think if I could manage to get employed in something that was kind of using my degrees (at least one of them?) and felt somewhat like a real job, I would actually feel okay about most things in my life? But it’s kind of a big thing to have lacking.

Anyway I am applying tonight for a year-long contract in the DECS policy directorate. I would like to get it.

Unfortunately I am still all stressed out and angsty :(

Still no idea what I am doing with the rest of my life :(

Talking to Tim on MSN today, I managed to articulate what I am actually looking for in a career:
- it should be meaningful
- it should pay well
- it should not be very hard or take up all my time

I do not think this job is a real job!

IDK, the three months I did of full time data entry last year have made me hyperaware of the need to not get my soul sucked. This is mainly what I am trying to avoid. It is all a bit scary.

Also apparently I am all quiet and frowny lately. I am sorry, this is why :(

This weekend I was not at home from 8am Friday until 11:15pm Sunday. I am tired and my homework is Not Done At All.

Also I am all weird and sick. So I was way stroppy at work today. My bosses were trying to give me work all afternoon and I was like NO!! Too busy!! Leave me alone!! and… they did? Then it got to 4:30pm and I was like… oh. I am quite comfortably almost done? And I was out by 5:01! I need to be a bitch more often! Or be nicer, and not get fired.