Hi everyone,

Here I am on the couch on a Friday evening.  Nothing fancy; just channel surfing.  I'm afraid this might not be as long an update as it should be.  Sorry.  I really should have been in bed a couple of hours ago.  Horribly tired

So in the highlights, on Wednesday I had the meeting with my boss(es) and HR as discussed.  The key message was that they seemed to keep having similar problems wkith my work every week.  I guess that's true.  They agreed it wasn't for want of trying - God knows I've tried, and for long before I came to my current employer, but I just seem fundamentally ill-suited to defence practice.  I really couldn't argue.  Indeed, I had to admit that even if I could come up with two or three good weeks on the trot, I couldn't guarantee that I could sustain it.  So, although no end dates have been set, they got across the message that this would be a good time for me to look for a job elsewhere.  We've agreed to meet again Monday week and reassess from there.  I really can't fault the process.  They've been pretty good with the time frames, and giving me fair warning, and I appreciate that they're running a business too, so I've also tried to be reasonable.  As I see it there's no point being difficult.  What would I rather have them say about me as referees?  "He tried hard, and he had a great work ethic, but he just wasn't the right fit for our line of work; it was a shame to lose him" or " he was difficult, defensive, and always thought he knew best; we were glad to see the back of him".  So I've had a look at a few things.  There's a research job at University of Melbourne that's vaguely within my field, as well as an advocacy job for Melb Uni Student Union (well within my capacities).  And I've also called my last recruiter to see if he has anything on the boil.  I've also had a look for history jobs.  Interestingly, there's a fair bit of that work in the US (but bugger all in Australia).  Some in Texas, with the TX Historical Commission, and some in Maryland, with a professional history firm.  Both of which would put me a damn sight closer to Joni and the girls than I am now, but which also require more recent publications than I have.  So, it looks like I'm stuck here for the foreseeable future, but I'm optimistic that this is just a bit of a bump in the road.

Which is kind of encouraging.  Thinking how I've struggled to cope with things in the past, I should be a blubbering mass in a corner right now, but I'm not inconsably stressed.  Sure, it's a nuisance I could have lived without, but I'll find a job no problem, so Joni and Grace and Rachel will be OK, and we'll plan the rest of it from there.  As Dr Facilier says in The Princess and the Frog, this is just a minor setback in a major operation.  Although he does say that just before the Voodoo creatures eat him, so maybe that isn't the best turn of phrase in the situation!

I should add that I had a great conversation with Jennie about work and all the other night, and her fellow is happy to review my CV if I need.  He's been looking for a job in recent times, so he's got a pretty good idea of what will sell, so that's a great thing to have on my side as well.

Work has been a bit frustrating this week.  Two matters adjourned at the door of the Court because the plaintiffs decided they weren't ready, and a matter today that we settled after a morning's bargaining.  Worthwhile, I think: it actually settled for about the true value of the case; I think in this case negotiation actually got a better result than a finding by the Court would have done.

This evening's been quiet.  Friday night drinks at work, which morphed into dinner supplied by work too (long story), and then I came back here to the Casa.  While we were in the boardroom which is the drinks venue I got a rather good photo of the sunset on my phone, which photo is herewith.  Then back here, where I saw the last half or so of the Nicole Kidman / Will Ferrell movie Bewitched, which I though was a lot better than the critics gave it credit for.  For one thing, it had a good cast (c'mon - Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Michael Caine ... what's not to like??).  For another, I'm a fan of both of the leads.  Nicole Kidman is a remarkably good actress, even if she's a bit limited (to steal Dorothy Parker's comment on Katherine Hepburn, she runs the gamut of emotions from A to B).  And Will Ferrell has an Arthur Askey like level of detail to his comic technique (although you do realise, when you see Stranger than Fiction, that his dramatic and comic styles are remarkably the same; the dramatic side of his work is essentially the comic side, with the volume turned down and the kinetic energy turned off.  Oddly, this gives him a genuinely tragic style.

The other thing I caught was about half of Napoleon Dynamite.  I remember it was Joni who introduced me to that movie.  She said it was one of those films that you either find enthralling or that you find stupid.  I was odd inasmuch as I found it neither: it just seemed to me incredibly sad - a long story in which there really aren't any winners among either the cool kids, the adults, the weirdos or the wannabees.  Just a parade of different types of losers with lives going nowhere.  That, and how they respond to it, give the movie its pain, but also give it its humanity.

Here endeth the Roger Ebert impersonation.

This will be a busy weekend.  Tomorrow morning I'll need to head to somewhere with free Wi-Fi so I can reinstall my malfunctioning Skype (my little aircard doesn't have the bandwidth), so I'll be off to the State Library, or McDonalds, or Starbucks.  While I'm at it I'll overhaul my CV and draft up a few letters.  In the afternoon I've agreed to go to the 60th birthday of an old friend I used to work with, up at Kyneton.  A lot of my old contacts will be there, so it's a good use of money and petrol to reinvigorate those contacts, things being how they are, as well as being able to see a lot of old friends too.  Sunday I expect I'll need to go to the office.  for better or worse, I'm still on the payroll, and they're still entitled to have me try as best as I can.

And somewhere in there I need to go for a few runs!  My knees and hips are still a bit for from the triple-Tan a week ago, but I think by tomorrow they should be able to cope with a bit of exercise.  Here's hoping, at least!

OK, my eyes are closing. According to me, it's highly bedtime!

See you tomorrow.