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Sunday, January 22. 2012New Beginnings
I'm writing this - finally - from a train at Macarthur which heads into the CBD - where I start a new job today. It's a little strange, given I will be based at Central where I first started working with the RTA way back in 2001.
It's also quite odd to be able to avoid the mess which is the poor array of trains available from our way into Parramatta. For the last two weeks there were none - for some reason the standard of track on the South line is so poor that every year it is shut down for two extra weeks in the school holidays. Not so convenient for those of us who don't go to school. I view those two weeks as a nice farewell present from CityRail. So, instead of getting so sick on the replacement buses I need to take a day off (this happened last week to a work colleague) I drove the whole way every day. I hate peak hour traffic, even more when I'm part of the problem. When the trains are at "full strength", this just means two trains in the morning to choose from, and three in the afternoon. Not exactly a full service that most people are used to. So from today, I'm back at my old haunt Menangle, getting the diesel train two stops to Macarthur, then changing for an electric all the way to the city - these run every 10 minutes or so, all day! What a novelty. This one just went past a station without stopping - wow almost an 'express'! The new job is not a dramatic change. I was actually approached by two separate sections of Transport for New South Wales within a week to come and work for them. I've selected one and accepted the offer. My role sounds like a challenge - I'll update when I know more. It was more than a little difficult to decide to leave the RTA (or Roads and Maritime Services as it's now known) where I have been working in one role or another for eleven years, but the time felt right. I've been getting offers here and there from recruiters so if the current role doesn't work out it seems the market is good enough to take on another role out there somewhere. But I'm determined to give this role my full efforts first - there's the potential to save taxpayers millions, which has always been my goal in public service. Time will tell, but looking back on my work with RTA I can see my and I team actually achieved this. Wednesday, April 6. 2011Family
I could probably wait forever for the time to process photos to add a well-structured blog post, but life is hectic and rapidly becoming moreso, so let's write something down instead of nothing!
Phoebe's now at preschool two days a week and loving it. This prompted us to drop her day sleep because they don't encourage that at preschool, so she's a very very tired girl once she comes home from her fun day. There's always a new painting, craft, and germ to bring home and share with everyone else in the household. Great fun for all the family :) Two other days a week are spent burning off energy at gymnastics and swimming, where she's making rapid progress through the grades and now almost doesn't need the assistance of a bubble. She's in her big girl's bed now, and very much learning about the world and how to interact with other people. When she is rested enough, she can play by herself for a long time. We've had some great family times together recently, and even Daddy-Phoebe days to give Liz a break. A stand-out event was her being featured in our local paper after Clean Up Australia Day, which she loved even if she doesn't look it in the photo! Preschool has of course given Liz a chance to spend more time with William, and he sleeps far better in the absence of the noise machine that is his big sister. He's growing up so fast - at eight months he's now climbing up alongside furniture and slowly shuffling himself along. He's such a calm, happy little man that it's heartbreaking to see him suffering through nasty colds and coughs like he is at the moment. Still, there's always a big smile not far behind, showing off his comical first front top tooth. Phoebe's adapted well to William being around, and there have been a few recent conversations along the lines of me saying "it's time to go home now Phoebe", and in a very sad, worried voice, her asking "is William coming too?". She loves having him in her life, as we all do. Both kids are always a pleasure for me to come home to, and I believe Liz even enjoys almost all of her time with them, despite the pressures of a toddler, sick infant, and the majority of the house work. I very much appreciate this, especially since I'm working much longer hours due to a recent promotion at work. She's aiming to go back to work in June, but just how we manage that hasn't yet been discussed. There's other big things in life to work out too, but that's another post. Tuesday, April 28. 2009New Job!
Well, sorta.
