Tasting...

Well, I volunteered here for 11 hours on Saturday and 5 on Sunday by checking the ID of anyone wanting to enter the beer garden. It was a long couple of days really. Further, the way I learned of the event was through St. John Ambulance. I was going to take advanced medical training with them and volunteer, but when they canceled the training I thought I'd volunteer there anyway. Glad I did. There were two medical emergencies, one on each day that required an ambulance to be summoned - with St. John Ambulance nowhere to be found (although they were supposed to be there). The first day was a woman who collapsed in the heat and hit her head on the concrete. She hadn't been there long so it was most likely just dehydration and the heat. I heard that something had happened and went to see. The head of the event didn't have first aid, so I stepped in.

I didn't feel like I did enough or remembered enough. The following morning, before I returned to volunteer for the second day, I had a feeling that I needed to bone up on the symptoms and treatment for: strokes, heart attack, and shock. Well, aren't I glad I did. A man had a stroke, and again, no St. John Ambulance. I was called immediately and suspected he had a stroke when he had urinated himself and was drifting on one side. EMS were there in 10-15 minutes. The man was adamant that he didn't need to go to the hospital and he was fine - it was difficult to break it to him that he had wee'd in his trousers and that he wasn't fine. A very good sign that he was feeling tip top after, but probably didn't hurt to get him checked out by the doctor so he knew what had happened by a professional.

This leads me to think that even if I can't get the medical training that I should cough up the money and do it myself. If I am volunteering more, these things are more likely to come across my path. I mean really, I haven't really used the first aid in the 17 years I had it, then to suddenly use it twice? Feast or famine.

Barcode baby

I sucked it up and made a name tag for my desk. It's policy and I've resisted it till now. There's absolutely nothing to do. So I made up 5 with my name and desk number. One was in Greek a real one and then these 3 fun ones.

Well it excited me to see my name in barcode... for about 2 seconds... then I went back to dusting plant leaves.

Lunchtime by the freeway

And so it goes. Enough people have gotten sick from the air that the building maintenance are bringing in "independent" contractors to look at the system and test the air quality. They're also doing construction somewhere in the 4 story building which promises to drive one batshit crazy.

I'd rather sit in a shady spot listening to the drone of both air and vehicular traffic during my lunch hour and fifteen minutes (why in god's name is lunch that long? I need 30 mins tops and would rather skip home early).

There simply wasn't enough to do today, for anyone. For me, this is a spill over from yesterday. So, I continued doing what I was doing yesterday - taking care of the plants in the office. If the air quality is so poor, why not molly coddle the plants that are there helping us breathe? Yesterday I had a heart to heart with a fern that is trying to decide if it wants to live or die. I cut probably 1/4 of the plant away and to say thank you I got scratched to hell by the thorns on the fern. Understandable, I would most likely do the same.

Today, I took tissues and began removing the dirt/filth from the leaves of the other plants. A couple of them have leaves that are almost as big as my head and the utter shite that was on the bigger leaves was incredible. A quasi crystalline structure covered them and it took some quite vigorous polishing to get it off. Off it did come, though, and under the layers of air-conditioner/heating reconditioned gunk were shiny leaves. I hope they're happy to be able to breathe as freely as they can in that atmosphere.

Louis Pasteur

"Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés." Lecture, University of Lille (7 December 1854)

Translation:
In the fields of observation chance favours only the prepared mind.

It is interesting to see how widely this quite has been applied, wouldn't you say?

So now, what I find myself doing, is contemplating how one would prepare their mind in order to have chance favour them...

Sigh

So, now I know why there is a little man frowning telling people to get back to work. The guy came back, only worked a couple of days and finished his temp position. He, unfortunately, destroyed the little man on this post-it so this is most likely the only record of the artwork.

The job is not fun. In fact, it is so much less than not-fun that I was desperately looking for something else to go to. When I got the pay cheque, I see that I am making so little it makes it laughable to stay. I am just crossing my fingers that something more appropriate comes along soon.

Working for the City is eye opening. I'm grateful to not have gotten a job there yet and have heard that if one gets a job there that they cannot take holidays in the first year. I mean really. What kind of crackheads are they? I refuse to be taken advantage of like that. So, I listened to internet radio on Friday and if they fire me, so what. I work hard and do not deal with clients so what do they care if I listen to music while doing the most tedious of tasks? If they care, they can stick it up their rear. I will happily leave.

That's what I've decided.