I had to get this dream down somewhere to record just how weird it was.

Just like those classic horror movies that you rent out with friends on a saturday night when it’s cold and wet - this dream followed along the classic lines.. friends, seperate, dark wooded pathways, buildings conveniently placed there when most needed, filled with something horrible.. does the star of the show escape? or die a horrible death.

I was with a group of friends and we were trying to escape from this group who were terrorists, so we snuck out in the middle of the night. However I got seperated from them, instead of following them as they crossed a sports oval, I elected to run along the side, in the dark with overhanging trees on the pathway and get to the other side of the oval instead of going with my friends.

As I run through this pathway, trees, dead branches littering the pathway, I dodge these with ease until I hear chittering noises, and my gut fills with dread, and my fear are realised that I am being followed. I start running, but suddenly I am being attacked by little gremlin type creatures which are leaping on me from all angles in the dark. I rip them off me, swinging one of them around like a baseball bat to fend them off before throwing it into a tree. It hits the tree with a squeak and slides down wetly to the ground. I keep moving along the path kicking, stomping and throwing these gremlins with sharp teeth away, and then run like hell for this building I can see once I clear the wooded path.

As I run towards the building, I look back and I have this tiny furry balls with teeth chasing me. “Crap” I think and put on a burst of speed as the adrenalin surges and I get inside the building, with no electricity, but the rooms are filled with teddybears, stuck on walls and doors. The gremlin things are trying to break through the doors, so I rip these teddies off the walls and throw them on the ground and go through the only other set of doors in the entrance to get away from them. The Gremlin creatures roll in, and get distracted by the teddybears on the floor and start ripping apart the toy teddybears and the air is filled with stuffing and ripped fur and snarling noises. I keep running, room after room after room. More bears are ripped off walls and sacrificed as I make my escape.

I see a big set of double doors and shoving the doors open, I bolt into yet another room, I turn and slam the doors shut as I see gremlins beginning to make their way through the previous doors, and I slam the double doors shut and lock them, and turn around to see a room filled with the noise of typewriters and vampires, typing.

These Vampires (they are all dressed similarly to The Count, from Sesame Street) are sitting at the typewriters - typing. They stop as one and turn to look at me. I think at this stage I panic and bolt for a window and start to kick it out. Meanwhile the gremlins have finished the teddybears in the previous room and are trying to break into the Vampire typing pool. As I am kicking out the glass of one of these windows, I find that it’s not enough, and I have to kick out another window, so desperately I start on a second window and one of the Vampires stands up and comes over to the window and watches me as I break through it, desperate to escape.

“need some help?” he enquires. I take one look at him and launch myself through the window as the door breaks down and the Vampire typing pool is filled with the sounds of feral growling, ripping noises and short screams as the Vampires defend themselves and their typing pool. I run across the building on the roof, and see my friends reaching safety in the distance.

I woke up after that. Thank goodness.

I really hate getting up in the morning… it’s so cold, especially waiting at the bus stop that is supposed to turn up at 6.40am but doesn’t till 6.45am. I know it’s only 5 minutes, but with the cold snap in the mornings the last few mornings those 5 minutes stretches out to an eternity when you are facing death by hypothermia. Thank god for scarves, and long coats with deep pockets.

So on this particular bus, there’s a man who supports Essendon. I think he thinks I support Essendon since I was dressed in red and black yesterday and he was too, complete with an Essendon scarf. So he smiled at me. *sigh* so I smiled back politely and sat in my bus seat next to the back door and stared at my feet. (I really really need that mp3 player - no, I don’t need an IPOD) So the man got off the bus and I promptly forgot about him. Today I was on the bus in my usual seat and the man, complete with Essendon scarf stopped bythe seat (to get off the bus) and made a point of getting my attention and smiling at me. Thank goodness tomorrow I catch a later bus.

This seems to be my blogging week this week. It’s only monday and I had a horrible start to the week last night after I posted my entry yesterday.

