Today was Gail’s birthday so we had a card and present ceremony this morning before we departed for work/nursery/pre school2. I had managed to get some birthday cards for Gail but they just don’t seem to do “cards” like in the UK here so the selection is rather limited. Last night I got Kyle to write his mum’s cards and draw some pictures in them but he just wouldn’t settle down afterwards until I suggested he look after the cards and present until the morning and then he could give them to mum. He decided he had to stash them under his mattress to keep them safe so we managed to wedge then down the side into a safe place. He fell asleep quickly afterwards which was good because it was a little later then he should have been up. I wondered how we would get him up in the morning (he takes after me on that) but needn’t have worried. I mentioned the cards and he remembered right away and jumped up pulling his bed apart to get at the cards. We retrieved them and he headed to find Gail who was feeding Regan at the time and he actually remembered to say “happy birthday mummy” when he handed them over which is great progress as he usually plays all coy and pretends to be shy at these times. I reminded him that there was a present as well and left them to it as I went to get dressed. On returning I could find no present but he had brought the pen I gave him to write the card the night before to show his mum. She was only allowed to look at it though. It was a charity pen I bought which I did not realise lit up a heart on the end as you wrote. I gave the pen to Kyle and he has guarded it venomously since. I think it is hidden somewhere in his room now! I eventually persuaded him that that was not really what I meant when I said present and that he should go and get the “big stick thing” for mum. He eventually managed to present Gail with a Manfrotto 690b monopod. It took some searching to find in downtown Auckland but I think it has gone down well. The Nikon D200 is a fantastic camera but sometimes it needs just a little extra stability to get the best from it. On our visit to Orakeikorako, Gail was bemoaning the lack of suitable resting places to take good shots and that she really needed a monopod, tripod being to fiddly and time consuming to set up for all but exceptional circumstances. She has one now so I hope it will help next time. The journey into Auckland after drop off was almost the complete contrast to yesterday. There were no hold ups to speak of and even though I never dropped Kyle and Regan off until 7:40 (10 minutes later than I could have) I was parked up and ready to start work by 8:15. If only it was like that every day! I listened to the news on the radio to hear that there was going to be some industrial action regarding bus companies and decided that I would stick to driving in for now! It reminded me of the times either the train or bus staff decided to take industrial action in Edinburgh and the mayhem that caused (plus of course some of the super human efforts that some people took to get to work - I even took the bus on some occasions) The work day itself began to feel familiar even after only a couple of days. It got me thinking about how we work in an office and how office etiquette is so well established, as I filled up the printer with paper. Here I was doing the same thing I would be doing anywhere on the globe (well within reason of course) knowing exactly what needs done to keep the office moving. The rules are there and are mostly common sense but it made me realise why things were gelling so quickly. I have been getting some real work to do as well which is probably assisting here since I am seeing familiar issues and problems. Wouldn’t be much of a job without issues and problems though and it is not a complaint. My coffee did not taste quite so good today and I think it is probably just the fact that I am still not quite into the routine yet of getting up so early and was not feeling 100% anyway. It may also explain why the NZ spec keyboard layout was driving me nuts. Gail is having similar issues and it does not help that we come home to UK keyboard layouts. The main issue is not the lack of £ key but the swapping of the ” and @ keys. Gail is a very good (and quick) typist and I can see why she is having issues (she rarely looks at either screen or keyboard as she types, it is quite a trick) I also had a visit to the data centre today which even though I was not expecting much I was still shocked at the size or rather lack of size. I have built bigger test environments for a single project than the entire production infrastructure. It is going to be different here but I do not think it is a bad thing. There is most definitely more efficient use of resources going on here which I actually support. I guess it is all about making the most of what is available. Time will tell. My calender is beginning to fill up rapidly now as well so I think my ease in time is coming to an abrupt end and I never even got to log into my play pc!!! We were all too fried tonight to do anything really special for Gail so we will take some time out at the weekend to do something nice. For various reasons we have not really had much time to ourselves over the past few weeks with new jobs and cars etc. so we are all looking forward to doing something different.