Monday, October 25, 2004      Ostrich burgers, Adelaidians and Merrell

OK, I'm having lots of fun still. Sorted my work hours out a little (I now own my laptop and have four days owed to me for time in lieu), and I've gained a new client too. This one is in Birmingham which is 2.5 hours train if you book your trip the morning you leave; but getting out to London to what is rumoured to be a shopping mecca [agreed] and some decent clients. This project is an Intranet and Web Site, so its big. Even better was lunch the day I went up there - an ostrich burger. A mix between chicken and beef and really tasty. I finished my meeting early and had a cruise around - think of your biggest shopping centre and multiply it by 10 and welcome to the Bullring. Amazing stuff, and I'm sure I'll go up there when I'm not working [and hopefully with £1000 to blow].

Still on work, I had my three month review. Wasn't sure what to expect as I'm still reasonably new and still feel I'm cutting my teeth. And I guess I was right -- not the usual numbers I'm used to, but it seems more to do with the fact that we're flat chat and some of my clients are copping that, with less of the support I'd like to give them. I dunno, its a bit of a challenge to work decent hours, look after 5 clients and organise my developers without driving everyone crazy -- part of the challenge I guess. But I'm still loving it. Also good news as my company is keen for me to stay on and possibly begin some postgrad study -- to become a legit Project Manager and get some [internationally renowned] qualifications. This excites me, but I'm not a good studier and I also guess money will probably be reduced a little and stress levels increased; but if I want to be a Project Manager and potentially stay and be successful -- a paid for course maybe exactly what I should do. I'll keep you updated. Also a bonus is one of my bosses who I look up to in skill set [not stature :P] is keen to mentor me, so that makes this roller coaster all the more fun really. And finally, we're moving offices closer into town [Old Street] in December [the 1st, but I'll be busy while they move! Bugger :P] and we saw the officeon Friday pasyt and its rockin' Rumoured party there before we move in -- so you can see what sort of office I work in.

Music is still one of those things in this city that is endless in options. And between now and this Xmas [aarrgghh I can't believe I mentioned it already], I've got The Prodigy in Amsterdam, The Beastie Boys, Muse and The Music. And thank god Muse are playing in London -- I was right-royally pissed I leave the country and my fav band heads to Australia. My wishes were granted and I have tickets to see them just before Xmas at Earl's Court. So very excited, and have read of a rumoured new track being played. Yay! I also saw The Blues Explosion last week, who I've seen twice before. They were great, maybe not as good as previous gigs at home, but they still rock out and are slightly mental.

Another comic book convention came through London, this time I journeyed onto the tube and trudged through hung over as hell [after a Friday night work drinks until 3am with another fall asleep on the bus and back again!]. It was pretty quiet, but I did enjoy the talk a few creators did to the crowd. Initeresting to listen to their views on everything from comics coming out on time versus quality and political views of Americans versus English. To top it off [other than the KFC to cure my hangover] was meeting Michael Avon Oeming who I've followed on Powers. He was nice enough to do me a sketch of Batman - in the animated style. So I left with my favourite character personally sketched on a piece of 8 x 10 card in a bag, and hit my bed for some rest. I'll try and get the pic scanned for this site [along with my bloody photos!].

I've seen my first friend from Adelaide, Michelle [well my girl's good friend], knock on my doorstep, and have a couple [who've just got engaged! Congrats Nick and Jo!!] coming over on the weekend. And another out of the blue phone call came through today -- a mate from my work [then he left], Stephen, is in London and a few pints is on the cards sometime this week. So I've definitely got Adelaidians around the place at the moment. But its great. Michelle crashed here for a few nights, I introduced her to the Friday night work drinks [too many tequilas she said!] and we had a cool time on Sunday at Camden Markets. Huge markets, hundreds of tourists everywhere, but cool and funky stalls covering everything from music to antiques. And I finally found the shoes I was after -- the ones I've been looking for since I got here and began looking around at shops. They got a run through today and shit they're comfortable - Merrell Sprint Striker Goals [far right - chocolate]. Very London --- bwahahahah.

Thanks Mum and Dad for the brilliant zipped hoody for my birthday too -- huge, warm and Australian xx.

Oh yeh musn't forget -- 37!

Posted by Nick @ 10:25 pm      0 comments