GenesisDreams

Strategy

Work Last year I didn't think I could possibly work harder that I was. I had a project, a specific set of deliverables. I had a deadline and I worked my ass off to meet it. I succeeded and we rolled out a fantastic system. I was rewarded for it. Given praise, a promotion and a raise. Now in the New Year the organisation has been restructured and I’ve been given another promotion. We are changing strategy, developing upon our core competencies and striving towards new business ventures. My role is central to that strategy, and I am working like I’ve never worked before to help achieve it. It’s a very exciting time, and I’m so lucky to be a part of it.

Meetings In London

Friends - Personal - Work It’s mid-morning and I am on the train from Nottingham to Liverpool. I had a big meeting with some of the General Dynamics guys in London yesterday. We were discussing the next phase of the project; what feedback they had from the first phase and what features they would like to see in the second. Everything went well; their feedback was positive and their requirements manageable in the timeframes required. It was a very productive meeting. So Nikkie was up last weekend, and because she has finished placement and is on Project week, she stayed a couple of extra days and came down to London with me yesterday. I of course had to work all day, but I jump at every chance I get to spend more time with her. I’m back at work today of course and it is going to be busy as usual. But as I’ve said before, I’m finding it really interesting, I am enjoying it, and I’m getting paid really well too. So enough of my recap of work. That’s all I seem to talk about recently. On to other things! Thanks to all of my friends who emailed me back with status updates on their lives! I wrote about fifteen different emails that day on the train and sent them out to all of you guys who I want to keep in touch with. It was great to hear back from all of you (well almost all of you, you slackers know who you are who didn’t write back, so get on it!! :), I really liked reading about everything new that’s been going on in your lives since we last caught up. Some of you I hadn’t talked to for at least a year! This blog is a very one-way form of communication. I write my entries but get very little in the way of comments. I know people read it; I’ve got stats that show when the site is viewed and where the viewers are. I recognise pretty much everyone who reads the site, who the readers are from Australia, who they are from the US, who they are from the UK, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got that Finnish reader sussed too :) Some of you check the site almost daily, some from week to week, while others sometimes go months without checking. I know you are all filled in on what’s going on in my life (or the small portion of it I have time to describe here), but I feel really left out when it comes to all of your lives. So I’ve done my best to remedy that. If you won’t add comments or (heaven forbid!) create blogs of your own then I am just going to have to pester you with emails until you respond!! Until then, take care everyone.

Another Long Week

Friends - Fun - Personal - University - Work Well it’s Friday again, and I’m on the train down to Nottingham. I have some time now to myself, to think, to reflect, and to write an entry for my blog! This week was very intensive. I did an all-nighter Sunday night, and another Tuesday night. I racked up more than 80 working hours this last week, so effectively did two weeks work in one. This whole last month I’ve been averaging 60 hours a week. It’s pay day today though, and I’ve got a rather large pay packet coming to me, so I’m happy. ^_^ The drinks are definitely on me tonight!! I’ve been doing some really excellent work recently, and because of it I’ve got another promotion. I’m now the design authority for the Enterprise Project Management system I am producing, which means a lot more authority and responsibility. Hopefully another pay rise too; I’m talking to the boss about that next week. So we are now examining the next phase of functionality. I’m writing documentation and getting everything ready for security auditing. We have to comply with BS779 because of the restricted and secret information that is being held on the system. We are entering an exciting stage of the project and I’m really looking forward to getting onto the next lot of functionality. But enough about work. According to Nikkie I am now officially the best boyfriend in the world. Because I’ve been so busy this last week I haven’t been able to call her as much as I would like. She has been really busy too, doing her neurology placement in a hospital in Boston. She’s been feeling a little sad that we have both been too busy to keep in better contract, so to cheer her up I got a dozen red roses delivered to the ward she was working on in the hospital . She said she got such a shock when they arrived, and has had a massive grin on her face ever since. I’ve had a massive grin of my face all day too knowing about the surprise she would get. I can’t wait to get to Nottingham and see her. In other news I talked to mum and Fragma last night for about an hour each. It’s the first time I talked to either of them on the phone since I got back from Australia! I know! How bad of a son/friend am I!! Mum had a lot of news to tell, and we chatted for ages. She told me that she had received a thing from the University of Queensland saying that I had been admitted to the Dean’s Honour Roll for my Bachelor of Business Management, which I thought was a scream. I hardly use my Engineering degree, let alone my Business one. I guess it’s good to put on my CV, but I still think of it as a bit of a joke considering the amount of work I put into it. Mum said she lost the lapel pin that came with it, but I told her not to worry. I’m never going to wear it. After speaking to mum I called Fragma at work. He works harder than I do the crazy man! Nikkie reckons it is all his fault that I am working this hard. She says he is a bad influence on me :). We chatted about all my friends back home, what they are up to, what new things that have been happening. We also chatted the normal bollocks that we do. It was great to talk to him again. I’ve got to stop being so slack and call my friends back home more. I think I’ve only called Ads and Wulfen once or twice each, and Fragma only a few more times than that. I left some really great friends behind in Aus and I really need to start making more of an effort to keep in touch. With that thought in mind I’m going to finish this blog entry here and spend my remaining battery power writing emails all of those friends of mine who have been slipping away recently. Expect an email soon guys!

I Know Kung Fu

Work Modern hackers are ronin, wandering samurai who have no master. Their laptop is their katana and their mobile phone is their wakizashi. Their horse is named 3G and on it they can reach the whole world. They are the technological elite; highly mobile warriors of the information revolution. I came into work yesterday at 3.30 in the afternoon, and left at 6.20 this morning. After two hours sleep I was back at work. I spent the whole night doing some serious hacking. I learnt an incredible amount of stuff and got some really cool shit working. I am tired as hell, but damn I love my job.

