Sunday, February 25, 2007
The Coat Hanger
Just testing here...posting a picture of the bridge. By the way, Andrea travels over this bridge everyday....she hardly bats an eyelid at it now.
24/02/2007 Raving Ravin
Last weekend we went to the beach for a BBQ with people from the hillsong church. (Found some very interesting uncomfortable facts about them this weekend). This weekend we went to a dance(rave) party on a cruise along the harbour during the day. I definatly preferred this weekends choice. It was very strange going to a party at 10.30 in the morning and even stragner leaving it at 4.30 in the afternoon instead of in the evening. What it did mean that we were asleep for 9.30 after going to the afterparty for a while, which wasnt really an after party but a preliminary party before people went out for the night out. Me and Simon being the goldieoldies we are admitted defeat and went to sleep instead.
In regard to Simon leaving his job, what he didnt mention was how the next day when he left he rang the guy up and told him why he was leaving. He told him that his manner was very bullyish and he wasnt willing to have anybody talk or chat to him in this way, and he said that his racist comments to people were unacceptable and the job that was described in the interview was not the job he was being given. ie you will be a teamleader of a small project actually meant you will be the only person on a project that is in a complete mess. GO SIMON GO SIMON, i was so proud of him for telling the guy. The guy next day rang back and said ehrm that 3 days you worked, well we wont be payin you for it. Simon jsut put the phone down on him and this just proved what a cowboy the company was. He might have pinched a good well known name for the company name from england but they certainly dont act like them. Oh and the other thing to note is that Simon has to pay £800 to be sponsored to stay in Australia so he cant afford to be in a company that treat the employees like poo.
QE2 and Queen Mary in Sydney
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6378441.stm
As mum and Gran have been on these ships, and i meet them in New York when they were on the QE2 i feel i have a close connection with them. Alas i did see the Queen Mary from afar whilst sat on the train as it had arrived in the morning. But in the evening the QE2 was due in at 7. (Note i blame Simon a lot for what i have to say :-) ) so we decided to go down and watch it arrive. Simon then earwigged somebody who said its running late and due in at 7.30, we went for something to eat instead. It didnt arrive at 7.30 but 7 so when we had finished our meal we then went up on to the bridge to see that the QE2 was just about to dock so we had missed the grand arrival bit. damn.
Next we walked down to Botanical Gardens to see the fireworks that were due to happen. Now since being in Sydney the pyrotechnics capital of the world (apparently) there has been 3 big occassions for fireworks. 1 - New Years Eve, - we were there but had a rubbish view, 2 - Australia Day - we stood on the flat balcony and saw nothing but a large rocket fly past. 3 - Qe2 and QM arriving.
So we walked down to the gardens after being nearly crushed by everyone trying to do the same thing. Sydney council didnt realise people would be so enthused about seeing the ships and therefore were not organised. The botanical gardens shut at 8 and were trying to get everyone to leave but as you can get such a fantastic view (we were unsure though were the fireworks were going to go off) nobody would leave including us. That was until we got bored and decided to leave, so we left the gardens and walked down the stairs to Circular Key and then the fireworks went off, except you couldnt see a damn thing from where we were stood. I was not happy in fact i think i had a little paddy.
So 3 occassions for seeing fireworks - all been rubbish. Maybe next time.
Today is Sunday weigh day, i lost 2 kilos last week, but not been good this week. So we shall see. Wanted to go to the beach today but its really cloudy so we might go down to the OperaHouse and have a look around there.
In regard to Simon leaving his job, what he didnt mention was how the next day when he left he rang the guy up and told him why he was leaving. He told him that his manner was very bullyish and he wasnt willing to have anybody talk or chat to him in this way, and he said that his racist comments to people were unacceptable and the job that was described in the interview was not the job he was being given. ie you will be a teamleader of a small project actually meant you will be the only person on a project that is in a complete mess. GO SIMON GO SIMON, i was so proud of him for telling the guy. The guy next day rang back and said ehrm that 3 days you worked, well we wont be payin you for it. Simon jsut put the phone down on him and this just proved what a cowboy the company was. He might have pinched a good well known name for the company name from england but they certainly dont act like them. Oh and the other thing to note is that Simon has to pay £800 to be sponsored to stay in Australia so he cant afford to be in a company that treat the employees like poo.
