1st of (hopefully) many...

It has finally happened. After months ( more like weeks though) of getting use to the UK, finding out a whole bunch of stuff I suspect I should have known before we came over, and getting down and dirty with how the real work seaking world works... I got my 1st pounds, in the bank, and cleared... and last night the HSBC internet banking went into full swing.

Now unlike the G-unit that's here mine was none to do about buying gadgets [ja, I'm jealous. That Wolverine is one meen machine man]. A few ill investments last year had put me on the road of debt, and thus a big wad of the pounds I had done 3 weeks worth of work for, has been put on the road to SA. 1stContact is a company here in the UK that organises stuff for SA (and other) ppl who come over here. From things like opening a bank account and setting up a limited company (wish I had known about that, they charge less than the current consultancy that I work through, although the current one does take out indemnity insurance of up to £1m for me), to helping with the getting of a shenglen visa (to travel the EU basically).

Anyways, after finally being able to transfer the rent to my cousin's account, pushing a hefty sum over to SA (still in the process, normally takes 3 working days, so should be there by Thursday night hopefully), and paying some of the UK creditcard off ( everything having being budgetted in advance though, well in advance) there is still a bit left to spoil my lady with, and so hopefully today I'll be able to do that :)

Truth be told I'm hoping to slash my month travelling costs by getting my butt back onto a bicycle in the near future. A few reasons for that. 1 : I really love cycling, and there's a bit of a story there. Back in the day (and because it is around 10 years ago.. gosh I'm getting old ), Jerry and I used to hook up on Sunday afternoons at his place, check that the two bikes over there were in some state of road-worthyness (a very loose definition about the state of the bicycles but anyways, and there's a whole post on it's own there as well), and then we'd ride out to Kuilsriver to go pick up some VHS (ol' school) movies from a video rental in the main road there.
Thinking back to it, little did we know the things that would happen about 2 years later, hey Micon ? :) The vid shop was about 300 metres away from Riette's place :) Ahh, them good old days huh :)

The normal Sunday routine though ( to get back to the point) changed after about 3 months of doing this every week. We kept on telling everyone that we were cycling to Kuilsriver, but we skelm-ed out to TygerValley instead, to go have ice cream every Sunday. Now the ice cream aint the skelm thing, the fact that we went through some of the most traffic ridden streets to get to TygerValley, that right there would have had the parents (on either side) put a nice ban on Sunday get togethers.

This is going to be a bit region specific : This all happend back in the day when the banking court in T-V was still the putt-putt course, and the general open area was full of wood (sleeper) benches and tables where we'd used to sit down and chat about some arb stuff while we enjoyed the prize of Marcel's frozen yoghurt in a big sugar cone. Man good memories are awesome epinephrine.

That being a long explination for reason 1. Reason 2 : I need to get fit. No seriously, I need to get my cardio vascular going a bit more than I am at the moment (which at the moment is being done by walking to the tube station every morning from home, and not taking the DLR (which 9 out of 10 times at that time of the morning is over crowded anyway, and just makes for an unpleasant start to the working day).

And so, with that in mind I'll be purchasing my 1st bicycle in a decade ( previous one was bought when I was either 13 or 14, can't really remember, and as far as I recall I didn't buy it either)

As things go I believe it's time to get my lazy butt out of bed and get something into my stomach.

Good day to all, and hopefully a great week for all as well :)
Hope you enjoy the new job Oct, think you start this coming week, correct me if I'm wrong...

Z

Male explorer...

It's been a long while since I've done a post, have started a few but then didn't really get into them... so tonight there's a bit of a story to tell.

My Y-chromosome acted up today, yip.. I went all guy like and went walking around, after work.
Here's the story. Grieks has been craving KFC for weeks now, and last night I got the idea to take her out for dinner pending the clearing of my 1st pay into my account, only one problem in that though. I discussed the details of my bank account with the company that manages the limited company (supposedly my limited company.. it's long an complicated, think I've explained it before, not gonna again). The long and short of it comes out that I didn't put in my bank details when I registered for the limited company.. why ? Because I only got my bank account details the day afterwards.. and had thought that the consulting firm that I also work though would have done that on my behalf.. lesson number one, never trust anyone else to do something for you, even if you think it should be their job.

The long and the short. I received my pay in the post today, in cheque format, which will be deposited tomorrow during lunch (perhaps earlier) at the HSBC very close to work(just a block away from the pub as well :). Which will hopefully clear before the end of the week, however I doubt that very much and being that Monday is a bank holiday ( I suspect world over, Worker's day).

So, having taken that into consideration I went to aforementioned [t] HSBC and pulled some money. I had looked up KFC on google earth (through the google maps website basically), and knew about the one in Victoria station ( which is only two stations away from Waterloo.. ).