Whatever You Do, Whatever You Say, Yeah I Know It’s Alright.

Fun - Work It’s Midday on Sunday and I am on the train back up to Liverpool. I just said goodbye to Nikkie, gave her a great big hug, jumped on the train just as it was about to pull away, sat down and booted up my laptop. I’ve got to go into the office this afternoon to do some out of production maintenance work on the system. Geoff just called and one of the nodes on our SQL cluster has failed, so it might be a long night to get things back up and running properly again. The big advantage of having a high available infrastructure, with a backend SQL cluster is that you can afford to have and entire node fail and the system can keep on running. So I’m sitting here thinking to myself, I have a very fucking cool life. I’m hacking together solutions for a living. I feel sort of akin to Randy Waterhouse in Cryptonomicon minus the WWII intrigue and global politics. I’m not jetting around the world setting up a data haven like he is, but when I step back and think about it, what I’m doing is pretty damn awesome. I’ve spent the last week putting the finishing touches on a system that has been rolled out on a UK Ministry of Defence contract. It’s my system, running on Geoff’s infrastructure. It is dual redundant, highly available and scalable. It is totally secure, isolated from the outside world and is designed to meet JSP 480, which is the UK’s standard for networks that are going to contain restricted and secret documents. It’s an amazing piece of work and I’m really lucky to have had a chance to work on it. I work hard on that during the week, and then I jet on down to hang out with my tall, blonde half-Dutch goddess for the weekend. I’ve got my trusty laptop at my side, akin to a pistol on my hip or a sword on my back. We’re going 3G now, so with the VPN software we are using I can jump on our secure network from anywhere and do some work. I’m a wandering samurai, a roaming hacker, a specialist doing an important job. And you know what; they actually pay me stupid amounts of money to do it as well!!! Ok that may all be a really idealistic look at what I do, and totally glosses over the mundane, boring work that needs to be done to get everything working, but sitting here reviewing the last, hectic seven weeks I think it’s about time to get idealistic. I’ve done a really great job, and it’s moments like this which make it all worth it, which make you wake up and realise how bloody good you have it, how lucky you are to be living in such an exciting world. Not only living in that world, but playing a really cool part in it as well! Now that I’ve had time to reflect on it all I really can’t believe how lucky I am.

I’m free to be whatever I, whatever I choose, and I’ll sing the blues if I want. I’m free to say whatever I, whatever I like, if it’s wrong or right, it’s alright. Free, to be whatever you, whatever you say, if it comes my way it’s alright.

Written while listening to Whatever by Oasis.

Exhausted

Work It’s 8pm Friday night and I am on the train down to Nottingham. I am taking tomorrow off work. It will be the first Saturday for as long as I can remember that I am not working. I really need the break. The end of this week marks the end of the big initial phase of development for the Enterprise Project Management system I am working on. We met our deliverables; we got them in on time and on budget. In fact we got the system implemented ahead of schedule! To meet the extremely tight schedule that was imposed upon us I had to work sixty hour plus weeks. Now I need a rest. So I’m going down to Nottingham to meet up with my beautiful girlfriend Nikkie, and we are going to have a nice, fun, relaxing weekend, totally work and stress free. I can’t wait to see Nikkie again. I just want to fall into her arms and forget all the stresses of this past week. She makes me feel so at ease when I’m around her. I forget all my troubles and am simply happy. Nottingham here I come!

Driving Places

Work Well I am on the train again. It’s Sunday night and I’m on the Manchester express from Nottingham. From Manchester I’ll get a train across to Liverpool Lime Street, and then another one up to Crosby. The whole trip will take me a little over three hours. I could have driven. That would have only taken me about two and a half. However then I wouldn’t have had the time to write this blog entry! I am not that good a driver to be able to concentrate on the road at 90 mph and type on a laptop at the same time. Oh yeah, so I’ve got a company car now. It’s pretty funny how it all works out. I borrowed one of the bosses cars while he was on holiday (they are all registered and insured under the company, but the big boss has like four of them for his whole family). So while he was away I was allowed to use one of them, and even though he has now returned, he hasn’t asked for it back. I do use it for company work some of the time. I had to drive down to Telford, where all our Regional Project Managers are based, for a meeting a couple of weeks ago, but for the most part I use it to drive the 5 minutes between work and my flat, and sometimes under the river to my cousin’s place, and just once down to Nottingham and back. I have mentioned in passing to the boss that I’ve still got one of his cars, but he said nobody was really using it at the moment, so I could use it for the time being. Awesome!! I love my job. I’m living rent free in a company flat, five minutes down the road from work. I’ve got a company car, and I’m getting paid great money! I’ve got no real expenses at all. I’m saving heaps and still having a great time.

