My new role @North Sydney

Dear all,

Thanks Michael so much for your encouragement and support .... I sincerely wish you will hop onto a new role very shortly. If you are still picky on this, come and do my lawn as well after finishing yours :P

Just to let you know I just started my new role, the first thing that I realised we were all-over very noisy people on our floor, especially myself :-)

The feeling of going back to the suburb where I first started with my local IT journey made me feel hmmm... not too good. Then recalling how to use Lotus Notes and Novell which I already let go 4 and 8 years ago respectively .... hmmm, makes another no good. Well, the lack of clothes shopping (cheap) and asian food (good) made it a bit further worse. As many of you know, I can't munch on sandwiches. Other than that, I must admit my new colleagues seem very nice and the work scope seems to be a lot less.

Recap from my week's holiday ... did not manage to get a new car out of the Motor Show, but I got a massage chair ... not too bad for a deal. Unfortunately the bad news came through today that the guy who delivered the chair to us got killed from the van theft when he was making another delivery yesterday, leaving his wife and their 5 years old daughter. In a sense it makes me realise we are all very lucky, a job is all that we lost (or from some of us: 'Get Lost'); we did not lose our lives, pride, or anything important ... we should really cherish what we have.

The Uni exam is starting as soon as next week for me, please wish me good luck. btw, who is helping me to correct the English for this last assignment? (now that everyone has gone - Professor Agahari and Lou the Dean are too busy with their new CEO & CIO positions).

love you all,
soanne

before and after

No I am not talking about Courtenay.. but how wonderful for him and his lovely wife, and I am sure you all join me in wishing him health, wealth and happiness for the years ahead. well done Courtenay.. all the very best to you both, and thanks for sharing those photos with us.

No, I was talking about my grass . How exciting a subject is grass. :-)


Well while you were solving the worlds C or D problems,. writing code or fixing bugs in nice air conditioned offices I was laying turf. Close to 400 sq metres .. you can see what was left over, and that will be laid tomorrow. So many jokes here but I will refrain just this once

All that exercise, what have I told you all, it is not good for your health :-) I have the proof.... I will admit to having trouble walking.. too much bending down, and worst of all, all that lifting of rolls of turf... and now the lifting of the wine glass is more difficult than usual.. all that lifting of rolls of turf has made my arms go numb. Ok I need to get fit.. :-) but I do have an incredible tan :-) big grin.....

One day you may get invited play cricket on my cricket pitch.. just be nice to me :-)

Have a great week........... and I look forward to you sharing your news,.. especially those in new roles.. best wishes to you all.... Michael

married!

hey guys - well am happy to say that I am now officially married! Even though we are heading overseas for a ceremony, reception and honeymoon, we actually had to "officially" get married in Oz before we went (to make it legal in Thailand was just too much of a hassle!) We had a simple ceremony in the Registry office with our immediate family + our bridal party for Thailand. After that it was onto lunch at Forty One Restaurant in Chifley Square then finally, to stay at the Shangri-La. To say I had a great day was an understatement. I am so happy and thrilled to be married to the woman that I want to spend the rest of my life with....I have attached 2 pics - one of Josie and myself, and one of Josie and I with my parents. We jet off to Thailand on Sunday so obviously looking forward to some serious celebrations overseas. Will write again soon! BTW Michael, re: the catchup, would prefer the lunch but am of for the nighttime catchup also :)

Wahoo Award for a Clean Sweep

Hi all - Sorry for missing all the social functions lately - Davina & the kids & I have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks - camping on the central coast, visiting with in-laws and doing the family thing. I'm looking forward to a little pre-Xmas get together for a chat with you all - and maybe a beverage or two... :-)

I thought of this one a while ago and with Courtenay leaving yesterday for his shenanigans ( powder puff, eye-brow waxing, hand polish, hair plucking ... his normal routine.. oh, and a wedding) I couldn't help but feel a bit lonely over on my side of the floor so here's a little joke for you. Sorry about the length, but you need a bit of background.