QE2 and Queen Mary in Sydney
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6378441.stm
As mum and Gran have been on these ships, and i meet them in New York when they were on the QE2 i feel i have a close connection with them. Alas i did see the Queen Mary from afar whilst sat on the train as it had arrived in the morning. But in the evening the QE2 was due in at 7. (Note i blame Simon a lot for what i have to say :-) ) so we decided to go down and watch it arrive. Simon then earwigged somebody who said its running late and due in at 7.30, we went for something to eat instead. It didnt arrive at 7.30 but 7 so when we had finished our meal we then went up on to the bridge to see that the QE2 was just about to dock so we had missed the grand arrival bit. damn.
Next we walked down to Botanical Gardens to see the fireworks that were due to happen. Now since being in Sydney the pyrotechnics capital of the world (apparently) there has been 3 big occassions for fireworks. 1 - New Years Eve, - we were there but had a rubbish view, 2 - Australia Day - we stood on the flat balcony and saw nothing but a large rocket fly past. 3 - Qe2 and QM arriving.
So we walked down to the gardens after being nearly crushed by everyone trying to do the same thing. Sydney council didnt realise people would be so enthused about seeing the ships and therefore were not organised. The botanical gardens shut at 8 and were trying to get everyone to leave but as you can get such a fantastic view (we were unsure though were the fireworks were going to go off) nobody would leave including us. That was until we got bored and decided to leave, so we left the gardens and walked down the stairs to Circular Key and then the fireworks went off, except you couldnt see a damn thing from where we were stood. I was not happy in fact i think i had a little paddy.
So 3 occassions for seeing fireworks - all been rubbish. Maybe next time.
Today is Sunday weigh day, i lost 2 kilos last week, but not been good this week. So we shall see. Wanted to go to the beach today but its really cloudy so we might go down to the OperaHouse and have a look around there.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Hi ho, hi ho...
Been an interesting week this week. I shall do bullet points later about this but first i'd like to talk about Frederic. He makes me laugh, he's almost stereotypically German except for the fact that he's polite and doesn't wear lederhosen. He does have a sense of humor though, but it's hard to describe. His latest one is that someone bought him a book called "The Fred Factor". Frederic almost spent the entire evening giggling to himself about it. It's got chapters called "Become a Fred", and his favourite, "Freducation". It's an almost innocent humor he has, It makes me giggle too.
Andrea's currently getting ready for a girly night out (curry), they're arriving in about 10 mins and she's has only just got out of the bath! I think they'll be waiting ;)
Back to this week. I won't mention the the company name other than it was a blue chip company from the UK. Google can be your enemy as well as your friend, as Tim knows with his constant battle to keep his "arsey" alias away from his real name ;) I might get a bit geeky here, so ignore the terminology in the tags.
Andrea's currently getting ready for a girly night out (curry), they're arriving in about 10 mins and she's has only just got out of the bath! I think they'll be waiting ;)
Back to this week. I won't mention the the company name other than it was a blue chip company from the UK. Google can be your enemy as well as your friend, as Tim knows with his constant battle to keep his "arsey" alias away from his real name ;) I might get a bit geeky here, so ignore the terminology in the
- Monday
Arrive at work, a little nervous of course with everything being new and my brain being slow from being away from computing for a while. Meet all the people, seem like a good bunch. I was given two programs to look after, one Delphi and one VB.The VB one was simple enough, just mapping stuff to other stuff. The Delphi one however was code from hell (Commonly referred to as Lee code). The entire program was only around 10000 lines long but when you compiled it it came back with half a million because of all of the third party components that they bought. Not a data structure in sight! *sigh* Anyway, after settling down a bit and getting used to the code, i start to hear things in the office. One support staff member quit on the Friday before, and the job i'm in has a very high staff turnover rate...people just keep quitting. The other thing of note was that there is nobody here that knows what i'm doing, which just slows everything down...
"Where do i get the source from?"
"dunno"
"What's server to i need to connect to?"
