Katy Klein Has a Chat

So after weeks of sending out half-arsed application letters to which ever job took my fancy at that particular moment (several applications went in on the strength of 0.6EFT and one went in to a company that sounded nice), I actually got a call for an interview.  The very first thought that popped into my head was ‘I might actually have to go to work darn it!’. Then I got another call for another interview.  Was this the end of unemployment?

It’s always really hard to know whether you’ve nailed the interview. You always think of the perfect answer well after you’ve left the building and you can’t phone them to update your responses (this could be considered a little strange and you need to appear normal until the end of probation).

Addressing why I left my previous role does make me quite nervous.  I am going with the honest ‘I was bullied’ since pretty much anything else will invariably lead to me appearing shifty as I try to answer further questions.  On the bright side I no longer appear bitter and twisted but there is always that urge to blurt out ‘Oh my lord she was a crazy bitch’! I’ve tried to wrap it up in positives such as ‘It was a great learning experience’ (on how to run from a building when I next meet a crazy lady),’Quite surprising when all my other working relationships were so positive’ (AKA It’s not me it was her – she was CRAZY!) and ‘I tried to improve the situation but her behavior was just inappropriate’ (AKA She was an absolute nutter). Of course you want to give them all the gory details but succinctness is the key at this point.

The first interview actually went quite well and they appeared quite understanding. One of the things that I have learned since the Crazy Lady is that the number of people who have been bullied, harassed or worked with a loony is surprisingly high.  The number of people who discussed it openly however is surprisingly low. They didn’t ask me why I had left my previous role in the second interview and I feel that it may have worked against me but I was very open about leaving the role.

Even now when I think about the Crazy Lady I just can’t understand how anyone could act like that.  Even worse is when you read about bullying and you understand the reasons why it happens, you wonder why  it happened to you. The short answer is that you were simply unlucky enough to come in contact with one of these crazy people. My only regrets after two months of umployment is that I didn’t leave sooner than I did and I didn’t line up a job before I left.

Katy Klein was born two months ago to help a friend out. This friend had serious doubts about a real estate agent he was trying to deal with. He asked me if I could go to an Open For Inspection to check it out.  Of course you can’t go to an OFI and give them your real name and number (unless you are actually interested in the property).  As a wet-behind-the-gills young thing I had initially done that when I commenced my house search.  Getting legions of calls about insurance products I didn’t want quickly led to me becoming a Sharon, Vanessa or something a little more outlandish like Myrtle.  I like to spell them out with interesting spelling variations for a little more authenticity.

I also enjoy signing visitors books around the world with names of famous Australians, it just makes me laugh every single time.  Overhearing a family discuss whether Nicole Kidman had indeed visited a small museum in the back end of Mexico was just hilarious.

So on the way to the OFI I came up with my Nom de Guerre to add a little spice to my undercover work.  Unfortunately the agent was well versed in the duplicitous arts herself and I suspect she was on to me.  I’ve never seen an agent provide so little information before, despite fairly active questioning.  What was interesting is that she did provide a lot of information to another chappie who I guessed was the other party interested in the property.  She even went so far as to disclose my friend’s offer to him.  Something I am fairly sure is completely unethical if not illegal. Luckily Katy Klein has very big ears and my friend got the heads up (if not the property).

I’m not sure if it helped my friend out very much but it did make for a fun afternoon.  And when I decided that I wanted to have a bit of a chat blog-wise, naming it was easy.

So tonight we are flying to Darwin on the red-eye special. I so desperately need a break from unemployment! Anyway we’d been thinking about Darwin for a while to see Kakadu and Litchfield National Park but the clincher was watching one of those travel shows and seeing a segment on Crocosaurus.

Thus arose life-long dream #2784 (actual number assigned completely arbitrarily). My last life-long dream was seeing Tarsiers in the Philippines which are just about the cutest things in the world and they can reallyjump.  Then there was zorbing in Brisbane which was my birthday treat. The best one ever was cage diving with Great White sharks off South Africa, one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

So when I found out you could be submerged in a plexi-glass tube in a pool with a great big crocodile in it, there was never a doubt in my mind.  I even wanted to get married in the tube but the boy was a bit of a stick in a mud about that.  Even after I said I could wear a white bikini and everything.  The photos would have been awesome although I’m not sure any bridesmaids or best men could have also fitted in the tube. You could possibly get a tux onto a croc though but getting him to cough up a ring might be tough.

Croc-diving also completes my diving-with-huge-things-underwater travel monopoly set.  The trifecta being diving with the Great White’s, diving in a net full of tuna off Port Lincoln and now crocs. I can’t wait!