A year or so ago when the team I originally started with in 2001 was transferred to Parramatta office, I used the excuse to stay in town with a different team and also move to a Technical Lead role for the experience. Now things have changed a little - the team in town got moved across the bridge along with everyone else from that office, and also we have moved out to Picton. The combined two hours each-way commute was bearable for the transition period, but something had to give. Coupled with this the old team at Parramatta had some internal re-organisiation, and the Team Leader role became vacant. I was asked to step up, and as of Monday, that's what I'm doing. So yes, I'm now a manager and have the Crackberry to prove it. I view it as a challenge, but figure I wouldn't have been asked if people thought I wasn't capable. I haven't even had time to unpack my boxes, it's been go-go-go since I walked in the door, so there will be precious little rest time it seems. As I type this I'm cruising along in the train to Parramatta (using the rare-as-hen's-teeth Cumberland line trains), and out the window I can see where I cycled yesterday. There's a "rail trail" from Liverpool to Parramatta which is pretty good, but could do with the signs being replaced so I don't waste 30 minutes next time following the wrong railway line. But I guess that's what GPS is for. Liverpool station is also a poorly-designed bottle neck for an "interchange" with a cycleway. I'm still balancing the train times to arrive at the appropriate work-life balance - this took me a little while at North Sydney and some experimentation appears to still be required.
Posted by Alison Gould
in Cycling, Mobile Devices, Sydney, Work
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21:22
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Thursday, March 27. 2008Off to Newcastle
Now and then I find myself having to travel to Newcastle for work as we have a large operation up there, and tonight is another one of those times.
Liz and Phoebe are coming up as well so we should have a chance to wander around the town and see what it's all about. There's quite a lot of history to the place that us Sydney-siders generally dismiss. It'll be nice to get out of town for a while, hopefully Phoebe travels well and sleeps ok in the hotel room. Thursday, February 21. 2008Aaah the blog...
It's a sign that life is busy when I don't post here for ages. It's been beyond busy recently. I stare at the front page now and then and note the stagnation, knowing only I can change it. And then something else comes and steals my attention.
No matter, life is going well! Miss Phoebe is for the most part much improved. She still has times when she has been awake for hours and is so tired that she won't sleep or feed. They're tough and she needs constant attention to sort her out. Liz is unfortunately copping most of this as I'm busy at work and still with bands. Several times of the years I've considered dropping back my band commitment, and each time we've discussed it and agreed it can continue. Now I'm not so sure, it's just not fair on Liz to make her do so much while I'm off having a good time elsewhere. As part of the process of spending more time at home, I purchased a shiny new bike. On the first ride into work on it I cut ten minutes or so of my fastest time on the old bike, so there should be less time spent commuting and more at home. I spent a long time researching options, considering a few compromises on eBay, but ended up getting exactly what I wanted. An expensive way to do it, but warranty and reliability are key on a commuter. It's what they call a Cyclocross bike, dedicated to the sport of Cyclocross, which pretty much nobody knows about. The formula is to take a fast road bike, make it more rugged, make it more comfortable, and add practical features. So it's a bit slower than a "real" road bike but as you can see above, it's still plenty fast! And at the other end of the commute - work - things are changing too. My team is being restructured out to the Parramatta office, and I'm was really not looking forward to the extra hour's train journey. The bike ride was far more direct and looked not to be too much longer than the ride to the city, but I can't ride every day, due mostly to weather and carrying instruments. From an organisational perspective it makes sense for that team to be with the rest of the people who do similar things, but from a personal perspective Parramatta has nothing at all to appeal to me, and eats into the time with my new family. Even if I don't go out in the city every day, I could if I wanted, whereas what little there is at Parramatta seems to shut down after business hours. So I got offered a position as technical lead in a different, but similar team, who are remaining in Surry Hills. I've decided to take it for six months, to see how the management thing suits me. If it doesn't very well then I can either revert to my old job out at Parramatta or look to the market for something different. Enough for now, I need coffee. Monday, January 29. 2007Knee: Jerk
Those who've known me for a while probably are aware of the generally crappyness of my knees. On the weekend, after an intensive gardening session (yes, we're getting old...), I didn't quite step properly on a raised concrete section of our backyard and ended up with nasty sounds and much pain in my right knee.
