It was good to not be gallivanting all over the world but also a lot more boring at work! Work has now become pretty routine so I am simply going through the motions.
We picked up one of those bargains that sounds too good to be true and then turns out exactly like that. I bought an offroad trailer and tent (not fitted) for the price of a tent alone! The trailer is a bit of a lemon but fortunately Callie assisted and we fixed the problem of the trailer being too low and slightly too small for the tent to fit properly. Rest of the time was spent building a kitchen and slides for the fridge. Many late evenings and weekends went into this and in typical fashion I underestimated how long it takes to make stuff. It is most frustrating to find the correct place to buy stuff and to find the words/names that they use here for stuff.
The weather was pretty strange for this time of year and we only managed to get an opportunity when it wasn’t wet or very windy about 3 days before we left for the holidays to pitch the tent for the first time. It is absolutely HUGE. Much bigger than what I actually wanted because it will simply take that much longer to setup every time and short weekend trips are now not so enticing any more.
A week before the holidays started I lent the Ford to the neighbour’s kids to go surfing and it came back with the 5th gear shot! I know it is a Ford Courier problem but it is still a bit frustrating. I could not find a replacement gearbox or someone to fit it in time for the holidays so I had to take 2 days extra leave to find an alternate vehicle. Shaun assisted and I eventually made quite a good trade for a Nissan Patrol.
The Patrol has 40% more power than the Ford and is absolute luxury compared to it. It towed the trailer without breaking a sweat. It also dawned on me why vehicles have such high km’s here, the top speed is 110km/h and trust me you don’t go over it as you will definitely be caught.
The camping was great at Renmark (250km inland) next to the river Murray which is full for the first time in a decade. The camp setup was very nice and the huge tent which was referred to as the Cathedral by some of the campers came in handy. We were nearly eaten alive by mozzies on the first night and we used about a gallon of anti-mozzi sprays of all denominations. The good old Tabbard Cream from South Africa is the clear winner by a country mile but we ran out soon. The local shops had NO replacement mozzie stuff when they eventually opened. Two days of over 40deg was not so much fun but Shaun implemented a fan with misting nozzles that worked pretty good in the end.
We played some tennis, swam and cycled along the river or simply sat around camp and it was so relaxing. I still had to connect and check all the systems that I support every day but that was not too bad.
Michael made friends very quickly and they were a group of 5 boys and 4 girls that played till 23h00 at night. They were such a pleasant lot together and some are still texting each other now.
2011 was greeted with a street party where Carina joined the young bunch to ensure that they are allowed out and it started with quite a nice fireworks display. Someone on the river fired off some more after the big event and set fire to the bushes next to the camp so the Fire Brigade had a very early kickoff to the year. It was fortunately put out very quickly.
And now it is back to work and the chores of 2011.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Jun - Sep 2010 News
Time sure flies when you are having fun but also when you are in a pickle! Many miles of flying were done since May. I undertook the longest flight ever from Adelaide to Montreal via Sydney and Vancouver! The hop from Sydney to Vancouver was 17 hours by itself. The seats in Air Canada are pretty comfortable in “cattle class” but even that got my coccyx decidedly painful in the end.
Carina finally finished her training before I left for Canada and took leave for the time that I was away. She has received her certificate III in Age Care but she has stopped working.
I arrived in Montreal on the weekend of the Canadian F1 race and all hotels were booked out except the ones close to the airport. I did not purchase any tickets for the F1 as by the time my trip was finalised and tickets issued, I could not purchase any on-line. The hotel was filled with F1 fans and they had a special shuttle bus from the hotel to the nearest underground which took us all the way to the Circuit. I only managed to get a black market ticket for the Saturday qualifying at a truly rip-off price but it was still worth it to experience the noise, smells and the excitement once again.
Work kicked off with a vengeance on Tuesday and fortunately the jet-lag was over when the COSPAS-SARSAT Meetings started. It is a truly international conference in the ICAO building, even the Russians were there. The security to enter the building was worse than at an airport. I dealt with ICAO when developing stuff for the Aero business and it was sort of strange to be “in the lions den”. It was really hard to follow all the discussion and decisions but a very useful experience and a good venue to make contact with all the influential people in the business of Search and Rescue.
Some say:” Montréal is more French than France”, at least they could speak a little more English than in France. The shopping malls are all underground and they have a total of 21km of it! I think it is to cope with winter when everything is snowed in. It was a pretty expensive city and the expectation to tip every service was pretty annoying.
After the conference I travelled to Ottawa where our company headquarters is. It was really a strange feeling to finally be inside the building that was considered to be our “Big League” opposition when I worked at Omnipless in Cape Town. Training was hard and fast but good.
Like Australia which has an odd place like Canberra as the Capital, Canada has Ottawa as their capital. It has many old colonial style buildings and traditions that were inherited from the Brits. The Queen even decided to make her visit to Ottawa and Winnipeg coincide with mine! May sound cool but the effect on security was not fun especially after the riots at the G20 meetings.
