November: day 28

This evening

I didn't feel like leaving the house today to go to the two Interrobang events I had tickets for, but I'm pleased I did. Cheryl Strayed, the one I was looking forward to most, was great: she was warm and funny and wise, as expected, and the banter between her and facilitator Meghan Daum was entertaining.  

But I think I enjoyed the second event with The New Yorker copy editor Mary Norris - aka the Comma Queen - even more. She was delightful, and not just because she looked and sounded like a cross between Marilla from Anne of Green Gables and the granny from Loony Tunes.  

She talked about the joy of finding errors in copy and I nearly jumped up and yelled, "Yes! Yes!", but, being an introvert, I merely nodded my head in agreement. Anybody who follows me on Twitter will know picking up mistakes on The Age website is one of my favourite hobbies*. I think I'll have to buy her book, Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, which has been described as a 'refoir' - a cross between a reference book and a memoir. 

A Twitter friend, Jess, also attended the Cheryl Strayed event, which was at the Athenaeum Theatre - a sizeable venue.  We bought our tickets separately, but ended up sitting in the same row about five seats apart!  

* Now I feel pressured to vigorously proofread this post, but I'm not going to because I'm too tired to bother or care too much if it isn't perfect**.

** I feel as if I should apologise for mentioning how tired I am so often. It's boring. Sorry.  

Easy peasy, fat rat, old sign

Another view from my office. I think it's time the 

windows were cleaned.

It was billing day at work today. Billing day. Actually, it wasn't even a whole day. I started at about 11.00am and was done before 5.00pm. In my old job, billing dragged on for a week and was a real pain in the butt, especially when there was other urgent work to be done. There were so many files and so many partners and solicitors there, so monthly billing was quite a saga. 

But at my new job, where there's only two partners and five solicitors, it was a breeze, even taking into account that I'm still learning the ropes. The billing system is much simpler than the one used at my previous firm though. So many things are much simpler and I'm so much happier (and I've stopped having  nightmares about work, too). 

I'm enjoying the location of my new office - there's so many good shops to poke about in. Today I had a browse in an art supplies shop, a kitchenware store (so many nifty doodads!) and a camera shop. There's also a pretty decent food court at the bottom of my building, which means I don't have to go outside for food on cold, wet days. And there's a place that sells ice cream!

I saw a fat water rat on the edge of the river when I was walking home tonight. I wanted to take a photo, but every time it saw me, it ducked down under the surface. I think it was a native water rat (aka rakali). I always get a little kick out of seeing creatures in the Yarra, although nothing can beat the dolphins I saw a few years ago (well, except for a shark).

While the photo above I spotted an old(ish) sign on the roof of a building on Elizabeth Street (Roger David is now around the corner on Bourke Street.