I've pretty much learned in every day life what not to do to minimise the occurrances of this problem, resulting in this being the first time this has happened since Paris. I attempted to walk up to the shops yesterday but only made it about four houses before giving up, and as such yesterday and today I'm working from home. It's nice to have that option, but it doesn't take long to miss being out and about cycling. Thursday, January 18. 2007linux.conf.au 2007
I'm out at New South Wales university this week for linux.conf.au, a tech-oriented conference. This is the fourth time I've been along to one of these (they run every year), and this year it's being held in Sydney, back where the first one was that I came to in 2001.
The free software culture is generating some amazing things - one of the highlights for me has been the talks on the One Laptop Per Child project - these guys are really thinking how to bring technology to huge numbers of people (their target market is one billion children in the world), which involves quite a lot of rethinking existing ways of doing things. One telling statistic is that 60% of the children in the world have no power at their place of residence, so requiring a device to be able to draw power off the grid just was never going to work. Plenty of talks more related to my work as well, the details of which I won't bore my mostly non-technical audience with! Suffice to say it's a nice break from work in the pleasant campus surroundings.
Posted by Alison Gould
in Computers, Linux, Open-Source, Work
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02:42
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Friday, December 15. 2006We aren't the only Polo lovers...
Thanks to my parents for pointing out that Volkswagen has taken three awards in the "Australia's Best Cars" awards, with the best small car going to the Volkswagen Polo diesel.
One of those parked a few meters from where I'm sitting right now. Been driving it quite a bit today actually, way more than usual. Have to do a bit more shortly to pick up Liz from her work Christmas party. Apparently she won an award of some sort too, just like her car. Good on them both. They deserve it. Thursday, November 23. 2006Kersey Jerb are in the Finals!
The Finals of 2006 and Ed being a band member, that is.
Tomorrow night is gonna be huge, lots of new songs, lots of crowd expected, and of course goodbyes to both Ed and Jenny who are both leaving work for good. We've even organised brass and strings for the occasion - something never before seen with the band. So come one, come all - details as always on the site. Sunday, September 10. 2006Electronic Tolling in Sydney
Note: This post has nothing to do with my place of employment.
If you're interested in getting an electronic toll device for your car and don't already have one, it looks like RTA has one of the best on offer, and also they are offering $30 free credit until the end of October. We've had no great need for one but the added convenience, plus free credit made us decide to opt-in. Now we can take some easy quick trips down the M5 to the Southern Highlands once our new car arrives. Monday, September 4. 2006Made it!
20.7km in 1:13:55 cycling to work this morning. Quite an improvement on the weekend's trial run.
There's showers at work and I'm sitting feeling quite refreshed at my desk now. Edit: And home in 1:10, which actually seems to have more uphills in it. It's a bit hard to carry instruments on the bike, plus I don't have proper lights yet so might ride in again Friday. Monday, October 17. 2005Spring Cycle
We had a great time doing it last year, and now it's time again. This year called the Spring Cycle (last year the Cycle Sydney), it's a ride from North Sydney which winds west, this year ending up at Olympic Park.
Unlike last year, we've been doing a bit of training, which combined with the fact that it most likely isn't going to be the hottest day of the year means we shouldn't feel nearly as wasted as on our previous attempt. We actually had a great ride on Sunday just gone, heading through Narwee, Riverwood, Peakhurst, Lugarno, Oatley (stop for lunch) and back to Penshurst, about 20km in total. With a couple of other rides during the week that should be a pretty good ramp up for 50km this weekend. We're actually entering as part of the RTA team - no idea how bad our uniforms are going to be yet, but I imagine we'll have some photos to show afterwards. Thursday, June 9. 2005Newcastle Again
I was up at RTA's Call Centre in Newcastle (no, not the one -Upon-Tyne) for a couple of days attempting to sort through things, just got back last night.
Although work had paid for a night's accommodation, I still feel a bit ripped off since the things I went up there to sort out didn't work, through no fault of mine. Avoiding the extended rant about work, let me quickly add a big "thanks" to CityRail for yet again having trackwork, meaning my trips up there and back were interrupted by changes to buses. Not fun at all. I managed to find some time to wander around Newcastle a bit - it's quite scenic around the harbour, and the old streets have a bit of character as you wander up the hill. Would like to give it more of a chance at some point in the future. One thing that really stood out, even more than the couple of previous times I've been there and noticed the same is that all along Hunter street (the main road in/out), what used to be interesting little shops and entertainment venues are now derelict, with notices of intended development (ie. knocking down and replacing with apartment blocks) everywhere you look. That makes the road an interesting look forward into the future that the government's plan for 7000 more apartment blocks in Sydney would look like - just substitute Hunter Street for Parramatta Road, and multiply many many times.
