'Twas the day after....

... my first week of live on air work. It has been very ... eventful. Mostly fun. A few technological hiccups, a few last-minute panics, and one case of forgetting to actually press the button and go live! But also quite a lot of feeling like I am improving, positive feedback from people and a feeling of relief, because so far... yes, I am enjoying it! One of our biggest fears when we decided to move was that I had never done this type of work before and had no clue if I would enjoy it (enjoyment is an essential part of work to me) or like the shift work. But so far I have found it exciting and challenging and interesting work to do. So yay!

And in no particular order, five things I like about working here:

(1) I have swapped my commute from one hour each way of this:

photo by Tom Page / CC BY-SA

To 30 minutes each way of this:

I am VERY excited about my new bike.  It's black and pink!  It has some gears!  It's whizzy! I haven't died on the streets yet!  Did I mention it's black and pink?!

(2) I now have one of these:

photo / CC BY-SA

And it's sort of my own!!  Sort of because we are all meant to share but most people pick one booth and tend to stick to it.  (I want to point out this is a stock image and NOT my real desk.  I have no manky old sandwiches on my desk...)

(3) I am part of one of these:

As much as I liked the freedom of being self-employed, I have missed having colleagues to see every day and now I am part of a team of stenos, re-speakers and supervisors who all support each other, which is great.

(4) I don't have to carry one of these every day...

... because I have one of these:

Hurrah!  Now no-one asks me if I am going somewhere nice every time I leave the house! Yes, I still go out in a permanent state of panic, convinced I am forgetting something important, but I'm sure given a few more months that will start to fade.

(5) Finally, here you get paid EVERY TWO WEEKS!  

In other exciting news, Jan has become a BUSINESSMAN!  Behold the evidence - fancy new trousers, blingy sunglasses and a phone permanently attached to his face:

Yes, he has got a contract job, just in time for his office Christmas party, whoop!  I am slightly jealous, as my Christmas party involved a bar at a local pub and his involved a glass pontoon sail around Sydney Harbour!  Hrumph.  Anyway, he is enjoying it so far and has met some interesting people.  For those interested he has told me, "I build mapping tools" and that's as much as he will give me.  But then, that's as much as I can understand, so there we go. So hurrah for being gainfully employed! 

We are off now for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and head back in for Boxing Day.  So Merry Christmas, everybody! As we will be seeing Santa first this year, we will tell him you have all been very nice and hopefully he will deliver!