Asleep on a Train

I had to fly to Sydney this week to talk to my team up there, as they had stopped working with each other. There had been growing concerns that it wasn't going too well, but leaving it alone to sort itself out was not doing it, so I flew up there and spoken to them both and adressed their issues. I don' know if it will make a difference, but if it don't then I will have to break that team up. what a borin post so far. Dee is tired today and I'm off to cheer her up. Casey has told me she has a boyfriend so I wil now wait a see what else she has to say about it, before she comes home. Cheers

It continues to amaze me how quickly I can make the time go by. I think that by the time I'm 60, it will be tomorrow...Just. I haven't stopped to gather my thoughts here for the past month, yet it seems like yesterday when I did write about Kem's funeral. Yesterday, I was talking to my son-in-law, Pere, and he remarked that it will be exactly nine years, to the day, since he and my daughter traveled over the pond to see us for a holiday, NINE YEARS. Of course we have seen each other lots of times in the ensuing years, but still that seems only not so long ago that they were staying with us. I had some old film developed (pre Digital Camera) and in one pack, there were photos of Dee being accepted into the Legal system of Victoria as a solicitor, and that was over three years ago. The film had floated around our house waiting for someone to develop it. Thank god Kirby still has some curiosity otherwise the film could have hung around for another three years. So what's be...

It's been a long tiring 9 days. On 8th October, peacefully, but suddenly, my step-father died in his sleep. What follows is my recount of the last 9 days since then. 5:30pm 8th Oct: Mum rings with the sad news. She has gathered her Ch-Ch based children around her. It is Saturday night 8:30 over there, and a big game of local rugby was underway, so my brother needed to be driven over to mum's by his mate Mark. Paddy chats to me, assuring me that mum is OK, but a bit dazed (understandably) Tententive plans are made for me to come over as soon as possible. It was too early to say when the funeral would be. Kem's son and daughter were holidaying on the Gold Coast so it will be later in the following week to allow for travel plans to be sorted. The next couple of days are a bit of a blur for everyone. By Tuesday, Paddy's travel agent had sorted out my trip and the funeral was set for Fri @ 11:30am. Wednesday was Casey's 15th birthday and Dee and I were lucky enough to be...

On Tuesday night, I had to drive down to Geelong to pick up my 14 year old daughter. It was at the end of a long tiring day (sob) and as my car was at the Werribee train station, I got out of the train, into my car and headed straight down the coast to Geelong. It was sunset, and I had already had one SMS from Casey asking me if I was on my way. For a dad, this is pressure. 5kms before Avalon Airport my car died. Pulling over to the side of the road, I popped the bonnet,(hood!!) climbed out, but in the failing light, was unable to detect the reason. I had plenty of petrol, water, and the electrics all worked, the engine just wouldn't fire up. I rang my wife (the client !) to ask her to begin to drive to Geelong instead of me, and then I rang RACV. I'm a member, so I had no reason not to call them. RACV answered the phone within a minute, after a bit of option selection, and once they had confirmed my membership, I told them my situation. They dispatched a van to rescue me. With...

" Wake me up when September ends" - Green Day I can write better on a train than I can on a plane The seats on the plane are too close together, and I don't get enough room to hold the laptop far enough away from my fat tummy to read it clearly (bad eye sight doesn't help!) The flights to Sydney are too short to really justify even getting the laptop out The train trip into Melbourne is better, I can start to write as soon as I sit down, and the trip time is unpredictable but always more than 35 minutes. On a train you never know which stations will be used. Sometimes it is an express trip, and sometimes it stops all stations Today the train isn't even going to the usual destination, but it still gets me pretty close to the office. Since the Sydney project was completed,(six weeks ago) I've being feeling a bit empty and lifeless. To address those feelings, I took a week off, but with Dee at home, I ended up being just as busy as ever. In fact we di...

