A day in the life of an Intern

(Two days late. Which may feel a little like a Hot or Not post. One day early...)

I can tell daylight saving is drawing to a close as the leaf blower at Dickson shops didn't wake me this morning until 6:30am : half an hour later than I'm used to. No worries, though, it's a Tuesday and I'm not due at Craft ACT until 10am.

Which gives me time to put the bread I mixed last night on to bake, drop Miss Daisy off for her service then walk home to do some dishes and clean some toilets.

I need to return a call from Canberra Theatre at 9am, which causes me to head into Civic early and results in this:
Man, I'm such a Civic Square slut. But the promise of free shows is too good to pass up...

On to Craft ACT where I get sent to deliver some stuff to the ANU School of Art Gallery. Updating our Facebook page and printing contracts for Call of the Small* takes me until lunch while I cover both our shop and gallery.

Lunch is, as usual, at CMAG Members' Lounge, where I finish adding the ANU Film Group dates to my diary: I went last night, saw New Moon (for free, thank goodness!), and joined for the year...

The afternoon involved a trip to the Post Office (I love the Post Office...) to send off my contracts, after a stop to visit Al:Afternoon tea involved colour coordinated fruity things (because your snack, shirt and shop should always match!) Then, after some more Facebooking and Excel spreadsheeting it was time to go pick Miss Daisy up from the mechanics.(After walking past a typically Canberran sign on the way there from the bus stop)

She cost significantly less than I expected (especially after this time last year) At this rate I may just be able to spring for a bath for her. Anyone have a spare Entertainment book voucher for Waves Car Wash in Gungahlin I can steal?

(*Thanks, as always for the real Call of the Small's permission to use her blog title for the duration...)

A day in my life: July 2009

6:20am: Is that sound of the leaf blower at Dickson shops? Is it morning ALREADY? So starts the usual morning routine: up, turn on computer, toilet, feed cat, make tea.

6:30am: Check emails. Re list eBay stock. Drink tea.

7:00am: Print resume. More re listing. Turn on music.

7:30am: Make and eat breakfast. Finish eBay re listing. Start sorting out TSS end of year accounts.

8:00am: Shower. Dress. Put away clean dishes from yesterday.

8:30am: Walk across to the money machine to pick up cash and the Post Office to collect the mail then on to the bus stop to catch the bus into town.

9:00am: Job interview over coffee for a one month contract.

9:30am: Discover I have a spare half hour before I'm due at Craft ACT. I've already had a coffee. So I end up at Flip Side's sale bins and stagger out with 6 new to me CDs for a total of $41 and the happy knowledge that I don't have to wait til I get home to listen to them... 10am: Craft ACT. Meet with the Executive Director to discuss my priorities for the day. Start photographing new shop stock for our Face book page.

10:30am: Staff meeting to plan for next month's Bingo Extravaganza. Followed by more photo-taking.

11:00am: Contact Volunteering ACT to find out about the grants they are awarding to help cover volunteers' travel costs. Return to the photo-taking.

12:00 noon: Back in the shop. Sign up a new member. Start photo shopping the images I took earlier in the morning:

12:30pm: Lunchtime. I thought I was having lunch with one of the Curators from my CMAG exhibition but it turns out to be just a coffee.

1:00pm: So I head over to the food court in the mall to pick up lunch and start the search for the perfect pastry brush.

1:30pm: Back in the Craft ACT shop, I'm loading images to the Craft ACT Face book page.

2:00pm: And photo shopping.

3:00pm: And rearranging the stockroom in a more logical fashion.

4:00pm: Before chatting to a customer who asks me, after we discuss the mini wheelie bin necklaces, if I saw the dolls house exhibition last year. We talk about my collection and the plans Craft ACT has for an mini exhibition in the Crucible space next year. More intriguingly, she asks if I'd be interested in exhibiting my dolls houses in The Rocks...

4:30pm: The stockroom is as close as it's going to get to sorted this week. I admire some lovely new bracelets that have arrived which are crying out to come home with me. I meet with the Executive Director to recap the day before closing up for the night.

5:00pm: Home time. I stop in at the IGA in the bus interchange as I spot a display of my favorite Indian ready meals at a price comparable to what I'd get them for at the Indian shop in Belconnen. Palak Paneer for dinner, methinks...

5:15pm: Waiting for the 5:21pm #39 bus...

