All Work and No Play

The last few weeks have been work, work, work unfortunately, hence the lack of blog posts. However, there's light at the end of the tunnel - this weekend sees the arrival of my parents for their first visit to Oz, and I've made sure to arrange plenty of leave so I can get back into holiday mode again. In fact, we're all off up to Palm Cove in Far Northern Queensland to spend a week on the Great Barrier Reef. Before that though, I've got to make yet another trip to Sydney. The bummer about this Sydney trip is that I've got to go on the day my parents arrive. They arrive Sunday morning and I fly to Sydney on Sunday evening, coming back Thursday.

The reason I've been so busy is due to a combination of factors that have coincided. On the work front we had a major turnover in staff, leaving me as the only member of the Security Compliance team. So as well as having to juggle existing client work I was the only one available to take on new client work. It didn't help that my main existing client work has been at a critical point in the assignment meaning they needed a lot of attention.

Adding to that, the first of the two website that I'm having developed in India, which I previously wrote about here, has finally been handed over to me, which means it's now all on me to get the site ready for go-live. Due to a number of factors, of which I'm not going to go into now but suffice to say things didn't go exactly to plan with the web development company we used (that's an whole other blog post), there's still a lot of work to be done before the site can be launched. The current plan is that go-live will be sometime in June/July and I'm doing all I can to meet these dates, if not sooner.

Thank god I managed to wangle a 4-day work week. They're sure getting their money's worth out of me during the 4-days. With all the work they've put on to me it means I've been having to work during the evenings to keep on top of it - time I would have otherwise spent on the business. At least I've managed to draw a line and not let it run into my weekend time. That 3-day weekend is sacrosanct and has meant I've managed to make some good progress on the website - mainly reverse engineering what the dodgy web developers have done so I can improve it.

It's a slow process but I'm getting there. This time next year we'll be mill... we'll maybe the year after!

Office Move

We moved into new offices today at work. The company I'm working for as outgrown our previous office so had to look for new premises. The problem is, because of a rise in rental prices the company could no longer afford the lovely CBD (Central Business District) location for the office capacity that we now need. So we're now moved to Fortitude Valley.

I now have to get the train to Brunswick St station for work. The train service is pretty good, it's not overcrowded (I was able to get a seat easy enough this morning), and the commute time is roughly the same time as before. The problem is, Fortitude Valley is not one of the nicest places. When I leave Brunswick St Station to walk to the office I now pass sex shops, peep shows, strip clubs, druggies and drunken aboriginals sitting on the street corner yelling abuse at everyone who passes. There's a lingering stench of marijuana on the streets and you get the sense that you could be mugged at any moment. I'm sure I'll get used to it. At night I've been told Fortitude Valley (or The Valley as it's known to locals) is one of the best places in the city for nightlife, which isn't much of a consolation.

I've just been out for lunch to explore the area. I was nice and settled at our previous location but now I need to find new places to eat / withdraw cash / get my haircut / etc.

That's the moan over with. On the positive side the actual offices are much nicer with lots more space than we had previously. Plus my desk is positioned quite well so that I can at least have some privacy now.

As work goes I've just passed a major hurdle. The first Australian client that I'm taking through ISO 27001 certification has breezed through the stage 1 audit. So everyone is pleased with the work I did. I've been in Sydney every week for the past month but I've got a break now - I don't need to go back until the 18th March, in preparation for the Stage 2 audit which will hopefully result in a certificate. The break from traveling is greatly appreciated.