Strep Throat amid Melbourne Cup

Winner of Melbourne Cup

So it's been a while since my last post (I know my 3 readers are absolutely dying right now) and I apologise. Strep throat, however, is NOT fun. Thursday night my throat was feeling a bit itchy and dry, especially after being on the phone for four hours at Infinity Property Agents doing telemarketing work. I went home, made some pasta, ate little of it, and went to bed.

Important note: Thursday morning I received a phone call from a Yamaha Music Education Centre representative, and I made it to the next step!! I couldn't believe it, and I am absolutely thrilled. The 20ish people in the group interview had been selected from over 100 people that were phone interviewed, and only 3 people were selected from the 20ish in the group interview. It felt awesome, and just....right :) The next step (I think I'm almost at the top of the stairs!) is a class observation to take place on 7 November. Two classes, actually, one with 3 1/2 year olds (Music Wonderland) and another with 4 1/2 to 6 year olds (Junior Music), both on Saturday morning about 45 minutes away. I am beyond excited!! If I like what I see (how can I not!?) I'll schedule an audition and personal interview, steps 5 and 6. During the audition, I have to sight sing, sing and play a prescribed song, sing in solfege (thank you Interlochen and BSA!) and play two contrasting pieces of a certain level. Time to brush up on practicing; Mozart, here I come. I'm a bit worried about the fixed-do method (do as in do-re-mi) as I'm used to a movable do and so sight-sing as such. (Basically, in fixed do, C is always do and G is always sol, no matter what key one is in. In movable do, the tonic is do, so in G major the do would be G, not C.) I'm not too sure if I agree with this methodology, as I'm not sure how it will help kids learn about transposition and the circle of fifths further down the line, but I suppose I can let it slide, for now. They are just three and four years old, so I guess transposing and key changes are still pretty far away. Yamaha might know what they're doing, after all. :)

Anyway, Friday morning I woke up feeling like an absolute disaster. It hurt tremendously to swallow, my eyes were watering with pain, and my entire body felt weak. I went to the doctor straight away (no, I was not worried about swine flu...) and low and behold, strep throat was immediately declared. Well, anti-biotics, dozens of throat lozenges, a few glasses of water (consumed one painful sip at a time, I might add) and five days later, I was just about back to my usual self. Add along the way gradual spoonfuls of yogurt and mushed apples, progressions to mashed potatoes and finally half of a sandwich yesterday, and I was back to a normal diet in no time.

Thus, my weekend was fairly uneventful. Lots of incredibly bad television, sleeping, coughing and reading. I had to cancel my dinner and drinks plan with Emily, and of course missed work on Friday. I ended up going back to the doctor on Monday morning, because I had gotten worse. By then I had developed a terrible cough (which kept me up and miserable all night, thus adding insomnia to my symptoms), a throbbing headache and shortness of breathe. My doctor, however, seemed to be unconcerned. He said that while I had a slight fever, my throat appeared to be getting better. He gave me some sleeping pills and off I went. I was a bit upset by this; I didn't think my antibiotics were working properly if I had gotten worse since taking them, and I think I expected him to either up the dosage or give me something different. He turned out to be right, however, and I was just about back to 100% a few days later. I missed work on Monday, as well.

Tuesday was Melbourne Cup day, and it was 101 degrees. FYI, Melbourne Cup day is huge in Australia. It's a horse race so big that the entire state of Victoria (capital: Melbourne) takes a public holiday. While's there's no official holiday in Sydney, many people leave work in the early arvo to watch the races, earnestly watching their money either disappear or accumulate thanks to a few well-trained horses. The hottest weather in Sydney since January, the news reported, and by far the hottest weather since my arrival here. I was not impressed; it was hot and sticky, and I desperately wanted to go to the beach to cool off. Instead, however, I was feeling sickly and went to uni to run a few errands. Despite my cool pink summer dress (preppy polo, love it), I still felt as if I was peeling my feet off the ground with every step, and that every body movement took more energy than the previous. I ended up making a pit-stop at the library on my way home--just to cool off. I hadn't eaten anything that day because of my strep-induced MIA appetite (which, in hindsight, probably wasn't such a great idea), and that combined with the unusually HOT weather and my light headedness made for one weak American girl. I felt as if I were going to pass out at any moment, despite the gallons of water I was forcing down my throat, so I cooled off in the library and worked on my final assessment, due 7 November. Later that night, I went to steak night with Marty, Dave, Tonya and Chris. Insert mashed potatoes--woo hoo! They were delicious, and went down smoothly. It was fantastic to eat (sort-of) solid food again, though I must admit that the steaks looked delicious. What's steak night without the steak? (It was Tuesday, and we ended up at the Randwick Rugby Club again). Steak night without the steak can, in fact, mean potatoes and ice water. Surprisingly, it was amazing!

Today, Wednesday, was quite a frustrating day for me, as I felt much better and was ready to go back to work (and earn some money, damnit!). However, my boss didn't need me to come in, or else didn't like the sound of my voice enough to allow me to make calls. I've been doing a telemarketing project for him, and it's been going very well. I follow up on people who attended open houses of properties, and gather their property requirements for our database. I'm learning quite a lot about customer service (and starting to pick up on real estate), and I think it's great experience to have under my belt. It sounds stupid--telemarketing, that is--but I think it will turn out to be quite valuable in the end. Plus, once Jenny-the-other-American leaves for America, I'll be taking over all of her duties, whatever those may be. And the CEO (it's a small company) wants to offer me a full time position when I graduate, as head of PR. I don't think he realises it yet, but I may have to be visa-sponsored in order for this to happen. But next July is far away; for now, I want to focus on getting the best experience out of my summer as possible.

I haven't heard back from the ABC yet, but I am going to be volunteering for 2mbs FM, a classical music radio station. I'm very excited about this! I'm meeting with the Volunteer Coordinator next Friday; hopefully, by the end of the summer, I'll be creating and presenting my own radio shows :) It's absolutely perfect--I can combine my (dorky, I know) love for classical music with my passion for writing, throwing broadcast journalism into the mix. Speaking of which, some of my final grades from uni have come back. Distinctions for me in Audiovisual Production!!

Anyway, so I worked on my feature story all day Wednesday, after a short trip to Coogee to get a phone recharge and wait around for an interview that never came through (for my article). I pretty much finished it one go, which was a huge relief. Tonight I'm a bit restless, however, and having trouble sleeping. It seems like I have a lot going on right now, but my plate is actually slowly emptying as I finish up with Melon, complete final uni assessments, and start a new full-time job for the summer.