Thursday
We spent the day shopping, we went over to the north side and ended up in ChatswoodWestfield. Bought a few bits for the house, a decent chopping board and a few other things. Our main purchase was a new bed. Picked up a bargain, had a very persistent sales woman, I kept fending her off but she was playing hard ball, she wanted the sale. based on this I got her down, bottom line is after initial discounts we got a bed at a pretty good price. It should arrive next Thursday, we ten have the fun of getting the base over the balcony as I'm convinced it wont fit up the stairs!
We received a very welcome house warming card form Pru and Paul, thank you you two, we look forward to your arrival!
I found this article quite funny from a perspective of sitting through too many presentations in my past
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8207849.stm
I heard back from a few recruiters, one is putting my CV on some worldwide database, the other I have a meeting with next Tuesday afternoon.
As we were in the area we ended up grabbing dinner at Kate's folks as our planned dinner with the Newtown gang was postponed.
Lordy Friday tomorrow!
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Day Sixty Eight
Quick update today.
Kate was at work at her mums again today, I spent the morning getting recruitment agency contacts off monster.com.au. basically I started on their listings at A and worked through to G. this gave me 36 agencies to mail my CV too. 2 mails bounced and so far I have had one response and I'm going to meet them early next week.
Thanks to everyone else who has sent me leads, I will get back to you and them in due course.
Had a good Skype call with folks, quality was best yet.
Not much else to report today, tomorrow is more agency follow up and shopping and then dinner over in Newtown at Botany Bay hotel I think.
Kate was at work at her mums again today, I spent the morning getting recruitment agency contacts off monster.com.au. basically I started on their listings at A and worked through to G. this gave me 36 agencies to mail my CV too. 2 mails bounced and so far I have had one response and I'm going to meet them early next week.
Thanks to everyone else who has sent me leads, I will get back to you and them in due course.
Had a good Skype call with folks, quality was best yet.
Not much else to report today, tomorrow is more agency follow up and shopping and then dinner over in Newtown at Botany Bay hotel I think.
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Day Sixty Seven
A day spent at home blitzing our boxes mainly, I nipped to IKEA and back in under an hour to get a couple of cheap bookshelves and units. Seems we are keeping the Kamprand family in business at the moment. Box count now stands at 8 left (although 5 of those contain solely CDs and DVDs.
We are researching beds, we need a new one and then we will have a spare for our second bedroom. Funnily mattresses and bed seem really expensive in Oz compared to home, but if you shop around you can find a bargain. It was good to unpack some more personal stuff to make the place feel even more like home.
Had some dinner and Ive applied for a couple project management jobs tonight. new CV looks good after an editorial review by Kate.
Below is a few more furniture additions to our little house....
We are researching beds, we need a new one and then we will have a spare for our second bedroom. Funnily mattresses and bed seem really expensive in Oz compared to home, but if you shop around you can find a bargain. It was good to unpack some more personal stuff to make the place feel even more like home.
Had some dinner and Ive applied for a couple project management jobs tonight. new CV looks good after an editorial review by Kate.
Below is a few more furniture additions to our little house....
Monday, 17 August 2009
Day Sixty Six
Clickety Clicks Sixty Six....
Got up and did some Wii Fit ;-).
Updated my CV a bit more and Kate reviewed it for me in the afternoon. We both got out of the house and had a quick bite to eat up the road in one of the cafes. I then jumped on tram and did an afternoon at Oxfam. Also attended the briefing for checkpoint coordinators.
Grabbed a load of volunteer shirts as i want to get Kate, Bill and carol involved on the day I'm coordinating.
Came home to a lovely dinner cooked by Kate, vegged in front of telly and that's it for today!
Oh and forgot to mention I bought tickets to see Pearl Jam in November the other day.
oh and this is very funny...
http://www.zapiks.com/megawoosh.html
Got up and did some Wii Fit ;-).
