Resignation

Hi Fellow Wellingtonians,

It's been less than 4 weeks and I have already resigned from DELL.
Work was totally killing me. I have been getting home at 12am every night. I didn't move to Australia to work like a dog.

So I have 2 more weeks of 60hr weeks then I'm going to take a few weeks off and spend some time in the Gold Coast. Haven't really thought about accommodation, maybe I'll just crash at a hostel.
Anywho, that's the only interesting update I can provide. Aussie is not what I had pictured in my mind. Guess I just have to give it time.

Sam

Room in an Apartment

Greetings all,

I finally moved into an apartment last week. Dell have kept me very busy. I'm averaging 60hrs a week and last week I ended up working 70hrs. Due to having no spare time to buy a bed, I have been sleeping on the floor. But Christmas came early and my bed arrived this morning.
The apartment is 5mins walk from CBD located in Spring Hill. Although it does not have river views, the sights from level 10 (top level) is sufficient enough. Now that I have a Job and an apartment, its time to Party!

Fact: Brisbane is not aways warm.
Yes I know its getting to winter, but it does slighty feel like I'm in Wellington as its quite gustly outside. Oh and it rained for 2 days straight this week. More pics of my apartment is available in the Photo Gallery

We went to a pub to watch the AB's play France last week. They even had a section available just for that game. So as we walked toward the screen, we could hear the crowd roar and what do you expect.........40 Kiwis cheering for the AB's. Was very amusing. Its 3:00pm now so I'm going to roam the City and sink some piss.

Take care all

SS

New Camera and Suburbia Sux!

Well I finally picked up my Digital Camera. Ended up going for the Canon IXUS 75. Pretty nice camera with 7.1MP but only 3.0 x Optical Zoom.
It’s Sunday today; Matt and I decided to go into South Bank for Lunch.
We ended up missing the bus as it came early. Decided to flag it as the next bus is in 2 hours and the walk to the main station is about 40mins.

Tip for all coming to Brisbane, Suburbia sux!
Live in the City, if you have friends or family in the Suburbs; get them to pick you up.
Keep away from the suburbs by all means. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

Sam
P.S Did I say Suburbia Sux! See below

Dell Services Solutions

After 9 long days, I now have a job for the next 2 months.
I will be working for Dell as their Lead Systems Engineer on a project for Laing O'Rourke.
These guys are huge players in the Construction Industry. In 2006, Laing O'Rourke bought out Barclay Mowlem so the project involves migrating and combining both companies into 1 single entity.
I really do not know what I got myself into. I have about 38 sites in Australia to plan, migrate and support within 8 weeks. None the less, this will definitely be a good experience.
Time to look for an apartment now.

Hope all is well back home in Windy Wellington

Sam
P.S. It's very warm.........................

1 week and still jobless...........

Sorry, I've been pretty slack lately. I am currently living in Rochedale, its about 1 hour from the City on the bus. Its a small suburb so everything is pretty low key here. Everything closes at 8:30pm!! Was annoyed at first but after my 6th vodka, I was over it.

My Daily routine has been surfing on seek.com.au, meet & greets with recruiter's and the occasional interviews. I worked last Saturday (12th May), just a 1 day contract but at least it will keep be going for a few more days.

Some weird and annoying things about Brisbane:
1) Only flush on a 2 - Dunno about you all but having to take a piss after someone else is pretty grotty.
2) 3 min showers - I think it takes me 3 minutes just to undress.
3) NO SMOKING - Ok maybe I am exaggerating a bit but when I have a beer or coffee outside, I like to light up a ciggie. No no says the Bartender "You have to smoke outside the barrier". So this involves me standing on the outside of the barrier and with my drink on the inside within reaching distance. Doesn't make sense at all.
But thats not all, there are NO SMOKING zones everywhere you go, this is possibly a good thing because I am currently at boiling point to stop.
4) No footpath - You are either walking on the road inches from getting run over or walking in someones front yard.

I don't see what all the fuss is about with smoking and water ban laws when the people of Brisbane DO NOT RECYCLE! Yip that is correct. They have these partitions in the bins for your recycling to go into, but when the big ole truck comes around, it just dumps all the thrash into one area. Total waste of time.

