Poetry on the Train and a Cab Ride (Part 1)

Surviving the Briefs

What a good end to such a vibrant week where in these pages would be justified to the best capitulation of events. Today finally sealed it for me on the once inclining decision to leave. Yesterday I had made my mind up to stay but today with more confidence, having more of an interpersonal ascendancy and with more love for the job I am doing, I believe I will be staying for a very long time. And to think, I almost quit work because I didn’t think I would ever figure out how to do the briefs properly.

On the second and first day they were just going way over my head whilst I was learning most of it and I thought I would be the bottom 20% of people who aren’t quick learners. However, I was wrong to judge myself poorly because it only took me four days to learn the ropes. What’s more, I almost quit because I couldn’t handle the briefs on the second day and I didn’t know that the briefs were basically the last thing I had to learn.

There are six things I have to do in the administration department, filing, errands, briefs, brief updates, incoming mail and outgoing mail. It would have been a shame if I were to quit on the third day not knowing that I had just survived the worst because I thought there was much more arduous tasks to come. Literally speaking, when I was about to quit work it felt like I was hacking through a dense field, not able to see my right from left, feeling uncomfortable and hewing aimlessly at the foliage.

Through my seemingly aimless endeavors I faced many cuts and bruises due to my blinded hacking. With my eyes closed I didn’t notice that I had cut through the thicket and a couple of steps behind me was the troubles that be. Now with the darkness and hardship out of the way I felt that there indeed was hope as nothing was in front of me but sweet and blissful green.

Confidence Coming Back

You know, before Thursday I used to think that I would always be a quiet achiever, keeping to myself and lacking in confidence. However, with this job the 18 year old is coming back to me and unbelievably, I have gained confidence to talk to women around the office, not just from my department. For instance, today when Fitzroy and I were headed out to the courthouse I chatted to a blonde whilst we were both standing and waiting patiently at the elevator.

She was a couple of years older than me and beautiful for her age but that didn’t stop me from chatting to her. Finding some common ground I uttered “This elevator always takes a long time to arrive” and in that she turned to me and agreed, speaking words of her own. There was a bit more chat about this as Fitzroy went back to the office to grab a pen.

Asking her if she worked in the building she told me she was from Level One so finding some more common ground I asked her if she worked in the ‘Woolworths’ claims department. That she didn’t but she worked in the claims department nevertheless. I used to think that I would never be able to be my creative self and just sit back and relax. Each day there seems to be another event that brings me closer to the people I work with and closer to that 18 year old enthusiast who was living the wild life inside of me.

Maren and the Lopsided Office

Some more interesting tidbits about HIH are now to be defined in this paragraph. Further to that blonde that I think keeps parading to me, I found out her name and some interesting philosophy on her dalliance at work. Firstly, having now taken home a list of all the people of whom I work with, I believe that blonde’s name is Maren and she is a legal Secretary. However, her name could also be Esme which is probably likely but if it isn’t who I think might be Jewell is also good looking.

On the note of women at work, it spun me out to find that out of the sixteen people in our department, apart from Fitzroy (Who is a temp leaving in a week) and David (Who is the older Solicitor), I will be the only male there. This indeed might explain why Maren tends to parade for male attention in the office, because there never had been young males in her office until now, or three months ago (When Fitzroy arrived).

However, it would be interesting to see if I will start to get all the attention as being the only male when Fitzroy leaves after next week. David announced today that there would be a girl accompanying me in one weeks time for administration which is great news, more female company. And to think that I was going to quit working with all these beautiful women. Actually, all these beautiful women is the reason I kept myself from quitting. I knew that I didn’t want to leave that scene of confidence building behind so I bore through the burden and held my head up high.

Poetry Keeps Me Awake

Beginning with my day now, it started at the usual 5:45 a.m. but this time around I was a tad more tired than usual. This circumstance arrived as the night before I didn’t get to sleep until 11:30 p.m. The reason for this was because I started to get the vibe for poetry in my mind. With each thought that transpired I would have to jump out of bed in the nude, turn the television on (Not too much light so that everyone outside could see me) and then write down my thought.

