Chatting Up The Photocopier Girl

A Sniffle Starts

Another collective day of action and planning but unfortunately not much time to write about it. Just a slight mention that winter really is upon us as it has started to mature a little sniffle upon me. It all began yesterday just before getting to sleep when I had a little bit of a run in my left nostril and today it hasn’t escalated much but I can be sure that my jog home from the bus and through all the rain wouldn’t have aided my defense.

As you would probably know by now, I don’t get sick very often and won’t classify this a cold just yet but I know in these circumstances that it will take at least two more nights until I am into that sick feeling, and if in two days it doesn’t get any worse then I know my body has done its best, as usual, to fight off flues and craving disease. Let us now, with under half an hour, begin torturing these pages with paced scripture for the sake of timed chronology.

Same Old Pinstripes

For the sake of growing into a cliché outfit for my mornings, I will say I just done same all, same all. Wore my new pinstripe pants, caught the bus, caught the train, slept most of the way and headed into my building right on time. However, this time around I left the mail to Najla so she could get acquainted with where to search and as I made my way upstairs I chatted with Thalia for a little while before our day began. I wasn’t stuck for the day with doing filing again but rather, I was given a more enjoyable and demanding task of creating a couple of Briefs.

Najla was also learning to put Briefs together as I sat on another desk around the corner and got to work on mine. The temp lady who sat talking to me yesterday (in which I helped her with filing one day) had a talk to me as I came in for the day. Yesterday we chatted away as I was trying to work on that lone desk and in which I told her that I was going shopping. Today she took a look at what I bought and thought they were cool.

Excuses At The Photocopier

I’ve figured that the photocopier in the kitchen is my place of confidence, of picking up and where I am a dynamo against disaster. When walking past the corridor to look at that printer I noticed the girl that I thought caught my bus in the mornings. This morning the mystery girl on the train was wearing a white top and black sweater so I memorized this in case I bumped into her at work. However, the description didn’t fit, so obviously they were two different people. Nevertheless, as I saw her petite body leaning over the photocopier, I knew I had to make myself up an excuse and head over there to spark up some conversation.

Picking up some loose bits of paper that was to be my excuse, I would need some photocopies. Heading over to her direction I stood behind her for a couple of seconds and then when she looked over with a smile, we said hello to each other. Feeling a bit more prominent I stepped up as she looked a bit clued out on what she was doing. I offered some assistance and from there the wheels started turning as I no longer had to sneak a look at her beautiful face or femininity. I could just look until my heart’s content.

Mucking around on the photocopier for a little while, I helped her out as well as looking her over. My thoughts before seeing her were fairly high and after having talked to her, my decision remains as vivid. Ten minutes later I came up with another excuse to head to the photocopier as she was there again. We chatted again and as I made my way back to my desk it looked as if she was going to sneak another sentence in but it never happened. I hoped she was going to ask me my name but it was a bit late. Therefore, again I tried as she had been photocopying for the past half an hour.

Heading to the toilet without an ID Card (the likes of which I received one today), I headed back to the kitchen door and knocked knowing she would be the only one to answer. She was a little deaf at first but she finally came to open the door and as we smiled I just said hello again, a quick word and was then on my way. That was pretty much my last attempt but I can be sure that there will be plenty of other times in the future where we can get the chance to scratch past the surface, on a more personal level.

Two New Faces

Another person bumped into during the day was that Asian guy helped out a couple of days ago when he was having trouble with the same photocopier. From this bonding we have grown a strong work relationship which is a cut above everyone else’s fake friendship just for the sake of work. We noticed each other a couple of times during the day where once he came to use one of our photocopiers but I didn’t have much of a chance to chat.

When heading back from lunch I also noticed him and waved to him as we passed each other in the slight drizzling rain. Kalinda was also another person I noticed through the day but she was more of a work-relationship person instead of a cut above the rest. At first when we noticed each other in the kitchen we didn’t say anything but when she walked through the door we said hello to each other and that was it. She didn’t stop to chat nor should she but it just felt as if she wasn’t really interested in opening those doors.

Like I say, each day I get to meet a new person in which to chat with, today I met two. The first was the girl at the photocopier and the second was some guy at the same photocopier in which we chatted about cricket and how he lived in Panania. It seems that everyone that I chat to has that certain air of confidence about them. They all have personality and are more open aside of my boxed up attitude, something I’ve learnt from my past jobs.

Lunch In Wet Hyde Park

When lunch time arrived I headed to the train station, buying some sushi and orange juice from Macdonald’s to carry off to the station, jump on my train without as much as a nibble on my food to wait patiently until arriving at a desirable destination. Jumping off at Town Hall I made my way up to Hyde Park and despite it having been raining I was looking to sit at the evergreen and eat my lunch.

The grass was more wet than damp as I sat on a drier part of the tree’s roots but it only held me a couple of seconds before deciding to move. Taking myself further towards the Central side of the park and away from my work’s direction, I sat on one of the benches near the end of the park. There I sat and ate as I eyed the seagulls who in turn were squawking and eyeing me. When finished I headed to the station and heading to Wynyard, made my walk back to work and upstairs.

