I’ve been wanting to share this for a while now, but it is finally confirmed and official.

I am working with Libraries Tasmania to run a short story competition for kids aged 17 and under. Similar to the contest I did with the schools, I approached the library to see if they would like to do something similar and they said yes. It’s only being promoted on the west/north-west of Tasmania but it’s open to anyone in Tasmania. I hope to expand it statewide next year, especially if it gets a lot of interest.

I’m so excited to see this idea come to fruition. Creative writing is so awesome and I can’t wait to see what stories the kids will come up with.

Unfortunately, doesn’t really apply to the forum since this is a melbourne sub, but I had to share.

Woke in the night and had the best sleepy cuddles.

I regret not getting a cat much sooner, but the cat distribution system has blessed me with the most special one.

I know very little about the protests. I assume a small number of aggro cooker types kicked off against the cops creating a cascade of bullshit that the majority attending didn’t want.

I gave my dog a steak for lunch cos it’s his birthday. I mostly eat plant based these days, I can’t remember the last time I cooked a steak. Kinda stinky.

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yay, I finished the all the chair upholstery

Time for sunset beach. SIL bought a bike 2 yrs ago and just left it down here with a unicorn on the bell but it hasn’t been used she can’t ride it so… It’s mine now.

Positive covid. I feared this was the case as this joint pain is fucking insane. And i’ve had rheumatoid arthritis since i was 12

Got some… News:

Apparently the program coordinator has in fact quit. Official as of last Friday. I guess all the “unplanned indefinite personal leave” was probably just her taking her accrued annual/sick leave.

Not too sure how to feel about it all. I blame her for large parts of what happened recently, but I don’t actually know how much she had control over it, so I feel bad for blaming her. But emotions gonna emote, and I don’t think repressing it is going to help. It also felt like she nailed and left me to deal with all the fallout, whether or not that’s actually the case. So that doesn’t help

I am worried about the future of lead tenant now, though. The old LT has shared a lot of stories about how the program used to be run, when it wasn’t really being run at all. The people in lead tenant tend to not cause many issues, which means we also end up being an after thought for almost everything. We’re also a small scale program, this organisation only has 2 lead tenant houses, at least in the west. So we have 1 dedicated case manager (although she only works 3 days a week), and a program leader (who works 9 days a fortnight). Everyone above them is split between lead tenant and Resi. And fairly often our resources get pulled over to resi houses when they’re in crisis.

Apparently prior to this program leader coming on board, nobody was even considering lead tenant. People not suited to the program were being moved in constantly, leading to daily police visits, lots of drug use, and a ton of destruction. And before she came on board, there hadn’t been a program manager in 2 or 3 years. So nobody was handling maintenance issues, nobody was on the ground dealing with the fallout, and nobody was trying to make sure the program actually worked.

I don’t know if that will end up happening again, often times I’m very stubborn with things. I called the case management supervisor (who Tbf was acting program leader while the old one was on “indefinite unplanned personal leave”) almost every day about the door, gate, camera, and lock issues, and I called the area manager (who works between LT/Kinship/resi) once a week. But people can only work 2 roles at once for the same pay and in the same hours for so long before they burn out. That’s honestly probably what happened to the old program leader since she was also acting case manager for ~5/6 months. And I don’t want to make that happen even sooner

But with nobody looking after and directly advocating for the program, I don’t see how we can stay afloat, even half afloat. Somebody does need to be overseeing maintenance, safety, client matching, and everything else that needs to be done. And they either aren’t trying hard enough to attract new applicants, or everybody’s already heard how they treat their staff so nobody’s applying. The case manager took 5 or 6 months to be replaced. The program manager might take just as long or maybe even longer

🫠🫠🫠

your gentle reminder that Welcome to the Black Parade turns 18 today.

Had a crack at some slow cooked beef stroganoff again last night and I think I’ve finally perfected it! ~150 for 1.5-2 hours seems to be the sweet spot for the aldi gravy beef in the oven.

No Sleep Club Sign-In

Spud - Present 🖐🏼

Edit: 4am and the magpies are warbling

Band sent me the sheet music for their songs today. I have till Monday night to learn 4 songs for a possible Thursday gig.

Should be fun!

Good swim… Dog beach was absolutely smashed from that weather a few days ago.

Have never seen that before. Those dunes totally did eventually collapse.

Found an interesting looking place on Google Maps:

Taken about 3km south of Maralinga Airport in 2011. Apparently in the 60s, the brits came and bombed the area around Maralinga for not much reason at all. So cheers for that boys

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nuclear_tests_at_Maralinga

Neighbours’ dog jumped the fence again wanted pats, he is a good boi so he always gets them. Then he starts eating charcoal from the fire patch (basically a patch where I set garden things on fire). Dogs shouldn’t eat charcoal. So there I am chasing a dog asking it to drop… He was so possessive I gave up. God speed Winston never change.