Early Morning Energy

Most people fit into one of two groups; a morning person, capable of disgusting amounts of energy and cheerfulness at a horrible hour or not a morning person.

Guess which group I belong to.

Although, like just about everybody else, I have found a way to combat my morning drowsiness; a good strong cup of coffee or two in the morning ... seriously, the genious who invented coffee should become a saint. He/she can become the patron saint of the shiftworker, or anybody else who has to get up at odd and (usually) disgusting hours.

So naturally after my two very strong cups of coffee this morning I was feeling particuarly perky. Even if I did go a bit quiet on the train to Melbourne. But I perked right up again when we got to Sunshine, and while I was waiting for the train to pull up next to a platform at Southern Cross I had time to inspect the rest of the carriage;

Apart from a whispered conversation at the back, it was almost completely silent. Only a couple of other people besides me were stirring. Most were still sleeping.

And that's when it hit me;

I was the first out of my seat. I was the one bouncing excitedly on the balls of my feet. I was probably the one with the stupid cheerful grin plastered on my face.

I was one of them!

And by them I mean one of those disgustingly bright and cheerful morning people who everyone hates to be around until after mid morning (at the earliest).

I felt kind of indecent to be feeling so energetic.

At least things changed once I was off the train and mingled with the rest of the Melbournians who had already had their all important two cups* of morning coffee. The hustle and bustle of peak hour meant that being energetic and all that is a good thing. Not something to be ashamed of while on the train.

Still, it's not as bad as that time I merrily bounced into the servo at five am full of sickening cheerfulness and energy. I really did deserve the bleary eyed look f disgust from the other customers that day.


*two cups is just an estimated amount.

Interview in the Morning

Tomorrow I have an interview for a job. The interview is all the way in Melbourne, which means that I have to get up nice and early to be there at 8:30am.

That's going to be a nasty shock to my system, seeing how I'm so not a morning person and probably won't be able to get to sleep until a couple of hours before I'm supposed to be at the train station.

But nonetheless, this isn't causing me any undue concern.

I function pretty well on no sleep ... and I usually function a hell of a lot better on no sleep than I do with little sleep. So I'm seriously considering just staying up all night and when it gets close to getting ready time, I'll just pep myself up on coffee.

I'd take sleeping pills, but I'm pretty sure they're placebos; they don't actually do anything to help me get to sleep.

But anyways, considering the ungodliness of the hour that I have to leave for the train station, I decided to show some forethought and look up the venue today so I know how far away it is from Spencer St (turns out two blocks).

Naturally I used Google Maps for this so that it could clearly highlight my destination on the map for me. It left me wondering why does Google Maps always insist on giving you directions for the most convoluted way there? Why can't it just give you directions for the most direct route?

I know this is a bad example, considering how short my trip is, but ...

When I could easily walk up Colins St!

How much easier is that?

So now that I have simplified my walk to the interview, I'm basically all set for the interview tomorrow, sleep or no sleep!

Hooray!

Week One of Pre-employment Training

Well, I've successfully managed to survive my first week of pre-employment training. Surprisingly, the crazy early starts hasn't killed me, and I doubt that it will ... althought getting up early in the middle of winter is not at all pleasant.

But what have I learned this week?

The first thing that pops into my mind is that the lifts in the building where the program takes place are really unpleasant to go up and down in; they're like a the Giant Drop at Dreamworld. The unpleasantness isn't helped by the fact that the doors open before the lift stops moving. It's surprisingly alarming to see the floor move as the lift rapidly comes to a halt.

Yeah, the lifts there are not my faveourite ones in the world. In fact, they're probably at the bottom of my faveourite lifts list ... that is, if I actually had such a lift.

What else have I learned this week?

Coffee is an amazing invention, and a total life saver (probably the reason why the crazy early starts haven't killed me).

But if I'm honest, I already knew this about coffee.

I guess I rediscovered this little fact, and could appreciate just how amazing it is.

I also learned that I DON'T LIKE CHANGE!

I should probably explain that ... or should I not, and let you try and figure it out?

Hmmm

Because the two training groups that started this week were both so small, it was decided that the two groups should become one group on the third day. A decision that pleased no one when it was first announced to us ... apparently it was made during the break after both groups did an exercise together. But I reckon that little exercise was done to see how we'd all interact as one group.

Luckily, no dramas arose from the merge. Although the instructor has got to be regretting it, since we all seem to bounce off each other and get really loud. It took less than an hour for us to be labeled the "loud group."

So it would appear that everyone's concerns about the merge were groundless.

Phew! *wipes sweat from forehead*

Then there's my discovery about the Subway on Colins Street; it's not a good place to get lunch from at lunch hour. Today's sub was mediocre at best. It wasn't helped by the fact that they put pizza sauce on it when I specifically asked them not to (I only discovered this when I started to eat it once I was back in the classroom). Definitely won't be going back to that Subway.

But the most surprising thing I learned today is that it is, in fact, possible for a class to be interesting enough to keep me awake when I am so very, very sleep deprived.

In the past, if I only got a few hours sleep (like I did last night), I'd struggle (and usually failed) to stay awake in class.

But not today!

Today the closest I came was feeling lethargic during one of the group exercises. Otherwise, I was wide awake and buzzing. But this can possibly be attributed to the number of large coffees I drank the moment I arrived in Melbourne this morning ... and maybe sniffing the scented textures helped as well (there was a full set of textures with different food scents was lying in the middle of our table. Naturally that meant we had to smell all of them and discuss which ones smelled the best and worst ... the mint one was the definite loser).

So I'd say this week has been a productive one ... at the very least an interesting one. I hope the next four weeks are just as good as this one.

But at the same time, I'm glad my week is over. Now to enjoy the weekend.

FOUR DAY WEEKEND, BIATCHES!!

Pre-employment Training day 1

Well, as the title clearly says, today was day one of my pre-employment training.

After just one day, I personally think that the whole course can be done in 10 days. But that's just me. Maybe it's unrealistic ... but I don't think so.

Although, if the course was condensed down to 10 days, then I don't think there would be time for our campfires ... yeah, my instructor is also a fan of NCIS. There has only been two campfires thus far, but I think that I would really miss them.

And the people in my little training group all seem like nice enough people, which is always a bonus.

But the true high light of day was on the train home; some man went to all this effort of stowing all of his luggage in the overhead storage compartment thingy, before asking me if the seat was free.

I might just be me thinking this, but that seems like the sort of question you ask before you stow away all of your stuff.

I felt like being mean and saying that the seat was, in fact, taken.

But I didn't.

*sigh*

I did notice that this bloke seemed extra keen to be nice; once he was done reading his copy of the MX, he offered it to me to read. I honestly don't know if he was unaware that the MX is free or not. But he seemed determined that his free paper didn't go to waste ... right up til he dropped it under the seats in front us.