I was fortunate to fit in a stopover in Winnipeg with Johann and Lisda. All the children also made the trip from Saskatoon. It was heart-warming to see how their kids matured into really pleasant individuals. Their first grandson, Jannie, yes that is Jannie in Canada with a Canadian mom, was so cute! It was amazing to see this little fella follow the Afrikaans instructions from ouma and oupa. The weather was fantastic and we made a nice potjie on the Saturday. It is hard to imagine the area covered in snow as it was so hot, green and lush when I was there. Because of all the water in the area it was also very humid and I made quite a good acquaintance with the Canadian National Bird: GIANT mosquitoes.
After my return to Oz I spent two weeks in Canberra at the AMSA headquarters for more training. This was once again a lot of hard work, requiring after hours and weekends effort.
Carina did not want to have a big occasion for her big milestone birthday and in the end I decided to take her and Michael with me to Thailand. My tickets were organised by my work and it was tricky to get their ones aligned with mine. After a lot of &^%$ words it all worked out in the end and we flew out of Oz on her birthday. We arrived in Bangkok at midnight and spent 8 hours there and then flew out to Phuket early the next day. We stayed in the Patong Merlin Hotel and it was very spectacular, hot and humid. We did a lot of swimming and walking around in the Patong area. Everyone just want to sell you stuff and everything is so very cheap. We took a day trip by speedboat to Phi-Phi Island where we did snorkelling. We had a traditional Thai lunch and more shopping on one of the bigger islands and then had a bone jarring trip back to Phuket when the sea got a bit rough.
Four days was way too short but we had to get to Bangkok where I had to work the next week. While I was slaving away in the heat and humidity, Carina and Michael explored the city by sky train, minibus taxi (Toyota just like in RSA) and TUK-TUK. They also did a few tours in the area and visited ancient temples and did Elephant rides. There was also a boat ride and a visit to the Bridge over the River Kwai where they did a trip on the “death railway”.
I joined them for a tour to the Tiger Temple on the Saturday. It was bit disappointing but we had the chance to touch the tigers and walk with them. The Sunday before we left we used the MRT to visit JJ-Market; the biggest outdoor market in the world with more than 8000 stalls. You can buy just about anything there. If you can’t find it there, you should seriously analyse why you wanted it in the first place. It reminded me of the Koelie-market in Durban but just much bigger.
After our return Michael had to present a diary and photos that captured his experiences during the trip. He was pretty chaffed with the idea of not having to go to school. As with everything here that is completely over regulated: we had to get special permission to take him out of school and agreed to do home schooling for those periods. We even had to purchase the training manuals.
No sooner had we returned and Carina and I were off to Nambour (near Brisbane) to celebrate an old friend’s 50th. It was great to see L’Marie after so many years. We met in high school and I last saw her in 1974. She recognised my name on the SA-Australian website in 2008 and made contact. It was great to meet her two sons Awie and Darius, his wife Tanya and her family. I met many other great Afrikaners and it appears that they also stick and party together like us here in Adelaide. I could count the Ozzies at the party on my one hand. I did a sheep on the spit, one that I was looking forward to since planning my own 50th in RSA in 2008. It fell through when we moved to Oz in July.
It is good to have a bit of time at home again till end of October.
Carina finally finished her training before I left for Canada and took leave for the time that I was away. She has received her certificate III in Age Care but she has stopped working.
I arrived in Montreal on the weekend of the Canadian F1 race and all hotels were booked out except the ones close to the airport. I did not purchase any tickets for the F1 as by the time my trip was finalised and tickets issued, I could not purchase any on-line. The hotel was filled with F1 fans and they had a special shuttle bus from the hotel to the nearest underground which took us all the way to the Circuit. I only managed to get a black market ticket for the Saturday qualifying at a truly rip-off price but it was still worth it to experience the noise, smells and the excitement once again.
Work kicked off with a vengeance on Tuesday and fortunately the jet-lag was over when the COSPAS-SARSAT Meetings started. It is a truly international conference in the ICAO building, even the Russians were there. The security to enter the building was worse than at an airport. I dealt with ICAO when developing stuff for the Aero business and it was sort of strange to be “in the lions den”. It was really hard to follow all the discussion and decisions but a very useful experience and a good venue to make contact with all the influential people in the business of Search and Rescue.
Some say:” Montréal is more French than France”, at least they could speak a little more English than in France. The shopping malls are all underground and they have a total of 21km of it! I think it is to cope with winter when everything is snowed in. It was a pretty expensive city and the expectation to tip every service was pretty annoying.
After the conference I travelled to Ottawa where our company headquarters is. It was really a strange feeling to finally be inside the building that was considered to be our “Big League” opposition when I worked at Omnipless in Cape Town. Training was hard and fast but good.
Like Australia which has an odd place like Canberra as the Capital, Canada has Ottawa as their capital. It has many old colonial style buildings and traditions that were inherited from the Brits. The Queen even decided to make her visit to Ottawa and Winnipeg coincide with mine! May sound cool but the effect on security was not fun especially after the riots at the G20 meetings.