Updated my CV a bit more and Kate reviewed it for me in the afternoon. We both got out of the house and had a quick bite to eat up the road in one of the cafes. I then jumped on tram and did an afternoon at Oxfam. Also attended the briefing for checkpoint coordinators.
Grabbed a load of volunteer shirts as i want to get Kate, Bill and carol involved on the day I'm coordinating.
Came home to a lovely dinner cooked by Kate, vegged in front of telly and that's it for today!
Oh and forgot to mention I bought tickets to see Pearl Jam in November the other day.
oh and this is very funny...
http://www.zapiks.com/megawoosh.html
Sunday, 16 August 2009
Day Sixty Five
We got up and set up the Wii fit, was good fun and we'll endeavour to keep it going. we then unpacked a few more boxes.
We wondered down to the fish markets, grabbed a bit to eat and then bought ourselves some Swordfish for dinner. was only £6 for two large pieces, its great to have such a good place within 10 minutes walk.
Was a great day weather wise, clear blue skies and up to 26 degrees.
Came back, unpacked even more, realised we transported a tonne of clothing across the world, ah well!
Had a good skype call with folks and then had dinner, now just chilling out.
Another week gone, we fly back to blighty 5 weeks on Tuesday!
Oh and Ive added a weather link on the right as well as Aussie national headlines link below too if anyone wants to keep up to date on whats happening here!
We wondered down to the fish markets, grabbed a bit to eat and then bought ourselves some Swordfish for dinner. was only £6 for two large pieces, its great to have such a good place within 10 minutes walk.
Was a great day weather wise, clear blue skies and up to 26 degrees.
Came back, unpacked even more, realised we transported a tonne of clothing across the world, ah well!
Had a good skype call with folks and then had dinner, now just chilling out.
Another week gone, we fly back to blighty 5 weeks on Tuesday!
Oh and Ive added a weather link on the right as well as Aussie national headlines link below too if anyone wants to keep up to date on whats happening here!
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Day Sixty Four
A busy day for a Saturday, up and about and we headed over to Bill and Carols briefly. Kate's dad is a big fan of ironing, a result in my book, so we dropped off quite a bit of stuff from our boxes and current clothing for him to iron. He is dropping it back here tomorrow ;-).
I went to the hardware store and picked up a load of plugs to switch out the UK plugs on things to Aussie variety. Will make life easier, will still have some extension leads with UK plugs on to keep some stuff bilghty plugged. We then went to the Moore Park Supacentre to look at beds/mattresses and other stuff for flat. Had too much of a sales push by guy on bed shop trying to sell us stuff we legged it in the end.
We then went to Centennial Parklands and did 2 circuits on the bikes, seemed longer than last time but still another 5 miles cycled. We headed back to Glebe and then drove to the Olympic Park to watch Sydney Swans play Geelong. Was an exciting game, Sydney had won they would have made it into the finals, but alas they were just beaten at end. below are pics from stadium. It's well organised ( as to be expected from an Olympic village) with decent transport links etc. It didn't feel that big though.
I went to the hardware store and picked up a load of plugs to switch out the UK plugs on things to Aussie variety. Will make life easier, will still have some extension leads with UK plugs on to keep some stuff bilghty plugged. We then went to the Moore Park Supacentre to look at beds/mattresses and other stuff for flat. Had too much of a sales push by guy on bed shop trying to sell us stuff we legged it in the end.
We then went to Centennial Parklands and did 2 circuits on the bikes, seemed longer than last time but still another 5 miles cycled. We headed back to Glebe and then drove to the Olympic Park to watch Sydney Swans play Geelong. Was an exciting game, Sydney had won they would have made it into the finals, but alas they were just beaten at end. below are pics from stadium. It's well organised ( as to be expected from an Olympic village) with decent transport links etc. It didn't feel that big though.
Friday, 14 August 2009
Day Sixty Three
A day spent at Oxfam, sorting out 30 mobile phones, updating them with new contacts etc etc. Seems I'm the communications man now.
Came home, did some shopping and then unpacked a few things, important things like the stereo etc!
