BIG Day!

Just quickly, and in no particular order -

1) Mum's birthday

2) Simone's and my 5 month anniversay

3) PK's last day! (check out PK's blog here)[It's also the last day of Simone's work friend, Bee]

Like I said, a biiiiiig day!

Happy Mother's Day, Mum!

Yes, I'm also going to call her, but in the meantime I wanted to take this opportunity to "Mum, thank you for everything, I love you very much, and I hope you have a great day!"

PK: A Glowing Tribute

No, not the gum.

With the URL for my blog bookmarked in their web browsers, apparently both my boss (aka PK, aka Paul) and my co-worker (aka Corey, aka Good Ol' Country Boy, aka the guy who is married and is younger than me) took the opportunity to go through my tawdry Internet scrawlings.

I just got off the phone with Paul, and through the course of the conversation, he accused me of having a crush on Corey. Apparently if you mention a guy twice in your blog, you're suddenly secretly in love with him. I mean, I do have that shrine to Corey made out of all his used coffee cups, but you don't know about that, Paul!

In any case, Paul seemed a little hurt that the only time he was referred to in the blog was in the capacity of being "the boss", so I made a promise to post a glowing tribute to him. In my ever-growing attempts to be a man of my word, here is that promised tribute.

I got hired at My Place of Business while Paul was away hot-air ballooning in the wilds of Africa. Yes, he's that sophisticated and interesting. Upon his return, he must have at some stage noticed the sickly looking boy hugging the walls while delivering the mail, and rather than call security, he deduced that I was the new office assistant.

Paul and I started to gel after, having had a few upsets in my personal life, he was kind enough to stay back, drink some wine and lend a supportive ear. If ever you're in the middle of a crisis, the guy you want to be there is Paul.

After that, I got a few invites to lunch and some subsequent shopping trips, and the ball started rolling from there. A few months after we moved offices, and I had been taking on an increasing number of responsibilities in the marketing department, Paul had me moved from my corner of the office into his (which apparently involved a bit of fighting behind closed boardroom doors, as this move involved my transferring of departments. I didn't know about this until months later).

From there, I've taken on more and more marketing responsibilties, to the point now where I feel like I'm actually doing some pretty important work for the company, and I actually know what I'm talking about.

Paul attributes my asking Simone out to the confidence I developed as part of the marketing team, and I wouldn't say he's wrong.

Now, you might all think I'm being a kiss arse by posting a wordy tribute to my boss five minutes after he's found out about my blog, but the thing of it is that he's just accepted a position with another company overseas and is going to be leaving at the end of the month. And the fact is, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank a friend - a great friend - for all he's done for me.

Paul is the best boss I've ever had, because he's far more than a boss. He's a mentor, he's a counsellor, he's a style consultant, he's a foul-mouthed schoolmate, and he's a brother. And he's one of my best friends.

Oh, and I accidentally said his team was the Cats. He actually goes for the Bombers.
But from the game I saw, he'd have been better off going for the Cats.

Paul, PK, boss ... I'm going to miss you.

Now how's that for a tribute?

As Promised, A Photo From the Wedding

As I mentioned between ceremony and reception, last week was Simone's cousin's wedding, where Simone was a bride's maid and I was the fortunate shlub who got invited to have his photo taken with a beautiful girl and eat a free meal.

I bought a new suit for the occassion. Turns out clothes do not make the man.

This is the second wedding we've been to this year, with another one coming up in October. You know what that means, don't you?

Yes. Lots of cake. Lots of it.

I Just Told a Little White Lie ...

I just posted about how I didn't have any photos showing off the beauty of the place we stayed in Sorrento. And then I remembered that I did have some photos showing off the beauty of the place we stayed in Sorrento.

I won't post too many, as the house they were taken in isn't mine (and I've just learnt a valuable lesson about blogging about people when they don't know it), but just FYI, here's the view we had from the room we stayed in.

That blue mass? That's the ocean.

Pretty sweet, huh?

Sweet Sorrento Moon

Just to let you all know, the stay in Sorrento was awesome. We stayed at a friend of Simone's place, which was pretty much a luxury compound, with a 180 degree view of the coast, many bedrooms, an elevator, and some really awesome kittens I took a total shine to you.

Anyways, I figured I'd post the photos that Simone would find the least objectionable. This is me, crawling through the cavity in the coffee table in the middle of the living room.



Once I did it, it seemed to set off some sort of masculinity challenge, as all the other guys present shot up to see who could get the best time, while all the girls sat around wondering how they'd managed to hook up with such complete idiots.

Then we played Jenga. It was awesome.

I went back to Sorrento today with Dad and Sue as a bit of a field trip, and they absolutely loved the place. It really is very beautiful. Not that you'd be able to tell from my red-faced photos, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Hello Paul and Corey! (aka "Damage Control")

Okay ... so ...

Dad and Sue are visiting at the moment. So that they could get a chance to see where I work and what I'm doing with my life, my boss Paul (aka PK) extended the invite for them to come in and have a getting-to-know-you-drink.

