Summer goodness!!!

Well, been a gap in my update. The last post on this blog was posted last week, but somehow its been picked up by the company I work for and it was feedback back to my boss. Its all sorted, I guess I learnt a valuable lesson not mentioning the companies I work for from now on. Let just say that work has been pretty turbulent the last couple of weeks, and it looks like will stay that way for a few more…

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Its a “crunch” time….

You know times are bad when the bank clerk help me with my credit card application asked me if theres a job going where I worked. I can’t say moving to a new country and get hit by one of the biggest downturn since the depression is what I have in mind, but hey its still a unique experience right? Just hope my income hold up in the coming few months. Oh well………..worst come to worst a month long European holiday is not too bad on the books.

Falling market also means opportunity, at the moment in this country cash is King!! My dad’s old investment paradigm of ultra conservatism finally work! Took a little over 10 years but I guess its finally work….

No news is good news

On the point of my dad, I spoke to him last week over the phone. He sounds alright over the phone and I hope he stays that way. He went to a cardio specialist and found hes got 3 blocked artery and needs surgery. Hes ok for now and they doing more test to see if he needs a bypass or key-hole surgery. It never a good thing to know anyone have a heart problem, but at least knowing about it means he will be extra careful when he gets any problem. At least thats a silver lining on a dark cloud!!

Its also sad to found out that my aunt has passed away last week and my grand father is not doing so well as well. I guess when everyone of your relatives are in their twilight years no news is good news indeed!!

*Chinese Assent* “Ipping Forest!!! 

Went for my first mountain bike ride in UK on Sunday. Woke up round 9ish feeling “Le tired” from 4 hours of sleep and my hard work gardening yesterday. My landlady has a whipper-snipper in the house but it broke, so I went down the market and got myself a hand shearer and proceed to trim the lawn, man what an epic! Years of mowing with a Vita’s lawn mower was like a dream compare with trimming a small patch of grass with a hand shearer.

Anyway me and Tarkan had organised this bike ride for more than a week, we agreed to meet at Liverpool Street station at 10:00 and catch a train up to Epping Forest.

Yes we do have identical bikes! Evans was doing a deal on Treks and we both decided to buy the same model and no we are not lovers thanks for asking!!

 Epping Forest is one of the few place close/in London that you can ride mountain bike in. The track of Land was reserved since 1800s for use of the general public and remain since than. Not just Mountain bikers but walkers and horse the riders use the land as well. Good thing is its only a 20 min train ride from Liverpool street.

 As you can see in the last pic, that is the “jump” and its look as flat as a pan cake. Will try to launch off that next time!

We have an enjoyable day. It was warm and very humid and with no rain the last few weeks it was also really dry. All we needed now is sandstone and we will be right at home like a Sydney mountain bike trail. Its been an exhausting but a good day out. Definitely not a wasting such a glorious day on wandering around Oxford street or feeling complete hung-over from a Saturday night debaucherious session! By the end of the ride my T-shirt was dripping with my own sweat!!

 Well, can’t believe it. July is ending soon. In 2 days time I would be here in UK for a year. Time sure flys!! Now I have to organise a bit for August.

Redux…..

Last 2 week or so been pretty focus on work. Our system just went live 2 weeks ago and it was hectic supporting the users while they were using the new system for forecasting and budgeting.

May of you probably dun know much about my work so let me tell you a little bit about it here…..

Last 5 months been a great learning journey for me on a professional way: Project implementation has always been filled with challenges. Its never easy trying to get people with different interest to come to an agreement when it comes to giving up power. Usually someone with a lot of political clout wanted a system so everyone has to bend around his/her will. In this case  the political power is distributed across the business lines, sure the Finance wanted the system but it takes a good deal of diplomacy to ask people to come to a compromise, they can take there “bat and ball” and the party is over!

To cut a long story short, after 4 months of hard work and arm twisting the system finally gone live. Yes it goes a bit like a bag of spanners and every user came back with a list of things they like to see improve, it is still a system that gone live and my first successful Planning project implementation to be put on my CV!

I been thinking over the last couple of days: London does give me alot more professional opportunity than back in Sydney, it is worthwhile to stick around for a bit longer. To most of the guys that I met in the last 12 months they are here for a working holiday, in due time they will all head back home to resume their “normal” life and catchup. I might not be living as care-free live as they are, but there’s a good chance that I will move forward ahead of where I was back in Sydney…..an opportunity that most working holidayers do not have.

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Talked to my dad for a little while yesterday. Hes doing ok but he needs to go back to a cardio specialist next week for a visit and it looks very likely he will needed surgery of some sort. My maternal aunty in Hong Kong also passed-away and to be honest I only knew when mum told me over the MSN.

