Busy week-end

Our week-end was pretty packed with activity and socialising.

I popped into the OM pub on Friday afternoon/evening to see and have a drink with some of my old colleagues. It was nice to see them, although some of the die hards weren't there as they were at the other office that day. *pity*

Richard and I then went off to Grand West for dinner and to see Stuart Taylor's new comedy show 'To Bellville and Beyond'. He's the guy from going nowhere slowly, I had won the tickets. It was quite fun. The show wasn't brilliant on the whole, but there were some very funny bits. We mingled a bit with Stuart after the show, but didn't have too much to do with him, as he was with his wife, and we didn;t want to fawn over him...

Bright and early on Saturday I was off shopping, and to get Griffin's haircut. At 3.5 he has only ever had me hacking his hair, and I thought it was time for it to be done properly. I tried 4 places before I found somewhere that could fit him in and wasn't going to charge R60! - so far
the judgement has been that my cuts were just as good (some say better)! ;)

Then after purchasing half of Pick 'n Pay Hypermarket, I dashed home to get Griff ready for a party, which I sent him to with Richard. Quinn and I then cut ivy, and got various other things ready and went off to their school to help set-up for the international food fair. We then went home to change and collect Griffin and Richard, before heading back to the school at 4pm, all dressed in togas and the closest approximation to 'Greek' we could come up with. Except for Griffin who was a cow boy (his class was doing a wild west theme). He had a cow boy hat, bandanna, sheriff's badge, pistol and jeans.

I was immediately on duty at Quinn's classes' Greek 'taverna', making and serving chicken pita, frapp/e/s and other Greek delights.Once I was realised from that duty I had to gallop over to Griffin's class where I had to sell sweets, cake, chips and pop-corn, and of course every second person wanted coffee or hot chocolate, which I had to make! Half the parents on this roster didn't turn up, so instead of the 20-minute session I volunteered for I had to stay for most of an hour. *humpf*

The school looked great though and the parents, teachers and children had gone to a lot of time & trouble to make the event very impressive and enjoyable. We'd invited a few sets of friends, all of whom were impressed both with the school and the details that went into the event. There were Morrocan, Indian, Chinese, greek, and wild west/American themes.

After swapping one of my kids (Quinn) for one of my friend Beryl's kids (Maxine), we decided to leave. One the way out another friend invited us to go back to her place for a drink, with the rest of the gang she had left there. So off we went. The kids got straight into playing. Maxine
being the only girl there, as ALL our other friend have boys, had 6 boys (and all the mom and dads) giving her a lot of attention. By 22:00 I though it was probably time to get Maxine home to bed, so we started packing up.

Sunday morning saw us getting up and after being able to dress Maxine and brush and do her hair (fun!), we headed for the gym, where I was meeting Beryl, and where the kids would be exchanged back. After gym, steam baths, and protracted cups of coffee at the coffee shop, we parted ways with our own children and headed home.I had to start working on my charity auction item (I have been invited to a charity dinner where an item you have made will get auctioned, being not very artistic I opted for something more in the crafts category) I decided on making fragrant bath salts and lotions etc and preparing a 'pamper box'. It's proved fairly expensive in the end, with all the ribbon, containers, and candles I bought, but It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. In fact Richard asked if he should buy it back for me! ;)

That was followed by a walk around the neighbourhood so that Quinn could ride his new bike.
I then had to make a salad for the dinner we were going to. We then went to Beryl's house for dinner which was a feast! (they made 3 chickens and a leg of lamb! for 7 adults and 4 children).
After dinner we set-up to play 30-seconds, which is fun, but can cause a bit of tension if you get too competitive. 5 minutes into the game I flailed my arms in protest and knocked a glass of red wine all over the game and everybody else. I still feel bad about that, even thought we
managed to clean everything up quite well, so only the game instructions are badly stained. *blushe* I also managed to rub wine INTO someone's jersey while trying to dab a small spot out... I was really quite useless at the time...

