Piece de resistance

Well, I tried my housemate's new tea she received from friends in France. We finally worked out the translation as verbena tea. We then sat down to chat / shoot the shit (such a terrible phrase). We got on to office chat. These conversations are always amusing especially when you are living in a foreign country as you soon learn levels of appropriateness.

This story cracks me up. So Claire, my house mate, arrived at work and was talking to 'Big Boobs'. 'Big Boobs' informed her that she was happy because she had just had sex. Claire was taken aback by the forwardness of the comment but laughed it off. I bet she regrets doing that now. I bet she wishes she had nipped it in the bud. 'Big Boobs' went on to inform her that as her and her partner only had a short time they had to use lubricant - to Claire's absolute horror. Then 'Big Boobs' went on to explain why she needed to use it. As for levels of appropriateness in an office environment with others you don't know well at all...

If you want you can tell me what your reaction is. Blokes always wonder what girls talk about when they are together. At least now we know the kind of things they talk about in Carlton, Melbourne.

The other funny story is, again, from Claire. [I don't get out much these days...]. She told me how her office mate has a weight watchers calendar and uses it quite often. This office mate said she wouldn't eat a chocolate muffin for breakfast each morning as a start. Then Claire tells me that in her office she was told that if she was hungry and didn't want to eat, she should stand, naked, in front of the mirror and eat. The hunger feeling would quickly pass as a result... Honestly the lengths people are willing to abide by the old wives tale 'eating is cheating', never ceases to amaze me!

Okay, over and out.

Editor's ramblings

So it's a new year - 2008 - and a year of change for me. I am on the final stretch of my PhD and am trying to edit it. It's a very time consuming and deadly boring experience. I have been working on this thesis for three years now. I am not sure how others take longer without getting tired of the same project. I am lucky enough to still enjoy my topic but I may not be saying the same thing a few weeks from now as the editing phase takes its toll. I should be submitting it in the next two months for assessment.

Once I've submitted my thesis I will start actively looking for jobs. Where? Who knows. At the moment, job satisfaction is more important to me than location. The last non-academic job I had was in London working for a charity, which was unrewarding in every way. Hopefully this time I can find something interesting enough to keep me entertained for longer than six months.

You can tell when I am carrying out boring tasks as not only do I ramble on but I also start to wonder why people haven't invented certain things or why something happens.

My thought for the day is: Why hasn't someone invented dissolvable chewing gum? It would be great if the rate at which the flavour of chewing gum disappears, so does the gum. A mate reckons that would be a mentos but they aren't that chewy and don't last that long either.

Maybe another ramble in a few days when I get sidetracked again...