Stopping the R.O.T.

Well the Reign Of Terror is officially over.

Week 3 was fairly fun. Not as stressful as week 2 - but week 3 had a deadlinish feel to it.

Sunday nite had dinner with the CEO's of SammonHolt Memorial - managed to solve a few of the world's problems there!

Monday. Preparation is everything. Finished the roster. Knocked off the rest of my to-do list and started a 'what do i do now and what do i save until we're offline list'

Tuesday. Finished the 300s weeding.

Wednesday. Networked(!) with Darebin re: periodicals. Did the DLS selection. 1 staff member rang in sick for thursday (they were, of course, DS) juggled BL & CL roster and found a casual to fill the gap. Tried to prepare for the eventuality that the rostered YS team-members for thursdays school holiday program would all be sick on Thursday.

Thursday. ASL meeting. One staff member in tears (not my fault). Tea Relief, Desk shift. Dealt with small boy who'd been kicked off the internet by Council Staff member (not Library Staff) - and he'd 5 minutes left to go on the 15 minute internet.

Friday. Tidied up in the AM. 1on1 in the PM. Buoyed by hot chocolate and feeling good about outcomes and plans headed off to Tandoori Den for a delish Indian meal with the old BL gang (and partners.)

So there you have it. The R.O.T is over. I enjoyed it. As always I learnt a lot - I think i did a good job raining terror - and most importantly (or is that surprisingly) I did no evil for 3 weeks.

Can I keep up the momentum I achieved over those 3 weeks? I hope so - a busy fifi is an happy fifi - (what is it said about the devil and idle hands?)

Must say I'm looking forward to a day off...

In which the feral cherubs go to the RCH

Have just been regaled with the adventures of my two youngest nephews which resulted in both of them in casualty this afternoon.

Their dad (my youngest brother) made many a trip to Gippy Base Hospital Casualty as a child - he was into everything and he and my middle brother could just about have had a ward at G.B.H named after them. B's best effort was when, on a school trip to Canberra, he was accidentally kicked in the head by a schoolmate and had to be taken to Canberra Hospital for emergency surgery on his eye/cheek area.

Anyhoo I digress...Just before lunch today almost 3 yr old was riding his toy car when he went over the handlebars and cracked his chin open on the concrete. family immediately loaded into car and headed for Alfred -who don't do kids so it was off to RCH.

Brother dropped his wife and the injured cherub off at casualty and went to park the car. After parking the car brother unloaded 1 yr old into pusher and turned to lock the car.

When he turned back pusher was upended, wheels in the air, with 1yr old cherub underneath (and blood everywhere). Turns out 1yr old had split the webbing between his mouth and teeth so he too was rushed into casualty.

RCH were apparently very impressed with my brother's time management skills - if both kids have to have a casualty visit much better idea to do them both at the same time. (My brothers, my sister, and I, always took it in turns to get taken to casualty!)

Anyway all the casualties are okay - almost 3's chin has been glued back together (and he is proudly sporting 2 band aids on it he tells me), whilst master 1 is enjoying ice blocks.

Just another normal sunday in Elsternwick...

R.O.T week 2

Advance warning: next weeks post will be titled "stopping the R.O.T!

Well week2 of Reign Of Terror is over.

It wasn't filled with quite the same boundless enthusiasm as week1 (but hey timing is everything).

Monday - one of those days - a bit of this, a bit of that - finished week 1 of the next roster (rediscovering the nerd in me who 'likes' rostering)

Tuesday - playing with the grown ups (aka attending LMT). Tuesday afternoon - not quite so good - had to go for a long walk to the lookout to calm down. Discovered Eventbrite - definitely website of the week.

Wednesday - Booktalk @ Q - bemused looks from audience as I spoke of Mathletes and
spelling bees. (I was talking about a great book on American High School chess players).
Bookgroup in the evening

Thursday - depressing day as I had to take the car back - it doesn't take long to get used to having wheels.

Friday - back to walking to work - finished weeks 2 & 3 of roster, did both lots of selection, used eventbrite to invite people to ASL meeting and staff dinner - if anyone can find problems with it it's library staff; almost finished weeding non fic.; tried to deal with van run angst. Just another week @ work.

Am more than 2/3 through my to-do list. Ace!

In which more gadgets succeed at Hide and Seek

In recent months a number of my gadgets have found excellent hiding spots in my apartment.

A couple of months ago my other mobile phone and my ipod shuffle left their living quarters and went and hid I know not where. I've tried ringing the mobile phone but it was switched off when it left home - no-one else has it as the amount of credit on it has remained the same so obviously it's here somewhere.

This week my ipod nano, a usb drive, and my camera have joined them. I am reasonably organised when it comes to my gadgets so I am surprised by their disappearance. I know where they were - and they're not there now.

I just hope they're all happy together and that they'll return home soon.

Chocolate is nature's way of making up for Mondays!

I've been doing some intensive research of late into the Hot Chocolate's of Melbourne. I've previously posted about the state of the Hot Chocolate in Sydney and in Canberra. Now it's Melbourne's turn.

Melbourne has some amazing hot chocolate shops - here are my current top 4.

In fourth place - Max Brenner. A superb hot chocolate, served in a cuddle mug (aka hug mug). They do many different hot chocolates milk, dark, white, all are extremely delicious. My current max Brenner favourite (at their QV cafe) is the Italian hot chocolate -seriously yummy.


