Change is in the Air

As usual, it's been far too long since I last blogged. What can I say? Life keeps getting in the way.

First up, I've decided to move on from rpdata.com. It's been a blast, I've learned a lot and made some improvements along the way (I think!), but in the end, it's a hard place to work and my work-life balance has, frankly, sucked the past year. I'm off to QR National, the recently privatised corporate/business arm of the government-owned Queensland Rail. Very exciting indeed -  it's just been hived off from QR and needs to extract itself from the larger organisation. Just my cup of tea really! I'm looking to make my mark and this should do the job. Free rail travel nation-wide too, so that'll be fun (and no more horrid commute!)

I've achieved a number of goals at RP, not least of which is the hussle and bussle of an e-commerce environment (primary goal) and the stabilisation of a previously wobbly platform. I've met some great guys too - people I will likely stay in touch with as I have in previous roles.

In other news, Oscar is winding up his school year with last week happening right now. Although I still have reservations regarding the religious aspect of his school (I continue to struggle with the Catholic side of things), I have no doubt that it's been the best move overall for Oscar. Small classes, focused curriculum and excellent teachers have resulted in an excellent academic year for the "O" man - and most importantly he enjoys participating. He still has an issue with self control in regards to his need to articulate his thoughts all the time, but has paid the price and is slooooowwwwly getting better. Overall a good job Oscar!

Rowie continues her studies. She is working towards a certificate in teacher aid, something which may well lead to teaching at some point. I think she gets a lot out of it - certainly the practical side (she volunteers twice a week at Oscars school, a secret ploy to keep an eye on him I think!) is very fulfilling and the school has recognised her abilities too. Would be nice to actually make some money at it but at this stage, I'm happy that she's able to concentrate on her health.

Speaking of which, a recent cardiogram has indicated that all appears "normal" whatever that is - although we have not as yet had the full analysis back. There were no gasps or whispers during the exam and no urgent call backs so we're being positive. Rowie still tires easily (good days and bad days) but her heart appears to be functioning as well as can be expected.

I went "off-roading" with friend Andrew this weekend - pictures here but here are a few of my favourites from the day. this one is Andrews rig - a "40 series" Landcruiser (circa '84) heavily modified to handle the terrain through at us in the Glasshouse Mountains... It was a great day, very strange feeling for someone who has never really taken a car off the tarmac. There were a couple of "oh s**t!" moments (particularly when Andrew said that - time to panic!), but otherwise it was amazing to traverse a seemlingly un-passable environments with a bit of planning and some careful a slow driving. This one on the right is "Povo" pushing his "80 series" down "Little Red", a well know tough spot. I couldn't believe some of these guys - they seemed to be fearless, but the car's are well set up for the terrain. In 7 hours we did maybe 5 k's and ended up right back where we started! I took some video which you can find here if you're interested.

I learned a tough lesson last month when my 3GS iPhone, which has become an indispensable part of my life sadly (see earlier post here) went in for a "mates-rates" upgrade. A new guy on my team announced that he was skilled in the art of iPhone repairs, an opportune time I thought for me to get rid of that pesky scratch that I'd acquired some time ago. 4 weeks later, with all signs suggesting my iPhone had breathed it's last, I succumbed and bought a shiny new iPhone4. I can't believe what an apple fan-boy I've become, but what can I say? These things are bloody good! New iPhone is very good, fast and once jailbroken, extremely useful! iPad however is currently on eBay - what a waste of space (when you have an iPhone and a Macbook Pro).

Christmas is fast approaching, and this year it looks like we'll be heading up to Childers for the big day... should be good, Andy, Karla and the girls will be heading down so it'll be good to catch up with them.

