I go left, the world goes right

Ok so I've been pushing myself to starting things that I've had sitting around, mainly because I wasn't really going anywhere. Thought might as well while as I had time to try these things out. But God seemingly had other plans.

I had started to talk to others and move forward last Wednesday. Thursday I was told by my job search assistance that I had two interviews on Monday and both were promising from the sound of things. I haven't had an interview for awhile so I didn't think I'd just suddenly get two. I posted about my last interview, First Impressions, back in May. So I was happy I had interviews but thought it was quite odd with such a turn of events.

Had the interviews on Monday. The first was in Templestowe, then Blackburn. Really wished it was the other way round. Blackburn is pretty much next to my place. I had plans to go to brunch/lunch after which was in Camberwell. So instead of travelling like this, it was more like this.Actually surprised it was only 2.5k difference when I put up the two routes ... however think that driving pretty much past my house makes it worse with the feeling of backtracking.

So how did the interviews go? Well the first was okay. Quite the nice place with a very large back area. Had two floors which was quite interesting for a childcare. There was a ramp to the side which led to the lower floor for the kinders. Kind of impressive. The weird thing was during the interview they told me I didn't sound very motivated ... didn't think I had come off that way. It could have sounded a bit that way because they asked me what I wanted to do or something on that line and I answered mostly with my thoughts of teaching primary level ... they did ask. I think I convinced them because they wanted me to trial for a full week to gauge how I worked. Problem is setting up a whole week is hard as I already knew that the next interview already wanted to give me trial work. Their idea for me to do trial work was to compare me to people who have had completed higher education. So be it.

The one back in Blackburn was beautiful. Don't know how I explain that but just thought that when I saw it. This interview looked much better. Again they also wanted trial work for the next day. Pretty happy with this. However they wanted my working with children check card ... This was in process. I had passed the check but it was still in the post ... for the next 2 weeks. So unfortunately they told me to call back when my card arrives.

Adding to this on Tuesday I was given another interview on Wednesday. This one was far away all the way in McKinnon. Before going here I had no idea where it was ... but then again I have little idea where places are if I've never been there before. Anyhow got there and waited an extra half hour before my interview started. The previous two had me waiting only ten minutes. Think half an hour is almost unreasonable as the interview was shorter than the wait. Anyways it wasn't too bad. The place was only four weeks old so they also want people and trial work seems to be the thing. However they needed me to send them referee details but I got on my old phone ... so they going to get back to me once they have gotten that and called them up.

After all these interviews and promises of trial work, nothings actually happened yet. Hopefully I get my WWC card next week and be able to hear from some of the interviewers.

Car Adventure

I've talked about driving before and how I don't really enjoy it. One of those reasons is petrol. I mean paying for it isn't great but is a required thing. It's moreso finding one to stop by to get petrol. The way I usually do it is if it's really cheap I'll fill up if I'm half empty. If it's price is okay I'll fill it around the eighth mark. And if it's expensive I'll wait until my empty light has flashed for about half hour ... Yes I know risky right ... The thing is it has to be convenient at the time to get petrol, which hardly ever felt that way. Probably why I've had to get a can of petrol once.  Well I soon learnt about why I shouldn't really do that again. By the way before these short trips my petrol light had already flashed once ... right just a flash, no need to worry right?

Monday morning I had a doctors appointment. This was for a update and a CT scan I got the previous Friday for my elbow (yes I don't update my blog enough). Let's just say the only interesting thing is I felt was that there was like 3 doctors there to give me just a CT scan. The last time I only got 1. Felt like a lab rat. Anyhow I was sort of sick anyways so two birds with one stone. There was really one route to drive to the docs and that was up Station Street ... in the morning. It wasn't just the traffic. Box Hill's been booming and there's like heaps of apartment building which end in temporary road blocks. Obviously I would have avoided it if possible but it wasn't. I live decent close to the place so any other route would take me ages out of my way. However might have considered it if I knew a 30 second driving section would take me 10 minutes instead. The right turn on Station Street was actually considered the fastest part of the trip because traffic was moving so slow that they stopped to let me turn in. So the light flashed again ... didn't stay on ... it's okay.

Apparently my CT scan wasn't great news but it wasn't terrible either. They advised I get a dynamic CT scan. Great sounds awesome. I've mentioned I like to try new things right? Well my doc hadn't heard much about this sort of CT scan before so must be something unique to some degree. Well I thought why not get it out of the way. Booked the appointment in 10 minutes time and quickly left. Had considered getting fuel but no time. This time the light turned on and stayed on. Okay concerning. But no time. So back down station street. Slight block but better than the other way. Then the turn onto Thames Street. Another building site ... was regretting booking the CT scan so close. However this time it wasn't as long. The place where I get my scan has 5 underground levels of carpark. The parking level for those getting scans was on the bottom floor ...

