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Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.
[due to slowness of writing, all todays are now yesterdays]
Today was filled with expectations contrary to my expectations. What I expected was a brief morning visit to the offices where my case manager, who handles me so Centrelink doesn't much have to, then to return home and participate in clearing out a dungeon in World of Warcraft, followed by an evening of composing an application for the latest library job I found going.
It was unusually tricky finding a parking space there, but at least I got to hear the end of Margarent Throsby's interview with Dr Peter Bowden, although it was a bit awkwarder than usual - I think he was not prepared to handle digressions from the topic of whistleblowing and ethics.
Contrary to the interactions I'd expected, talking briefly of what I'd been up to job-searchingly and what I planned to be up to, the only topic was that they'd found a possible job I could go interview for and preparing me to do this once I agreed I had some interest. That job was of an inbound call centre sort, handling account inquiries on behalf of a cable television company. I figured I would have to cancel the dungeoning to make that on time, but it turned out to be anyway already cancelled.
Spent a few hours having lunch and researching and getting changed, then set off to drive. That was a bit of a nervous drive, on the motorway, since the car I have use of is 21 years old and rattles a bit when it travels faster than 80 kph. I felt a bit like if I were standing at the top of a ladder and unsure of its steadiness. Rain grew heavier near my busier urban destination, peaking at one of the more stressful driving experiences I've had making the exit onto a quite busy main road.
I ended up mistakenly in a lane too far to the left, one marked 'must turn left', so spent several minutes poking around side streets until finding my way back to the road I needed, pushing 'about ten minutes early' into 'just on time'. Unfortunately the group had already gone in and the staff who met me didn't quite know what was going on, so it was a couple of minutes until I was directed to the right room. Not the last to arrive, either.
Interview was simple enough. Bit of impromptu self-introduction public speaking, a group task, then one on one interviews and we were done. Was annoyed that in the group with other candidates a lot of my communications were ignored until someone else expressed the same thing, although some were taken up with enthusiasm (we were supposed to diagram what customer service is and why it is important), but otherwise I felt I did pretty well. At least, that I did about as well as I was able, and if I don't get the position it won't be for any lack or fault on my part. Which is about all I'm after really.
Driving back I got to diagnose the problem with the motorway in that direction - too many lanes being created and then ended, congesting the drive by forcing repeated traffic integration. Also got another surprise on the radio travelling back when they played the 14th symphony by Sir William Herschel, more famous as the discoverer of Uranus and infrared radiation. Was fun to listen to, too, so now I want to try and collect the music of this famous astronomer. Am sure I must have known he was also a composer, since I read a lot of science history books and they'd be likely to mention such a detail, but I'd completely forgotten it.
Later in the evening my sister contacted me, requesting collection from the station. Despite coordinating activity I arrived some minutes early and spent a tense while watching a cat walk along the track, fearing a train would come along any moment and hoping the cat knew how to keep safe. But it vanished into the darkness long before anything happened, and that is all I know of that cat. A while later I saw behind me some queer green reflection which revealed a train coming from the other way. It stopped briefly, signed prominently as a prototype which no one should board, then departed in high unpleasant screeching. I saw a party of railway workers aboard, presumably testing the user experience, and then not long after my sister arrived to be collected.
The last and least pleasant upturning of expectation came watching again the series 2 finale of Ashes to Ashes and being informed that no, we still do not get to see series 3.
Okay, that's a day, done.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-23 17:46 (UTC)From:What in the world is with that motorway design? O.o
no subject
Date: 2010-06-23 07:24 (UTC)From:Nice to hear of some Herschel being played- Chandos do a 'contemporaries of Mozart' CD series which includes a CD of his work among many other interesting less well known composers of that generation.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-23 08:27 (UTC)From:That seems like a pretty nifty CD series. Would probably be all over it if I were local to it. Hadn't remembered quite when he lived, but that makes sense, sounded a bit older than I expected. At first I'd thought he was going for a retro Classical feel in his composition! Makes more sense to have been current. Got my astronomical centuries all mixed up. ^.^;
no subject
Date: 2010-06-23 11:52 (UTC)From:Chandos have world wide distribution and their web site is at www.chandos.net. I think they also do mail order.
The Heschel symphonies album is on the 'contemporaries of Mozart' series and it's serial number is CHAN 10048
no subject
Date: 2010-06-23 14:31 (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-06-23 16:41 (UTC)From:The 'contemporaries of Mozart' series really is very entertaining.
My own interests tend to be for early and renaissance music with a deep love for Monteverdi, Gesualdo and Tallis and their contemporaries, but I do have a liking for the eighteenth century and for modernism from around Debussy and Ravel up to the present.
Being English, there is also this abiding love affair with Ralph Vaughan Williams :o)
Chiara
no subject
Date: 2010-06-24 11:32 (UTC)From:Although, I don't know if that is anything like your reasons for preferring pre-1750s music.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-24 12:12 (UTC)From:Plus, I do in fact enjoy period performance practice and chamber works -- there's a transparent intimacy both in early playing style and small ensembles I find attractive.
@Chiara: I adore Gesualdo! As well as Josquin and Ockeghem. Though my favorite composer of circa 1600 has to be Gibbons, hands-down. His viol consorts are so rich and lyrical. One example here (incidentally, that's me on treble viol, though I wanted the piece to go faster than it ended up). The 6-part consorts are absolutely mind-blowing, though. Toss me a friends-request if you'd like -- I don't blog much about music these days, but anyone with whom I can talk meaningfully about music of any genre has an instant 'in' with me :)
no subject
Date: 2010-06-24 13:37 (UTC)From:I agree with you on Gibbons although I also like the much less well remembered Peter Phillips (a Catholic recusant who, rather like John Dowland spent his entire career composing and playing in foreign courts as a result).
I've added you to my flist. You'll find my musical tates are pretty catholic, but I'm always happy to talk about them :o)
no subject
Date: 2010-06-24 13:39 (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-06-24 13:31 (UTC)From:Like you, I sometimes find 19th century music heavy and over orchestrated. I have to be in the mood.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-23 08:39 (UTC)From:*gives hopeful hugs*
that sounds like awful freeway design >:O worse than even Toronto's... but the constricting of lanes rly sounds like Toronto freeway design >:| like the DVP/404 which turns 4 lanes into 2 as you head past the Toronto border then into 3 for the rest of it into Toronto >:O it boggles my mind -_-;;; there's an eternal traffic jam there...
but blargh to Australian freeway designers >:O
no subject
Date: 2010-06-24 11:22 (UTC)From:I was also surprised on the journey out there that people were driving below the speed limit - usually people drive faster. Maybe it was because of the rain, but I was glad for it because on my provisional licence I am only allowed to drive 100 kph so this way I didn't have to worry about people behind me getting mad I wasn't driving faster.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-23 14:34 (UTC)From:Hope good things happen from the interview. If nothing else, it's more practice in that process. That's almost never a bad thing.