Goodbye EPL/Golf/Freddie Flintoff sponsorship, Hello F1 Williams-Toyota sponsorship

Most of you that read this and are on Facebook will know already, I'm changing jobs!

Still in Singapore, going to Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in an attempt to further that "career" thing within the banking industry. The new job will hopefully be more business facing, but means there will be less and less chance to be that pure tech geek :-/.

But anywho, I finish up on the 15th of Nov at BarCap and start on the 26th with RBS.

And on a completely tangential note I'm also returning to NZ for a week 7th Dec - 14th :). Won't be in Welly much this time round as the cousin has completed her manadatory 3 years of drinking at the Otago Tertiary Institution of Alcohol Consumption, and I must congratulate her by buying her copious quantities of drink whilst she is wearing a funny hat.

Oh yeah photos...

The Rome and Croatia photos are up at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/klatchy/

There's a separate set for Rome and Croatia.

Enjoy! and for those of your who are awesome photographers, please also to be commenting on the crapness of the photos ;)

La Città Eterna

My flight from Dubai to Rome was much better. Possibly because I was more rested, but there was still bugger all leg room. Ok, I'm going to stop ranting about that now.

To my surprise and horror, the navigation video screen displayed Milan as the final destination. Nowhere on my ticket did it mention Milan at all! Anywho, milled about at Milan airport for an hour before getting back on the plane for an hour long flight to Rome.

Found my accomodation without too much hassle, in a quaint little street nestled right next to the railway station (useful for trip to Naples). After freshening up, I decided to go for a random wander, and sort out a few things that cocked up during the flight over (lack of contacts, body wash leaking all over the suitcase, no adaptor for lappy).

No sooner had I set foot back in the square in front of the railway station, I was accosted by two horrible looking gypsy women. One trying to grab and kiss my arm and the other trying to use some crude cardboard apparatus to attempt some sleight of hand on my man bag. I had to forcibly remove them from me and bark obscenities to them in English before they would bugger off. I really didn't want to do that, and they really were amateurs, since they were at it for about a good half a minute without filching anything from my bag!

I faffed around in the Railway station mall, found what I needed (except for the lappy adapter), and walked down a random street, it eventually took me down to Trajan's Forum, YAY!, got a few pics on the SLR but the light was dimming and I didn't take the tripod along. Ducked into a Trattoria and had some lovely pasta, finished up with gelato :)

Waiting for Masty and Bruce now, he txted me about an hour ago, no further word. Might get something to eat.

Ciao for now :P

SIN - DXB

I regret not flying with Singapore airlines now.

The flight to Dubai was a shocker, packed with first time dud fliers, the guy next to me kept on coughing the whole trip, complete with flying bits of phlegm *shudder*, sounded like he was on his last stretches after contracting bubonic plague.

Question... why do people insist on bringing babies on planes? Their delicate ears aren't ready to handle rapid changes in pressure, and no matter how lovely you think your baby's cries are, a team of babies performing synchronised wailing does not a church choir make. If you can afford to fly, you can afford to leave your baby behind and hire a babysitter. If you're taking your baby to visit relatives... DON'T!, your relatives should come and visit you, otherwise they're cheapskates and you should disown them.

Additionally, there's drastically decreased leg room, it was like a long haul Air Asia flight, only Air Asia is 100 times cheaper. Anyway most of the trip I was too tired to care. Hopefully the flight over to Rome is better.

The airport is also a marked change to the pristine, ordered Changi airport. People sleeping on the floor all over the airport in various states of undress, a few concerning smells in places. But hey, at least I get free wireless and the guy at the information counter reminded me of the Fonz, albeit an Arabic version.

Now if only the airport sold contact lenses.... :-/. Rather than forgetting socks and underwear, this time my supply of contact lenses conveniently decided to run out!

... I should really stop ranting now and get to my gate. :D

First non-impulse electronics purchase in Singapore

I bought a Canon EOS 400D today ^_^.

Swapped the kit lens for the EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM.

SGD2000 exactly from Sim Lim Square (next door to my place, Singapore's electronics Mecca).

Got about a week and a half to practice before I unleash Europe on it! Got a week to decide whether or not I need to get the crazy 10-22mm super wide angle lens ;)

Singapore DOES do adequate coffee

Aging

So now people should theoretically take me more seriously. Whether this happens or not remains to be seen.

Cosy affair at St. James with a handful of lovely people in Singapore. Wish all you se Kiwi's were here too :(.

A big thanks to all the lovely people I've met over the past year in Singapore, thanks for making my time here so awesome, keeping me entertained and sane outside of work, listening to me when I'm feeling down (or just when I'm drunk), and helping me grow up :D. I'm trying to catch up to y'all, really!! :P

Evidence of drunkeness and aging at:

23rd Birthday

Jeremy Piven... you are GOD!

