anyresemblance

If it's good enough for Tom...

I ate dinner at Din Tai Fung last night, Michelin starred dumpling chain and as endorsed by Tom Cruise. What more could you ask?

Raffle(s)

The hardest thing about packing is getting your head around different temperatures and weather conditions in your destination.  I was determined to do hand luggage only this time around.  I was not at my most soignee as I was touting my three wheeled Bric suitcase.  I love this bag for its squashy covering which lets you stuff more things in but it lost a wheel on a baggage belt somewhere last year.  I don't even know quite when it happened as for a while I was thinking its tendency to topple over which was due to my unbalanced packing.  It's perfectly functional on its three wheels - except for its drunken collapse if you leave it anywhere other than propped against something.  

One of the wonderful things about travelling out from Canberra is that although the dash 8 planes are too small to take a wheelie bag in the overhead locker, they tag and take the bag from you at the foot of the stairs and then return it you on the tarmac when you land.  (I once stood next to Peta Credlin and Tony Abbott on the tarmac while they were waiting for her bag.  She is extremely tall.  He offered to carry her bag and she briskly dismissed him.  Despite loathing his policies and government, I admired his good manners.)  One of the baggage handlers was desperately trying to get my bag to stand in line with the others as it threatened to topple all of them domino fashion.  I realised it was my duty to save all baggage handlers from this humiliation and ordered what I hope is an identical bag in a different colourway from Peters of Kensington but it arrived after I left so the less than able bag is accompanying me on this swansong trip.

I also ordered what I hope is a grown up rucksuck from Tumi.  Their prices are eye watering but this was on sale from amazon but only to be shipped in the US (I assume so Tumi can keep their giant prices up in Asia) so I had it shipped to my colleague who, I hope, has brought it with her.  My goal was a rucksuck that looked business like and did not have tons of fiddly straps.  In the interim, I am using my daughters Hershchel rucksack which does not look in the least bit business like but at least spared by shoulders as I lug my tech world around.  Lovely as they look, large totes of any description wreck my neck and shoulders.

I saw my oldest daughter for 3 minutes at arrivals.  Enough time for a big hug and to feel her soft cheek again before she had to rush for her domestic flight.  My flight was uneventful (horrible cliche film with Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson, a better ensemble comedy drama which was remarkable for its obsession with Jane Fonda's breasts, 3 episodes of the Newsroom and 2 and a half episodes of Suits), I had a headache by the end but remarkably was off the plane, through immigration and in the taxi within 20 minutes of us landing.  However, it is absolutely pouring here.  I mean, buckets of water from the sky so the most important thing in my capsule packing should have been a mini umbrella.

After I checked in, I took the MRT to City Hall and met my colleague, S, who had flown in earlier from Hong Kong in a bar in Raffles where she was sheltering from the rain and waiting for the print shop to finish our job.  The print shop was due to shut at 6 but since she had given them a job worth more than a grand, they were happy to stay open for her.  We had gin and tonic and ate at the Halia bar.  We both had this amazing smoked salmon pate which came in a little kilner jar.  When the bar man opened the jar, a waft of smoke appeared.  It was delicious and wish I had the forethought to photography like a proper blogger but we were too busy stuffing our faces

On the road again

I'm in the lounge waiting for my flight to be called. Today's special is smoked salmon and ricotta. It's really good. See you on the other side of the sea.

