One door closes...

...but the next one hasn't opened yet.

No, your eyes do not deceive you, I am in fact making a post!  I've not done any recently as, unlike Sarah, I couldn't think of anything that I really wanted to talk about and didn't want to just blether on - perhaps this makes me a bit shallow?  Hmm.

Anyway, even I ought to be able to make something out of leaving my job of the last 9 years, which I did yesterday.  I started at the Avon and Somerset Constabulary in May 2001 as the Exchange Administrator and have been part of the 3rd line Windows Server Team since then, although becoming seconded to SouthWest One mixed things up a bit :-|

When Sarah and I had fully decided to make the move to Australia and were sorting out our timeline, we agreed that I'd stop work a while before we actually leave so I'd have the time to update my IT certifications - there are four that I really need to get done and two more that would be 'nice to haves'. 

I've already talked about the day when I handed my notice in, about three months ago, and yesterday came around pretty quickly but it didn't seem to arrive with a bang - more of a whimper!  I went to bed the night before without any major excitement/concerns about my final day, I got to work at about the same time as usual (albeit with a load of cakes as per tradition), I actually did about three fifths of a days worth of work (final documentation, mostly), had the usual exit tradition of everyone gathering around my desk while a senior manager talks about my history (which was fine) and then watched with the team while my countdown timer (which had been counting down for 31 days on the 40" monitor behind me) ticked down to zero.  A few handshakes and hugs later and I'm out of the door and on my way home.

Would you trust your IT to these people?  Note the countdown!

I don't want to cast aspersions re my relationship with the rest of the team - we all get on really well and I'd certainly count them all as friends rather than colleagues, and I know that at least a couple of them regularly read this blog so I'd better be nice (haha, not really!), and I know I'll be seeing them at least a few times before August but I did think that this fairly major event in my life (this was one of only two major jobs I've had since I was 18, after all) would have more of an impact on me than it apparently has... maybe it's too soon yet to make any assumptions about the medium-term.  The next few weeks will probably feel more like normal time off but as those weeks pass and the social aspect of work gets further and further away I might start to miss/think about my old workplace more... I don't know, perhaps as I said at the beginning I'm basically just a shallow person but I hope not... :-(

The last time we were all together at work

[Phew, this is all a bit bleak, I'd better end on a high note]

But... the good thing about now being an unemployment statistic is that I get to spend more time with the wee ones, Finn and Isla.  Tuesdays and Wednesdays are now going to be spent looking after/entertaining/providing for them as those are the days that Sarah works.  Today was my first day and they and I had a great time!  Isla woke me up at 0615 so we had a bit of a chat and a play before I got Finn up so we could go through the usual (but more prolonged as it's me in charge, not Sarah) ritual of getting washed, dressed and breakfasted. 

Tuesday is one of Finn's nursery days so I drove him there and then went on to Taunton to have some Isla and Daddy time which we don't get to do very often.  It was a lovely sunny (but slightly nippy) day so we went to Vivary Park and spent an hour or so on the swings and climbing frames there, followed by lunch in the local Subway.  I then picked Finn up, went home and put Isla to bed so Isla/Daddy time turned in to Finn/Daddy time and we had a fab time on the farm 'helping' Uncle Steve.  A slightly fraught tea time (with me cooking, urk) was finished off with a nice bit of triking on the patio and that was us all done - good times and I look forward to more of those :-)

Oh, and I washed four work shirts this evening - I guess I won't be needing those for a while...

Andy

Bye bye, baby

I have to say goodbye to something precious to me, a large part of my life... our (my) PC :-)

The time has come in our moving process to dismantle and pack everything that's not going to come with us to Sarah's Mum's place, and that includes the beast affectionately known as 'BigPC'.  Built by my own fair hands out of components researched and sourced by me about three years ago, it's nearly never let me down.  We had a data scare a few weeks ago so now it's a fully RAIDed beast with multiple backups of everything that matters, namely our many photo albums and the iTunes library.

We've decided that although BigPC is going to be making the journey down under in the container with the rest of our kit, all our backups are coming with us on the plane as we don't want all our eggs in one 20' basket.  It's unlikely to be booted up again for at least 10 months so we can only hope it will survive the experience.

Oh, and we're moving house tomorrow so that's a big thing as well ;-)

Andy

End of an era... nearly

We've now told everyone at work our plans... bosses first and then the unwashed masses!

I'm not sure what I expected, exactly.  I've only handed my notice in once before and that was for a job I was only at for two months.  Other than that I've been made redundant or moved around internally so it's a new experience for me :-)

So anyway, it's done now.  It seemed to go OK - no shouting or tears from either party.  I've still got 14½ weeks of work left so it's still business as usual for now.  I expect in the near future there will be discussions with the higher-ups re handovers and whatnot but for now it's still the daily drudge.  Sarah wants me to go out in a blaze of glory, I'm not sure how likely that is!  I moved into management in July but after seven months I already know that my forté is back in the land of the IT engineer so that's what I'll be reverting to in Sydney if all goes to plan - Jobserve and Seek configured as appropriate :-)

Message ends

Andy

Small beginnings, mighty acorns, etc!

So it's time to start this, our first blog... perhaps a bit of background first.  My name is Andy, I live in Somerset, England with my wife Sarah and two children, Finn and Isla.  Sarah was born in Australia which of course is probably why we're here - about 8 months away from emigrating to Sydney, NSW!

We've talked about moving down under off and on for some years and now we have Finn and Isla we've decided to go for it.  Everything is now moving into place - my visa on the way (hopefully), house on the market, moving companies contacted, CV being updated, and a million other things to be considered.

I work in the IT industry so we're hoping I should be able to transfer my skills and experience down to Sydney without too many problems.  To aid in that I've started down the certification path - once on that journey you never stop!  I currently hold VCP3, VCP4, MCSE 2003 and MCSE 2003:Messaging certifications and am now starting on the MCITP:2008 Server and Enterprise Administrator set.  Virtualisation and Enterprise design and admin are my forte, so if you know of any openings in Sydney feel free to drop me a line!

That's probably enough for a first post, tune in for further updates as we make this giant leap southwards, find somewhere to live, find a job, make new friends and live the Australian dream - well, that's the plan anway ;-)

Andy