All we slice is the price !!

I have got a job with a pretty big firm in the CBD called Lend Lease. I did the interview on friday last so it has all happened pretty quick. Two asian lads interviewed me for about 1 hour and 15 mins, fair to say I was in a hoop when i came out. I have to go for a chest x-ray later on this week to make sure my lungs have no "anomalies". I guess I will blog a bit more when I know more, at least I am back in the saddle, hopefully it will be a positive experience as opposed to my last few forays.

The Soccer league kicks off on sunday with that in mind we had a challenge last sunday. As luck would have it the league schedule puts us up againat those lads on sunday in the first round proper. We didn't beat them last sunday but I am confident we will next sunday. Where we played the friendly was actually a stadium where one of the rugby league teams trains during the week, obviously no one was there to watch us hack around, it was still pretty cool though. The stadium itself was like one of thoes old Russian stadiums with a running track around it and the stands miles back.

I haven't posted any pics for ages hopefully i will start righting that, it looks like I will be heading to Canberra in the near future for a look and also I hope to go to the blue mountains which are just outside Sydney, hopefully I will take snaps galore.

Sports Stadium

I will do a what i have been up to type blog over the weekend although nothing exceptional has happened rather I have just found my feet a bit.

I have wanted to a blog on sport and stuff in the city for a while .. here is a quick run down of the teams etc that play "out of sydney".

AFL:

Sydney Swans : Current premiership holders, They won the grand final last year and Sydney had a winning team for the first time in 72 years. Actually the Sydney Swans were in a previous life "South Melbourne" but they relocated and renamaed a few years ago. The swans by the way are the team Tadgh Kenneally plays for. Melbourne is where AFL rules though most of the AFL teams hail from there or the surrounding arrea.

The Swans play at the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground) oval, the Oz cricket team plays there also when they are in town. Aussies are really really cocky about there cricket team the genuinely believe them to be unbeatable. To be fair they have a mega squad. The test team is full of world stars. The one dayers is practically a different team, I think you have to earn your spurs in the one dayers to get a chance at test level.

Sydney's Soccer team play at Aussie stadium. They are the current A-League champs, The A- League is a new competitioon with only I think 6 or 7 teams in it. I think they changed it around in order to bring the quality up. Incidently Dwght Yorke plays for Sydney and is paid more than most of the rest of the teams put together. I think he ended up playing midfield for most of the season. Probably impoortant to note that Aussies are really proud of the fact that they are going to the world cup for the first time this year. Gus Hiddink is really revered for his acheivements.

The other big sport here is Rugby league. Sydney has to many teams to mention I think but all big macthes are palyed at Telstra stadium. I think the Dragons are the current holders of the title and hail from the western suberbs. Other Teams of note include Sydney Roosters, Manly, Penrith.. .
One other team worth mention is Souths or the "rabbitohs". They were just a few days ago the subject of a hostile takeover by Russell Crowe. They are rooted to the bottom of the table. But are/were a stauchly working man's club. So it was resented bitterly when "Rusty" came calling with his dollars. On sunday at a "Historic" club meeting Rusty and his hench men got the 75% majority they required for the takeover. He promply promised a premiersjip winning team within two years. Think Red Roms revolution at chelski and you get the idea.

As I see other sports items worth metion I will catalogue them here.

gettin square

I played my first game for "Queen's Park" yesterday it was against the Unversity of New South Wales in a friendly. The game was played in the little bay sporting complex, appropriately enough in little bay which is down the coast about 8/9 miles from where i am in bronte.
Getting there was a right pain, i had to get a couple of buses not really knowing where I was going, I found it handy enough in the end.
The game itself was a fairly tame affair on our side anyway, no one knew anyone and we played accordingly, i was expecting it though to be frank, there are a few guys who can play but there a couple of real tools also.
I was striking and touched the ball about 6 times in the match , pretty frustrating, i was well and truly done when we finished, it was about 25 degrees and it was really humid which i find to be the real killer. At the end a few of us stayed talking to the coach where I got off my chest a number of things. Nice to be up and running now with these guys we won't be as bad again i reckon.

I haven't done that much really in the last few weeks apart from meet agencys about jobs etc, a day is wasted everytime i have to meet them as I have to go into the CDB (central business district).

Last few days the weather has got a bit cooler to i reckon, the commonwealth games are on in Melbourne at the mo aswell. Austrailia is cleaning up. It all seems a bit pointless really.

Bad day

I had my first interviews today and yesterday. Yesterday was a technical interview with a consultancey that went fairly well, I know this because they called me back almost immediately and asked if I would go to meet there clients. I went back in today and was escorted down to the bank who were the clients. Straight away I think I was on the back foot, I wasn't really matching what the guy wanted i.e he wanted a formal tester whereas I have done no formal testing .. thankfully. I found the whole thing a bit disspiriting. Being honest it is not a job i would have wanted .. still I guess you always feel badly if an interview in whatever context goes to crap.

3/4 way through the guy said I don't think your really what were looking for .. I wasn't surprised .. he still carried on interviewing me for some reason .. I eventually said I am 100% confident i can do this job however I can't prove it to you because I haven't formally done it. I am not sure what he thought about that .. he asked me a few questions and then kinda showed me out .. I think there was a bit of tension as I was leaving ..I definitely had the hump because I reckon the consultancey wasted my time and his.

There are days when I hate the IT industry and the agencey/recruitment industry that is around it and today is right up there.

Say yes Paul !

A quick list of Aussie quirks :

Absolutely everyone says the word mate at least once every sentence

Every Second vehicle on the road is a UTE (Utility Vehicle)

The Aborigines are to the Aussies what the travellers are to the Irish .. they seem to be treated the same anyway

The word footie can be used to describe 3 different codes of sport

Everyone here seems to get up really really early to train/swim/surf .. this could be realted to where I am situated ..

Al the recruitment agencies are peopled by English lads ..