Now, just the same as all of you (especially "Angry Alice", as she's asked I don't use her real name less her workmates stumble across her blog) I've read all the newspaper articles about people getting fired from their jobs for stuff they've posted on their online journals.

While I've made efforts to never mention the company I work for, I have talked about work on here, and also people from work. Nothing bad, I don't think (at least, that I can remember) .... but it's nevertheless weird for people when they find out they've been written about on the Internet without their knowledge.

As I've been growing closer and closer with the guys I've worked with, I've often thought about letting them know about my blog. But I had made the resolution to not mention it at work, for two reasons 1) I like my job and I want to keep it, 2) I wanted to avoid the weirdness that comes with suddenly being privvy to not only the stuff that's been written about them, but all the nerdy / terribly pathetic crap I go on about at length here.

Well ... that issue got resolved for me in one quick hit when, in mid-conversation, Sue mentioned seeing a photo of Simone and me on my blog, and suddenly, the blog I secretly had on the Internet was not so secret anymore.



Now, I can only really blame myself for this, as I meant to say before Dad and Sue came in that it might be prudent to not mention the blog, but it slipped my mind. That said, I noted a certain sadistic glee emanating from Dad when, upon realising that the blog was news to Paul and Corey (aka Good Ol' Country Boy, aka the guy who got married and is younger than me), started giving directions on how to Google it. Thanks, Dad!

I'm taking tomorrow off to spend time with the parentals (in exchange for having worked at the CBC on Sunday). I'm sure that, in my absence, Paul and Corey will probably be stopping by here at some stage to take a look around. Now, guys, before you delve too deep, please let me take this opportunity to explain a few things;

1) Yes, Corey, I'm afraid I referred to you as "Good Ol' Country Boy". I came to this code name for a variety of reasons. Firstly, my friends are terrible with names, and are much more likely to remember a nickname than a first name (this works both ways, as a friend refers to people on her blog as "Phone Slammer", "Date Man", etc). In fact, Simone would be able to tell you about how, when I was first talking about her with my friends, she received the fairly dubious nickname of "Mail Lass". Yes, "Mail Lass". No, I'm not proud of that one.

"Good Ol' Country Boy" was used with much affection, and more than a little embarrassment, as I couldn't think of any other nicknames. To be perfectly honest, I'm a little worried you might be offended, and I sincerely hope that's not the case.

2) The Considerate Cowboy. Dumb name, I know. It's a bit of an in-joke from about six years ago.

3) The football. I just did a quick search of previous posts to see if there was anything particularly damaging, and found I was probably a bit snarky about going to the football with you guys. Not you specifically, but the act of football and the viewing thereof.

This is particularly egregious, I know, given that it's the lifeblood of Victoria. Just let me say that I truly did have a good day, and that the fact that I actually went to a match scored me points with a number of people who had written me off as a namby pamby girly boy. Sometimes, you exagerate for the purpose of comedy. Or should that be "comedy" ?

In any case, it's more a result of being smarmy about football in general, and not wanting to let on that my experience at the Telstra dome may have been a converting one, lest Dad got the last laugh after warning me I'd have no choice but to become a football fan upon moving to Melbourne. I'll beat you yet, old man!

4) I might be a bit snarky in general. But you already know that from real life.

5) I love my job, I love you guys, and at least now that the cat's out of the bag I no longer have to worry about whether or not I should tell you about the blog.

6) Speak of this to no one.

So with all of that said, I think I'll leave it there. There's a strong impulse to rush through and delete everything even remotely work-related, but I don't think that's necessary. I think you guys will know the spirit with which it was intended. And if not, you're both welcome to give me a quick punch in the guts on Monday morning. But please don't. I might cry.

And let this be a warning to you all; if your parents come into the office, make sure to give them an absolutely thorough briefing beforehand!

Enter Sandman

Like I said in my previous post, I'll write about my experiences at the CBC conference when I have more time, but just for now, I wanted to get this off my chest.

I MET NEIL GAIMAN!!

Yes, I got to introduce myself to and shake the hand of one of my favourite authors. IT WAS SO FREAKIN' COOL!!!

I'm working at the CBC again tomorrow. He's giving the key note speech in the morning, but after that one of our publishers said she'd see about getting him to sign a copy of one of my favourite books that he wrote; American Gods. Holy cheez!

In the meantime, please enjoy his blog ... it's tremendous.

Tah!

Killing Time Between Engagements

Just back from the wedding of Simone's cousin, and waiting a couple of hours between the ceremony and the reception. As Simone is part of the bridal party, she's off to many various locations to get her picture taken. I'll blog about the whole thing in due time (as well as the trip to Sorrento and my experiences at the Children's Book Council conference), but to tide you over, please accept this, the very first photo I managed to get of Simone at the wedding ...

Yes, that's her hand covering the lens. Take that, papparazzo!