Stalked by a very very old man.

The gym is a place to get fit and improve our bodies, but it is also a place of mental peace. It's time to concentrate within yourself and let your mind wander, or you can completely clear your mind of all your troubles and focus on breathing, counting and movement of muscle. Or you can spend your time avoiding the old man harrassing you. I didn't go at all last week, for tax reasons, but I did rock on last night just before I taught a dancing class.

The old man was the first person I saw and I knew I was in trouble when he told me off because he hadn't seen me. I chose exercises based purely on his proximity and in the minute spare between sets he would find me out and ask me questions about my training and tell me off about something. The gym being as quiet as a library meant that everyone is now pretty on top of my training so far. Wierd.Anyway, the old dude is seriously restricting the funness. He asked when I'd next rock in so he could watch my training and looked thoughtful when I told him my plan. I think he was rescheduling his own training to accomodate. Nice.

So, my tax reasons? Last year I paid a real hefty tax bill, like 8 grand or something. There was nothing to suggest it wouldn't happen this year so I went about starting a photography business to make some cash on the side. My Dad has been feeding me tidbits of tax law over the year and I've been buying up on cool toys to make it all work. I was a bit worried that I would have to be able to prove income in this little business venture but through some music website I found a tax accountant who knows all the rules and told me businesses have a couple of years grace to set up. Cool. So, I met with her and everything is looking way positive. She's nuts! Totally crazy and very enthusiastic and the information she's shared so far has been totally helpful. Accidentally I brought my old tax returns along and she looked at them to determine how much I paid the last accountant and noticed that they were done completely wrong, twice, and she could organise some cash back by redoing them. Very cool. I'm a little cautious because she promises the world so we'll see - not counting nothing yet, but excited nonetheless.
Whoa! How much fun was my weekend? Rhetorical question, don't stress. A few firsts for me, never spent a whole day travelling to and from a partner's grandparents 80th and I've never been to a hens night. That's right, skanked it up with the ladies.

Days since, I've had to explain a couple of times what the heck I was doing at one, suffering from eastrogen deficiency and all. It was Jen's hens night and Cara was invited but Jen felt that since I'm really her only actual Aussie friend (all the chicks there were girlfriends of lads on the bucks night) she had to have me there. People have said since, and they are a bit right, that I would have been fine hanging out with a stack of young ladies (not because I'm a big girl, because of the hilarity I induce). I have to say that I was quite suprised about how much girls actually talk about hair and dresses. I thought that folklore and girls actually talked about saving the world and stuff. My mates are always talking about cars and chicks and wakeboarding and games and stuff, but I always had a bit more respect for the conversational powers of women. It was pretty fun though but totally shortlived because I had a farewell party for Chris to get to. I got a bit tanked at this one as happens when hanging out with the lads. I got a round of Contreau shots for old time sakes and was not real popular with the boys - we all have a love/hate relationship with the stuff. The boys bagged me quite a bit for bailing on them earlyish but had to be done, roadtrip the next day to the party of the century.

Tell you what, I'm a bit sore from my dancingness and gymingness last night. I'm glad the funkifying of Adam is secretish or I'm sure I'd be complaining all over the joint.
Should I be less sarcastic? Roadtrip for 4 hours to the Hamilton Croquette Club for Cara's grandmas 80th wasn't actually the party of the century, sorry to lead you astray like that. In fact, I spent the entire trip up with a bucket in my lap (loooooove that contreau)(crap, be less sarcastic) and not at all being good roadtrip company, which is the only reason I went.

I fully kicked that special spewing feeling minutes before getting into Hamiliton which was awesome because if there is anything that old country people admire, is a boy that can eat. In fact, a stack of dishes straight from the 1950s were the buffet. I haven't seen or heard of cornbeef or meatloaf for decades. Cara's family are crazy and it is real bonding for her immediate family to get through the bizarreness together. It's touching to watch.
I haven't been so good at blogging in recent times because I'm finding reading other blogs way more entertaining and much easier than writing my own.