I spoke to Dad on Saturday and he told me mum had hurt herself at work, I was a little concerned but he didn’t say anything to indicate how bad it was. So I spoke to mum last night, and found out that her injury is quite nasty - and she had xrays on friday to see if her ribs were broken, but they weren’t but she needed an ultrasound today to see how bad the bruising was. I think I am worried because the injury has the potential albeit a slight one, to kill her, a deep bruise breaking up, clots in the heart or brain, my imagination was just running rampant.

So I woke up to get ready for work, late again, not for work but just getting up to wash my hair and I hadn’t prepared for going to work the night before like I usually do. Throughts about mum were flying through my mind, I couldn’t find my multirider, and whilst I am short of cash whilst we catch up with unpaid bills, accumulating due to job changes, the loss of the multirider ($27.50 thank you very much) weighed heavily on my mind, we only have $75 dollars to last another 11 days till I get paid again. Then of course today was the day the buses were having huge changes and a bus that used to exist has been deleted and I got onto the wrong bus to get to work, had a stress attack because I was going to be late for work. However someone wanted me to get to work on time, a bus drove past which was my buss, so I made the driver call the bus ahead so that I could get out and change buses, along with 7 other people from that same bus.

The bus driver has to be one of the nicest ones ever. There was alot of confusion, mind you, there were alot of pensioners on the bus, so I wonder if that had something to do with it :> - anyways he stopped the bus at a stop and explained the route changes, which earned him a round of applause from many on the bus, which amazed me. Most bus drivers I encounter are grumpy men, however I do have to admit that many of the drivers on my route seem to have a personality and smile alot, so I guess I was lucky.

I got into work, to be told I worked an extra hour longer than I had to on Friday *argh* and I could have gone home earlier than the call I got AFTER my home time which kept me back nearly an hour when I was activating four datalines for GPRS on four phones, with dad communicating with two sons on MSN, and me sending settings by SMS to these guys phones and trying to troubleshoot. I ended up emailing out to him manual settings for GPRS and MMS to him. I worked my ass off for six hours (lucky for me, a short shift) however, I do have to work 7.30am till 4pm for the rest of the week.

I got my massage at work, thank goodness, and I was so tense. I was gritting my teeth, and just got through my calls without alot of enthusiasm till later on in the day. It did slowly improve I guess the more I got absorbed into work, and less thinking about mum. Finally at the end of the day, I found out that a customer had called up to say thank you about an issue I helped with her on Friday - which earned me a commendation type mention. So I guess that last bit for the day made me feel much better.

So now I organise my lunch for tomorrow, lay out my clothing and toddle off to bed and hopefully have some good dreams.

So today was washing day, i have been soaking my whites and did my dark and coloured clothing and they’re about dry now. I have been going through my wardrobe and found some old clothes which I am going to keep for some of it. Others well.. they have seen better days so I’ll be ditching those clothes.

I am wondering if someone would be happy to have them, or would probably take one look and think, OK - this need to go. I don’t know how M and I managed to accumulate such crap in our wardrobe. I am actually looking for a wool coat in that wardrobe I purchased about 5 years ago on special from Myer which was on special for $99 and had been discounted from $299. I have some other stuff I have found I want to keep, so I am pretty happy about some of my find. I found an old pair of french star jean cutoffs that I made a long time ago - I think I’ll keep them, I am pretty sure I’ll be able to fit into those
I also need to fix my bike, I need another form of exercise to keep me busy and exercise some other muscles. I am not sure how far I need to ride, but I am thinking if I do 2.5km for a walk, maybe do about 10K ride.

I walked 12kms last week, over 6 days. This week - i’ll be looking at about 14km I think. We’ll see how that goes. I didn’t go out to walk today, but walked on the machine, I didn’t have alot of time really - my right knee didn’t hurt today and I didn’t have the brace on, so I guess that’s a good sign that it’s healing which is good to feel I’ll just get up early tomorrow and do my hair and stuff then toddle off to work. Whilst I start at 10 am tomorrow - for the rest of the week, I start at 7.30am so it’s still all early nights for me. Have I mentioned how hard it is for me to do the early night thing? I hate it.