Posted by Alison Gould
in Europe 2002-3, Sydney, Travel, Work
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07:59
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Wednesday, May 11. 2005I'm still here
If you want to find out whether people read your blog, stop writing it. I've lost count of how many people have asked me when I am going to blog again. I guess I'll take that as a compliment.
Stumbling across this site where you can create a customised map of the world highlighting certain countries, I went on to update my "Me" page showing where I've been and also the main Europe 2002-3 page with a Europe map showing where we went. On that topic, it's now pretty much decided that after the wedding on 18th Feb 2006, we will head over to Europe for 2-3 months to sort of fill in the gaps of bits and pieces we missed out on last time. Some other random news in point-form:
That's enough for this post, I'll try and do it a bit more regularly. Maybe.
Posted by Alison Gould
in Bands, Europe 2002-3, Site News, Sydney, Travel, Wedding, Work
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01:16
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Friday, March 25. 2005Bands + Apple iLife = Bliss
Purely by coincidence and perhaps the fact that I lug my powerbook with me everywhere I go, I've ended up doing lots of digital media production with Apple's most excellent iLife suite of applications.
Firstly, the big band that I play sax in, the Honeymakers, is in the process of recording a demo CD to send to prospective clients. The brief was to get something on CD, of whatever quality, and to send it out with a disclaimer of sorts about our non-professional status, the small amount of time spent rehearsing and the tiny budget available for recording. I turned up to rehersal one week and the band director asked me if I could record the band on the powerbook. "Sure", I answered, "what sort of gear do we have?" Very little, the answer came, and we were starting right then. In fact the first cut of some tracks has been recorded using the internal mic on the laptop as that's all we had to start with. Solos have been over-dubbed with better mics on individual tracks, but the vast majority of the band has been recorded purely with one mic. And the software magic that made all this possible? Garageband. It totally rocks and is oh so cheap. The effects and things available with a mere click of the trackpad are brilliant, and overdubbing solos is so simple - just whack some headphones into the headphone jack, hit record and play along. One of the other guys in the band actually recorded his tracks at his place and gave me a CD full of the results which I can just drag and drop back into the projects. Sweet. We've done solos and the vocals with better mics, but being able to pack up the "recording studio" by unplugging a couple of cables and closing the lid just blew everyone away. I'll post a link to the resulting mp3s as soon as I've finished mixing them down - possibly tomorrow. Garageband also rocks my world with the other band I'm playing in at the moment - a RTA-affiliated rock band where I'm playing mainly bass guitar. I just couldn't resist making myself a little cable which runs out from my bass amp's effects send to the laptop input, then back from the output to the amp's receive line. Using this setup, I can now run what for years has been the holy grail of guitarists every where - real-time effects processing in software. I just click on setting for each song, which sets the reverb, compression, distortion, amp simulation, etc. to be however I want it, and there's my tone, running out the amp with no delay. The guitarists in the band who turn up with ten or so effects boxes and associated batteries and cabling each are very jealous. I remember reading somewhere that Mac OS X's audio stack has latency low enough to be able to do this, but the equivalent part of Windows would never be able to achieve the same feat without some serious re-writing on Microsoft's part. At rehersals for this band the other day, someone had the bright idea of filming the entire thing for archive/humiliation/burning. At the end of the process, I noticed it had all been done on a DV (digital) camera. One firewire cable between that camera and the trusty powerbook later, I had a pile of clips sitting in iMovie. A bit of drag and drop later, and I have a DVD ready to burn with titles, credits and all the really bad stuff relegated to the digital trash can. This really is a lifestyle computer. Apple should be paying me to say this stuff :)
Posted by Alison Gould
in Honeymakers, Jersey Kerb, Software, Work
at
12:44
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