Ah, yesterdays sunshine

Yesterday I didn't rock up to work. I didn't pretend to be sick, I didn't plan it in advance I just called and said I wasn't coming in. Peter wasn't suprised and also didn't see any real reason for me to rock up. I might leave at 4pm today.
I won the bet. I finished the 6 week acrobatics course and have not a single bruise, sprain, strain, spasm, cut, broken bone, nerve damage or brain damage. I will be getting breakfast for a week and will ensure I eat well.

The Adam funkifying hasn't been going real well of late. I haven't been eating well because I've been rocking up to work late and accidentally missing breakfast every morning. I seem to be only getting to the gym once a week because I'm so freakin' easily distracted and I've realised of late that I'm not going to get good at anything until I really focus and put my back into it.

Adventurousness

I have a friend that I think sometimes wants some extra funness in her life. Things are pretty darn good for her, and her life is a beautiful thing, but I do think she needs those Random Acts of Funness. So, I bailed her up and told her that she and I are going rockclimbing. I remember we did it together about 3 years ago and she was way nervous about it but got through the session with flying colours.

However, she's cancelled on my twice now. Both times rang me the day before to tell me she might be too tired the next day. Lamo excuses but I'm hardly going to force anything on her. I haven't made a followup date and am thinking maybe rollerblading or something might be easier to her, but I'm curious to whether I should insist she do something she is nervous about (she might absolutely love it afterwards - adrenaline can do that) or whether I should take the hint and not bother, or organise something less scary (read: less fun).

Weekend of funness

Whoa!! Awesome totally groovy way cool weekend - way loved it - totally rockin' Whooooo!!
That, is a whole lot of good enthusiasm. I don't think I need to go through the individual activities and events, it was just awesome and I had a great couple of days. The highlight was probably Cara's Christmas party at the Zoo on Saturday night, it was wildly fun and Cara and I, being the shy puppies that we are danced up a storm. GroovySexyCool. Everyone was way complimentry and one chick even came up to us while rockin' and said "That was positively orgasmic" Rowr!

Hanging out in the sunshine though, gave me the idea to hang out in Melbourne for December and January and then rock away in Feb - allowing me to enjoy the sunshiney rays which is half the reason we moved close to the beach. The thought has confused me though and these are the good and bad reasons for staying.

Pros:
Helping Cara's band with their concepts, cover art, photoshoots, etc.
Summertime funness at our beachy house.
Photographering all summer.
Being a beach bum.

Cons:
Dealing with Christmas.
Working in a boring job for a month and a half.
Dealing with dance teaching - over it.
Market drying up?
Increased competition for same jobs, everyone will be ready then.

I think my plan of action is to hang around until I get the most perfect OS contract and then go. If that's early December then cool, if not then not. Looking at jobs last night, it looks like things are quietening down already so I might not have that much choice.

Stuff

I was thinking about my last entry and decided that there is no point thinking stupid crap things. The saying that you shouldn't worry about the things that are not in your control completely applies. The only thing I can do is to be way cool and whatever happens with everyone else is there problem. When it affects me, then I'll deal.

I almost feel that worrying about stuff almost gives it a much higher chance of it happening - in the same way that you can't study anything without affecting it some way.

Hmmmmm.

Damn. Just had a crap thought. Cara. New Years Eve. Trashed. At a party with people she is very impressed by and really likes. Midnight. Me. Strange Country. Knowing no one.

Man, I hate having doubtful jealous moments, it's so not the person I want to be. But, Cara is a girl that likes to drink a lot at the right party, way flirtatious and then can't remember anything afterwards - it's a hard thing to trust. Trust has to be blind sometimes, oblivious to the past. Need to learn how to do that. Crap.

Scooby Doo, where are you?

This morning Cara changed her outfit four times. For work. That she goes to everyday. Girls are crazy.

Recruitment agency people are freakin' hopeless. Both the guys that called international the other night said they'd call back the next day and neither did. I don't care, but it's weird to unnecessarily volunteer such a thing. So, the emotional rollercoaster of finding a job is on the downer, because I've had not a single anything since the other night, but I'm sure it'll bounce up again. The thing with Simon in Switzerland isn't looking good because that country doesn't have the 2 year working visa under 28 years old thing, the company has to sponsor you and won't bother unless you're in for the long haul. On the upside, bigbossman said it was totally cool for me to leave earlier. My plan was to rock out on the 6th of December after Cara's birthday on the weekend and maybe finish work on the 30th of November. A guy at work said he'd want me to hang around for the last stage of our project which is on the 3rd, which I wasn't happy about, until I realised that for the 3rd, we actually do our stuff the weekend before, which still fits in the plan, which is excellent, totally awesome and a little bit exciting. So, I've got a definitely plan, now I just need something to go to.

