Daily grind

Bit of an overcast day today. It's only half nine in the morning though so it might get better later on. I'm not really all that bothered though – working at noon and if the weather stays like this it makes the drive in a car without air-conditioning a lot more tolerable. Going to have to think about getting a car of my own as stealing Jen's is something I can only really do for so long. Had a browse over some car prices, new and used, and will have to borrow cash for anything decent. The bank I'm with stipulates permanent Australian residents though for car loans, don't know if they're flexible on that yet.

Another idea is to get a backpacker car – one of the chicks I work with has one. Over 440 000 km on the clock, but has A/C and a luggage rack (i.e. surfboard rack). Means you get it at a cheap price as generally the seller is about to leave the country, and they usually bought it for very little too, but you could get an absolute pile of shite even if it does only cost about a thousand bucks (about £400). That's what she paid and it's only broken down once ($300 AUD) so if it goes for another few months then fine. She'll probably still be able to sell it on for $1000 when she finishes with it anyway.

Saying that it would be an absolute pain in the arse to break down on the way to work, or on the way back after a midnight finish. The safer option is a car from a dealer. I will keep an open mind and hope that Jen forgets that she owns the car.

Not much in the way of news. Finally went surfing at the weekend, it costs $25 for a half day's board hire. I can't say I was any good but will persevere until success or shark attack. Unfortunately no pictures as my camera batteries ran out and I didn't notice until we were leaving so no time to recharge them, but that's probably a good thing. It would take an expert cameraman to capture the split-second that I managed to stand on the board for, the pictures would most likely turn out as out-of-focus breaking waves instead.

Nights last week were okay. Was just conquering the time difference after four nights when it was finished, now working today, Wednesday noon until half ten, then Thursday and Friday nights again. Not the most worker-friendly timetable but at only 40 hours a week I'm quite happy. Most of the shifts are 10 hours so that's a four day week, or five days of the short eight hour shifts. Much better than back home, just got an email from the person in charge of the hours monitoring in my last job and they're wanting clarification of all the times we worked outwith the rota'd hours, undoubtedly to ty to avoid paying us any back pay. I have no problem with them clarifying it, but at the end of the day we worked illegal shifts, the rota on paper wasn't possible as it didn't take into account things like ward rounds, and the monitoring was done while half the consultants were away on holiday and the unit was quiet. Getting extra cash in a lump sum would be nice but it's a pain having to argue for it seeing as we already earned it. I have no doubt the heel-dragging will go on though.

Only slightly sunburnt at the weekend. This would be a good thing if it wasn't midwinter here and I had on SPF15. I think the only burnt bits were the missed bits but seeing as usually I don't burn too much it doesn't bode well for summer. At least I won't be the most burnt if the family all visit.