Anyway, as always hoping everyone is ok and (for those in England) weathering the... weather :)

Operation: Chill Axe

All work and no play makes Neil a grumpy man to be around, so some weeks ago, me and me mate Jennings concocted a cunning plan wherein we would escape the self made confines of work and take few days to ride our bikes down to Byron Bay. Byron is a well known spot on the east coast of New South Wales, mainly for being a great place to relax - something we both needed badly. So, Sunday morning I set out to Matts place for Operation: Chill Axe.



Matt had planned the route, which would take us out west through Ipswich, then down the back roads to Rathdowney, from where we joined the Lions Road (a road connecting Qld/NSW across a range) through to Kyogle, then a push east to Byron.

The day started well, my bike was humming with brand new oil & filter and a polish for good luck.

I arrived at Matts place 5 minutes early (8:00am), keen to get moving. Matt was up and ready to get going, so we had a quick cup of tea and final checks prior to heading off. Matt realized at the last minute that his rego sticker was expiring... That day! Oops... Matt began a slightly panicked search for his new sticker... Called Ali who told him she'd paid it...

Now, anyone who knows Matt will tell you that this was a very difficult situation for him to cope with. He is very observant of the law, almost to the point of paranoia, and I was beginning to think that the trip might be over before it started. In the end, he decided to pay the bill again and take the chance... I helped, by telling Matt that in the event we got pulled up by the cops, I would advise that Matt was playing f**k tha' police on his iPod and was a habitual law breaker - that I didn't know... in fact a dangerous law breaker who should be locked up...

The roads in Qld are frankly appalling, but the ride generally was pretty good. The weather was perfect - August in Qld means great temperatures (24 degrees in the day) - so as the miles passed on the cares and concerns of the previous few weeks fell away from me.

I don't think I could ever not have a motorcycle - this ride is a perfect example of why. When you drive, your mind can wander back to work troubles. When you ride, you can't afford to think about anything else but riding your bike, or you get into trouble real quick...

Anyway, we stopped a couple of times (Rathdowney, Kyogle) but otherwise rode straight from 9:30 - 17:00, arriving just prior to dusk. Judging by the number of 'roo carcasses on the road we saw through the day, that was just as well. I wouldn't ride country roads in Australia during dawn and dusk, I've seen the damage 'roos can do to cars, wouldn't like to think what would happen if I hit one on the bike.


Now it's Monday and raining outside... not good! The bikes are soaked so we've made an executive decision not to go anywhere other than into Byron to check out "the vibe". That's a good idea, yesterday was a long ride so a chill-out day is definitely in order.

July (Already) and Oscars Ninth Birthday

So already it's July and four months since my last post... so much for keeping up the blog.

July, so it's Oscar's birthday month. For the past four years, Oscar's birthday treat has been (at his request) a trip to Underwater World. We're not sure why, neither is Oscar, but for some reason he absolutely loves going there and refuses to consider any other "...World". I can understand why - Underwater World is a great place for kids! This year, we asked Oscar if he would like to take some friends with him as a bit of a party, and so Angelina and Massimo came along for the day. It was like herding cats, but very enjoyable!

It's the big day tomorrow, so Oscar is understandably quite excited about it! Mum has made some cup-cakes for Oscar's school mates tomorrow, plus one or two for his teachers (never hurts!).Can't believe he's nine already...

I had a good time too, took my camera and snapped a few decent shots, like this one here. There are more photo's of the whole day here. I also took video of the day and will be sending out DVD's shortly.

In other news, you will recall from my previous post that we had put an offer on a place in Mango Hill. Well, sadly that fell through as we were gazumped (in no small part due to the evil real estate agent who tried to get me to spend an additional $2000 to advertise our house!) but as it turns out, no bad thing.  Rowie was made redundant in April after seven years at Aon Consulting. I was actually quite pleased, because I had been worrying about her health post-operation. We had been talking about her maybe quitting, so when Aon announced that she would be made redundant, it was like the decision had been made for us. It helped a lot that Aon also paid her out a great deal more than we were expecting, but in a way it was good that we weren't in the middle of a move at the time. We've since put our house on the market anyway, as we've kind of decided that the move out to "the country" doesn't suit us at all, but currently the market is quite flat so we haven't had much interest so far. Maybe we'll just stay put for a while, we'll see...

