TGIF

The weekend is here!

I can't believe I've just completed my first full week of work in Oz and I've done absolutely nothing! The client I'm working for still hasn't sorted me out a PC or account to access the systems. Nor do I have a swipe card yet to get physical access to the building. I have to tailgate in every day, which doesn't say much for their physical security, or their security awareness training for employees as I haven't been challenged once yet.

The building is pretty nice though:


No one seems to mind that they're paying me to do nothing. They even keep apologising. I've been bored to tears to be honest. Hopefully things will be better next week.

I scared myself today. I caught myself saying yip instead of yes, just like the aussies. I was determined that I wouldn't pick up the accent but I guess it's inevitable when everyone around you speaks differently. I've already had to adjust some of the terminology I use at work. For instance here they pronounce the word Router like the Americans do, i.e rowter - row as in 'they're having a row'. There's a good reason for it though. Root and rooting, as we poms pronounce route and routing, means something very rude over here. Dealing with network security every day I obviously have to say router a lot and I cringe every time I say rowter, it just doesn't sound right to me. Like the yanks they also say darta instead of data.

I dread to think what we'll sound like in 5 years time from now. One guy I work with has spent half his life in South Africa and the other half in New Zealand before coming to Brisbane. His accent is well screwed up. He keeps talking to me about an application and because of his accent I can't tell whether the application is called Dennis or Dynis.

I luckily got to spend this afternoon at my employer's office, rather than the client's office where I'm based full time. It was much better. They've got a small team of about 20 working their in a cosy office. Everyone has a laugh and come 4pm they opened up the fridge and started passing around the beers in the office. It's so nice not having to drive home from work anymore!