June 17 in Melbourne Diaries

A bit nervous today. A lot of the deadlines for my work ‘redeployment’ (i.e., selection for sacking process) is commencing shortly, but I know I’m on the shortlist for a job in a state agency, a new, fairly innovative part of the public sector. Fingers crossed, because if I’m offered the job and the salary’s respectable, I’ll probably take it. The position would be in Melbourne so I wouldn’t have to move, could sign a new lease, and continue saving up for a house with minimal disruption. In short, I could get on with my life. I’m confident but far from certain. These days I come to work not wanting to be there, although I have no real issues with my workplace. A year of cuts, insults to staff and the denigration of our work has done its damage. Half of the legal area has already gone, and I want to leave with them.

My parents came back from their overseas holiday yesterday, which overall seems to have gone badly. For a one week period they stayed with my brother and his girlfriend in their cat-ridden house in Paros, Greece. From what I can tell there was constant bickering, especially with my brother’s girlfriend, on all manner of topics, and my parents were generally made to feel unwelcome. I suspect the fault of this probably lies evenly between two sides. My parents are increasingly conservative and increasingly difficult to deal with; my brother, who has not had some of the conflicts I have over the last two years, would be wondering where these slightly annoying old people had come from. On the other hand, my younger brother has a pronounced selfish streak that is becoming more exaggerated with age, and responds badly to any perceived intrusion in ‘his world’. He’s also getting fairly extreme in his own political views, getting most of his ideas from satirical sites and blog postings rather than more independent forums. That was always the key difference between him and I. Whereas I read all sides and all opinions, am profoundly sceptical about any purported wisdom left or right, and am pretty much centrist as a result, he’s always looking for ‘the’ solutions to the world, a simple philosophy with which to sort out his ideas and then impose those ideas on other people. He’s vehemently atheist and libertarian these days, but I would not be surprised if he suddenly became ultra-conservative and devoutly religious in his forties due to some self-‘conversion’. But for now his extreme left views are clashing badly with my parent’s grumpy shift to the right. And my parents seem to really hate his girlfriend (who I met briefly, and who seemed a nice, if unremarkable, woman). I can see my immediate family becoming as fractured as my extended family and am keeping well away from this latest squabbling (which may get much worse if my brother marries).

Enjoying watching the World Cup in the morning, my once-every-four-years excuse for coming late into work. My Australian Rules football team’s going down the tubes, so I may as well transfer my interests to the world game.