Chief Apologist, Regret Management Unit

Started the day meeting one of the women at work that I mentor on the steps of the Library only to discover the cafe wasn't open. Repaired to Kingston for plan 2 and drank good coffee and listened to her. Pondered over why the business just isn't offering enough to keep bright, young women. Went into the office to be berated by Person From Procurement who was worried I had committed to something unseemly on my trip to Melbourne. Explained that the sub-contractor we usually use had signed exclusive agreement with someone else and though this was inconvenient it was not adultery and he was not the wronged husband. Got someone else in to mediate the meeting since I was at.the.end.of.my.tether. Went out to meeting at another clients which required me to walk through the perfume hall of David Jones. Squirted myself liberally with new Stella perfume by Stella McCartney. I like it. Signed contract for significant dollar amount to do something quirky and interesting. Wrote modest e-mail of self-congratulation to big boss. Instant messaged his off-sider crowing in an unseemly fashion about my skills and talents for achieving this in first week of new quarter. Ate avocado and tomato sandwich for lunch. Wrote letter of weasel words to customer outlining that we would do a modicum of free work but thereafter I would expect her to pay lavishly for our services. Filled in a third of a feedback survey for my boss going on, ahem, accelerated leadership training. It suggested "you may wish to print your responses for future reference" - and run the risk of him discovering what I answered to the question "Does Mr X remain calm in a crisis"? Phoned up another client to discover why we had been unsuccesful in a tender. After several abortive attempts to contact each other, got the following. "We got 69 responses. Yours was in the bottom third. You demonstrated no understanding of our business or our requirements." Well, that explains it then. Then he asked me if I'd like to have coffee with him. I thought this very odd since to my knowledge we have never met but it then transpired that he is looking to leave the public service and wondered if we might have any vacancies. Sigh, so now despite the stuff up, I have to drive to Tuggeranong to drink vile coffee with this man.

Does this excite you?

Yesterday the gum scraping treatment commenced. The lower right hand quarter of my gums were probed and scoured. As ever, the injection was the worst bit and it took hours to wear off. As a consequence my children got to eat chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes and peas for dinner as I couldn't bear the thought of eating. P brought the remains of her party food to work so I returned home with a large slice of chocolate cake for them to scoff. I got a new parcel of new season Sopranos and the Practice on tape from my friend. There were also some CDs which he had made for me in times past that made me sad since they reminded me of a time when we were hopeful that love could overcome all difficulties. I had my hair cut today which was pleasant since I caught up on all the gossip magazines including a great interview with Johnny Rotten and a piece on Katherine Moennig (my current favourite from the L Word) plus the usual gamut of frocks and divorces. This afternoon I trekked out to the airport to meet the headhunter to discuss this job. The interview was fine and we got on very well but she asked me "does this job excite you?". I can't imagine saying yes even if it were a dream job. Does this mean I am not cut out for this corporate cut and thrust? I mean, they pay me money and in return I look for opportunities to sell and deliver stuff that is good for our customers and turns a profit for the company. But does it excite me? Give me a break. Tomorrow evening I am off to Sydney for two days training. Tomorrow night is dinner in a hip establishment of my choice with my two good girlfriends. Now that excites me.

On balance

I am not going to a conference in Prague in May like some of my colleagues BUT I was happy that I made the point about the lack of visibility of his selection process to my boss and he was then forced to ask me to provide feedback on his management style for a leadership course he is doing. I was frank. My daughter mistook the container with the beef and anchovy stew for her lunch box and it all spilled in her school bag BUT it was washable and her nice teacher lent her money to buy lunch. I have a potentially stressful workshop that I am running tomorrow BUT I made good preparations today and am happy that I have the risks covered off. I paid out $50 in babysitting last night BUT my kids got to spend time with their old babysitter who was so happy to see them AND I got to have dinner with 10 women colleagues from work and we had the best time. As a result of last night, I am organising an event with our women customers. It's an antidote to golf days. We're going to a private viewing and dinner at the National Gallery. I had a good talk with a headhunter yesterday. I don't know who the company is and it's kind of hard for me to feel enthusiasm for a nameless entity. They won't tell me till they short list but I asked her, do you think I'm a good fit? She said, oh yes, but it's quite a blokey environment, how do you think you'd feel about working in that. I told her when i went to teach in Libya, Col Gadaffi was trying to encourage more girls to enter the university and my recruitment was part of a conscious drive to have women teachers (ha, the practicality was something else) so I didn't think it was too much of an ask. Then today, I was talking to my friend M and we were discussing how would it be to work in an environment surrounded by people who wanted to help you get the work done without scoring points, understood your life and shared your interests and wanted to have fun while they were working. Is that too much to ask? I am trying to make zopf at the moment. It doesn't seem to be rising as much as I would anticipate but I'm telling myself it's because it's such a rich dough but I'm not sure how late I want to stay up...

