Well, I had an interview today for a business analyst role. I think they liked me, I was in for nearly two hours and got a guided tour. It comes down to the fact that I dont know the tools they use. It is pretty much what I have been doing for years – talk to users and figure out what they want and how to go about getting it for them. Its just the formal way of documenting it that I dont know.
It will be a few days before I hear anything. Once I know something, I will let you know š
We had a good weekend, the weather was fab and we used the hot tub a *lot*. Its too cold to use the pool believe it or not, the water just isnt warm enough, but we are coping with the hardship of just the hot tub.
We went to a local steak house for dinner last night (The Hogs Breath Cafe), great steak, huge portions, we will be going back there again š
So, onto todays agency meetings. I did well with agency number one. Then agency number two landed a pop quiz on me and I totally blanked everything I ever knew about programming and couldnt answer a single question. As I left there rather flustered, I got a call from agency number one with an interview for a business analyst role and a developer role with a company in West Perth. So, I am being interviewed by one company for two separate jobs on Wednesday :). Agency 3 was OK, but he wants to wait till I get a clearer picture from the other two agencies as to where my CV is.
Over all, a knackering day. Its been nearly two months since I was in anything other than jeans and trainers, so after today getting suited and booted, my legs and feet are killing me. Thank goodness for the spa!
Couple of folks have asked about Kangaroos – and afterĀ amonth or so in Australia, we had seen Kangaroos twice. Once on the way up to Lancelin…
And once in the IGA (that’s Independent Growers of Australia, the equivelant of Spar). That one didn’t look too clever either…
So,Ā I asked in the office, got some pointers to ‘Roo country (apparently, driving down any road at night is a surefire way to meet “one of those tough littleĀ bast**ds”, and by “meet” we mean “smack into with the car, spin off wildly and barely survive”)… and are proud to present – Kangaroos!
Yep, yer bona-fide in the wild Kangaroos – just like Deer, actually, and behave the same when startled etc.
Well, its a month to the day since we arrived in Perth, seems like longer!
I have got the finger out and started looking for a job for real.
I hate job hunting, I really do. Not a good thing for a contractor it has to be said given that in theory, I could have had to look for work every three months. Not that I ever did, what with being renewed over and over till they ran out of budget (I think that tells you a lot about contractors and their ability to find and then spend budget š ). But, still, I hateses it.
This time round though, with the fact that we are on the other side of the world, I figured a little bit of stability might not go amiss, so I am opting for the permie life for a while.
So, with Ian having been working for 3 weeks and everything that we ordered here being delivered, I couldnt use “I have to be here for the delivery man/pool guy/internet connection bloke” as an excuse any more. I spent a few days working on my CV, got Ian to go over it and then yesterday sent it to 3 agencies. Within 10 minutes I had the First Agent on the phone, my CV in for 6 jobs and a meeting with him for Monday. 5 minutes after that, the Second Guy called, and my CV was in for another job, and he had another two, but it turned out that the First Guy had already put me in for them, and I had a meeting with him on Monday. Another 5 minutes passed and Second Guy called back with another two. It took Third Guy till this afternoon to see my CV, and he has a place to put my CV into, and a meeting with him on Monday.
So …. to recap … thats my CV in for 10 jobs, and I am meeting 3 separate agencies on Monday.
I still hate job searching, but at least this time it looks like it will quick!
Well, after a wait that seemed to be measured in weeks, we are in the new house, and have broadband! – we couldn’t really do a blog post for a while, as we were using Jen’s smartphone for web access. sloooooow!
Still, we are now hooked up, and the Hot tub is up and tested (and is as awesome as it sounds!), so here’s a new video:
In the meantime, I have started work so am keeping busy – I need to get a couple of pictures of our new office. I’m travelling into work on the transperth trains, which I am (rather oddly, I guess) actually enjoying. The trains are nice and modern, very regular and the ticketing is quite clever.
I have a ‘smartrider’ card – a little RFID tag which allows me to ‘tag’ on and off of the transport system. You put money on the card, then tag on and off, and it deducts the fare automatically. You get a 15% discount just for using the smartrider rather than buying a ticket, and you get a 25% discount if you link the card to your bank… so, I happily use the tranport system – buses, trains, ferries, and it just pops the fare off each time.
When it reaches a pre-set level, it invoices my bank account for another $50 or so (you set this amount through the website), and that’s that. You can log onto the website and see all of your journeys, and where your tag was used – rather slick.
Well, itās been a few days since any blogging, you’d think we had given up, but no!
Itās been a bloody busy few days, with no internet connection…. which has been hard, trust me!
We have finally moved into our own place and out of the rented accommodation. The “holiday” accommodation was fine, but we couldnāt settle at all knowing we were in someoneās basement – one time the owner came down while I was on the loo! He knocked and everything, but still – it was his basement….