"dunno".
...Along with other rude comments back from the staff i'm asking too. - Tuesday
Carry on with looking at the code and start to hunt a bug in the VB program :) Then i get an instant message through from the boss...
"can you drop what your doing Simon and fix this other bug for me?"
"sure, is the problem in the Delphi or the VB program?"
"NO IT'S F**KING NOT!!...It's in a different program!"
...That was really what he said on the text. OK, the office seemed to have some sweary mouths on occasion, but on the IM, and in a way that just made me sound like i was stupid!!
As far as the other staff members were concerned, they were a bit more helpful. - Wednesday
Check my email and see that there's a "motivating" email from the boss (referring to some issue that i wasn't aware of) for all the staff saying that "...Everyone is a f**king customer, i expect 110% from all of you". This along with other more minor issues was the last straw for me. It was tantamount to bullying from the boss. - Thursday
Quit.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
19/02/2007 Maroubra Beach
Today we was invited to a BBQ organised by Gustavo and Frederick at Maroubra Beach. Frederick has a lot of friends so there was about 25 people. To be honest me and Simon were not really up for it, because he starts his job tomorrow and we were both hungover from last night. We did think it would be a drunken party but it wasnt because most of Fredericks friends are from a Church group and therefore dont seem to be drinkers. Having said that it was a nice afternoon being down at the beach. They have free barbeques at the beach so its good as u can just bring your food down there and then cook it.
When we coming home, i saw a park called Popplewell Park. I was very impressed. I looked it up on the internet though, and wasnt particular impressed. Still gonna have to visit and get my photo taken next to the sign (cos im sad like that)
http://www.sydneyclimbing.com/xgo_popplewell_park.html
Oh and Samantha im purposely putting my weight in kilos cos then nobody understands how fat i am :-) . So that you know i had a really really bad week last week (i did think the scales were wrong because i had been good) and when i got weighed this week i had lost 2 kgs (which is about 4 lbs - yippee)
Simon and I went shopping yesterday to get him some trousers for work. The 2 ladies working the shop were so helpful but at the same time sooooo annoying. Si would be in the changing room and she would be shouting to him 'just remember mens trousers are meant to be taken in', just in case he uses the excuse of they are not fitting for the reason so as not to buy them. She also shouted over to the other women saying 'are you busy' when the other women was helping a customer at the time. When Simon had finished buying them, we needed to take them to a tailors cos hes a short arse. That was a drama and half because they needed to direct us, so first she wrote the address down in great detail and then she arranged for the other women to take us to the tailors, but the other women said no because she needed the toilet, but then our women said she would take us, the other women decided that she needed the loo right now, which meant nobody minding the shop. This was after she had rang the tailors and they said they would keep the shop open for us as they were about to close, so really there was some urgency about this. Anyway our women took us in the end to show us wher it was, and we walked sooooo slowly out of the shop. The detailed instructions we had been given about the location of this tailors was that it was miles away, it was pretty much the next building after we walked out of the shopping center. Stupid women.
When we coming home, i saw a park called Popplewell Park. I was very impressed. I looked it up on the internet though, and wasnt particular impressed. Still gonna have to visit and get my photo taken next to the sign (cos im sad like that)
http://www.sydneyclimbing.com/xgo_popplewell_park.html
Oh and Samantha im purposely putting my weight in kilos cos then nobody understands how fat i am :-) . So that you know i had a really really bad week last week (i did think the scales were wrong because i had been good) and when i got weighed this week i had lost 2 kgs (which is about 4 lbs - yippee)
Simon and I went shopping yesterday to get him some trousers for work. The 2 ladies working the shop were so helpful but at the same time sooooo annoying. Si would be in the changing room and she would be shouting to him 'just remember mens trousers are meant to be taken in', just in case he uses the excuse of they are not fitting for the reason so as not to buy them. She also shouted over to the other women saying 'are you busy' when the other women was helping a customer at the time. When Simon had finished buying them, we needed to take them to a tailors cos hes a short arse. That was a drama and half because they needed to direct us, so first she wrote the address down in great detail and then she arranged for the other women to take us to the tailors, but the other women said no because she needed the toilet, but then our women said she would take us, the other women decided that she needed the loo right now, which meant nobody minding the shop. This was after she had rang the tailors and they said they would keep the shop open for us as they were about to close, so really there was some urgency about this. Anyway our women took us in the end to show us wher it was, and we walked sooooo slowly out of the shop. The detailed instructions we had been given about the location of this tailors was that it was miles away, it was pretty much the next building after we walked out of the shopping center. Stupid women.
