Catch up

It’s been a busy week…

Sunday, I went to visit my grandparents with Mum, to pick up a quilt Mum had bought and had delivered there for reasons that didn’t make any sense to me when they tried to explain it. We had lunch and then sat down to watch a movie, Just Visiting, one of my favourites. I lay down on the lounge as Grandma entered the room bearing a small box of Ferrero Rochere with eight left. She gave them to me and told me that she had saved them for me. I ate three in quick succession then put the movie on. Five minutes later I had another two. Five minutes after that: another two. Ten minutes after that I fell asleep, waking in time to see the final credits and eat the final chocolate.

Monday, I spent the day researching online for a laptop for my mother and a printer for myself. I wanted to steer clear of Windows Vista if I could help it, simply because I don’t know it and didn’t want to be in a position where Mum calls me at uni, panic-stricken, to provide instant tech support over the phone, but it appears that new laptops running Windows XP are very thin on the ground these days. After quite some time a friend talked me into getting Vista anyway, promising it to be user-friendly, so I bit the bullet and found a suitable laptop at around midnight.

Tuesday, I travelled to the city. My first port of call was Chatswood, to the office, to tackle some more computer issues and have coffee with a colleague. I had to be at uni at 2pm to help out at enrolment in my capacity as a mentor.

What happened next will go down in the history books as one of the most irritating public transport (mis)adventures ever. I apologise to those who do not know the city for the use of place names in the following account (I apologise because I get frustrated when people recount stories like this when I have no idea where any of the places are), but I wanted to put them in so that the Sydney readers can appreciate the amount of backtracking I did. I left Chatswood at midday, arriving at Town Hall at around 12.30. As soon as I walked out of the station it occurred to me that I had no idea where the bus to City Rd departed from. I knew it was somewhere east of George St, in fact I had it narrowed down to either Castlereagh St or Elizabeth St. Sadly, I chose the latter. When I got to the corner of Elizabeth and Park, I realised I was in the wrong place, but I saw bus with a sign in the window saying “Railway Square”. I thought to myself that this was better than nothing, because I could change busses there, so I hopped on board and set off. I suspected that something was amiss when the bus turned into Park St. I knew something was amiss by the time I got to Crown St (which, for those unfamiliar with Sydney geography, is completely in the wrong direction from both Railway Square and City Rd). I realised that the only places I knew of, for sure, where the City Rd busses departed were Railway Square and Circular Quay. I wasn’t going to Railway Square because far too much walking is involved and my legs were tired, so I walked back to St James station and hopped a train to Circular Quay, where I found the bus easily. I discovered the bus ran down Pitt St then Castlereagh St, so now I know what to do when I want to get to City Rd from the City.

I arrived at uni at around 1.30 with no time to run the few errands I had planned on doing before my shift started at 2pm. For the next two hours I mingled, giving out lollies, answering questions and basking in the many gorgeous guys who are enrolling this year. The rest of the day wasn’t very interesting at all.

Wednesday, yesterday, Dad and I travelled to Blacktown to buy the laptop, and to Windsor to buy a new DVD player and a TV antenna for me. I spent the rest of the night arguing with Vista over whether or not I wanted to do this or that, the fucking thing asking me to confirm or deny at every turn, until I worked out how to turn it off. This process continued into the wee hours of the morning.

Thursday, today, I have been continuing installing programs and such, with a brief break in the middle to meet a friend for lunch. I just got an email with the exact address of where I’ll be staying this year, so I’ll be able to check it out tomorrow, public transport debacles notwithstanding.

That’s about it.