Tomorrow we are going cycling and then football at Olympic stadium.
Quick update tonight I'm afraid.
Came home, did some shopping and then unpacked a few things, important things like the stereo etc!
Tomorrow we are going cycling and then football at Olympic stadium.
Quick update tonight I'm afraid.
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Day Sixty Two
Another full on day at Oxfam, just a shame I'm not being paid!
Spent time sorting more stuff out, as you can see form pics theres quite a bit.
did a bit of shopping in town after that and then took a train over the harbour bridge to meet Kate for dinner at her folks. Commuting is the same the world over, everyone battling to get on trains. Anyhow the trip from Town Hall to Artamon across the bridge was col. Nice to see the city by night.
Had a Thai takeaway and watched some naff telly (the amazing race) before heading home.
Spent time sorting more stuff out, as you can see form pics theres quite a bit.
did a bit of shopping in town after that and then took a train over the harbour bridge to meet Kate for dinner at her folks. Commuting is the same the world over, everyone battling to get on trains. Anyhow the trip from Town Hall to Artamon across the bridge was col. Nice to see the city by night.
Had a Thai takeaway and watched some naff telly (the amazing race) before heading home.
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Day Sixty One
A busy day at Oxfam, in final days of prep with masses of packing for event checkpoints to be done, lifted a shed load of stuff around today. We have to get it all ready before Friday when it's shipped off to a holding area before delivery to site.
Came home (on the tram as I was knackered) and we had a really good session with the folks on Skype. RIP Voodoo, Skype is the way forwards, much better quality and holds its stream much better.
Not much doing since then, reading and TV cos we are both tired.
Back to Oxfam for me tomorrow and Kates last day at Glenwood.
Came home (on the tram as I was knackered) and we had a really good session with the folks on Skype. RIP Voodoo, Skype is the way forwards, much better quality and holds its stream much better.
Not much doing since then, reading and TV cos we are both tired.
Back to Oxfam for me tomorrow and Kates last day at Glenwood.
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Day Sixty
Our boxes arrived! All 23 intact, unopened, undamaged and free from any customs charges or any quarantine issues!
Have to start unpacking now.
Spent a lot of the day re-imaging the laptop, its now back working but Im sure theres something wrong in the background.
Kept an eye on jobs and worked on CV some more.
Tomorrow its back to Oxfam.
Weather here has gone bad, its quite windy, thundery and raining today.
Have to start unpacking now.
Spent a lot of the day re-imaging the laptop, its now back working but Im sure theres something wrong in the background.
Kept an eye on jobs and worked on CV some more.
Tomorrow its back to Oxfam.
Weather here has gone bad, its quite windy, thundery and raining today.
Monday, 10 August 2009
Day Fifty Nine
Monday Monday
I spent the day revising my CV from scratch, still a bit more to do but I think it looks a lot better, my plan of attack is to focus on short term work between now and UK trip and longer term aspect of proper job for October when we fly back from UK. The latter will involve a concerted effort with recruitment agents over next couple of weeks.
I'll finish it off in morning.
Bigger news though, I was going to go to Oxfam tomorrow but I've put that off a day as our shipment arrives from the UK forst thing tomorrow. No customs charges or quarantine issues it seems, all those hours of careful packing and endless paperwork have paid off.
I wonder if it all made it intact!
I've added a few pics of place since we invested in some furniture which might be of interest. I'll nip back to Ikea tomorrow and pick up some CD shelves etc.
ps this borrowed laptop wont let me move pics to bottom of post, thats why they appear first with no explanation.
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Day Fifty Eight
Today is Kates Mums birthday.
We headed over to Kates folks to open presents and do a video call with Chris and Hannah. Once that was done we drove over to Manly for dinner at the Whitewater restaurant Kate and I found last time we were there. Food was good but the service was a touch slow, but all in all a good day.
We went back to Willoughby and watched the AFL game, it is on in background as you can see from pics above.