Friday, February 16, 2007
17/02/2007 Jobs and Crosswords - Version 2
Ok re-reading what i wrote yesterday, i sound really down and made out everything was rubbish. So im gonna rewrite it.
My journey to work yes is an hour but... now i have worked out the best way its not a bad journey. I get to go over the sydney harbour bridge everyday. I get to read my book. I get to earwig strange conversations and i get to pop into the center of Sydney everyday after work if i want to. Like last night me and Simon went for a drink about the Opera House after work.
My job. The guys are really intelligent but at the same time they are nice guys. They talk about politics a lot, which doesnt interest me, but at the same time they take the mic out of each other and are incredibly nosy. We have been known to be watching people out of the windows and have even got the binoculars out to nosy further.
An example of this was that there was a couple sat outside the cafe, they were holding hands. There was a bit of an age difference with them and they looked like they were having an affair, so we decided to watch them, and Brendan even went out and purposely walked past them to ear wig the conversation.
My job is difficult and it is frying my brain but i also feel that im learning a lot of infomation. I can see as the weeks are progressing that im geting to grips with it better and can see my being part of the company. The company whilst small seems to have got some amazing products and they seem to have sold it to some massive customers. Only today i saw that 'apple' had our product. Simon says that if they offer me shares in the company then we have to stay here as they could be potentially be worth absolutely loads of money. You never know though they may get rid of me next week.
Crossword - Again in my last post i made it sound boring and stiffy. Its not its actually really funny, they are very anal about the fact that it has to have no mistakes and everyone jumps in (apart from me) with the answers.
Needless to say with the spying out the windows, the crossword, lunch, the coffee breaks (coffee is a big deal for them), chasing cockroaches its debatable as to how many hours we actually work.
My journey to work yes is an hour but... now i have worked out the best way its not a bad journey. I get to go over the sydney harbour bridge everyday. I get to read my book. I get to earwig strange conversations and i get to pop into the center of Sydney everyday after work if i want to. Like last night me and Simon went for a drink about the Opera House after work.
My job. The guys are really intelligent but at the same time they are nice guys. They talk about politics a lot, which doesnt interest me, but at the same time they take the mic out of each other and are incredibly nosy. We have been known to be watching people out of the windows and have even got the binoculars out to nosy further.
An example of this was that there was a couple sat outside the cafe, they were holding hands. There was a bit of an age difference with them and they looked like they were having an affair, so we decided to watch them, and Brendan even went out and purposely walked past them to ear wig the conversation.
My job is difficult and it is frying my brain but i also feel that im learning a lot of infomation. I can see as the weeks are progressing that im geting to grips with it better and can see my being part of the company. The company whilst small seems to have got some amazing products and they seem to have sold it to some massive customers. Only today i saw that 'apple' had our product. Simon says that if they offer me shares in the company then we have to stay here as they could be potentially be worth absolutely loads of money. You never know though they may get rid of me next week.
Crossword - Again in my last post i made it sound boring and stiffy. Its not its actually really funny, they are very anal about the fact that it has to have no mistakes and everyone jumps in (apart from me) with the answers.
Needless to say with the spying out the windows, the crossword, lunch, the coffee breaks (coffee is a big deal for them), chasing cockroaches its debatable as to how many hours we actually work.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
16/02/2007 Job and Crossword
I have to get up at 7 oclock every morning to walk to the bus stop, to then get on the bus, to then walk to the train, to get the train to then have to walk. I dislike it to be honest. At home i could just sit in my car for 20 mins and then i was there. Back to reality of work is not great. Ok so at least im earning some money and now the rent is so cheap its good as we can save some money to help pay for the way back. Ive been at work nearly 3 weeks now and my brain has been fried with what i am doing. Its hard and the guys i work with are extremely intelligent and im feeling completely out of my depth, but i keep saying to myself its not permanent therefore just treat it as some money for now. With Simon potentially working only around the corner from me soon it should be much better as we can go out to places after work and we have somebody to talk to on the buses and trains in the morning and evenings. Even though i suspect i wont talk in the mornings as im grumpy and Simon will want to listen to his ipod.
