Nelson Street New Year, New Car, New Job

Hurrah -- I have a new job! As of next Tuesday, I'll be a Senior Software Developer (Team Lead) with  Rozetta Technologies.

The company is, among other things, the technology arm of the not-for-profit SIRCA, which provides historical financial data to a number of cooperating Universities, government departments and financial institutions. Experts in "big data", of which there is a large and growing abundance, as well as "cloud computing" (since that's the only way to scale). Fun stuff! I can't wait!

Big data is one of those things you can't REALLY mess around with at home on the weekend, so it will be awesome to get my hands dirty with some of the cool stuff I otherwise just read about. (My last role used various bits of "big data" tech, but also tended to customise it for specific use-cases and hide it behind an API -- this should be a lot more down in the details.)

Even better (read: more challenging), the primary programming language of choice is Python. Now, I've done some Python, but not commercially and neither as much nor as long as Java -- so I'm brushing up on that and really looking forward to diving into some brand-new code. I never thought I'd be excited to NOT be doing Java, but I really am!

And of course, the team leading component: I'll be looking after a team of around 5 or 6 other (more junior) developers, across a number of different projects, which is a whole different class of problem altogether.

To finish of: some photos of our new car (in case you missed them on Facebook):

Nelson Street News

We have a new car!

We bought a Toyota RAV4 Cruiser - 2.2L diesel, AWD, graphite grey and with more gadgets than a Radioshack bargain bin. We have a reversing camera, proximity sensors, built-in GPS, Bluetooth handsfree, blind-spot alerts, automatic wipers and high-beams, traction control, key-less entry and start, iPhone and Android integration. It beeps and boops and comes with a separate user manual just for the centre console unit. I feel like we've bought the Starship Enterprise.

I'll get some photos this weekend.

On the job front, I'm getting interviews, now people are back for the new year, and I'm expecting at least one, maybe two, firm offers on Monday - as well as an interview for a short term contract, should I feel like going for money over "job security" (whatever that means). Keep fingers crossed for the *good* job, as the other one looks like a much less geek-friendly environment (and I think I've been spoiled by Silicon Valley).

Jules is settling into his preschool room well, it seems, and his favourite teachers have both moved to his room too. He's made some friends (they say) and is much vocal than he was in the tiny-tots room; he also stole a Professor Zee car from somebody's locker, so it's swings and roundabouts I guess.

The weather still sucks, so we're all happy to skip the bus for a while, and thus weekend I hope we can get out of the city and spend a little time enjoying the new car smell.

Church Street chatter

Well done everyone. I decided I was the last to post so had better get on with it.
Quiet here at the moment as the dancing is only just resuming. We'll be back to four days a week from this week. Need to add some walking if I am to keep ahead of my energetic boys.
Christmas at Mum's for probably the last year. Here is nominated for next year and there might be some changes to the menu (and who does what). We danced at Spring Gully on NYE with 100 others. Great night.
My New Years resolution is to declutter so many things have to go. Lisa is here often enough to vet what's op shopped. I tidied the study and the store room  but not much really went out. Today would have been a good day to get on with it but so humid that I can't be bothered.
Clive and his grandson Lachie came for tea yesterday. We went to the Camp hotel for a couple of games of pool (Lach plays in Mildura and wanted to practise.) Unfortunately, the bistro there isn't open yet so we had chicken salad at home for tea afterwards.
Mason reunion at Liz and Trevor's on the 17th Jan. Clive and I are going to Sale on 23rd for a 70th birthday party. Deb practice starts on 18th January so my Sunday evening's will be busy.
Mum has cataract surgery on the 28th Jan and 3rd Feb. Clive sees the radiologist on 29th Jan to find out what treatment is suggested for him.
Guess we all need to make the most of some quiet time in January.I'm trying to tidy the yard a bit as well but that's definitely a morning only job. Think I'll tell Len Thomas to forget the Buick for a bit.
I hope all of you have a fabulous 2015 and all of your dreams come true,

Gordon St Gossip

My holidays are drawing to a close, sadly - I'm back at work tomorrow. It's been a good (and busy) couple of weeks off.. others have mentioned some of what we did - Christmas lunch at Nana's (and a bbq for dinner at Edith and Landon's), Boxing Day Brunch with EVERYONE.