I was fortunate to fit in a stopover in Winnipeg with Johann and Lisda. All the children also made the trip from Saskatoon. It was heart-warming to see how their kids matured into really pleasant individuals. Their first grandson, Jannie, yes that is Jannie in Canada with a Canadian mom, was so cute! It was amazing to see this little fella follow the Afrikaans instructions from ouma and oupa. The weather was fantastic and we made a nice potjie on the Saturday. It is hard to imagine the area covered in snow as it was so hot, green and lush when I was there. Because of all the water in the area it was also very humid and I made quite a good acquaintance with the Canadian National Bird: GIANT mosquitoes.
After my return to Oz I spent two weeks in Canberra at the AMSA headquarters for more training. This was once again a lot of hard work, requiring after hours and weekends effort.
Carina did not want to have a big occasion for her big milestone birthday and in the end I decided to take her and Michael with me to Thailand. My tickets were organised by my work and it was tricky to get their ones aligned with mine. After a lot of &^%$ words it all worked out in the end and we flew out of Oz on her birthday. We arrived in Bangkok at midnight and spent 8 hours there and then flew out to Phuket early the next day. We stayed in the Patong Merlin Hotel and it was very spectacular, hot and humid. We did a lot of swimming and walking around in the Patong area. Everyone just want to sell you stuff and everything is so very cheap. We took a day trip by speedboat to Phi-Phi Island where we did snorkelling. We had a traditional Thai lunch and more shopping on one of the bigger islands and then had a bone jarring trip back to Phuket when the sea got a bit rough.
Four days was way too short but we had to get to Bangkok where I had to work the next week. While I was slaving away in the heat and humidity, Carina and Michael explored the city by sky train, minibus taxi (Toyota just like in RSA) and TUK-TUK. They also did a few tours in the area and visited ancient temples and did Elephant rides. There was also a boat ride and a visit to the Bridge over the River Kwai where they did a trip on the “death railway”.
I joined them for a tour to the Tiger Temple on the Saturday. It was bit disappointing but we had the chance to touch the tigers and walk with them. The Sunday before we left we used the MRT to visit JJ-Market; the biggest outdoor market in the world with more than 8000 stalls. You can buy just about anything there. If you can’t find it there, you should seriously analyse why you wanted it in the first place. It reminded me of the Koelie-market in Durban but just much bigger.
After our return Michael had to present a diary and photos that captured his experiences during the trip. He was pretty chaffed with the idea of not having to go to school. As with everything here that is completely over regulated: we had to get special permission to take him out of school and agreed to do home schooling for those periods. We even had to purchase the training manuals.
No sooner had we returned and Carina and I were off to Nambour (near Brisbane) to celebrate an old friend’s 50th. It was great to see L’Marie after so many years. We met in high school and I last saw her in 1974. She recognised my name on the SA-Australian website in 2008 and made contact. It was great to meet her two sons Awie and Darius, his wife Tanya and her family. I met many other great Afrikaners and it appears that they also stick and party together like us here in Adelaide. I could count the Ozzies at the party on my one hand. I did a sheep on the spit, one that I was looking forward to since planning my own 50th in RSA in 2008. It fell through when we moved to Oz in July.
It is good to have a bit of time at home again till end of October.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
2010 Midyear news
A lot of new experiences and overseas travelling to Taiwan, New Zealand and Vietnam since the last blog. Been so busy that I am now sitting in Vancouver and completing this blog. I visited Taiwan for a 2 week hardware installation and training along with Amit from our offices in Canada. Our host Benny was absolutely amazing and he just wanted to spoil us all the time. Language was a big problem though and I can still hear Amit say:” Benny, no man we don’t understand, use different words”. Benny chaperoned us most of the time to places of interest; the night markets and bargained on our behalf at the Electronic Supermarket during several visits. It is their culture to give presents and it was difficult to get him to stop. The worst was that he constantly wanted to feed us while we were walking about. I am still amazed how he can eat so much and be so thin. I cannot say that I always enjoyed the food and the smells of the food stalls while walking around. Traffic was quite an experience and is probably the best example of organised chaos. I have never seen so many scooters, they are parked two deep on the sideways and fill the roads with traffic. Whole families will travel on a scooter: Dad as the driver, mom on the back with a kid between them and one or two kids standing on the running boards in front of the dad.
The Taiwan antennas are mounted on very high towers and I was not so comfortable being 20m in the air on an open framework.
We then flew to New Zealand and we both thought that Air NZ was a refreshing change from the other airlines. The crew were just so relaxed and friendly; the food was plain but very well prepared and tasted great. The layout in the aircraft is probably the best for “cattle class”.
We worked on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. New Zealand is a truly beautiful place, it was very green and lush in the countryside and the little town of Martinborough and Greytown are so relaxed it is like a time travel to the 80’s. I was lucky to have spare time to visit my old friend Frans from South Africa. A few beers, a BBQ and chatting and way too soon I was on my way to Oz again. It was great to be with my family again after 3 weeks.
I managed to arrange my flights to Canada for June in such a way that I will be able to attend the Candian F1 race in Montreal and visit my nephew Johann in Winnepeg before I return to Oz in July.
I was then requested to visit Thailand before the trip to Canada but with visas and stuff I tried to delay till August but was overruled and just as I had it all in place all hell broke loose in Bangkok and my trip was cancelled due to the political problems there. I then had to very quickly arrange to visit Vietnam the last week of May.