The company i work for is a good company but the guys work in different parts of the world so at the moment there is only 3/4 of us in the office. The highlight of the day is us all sitting down doing the crossword. Its a big deal to the guys, they take it in turns for one person to write the answers down. You are not allowed to make mistakes because its all about completing it and then it is 'ZEN'. The 3 weeks i have been there i have seen it be Zen'ed once, so its not common for them to completely finish the crossword.
Needless to say im absolutely rubbish at it. Im not quick enough of the mark even if i do know the answer. I have so far refused to be the person writting it down until i was forced to do it the other day and what a balls up i made of it. On the 2nd clue i had written it down wrong. They didnt like the way i wrote it in lower case letters, i had to change it. I dont think i got them in the swing so we had about 10 clues left at the end and normally its only about 2. Even Simon came in the office the other day and he was the person writting it down and he got Zen minus 1 as he wrote 1 letter wrong. Simon seems to get on better with the guys then i do.
The company i work for is a good company but the guys work in different parts of the world so at the moment there is only 3/4 of us in the office. The highlight of the day is us all sitting down doing the crossword. Its a big deal to the guys, they take it in turns for one person to write the answers down. You are not allowed to make mistakes because its all about completing it and then it is 'ZEN'. The 3 weeks i have been there i have seen it be Zen'ed once, so its not common for them to completely finish the crossword.
Needless to say im absolutely rubbish at it. Im not quick enough of the mark even if i do know the answer. I have so far refused to be the person writting it down until i was forced to do it the other day and what a balls up i made of it. On the 2nd clue i had written it down wrong. They didnt like the way i wrote it in lower case letters, i had to change it. I dont think i got them in the swing so we had about 10 clues left at the end and normally its only about 2. Even Simon came in the office the other day and he was the person writting it down and he got Zen minus 1 as he wrote 1 letter wrong. Simon seems to get on better with the guys then i do.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
08/02/2007 Meatballs chips gravy but no vinegar
Today was the first of im sure many IKEA trips. First stop was the cafe for the usual, unfortunatly i didnt take into account, that they are not into vinegar on chips here so they didnt have any sachets and therefore my meal was not complete. I would be really chuffed if somebody could send me some vinegar in sachets from england - hint hint - perhaps with some cream eggs.
Anyway as we were on the Train we couldnt buy much but we had a good go. Heres what we bought
1. Single Duvet
2. Pillow
3. Quilt cover and pillowcases
4. Batteries
5. A fish bathmat(similar to the snail mat Simon had)
6. A bin
7. 2 Bath Towels
8. 3 little tins
9. 2 Boxes
10. Paper holding thingys
11. An Alarm Clock
Not bad for 100 dollars. We have seen some bedside tables and a bookcase that we may get, but we need a car for this, which is what we may do this weekend. We shall see.
We also treated ourselves to some dvds. Simon found Seven for 9 dollars which is about 4 pound. Bargain. I got the Madonna Confessions Tour which i think is the tour i saw.
Gustavo and Frederick want to have a party this weekend and we all invite our friends, so im gonna invite Simon and he is going to invite me. :-)
Had a stupid journey to work today. First off i decided i would have ended up missing the 2nd bus therefore i was gonna get the train. So i jumped of the train and walked to the station and was just walking down the stairs when a rat ran down the stairs next to me. I screamed out but nobody saved me, and of course the rat just ignored me and went scurring down to the station. I then discovered that i couldnt get through the turnstile because i had bought the wrong bus/train pass. The guy at the shop keeps giving me the wrong ticket but i was distracted this time so bought the wrong one so have wasted 15 quid on the wrong one and then i had to buy a ticket today to get to work. I did manage to inadvertadly get away with not buying a ticket though to get to IKEA as i managed to not have to put my ticket in at any point so i can reuse it.