Big Brother is on .. yay for frysie going, I hope paul or trev wins, Bree’s a bitch! Every conversation ends up being about her - her life - her feelings - what about me me me me me! she says.

I finally managed to get out of the house for some r&r and took M with me. We walked down to Carousel and purchased some tickets to LaPrem! to see I, Robot. We were going to see shrek 2, but didn’t make it to the cinema in time for that session. I have to comment that it was a pretty good movie. I remember reading the book ages ago, and I agree that it wasn’t really the same body of work as was written by Aasimov. However, it kept true to the feel of the book and the ideas. I have to say, if you gave it a different movie name, then perhaps people would not have bitched about it so much.

Whilst we were there, a family rocked up with a baby and also sat in LaPrem. No problems really, I didn’t care so much at the time since they were sitting on the other side of the Cinema until near the end of the movie, when the baby started crying. It had done little bits but been hushed up, but seriously was bawling during the whole climax of the film and altho we were at least 40 metres away, it was really irrirtating. That was about the worst part of the whole event. So M complained about it when we left and got some tickets for next time. I do feel that kids under the age of 5 shouldn’t be allowed in LaPrem or in movies which aren’t rated pg, or G. There is a creche at Carousel, they could have used that.

I sound unsympathetic - but I wouldn’t go to the movies with children unless it’s a kids movie.

I went to my first blogmeet last night.

There’s weren’t any other girls, so I was kinda disappointed. There was alot of geek chat and technical stuff, and discussion of some kind of conference/lecture in october about blogs. I do hope it’s not just going to be talking about the technical aspects of blogging, I am more of a social commentary type personage and tinker with my blog to keep it looking interesting. I got the sense that there weren’t too many of those types at the meet, and I was glad David was around because we got to chat about a few things non computer related. I guess in a way, I can say that the blog meets for perth follows along the usual lines of technical stuff when my friends get together. The boys talk about internets, new technology to do with broadband, whilst the girls gossip about food, their guys, pets and relationship issues. (please note, david is not a chick)

I might have blabbled on too much about some stuff, so I think next time I’ll just smile and nod.

It was nice meeting and talking to people I have been reading, for in some cases at least a year. Other’s I have read in passing, but meeting the people, feel motivated to explore a little more. I was late *surprise surprise* I thought it was 7.30pm. I think if I hadn’t turned up, Ben and David would have paid me out for it. So.. down the list of perth blogs, Staypuff, High-fidelity and Kick and Scream. Others I haven’t listed would be NottheWest, Richard Giles, Twisted Hamster, Graeme of BarkingOwl, decaffeinated and I hope I haven’t missed anyone.

Work has been good, I’ve made it four days out of five, another tomorrow… and I think that’s going to be good. I had my first assessment listening to my calls by the ATL today, and apparently I am doing well, and they’re happy with my level of committment to the job, so that makes me feel happy

Shopping, and then bed tonight.. I have to have dinner now too before shopping.. *sigh* It’s a hard life!

*footnote* I just looked at my webcounter .. first time in ages, and have to comment that last night, i saw more mac’s on a desk than I have seen for a very very long time, when I was working at UWA. Looking at the counter, I think possibly everyone who was there last night uses a Mac actually looked at my site today. Rather amusing, however Mac laptops look damn good, and make my Toshiba look like a thick stack of books Now I’ll have to get a thinner computer.