I was thinking of those of you who have left and it reminded me of a war story. During WWII submarines would tie a broom to the periscope as they came back into port to let everyone know they had done a clean sweep of all targets - sinking everything they came across, usually firing all the torpedoes onboard and then engaging ships using their deck guns to try and wreak a little more havoc. The USS Wahoo was a submarine that is pretty famous for its aggressive skipper and coming back into port with a broom on the periscope.

So the other day, EG was giving me a hard time in a friendly sort of way - as he likes to do. Unfortunately, I raise to the bait pretty often and I couldn't resist this time.
I shot back to him " I'm going to get you a broom to tie onto the back of your chair."
He said, "What are you talking about?"
And I told him, "The whole CRN team is going - you can tie a broom onto your chair so everyone knows you did a clean sweep."

He eventually managed to see the lighter side of it, which is what I trying for - a bit of gallows humour I guess. :-P

Looking forward to the weekend - swimming lessons with the little fellow, watch with amazement as the little girl grows right before my eyes, cuddles with the lovely, some gym action and maybe a coffee at the beach.

See ya - George

more pictures from England.. and other stuff :-)

was looking through my England pictures.. thinking of posting to my online album.. and thought you might like to see this.. the river severn at ross on wye.. rather nice place.. lovely countryside and some really good pubs.. well the beer is good :-)

spent the last few days in interviews.. something will come up soon I hope.. I had one where they want me to set up a group.. and some of the skills they need are Cognos :-) .. ..send resumes hee hee

Have another interview at 5:30 tomorrow evening (wednesday) bit of a challenging time.. after spending a day sunbathing and working one of the young horses I am starting to work.. will be riding by the end of the week.. this horse I have to work first in the arena on the lunge..

Am starting to think of a reunion / Christmas gathering.. on December 7th.. a thursday.. I know it is a way off and there will no doubt be some that are already booked up (yeah, like for real !!!) so am suggesting.... can you block this evening.. for say a drinks and eats somewhere.. .. or would people prefer a more sedate less boozy lunch type gathering... ???

Vote for evening or lunch.. either post a comment, post a thought or email me.. It occurs to me that I dont know how to get in touch with many of you.. those who are no longer in BISS so perhaps somehow we should get an email address listing together.. email me and I'll manage something.. Hope you liked the photo............take care.. M

Posting again the wine-ing post (as requested): Don blew up the budget

Dear all,

Thanks for those who came to our farewell drinks and/or lunch ... it was so warm and touchy to see all my true friends there. For those that I missed to say goodbye to, I will pop over some other time to give you another chance :) Only if I still can find someway to get into the door thou ….

As Don blew up the farewell budget and pissed off PS so much from his last go, we made a decision to not accept “his majesty’s kindness” this round. (The same way as we refused to accept our job offer :P) It turned out to be even better, we only got to see only our friends and enjoyed the food without leaving with the feeling of owing a big favor.

... sometimes, I couldn't image the C company is paid that much just to standby for "supporting us", as we never even dare to call. Wow, is this too strong, hey? But anyway, who cares ... guess it was all the alcoholic effect from Bana on our farewell night. I also forgot how many times Bana kissed me that night.

Anyway, I shall command my Mr. Yeung to edit our farewell pictures and let you know the link to the pictures. (They were a bit "ghosty" - CLS, told you to use the flash!). But apparently he failed to comply with our SLAs - not the 24X7 that he used to promise when we married.

George, thanks for your call and I will come and say hello to you next week. (an once again approving my timesheet with your magic touch)
Stephanie and Michael, thanks for coming to our drinks and it was lovely to see you two nice people again.
Gerry, MG told me you could not be bother, but I am sure we will meet some other time.

love,
soanne

Hello from Rob B

bisspeople: October 2006

Hello everyone,

It was very sad to see so many of you leave the Bank last week, though I'm sure you're all off to bigger and better things.

I wish you all the best in your duture ventures.

Rob

Bookcase MD001 Resolved - CLS to review

Hello Michael and Everyone,

I managed to get back in after experiencing a Sev One in blog ... for some reasons, my post came up three times, and now I removed it ... thanks Michael for resolving the problems and hope our B/C manager, CLS will be happy to close this bookcase.

