Hello All from Anne

Haven't been posting anything for a while, hope that this post will find you all healthy and well.

Courtenay, don't catch a cold up there on the mountain :-)
George, I hope your sister will do fine very soon.

Nothing much exciting has happened to me during the holiday season, but I did manage to take Bryan to the Hunter Valley during the Australia Day long weekend before the school starts again. So would like to share with you some of these photos.

btw, drinks just sound perfect to me (whether George buying 333 drinks or not), and I hope to hear some of your recent news and to share mine with you.

Take Care!
Soanne

Another use for a blog

From George:

COURTENAY - Where are you? There's and urgent server patch that we must get in.... ;-) Best of luck on the slopes - hope the snow is deep & powdery in Colorado.

Hi all - hope you're doing well. I'm still having fun here at CBA. I just got my "final" contract extension thru to June. At the end of this work order its the permanent way or the highway .. and I'm not sure which yet.

Looks like there will be some interesting work with new projects and some upgrades coming our way which is great.

I'm also looking forward to a drink at 333 on the 21st of Feb with you all - but that might not be very many based on the usage stats that Michael can see!!

Anyway, I wanted to share that I have been on Blogger quite a bit lately. My sister had her Hodgkin's Disease (cancer) return. Because the family is flung around all over the place she has started a blog to keep us all up to date. It's fantastic for my brother and I as we both live here in Australia. When I call back to the States I don't want to spend the whole time asking about her sickness. This way I can keep track of what's going on with her diagnosis and treatment as it happens. Rachel posts as much or as little as she wants to share and we all stay in the loop. A win-win all powered by blogger.

I'm also glad the posts on this blog aren't full of cancer terms & treatment options! Good health to you all.

Cheers, George

onto Colorado I go...

Hey guys - well this time tomorrow I will be on a plane somewhere on the way to the USA. Just popping over to Colorado for a week of snowboarding - the season was here was so poor I had to get my powder fix :-). No wife to go with this time either - given she is already in negative leave, I think she thought it would be pushing her luck if she asked for another week off! Still it's something to look forward to - after no Xmas break, I felt like I was missing out on the holiday thing.....Popping over to Hyderabad MD? If you see Sachin Tendulkar while your over there, tell him I said hi ;-) I guess India and snow are not too related are they?!

The forecast in Breckenridge (snow resort I am spending most of my time at) is forecast to snow, but not as much as I would like it to (you can never have too much snow!)....Still if I am lucky I might be able to get "rooster tail" of powder likeI did here in Japan in 2004....

BTW 21/2 at Bar333 @ 6pm is OK with me - locked in Eddy!
BTW again, does a 2001 Holden Astra compare to the Bentley?

hope everyone is well,
CLS

not my kind of car................. :-)

just had to post this.. when I get paid this month it helped remind me not to buy one... :-)

and dont forget 21st Feb 333 George.. no, that is not George buying 333 drinks for us all.. it is the bar.. apology for any offence.. if you secretly have one of these in your garage..... and you never told us.. Michael

fire and water.............and drinks together

two of the elements of life.. :-) well we have had both.. and the picture says it all.. taken a few nights ago now but you had to be here to really feel it.. taken from the edge of my place.......as for the little yellow squiggle.. I think that was a man eating bat flying past... :-)

I would have written sooner but my ADSL went down.. Telstra dont know why.. but since Telstra are the most incompetent service provider I have ever dealt with..... that doesn't surprise me......

Now a few people have suggested we get together for drinks.. I had thought February 14th was a good date but I will be in Hyderabad on that day.. that is in India somewhere I am told ..ha ha ha ha ... so OK another date.. 21st Febuary..... I am not sending an email to anyone.. if you read this and want to keep in touch I will be at Bar 333 or whatever it is called at 333 George Street... from 6pm onwards.. I'll stay drinking .. hopefully not on my own until 7pm.. anyone turning up may get a taste of India.. or you can entertain me with stories of your life since December 2006.. what a long time past that was..

Hope all well.. and look forward to seeing whoever turns up on 21st.. Best wishes.. Michael

5-0, 5-0, 5-0

Not sure if anyone knows but I am a huge fan of the cricket - always have been and always will. I think its the only thing my wife and I disagree on. I love it, she finds it as exciting as watching the grass grow :). Suffice to say she was pretty happy when I told her the test matches were over (5-0 to the Aussies!), but it was funny to see her face fall when I then said the one-dayers were about to start! :)

A few friends of mine were over in England in 2005 when England regained the Ashes and reckoned it was a place NOT to be if you were an Aussie! MD, I agree the English went a bit "over the top" with their celebrations on winning the Ashes - not quite sure if they needed to be awarded MBE's? Still people celebrate differently I guess :-)
The stamps do look good....given we are about 100 metres from 2 post offices it might be an idea to take a closer look at them.......