So I walked down to Southwark station, (as per usual), and then thought.. wait.. there has to be a KFC close.. alas, to make the whole thing short.. 2 hours after leaving work for the 30 minute travel to home, I finally got home with a 10 piece KFC bargain bucket (Micon and Octavo I suspect will know what I'm talking about ) and had a Grieks with a big smile on her face :), the walk/effort well worth it.

Work : It's actually been very kewl, I've been able to turn around on the little projects that I've been handed to do while we wait for the big project to fall that the company upsized in [man]-coding power to do and has been slipping. I still have another month and week on contract left and hopefully making enough of an impression that they'll like me to stay, but I'm not betting on it. Have put down on the budget that I'll be without work for the further 3 week of June, if they extend my contract it'll be a great bonus, if they don't.. well, such is life. Have had a few regular calls from agents while I haven't been putting my cv out there, think I submitted to a fair amount of shared databases, but we'll see how things go closer to the time though.

In other general news : We're looking at moving, having been here for 3 months has been nice, and we're enjoying the nice and quiet that the house now has because we're alone here, but in 3 weeks time that's about to change, and so we've been looking around. Found a family in, wait for it.. London has an area called Plumstead :) We'll be moving in around the 20th. Still need to email my cousin that we're giving notice.

Anyways.. I've got to hit the hay, want to get some sleep in for a while... :)

Greets to all
Z

Questions : Those really big ones..

they fascinate me, endlessly. I would suppose a lot of people would go "Duh, they've been in the minds of a great number of what's considered mankind for a very long time."

After a spell of unwellness stomach this afternoon, I'm currently sitting in the kitchen of the house where we live with my cousin, her bf, his brother and their friend, and since Tuesday another new housemate. Looking through the nice glass door to the outside where it's raining, and has been since about 4pm this afternoon around. Not thundering down in buckets, but that same kind of Cape Town soft patter against the windows all around the house, the kind of weather that makes me miss Cape Town this time of the year over the weekends. Weather that forever gets me into this... can one call it : "Thinking mode".

We've been in London since end of Jan this year, and relatively speaking I don't see that as a very long time. My expectations for being in the UK were/are to have gotten a nice, decent paying job, and to use London as a base for some travel ( however the plans are to do a lot more of that in next year rather than this). I want to build up a bit of a network, and have already done so in a fair amount, to be able to do creative business ventures and see what markets work here that haven't been, either created in SA or are being used effectively in SA. Sounds very business like.. and a lot of people would go : "That's not Zodan, what did you do with him and where have you taken him ? ".

And yet, having already started this journey, by being a contractor for a leading broadcasting corporation in Waterloo, I find myself doing the thinking thing tonight, as I have for a while now.

I envy my life companion (cause she's more to me than just a girlfriend). And one of the reasons why I envy her, is because she's always known where she's wanted to go with her talents, and where her talents lay as well. And come Jan 2008 we'll be taking ourselves back to Cape Town, getting a flat somewhere close to campus and she'll start with her M.Sc in Marine Biology. I, on the other hand, have always been one that ... explores to where I am ( if I may say so myself).

I studied at Maties, and heck I'll never regret a single second of it.. got my degree and then took a 90 degree turn (in the books of most who know me), and did webdev, (which I am still doing to this day... a long almost 3 years later). And not to blow my own horn to loud, I'm not half bad at it, but I still feel that I'm nothing as good a coder as say Octavo is, just because I know he's a great master of the art that we both enjoy using it. ( And coding is an art, he'll be nodding his head if he's reading this, it's being creative with solutions). Neither am I as good with SQL than Mr G, who I believe to be a really good DBA, currently enjoying his time here in London as well.

I know that I'll hopefully be coding for the most of the time that we are abroad here in the UK, and I have no problem with that, as it seems the wave of companies and private investors are looking to make the comparatively level playing field of e-commerce, all the more the way the world is going to run, and with that in mind I stand at a point where I can become involved in those oppurtunities, and I have already begun to do that, very recently actually. This has brought on the fire of own business ideas that I have, of which I am going to try and set up as many as possible over the next 2 years, in partnerships with people who I believe have the same kind of business ethics as myself.

Seems I've taken a wild turn away from what I started this post about, and I haven't really reached it yet either. Back to the point. Blah blah blah.. why ? Cause I can, and I like to talk, not because I like the sound of my own voice, but because I love writing my thoughts down.

Nope, lost the train of thought, not really keen to pick it up again.

Oppurtunity is a rare thing, and sometimes it doesn't turn out entirely the way we wanted it to, but grabbing onto it, and not letting it go is far better than the perceived security of the known.