What I Actually Do All Day

Work My friend Jacqui, who came to visit me around this time last year recently emailed me asking what I’ve been up to. Last time I talked to her was April, and I had told her that I just started working at a “small telco in Liverpool”, and that’s about it. So she wanted to know what was new with my job, and the email I started writing in reply kept growing and growing as I tried to tell the story of what I am actually doing now. So after all of that I though I would post that except from the email here for the rest of you out there who are wondering what on Earth I am doing all day at work. It doesn’t go into full details of everything, I was intending it as a summary of sorts, but it does the job. So without further ado: “The job is great. Fantastic even. The contract we’ve currently got has meant that everything has scaled up tremendously and I was really lucky to get in just at the start of it all. Let me see, since I last talked to you I’ve got a promotion, totally changed my job role, got a pay rise AND got flown on the company dime back to Aus to get my visa sorted out and do some training on the side. I am currently implementing the “Enterprise Project Management Solution” for the big government contract we have gotten. Basically UK ministry of defence have this project called the Defence Infrastructure Initiative (Future) and it’s worth about £4 billion pound over five years. The project involves upgrading all of the IT infrastructure of all the MOD bases in the UK. There are thousands of MOD sites in the UK, so it’s a BIG project. Anyway a group called the “Atlas Consortium” won the contract, and it is made up of companies like EDS, General Dynamics and Fujitsu. They in themselves are all really big companies. Compared to them we are small fry. We are a GD subcontractor. GD are responsible for organising all of the site surveys and designs for all the sites, so they send in guys to look at the current infrastructure, design new stuff, and ultimately re-fit all the bases. What the have contracted us to do is project manage all the guys they have on the ground, who are themselves sub-contractors. So basically we have a whole lot of project managers who go out on MOD sites and oversee the work and make sure everything is on schedule and help iron out any problems they may have. They attend meetings and submit reports and track the project progress. This is currently done with a mixture of paper reporting and excel spreadsheets. What _I_ am doing is implementing an IT system (using Microsoft Project Server 2003) which will help to automate a lot of this process, providing an Enterprise Project Plan which is published and accessible over the internet and allow dynamic reporting on the project status. This system didn’t exist 5 weeks ago. I hadn’t even head of Project Server 8 weeks ago. I was sent to back to Australia in July to get my visa, and do some certified Microsoft courses in Project Server (it turned out to be cheaper to do it at home with the exchange than it would have been to do it in London). I went back to Brisbane, spent three weeks there, two of them intensively studying this stuff, seeing my friends and family in when I could, before coming back to the UK and getting totally thrown into the thick to things. I’ve now been SC “Security Cleared”, which means I can now have access to restricted documents (which will be stored on our system, because some things, like even the location of some of these bases, is restricted) and I’m all trained up and have gotten stuck right in. I’ve got a deadline for the 22nd of September to roll out this system to the Regional Project Managers and to GD. I’m on schedule, but it’s going to be tight. I’m working with 3 other guys on the project, but they are all responsible for setting up the infrastructure, the network and servers for my system to work on. I’m the only project specialist, so it’s pretty full on. Ok, sorry to ramble for so long, but it’s pretty convoluted. I am really enjoying the work, though I’m doing 60 hour weeks at the moment. It’s very interesting. Both challenging and stimulating! Plus I am getting paid in pounds!! I had forgotten how cheap things are in Aus compared to the UK. Money wise I’m in a pretty good job, earning a decent wage, in the UK I live comfortably, can save a bit but still have fun. The bit I’m saving though, if I can save the same amount each year, will make me absolutely minted when I eventually come back home. I hated the exchange rate when I was living as s student and eating into my aussie savings. I’m loving it now I am earning pounds and building up British savings.” So there is a brief overview for you. I don’t plan on doing this forever. There are good opportunities in this area at the moment, lots of jobs out there for Project Sever consultants, but I’m sure I’ll move onto other things. Maybe back into software development, maybe more towards systems integration. Right now the industry is in a really exciting place, there is a lot of cool technology out there, and I’m feeling like a sponge, soaking up information. I am learning a lot technically, but I am also learning a lot about business, about “how things really work”. I’m in a strange position because I am doing technical job, but am having to interface at the highest level of the company. I am getting the sort of exposure I didn’t think I’d get for years. Oh yeah, and I’m getting a new kitchen in my flat too! It was water damaged while I was in Aus, so it’s getting totally refitted; new cooker, benches, cabinets, washing machine, the works. It’s 10.15pm on a Saturday night, I’ve spent all day in the office working, and now im on the train down to Nottingham to visit my girlfriend. Writing all of this, thinking about all of this, has may be realise how fucking awesome I’ve got it at the moment. How lucky I am. I’ve got a wonderful girlfriend means the world to me. I love her. She loves me. I'm in a great place, got a great job. Things are fantastic! I hope everyone else is as happy as I am.

Workaholic

Work Well I've been back from Australia for three weeks now and this is the first chance I've had to write an entry. The time has simply flown by. I realise I didn’t write any entries while I was in Australia. I was just so busy there that I barely had time to think let alone write down what I was thinking and post it to the Internet! I was working all day most of the time, with the rest spread between family responsibilities, catching up with friends, and spending time with Nikkie. I loved my time over there, it was great to go back and see everyone again, and show Nikkie where I grew up. I was exhausted by the end of it though, and partly glad to be heading back “home” to the UK. So I didn’t write any entries while I was over there, but Nikkie did. She grabbed my laptop when I wasn’t using it and wrote something about every day we were there. It covers my experiences pretty well; just substitute all the exciting things she did during the week with boring “Michael Works”. I’ve uploaded all the entries she has written to my blog, which have been slightly edited because she originally wrote them for her own more personal blog. Anyway so I was away for three and a half weeks, and now I’ve been back for three weeks. It’s August bank holiday weekend so I get tomorrow off! It’s going to be the first proper rest I’ve had since returning from Aus. Things at work have been crazy. I knew they were going to be, so I was ready for it, but still it has meant that a lot of other things (such as updating this blog) have had to be put on hold. I’ve been working 80 hour weeks for the past three weeks; routinely working till eight or nine each night as well as Saturdays and sometimes Sundays. It’s hard work, but it’s interesting. I’ve gotten so much accomplished that it’s really amazing. My workload won’t slacken off until the 22nd of September, when the main initial deliverable for the project is due. After that I’m taking a couple of days off to recover. I’m working long hours but I am getting paid really well to do it, and I love my work, and really the only downside at the moment is that Nikkie is on summer holidays and I haven’t been able to spend as much time with her as I would have liked. The first two weeks after getting back she went to Holland, so I had no qualms about working late into the night. I only had an empty flat to go home to, so I was quite happy sitting at work chatting with the other crazies (Geoff and Linda) who were also working late. Now that Nikkie is back though and staying with my up in Liverpool, my priorities have shifted, and I find myself coming home earlier and earlier. This weekend there is the Mathew Street Festival on in Liverpool as well as Creamfields! There is live music, and so much going on. It is supposed to be my first real rest weekend, but I don’t really feel like I am getting much rest. Anyway I’ll do my best to update more often, but don’t get your hopes up guys.

