Tuesday 31 July 2007
Monday 30 July 2007
Wednesday 25 July 2007
My work on theage.com.au
Hey all.. I found out this morning that the illustration I did of Cheryl was featured on the Age Blogs: Creativity Corner. Each week they set a topic, and you submit photos and the like. Then they choose one image and one poem to show on the page.
Here's the age page - http://blogs.theage.com.au/creativitycorner/
While I'm spamming you guys with links, make sure you have a look at my blog and my RedBubble page.. I've been doing a fair bit of work recently, and I'm seriously considering printing out some samples to send to childrens book publishers. I seem to be getting a good reaction from the work I have up, I even sold another framed print (not sure who to.. was it one of you guys again?) and quite a few cards. I would love to illustrate a kids book.. that would just be fantastic.
Here's the age page - http://blogs.theage.com.au/creativitycorner/
While I'm spamming you guys with links, make sure you have a look at my blog and my RedBubble page.. I've been doing a fair bit of work recently, and I'm seriously considering printing out some samples to send to childrens book publishers. I seem to be getting a good reaction from the work I have up, I even sold another framed print (not sure who to.. was it one of you guys again?) and quite a few cards. I would love to illustrate a kids book.. that would just be fantastic.
Shrek in da house
Here's a picture of Glenn, Dee and me all Shrekked up for Trin's birthday party. You can see that we're enjoying party food too. ;)There are more piccys in this flickr set. :)
*big hugz*
Sunday 22 July 2007
Thursday 19 July 2007
Simpsonize me
http://www.simpsonizeme.com/
This is so cool. That's me as a Simpsons character :)
Here's Cheryl
Feel free to edit this post to add yourself :)
Wednesday 18 July 2007
Mystery tour
Dad and I went on a Probus mystery tour on Tuesday. After travelling thru snow as well as the usual rain, we had morning tea at the golden arches. Plan was at the Organ Pipes but as that was an outdoor venue it was cancelled on account.
First stop, Telstra Dome. Unexpected, and not something we'd have done on our own. Lunch at Victoria Market with 40 minutes to eat and shop.
Next stop MCG. Did I mention a man planned this mystery trip. I think I'd have preferred DSO, but I guess again it was somewhere we never would have visited. Now I know there is a 20 year waiting list to become a member with all of the privileges that includes. I sat in one of the leather seats in the Long Room. An hour and a half of walking around and up and down to see it all. There was a film crew to record our visit. Not sure which station but I think it may be on Friday night somewhere. We headed for home at 4.30pm, just when peak hour traffic peaks,continued thru more snow and rain to arrive home at 6.30pm.
Since I now will be working on Tuesday(if only for 1 1/2 hours) I won't be available for any more trips unless they are on Thursday, and Dad isn't available Thursday.
Looking forward to Carolynn's concert next Saturday and Trinity's birthday party Sunday week. I think I might consider that to be my celebration as well. ( and we'll say Happy birthday to Cheryl) I guess even if Trinity has her own birthday, we'll be sharing the celebrations for a few years. ( I don't really need to keep count do I?)
First stop, Telstra Dome. Unexpected, and not something we'd have done on our own. Lunch at Victoria Market with 40 minutes to eat and shop.
Next stop MCG. Did I mention a man planned this mystery trip. I think I'd have preferred DSO, but I guess again it was somewhere we never would have visited. Now I know there is a 20 year waiting list to become a member with all of the privileges that includes. I sat in one of the leather seats in the Long Room. An hour and a half of walking around and up and down to see it all. There was a film crew to record our visit. Not sure which station but I think it may be on Friday night somewhere. We headed for home at 4.30pm, just when peak hour traffic peaks,continued thru more snow and rain to arrive home at 6.30pm.
Since I now will be working on Tuesday(if only for 1 1/2 hours) I won't be available for any more trips unless they are on Thursday, and Dad isn't available Thursday.
Looking forward to Carolynn's concert next Saturday and Trinity's birthday party Sunday week. I think I might consider that to be my celebration as well. ( and we'll say Happy birthday to Cheryl) I guess even if Trinity has her own birthday, we'll be sharing the celebrations for a few years. ( I don't really need to keep count do I?)
Monday 16 July 2007
New flat, new hair
Now that I've finally got internet access at home again, it's time to fill you lot in on what I've been up to.As you can see in this photo, I've decided to try the summer colour.. I wanted it natural, they took out most of the black and it went coppery-red. Not exactly what I was after, but it will do for now.. it's certainly MUCH lighter than it used to be. And I still don't recognise myself in shiny surfaces!
My new place is a studio flat, so one room for living, a bathroom and a kitchen. Really, it's all that I need. Most of the flat was furnished, which is good - Jon (my 25 yr old landlord) bought a new mattress for the bed and everything, so it's pretty good. I bought some drawers and little tables from Ikea (and even managed to put most of them together.. the small desk drawers have nails when I think glue will be most effective (after bending 5 or 6 nails trying to hammer them in to the layered board the drawers are made of).. anyway..).