Better stop now, I am starting to sound like a little school girl that lost her lollipop and this internet cafe has a weird smell.

Will update again soon

Sam
P.S. I went to Church on Sunday and it was a scary experience

The eagle has landed!

Well I am finally here! It was overcast yesterday but still very humid.
Had to be at an Interview yesterday so I chucked on my suit...........very bad idea.
Lets just say I will not be wearing my suit in Brisbane ever again.

Still job hunting, have to meet a few recruiters today in CBD and so does Matt.
After that, its straight to the bar for a few refreshments.
Oh I also managed to get a sim card if anyone wants to make contact +61 41 504 7838
Sorry, still no pictures available. Have to buy a digital camera. I am looking at a Canon IXUS 65.

Sam

Words of Wisdom

Only 3 more days of work and a weekend left to pack then its off to Sunny Brisbane we go. Very exciting.

Lately I've been coming up with random Words of Wisdom and statements. My mate Gav decided to call it Sohs'dom (Soh Wisdom). We had a cackle as it was lame but after a while, the name started to grow on us. From then on, I've been trying to throw a few 'Words of Wisdom' when we are out on the piss. I'm not sure where it all comes from. Maybe I heard it from someone or somewhere, not too sure really. Some of them tends to be quite offensive but ah well, shit happens.

Sohs'dom: Going to church does not make you a Christian, its like going to the garage, it does not make you a mechanic.

Palmy Weekend

So we spent the weekend up in Palmerston North catching up with Justin. Friday night was low key but Saturday night was out of control. The night started out at Justin's place with drinking games and shots. Everyone was basically half dead by the time we left the house and it was only 11pm. We did a lot of club hopping, I think we went to about 7 clubs in total.

At 2:15am we were all partied out. Popped into Subway to grab a dirty chicken fillet and caught a cab back to Justin's. When we arrived at Justin's, Nicole (Justin's GF) pulls up with someone passed out in the passenger seat and covered in spew. Surprise surprise, it was the big man himself. Now Justin is not a small chap. Hes about 6' 5" and 120kgs.
We tried to tempt him with Subway but nothing was going to make him move so we left him outside with the girls and went inside to enjoy our Subway. mmmmmm.........chicken fillet.
At 3am, we decided to call it a night and found Matt passed out in the double bed. Thats what happens when you eat a branch of Ganja.
The room had a single/double bunk. Will Belushi eagerly jumped in and spooned with Matt, Gav took the top bunk (bastard!) and I crashed on the floor.

The next morning, Matt was the first to rise and straight to the toilet he goes for a spew.
The toilet was next to the room and we could hear him gaging and coughing. Since we are such good friends, we stayed in bed and laughed.
On our way home from Breakfast, we stopped in at Mobil for the best hangover cure - Lucozade.
Matt opens his door, casually walked toward the bushes then decided to regurgitate early all over the pavement. Again, because we are such good friends, we ran to his attention and took photos of him.



I will get the Palmy Photos up but I didn't take many as I was preoccupied with my Whiskey.

Matt, You got OWNED!

S

Christchurch and Palmy Weekend

I went down to christchurch last weekend with the olds to catch up with some family friends.
Its been 13 years since I last saw them. Kids have all grown up now, ain't kids no more.

Matt and I are heading up to Palmerston North tonight to catch up with our mate Justin and also to get on the chops.
Will, Gav, Nath and Owen will be heading up Saturday Evening.
Hopefully I will remember to take my Camera. Should be an interesting night of drunken antics.

Remember people:

"Its not how you are drinking, its who you are drinking with"

Proudly sponsored by Alcoholic Anonymous - Wellington Chapter

Sam

Gallery is all go!

The gallery is finally up and running. It took about 6 hours.

I first had to find a site that gave me free hosting, no banners, good storage (2GB) and support for PHP, MySQL databases then it was testing numerous PHP galleries and uploading it onto my website. The end solution was using Coppermine Photo Gallery with hosting from 110mb.

I later found out that google's Picasa Web gave users 1GB of storage without all the fuss with configuration and maintenance.

Nice work google, I now feel like a spoon

Sam