Gainful Employment

Today was the day that this involutary lady of leisure roller coaster ride came to a screeching halt. My friends today was the first day of my new job. I only just realised, after I agreed to start, that this means 5 days a week, from 9am-6pm everyday. With my new found arts and crafts and regular IKEA jaunts, however will I fit this in? And right before the festive season? I was so very much looking forward to the 1st Decemeber when my new lady of leisure friend and I were going to have a "Christmas-off" and turn our respective places into Christmas caves so that our other halves would come home to a room full of lights, tinsel and choclate baubles. But alas, one is young, has been unemployed for far too long and needs to work.

To make matters worse, it is a holy holiday this week and most companies have got the whole week off. You guessed it, the giant finally has some time off when I start a job. Ah the odds. But tis life.

I had been looking for a job for so long and just got to the point where I was going to wait to see what the new year would bring. At least I'm happy here now- I have good friends, haven't cried in months, I can do a U-turn from any lane, know the back roads to anywhere and exactly where to find the most random things. See now I fee like I'm home. But it was they who found me. I posted my resume online and they must have googled Disney. So, I am now working for a company that markets and distributes Disney things in the Middle East, which means I will be looking after territories that I would have never been able to show you where they are on a map like: Saudi Arabia, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar and the UAE.

So just for a little change in pace, it was the giant who got up this morning, put on his jeans while I put on my work attire. And so the giant drove me to work which is about 40 minutes from home in the rural parts of woop-woop. He dropped me off in the car park which was sand as far as the eye can see and I arrived at the front of my building with foggy looking shoes and sand between my toes. It was about 8:45am- note to self, no-one gets there that early. The sweet little coffee man, who was one of the earliest there, showed me to my desk, wiped down the dust and dirt with a few tissues he got from the table next to mine and tidied up all the bits and pieces strewn across it. A coffee man- I never really knew they existed, I had only heard about them in dinner table conversations. I had always told the giant that I could come to his work and be his tea wench and push a trolley around with tea and refreshments every 45 minutes. Apparently his work has a non-spousal policy. So the little coffee man, who also doubled as the stationery man, would bring me a coffee as soon as the other was finished and by the end of the day was lecturing me on my over consumption of coffee.

All in all, the people seem lovely. Thank goodness I am next to someone who is equally if not more chatty than I am. Those who used to work with me know how I roll. The others are really nice, welcoming and had me on board for lunch before they even asked me. By the end of the day, we were all joking around and laughing, and it felt like I had been working there for about a month rather than 8 hours. So glad the girl next to me is hilarious and only 2 weeks new too. One of the girls that is in my team is Iraqi but lived in Auckland for 10 years. Hows that? We talked of our old haunts and how much we both love the place. Ah EnZed, you will always have a little piece of my heart, as will the lounge in the foyer of the Langham Hotel where they serve you freshly baked wafer thin biscuits with chocolate and raspberry dipping sauce with your morning coffee.

There was lots going on today, with people introducing themselves, new information, a round robin of chants coming from outside and my favourite, the chippendale ringtone of "My girl's in the next room sometimes I wish she was you.... But girl you make it hard to be faiii-thful with the lips of an angel". You know that song? Its always on the radio here and it topped it off to hear the chippendales sing it nearly on the hour every hour. Hilarious, though I'm sure that will grate. Most probably knowing me, it won't.

So here I am again, with Disney products on my desk, and most importantly the Sing Star games. This time, I won't get in trouble when I sing karaoke in the meeting room...just cos.