Brief Update

Just a brief update for the last week:

We had a pretty quiet weekend with the exception of Saturday night which somehow turned into a beer fest. Our alcoholic kiwi neighbours - Julie and George - came round for a beer late Saturday afternoon and I somehow managed to stay up drinking with George until 2:30am Sunday morning! Needless to say I was feeling rough on Sunday so we never made it to the planned BBC meetup (British Brisbane Club) in the city. I blame George. He discovered our Wii Sports game and being an ex New Zealand Air Force PTI he doesn't like to lose at sport, even if it is virtual sport. The thing is, I'm quite competitive as well and don't like to lose (I even struggle to bring myself to let Lauren win a game!), so I kept playing him again and again determined not to give up my 100% record. At one point I thought we'd end up playing and drinking through until the Rugby World Cup final started at 5am Sunday. Luckily for both of us we agreed to call it a day at 2:30am. My right arm is still aching today - I'm not sure if it's from the Tennis or Boxing.

On the job front my start date for the permie position has been put back a week to the 12th November to give me more time to complete the operational handover of the project I'm working on. I'm really looking forward to those 3-day weekends. I know I'll be spending my free Friday working on the business but at least I'll be at home.

The only crap thing about the new position is the holiday situation. Australians don't tend to get as much annual leave as we're used to in Britain - typically 20 days per annum as opposed to 25. So pro-rata for me that will work out as 16 days (four weeks). As I mentioned previously, my employers shut down for two weeks over xmas and we have to use our leave allocation whether we want to or not, which will work out as 5 days for me. This only leaves me with 11 days for the rest of the year. I was planning on taking my leave to coincide with when we have visitors over. We haven't got any visitors over xmas! Mum, Dad, if you're reading this, I don't suppose you mind me and Rach going on holiday to Bali for a couple of weeks while you're over here do you? Just kidding.

Work is still continuing in India on the two websites I'm having developed. The first of which should be ready within the next month. The mock-ups of both sites that I have been presented with by the developers look really good - I'm very excited about both prospects! I wish they'd hurry up though, I'm really keen to get stuck in and try out my ideas.

This Saturday coming myself and Rach are booked into a full-day Boat Licence course. If we pass we'll be licenced to wreak havoc on the waterways! I might even take up sea fishing.