Day 20

TODAY IS POTENTIALLY MY LAST DAY.

Glamandy had to leave early yesterday and entrusted her work to me, which I feel like I dutifully carried out.

This morning, naturally, everything is in chaos and she seemed flustered and slightly displeased that in her absence other jobs were pushed forward and hers became well.. low priority.

Ah, such is the delicate nature of project management.

I can’t help but feel it may be my fault for not pressuring studio for her work to be completed by this morning. I’m not sure how much authority I have over other people. Sure I’m on the management team but my say has probably considerably less weight than the full time staff.  I’m slightly conflicted. Help!

Oh my god.

I have to type this part like a script for full impact.

[Int – TBWA office]

Captain is doing her own thing. She sees Razzles and stops to talk to him

Captain: Hey I had a dream about you last night!

Rapunzel, nearby, bursts out laughing.

Captain (turns towards Rapunzel):  No, what are you thinking, I ran away.

Rapunzel, laughs even harder

Razzles (with a very smug smile and walks towards Rapunzel while pointing at his chest): She ran away to me!

Captain turns back to face Razzles and smacks his face with her boards

Captain: OH MY GOD SORRY. I was running away from home and you were in a shop and and ..

Razzles: Was anyone else there? Rapunzel?

Captain: Uh.. YES, ponytail and CS were there !

Rapunzel continues to laugh hysterically.

Captain: I went to a fabric store, and you guys were in a secret room and there were two more people that I don’t recognize or remember, but yes ponytail and CS were there! (pauses) Should I not tell you next time..

Razzles: No no, I hope theres a part 2, tonight.

Day 19

I thought I was finally earlier than Timtam this morning, but it turns out shes at the dentist. Dammit.

Today’s been a terrific day, I’ve been busy all day helping several projects simultaneously, I finally stopped to sit and look around at 4:37pm for 1.. 2.. 3.. seconds OK I had work to do again.

During lunch I was sent on a mission to buy a bouquet for the doll who is leaving for Berlin on Monday! I’m quite surprised that both the doll and HF have had their last days on Thursdays and not Fridays.

Highlight: 2nd in commanded creative director very nicely did a little thank you “speech” admitting that we’re all fucked now because she’s such a hard worker and we’ll have to take over her jobs.

Day 18

wooo busy morning, proof-reading,cross-checking changes with admation. I have the eyes of a hawk!

Timtam sounded sniffly this morning which prompted me to swing by S to ask how he was feeling today, he said great but he didn’t sound so great. I can see in his eyes he has no guilt whatsoever in spreading his sickness, in fact, I don’t feel 100% myself 😛

I can’t say this applies for all workplaces but in most, I reckon there’s just this one person who is a critical team player. For me that’s my first mate. He came in late today and it was just hectic in the morning. Timtam and I were playing the proofreader roles but even with all my coaching I still was apprehensive about green-lighting certain copy changes. Timtam entrusted me with checking every board in his absence.

I joined in for a meeting where we were briefed on our newly acquired client. I rather excited to see this campaign come to life :DD Can’t say too much right now, because well, nothing’s been formulated yet.

Some time in the day, Glamandy said I would have to seek approval from Lily after the client’s seen the artwork. I always mix Lily and Lavender up. They sit facing each other, separated by two giant screens. I feel like Lily’s name matches Lavender’s face and vice versa. I shared that sentiment with Rapunzel who laughed quite hysterically at me.

Highlight: It appears Christmas catalogue items have arrived for shooting woohooooo

Day 17

DoubleB is once again killing it with a pretty flowery top and I really love this scarf she has, its just black with white grids but its so good. Maybe it just looks good on her and would look hideous on me. hmm.

I had a lunch date with Timtam this afternoon, the lobster risotto was ab fab. As you would have guessed, we discussed my future prospects with Whybin\TBWA, and I am wanted ! What a relief. I’m not sure if I could have kept a straight face or held myself together if I wasn’t needed after this internship. Although some details have to be worked out, I might be on “intern” status for a couple weeks longer before finalizing a new contract which is perfectly fine with me.

I was happy the rest of the day 🙂

Highlight: I am now known as Captain.

Day 16

I didn’t have a very smooth morning today. Firstly my hair was a giant tangled mess and I had stubbornly refused to straighten it the night before and naturally regretted it when I got up. I’m quite sure I yanked way more strands than usual today.

My next ‘obstacle’ , I suppose I can’t call my hair problems an obstacle, they were literally man-made by my procrastination. Anyway, next, the train was stationary at Green Square for a good 10 minutes then rolled slowly towards Central and stopped in the tunnel for another 10 and finally the conductor announced that the train would be terminating due to congestion at Central. There were collective sighs from everyone as they shuffled out. Mondays huh?

I decided to catch a bus to work from Central instead of going on my usual way of walking from St. James as it was 20minutes to 9, the train wasn’t coming soon and I would still have to walk 30mins from the city. As usual, taking the bus was a disappointing experience.

I’m assuming everyone uses Tripview to check on transport status in Sydney. Railway Square is the first stop after the depot, so for a bus to be 10minutes late to Railway Square pretty much means it left 10minutes late from its depot. So basically I’m late because someone else is late to their work… ? I firstly can’t understand why a bus would leave its terminal late and then I can’t comprehend the fact that its lateness is actually ‘scheduled’ because Tripview knows its leaving the terminal late.