5:26pm: Which never turns up...

5:36pm: Finally on my way home!

5:45pm: Arrive home. Pour wine. Feed the cat. Turn on computer and make snack.

6:00pm: Check emails while eating snack and drinking wine.

6:10pm: Phone call from a friend.

6:50pm: Download photos from the day and photo shop them.

7:00pm: Write blog post (making up my plans for the rest of the evening on the fly.)

7:30pm: Make and eat dinner.

8:00pm: Watch an episode of The Muppet Show season 2 before retiring to bed with a library book.

9:00pm: Lights out.

Soundtrack for the day:

Radio groove volume 1
Back to mine: Röyksopp
Bare essentials volume 2
Goldenhorse: Reporter
Salmonella Dub: Salmonella Dub
Simple Minds: Graffiti soul
Rhombus: Onwards
Ralph Myerz& the Jack Herren Band: A special album
Eddi Reader: Eddi Reader

A day in my life: June 2009

6am: My bladder lures me from bed and across the hall to the toilet. The cold and dark lure me back into the puffy mountain of feathery and woolly (and catty) warmth where I doze for another half hour or so.

6:30am (ish): Snuggling in the toasty warmth and sort out my day in my head: What do I need to do? What's the coming week looking like? How will I lay out the back of my postcards for class? What approach should I take for Wednesday night's assessment presentations? What needs to be used up food wise before it goes off?

7:00am: Get up. Turn on computer and go downstairs where I realise there's not enough milk for tea. While I'm there I put food out for Nibbs (who, it turns out, doesn't emerge from the bed for another three hours), put away yesterday's clean dishes and wander out to the mail box to collect the junk mail.

7:15am: Back upstairs, I put a CD on, check my email, read the junk mail and pull out the pages that I might be interested it. Then I write down my To Do list for the day.

7:30am: Shower. Dress. Read some blogs.

8:00am: I can't cope anymore. I need tea. So I head off to buy the week's groceries.

8:30am: Back home, I put away the groceries while the kettle boils. Make breakfast while I put a load of washing on. Eat breakfast.

9:00am: Change the bed. Do the dishes. Hang the washing out and throw another load on.

9:30am: Fire up the Mac and start working on some Photoshop designs

9:45 am: Hang out the next load of washing. Put load #3 on. Head back to the Mac. Eat sweets.

12 noon: Cook up a large pot of soup. Hang the washing out. Eat lunch while reading US Elle (one of the last print editions I'll be getting as I've just gone digital. Fingers crossed...)

1:00pm: Decide the temperature and weather is finally OK to paint the hunks of plaster we did in class ages ago (which need to be finished by Wednesday). Cut them out of the balloons they were in, sand them down and spray paint them (after super gluing one of them back together after it fell apart)

1:30pm: The Mac doesn't want to write to my Mickeystick. I'm out of CDs to write to and perilously low on ink. Time for a trip into Officeworks. I buy boring claimable business stuff but make the fatal mistake of "just" wandering down the sexy stationery aisle. Where I buy an $8.39 pencil case I don't need and certainly shouldn't be buying. I do, however, leave behind the very expensive matching A5 notebook and sticky note set after a final wistful caress and a promise to possibly come back when they go on sale...

2:00pm: Spray the second coat of paint on the plaster and head back to Photoshop to work on the back of the second postcard. Burn the Photoshop files to disc to take to CIT tomorrow night and create jpg files to blog.

3:00pm: Write the first blogpost for today before heading downstairs to the now cool pot of soup to split it into 4 containers for the freezer. Spend a couple of minutes admiring the lovely selection of lunch options that are now in there. Then spray that damned plaster again.

3:40pm: Drive to Lyneham and spend 10 minutes window shopping in Booklore.

4:00pm: Meet Cycling S for tea (her) and Antipodes water (me: I take the bottle home. Of course)

4:45pm: We're both shattered so decide to head home. I'm just in time to get the washing in before it gets dark.

5:00pm: Pull out the drying rack and set it up in the lounge. Hang up the washing that's not quite dry. Soak the sheet that got shat on by a bird. (Luckily it's not in a noticeable spot so I can still use the sheet even if the stain doesn't come out). Feed the cat.

