The Rest Of The Week

The Rest Of The Week

It’s been another interesting week for me, with only Thursday and today (Sunday) being the only days I didn’t do paid work. Hive blogging doesn’t exactly count as paid work just yet, but I hope some day it will pay my ever-increasing rent.

I posted last time about earlier in the week, and this time I’ll recount my adventures from Friday onwards.

Friday

My job on Friday was to cater for a “celebration of life” event, an alternative version of a funeral as a waiter / bar tender.

I’d worked with another young Asian woman that I’d worked with previously. My boss for the day was a guy I assumed was in his 30’s and was running a catering company.

He was falsely under the impression it was a funeral and we were told to keep quiet and at one point he saw me put my phone in my pocket and said “Phones on silent!” as an order. I lost respect for him instantly at that point.

I'd just taken the selfie above.

Later he’d asked if I had lost weight and when I had said yes, he said he could tell. We'd never met me before.

Horribly inappropriate.

I assume it was because I needed to adjust my belt occasionally (when I thought no one was watching; I am a professional after all).

The event went well, and I spoke to the client who explained what he wanted properly and my perception of it was different to what was explained to the caterer. Essentially a “celebration of life” is not a sober nor somber affair. There’s no viewing of the body, just a TV screen showing photo collages and video of the recently deceased. No one seemed to be crying, but each were mourning in their own way, loudly. It was more of a subdued party kind of atmosphere.

Lots and lots of alcohol was consumed, as was the desire of the dearly departed while she was still alive, and we offered food platters and sandwiches to the guests. I made a few jokes when appropriate.

The event was held in the hall of a retirement village down at Noarlunga. I needed to be up early for the train rides into the city and then out to Noarlunga and then having to wait for the bus that got closest to the retirement village.

While at the Noarlunga interchange, I decided to buy a bottle of Coke No Sugar. Instead, a can of Monster came out of the vending machine. As someone with Type 2 Diabetes I need to be very mindful of the sugar / carbohydrates I consume.

This is the level of carbohydrates and sugars in the can. My limit is 15 grams of carbs.

62 grams of sugar

I opened the can and poured it out. If ever there was a time to quit soft drink, this was it.
It’s not the first time Coca Cola vending machings have done this to me.

I opened the can and poured it all out and hrew the empty can in the recycling bin.

The toilets there didn’t have toilet paper and someone had tried to flush a torn off piece of paper shopping bag.

I needed to get away from there as soon as possible. I also had downloaded an audio book to listen to the way down there.

On the way back, I got a few photos of the ocean seen over Hallet Cove.

At home, I binge-watched half of a new show called Fallout. It’s based on the famous video game series and the production values were amazing.

It’s just good television, highly recommended.

Saturday

On Saturday morning, I had a super quick appointment with a pediatrist. It’s important for people wih diabetes to have their circulation and nerve endings checked regularly or they can have their legs amputated if they become infected.

My feet were in perfect order, and I think I got lucky in catching the diabetes early and the medication, diet change and exercise have prevented any potential damage to my body. I still need to work on getting my sugar levels down though.

I went to my favourite Vietnamese Restaurant, the Pho Linh and ordered a plate of seafood, vegetables and egg noodles. I ate everything that wasn't egg noodles.

Seafood, veggies and egg noodles


The depth of the plate

In the afternoon, I worked at the Adelaide Oval selling tickets to a football game. I was lucky enough to see someone sharing the news that there was a train strike on Facebook, which meant I needed to catch a Didi car ride into the city.

While there, I asked a coworker about a few work policies and rules and she said that she disagreed with a lot of them.

There’s one about not eating food in the box office but there are Adelaide Oval staff there that are allowed to.

Double standards…

I also got her to clarify a few things that had gotten lost in communication, and it’s always a relief to know that I wasn’t imagining the passive aggressive tone of management emails. We discussed managerial incompetence and general inconsistencies of shifts and the lack of training.

It's a relief when someone confirms your suspicions and that it's not just you.

The job itself can be great, and somewhat easy at times. I was working in a quiet section of the Adelaide Oval, so it was largely relaxing / boring but boring is good.

Boring is the opposite of drama, and I've spent my life avoiding drama. Not enitrely successfully, but I know it's something none of us truly want.

And now I am going to sleep in and maybe record a podcast episode. It's been far too long.

Thank you for reading.

Until next time,

Shaidon

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