I probably moan about the Auckland weather too much. If you think this is the case feel free to check out this fantastic site right here instead of my stupid website. In fact, why are you here anyway? This is nothing but a bunch of stupid stupid ramblings about nothing that makes any sense! The world's insane. Leave now!

Errr quite. I've calmed down a bit now I think. Arrrrrgggghhhh THINGS THINGS THINGS. Ok, now I really have calmed down.

Did I mention it's so muggy in Auckland at the moment that at any second you might go screaming mad? Of course, I could open up the windows and then the fantastic Auckland mozzies would eat me into little pieces. I have bites from them from the camping trip that still show up on my arms. That's not a good thing.

I have SPCA tomorrow, I'm looking forward to that. It's been a while it seems. There is a big BBQ on Sunday too for all us dedicated volunteers, but I really doubt I'll be going to that. Tomorrow night I have to do another one of these late all nighters (starting at 1am and finishing at god-knows-when). The joys of my job. Still, if I do a few of these late nighters maybe in the upcoming months of TelstraSaturnClear I won't get fired!!! That's the plan anyway.

I'm a bit annoyed though, tomorrow night is the TelstraSaturn Xmas party. It'll be the last Xmas party ever with a few people I suspect. I could go, but then I can't really drink cause I have to work a few hours later... So I've decided I'll stay home and sleep instead, and then head into work at about 11pm. Do I have the coolest job or what?

I'm so looking forward to coming home, I really can't wait. The sooner the better it is for me! Only 1 month to go now, not long at all. Hopefully I'd manage to get my Australian Tax Return back by then so I'll be able to buy myself anohter camera. I'm really going to try not to lose this one either, seeing as they're hella expensive. Oooh, some Southpark creeping in there.

Right well I think that's enough for this report. Lets have a quick comment below... Do you think I went out after work for a few drinks? Or was I 100% sober when I posted this?

TuM

Jesus (sorry, don't mean to offend religious people. What I really men to say is "fuck", but that's just plain rude) have I really been stuck in this country for 12 months? It would seem so. Remember good old Giant Santa?

Well he's back just the same as last year, looking all sad and pathetic and "come over here little kiddies and sit on my knee". I mean, if you could accuse a 5 story high made-out-of-rubber-n-stuff thingy of being a child molester this would be the thingy to point at. But hey, I digress. Oh yea, if you read the above article I linked, I lost that camera (sob, cry, complain a lot. It was damn expensive) about June/July. Things hate me.

Right well I had some stuff I was going to talk about, but really I'm stuffed if I can remember what it was. I doubt it...

I'm at home waiting for the PlasterMan who is finally going to come and fix my bathroom. At least do the first bit anyway, he says it's going to take a couple of visits to fix it all up properly. Finally I shall have a bathroom that isn't butt-ugly.

We played summer hockey again last night (I haven't played the last 2 weeks for various reasons) and it was a bunch of fun. We only had 7 players though, where the other team had about 15. The game is 7 a side, so we had to play with the same 7 players for the whole time!! Summer Hockey is basically flat out running, so we were knackered by the end of it. We still won 18-9 though, so it didn't really matter in the end.

I wrote my bike to hockey too, which wasn't the best idea. On arrival I...

Well today we had a nice big meeting with management about our jobs. Or lack of them as the case may be.


Looks like as I thought my job will be safe, though unfortunatly a couple of the guys who work in my team have been told they will be made reduntant.


I should point out that no one has actually be made redundant yet, but the numbers that we are going to be moving towards have been published, and it's pretty obvious that a lot of people are going to be made redundant.

So not a nice day from that point of view. I feel really bad for all the people who are going home tonight not sure of their future with the company.


They're all really good people, it's a shame that this has to happen.

Umm not much else to report. That's kinda it really. How boring...

Well after a bit of "Yes I'm going, no I'm not going" I finally decided Wednesday that I would use this plane ticket I had and fly on down to ChristChurch. I'm glad I did in the end too, I had a great time, got to catchup with KA and her family and friends, and just generally had a good time!

Not much else to report at the moment really. Just got to work (Queen St) and I'm having a tasty StarBucks. I notice the giant Santa has gone up in Queen St already. Not long till Christmas, which means not long till I come home for a nice holiday! Woohoo. Roll on that.

Tim

The other day I sent an email to the Boags People to complain about the fact I couldn't get Boags Premium in New Zealand. I wasn't really expecting a reply. But I just got one! Click below to read it!

Here's the email I sent to them:

I moved to Auckland over a year ago.


I have managed in the whole time I've been here to find *2* six packs of Boags Premium. That's it.


There is more Cascade Premium over here than I can poke a stick at, not to mention all the Crown Lager I could ever want.


How the hell can I get some Boags Premium? Do you know any stores that stock it? I am getting very thirsty :)

And their reply:

Dear Tim,

Thank you for your email.

Whilst James Boag's Premium Lager met with initial acceptance in New Zealand the cost of shipping the...

Nice to see Tim using his all "Aussie mug" that he was given as a birthday present from his favourite auntie. It has all those FERKING words on it too, hope no one takes offence to it. Still, if that was the case, I guess they wouldn't be working at TelstraSaturn eh!!!

No one got fired today. It seems that the "The first round of lay offs will be annouced on Tuesday" mumblings was nothing but a nasty office rumour. The latest mumbling is that no one is going to be booted out the TelstraSaturnClear door until after Christmas, once the whole takeover, sorry, have to use the proper TelstraSaturn term "merger" has been finalised.


It remains to see what actually really happens... mumblings often aren't right. Today is a good example of that.




Speaking of finalised, it seems that finally Mr LandLord has pulled out the finger, dropped the "dizzy blonde" routine and has actually rung the plaster guy. Hopefully by the end of the week the bathroom will look neat and tidy. Well, after I pickup all the clothes off the floor, but that's my problem, not his.

That's all I wanted to say today, nothing else exciting. I...

I finally got around to sitting down and writing the weekend report.

Saturday I got up and rushed into town to buy myself a sleeping bag. Jesus, don't they have just normal sleeping bags anymore? I went into Kathmandu and they ranged from $300 up to $1,000+ for the "super extra live in the snow for 2 years check yourself into a shrink ward" type ones. Bugger that I thought, so I went next door and got a normal average sleeping back that's still quite nice for $100. Much better.

So anyway, I packed up my shite into my car and drove over to Tony's place. Well, I drove around for a good half hour trying to find it, my map reading skills really aren't up there with the best of them. Finally I found his place, backed my shit into his 4wd and we headed off to the "campsite"...

Tomorrow the first round of lay offs are being annouced, thanks to the merging of TelstraSaturn and Clear. Me and Tony aren't too worried about being laid off though, 1) I don't think it's likely to happen and 2) Even if it does I don't think it'd be hard to get another job somewhere over here pretty quickly.

I still haven't written up a report about the weekend. I'll do it, it was a lot of fun, bombs, cars, shotguns etc.

Err not much else to write at the moment, I'm at work and it's pretty busy. I'll write some more wibble tonight.

TiM