Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go...

Well, I was a little hasty in saying J had a job last week - it fell through after her second interview, but only because the job evaporated from under her! The good news is that she went for another interview on Friday and got a job that starts on Tuesday. Pay is reasonable but not as good as her last jobs.

I started on Wednesday in a crappy job checking that gas pipes have been correctly digitised. The company was poorly prepared for us, with PCs not set up, programs not working and printing not enabled for one of the necessary reports. It's one of those places where if you ask why something is done the way it is the response is always "because that's the way we do it". Not very open to change or improvement.

The programs we use run through Citrix WinFrames which means that they connect to a remote server, in this case somewhere in the south of England. It was so slow on Friday that I timed a screen refresh at 1 minute, and we have to do dozens of refreshes every time we work on a pipe. (Every time we pan a map it has to refresh, or if we turn layers off or on, or if we zoom in or out.) That morning I managed 2 pipes. In the afternoon it was better and I finished the first phase of the 10 in my batch. I asked them what the targets would be and they said 23 per day. Fat bloody chance with their infrastructure! I would think the money they are paying us to stare at a screen would have been better spent on infrastructure improvements first.

I am now being paid the same as the job I had in England the last time I was here. So much for 12 years of experience. Our team has a .NET programmer, and a graduate in AI amongst it, which gives an idea of how difficult it is to find work at the moment.

I had an interview for a better job last Tuesday but didn't get it. I've never got a job by interview yet, so I guess that says something about my interview skills.

W and I have managed to find a way to wargame by email, something I have missed for the last few years. I have just made a serious error in judgement (serious enough to cost the game I believe), but that's what it's all about. R will probably be giving W a hard time for it. 8-)

We haven't been doing too much recently as we're waiting for the bank balance to start moving the other way. J makes sure I get away from the computer for walkies, and tonight we are going to watch the fireworks at the end of the Festival. Of course it is raining.

J is signing us up for Badminton and Italian lessons. I'll have to start looking for a hockey team soon too.

My article has been mocked up and will get 9 pages in the mag which is more than I expected. If the IWM can get their act together in time it may get published in November's edition. Fingers crossed.