Yesterday I smelled like a Bounty. Today I smell like bacon. I’m like a walking version of This Is Why You’re Fat.
I handed in assignment number two of the 10,000 word behemoth today. It is in fact due tomorrow, so I can’t help but feel a little smug with myself, although the truth of the matter is I probably require more than the seven days left to do the 3500/30-minute presentation that has me finished on the 12th. I’ve decided to make the most of my resources here at the NAA and have laid hands on a bunch of posters of the Faces of Australia Wall that we have here. (This is not the first time I’ve drawn inspiration from that wall. It was the inspiration for the PhotoWall part of my I Grew Up in the 90s proposal.) The plan is to pick out about a dozen of the photographs from the wall and then talk about how they fit into the collection and their relevance as images advertising Australia. Which may or may not involve some lifting of the knowledge I’ve gained from working with the Education tours here.
The countdown is on: in six days and 23 hours, I’m finished with this hellish semester.
I’ve been helping G move over the last couple of days – she is moving to the corner of the two streets that I’ve lived on in Ainslie with a pair of willowy blonde girls whom all the boys have decided must be lesbians. As it turns out, the two of them have been living in the same house for five years, and before that were in boarding school together in Sydney. Which of course, does not say lesbians, but does say very tight clique-y pair that might be difficult to get in with. Not to mention that there are post-it notes plastered around the house that remind the reader that they are safe, and it is safe to be them.
Not that I’ve judged them at all yet.
I’d like to draw all of your attention to a new link on my blogroll, Things Bogans Like. Written in the style of Stuff White People Like, it is in fact an indictment of all things that bogans enjoy, including but not limited to Ed Hardy, misspelled names, and Boost Juice.
In other news, I’m broke and Centrelink is fucking with me. Just for something different. I got an email from them the other day, asking me to call them in order to verify my employment details. I had a moment of terror, thinking they were probably auditing me and it was unlikely to end well. Then I remembered that last time that they audited me, they sent an email specifically telling me that they were doing so, and this email wasn’t nearly so explicit in what it needed from me. All I was asked to do was to make a phone call. It was like a guerilla tactic, because when I spoke to the lady over the phone, I was told that they were auditing me and just wanted to let me know that they were contacting my employer to verify my pay details. Also, that when they find that I’ve been overpaid, they’ll be in touch to let me know how to pay it back. (That’s what was scary – she didn’t infer IF she found I was overpaid, she pretty much said WHEN we find you’ve been overpaid.)
So, even though I’ve done my all to do the right thing with Centrelink, they’re still threatening to demand money back from me. Of course, there is every chance that they will find my pay situation too confusing to decide whether or not I’ve reported correctly, as I get paid two weeks back from when I actually work, and then I report on alternating weeks from pay and it’s all too confusing for me to even work out whether I’ve been reporting correctly. Fun times. Fun times had by all.
The kicker is that I’m pretty sure I won’t even be eligible for Centrelink in four weeks time. I’m being audited with less than 28 days until I’m due to finish reporting.