Pics are from restaurant and the other ones are Kates dog 'Beau' and finally me and Beau chilling on the sofa, I think he is quite taken with me!
Day Fifty Seven
Busy busy day...
We got up and went to Broadway to do some shopping, hit the post office to send back all the replies to wedding invites in the UK in September we have received. We then dropped the stuff back in Glebe and drove to Chatwood shopping centre to buy Carol's birthday presents. Back in the car and to the fish markets to buy stuff for dinner.
Back to base and spent afternoon sorting out our lounge area, filing paperwork and I cabled to room so we could move computer to new desk etc. We planned what else we need to buy in way of furniture too.
We then had a video call with folks and then Bill and Carol arrived and spoke to my folks to. In meantime Kate and I were sorting out dinner, we've decided we have the worlds crappiest cooker in our house, but we'll have to make do with its quirkiness, seems to take forever to cook stuff and then will burn it not long after.
Had a good dinner after all and then went to bed.
We got up and went to Broadway to do some shopping, hit the post office to send back all the replies to wedding invites in the UK in September we have received. We then dropped the stuff back in Glebe and drove to Chatwood shopping centre to buy Carol's birthday presents. Back in the car and to the fish markets to buy stuff for dinner.
Back to base and spent afternoon sorting out our lounge area, filing paperwork and I cabled to room so we could move computer to new desk etc. We planned what else we need to buy in way of furniture too.
We then had a video call with folks and then Bill and Carol arrived and spoke to my folks to. In meantime Kate and I were sorting out dinner, we've decided we have the worlds crappiest cooker in our house, but we'll have to make do with its quirkiness, seems to take forever to cook stuff and then will burn it not long after.
Had a good dinner after all and then went to bed.
Friday, 7 August 2009
Day Fifty Six
8 weeks then....
We went out and bought more furniture, this time a desk for the lounge so we can sort our paperwork out, have somewhere to put the (now broken until I fix it) laptop and printer and generally have somewhere to put some stuff when our shipment arrives (still no news on that).
The CD shelves I wanted were out of stock until next week.
Came home and put stuff together and then Kate went out and did some more shopping, I hung out here.
We grabbed some dinner and have just chilled out this evening.
Tomorrow we are sorting out more stuff around house, shopping and then have Bill and Carol over for a pre birthday dinner for Carol.
Weather report: Sunny everyday, although it got windy and briefly rained this evening.
Other bonus, DVDs I ordered dispatched by Amazon in UK on 4th August arrived today on standard post. Not only cheaper than buying in shops here but 5 day delivery is pretty damn good in my book.
Good weekend to you all...
We went out and bought more furniture, this time a desk for the lounge so we can sort our paperwork out, have somewhere to put the (now broken until I fix it) laptop and printer and generally have somewhere to put some stuff when our shipment arrives (still no news on that).
The CD shelves I wanted were out of stock until next week.
Came home and put stuff together and then Kate went out and did some more shopping, I hung out here.
We grabbed some dinner and have just chilled out this evening.
Tomorrow we are sorting out more stuff around house, shopping and then have Bill and Carol over for a pre birthday dinner for Carol.
Weather report: Sunny everyday, although it got windy and briefly rained this evening.
Other bonus, DVDs I ordered dispatched by Amazon in UK on 4th August arrived today on standard post. Not only cheaper than buying in shops here but 5 day delivery is pretty damn good in my book.
Good weekend to you all...
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Day Fifty Five
An early start, was out doing site visits on the Trailwalker route, assisting on planning of where to site marquees and generators. I was in my element! Also was checking 3G coverage out in the bush.
Got home a bit earlier than planned and Mike and Kate were still here. they went off for lunch on the bikes and I tried to job search. Alas our trusty laptop seems to have gone to pot. I'm sure firefox did some dodgy update yesterday. I've had bluescreens, recoveries back to recovery points etc, anyway now it wont connect to t'internet. It says connection is fine, I know router is good as I can use it wirelessly with phone etc. Could be a rebuild job when our boxes arrive with discs in.