Coming Home

Friends - Personal - Travel - Work I started this blog more than two years ago. Boy I’ve come a long, long way since then. So I’ve been really busy these last couple of weeks. That’s not unusual. A lot has been happening at work. That’s not unusual either. There are some big changes in the works though, which has led to something unusual. So, to cut to the chase, and to let those of you know whom I haven’t contacted already, I’m flying back to Australia on July the 12th. I’m coming home. Though I don’t really know whether it is my home anymore. I’m not coming back to stay, that’s for sure. I’ve got a three week trip booked, and it’s predominately a business trip, the emphasis behind it coming from work rather than my desire to come back for a visit. I had originally not planned on coming back for a visit until Christmas time, but things have been steamrolling ahead at work, and that’s necessitated my early return. To explain in more detail; I’ve been promoted! I’ve been given a great opportunity, a great new job focus, and when my boss offered it to me I jumped at it. I can’t quite do what is being asked of me yet, so I’ve got to do some training first. Guess what, the training I need to do can be done in Brisbane! And it’s a damn sight cheaper than doing it in London as well! So I’m flying home on the company dime, to do two weeks of intensive training on the company dime, all while earning the company dime as if I were working as usual, and at the end of it I fly back to the UK to a new, better, job earning even more of the company dime than before! As Nikkie says, I am a jammy bastard ^_^ Speaking of Nikkie, she is coming with me! She has one more week of placement and then she starts summer holidays. I’ve explained to her that I’ll be working most of the time when I’m back home, that for me this isn’t a holiday as such, it’s part of my job, but she wouldn’t be talked out of coming. Not that I wanted to talk her out of coming. I can’t wait to introduce her to my mum, and all my friends, and show her where I grew up. I’m so totally in love with this girl that I want her to know everything about me, to meet everyone that is important to me, to share in these experiences with me. She is so excited !! ^_^ Things are going really well for me here. I’m in a fantastic job, I have a great flat, I’m going out with the most beautiful girl. I’m fit and well and happy and loving it all. I don’t think my friend will recognise me when I get home. Partly because Nikkie has had me out running with her, and physically I am much trimmer and more toned than before, but also I think my personality is a great deal different to how it was two years ago. It’s hard to describe, but I think it has to do mostly with my outlook on life, or rather more importantly, my outlook on myself. Don’t worry, I wont get all philosophical here, I just think that some of my friend will be shocked at the change in me. I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am to be coming home. This time next week will be my last sleep in the UK before I leave. There is so much to do before then, so much to organise, to work out, to plan for. Right now I don’t care about any of that, I’m just too excited! !!!!!! Written while listening to Alex Lloyd - Coming Home

Early Morning

Friends - Fun - Work So I’ve been slack again at writing entries. Nikkie wrote a thesis guest entry last time. She is such a sweetie. I’m writing this on the train back up from Nottingham to Liverpool, early Monday morning. It’s been a full on last two weeks. Nikkie finished her exams last week, went to Amsterdam with Jade, and then stayed with me last weekend and all last week. At lot has happened, but I’ll just go over it briefly, because I’ve been awake since 5am, and I want to catch a quick nap on the train before I have to go to work. Last Saturday Nikkie, Graeme and I went to help out a Netball tournament that Lisa from work organised to support Breast Cancer research. We had to time matches, ring bells and announce things over the PA system. No very exciting, but it gave us all a lot of time to chat and catch up. Saturday night Ben came down and we all went into town. I had only been out in Liverpool once before with Ads, and that was a random Tuesday night, and Nikkie had never been, so we both looked forward to a big party night. This was Ben and Graeme’s territory, so we let them lead us from bar to bar, club to club, and we got progressively drunker as the night wore on. It was a fantastic night out, the music was great, the atmosphere was pumping, we all had a great time. We ended up getting the night bus back to my place, well it didn’t quite stop at my door, which meant that we needed to walk home a little way. Somewhere along the way we “lost” Ben. We were going to go looking for him, but instead just fell asleep. All of a sudden it was 10am the next morning and he still wasn’t there. Nikkie, crazy girl, put her on running gear and set out to look for him, fearing that he was in a gutter somewhere. She only got halfway down the street before discovering him, curled up asleep in the back of his car. We then went to back to bed and slept into 3pm. The rest of the week went really fast. Work was busy, really busy, and I often has to stay late. Nikkie was absolutely fantastic and cleaned my flat and sorted out all of my stuff, and make my place civilised. It wasn’t that I was particularly disorganised, I just hadn’t had the time to sort everything out. I’m really lucky to have found her, she is wonderful. Thursday night I played a 4 hour club game a cricket. Paul my boss was in Bulgaria, so he asked me to fill in his place. I haven’t played cricket since highschool, and my eye wasn’t in at all, but I played pretty well and had a great time. I didn’t have proper whites though, and so played in shorts. My knees were shredded by the end because I was making diving saves, and my legs killed me the next day from all the running around I did. Nikkie over the course of the week, while I was at work, did lots of physio work, lots of pottering, lots of walking on the beach, and spent lots of time watching the fourth season of 24! Over the course of the week she watched the first 20 episodes, catching up with me, and then together we watch the final four. WOW! What a fantastic series, it was absolutely awesome! Saturday we drove back down to Nottingham. Nikkie’s parents came up on Sunday, we all went out for lunch, and now, come Monday morning, I’m on the train, heading back to Liverpool, ready to start another week. I’m going to sleep now.

