And the year is already a week old...

I cannot tell you how incredibly boring I have been.

Well, I will try I suppose. But trust me, it is boring.

I've been working from home this week. I have been lucky enough to score a job with a large financial-type company doing powerpoint presentations for them. That isn't so lucky. I learnt to use that particular program due to my last 'proper' job, where I suppose I also learnt to push its boundaries as I was approaching it differently to how I may have if I had come from an admin background. I planned to never, ever, ever work with that program again once I walked away from the evil multinational, but dwindling work over December, and no work over Christmas has made swallow my pride. So I work on it, and tell myself to think of the money. Think of the money. Think of the money. And be grateful. And think of the money.

Working from home also reinforces that I need to have a job where I interact with people on some level during the day. For many people, working from home permanently would be an ideal, but for me, living alone, it is something I enjoy but I also see the danger that my already hermit-like behaviour could become beyond a joke. These are all good things to learn, to have reinforced, so when I finally get another 'proper' job (did you see how positive I was about that statement... I said 'when') I will know I want one where I work in a studio or office environment at least part of the time. If I could have my absolute dream, it would probably be a 50/50 mix of studio and home/other.

Next week I will be back in the comfy undie company (a reference my Australian friends will understand at least) so that's work for a fortnight. And then the big unknown again. But I'll worry about that later.

I wish there was more I could tell you. But I suppose if I'm honest, I feel a little numb at the moment. The television is overwhelmed with images of the tsunami. It is an overwhelming event to even consider. It took me two days before I could even bare to watch a news item on it, and when I did, I simply sat and cried and cried. But now, even though I want to know that people are recovering, that aid is getting through, that perhaps in 10 or 15 or 20 years there may be cities and villages where at the moment there is just destruction, I am finding that the continuous coverage is simply making me feel like a gawker at an accident. That there has been enough coverage of devastated people at their most vulnerable. Cover the event, cover the rebuilding, but let them grieve for their lost loved ones in private.

Sorry, this turned out much sadder than I had planned.