First day for everything

On Monday, it was my first day at work after more than 10 years spent at my previous job, plus two months of being a house husband with a bit (of contract work) on the side.

Day one is total confusion; three hundred seventy thousand eight hundred forty one bits of information thrown at you every second, half of them acronyms specific to just that company. That first night I felt like I couldn't do the job, there was simply too much to learn.

Now it's day three and I'm feeling a lot better about my prospects. You get into a panic, try to cram tons of information in all at once, then when you actually succeed, you wonder what all the fuss was about! What I assumed to be true going in, remains true in the cold light of day three - 70% of the job is the stuff I know, 30% isn't, and that's actually an exciting prospect!

Change jobs people, c'mon, get yer arse in gear! Although I would not recommend day one. Take a day off and skip straight to day two - it's much better. 

It's all coming together...

... for a true suburban fairytale! We bought ourselves a lil' house and I got meself a job! All in a space of two days!

The house is small and the decor needs a lot of TLC but it shall be a wicked home once it's been done up. We have a couple of lemon and orange trees in the garden and the fruit tastes delicious - they are in season just now... Location is very good, close to the city, work and the beach. I dare say it's in a rather fancy area, with the other houses in the street being larger and more expensive - but hey, we won't hold it against them.

Address is 2/17 Malvern Avenue, Malvern SA, 5061, have a look-see at the pics here. And start packin' those bags to come and see us!

From now on and for the next 12 months I shall be known as Program Manager, ICT Capital Program at the Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology, Government of South Australia. If that's too much of a mouthful, try pen-pushing-civil-servant for short. It looks good on the CV though, let's hope it drives me only slightly more crazy than I am already - it's the best one can hope for in a government job.


To top it all off, I've been told August is the last truly cold month of the winter - those sunny 17C days are becoming such a drag... - and the weather quickly gets warmer from September onwards. Bring on the kitesurfing season! :-)

Beached

Whenever the weather is sunny and warm, we head on down to the beach. Two weekends ago it was West Beach and the weekend just gone we went to Brighton.

It was windy but sunny and warm, and Brighton beach brought out the world and his dog - quite literally!
 

Shock horror, we saw our first shark in Australia! Small, yes. Dead, yes. Harmless even when alive, yes. But a shark! Plus it's fun to play on people's fears of Australia as a place full of deadly creatures who just can't wait to sink their teeth, claws, stings and other paraphernalia into your unsuspecting derriere... It is... full of 'em...

Shock of the shock of horrors, we saw a dead seal in the water! You know what they say, where there is a dead seal, there is a shark around....

Oh alright, I don't know who said that, but someone must have said it at some point.

Strangely, one of its flippers was pointing upwards, stuck in rigor mortis, as the tide took it southwards, some 30 meters off and parallel with the beach.

Anyhoo, let's not end on a sad note, here's the full set of warming pictures of the beach - enjoy!