Life is good as today is my first "unemployment" day after being knocked in uni for a full long day ..... from 10am to 8pm without even breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Jumped onto my bathroom scale and realised I shed away 3 kilo of fats .... hurray!!! Been waiting for so long and now it worked like a magic without suffering from any starvations.

I have to warn everybody try not to hang out with Bana when he offers drinks ... he is really the famous "Mr. Alcoholic Strainer". For the whole day afterwards, I felt miserable ...

I guess I will have to carefully plan my week going forward ... will be struggling between my study work and repairing my mum's "half-broken" heart ... as apparently Mrs. Suen has been quite annoyed recently as Miss Suen has not been able to spend time with her ... as I always wish I have a sister to share this forever demanding load (better talk thru to Mr. Suen to see if he manages to track any down) :P

Steven - I hope you enjoy your "unplanned" romance in Melbourne with Mrs. Lou .... we are so jealous as anything to do with romance seems to be something of luxury that is always of a far far distance from many of us, except for you and CLS. (who agrees to get trapped very shortly in Thailand)

take care and will talk soon again.

love,
soanne

Bookcase MD001 resolved.. I think :-)

hello everyone, I had a bookcase raised to me.. :-) I have made a few clean ups.. removed a couple of pictures.. not sure that will help but I have been trained in that C product and you know what they taught us.......... try something to see if it helps :-)

Also, short term fix.. = dont try to publish the same article three times and not publish at all. Once will do..

long term fix ... = user to attend remedial training

what else was there... oh yes. root cause.. = user operating keyboard under influence of some unauthorised beverage

and, problem logged with vendor.. well here I am :-) ....and I do think blogger has been down for maintenance as I could not access any blogs the past few hours. Suggest also only place one or two pictures each posting .

I was only going to show you a picture of the green of England, so I thought I'd show the real root cause of the beverage problem mentioned above.. yes the hop fields :-)

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.. Best wishes.. Michael

Hi Everyone,

It's Lan here. Look forward to see most of you at the farewell drinks tonight. Bana and I got abit tipsy last night and we bow to get smashed tonight. Yayyy.

George B couldn't make it neither to the lunch nor drinks. I am devastated : (

Lan
still tipsy

Soanne - 2 days to go

Hey all,

Been hectic at both work and study .... nearly lost my voice these days doing "handover"/training at work. In a sense that I feel sorry for the new starters, but the frustration comes with the fact that it is now nothing much more that I can offer.

Seeing Stevie enjoying his new role is probably makes the highlight for the week, we had two lunches together this week and it is only wednesday. He even suggested that to apply for me his manager's manager's position at his workplace.

Looking thou into my work brother and sister's eyes (Jonny & Abha), I found myself speechless these days .... as overall I don't know how I can leave people that always treat and spoil me that nice. I must say ending a relationship is hard, at least this is how I feel now. (No wonder Mr. Yeung always says that my heart is sometimes to warm-blooded to be a career-type). I could not imagine how I could dump so many boyfriends so hard in the past, I guess we all do these silly things when we are young. (And now I am stuck as a revenge!!!)

Looking forward to "managing" our home project of finishing the BBQ area next week or so. I guess my holiday highlight will just be going to the Motor Show, otherwise will spend time mostly on my study work at my home in Kogarah Bay (not Jervis Bay of course!)

See if I persuade/nag Mr. Yeung hard enough to get a new bmie out of the motor show; will keep you updated on that :P

love you all,
soanne

Some pics from Don's farewell Oct-13

Hello all,

arrived home today after 4 days at Jervis Bay. Have read all the catchup bloggers - seems to be quite a bit of activity. Poor CLS, hope you get better soon, looks like a painful event.

I've uploaded some of the pics from my farewell at http://www.fishattherocks.com.au/, a great choice by yours truly :P, but yeah give it a go if you're planning an outing with a significant other. As you can see in the pics, a bit of the old (us) and a bit of the new (Rosendo / Emmanoul).....good times.