Living so far away from my family and friends does make me occasionally feel detached. Its hard to be fully aware of the seriousness of things going on back home. Now I realised that besides a mate’s wedding I can be back in OZ sooner for not so happy ocassions.

Lets hope my dad will stay well and we won’t be crossing that bridge anytime soon.

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Today got invited by Eva’s friend Nurcan for her house BBQ, a pleasant surprise since I only got a text message from her at 10:00a.m. for a 3:00 p.m. BBQ! It was a good day and the house Nurcan lives is shared by boarders from across the world and everyone have an enjoyable time with alot of singing and dancing. It was also Nurcan’s B’day yesterday! I would have bought her a gift if I knew a bit earlier!!

No signs of Eva and Tarkan at the BBQ. Its kind of expected that once people get hitched they do their own thing. In this case Eva took Tarkan on a secert camping trip to Brighton! I am sure its a trip to Brighton but not 100% sure about the camping part! Damn these loving couple thing!!

A British Summer……..kind of like an Australian winter…..

Got home late from work today with a new system gone live last Friday, life is hectic doing so much running around and not much time for party or this blog. Whats worst is that its raining outside and the weather resemble an Australian winter rather than summer.

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Welcome to Summer

Enough of my whining, last weekend was a busy weekend for me. It kicked off with Tarkan’s welcome to Summer BBQ at his house. Before the BBQ I offered Tarks a hand in getting everything organise, so on Saturday I arrived early morning to help Tarkan clean-up the yard and set up the Impromptu benches while Eva and Stefania organise the salad. You might remember the Tarkan’s place looks like from some of my older pictures, it does take alot of effort to get the whole place to a state that it is ready.

 

 It took both of us a good 2 hours to get everything setup. We wrapped up at around 2 and with the place clean, sofa sets and the sound system pumping out tunes, the place is ready for a great summer BBQ!!

It wasn’t a huge BBQ, but still took 4 people’s work to get everything sorted, but with Tarkan and each of his housemates inviting their friends it was a really a meeting place of people from a diverse background.

 

As I said before, you can’t go wrong with an Australian and a Turk running a BBQ. It also goes to show how great of a host Tarkan is, TBH its takes alot of organisation, effort and charisma to pull something like this together. The surprise of the day was to see Jonas came to the BBQ! See Jonas is a Frenchman I met back in the days of the hostel. He was the quiet cleaner who really only came out of his shell in the last month of his stint. He went back home a month ago to work at his old man’s pub in Southern France, but after being home for a month he got bored of his time in France and came back to London. Sometime you only know how good a dream is once you awake.

Speaking of which the a few of the old hostel crew are also there. They brought along some of the “new” hostel crew as well. As much as they are a great bunch and I am friends with a few of them, they are not a really “social” group and really hang to each other most of the time. From my observation they don’t gel well with others in the party and when the guys talked to the girls its to get some sort of sideway action going.

Looking at the new hostel crew reminds me that the show has move on and I am no longer part of it…………..Or did I finally grew up and saw things as the way they are?? 

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An audience with Neil (Almost)

Tarkan organised ticket for this Sunday to see Neil Young. Me being complacent and left it to last minute to find out the details from Tarks. Turns out the ticket is for Hop Farm Music festival in Kent South Of London! So I organise with Alan to catch a train down to the festival. Arrived at the farm around 12:00p.m. and than it starts to rain and temperature drops.

   

Kate & Alan looked like Mexicans with their Chequered blanket and Poncho!!

   

 Now I understood what music festival is supposed to be like: Bring along a tent, some chairs and who cares if you are not in front of the stage , just sit back and let the atomsphere sink in. It was a strange festival as this one is packed with oldies. I guess this got to do with the fact that Neil Young was well in his prime when I wasn’t even born!!

Unfortunately I piked early with Tarkan. See there was no train back to London after Neil finished playing, so either you have to book a coach or you have to sleep overnight! So I saw my chance and hitch a ride in Eva’s car and head back. I dun fancy having call in sick on Monday with a new system going live. Anyway it was a good day, the sweet melody and soothing voice really carry you up to heaven (well I am not sure but it so soothing I actually fell asleep!!) and to kick a ball around when Primal scream is playing on stageis pretty cool too!!

*sigh* maybe I really needed to get my own car!!!

 

*N.B.: Not sure how this blog’s updates wll be like in the coming weeks, I dun expect anything exicting to happen in the short-term. Its good in a way as I now offically carry zero expectation in life!!!……. *sigh*