Thursday 30 September 2010

Day Four Hundred and Seventy Five

Got up at 5.20am and was on the platform at St Peters at 6am. Took the train to the airport and found myself on a late departing (very old Qantas Boeing 767) to Brisbane.

Landed, grabbed baggage and missed the air train by a minute. Arrived just in time for my interview for new job which lasted an hour. the afternoon was spent interviewing other people for another role in the team.

for I got the job as event operations coordinator, this is great for me career wise and an opportunityKate and I to try a new city for a while. This weekend Kate will come to Brissie to look at flats/houses/areas.

on some Went for dinner in the evening with colleagues and now in nice hotel apartment before catching upZzzzzzzzzzzzzz's

Our shower ceiling was fixed at last after Bill kindly went over ad let them in this afternoon.

Wednesday 29 September 2010

Day Four Hundred and Seventy Four

Wednesday

Spent the morning at work and then in afternoon worked form home awaiting the arrival of the plumber. At 4.20 got a call to say he wasn't coming today. Send some very shi88y emails to agent and called them too to let them know how unhappy we are.

In the evening Caroline and Michael came over and helped us finish off the wedding save the dates. A very productive evening.

Tomorrow I fly to Brisbane first thing, I'm interviewing for the TW job, as the only candidate I feel confident and I'm also on the interviewing panel for the next team member in the afternoon so should be good.

For those who don't know, we'll be moving to Brisbane in the next month or so for me to take up a Logistics/Event job with Oxfam on the new TW Brisbane event.

All change again for us!


A good nights work - save the dates

Day Four Hundred and Seventy Three

Tuesday

Still no end in sight to the great shower ceiling/leaky pipe crisis of 2010. Plumber came and went and left us with a lovely exposed pipe connected to the sewer. I hastily covered the hole and asked the neighbours up stairs not to switch on their washing machine otherwise we will be flooded.

Had a quick Skype call with folks.

Kate's knee is not is good shape, more news as we get it.

Usual day at work.

Showergate Pics


and so the hole in ceiling grows

drip drip drip

The cause of the problem, dodgy joints

Monday 27 September 2010

Day Four Hundred and Seventy Two

Monday

A normal day at work, finishing Sydney stuff and starting planning for Brisbane event.

Kate took the day off as she seems to have twisted her knee, a trip tot he doctors and a couple of Xrays and she now has tomorrow off too. We'll get any results form Xrays shortly and a trip to Physio is in order.

An evening of looking after the patient ;-)

Sunday 26 September 2010

Day Four Hundred and Seventy One

Sunday

Unusually Kate was up and about before me, I'm usually the early bird but I didn't even hear her get up. We did a few bits around the flat during the morning, then early afternoon we went to the Helm Bar to help Caroline celebrate her 30th Birthday.

We left there at about 7pm, grabbed some food in Newtown and all of a sudden its Sunday night again.



Kate, Caroline the Birthday Girl, Andrew M, Michael

Day Four Hundred and Seventy

Saturday

A lazy Saturday, spent the morning looking at wedding plans, the afternoon we hit the shops and then in the evening we had a lovely dinner in Willoughby. Also skyped the folks.

Got home about midnight.

Friday 24 September 2010

Day Four Hundred and Sixty Nine

Kate woke up with somewhat of a hangover. She finally took herself off to work, followed not long after by myself. I worked at home in the afternoon while waiting for the builder/plumber. The builder came and took down some pretty horrid pipe insulation which was sopping wet. I'm hoping its not waste water but it's around waste pipes from above.

They are now trying to organise a plumber, will have to chase it tomorrow to see whats happening.

A quiet night in at home as we are both quite knackered.

Day Four Hundred and Sixty Eight

Thursday

A good day at work. Drove over to North Sydney after work. We had planned to go to Willoughby for dinner but ended up staying out at the pub with Kates works friends. Ended up being a late one and drove home at about 11pm.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Day Four Hundred and Sixty Seven

Wednesday

And so back to work, a fairly easy day doing Sydney wrap up stuff. Came home and cooked a risotto for dinner and we did some wedding invite stuff too.

We have a slight problem that our bathroom ceiling collapsed yesterday, theres a leak above and I suspect this is causing a greater damp problem we've been experiencing recently.


Day Four Hundred and Sixty Six

Tuesday

Arrived in Sydney at 6.30am, there was a chance of being diverted due to fog, just what I needed after 20+ hours in the air. Took forever to get baggage due to carousel breakdown. Managed to blag a fast pass out and avoid the bag scan nightmares.

Finally back with my lovely Kate! She took the day off...result and we spent most of the day at home apart from a quick walk to the park.

Slept for a hour at lunchtime and finally got beaten by jet lag at 9pm.

Day Four Hundred and Sixty Five

Monday

On two planes all day effectively, first a bouncy 777 the second the lovely A380. Not much sleep and a rubbish stopover in Dubai, very busy and the Dhiram currency notes I had were not legal tender...the wrong Dhirams apparently.

Sunday 19 September 2010

Day Four Hundred and Sixty Four

Sunday

A day of packing and doing final bits and pieces before my flight this evening. I'm pretty close to the limit on my luggage but should just scrape it. Had a lovey Sunday lunch with folks and spent an hour with Hazel and Peter in the afternoon.

