Today is Labour day in Australia. The last public holiday I would have had would have been Australia Day in January, but I was back home celebrating Chinese New Year. Heh, public holidays are rare and far in between in Melbourne, so you make the most of whatever you can get.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written anything, so I’m wondering if this post will go off tangent. It rained last night, which wasn’t out of the blue, just a little unexpected (it explains yesterday’s heatwave though). Had travelled into the city to watch two great soccer matches. The city’s a little livelier with the Commonwealth games starting sometime this week. The city council’s put more effort into sprucing up the place, with little improvements here and there. I can’t help but imagine what it’d be like in Germany where this year’s World Cup (soccer) is held. You hear about how advanced certain parts of Europe are, in the things they have set up. Melbourne is pretty developed, but I can imagine that certain things can be improved upon. About the rain, had to come home halfway through Arsenal vs Liverpool. It would normally be a great encounter, but by 3am, I was too tired to be enthusiastic about the match. Heard the crowd shout a goal, and woke up for 20 seconds just to watch the replay before dozing off again.

Heh, rain. Feels so comfortable I could just return to my bed and sleep. Not a very productive way to spend a holiday, but you hear about how other people work 10 days in a row before getting hardly any break and then needing to shuffle themselves off to work again. Had heard about work habits elsewhere throughout the last few months. Recounting my fish job, I could be at work as early as 7am and as late as 12am during the holiday season. That job was really haphazard and I had put in crazy hours a week or two. Not the ideal job, but it does give you some perspective on what other people do. For the larger fish market places that sell them 7 days a week, well, the fish cutter (for lack of a better word) would be in 7 days a week. Some people would work the 7 day week and would feel tired at the end of each day, but they persevere on. Heh, the irony is that they’d rather be working. For some people, if they’re not working, feel a loss of having something to do.

Work now is a 5 weekday thing. In Malaysia, depending on the industry you are in, you can work 6 day weeks and like my friend, even need to go back to work on Sundays. It doesn’t apply to everyone, but sometimes you hear people talk about taking 10am brunch, then lunch, then 3pm tea. People stay back way past 6pm just because everyone else does it, and just to show that they’re not slacking off and that they are working as hard as everyone else. Sometimes I feel that it’s a false sense of security, with the need to conform to what everyone else is doing. I wonder at times, that it’d be easier to just work the hours, have lunch, come back and finish up by 6pm. Just don’t feel that it’s a very efficient way to do things having to leave every 2 hours just for a tea break. It could be the culture or style.

Then there are those you hear about, who work like double the normal hours in a week without even an inch of breathing space. They get paid double the wages as well (you can get something like an entire year’s worth of bonuses). Humans are like a resource, sometimes rarer than others, and the employers are willing to pay a higher price to get the services they (the employee) provide. Heh, “exploitation” seems to come to mind. You get paid the wage, but you lose out on the simpler things in life. Then again, that’s capitalism for you.

Heh, only a one day holiday, and need to squeeze time to do other things as well. It feels like I’m non devoted and always changing my attention to various things. Can’t be helped? Maybe, I wonder.

Meh.

It’s one of those days. Heh, work’s been hectic. You get through the day, but the amount of concentration you put in is just mind zapping. Working like a drone and getting things done. The 3 week holiday I took, I’m trying to cover up the work that was left undone in 3 days. It’s not a huge backlog, just the administrative things keep it moving along at a slow pace.

Heh, towards the end of the day, found that one of the things that I work on was slightly broken. Something else broke along with it to cancel the broken effect so it went sort of unnoticed. Until today. Fixed it in the end though. You wonder at times, all the good work you put in goes unnoticed and the things that break will draw attention to you. Well, everyone’s been working hard and have to deal with their own problems, so there’s less compassion going round (well, it’s not as bad as it sounds). Life’s like that I guess. At times like this I just want to keep the right things going right, and just ignore everything else.

Just so tired. Very little enthusiasm for anything at the moment. Make up for all the awry things by being loud towards close friends. Heh, some witty words and there’s a certain smugness to it. They don’t mind it too much, it’s generally me, just a little amplified. A little unruly, but I need to cancel out the sinking feeling inside. Just need to get through this week.

Heh, first Sunday I don’t have to sit in my room staring at words and numbers. Had a list of things I wanted to do after all this hustle and bustle with my two assignments, and yet here I am here feeling slightly lethargic from all the activity from the last two weeks.

Managed to only tick off two things on that to do list floating in my mind this morning. Been melting in limbo ever since. Heh, it’s officially Autumn in Melbourne, but the days have still been summery and fairly warm. Had a late night yesterday, having been introduced to Texas Holdem Poker and finding out how people can bluff their way through a game to get the pot. Heh, it was fun, and had asam laksa (which was pretty decent) at Chilli Padi after that. Melbourne doesn’t feel so foreign when there’s plenty of people you know who are around, and that mamak culture has also been imported into the country. Supper was still available at 230am, a farcry from the days when there was only a shop or two in Chinatown that was open until that late (and before that, nothing was open pass 10pm for food).

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Was just chatting with a friend online. It only seemed like yesterday that her sister and my friend were still studying 3rd year at Melbourne Uni. Would go to their place sometimes for dinner and I still remember the funny things we did at the time (like 12am soccer on the metal balcony, go figure). She just said that she’s been busy with work and it’s cause she’s doing her final year now. I’m like thinking where does the time go.

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Would like to crawl into bed and sleep another couple of hours to reset that messed up internal clock of mine. Heh, but there’s work to be done, can’t idle any longer.