Last night I went to visit my parents, say hello, eat dinner and watch the Freo Dockers beat the Crows at home! *does the mexican wave* After the football, mum had got up to make coffees and teas and Dad was stretched out on the couch as normal, and then he started to tell me about this tea that mum brought last weekend. Dad is a tea fiend, and mum found a brand of tea called “Billy Tea” - being aussies and all, mum thought it would be nice to take it home and give dad a cup and see how it taste. Dad said to me, “remember that fish meal mum cooked? It was worse than that!” - The fish meal he refers to, was my birthday dinner about 14 years ago, and should be reported COPS style “When Birthday Dinners go wrong, be prepared for the [pause] Consequences”

The first sign of trouble was the wrinkling of dad’s nose as he brought the cup closer to his mouth, and he caught a whiff of it, he looked at mum suspiciously before taking a huge gulp and swallowed. Then he started coughing and gagging. The tea tasted, according to dad like mud and dirt. “No wonder,” he proclaimed, “that no one drinks billy tea around campfires anymore, they were making it in the dark and throwing handfuls of dirt into the billy can to drink something!” By this time I was laughing so hard I was crying and mum was most offended (or trying to be, in between fits of laughter). “Perhaps mum was making it wrong!” I suggested as i was mopping up the tears from my eyes. Dad looked at me, “What do you mean? making it wrong”

“Well dad, maybe mum should have swung the cup around a few times like they did with billy cans so the tea could mix properly, it might have tasted better!” Well that was the end of that conversation. Dad laughed so hard his teeth flew out of his mouth and I still have a sore tummy today from laughing so hard. Gotta love my parents I haven’t laughed so hard in ages.

I keep dreaming about how to fix mobile phones, how to activate them… From Monday, it’s in the trenches, fists flying, feet kicking, I will be in with the rest of them and trying to cut it with the grownups. The sandpit of training is now closed, we graduate from newbies to rookies, and the next lot are coming up behind us and we must make room for the new blood. I am really looking forward to it all - the story will probably change monday night though once I get home.

Astalavista! I have washing to hang out and a walk to walk.
 
Ooh! one more thing, I picked this up from Robert Corr’s site and I think it should be looked at and spread around. They want more non english speakers and non americans to do this survey

I got through another week of work, and I guess I did OK. It’s scary now having to realise that I’ll be reviewed weekly and have my phone calls listened to and I’ll stress about it all. I just don’t want my team leader or the ATL to listen to me whilst sitting next to me. I suffer from performance anxiety.

I didn’t get to go out last night with friends, or talk much to my online ones. I wanted to talk about work and home issues and wasn’t able to. Hopefully I’ll be able to talk tonight to some of my friends if they don’t go out anywhere expensive, otherwise it will be venting to others on sunday maybe. Funny, due to work taking up most of my time I just don’t get to talk to anyone as much anymore - real life and online friends, I miss talking to them and when my weekend rolls around, I will log on to catch up with people now, and be more interested in talking etc than during the week since usually I am tired and just wanna sleep.

After sending an email to a friend last night, he had promised to log on so we could MSN last night and talk, and it didn’t happen, he replied back to a mailing list. I found out this morning when I logged on this morning. So - how bad does it look for me? Well *shrug* I guess I can be a little philosophical on one hand, so … now the mailing list knows we talk (if they didn’t know before, they do now. So instead of talking to the email happy friend, I chatted to another friend on IRC instead Hopefully things work out for her.

However I am making new friends with the people I work with. A few things have irritated me with the team that I am now with, some of them are giggling girties and all they do is laugh and chat when they’re at meetings and stuff - or read magazines when waiting for calls. Thankfully that’s no longer going to be an issue at least with the magazine reading since our Team Leader gave us a list of expectations she’d like us to meet when we had our first team meeting yesterday.

When I went to the pub, and talked with a couple of the team I work with - it’s interesting to see that they really do see alot of things along the same line as I do when it comes to how to work professionally. I felt alot more comfortable about working with them and knowing I can talk to them about quite a few issues when I am bugged about it and they will see where I am coming from. Just need to sit on my hands and wait out the girly politics .. more later have to go shopping and stuff