It was quite a mission to organise a business visa for Vietnam and in the end had to settle for a tourist visa. This was not any easier as you have to first request it and get approval and then you are allowed to travel and have the visa stamped in your passport on entry. The customs people in Ho Chi Minh City (old Saigon) was as rude and blunt as the blacks in RSA and not fun to deal with after 15 hour flight. The other people and especially my hosts here in Vietnam were very friendly but the language was once again a problem. The trick is to use mono syllable words and not use tenses.
The Taiwan tower for the antenna is a baby in comparison with the tower here in Vietnam, 35m and a much narrower platform! When you shift your weight at the top, the whole tower sways. Somehow I did not have the same uneasy feeling up there that I had in Taiwan. I am very happy they only have one antenna here. My arms are still quite stiff from the climb.
Vietnam is a poor place and very grotty in places and yet the people are friendly, helpful, very well educated, respectful and they dress very well. Most the people I dealt with have their own dwelling (flat or house) and motorbikes.
In Vietnam the primary form of transport is motorbike that is a cross between a motorbike and a scooter, with bigger and thinner wheels like a kids bicycle but the frame and fairings of a scooter to protect your feet when the road is whet and to allow woman to ride it with a dress. Bicycles are the main transport for the poor and the young people and you often see them travelling in groups with one sitting on the carrier. After the age of 18 they can purchase a motorbike. They also have plenty of the old delivery style tricycles with two wheels in the front and a tray. They load an amazing amount of stuff in there with anything from massive 2m long steel plates and pipes to the equivalent of a bakkie load of boxes, vegetable or fruit.
The traffic here is complete chaos and you probably wont be able to go anywhere without a horn on your vehicle. I have not been able to work out who has right of way in a crossing or a roundabout as everyone is hooting and ducking other drivers.
Roadside cafes (read a bunch of child size plastic chairs under a tarpaulin or tree) are where people have lunch and dinner and although it looks very grotty, it is surprisingly clean and each bowl is cleaned again on the table by rinsing with boiling water. The food was a bit more Western and most items are fried rather than boiled as it was in Taiwan. Typical lunch is fried green beans with potato vines and leaves, fried fish and chicken pieces, roasted peanuts and rice. There are a few sauces to lightly dip your food in but they have some VERY HOT stuff in there.
The last dinner was in restaurant and the food choice was again a bit strange at times with Chilly Jellyfish, Fried Eel and soup with a seafood thing that looked like a kidney being the only food I did not try. Only the men drank beer at the meal and they kept on filling the glass so I have no idea how much we drank. I was presented with a framed Vietnamese art by the group and fortunately it fitted in my backpack.
The hotel I stayed in is very luxurious and the people all speak very good English. Restaurant has a choice of western or traditional Vietnamese menus. The manager turned out to be a South African! The weather here is very hot and sticky and it feels like walking into a sauna when you leave the hotel. It caused me a lot of grief with my camera as it steamed up badly when I tried to take pictures outside. I found a camera shop and managed to explain to the owner the problem without him speaking a word of English! He used a hairdryer to heat the camera and lens and dried all the moisture. He also explained that I should wrap my camera in the room with the aircon by showing me picture of an aircon on his PC. It was a little like playing Pictionary.
It is really difficult when I am away as Carina usually works from the early morning and we need someone to get Michael going and ready for school at that time. When I’m away we have to rely on friends to do this. Fortunately our friends Shaun and Chantal (also South Africans) have a daughter in the same class and he then sleeps over with them. We can’t wait for Carina to finish her course, yes we thought she would finish a while ago but she decided to continue as it is like running a 800m race and then stopping 10m before the line. She has applied for leave while I am in Canada but have not received approval yet! And now I can say that her leave was approved and that she has completed her training! It is such a relief.
The Taiwan antennas are mounted on very high towers and I was not so comfortable being 20m in the air on an open framework.
We then flew to New Zealand and we both thought that Air NZ was a refreshing change from the other airlines. The crew were just so relaxed and friendly; the food was plain but very well prepared and tasted great. The layout in the aircraft is probably the best for “cattle class”.
We worked on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. New Zealand is a truly beautiful place, it was very green and lush in the countryside and the little town of Martinborough and Greytown are so relaxed it is like a time travel to the 80’s. I was lucky to have spare time to visit my old friend Frans from South Africa. A few beers, a BBQ and chatting and way too soon I was on my way to Oz again. It was great to be with my family again after 3 weeks.
I managed to arrange my flights to Canada for June in such a way that I will be able to attend the Candian F1 race in Montreal and visit my nephew Johann in Winnepeg before I return to Oz in July.
I was then requested to visit Thailand before the trip to Canada but with visas and stuff I tried to delay till August but was overruled and just as I had it all in place all hell broke loose in Bangkok and my trip was cancelled due to the political problems there. I then had to very quickly arrange to visit Vietnam the last week of May.
