Scary Stuff

It is Spring here at the moment and the birds are doing their thing. Unfortunately the magpies here are EVIL especially at this time. Thank God I got my phobia sorted out (Thank you Pam Birchall) because I can honestly say if I hadn't I would never dare leave the house again after seeing what I saw yesterday.

A few mum's had met up at a friends house the kids were out playing on the bikes, all of a sudden it went quiet. We went out to see why? Lauren had come in for a tissue (thank God) but the other 3 kids were sat in somebody's garden their bikes left in the middle of the road. Jacqui (Daniels mum and fellow expat) went over and asked why they were in the garden and left the bikes in the road. The kids said they were hiding from the magpies. Obviously Jacqui told them to stop being silly and get out of the garden and move the bikes. Well..... The minute Lucas got on his bike this magpie came out of nowhere and started chasing him down the road really going for him. It was vicious, we were shouting and trying to scare the magpie away but the faster Lucas rode the more the magpie went for him. It was horrible. None of us could do a thing we were shouting for Lucas to stop but obviously a 6 year old boy being chased by an angry bird is not going to stop easily. Eventually after about 200 metres or more he jumped off his bike and came running back to the house screaming his head off. (who could blame him) The magpie followed him then sat in a tree watching him.

We got all the kids back into the house but then realised the bikes were still strewn all over the street left where the petrified kids had dropped them, the mum's had to go and get them! We all went out at the same time, one magpie can't attack us all at once. Sure enough it came down and swooped at Jacqui who had gone for Lucas' bike. She very calmly walked back to the house (never letting her eye leave the damn bird) and thankfully the bird flew back to it's tree. It was really really horrible - I would never have believed a magpie would do that if I hadn't seen it myself. You could actually hear it's beak snapping as it was going for Lucas' head. (thankfully helmet on)

When I took Lauren to the park last week there were signs up saying beware of the magpies but I never took it that seriously.

I do now.

Yorkshire Airlines

Classic!

Brits take over prime time TV in US

http://www.forbes.com/video/?video=Thursday/09277d

HMS Somerset blog

The Commanding Officer of HMS Somerset, a type 23 Frigate, has 'made waves' (forgive the pun) by becoming the first CO to write a blog.

The blog can be found at http://hms-somerset-co.blogspot.com

Reading this blog brought back a lot of memories. I particularly like this post which highlights one of the many tricks that are played on new recruits. I'm trying to recall but I don't think I was gullible enough to fall for any of them. It didn't stop them trying though. Like the first week on my first ship when I was presented with an electricity bill for my bunk light. And my first trip to Gibralter when there was a pipe (tannoy announcements) that foreign money changing was now open. It was amazing to see the line forming outside the onboard post office for changing Pounds to Gibraltar Giberoons!

Some of the pipes were pretty funny too.. like 'OM Thalidimide to the Small Arms Store'. You probably couldn't get away with that these days. I hear the Navy is becoming as PC as civvy street. I blame the Labour government...

Hello again

I thought it was about time that I posted again as I've neglected this blog over the last few weeks due to other distractions.

The truth is I've been obsessed with working on my internet 'projects'.

I've got two projects on the go:

1) I'm still a partner in Autonomy Business Solutions Ltd of which our main venture is a website selling Voice over IP (VoIP) phones and associated hardware. My original plan when I emigrated to Australia was to drop my share in the business down to 10%, however, this was before I decided that I was going to start an Internet business of my own. It quickly dawned on me that in the 'Internet age' I could still make a valuable contribution to the business in the UK, and I would be stupid to give it up, especially when it's making a profit (however small) even though it as always been a part-time project and we've hardly done anything to market it.

I've learnt a lot about Internet marketing over the last few weeks. My aim is to take what I've learnt, and continue to learn, about Internet marketing and apply it to the website. First of all though, it became clear that we had to start again with the website.

So in agreement with Michael (my business partner) we have put a project out for tender on www.elance.com to develop a new website to meet all our requirements. We've chosen a company to do the work, drawn up a contract and Functional Requirements, and as of yesterday, the terms of the contract have been agreed and development is underway.

I'm so glad I read the 4-hour Work Week by Tim Ferris otherwise I never would have known about Elance. Elance has allowed us to outsource the work to a company in India for a fraction of the cost it would have been if we had got a local company to do it.

Once the new website is ready I'll give more details on what we're trying to achieve with the new site and point out the flaws (my flaws - I originally built the thing) in the old (current) site.

2) My second project is my 'Social Network'. I don't want to go in to too many details at the moment but this is what has been keeping me up working until 1am over the last few weeks and which nearly burnt me out.

