Lost In Melbourne On A Rainy Night.

Recently we went in to the city in daylight for the evening graduation ceremony of our last –born told in the blog, “Graduation again.” Although we only live about 30kms for the Melbourne GPO, we seldom go any where near the city if it can be avoided and especially at night, even if I did know my way around there a bit, 20 or so years ago.

Anyway, so we went in earlier as we weren’t a 100% sure exactly where the place was and where we would be able to Park. Well we found both places quite easy and while having a little time to spare decided to walk around the block anti-clockwise, as clockwise the car park and the place we were going to were close together. So we went the long way around to fill in a little time, and also bought a paper. When we arrived back at the place we needed I decided to go and put the paper in the car and top up the parking Meter. Well when we drove past the place originally in the car, we didn’t fully realize how far away we parked the car and so not going far enough this time on foot, couldn’t find it at first. Anyway with plenty of time to spare and plenty of daylight, I eventually found where I had parked the car, just a lot further on than we had originally thought. So no real hassles there.

After the Graduation service we came out to a cold and wet drizzly night and had to get to the car as quickly as we could, which we did, and then headed for home, but because of the drizzle and my lately unfamiliarity to the road, I missed the turn off that I should have taken and ended up in Richmond.

Which being a Tiger Supporter wasn’t that bad and the names Swan St and Church Rd were familiar even if the roads themselves were not but having become disorientated by this stage, even when I found a road I knew, I had no idea which way on it I was heading. The interior light in my car was not bright enough for me to read my Street Directory and of course I had left the torch at Home, and it was too wet to stand in front of the headlights. Eventually I was able to pull up outside a Motor bike display room and able to go up to their window under shelter, just to read my street directory and get my bearings again and then turn around and go back on the same road but in the opposite direction till I found the exact road I was originally looking for.

As it turned out, I had eventually stumbled onto the right road but was heading in the wrong direction. Making good time too, just going in the wrong way. That’s all. Fortunately with a bit of strong light and some clear directions I was soon able to correct that situation and not that much later we were both safely home again.

What about you? Do you sometimes start out on a journey seemingly all prepared but leaving something basic (Like a torch) at home? Do you sometimes miscalculate the true distances between objects and miscalculate where you should be at any given time. Do you sometimes miss the right turn off and continue on blindly. Like me making good time but going in the wrong direction?

Or like me also, try and find your way back with out proper direction from the map. Do you too, like me eventually, just have to stop and go to a brighter source of help to get you back on the right track? Are you sometimes making great speed but with no real idea where you are headed or even if it is the right way?

If so what do you do? Keep on blindly going? Or stop and get some advice or help and turn and go the right way. Will you do it, or just keep stumbling on blindly? What say you?

Job That Could Lead Somewhere.

All this talk about Jobs paying the bills, reminds me of our last-born. Although she has her basic university degree in Psychology, she is a long way from the requirements she needs to work in her desired field and thus needs more courses & training. All of which cost money, which she/we no longer have. To help pay her bills and get some money for these extra courses, she was working as a Shop assistant and junior manager at basic wages for a long time. Recently she changed jobs and now has a better paying job more closely aligned to the field she wants to eventually work in. It is not the same field, but it is a foot in the door to perhaps leading to her desired field, and paying a lot better.

Instead of being the un-official manager of a $2 Variety Store, she now works at an outer Melbourne campus of one of Melbourne’s Universities. She is now, a research and teaching assistant for the Senior Lecturer of one of their Departments. Which one? I was afraid you would ask that!

I will tell you the Title, just as soon as I find where I have written it! Here it is: She now works for the head of the “Proposed Centre for Organisational Research and Psychology (CORP) in the School of Psychology, Psychiatry & Psychological Medicine”. (Try pronouncing or spelling all those words quickly!)

So you may now be wondering what we call her? Well we call her by her long-standing family title. She may have a new fancy handle, but she is still our last-born. Our Baby! So we will continue to call her by her Birth name, even though most others have long shortened that a bit.

What about you? Do you sometimes get confused when friends (or family) of long standing suddenly get new titles or jobs, and you wonder as to how you should now treat them?

At work and out in public, you probably will have to treat them with the respect and dignity their title and position requires, not to please them, but so as not to embarrass them in front of their work mates. This is what we will do, but at home, she will always be our Baby and treated accordingly. Now I will see if I can get my baby to shout her dear old Dad a cup of coffee. Bye: Walter