Late Night

Work It's 9PM and I'm still at work. Arrgghh! I am turning into Fragma! ^_^

May The Force Be With You

Friends - Fun - Movies - Work I came down to Nottingham from Liverpool last night. This last week of work has been exhausting. I've been running around doing so much stuff. It's really exciting, there has been so much going on and I've been in the tick of it. I've really enjoyed working hard again, I don't even think twice about working through lunch or late I'm that involved and interested in making sure everything comes out as it should. So I had a very fun reunion with Nikkie last night, then a nice long sleep in. I really needed it. Now we are both getting ready to drive down to Milton Keynes to visit my cousin. It's her little boy Jacob's birthday today and we are all going to see the new Star Wars movie. Then we are staying the night at my cousin's place with some other of their friends before coming back down to Notts. It's going to be a busy weekend, and I've got another hectic week of work after it, but you know what, this is what I want to be doing, and I couldn't be happier! Take care everyone!

Site Survey Mark III

Travel - Work I seem to be writing a lot more of late. I credit my new notebook. I love my new baby. It's so slim and light. So I went out to Wolverhampton today. I'd never been there before, and really there isn't much there to make me want to visit again. I had to to yet another site survey, this time on a much larger scale. I spent most of the morning sitting talking to the CFO about the current operation. The CFO! I mean who the hell am I? Here I am discussing upgrade plans and future rollouts with him as if I actually know what the hell I'm talking about and that my say has any value at all in the discussion, and he is listening to me! And you know what, after the first ten minutes or so I no longer felt completely in over my head. It was a good feeling. Today was a good day. Now I'm sitting in Nikkie's bed typing this, while she is on her computer finishing up one of her essays. I should be finishing up the one I'm working on, but I thought it was about time to take a bit of a time out. Nikkie has Oasis playing on her computer. I love this band.

Productive Weekends

Fun - Work Nikkie and I are sat at our respective laptops, at the kitchen table of her house, being productive and doing work. She is writing her interprofessional learning essay and I am helping put together one of her management essays. I didn't realise until now how much is involoved in physiotherapy apart from leraning the anatomy and treatment techniquies. I can't help her with all of that, but at least with her professional practice stuff I can help by providing her with mainstream management theory that complements her phsyio management theory. We've had a very productive weekend actually. I'm surprised at how much work we have actually gotten done. Friday night we went to bed early. ^_^ Saturday morning we got up late. ^_^ ^_^ Satuday we caught up with our friends at our old house, and did a little bit of work in the afternoon. Saturday night we went out for dinner and drinks, and today we have been into town, gone shopping, and are back early enough to get lots more work done. If we get enough done now we can probably go to bed early again tonight ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

Time On Trains

Friends - Fun - Personal - Work I am on the train yet again. I think this past month I’ve clocked up at least 30 hours travel time on trains. Another month of this and I’ll be pushing for a company car! This month I pushed for a new laptop, which is why I am now able to write blog entries while on the train! For some reason I failed to mention that when explaining why I needed one ^_^ I just left Liverpool and am currently heading down to Nottingham. The trip takes two and a half hours, so I’ll get down to Nottingham just as Nikkie finishes work. I haven’t seen Nikkie since I saw here off at Liverpool station last Sunday. I miss her really badly. Of course I’ve talked to her every night, and sent countless text messages, but it’s just not the same. I need to be around her, to touch her, to hug her, to smell her. I feel so alive when I’m with her, when she is there the world just seems that much brighter. It’s been hard this last week without her. I can’t wait until the train pulls into Nottingham. Nikkie is coming to pick me up, and I know that as soon as I step off the train and see her everything is going to be alright. She will fall into my arms, and I’ll hold her tightly, and all my worries will disappear. I’m getting broadband and a phone line installed at my flat next week. The plan I’m getting includes unlimited weekend and evening calls, so I can chat to Nikkie after work for as long as I want. I’m also going to get a webcam set up so that I can see her during the week. Hopefully these things will help keep the loneliness at bay when she is not around. So I have the entire weekend with Nikkie, which is fantastic, but not only that, I’ve organised to do a site visit in Wolverhampton on Monday, which means I can stay in Nottingham Sunday night, do the site visit Monday, return to Nottingham Monday night, then head back up to Liverpool Tuesday morning. Then that leaves only three nights before the next Friday when I get to see her again! It is only a two and a half hours to Nottingham, so if I’m having a particular hard week and I always head down after work, spend the night with her, then head back up early the following morning. It is going to be hard being apart from her most of the week, but, and I’m going to say it here because frankly I don’t care who knows, I’m completely, utterly, and madly in love with this girl, and so I know it will all work out in the end. Anyway, so I feel very professional sitting here in my business clothes, typing away on my laptop. It’s a far cry from the sloppy university student I was just a couple of months ago. At first I didn’t really think I would like this job, but over the last couple of weeks I’ve taken on so much responsibility and done such a variety of things that I now think I am really going to enjoy it. I’m scheduling jobs, managing projects, doing technical work, getting training, going to meetings, doing designs, making decisions. It’s all interesting work, some of it is really cool and exciting, in particular the military contract we are bidding for, which hopefully will get signed off early next week. I know I am going to learn a lot here, and I’m getting paid really well for it too! So you can’t argue with that! I am often asked why my long-term plans are, whether I am just doing this temporarily, or whether I am here for good. My answer to that question has changed dramatically over the last six months. I’ve got a great job, nice flat, good friends and a fantastic girlfriend. I get to party in London, one of the most lively and exciting cities in the world, at least once a month. I get to pop over to an entirely different country for a dirty weekend. I have my some of my family, my cousins, very close by, whom I know I can always rely on. Ok the weather here is crap, but you can’t have everything! I have talked to the rest of my family about this; I’ve talked to my close friends about it too. I don’t intend on moving back to Australia in the near future. To be even more specific, I want to live and work here for at least five years. Long enough to have saved up a very respectable amount (in pounds too!), but even more importantly, long enough for me to get my permanent residency and citizenship. I’ve lived in the U.K. for almost a year and a half now, and I know that I want to always be able to return if I desire. The hassles I’ve had to go through with getting working permits and visas is just too much, I want to be naturalised, have dual citizenship, British and Australian. That doesn’t mean I won’t ever come back home to the land down under, just that I want to be able to make either place my home. So I think I’ve written enough for one afternoon. I’ll post this tonight when I get to Nikkie’s. Sorry if I rambled a bit, I get quite reflective whenever I spend long periods of time on trains. I wrote this while listening to DJ Doboy Trancquility 17. It’s the only MP3 I have on my phone at the moment other than Pimsler Japanese lessons and I haven’t gotten around to downloading any songs onto my new laptop yet.

