Well, once again I have gone a number of weeks without entering anything on my blog, so I thought it is about time to update you all with where we are at.
I think the last time I wrote anything was around the time of the Grand Prix, and I was going to blog about that, but never really got round to it.
The weekend was fantastic, defintiely got Em well into the F1 (not that she needed all that much persuasion) and the weather really helped. Going to the F1 in Melbourne for a season opener in the heat of early Autumn is undoubtedly the best way to get your first experience of first-class motor racing. Add into the mix the newly formed Brawn GP and the resurgence of Jenson Button and you have a great holiday.
Spent the first few days walking the track and finding the best vantage point for race day, taking in the atmosphere, getting the obligatory sun-burn, and strangely enough for us, getting early nights in at the hotel. We watched the action on race day from the outside of turn 9-10 so we could see them going into the right-left of turn 11 before racing down the side of the lake. Our spot was right against the spectator fence, which was around 10 metres from the edge of the track and 11 metres from the cars!
Great weekend, and one we will repeat at numerous GP venues in the future (I hope).
Our house mate Izzy moved to Tasmania back in Feb in case I haven’t mentioned that, so we now have a new house mate Seth. He’s a good laugh and pretty fit - he regularly competes in Thai boxing, Ultimate Fighting, and Mixed Martial Arts events in Sydney. He had a fight last week but unfortunately lost. We’re all intending to head down to the city to watch his next one!
Em’s very happy because she has managed to get out of her Emergency rotation in September, so is now doing Cardiology instead. Not her ideal job, but much better than ED. We will be looking for a new job for Em over the next month as jobs become advertised in the city. She wants to find something where she can do O&G full time and the only hospitals that offer that kind of thing are based in Sydney. She’s spoken to a couple of hospitals and they seem to think she should have a good chance of getting one of the jobs as she’ll have a fair bit more experience than the other people who will be applying. If she gets it, then we’ll be moving into Sydney so she can have an easier commute to work. It is never a good idea to live far from a hospital given the random shifts that she can end up doing, and if she moves up to reg at any point, then she’ll be on proper ‘on-call’ work and could be phoned in at any time of night. If she’s successful, we’ll be off to Sydney in January.
On an aside, most of the doctors we know are intending to move down to Sydney too, as the better training posts are down there, so we should get to see most of the friends we’ve already made. Incidentally, Izzy has recently split with her guy in Tasmania, and is planning to move back to Sydney. If everything falls into place, we could well end up sharing in Sydney which would be brilliant, not only because she’s such a great friend, but because we should be able to afford a decent pad in the ‘bright lights’!
On the job front, I’ve been applying on and off for the last 6 months whenever anything remotely like what I’ve done in the past comes up. I’ve found that unless you are doing the specific job role at the moment, or in your job history, then the employers won’t even talk to you. A right bugger for me as there’s not a lot of call for aerospace, automotive test equipment and armoured vehicle designers!!!
However.....I got a call this week after I re-designed my CV for the n’th time the other week, and then got to actually format it properly once I got back the mac which had been in for repair (although miraculously fixed itself while there as they couldn’t make it go wrong!). The call was for a job in Gosford at a company called Tefco Engineering who make conveyor pulleys for the Mining Industry. These vary in size from relatively small units up to ones of 19 tonnes mass. They want someone fairly hands on, which I’ve got a bit of experience with, but I reckon as they only have a limited product range, that it shouldn’t be too hard. I’ll have to brush up on my FEA skills as I’ve not done any for about 15 months, and not done any in earnest for about 3 years.
I’ve got an interview with them on Tuesday after meeting with the agent the other day, and they seem to like what he’s told them, so I reckon I should be in with a shout of it. If I am, I should know by Wednesday.
This now brings up a whole host of things we’ll need to do if I get it, new car, either look at getting all my books shipped out here or go and buy a load of new ones, buy little things like calculator, rulers etc. First stop will be new car as I can’t be driving Em in every day to Wyong and then to work in Gosford before picking Em up in the evening and heading home. I reckon that would be about 120km a day, and 3 hours driving!! Current plan is to get a simple one we can fix cheaply if needs be, and our focus is on an old Morris Mini circa 1965-1970 of which there are a fair few about at the mo. Its either that or a holden or ford falcon, but we don’t want another big car. I have a feeling Em will nick the Mini and I’ll get the Mondeo. Fingers crossed we’ll be able to save up to replace the Mondeo later in the year with something a bit more fun.
Talking of saving, we’re hoping to come back to the UK in September, but if I get the job, that may affect how long we come back for as I may only get a certain amount of holiday in the first few months of employment. Hopefully we’ll get 2 weeks, possibly 3, which would give us a week home, a week visiting friends, and a week at Em’s before flying back from London. Will update more as we start figuring it out ourselves!
I think that is about all the big news at the moment - hopefully I’ll have more info about the job in a few days.
Right, off to celebrate the long weekend which is in honour of the Queen’s birthday. Ask any Aussie if they want to be a republic and you’ll probably get a yes. And yet they are the ones who celebrate the Queen’s birthday every year! Makes me laugh every time it comes around!
Tootle pip!
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