On the weekend we all went out to Tom’s sister’s birthday party. We started at Mad Monk cafe in Fremantle, which is just awful and overpriced, but then had cocktails at the Sail and Anchor, which was actually not bad. During cocktail time, Tom’s sister and her boyfriend got drunk and went off to yell at each other for an hour or two. We sat and waited for them, but by the time they were done we had to go home.

The next day, I met up with volunteer group who monitor seagrass health down in Rockingham. I haven’t worked with them for three or four years, but they asked me to come and help out with measuring seagrass patches in Safety Bay. When I got there, however, it turned out that they had assumed I wasn’t going to show, and had called up someone else. In the end, they actually had to kick this perfectly nice young woman off the boat to fit me on board. It was pretty embarrassing. Do I have a reputation for flakiness? Maybe. Meanwhile, the actual seagrass research part went fine. I’m going out again with them next week.

This week I’ve just been doing a bit of work at the bottle shop. I guess I’ve become used to the boredom, but now they’re short on staff because they’ve transferred the assistant manager and they’ll probably keep calling me in at short notice. That will bring a whole new level of annoyance. In fact, when they did that at my last bottle shop job, I quit. So maybe I’ll get driven to the point of resigning. That’s something to look forward to. I’d never have to wear that oversized polo shirt again. Or have lunch in the roach-infested staff room. Or ask someone whether they have a PIN for their credit card. Or watch people walk barefoot over all the smashed glass in the car park. That would be sweet.

I’m also looking for relief teaching work. See above.