Been Around The World...

Ever had one of those days where things aren't working out as planned and you kind of want to bang your head against the nearest really hard surface, really hard, but then an opportunity presents itself and it sort of turns out alright after all? That was my yesterday.

I kind of started off poorly with a bijou little hang-over. Yes, I have been partaking in the demon drink a little of late. Yes, it is fair to say that I have no stamina anymore and am an exceptionally cheap date. Yes, when out with Mikey it is not exactly inevitable, but certainly likely, that a hang-over will ensue.

I was slated to go to another office yesterday to help train a new admin staff member, and the office was located on the northern beaches area of Sydney. Door to door about one and a half hours of travel time, first on a train and then a bus. Anyhoo, given that it was a beautiful day and I had my book to read and my camera with me, the trip wasn't so bad. Pleasant even.

So I arrive at the office to find that my boss wasn't going to meet me there after all - so there will be no lift back into the city at the end of the day. O-kay, positive frame of mind only slightly dented. I can manage the bus and train back - no biggie. Then the admin staff member I am to train is sick, and wants to go home. Then the software I was sent to install and train her on isn't even there anyway, it's sitting on someone's desk at head office. Then they don't have any of the other network accesses or log-ins set up for me to do any of the other training I was supposed to do anyway, and by this time she really wants to go home.

So, $16 in fares and a three hour round trip to be there for around two hours. Nothing much of anything achieved. Good mood crumbling a bit at this point. I rang my boss and as it would take me around two hours to get back into the office I normally work in (other side of the city) my instructions were to call it a day at 12.30. Normally I would say "Yippee" but as a contractor I only get paid for the time I work, and last week I took a few days off sick. Things are a wee bit lean.

Deciding to take these lemons I had been given and make some lemonade I wandered around in the sun for a while, had lunch and did some window shopping in a fabulous (and largely empty) shopping mall and oggled a group of shirtless rugby players who I passed jogging along the street to their club. Turns out it was a nice afternoon after all. I'm going to ask to be recompensed for the fares and ask that they also compensate me for the lost hours.

I think that's only fair compensation for an afternoon spent cruising the mall and oggling shirtless guys, don't you?