The procrastinator

Because the job application is due tomorrow I am now sitting down to complete my application. In my minimal defence I have lined up some referees but the actual task of explaining why I am without peer, etc, etc has now been delayed another ten minutes while I engage in vital blog updating. I drive myself insane sometimes. I got a call from a headhunter last night. I have to send her my resume too. This after me telling her why I wasn't suitable since I didn't have a lot of experience in that industry sector. She wasn't put off which makes me wonder who this company is. There's a huge amount of vanity secrecy in the headhunting thing. One of my referees that I talked to on the phone this afternoon said wonderful things about me then reminded me that it would cut no ice with my children. I was describing to her the primal scene enacted across the globe of trying to get your children out the door in the morning. Like this was the first time you had ever asked them to pack their school bags or put their shoes on. One day, I might just go and sit in the car and wait for them. At the same time, I am baking a simnel cake and writing a shopping list for supplies for the weekend. I'm leaving straight from work to go to the beach, with children, for the Easter weekend. The weather is iffy but the sea will still be warm and the waves will soothe me to sleep. The misses got interim school reports today. After I struggled through the idiomatic french in Miss S's I realised that it was no so hot. This year - last year of primary here - would be first year of secondary school in France so there are quite high expectations of the kids. I have to go and talk to her teacher but it's easy for stuff to fall through the cracks with homework when she is spending time in two homes - plus, she knows how to play that too.

The curate's egg

Today was a mixed bag. On the good side, I woke up my children in the house which is always a better way to start a day. Miss S declared that she had a "sore tummy" that catch all phrase to describe that all is not right with the world. I sometimes wonder what my boss would say when grilling me on some unfinished task if I said "but, Alan, I have a sore tummy". Another good thing was going to have afternoon tea on the terrace of the National Library with my friend and work colleague, M. We also discussed a lot of business while we were doing it but it was pleasant to be out in the afternoon sunshine. I had a pot of earl grey tea and a piece of coconut and raspberry cake which was delicious. We talked about how tiresome some of our male colleagues are and how it gets in the way of just getting on with our jobs. Also good was cancelling a meeting tomorrow which would have involved a lot of the above tiresome men droning on about how marvellous they were. Extra good was a telephone call with a colleague in Singapore who was amazingly helpful and gave me lots of good ideas to discuss with one of my clients. We were talking about public health outbreaks and how technology can support management of them and she was telling me about some research which pulled together data on things like orange juice sales in the cafeteria, number of calls made to medical centres, absenteeism rates and sewage output (eeewh) to predict outbreaks of flu 24 hours ahead of other monitoring means. Of course, what you do with that data - how do you issue public health alerts, how do you manage peaks in service loads (everyone wants to make doctor's appointments, etc) are much more difficult policy issues. And what was really great was how open she was with her expertise and her willingness to help. I met someone today that I last saw on the other side of a piano at a posh English wedding reception in Hampshire in 1992. The person who was getting married that day sadly died a couple of years later but I recall the reception as being very 4 Weddings like with excellent french champagne, quail's eggs with celery salt and little chequerboard sandwiches with smoked salmon and caviar in a marquee in the garden of some beautiful house in a picturesque village. The bride was a florist and there were the most divine blue and white flowers everywhere. Anyway, this man was visiting our office in Australia which is another one of those small, small world stories. He looked the same as he had 12 years ago. I hope I looked better since at the time I was very pregnant with a shocking short hair cut. My company intranet phone book allows you to add your photograph to your entry. My pal, H, and I are conducting an informal survey on the physical profile of senior executives in our company. Our hypothesis is that no senior male execs have facial hair and that they are all tall and beefy (ex athletes). For women, the profile is more to do with body size - no-one over a size 12 (which I think is size 8-10 for any Americans). No really bad things but some tedious posturing which wasted some time and treacle-like response times on my computer today. Tonight we watched McLeod's Daughters. I've been maintaining that this is Saddle Club for grown-ups and blow me if Miss S didn't tonight spot that the newly returned love interest vet is none other than Max the stable owner from Saddle Club. We are, of course, only watching it for the horses just like I have to take Miss S and Miss I to see Hidalgo on Friday so we can admire the horses. I've seen some trailers and have to say that as attractive as he was as the broody and magnificent Aragon, Viggo Mortensen looks pretty weedy in this movie. Hope the horses are good. Happy Birthday to my sister, Diane.

