Happysad

I feel both happy and sad after finishing up at work today. There were plenty of hugs and long goodbyes, little gifts and this gorgeous bunch of flowers. I had a nice lunch with the secretarial team and a couple of drinks after work. It's all over....I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! To be honest, it hasn't sunk in yet,  but I'm sure it will on Monday morning when my alarm doesn't go off. 

I left my phone behind in the toilets at Fed Square before heading home tonight but luckily it was picked up by a good samaritan. The finder was at a bar nearby so I nipped over and picked it up from her. What a good egg. (I really must stop putting my phone down in random places). 

Check out the unusual layered clouds that were over the city when I headed to work this morning.

(Click to enlarge)

Glowing

Tonight when I got off the tram the sun was setting in a stormy sky. Very purdy. I wish I'd been walking past the Bubble Dome five minutes earlier - as I walked towards it along Swan Street, I could see the whole sky behind it lit with an orange glow.  

It started to rain before I got home. I left my umbrella at work, but I wasn't worried because it was refreshing walking in the rain on a warm evening. The storm hit after I was home on the couch. There was one awesome thunder clap that made me jump. It's passed now and there's a nice fresh breeze blowing in the window.

Tomorrow is my last day in my job. It's been a hard week, so I'm really looking forward to my three week break. Lots of people have said they're sad to see me go (one solicitor even claimed to be devastated!), which has given me a warm inner glow. One co-worker gave me a lovely bunch of flowers. I just might have a tear in my eye tomorrow when I say my goodbyes. I won't miss the job, but I will miss the people.  Of course I'll stay in touch with the ones I'm closest to. 

Although this job hasn't worked out as I'd hoped, I've learnt a lot and made many new friends so I call that a win. 

Major glee

Mr & Mrs Plover always run away when I try to take their picture

Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned I'd taken steps to fix a situation that was making me unhappy? Well, I can now reveal that I have a new job! Yay! Still legal secretarying, but in a mid-size firm, instead of a huge one. 

I have one week to go in my current job, which I've been enjoying less and less since September last year.  I won't go into the reasons here, but I got fed up with going home grumpy most days and I felt as if all I did was moan about work. I had no confidence that anything would change, so I changed jobs. 

The second best bit is that I get THREE WEEKS OFF before starting the new job. I'm not going away  - I'll be having a staycation, three weeks of pottering around at home, working on neglected crafty projects and getting out and about to take photos, maybe even a few day trips to places I haven't been before. Yes, I have started compiling a to-do list. I'm rather looking forward to it. 

Duck siesta and Elmo

Napping beside the Yarra this afternoon

The things you see in a big city....

Pancakes, puddle duck, Friday

I had pancakes for dinner. Yummy. This is the second time in two weeks I've had (sweet, not savoury) pancakes for dinner and I fear...well, sort of...that it's going to become a habit. But I'm in the midst of an allergy elimination diet, so it's nice to have something that feels like a treat.

I've been on the diet for 39 days now and I'm making a lot more progress than on my numerous previous attempts. I'm almost ready to start the next phase, which is adding foods back in one by one to test for a reaction. That's much easier than the initial stage where you cut out pretty much everything that's worth eating. One 'challenge', as they call them, involves eating a lot of strawberries and for another I have to eat dark chocolate. Gotta love being told by your doctor to eat chocolate! 


Puddle duck

The river that I walk along every day to work - the Yarra - is a tidal river and when the tide is low, a section of muddy river bed is exposed underneath the Swan Street bridge. Sometimes there's tracks of webbed footprints in the mud and today the low tide revealed a series of smallish round holes full of water. In one pool sat a small brown duck.

It's Friday tomorrow. Wooh! 

Sign time again

I spotted some more old signs today, including one on the side of an old building in Richmond I have walked past loads of times and even photographed before (always from the north side, not the south though). Today for some reason I thought, 'I wonder if there's an old sign on the other side?' and...

...there is, but I can't make out what it says.  

The building is on Lennox Street not far from Swan Street.

The other sign was on a building in Little Lonsdale Street in the city. 

I think the top line says D W Reddan...

...because the building has 'Reddans' on the top of it...

 ...which you can see above. I can't make out

 the rest of the wording 

Action, coincidence, change

Today I took steps to fix a situation that has been making me unhappy and cranky for a couple of months. It's amazing how much better I feel after doing something, instead of just moaning about it. 

I rang someone today whom I haven't spoken to in well over a year and she said she was just about to give me a call. What a coincidence! 

I walked home a different way after work - through the Treasury and Fitzroy Gardens and around the base of the MCG.  I haven't done that for ages.