My work has been absolutely crazy, as we have been pushing towards a new product release since pretty much the day I started. I have up and down days I have to say, sometimes I wonder why I even moved away from the technical stuff to be honest. But there are definitely rewards to be had from managing people, and it's mostly all ok.

Anyway, I may try and get Rowie/Oscar to contribute a bit more to the blog in the future, so maybe we'll get some more posts!

In the meantime, hope everyone's well and enjoying themselves wherever they are!

Cheers,

Neil

March Catchup (While it's still March!)

Blogs are hard... setting them up is easy but actually committing time to send updates is really difficult!

Heaps of things on the go so this post may just meander through the past month or so.

picture of me "in action" on my bike, no real reason other than I like the picture! There are a couple of guys who set themselves up on Mt. Glorious (Nth West Brisbane) most Sundays, taking pictures of the various bikes and cars that pass.. very entrepreneurial I thought prior to going to their website (where you pick up pictures), bloody rip-off I concluded after I saw the price/picture - $25.00!! Still, I paid for one didn't I! There were four but I couldn't bring myself to fork out $100.00 for some pretty pics of me on my bike... one'll do...

Probably the biggest news since my last post is that we've put an offer on a new house, specifically this house . Why I hear you ask, particularly when we only recently bought a house? Well, there are number of reasons, but primarily it's basically because Narangba is just too far away from anything. Last year this seemed appealing to us all - the idea that we could get away from "suburbia" and out to a county village was extremely appealing and in many ways has proven to be exactly what we expected - very peaceful, almost serene sometimes (when the few neighbours we have aren't having a party...). The price we pay for this serenity is the commute to/from work, which, thanks largely to a combination of the worst premier this state has had in years, together with an inept mayor, is well, crappy. In fairness the fault does not lie entirely with these two - the former premier, a media tart who re-badged Queensland as "the Smart State" amongst other rubbish ideas has much of the blame on his hands. Consequently, Brisbane promoted the concept of "Live Local -Work Local" but did nothing to support growth of the idea, thus many people moved out of the "green" belt" of Brisbane and into the "greener" belt, only to find that their palatial "McMansions" required them to commute to and from the city (in most cases) because unless they wanted to be a shoe/mobile phone/other salesperson or - heaven forbid - a real estate scumbag errrr... agent, this was the only choice. And thanks to the crappy management of this state and city, planning and subsequent sprawling of homes 30,40 and sometimes 50k's away from the city centre occurred at pace whilst infrastructure (roads) to get people to and from their homes was either not considered or actively ignored, resulting in people in London-like traffic jams on a daily basis should one poor sucker get a flat tyre/hit the guy in front/get hit by the guy behind/other... You may get the hint that I am well over sitting in my little car/on my bike for over an hour per trip to get 30k's... I am! So this new place is about 20K's closer to the city and thus work for both of us, with the added benefit that it has a pool for when I get home so enraged by the stupidity of it all that the only choice for me is to jump in the pool or else explode... Yes we've got a pool... finally (assuming the contract goes through of course...)

In other news, I've quit smoking! Finally, and after more years than I care to think of, I've been off the "evil weed" for... 45 days so far with no slipping up... I got a bronchial infection in January and this, for me, usually means about 6-7 weeks of slooooow recovery as I chug my way through it. "Enough" I thought - and went and bought some patches. This is not the first time I've used patches, but it's probably the first time I've actually wanted to quit whilst using them. They are quite amazing, the craving is still there and I've found myself every now and then thinking "Gosh, I could have a cigarette round about now" (or words to that effect...), but the thought just sort of goes away and comes back a few hours later, at which time I think about it again but don't act on it. And I'm free - just like that. Well, actually that's not true. I am free in the sense that those foul things no longer rule my life (I used to think of them as the punctuation of my life - how ridiculous!), but that's not to say I don't miss them, because I do... a lot. However I think that in all likelihood I will not go back to the horrid things ever again. My good friend Jill gave up well over a year ago and has patiently persevered with emails and gently hints now and then. She's been an inspiration and has helped me immensely. Long way to go still but at this point I'm remaining confident. Work was the real test - I expected to be back on the things mere moments after going back to work (I gave up on day 1 of a 4 day public holiday) but actually didn't need to as much as I thought I would and now, I'm loving the extra time I get back in the day!

