#21 Get a new job

Status: In limbo

Glad that's over.

Anyway, I've just applied for a new, temporary fixed-term position with the Queensland Government Department of Communities, which sounds right up my alley. Plus, the money's good and the timing for my proposed Canada departure date is superb. So all of you cross all of your fingers and toes for me until I find out if I got the job. Arthritis is no excuse.*

(Just one last thing about my work at 7-Eleven. I've discovered that people who go about their business at night - or in the wee small hours of the morning - are characteristically exuberant. I'm not talking about the stoned male teenagers who stagger in to flick through the adult magazines before realising they've lost their shirts during the course of the evening; instead, I mean the shift workers, the builders, the joggers and the delivery men. It's weird, but I feel there's an explanation. It's the grown-up version of the childhood fantasy of being locked in a department store overnight. While the rest of the world is essentially out of the picture, tucked up in bed and oblivious to anything or anyone, us professional night owls are merrily passing the hours without the borders or burdens that modern-day society places upon us. No traffic jams, no bustling crowds, no-one to tell me I can't refill my Slurpee cup. And when the sun rises, we scurry away to our homes while the day drones trudge about, only to re-emerge when it's safe to come out and play again. Actually, scrap all that - it may have been a better explanation that the world is full of happy vampires.)

* It may, however, be a consequence of long-term digit-crossing. I accept no responsibility for any injury sustained while willing me this job.