It was quite a mission to organise a business visa for Vietnam and in the end had to settle for a tourist visa. This was not any easier as you have to first request it and get approval and then you are allowed to travel and have the visa stamped in your passport on entry. The customs people in Ho Chi Minh City (old Saigon) was as rude and blunt as the blacks in RSA and not fun to deal with after 15 hour flight. The other people and especially my hosts here in Vietnam were very friendly but the language was once again a problem. The trick is to use mono syllable words and not use tenses.
The Taiwan tower for the antenna is a baby in comparison with the tower here in Vietnam, 35m and a much narrower platform! When you shift your weight at the top, the whole tower sways. Somehow I did not have the same uneasy feeling up there that I had in Taiwan. I am very happy they only have one antenna here. My arms are still quite stiff from the climb.
Vietnam is a poor place and very grotty in places and yet the people are friendly, helpful, very well educated, respectful and they dress very well. Most the people I dealt with have their own dwelling (flat or house) and motorbikes.
In Vietnam the primary form of transport is motorbike that is a cross between a motorbike and a scooter, with bigger and thinner wheels like a kids bicycle but the frame and fairings of a scooter to protect your feet when the road is whet and to allow woman to ride it with a dress. Bicycles are the main transport for the poor and the young people and you often see them travelling in groups with one sitting on the carrier. After the age of 18 they can purchase a motorbike. They also have plenty of the old delivery style tricycles with two wheels in the front and a tray. They load an amazing amount of stuff in there with anything from massive 2m long steel plates and pipes to the equivalent of a bakkie load of boxes, vegetable or fruit.
The traffic here is complete chaos and you probably wont be able to go anywhere without a horn on your vehicle. I have not been able to work out who has right of way in a crossing or a roundabout as everyone is hooting and ducking other drivers.
Roadside cafes (read a bunch of child size plastic chairs under a tarpaulin or tree) are where people have lunch and dinner and although it looks very grotty, it is surprisingly clean and each bowl is cleaned again on the table by rinsing with boiling water. The food was a bit more Western and most items are fried rather than boiled as it was in Taiwan. Typical lunch is fried green beans with potato vines and leaves, fried fish and chicken pieces, roasted peanuts and rice. There are a few sauces to lightly dip your food in but they have some VERY HOT stuff in there.
The last dinner was in restaurant and the food choice was again a bit strange at times with Chilly Jellyfish, Fried Eel and soup with a seafood thing that looked like a kidney being the only food I did not try. Only the men drank beer at the meal and they kept on filling the glass so I have no idea how much we drank. I was presented with a framed Vietnamese art by the group and fortunately it fitted in my backpack.
The hotel I stayed in is very luxurious and the people all speak very good English. Restaurant has a choice of western or traditional Vietnamese menus. The manager turned out to be a South African! The weather here is very hot and sticky and it feels like walking into a sauna when you leave the hotel. It caused me a lot of grief with my camera as it steamed up badly when I tried to take pictures outside. I found a camera shop and managed to explain to the owner the problem without him speaking a word of English! He used a hairdryer to heat the camera and lens and dried all the moisture. He also explained that I should wrap my camera in the room with the aircon by showing me picture of an aircon on his PC. It was a little like playing Pictionary.
It is really difficult when I am away as Carina usually works from the early morning and we need someone to get Michael going and ready for school at that time. When I’m away we have to rely on friends to do this. Fortunately our friends Shaun and Chantal (also South Africans) have a daughter in the same class and he then sleeps over with them. We can’t wait for Carina to finish her course, yes we thought she would finish a while ago but she decided to continue as it is like running a 800m race and then stopping 10m before the line. She has applied for leave while I am in Canada but have not received approval yet! And now I can say that her leave was approved and that she has completed her training! It is such a relief.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Feb & March 21010 News
My goodness how time flies when you are busy. There I was sitting at work, bored out of my skull and wishing and praying for something to come up to help me get through the 8 hours in each working day. Being bored I then applied for an internal position and did not think that I would be considered as I have little exact experience and is probably over qualified. I regarded this as a long-term solution to my fear of losing my job if this company should go belly up. After a lot of ructions and misunderstandings among management and the preferred guy, I was eventually offered the job and I accepted.
I am now the EMS Service Rep for Asia pacific area for support of the Cospas-Sarsat Satellite equipment that EMS Global Tracking supplies worldwide. This system has several Satellites in Low Earth Orbit (weather satellites) and Geo Stationary satellites that receive signals when a distress beacon (EPIRB) is activated. The satellite relays the signal down to earth to strategically placed antennas and receiver systems. These systems decode the signal to determine where it originated and then assist rescue personnel to guide the rescue effort to locate the beacon.
I am responsible for the Pacific area consisting of Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, New Zealand, Taiwan, and also South Africa. I will visit these sites at least once a year to do preventative maintenance (like servicing your car) and to update it when required.
I am travelling quite a bit at the moment and on average is away from home 3 of 8 weeks. This will reduce (I trust) when I have completed my training. It was nice to visit new places like Albany and Bundaberg where the antennas are located as well as Canberra where the Control Centre is.
I was just wondering if I should be pleased that they are willing to pay me a Senior System Engineers Salary to do maintenance work or whether I should be upset that they have been paying me a maintenance technician salary all along!
