serinde

I have yet to see a single spider or other horrific monster, except for the ones behind glass that I failed to avoid spotting from across the room at the Melbourne Aquarium. I'm very happy about this.

Actually, we got here about 24 hours ago. Checked into the hotel, which was impossible to find (driving in Sydney makes Queens look like a pleasant straightforward thing), to find a tiny tiny room smelling of mildew with drunken aspiring vocalists outside and a roar like the second half of Titanic whenever anyone in the building flushed their dunny. Also, unlike Melbourne, there is not tons of free wireless being given away like the flowers of Spring, which is why no updates 'til now. And though it's not a particularly large city, the distances are walkable, nevertheless every direction we tried to go in we were thwarted by some pseudo-highway-ish road or tunnel that impeded pedestrian progress. For all these reasons, by about 5pm we were half inclined to get the car from the rental place and drive right the fuck back to Melbourne. This was increased by our utter failure to find anything resembling a local rock scene. What the shit? Is this not Sydney, home of the Beasts of Bourbon, the Hoodoo Gurus, Midnight Oil, INXS, AC/DC, bla bla bla I could go on for a really long time? Feh.

Today, things is looking up. We have secured a room in a more central location, which does not smell like mildew and has Intarwubs and is twelve flights up so all that reach us is common city noises. We are regrouping and hope to take on the world shortly.

I made out a bunch of postcards while we were in the interior, but have failed at finding a post office. (!) Hope to send 'em tomorrow. I'll probably beat them home. Sorry.

In spite of going, what, some 900km through the interior, and in spite of NUMEROUS signs warning us of kangaroos, drop-bears, and wombats, we saw no native fauna at all, other than some interesting birds. Wait, I lie: we saw one dead kangaroo at the side of the road. Steve hypothesized it that they left it there to prove that such an animal exists, much as the creationists claim of dinosaur skeletons. Anyways: disappointing. We'll just have to go to the Taronga Zoo, I guess.

Health updates: Steve did indeed get some Nexium before we left Melbourne; thanks to damed_colonial and blarglefiend for suggestions. Driving through farm country was hell and death on his allergies, but he's better now we're back on the coast. I'm still coughing a bit. We're finding ourselves often dehydrated, as getting a glass of water does not seem a common thing in these parts, and when you ask for one you usually get a wee small thing barely the size of a Dixie cup, but we're doing our best to keep on top of it.

More later, I daresay.

Steve forgot his Nexium. He's managing okay at the moment, in spite of being a goober and ordering hot food two days running, but I don't know if it's going to get worse. If anyone has notions on how this is best addressed, please let me know.

1. American (who is running our EWR <-> LAX flights) is, I learn, no longer offering meals on any domestic flights. They will graciously allow you to pay $5 for a "wrap", or $3 for a packet of peanuts or a candy bar. Fuck you, right in your ear.

2. Qantas has found a way to be even more retarded than the TSA. Our Noble Protectors started allowing knitting needles again a couple years ago, but Qantas forbids them. Because why? Because, our spies tell us, someone tried to hijack a plane with a piece of pointy wood. Not a knitting needle, mind you; something much larger in scale, more like a 2x4. But, y'know, it's KINDA LIKE a knitting needle, so those have to go.

I am not packed. Steve is gone to bed, so I can't try to pack. Instead I drink a hot toddy and prepare to fall over, the better to attack tomorrow.

Fever's up to 100 again. I mostly feel better--less tired &c, though I have Magic Nose Goblins and my neck aches--but argh. Problem is, I HAVE to go into work; there are things I have to sort before I leave that I can't do from home.

So I guess it's swig the Dayquil and soldier on through.

It's hard sometimes to tell what malaise is from illness, and what is from the Curse of Eve descending with might at the same (utterly useless) time. (I'm pretty sure the wretched lower backache is not from cold/flu, at least.)

Though it's better than cramps on an airplane, which I have done and have no interest in repeating.

My 100.4 degree fever, let me show you it.

(Yeah, I guess that's an almost Ric Romero-esque comment, isn't it.)

So. One of the things I was tasked to do in my job was to come up with a unified, consistent set of policies pertaining to our student employees: hiring, firing, raises, reviews, disciplinary action, all that. That was a sort of low-hanging fruit, so I tackled it early on; and being duly diligent and conscientious, I went unto HR back in the fall and asked, "So, what are the university and/or college policies for CAs? Is it all the same as full-timers, or what?" And they answered me, "Oh no, it's entirely at-will, you can let them go whenever for whatever reason." So I wrote it up thus.

Fast forward to yesterday. One of our department's student employees has been Sir Not Appearing In This Picture. In the ~3 months he's been working for us, he's been out 30 days. So his supervisor asked me, well, can I just tell him to FOAD? And I would have said "yes, of course", except he's an "ITSA", not a CA -- that is, he can work up to 32 hours a week, not 20. They are, in every other respect (other than pay) treated the same, as far as I've found; but I thought I ought to ask, just to be sure. Okay, no problem, let me call HR.

I got passed around four people (in a department of twelve, I should add), and no one knew the answer. They'd call me back.

Today I get email saying "You should call the assistant to the director". Okay, I do so. In which I am told that not only are ITSAs supposed to be handled like full-timers--verbal warning, written warning (signed by employee), hearing, fire--but so are CAs. In spite of what they told me not five months ago. Which I pointed out, and the assistant had no particular response for, only continuing to mumble her opinion.

I repeat: there are only twelve people in this department. Eleven, if you count the fact that the director is newer than me.

I find it extremely difficult to believe that we are actually required to go through this gymkhana for 20-hour-a-week, $9/hr. student employees. But I have a meeting with The Director next week to get some goddamn real answers.

sweh was, as usual, right. You do have to apply for a visa in advance to go a-holidaying in .au. Happily, in these magic modern times, you can do it online in about three minutes.

(I'd assumed it was like visiting .uk, where you just fill out a little card while your flight is descending, and then they grill you for a few minutes on the ground and *bam* you're done. Not so much.)