One thing I like is that I can aim for the 6th, but can work until the 24th in any country in the world. Maximum flexibility, maximum funness. Love it.

I've just sent an e-mail to work mates about a movie that is for coastal charity. I sent it a couple of weeks ago and every single person replied back that they'll come. This e-mail is now the booking and confirmation one, and I sent it to more people. It's always weird to send things in the office, you don't want to talk to anyone afterwards.

Can I have a job please?

Yesterday I was getting e-mails from Simon in Switzerland (who I used to work with) about working there. He was a bit excited but worried about visas and stuff. He said if I was going for 12 months then he'd get me a job for sure. I don't want to go for 12 months but I was worried that if I blow him off he would be my only contact with Europe (it's not what you know, it's who you know, y'know) so I said maybe I would consider 6 months (which is still a bit long for me). Anyway, I was feeling a bit down that my plan wasn't going to work when from 10pm to 11pm last night I got two international phone calls and 2 e-mails. Totally cool. One guy from Denmark said they might want me to work on Monday (bajeez) and Stockholm might be a goer. There is another one in London I could get but I'm not interested in London at all. How exciting! Cara and I were so buzzy after that! I've been told that I should quote like 500 pounds a day which is a million kabillion times more than I getting paid now - except talking to someone else they said that those parts of Europe are horrendously expensive and it'll be an effort to save enough to travel afterwards - how bizarre, completely squashed my hopes of coming back and buying 17 houses.... but that's cool. My motivation is all about the story, not the cash. The London dude said that my experience and skillset are fairly rare and much required in Europe so that is way totally mostly completely unbelievably exciting. Wooooo!

Zap Bang Crash

Love the craziness of life.
Hit that stage of the month where the only funds left, was what was in my wallet. No problem, happens same time, same place. Except I had a few things on between now and payday. Now, something you should realise is that everything works out for me everytime. I don't know why, it just does. It always has and I can't imagine that stopping. So, last night I was all set to go home and then scarper off to a camera club portraiture thing. Except I decided I would give the funkifying another shot and hit the gym first. I finished work late and got a phone call asking for help to teach a dance class, it sort of fit in so I was all for it. Then late, I found out I was actually teaching the class. Whoa! Usually there is a bit of notice and emotional psyching up, but that was cool. So, I rocked out of the gym halfway through, taught a way groovy class, ran home, got the camera, rode to the camera club, hung out for a bit and then got home like 10.30ish, had dinner then did some work on a website, went to bed at like 1.30. Totally fun, totally jam packed. Got paid for teaching. Love my own work.

Cara applied for a job as a marketing person for a record company. She totally funked it up so that it had nothing in common with a job application at all. She is happy doing reception but she really could be doing more. It's hard because she needs a flexible job to do music stuff but she has the capacity to do some really good work. Not many jobs have that.

Simon who used to work with me sent me an e-mail saying he could definitely get me a job if I was willing to work for 12 months instead of 3. That's a very long time. I said I could do 6 months and then negotiate again. So far, this is the only bite I've had in the job market. I'm a bit hesitant to knock it back because Simon is the only person I know, and we all know it's who you know, y'know.

Interesting times ahead.

Adam the assistant.

Yesterday I was a wedding photographers assistant.

It was a long, long day of exchanging lenses and carrying stuff but it was great and I learnt a few things. It was a freebie effort and so giving up 9 hours on a Sunday was a bit harsh, but I did it because I'm going to be taking photos at Jen and Rob's wedding and give them the photos as our wedding present. I got a little bit nervous when I kept seeing examples of wedding photos that were brilliant and leagues beyond anything that I have produced.