Rowie continues to improve, although as you would expect "recovery" is relative. She's been back at work since early December and sometimes it's almost like it never happened, the whole operation. We have to constantly remind ourselves that she's still quite delicate and can't over-do it. Most days go like this: get up, rush off to get Oscar to school (20 minute drive) then back onto the "freeway" (and I use the term loosely see above rant) for anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5hrs. Then do it all again in the afternoon! The saving grace of this situation is that at least the drive back is more predictable - since she finishes at 2.15pm the traffic is a little bit quieter. Until a few weeks back she needed a nap in the afternoon, although this need is diminishing. The real issue is that day-to-day living provides a certain amount of exercise which keeps a person on an even keel as it were, whereas recuperation requires that you RELAX and don't exert yourself, which in turn reduces your muscles making it harder to actually do anything... it's a downward cycle which is very difficult to turn around. That of course explains Rowie but why the hell am I porking up too!? I must be doing it subconsciously to "support" her... yeah, that sounds like me.

Well, that's probably enough of an update for now. Hope everyone's well and (if in England) enjoying the beginning of Spring, which as usual I have romantised in my head as green lawns, birds chirping merrily, and people walking on the road, smiling for no apparent reason... of course this was never the case, but boy I'd like to live in the England I remember! Here's it's (finally) starting to cool off, March is the worst month because it'll cool a little then the heat turns up for one more hit - horrendous. Still April soon...

Take care,

Neil

Update: 2010

Well, what is the point of having a blog if you're not going to update it!

What can I say - I have been consumed by my new job!

There's so much to do and the time constraints are going to be difficult - just what I was looking for! I love a challenge. First challenge was to get to know my team. This is the first time I've "inherited" a team (I've built from scratch up until now) so that's been a challenge in itself. Luckily the people in the team are of a high calibre (which I have to say because they'll probably see this! - but they really are!). The technology is same-same but different. It's a dynamic company that has some great ambition so from that perspective I'm pretty excited about the future. Cost is that my time is pretty comprehensively capitalised as I ramp up, so haven't been able to regularly update the blog.

Rowie is still on the road to recovery. Low iron is still an issue, and despite a number of courses of Iron tablets it's proving a struggle for her to increase levels to "good". We'll probably go back to the doctor shortly to take the next steps. Rowie still gets fatigued pretty much every day - must be a drag for her. Will keep you updated as we progress through the next steps.

Oscar is starting to get nervous about his new school. We decided last year to shift Oscar to a private school after two terms at Narangba Valley State School. The state school seemed to be ok, but there are vast numbers of kids going there and Oscar seemed to struggle a little (not academically - the boy's a genius! - more making friends and settling in). The character of the teacher is important to Oscar we think, he needs a firm authority figure. Also the schooling system here in QLD is crazy - you could be getting the highest scores in the state for tests, but the schools WHOLE average is applied and your score is then relative to the average! So you could be the best scholar in the state but have a low score dependent on the rest of the class/school... Madness. Anyway, School starts next week (27th) so we'll see how we go...

Next Tuesday is Australia Day, so I've taken the Monday prior off - looking forward to a break. We're heading up to Caloundra with some friends for a BBQ and cricket by the sea - should be a good day. I'll take some piccies and post 'em up here.

Here's hoping everyone's well and for those in England, surviving the snow/cold/misery :)