I'm using an Oxfam laptop to write this at mo, a very old and slow IBM thing.
Had dinner at Bill and Carols...
Tomorrow is a day off, furniture shopping in preparation for boxes arrival, need somewhere to unpack stuff.
I know I owe some people some email replies (Hannah & Chris, and John and John and a few others)will get round to it tomorrow I promise.
Got home a bit earlier than planned and Mike and Kate were still here. they went off for lunch on the bikes and I tried to job search. Alas our trusty laptop seems to have gone to pot. I'm sure firefox did some dodgy update yesterday. I've had bluescreens, recoveries back to recovery points etc, anyway now it wont connect to t'internet. It says connection is fine, I know router is good as I can use it wirelessly with phone etc. Could be a rebuild job when our boxes arrive with discs in.
I'm using an Oxfam laptop to write this at mo, a very old and slow IBM thing.
Had dinner at Bill and Carols...
Tomorrow is a day off, furniture shopping in preparation for boxes arrival, need somewhere to unpack stuff.
I know I owe some people some email replies (Hannah & Chris, and John and John and a few others)will get round to it tomorrow I promise.
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Day Fifty Four
Got up early and went to tyre place to get our puncture fixed, happily they managed to patch it up somehow rather than a whole new tyre. Cost 22 dollars versus 150 it would have cost for the new tyre option.
Went into Oxfam, reminded me a bit of work in someways, usual office nonsense and the IT people being very similar the world over in the way they deal with people.
Tomorrow I'm doing site visits for Oxfam for the event, testing 3G coverage out in the sticks, or perhaps I should say I'm going walkabout in the bush. Well its not quite that dramatic, its urban areas.
Had a quick video call with folks and browsed a few job websites.
that's all folks...
Went into Oxfam, reminded me a bit of work in someways, usual office nonsense and the IT people being very similar the world over in the way they deal with people.
Tomorrow I'm doing site visits for Oxfam for the event, testing 3G coverage out in the sticks, or perhaps I should say I'm going walkabout in the bush. Well its not quite that dramatic, its urban areas.
Had a quick video call with folks and browsed a few job websites.
that's all folks...
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Day Fifty Three
Short update today...
Spent the day at Oxfam, getting more entrenched in the event in 3 weeks, planned what I'm doing including building checkpoints, coordinating checkpoints and general logistics role.
Spent most of day allocating event equipment and distributing it ready for dispatch to site.
Grabbed some shopping on way home, had dinner and watched a bit of TV.
Tomorrow more Oxfam, getting car tyre fixed at last and chasing up jobs again.
Spent the day at Oxfam, getting more entrenched in the event in 3 weeks, planned what I'm doing including building checkpoints, coordinating checkpoints and general logistics role.
Spent most of day allocating event equipment and distributing it ready for dispatch to site.
Grabbed some shopping on way home, had dinner and watched a bit of TV.
Tomorrow more Oxfam, getting car tyre fixed at last and chasing up jobs again.
Monday, 3 August 2009
Day Fifty Two
Today I applied for a few more jobs, well 2, I've figured it takes about an hour and a bit to re-jig a cover letter and tweek the CV to match the job spec. I also chased up all the jobs I applied for recently to see if there was any update, unsurprisingly I got eff all response!
Had an email dialogue with another agent who is putting my CV around.
Not much else to report, big news here at moment is this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8181076.stm
I'm adding it so in future I can reference back to things that happened, it isn't a pleasant story, I've heard the recording and I think to be fair he had to go.
I've spent the last hour and a bit trying to get hold of Ticketmaster UK to get the U2 tickets for Hazel re-dispatched to the folks. Despite informing Shitmaster UK that I had moved (as it were to folks) they are still dispatching tickets to London.
Can you find a customer services number on the website, well yes you can but it's disconnected, I had to google it and find a number of other disconnected numbers before finding one that worked. Had the hell of 'we are busy, please hang on' and a disinterested operator on other end...