In an effort to save money I decided to attempt to build the site myself. The site is going to be a social network along the lines of myspace, facebook, bebo, etc but for a particular niche demographic. I got stuck in to developing the site and made some good progress to start with. However, I soon got stuck on some of the technicalities of the site. You see, to achieve some of the functionality I want you need to at least have a decent understanding of databases (in this case MySQL) and the programming language that the site uses (PHP). I was so determined to build the site myself that I was trying to learn PHP and MySQL on the fly. I got absolutely obsessed with the site and spent hours working on the technicalities trying to get the damn thing to work. I soon realised that at the rate I was going it would be a good 6 months before the site would be ready.

It was at this point that I took onboard the advice in some of the books that I've read recently such as The E-myth by Michael Gerber, as well as Rich Dad Poor Dad and the 4-Hour Work Week which I mentioned in my posts about starting an Internet business. The point being that (1) I need to put a financial value on my time and (2) concentrate on being the Entrepreneur, not the Technician. I shall explain:

1. Sometimes, doing things myself to save money is actually false economy. This instance was a good example of that principle. I would have spent 6 months of my life working on the technicalities of building a site, whereas instead I could be spending that 6 months working on ideas, content, features and marketing to meet the primary objective of the site - creating passive income.
2. Many small businesses fail because the owner spends too much time working in the business and not on the business. If this thing is going to work I need to spend my time working on developing the business overall and not get bogged down on the technical stuff which someone else could do a lot better and a lot more quickly.

So I'm going to concentrate on the ideas and the vision of the business. I'll let someone else put my ideas into being. My social network project was posted on elance.com a couple of days ago and I'm reviewing bids as they come in. I've budgeted £1000 for the project which isn't much for the complexity of the site but I'm confident elance will come good.

I worked it out, at the rate I was going it would have took me 840 hours to build the site. So for a cost of £1000 that would have been roughly the equivalent of £1:19p per hour. I value my time at a lot more than £1:19 per hour!

When I finally gave up and made the decision to outsource the work it was such a relief. I was literally killing myself working a full-time job and then coming home every night working on the business until midnight. I know the dream of a 4-hour work week can only be achieved once you've actually established the passive income but even so, there are better ways to do it.

So these are the main two projects I've got going at the moment, and I've got ideas for many more in the pipeline. It's a bit of a gamble I know but I can't stand the thought of working for someone else doing a 9-5 job for the rest of my life. I'm still working hard every night on the business, but I'm limiting myself to a couple of hours rather than the ridiculous hours I was doing before. More importantly, I'm working on my business, not in my business.

I'm also making sure the weekends are dedicated to family time. We came to Australia for the dream lifestyle and I somehow forgot about that when I got obsessed with developing websites. I won't make that mistake again. The weekend before last, the day after I made the decision to outsource project 2, we spend Saturday at the beach and then most of Sunday afternoon in a beer garden! This weekend gone we spent some time doing some long overdue organising in the house, and on Sunday we had Cath and the neighbours round for a BBQ. Lauren even went for her first dip in the complex pool which is literally 30 feet from our front door. The pool is in the shade most of the day so doesn't really get warm but Lauren was straight in, no messing! I might even venture in this weekend.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still doing a bit of work on the business at weekends but I'm not going to let it overtake my life like I had been.

I got it!

I had the phone call I've been waiting for - I got the job. This is where I'll be working doing admin, Monday to Friday 9am - 3pm.

http://www.mbtbc.com/

I'm really looking forward to it. The best of it is Lauren breaks for 2 weeks holiday on Thursday and they're willing to wait till after that to let me start so I can spend some time with her. I just hope this one works out better then the last one.

Our first snake

Yesterday we had our first snake in our front garden. I didn't actually see it, but the gardener almost stood on it. He told me where it was so I went out armed with my camera but it was really well hidden in a big bush and I couldn't see it. Needless to say I wouldn't let Lauren play out (much to her annoyance) and have requested that the manager of our complex trim the bush back. The gardener said it was only a green tree snake which aren't poisonous but they do bite and it does hurt - alot!

Another fabulous weekend.

It seems that the winter has passed and we are now head first into Spring. We decided to make the most of our weekend and went to the beach on Saturday. We really must get more into the swing of beach visits. We forgot Lauren's hat, bucket and spade so had to go and buy yet another. Then there's the eski - we're just not used to taking water etc with us. I did remember the sun cream and Lauren's sun suit so I can't be that bad as a Mum! It was absolutely gorgeous we had a huge stretch of beach more or less to ourselves. We decided to go to a quiet beach rather than heading to the popular resorts the only problem is that the quiet beaches are not patrolled by surf life savers, there are shark nets though. It just means that people can't (or shouldn't) swim. (some mad Aussies still do!) I'll ask Daryl to put the photos on.

