I was thinking that this post may be an unhappy 'whinge-y' one about my lack of employment and was going to warn people that they may not want to read a few paragraphs consisting of nothing but my complaints.  Honestly, it's such a catch 22 that when you have a job, all you want to do is be on holidays but when you don't have a job and are constantly on holidays, all you want to do is work! 

I've pretty much done almost everything humanly possible: applied for all positions advertised which I am qualified for (senior speech pathologist?  Not yet!), e-mailed CV and cover letters to select organizations I am interested in working for, signed up for locum notifications, signed up for companies that find jobs for you, signed up for the Department of Education locum register, and have also dropped of CV/cover letters in person to seven different places around the city.  I don't think anyone could possibly suggest that I am not trying!!!  Today in the middle of driving around and submitting my CVs, I pretty much just felt like sitting in the car and having a good cry (and okay..I might have done that for a few minutes...but then forced myself to keep going).  When I returned home, I saw an e-mail (and don't get too excited...it's not a job) that made me feel slightly better.  The Department for Education and Child Development (pretty much the equivalent in South Australia to where I was working in Queensland) has invited me to attend their induction next week.  It doesn't mean that they're offering me anything, but it *does* mean that I'm on their radar and going to the induction will allow me to meet people in the department and see how it is run (and possibly find some connections for other jobs?!?).  It runs all day Monday and Tuesday and there's a follow up session in April.  It also means that I will be occupied for two whole days next week!!

I really am beginning to feel like a big failure and like I'm not contributing anything at all.  I hope that soon some of this hard work comes to fruition.  I'm sick of being stressed about money all the time and not being able to do any of the things I want.  If I had a job, this would all be solved!!!  Alright, finished being a Negative Nelly and will endeavour to keep her away as much as possible.

Hm, happier news - well, thinking of breaking the bank and buying myself some ice skates.  Rather annoying when I have a perfectly good pair at home in Canada but I imagine shipping them here would cost about the same as buying them.  I found a pair on Gumtree (Australian version of kijiji/craigslist) which are a reasonable price and I think they're even my size!!  Sometimes you just get lucky with these things.  Claire, one of the interns that Jeremy works with is from New Zealand and totally into hockey.  I'm looking into joining a hockey team with her - crazy eh??  She was telling me that she saw skates on sale down to $500 from $1200.  Oh my freaking God!  I will take my second hand Gumtree skates, thank you very much, which cost way way waaaaaay less than $500 (I bargained them down to $70 and am still feeling guilty/unsure about buying them at that price. There's no way I could spend $500 on skates!)  Jeremy is super supportive and awesome and even willing to do without the one social activity we have planned this weekend if necessary so I can get these skates.

Maybe I'll have better news next time.  Quick Jeremy update: He's enjoying his work so far.  He has to do 'cover shifts' and he says he learns more from these than from an entire year in university.  Cover shifts are weekend/after hours shifts where there are only two interns in the hospital and they are the first port of call for anything needed in any of the wards.  It involves a lot of responsiblity and decision making (which would terrify me, but he is really good at it).  This week, he's really busy on his pysch rotation - sounds like lots of paperwork.