A new phase starts soon... watch this space.
Z

Long days...

Well.. it's that time of the year over here in London. Long summer (only spring now, but it is heating up nicely though) days. I went to work early today ( due to some antics on Friday, read the post, read between the lines and if you spoke to me over the wkend you'll know why). Got to Southwark station around 5:30 am and it was a nice walk to the office. Just before you get onto the block that ITV shares with the National Theatre (I never knew until I came from the other side last week...thinking I should go walk about a little more during lunches these days), there are all these trees on the South bank of the Thames that at the moment doesn't have blossoms yet.. but that time of the morning it's still fairly dark (had some memories of doing that kind of thing when working at Flatspin.. brought back some good memories :).. and over here they've put what I think must be blue and white L.E.D's in the trees... it looks absolutely awesome,no really.. so much so that I'm going to ask my brother to make me a few strings for one day that we have little trees in Cape Town :)

And they've done loads of the trees down the bank with these strings of little lights, makes them look like they have light blossoms in the dark.. my camera phone doesn't take kewl pics though, but hopefully I'd be able to take a tripod pics of it on an evening when taking Grieks to check it out.

Got to get cracking on some things this side. Hope you all are having a good time where you all are.

Z out.

Bit of a bummer...

So.. after a fairly...interesting week, Friday arrived.

The day was met with mixed feelings. Felt great getting to the end of the 1st working month as such, because of the promise of payment for services rendered, but due to this country's interesting policies I had to go for a National Insurance number interview. Those who have worked here (legally that is) will know what I'm talking about. So I had phoned up Social Security services and found what was ( according to them) the closest office to me and they came back asking if I could do this Friday morning as an interview date. I told the lady over the phone that it was in order as I had just received my copy of my contract (signed by 6mil other people the day before) and had my letters stating where I live is kewl (opening a bank account has it's plusses).

So I was scheduled to have my interview at 9:10 on Friday, and had told Rob (my boss) that I would be late for work (although I had worked in the hours already during the week so I was kewl, had actually overworked the hours, but I digress). So all was well in Z's world of flying ponies.. uhm.. don't ask.. anyhoo.

Worked out the whole journey (with fair amounts of help from Grieks), and got to bed feeling ok that the end of the month will be a good experience.. if only I knew.

So I get to Dalston Kingsland station ( after taking the Jubilee tube to Stratford), and find that the area I'm in resembles something like.. Mowbray (would be a good comparison).. having been in such areas most of the last 2 years back in Cape Town I wasn't scared.. been a lot more scared walking into ITV the first time.. I take the directions as provided to me through the post (which I must say is most efficient in this country, except to get packages back to bosses in Cape Town, hey Craig ? :), and arrive at the social security office about 8:40 (which was the plan incidentally).

Not being the first person there I got a little worried that this might be one of those situations where goverment organise 20 interviews with 5 interviewers for the morning thinking that 10 or so won't pitch, but waited the 20 minutes out until they opened the doors. Was ussered into a line of people and gave some lady the letter they sent me.

Needless to say my feelings about goverment efficiency was yet again proved correct, and my 9:10 interview started promptly at 9:50 [which was about the time I was hoping to get done with it and get back on the trains and head to work to hopefully get to work at close to what I said], being that I was fairly well prepared though I have to admit I did walk out of their around 10:15 so it didn't go completely bad.

I finally got to my desk around 11:20 though. I had done most of my timesheet (contract worker now, have to fill those out) the previous night at home and added into it that I was going to do 5 hrs of work on Friday (this I added on Friday in the office),and handed that to my boss to sign so that I could fax and mail the copies to where I had to. He did so, and it was in the post before I went to the pub with Paul (co-worker) and Colin ( another co-worker). The plan was to go to Stamford Arms, and then Rob would phone Paul for us to go to Doggits (another pub). This however (and unfortunately) is not how it went down. We got to Stamford, had one round, and the boss had not called yet.. so around 13:30 my bosses boss turns up and starts to order rounds.. :(

That's where it all went south. Needless to say, never went back to the office, boss did eventually make a turn at the Stamford though, bought him a round which I hope helped my case, but I suspect I screwed up. Eventually walked back to the office to email the project I'm working on to myself at home, so that I can make up the time I lost over the weekend. Will also be going into the office hectically early on Monday morning to work in them hours and then start the normal work hours around 9:30 or so.

Tomorrow (actually later today already) it's down to the London International Dive show at Excel.

Hope you all have a great week ahead. Me and Grieks, we've put April down as a new month and a happy month :) Not to mention I'll get paid in £'s for the first time ever,hopefully a good experience to happen at the end of April.

L8r.
Z