Thanks to the gang and guest star Michael for turning up to my drinks - it was fun. Now my wife knows why work is such an adventure for me after meeting you all.

I'll post some Jervis Bay pics later.

Don.

hi.. opened the blog and thought we had been hacked..:-)

CLS so sorry to see your pain.. get better soon.. well at least before the wedding.

Another great day for me, but no sun bathing; tomorrow maybe ;-)

Hope all well with you guys

M

damn falls

Okies this is what happens when you fall off your bike and land with your chest directly on the handlebars....the result? A really impressive bruise and not being able to breathe properly! Add to that I had to ride my bike another 20 minutes to the car, before I pretty much collapsed in a heap. My fiance drove me to casualty where I got the x-rays which thankfully showed no cracks/breakages, etc. Only problem was I could hardly move! I didn't realise how much you use your stomach/chest to sit up and lie down. On Sunday and Monday I couldn't do either without assistance - I felt like a beached whale thrashing about. Thanks to the kind emails you guys sent yesterday! Am back at work now but I won't be going to the gym for a few days! :) A couple of pics of the "aftermath".....

CLS

Blog is working now

Thanks, Michael. The blog problems seem to have resolved from my access at home. It is extremely warm and really can't wear much more than singlet and short ... hubby already complaining I am wearing too little :P

Been going to uni since morning for a group assignment. Guess what, I am now drafing a project charter; not something that I think I d to do in real life, ha ha!!

Still can't get over with friday, we had fun to wave Don babe leaving .... how am I going to make this for myself? I don't really know how can I start a new role by myself .... life is always full of miseries and surprises .... I shall keep you updated how I go with that.

Courtenay - I wish you all the best for your marriage and may that bring you a lot of happiness, and more importantly lot of kids in the coming year :P

love,
soanne

Hello, well first I think it is working ok :-) Anne it was probaly finger trouble.. :-)

Steven posted twice.. he was the one drinking hee hee.

Lovely to see you guys last night.. good to see people happy.. is it same again next Friday?

A picture with a difference - and a question for you all.. answers to me next Friday.. I'll buy the winner a drink of some sort :-) How many famous London landmarks can you identify?



This was taken last Friday.. you can see the type of weather I had in London.. and this is a colour photo!!!!!!!!!! But it is exactly how I saw the scene given the time of day, the sunshine and the cloudy sky. Rather impressive dont you think.

Best wishes.. have a good weekend............. Michael

Anne complains ...

Anne complains Blogger does not seem to work at Fri, 13 Oct 2006 23:51:30, but I still can publish a post. She must be drunk tonight ...

From Steven

Anne complains ...

Anne complains Blogger does not seem to work at Fri, 13 Oct 2006 23:51:30, but I still can publish a post. She must be drunk tonight ...

From Steven

Hi guys.. well today it was hot.. and I had to be careful not to burn as I sunbathed :-) how wonderful, and as Steven said........ nice not to have to think about work.

the gardens are looking better as well :-)

Good to hear all your plans are going well Courtenay.

I will try to get there on Friday but if I cannot please say hello from me to all.

Michael

I did enjoy my 1 week holiday ..

No worries, Courtenay. I still can meet you some time in the city.

I really enjoy my holiday now, even just only 1 week. After I had first 2 days sleeping, I walked in Parramatta Park with Mrs. Lou, did shopping in Westfield and had dinner outside. Life was fantastic without thinking about CRN. But I still miss my CBA colleagues. I can't wait to see all you guys at tomorrow night's drinking.

From Steven

not long to go...

wow seems there has been a bit of activity on the blog of late - I feel like I have to make a contribution also! With Don, Anne, Bana and Lan all leaving in the next few weeks, I am going to come back from my wedding and see a whole host of new faces! Its going to be a weird experience walking into the office in November and not knowing many people. God with everyone leaving, one tends to feel a bit left out :) I can see my farewell lunch now (if or when it comes) - noone will be there to share it with *laughs* :)

BTW Steve - if you are reading this, I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to you on Friday evening. Apologies for that and I hope you are enjoying your time off and catching up on some well earned sleep....

