Hammered

We were beaten at 5-a-side tonight. Badly. The team we played were either first or second in the table, had obviously been playing together for a while, and when they figured out they were better than us played with an arrogant swagger. I think the score ended up 11-6 or 11-7 or something. It wasn't as bad as it sounds though. At least four of their goals came from penalties awarded when one of our team trod one inch into our keeper's area. The ref was a bit of a stickler. I think one of the hardest things about being a Christian and how we're called to live is responding well in defeat. I guess we have to respond well in victory too, but when the other team are taking the mickey and aren't being gracious it's hard to lose graciously. I guess it's a real witness when we manage it. If it's right for you, please pray that I manage it and resist the temptation to boot someone up in the air.

Terri, the interior designer came round tonight with curtain samples. We've probably almost maybe chosen fabric for the lounge and our bedroom now. Only another six or so weeks to make them and fit them and we'll be able to take down the property magazine pages cellotaped to our windows. Our, and New Zealand, they're curtains, not drapes. You are an English colony, not an American one.

I forgot to mention the great news that is Contender Series 3 showing over here. Episode 2 aired last night. And it's not even started in the UK yet. Sorry, Clayton and Andy. It's going to be another good series. For those that don't know (and can't be bothered following the wiki-link above to find out) it's a kind of reality TV boxing comp with boxers competing to win a bit of a wad of cash, a bit of fame and, more importantly, a chance at the big time. I've been an avid fan of series 1 and 2. I'm still trying to balance how it fits for me as a Christian to enjoy watching the boxing bit of it though. Andy and Clayton, as big fans too, do you have any thoughts on the subject? How do you feel about it?

Oh, and someone in London send me pictures of the Burble. Someone over there must have gone and had a camera with them. Does anyone other than Anna know what on earth I'm on about?

Doh!

Why couldn't I keep my gob shut, eh?

Howzat!

It's still early but England are doing well against New Zealand in the Twenty20 World Cup. The Black Caps are 95-5 after 13.2 overs. At this rate I might be able to go into work tomorrow as an England sports fan with my head held high for a change. To be honest, people have been very well behaved regarding the rugby. The worst of it actually came from someone other than a colleague. Two of the guys from the furniture shop came round tonight to bring us our dining table chairs, our barstools, and more importantly, our bed. (Yes, we finally have a bed!) One of them started on about the rugby. I told him I'm a football fan. Two wins in a week for England. It's been a while since that's happened. And the women's team have reached the quarter finals of the World Cup in China too, following a 6-1 win aganst Argentina. Impressive. Well done, the lasses.

Hmm, NZ are knocking the ball around a bit now. They're back into it at 134-5 off 16.

The curtains and blinds guy came round tonight to measure up. I'm looking forward to being able to take down the magazine pages from our bedroom windows, I can tell you. Although I guess it means we have something to read.

140-7 off 17. They must be looking for 170 now.

We heard today that our container hasn't been released yet, which is a pain. The shipping company haven't been paid by the company we dealt with in the UK so they won't give us our stuff. Someone over there should be expecting a call from Joanne in a bit. She's going to growl at them, let me tell you.

152-8 with 1 over left.

Last night was the company's AGM out in the country, in a place called Darfield. Given the company is a cooperative the customers are also the shareholders and so the majority of the people there were farmers. I quite enjoyed meeting some of them. There was one guy there, a dairy-farming Coaster (someone from the West coast of the south island) who I had quite a chat too. He was very understanding about my lack of knowledge and told me loads about how his farm worked. The meeting was also a great opportunity to get more background info about the company too. The CEO and the chairman both gave presentations talking about the fertiliser industry worldwide, in NZ and the company in the past year and going forward. Useful stuff for me to hear.

164-9 after all 20 overs for the Black Caps. It's not enough, mark my words, but they'd have taken that at 31-4.

Working is going well at the moment, three and a bit weeks in, but there's certainly a lot on. They weren't wrong when they told me in the interview there would be no problem finding enough to do. I was given a big project late this afternoon, to generate a grid of typical farmers by farm size and farm type looking at our market penetration and what it would mean for both revenue and customer service levels should we increase our market share. An interesting exercise in modelling and it'll be a good way for me to learn more about the industry.

Joanne's still enjoying work too, which is great news. The pain though, is with her still doing the consultancy thing for her old job in the evenings. We'll both be glad when that's over. And when she gets paid for it.

OK, time for England to bat now.

Sprung

Driving alongside the park yesterday morning on the way to church and walking by the river during my lunch break just now it was very apparent that spring has arrived. Daffodils and blossom everywhere. Ducklings on the river. And lambs in the field on the way to work too. It's all very lovely and stuff, but it's September. My seasonal body-clock is in a right mess. I'm dreading a summer Christmas. I guess I should just enjoy the sunshine, but I do wonder how long it will take me to get used to having Spring in September.

Bad decision

I shouldn't have bothered waking up early. That was quite demoralising. And then I go on the beeb website and see we lost in the cricket too. Not the best start to the day, eh?

And...relax

Phew, what a hectic week. Or at least it seemed that way. I'm sure we've had worse, and will have worse, but it definitely felt a bit hectic. It started with dinner on the Monday night with the sales managers. The Belgian place did serve more than beer and mussels, so that was good. The lamb shank is highly recommended.

