I start my new job on Monday so this moment, sitting here with my late-afternoon vegemite toast and cup of tea, at home in the quiet on a Friday afternoon, is the last such moment I'll have for a while.
When I was a kid I used to think there was something magical about 2pm on a school day when you were home sick. You were in a place you wouldn't ordinarily be at that time. Somehow the light was different, and the neighbourhood didn't sound the same as it did on the weekends.
I've got that feeling now.
Afternoons like this have been such a pleasure over the last two months. As I've sat here fiddling around on the computer, making plans and writing up lists (such tremendously enjoyable things to do) I've been struck by the absurdity of going to work. I have, quite simply, been free. My time has been my own. It's been a shock to realise how little this is ordinarily the case.
I can but apologise for the banality of these thoughts, but as simple and dull as they are it remains that in a moment when I head off to collect the members of my family from their various places around the city the weekend will begin, then the week will begin, and Monday afternoon at home will pass without me.
So dear tea and toast and afternoon sun and random school-day adventures, thank you and see you in the next redundancy.
16 comments:
It is good to be working and it is good to be getting paid, but I am missing my late morning naps with my cats.
I am almost looking forward to the temp job finishing in a couple of weeks.
A lady at the office just won $9,900 something dollars on a poker machine at lunchtime - darn it.
Woah, that's a great pokie catch. Darn it indeed. Maybe drinks will be on her for the next coupla months?
That is the beauty of temp jobs, hey. It's nice to have that sense of something finite, like your freedom and morning cat naps are only being interrupted temporarily. A friend of mine has been temping for years for just that flexibility: two years temp work, six months overseas, two years temp work...
Add the odd pokie win in their and the time overseas gets longer :)
[oops their/there... got the Friday arvo bottle of red open ;)]
What a beautiful post. I can relate in a lot of ways because I only work casual/relief and so much of my time is spent at home, on the cusp of picking up work again and not enjoying time to sit and eat vegemite toast and drink tea in a quiet house.
I hope work is fantastic though for you...
i sometimes get mondays and tuesdays to myself, so that i too am able to enjoy the heaven on earth that is vegemite toast + tea or coffee (depending on my mood) and that marvellous show, Ready Steady Cook. which isn't really marvellous at all, but lets me believe for a minute that i might actually be arsed to make some of that food for my teeny little family and miraculously make it all appear on the table at 5.05pm like the ideal housewife that i sometimes dream of being. only not a housewife - maybe i'm legally not allowed to call myself that anymore? housemum? sheesh. kill me now.
i think i got sidetracked.
yeah. vegemite toast at 2pm is great.
Thanks SP :) I've got that funny count-down thing going to 9am Monday morning. You know how you anticipate something starting so you do everything to get ready for that, while knowing in the back of your mind that at some point a little while after you'll be back on the train coming home, the people met, the forms signed, the great unknown known...
I think relief work would be tops - good on you, that sounds very civilised :)
And Ms P! Oh mercy Ready, Steady Cook. I spent a year watching that after my son was born. I liked the constancy of Pete Everett and his goofiness amongst all the other changes... And how much better do groceries look on that show than in real life?
PS, I think if you collect vintage aprons you can call yourself whatever you like ;)
that Irish chef came into work one day, you know 'The Happy Chappy' one? ever since then i've wondered how much of his persona on the show is an act. maybe i just got him on a bad day? who knows?
i just bet Peter is lovely though, don't you? in a nutty "i burn everything i ever try to make" kind of way that is sweet.
oh!
word verification:
oveneapi
(a yummy kind of pie, made in the oven!)
we love you, WordVerificationElves.
I've been eating and sleeping work every day for five weeks. I'm so so tired and I think I'm losing the plot
Here's to work, Kettle!
Have you read Grapes of Wrath? I'm nearly finished it and I must say it certainly puts this recession in perspective. Lord, it's depressing
Lovely post, Kettle. Nice bit of nostalgia.
A big tick to the interviewing panel who saw what a clever Kettle you are! And to you for nailing the job!
Hope it goes fantastically on Monday.
Heh heh, Ms P, we do indeed love the WordVerificationElves! Your experience of the Irish chef guy is one of three reasons I never want to see celebrities in the flesh. No need to pop our bubbles with their ordinariness. (I hope you had a lovely weekend, by the way.)
Ms Squib! Great to hear from you. Sounds like you've been busy, busy, busy. Hopefully fun-work as opposed to work-work? (I hope you're not an accountant, say.) I haven't read Grapes of Wrath but if it makes this here global financial crisis look like kindergarten it's my kind of book. Here's to work!
And dear lovely Words and Wine, thank you for your kind comments, you're always welcome here ;) I've already packed my bickies for morning tea tomorrow so I'm ready to work!
Kettle, bookeeping was the one subject I nearly failed at school. (Not that this fact would necessarily preclude me from being an accountant but oh! the horror!)
Steinbeck will make you feel as plush as Mr Ikea
Ha ha, Squib! I bet that's the first time ever Steinbeck and Mr Ikea have been in the same sentence together.
Mme Kettle!
i kept expectorating (oh spellcheck likes 'expectorating?!) a blog from you regards your new job, but there's been no word. no word at all!
please be so kind as to post your first impressions. i do hope it's been a good couple of days?
Have you seen those Penguin book mugs, Kettle?
Hi Kettle,
I am looking forward to the definition of 'polymath'!
I could look it up, but your version will be more interesting.
Ms P! Thanks for thinking of the new jobski, very kind of you to ask. Impressions to follow shortly; in the meantime I can confirm that I like the money-in thing after a period of money-out.
Squib I love those mugs, although I'm torn about buying one. I'd always feel compelled to tell people I was rather partial to reading before the advent of such delightful reading accessories as the mug. On the other hand, meh what other people think. Do you have one? Do you love it immensely and intensely?
And Words and Wine! Ah you have picked up on another as yet unwritten post. It all started for me with a group biography of Darwin and his expeditioning buddies...
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