In third place - koko black.

The flagship store is in the Royal Arcade and, like most koko black stores, features superb service (in fact I've awarded them bonus points for service which moved them ahead of Max Brenner!).

The 3 yr old feral cherub (fc) and I, along with some former library colleagues, tested the service (and of course the hot chocolates) and were very pleased. No sooner had we sat down than a waiter appeared with glasses of water, and menus, for all of us (including the fc).

The fc ordered a babycino which comes with a small fc sized chocolate whilst the adults ordered coffees and hot chocs and specialist chocolates. The koko black staff know their product so well that I confidently got them to choose my chocolates for me - I told them I like caramel & mousses and don't like strawberry, would prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate and moments later a small plate containg the selection was placed in front of me. The waiter explained the chocolates that he'd chosen for me and I could not fault his choice. Others at the table ordered the sample plate which consisted of a small chocolate mousse, a small individual choc cake (think mini muffin size) and 2 small chocolates. Also looked yummy.
They make a delicious Belgian hot chocolate. I'm also impressed with their stores in Burke Road, and at Chaddy.

In second place - Cacao.

LHN recommended cacao to me - I'd been waxing lyrical about the first place getter and she insisted I try cacao before making my final decision. (and I'm glad she did - I was very impressed) !They have a store in the middle of the GPO shopping centre in the city and their hand made chocolates and their hot chocolates are first rate.

Due to its location and the time I was purchasing (heading for weekend 1 of the MWF) I was forced to get my hot chocolate to take away - I washed down a couple of delightful chocolates ( a

Calin Caramel because I love caramel, and a Safran because it looked like it had a tartan top!) with a deliciously creamy hot chocolate on my way to Fed Square. Yummy. - Thanks Lorraine.

And the winner is (drumroll please)

Chokolait Hub.

Chokolait hub is located in the Hub arcade (the arcade that sort of splinters off from Royal Arcade near gog and magog). I stumbled across them after a visit to Koko Black and couldn't justify a second hot chocolate so soon after the first so I made a special trip back during the Writers Festival.

Wow and double wow. The range of hot chocolates is extensive - belgian, swiss, italian, milk or dark, I'm hooked on the Belgian Jaffa milk hot chocolate which is so deliciously creamy and rich that there is no way I could drink more than one. The also have a range of chili hot chocolates (you choose on a scale of 1-10) and hot shots of Italian, Belgian or Swiss chocolate which can be served to drink or to eat.

Do yourself a favour - check them (all) out.

******
I also have a list of additional hot chocolate shops to try, and suburban hot chocs as well - will blog about them as I try them.

I wish I had the guts to do this!

Almost every morning when we open there is a woman in a blue coat waiting. The minute the doors are open she is off and running to the 15 minute internet like she is competing against Usain Bolt.

Each time I ask her not to run in the library -(from experience she'll run through you rather than around you) she 'slows' to a speed walk - equally as dangerous to anyone foolish enough to be between her and the far internet.

Love the Liberry tells how one of her colleagues handles this...

I love it !

Reign of terror - end of week 1

Well this week I have been raining terror on the good folk of BL.(still have 2 more terror filled weeks to go)

It's been a pretty good week all things considered :>)

Monday: Picked up the work chariot Monday morning, by the time I arrived at work I'd forgotten what is was like not to have a car. Dealt with the leftover 'stuff' from the weekend (new phones, odd messages) and got stuck into what promised to be an entertainingly challenging first week. I've written a master list of everything (I can think of) that needs to be done and when it needs to be done by. It's not as daunting as I thought it would be but I will need to have my time management wits about me. Have been instructed that I must do NO evil! (dagnabbit)

Tuesday: 8 o'clock start - how do I manage to do this without a car? More screaming kids than usual after storytime. After the library closed a select few staff assembled library shelving for the self-serve reservations (and ate pizza) . And it was a tired little teddy bear that drove home after a very long day. Still not permitted to do evil.

Wednesday: One of those full on days (pays, staff meeting, guest speaker etc.). Guest speaker spoke inspiringly on giving your home a green makeover concentrating on low cost and no cost options, and easy things to do that can make a difference. Still a tired little teddy bear driving home (and may I point out - day 3 of no evil)

Thursday: Decided to try and blitz some of the things on the master list of doom - thank you note to speaker, requests, all this weeks selection (both suppliers), scheduled some blog posts in advance (for the next week anyway), lined up a couple of others to blog, and started a list of things to palm off on others while I'm on leave. Also managed to find time to play with camtasia and reacquaint myself with my brushtail notes as well as get some of my usual work done.
Still no evil though.

Friday: The question was could I go 5 days without evil (nope it appears I couldn't).
The HRSS system was determined to taunt me - sending me emails telling me I had leave to approve and then refusing to let me approve the aforementioned leave.
This has baffled those who know about HRSS - we tried cajoling, swearing, yelling, and explaining to HRSS that this sort of behaviour was inappropriate in a local govt setting all to no avail.
This all took rather more of the day than it should have - so not quite the same level of inroad into master list of doom as i'd hoped, but hey s***t happens!

Having a great time. Hope weeks 2 & 3 are as good.

Gotta say she-who-is-sunning-herself-on-leave may not be getting her car back next week - I'm having too much fun with it.