I’m on my to Cambridge University now!! I haven’t even had time to rest and now I’m on my to another milk run. Since coming back from St Andrews, I’ve been working crazy hours and days to make sure the integration is a success so I just lost track of time. Was going to say how times passes by when you’re having fun. Well actually, it is fun 
Anyway, last week I did my first interview session and have to say I absolutely loved it. Making those kids squirm… muhahahah… Beauty about it was that it was one on one interviews so I had free rein to do whatever I want.
The interview room was fairly large so I was tempted to sit on the opposite side of the table and spin around as they came in (Dr Evil style.. muhahahahh…) but no that’s not my style . I made them sit on my right side while I asked the normal boring questions.
The questions were like how do you handle pressure, what do you do in situations like xxx and the usual why Sungard? Some kids were amazing that blew me away with how confident and prepared they were while others were nervous as hell but once you probe you know they were smart hard working kids. Others you know they were mommy and daddy’s little pampered kid. The nervous kids at times you had to either stop them to calm them down or I’d tell them to move on cos they were rambling. I think I made it worse by timing my interviews… muhahahaha
One interview was an internal as she was an intern(?) appying for the graduate scheme. I had to let her through so that I wouldn’t be the cause of her rejection. Don’t want angry people working near me
I had another kid who was rather over ambitious. I asked him in 5 years what was his plans to reach his goals and he told me that he was going to be a developer for a year, consultant the next year then the following a project manager. Rather over ambitious to achive though I did something similar at Fujitsu (developer to team leader to project manager) in the last 3 years but that’s cos I was buddies with my delivery manager and I’m a whore . Unfortunately I didn’t let him through as he couldn’t back up his answers.
What I didn’t realize as well was that this kid was a year younger than me. It seems that the graduates in this country leave uni much later than Aussies. It’s a bit weird telling people you’ve been working for 5 years at 25/26 as a software engineer as they’d be expecting a year or two.
Anyway arriving soon. I’ve yet to process my Edinburgh pics…. Arrgghhhh! On a side note it’s rather surreal catching the train and blogging. It’s so beautiful once you get out of London. It’s so green!!!
Tags: interviews, kids, milk run, nervous
A month ago, my boss pulled me aside and asked me whether I wanted to do a “milk run”. At the time I was thinking he must be shitting me cos there was no way in hell I’d do a pleb’s job. He clarified further that a “milk run” was a term used to recruit graduates and would entail talking to students on campus and conducting interviews. It still didn’t sound right to me but at least it gives me the opportunity to see some places in the UK that I wouldn’t have thought of.
I was asked to fill in a preference of universities to attend and the one that sounded the best was the one furthest away - St Andrews in Scotland!!! The event was on a Friday which gave me the opportunity to see more of Scotland on the weekend. Free flight some more so why not????
So I arrived in St Andrews late last Thursday which involved a palava of flights, trains and buses. Grabbed some grub at a local Italian restaurant and went to bed (I only had 2hrs of sleep the night before).
St Andrews is a small town that has only two things - a University and GOLF! Apart from those two, there really isn’t much to do. You can pretty much see the whole town within a couple of hours. For the golfing fans, I got kicked off the course for being on the green of the 18th hole 
I was only taking pictures!!!
Prior to being kicked off the golf course, I was in awe as this is the course where golfing legends like Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo etc had played on. The course was kept in well pristine condition so I understood why I had to be kicked off. I walked towards where the caddies were hanging out and it was my first memorable encounter with Scots. Listening to them talk to each other reminded me of a turkey farm. I can’t really describe it very well but if you get 10 or so Scots to say “aye” at random times, it’ll sounds like a group of turkeys
The career fair was rather interesting as couple of years ago I’d be doing the same thing like these kids competing for graduate jobs. Now the tables have turned and I can be the bastard with the Dr Evil laugh… muhhahahhaha… but seriously I was amazed by how some students were enthusiastic and proactive about their career while others just seemed too lazy or arrogant. There were others there who were only after one thing - FREE STUFF! You’d see these kids running around the floor sneaking behind people then all of a sudden you see this hand from out of nowhere reach in and grab your pens. Or there are others who’d just waste your time to ask what your company do then go in and grab the pens. Bastards I tell you, the whole lot of them… But then again that would have been me a couple of years ago too
What was surprising about St Andrews was that I was expecting a lot of Scots or English but instead I was greated by a bijillion Americans. When you walk around town listening to the accents, all you can hear are Americans. Sigh… they’re everywhere and you know that most of them are rich kids who are sent there by their parents for their studies.
St Andrews itself is small and beautiful. I managed to grab some shots when the weather was kind enough. I think it is time to get a new lens though. Throughout this trip I was getting sick and tired of taking shots of building. I think it’s time for a new paparazzi style super long lenses
Stay tuned for my remaining stay in Edinburgh… It’s not that exciting though :\
Tags: Scotland, St Andrews
It’s Sunday @ 3am and I just woke up! It wasn’t that I couldn’t sleep but it’s more like I had just woke up from a “catch up” sleep from the previous day. I still can’t believe I wasted my Saturday from just sleeping.