This picture and the next are from different points but are the same room - my living area. In the first you can see the corner of my bed (and the corner of the window opposite). In the second you can see my desk and computer (which also serves as my entertainment unit - my dvds are on the shelf at the top. *grin*). I even managed to take those pictures when it was kinda sunny - it's been raining for the last 5 weeks or so..
The final picture is my kitchen. It's not very big, but I don't have to share, so it doesn't need to be big. The oven and microwave work (bonus). The fridge is bar-fridge sized (and in one of the cupboards under the bench). The washing machine works (no dryer, but I'm sure I can deal with that). And there's even a tiny freezer in the storage room, so I can have frozen meals for when I can't be bothered cooking. All in all - functional and all that I need. :)
So, I'll be here for at least 3 months, and it's my intention to be here until my contract at work runs out (which could be end of October or end of April - it's unofficially been extended till end April). However, Jon's trying to sell the flat, so it could all go sour if someone buys for living in, not buys for investment. But until I get notice, I'm happy to stay here. And there's plenty of space for visitors - provided they bring an airbed and don't mind sleeping on the floor in the same room as me. :)That will do from me for now. Anyone else??
Tuesday 10 July 2007
We're in London Still
Hey Guys,
We only have 2 weeks of work left in Edinburgh weeeee! cant wait. I have had my resume put forth for a role at Goldman Sachs and I haven't even started looking yet! so hopefully all goes well, there are heaps of job spots in London...
Glenn and I flew down Friday night for house hunting on Saturday, start off as a bit of a nightmare, we booked on the last flight from Edinburgh which is 21:45. so we got there early to have some dinner and a few "mood enhancers" (wine) for me. The flight was then delayed for an hour and a half... when we got to Gatwick we took the express train into london which took 40 minutes then had to line up for an hour for a taxi because the tube we need was closed for rail works (happens quite a bit in London), we ended up getting to our hotel at 2am, then had to get up at 6:30am for our first viewing at 8:30am. Needless to say we were a little bit silly Saturday.
But it ended up really well. The first place we had lined up was for a private place i has seen on the internet Friday, as soon as I saw it I thought perfect. great location exactly what we wanted... and it was! We finished that viewing and thought we should see the others, we saw 2 after that than rang the guy back and took it. The second one we saw was a joke! seriously a matchbox and the third was a converted warehouse so okay but no balcony. So after we viewed the third we went to the nearest pub to celebrate and to ring the guy of course.
Here are some pics (one thing to keep in mind apartments in London are much smaller, this one is half the size of our current place but as a great long balcony along the outside) oh and it also has a view of the Gherkin!
It´s a converted school house, top floor so it is going to be great for my very absent fitness level!
We are also going to get bikes so we can cycle to work..
We only have 2 weeks of work left in Edinburgh weeeee! cant wait. I have had my resume put forth for a role at Goldman Sachs and I haven't even started looking yet! so hopefully all goes well, there are heaps of job spots in London...
Glenn and I flew down Friday night for house hunting on Saturday, start off as a bit of a nightmare, we booked on the last flight from Edinburgh which is 21:45. so we got there early to have some dinner and a few "mood enhancers" (wine) for me. The flight was then delayed for an hour and a half... when we got to Gatwick we took the express train into london which took 40 minutes then had to line up for an hour for a taxi because the tube we need was closed for rail works (happens quite a bit in London), we ended up getting to our hotel at 2am, then had to get up at 6:30am for our first viewing at 8:30am. Needless to say we were a little bit silly Saturday.
But it ended up really well. The first place we had lined up was for a private place i has seen on the internet Friday, as soon as I saw it I thought perfect. great location exactly what we wanted... and it was! We finished that viewing and thought we should see the others, we saw 2 after that than rang the guy back and took it. The second one we saw was a joke! seriously a matchbox and the third was a converted warehouse so okay but no balcony. So after we viewed the third we went to the nearest pub to celebrate and to ring the guy of course.
Here are some pics (one thing to keep in mind apartments in London are much smaller, this one is half the size of our current place but as a great long balcony along the outside) oh and it also has a view of the Gherkin!It´s a converted school house, top floor so it is going to be great for my very absent fitness level!
We are also going to get bikes so we can cycle to work..
Saturday 7 July 2007
Mum, Dad, Nana and the Wii
Mum, Dad and Nana arrived in Adelaide yesterday. We headed around to their hotel for dinner, fish and chips whose delivery took about an hour longer than it was supposed to, but it was tasty when it got to us. Maybe it was all planned, so we'd be really hungry and enjoy it more :)
Today we had lunch at a little bakery near out house and then headed into the city. We drove around for a look, and had a wander through the mall but it was pretty rainy so we headed home after an hour or so. Then we loaded up the wii with Wario: Smooth Moves. It's a game in which the wiimote is used in a wide variety of ways such as the example above (called "the mohawk") and it's a fun game to watch as well as play. I've posted some videos we took in a zip file here.
Oh, and as far as sports goes Dad is a master bowler, but Mum is a master golfer. And Nana is a master spectator ;)
Wednesday 4 July 2007
Good News
Long time to talk. So everyone remebers my french assignment well it was a compition.....................I got 229 points....................which means I won.