For anyone who may care Ticketmaster UK customer service can be found on 08444 999 999....
Off to bed now!
Had an email dialogue with another agent who is putting my CV around.
Not much else to report, big news here at moment is this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8181076.stm
I'm adding it so in future I can reference back to things that happened, it isn't a pleasant story, I've heard the recording and I think to be fair he had to go.
I've spent the last hour and a bit trying to get hold of Ticketmaster UK to get the U2 tickets for Hazel re-dispatched to the folks. Despite informing Shitmaster UK that I had moved (as it were to folks) they are still dispatching tickets to London.
Can you find a customer services number on the website, well yes you can but it's disconnected, I had to google it and find a number of other disconnected numbers before finding one that worked. Had the hell of 'we are busy, please hang on' and a disinterested operator on other end...
For anyone who may care Ticketmaster UK customer service can be found on 08444 999 999....
Off to bed now!
Sunday, 2 August 2009
Day Fifty One
Sunday Sunday....
Brief update today, not much to report. Got up and chilled out, drove Kate to the pub so she could meet up with friends for lunch. Came home, intended to visit the boat show at Darling Harbour but ended up just doing a load of stuff around house that has been hanging about. Trying to get organised for the arrival of our 23 boxes which may be arriving this week.
Headed over to Kate's folks for some dinner, took delivery of some proper bacon which Carl got form her butcher. Decent bacon for first time since leaving blighty, although not so good for health kick, ah well a little treat.
That's it, tomorrow job hunting.
Have a good week all...
Brief update today, not much to report. Got up and chilled out, drove Kate to the pub so she could meet up with friends for lunch. Came home, intended to visit the boat show at Darling Harbour but ended up just doing a load of stuff around house that has been hanging about. Trying to get organised for the arrival of our 23 boxes which may be arriving this week.
Headed over to Kate's folks for some dinner, took delivery of some proper bacon which Carl got form her butcher. Decent bacon for first time since leaving blighty, although not so good for health kick, ah well a little treat.
That's it, tomorrow job hunting.
Have a good week all...
Saturday, 1 August 2009
Day Fifty
I got up and watched some Top Gear over the t'internet, Kate slept in for a while got up and then we had brekkie. We threw the bikes in the car and drove over to Bondi beach. The plan was to cycle along the coast but this didn't seem practical so we grabbed a bit of lunch and went for a walk instead. As you can see from the pics below it was a really nice day. We then drove to Centennial Park, parked the car and took to the cycle track. Centenniel Park is much like Central or Hyde Parks but has bonus of allowing you to park inside. We cycled around the track twice, a total of 7.6km, it was good fun and I'm sure we'll be doing it a lot more.
http://www.centennialparklands.com.au/home
We came back to Glebe, had a call with folks and then jumped on tram to SCG to catch the Swans game. It was a really good game, especially in the 4th quarter where it was neck and neck, the Swans finally edged ahead in the dying minutes but alas St/Kilda pipped them at the post and won it by one point. I did find some interesting facts about the SCG, apparently if you dare to start a Mexican wave its instant expulsion...hell knows why, also if you smuggle booze in, again instant expulsion plus a $220 fine...seems the fun police run the SCG. Was going to catch some Ashes back at home but it's raining in blighty apparently...
A busy day all in all....
http://www.centennialparklands.com.au/home
We came back to Glebe, had a call with folks and then jumped on tram to SCG to catch the Swans game. It was a really good game, especially in the 4th quarter where it was neck and neck, the Swans finally edged ahead in the dying minutes but alas St/Kilda pipped them at the post and won it by one point. I did find some interesting facts about the SCG, apparently if you dare to start a Mexican wave its instant expulsion...hell knows why, also if you smuggle booze in, again instant expulsion plus a $220 fine...seems the fun police run the SCG. Was going to catch some Ashes back at home but it's raining in blighty apparently...
A busy day all in all....
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