After a couple of times waking up I decided to turn on my computer and write down all my thoughts for safe keeping. Even after this was done I wrote down a couple more thoughts and then I was finally off to bed. I knew that there would be no chance of me keeping myself awake any longer to feed my poetical vibes because I would get too tired for work but I was happy with what I had managed to write.

In the morning I had a shower, a banana and yogurt to eat and quickly I dressed myself to head for the bus stop. Today was fairly cold as I didn’t wear a jacket again and trying to hide my discomfort at the bus stop I couldn’t wait until I was on the bus for some warmth. Taming myself on the way out of the bus at the Station I jumped onto the next train to the City, the second carriage as usual.

The trip was without much digression apart from my fanatic attempt to acquire a pen to I could write down even more poetical thought. Poetry wasn’t going away as I borrowed a pen and paper from the Station master in Campbelltown and then a pen from an older lady that sat next to me in the train. She didn’t like the fact that she had to take her glove off and endure the cold air that I was facing to be gracious about handing me a pen, I didn’t blame her.

A Tickle at Wynyard

She went to sleep for the rest of the trip after that and when I arrived to St. James I looked out the bottom window to see Lyssa and Penelope walk past. I’m not sure if Lyssa had seen me when walking past but it looked like she was looking around for me. There was one point from a distance where she did look straight at me and then she didn’t look again but I can’t be too sure. Figuring that Lyssa didn’t even see me when she jumped on the train on Tuesday I guess she could be blind twice, or totally avoiding, either one.

Jumping off at Wynyard as per usual I encountered something out of the ordinary, someone tickling my back in greeting. Turning around I had seen it to be Carleigh whom the week before I had seen at the Catholic Club before hiking my way home. Carleigh said to Lyssa that my hair was bobbing down like that a girl would have which would have been the truth, that’s why I left. The both of us chatted to each other as we walked to the ticket machines.

Carleigh was actual working for a temping agency as a Receptionist and as I told her what I was doing I was back on my way to work, in the cold winter breezes. Finally out of the freezing zephyrs I claimed the mail at 8:30 a.m. and then headed up to the office to find that Tarni had already arrived. Having our little morning chat we watched Fitzroy arrive, included him in our conversation and then started on the mail, well I did anyway.

Cab Charge to Maddison Chambers

The first part of the day was spent doing the morning mail up until 10:30 a.m. and from there I sorted out a brief for Tarni by myself. That took me just under an hour and after that me and Fitzroy got acquainted with each other as he was sent out to deliver a document to the John Maddison Chambers and I was invited to come along so I could learn. Taking a cab there it was the first time I had ridden in a cab through the City and what’s more, we paid for it on cab charge.

When at the Maddison building we headed up to the eleventh floor where Fitzroy took out a number just like the RTA and we had to wait. Taking a paper with him for the twenty minute wait he started reading after we had a little chat. Deciding it would be the best opportunity to ring Mission Employment while I was waiting I headed outside and across the street to the first available payphones. Being my chance to persuade them that I had temporary work with the chance of being permanent I rang their office only to find that Tamsin wasn’t at her desk, the lady I was supposed to speak to.

Therefore, I talked to the Receptionist who knew of my case and I explained to her that I might be able to call back on Tuesday or some time in the next week which sounded fine to her. Explaining to her that the phone would cut out after a little while I wasn’t too disappointed when it finally happened, three minutes was enough to talk to them.

Floor Twelve Beauties

Heading back up to sit with Fitzroy whilst he was still waiting to hand in the filing to the chambers our number finally came up after ten minutes. However, as we walked over to the counter the guy told us that we had to make our way to floor twelve, the next one up. All that time wasted but it was also some relaxing time so it wasn’t too much of a loss.

Heading up to the next floor I couldn’t get over the three girls around my age who were all beautiful, blonde, had gorgeous outfits on and were purely scrumptious to look at. Fitzroy was also paying attention to them but sparingly as I was. They were beautiful and hardworking as all they seemed to be doing was photocopying and sorting out filing without a hint of stopping.

Looking over the counter when Fitzroy handed in his filing I noticed the huge mess of folders all over the area and knew why the girls were so dynamic in their duties. When we left I promised myself to remember the floor twelve of the Maddison Towers building so in future events, I would visit there more often. Catching a cab back to our building I filled out the cab charge and because it was noon I headed out for lunch without heading upstairs first.