I'm in Sydney tonight, and I'm babysitting a major relocation exercise for the firm I work for. For the past four months, we have been planning the for the combination of two offices of about 80 people each into one big office, and it is happening this weekend. I have a new computer room to fit out, a new switch to commission, new data connections back to the Melbourne office, and the reconstruction of a PABX that uses traditional phones and VoIP units. I have two sets of MultiFunction Device printer/copiers which will need to go to Sydney and Melbourne, a heap of small data switches to dispose of, some of which will also go back to Melbourne, and here I am sitting in the new office at 10pm on a Friday, waiting for all the bits to fall into place. Saturday morning will have us pulling down the servers, and bringing them into the new office, the phone guys have just made a new connection with the out side world (yah!) so I guess I will just have to pace it out until we are...

As I set about changing my life last year, determined to make it better, I drew up a list of things I wanted to do. Being acknowledged for my thoughts or ideas in a public forum was one of these items on the list. Well, be careful what you wish for, because my chance came up last week. The firm I'd joined had taken a bit of a risk last year using a certain type of computer for the workers called a Thin Client. It is basically a PC, but without the Hard Drive, and all its work is done back on a network of servers using an operating system called Citrix. Well, each year Citrix holds a Trade Convention called iForum and I got to speak about the stuff our firm has done. This was my first BIG public speaking gig that rated. Wyse, the makers of the Thin Client, flew me up to Sydney, and helped me write the speech. I didn't realise how big the deal was until I lined up for a Taxi at Sydney and saw this The signs were all over the Airport, and later on, I wandered over to the Darling H...

Howdy folks, my name is Gizmo. My bosses picked me up from the farm in Feb 05 and now I'm 5 months old in human terms, but really I'm nearly 3 dog years old. Dad let my paw this blog 'cos he is really busy at work, helping to organise a big office relocation up in Sydney Dad found a new site he is trying out called Photobucket, because he has bought a new Digital camera and now he reckons he has lots of photos to show people. The little bosses, Casey and Kirby, really like his new electronic toy and I don't think Dad really gets to use it THAT much. This photo of me was taken by Casey. Dad thinks he can put some more photos of the little bosses and other stuff over the next few weeks, but I'm not so sure, because he hardly plays with me and I have to wake him up every morning with licks otherwise he is late for work. I wake up everyone in the house. I can't wake up Nathaniel, because he moved away because I smelled too much, but I don't think I really did. I...

This is a test post from Photobucket.com

Hi there. June flew past me while we continued to sort out the mess that used to be our house. With only the weekends to really get 'stuck in' to cleaning it up and sorting through all our hoarded positions, our progress is very slow. Most weekends shrink down to about a day when you take out the opportunities to watch decent rugby on Fox Sport. The Super-12 final, with the Crusaders destroying the 'tahs, was a great day, but the victory was bitter-sweet because my group of work mates and friends have no idea how great the victory was. Needless to say, my mum did, and she sent me the bits from the local Christchurch paper, showing the team celebrating their win. The only joy I get out of the win, apart from the obvious joy of the team I support winning, is when I go up to Sydney, the home of the losing team, and gloat among my staff up there. A small and petty thing, but it's all I can do. Victorians just don't seem to get it. Kirby is playing soccer each S...

Mea Culpa This is becoming a bit of a confessional for me. I always regret the times I don't write about. It has been an age since I last wrote anything serious in here, and I have no-one to blame but me. As you had gathered over the past six months, I regularly added items in here, I was rebuilding and revaluing my life after a couple of years which were pretty low in the happiness stakes. This is all changing now, and my full life has meant that some things can't be done, for reasons selfish or due to plain old laziness. I can't promise regular news feeds but I would like to try to entertain my two readers. Since January lots of things have taken place in my life and what follows are the things I remember today. The missing things should surface over the next few weeks as I try to increase my words here. My life revolves around my wife, family, friends and work. If I'm not doing something for one of these reasons then the only other reason is for me. These words are f...