5:30pm: Type up my notes from today for tonight's post. Wonder about the lack of pictures for my readers who just look at them and don't read the text. Rectify the situation:6:00pm: Dinner tonight includes some Falafel which has been kicking round in the cupboard for about a year as I also have the last of my latest batch of hummus to use up today. The falafel mix needs to sit for 20 minutes after the water is added so I pop downstairs to set it up. Return to this blog post to add musical links.

6:15 pm: Phone call from a friend.

6:30pm: Make dinner. Eat dinner. Read another couple of pages of US Elle

7:00pm: Put away washing. Reassess today's To Do list.

7:15 pm: Retire to the couch (with the cat) and read one of my Library books which I'm embarrassed to say I've had out since Christmas. With the speedy approach of this year's Sydney Design, I'm feeling the pressure to finally finish this book and return it to the library...

8:45 pm: Fill the hottie. Final trip to the loo before retiring to bed.

Cook from the cupboard

Today's menu:

Breakfast: Cup of tea. Toasted crumpets with banana and honey
Morning tea: Sweets
Lunch: Frshly made vegetable pasta soup
Afternoon tea: Sweets. Bottle of Antipodes water
Dinner: Falafel with hummus, salad, tomato and grated cheese on tortillas (shhh... we're pretending they're pita breads!)

Today's purchases:

2 kilos plain flour: $1.85
1 litre milk: $2.55
2 kg potatoes: $2.50
500g cheese: $4.79
454g bag Frozen stir fry veges: $3.77
4 serving pack udon noodles: $2.99
145g jar Galiko basil pesto: $2.98 (my treat for the week)
6 pack eggs: $2.99
3 apples: $2.45
129g mushrooms: $1.22
2 Truss tomatoes: 97 cents
1 red capsicum: $1.41
175g bag salad mix: $2.98
2 kiwifruit: 89 cents

1 pencil case: $8.39

Total for today: $42.73

Total for June: $413.67

(Soundtrack for the day:

OMD: Pandora's Box
Pet Shop Boys: Please
Pet Shop Boys: Alternative
Phoenix Foundation: Happy Ending
Portishead: Third

Propaganda: 1234
Quench: Conse-quench-ial

Radio Groove, Volume Three
The Rasmus: Dead Letters

Rebirth of Cool Vol 1

Rebirth of Cool Vol 6

(In the car: Boy George Galaxy mix) )

A day in my life: Thursday 14th May 2009 (a post without pictures!)

Still not started at my new contract so I had another unexpected day to fill up with other things...

8 am I wake up late. My morning routine is as usual: out of bed, turn on the computer, go to the loo, put the kettle on to make my morning cuppa, let the cat in and feed him. I also put yesterday's dry dishes away and wander out to the garden to photograph my composting Wreck this Journal page.

8:15 am: I have 4 emails (all junk). I drink my tea while listening to the first CD of the day (Mellow Gold compilation) and read my friends' and local blogs. I write and publish the composting blog post after dealing with the pictures I took in the back yard.

8:30 am: Load my composting pages to Flickr and the WTJ groups I belong to. I get sidetracked watching and giggling at this on Ampersand Duck's blog while downloading Wednesday night's class photos from my camera. Then I head downstairs to make breakfast (toasted crumpets with homemade jam, vanilla yoghurt) and write the day's To Do list while I wait for the crumpets to toast.

9:00 am: Shower. Dress. Head across to check my PO Box and visit the ATM.

9:30 am: Pop into newsagents to pick up my magazines. Have a big moan to Chris, who works there, about my design class (he used to go to CIT too). I feel much better. Return home and put out rubbish and recycling bins. Go upstairs and put away Tuesday’s washing.

10:00 am: Drive to Kippax to meet someone who is returning an advent calendar they bought off me, thinking it was an actual dolls house. While I’m there check out Go-Lo for plastic bins to store the avalanche of packing peanuts taking over my kitchen (but all the bins are coloured so I don’t buy anything). I also pop into the op shop while I’m there, but nothing catches my attention. Drive home, stopping off to buy overlocker needles on the way.

11:00 am: Home again. Make and eat morning tea (crackers with blue brie and an apple) Find myself a comfy spot on the bed with the cat and finally start working on the hat for the possum costume.

11:30 am: Get a call from my agency telling me I can start my contract tomorrow. Tell them I can’t as I’m already committed to work on that day. We decide Monday works for everyone (only almost a week late) I return to the bed, the cat and the hat.