Still only a few weeks before the my wedding. God I feel like such a bore talking about wedding stuff - oh well guess you have read this far :) hehehehe. Its funny, it has been such a stress free event. Both myself and my fiance haven't really worried too much about it. You see some couples stress to the max about it - to the point where they just want the wedding over and done with. I guess I think a wedding should be a fun event - something to enjoy and I think we have taken that philosophy on-board well.

It's forecast to be 31 degrees tomorrow and 33 on Friday - perfect suntan weather for you Michael! Just make sure you slip, slop and slap if you are doing some riding ...of your horse that is :)

CLS

Soanne's greatest (re)production - Mr. Bryan Yeung

Hey all,

Just would like to introduce my darling son to you all, Bryan Yeung, my tower of strength.

Bryan is now 7 years old, studying grade 2 ... and I will have to say that it is lucky that he inherits his physcial genes mostly from his dad (as you can see, I am not much taller than him :P); but he resembles much of my silly soul.

Yours,
soanne yeung

Mr. Lou

Some photos of Steven's Farewell

Mr. Dodd

Some photos from Mr.Dodd's farewell lunch....

Soanne has 7 more working days to go

By now, everybody should have received the photo invite from me of the farewell. Apology for such delay due to the immediate need to address my study work load in between my two masters - the two Mr. Yeung at home.

After having the rounds of farewell, I feel like I am no longer "myself" at work. Sometimes I wonder if I could bring in my Bryan baby to work instead of me sitting deadly at my desk .... still in the same cruisy mood like many others, my daily job now ranges from handing over, reading resume, interviewing candidates, teaching, documenting, and more importantlu organising farewells ..... I have to admit that it is annoying and depressing to see my team members going one by one; not much that I can do or help. Drawing a conclusion to my CBA life makes me feel miserable, leaving the talent ones that I can always talk to and share with has made my mission even harder.

Not many more days for me to go, I shall cherish the rare occasion to get some hugging with my darling hubby who has kindly arranged some times off to be with me. Not going anywhere anyway, but it will be truely a luxury for us to get together. I do feel sorry for him to have chosen such a busy busy wife ....

Let's the bell continue ringing for the farewell lunches .... there's more to come. Don's on friday, Lan, Bana and myself next friday .... all lunch and drink budgets are now approved, hurray!!! ..... many thanks to George in making that happen at the right timing.

Looking back thou, we survived through a Sev1, crisis through Dave ..... and I always would have thought there would be a better life after going through hell, beyond death ...... I wish all will find our ultimate utopia one day - if not now, maybe soon .....

take care ....

love you all .... soanne

wondering to myself today who is better off.. you guys with jobs and no sun bathing or me with no job and sun bathing. Hard choice you know :)

of course I also have lots of time to clean the house, write emails (I am just catching up with friends who I owe emails to from months back so maybe that is how long I will have to wait to see you guys write :-) big smile.. and pay bills.. what a backlog of mundane day to day paperwork there is that has accumulated over the past months.. I think I should have hired a secretary to manage the household paperwork... but hey that is me now.. household will be running like a CRN system before long ha ha ha ha

Hope everyone well.. best wishes...Michael

what a beautiful day....... in Sydney

well the sun was shining... eventually I think.. but it was cold... did I bring the cold weather back from England I am now wondering..........

highlight of my day was sleeping in the afternoon..yeah yeah I know you all thought I used to do that at work anyway :-)

downside to my day was further rejection.. god how I hate rejection.. and she is not that good looking anyway :-) but I am getting used to it :-)

spent hours talking to recruitment agencies.. what a waste of time that is but one has to do it..

spent a pleasant few minutes watering the plants in my greenhouse.. get a life Michael I hear you say... I tried but she was not interested :-)

Keep smiling and keep your sense of humour.. the smiling and laughing seems to have stopped.. lets get it back again.. everyone needs it in their life me thinks.......

take care...

back from the UK.......

Hello, isn't the weather lovely here in Sydney.. I noticed how warm it was when I got off the plane last night.. and now I am taking a break from sunbathing :-)

Hope you like this.. just uploaded some pictures and this was one from the leaving lunch.. thank you for joining me at the restaurant and many thanks to Anne for arranging it.

