We went up to Canberra over the weekend. It was the Australia Day weekend but that wasn’t why we made the trip. We trekked up to help kiddo move into her new lodgings in Braddon, as she prepares to start her final year in her undergraduate studies. Her new arrangements appear very satisfactory – costs aside – as it is reasonably close to the uni and shops and the landlord appears to be a steady Eddie, homely kind of a guy (CPA in Defence Dept.).

Tress and I stayed in a B&B in Aranda, a suburb about 10-15mins away, just backing into Canberra Nature Park. The little fellow moseyed around the property for the most part and appeared to be missing kiddo’s company. We made several trips between Aranda and Braddon, soaking up the atmosphere generated by Australia Day celebrations on Monday morning, before leaving just before 1pm.

We got home just a bit before 7.30, having only made 2 quick stops for toilet and petrol. The little fellow made a dash to the side lawn when I let him into the house, and then went into kiddo’s room and lied down on the floor. He looked like he was missing something.

Often the circle of life feels like a wheel of a moving vehicle of some sort. Sometimes however it feels like that vehicle is either stationary or itself moves in circles. Right at this moment, the future isn’t something I’m terribly excited about. In more sense than one.

My office pod is often referred to as the fishbowl. It houses the procurement (sourcing), vendor management, client services and legal teams. At its peak it housed about 20 people. Now though, there’re about a dozen.

Earlier this week, someone from the VM team organised a picnic lunch for today. To my surprise, it was enthusiastically received. So we went to the Carlton Gardens, found ourselves a corner, and had our picnic lunch. I had gone to my usual wonton soup place and surprised the lady proprietor by ordering some fried wontons instead. “No soup today?” I had to tell her it was for a “party”. Others brought pizza, fruits, cheeses and of course, grog.

It took the rawness of the day. The rawness which came about when the increasingly clear signals of the legal team being on the way out, felt like they were being crystallised after my boss had a talk with the new boss yesterday. It could also happen as soon as next week, or maybe the week after. If anything different pans out, it would be surprise.

Tomorrow however, we head off to Canberra for Kiddo to start the final leg of her undergraduate journey.

Tomorrow will be the last day for the outgoing CFO/Deputy CEO of my employer. He interviewed me (second interview) for the job, just under 3 years ago. His EA was just speaking with us earlier this arvo. She is one of the nicer EA’s around so we appreciated her coming down to have a chat with us. She was just going into the office of the strategy head in the room next door to us, to look at what he’s got left behind in the office, having suddenly been made redundant yesterday.

With all the goings and the talks about the future of the legal team being anything but positive, the pervasive sentiments of the team remain that of whistling past the graveyard.

As there is not much going on for now, I’d spent the last hour or so cleaning up my desk. Threw out old conference materials, team building stuff, this and that – it would speed up an exit process if it comes down to that. The lawyers in the team have also chatted about scanning our CPD conferences and storing them on the Google drive, in case we get audited by the legal services board. So the mood has been that sort.

I think I’d leave even earlier today – 4pm maybe…

As the train pulled away from Richmond station this morning, I noticed the sky colors. They were hues of red, pink.

When I got off at my stop, I turned around to see if they were still there. They were. Like so:

I put the pic on FB and got a comment to say “wine and roses”

If only the days of 2015 will be like so…

I left the office early again last Friday, to pick up the car which I had dropped off for service in the morning. We had a barbie dinner at home, and pretty much stayed in the whole night. The next day we took the train into the city and went to the market in South Melbourne. We did the usual thing – wandered around, ate some oysters a la natural, bought some cheeses, wines, fruits etc. We bumped into Uncle Marloney and Auntie Hooi there too. Later we went to Myer and I picked up a pair of jeans and a suit. We then headed home, walked the jedi and settled down to play cards for the entire night.

Yesterday arvo after church and lunch at Madam K, we spent a bit of time walking the little jedi again. It was however a beautifully sunny and cool afternoon and the walk was terrific. We came home and played cards some more. Kiddo had also given me some document to be scanned in the office. There were far too many pages to be done on our home scanner. As I did them this morning, I read a few pieces and rediscovered how well Kiddo did in school. It’s a reminder to me how much she has grown and how smart she has become. It is a message to me: I need to listen to her more and more because there is so much I can learn from her. I’m so proud of her.

As I started the week this morning and with my boss returning after his summer holidays, the weekly Monday morning team meeting served only to confirm the uncertainty facing yours truly and other members of the legal team. On the bright side (yes, trying) it may be a case of being presented with a blank canvass for me/us to paint the picture I/we want. Ah well, one can only try…

I was washing up my salad container at work and having a chat to my colleague. We were talking about barbies. He got himself a weber barbie – something I have been singing the praises for. He also got the stand, a trivet, and some roasting trays. He’s fully accessorized his weber.

It occurred to me that blokey aussie male has just acted on the advice of a chinaman migrant on the matter that is of national significance viz., the BBQ. Strange day.

I might celebrate Australia Day with a bit more gusto this year.

We went away to the coasts from 2-9 Jan. Port Albert is a bit at the top of Wilson’s Prom, almost at the start of the 99 mile beach. Tress and I had passed there a few years ago, having originally booked to stay a night. We decided against staying and drove home instead, en route from a NSW/Vic coast road trip back from Canberra. Somehow we decided to go there again and the quiet, almost deserted, atmosphere was quite fun and of course, relaxing. We were there for 3 nights, came back home for a night and then pushed off in the opposite direction, and headed to Portland. Portland is much bigger than PA but just as relaxing and fun. I did however, come back with dozens of insect bites which remain red and itchy.

This morning I came into the office to be greeted with emails from the big boss with a departmental meeting invite. She would be leaving by Easter. At mid day, an email from the new CEO announced further but not unexpected changes. The rumour mills have made their rounds and that email merely confirmed what we have heard for a few weeks now. What remains shrouded for now, is the fate of the those lower down the chains, such as yours truly.

Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been around these traps before, or maybe we’ve mentioned and laughed over this so often now, but somehow the specter of  being made redundant as I await my 50th birthday, has been less jolting than it should have been. I must admit the thought (and fear) has been lingering in my head – never leaving for more than a couple of hours – but it hasn’t gotten hold of me as much as the thought of being unemployed used to. I kind of hope this is proof that I do learn and I am now trusting God more but the test is yet to come though. If the decision is made and delivered and it is not the outcome I had wanted, I wonder how I would react. God provides, yes. I just hope he would do so by allowing me to either keep my job, or find a new one soon.

Happy 2015? I guess…