Saw Smokin' Aces in the weekend. It pleased me, expected a more cohesive story line, but thats not important, what is important is that one of the most hilarious lines ever had been uttered:

Buddy 'Aces' Israel: Will you tell me what that is?
Hugo Croop: About what?
Buddy 'Aces' Israel: Look at the collar on that coat... whats that look like, that stain?
Hugo Croop: I dunno... Cinnamon roll?
Buddy 'Aces' Israel: Cinnamon roll? the cinnamon, the roll of the cinnamon. That looks like jizz... ya Eastern European jizz, that looks like some fuckhead shot his load on a 12000 dollar calf's skin jacket. The twist? Its my 12000 dollar calf's skin jacket. y'got semen, human ejaculate -
[checks watch]
Buddy 'Aces' Israel: - that's been allowed to soak in for what, six, seven hours now? Work it's way into the fabric-f**k'n fibers - and while you may never see it in a Tide commercial, I think it still safely qualifies as a "tough, deep down stain."
Hugo Croop: If you like I send out?
Buddy 'Aces' Israel: ...to what? Incinerate? 'Cuz I'm almost dead certain there's not a f**king laundry detergent or dry cleaning process known to man that can ever return that jacket to its former glory! Some sh*t, suffice it to say, just don't wash out. Now, the money question... To whom does that stain belong? C'mon, somebody was banging one of these skanks, sans rubber - -which is terrifying in its own right, pulled out, let 'er rip and ruined the last gift my mother gave me before she died.
[snatching up coat]
Buddy 'Aces' Israel: The way I see it, it's the same as if she was dug up, three months dead and it was shot right on her rotting corpse, 'cuz that's how it defiled this feels!
Hugo Croop: Do you want me to say I did it?
Buddy 'Aces' Israel: I was kinda hoping, yeah.
Hugo Croop: Do you want me to say I'm sorry?
Buddy 'Aces' Israel: Only if you really, truly mean it.
Hugo Croop: Im very sorry,
Buddy 'Aces' Israel: Are you a Collasal fuckin idiot?
Hugo Croop: I am idiot.
Buddy 'Aces' Israel: Get the phone, it's probably Mecklin. Get Fatolli up here and start cleaning all right? and please for me will you do one thing?
[Card trick putting a card on Hugo's forehead]
Buddy 'Aces' Israel: Get out of my fucking sight

World famous! Not just in NZ ;)

Props to Marcel for spotting this little gem on the wild and dangerous interweb. What an awesome video of Shane Bond being awesome. It also happens to have me in it! :D
People had often mentioned they saw me on TV impersonating Warney, I doubted them... but this is proof!! :D

Its about 40 seconds in, or 2:50 to go!

Geezus.... 1 year already, lil bit of reminizzling

I kinda want to say time flies when you're having fun... Seems not that long ago that Chad and I got sloshed with a whole lot of you and woke up the next day with a huge hangover, and seems like Christmas was just yesterday.

However, one wouldn't REAALLY describe working here FUN, its alright I guess, I do feel rewarded when releases go right, people thank me for making their lives easier, and although I haven't really been coding recently, when I do get to do it, its great!

But then thats all counterbalanced by the bureaucray, heavy handed processes that are totally inappropriate for front office development, retards you have to deal with on an almost daily basis, and the next bit of work is essentially fucking VBA in a fucking spreadsheet, yeh we REAAL cutting edge here.

I guess as long as pay and bonus continue to be good I'll keep at it until Asia no longer holds any more delights for me.

I have still yet to:

• Visit other misc Asian countries (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Phillipines)


• Visit India


• Do snow related activites in Hokkaido


• Get my diving license, despite wanting to do it ever since I got here and almost managing to do it in November last year


• Remedy the 20+% body fat situation as described by my trainer late last year

With the recent shake ups in personal life and the realisation that one will probably not sign on in Singapore indefinitely, arse will have to be engaged to ensure the above happens.

Other random musings over the past few days:

• Why am I still not used to the 30+ heat and still sweating like a rapist everytime I step outside?


• What if the IT industry in Spain is non-existant


• Will work transfer me to London if I want to leave Singapore


• How will the point above impact the point above the point above?


• Will I really want to work in London, do I have a choice given this wanderlust?

Oh, I almost forgot, I think I'm going to Rome/Croatia in August with Masty, Bruce and maybe Chad. Should be a wicked trip if the blimmin travel agent has a clue and gets back to me soon. It doesn't bode well when the conversation with the STA travel agent goes something like this:

Me: "Hi, I'm planning to visit Italy and Croatia for about a week in August and would need some flight and accomodation quotes. I'll need to travel to Rome and then Split and back again to Rome, finally returning to Singapore".
Agent: "Sorry, what was the other location".
Me: "Split, its the second largest city in Croatia"
Agent: "Split, not in Italy!"
Me: "No, its in Croatia, across the Adriatic Sea from Italy"
Agent: "Where is Croatia?"
Me: "*sighs*, it used to be part of a big country called Yugoslavia, in the mid nineties there were lots of wars, lots of people died, it was on the news, you may have heard about it?"
Agent: "Ok, you leave phone number, we will get back to you"
Me: "Errm.. Ok *gives details*".

Still no word to date.

If all is well the trip should more than sate my classical/medieval history geekiness, Rome goes without saying, Split is close to Roman Salona, and Dubrovnik was previously Ragusa - one of the main cities of the Venetians during the middle ages. It should also serve to sate me on the matters of rowdiness, drunkeness and belligerence given I will be with Masty and Bruce and alcohol will form an integral part of this journey.