Najla Asks About The Farewell

The second half of the day was just as wavering as the first when it came to direction but I seemed to get through it just fine. Najla hadn’t left for lunch yet when arriving myself because she was finishing up something, so in that time we took the opportunity to have a little chat. Come to think of it, I’m not sure if she was waiting for me so she could talk in person, as she started talking about Fitzroy’s farewell party on Friday, but now it could be a possibility.

“Are you heading to it,” she asked and telling her I wasn’t sure, she mentioned that she would go if I would go so she could have someone to talk to. Najla felt comfortable with me which felt good. I had done what I set out to do. Her argument was that we both didn’t drink so I agreed that if she wanted to go I’d be there with her because I didn’t want to look like a loner either.

Nevertheless, I feel like it’s going to be just the two of us keeping to ourselves as everyone else basically does the same and leaves early. If it is to be so I’ll get to know Najla a little better which is also good, since, to be truthful, passing thoughts of the two of us hitting it on in other ways had crossed my mind. The thoughts have been brisk but a man can’t help but to think. For a while now I’ve always wanted to go out with someone that was more from an Asian background so having Najla as a friend wouldn’t be bad.

ID Cards And Big News

In the second half of the day was when I received my ID Card along with Najla and it makes me feel part of the team at HIH, with this card, feeling more confident in my position with HIH. However, with Najla telling me today that our stay in the City was only temporary and that we were moving at the end of the year to North Sydney, I was a bit taken back.

I’ve always wanted to work in the City and I’ve felt much more comfortable being stationed in the City but if at the end of the year they move to St. Leonard’s I’m in no position to say whether I will move with them or muster up my experience for another big time position in the City.

Duties Before Thalia Goes

There were some more antics from Fitzroy later in the day as he brought along that little gremlin or cat toy which meows and makes noises until you put him to sleep. It kept saying all these funny little catch phrases and I know now why Fitzroy always took the batteries out of it killing novelty.

In the last hour of the day Thalia sat down with both Najla and I to split up our duties and give us the low down on what we had to do. Basically put, Thalia is moving out after this week which leaves just me and Najla to pick up the pieces. She’s only had one week of being thrown into the deep end, myself, almost three and I know that Najla’s going to have trouble with briefs, which will be perfectly understandable but once miss bossy is gone and it’s up to me and Najla, I know we will team up great.

We can make up our own schedules, bend the rules to our desires and just work as a team completing all demands on better time. In the first week I know I’ll be helping Najla out with the briefs and just helping her out so she doesn’t feel the need to quit and she knows she has a friend. One week after all certainly isn’t enough to learn what she has been taught so I will take her under my partly tutored wing and make the both of us better.

A Squashed Train Ride

With our one hour chat over, Najla and I again headed out together. It has somehow become a little tradition of ours to stick together which I pride more than disdain. Walking through the rain to the train station we chatted some more in which we didn’t feel any pressure or stress to say something, saying goodbye instead as we waked through the ticket gates. The train trip home was definitely something to remember, packed like a brick with no seat in sight but there appeared to be a squashy seat on the end three-seater and I was destined to fill it.

The only reason I thought to sit there was because I would be crammed next to two good looking chicks but it was all comedy from the onset. Asking my way in I tripped a little over their feet before falling into my seat. From there I had to lean forward feeling somewhat misplaced and stupid. My shoulders were in front of theirs and my whole body was leaning forward so I could give them some reading space. The lady opposite of me looked at me first with a smirk then cracked out in laughter as I stood up to take off my jacket.

This was done to give us some more room and as I looked three seats up I noticed another woman looking at me and cracking a smile. Sitting myself back down I wasn’t given any slack to sit so I just kept myself leaning forward for most of the trip home. Each time I would look at the woman three seats away we would crack a smile at each other and after a couple of times we would be full-on cracking up.

At one stage I had to hold my head down and close my eyes to stop myself from laughing and I couldn’t even think about looking up because there her smirking face would be. Both the girls on my side went to sleep during the trip and within half an hour I eased back into the seat to finally get myself comfortable. I must have looked funny at first leaning forward with blank but curious looks on my face as I glanced to the floor and airy spaces.

Waiting For Payday

When at Glenfield the seats cleared up and I made my mistake of turning around and facing the wall instead of the smiling lady three seats up in whom I thought I could talk with as she jumped up for her stop. I thought she would at least walk past me in her bid to jump off the train but as I sat back in the same seat overlooking the whole carriage, I couldn’t see her. Catching the bus back home I had to rush through the hard rain to my front door and from there I just had a relaxing time preparing to watch ‘State of Origin II’ in which NSW won this time around.

Now I am desperately over time in my diary so I’ll have to leave all thoughts until tomorrow, the day I get paid. Maybe I will go out spending my money or maybe I will get disappointed or frozen by the amount of money I get tomorrow. Whatever the case this diary should see some action but it just depends on whether I go shopping or get caught up in this diary. Let us hope that there are no halts tomorrow so I can write a decent entry before the long weekend arrives.