No more Uni of Melb!

While still enjoying the glow of Anzac Day victory, I've spent the morning getting some marking out of the way and hope to finish off the rest shortly so I can enjoy an afternoon beer and the football later on. I had my cards read yesterday which was interesting. All signs point to good things which is a bonus. No silliness, no scamming. I shuffled and picked the cards myself while she told me the 'story'. Besides being very strongly encouraged to let go of some things that have been haunting me for some time (like since childhood!), it appears that the things I desire will be coming to me, though not without some trials. The most interesting thing was the suggestion that I am being manipulated by some females at the present time. That there are females in my life that are pushing me in directions that I haven't myself chosen. For the life of me I can't figure this one out. I very very rarely do anything that anyone else tells me to do, unless I think it's an obscenely good idea. So perhaps the reader was incorrect about this aspect or I'm missing something entirely. She also seemed to think that I would be married within three years and would settle back in Australia. I feel that she may have been a little liberal with her estimation of the timeline here. It's hard to see me married for any reason within three years. Coming back to Australia? Well, I guess if there were kids involved then yes, I would definitely settle back here. Despite all its problems, and my vehement disagreements with government policy, I can't imagine a better place to raise kiddywinks. There was some other stuff which I won't be going into, but altogether a very interesting experience. I have a fairly healthy divide within between believer and sceptic but this experience definitely falls just the right side of believer.

I had to go in to University of Melbourne to pick up my degree from last year. Yes, they should have sent it out. No, I don't rely on bureaucracy when I'm pressed for time (which I was in this case as I need to send copies to Sg for my employment pass etc). Thankfully this is the last involvement I will have to have with this sub-par university. It may regularly rank in the top 100 universities in the world, and certainly higher than any other Victorian universities, but the proof is in the pudding : this university stinks. It lives off a reputation garnered some 40 years ago, being the resting place for all the rich private school kids and 'elite' students from across the state, but my experience was that they have some sub-standard lecturers/tutors (not all obviously, but some...) and the administration was just awful. Evidenced by their failure to secure my teaching practicums until the very last minute due to their choice to over-enrol the course and me having to actually go in and pick up my degree despite its being promised weeks earlier. End rant.

Ooops, one last thing about the degree itself. It really doesn't look all that impressive. Holograms, foil-embossed loogos and a Michael Turner variant of me holding a giant stick (teachers are still allowed to carry big sticks right?) really were necessary, methinks. Col will know what I'm getting at. And I'm sorry to ruin the illusion for you, but you get none of these things :-( Literally a piece of paper. I should actually be used to this as it's my third piece of such paper.

The whole point of this is that I never applied for MOE in Sg because the paperwork was outrageously over the top. I get this job and here I am still having to register with MOE. The irony of my own laziness is not lost on me.