Rough start to the working week...
Well, my first day of full-time in many months (since March, IIRC) had a rather inauspicious start. The list was pretty heavily booked, with two contests on top of the usual Tuesday mention list, but apparently they've been putting somethingin the water up here, because things got rather... unsettled over the weekend. There was a brawl and a stabbing in the car park of the McDonald's near my parents' place, resulting in two people in custody and another on bail, all appearing today. Their cases will all need to go to the higher court (the County), but in the meantime we had preliminary hearings and bail applications. We managed one, and stood the other over until tomrrow. Joy.
The other thing we had dumped on us was a child welfare matter involving a family of siblings - both parents are dead, and the four youngest children are being looked after by the five eldest. The family is pretty heavily involved in crime, with one of the brothers being murdered earlier this year - the case is ongoing, and we periodically get intervention orders relating to them harassing witnesses. Human Services swooped on them over the weekend, and were making application today for temporary accomodation orders for the four youngest children. Because of the tendency to violence of the family (last time they were here, there were three separate fights in the foyer that had to be broken up by police) we had no less than four police on the door. We even invoked the Court Security Act, giving the police power to take the name of everyone coming in, and searching those they felt a need to. Heavy stuff. I was in the office, rather than the court - we got a relieving clerk from Wangaratta to help out, since it was so crazy. It made a good change - it's hard for me to learn much of the stuff I don't know when I'm bench clerking all the time. But I'm back in court tomorrow, though.
We didn't finish until five-thirty, a half hour later than we're supposed to. Again unpaid. *shakes head* I really hope the new union sorts things out in a hurry - things are going from bad to worse, and we desperately need three full-time staff on in Wodonga. An extra magistrate would be handy too. ;) I wouldn't mind doing the extra if I was getting paid for it. Or getting a day in lieu. But Peter's been so grumpy lately, I don't dare bring it up. Apparently yesterday after I left at 12 it got really busy - like it was for me on Thursday and Friday, no doubt - which meant Peter had to actually work. He spent large slabs of today chatting with various police on the door and whinging on the phone about various things. *rolls eyes* Remind me again why I'm sticking here another six months? Oh, that's right, full-time wage and a shiny new courthouse. We're doing an inspection tomorrow at lunchtime, incidentally.
One thing about a long day at work is that it's always good to get home. There was a treat in my mailbox - Mel and Dia had found an amusing newspaper headline and sent it to me:
"McCoy: Rossi just a cut above."
I had myself a bit of a laugh at that - it really lightened my mood. Then Mel herself rang - more of the Aussie ficcer groupmind thing happening. More plotting of Mel's nifty interview idea, down to actually considering prospective subjects. I'll have to see what I can come up with during court tomorrow.
I also finally got hold of David, after two weeks of trying. We're hopefully going to go see "Kiss of the Dragon" on Thursday after work, depending on the showings. He starts two weeks of school rounds in Melbourne after that (BRM started his four weeks this week, teaching at a local-ish primary school, grades one and two), so it has to be now or after that. Wish me luck.
Oh, and to top things off, BRM made pumpkin risotto for dinner. Happy me.. :)
Mel's writing vibes are contagious - my own fictives are starting to get vocal. Looks like I'm going to have to placate them somehow. Good thing we've got another contest on Thursday - plenty of writing time in court.
The other thing we had dumped on us was a child welfare matter involving a family of siblings - both parents are dead, and the four youngest children are being looked after by the five eldest. The family is pretty heavily involved in crime, with one of the brothers being murdered earlier this year - the case is ongoing, and we periodically get intervention orders relating to them harassing witnesses. Human Services swooped on them over the weekend, and were making application today for temporary accomodation orders for the four youngest children. Because of the tendency to violence of the family (last time they were here, there were three separate fights in the foyer that had to be broken up by police) we had no less than four police on the door. We even invoked the Court Security Act, giving the police power to take the name of everyone coming in, and searching those they felt a need to. Heavy stuff. I was in the office, rather than the court - we got a relieving clerk from Wangaratta to help out, since it was so crazy. It made a good change - it's hard for me to learn much of the stuff I don't know when I'm bench clerking all the time. But I'm back in court tomorrow, though.
We didn't finish until five-thirty, a half hour later than we're supposed to. Again unpaid. *shakes head* I really hope the new union sorts things out in a hurry - things are going from bad to worse, and we desperately need three full-time staff on in Wodonga. An extra magistrate would be handy too. ;) I wouldn't mind doing the extra if I was getting paid for it. Or getting a day in lieu. But Peter's been so grumpy lately, I don't dare bring it up. Apparently yesterday after I left at 12 it got really busy - like it was for me on Thursday and Friday, no doubt - which meant Peter had to actually work. He spent large slabs of today chatting with various police on the door and whinging on the phone about various things. *rolls eyes* Remind me again why I'm sticking here another six months? Oh, that's right, full-time wage and a shiny new courthouse. We're doing an inspection tomorrow at lunchtime, incidentally.
One thing about a long day at work is that it's always good to get home. There was a treat in my mailbox - Mel and Dia had found an amusing newspaper headline and sent it to me:
"McCoy: Rossi just a cut above."
I had myself a bit of a laugh at that - it really lightened my mood. Then Mel herself rang - more of the Aussie ficcer groupmind thing happening. More plotting of Mel's nifty interview idea, down to actually considering prospective subjects. I'll have to see what I can come up with during court tomorrow.
I also finally got hold of David, after two weeks of trying. We're hopefully going to go see "Kiss of the Dragon" on Thursday after work, depending on the showings. He starts two weeks of school rounds in Melbourne after that (BRM started his four weeks this week, teaching at a local-ish primary school, grades one and two), so it has to be now or after that. Wish me luck.
Oh, and to top things off, BRM made pumpkin risotto for dinner. Happy me.. :)
Mel's writing vibes are contagious - my own fictives are starting to get vocal. Looks like I'm going to have to placate them somehow. Good thing we've got another contest on Thursday - plenty of writing time in court.