Sat around doing nothing, for an hour

It's nice to have a reasonably relaxing morning today, with not a lot on, other than packing suitcases, I guess. It makes a change. The last few days have been busy busy busy.

So, news updates first, starting with Jo's job situation. Well, it's all finally been resolved, which is such a relief, for both of us. She's decided to take "the boiler job". I think it sounds like it could be an interesting role, and will definitely broaden her experience adding something in the manufacturing industry. Regarding the hand-over thing with her old company, she's come to an agreement regarding being available for the next few months on and off to ensure everything is handed over properly, for a reasonable fee. I think it was the right thing to do. In a way, it basically came down to weighing up whether a permanent role was a better idea than carrying on trying to make a temporary one with incomplete technological solutions work. I think this way, everyone seems happy. She has the time for a proper hand-over, the old company get that hand-over, and she's got the security of a permanent job in Chch. Everyone's a winner.

Even I got some good news yesterday. My old boss called, from his hedge fund ivory tower, and told me he got the go ahead on this joint project thing with another company. They need this spreadsheet developing and it seems that everyone's happy for me to do it. He asked that I send an email detailing how long I think the task will take and what it will cost to do it, which I did this morning, so now I'm just waiting for him to come back to me with confirmation that my fee has been approved. Speaking to Jo she seems to think the fee is reasonable, and as it is a fee based on my UK salary, it will go a long way in NZ and take the pressure off finding a job immediately, which is nice. The three weeks' work, that I reckon it will be, will cover me for about 2 or 2.5 months, I reckon. I definitely appreciate my old boss thinking of me for this. It does seem to work out well for everyone.

God seems to be providing. Thank you for all your prayers.

One thing yet to be resolved, and not appearing to get any closer, is the flat sale. We've still not exchanged, so there's no way we'll complete before we leave the country now. The buyer's solicitor has now come back with another couple of queries. What is she playing at? It seems she is not capable of dealing with more than one task at a time. Why on earth has this stuff waited until now? I'm at my wits' end.

In terms of the grand week of touristy fun, yesterday saw us at the Tower Bridge Exhibition. You go up one tower, watch a film about the bridge's history, walk across the top a bit, watch another film, go down the other tower and then go have a look in the engine rooms. It was a really good couple of hours actually. Victorian engineering continues to astound me. Plus the weather was good so we got some excellent photos.


Yesterday evening I headed over to Vitor's with Derek and Davin, while the girls from our fellowship group (Phong, Maria and Keira - Pei couldn't make it) came over here with Joanne. They watched The Pursuit of Happiness, had dinner (and maybe even painted their nails?), while we had a Chinese before breaking out PES6 on the PS2. Why is it we waited until the week before I leave to finally get around to organising this? Hmm, I wonder what we would need to play that over Net Play...