Now, we are in our own place (well, still rented, so we canāt knock holes in the walls even when Ianās SDS drill arrives) and it has made all the difference. We have created a wee walk through for you, but we canāt actually post it yet – itās another 2 weeks till we get real net access – we are working off my new ozzie mobile phone at the moment. Once we are up for real, we will show you the place from the front door all the way through š We already have the movie, we just donāt have the bandwidth to upload it.
The last few days gave been hectic – Ian has been at work this week (since Tuesday, as Monday was a holiday ā they donāt do the previous Monday that most of the UK does) ā and we picked up this place on Thursday, so the past few days for me have been about running around getting stuff we need. Then Thursday Ian bunked off for an hour or so to sign off here ( with me not having a job yet, waster that I am, the car loan, my phone and the house are all in Ianās name, w00t š ) Then it was all day Friday I was waiting on stuff being delivered ā washing machine, fridge, giant mega bed, all important PCs from Scotland, temporary desks for the PCs and basic IKEA sofa and dining table.
With having none of our stuff yet ā last time we checked it hadnāt actually left the UK, even though we were told it would be leaving shortly after us ā we have set up camp in the computer room. Basically we are rattling round a HUGE empty house right now. Once our stuff arrives it will be very different, but for now, itās settling in one room.
Today (Saturday) was a day of shopping ā we were being very Fight Club (āa house full of condiments and no foodā) so we finally got a load of food, and then on to IKEA for the āreasonably decent, but not as good as our own, solutions for modern livingā PC chairs and other stuff. If you didnāt realise that a 207CC has may areas that live within Time And Relative Dimensions In Space (thatās a TARDIS for those that didnāt watch Dr Who as a kid (or maybe even now) ) I canāt believe how much we managed to fit in it …. We have also ordered our very own barbeque ā 4 burner plus gas ring in black for our deck. It will arrive on Tuesday.
I did have a āmomentā tonight though … I was having a great time, cooking for real for the first time in almost a month, with a glass of wine and I was very much enjoying it, when I thought, āwe should have a house warmingā and then I cried a bit š Its not the first āmomentā, but it wasnāt great ….
Gonna sign off this blog post with many congrats to Gerry and Steven on the new baby Finn!
So, it’s an absolute scorcher today – for us at any rate. temperature is 26 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and a gentle wind from the ocean (whic is nice and cool – it’s gorgeous).
We decided to try something new today – it’s Foundation Day, a public holiday celebrating the founding of the state of Western Australia, so most places are closed – apart from the usual recreational type stuff: restaurants, bars and so on… so we headed over to The Lone Ranges in Belmont.
Yep, we joined a gun club š
We took the training package, which included a lot of safety (I hadn’t really planned to look down the barrel or put my hand in front of a loaded gun, but there were a few bits that were not so obvious – like making sure your left hand thumb stays clear of the slide on a semi-auto pistol).
first up was the lightweight fun stuff – we each got 50 rounds on a combination of a .22 Smith and Weston revolver, and aĀ .22 Ruger semi-automatic. The revolver was fun, but the semi- oh man.
when that was done, we moved up the firepower range a bit (quite a bit), with a Glock 9mm Semi-automatic – wow. absolutely insane feeling – the recoil was incredible, the thump from the sound… I think we have found a new stress relief hobby!
We had decided before we came out that we would do the whole aussie experience thing rather than just being the “whinging pom” types who stuck to ex-pats clubs and basically complained that everything wasn’t like “back home”.
We watched an AFL game yesterday. Aussie Rules Football, or just “footy” to the locals. The game can basically be summed up in a couple of small facts – there’s 18 players on each side, and full physical contact is allowed between the shoulder and the knee.
The entire game (quarters of 20 minutes each) looked uncannily like a pitch invasion. there seems to be too many people on the park, they wear slightly different variations on the strip, there are about 8 umpires, and large parts of the game are spent basically fighting.
It’s more ordered than it looks, naturally, with the key element of the play being “Marks” – basically catching the ball after it has been in the air for 15 metres, which entitles you to a free kick (ie, you can pause for a second and nobody is allowed to kick you in the chest, or bite your arm until you kick the ball again).
I might just get into this – it’s kinda like rugby, basketball and ultimate cage fighting rolled into one.
Not weird enough for you? how about this then… it’s late autumn here, and the trees are dying back – like this one:
That tree is perfectly healthy – rather than drop their leaves for the winter, Aussie trees keep their leaves, and drop their bark.
it’s the little things that remind you that you are NOT in Kansas any more!!
It was pishing down in Oz:
Yep – people 5 minutes down the coast from here had their roofs torn off due to the storms.
GVD! Storms!
Today was nice though – we walked along the riverside here at our apartment for ages which was gorgeous, then later on went up to Joondalup, parked outside our new place and walked to the station and back to see how far it is. I ended up seeing stars as I was knackered after walking for ages on two slices of toast and Vegemite (yeah, I have been having Vegemite for breakfast š Totally ozzie š )
Tonight we were rather bored – its sunday again – most things are closed – so we went out for a run in the uber car and ended up on Scarborough Beach (most things are named after the UK) watching the sun set into the Indian Ocean, which was amazing.