It all started with a casual drink on a Friday night when a colleague wanted to head home without stopping off at a pub. It’s Friday night and she wanted to head home?! It didn’t fit well with me and I didn’t want any of it. I managed to convince her with my charms… Well it really wasn’t hard to change her mind when you mention the word booze or just repeatedly call her a loser . The night started out in a little bar at Liverpool St but it seemed like the night was going to end early as there weren’t many people there and we were heading off for curry at Bricklane. “Eating is cheating” is a phrase we’d use quite often on each other to symbolize the weakness on the person who mentions food and it usually means that it is home time after that.
Fortunately enough, a sms came through to one of my workmates to go to a party over in Enfields. I’ve never heard of the place before but all I knew was that it was in zone 5. This was the point where I knew the night was going to either end up crashing at someone’s place or a whole night of figuring out how to get home. We eventually made it out to the “party” which seemed rather chavvy which is interesting since I don’t get to meet much of the English. The events that had occurred in the “party” has to remain undocumented on this blog as there may be incriminating information
We eventually headed off to an apartment to finish our night off (which means more boozing) and hopefully get a few hours of sleep before heading back home. I was hoping to get a few hours of shut eye but this wasn’t going to be the case when one of my colleagues couldn’t sleep. We spent the whole night talking about love, life, family and work. Wasn’t exactly how I wanted to end the night but hey I love listening to people’s stories.
I eventually got home around 2pm thinking to remain awake but I could only handle 2 hours before I crashed and burned. Sigh… my sleeping pattern is going to be fucked for a while now.
When I saw a squirrel, I thought “damn, they are so CUTE!!”. Out in our backyard I managed to catch a glimpse of one and thought how cool that was however for the past few weeks I take it back!! Unlike Perth, for some reason the local councils here have no concept of providing rubbish bins for residents so we’re left to fend for ourselves in storing our rubbish until “bin day”. So what do we do? Naturally leave the rubbish outside in the backyard tied up and as tidily as possible. For the past few weeks we’ve noticed there are holes at the bottom of our rubbish bags. Who’s doing this? None other than those pesky SQUIRRELS!!! There was one point where I’d be bagging and rebagging 5-6 bags of rubbish but those damn bastards still get through it… sigh… To me they are more of a nuisance than cute… DEATH TO THEM ALL!
While Dave and I were walking a friend home we were told we lived near celebrity. But how? None other than Chef Gordon Ramsey! Did some googling around and there were reports about him living in Wandsworth but no concrete evidence. Guess the only thing left to do is camp out his place
What amazes me about London is that it is such a multicultural city with many different accents around the world. A common question I tend to ask when meeting new people is where their accents come from. Last night was my first true encounter with the cockney accent/language/dialect. They sure do have interesting terms that just have no meaning… Like ruby murray = curry? Pig’s ear = beer? wtf?!? I was told that the cockney accent is made up of rhyming slang but to me it just didn’t rhyme or make sense. Even when they speak “normally” it’s a little difficult to understand. Maybe the beer didn’t help much too.
When the tables were turned around when I was asked where my accent come from, I always ask people to guess and as usual, they always say American or Canadian. Is my accent that close to North America??? I’ve been trying real hard for the past few months to strengthen my ocker accent but I guess after a few drinks that goes to shits.
I want to try and pickup an english accent but it just sounds so so GAY…
Eating Indian tastes so good at the time… but the repercussions… omg…
I don’t think I’ve ever been propositioned before and it wasn’t exactly how I imagined it. What was I propositioned for you ask? Well… I was at a bar ordering drinks when this lady comes by and starts the usual small talk. No worries, I’ve been in many of these situations so you just play along. Did I mention that she was so not my type (to be politically correct)? Not at all! I’ve never been the type to give a hard rejection so I let her go on as I knew if I wanted to leave, I just need to bring the drinks back to my mates. As I was eyeing off to the bartender to HURRY UP! She said I was cute and asked whether I wanted to get into a threesome. Now HOLD UP! Stop the tape and REWIND!!! A threesome?!?!?!?!? Now that sounds rather interesting providing that there was another lady involved and she was semi decent. When I looked at the other half of her duo, I was extremely unimpressed. It was a really massive creepy bloke that I reckon is into some nasty kinky shit. That’s when I stopped, panicked, shook my head and said no NO NO NO!!! many many MANY times. I think she got the drift by how weirded out I was, so she started to walk away but as she going, she grabbed my ass and told me to come her way if I changed my mind. Only in London I reckon this would happen…. WTF?! Sigh, if only it happens like in the movies….
