Halloween

Hi everybody,

I guess it's about time that I write something again and more importantly upload some new pictures ;) Yep, I did and you can check them out at Flickr.
So what happened the last week - frankly not a whole lot. I'm settling in, getting to know more and more people, enjoying the beachlife and of course a lot of time just vanishes at work. The highlights this week were definitely the Halloween Party over at Nigels place right across the beach. Nearly all people were dressed up and it was really funny (not scary ;) Cool party - Rock on Nige!!

And NBVA Manly#2 of course. The second tournament for this season and I've teamed up with a new partner. Kenno is a former Australia national tour player that unfortunately had to move down to Canberra. But nevertheless he drives up here on the weekends and we can practice a bit. It's good fun playing with him and we came out 5th in this tournament. Looking at the competition there this is not a bad result. There are a bunch of good players here in Manly.

Well, and I finally reactivated my Facebook account. So if any of you guys are on Facebook feel free to poke me or just add me as a friend. I try my best to keep that account up2date as well. (Facebook apparently is very big in OZ).

Oh and last weekend apparently the ship with my things arrived in Sydney - BUT I have not heard any word yet from the moving company, so I'm still in the empty apartment.

Right, that's it for now. I'll hit the sack. Cheers,

Mike

Ps: Don' forget it's daylight saving now. Time difference to Germany is 10 hours now.

Pps: Say hi to this lil fellow. A real cutie:

Summer approaching

Hi y'all,

time for an update. Well, a bunch of things happend the last couple of weeks:
- Got the fridge, washing machine and broadband (finally!!!)
- Actually I think I will receive my OZ credit card on monday
- Bought a blender today (yum yum - Banana shakes)
- Found an excellent thai place in CBD
- Ate a bad kebab ... yep, I clearly know every detail of the restroom now :/
- I drank beer (I know, not many will belive that - Belgian beer not OZ beer ;)
- Some new pics are on our flickr page
That's it in a nutshell. Today was a beautiful day at the beach and I finally made it over to Shelly Beach w/ some friends. That place is really nice to chill out after some beachvolley and the offer free BBQ facilities.
We've also met this lil fellow there - catching the last sunrays:


Yeah, another topic - work. So far I definitely can not complain. Everything is good, the people are friendly and helpful and certainly have a completely different mindset than most of the people in my old office. They also heaps of interesting project and I actually got assigned to a long term BCM (Business Continuity Management) project which is done KPMG internal. So that is pretty good as well. There is also a lot of social events going on - pretty much one every week and if not some guys from work always go out ;)

Alright, I'll hit the sack soon. Be good,

Mike

Ps: The next tournament is coming up next weekend and daylight saving finally kicks in ...

Volley update

Hi,

just a quick post. Here are some pictures from the first NBVA Beachvolley tournament. Actually, if you look close enough, you'll find me on those pics as well.

The NBVA website with the latest tour infos can be found here.

Cheers,

Mike

16 things I've learned so far ...

Hi all,

just a brief message from Down Under. What have I learned so far about OZ:
- Driving on the left side is pretty weird
- The toilet flushes really the other way round
- Small waterspouts (tornados) pass by every now and then
- No encounters with deadly animals so far
- Beachlife is great
- The bank system is horrible
- You won't find a fridge in your apartment
- Insulation is not in the Aussie vocabulary
- People are generally really nice and helpful
- It is next to impossible to find a real Aussie in Manly/Sydney
- Ferries are a good way to get to work
- Aldi is also around
- Buses are not that realiable
- Cockatoos are damn loud
- No worries ;)
- If you go down south it actually gets colder?!?
Yep that should summarize it pretty good. Anyway work is fine so far, people are nice and I have enough time to settle in and I actually do get some trainings.

A'right, stay in touch. Cheers,

Mike

Moved in

Hi again,

so, today I finally moved in the new apartment w/ my belongings, which actually just consist out of two trollies and a new tuffel bag. So now I've set up my airbed and I'm waiting on our things to arrive in Sydney. Here you'll find some pics of our new place.

Furthermore I've participated in the first NBVA volleyball tournament in Manly and ended up being third in our pool. Therefore we did not make it out of the pool and the final result was the 9th place (out of 20). I have to say that there are some pretty good players around here ;)

Well, tomorrow is my first day at KPMG Sydney - let's see how that goes. I'll have to wait for my home DSL line till approx 12. October ... so probably there won't be many posts the next two weeks.

Be in touch. Cheers,

Mike