Thursday, July 21, 2011

Progress on two fronts

My new job is simultaneously hard work and very relaxing. First being a government job there are substantial differences to anything I have experienced in the private or community sectors. Things are quite simply more bureaucratic and every second word seems to be an acronym.
My new job is a reasonably senior position so there is a lot to get on top of as quickly as possible. So all in all it is quite tiring.

Now here is the good bit. The job is in other ways also very relaxing. As difficult as it might be I am not dealing with desperate people in extreme circumstances. I am not having to be continually on my toes to monitor the risk of violence to myself, my staff or the people using my services. The reality is people in extreme situations sometimes behave unpredictably, add in issues like mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse and you had to be careful. Always.

Having said that working with the homeless you more often see the best of people. But you have to be ready to deal with the worst.

So I am really enjoying the change of pace in that way. Also I seem to have landed a great team to work with: friendly, welcoming and helpful to the newby!

Now to my WIP, as I said I finished a first draft. This week I’ve been sorting all the sections written in different POV into order. I can’t help myself I sometimes get distracted and begin rewriting some sections as I go, but all in all the shuffling process is going well. I hope to be finished with that stage early next week. Then I will sit down and read the whole thing start to finish to see which sections need the most work.

Can you stay on task when it comes to writing, or are you like me and sometimes get led astray by the text in front of you?

Now finally a quick word about last weekend. As I said Deb and I went away, well we spent the weekend at Phillip Island which is about two hours drive from home. I say drive because although it is a real island it is connected to the mainland by a bridge. As you saw if you caught my Monday post we managed to cram an awful lot into two days.
One of my piccies was of a bird.
He was a Cape Barren Goose (Cereopsis novaehollandiae) or to be precise gander, a member of the only ‘true’ goose species native to Oz. They were quite endangered in the 1970s but have made a comeback thanks to conservation efforts. I am talking about them again because I had to share some piccies of some goslings.
Just as a reminder here is another piccie of dad.Now mum with some of her broodSome cute fuzzballs And some more

4 comments:

Old Kitty said...

The goslings are ADORABLE!! Love the brilliant srtipey bits on them!! Awwwwwwwwwww! Yay that this native breed is making a comeback!! They're completely precious!! Yay!!

I have absolutely no discipline when it comes to writing so I get distracted most easily! LOL! Good luck with your revisions!

Great to know that you are enjoying your new job. Work acronyms are just too much and so unnecessary!!! LOL! Take care
x

Hart Johnson said...

Those are the cutest little fluffies!

Congrats on the WiP--I am incapable of NOT changing words whether I am going through to 'just read and get a feel' or am on 'big plot only' edit. I can't help myself.

I hear you about the job, too--My boss works in a pain clinic, and people in pain can be pretty unpredictable, too--especially if they feel they are being denied meds they need--plus not all of them have ideal mental health (depression as a comorbidity is extremely high)

Kathleen Jones said...

Glad you're enjoying the new job Al - it sounds as though, once you've got on top of it, the work will be much less stressful.
On the WIP - I'm chopping and changing all the time!

Amanda said...

My gosh, they are so adorable!!

Congrats on your job and your writing!