September 12th 2005 – Mail anyone?

My first day of work on the job contained few surprises. The people I work with are all great and each laidback in their own way. The minute I walked in I was swamped with a huge mail bag and asked to sort it by floor. Not having any clue of the people who worked here or where the departments were, the first thing I was given was a map of the floors I’ll be delivering to and the respective departments within. By the third run, with a little help from my trusty map, I was flying solo although a little awkward as the stereotypical ‘mailboy’. The following day I was introduced in part to the security network, which I found out later in the week has fallen a little out of date and which they expect me to cleanup in my spare time. My three daily runs went smoothly and by the end of the day I didn’t require my faithful sidekick map nor did I feel self conscious about my deliveries and actually began enjoying the social aspect of circulating through all of the departments and not being stuck at a desk all day. Not having changed jobs in the last seven and a half years, I really enjoy the change and for the rest of the week looked forward to being trained in all aspects of the job. Whether for regular courier pick ups, deliveries or plumbing maintenance, light bulb replacement or ceiling tile insertion, I did it all. The week flew by. Wednesday night, Laure and I went for a barbeque with our flat mates to a park in Pyrmont. Although it was quite some hike, we really got to know some of our roommates better. Some of the highlights of the evening were hearing about our new friend Josie’s awkwardly honest comments when she traveled through Bangkok and asked a darker Asian guy why he was so dark and not yellow? She proceeded to tell me that most red heads are unattractive but that I was not bad looking. Although knocked off my feet by her bluntness, I couldn’t help but be flattered and somewhat envious of her brutal honesty. Thursday evening Laure and I went to a small Italian restaurant in Pyrmont just off of Darling Harbor to celebrate our one year anniversary. Recommended to me by my sister, I checked it out on my way home from work, picked up a bottle of wine and waited for Laure to arrive from her new job as a legal secretary. We had a quaint dinner in the small intimate courtyard before turning it in early for another evening in anticipation of our Shoshtakovitch symphony performance that we treated ourselves to the following night.