???

This is not even a rare occurrence, I’ve seen it so many times in different places. So much for even planning a bus schedule. The transport company just makes it up as they go.

Thankfully, I do have the greatest boss I’ve ever had.

Lana is back today! I introduced myself to her as Timtam did say last week I would love her. CS and Razzle are back from their snowboarding at Perisher, I am beyond excited for my first attempt at an extreme sport in a months time, although fracturing my ankle while jumping rope a decade go doesn’t really give me a confidence boost. Nevertheless I endeavour to conquer the slopes of Selwyn, and then, the rest of the world.

While walking back from lunch, Timtam caught up to me, ah, that’s twice I’ve seen her leave the office. She found me while I was attempting to catch a pokemon. I can’t describe how awkward it is to be swiping your phone furiously while your boss walks beside you. Technology, being technology of course never cooperates when you most need it to. (I know I can’t call Niantic’s random curve balls as technology failing, the game didn’t crash or lose the GPS signal like it usually does, but you know what I mean, I just needed to catch that 400cp Sandshrew and direct my attention fully to Timtam!)

DoubleB sent me on a delivery run in the afternoon, similar to last week when I picked up the sushi order, my destination was DJ HQ to deliver proofs. The office looks like the traditional office I’m used to with cubicles everywhere. DoubleB smiled as I got back, I don’t mean to sound like a stalker but I like observing DoubleB, because I like her outfits very much. She conveniently sits diagonally in front of me and today she’s sporting a thick checked scarf that I quite fancy. DoubleB’s hair also always looks on point, I can’t help but wonder if she’s born with it or maintains it well.

Actually, many people dress nicely here, I feel like the most casual person around, apart from Filch sometimes XD

I left work about 10 to 6, feeling slightly awkward because I know that almost the entire department would be there til way later to push out the catalogue for delivery. 🙁

Day 15

I got to sit in my very first WIP meeting today. It’s essentially catch-up meeting between the account handlers and production team to see where our hundreds of simultaneous projects are going and what’s urgent and what’s delayed and what’s changed.

During that meeting I came to the realization that I’m not as good as I thought I was. There is so much more going on in here than my tiny little brain can fathom.

It’s FRIDAY at least, everyone’s mood is considerably lighter. 😀

I received some compliments about my outfit today. I had worn a rather thin dress and a different winter coat today because of the rise in temperature of 8 degrees warning from trusty ol’ Google Now cards.

I made the mistake of getting a coke zero from the fridge, I swear that thing just makes me more thirsty. Also I had an unsatisfying lunch due to coincidentally poorly-timed events. (That’s an odd sentence isn’t it? I meant it was unlucky that several events occurred at certain times which changed my plans which led to me cooking something I didn’t really like for someone else who didn’t end up eating it so I had to)

Highlight: Almost got thwacked in the head by a large 2M-ish DJ art board. Yikes!

Day 14

I joined S in a photo shoot today, we had the joy of un-boxing 20 packages and photographing their contents. It sounds simple but the process was quite tedious and I imagine S would have been stuck in there all day without my help. Not saying I’m anything amazing, anyone could have helped him.

I’m honestly still amazed that things like Christmas and Chinese New Year catalogues are already being prepared. It’s only July!

I’m quite glad that I’m being given more responsibility and jobs to handle, it’s terrific! Granted I still have lots of time to browse feedly and read my several thousand subscribed articles, but I read them over shorter periods now as opposed to 2 straight hours of reading in the morning during my first week.

In other news, C.G left last week, today is H.F’s last day, next week Doll and Antman are leaving soon, whats going on ? :c I don’t think this bodes well for me.

Day 13

Today was a hectic day. Following from yesterday’s research task, I had more paperwork to prepare for the workshop with MD this morning.

Timtam also left a note and a stack of receipts to help her with expenses when I’m available. I guess I’m now the Tech and Accountant on the team ahaha.

I was whisked away in an Uber at quarter to 12 and I stepped into the flagship David Jones store for the first time. My my it’s not just a department store like I thought. The small businesses like nail salons are by DJ too. I found my way to the DJ food hall and was presented with complimentary miso soup while the order was being prepared.

I was anxious as the Uber driver was waiting upstairs, on a busy busy but narrow main road.. in the rain. would he leave after not seeing me for 10mins?

Thankfully the Uber driver was still there! He drove a really nice car by the way, spacious enough for the 4 large trays of sushi, did you know that $350 of sushi is really really heavy? I initially thought I’d be walking to pick up the order and back, thank heavens.

We dove straight into the meeting when I got back. It was basically an information pooling session where MD and P asked survey questions to understand our new audience. So we have our new client, who wants to reposition their brand as about 20years younger. We harvested a great deal of information from the ladies in the workshop about buying influences, purchase process, what consumers looked for in brands and such.

It’s quite unfortunate that this new target audience has a rather negative impression of the brand, it’s going to take something truly disruptive to effectively reach them.

Highlight: Hooli was in today, he recognized me and greeted me today, he also had the sad longing look whenever I walked away XD