The cure of being taunted by demons of self-doubt in your sleep is to get up, turn on the lights, remember your medication and then do something. A simple recipe which I wish I had remembered in the past… at one point I seriously thought I could go back to how things "used to be"…
This morning I received a shock when my potential employer emailed me to say that he had not received my application. I cursed the useless University "courier" system and resent my application via TNT. I also asked my referees to email him direct. I don't want to lose this job because of a screwed-up postal service. I was looking at apartments in the US$600 - 800 / month today and they seemed nice enough, and close to the University.
I also had coffee with Red for a while. She's changed her name back to something closer to what it was before (but not exactly). I can't really understand it, but we have been growing more distant after her foray to Sydney. Tomorrow is coffee, and I'll see the others, so that should be nice.
Today I also talked to Illara for the first time since I told her about Allison and I. She was fairly upset at first, but we talked it over (through ICQ) and we are still good friends (of which I am very glad).
Last week Allison and I went around to Peta's place for dinner and we cooked lasagna. It was a very nice time, though bitterly cold outside. After a 1/3 of a bottle of wine I ended up falling asleep on her couch because I was so tired. The next day we caught the bus up to Sydney and my mood was fairly brittle. Normally I can seal myself away and not hurt others emotionally, because I don't travel at all well and usually get off the bus in a bad mood. Unfortunately Allison was in the firing line and we had an argument (entirely my fault), but it quickly passed thankfully. After dinner we walked down to Circular Quay and say the Harbour Bridge and Opera House at night which was very pretty, unfortunately our feet were killing us and I was exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel and I had to run in the City-to-Surf the next day.
The next day I got up early, bidded her to sleep well and ran 14km without much joy. We met up at the finish line (Bondi Beach) and had a look around Bondi Junction, I was amazingly thankful to be able to get back to the hotel and rest.
On Monday morning I was in a considerable amount of agony and hobbled into town to find some stuff before meeting up with her friend Kevin and then catching the bus home. She is going to stay in Sydney for a few days and see the sights which I can't show her because my thesis is calling.
Today I got OMNO 25 out of the way and hopefully OMNO 26 in the next few days. I did some recrystallizations today, but left the main reaction I had to do until very late in the day and so I'll work it up tomorrow.