1:00 pm: Lunchtime. I reheat a container of Mediterranean bean soup from the freezer and retire to the sofa to eat it while reading the latest issue of Home New Zealand. Decide it’s too cold to continue working in the bedroom without crawling into bed so bring my knitting downstairs and turn on the lounge heater.

3:00 pm: Finish the possum hat. Celebrate by making a cup of tea and pulling out the chocolate I have hidden in the cupboard to go with it. Head upstairs to check my email and release the second blog post for the day. Return downstairs to the sofa and start knitting the possum hat ears (making it up as I go along).

4:30pm: Finish possum hat ears. Start possum hat ties.

5:00 pm: Finish possum hat ties. Decide I need to try this thing called relaxing. Finish reading Home NZ. Start reading latest Living Etc.

5:30 pm: Go back upstairs, get changed and drive into Civic for a Craft ACT opening.

6:00 pm: Opening schmoozing. Drink free glass of wine. Eat free cheese. Admire works and take lots of photos.

7:00 pm: Head back home, texting Sarah to discuss dinner arrangements. Load photos from the opening onto the computer.

7:30 pm: Sarah arrives. We wander over to pick up Noodle Choice takeout and back home to eat it. Drink wine.

8:00 pm: Sarah works on covering her tail with furry stuff. I work on sewing in the loose ends on the possum hat. Sew on the ties. Sew the possum ears together and start experimenting with placement of said ears. Drink more wine. Take photos (and a video) to test ears.

10:00 pm: Sarah goes home. Go back upstairs to the computer, load costume photos and check out opening photos and blog stats for the day. Decide it is imperative to start a Craft ACT Flickr group right this very second.

10:20 pm: Finally come to my senses. (Almost) boil kettle. Fill hottie. Head to bed.

Soundtrack for the day:

Q Playlist Mellow Gold
George Michael: Listen without prejudice
Anika Moa: In swings the tide
Moments notice: Moments notice
Moonlight Sounds Vol 6
New Groove Vol 2
New order: Get ready
The Presets: Apocalypso
Age Pryor: Shank’s Pony
Eddi Reader: Mirmama

Seven ways to pass the time of day...*

There's only one thing to do when you wake up on a Saturday morning, still feeling under the weather after a 13 hour sleep, and look out the window and see this:Which is decide that the cat has the right ideaand return to bed after refilling the hottie, making a cup of coffee (as there's no milk left in the house for tea)and pulling a pile of reading material off the bedside table:Stay in bed til after lunch...when you're finally roused by a knock on the door.

Go downstairs to find J (and her Snot Monster) have popped in to visit and pop straight out again to get milk for tea and junk food to go with it.(from the servo as the supermarket is still closed for Anzac Day. Aren't friends great?!)

After J leaves head back to bed (and the reading pile)...Surfacing, finally, to whip up a batch of the most fabulously yummy zucchini cakes in the universe for early dinnerand to watch the full set of Eurovision preview videos. Before heading back to bed by 6:30pm...

(*with apologies to Fred Smith)

A day in my life

Following Little Jenny Wren's example rather belatedly...

5:45 am: I can't sleep as someone's doing burnouts in the Dickson shops car park. It's almost time to get up anyway...

I get out of bed, turn on the computer, go to the loo, put the kettle on to make my morning cuppa, let the cat in and feed him. While I'm getting the cat food out of the fridge I also get the bread dough I put in there before I went to bed and put it on the bench to warm up.

6:00 am: Back upstairs with my tea. I have 28 new messages and 63 updated feeds in Bloglines. I read the emails and selected blog updates (the friends, the locals and the miniaturists. I drool over this Rietveld house on Call of the small's blog). I answer the eBay questions I'm able to answer immediately, make a note of the rest for when I go to the garage and also print out some sales I need to pack and post.

6:30 am: Listing new eBay stock while reading more local and op shopping blog updates plus Soule Mama (my morning treat)

7:00 am: Time for a break and to put some music on. Blues for Robin is on top of the pile. I'm pleased as it's a perfect first thing CD. I continue my eBay listing listing.

7:30 am: I put the bread on to bake and the chickpeas I soaked over night on to cook. I make breakfast (porridge with craisins, wheatgerm and brown sugar) and eat it while starting to read the Itten book on colour theory that's on our reading list for class. Once breakfast's finished I do the dishes and head back upstairs.

