Nelson, er, Albany Road Adventures

It’s nice to get away for a bit.

It’s been in planning for ages — years, actually — because Dee’s mum is turning 70 in a matter of days. After much discussion, we all decided to come to Brisbane and spend the week together on Stradbroke Island: a little swimming, some nice long walks along the beach, maybe some fishing, cooking under the stars, reading books, playing chess and Jenga®. Relaxing.
Which is good, since I start a new job in April.

Yep: After twelve months of daily-changing priorities and a complete lack of direction from the highest levels of management, I’d had enough. (We didn’t even have a CEO for most of the time I was there — and for some reason they didn’t take my application for the job seriously.) Recently we gained both a permanent CEO and a CTO, but like most of the engineering staff I’d been considering my options. Then I caught up with the ex-CTO for lunch, and he told me about an interesting role within the consultancy he was working for, so after some (short!) interviews I had a new job offer and was able to tender my resignation.

(Great timing: my last day is also the day of a company-sponsored Craft Beer Festival, which I’m helping organise!)

Rather a long drive for us yesterday, up to Coffs Harbour. Jules was great in the car, and really only got bored towards the end of the trip. Today we drove on to Surfer’s Paradise, where we’d booked a nice hotel (for the same price as a motel in Coffs!!), and were able to refuel, recharge, wash and then have a nice run on the beach.

Tomorrow we catch a ferry to the island, then spend the rest of the week in a beachside cabin.