Sunday after Christmas we headed to Highpoint in Melbourne to spend some Christmas money. Os bought a marble maze game and Lil some Frozen jewellery. I tried to talk her into a craft kit, but nope - she's a girly-girl and insisted on earrings and a necklace :)

Monday we saw Big Hero 6. If you haven't seen it it's pretty awesome. It kept both the kids interested the whole way through (which is an achievement) and has changed the way they fist bump forever.

We then took the kids to Melbourne Zoo Tuesday, where they laughed at the monkey butts :) Os had been wanting to go again since he went with school, so it was good to get out there.. especially during school holidays, when kids get in for free. There's a few pictures (including the monkey-butt.. okay, ape-butt)here

We also checked out the splash park, and they had a fabulous time until Lil fell over and scraped her knees pretty badly. Turns out the rough, non-slip concrete surface is also a rough, knee-destroying concrete surface. As I was carrying her to the car to put on bandaids, between the tears she said "I'm pretty lucky to go to the splash park" so I guess it wasn't too traumatic for her ;)

New Years Eve, like Carolynn mentioned, we joined them at a friend's place, although we piked early.

At that point the heat started kicking in and we gave the kids some quiet time playing with their new Christmas toys. Os painted his shield from Auntie Lisa (I helped a little) and I think he did an wonderful job.

Today we're thinking about checking out Jumpz in the morning, before the heat really kicks in again. Then back to work for me, although I've told my work that I'll take another day off at some point in January so we can go check out the Aquarium.

Very Long Time No Post

So last year was busy, with TAFE and dancing. I have re-enrolled to complete the classes I didn't pass last year to do this year and dropped my workload from 21 contact hours a week to 15 (which I think is more manageable with the homework load)

Christmas was busier than usual for me  this year with trying to fit in visiting Jarrad's family, we spent the morning with mum and the family before Jarrad played golf with his mum's partner Neil and then the normal lunch and tea at Nanna's. We had brunch at Damien and Cheryl's before tackling boxing day shopping with mum and the girls, then tea with Mum and Neil. We spent the next few days recovering before NYE.

NYE we went to Darren and Danielle's with mum and the girls, the kids had a water fight before Damien, Cheryl, Os and Lily turned up and we had tea. We walked up the street to watch the fireworks in Rosi park and came home to no power (it went off just after we left turns out), so we sat in the candlelight playing trivia until the power came on and we all went to bed (roughly around 2.30). We then spent new years day with them to help finish off the food and the kids could play some more.

Yesterday we went to the splash park with mum and the girls, this time the water was on and working properly unlike the first time I was there and it's actually pretty cool...and I didn't get burnt!! (only a little red but it went away). That's about all from me, besides Mum, Jarrad and I are going to see The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies tomorrow.

Will try to post more often this year :)

Nelson Street notions

It's been a LOOOOONG time since we posted - but as you know, there's been a few things happening.

We had a very (blissfully) quiet Christmas at home. Jules woke up and walked straight past his Santa sack, which was cute, then spent the next few hours opening presents and generally getting over excited. We were pretty restrained this year, since we got the trampoline BEFORE we realised I needed a new job (!!), but Jules still had a ton of presents under the tree -- thanks to all you nice people!

Dee did a great job of food with zero help from me -- lots of little grazing snack throughout the day, like rare beef and horseradish Yorkshire puddings, savoury pin wheels and twists, mini roast pork and even seafood cocktails for lunch (classic). I tried a few new beers, and wine (naturally), but we weren't going anywhere in Sydney's heat!

Jules eventually had a nap, too, although fought tooth and nail to avoid it. Of course, once he woke up he figured it was time to open more presents! Um...

The trampoline was disappointing -- we opened the boxes on Christmas eve and discovered we had been given the wrong parts. After A LOT of running around with Vuly support, it now seems like we MIGHT get the parts delivered from Brisbane on Monday. No confidence in that at all by now and we're writing a stern letter...

New year's eve was similarly low key, and similarly humid. Both Jules and Dee had sensible afternoon naps (I didn't, and thus didn't see midnight). We sat inside under the AC and watched the 9pm fireworks on the ABC -- synchronous with the sound we could hear outside. I think it was good for our boy to be in the comfort and safety of his home while seeing the fireworks, as he tends to be a little intimidated by crowds and loud noises both.

Looking forward to a new job that doesn't involve travel, and a prosperous 2015.