Working Hard For The Money

Friends - Fun - Travel - Work So as seems usual of late I have left it a good couple of weeks before writing a proper entry. Well I've been working hard, so nah nah nah! ^_^ On Tuesday last week I came up to Liverpool to do some work. I sat in on a very interesting meeting, learnt heaps of stuff, and in that one morning knew that I would enjoy my time at this job. Wednesday I took the day out to go shopping with Graeme, we were buying furniture for my new flat. Thursday John and I were off to London. We were doing some thermal imaging work for the Kings College Hospital, which would take all of Thursday and Friday. We stayed in a hotel just down from the hospital and went out for drinks and dinner on the company's expense account after a hard days work. The thermal camera was really cool; check out my self-portrait in the previous post. Friday night we helped pack up the house of one of the guys who is moving up to Liverpool for this big contract we are getting. Geoff is going to be the new IT Director, and after loading all his stuff into the van we went out for a few pints to recover. Saturday involved driving back up to Liverpool from London and unpacking the truck. Thankfully I convinced John that we should swing by Nottingham on the way up, so we did and picked up Nikkie and a bunch of my stuff. I hadn't seen Nikkie since the previous Monday, so it was very difficult to sit in the truck and keep my hands off her ^_^ So we helped move Geoff in on Saturday. He is living in the most fantastic place on the water here in Liverpool. His flat is on the top floor of the mansion that the captain of the Titanic once lived in. So very cool. My flat pales in comparison, but Nikkie thought it was great all the same, and we moved all my stuff in that day too. Saturday night we spent at my cousin’s catching up, drinking beer and wine and playing pictionary. My cousin and his wife are the undisputed king and queen of pictionary, they usually make it the whole way around the board before you even get out of the first quarter. However this night something must have been in the air because Nikkie and I actually mounted a serious challenge and one of the games came down to sudden death when we were both on the all-play square at the end of the board. Sunday we went to the Oxton Village fair, ate Cornish pasties and watched a Punch and Judy show. Then it was almost time for Nikkie to leave. She is still on placement at the Queens Medical Centre and so had to leave to go back to Nottingham to be ready for her 8.30 start Monday morning. I hated seeing her go. It was hard the previous week being away from her, but because I was so busy running up and down the country the time seemed to pass really quickly. Now she is gone however and I'm aching deep inside. It’s only Wednesday. I'm leaving Friday afternoon to go down to Nottingham for the weekend, but that is still two nights away! I've been keeping myself busy, not trying to be alone in my big flat at nights, but is has been hard. Went drinking with Geoff, Graeme and Paul the last couple of nights, so that has kept me occupied (and Nikkie amused when I ring he at midnight drunk out of my mind). Still I'll have to face my empty flat eventually, and all I can do is think about wanting to be down with Nikkie. Anyway I'll be down there this weekend, have Friday, Saturday and Sunday together. The boss said it doesn't matter if I don’t come in until mid-morning Monday, so I'll get the train up from Nottingham early in the morning. Things are good for me right now. Nikkie is fantastic, but that’s a given, I don’t think she knows how to not be fantastic and lovely and sexy and perfect. The job is interesting, the money is good, the social side of it up here in Liverpool is much better than I expected. All over everything has worked out far better than I had ever hoped to dream. The only down side is the Nikkie is in Nottingham and I am in Liverpool. But it is only another month and a half till her summer break, and then she is coming up here to live with me for the summer, get a job during the days but be with me when we both finish work. It’s going to be awesome, the sun, the sand (oh did I mention my flat is 5 minutes walk from the beach), money in my pocket and my beautiful girl by my side.

Hot Body

Work Well things have been hectic as usual, so I haven't had the time to update much recently. I am in at work right now, after having done some thermal imaging stuff down in London last week. Check out my Hot Body!

