Exercise Every Day

Going home today!

Seriously, I like travel, but not when work comes on top of it. Although being away from Sydney for the last two weeks has been good - the rain that is flooding northern NSW is also raining down in Sydney, albeit not as hard.

May need to check up in the roof cavity tomorrow to get an idea of how it's going up there. Might need to do a bunnings trip first for some decent lighting.

(ps. It's been raining pretty hard in Sydney the last couple of weeks. We're due for a few days' break shortly, just as I get back, hopefully enough to get the garden sorted out)

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Last day on client site in Melbourne. Next week we're being included on the meetings (theoretically) and told about the issues that arise. And so begins the battle for (office) supremacy…

(ugh. I ate too much breakfast too fast and now I am having regret. Or indigestion. *burp*)

One of the issues in any translation from development to support is starting to recognise the issues that are arising and which ones are going to be perennial problem. There's also the manner in which we take on those issues.

I am a "we'll take it as it comes" kind of person.

My colleague (who is the team lead in this instance) is a "prepare for everything" kind of person.

So we are doing a lot of work to map everything out, determine what is going on, identify where things are happening, and look at possible solutions for issues that are not yet happening, but which might.

I personally tend to think that's a waste of time, but I am perhaps a little bit like the guy whose roof never leaks when it doesn't rain. Also, a lot of guys on the tech monitoring side tend to want pages and pages of directions. (Pages and pages of directions sends me to sleep.)

I'd rather dig out the issue myself than be fed what someone else thinks it is. Of course, that isn't how most support guys tend to think of it. And the up-tops really hate the "trust the techs, they know how to fix it" - which, granted, they often would find that maybe the techs in question don't know how to fix it as knowledge is lost between one support group to the next.

Next week, the processing of handing over the reins is supposed to begin. Whether it does, how much of it actually is given to us, and how we handle it? That's another question. I kind of miss the days of my last client, where if there was a problem, I would mostly fix it on my own cognisance. Then again, the system of the last client was set up to expect issues like this and things which might fall through. This client is a lot more insistent that every little issue be logged. I'm bad at that...

Oh well, colleague is on top of that at least. I guess I'm going to have to get up to speed on what's required to do this, that, and the other…

So, it's been good to meet some of the colleauges I'm working with. Others…well, they're typical 'guys in tech' and, moreover 'South Asian/West Asian guys in tech', which is to say they're very insular socially, and very closed when it comes to including an East Asian female in their outings.

( people gonna peop )

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Spent a great weekend with friends I haven't seen since their kids were much smaller. I've known B for over 20 years - since before she met her husband C (internet dating back some twenty years) - and although we've moved through very different stages of life, we're still good friends.

I gave her a draft (very drafty draft) of the novel, which I've started to fix/adjust/rewrite. Still trying to work out some of the details about the various characters, the various moving parts of the story, and where everything lands up.

We went out on both Saturday and Sunday, which is a lot for her - she has CFS and struggles with her energy levels. We went for a walk around the area on Saturday morning, and then out for dinner that night. Sunday was markets and then taking me to the station, and by the end of it, I think she was pretty exhausted and sore. At least she gets today off - she doesn't work, is on disability (FWIW). Her husband works, currently the service rep at a local mechanic's place and he's got the knowledge for it, but not the body. They've had a lot going on the last 18 months and are hoping for a stretch of quiet.

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So the hotel is not as nice as last week's hotel in terms of the room and appointments (tile flooring all the way, no carpets, no rugs, and the layout of the room is kind of peculiar), but the location is considerably better for going out and eating and stuff.

Eh. I'll take it.

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Tonight, I'm catching up with a friend for dinner, and hopefully another friend on Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday will be scrounge days, although someone has recommended a place in the city

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Back home, we have a chicken ( possible graphicity )

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Electorate next door has fallen in favour of the Independent. By 40 votes.

WHEW.

That's "automatic recount" territory, of course, but it's been very carefully scrutinised, and so the counts are unlikely to change.