Carina also managed to move to a different centre as she just could not get along with the boss and her sidekick. Although the atmosphere and work conditions have improved, we have decided that she will quit the studies as it is disrupting our family too much with me away from home so much and her not being here and tired most the time. They are really treated like slave labour: have to work most weekends and public holidays with leave being refused because others have higher priority while being paid minimum wage. Michael and I to take a lot of blame for this decision as we also did not keep our side of the bargain to assist with cleaning and helping with the house chores. We did some but we could have done so much more. At least she tried her best.
Michael won 4 of the 7 athletics events that the school hosted for his age and came second in another. They are now competing in ever widening local regional events till it gets to state level and country level. He won the 100, 200 and 800m races as well as the ‘ball “gooing” thing’ (shot-put) but was only selected for the 800m and shot-put. We are giving little extra training as I don’t want to push too hard this early stage.
I got the first really big gout attack in Oz and discovered that the usual Cortisone & Voltaren injection is not available here. It is a government medical aid and they are scared of being sued by 0.03% of cases where it can become infected when the Dr messes up the injection. Needless to say I have been suffering for over a week. Given that I could now only consume a few food types also coincided with Carina deciding that I should lose a few kg. We got the Body Trim System diet from our neighbours Di and John. It should actually not be called a diet as you have to change the way you eat for life. It is based on the many low carb or high protein diets doing the rounds at the moment. You are not allowed carbs or starch after lunch, eat 3 meals and 3 protein snacks every three hours but can eat as much green veggies and salads with every main meal. The centimeters are going fast and the kilos are slowly coming down. Hope that I don’t have to bend the rules too much with all the travels coming up, especially 2 weeks to Taiwan.
I am now the EMS Service Rep for Asia pacific area for support of the Cospas-Sarsat Satellite equipment that EMS Global Tracking supplies worldwide. This system has several Satellites in Low Earth Orbit (weather satellites) and Geo Stationary satellites that receive signals when a distress beacon (EPIRB) is activated. The satellite relays the signal down to earth to strategically placed antennas and receiver systems. These systems decode the signal to determine where it originated and then assist rescue personnel to guide the rescue effort to locate the beacon.
I am responsible for the Pacific area consisting of Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, New Zealand, Taiwan, and also South Africa. I will visit these sites at least once a year to do preventative maintenance (like servicing your car) and to update it when required.
I am travelling quite a bit at the moment and on average is away from home 3 of 8 weeks. This will reduce (I trust) when I have completed my training. It was nice to visit new places like Albany and Bundaberg where the antennas are located as well as Canberra where the Control Centre is.
I was just wondering if I should be pleased that they are willing to pay me a Senior System Engineers Salary to do maintenance work or whether I should be upset that they have been paying me a maintenance technician salary all along!
Carina also managed to move to a different centre as she just could not get along with the boss and her sidekick. Although the atmosphere and work conditions have improved, we have decided that she will quit the studies as it is disrupting our family too much with me away from home so much and her not being here and tired most the time. They are really treated like slave labour: have to work most weekends and public holidays with leave being refused because others have higher priority while being paid minimum wage. Michael and I to take a lot of blame for this decision as we also did not keep our side of the bargain to assist with cleaning and helping with the house chores. We did some but we could have done so much more. At least she tried her best.
Michael won 4 of the 7 athletics events that the school hosted for his age and came second in another. They are now competing in ever widening local regional events till it gets to state level and country level. He won the 100, 200 and 800m races as well as the ‘ball “gooing” thing’ (shot-put) but was only selected for the 800m and shot-put. We are giving little extra training as I don’t want to push too hard this early stage.
I got the first really big gout attack in Oz and discovered that the usual Cortisone & Voltaren injection is not available here. It is a government medical aid and they are scared of being sued by 0.03% of cases where it can become infected when the Dr messes up the injection. Needless to say I have been suffering for over a week. Given that I could now only consume a few food types also coincided with Carina deciding that I should lose a few kg. We got the Body Trim System diet from our neighbours Di and John. It should actually not be called a diet as you have to change the way you eat for life. It is based on the many low carb or high protein diets doing the rounds at the moment. You are not allowed carbs or starch after lunch, eat 3 meals and 3 protein snacks every three hours but can eat as much green veggies and salads with every main meal. The centimeters are going fast and the kilos are slowly coming down. Hope that I don’t have to bend the rules too much with all the travels coming up, especially 2 weeks to Taiwan.
Monday, February 1, 2010
January 2010
On the 4th of January I was married to the lovely Carina for 18 years. Everyone agrees she deserves a gold medal! At one stage these celebrations were very elaborate and we always had a fancy dinner somewhere with us swapping the selection and bookings every year. We have become complacent but we had a nice lunch at BonJourno’s with Michael. I did try to book at Ned Kelly’s but they were closed for January to relax after the Xmas season!
It was back to school for Michael and he will be with his first male teacher this year. It started off quite nicely and he seems pretty keen although he “hates school”. For me it was also back to work. These days it consists of sitting around, surfing the web and counting the minutes till it’s time to go home. The parent company in Canada took a beating end of last year and we are suffering in “sympathy” with the dip in airline business.