Here, There, Everywhere

Friends - Fun - Travel - Work So it’s been two weeks since I last wrote an entry. Here is a quick summary of what I’ve been up to. After my week at work up in Liverpool I got the train down to High Wycombe, about 30 minutes outside of London, where Nikkie’s parents live. Nikkie had gone down to stay with them while I was up in Liverpool working, and had decided to stay longer, so I went down there to stay with them. So I went down on the Friday afternoon and ended up staying till the following Thursday. It was a lot more fun that I expected. Nikkie’s parents are really nice and her little sister is as well. It felt very comfortable there, like I belonged and was accepted. We went into London on the Monday, went to the Portobello Road markets and the Covent Garden markets. Nikkie was very good and resisted buying shoes and handbags. It was a great day, the weather was beautiful, my girlfriend looked stunning, I couldn’t have been any happier. So the week went by incredibly quickly, I was having a load of fun, and then, suddenly, we were back up in Nottingham. Bruce and Ben and Viki were all back in the house. It was good to see them after so long. Easter holidays were drawing to a close and everyone had to get back to study. The next week Nikkie was on placement, and I had to do some work around the country. I needed to do some site surveys for a project we are working on, so on Wednesday I got the train down to London and did a survey out in Enfield, and then Wednesday night I crashed at Anna’s place. She made dinner and we sat around drinking wine in her apartment overlooking the Thames and discussing politics, sex and whether a bear could beat a giant squid in a fight. The next morning I got the train down to Southampton to do another site survey. Thankfully this one didn’t take as long (I was checking this site against the same criteria as the pervious one, so I knew what I was looking for and it went much quicker) and I ended up getting back to Nottingham at 6pm. Over those two days I had spent about 10 hours on trains going to different places, but it was interesting work, and it meant that I could stay in Nottingham for the week and not have to go back up to Liverpool, so that was a great bonus of course. Now its bank holiday weekend. I’ve got tomorrow off, but I do need to be up in Liverpool on Tuesday. I’ll probably be moving up there for good starting next weekend. It’s been a fantastic last couple of months. I managed to stay down here in Nottingham far longer than I first expected. Nikkie is now on placement so she is working every day at the hospital, so that means we can’t spend the days with each other anyway. That being the case my being away won’t be so bad. I won’t be able to see her every night, but we’ll manage. I seem to be saying this a lot recently, but I will write more regularly in the future. This last week I’ve been travelling around for half the time, and the week before I was at Nikkie’s parents. Sorry to everyone who has emailed me that I haven’t replied to yet. I will get to them all! Written while listening to Damien Rice - The Blower's Daughter.

Winding Down

Work Well the week is winding down. I've only got one more day of work, then I'm getting the train down to Nikkie's place and will be spending all of the weekend and next week with her! I can't wait!

On The Job

Work I'm writing this during my lunch break. I am currently up in Liverpool, at my desk, relaxing a little after this morning's work. It has been a while since I worked in an office environment, almost two years in fact, and I had forgotten how much work it takes to do all the other little things that are only indirectly related to you actually doing your work. Still it is nice to be doing something constructive again. I've taken a long enough break since finishing Uni, I want to get back into the thick of it again. So I'll finish up the rest of the day, and then after that I only really need to be in for this big meeting on Friday (which is the reason I was brought up early to start with, to prepare and get everything ready). Then a friend of mine Tom is driving down to Leicester on Friday, so I'll get a lift with him to Notts. Not a very interesting entry all round I guess, but you guys had better get used to that now. I'm moving out of the hedonistic life of a university student and becoming the serious, responsible, working adult. Expect big changes! ^_^

Forms And Football

Work I was up in Liverpool yesterday, doing work. I had a bunch of forms that I needed to fill out, and I also went along to a meeting at Goodison Park, home of Everton Football Club, to meet up with some of their people to discuss a hush-hush development. Very cool indeed. Now I am back in Nottingham, in this big lonely house all by myself. Nikkie handed in her research proposal today, and now has four whole weeks off! She's due around in about ten minutes and then we are going out to dinner. Ads is up in Edinburgh with Bruce at the moment. I got a very drunken phone call from the two of them at 4am this morning. It sounds like they were having a great time. It's strange, becuase I'll probably be up in Liverpool by the time everyone gets back. The work looks like it is going to be extremely interesting, however I am really going to miss it down here. I'm still trying to avoid thinking about it for the moment, I don't want anything to affect how happy I am right now. Ok! Nikkie's here! Got to go! Hunters and Collectors - Throw Your Arms Around Me is playing right now. Heh Nikkie says I'm such a sweetie ^_^ Anyway I'm off! Be happy everyone!