Sunday we finally made it to our first expat meet up at the Pig & Whistle English pub in the city. It was a great set up, we met a few people and will definitely go to the next one. The people who organise it (I think Gary and Margaret) did a great job making everybody feel welcome. It was red hot - 32 according to the temp reading near us. It was so nice. When we left the meet up we went and had some lunch in a restaurant on the riverside. Just the way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I'm still waiting to hear about the job by the way so keep your fingers crossed.

The reason I love Australia

A couple of reasons actually, small but when they add together it's what make this place what it is.

We got a leaflet through the door saying there would be a collection for garden clippings etc with details on about what size the clippings could be. All people need to do is leave their stuff in a pile on the path outside their house. All over the place there were piles of stuff far bigger than the leaflet said they could be, when the garbo's came to remove it all did they leave the big stuff - No they took everything!!!! I saw one of them carrying a huge log and it just made me smile. Would that happen in Doncaster? - they won't even take a bag at the side of the bin never mind lump a huge log into the truck.

Second I had an interview this morning for an admin job at a local boat club, during the interview the woman suddenly stopped talking and said look there. She pointed out to the marina about 500 yards out from the jetty at 2-3 dolphins were frolicking in the water playing with the boats. She said they had a wedding here last week and 3 dolphins came right in, it made the brides day. It made my day seeing them today hopefully they brought me good luck and I'll get the job.

Lastly when I took Lauren to school a few weeks ago one of the kids was really upset but her Mum really needed to go, the teacher took hold of the kids hand went and sat at her desk and gave her a cuddle. Within a no time at all the tears had gone and she was sat chatting with the teacher still sat on her knee while the teacher drank a cup of coffee! Health and Safety?, Risk Assessment?, Child protection?, not a problem if that had been Lauren I'd've wanted her to do exactly that.

I love Australia.

Brisbane Riverfire

Last night we went to the Brisbane Riverfire - the opening night of the 10-day Brisbane Riverfestival. The Riverfire is a spectacular fireworks display along the river from Story Bridge to Victoria Bridge, and includes a 'dump and burn' by RAAF F-111 fighter jets.

Because we new that it would be packed all along the riverfront with people trying to get the best vantage point, I booked us on a dinner cruise on a Kookaburra River Queen paddlewheeler.

Thousands of people lined the river banks waiting for the fireworks display to begin...


We boarded one of the two River Queens and sipped the complimentary champagne (coke for Lauren)....


When it started, the fireworks display was really spectacular...


In the next photo you can see the afterburner of the F-111 to the right of the fireworks...


The only let down of the night was the cruise, as for some reason we never left the side. The other boat did but ours didn't, and I'm still not sure why. The ticket office is close to my work so I'll be having words with them when I go in tomorrow!

See more of our Riverfire photo's on flickr

I've quit my job!

It's unusual for me to be posting but Daryl thinks I should. I walked out of my job on Wednesday. I've been very disappointed by how things have turned out, I'll explain.

When I went for my interview John (my now ex boss) explained that for the past few years they had had people running the branch as a franchise but this had not been working and the branch had lost most of the technicians (from 7 to 3) in the last 18 months or so as a result the branch had been loosing money and needed picking up. The company had decided to bring it back to be a company branch with a manager employed. He said that as I was new to Australia and no management experience as such he would take me on on a 3 month temporary contract as an administration/operations assistant, acting Branch Manager while I learned the job and he could assess if I would be suitable. I took the job.

After about the second week I had been trained in most parts of the job and was going solo managing the branch. I sorted out all of the filing systems, cleaned the office! and got the branch looking more like an professional office. When I first arrived I couldn't see how the branch had been running at all there was no wonder they had been loosing money. There was no organisation and no way anyone could know what was happening day by day. Most of the equipment was old and didn't work. To Johns credit he listened to everything I said and if I said I wanted it I got it.

In my first month I lost another technician (although he said nothing to do with me I must add!) I had 2 techs and enough work for 4-5 so the customer complaints were coming in thick and fast but I dealt with them and we recovered.

