And now that i've scratched myself and still found a moment spare, I might as well share my crazy, wacky, zany world.
First off... a feckin' BIRD flew into MY FACE and stole one of my CHIPS when I was walking back to the office yesterday. Can you believe that? Here I am, casually strolling along with chips in hand when suddenly... FLAP, FLAP, SLAP, OUCH!!! MISSING CHIP! That's it - birds are no longer on my Christmas card list.
Work... insane... it's gone crazy out there. However, I don't think I will end up in hospital this year like I did last year. Hurrah! Charlie is doing a positively awesome job and i'm thrilled with how well she deals with both our clients and creatives. If I could clone her, i'd have two of her. In fact, all the team here lately are just really positive and into it, which is great!
NLP course has been going really well too. I do tend to find that I zone out a little bit the hour directly after lunch but, on the whole, it is fascinating and keeping my interest. I can't wait to find time to socialise with people again to test out some of the things i'm learning too!
Well, the Herald Sun HIT managed to get hold of the fact that a Kylie singles box set is on the way and so I guess the cat is out of the bag in terms of what i've been doing with Warner lately. There still seems to be a long way to go with the project and i'm not entirely sure where Warner are up to with it, but here is hoping that, with deadlines looming, the project turns out well. I do wish they had included Tom Parker in the process as I have requested - not having him involved is like missing a limb as far as i'm concerned.
On the whole, the general mood lately is very positive and optimistic and, while things don't always go my way (especially with birds), there is an enormous sense of hope in the air!
Am I going crazy at the moment and running out of time?
You better believe it!
Work is full on at the moment. On average, I don't get out of the office prior to 6.30pm and, for most of this week, it has been closer to 7pm.
Then the NLP Practioner Course that I thought was a few weeks away turns out to be starting this weekend... that's every weekend for the next four weeks PLUS Wednesday nights out for me. Goodbye to my sleep in!
Then the Warner project that i'm working on at the moment is due mid-September latest.
Then I have Samuel, Michael and Colin's birthday all during that time too.
Plus trying to convert vinyl for the Warner project, finish label copy for it, complete reading for my NLP study... ahhh, spare time is a luxury.
But hey, as a friend of mine recently said in an email - life doesn't throw at you what it doesn't think you can take. Apart from the illnesses lately, I feel like i'm handling it all pretty well.
And realistically, what I stand to get out of the next month works on so many levels.
Just don't expect to see too many updates on here anytime soon. ;p
I received an sms from my friend Micheal tonight, asking what Ant and I were up to. 'Um... Influenza', I wrote back. Yes, it has just been one of those months for me. Not more than a fortnight or so ago, I was trying to get over food poisoning. And now here I am with an exceedingly mild case of Influenza. Well, I say exceedingly mild because of how badly Ant has been hit by it, and also because I know how much it knocks people out. In my case, a little vomitting and a bit of a nasty headache and cough, but that's about it.
I made Ant go to see the doctor about it yesterday morning. He came out joking about bird flu, but pointed out that the doctor had asked if his partner had been coughing or not as well. When Ant told him I had, he mentioned I would have Influenza as well, and would need to go on the same medication. I told Ant to rest in the car while I went to the chemist to pick up the medication, calling work at the same time to let them know I wasn't coming back in or else risk infecting them. When the chemist came back down with the pills, she started off by saying, "Right, well... these can be used for more things than the bird flu..." One raised eyebrow later, I paid $55 and left rather disturbed.
I did have to remind Ant that it really wasn't bird flu (I imagine the medication is what they would put people with bird flu on, thus the comments... I hope) - but hey, it sure reinforces the 'if you're going to be sick, may as well make it big time' theory.
On other news, I had called Dixon's and asked if they still had a few Doctor Who DVD's I had seen earlier in stock (Dixon's, for those who don't know, is a second hand store). Having had them put aside, I went in this evening to pick them up. One was the Tom Baker classic, 'The Ark In Space' (his second story), which I remembered very well from my childhood and had been meaning to buy for a while. As I was walking back to the car, I noticed someone had written Tom Baker's name on the front, which rather disappointed me.
