New job!

That's right kids - after weeks of interview, waiting, interview and more waiting, the kind folk at Data Analysis Australia (DAA) have offered me a job. I'll be starting on the 14th May (same day I go and watch the Black Keys) as a consultant statistician. Wanted a senior consultant statistician post but I think a lack of project management and commercial experience means that I just missed out as I'm going in at the top of the consultant scale. Also had assurances that my salary and status will be reviewed regularly to begin with (every 3 months) so I'll be working hard to prove myself and get the senior status. (They've already realised I'm pretty ambitious). They're also going to sponsor me as well as they've offered me a permanent position which means I'll be here in Perth I reckon until around the begining of 2009. This was much to the heart-ache of my mum! That date is still pretty loose but it's the commitment I kept re-iterating to them in the interviews. What happens in the mean time is anyone's guess. The sponsored visa means I can actually stay in the country until mid-2011 by which time I can apply for residency. That's a long way off yet, christ WC07 still hasn't been played! As it's actually a couple more k's south of where I'm currently working (would pretty much have to drive past the office) I'm really going to be looking for somewhere to live a bit closer. Going to look for a couple of places now...

Since I'm not going to be coming back for a while too, all of you lot need to organise yourselves for coming over for a visit - although I'd wait until October at least now as it's starting to get cold (relatively speaking - 20C sees me with a jumper on now!) and you'll want all the glorious sunshine and lazy days down the beach.

I've also organised a trip over to Sydney for the 24th May. Staying with the lovely Kat for a long weekend (all the Bath uni lot - you must remember Kat?!) and we're off to watch Australia v Wales on the Saturday (26th). It will not, as Riley alluded to, be meeting of two mediocre sides. That's disparraging to Australia! Fellow Taffs: surely you agree with me after an apalling 6 nations? If not, I shall be expecting a your tirade of displeasure at my comments in due course.

Some pics...

These are a few from a weekend in March. Think it was a bank holiday and it was a scorcher (topped 40); a good summer day just before it started to get cold... relatively speaking!! From top: A sensible grandmother, annoying (but ultimately loveable) dog, the back garden where I've spent a lot of time either drinking, swimming or just generally lounging, and an uncomfortable looking me (although it's not true - the kid is tops with me except when he pulls my chest hairs out or tries to rip my lip off).

Busy weekends

So, back to my busy weekends. The week after Donna's bash, Gav and Rich were working up in Karratha (top of WA) and Les was going to be at work for most of it as well meaning that I had the house to myself for the first time since arriving here. I was planning on just chilling out for the weekend despite agreeing to go to a gig with Todd and his missus on the Friday night. The Force were also playing the Sharks (who caused a big upset at the weekend defeating the top of the table Kiwi side the Blues) but my usual partners in crime for watching the rugby were either in the UK, Karratha or working. So I was considering sacking the whole night off and saving bucks and chilling out. Then my boss offers me box tickets to the game an hour before I'm heading off. Fantastic! Free entry, food and beer for the next 5 hours. Sweet! Headed off to the gig afterwards too and had a brilliant night. The Bamboos were tops - a great funk band with a great bassist and drummer. Even managed to make it into the local music mag Xpress as well. Plus I won $150 on the game as I'd bet the Force would score first with a pen and then win by 12pts or less (last one looked pretty dodgy with 5 mins to go and Gitteau has a pen to take the Force 13pts clear but he hits the post making my bet safe). All in all a top (and free) night. Easter weekend was a big one too. Picked up 2 crates of Corona on Thursday after work and me and Gav went through the lot in 1 night and a couple of hours on Friday afternnon. Excellent! Also went paintballing again on the good friday to add to the bruises from 2 weeks previously. Had a huge session on Easter sunday - got tot he pub at half 11 to watch the rest of the rugby 7s that was being played at Adelaide (Wales finished 3rd and England got knocked out by Kenya - the rugby powerhouse of a nation that they are!) and got kicked out at 10 I think. Gav got stopped at the bar about 8 so had to drink water but he was still shit faced. Then it was a big family dinner on Monday (roast beef, pork and lamb that was cooking all morning and smelled so good and strong that you could smell it on the drive 25m away). After which I decided to stop drinking for a while to try and give my body a rest. Lasted until last night when I couldn't resist the black stuff anymore and had to have a couple. Although that was the 3rd time I was in a pub over the weekend so it was pretty good going. Going to be good next weekend... Trying to last until Gav's birthday on the 3rd May so only got a couple more weeks to go (Bryant, how did you go so long???). Off now to try and dig up some photos to wack on the blog I've taken over the last few weeks. Taff

Been a while!

It's been a bloody long time since I posted anything up here so I think I'll do this in stages otherwise you'll have a lot to read! I emailed you all saying I'd applied for a senior stato post nearly a month ago. Well I'm hoping to find out about it tomorrow - you can see why WA is nicknamed the Wait Awhile state. Had 2 interviews for the job and the last one was with a director of a HR firm that were brought in as a third party assessment. He told me on thursday after the interview that his recommendation would be to offer me the job so it boils down to whether they believe I'm up for staying beyond the end of this year. That's right kids - if I get the job I'm planning on staying until 2009 at least meaning I'll be needing a sponsored visa which the company will have to sort out if they want me to carry on working for them come the end of the year. I'd kinda already decided that I wanted to stay until then anyway - whether that was another year on a working holiday visa or being sponsored. If I stay for 4yrs I can get residency which means I can then come and go as I please. But that's a long way down the track... got to get the job first! If I don't get it then I'm not sure what I'd do. In the mean time I'd carry on where I am until the 6 months is up and after that I'd have to see what opportunities were available. Not too many stato posts here in Perth so if I wanted to do that then heading East is probably my best bet. Melbourne ot Sydney... tough choice! But I'm not thinking about that at the moment. What I am thinking about is the couple of good gigs I've got coming up in the next few months. Watching the Black Keys down in Freo next month which should be pretty good, then it's Maximo Park on the 19th August in Perth. That should be really good as their new album is chuffing brilliant! Been kinda busy on the weekends lately too - keeping myself pretty busy. Back end of last month was Donna's birthday and we were meant to go deepsea fishing but the swell was too big so it got cancelled. Me and Gav got pissed in the city instead throughout the afternoon down on the Esplanade in the Lucky Shag (barmy army HQ for the Perth leg of the Ashes tour - no doubt full of pasty English muppets like Riley) before heading off up our mate Todd's hawaiian party (Gav got really dressed up and put on a AC/DC shirt). So all in all a messy day and night. This led nicely into paintballing on the saturday for Donna's birthday. I shot anything that moved and pretty much anything that moved shot me. Caught one lad in the nuts and he wasn't wearing a box so he dropped like a sack of shit. Made me realise how close it was to being me as I got hit in the top of my thigh. Shot Donna a lot as well. Then it was back to the Flying Scotsman in Mt Lawley (just north of the city centre) for a good drink. I'll tell you about the other weekends in my other posts. Until next time...