Old and New Friends

Hey hey hey, the weekend is here and with absolutely nothing on my to do list it looks like being a good one.

The commute is back for Sarah, with her starting work in Brisbane in the Valley. Up at the crack of dawn she heads off to Nerang for her 1.2 hour train journey. It is meant to be express, but it stops at at least 6 stations. The train is surprisingly busy, just like London, the only difference is people bring with them camping chairs (complete with drink holder) and open them up in the aisle and park off with the paper for trip. It is not uncommon for friendly commuter banter in the carriage to occur either.Quite a shock to the system.

The last month has really flown past with work picking up, playing weekend golf and having Brad and Jen over from the London it has been like London times where you work and play hard.

It has been really good to have some familiar faces around the place again and through Jen and her Gold Coast connections we seem to have met a few more people as well as had BBQ’s and drinks at 2 of the Gold Coasts best venues for views-namely Jens folks place and the Penthouse where she and Brad stayed during their time on the coast-both overlooking the ocean from 18 floors up on clear blue days with a beer in your hand, what could be better? I was dead keen to change the locks and stage one of the longest lock-ins ever!!!!!!

You know it is a small world when you arrive at golf, are signing and the lady behind the counter recognizes your name, turns out Francis Anderson is a good friend of the Riddles, at this point I started to turn and run, and remembers my name from Ross and I playing golf at Kloof Country Club, as it turns out she is the handicapper at the Gold Coast Country Club and could turn out to be a handy person to know (for when we thump the old men at golf again Riddle). You can’t go to far wrong when you know the Handicapper.

To end off this entry I would just like to wish Ross and Sarah all the best for their wedding day tomorrow, we hope it goes fantastically well for the both of you and look forward to seeing the photo’s and hearing about the festivities. Once again sorry we couldn’t be there though will definitely thinking of the 2 of you come Saturday afternoon. All the best guys.

Just gone 8pm, the bulls have lost and SA are 50 for 2, I am going for a beer to drown my sorrows and hope that the Sharks brighten up the weekend for a Saffa in Aus.

Macca

Van In Australia

VAN DER MERWE IN AUSTRALIA

Van der Merwe had never been out of South Africa before and was visiting Bondi Beach, Australia.

He spotted a long line of black dots out in the water and said to an Aussie, who was sitting close by, "What are all those little black things out there?"

"They're buoys," said the Aussie.

"Boys?! wragtig ..." replied Van der Merwe.

"What are they doing out there?"

"Holding up the shark nets," the Aussie told him.

"Foocken great country this!" said the South African, deeply impressed. "We'd never get away with that at home!"

One Month On

28 Feb 06

An update from Australia though there is nothing really to comment on over the past few weeks. I am now well into work again having been back for a week already; the holiday is really a thing of the past now.

Work is going well, I am working with a company called Fyreguard Queensland, once again it is in the Passive Fire Industry which is what I was involved in both in SA and the UK. Things moved really quickly on arrival here, as some of you are aware I had been offered a position in Sydney before arriving, we gave myself 2 weeks to find something promising in the fire industry in Qld or we would have committed ourselves to Sydney, something neither of us really wanted. As it turns out I had set up interviews before arriving and 4 days after getting here Fyreguard offered me this position. There is a large gap in the market in Aus for structural steel protection in the form of Intumescent coatings and it is this void that Fyreguard want me to fill for them, as well as strengthening their position within the petrochemical and mining sectors which up to now have been neglected. All quite interesting with large scope for both myself and the company.

Sarah has got through the 1st round of interviews with recruitment agents and is currently going for 2nd interviews with 3 companies, so things on Sar’s side are looking positive at the moment.

We are still staying with Sar’s folks and are waiting on Sarah finding a job before deciding where we will reside. We have found a few nice areas that look promising but are holding off on a decision until we know if Sarah is going to be working in Brisbane or on the Coast. This does not really affect me as my time will be spent equally between the 2 cities (100km apart) though we are both hoping it will be the coast.

As for socially, I had a game of golf over the weekend. Just put my name down and joined a few other guys, it was a really good day. I have also joined a “beer club” which has tastings once a fortnight. I will be attending my first tasting this weekend where the theme is German Beers-can’t think of a better way to meet people than that.

We have bought Sarah some golf clubs and she has started playing in earnest now, having joined the club with me. We are both in the process of getting official handicaps and plan on getting out as often as possible. Sar’s is hitting the ball really well after only 2 games and now that she has interviews some of her spare time is spent in the Garden hitting those little plastic balls around. Her dad has actually put a hole in the garden for her.

Will keep you all posted.

Testing

Well well what do you know. It seems to be working!!
Having read over this blog thing I figured it was time to throw caution to the wind and see if all was on the level. Watch this space!!!!!