I'm writing this before going to the airport and flight back to Australia this evening.

It's been superb being back in UK for a couple of weeks (it would have been perfect if Kate had been here too), good to catch up with family and friends. The goodbyes are always tricky but it wont be long before all the family are back together in Australia for our wedding in 5 months time.

Mondays blog will be done on Tuesday, but will basically be me on a plane travelling!

Day Four Hundred and Sixty Three

Saturday

A lazy day around the folks place, followed by a family dinner at the following place

http://www.casadeicesari.co.uk/

The food was good but the restaurant is out of the 70's, was expecting Basil Fawlty to appear at any moment.

Back home and off to bed.

Day Four Hundred and Sixty Two

Friday

Took an early train up to London and had lunch with Pru at the Refinery Bar. This was a pub underneath our old office and it was great to catch up with Pru. It wont be long until she and Paul are in Oz doing the same as Kate and I did.

In the afternoon I swung down to Colliers Wood on the tube, forgotten how horrid the crowded tube can be. I went to see our friend who runs Rehab, alas it closed two weeks ago, it was very forlorn as people were collecting equipment from the place. it was nice to see Vincent but a shame the place has gone. Kate and I have many happy memories of the place, not least our leaving do, and hopefully someone will take it on and make it successful again.

I headed back up the Northern line and met the boys for an evening of drinks. Had a good chat with them all and ended up in a dive of a pub before heading home on a late train again. I call it the Burger king Express as its full of drunk people chomping on Chicken royales and alike.

thankfully Alv collected me and home to bed.

Day Four Hundred and Sixty One

Thursday

Drove back to Yateley in the morning and spent most of the day around the house. Late afternoon Alvin dropped me over top fleet and i caught the train up to London. I attended a leaving do for an ex colleague and caught up with a lot of the ex Symbian folk that i spent many years working with.

it was good to catch up but quite strange as many people seemed as down about the situations they found themselves in as they were when we left almost 18 months ago.

Seems everyone is now either working for Nokia, TomTom or Accenture.

Took a late train home and Alvin kindly picked me up.

Day Four Hundred and Sixty

Wednesday

A quiet day around Yateley followed by a nice dinner at Hazel and Peters with Pat and Graham. Was nice to catch up with them. I stayed there over night as did Alvin and Crystal.

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Day Four Hundred and Fifty Nine

Tuesday

A quiet day doing jobs around the house with Alvin. Also made a quick trip over to Farnham to do some jobs in Hazels shop. In the evening I stayed in Old Basing, had a Thai takeaway and crashed in front of TV. Was good to spend some time with Hazel.

Monday 13 September 2010

Day Four Hundred and Fifty Eight

And so to Monday


Woke up at about 9.30 and got myself up and spent time packing up everything. forgotten how much stuff I had dragged to Bestival with me.


I had heard nightmare tales from last year of it taking hours and hours to get off the island so after one final trek to the Oxbox and back I hit the road. Sods law meant I was at the ferry port 2 hours early and was turned away so decamped to the local pub for a full English breakfast brunch before heading back and hopping on the boat.


After a smooth sail back I was on the road and back to the folks.


A nice dinner and I'm off to bed after a Skype call to Kate.

Day Four Hundred and Fifty Seven

Sunday

After a few hours sleep I walked to the Oxbox just after 12am to start my shift. before even starting I was made aware of a drunken steward which I had to stand down from shift. The night shift passed fairly uneventfully and before long the sun was coming up.


Sunday's weather was fantastic, ironic when that's the one time I wanted it to be cold so I could sleep during the morning. I did sleep on and off between 9am and 2pm.


At about 5pm a few of us made our way into the arena, firstly to catch DJ Derek....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJ_Derek

He is very funny, he looks like a pensioner with flat cap but speaks with a broad Jamaican accent and gets the crowd going. very funny! As you can see from vid below he got the crowd moving!

After that we hit the big top and caught some of Fat Freddys Drop, followed by the main stage to catch The Prodigy who were storming. At the end of the night Bestival sets light to the bonfire and there are fireworks. I've added a short video below.

We then went and caught the Arcadia show which was OK.



We all staggered back to the campsite, sat round the fire and I finally went to bed at about 3am.





Day Four Hundred and Fifty Six

Saturday

A relaxed day around the festival site. Caught up on sleep and with a few people. heled evict 3 stewards too which was fun.

Couldnt do too much as had to start a shift at 00.45am the next day. Did get 3 hours sleep in advance bettween 9pm and 12am.

Day Four Hundred and Fifty Five

Friday Another day at Bestival, today the main acts started. I was supposed to be deputy shift leading in Oxbox again but I swapped with Karo and ended up supervising the big top tent.

The big top tent is the second stage at Bestival with a capacity of about 10000 people.

All was going well until The XX were due to play. it felt like all 45000 punters wanted to be in that tent. We closed the access to it early on but this lead to a significant crowd build up. the organisers used inappropriate pedestrian barriers to restrict access (I've always hated the stuff from 2003 when I started stewarding with Oxfam) anyway we in my opinion had a 'near miss' with a crowd crush incident - it was very close and very scary for a short time.


