Goals 2007

Howdy all.

So at the risk of sounding like another person ranting off his New Year's resolutions I've decided to write down and document ( this is a bit public I have to admit ) the goals that I have for the year.

There has already been some good news. I was under the (wrong) impression that I only had 2.5 months left on my visa to work in the UK, and that I would have to fork out the odd £1800 for a highly skilled migrant visa in order to work out the year here in the UK.

As it turns out, most of this came to my attention the Friday ( around 23:30 when we got back from hanging out with Grea's friends ) night before we were to depart to SA for a one month holiday. I had received a letter from Gabem informing that they wouldn't be able to manage my work related affairs as my visa was about to expire, which was completely false information. At the time I didn't have the energy or the time to think it through, so left it until we were in SA for a while and worked through it, sending emails to consulting firm asking why they were handed incorrect information. Everything was sorted out nicely, however I didn't fully read all the emails that came back, and was thus under the impression that 2.5 months was all I had left.

So yesterday I phoned up the consulting firm to ask what's going on and they explain ( as they had before in an email) that according to everyone's records I've only done 190.5 days ( works on hours) worth of work in the UK last year... sooo.. 12 months = 365 days.... 365-190 ( for ease of use ) = 175 days left. So, taking that there's about 22 working days in a month.. that is roughly about 8 months worth of working that I have left on my tab here in the UK.. excellent news, as that's about as much as I'd like to have left here :)

So.. that then sorted here follows the list of goals.

They are, to my knowledge, all achievable ( and most of the financial ones are based on the year past ).

1. Enjoy the next 9 or so months that myself and Grea is going to be spending here
2. Take one weekend out of each month and go visit a place with Grea
3. Hope to send a large sum of money ( pounds ) back to RSA every month (aiming for the 24th of each month)
4. Make enough to both no.2 and no.3 while staying in the flat that we currently call home
5. Buy another Canon EOS 400D (so that the black one becomes Grea's underwater tool)
6. Buy an underwater casing for Grea's Canon (will most likely have to sort out some strobes as well)
7. Try and figure out what I want to be doing (work wise) in about 5 years time, so that I can start making the moves to get there from now on
8. Take my morning and evening appointment with our personal little gym (the rowing machine) very seriously :)
9. Learn how to take nice composition pictures before I buy the 2nd Canon
10. Make a point of chilling out more this year ( Oct inspired that one)
11. Do very little ( where I can help it ) as possible freelance work, it's just not worth it really.
12. Learn how to play again.. pc games, the guitar, with life a little, just how to become a kid again :)
13. Spend good times with friends, as was done on the last holiday, and make loads of new ones.. like I did in Cape Town International with two Englishmen :)

Well, there we go. Those are the broad goals for the year, I might come back during the year and put ticks next to the ones I've reached, and question marks next to the ones I haven't yet.

Bookmarking this post.

Z, out.

Safe and sound

This is a quick thank you shout out to one and all in SA.

After an 11 hour flight from Cape Town International to Heathrow ( which was fairly uneventful, compared to the Virgin flight we had back to Jo'burg) we moved through passport control and baggage claim within 20 minutes after landing and were on the tube towards home within an hour after landing, all in all it went painless.

To everyone who enjoyed the 4 weeks of bliss and sunshine in South Africa with us, who moved their schedules around to accommodate us, who sometimes on very short notice said yes to a quick impromptu meet, we really appreciate all the effort and time that everyone gave us while in SA. We truly have some great friends to return to at the end of 2007 when we finally come back to SA for good.

To Grieks' and my families : Thank you for all the love, attention, time and effort of having us around for the last 4 weeks. We hope that we've given you just a glimpse back of what you gave us.

Thank you for a great holiday all.

Time to head to bed to catch up on some more sleep.

Z, out

Holiday times...

It's been three weeks of holiday-ing, and it's still to continue for a while.

We've been to some great places and have some really nice pictures of our travels and doings. There will be loads of them resized ( the Canon makes them a tad to big [size wise] to easily publish here), and uploaded to the blog when we return to the UK at the end of January 2007.

This is a quick and non-select shout out to all friends and family that we've been able to spend time with so far, we would really just like to thank all of you for some really outstanding times... from going to Sodwana with Grieks' family to just hanging out in and around Cape Town.

There had been loads of plans and things to do, however it would seem that the Cape Town holiday is getting a bit to me and Grieks.. we're both fairly exhausted as is, and that we seem to have to require a holiday when we return to the UK soon, just to recoupe from the Cape Town hollies.

Here's hoping Mr G unit is having a blast as well, but his blog did have a little post like this one saying it's good times for them as well, hope to hook up with them when we get back to London as well, as well as catching Fanus just before he and Hermien goes to Cape Town as well.

Hope all is well and that everyone had a great Xmas and a wonderful, bright, challenging new year.

Z, over and out [ for now ]