Apart from the crazy shit that happened to me, turns out Debs herself had her own craziness too. There was this aussie bloke who was some how associated to a friend’s friend of Debs. Clearly he was keen on her but the way he went about was so wrong. He kept giving her the evil eyes, told her that everything she said was bullshit and she wasn’t aussie. After all that he asked to add her on his facebook via his iPhone. Wtf?!?! Don’t tell me this some how works and this guy is able to pull chicks?!?!
Luckily Debs was poised about it and told him that if he didn’t remember her name, then he can’t be on her facebook. Well done Debs… Well done. If it was me, I would have drawn a circle and said, see this circle? this is the circle of friends… YOU, are not allowed to be in this circle so FUCK OFF! He did try to read her palm but that was just out right stupid and a little sad.
He did have a go at me as well (not hit on! you numbnut!) and told me that I wasn’t aussie and kept asking where I came from. Who gives him the right to say who’s aussie or not?! After a heated argument, one of his mates pulled him away and I told his mate that if he wanted a stabbing, he’ll get one tonight. Actually, I did remember telling quite a few people that night so he left no long after. Most people that know me would know that when it comes to insults, I am usually quite blasé about it and I brush it off easily. But this fella definitely takes the cake and he was pushing the right buttons for a kinder surprise… in the shape of a broken glass bottle.
So overall it was a memorable night
Tags: aussie, broken bottle, bushpig, stabbing, threesome
Last night I came back from my first ever weekend trip on the European continent. And where did I go? None other than Amsterdam baby! Didn’t stay for too long though as I booked my tickets fairly late and it wasn’t cost effective to stay for another night.
Definitely a beautiful country to visit with some absolute gorgeous women. Even the lady coppers on their push bikes were hot! They could arrest me anytime
So what exactly can you do in Amsterdam for two days and one night? Well…
- Visit a coffee shop - check
- Visit the sex museum - check
- Visit the Van Gough art gallery - check
- Visit the red light district - check
- Take a canal tour of Amsterdam - check
- Get absoultely wasted in Amsterdam - check… but not as much as Dave
The first and last item are so closely related that it could take out your entire weekend but I managed to stay somewhat responsible to remember parts of my weekend.
One story worth mentioning was when we hit a bar somewhere in the red light districts. Little did we know that it was going to be the location where our night would end (well kinda). So there we were at a little pub in Amsterdam enjoying a few drinks with the intention of hitting the coffee shop after but a couple of pints later, somehow somewhere the shots started coming out. I guess that was Dave trying to catch up with the drinks but oh that was not such a great idea. A couple of drinks/shots later the rest of us decided it was time to take a breather from drinking and head somewhere else but noooo… Dave wanted to hang around more. Fair call so we had left him to slay the dragon while we went to take a look around the red light district before heading back to the hotel. We had disbanded but were getting a little worried for Dave so Mike and I decided to head back to the pub. While walking (attempted) to the pub, we had realized that we had forgotten where it was! There began possibly the longest hour of my life while drunk.
Two guys completely drunk as fuck, walking around the dodgiest part of the city while the other was passed out in the streets somewhere. I finally got the go ahead to go home when Mike rang that Dave was back in his hotel. Apparently a copper had seen him passed out and threatened to arrest him if he did not move along. I guess somehow Dave’s subconscious decided to take him to a safer place. For me, I was still drunk as fuck, and was lost. That lead to another trek to eventually find my hotel for a well deserve sleep. The following day we had realized that the pub was actually a few minutes away from Dave and Mike’s hotel. DOH!
The red light district is definitely a site to experience. Don’t think you can find anywhere in the world like it. I thought Thailand was bad in terms of how much prostitution is in your face everyday but this takes the cake. I don’t think it was as seedier as Thailand though. Or maybe I’ve gotten more seedier these days?
I’ll have to find some time to post some pictures. Thank God I didn’t bring my proper camera along as I reckon I would have lost it in the canals
So I’ve been in London for sometime now… Living in a (relativley) large house, good housemates and got a job. What more could you ask for? I reckon a visit to alcoholic anonymous would go well .
Over the past few weeks since starting at sungard, the team has been very antisocial and no one goes for drinks. I was shocked and thought what the hell I got myself into as I could have accepted other jobs where they are more sociable. But I’m not the kind to put up and shut up so onwards to find a drinking crew! This brings back days with Fujitsu
Managed to find some like minded people to go for drinks and now we’re doing this on a regular basis. At times a little too regular! There has been numerous occassions where I’d get back home around 6:30am or just stayed over a co-workers place and this isn’t on a Friday night too! On the occassions that i do get home, I rock up drunk as fuck at 3-4am, crash on the bed to sleep for a few hours then head to work. My god it is a pain in the ass to drag yourself out of bed and still work. I had a two hour training early in the morning and was dozing through it . When we go for drinks, our intent is to go for a few quiet ones… Oh how wrong we are…
Anyone know the number to alcoholic anonymous again?
Tags: booze, double shots, london