Ok, back to the sun.. hope everyone is well..

Best wishes.. Michael

English Pubs........

Hi everyone.. good to hear some of your news.. well those that write.. :-)

Would someone plase say hello to Steven for me and pass on my best wishes to him and my apology for not being there Friday evening.. maybe have a reunion soon after I get back.. just those of us that care :-)

English Pubs.. well two days running now I have spent a pleasant lunch hour.. or two.. or three in a country pub supping some fine ales and enjoy excellent company... new friends I have known only on the internet and old freiends I have not seen for some years... how good has it been...

I'll be thinking of you all as old friends before long.. :-) old as in time known?? or age?? leave that up to you to decide :-)

Hope all well for you.. regards to all ... Michael

a short working week - thanks goodness :)

My turn to write something - its been a week or so! Back from my bucks weekend of golf and drinking - given I rarely drink, it was a pretty boozy Saturday night...glad I don't get hangovers....perhaps I just didn't drink enough ;-) From the sounds of things, it might have been a good weekend to avoid working....I figure though I deserved a weekend off :-) I just hope this weekend will be a bit quieter. We have a farewell lunch for Steve on Friday...well I suppose it's more of a group farewell lunch.....its going to be weird having such a mass exodus.....

CLS

Cruising down the home straight

Hello, thought i might contribute.
After 4 days of not working i feel like i've come back from holiday - good thing i wasn't involved in any of that weekend stuff. It was pretty cruisy in the office today, (not sure how long that will last). I actually also got to go home at 5pm still in daylight, first since since who knows when.

Coming to the tail-end of my CBA stint, I feel a little melancholy that this will be the end of an era, perhaps the Dodd-era eh? It has probably been the most 'interesting' work environment i've ever been in - both good and bad; i'll let you guess the good and bad bits.

8 days to go and counting....then down to the Coast for a break woohoo!

another lovely day in the UK.........

hello,, just to say I managed to spend 20 minutes sun bathing today before the rain came.. :-)

did some chores for mother and then the hospital visit - for her, not me .. . :-)

if you want to write to the blog send me an email to michaeldodd@gmail.com and I will set it up for you.. or you can log in and write using the user name and p/w I gave you.

all the rest I am getting is just wonderful....... even enjoying my morning walk to buy the newspaper.....and am not smoking..... although have not given up the wine yet.. believe it or not I can buy a nice Wolf Blass cheaper here than in Sydney...

getting some excellent - my view - photos becuse of the incredible sky / cloud / sun / scenery contrasts.. but you will have to wait until my return before I can bore you with them :-)

best wishes....... Michael

Monday in the UK

Monday morning here, how nice to wake up to some sunshine. Just had two days of rain.. between 15 minutes of sunshine.. weather just like Melbourne you might say.

Still I am thinking how nice not to be at work.. you the same?? as it is a public holiday there is Sydney.

Have had very enjoyable and restful two days though. Did manage to take my mother for a drive around the countryside yesterday. Took some photograhps which I think might turn out as award winners :-) well the sun and dark clouds and the rain made for some interesting contrasts. Will post some when I get back.

Played scrabble in the evening.. excellent game.. and watached some old UK comedy shows on DVD.. the English did have produced some brilliant comedy. We watched the best of the Two Ronnies ...... so funny, does anyone know the four candles skit.. it is brilliant..

Have a great week....... I hope systems are stable.. keep in touch.. .... Michael

a hard-working but pleasant night

I started the night shift from 10:15pm last night until 12:00am today with Anne and Emmanoul. We kept asking Emmanoul to go home, but he didn't. He even couldn't open eyes around 5:00am. Anne and I had to keep drinking Coke and smoking to keep our eyes open and monitoring the process.

I have one week to go and would like to use this to keep in touch with everybody. I really enjoyed the time in CBA with all of you guys. I felt pleasant but a bit sad... Wish you all the best!

Michael, wish you enjoy your trip!

-- From Steven