Tuesday saw Joanne and I out to dinner at a couple from church's place. They're a couple we sort of knew before we came here and Jo's been running with Renee in the hills once or twice. Once, I think. It was a great evening. Lovely food, great company and some real laughs playing Boggle and Scattergories. They're an Aussie couple but you can't have everything ;)

You know, one of the hardest things about being here so far has been the lack of friends. We're meeting some people at church and it was great to have dinner with Mark and Renee and to get to know them a bit better, but friends take time to grow, don't they? I think I'd forgotten that. I'm getting to know the guys I play football with a bit, but again, it takes time for acquaintances to become friends.

And speaking of football, we lost yesterday. It finished 9-8, but a lot of that was just due to the fact that we had six players to their nine or so. It meant they could all rotate a lot more and finished the game fresher. I scored 3 though, so the match was a personal victory if not a team one. Hehe.

I think work this week has added to the hectic feeling. It's felt non-stop all week. No time to catch my breath. Everything seems like a rush and top priority, especially with it all taking a while with me learning the database and reporting tools. But I think that may actually just be my self-imposed impression, as a few times this week people have expressed surprise at the short time it's taken to generate the report results they've requested. I'm slowly feeling I'm doing more and more useful work, which is good. And it seems I'm the only one in the company who knows how to use pivot tables too so I've something to add there.

The scope of the job still feels a bit daunting though. There is just so much scope and the job description is so broad and fluid. And no-one has really pinned it down in concrete terms. They've not had an analyst before, they knew that they needed one, and that's as far as it has gone really. No-one seems very sure what my exact responsibilities and jobs are or will be. Which makes it incredibly hard for me to know what they are. I guess it will take shape in time. I do feel they have high expectations though, that somehow I'm going to be part of revolutionising the company. It's good to be part of, but scary too. I'm finding I'm having trouble unwinding when I get home from work. It's never been a problem of mine before, apart from the first couple of months after I was promoted to running the department in my last job, so it's all a little strange. I'm lying awake with work issues going over in my head. I guess it's because it's all new. It'll pass with time. I hope.

Also it'll be good when I get to know the team a bit better. I was kind of spoilt with my colleagues in London. Lovely, the whole lot of 'em. You know who you are ;)

And speaking of passing with time, in some ways I really can't wait until the rugby world cup is over. It's great to see how a whole nation is taken up with it. It kind of reminds me of England during Euro 96. But I will be glad when every other advert on TV no longer features one or more of the All Blacks. I can see why so many of them have signed post-world cup contracts with European clubs. If they don't bring the trophy back home, they won't want be welcome back home.

Back home. Mmmm, that reminds me, I could murder a decent sausage right about now. You just can't get one here, for love nor money. There's just nothing to satisfy the Lincolnshire sausage craving I've been having. A real taste of home I miss. And I'm sure no butcher around here will ever have heard of haslet. I wonder if Boston Sausage deliver to Nuzziland.

And talking of delivering, in another smooth paragraph link, the ship carrying our container finally arrived in Lyttleton. Our belongings are finally on Kiwi soil. They still have to clear customs, and then get past MAF, but the shipping company seems to think we can expect delivery sometime next week.

This weekend is another housey weekend. Tomorrow we've got the Sky technician coming, and then a wardrobe guy, and then a garden bloke. Then Sunday is church followed by a trip to NZ's B&Q equivalent. I feel kind of bad getting a bloke in to discuss wardrobes interiors and another to discuss garden plans, but DIY, up to now, has not been a strong point of mine (ask Joanne sometime about the shelves I put up in our place in London), and Joanne and I have lived in flats for the past however many years so are out of practice with gardens. The only time I have lived in a house since I left Grimsby in 1993, when I lived in Camberwell, the garden turned into a bit of a jungle. And it was only small. We need something manageable designed.

We're enjoying doing things for the house each and every weekend, but it will be nice when we have a weekend off. We've agreed to do something in a few weeks, something touristy, for a change. We both really fancy the TranzAlpine train ride. I think I mentioned it before. No date planned a yet, but hopefully we'll nail it down this weekend and see about booking tickets and an overnight stay in Greymouth. I'm sure I sold a CodAlmighty t-shirt to some who lived in Greymouth, you know.

Joanne and I went out to dinner tonight (mainly because we've not had chance to do a shop for a bit), to try a recommended restaurant in Halswell, just across the domain from us - The Old Vicarage. A lovely place, and the nicest, friendliest, helpfulest waiter in the world ever, but they did insist of everything on the menu being cooked in or served with garlic. It kind of narrowed down my choices. The chicken burger was very good though.

Time for bed now, I reckon. Up early tomorrow morning, you see, to watch England take on the Saffas.

We're in

After a hectic weekend we're in our house. I've never hoovered so much in my life, what with new carpet fluff here and cleaning at the apartment. It was such a nice feeling to wake up in our own house this morning. On a mattress on the floor. Really nice. Apart from it being a little cold though. I think we need a heat pump in our room too. We couldn't quite see our own breath but it was close. The rest of the house is warm, just not our bedroom. But it will be, we'll make sure of that. Joanne will not leave in a cold house. We were spolit with the underfloor heating in our flat in London, I think.

The PC is set up and the internet works, so the essentials are sorted. And we can get a fuzzy picture on most channels on the TV. I really should have checked if I need a male-female aerial cable, or a male/male one.

I've got a dinner out with the sales managers and general manager of sales tonight. At the Belgian Beer Cafe. I hope they serve more than just beer and mussels. Otherwise I'm stuffed. Well, more likely I won't be. I wonder if there's a KFC on the way home...