Day 145: Preferences matter

Day 145 (30 Apr) Tuesday...a day that turned into one full of surprises. Some days you just hit the desk and you know that it will be full steam ahead. Tuesdays are sort of like that anyway but through a range of media requests it just felt like there was little time to stop. 

Breakfast, at 6.12am

Luckily, it all started looking quite ordinary: breakfast at 6.12am and by now, that's no real surprise. I was also checking a few articles to see if there might be any relevant updates for tonight's lecture...you know, in case Clive Palmer made anymore announcements. I'll have to change the second slide...

Some days, you arrive at work and you just hope to be able to make yourself scarce enough for a little while to get some major things done. Those days though when the phone rings before you get a chance to get out of the car you know you just have to run with the wind...or whatever it is one runs with. 

Preference calculations?

First call was that a meeting to be held on Thursday has to be deferred by a week; that means rebooking scarce space...that will take some time. It is tied in with a second meeting which will also need shifting. Then a staff member needed to come and see me to catch up re some work matters...a comforting chat for 30 minutes; a phone call then with a request to write a piece on Clive Palmer's federal ambitions: 700 words by 5pm please...um, yes, between teaching, meetings, visitors...etc? Yes, sure, I agreed. Trying to write an opinion piece on an ever-moving feast of a day was going to be interesting. This was before the 11am announcement by two independent members that they would shift to Palmer's United Australia Party...ah, so many issues. 

Furthermore, I'm asked by my union's head office, to make some follow-up calls in the lead up to a big announcement tomorrow...um, yes, OK...

Well, in between everything, I make the deadline with two minutes to spare, then run out the door to the 5pm class. The piece is to be published tomorrow...

At the 6pm lecture, I have to erase the workings of the previous lecture...but wait, declare the students, that could be the calculations for the preference deals Clive will need to make if he is to realise his ambitions...smart cookies, my students. What do you think? 

Politics 101, at 6.12pm

Not long after that, it is into the lecture proper, with the preface that events have moved on since the slides were prepared two days ago and now we have state members for the UAP, but still no federal members, so little likelihood of registration yet. By neat coincidence, and one of the reasons enjoy teaching my subjects, is that today's topic of course mentions the (original) UAP in passing...makes it 'real' in that surreal way that can be Queensland politics. 

At 6.12pm, I'm just minutes into the lecture, but I have also let the students know (since I have just taken over their class) that I am participating in this #project365 exercise...just in case they wonder why I'm taking photos at odd times. 

Back to the office at 9pm, and then a bit of catch up work as well...home at 1am...there's more to come.