The other thing that happened today was at work. Cockroaches are a bit of a norm here so its to be expected that the office has got some, however Brendan told me that he keeps getting baby cockroaches on his desk today, we were therefore trying to swat them and get them to go into the catchers when we realised that they seem to appear out of his computer speaker. We then pulled the thing apart and discovered, lots of babies, but also mummy, daddy and aunties and uncles hidden around the speaker and the board. Disgusting but highly amusing.
Anyway as we were on the Train we couldnt buy much but we had a good go. Heres what we bought
1. Single Duvet
2. Pillow
3. Quilt cover and pillowcases
4. Batteries
5. A fish bathmat(similar to the snail mat Simon had)
6. A bin
7. 2 Bath Towels
8. 3 little tins
9. 2 Boxes
10. Paper holding thingys
11. An Alarm Clock
Not bad for 100 dollars. We have seen some bedside tables and a bookcase that we may get, but we need a car for this, which is what we may do this weekend. We shall see.
We also treated ourselves to some dvds. Simon found Seven for 9 dollars which is about 4 pound. Bargain. I got the Madonna Confessions Tour which i think is the tour i saw.
Gustavo and Frederick want to have a party this weekend and we all invite our friends, so im gonna invite Simon and he is going to invite me. :-)
Had a stupid journey to work today. First off i decided i would have ended up missing the 2nd bus therefore i was gonna get the train. So i jumped of the train and walked to the station and was just walking down the stairs when a rat ran down the stairs next to me. I screamed out but nobody saved me, and of course the rat just ignored me and went scurring down to the station. I then discovered that i couldnt get through the turnstile because i had bought the wrong bus/train pass. The guy at the shop keeps giving me the wrong ticket but i was distracted this time so bought the wrong one so have wasted 15 quid on the wrong one and then i had to buy a ticket today to get to work. I did manage to inadvertadly get away with not buying a ticket though to get to IKEA as i managed to not have to put my ticket in at any point so i can reuse it.
The other thing that happened today was at work. Cockroaches are a bit of a norm here so its to be expected that the office has got some, however Brendan told me that he keeps getting baby cockroaches on his desk today, we were therefore trying to swat them and get them to go into the catchers when we realised that they seem to appear out of his computer speaker. We then pulled the thing apart and discovered, lots of babies, but also mummy, daddy and aunties and uncles hidden around the speaker and the board. Disgusting but highly amusing.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Andrea watch...
I can confirm that Andrea has been "mithering" me over this ikea thing for about a month now. She seems to have this need to nest at the moment. :/ I'm wondering her motives with ikea, see normally we treat ikea like a restaurant with a side line in furnature. Meat balls and chips with loads of vinegar on...yum :) Even when we do look at their furnature, we only come away with a set of tea lights, batteries, and possibly a door matt in the shape of a snail.
Anyway, after she wrote the blog last night (Sorry all you Simon fans I've been a bit rubbish with my posts), I caught her looking at car rental web sites. She said that she's thinking of hiring a car for the weekend so we can get out and about. Having not read the last blog from her, I immediately thought of the places that we can't get to easily, namely Palm Beach (where "home & away" is filmed fact fans). Her response was, "it'll be for an Ikea trip as we can't get all the stuff i want on the train or bus" !
I've concluded that a quiet Andrea can never be good, she's storing all this ikea energy inside of her. I'm not even gonna talk about the shoes ! She has been logically talking of getting her mum to send all her shoes over from the UK in a big box. Sorry Elayne, I guess that's news to you...better brace yourself for that one ;) The other one that seems to pop up from time to time is a pet dog.
From my side, I've been the good house husband (cooking and cleaning) whilst Andrea earns me a crust ;) The time in between is spent looking for jobs and saving Andrea from moths, bugs and all manner of harmless insects.
I had an interview today with Sage which seemed to go quite well. It's a three month contract, with the intent of making it long term. I should be told later on this week whether i get it or not, in the mean time I'll continue looking and cooking.
