I am back at work, or what passes for work. At the care centre for old people. They are still in lockdown and I am told most of the buildings are not accessible. I am not sure why I am here yet as none of the bosses have shown up to tell me what I am supposed to be doing. I have heard most of the nurses stations are complaining about their printers but as I am not allowed to visit those sections of the buildings, I am not sure what I can do about it.
By the way, as short side note complaint, I hate the fact that I have to go back and correct the spelling of center in these pages. I don't always do it but it always tells me to change it to centre and I hate that. but that a minor inconvenience I suppose.
I was asked when I walked in the door to go see someone down in the lunch room about not being able to sign in. When I got there, the person making the complaint had left and gone home due to the lockdown. The other's in the room said she had locked herself out of the computer and since I cannot reset passwords, there was nothing I could do. That is just a typical thing I deal with on this job, little complaints that I cannot fix but it makes them happy that I visit I suppose.
Had a job south of the city yesterday. South of Surface Paradise to be exact. Probably does not mean anything to you but you could look it up. It's kind of famous, on the Gold Coast of Queensland, south of Brisbane. Anyway, it takes me two hours to drive there. I said I would only do it if they payed for my time to drive there. They agreed so I headed off and spent 15 minutes figuring out that the printer was broken and they needed a new one. Of course, I spent two hours on the phone trying to explain that to the head office that had called me out. They kept having me repeat things I had already done and told them I had already done but they insisted I try them again while they were on the phone. A complete waste of time. In the end, they ordered a new printer.
I only mention it because I talked Juanita and Maeghan into taking the ride with me. William did not want to go so he stayed home. After I finished, we went to the largest shopping center in Australia, or I think it is the largest. I looked it up once and forget whether it was first, second or third. It's somewhere in there. You would expect it to be that high in the rankings as it is on the Gold Coast. I think Bondi in Sydney might be bigger but I am not sure. This one is called Pacific Fair and is an indoor/outdoor shopping center with a large area in the middle that has fountains and sitting areas and a little river running through it. It might be a nice place if it wasn't so hot in Queensland this time of year. Plus, I was not feeling well, heart problems you know, so we had to stop every hundred yards for me to recover. Wasn't ideal but it was pleasant none the less. Maeghan has her wheelchair so she doesn't care. She just rides around and isn't bothered by the walking. Juanita had gotten a bad phone call while I was working and she was not happy but we soldiered on. I think we got around the majority of the shops but there were a couple that I would have liked to go in but was not feeling up to it. They have the really expensive shops there and the really cheap ones as well. Not mixed together but it depends on what part of the mall you are in.
We were going to have coffee in the outdoor area with the river and fountains but the so called coffee shop that was there was actually a very high end restaurant. They servers things that started at $35 and went up from there. I could not see a coffee machine anywhere and it was not on the menu so we decided to move on. I can't imagine they get a lot of business in that place and an actual coffee shop would be a better fit but it is what is was. There were kids swimming in the little river and lots of people sitting around on the lounges and tables. It is a pleasant area but too hot on normal days. We will have to come back when the weather cools a bit in six months.
We did drive by the beach for a while and it was very tempting to get out and go sit in the water. There were several areas that looked very nice but since it is school holidays, they were all packed. No places to park so we kept driving. It did look nice though. We generally don't go that far when we go to the Gold Coast. We stop at Surfers Paradise and stay in that area. Surfers Paradise is where Sea World is near and we actually thought about stopping there since we have season passes but decided against that as well. We had to go shopping at Costco on the way home so we just drove on by, on our two hour return home trip.
This all really comes up in that fact that I just received a call about taking a six month contract in an area that is about 30 minutes inland from where we were. I am just being nominated for it but as I am normally over-qualified for these types of jobs, it is just a question of them wanting to work with me. I am old and experienced and they usually want someone new and younger. I am expecting a call from them for an interview at any minute.
It will be a long way to travel each day. Two and a half hours on public transport, about an hour and a half in the car. Since we only have one car these days, it will present a problem but once I figure out the train and bus route, I will probably take that instead of driving. William still has to go to school and Maeghan has to have her wheelchair anywhere she goes so they need the car. Don't know much about the job yet, I just got a call to expect an interview. We will see how it goes. If they are paying me minimum, I will not take it but if it is worth my time, I will take the job as it is a more steady job than the one offs I am doing now.