My my, time does get away from you when you are not looking. I've been busy, which goes without saying really, because if I had nothing to do, I would write about it here, and I haven't been posting here...so I've been busy.. Okay, I got my car back, albeit a bit smashed up. The front passenger window was broken and the dipstick was missing. They used the dipstick to start the car. They drove it until it ran out of petrol, then left it in the rain for a couple of days. I spent a bit of money repairing it, and I brought a steering lock, which was all I need to stop it being stolen for joy rides again, according to my mechanic. On the job front, I've been offered the full time role at the law firm. Now the work gets a bit more serious. One of the reasons I haven't written here lately. Dee and I are still great, but I will need to put Niagara on the market soon and start to travel a bit more. The plan is for me to wait out the 3 month probation on the job, and then pus...

My life keeps getting more interesting. I spent last weekend down in Geelong, with Dee and the girls. Dee has embarked on a side venture, pushing plastic kitchenware via the party method. All good fun because she has had a large collection of this type of product for as long as I've known her and it was only logical that she became a disciple at some stage. Last Sunday, she had arranged for one of her long-time uni buddies to host a party, and we all went over to the friend's place, as we had been invited to stay for a BBQ afterwards. Sunday was a stinky hot day. Being a social event, on a Sunday, we had planned our week due to my need to fly up to Sydney the next day. All good. The party was a quiet affair, with Dee having a couple of sales, which is good as she gets started in the biz, and while that was going on, I made small talk with the host's hubby, who also works in Technology. His views are firmly fixed as to what is good and bad in these areas, due to his position...

You never know where you will find an Interesting Conversation. I took the Substitute bus Geelong to Melbourne; as opposed to the normal train, due to repairs on the track. Sitting beside me was an 81 year old man. I put down my book on Knowledge Learning (a book review is coming) and decided that this morning I would talk to him rather than pretend I was asleep. After all this was not a train. He was a retired engineer from Nestles. Born in Perth he had lived most of his life in Warnambool. He has been looking after his wife of 50 years (51 in May :)), who is in a wheel chair and is losing her control of her body. He told me that she was still smart but trapped inside a body that is slowly failing. That day, he was on his way to Dubbo zoo. His daughter had come down from Melbourne to relieve him from his caring duties, and told her dad to have a break. Going to a zoo 1000 kms away sounded like a good break! In the space of an hour we discussed the human condition and injustic...

What a relief. After the month of turmoil, changing jobs, buying a car, Christmas and birthday, and cutting up my credit cards and canceling my overdraft, I was down to my last $100 of real money. I was paid last night and this morning I quickly moved funds into my savings and bill paying accounts before the money burned a hole in my virtual pocket. I still have a long way to go before my head surfaces but I want to be on top of my spending by the end of the year. This means living frugally and saving vigorously...not something I've been good at in the past. As for now(this week), I will pay the balance of the car repairs and next week I will sort out the Stamp Duty owed to Vic Govt...or yeah, I owe the taxman too -sigh- Not having credit is forcing me to priority's what needs to be dealt with and at the same time keeps me focused on the daily issues as well. I can now show myself that I'm spending too much on lunches and I'll need to find alternatives to th...

Tomorrow I start my new job. I will be contracting to a law firm as the IT manager, and I'm very nervous and excited. This is a risk for me, but I go in with my eyes open. The past week (Christmas, Dee's birthday and New Year) has been spent with my family, whom I have a great love for. Our Christmas was quiet and controlled, as mentioned previously, and the time leading up to the 29th was spent quietly potting about our homes. For Dee's birthday, we went on a dinner steam train from Queenscliff to Drysdale return. It is a sunset trip and takes about an hour there, an hour at Drysdale to enjoy the countryside and a spit roast meal, and the return trip was enjoyed as the sun when down over the Bellarine Peninsula. You can learn about it here http://www.bpr.org.au/ Dee and I spent some much needed time working in the garden at Niagara Way. I managed to pull most of the weeds from the front, and we have tidied up the side of the house as well. Casey went to Canber...