Sunday 1 July 2007
No more late nights, let's move!
It's been a while, I know, so how about an update?
Last week was my last week in Support, and I'm very happy about that! No more late nights, no more midnight phone-calls where I'm expected to a) know what is going on, and b) actually care. My ex-team, not the most public of folk, decided to do away with the customary goodbye presentation and instead slinked over at around 5pm with a bottle of 15yo scotch whiskey and the whispered caveat: "we're not doing speeches, the office is too quiet. Bye."
Fine by me! I turned up on Monday to the new office, new team, with nary a backwards-glance. I'm a developer now. In the bank, that's like being a real person -- rather than the burakumin status that Support seems to foster. I've thus far achieved nothing of note, trying to get access to everything I might need ... and I've already done more interesting work that anything I did in Support. (In this case, "interesting" means I've written a little application for tracking what I spend my time on. It consists of a little floating "task" or "context" bar which sits above everything else and has buttons for "meeting", "phone", "coding" ... the idea is you can quickly record what you're doing, and the application records how much time you spend on each thing. Perfect for contracting, or even just for the weekly report that we're expected to produce every week. I might even let Dee use it in whatever contract she starts.)
On that, Dee has started looking for new work. It's looking pretty good thus far -- the rate she's asking for seems quite a lot to us, but is fairly tame compared to the market-rate. Even better, as I've not left the company our income continues across the move i.e. we don't have the extra pressure of trying to find both a job and an apartment. Which is good, since finding a flat is a little bit harder than previously expected.
It's not that there are flats available -- more that they move so quickly that we need to just turn up, pick one, sign the lease and come back up north to pack. I flew down to London last weekend -- and boy are my arms tired *badaboom!*. Anyway, it was a 6am flight down to London from Edinburgh and I met a friend (Mark) I went to Uni with who is currently staying near Paddington. The day was long, we saw a few apartments, but nothing was really ideal. Sigh.
I came back to Edinburgh the same day -- it was cheaper that way -- so as you can imagine I was a little shattered the next day. (If unsure, try a sixteen hour day *wink*.) I was, however, conscious enough to go through the photos of the places I saw and discuss them with Dee. No good, time for a change of gameplan -- let's keep the same budget, but start looking for one bedroom places north of the financial district .
Don't worry Mum, we're looking at places close enough to my work (and Dee's projected work) that we can walk in each day, or at least ride bicycles. No "tube" (the London Underground) for us! Not if I can help it, anyway.
Anyway, we haven't found a place yet but will keep you posted. We're planning on both going down next week, so fingers crossed!
Last week was my last week in Support, and I'm very happy about that! No more late nights, no more midnight phone-calls where I'm expected to a) know what is going on, and b) actually care. My ex-team, not the most public of folk, decided to do away with the customary goodbye presentation and instead slinked over at around 5pm with a bottle of 15yo scotch whiskey and the whispered caveat: "we're not doing speeches, the office is too quiet. Bye."
Fine by me! I turned up on Monday to the new office, new team, with nary a backwards-glance. I'm a developer now. In the bank, that's like being a real person -- rather than the burakumin status that Support seems to foster. I've thus far achieved nothing of note, trying to get access to everything I might need ... and I've already done more interesting work that anything I did in Support. (In this case, "interesting" means I've written a little application for tracking what I spend my time on. It consists of a little floating "task" or "context" bar which sits above everything else and has buttons for "meeting", "phone", "coding" ... the idea is you can quickly record what you're doing, and the application records how much time you spend on each thing. Perfect for contracting, or even just for the weekly report that we're expected to produce every week. I might even let Dee use it in whatever contract she starts.)
On that, Dee has started looking for new work. It's looking pretty good thus far -- the rate she's asking for seems quite a lot to us, but is fairly tame compared to the market-rate. Even better, as I've not left the company our income continues across the move i.e. we don't have the extra pressure of trying to find both a job and an apartment. Which is good, since finding a flat is a little bit harder than previously expected.
It's not that there are flats available -- more that they move so quickly that we need to just turn up, pick one, sign the lease and come back up north to pack. I flew down to London last weekend -- and boy are my arms tired *badaboom!*. Anyway, it was a 6am flight down to London from Edinburgh and I met a friend (Mark) I went to Uni with who is currently staying near Paddington. The day was long, we saw a few apartments, but nothing was really ideal. Sigh.
I came back to Edinburgh the same day -- it was cheaper that way -- so as you can imagine I was a little shattered the next day. (If unsure, try a sixteen hour day *wink*.) I was, however, conscious enough to go through the photos of the places I saw and discuss them with Dee. No good, time for a change of gameplan -- let's keep the same budget, but start looking for one bedroom places north of the financial district .
Don't worry Mum, we're looking at places close enough to my work (and Dee's projected work) that we can walk in each day, or at least ride bicycles. No "tube" (the London Underground) for us! Not if I can help it, anyway.
Anyway, we haven't found a place yet but will keep you posted. We're planning on both going down next week, so fingers crossed!
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