Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 292 - Farewell to Optus 3

Hump Day and it's even sweeter than usual. The relief I am feeling at nearing the job of the crazy stress of my current role cannot be adequately articulated and I articulate like a talkative madman!


7.40 a.m. The plan was to catch a later train and bus but thankfully recalled I have a farewell breakfast with all the EAs this morning! It would not be a good look to be late for that. So I won't be, there'll be one last catch up with the gang, and one more step towards the end of all Optus things (a great movie title; shame about the content)

7.57 a.m. Waiting in lane to turn right into Wicks Road. Hilarious that after 4 years of not being able to remember the names of any of the streets - they were variously referred to as 'that big street' or 'you know the one that...' accompanied by non-specific hand waving to illustrate very roughly where they were - I remember one the week I leave the area! So very typical of my inner Tom Tom savant to emerge now.

8.41 a.m. Finally made it to my own farewell breakfast with the other EAs at Jam n Spoon (a bistro on campus) and had a blast! So many of them turned up - Lizzie, Sandra, Nadine, Jayne, Amanda, Ashley, Helen, Beatrice, Michele & Dianna - and we had a leisurely breakfast (the most divine ham/mushroom/cheese/capsicum omelette ever! No, really... and I discover this on my third last day!) and gasbagged and took a ton of photos. What a fabulous send off!

L-R Lizzie, me, Jayne, Amanda, Helen, Ashley, Beatrice, Nadine, Michele, Dianna, Sandra

Nadine, Michele, me

Lizzie Sandra and me

Helen, Jayne and me

Beatrice,me, Ashley

9.46 a.m. Back from breakfast and trying to do as little as humanly possible. Sadly BAU (Business As Usual, one of the pieces of jargon I hate most, next to Socialising a document... I picture a Word document discussing syllables with other documents at a cocktail party at a printery) keeps intruding but I am starting to wind down today and catch up for coffees, blog, and finally enjoying the fruits of a solid 3 weeks of frantically rushing to jump overboard from the good ship Optus....

11.15 a.m. My inbox is almost empty y'all (I felt  like throwing a Southern-ism in there just for the fun of it) and it feels good! Damn freakin' slather me in caramel and wait....that sounds a tad sus....LOL

My desk top photo - it was wonderful seen my lovely guy so many times a day

12.43 p.m. The last hour or so has been a mix of cleaning up my Yahoo! inbox and cleaning up my Outlook emails ready for the extraction of the files I want to keep. Fun! No, I am kidding! Honestly, anyone who thinks that's fun should be locked in a tank on a Latvian trout farm (I can empirically verify such an aquaculture facility exists but let's just say for hits and giggles that it does) and be made to organise the fish into straight lines over and over again...

12.46 p.m. Oddly enough I am not that hungry today. Admittedly the omelette was humongous and several small South American villages could have been flattened by it had it (a) fallen off my plate, and (b) been located underneath at the time, but still, I walked this morning and that normally makes for a screamingly fast metabolism and the need for constant healthy calories to be taken in. But not today. No, today I do not feel hungry at all so it's likely I will just get sushi again once my boss gets back (supposedly at 1 p.m. but executive level meetings do not know the meaning of on time finish) and I go to get her lunch....




1.13 p.m. Still waiting for my boss to return from a meeting that was supposed to finish at 1 p.m. I keep thinking I should just go, but I guarantee that if I do, she will come back and ask me to get lunch and there'll be two trips. But the peril of waiting is that she may take a great deal more time to get free herself from her latest Outlook prison, and I will be left sitting here getting very hungry.... what to do, what to do....


1.19 p.m. Thinking I will go and get lunch because I am getting to the stage where I will get so hungry that all the bad food choices will suddenly look more attractive than a lean muscular man in a well-fitting suit, and I do like them....yessiree I do... wait I was talking about lunch right?

1.28 p.m. I had an impromptu mini lunch with one of my favourite people in Commercial, Shawn G. He likes Coldplay, pop culture, is intelligent and personable, and one of thos people I want to stay in touch with. He is even coming in on his leave day on Friday to have lunch with me. Great guy and one of the good things to come out of my time here...

1.45 p.m. Walking back from dropping some paperwork on C4 (legal, Rem & Ben. side, not executive), took a photo of the view down onto the courtyard between buildings B & C and on to building E where the courtyard is. I love that view. I love the bustling sense of community and the fact that it is a lovely environment now with all the chairs, awnings, flowers.... it's also where Friday drinks happened, not that I really made it there all that often, nor did anyone else...

3.01 p.m. Off for coffee with the delightful Cherie L. She is such a fun person and a far North Coast gal just like me.... wait, one of my bosses wants me to get a yoghurt for her.... afternoon tea delayed a little...

3.11 p.m. Afternoon was had and it was uber delightful. Cherie and I talked about seizing new opportunities and change - all very germaine topics for me especially right now - over cold drinks, with her in the sun, and me in my customary shade. Perfect.


4.40 p.m. My beautiful man called, and apart from it being deliciously happy like ice cream on a Summer's night to hear his voice, we firmed up places to stay on a great South Coast trip next week... I CANNOT WAIT....

5.35 p.m. Home on the bus and my favourite bus marshal, Francisco, was on duty. We've become friends and while we're miles apart in age, we get on very well. He's actually made catching buses almost fun. I say almost because I still prefer trains....