Diary of a Dilletante

I’m turning into a fat bastard and it is time for action.

I’m thinking of starting the Couch to 5km thing. Which is kinda galling for someone who used to get paid to run. (Well running was part of the job). I reckon I am now more than 10kg overweight and it is just sitting there on the front taunting me.

There is also a gym within easy distance and I’m thinking about that too.

But I may also about to be given a new job with more demands on my time and I’m not sure how that will impact my lifestyle.

The good news is that my swing by Willow is starting to get grooved in. The good is now very good indeed. I love it.

Can one give a complement to a random stranger while walking down the street?

Could I tell a girl “great shoes” or compliment a bloke on his tie? Would this be generally appreciated? Or would this get one branded as crazy stalker material?

If it happened to me I am pretty sure I would appreciate the sentiment. Am I wrong?

I am a victim of old age this week. I find myself having this weekend with the house to myself and the car. Yet with so many new fathers and other good excuses, none of my usual peer group are available to share it with me. There isn’t even any sport of note on Saturday night as I am all but boycotting the Olympics. My olympian sport of choice is Volleyball, but I’m sure there will be bugger all coverage throughout the games. Fifth replays of swimming heats will be given precedence over hard court volleyball.

Perhaps I will buy a Wii or a PS3.

Desci got asked some questions as part of a meme and invites others to request an interview by her. In a desperate attempt to generate some content I jumped on the bandwagon. She asks:

1. Describe your perfect day

I’d like a combination of solitude and socialisation. Start the day early with a round of golf on a deserted course as the sun burns off the last of the dew. There is nothing quite like walking though a beautiful golf course with only the local wildlife to distract you. I’d shoot the lights out and could then head into a late lunch with a lot of my closest friends and family in some sort of communal setting. A nice cafe with long benches might fit the bill. As much as I like being alone – I like being with those I love more.

2. I ask you what I asked 1.0: Why do you like sport? It’s quite shit.

A tough one. Games are important to me and I like the physical as well as the mental. I’ve played sport pretty much all my life and it is a habit that is hard to kick. I enjoy setting myself against an opponent and trying to win. I’ve had some moderate success in my own little sphere but that is just icing on the sport cake.
Sports teams are are almost always meritocracies and that also appeals. I get to meet people I would never interact with without the sport. I have been captained by dock workers and a barely literate council gardener – but both earned their position of authority based on their skill at the game. You can always find a team that will take you – if you are are good enough then you can play. This attitude matches my egalitarian mindset.
And it’s fun to play your game with some friends and then have a beer or two afterwards. We all have our shared experiences. Sport is how I get mine.

3. What would be your last supper?

I love corned beef with cabbage, carrots, mash etc. and a nice mustard sauce. Alas I am the only one in the house that will eat this as my three girls tell me they hate it. So if I were choosing – this is what I would choose.
If I’m not choosing then something with some sort of choking hazard will probably be it.

4. You have one cunt punt. To whom would you give it?

She’s a very prominent person in the company and universally loathed, yet still enjoys some sort of reputation for being a great employee. She would be first.

5. Favourite gig, band, album?

My favourite gig was probably when Ben and Drew played the Club Lounge back in Mildura. It may be the only time in my life where I could claim I was “with the band”.
My favourite band is probably Jellyfish. They have held a place on my mix tapes and iPod playlists constantly for more than a decade.
And yet the favourite album is probably Matthew Sweet’s GIRLFRIEND. I think it stands up better as a whole than BELLY BUTTON or SPILT MILK.

Now it’s your turn. If you want to be interviewed, leave me a comment including the words “Interview me.” I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions. If you don’t have a valid email address on your blog, please provide one. You will update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Dying the death of a thousand cunts. So busy, so stressed. I am fucking over it.

Who knows when I can do anything else.

One way to keep the lid on things, GO CATS, is to keep yourself really fucken busy.

I am utterly fried now that I am back covering too many areas again. Too much. Too much. Too fucking MUCH!!!

This is where my shallowness can work to my advantage. I just put on some mood adjusting music, or a quick 20 minute episode of some quality comedy show and I feel like myself again.

I am amazed at how little it takes to adjust my mood. A bit of sunshine. A perfect 6 iron that draws perfectly in to the green and then feeds right up next to the flag. A new piece of power pop that has me smiling. My beloved, stopping whatever it was she was doing, to kiss me. My girls presenting me with something they made just for me.

So is this normal? Is it ok to be a rollercoaster of moods? or are normal people more level?

There is quite the revolving door of staff at work lately. Every Friday sees farewell drinks of some kind and some very close friends are about to make their exits. It is a tough position to be in personally as it leaves more for the old hands to pick up, more of our hard earned collective knowledge walks out the door and everything slows down while the new kids come up to speed on just how to get things done.

Since November last year, 1/3 of my team have left the company, 1/3 have transferred within it and that just leaves 1/3 sticking it out. In anyone’s book that is pretty high turnover and I lay awake at night wondering if I will be left holding the baby.

So now I have someone tapping me on the shoulder and asking me to move too.

It’s a shift job and with it comes a 45% loading which seems pretty good. It’s an area I am pretty good at with a few people I quite like. It’s also considered a really shitty and high pressure job – for the duration of your shift – then you handover and go home.

Which is where my over-burdened sense of responsibility kicks in and I feel guilty about abandoning a place I helped to set up. So much of the current structure was put together by me and I want to make sure it succeeds. Is it my ego that makes me think without me the whole thing may struggle?

The thing that worries me most about my ability to do the new job is my ability to sleep. I am the lightest sleeper in the house with the slightest thing waking me up and keeping me up. The cat is banned from my area of the house as she jingles through the night with her collar. Even one of the girls turning over in the other room can rouse me. I’m not sure I’m capable of getting through the day trying to sleep.

Perhaps I will let inertia make the decision for me.