Anyway, after she wrote the blog last night (Sorry all you Simon fans I've been a bit rubbish with my posts), I caught her looking at car rental web sites. She said that she's thinking of hiring a car for the weekend so we can get out and about. Having not read the last blog from her, I immediately thought of the places that we can't get to easily, namely Palm Beach (where "home & away" is filmed fact fans). Her response was, "it'll be for an Ikea trip as we can't get all the stuff i want on the train or bus" !
I've concluded that a quiet Andrea can never be good, she's storing all this ikea energy inside of her. I'm not even gonna talk about the shoes ! She has been logically talking of getting her mum to send all her shoes over from the UK in a big box. Sorry Elayne, I guess that's news to you...better brace yourself for that one ;) The other one that seems to pop up from time to time is a pet dog.
From my side, I've been the good house husband (cooking and cleaning) whilst Andrea earns me a crust ;) The time in between is spent looking for jobs and saving Andrea from moths, bugs and all manner of harmless insects.
I had an interview today with Sage which seemed to go quite well. It's a three month contract, with the intent of making it long term. I should be told later on this week whether i get it or not, in the mean time I'll continue looking and cooking.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
06/02/2007 Where are we going to live?
Sydney for the moment. :-)
This place has only been temporary until the 16th Feb and thats when Daniel gets back from Brazil. Therefore we have been looking for somewhere else for the past 2 weeks. We have been unsure as to whether to go with a shared accom again or a flat, so we have looked at a mixture of places over the past couple of weeks and last week, we managed to narrow it down to a Furnished Flat in the Pyrmont area. To view a flat here you dont book appointments but go to open inspections with everyone else, which is funny because its a bunch of people not wanting to talk to each other or show whether they like the place. Anyway we went to one place, which was nice but too expensive and then across the way we sneaked into another open inspection which we discovered was actually for a House for sale for a million dollars. hahaha it was nice but not really worth the money we thought, we declined it.
We then had another viewing at a 1 bedroomed unfurnished flat, which i really liked but Simon didnt like, he said it was to box-y. It had 2 balconies and you could see the harbour bridge from them. As we were leavin this building we tagged on to another viewing for another flat in the same building. This one was for $440 a week 1 bedroomed, 1 balcony with a so so view of the harbour bridge but it was furnished, and it was furnished not just with the basics of bed, sofa, fridge, but extras such as tele, towels, kettle, microwave etc. This appealed to us more as it would mean we didnt have to buy all of these initially which starts to mount up and then have to get rid of 6 months later. I should point out that its expensive to rent around here, $440 is about £200 a week, but i surpose we are in a city. The bond is $2500 as well. We decided though that that we should go for this place and on Sunday we started to fill in the application form. Which consists of us having to say, where did we last live, where did we live before that, how much did we get paid, how much did we get paid for the previous job, how long have you been there, did you get your bond back. What id, references, bank statements can you give. It really was pathetic. So anyway we did this Sunday, and then Gustavo told us that Daniel wanted to chat to us. Daniel then told us that he was thinking about continuing travelling and would we like to stay in our room until September. We discussed this and have decided to take up his offer until end of March, and then at that point we will either get an apartment for 6 months on our own or begin travelling back. If we are both happy with our jobs then we will stay until Sept at least. Daniel is planning on being back at some point and therefore we believe him and Gustavo want us to stay so they can practise there english on us. Im going to teach them to have a Bury accent.
So... the thing i have been wanting to do the most since i got here is shop.
Ive been wanting to go to Ikea and buy some stuff. Im looking forward to buying something really impractical. Im looking forward to getting my first pay cheque and buying some clothes. Ive broke my shoes, so need a new pair which will take me ages to find.
On the list so far to improve this bedroom is:
1. Double duvet, we have been sleeping under a single duvet and a sheet
2. A pillow, we have been sharin 1 pillow and the purple squedy thing i bought with me.
3. mosquito candles
4. a little table for the balcony
5. small diddy tables next to the bed.
6. perhaps a billy bookcase.
7. something really impractical, such as an ornament of some sorts.
8. Sheets for the bed
9. Towels, im still washing my hair with my beach towel.
10. a table for the laptop (perhaps with a chair)
there is a lot of tables in this list. im currently buying 4 and there is already 1 in the room. perhaps i need to think about this again.
