Well Sydney clearly either loves me a lot or hates me. My flight was delayed 2 hours, boarded, nearly took off but then aborted. Apparently no accommodation available in Sydney. Really is a crock. Will update later.
Well I’m all checked in for my flight to London. The check-in staff decided that I was so beautiful they wanted to give me an emergency exit seat. I do admit to being over the top pleasant though.
It is all slowly starting to become real. I think I’m excited now about it all. Still though a little surreal. I think I’m going to learn a lot and have some fun along the way.
To all the people back in Sydney, fare ye well and I look forward to seeing you all again sometime. My farewells were rather good so thank you all for being such beautiful people.
Today one of my children entered the world, my web advocacy project is now out in the wild. Very strange feeling, huge feeling of loss of control but also excitement about its potential, pride that within a few hours of launching 100 people have registered for it.
I had my last Hornsby Commie dinner. Feel pretty sad about that, I’m going to miss everyone from there. Particularly I will miss Jane, as she is just an amazing woman. I very nearly cried saying goodbye to her. The good thing though is Melbourne is not too far.
Also I found tonight that someone had left two five pound notes next to my stuff. So I’d like to public thank them for their gift whoever they are. Maybe they are like Andrew’s anonymous givers.
This week I have a product launch, a client site visit, a training course, and another product to finish development of. That’s just my work tasks. On top of that pick up new tickets for flying back to Melbourne, organise accommodation, etc etc.
and miles to go before I sleep.
I just took great joy in remove The Hon John Winston Howard from my MP database for an advocacy project I’m working on. It felt so good. I’m going through adding all the new MP’s and I’ll tell you it feels quite nice.
Well the trip to Melbourne yesterday/today was for a job interview at TEAR Australia for the position of IT Officer. I found out this afternoon that I got the job.
It feels nice getting a job, and I am hopeful that I will be able to do good things with TEAR. I like the idea of setting up my own place, and making a bunch of new friends. I think I will learn a lot that will be helpful to any future fieldwork.
At the moment though I am feeling sad about all the people I am leaving behind. Because of my Uganda trip I only have a week left in Sydney and then I am off on that trip. I hate that being the person I want to be, acting on poverty seems to lead to me spending a lot of time away from my home, and my formative community.
I went down to Melbourne yesterday for what I thought was a day. Being incredibly clever I decided not to pack my usual emergency shirt and toothbrush because I am sick of security bag checks. All this would of been fine, but in another stroke of genius I decided to book my flight back on the last plane to Sydney. On my way to Melbourne airport last night my Dad gave me a call to tell me there had been storms. When I got to the airport I saw my flight was cancelled.
I joined a long queue and got my rescheduled flight, and was offered some accommodation. The problem was it was another 30 minutes to get that, and I’d had enough. Instead I went to the lovely Gemma’s place and crashed there.
This morning one of her house mates made me a delightfully strong cup of coffee using one of those cool espresso makers you put on a gas hotplate. I think it must of been strong coffee because I’m still pretty alert.
Oh and the other “smart thing” I did was get a seat in the back of the plane for quick exits but in both Melbourne arriving, and Sydney coming back the rear exit was closed because of the rain.