After the XX things calmed down and it was uneventful. I signed off had a drink at the campsite and went to bed.


The Big Top

Inside the Big Top

Day Four Hundred and Fifty Four

Thursday

Second day at Bestival. I did my first shift. I was deputy shift leader with the lovely Jules as Shift leader. Was good to be back in the saddle running things. We were running the first shift which meant it was our responsibility to get 260 odd people in the right places at the right times, with radios issued and supervisors doing their thing.

it all seemed to go off quite well.

In the later afternoon I spent more time catching up with old friends.

I have to say its not as much fun as it used to be sleeping in a damp tent!

Day Four Hundred and Fifty Three

Wednesday And so off to Bestival.

Took a leisurely drive down to Portsmouth to catch the ferry across to the Isle of Wight. it all went very smoothly. I caught a glimpse of the new Spinnaker tower in Portsmouth too and attached a pic below.




Drove to the Bestival festival site and registered. Caught up with Leigh and then made my way tot he campsite. Was great to see all the old Oxfam people again and there were many double takes as people clocked my arrival!

In the evening I hung out in the Oxfam camping field just catching up with people. Did take a short walk around the festival site too and I've added some pics below too.


Main Stage under construction

Arcadia Fire Set under construction

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Day Four Hundred and Fifty Two

Tuesday



A nice Skype to Kate this morning. I drove myself up to London briefly, failed to catch up with the estate agent, will do that next week. Did a drive by of the flat, looks OK from outside.



Did more shopping for Bestival in the afternoon and then had a lovely roast chicken dinner in the evening.



Tomorrow I go to the Isle of Wight for 5 nights to go to the Bestival festival and catch up with Oxfam GB friends. Blog will not be updated again til next week.





www.bestival.net

Day Four Hundred and Fifty One










Monday


A family day to the beach today. I drove us all down to Highcliffe near Bournemouth. We walked along the beach and did the typical Steward family affair of sitting in the wind or rain having a picnic. The food was very nice.


More walking along the coast followed by a nice cuppa and then back home to North Hampshire.


Some pics above of the day as blogger wont allow me to copy them below for some reason!


Day Four Hundred and Fifty

Sunday



Rob and Jo very kindly hosted (what was meant to be a BBQ which got beaten by the weather) a gathering at their house. it was nice to surprise people when they arrived.



Was nice to catch up on all the news from back here too. In the evening chilled out with folks and again crashed at about 10 o clock.



Incidentally I should mention it is so good being able to talk/Skype kate every day from here, keep her close.

Day Four Hundred and Forty Nine

Saturday



Woke up at 6am which was great - I hadn't reset my phone clock and actually thought it was 3am for a while but thankfully not.



At lunchtime we went to Old Basing for a BBQ. Sam and Amanda were there with our old car we sold them. Was nice to see it but I didn't really feel any sentiment towards it. Was good to meet Hazel's new kitten Willow which is very cute! Was nice to catch up with Peter too.



In the afternoon I hit Basingstoke shopping centre and bought a few bits and pieces.



Back to Yateley and crashed at about 9.45pm

Day Four Hundred and Forty Eight

Friday



Got up at 3.20am and shortly after made Kate get out of bed too. Kate drove me to the airport and I hopped on a plane to Blighty. I have had this trip planned for a while and it's an opportunity to use up some Time of In Lieu from the job and more importantly a chance to catch up with the folks.



I've kept it quite quiet and plan just to slip back into England unannounced for a couple of weeks. Saying goodbye to Kate was very difficult, she couldn't get the time off and it was also quite costly for us to both come over. I wish she could have come though.



The first leg of the flight was long, 14.5 hours. I did sleep some of the way. Had a very quick connection in Dubai and before I knew it was into second leg. That seemed to pass a bit quicker but still very mundane.



Before I knew it I was quickly through the airport (surprising as T3 at Heathrow is usually chaos) and hugging the folks and Hazel. Is great to see them again.



We swung by the chippie on the way home as I hadn't eaten much and at about 10pm (or 7am Sydney time) I hit the sack. A very long day but mentally I tried to think of it as one day and hopefully that will help the jet lag.

Thursday 2 September 2010

Day Four Hundred and Forty Seven

A day at work doing reviews and wrapping things up.

Spent the evening at home and with the help of Caroline and Michael we put together lots of things for the wedding.

My blog will be seeing some disruption to service in the next few days so updates may be infrequent.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Day Four Hundred and Forty Six

Wednesday

A day spent mostly in meetings, either telephone conferences about future things or all afternoon review meetings. Was good to get everythign written down about our event, my aim is to write a decent handover doc for whoever takes on the job next year.

Ran for the train after picking up soem dinner for kate and I in Surry Hills. Just made it in time to meet Kate at Central.

Day Four Hundred and Forty Five

Tuesday

Feeling more awake today. Spent the day wrting up feedback from the event and sending out my volunteer survey for people to give us feedback. In the evening came home and relaxed with Kate. Not a great deal to report really!