I dont like my job

This is a 'woah is me' post which I tend to feel about 4 times a year (namely when BAS is due).

I really cant complain too much about my job, I only normally work one day a week (and even then it's only for 1/2 the day) but when BAS is due I just doesn't seem to stop.

I do my neighbours books and they are in the worst state I can think of. He literally gives me a shoe box at the end of the quarter filled with receipts, banking deposits and a mound of invoices he's been accumulating. He generates them on his computer using Excel only to give them to me to enter them in to MYOB, therefore they are created twice.

Half of the transactions on his bank statement (if I'm lucky enough to get them) dont have a receipt or any paperwork for me to match up and if there are deposits made into the bank account I have no idea which invoices they are for. I should be a detective because it seems like that is what my main role is when it comes to his books.

So after spending over 12 hours today on them (plus the other 8 yesterday) I've had enough and I've had to come an have a vent (hubby's asleep so it would do me no good to vent to him, plus he doesnt listen or give a shit anyway).

The storm before the calm

What is it about preparing to go on holidays. It's always a mad rush to get things done - work, washing, shopping and packing.

Is all the stress and rushing around really worth while packing up the car and driving for 12 hours with two noisy, whingy, arguing kids who have to stop every half hour because they need to go pee or are hungry. I'll also need to have a few 'sanity stops' when the kids drive me crazy that if I dont remove myself from arms length I may do something which will cause them to be removed from my care (for anyone who doesnt know me that last part was a joke). When we get there we will be spending 7 days cramped up in a small caravan - hows the serenity LOL. Rest assure that I will be packing a case of wine to take with me on our 7 day trip :)

At least we will be in one of our country's most beautiful and relaxing places so hopefully this will counter balance the stress of confinement with hubby and the kids and I wont end up as a mad woman who's on the verge of becoming a deranged lunatic.

Time will tell how this trip will end up. Wish me luck and I'll report back in a week or so and let you know if it was all worth while. Come to think of it we should've booked a cruise instead where the kids are thoroughly entertained by someone else and sent back to their mum and dad exhausted.

Jury Duty

Today I finished Jury Duty and have come home feeling mentally shattered by the experience which consisted of three days of sitting and listening to evidence, testimony, statements etc. For the record we found the accused gulity on all counts (robbery, armed and aggrevated).

Whilst my mind and conscience is clear that we came to the right decision it is a difficult and heart wretching decision to come to. We have convicted a young girl for a serious offence that will probably result in jail time (albiet minimal). I certainly hope that she comes out the other side with some rehabilitation and a better sense of what she wants and can achieve out of life.

It is the defence lawyers job to create 'reasonable' doubt in the jury's mind that the accused did not commit the crime, discredit any evidence that point to the guilt of the accused and create doubt that it was someone else who committed the offence even though all other evidence says the accused is guilty. BUT what is reasonable doubt? As far as I'm concerned as we weren't there at the time the crime was committed and there is no certainty about what actually happened and therefore there will always be doubt, but was is a reasonable amount of doubt? All the jurors believed the girl we convicted was in the car and committed the crime but the defence lawyer (aka bulldog chick as she came to be known by the jurors) was easily able to create doubt in testimonies the vicitims and the other witnesses (co-accussed) gave.

After a few hours of careful and well thought about deliberation we all came to the conclusion that the amount of doubt she had created in our minds what not 'reasonable' and that the facts of the evidence far out weighed any other scenarios that she put our way.

Although I know that what she did was wrong and through her actions she has left an innocent women scarred for the rest of her life I feel really bad for the pain and sorrow our decision has caused her family but hope it has brought some closure and sense of justice to her victim.

I certainly hope that it will be a very long time before my name is drawn again to partake in my citizen's duty to sit on a jury.