Weary Wednesday

I'm stealing a few minutes at the end of the working day to update. Surely it must be closer to the end of the week than Wednesday? Yesterday my boss annoyed me so much I packed up my laptop and went home. I don't think the reaction "A, that decision was suicide" is a particularly constructive reaction to an issue I had presented him with. Coaching doesn't enter his management style, which is more Lord Cardigan leading the Charge of the Light Brigade, so maybe the suicide remark wasn't so far off. Anyway, I had a good discussion with his old boss on Monday evening who gave me some very robust career advice. I have commenced putting the plan into action and we'll see what things emerge. I'm ready to create my own opportunities for a change and not putting up with working with some bi-polar like behaviour from my boss is one of them. Had some friends round last night. It was steamy hot, I stayed up too late and slept badly so an early night is on the cards. We talked about this book. I did not like it at all. I love all the Botswana series, the quiet integrity of all the characters, the innovative approaches to issues of moral philosophy but I found this book irritating beyond belief. It has the kind of slapstick quirkiness that I loathe in Mr Bean. Interested to hear a man's view since it was terminally unfunny to me. I made pizzas last night. I have a really hot oven (gee, do you think that's why my kitchen was so hot) and a pizza stone but I still can't stretch the dough thin enough to get a really thin crust. Interested in any tips on that.

Working week

I haven't written much about my work. It's mostly incomprehensible to someone who doesn't do much the same job. When my daughter was in kindergarden she did a painting of me at work with a caption. "My mummy works at XYZ. It's near our school. She works in a shop" which was her idea of what a proper job was. She would still prefer me to be running a sweet shop but accepts that there would probably be less stationery supplies on offer should that be the case. She adores coming to my office and rifling through the stationery cabinet - fortunately the custodian of the key is my angel secretary without whom my life would be misery. Since I spent most of my twenties doing a succession of quirky jobs and travelling a lot I still have difficulty in reminding myself that I have a senior position in a large multi-national that pays me a generous salary. I guess it's exactly because I have such an odd job history that I am good at what I do. My older daughter was asking me about my work history and which job, apart from my current one, had I enjoyed most. My first job for which I got paid was at 15 and was 2 weeks in my big sister's office at ICL (as was then) in Glasgow. She ran their payroll systems and gave me 2 weeks work doing something or other sorting out punch cards. She took me to lunch everyday and I spent the money I earned on Mary Quant eye crayons and a short sleeved fair isle sweater with a sweetheart neckline from Biba. I adored that sweater. At 16 I had a Saturday job at Saxone shoe shop in Argyll St, Glasgow. That was dire but we used to listen to the Sex Pistols in the stock room while we hunted hopelessly for missing shoes and bemoaned our lack of skill at selling "sundries" - those polishes, shoe trees and waterproof sprays you never want to buy. During university, I worked at the ABC cinema on Sauchiehall St using my torch to show people to their seats and annoying snogging couples by getting them to move along so we could fit more people in. Indignity of indignity, I once had to be the ice-cream lady at the front selling choc-ices and cornettos off my little tray. That's what my daughter calls a proper job. I saw Apocalypse Now at least 30 times during that job and have no interest in watching the director's cut or any other version of it ever again. I did the usual share of bar work and waitressing. Worked in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's library in Slough (come all ye bombs and drop on Slough) - I loved sticking the labels in the books, the adult equivalent of colouring in. Taught English at Al-Fatah University in Libya - more on this another time given the current rehabilitation of Col Gadaffi. Drove a taxi for a women only cab firm in London - hard work for very little money. Chauffered cars that had been clamped back to their owners' abodes, including Nigella's husband's aston martin. So despite not being president of the debating club or having an MBA, my resume is varied enough for interviewers to have a lot of questions to ask me about life choices and how that equips me to do my job. But I am very unhappy in my current role. I realise that I am a very loyal employee and althought I am very adaptable to change, I find it hard to initiate it. However, my boss is also very unhappy in his job and this makes the whole work situation intolerable. I could limp along for another year but I have to find myself another job. Stay tuned for the quest.