Down Dale & Up Hill
Dec. 5th, 2006 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanBack from the southward-bound roadtrip.
Left at about midday on Thursday last week, after a great deal of prevarication & just plain stuffing around with breakfasts, mechanics, motor registries, flat batteries (not mine!!) & Sydney traffic in general. After agreeing to catch up with a Sydney friend in Canberra, I was made aware of just how much time that Capital detour adds to the southward journey.
About 3 hours in total.
Arrived in Elwood 'round 10.30pm~ish... still early enough for a few wines to wash the travel dust down with. I may add, with some pride, that I found my way to my lodging without the aid of a map ~ just a reasonable sense of direction & a good memory.
Job interviews were the reason for the trip & the first of those was at 7am (!!!) the following day at a cafe in the heart o'the city. Not so much an interview as a series of 'aptitude tests' to see if I'd be smart enough & psycho~suitable for the company in question.
An IQ test at 7am!! Make it a double-strength macchiato!!!
I must have done okay... my IQ score was the same as the last test I took (posted in LJ some time in May this year, for the curious) & the psycho~test presented no real opportunities to unleash my inner sociopath. So, a meeting with the boss was approved for the afternoon... in Heidelberg West. Suffice to say I needed a map this time. In fact, I still got lost using the map, so a 7-11 somewhere fleeced me $55 for a 2007 Melways (which I saw the following day selling for $34.95 at a news~stand... @#%*!!!!).
A rhetorical question ~ What is it about the AV industry that puts absolute arseholes in charge of companies?? This would be my 3rd AV job & each time, the GM's been a prick with the people skills of a flung halfbrick. In short ~ this guy did his best to keep me off~balance & edgy throughout the 2 hours we sat in the kitchen... yes, the kitchen.
A loonng trip back to Elwood in what passes for peak~hour traffic in Melbourne on a Friday (A doddle!! We Sydneysiders really know how to jam traffic. Anything less than a 1 hour delay isn't worth talking about...) & after my stellar navigation the night before, I managed to take a wrong exit & had to improvise my way home. Never make the same mistake twice, I say...
Saturday was Market day & some jeans & t~shirts later, I headed for Tusk on Chapel St for a deserved Sangiovese-Merlot, before heading home & out for dinner. Nice Thai, nice company.
Sunday was photography day ~ wandering around the neighbourhood on a sunny day, the things you see include a canal:
For the uninitiated ~ you can click on the photo(s) to see a larger image...
Monday ~ departure day... eventually. After a late, leisurely breakfast, I hit the road at midday & fled north. An uneventful trip out of Victoria ~ especially at Glenrowan, which I swear used to be more interesting 20 years ago, the last time I was there. Crossing the border & refuelling, thence to Holbrook:
And north past Yass... running out of daylight!!
Home about 10.15pm. A trail of clothes & debris from front door to bedroom... zzzzzz
Now, what's next..?
Left at about midday on Thursday last week, after a great deal of prevarication & just plain stuffing around with breakfasts, mechanics, motor registries, flat batteries (not mine!!) & Sydney traffic in general. After agreeing to catch up with a Sydney friend in Canberra, I was made aware of just how much time that Capital detour adds to the southward journey.
About 3 hours in total.
Arrived in Elwood 'round 10.30pm~ish... still early enough for a few wines to wash the travel dust down with. I may add, with some pride, that I found my way to my lodging without the aid of a map ~ just a reasonable sense of direction & a good memory.
Job interviews were the reason for the trip & the first of those was at 7am (!!!) the following day at a cafe in the heart o'the city. Not so much an interview as a series of 'aptitude tests' to see if I'd be smart enough & psycho~suitable for the company in question.
An IQ test at 7am!! Make it a double-strength macchiato!!!
I must have done okay... my IQ score was the same as the last test I took (posted in LJ some time in May this year, for the curious) & the psycho~test presented no real opportunities to unleash my inner sociopath. So, a meeting with the boss was approved for the afternoon... in Heidelberg West. Suffice to say I needed a map this time. In fact, I still got lost using the map, so a 7-11 somewhere fleeced me $55 for a 2007 Melways (which I saw the following day selling for $34.95 at a news~stand... @#%*!!!!).
A rhetorical question ~ What is it about the AV industry that puts absolute arseholes in charge of companies?? This would be my 3rd AV job & each time, the GM's been a prick with the people skills of a flung halfbrick. In short ~ this guy did his best to keep me off~balance & edgy throughout the 2 hours we sat in the kitchen... yes, the kitchen.
A loonng trip back to Elwood in what passes for peak~hour traffic in Melbourne on a Friday (A doddle!! We Sydneysiders really know how to jam traffic. Anything less than a 1 hour delay isn't worth talking about...) & after my stellar navigation the night before, I managed to take a wrong exit & had to improvise my way home. Never make the same mistake twice, I say...
Saturday was Market day & some jeans & t~shirts later, I headed for Tusk on Chapel St for a deserved Sangiovese-Merlot, before heading home & out for dinner. Nice Thai, nice company.
Sunday was photography day ~ wandering around the neighbourhood on a sunny day, the things you see include a canal:
For the uninitiated ~ you can click on the photo(s) to see a larger image...
Monday ~ departure day... eventually. After a late, leisurely breakfast, I hit the road at midday & fled north. An uneventful trip out of Victoria ~ especially at Glenrowan, which I swear used to be more interesting 20 years ago, the last time I was there. Crossing the border & refuelling, thence to Holbrook:
And north past Yass... running out of daylight!!
Home about 10.15pm. A trail of clothes & debris from front door to bedroom... zzzzzz
Now, what's next..?