So I went along and carried this guys stuff. He was amazingly unorganised and forgot things and was late and got lost and missed key moments, but the photos he did produce were great and had absolutely no problems bossing everyone around to get those awesome shots. I did learn a few things, but not quite the technical details that I was after. Do'h! Totally hard work for that time, but I loved being let in to these complete strangers lives. We saw both families in their homes and interacting with each other. The groom was way Aussie where the bride was Macedonian so the comparison was very different. It was great. If I was to undertake it as a venture I would need more equipment and expertise, but I think these guys get paid pretty well for the days work. I was never interested in it before, but I do love being let in and being able to share in the special day. The only thing I have to figure out is do the photographers even see the specialness or are they all consumed with getting the shot?


<....Jen & Rob description..... Young Jennifer is a very chirpy girl that I met in Wellington, New Zealand when I was working there for 5 weeks. I went to a dancing class to entertain myself and she heard there was a young lad there who was from Melbourne, the city she was going to be studying in a few months. So we hung out and became great friends. She moved Melbourne and I helped a little bit to get set up and introduced her to a stack of my friends. I didn't really get to put in as much effort as I wanted which was a shame, but she was able to entertain herself. She met Rob about 3 weeks after arriving here and now they are getting married. Very sweet!...>

The continued funkifying....

I went to the gym last Monday and intend to go tonight. I have to admit that I wasn't as sore on Tuesday as I was the day after I did the Body for Life programme. It doesn't seem as tough even though I made it all harder and heavier than the old man set out. I might jack them up again, see how I go. The problem with that is that I can feel the strain, not on the muscles I'm trying to train but on the joints (my right wrist for instance) that I shouldn't be affecting. I still feel fairly uninformed about it all. I can't wait to put some weight on, I feel little every time I look in the mirror.

On other fronts, I've applied for some contracts in Denmark, Switzerland and have a mate looking out for me in France. I have no idea how visas and stuff works, but it seems to going well so far. Haven't had any bites from interested companies yet, but it's only been one day (although if I was totally exceptional they'd be on to it in a second right?)

Ahhh, the carnivale of Spring

Things I learned yesterday selling charity pins at Oaks Day:
- People are friendly nice and happy in the morning.
- People become less friendly, but more fun in the afternoon.
- Selling anything to people walking past is freakin' hard work.
- I felt bad for the people who kept getting badgered by all the charities and stuff.
- I sold three charity pins to people who were sick of being pestered.
- Double sided tape makers were the real winners of the spring carnival.
- I start to hate people after a while.
- Sometimes a mystery horse on the big race comes out a winner.
- Bookies have been losing out this Spring Carnivale because the favourites keep winning, or that's what some dude on the tram told me.
- After drinking for a little bit, I love people.
- People are pretty goddam fun.
- I can piggyback work collegues the entire length of the flemington carpark.
- Ballroom dancing with male collegues in packed pubs now mean that I can't ever go down to the 14th floor. Ever!
- The Karma gained from charity work still doesn't stop a hangover.

The offlining of the funkifying of Adam

I do all my best thinking at lunchtime. There is something about not being anywhere near a computer that unleashes all the thoughts in one hour that I probably should have in the other eight hours of the working day. Todays thought as I walked out the door was 'I wonder if people can see my blog if they click on the quasi-hilarious comments I made in Damien's travel blog'. Since coming back from lunch I discovered this is true and have since taken my blog offline. My original intention for this blog-thingy was to put down all the semi-fun small stories that envelope my every-day life, to show the world that hanging out the city you've lived in forever is just as groovy as hanging out in other people's cities.

I've missed the mark though, instead of sharing the funness, I've only detailed the things that annoy me - the things that I try and get out of my system before I become groucy. It doesn't really work, these things don't really leave my system through writings on the web.
So, despite a freakin' tenuous link, I've taken this blog offline because only those really smart friends of Damiens would figure it out and they would know those people I speak of. I think while I was a'complainin' I was hoping some groovy internet funksters would find my blog entertaining and enlightening, but I think I want to get it back to the random acts of funness for friends and family to enjoy.

I'm not going to delete any thoughts so far, I've taken this thing offline until everyone has forgotten about Damien's travels and until I'm funner.

