Thread: Embarrassment

Hi Ian. Family's doing good. Thanks for asking.

... and no, "No Excuses" ... didn't even try to look anyone up during our brief sneak over the border, 'cause it just wasn't gonna happen !

But I'll be around a bit more now ... I hope

Ooops ... unplanned exit left ... Off to Gloucester. Bye bye ....

Same here Kev. Haven't heard from you for a while. How's the business going??????

Hi Jim. It's doing well thanks .... Taking a lot of my time, hence my absence around these parts. The Disco has been spending 3-4 months at a time parked up with the batteries on charge .... Michelle and I recently did a 3500km trip, free camping between here and Qld for 16 days .... First time I've had 2 weeks off work in the last 6 years ... Very hard getting back into the swing !

Sent from my iPad using Braille

Thanks for the update, Kev. I was wondering how the business was going with all the extra opposition you are faced with nowadays. Glad you could have a break from it, you need to recharge your batteries every now and then.

Being a TWU union member, I have just received my latest copy of "TWU News" and read and interesting item about a bus driver at our Thornton Depot who is still driving buses at 80 years of age.... Crikey

I thought I was fast approaching my use by date as a bus driver, but it looks like I might have a few years in me yet.........................not to 80 though!!!!

Originally Posted by Ausfree

You have been quiet, Lionel. What's the latest!!!!

G'day Jim, Ian and Pop058,

The eyes have been going okay. Well that is when the right lens and my right eye do not attack each other and instead they play nicely with each other. I have had two trips to the Emergency Department of two different hospitals. Touch wood, the extraction stage - when the damage has been done, is getting itself sorted out with practice. The right contact lens is still a sod to get in. Once both lenses are in though they are really great to wear. Unlike my old smaller lenses these big Scleral lenses are very dust-proof.

It seems like I will be needing reading glasses as the type of lenses I have are meant to get me seeing very well at the 6 metre eye chart stage. The lenses are not bifocal so to be able to get my right eye reading computer screens and books it is either a set of reading glasses, or a monocle.

I have started a new job. Yesterday, Friday the 3rd of October marked the finish of week 4 on the job. I have three months of probation that could then extend until June 30th 2015. If the Feds are still playing nice to the university sector I may be signing a 3 year contract in July 2015.

Basically, I could be given the flick any time between now and the 8th of December - the end of my Probation period; or given the flick on June 30th when the current Federal 3 year long funding round ceases. I will be not the only one in this position as every other contract researcher at work will be in the very same boat at the end of June. Bearing these factors in mind, I am looking at this job as one three month contract (8th December); that may lead to a further 6 months of work (30th of June 2015); that could grow into a 3 year contract (30th June 2018). After that 3 year period comes to a close the same uncertainty will revisit the scene when the next 3 year Federal funding cycle comes around again. There are some researchers that have been here for 15 years who have 5 lots of experiencing 30th of June coming around under their belt's.

I am a Research Assistant at a university not located in Bundaberg. Other than that my location will be revealed in the goodness of time. Probably around the second week of December when I learn if I am packing the car up, hitching a trailer and heading back to Bundaberg, or not.

With settling into the new set of contact lenses and into a new job in a new location I took Leave of Absence from my PhD until the end of October. This means I am looking at finishing the never ending story in the early 2015 - sigh.

So that is about it from this neck of the woods.

Kind Regards
Lionel

Hello Jason & Karen,

Congratulations for your wedding and it is good to see that things went well for you both. May there be many happy anniversaries of the date that you both were married on. Take good care of each other and be happy together.

Kind Regards
Lionel