It wasn't until I got home that it began to tick over... what if Tom Baker had written Tom Baker's name on the front? I know that you can buy autographed DVD's from his website, so what if this was one of them? Coming home, I looked up a website that specialised in Tom Baker autographs... now you can be the judge. Below is my DVD cover, and directly below that is a genuine Tom Baker autograph from the above mentioned site.
Onto buying a home... which has seemed to stalled at the moment. Ant's employers have really shot us in the foot, and until it is sorted out, I best not comment on it too much. Let's just say that the figures aren't adding up and the paperwork is far from legal. Ironically, the one unit we want in a building on High Street still remains available, but we're not holding our hopes out for it. It would be nice though... but I guess time will tell.
Another instance where time is just flying a little too quickly lately.
Where to begin...
Ok... so... food poisoning... from Chadstone... there is this Indian restuarant there named Chili Mamma and I had what I thought was a remarkably hot Beef Vindaloo there a few weeks back. Now, of course, when I say aloud "I got food poisoning from eating Indian at the Chadstone Food Court" then, yes, I feel like saying "Derrr!" along with it. But at the time, it seemed perfectly fine. However, 24 hours lately, I went to go down to the supermarket and came home just feeling absolutely awful. By that night, I was running to the toilet constantly and breaking out into hot and cold sweats. I never realised food poisoning could be so vicious. I would've thought it was the inconvenience of running to the loo all the time but I didn't know just how genuinely awful you felt from it. I really thought long and hard about taking the time off work as we had our new girl Charlie starting, but decided that I was in no state to work. On Tuesday morning, I went to see the doctor and discovered it was food poisoning. Medicated to my eye balls, I finally returned on Wednesday although it took a good few days to properly get over the nasty little blighter.
On the whole though lately, I have to say that i'm going through one of my "life is pretty bloody grand" phases. Work has been great lately - often stressful and very busy but just a really good environment. Charlie is working in well, although it was also sad to lose Scott so unexpectedly. The hours seem on track and it feels like, all going well and we continue to do our best, we're in for another really strong financial year. We move into our new offices mid-September too, which I can barely wait for. It's all too exciting.
Add to this that Ant and I are on the eve of hitting our three year mark and have decided that we'll celebrate by looking into buying a place together. We actually got up this morning and saw one in an old converted school in High St that we both fell in love with. They're looking for around $380k, but I definitely am considering it and hoping I can pull some magic to get the money in time.
The 'secret project' with Warner is going well - i've delivered the bulk of the audio and now just need to track down some missing tracks, confirm tracklistings, and get the label copy together. It should all hit the shops mid-November, and we're working to a tight mid-September deadline at the moment. Can't really say too much more than this at the moment, but in amongst U2, Robbie, Kylie and Billy Joel touring, i'm sure someone can suspect who it might be relating to.
We did have a spooky incident this week. I had a mobile call from our upstairs neighbour Andrew during the week, opening dramatically with the line, "Thank God you're all right!" "Why? What are you on about?" "Didn't you hear the noise last night?" "Er... no?" "There was someone banging on your backdoor trying to get in last night. I tried to call you." "What? My phone was on silent last night. I did notice your missed call this morning but didn't have a chance to listen to it."
Apparently Andrew and Mark had both been awoken by this tremendous banging and wondered what Ant and I were up to. Andrew went to check it out and noticed this stranger banging on the back door. He had literally ripped the latch off the wire door and was pounding on the backdoor. When Andrew yelled out to him and asked him what he thought he was doing, he said that he was "so tired" and "just wanted to sleep". Andrew got him out of the backyard and raced around the front to confront him and ask him what he thought he was doing.
"I'm here to see Mickey", drugged up hippy replied. "No you're not. There is no Mickey here", came back brave man Andrew (now wondering where Mark was... who was inside in his underwear in front of the heater). "Yes he is. I was here last night." When he started to move up the stairs towards Andrew, Andrew began to freak a little and had 000 typed in his phone ready to go. Eventually, the man with "the really big eyes", as Andrew described him, disappeared up the street.
Now, I suspect he wasn't trying to break in or else why risk making so much noise.
But it is a good example of the loons we do seem to have around here.
Perhaps aiming to move soon is truly a blessing in disguise.
Best go to bed as I need to get up early tomorrow... but it felt like a good oppportunity to share a little of what has been happening of late.
