Friday 5 December 2008

The last 5 months

Anyone would think i'm dead, the last post was on 1st May 2008.  It is now 5th December 2008 and i've finally gotten round to typing something.

So what have i been up to?

June

  • Ingunn and i got married in Norway.  About 45 people came to the wedding and it was certainly the happiest day of my life to date. After the wedding we took a 1 week honey moon to Biarritz in South Western France.
  • Started working at a hedge fund in London.  The role is a front office developer.   Busy busy.

July  - December.  Had a few long weekend trips which include Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Rome.  These have been interspersed with long periods of work and head colds.

Thursday 1 May 2008

Only

7 weeks to go till the wedding, with one or two things still to organise.  We are doing the ceremony outside so there are a ton of things that can and will go wrong. Rains is pretty much guaranteed, snow? It is in Norway after all.

Enjoying life back in London for now though, we've got an apartment in what i originally thought was stuffy district of Chiswick, but turns out is quite upbeat.  Do still long for the sun and surf of Sydney, but being closer to family and old friends again is fantastic.  London itself has changed too, seems cleaner and more of a buzz compared to 6 years ago.  More continental even.  Listening to all the new/old radio stations, I even found myself enjoying any answers last weekend!

Spring here now, bluebells a-plenty..  This one was taken in my parents garden recently

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I love fonejacker, hilarious. Just finished reading Persuasion, the art of influencing people.  Great book, watch out!

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Hopefully next week will be less hectic.

Monday 14 April 2008

Spring-erland

A walk through the woods at Newlands Corner.

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Feels like spring is just about starting, another month and there'll be green everywhere.

Spring-erland

A walk through the woods at Newlands Corner.

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DSC_0057

Feels like spring is just about starting, another month and there'll be green everywhere.

Wednesday 27 February 2008

Google Docs

Have been updating my CV recently and decided to avoid installing MS Office and give Google Docs a whirl, in particular the word processing app.  It is about 50% there i'd say (compared to Microsoft Word).  Hardly surprising given Word is  mature product that has been around for ages.  Some features still missing

Can't pasted in images, i.e . you can't Ctrl-C copy, Ctrl-V PASTE an image into a document, or proportionally resize the image so it retains its aspect ratio.

Editing tables is tricky too, and undo seems only to work half the time. 

Mind you for basic stuff, like composing a CV, Google docs works for me and has spared me a 900mb install on my laptop, and I love the collaboration features - streets ahead of MS Office.

 

So, here's the (notquite finished) product.

Monday 25 February 2008

Jervis Bay

Lots of sunshine, white sandy beaches, palm trees and crystal clear sea water.  Only 3 hours drive from Sydney too, we stayed in a beach hut beside GreenFields beach which was like something you'd see on a postcard.

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Back to reality now, and it's less than a month till we're back in London, seems unbelievable, still so so much to organise.  Can't believe I arrived in Sydney with a single backpack.  I've got my Australian passport at long last now though, the final hurdle so can always escape back down here if needs be. 

Been listening to Jack Johnson's new album Sleep Through The Static, I never really like his previous work, but this one has really grown on me.

Have also been sumbling around the web, love the fact the stumbleupon have added a image/video/wikipedia category to their excellent browser plug-in.  If you haven't set it up already should do so, will transform your web browsing experience.

Friday 15 February 2008

Scrambled Eggs ala Gordon Ramsay

I've always cooked scrambled eggs by just whisking them, stirring with a fork in a cup, putting in a pinch of salt, then cooking rapidly in a saucepan for a few minutes.  Usually served with some chopped up muchrooms fried too much.  However, things are changing from now on, I came across this recipe for scrambled eggs courtesy of Gordon Ramsay, and was blown away.  I think the secret is to not put the seasoning (salt + pepper) in too early.  Cooking the flathead mushrooms upsidedown and tomatoes like he did really worked well too, shall be trying that one again for sure. It don't really take any longer to prepare but tasted so much more flavoursome.

So, London here we come. Ingunn and I are packing our bags and heading back to the land of light humour and warm beer on the 20th March.  Stopping off in Malaysia for 5 days then arriving Tuesday 25th.  Trying to sell 5 1/2 years worth of accumulated junk in the preceeeding weeks has been tiresome and I just want to get there now.  So far we've sold the setee, bed, matress, outdoor furniture, bin, shoe rack, computer chair + desk, monitor, speakers, and probabaly fish tank.  By the end of this weekend we'll have a futon + couple of bean bags and that is pretty much it! Oh, and a car.

Why leave Sydney after nearly 6 years?  Lots of reasons, but the most important thing is that we aren't leaving for good, the Plan is to come back down in a year or two and buy a place as close to the beach as we can afford and live the life.  See how it goes, i'm definitely excited about London now though, especially with summer just around the corner Cool 

Here are some pics from my trip to the WhitSunday's in January, off to Jervis Bay in a couple of weeks so will try getting some more underwater pics there.  Sydney coastal waters have been churned up of late so have been doing more surfingf than snorkelling/diving.  Mind you, the surfing hasn't been all that great either.

Thursday 3 January 2008

The Sydney Swell Keeps Coming

This photo sums up the conditions on the eastern New South Wales Coast of late.   Crazy, with more on the way this weekend.

Swell outside Tamaramma

Byron

Spent a very relaxing Christmas at Byron Bay.  Here is a picture of Ingunn posing on Christmas morning with the fantastic view from Mt Warning behind her.  It took us about 2 hours to hike to the top of it, and when we eventually arrived, the sun was replaced by huge stormy clouds and pelting rain.  Oh well.  More pictures from Byron Bay can be found Byron Bay 2007.

Merry Christmas 

I managed abit of surfing whilst we were there, what a difference good waves and empty beaches can make.  This photos was taken at Surfers Paradise, a day or two before the cyclone hit.

 

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