Category: Work

Here comes the bride

/ Renae / 2 Comments

This is a very late post about a beautiful wedding that I was lucky enough to officiate way back in April. It was my first wedding and I couldn’t have been happier that I was performing the ceremony for our 2 friends, Nathan and Cal. I have to admit that I was pretty nervous leading up to the day, and the night before I had not one but two nightmares that I couldn’t get to the ceremony!

We arrived at the venue over an hour before the start time, just so that I felt nice and organised. When I started to get ridiculously nervous, I reminded myself that it wasn’t about me. That the day was all about Nathan and Cal, and that I was just there as a helper. This made me relax a whole lot and I really started enjoying myself – getting things ready, and chatting to other friends who were there.

I love weddings. I know I have mentioned this before, but I really do. They are one of the happiest occasions in a couple’s life and I always feel so priveleged when I am a part of someone’s special day as a guest. But to be a Celebrant at a wedding is a whole new honour. Nathan and Cal wrote their own vows which were just beautiful, and I really felt blessed to be a part of it all.

Getting everything in order before the big arrival

With the lovely couple
(I don’t know who was more nervous – them or me!!)
Wifey shmoozing with guests after the ceremony
Nathan and Cal rocking out on the dance floor
When we first started planning the wedding I said something along the lines of “this will be my first wedding – I’ve never done this before” (which they already knew) to which they replied “well we’ve never done this before either so we’re in the same boat.” I’m so glad my first wedding was for a couple I knew well – it certainly helped with the nerves! Thanks Nathan and Cal!

I have done one other wedding since then that I’ll blog about separately, and I have one booked in for the 19th of December as well. Littlefoot will be very little indeed at that one, but I’m sure everything will come together nicely. I’m really looking forward to building up my business in the next few years!

Bomb dive

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Or is that dive bomb? Whatever. All I know is that the energy I was feeling here has gone on a holiday without my permission and left me at home from work “sick” for 2 days this week. I tried, I really did try. I went to work on Thursday and lasted from 10am til 11am before I had to go home. It was either go home or pass out under my desk for the rest of the day. I wonder if I had done that if anyone would have noticed? Would that still have counted as being at work? Would I have been paid?? Me thinks not. And then the next day it took me an hour and 15 minutes to get to work.

Here’s why:

It took 10 minutes to walk the 150m or so to the bus stop
The bus took 9 minutes
I went to the Post Office to post a birthday present and started to feel quite faint
I went to the coffee shop next door to have a little sit down and an orange juice
It took almost half an hour to feel better
It took 5 minutes to walk the 50m to work
It took about a minute to walk up 14 stairs
I had to rest at the top of the stairs for 5 minutes before I could go through the last door to get to work
I sat down and recovered for another 10 minutes
I went to tell my boss I was going home

She asked why I had come in in the first place.

I wondered the same thing, particularly because it was absolutely pouring down rain and it would have been far more logical to stay at home in my nice warm bed. But I felt pretty good in the morning! It really wasn’t until I got to the Post Office, in the heating, and then to work, again in the stuffy suffocating heating, that I started to feel rotten. I think I have some sort of virus or something that is just messing with my body temp/blood pressure. The Midwife I phoned on Thursday said it wasn’t anything to worry about but to go and see my Doc “if symptoms persist”.

So I’m going to try to go to work again tomorrow and hope for the best. I think this will be my last week of work though. I was going to work next week as well, but I think my body is saying that enough is enough.

And the reason I’m sharing all of this? We just got home from a lovely day in Beechworth (post to come) and I’m avoiding doing the kitchen after roo burgers for dinner. “Oh lovely Hubsbaaaaaaaannnnd!”

Time out

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Wifey and the folding machine are taking some time out to think about their relationship – mainly wondering if they can go on this way.

Wifey is leaning towards “not”.

Unnecessarily painful, but a satisfactory result

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As my Mama always says “it’s not what you know, but who you know.”

I’m mostly okay with that. Truly. I understand the way things work. What I resent is not being approved for a property on our own merit, with no good reason whatsoever, but as soon as they find out we know the owner of the business (a.k.a. I give-in out of sheer desperation and ring the owner of the business who we dealt with when we were looking to buy, and tell him what’s been going on for the last 2 weeks) we get a phone call within half an hour saying our application has been successful.

But here’s the clincher. She actually says to me:

“I wish you had told me earlier that you knew Gerald*.”

I was ropeable. My response:

“That should not have mattered. We had a good application with everything you needed, and knowing the owner of the business should not have made a difference.”

I just couldn’t believe she said that to me!! I had considered a week ago to ring the owner, but I didn’t want to involve him. I didn’t want to look like I was using him to get a place. Apparently this would have been quite acceptable, nay, MANDATORY if we wanted to be spared this whole rigmarole.

I’m not going to go in to it any further, other than to say we’re very happy it has been resolved in our favour, and that the owner of the business will be receiving a 4 page letter outlining the goings-on over the last 2 weeks. I just think he would want to know.

Oh, and I have an interview for some casual admin work in Wang on Monday. See? I told you everything would work out.

*name has been changed to protect the awesome.

1 whole year today!!

/ Renae / 4 Comments

Happy-1-year-at-my-job-anniversary-birthday to meeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Yes, it’s official. I have held a permanent, full-time job for 1 whole year. Hallelujah! Today marks 1 year at my job here at Newman College, full-time, and I’m pretty excited about this milestone. Well, actually, I only just remembered about it now!