I have to get my Ozzie drivers license by February. I did the learners test and failed the same question twice in one day. Here you have to get all the “give way” questions 100% correct before moving to multiple choice questions. There are many intersections in the suburbs that are not controlled by any traffic regulations like GiveWay or Stop signs and you have to know the rules about who gives way for the system to work.
I have managed to get a bit more active and cycle to work en hope to start swimming in the mornings shortly. The swimming is quite expensive but should give quick reslults in burning some of the excess padding around the waist.
Carina is still very unhappy with her work and will possibly stop with the course after her evaluation in a few weeks. There seems to be a lot of unhappy workers at this one specific institution. It will be a bit sad that she’s put in so much for so long and walk away with nothing so she may transfer to another location to complete her appreniceship.
January has been a really good month on FaceBook. It felt like someone put out the following challenge:”find Hansie”. I have made contact with several people that I last saw in Burgersdorp Laerskool in 1971, some from Potch Technical High and some colleages that worked with me a few years ago. One guy is even here in Oz. I don’t particularly like FB but it is really good to hear news from the folks back home.
It was back to school for Michael and he will be with his first male teacher this year. It started off quite nicely and he seems pretty keen although he “hates school”. For me it was also back to work. These days it consists of sitting around, surfing the web and counting the minutes till it’s time to go home. The parent company in Canada took a beating end of last year and we are suffering in “sympathy” with the dip in airline business.
I have to get my Ozzie drivers license by February. I did the learners test and failed the same question twice in one day. Here you have to get all the “give way” questions 100% correct before moving to multiple choice questions. There are many intersections in the suburbs that are not controlled by any traffic regulations like GiveWay or Stop signs and you have to know the rules about who gives way for the system to work.
I have managed to get a bit more active and cycle to work en hope to start swimming in the mornings shortly. The swimming is quite expensive but should give quick reslults in burning some of the excess padding around the waist.
Carina is still very unhappy with her work and will possibly stop with the course after her evaluation in a few weeks. There seems to be a lot of unhappy workers at this one specific institution. It will be a bit sad that she’s put in so much for so long and walk away with nothing so she may transfer to another location to complete her appreniceship.
January has been a really good month on FaceBook. It felt like someone put out the following challenge:”find Hansie”. I have made contact with several people that I last saw in Burgersdorp Laerskool in 1971, some from Potch Technical High and some colleages that worked with me a few years ago. One guy is even here in Oz. I don’t particularly like FB but it is really good to hear news from the folks back home.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
December 2009 News
Bit late with December news but hey it was holidays. Decided to take 3 weeks leave and what a great idea it turned out to be. We didn’t do much because Carina was still busy with the practical part of her diploma. They really worked her like a slave over this period.
Happy to say that the new Canon camera is a beauty. Put it through it’s paces when we visited the Adelaide Zoo for the year-end function. I have posted some pics on Picasa.
We camped at West Beach for a few days. An ex-cyclone passed over the centre of the country and caused strong winds in Adelaide. Kids still had a good time though; being able to have the run of the grounds without us hounding them was good.
Bought a few nice tools: 18V Li-I cordless drill (Very impressive) and a mitre saw to make the job easier. I finally finished my workbench and the model train bridges. Now the scenery modeling can begin.
Little Wian de Wit made his appearance the day before Marilene’s parents arrived from RSA. He is quite a delightful little guy that loves eating as much as Wynand. We had the pleasure of them visiting us twice already.
Rest of the time Michael and I hung around the house or with Shaun in the pool. This is the high temperature season and we are really cooking at the moment. We tried to purchase one of those inflatable pools but because of the drought and various rules and safety regulations we will have to give it a miss. We need to get permission from the city council to fill the little pool and it needs a proper swimming pool fence around it before they will come and inspect the area to consider granting permission.
I have to get an Oz drivers license as my RSA one expires in March. Actually should have done so 3 month ago when we got Permanent Residency Visas. I simply cannot believe that I failed the learners test twice on one day! Will take the test again some time this week.
The local town council of Tea Tree Gully sponsored several events to show movies in the park opposite Tea Tree Shopping centre. This really brought back some childhood memories of attending the drive-inn with us kids watching on blankets. We joined around 250 other people to watch Twilight with picnic baskets, beer and wine. It still amazes me to be able to do this without any disorderly behaviour in the crowd. The kids are free to run around when they get bored.
I want to add on a sad note and say that I will miss my friend Chris van Rooyen very much. He passed away in the early hours of 29 December after suffering a massive heart attack. Chris and I started studying at Stellenbosch and stayed in Helshoogte. We then worked at the same companies till last year. He made quite an impression with the lion’s tooth he had around his neck and suspender belts he always wore. I consider him a very clever and extremely “sharp” engineer who achieved results on the projects he worked on. He departed much too soon!
I also remember my brother Rassie who was killed last year. I hope and pray that this is not a pattern that will continue the end of this year.
Happy to say that the new Canon camera is a beauty. Put it through it’s paces when we visited the Adelaide Zoo for the year-end function. I have posted some pics on Picasa.