My other thoughts during lunchtime was, freakin' jeez, there were people everywhere. Since it is the monday before a public holiday, a lot of people have today off and apparently all come into the city. There were many, many, many people and I was thinking that I would really like to find out more about them. You get a certain amount of informationa about someone from their looks, their expression, their haste (or lack thereof) but there is so much more to people than that. I kind of feel like there is two worlds. One holds all the day to day thoughts and the other is the deep stuff. The deep stuff doesn't exist at lunchtimes in the city - and that makes me more curious about it. I almost wanted to round up strangers and have deep and meaningfuls with them. Obviously it isn't very often I have moments where I am not completely self-absorbed.

Reply?

Can not be bothered writing e-mails to my friends. I'm terrible at it. E-mails are only good for fluff or one-liners and I'm totally, totally dodge at both those things. No one says anything deep or important or funky or fun on e-mail and I don't think I've sent or received anything worthwhile for a while. I reckon all my e-mails have the same charisma as telling someone peripheral at work about your weekend. All fluff.

So, I've sent out the invite for our cup day bbq (which I may end up putting zero effort into preparing) and got a couple of e-mails back asking how life is and all that. All these people are people I don't see that often, so I can't go into the nitty gritty day-to-day stuff but I know them well enough to cover the big stuff.... but I'm bored with that and I think it's because I'm in a bad mood but freakin' bored at work. Thank god I've got tomorrow off (well, I do have to come in for 4 hours - whooo!).Pretending to work is most dodge daytime pastime!!

Bikin'

At the traffic lights, I am motorbiking boy who rides between the cars to get to the front. Not only does it get me places quicker, but because I get to the very front it means I'm not clogging up a whole car spot so more people can get through the lights. Most people either don't care or accept it. Not this morning. When the lights turned green I took off and he caned it after me - close to my tail for the next few blocks and the road ahead split into left and right, with a lane for each - red light for the right and still green for the left. I was rocketing along in the right lane to go right. Went between some cars at those lights. The dude didn't clue in straight away because I watched in my mirror as he completely tied up traffic because he now wanted to go down the left split from the rightmost lane. There was beeping and big trucks and chaos and I smiled because stupid aggression should always mess you up.

Flirtationaling

So, I think there is one final frontier standing in the way of Adam & Cara greatness, and it's kind of a big one..... drunken trust.

The pattern that I've now seen emerge is, Cara has a little bit to drink and she becomes very affectionate towards me. Goes in for some good pashing action and is generally in love and doesn't care who knows it. As the drinking progresses, she's out there. She's meeting people and flirting with boys and usually latches onto a new or old favourite. At this point I'm nervous and find myself having a crapper time because I'm half looking out for her and half concentrating on who I'm talking to. Now, I do not have any problems with her having an awesome time and being a big flirt - because I'm entirely like that myself. I get jealous because she doesn't come back to me at all, these other dudes get all her flirtatious and extra fun attention and all I get is a girl at the very end of the night who is asleep.... or holding my forehead as I'm, ah, tired and emotional.

So why should I care? How many dudes would love to be unleashed when on the turps? I care because I don't get it. All the other couples we were hanging with got way more schmoopy and I think that's what I want from Cara - instead of her acting like a single chick just over there. Who knows, maybe she's starting all these conversations with "how awesome is my boy?" but I somehow doubt it. When people are tanked, don't they act like they always wanted to? I'm sure I do.

Now, we don't drink that much very often, so this doesn't come up much, but after each drunk fest I can remember feeling crap and worried that she's got a new crush on .

So, at the races on Saturday it wasn't an old boyfriend or dancing partner or band dude, on Saturday it was suits and sailors and taxi drivers.

I don't actually care what she does, because I do trust that she isn't going to pash anyone or end up in a back alley with a football team. I want to know what her motivation is, why she finds flirting with others her funnest thing. Does she just want to feel sexy, or is she keeping up her skills? I don't know, but I hate feeling stupid after our most drunk awesomest nights.

I am aware that this blog seems to cop all the negative stuff that gets to me. I think that is when I am most inspired to write and because, well, I don't really want to inflict it on those around me. It's not real attractive.