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.