This Is The Story Of A Girl

Friends - Fun - Personal - Work So this is the story of a girl. Or wait; maybe it’s another story entirely. They are all intermingled really. Or perhaps they are all independent, but just occurring concurrently. I’m too tired right now to actually figure it all out. I just thought it was about time that I told you all about it. Apart from my two random entries a couple of weeks ago, I’ve written nothing since my birthday, more than a month ago now. A lot has happened since then. I don’t even know where to start. Ah yes! There was mention of a girl. I guess that’s as good a place as any to begin. Nikkie and I have finally quit our (in hindsight rather stupid) efforts to resist each other and are now, to quote my good friend Calvin, ”brilliantly, disgustingly lovey-dovey”. I really like her, she really likes me. We have wasted so much time and have finally decided to waste no more. So no more of this random, drunken, fooling around bullshit; we are serious, committed and both hopelessly besotted. And I’m really happy, happier than I’ve been in a very long time. Nikkie makes me happy, she is caring, smart and funny; and of course it also helps that she is a stunning blonde half-Dutch goddess who is almost as tall as me! ^_^ Ah boy I can’t stop grinning lately. Nikkie is moving out of our share house this weekend into a smaller two bedroom house with one of her physiotherapy friends, Jade. This move had absolutely nothing to do with her and my relationship; she starts her final year after this summer, has her dissertation to finish and lots of lots of placements to go on, so she really needed to get out of the non-stop party place that is our house. At the time when she decided she was going to move out she and I weren’t even together properly and so it was a completely independent decision. It’s just a bonus now I think because it means we can have some semblance of a proper relationship separate from that whole living together thing. There are perks though that I’ll miss of course ^_^ It takes about 10 minutes to get from her new place to our place (officially named the PartyHouse). So commuting that distance won’t be a problem at all. It takes about two hours to drive to Liverpool from here, so commuting that will be a bit of a problem, which brings me to my next story. I’ve gone and got myself a nice shiny new job; or rather it has come and got me. I’ve been offered a job in Liverpool, with a great salary, company flat thrown in, and lots of interesting work. It’s a fantastic opportunity, all my working visa worries are being worked out, and everything made easy for me to move up there. It’s just not something I actively looked for (I was headhunted in effect, but it’s a long story as to how that came about). Liverpool has its benefits; my cousin John lives up there (lucky coincidence), I am familiar with the city, and I already know people who live there. It has also got a terrific nightlife (as long as you stay away from the chilli shots!). The only problem is that it’s two hours from Nottingham, which means two hours away from all my friends here, as well as the person who is constantly on my mind and making me so happy. So yeah that sucks pretty hard. I can’t start work properly until my working visa goes through though, and even though I’m doing the occasional day’s consultancy work on my student visa, that means I won’t be moving up to Liverpool until at least mid-April. So we are going to see what happens. I’m definitely taking this job, it would be foolish not to. I’m going to be moving to Liverpool at some point in the future. Two hours isn’t that much travelling time though, and I’ll have lots of weekends free, and Nikkie has her Uni holidays. At the moment we are still in the “disgustingly lovey-dovey” stage, but we’ve talked about it and are going to do the long distance thing if needed. That being said I’m going to London tomorrow for lunch and coming back tomorrow afternoon, and it is two hours each way there, so it’s doable, we’ll survive. In other news Ads is still here, in the UK, staying with me still actually. He is having a great time just bumming around and catching up on all the movies, TV shows and anime he has missed over the past three months. He will move on at some point, but right now it’s great to have him here, and if he has already stayed for two weeks, why not stay for another two I say! ^_^ I know I haven’t filled in a lot of the blanks here, and have more just updated the current status of my life rather than detailing how and why it came about that way. All those unwritten blog entries over the past month were suppose to cover that stuff. I didn’t write them though, and there is just too much to say right now, so be content with what you get. To all of my friends whose emails I have neglected to reply to recently please forgive me. I’ll get around to responding soon, and I’ll fill you guys in more on what’s going on. I’ll also endeavour to start writing blog entries more regularly again. It’s amazing how you can get so caught up in your life sometimes. It’s a funny thing life ^_^ Now I’m off to cuddle with my girl and be blissfully happy.

The Party Is Over

Friends - Fun - Personal - University - Work University is over. It's time to retire that category I think. I doubt I'll be writing anything else University related any time soon. I've been lazing about the last week. Well partying about is more apt a description. I decided to take last week completely off, have a holiday, a break, a brief hiatus from the stresses of the real world. So I partied hard the first weekend after my exams, and went out almost every night last week. I hardly got any sleep, and feel great for doing it. We went out to Bar BZA, The Works, Dogma, and a bunch of other places. On Friday night we went out to Ocean. We went there almost every Friday night all of last term, but hadn't been yet so far this term. It was the same as I remembered, crap music, but a lot of fun. Viki had her camera and took a bunch of pics... and here they are! First Picture, Second Picture, Third Picture, Fourth Picture. So the party is over. I've got to settle down now. My task this week, and the following week, and the week after, and for as many weeks after that as needed to succeed, is to get a job. I need to start working if I want to remain in this country. I'm going to try my hardest to stay in Nottingham, I don't want to leave here, leave the friends I've made. This will make it more difficult to get a job, but I'm going to do my best. I want to stay here. I don't know what will happen, where things will lead, but I know I want it to happen here. Written while listening to Crazy Sunshine by The Pillows.

Lantastic

Friends - Travel - University - Work I contemplated blogging from work today. I had come up from the rec room after being soundly beaten at pool (boo) and I didn't really feel like getting stuck right back into documentation, so I pondered whether the IT guys would consider blogging as "work related internet usage". For some reason I doubted it. I just surfed pages on backpacking instead. I've got to work again tomorrow, and the next day and the day after that, but if it means I can eat tasty things in Japan then I'll gladly put up with it! My test went well yesterday. No surprise questions, nothing I absolutely couldn't answer, all is good in the world of relational database systems. Only one more really small (30%) exam left (for Business Research Methods) and I'll be free! Free for this semester at least, free to forget about my thesis for a while and go party in Japan. I haven't been to any of the lectures for this test since week 3 (it is a business subject after all) but if I do some study on the weekend I should be right. My 40% assignment mark should have been released today, but it's not up on the website yet. Not that I really expected anything better from the Uni. Meanwhile half my friends are at a LAN, and have been for the past three days. It's so very annoying becuase they are sitting on IRC and I'm sitting on IRC, and I'm trying to study, and they are playing games, or doing other "fun" things as the case may be. As I type it seems that Bull is about to head over to the LAN as well. Oh and Chris ate a yogo in 30 seconds, I think Wulfen's comment "the fatty" sums it up best. I probably shouldn't blog and read IRC at the same time, everything gets crossed over. We still haven't got anyplace booked to stay in Japan (other than Obama, where we are all staying with our friend Sugoi, and paying by means of walking the landlady's dog). Hopefully we get that all worked out soon, otherwise it's a capsule hotel for us! The closer we get, the more disorganised we seem.