Back to the home life. Adam and Leslie are still living with us. Leslie is more permanent I suspect but I am beginning to wonder about what Adam's plans are. I don't feel that great about a 40 something year old man living with us, who seems to have no plans for the future. He does not seem to be looking for anything in the way of work and spends 90% of his time in the garage watching TV or sleeping. That used to be where Leslie spent 90% of his time but now he sits on the couch in the lounge room and plays his phone all day. Only getting up occasionally to make himself something to eat. Leslie is 18 now but I have no idea what his plans are or what is expected of him. He has a speech impediment that makes it very hard to understand him when he talks. His mother is useless and has done nothing for him so he just lives with us for now. Maybe he will decide to do something or maybe not but I don't know how long this arrangement can last. He'll need help from someone and I have no idea where to even start. It's a tough life with little hope coming up for the future for all of us. Maybe something will change and maybe it won't. I'll explain why in the next paragraph.
I just got the call for the interview for this new job. It would seem they require me to have a car everyday. As explained earlier, I cannot do that, so that job is out of the question. I have called to tell my person that I will not be taking the job but he was on the phone and has not called me back yet. So, no long term commitment for me. My worry is that if I don't take this one, they will not offer me any more. I already have one person at the agency that no longer offers me jobs since I turned down her factory work opportunity. That job is where you spend 8 hours a day standing in front of hundreds of computers putting them together and imaging them. It's easy work but I cannot stand for 8 hours a day doing it. I have done it in the past but can't do it anymore. Plus, it doesn't pay very much so it is not worth my time. She was offended when I starting turning her down for the job so now I never hear from her again. Hopefully, this will not be the same result for this new job. Since I turned it down, he may not offer me anything else and then I am really screwed, pardon the French.
So on that depressing bit of news, I will move on.
William has decided to sell his old Xbox games. He has some he bought at reduced prices over the years and now has decided to try to sell them. I have told him no one will give him any money for these but he is set on trying it. I have no idea why. Since we have five Xbox machines in the house, and only four TVs, I think he just wants to buy new games so he can have something the others don't or get some of the games they have. Did I mention we have five Xbox in the house. Adam brought his own so in addition to mine, Williams, the new one I got Maeghan for Christmas, Leslie's, and we now have Adam's. I am the only one with an Xbox account, so when they want to play the games I have, which are online, they have to sign in as me and download the games so they can play it. Not that I have a lot of games but I have been an Xbox Gold member for a long time and I get free games every month. I have over 300 titles, none of which I play, but I have them available to download anytime I I want. It's a huge catalogue and there are some decent games out there, even though they are old games, so occasionally, the others want to play them. It means they have to be signed in as me to get access to them but once they have me signed in, they can use their own ids to play the games. I won't say they do this a lot, but last month my internet downloads on my ISP were over 5 terabytes. I think that is a lot. Most of the time, our internet connection is non-existent as everyone is signed in and trying to play or watch things on TV. I had to buy an extender so the connection reaches my bedroom where the computer is and the garage where the other TV is. We lose signal in the bedroom a lot and I do not know what it is like in the garage but it is slow everywhere most of the time. Telstra tells me they are upgrading the system but they have no idea when that will happen. I was paying for the faster connection but they told me it was not possible in my area so they gave me a refund and put it back down to normal speed. The problem with that is, when it does go to the higher speed in our area, I will not know it so I can start paying for the faster connection unless they tell me, and I do not see that happening.
I am tired of typing and I have not said anything. Just complained the whole time. I am sure there are lots of things I should be talking about but this has mostly been about work or the lack thereof. Sorry about that. I think they are about to kick me out of here anyway as they are now putting up barriers to all the doors to keep people out, or maybe it is to keep people in. I am in an office out of the way but I am sure they will get around to me eventually so I probably should go out and find out what is going on. These entries have been too long lately, anyway. I just wish I had gone into the kids more. Not that they are doing anything special but this about them and not me and my job situation. Ok, we know that's never been true, but I can keep saying it as long as I keep trying. But, I think I am going to wrap this up for now. I keep planning on taking out the laptop and making some entries at home but I never seem to do it. I will make a more concerted effort, although I have no idea what a concerted effort means. Is that even a phrase and have I used it correctly. Who cares. Not me.
So, until next time,
Later
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