Interesting things about my job:

  • I haven’t taken a sick day since I started (I’ve been late in twice with a bad neck though)
  • I have had about 7 weeks of holidays (some taken leave without pay)
  • I have another 6 weeks off over Christmas
  • We have coffee every morning together at 10:30am
  • We have morning tea all together (including other non-office staff) every Wednesday and the kitchen provides tasty treats such as toasted bacon and egg sandwiches or scones or biscuits (I’m trying to cut back though!!)
  • We celebrate everyone’s birthday with an extra morning tea
  • We go out to lunch a few times a year all together and enjoy a lovely 3 course meal
  • I really like working here. The people, the location, the flexibility and generosity I experience every day reminds me of how blessed I am to have this job.

And I plan to be here until we leave college next June/July, so let the morning teas continue!

Job #30 – Newman College

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Started casual work on 25th August, full-time on 20th October 2008

(Wow! 30 jobs in 30 days! It’s like I planned it or something! 🙂

After my Channel 7 gig, the business manager at college offered me some casual reception/office work when I wasn’t working my other job (database admin). So I appreciatively took them up on their kind offer. The receptionist here had taken extended leave and they weren’t sure if and when she was coming back, so it was a week-to-week arrangement which suited me fine at the time. About a month later, they offered the job to me full-time and after very careful consideration, I accepted.

When I let my part-time employer know that I was resigning (I stated that I needed full-time work and gave a whole month notice), they counter-offered a full-time job at their company. It was a LOT more money, and longer hours. I did consider this offer – let’s face it, the money would have been really great and I would have had a high-responsibility position, but my heart just wasn’t in it.

So I made a lifestyle choice and stuck with my original decision to work full-time with the college. They weren’t overly happy and they tried to bribe me with chocolate (my one weakness! besides red wine that is…) but it wasn’t to be.

So I began full-time employment here at the college just over a month ago and it’s going great. I have a 30 meter commute to work and so much free time on my hands that I don’t know what to do with! Though, I’m sure I’ll find something! It’s also very social here and not only do I work with lovely people, I get to have lunch with Hubs most days (bonus!) and there’s always students coming in and out of the office which gives the place a nice atmosphere. AND they all stop to have coffee at 10:30am (just like YACMU!) AND they have a special staff morning tea every Wednesday! It’s great!

So that’s it folks. Scary? Yes. A little depressing? Sure. Frustrating? More than you can imagine. But here I am, in a job that I like, feeling like I make a difference (maybe a small one, but a difference none-the-less) and enjoying a very nice lifestyle. What more could a gal ask for?

Job #29 – Channel 7

/ Renae / 1 Comment

August 2008

Whilst looking for another permanent part-time job to complement the database administrator job, I picked up some temp work through my old recruitment company (they’re Australia-wide) in Channel 7’s Olympic Call Centre. It was pretty crazy! I had anywhere between 50 and 150 calls per day, with callers mainly asking about programming schedules. And the Equestrian. (wha..?) Unfortunately we didn’t get the schedules that regularly, so we often didn’t have much to tell callers, which made it interesting at times!

Again, I worked with great people and the money was good so I was feeling a little less financial pressure. We had moved in to College by this stage and the bills had started coming in, so it was nice not to have to worry about money. This job was obviously only for the duration of the Olympics and since we had to know exactly what was going on, there were big screen TVs in all the call centre rooms, so I got to watch sport all day AND get paid for it! It was super!

Job #28 – Chemical Engineers

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July – October 2008

Now, obviously I have absolutely no regrets about us moving to Melbourne (LOVING IT!!) but I found it a little frustrating/ironic that I had finally found a job situation that I was really happy with, and I had to leave and start all over again. Such is life.

When we arrived in Melbs, I was determined to start work straight away, which means I perhaps didn’t get the most suitable job. I had the idea to do the 2 part-time jobs down here again, but it wasn’t to be. I was hired as a part-time database administrator which was okay, but it turns out God had something even BETTER lined up for me. I can’t say much more about this without giving too much away, so I’ll leave it at that.

(We’re so close to the end of November now!!! It’s been fun!)

Job #27 – YACMU (What? Again???)

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June 2007 – June 2008 (part-time)

How could I say no? My old project (Child Safe Church) was getting another face-lift, and YACMU wanted me to be a part of it. So they offered me part-time work of 5 days a fortnight to manage the project. Although I loved working at Southern-X, doing the job full-time wasn’t very challenging, so I applied to cut back to part-time and only do 2 days per week. They were okay with that, so I started my new work routine.

I worked at the hospital Mondays and Wednesdays, and at YACMU Tuesdays, Thursdays and Friday mornings. This meant that my weekend started at 12:30pm on a Friday! It was sweeeeeeeet! I was also at the beginning stages of planning our wedding so this gave me some free time to look at dresses, flowers, decorations and all wedding-related things. It was also nice to be able to have lunch with family and friends or catch up for an early pint at the pub.

This type of work situation really suited my lifestyle and I felt that I had FINALLY found my dream job/s.

Job #26 – Southern X-Ray at Wesley Hospital

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March 2007 – June 2008

Finally! A job that lasted more than 6 months! I started here full-time as an MIA – Medical Imaging Assistant. I assisted the radiographers in MRI, CT, Ultrasound and X-Ray, and assisted the Doctors with cannulations (inserting teeny needles into veins to inject contrast dye) and a few other procedures (some not-so-pleasant). The MIAs were the gofers of Southern-X, so we didn’t get huge amounts of respect from some of our colleagues, but we were adored by the patients. The money was pretty lousy but I got HEAPS of patient contact which I really loved.

I worked with heaps of people – other MIAs, Radiologists (the doctors), Radiographers (the button-pushers! tee hee!), Nurses (they were all lovely lovely lovely), admin staff, orderlies, and patients and I really enjoyed my work, mostly. I DIDN’T like working in “stores” or working with “The A-Team” (they thought they were just SO GOOD), but that only happened every couple of weeks so it was okay.

After a few months, I dropped back to part-time, which I’ll explain in my next post!

(Sheesh! I’m running out of days in November!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)