We camped at West Beach for a few days. An ex-cyclone passed over the centre of the country and caused strong winds in Adelaide. Kids still had a good time though; being able to have the run of the grounds without us hounding them was good.
Bought a few nice tools: 18V Li-I cordless drill (Very impressive) and a mitre saw to make the job easier. I finally finished my workbench and the model train bridges. Now the scenery modeling can begin.
Little Wian de Wit made his appearance the day before Marilene’s parents arrived from RSA. He is quite a delightful little guy that loves eating as much as Wynand. We had the pleasure of them visiting us twice already.
Rest of the time Michael and I hung around the house or with Shaun in the pool. This is the high temperature season and we are really cooking at the moment. We tried to purchase one of those inflatable pools but because of the drought and various rules and safety regulations we will have to give it a miss. We need to get permission from the city council to fill the little pool and it needs a proper swimming pool fence around it before they will come and inspect the area to consider granting permission.
I have to get an Oz drivers license as my RSA one expires in March. Actually should have done so 3 month ago when we got Permanent Residency Visas. I simply cannot believe that I failed the learners test twice on one day! Will take the test again some time this week.
The local town council of Tea Tree Gully sponsored several events to show movies in the park opposite Tea Tree Shopping centre. This really brought back some childhood memories of attending the drive-inn with us kids watching on blankets. We joined around 250 other people to watch Twilight with picnic baskets, beer and wine. It still amazes me to be able to do this without any disorderly behaviour in the crowd. The kids are free to run around when they get bored.
I want to add on a sad note and say that I will miss my friend Chris van Rooyen very much. He passed away in the early hours of 29 December after suffering a massive heart attack. Chris and I started studying at Stellenbosch and stayed in Helshoogte. We then worked at the same companies till last year. He made quite an impression with the lion’s tooth he had around his neck and suspender belts he always wore. I consider him a very clever and extremely “sharp” engineer who achieved results on the projects he worked on. He departed much too soon!
I also remember my brother Rassie who was killed last year. I hope and pray that this is not a pattern that will continue the end of this year.
November 2009 News
2009 has finally entered the home straight! Amazing how this has year simply flew by.
Carina finished TAFE (college) or formal classes and is now only doing practical or may we call it slave labour. Amazing how the attitudes at the institute changed since they became full-time apprentices. She is suddenly very disappointed and the sad thing is that it is the old residents that suffer under these poor attitudes!
I have decided to become a Bulls supporter! Before some of you cheer and others start going for the rifle: this is the local Tea Tree Gully Cricket Club and it is a yellow bull on red background. Michael has joined the club and they play and practice on Friday evenings. Hopefully he will be able to join the U12 league next year.
Bought myself a digital SLR camera with 2 lenses covering 18-55 and 50-250mm. Long and hard decision to decide between Pentax and Canon. I had a Pentax SLR in the old film days before someone applied affirmative shopping after we moved to Edgemead and was very happy with it. I never replaced it because it wasn’t used much and film was very expensive. We later bought a Canon compact and is still very happy with it. I miss the speed of the SLR so I have taken the plunge and got the Canon EOS-450(Rebel Xsi in US) from an online store in the US (www.bhphotovideo.com), they are a few 100 $$ (20-30%) cheaper than local Oz prices. It is still a lot of money but I am looking forward to honing my skills again over the holidays.
We are camping again for a few days at West Beach here in Adelaide. Shaun and his family will join us. Carina is unfortunately working some of the days and will commute from the campsite. It is actually closer than travelling from home. I am still toying with the idea to take an additional week’s leave over that period as well. If we cannot get Michael enrolled in Sport academy for the holiday period I may be forced to take off the days that Carina is working
Carina finished TAFE (college) or formal classes and is now only doing practical or may we call it slave labour. Amazing how the attitudes at the institute changed since they became full-time apprentices. She is suddenly very disappointed and the sad thing is that it is the old residents that suffer under these poor attitudes!
I have decided to become a Bulls supporter! Before some of you cheer and others start going for the rifle: this is the local Tea Tree Gully Cricket Club and it is a yellow bull on red background. Michael has joined the club and they play and practice on Friday evenings. Hopefully he will be able to join the U12 league next year.
Bought myself a digital SLR camera with 2 lenses covering 18-55 and 50-250mm. Long and hard decision to decide between Pentax and Canon. I had a Pentax SLR in the old film days before someone applied affirmative shopping after we moved to Edgemead and was very happy with it. I never replaced it because it wasn’t used much and film was very expensive. We later bought a Canon compact and is still very happy with it. I miss the speed of the SLR so I have taken the plunge and got the Canon EOS-450(Rebel Xsi in US) from an online store in the US (www.bhphotovideo.com), they are a few 100 $$ (20-30%) cheaper than local Oz prices. It is still a lot of money but I am looking forward to honing my skills again over the holidays.
We are camping again for a few days at West Beach here in Adelaide. Shaun and his family will join us. Carina is unfortunately working some of the days and will commute from the campsite. It is actually closer than travelling from home. I am still toying with the idea to take an additional week’s leave over that period as well. If we cannot get Michael enrolled in Sport academy for the holiday period I may be forced to take off the days that Carina is working
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