If you wonder why we havent bought any of this stuff before, its because we are really immobile at the moment as we have 3 cases and one of them is broke so we are not portable at all.
The word 'mither' seems to be a northern word. People really dont know what im talking about where i say, 'sorry for mithering'.
Diet update - 67.6 kilos, but needed a poo. :-)
This place has only been temporary until the 16th Feb and thats when Daniel gets back from Brazil. Therefore we have been looking for somewhere else for the past 2 weeks. We have been unsure as to whether to go with a shared accom again or a flat, so we have looked at a mixture of places over the past couple of weeks and last week, we managed to narrow it down to a Furnished Flat in the Pyrmont area. To view a flat here you dont book appointments but go to open inspections with everyone else, which is funny because its a bunch of people not wanting to talk to each other or show whether they like the place. Anyway we went to one place, which was nice but too expensive and then across the way we sneaked into another open inspection which we discovered was actually for a House for sale for a million dollars. hahaha it was nice but not really worth the money we thought, we declined it.
We then had another viewing at a 1 bedroomed unfurnished flat, which i really liked but Simon didnt like, he said it was to box-y. It had 2 balconies and you could see the harbour bridge from them. As we were leavin this building we tagged on to another viewing for another flat in the same building. This one was for $440 a week 1 bedroomed, 1 balcony with a so so view of the harbour bridge but it was furnished, and it was furnished not just with the basics of bed, sofa, fridge, but extras such as tele, towels, kettle, microwave etc. This appealed to us more as it would mean we didnt have to buy all of these initially which starts to mount up and then have to get rid of 6 months later. I should point out that its expensive to rent around here, $440 is about £200 a week, but i surpose we are in a city. The bond is $2500 as well. We decided though that that we should go for this place and on Sunday we started to fill in the application form. Which consists of us having to say, where did we last live, where did we live before that, how much did we get paid, how much did we get paid for the previous job, how long have you been there, did you get your bond back. What id, references, bank statements can you give. It really was pathetic. So anyway we did this Sunday, and then Gustavo told us that Daniel wanted to chat to us. Daniel then told us that he was thinking about continuing travelling and would we like to stay in our room until September. We discussed this and have decided to take up his offer until end of March, and then at that point we will either get an apartment for 6 months on our own or begin travelling back. If we are both happy with our jobs then we will stay until Sept at least. Daniel is planning on being back at some point and therefore we believe him and Gustavo want us to stay so they can practise there english on us. Im going to teach them to have a Bury accent.
So... the thing i have been wanting to do the most since i got here is shop.
Ive been wanting to go to Ikea and buy some stuff. Im looking forward to buying something really impractical. Im looking forward to getting my first pay cheque and buying some clothes. Ive broke my shoes, so need a new pair which will take me ages to find.
On the list so far to improve this bedroom is:
1. Double duvet, we have been sleeping under a single duvet and a sheet
2. A pillow, we have been sharin 1 pillow and the purple squedy thing i bought with me.
3. mosquito candles
4. a little table for the balcony
5. small diddy tables next to the bed.
6. perhaps a billy bookcase.
7. something really impractical, such as an ornament of some sorts.
8. Sheets for the bed
9. Towels, im still washing my hair with my beach towel.
10. a table for the laptop (perhaps with a chair)
there is a lot of tables in this list. im currently buying 4 and there is already 1 in the room. perhaps i need to think about this again.
If you wonder why we havent bought any of this stuff before, its because we are really immobile at the moment as we have 3 cases and one of them is broke so we are not portable at all.
The word 'mither' seems to be a northern word. People really dont know what im talking about where i say, 'sorry for mithering'.
Diet update - 67.6 kilos, but needed a poo. :-)
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Still here
Sorry for anybody looking for us, we are here but with starting a job, looking for a job, and trying to find somewhere to live, we dont have anything particular to report and we are both busy at mo.
We are still here though, and we are enjoying it. The weather has really picked up which is nice.
x
We are still here though, and we are enjoying it. The weather has really picked up which is nice.
x
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