8:00 am: Vintage Indie sent me a list of questions last week for an article they want to write on my dolls house collection. I finally make time to sit down and answer them. By the time that's done it's time to get the bread out of the oven and put it aside to cool.

8:30 am: I list some items from my old Made It shop into my new Made It shop.

9:00 am: Time for a shower, hair wash, leg shave and nail clip. I get dressed into my usual uniform of black T, jeans and Converse one stars.

9:30 am: I empty the rubbish bins into the wheelie bin outside and the compost bucket into the compost bin behind the garage. While rinsing out the compost bucket I notice the cat's water bowl needs topping up and that the grapes look ready. I make a mental note to email The Old Flame and let him know as he wants them.

Then it's into the garage to pick the stock needed for the orders and postage quotes I have. I move some stock around and bring some of the last of the stock in the house out onto the new (from Salvos) shelves that arrived on Thursday. I add the fact that I haven't asked Taph if she still wants my mower fuel tin to my mental note list along with the fact I need to ask someone to come round with their power drill and screw the new bookcase onto the wall so it won't fall over on top of me.

10 am: Back inside. I check the chickpeas (which are done), answer the eBay questions and send out postage quotes after emailing Taph about the tin and the grapes.

10:30 am: Morning tea (leftover strawberries which Cycling S brought for dessert on Thursday and yoghurt) which I eat while drawing up my To Do list pages for the next fortnight. I remember I need to do some washing so put a load of black on. Then I do my Visa accounts.

11:00 am: My office is in dire need of a tidy up so I deal with the teetering piles of papers. I'd vacuum (there's still thread all over the floor from the art bags) but the cat's upstairs asleep so I'll have to leave that for later.

11:30 am: The washing's finished so I peg it out before heading across to Dickson shops where I return a library book, buy two lemons and pay my bill at the newsagents. Home again, I throw a load of jeans in the machine and then make hummus, smiling happily at my $32.50 "new" chefette the whole time...

12 noon: Lunch (fresh bread, freshly made hummus and cherry tomatoes from J & M's garden). I read today's Panorama (the arts section of The Canberra Times) while I eat.

12:30 pm: I peg the second load of washing out. Just as I finish the doorbell goes: it's Taph and The Old Flame dropping in for a visit. They're bearing gifts: an empty water bottle all the way from New Zealand, two cartons of packing peanuts, four empty cartons which they spotted at the recycling depot and thought I'd need and a tape of Torchwood Series 2. I make coffee. We sit and chat before heading into the back yard to harvest my grapes for The Old Flame.

2:20 pm: Taph and The Old Flame head off. I go upstairs to visit the cat on the bed for a while and find myself drifting off...

2:40 pm: Awake again. I file some CDs and tidy the lounge. The cat decides it's time to go out.

3:00 pm: I vacuum upstairs and dust the bedroom. Pull out clean sheets and pillowcases. Strip the bed and let it air.

3:30 pm: Catching up on some videos at Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog and playing with my poor neglected journal. I down a couple of chocolate chip biscuits.

4:00 pm: I'm meeting Cycling S at The National Gallery at 4:30 pm for the final late night opening of the season (or, to be more precise, the final wine tasting!). The weather's looking very overcast so before I go I bring the washing in and hang it on the drying rack in the lounge. Just as well: the heavens open just as I hit Civic and I end up swimming from the NGA carpark into the gallery.

Cycling S, C and I catch up, sample wine, eat cheese and crackers and I draw ideas for a possum costume on the paper tablecloth for C. Cycling S mentions she has free tickets for some French film tomorrow morning and asks if I'd like them. A free film? Yes please!

I arrange to meet C this evening at ANUFG and we all head off.

6:30 pm: Home again. I make the bed, cook dinner (fresh spinach and ricotta ravioli with browned butter, peas and parmesan) and call a friend to see if she wants to join me at the movies in the morning.

7:00 pm: Writing this blog post quickly before I leap in the car and off to ANU to see Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Caramel. Then it'll be bed time.

Soundtrack to the day:
Blues for Robin: Tom Ludvigson & Greg Johnson
Wendy Maharry: Wendy Maharry
Mezzanine: Massive Attack
Melbourne The sex, The city, The music
Republic: New Order
New Sound Theory Volume 1
I'll never forget whatshisname: Nice 'n' Urlich
Nordic lounge Volume 3
Pandora's Box: OMD