Anyway the game was fun, and after a break for dessert, the men's team and beaten us hands down, even with me trying to encourage the ladies to pay attention and SPEED up etc! *sulk* As we all got ready to leave we found that the lady whose jersey I smeared the wine on's car had been stolen. She's had awful luck for the last while and she couldn't decide whether to be pleased or upset - she drove one of those cars that you *HOPE* will get stole...

So that was our week-end!

Canonical Employee's first day..

This is what it is like starting with canonical, except you don;t even see anoyone on the first day - it's all over irc!

getting settled in...

I have started my new job and am just busy getting connected up and figuring out what is going on.

I have been spending a solid hour+ each way to and from work each day. This morning I drove the plain normal way and it took half the time - so much for my clever routes! *hahaha*

My friend pointed out though that it's school holidays, so I can expect it to get much worse from next week... I have been working from before 8 to 4:30pm.

Now it turns out that I have to deal mostly with a guy in LA, who works exactly inverse times to mine, so I may need to adjust my working hours quite substantially... and spend evenings working, hopefully from home...

I am thinking of doing 9:00-15:30 here, and then 20:30 - 22:30 at home, that way I can spend the mornings before school and afternoons with the kids, and still go to gym etc.., and then put in some hours after the kids go to bed. Hopefully that will be allowed.

It will be an adjustment though.
_____

This first week has actually been hard, as on Thursday Richard found out that he had to spend this week in Uganda! Luckily Tiny has been able to help me out with coming in early and staying late, and in the evenings I have just been cuddling with the boys, and then going to bed quite early just after they do, so it's actually worked out fine.

The boys are well, and Griffin in particular has been very sweet and helpful this week - he can sometimes be quite difficult and otherwise.

p.s. I got a welcome e-mail from Mark Shuttleworth last night ;)

Here Be Dragons

So I have made it through most of my first day here at HBD/Canonical.

I left home at the crack of dawn, and after spending a solid hour in stop start traffic I finally made it to Durbanville (I am going to have to find a better route!). *yawn*

I have been given a very cool *new* laptop, with 1GB RAM and a 50GB HDD, DVD etc :)) That old piece of crap DELL I was using could not TOUCH this thing. It also has a wireless network card and leather carry bag etc. They asked if I minded having a pre-used mouse *bwahahahaha*

My desk phone is a siemens cordless number.

Anyway I have spent the day trying to figure stuff out and connect to the various people I am going to be working with. Much of the communication is done via IRC - very cool. So I have been 'pracitising' that - though not much work has been mentioned yet ;)

I'll have to be careful, that was how I met Richard...

To Infinity and Beyond

So I signed my initial 3-month contract with Canonical (Mark Shuttleworth's s/w development and distribution company) yesterday, and posted it off to the Isle of Man (where the company is registered, and administrated from).

I was then told, that by the way there is a 1-week conference in Sydney at the end of April, please make a plan to be there! So I have just booked a ticket and now have to make visa arrangements.

Things are moving pretty quick. Eeeek!

Beware Here Be Dragons...

Well as some of you know I had a job interview on Friday afternoon. I started job hunting in Dec when I wasn't sure if my contract was getting renewed, and when it was, (just a week before expiring!) I stopped looking.

I was phoned 2 weeks ago by one of the agencies saying that there was a prospect at one of Mark Shuttleworth's companies - was I interested? I thought it was certainly worth checking out, and so the interview was set up. I was told to ask for Karen Lamb. I checked out who she was, what she does etc, so I could be suitably knowledgeable when I arrived.

I rushed there and made it JUST in time on Friday. I dashed into reception, to find Karen standing there waiting. I tried to act casual and greeted her by name, saying I recognised her from the photo on the website... she seemed impressed - so far so good.Then she paused for a while and said, 'he's still busy, would you mind waiting...?'. I said no problem, and then asked, ' Who am I meeting with'. She said, 'Mark'.

