Ladies and Lentils, Man

Had a quiet, low-key sort of a birthday last Friday, going out with Claud to her ex-boss's farewell cocktails at the Ian Potter Centre [Modern Art Gallery] in funky Federation Square, dontchaknow...

Rubbing shoulders with the hoi-polloi of Melbourne's Philanthropic community i.e. lots of seriously rich people who give it away [well, some of it]: "Lady this-that-or-the-other", who were lovely, but, to my Pommie ears, sounded exactly like Dame Edna, which really did make it a bit difficult to concentrate during the speeches. Goggle-eyed in wonder, yes, but concentrate? Noooo.

Annoyingly, whenever I encounter Philanthropy, I'm always forced to rethink my backward-thinking old-school slightly "Class War" perspective, dammit. Nice and generous rich people? Hey, don't challenge my hard-fought preconceptions, OK?

We then went out for dinner with one of Claud's other ex-colleagues, Scott, which was lovely, though somehow didn't feel particularly birthday-like. But we're going out with Claud's siblings tonight, as a sort of belated do, to the blessedly cheap-as-chips-but-healthier Vegie Bar. That's one of the nicest things about being here... Being able to eat out cheaply, and the food being generally brill [though surprisingly I've had one or 2 klunkers food-wise, so far.]

Applying for lots of jobs, although not sure if I'm aiming too high or not, as the system's a bit impenetrable and getting lots of different answers to questions about what I can apply for, pay rates etc. Getting towards the bottom of our safety net now, so will have to start temping soon if nothing perm. comes up.

Though... Claud has an interview this afternoon, which will take the pressure off if she gets it. If she doesn't, she has another option of a probable 6 weeks work, though it's kind of PA stuff so it'll feel a bit of a backward step for her. But it's temp. and it's money.

Still desperately trying to hold on to my Pommie accent, although have caught myself doing the cursed end of sentence lilt-up thing when talking to strangers. Dammit, not so soon, not so soon!