yep, still alive!
Still no fucking broadband. Bloody Telstra have been cheaping out in my new neighbourhood and installing some cheaparse not-copper solution (pair or RIM or something). So the initial ADSL application got rejected. Instead of doing the obvious and checking if they could swap our line with someone else's copper-but-not-being-used-for-ADSL line... Tardstra just rejected the job. So now we wait another week for them to come out again.
So anyway, this post is trickling out via the 56k modem - glad I kept it. I really do feel disconnected without broadband, kinda sad but kinda not. My people are split to the four winds and the net provides contact with them. Dialup doesn't really keep up.
So... other than trying to get broadband connected, some stuff has indeed been happening:
- Unit turned out to have been trashed by previous tenants. The carpet was replaced just before we moved in, which would have been great if the carpet guy had vacuumed up the masses of fibre offcuts.
- The first Monday morning found me dressed for my first day at the new job, frantically trying to vacuum the unit (with a borrowed vacuum cleaner - ours was on the truck). It was all quite absurd and probably helped keep me from freaking out with nerves.
- Real estate agent sent extremely weird cleaner to clean the unit, on the same morning. He didn't seem to grasp the concept of 'the removalists will be here in 20 minutes please get your own vacuum cleaner out and start in the other rooms'. How L resisted the urge to throw him down the garbage chute I do not know.
- In the middle of cleaners, removalists and me running off to my first day; L got a job offer! So now she works at the College of Fine Art (COFA), surrounding by crazy academics and arteeests.
- Apparently cockroaches are a problem in Sydney. Far more so when the previous tenants were grotty little fuckers (everyone from the real estate agent to the maintenance guy clearly hated them). Looking forward to getting properly unpacked so we can get full pest control done (initial treatment plus lots of baits has made some progress, but the full treatment will be better). Locals advise that the best solution is 'weird packets of stuff from chinese supermarkets', which we will seek out this weekend.
- Removalists broke and damaged stuff, including my prized silver outdoor table and both our white bookshelves. They managed to punch the shaft straight through the base of my metal table - quite a feat, really. Allied Pickfords, the careful movers indeed! They're not worth the price apparently. We'll see how we go claiming on their insurance.
- So apart from all that, the unit has some good points. It does have a large city glimpse from the lounge/kitchen; and we're about a minute's walk from the maritime museum etc... and most of that minute is spent waiting to cross at the lights. Two minute walk to work is quite a novelty as well.
- The noise of stuff clanging down the garbage chute hasn't stopped amusing me so far. I know, simple things for simple minds.
- Web Directions South was incredible. I got a lot of great feedback about my presentation and have been tagged frighteningly helpful... so I'll take that as a good thing :) There's an ever-increasing raft of photos on Flickr of web standards geeks getting thoroughly trashed. Yes, including me...
- Only down side of WD06 is that it had to end. Really weird feeling was actually staying here while other people left - not quite used to being 'a local' :)
- OK, so when you move to Sydney and your team makes the NRL grand final... it's either a sign, or at least a happy coincidence. In any case, when the ref blew full time on the semi-final I got on the phone to my dad. Long story short, he flew down and we went to the grand final together! GO BRONCOS!!! :) Being there as your team wins the Grand Final... as a fan it doesn't get much better :) Plus it was Webcke's last game and I was pleased to be there for that too.
- So, the new job! Well actually with WD06 and the public holiday I'm still in that awful early stage of not knowing enough about systems etc to be really productive. That aside, it seems to be going ok. There seem to be some really exciting things in the pipeline so I'm trying to stay positive and ignore my moments of feeling totally stupid. A lot of the sites are a real mess so maintenance tasks can be bloody awful, which isn't helping.
- Although not as social as the Griffith crowd, people seem pretty friendly. There have been a few lunch missions - lots of options around here, compared with Griffith at least. Today was cheap-but-good sandwhiches sitting beside the water at Darling Harbour. The weather has actually been really nice; wonderful blue skies without being horribly hot.
- Yesterday we had a knowledge sharing meeting in the afternoon with some of the web guys at Westpac. We finished with sunset drinks on their 23rd floor terrace overlooking Darling Harbour. I could literally say 'I can see my house from here!' :)
- Tonight I finally found the Broncos spirit glasses I was given when I left Griffith, so I cracked open the single malt scotch I was given when I left Griffith :) Damn fine stuff. The Broncos mug is already in residence at work - someone has to fly the flag, especially since I'm just next to some of the Fox Sports guys.
Anyway, I should go and get some sleep. I'm hoping to get some emails out to people when time and energy allows; but hey feel free to drop us a line if you have a moment :)
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