After about 6-8 weeks of my being there John came to Brisbane and asked how I felt things were going, I said I was happy for the time being but if I was to be taken on as manager properly after my 3 months I wanted more money as the job was very stressful and could be very demanding - I got phone calls from 6am to 6pm Monday to Saturday. He said as far as he was concerned he was very happy with what I had done with the branch and he said he would put a package together for us to discuss and he could see no reason why I wouldn't be made branch manager permanently. In the meantime I was to introduce myself as branch manager to anyone who asks.

Over the next few weeks things went smoothly I was trying my best to get more techs but with no luck. John saw that things weren't looking great and again all credit to him he sent a tech from Sydney to help out. He was initially supposed to come for 2 weeks then a month (all the time in a hotel) he ended up being in Brisbane for 7 weeks. Eventually I got a couple of calls from people interested in becoming techs and things stared to look up. Then another tech left. When I asked him why he said he didn't want to go into all the ins and outs but said it was nothing to do with me.

I was left with 1 tech and the borrowed one from Sydney. Both of which said they loved working for me and things had never been better. John said the figures were looking really good and said pro-rata Brisbane was number 1 branch in Australia (6 others). I had got 2 people looking like coming on board within the next couple of weeks and with work coming out of our my ears the branch looked like it had really turned a corner.

Monday John sent Bernie, another manager, to Brisbane he said to help me out with the new tech interviews and training. When he arrived he went outside for some fresh air and was on the phone. I noticed a ute pull up and a guy get out. He was talking to Bernie then they both came up to my office. Bernie introduced him as John, someone John (my boss) had met with and had sent to speak to Bernie. They went off for coffee. I got a phone call from another manager looking for John. She had been told John was in Brisbane. I told her that as far as I was concerned he was due to go to her so must be running late. While Bernie was out my tech came in to drop off some money and was still there when Bernie and John got back.

Bernie came into my office and John was in the other room speaking to Craig. Bernie asked if I knew who this person was as he was confused over the questions he had been asking him. I said I had no idea. I went out to speak to Craig and John went into my office. Craig didn't look happy but I told him to wait till later and I would phone him. When I got back into my office John asked me if there was anything I would like to change - I asked with regard to what. He said with the Branch. He went on to ask me to write a list of things I thought worked well, things that need improving, any ideas I had etc and to treat it 'like a little project' were his words. I was so dumbstruck I didn't know what to say. I must have looked like I complete idiot.

Bernie was due to go to do a quote so John asked if he could tag along I said yes - I just wanted him out of my office so I could phone John and find out what the hell was going on. His phone was off so I couldn't get any answers. I was utterly confused. Craig phoned and asked who the guy was and I said I didn't know but was trying to find out. Craig said he had said he was coming on as Manager to run the branch. At this I went from confused to supreme anger! Bernie came back, he said he didn't know what was going on. Eventually at about 8.30pm John phoned. He kept apologising and saying the guy was wrong and that nothing had changed I was still running the show and he had only spoken to the guy about the possibility of him buying into a franchise. I asked what that meant for me he said that even if he came in it would be on the proviso that I remained. I said I didn't believe that anyone would buy into a franchise only to let someone else manage it. John assured me nothing was going to change and I was to continue on exactly the same and to work on the presentation I was due to give at the Managers conference in September.

Tuesday I went into work as usual. Wednesday Julia phoned. (She is the Melbourne branch manager and a fellow expat from Leeds) She asked if I was okay? I said well I am now but not thanks to him on Monday. She said oh thank god you know. I said know what? I explained about what had happened and what John had said. She said Oh I've got to tell you he's lying to you. She said John had actually been in Brisbane on Monday. He had been interviewing the other John for the franchise. He had then flown to Melbourne and told Julia about it. She asked him if I knew about it and he had said no not yet keep it under your hat. She said she couldn't lie to me and had nothing to loose as she had handed her notice in the day before.

I couldn't believe what she was saying. He had completely lied to me. He had waited till I had built up the branch and made it more attractive as a franchise then pulled the rug from beneath me 2 weeks short of my 3 month contract. I phoned Daryl told him, he told me to come home straight away. I phoned John and told him I was going to leave Friday. He asked why, I told him I felt I had been used and lied to and completely disrespected. He said he didn't think he had. He said I was letting him down walking out in this way and could I at least give him 2 weeks notice so he could advertise for the admin job and give me chance to train the person up.

Needless to say I packed up my belongings into a box and left that day.

How dare he even ask me for any help after what he'd done to me. When I look back now I realise everything he promised was only verbal. On paper it appears that all I was was an admin worker. He knew exactly what he was doing and stupidly I fell for it. Right from the beginning Daryl had said this sounds too good to be true. It turns out yes it was.