Thursday 28 July, 2005 - Working too late

Hmmm - note to self...

Do not, when you are trying to get out of the office at 6.45 p.m., stop off at the cubicle of your very stressed out colleagues and ask them how they are doing. Because, before you know it, you will be helping them out with their work, except that they got weeks of training in this and you have NO CLUE what you are doing, and they they go home and are not available to help you out as you help them out. And then you will be stuck at the office until all hours while Judi's vegetable lasagne goes cold and you miss Lost...*sigh*

At least I have Polo Mints (yes - they have them here, they are made in Indonesia, but they don't taste too bad at all - I did a happy dance when I found them in the office canteen - and then another one in the office of a British colleague who was, I think, on the verge of calling immigration and getting them to revoke my visa)).

Hmmm - other news. Not much. Went out for dinner to farewell Anita - was nice. Lots of AYADs there, from both our intake (arrived in April) and the previous intake. I took some photos so when they are developed I will post and you can see some of the people I talk about. There were about twenty Philippinos as well - I only knew about five of them, but the ones I do know are really lovely and I hope I will stay friends with them after Anita leaves.

One girl, Lillian, works at ABS-CBN which is one of the big TV stations here (like Channel Seven or something) and she took a few of us on a tour of the studio a month or so ago. It was pretty cool. Lillian works on the news so we went all through the news center and watched the newscast go live to air. And we were on the radio (no idea what station!) Then we watched them film this show, "Search for a Star in a Million" which is like Australian Idol or something - it was pretty bad. And soooooo cold in that studio. But it was funny - there were all these Entertainment Industry Reporters (not quite sure why I capped that?) there and they weren't at all what I thought they would look like. I thought they'd be Paris Hilton wannabes or something, but they were pretty old and very unglamarous etc. It was a little bizarre. They didn't seem to be taking it very seriously (neither did the judges, who spent a lot of time on their phones - maybe they couldn't decide and were using a lifeline to call a friend?) Anyway - that was fun. Lots of people in lots of make up, and I think we met some really famous people, except of course we didn't have a clue! We just shook hands with someone and then afterwards were told they were a famous director or TV star or newsreader or something!!

I heard quite possibly the most awful thing of my life while waiting for the lift today. There was the radio playing in the liftwell and I kept thinking that the song sounded familiar, until I realised it was some kind of Britney Spears-ish version of Men at Work's Land Down Under! It was truly sacrilegious and so terrible for a good Aussie girl to have to hear. Not a good start to my lunch break (really wanting a smiley now so I can put in a sad face or something).

Anyway - the polo mints are about finished and I want to go home. I will work on this some more there - maybe catch the last ten minutes of Lost? I think they are about to off one of the leads and this time he may actually stay dead. Sorry if that sentence made absolutely no sense to you at all! Actually, I am kidding myself. I am never going to make Lost. Oh well - bring on the reheated lasagne!

Hope you are all well

Toodlepip

Kate