MARK!? OMG. My interview was with MARK SHUTTLEWORTH.
I am not usually nervous for interviews, but this news did rattle me. I was thankful that I did have to wait, and it turned out to be quite a long wait, close to 45 minutes! I could hear the receptionist phoning the PA every few minutes saying how they must hurry him up and not keep *me* waiting. *LOL* It turned out he was luncheoning with a lady who had won lunch with him when he was auctioned off at a charity event. I had no other plans for the afternoon and the office park he has in Durbanville is stunning and I was enjoying being there and seeing the people coming and going. All very relaxed but very productive at the same time. The place has a lovely vibe. I also took the time to SMS friends and family asking for good luck. I got some good advice and encouragement and so by the time Mark himself arrived to greet me, and apologise for keeping me waiting I was feeling quite calm.

As I walked into the meeting room with him I said, ' I had NO idea I was meeting with you, I thought I was being interviewed by Karen, so I read up all about her - but luckily I know who you are too!" *LOL*

He is a very warm, and 'soft' man. He is gentle and soft spoken, and seems very unflappable. You can see he is intense and passionate about what he does, but that doesn't make him hyper in any way. I think the interview went well, although I am not sure if I sounded suitably excited about his job, as it's very unspecific right now. They need someone to make sure their 6-months Linux release happen successfully, but they are not sure how to achieve that, or what it means or entails. So it's quite intangible and fairly risky. But I do think it would be a good challenge.

Unfortunately it is quite a commute. About 35km from home, on the other side of Durbanville. Also, when he is around he likes the guys to work till about 10pm. Also to the job entails some international travel, 3-4 times per year at least. Which does sound great, but I am not sure if I can commit to all that right now. So I may not have been gushingly enthusiastic enough...

Well I guess it's up to fate (and Mark) now... When I left the receptionist said that I had been in for a long time. Longer than anyone else so far. So we'll see... ;)

J&B met 2005

We went to the J&B Met this year again. We have gone most years since 1998, including when Quinn was 3 weeks old and also when Griffin was 3 months old.

Shown here...
<-Quinn at the J&B Met at 3 weeks old in 2000 (the year of the big fire!)

Last year we even used to event to celebrate our combined milestone birthdays of 30 and 40 - it worked out well because the Met was postponed to April after an Equine Flu scare in January/February.

This year we weren't actually planning to go, but the day before the big day Richard was offered 2 tickets to attend in the HP VIP tent and with reserved parking, and well we couldn't say no to that... ;)

The 4 of us at the J&B met in 2002, Griffin at 3 months old, Quinn was 2 years old ->


So I rustled up an outfit - a dress I wore to a wedding a few years ago... and off we went. It was great fun, and having access to a VIP tent is definately the way to go. even though we normal book private picnic sites and are not part of the real student pleb crowd, being put up in an airconditioned marque with free drink on tap and being able to swan around with the rich and famous is something I could get used to.

We saw Gareth Cliff and Claudia Schenkle (or whatever Miss South Africa's name is), Kurt Schoenraad, Stuart Taylor, Colin Moss, Joanne Strauss and some other models and Miss SA's etc.

Also it turned out that some of the CSC directors were being wined and dined by HP, and so showed up in the tent too. It was a small victory to have cracked an invite as well and to be able to fraternise with the high and mighties...

We were also given some betting vouchers, and I made an effort this year to try to understand some of the betting intricasies. I have been ridiculously clueless up to now. So I played some horses and races, on my own and WON - and so did Richard. *grin* Now we are not big gamblers, but we walked a away from a day that didn't cost us a cent with a few hundred rand in our pockets - that's a good feeling. it was fun.

The lunch was delicious, the weather was perfect, and we had a stunning day.

We were slightly inebriated by this point - late afternoon...

Quinn can eat with chopsticks

I was taken out for a Chinese meal when I was 6, and have enjoyed it since. I think I learned to eat with chopsticks at my second visit, and still have that set of chopsticks - the waiter let me keep them.

Quinn became keen to try when I started using them to eat noodles and Chinese take aways before our Thailand trip, and I explained that that is how people in Thailand eat. I let him try, and he picked it up pretty quickly... considering most westerners in Thailand were amazed that I could
eat with chopsticks, I am impressed with him :)