Where have I been, a change of strategy and a quick plug

Hope y'all had a relaxing 5 day weekend and a meaningful Easter.

Where have I been
I got down to Melbourne with the family over the weekend....my first time! Impressions...well it's a bit hard to judge the vibe of a city when hardly anything is open, but yeah it does seen artier (and fartier?? hehe), with more emphasis on culture and stuff. Lygon Street was seriously not all it was supposed to be, which was a bit disappointing, but maybe that's because we didn't go to that good a restaurant (no time to sample more than one...gelato was amazing tho!). We did, however, manage to get to this gourmet market at Prahran and pick up some absolutely DIVINE olives, marinated in chilli and balsamic vinegar...YUM! Will have to take another excursion down there to see the other touristy spots no one wanted to go to cause they'd already been like Phillip Island (penguins!) and the Great Ocean Road (and it'd better be quick, because apparently the 12 Apostles are down to 9...). DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY for the Australian Open in 2006 (unless I'm working...which brings me to my next section...)

A change of strategy?
Oh my GOODNESS, I was up til almost 2 a.m. last night working on my application for KPM&, which is ridiculous on so many levels! Firstly, the reason I decided to apply for them was because I was flicking through the grad employment book and saw that it was closing today. So I thought..."Gee, I might regret it if I don't at least apply", so off I went! Secondly, that was the first time I thought about possibly applying or working for them! Thirdly, I don't know anything about them, or the areas that I said I was "interested" in. As a result, on the off chance I crapped on well enough so they want to interview me, it will be terrible because I'll either have to do a lot of research or go in and look like a wally. O dear. While I was concocting this rather involved application (which included questions like "What personal and professional goals have you set for yourself in the next 3 years?"....errrrr...) I could have been working on my essay, which you'll notice via my msn name, hasn't progressed beyond zero. O dear.

This all culminated in the realisation that perhaps my spraying as many applications around as I possible could isn't the best idea. These applications are so incredibly time consuming, and even though I say that I'm just giving it a shot without any expectation...I still need to think about answers to questions that I can give them, and it's so arduous! And I don't even really want to work at these places anyway...I don't know anything about them! The casual, 'might as well stick an application in for them' strategy just seems to be a big waste of time...that was probably 2 hours wasted that I could have spent elsewhere. Sigh.

And yet if I don't at least TRY, I'll always be wondering the dreaded "What If?".

Grrrr.

A Quick Plug
I was so impressed with this company's service that I'm putting in a quick plug here! STM makes laptop bags and associated cases- I have one for my laptop (it's made out of wetsuit material and cost $50!). Anyway, my case was a year old when the little thing you pull the zipper by broke, and I was quite annoyed because it cost $50! So I wrote to them via their website, and they replied almost instantaneously, offering to replace my case free of charge, no questions asked. And the next day, my new laptop case was couriered to me!

Needless to say, I was very very impressed with their service. Go them!

Ok, to work! Sigh.
Ciao!