Scan was interesting. Got to move during it because it was a dynamic CT scan. However I had to be in a weird angle and still had to keep my head out of the way. Took a bit longer getting it right. Also the doctor came out to discuss my "injury". Because I had to move he needed to know where it hurt. It doesn't actually hurt but it grind and tweaks sometimes so always hard explaining this. Anyways I couldn't actually get my elbow to act up at the time so couldn't get it exact. What was disappointing was at the end they didn't print it out for me. Guess too many slides. Last still CT scan was already 5 slides. Anyways time to leave ... and here's where the problem happened. I couldn't get my car started. Well I managed to get fuel into it but it stuttered and shut. This happened over and over again. At times it sounded different but it still didn't work. I managed to reverse my car around a metre in like 2 minutes. As I had no reception I didn't even consider calling for help. I just tried time and time again, trying different things. After 5 minutes I finally managed to get my engine sounding right. Every moment was tense, especially climbing up the carpark. There was 2 boom gates I had to stop by which didn't help. The closest petrol station was all on a uphill way ... Well it didn't stall once after getting it working so that was a relief. Always thought I had more time to fill up but all these short quick trips didn't give me many options. Petrol stations always seemed to be on the other side of the road. Right turn in and out is a pain. Weird thing was didn't realize petrol price was actually quite low at the time ... Guess my filling up rule got trumped by convenience.

After that I went straight home this time with no road blocks ... but a few minutes later I was out again to get KFC. I mention it because this whole morning I took so many little trips here and there I didn't actually leave Box Hill ... Think it was all within a 1 kilometre block. The fun of driving ... next time I might just walk it.

Thought I'd Google map it and it came to 8.6km drive. Link is here just so you can see where I drove to.

First Impressions

Had an interview for an educator position at a childcare centre. Hadn't had one in awhile. But this time I think I was a bit more ready. 

Last few times I was apparently too under dressed. Didn't know how I had to dress at the time for interviews. I thought nice pair of pants and a polo was good enough. However I only found out at a compulsory job search training thing. Unfortunately while I was driving to the interview I noticed I was still wearing nail polish on my right hand from the weekend (read about it in my mushroom picking weekend post). I tried to scrap it off but it didn't work so I just consciously avoided showing my nails up.

So the one thing about this job that makes this job quite concerning is that it's in Cheltenham. The drive took 45 minutes in off peak time!?! While they I asked about the other centres linked with their one so they showed me a giant map and pointed out several areas even further from Box Hill. They asked me where I was from and I told them. They were quite shocked, looking at the distance on the giant map. But this was at the end of the interview so most of the interview went reasonably like any interview.

Probably the thing that was different was the Chinese test. I was told initially they were looking for a Chinese speaking educator to speak with the children and parents. They were informed that I was only a conversationalist so they had one of their Chinese speaking converse with me. It went well enough that I convinced her I could least speak in Chinese. 

I think it was better than my other interviews I've had before. It has been several days since so I'm not quite hopeful. Try get myself another interview. 

Car Filler

Driving isn't something that I usually enjoy. I'm a over thinker so driving already not fun thinking of all these other tonnes of metal moving around you at high speed, and just one wrong turn ... Anyways there's other reasons I don't enjoy driving. Working out directions to the location, looking for parking space, and paying for petrol are probably my biggest gripes. 


Thing is I've been finding myself enjoy driving other cars which I've never done since getting my full license. The holiday in Gold Coast I needed to drive as I was one of the few people on full license. The other two drivers really wanted to drive the Swift so I was stuck driving the Almera. I say stuck but once I started I fell in love driving it. It could have also been the company I had while driving that made me love the drive. Even got to the point I was reluctant to give up the drivers seat after driving all day. The Almera ended up being named Tyler, party boy Tyler. Since being back I've driven a Liberty which had quite a kick. Had turbo which you can feel during acceleration. Also drove another car which I forgot what type it was. What I know about is it was front wheel drive and could feel it when going down a dirt road. When breaking I could feel the back wheel slipping behind me.

Maybe I'm just bored of driving the same car, or maybe my cars falling apart so not enjoy driving it as much. Probably be great to get a new car, however I don't have enough saved for a car. I have said cars just need to be able to get from A to B. Anything else is luxury but I guess its alright to get something that includes luxury. Guess I'll keep using my Accord until it dies then upgrade. Time to save.