Oh another thing, besides being a mad cricket fan, I used to play at a fairly decent level. Actually played against Brett Lee a few years back. Managed to score 80 against him....who said he was quick *laughs* :) Its nice to see people I have played with and against go onto bigger things in cricket. I was also fortunate enough to play against Stephen Fleming (the NZ captain) many years back - even then he was seen as a superstar in the making. I managed to catch him out (I say the catch was a full length dive in front of 1st slip, everyone else thinks I didn't need the dive!), but only after he scored 90-odd :)

CLS

as you all know I am Canadian...........

so the fact the England cricket team lost the Ashes in 3 matches means little to me .. yeah.. sure... I hear you say :-(

well I have to say how impressed I am that the Australians have not gloated over the win the way the English did 2 years back when they won the Ashes in London... the English (Royal Mail) issued 4 stamps to commemorate the English achievement.. yesterday Australia Post issued two stamps to commemorate the Australian win.. and considering the Australians won the series 5 - 0 I would have thought they had justification to issue 5 gloating stamps.... so all credit to Australia.. maybe I will become a citizen after all :-)


These are the stamps.. in what is called a Miniature Sheet... enjoy.. Michael

On the ROPS again...

How much fun are these ROPS deployments? Now I know what you guys were talking about. I think we are about 16 hours behind schedule now. The good news is that we are just one End Of Day Rules Engine run and an export/transfer/import away from having Status Tracker back online. Then that's the end of the bloody operational On Hand reports running from the reporting database. Hallelujah!!!

The bad news is that the schedule slipped five hours and no one told me, so here I am at 3 am on the blog instead on the grog or asleep. Oh well, at least the others will be rested when they come in later.

I took a walk down George St at 2 am - would have thought I was on Oxford St from the number of people & cars. The city sure has changed from a few years back.





I had a great holiday break with the family. We were down the beach quite a bit and visited with Davina's family in Newcastle for a week. That was very relaxing as we had many sets of hands to help with the kids. They love the attention and had a bit of withdrawal when we got back home.

Cyrus is 3 now and really got into Christmas this year. It's fun to share their excitement.



Lara is the action adventure girl. Talk about living up to your name. I'm not quite sure how we ended up with Lara as a name for her - Davina (she who must be obeyed) probably has some reasoning, but as far as I can recollect that was just one of the last ones on the short list that we had been talking about.



Anyway, Lara has no fear and walks straight out into the waves until she gets knocked down. After we help her up and move her towards the shore, she turns around and heads right back out into the waves until they knock her down again! She'll do it for as long as we are at the beach smiling and giggling the whole time.


I might catch a few winks before it's time for the DataStage section of this project.

Looking forward to a few posts from the rest of you to hear how your holidays went.

Cheers, George

this picture I rather enjoy looking at :-)

Hi.. well another busy week.. including a one day trip to Singapore.. to talk to a potential customer.. left Melbourne at 01:00 on Friday morning and caught a flight back to Sydney the same day.. do you know how really crap Sydney airport is compared to other airports around the world..?? well I am seeing it the more I travel.. quite amazing.. but you don't want to hear me whinge do you :-) great flights with SQ I must say.... leave it to your imagination :-)

CLS .. sorry I don't know what type of python it was.. it was big let me tell you, but Katherine was as cool as she always is..


as for pictures.. I thought this might be one you enjoy.. It is just .. well it is just..isn't it :-)

Hope all well... and if I get more of you saying you want a catch up maybe I'll arrange something; there is a date next month that could be just the occassion :-)

Hope everyone is well best wishes.. ... Michael

Happy New Year All!

Hey everyone! A massive happy new year to you all - just checked the blogsite and there doesn't seem to be much activity of late - I guess people are either on hols or too drunk to write ;-) I actually worked mostly through X'mas - I have a week off at the end of January so I figured I better earn some money ;-)
Hey Michael is that some form of albino python around your daughters neck? It looks pretty cool! I have seen a few pink coloured pythons and they look amazing! Hope everyone got lots of presents over X'mas too! :-) Keep us in the loop re: a 2007 get-together - I love a catchup!

regards,
CLS

Happy New Year............

Happy New Year to everyone.. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season.. whatever you did and wherever you were.

My daughter and I spent a day in Singapore, as one does :-) and I took this picture.. not a new pet for the house I might add.


Have a great 2007.. we might catch up ... you never know.. Best wishes...Michael