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.

Yay NZ

It looks as if the Olympic team is doing pretty well even if we haven't seen any of it except as headlines in websites. I saw the Herald's table showing per-capita standings and NZ was second on that behind Slovenia. Not bad at all, and still some hope in various events running over the next few days. Of course the Brits have been doing very well too, so yay to our Brit friends.

We also hear the ABs did a better job than their opening matches and we're in to win the Tri-Nations. Maybe we'll find a pub that plays the games...

J went for an interview today, and I got a job starting Wednesday. Crap pay again and probably boring, but hey, a job's a job. Someone has to pay for my expensive clothes and coke habit.

I've been going the resources at the Scottish National Library so haven't wasted the free time too much. J has found more of her family, all of whom lived in Leith. Freaky coincidence! Most of their homes are no longer there, but we'll check another two tomorrow on our walk. It's quite interesting seeing the maps change anyway. One of the ones she found this time was demolished to make way for a raileway terminal which is now, in turn, the location of a public indoor swimming pool and a supermarket. (Whose business has been jeopardised by works preparing for a new tram system.)

Remember the query on the parking meter? It was pointed out to us that we were on a greenway, but I was interested in the Council's slow response. It turns out that they hadn't correctly signposted the greenway hours, so they are refunding our fine. 8-) Small victories...

More rain here, so same as at home really. So much for hot August nights.

Disappointment...

J's job fell through which is a real bummer. We're now living like pensioners without the pension which isn't quite the plan.

J's been investigating her family history and it turns out we are living in the middle of it! Of the four addresses she has traced so far three are in Leith and we are in the centre of the triangle those make, with none of them more than 1 km away. Sadly each of them has been 'redeveloped' so no trace of the contemporary buildings remain. (More of this on her blog.)

We spent a day in the Scottish National Library, and I shall return tomorrow as it has some good books on the battles around Cassino.

The Fringing has slowed down as the free tickets have dried up and we are rather cost conscious. We've still seen a few more of varying quality and will see more yet. Meantime we go for walks and soak up the precious few hours of sunshine that are delivered. Yesterday we walked along the Leith to the city centre. It would have been drier to use the Water of Leith Walk I suppose. The latter uses the path of an old industrial railway for much of its length and it is quite interesting to see the extent of those lines. Perhaps ironic that current debate in the city is over a passenger tram being installed, with some saying a light rail system would have done the job better...

Not much else to report I'm afraid.

Within the Fringe

Not much to report here. No work for me, but we think J has a job starting on Friday. It was supposed to start tomorrow but they weren't quite ready for her. It's not nearly as well paid, but it appears that we have arrived at a bad time economically, and we didn't bank on the different education environment which means that I can't get supply (relief) teaching even if I wanted to (which I don't), and they don't have bursars in each school (except Public - ie. private - ones). One agent asked me if we'd considered London which has got to be a bad sign.

We've slowed down on the Fringe stuff but still see one or two a day. On Sunday there was a sort of 'massed bands' fringe events. All the street performers were in the middle of a soggy paddock, while the drama, music, and comedy were in tents around same. It rained. That'll be the overwhelming memory of the festival I think. Rain. We watched a student sketch show today that had its funny moments. It was quite clear they had a slight chip on their shoulders given the many references to "Roddy" and "150 quid". It turns out that their sound-man had scarpered to Mexico with all the proceedings of the previous week...

It could be worse - we could be in South Ossetia. The poor media coverage and propaganda that is coming out of Georgia/Russia is unbelieveable. I still have no idea what is really going on. On the surface it appears that Sakashvili has launched an extremely ill-advised attempt to bring unruly South Ossetians into line. Since SO is an autonomous region of Georgia, they have the right to do so in international law. Given that Russia has 'peace-keeping' troops there though, it would seem a rather hazardous thing to do. Here are some of the questions: How serious was the initial Georgian assault? How many civilians died? Have the Russians been supporting the seperatists in SO and Abkhazia? Have the Russians actually invaded Georgia outside SO? Will the Georgians put up any sort of fight? Is the appropriate analogy Sudetenland, Chechnya or Kosovo? Should the West intervene? Could the West intervene?

Home and Away

Doesn’t time fly? We have moved into our apartment and it is starting to feel more homely. It overlooks the Water of Leith and just like Dunedin, but unlike Bristol, we have no boats going by. I kind of miss them as they gave a little life to the waterside. Here the bridge nearer the harbour is too low to allow any but small boats and submarines up to us. A bit of an oversight that.

We’ve had no hot water until yesterday for some reason, and the washing machine doesn’t work so my undies situation is getting desperate. J threw me some of hers this morning, but I’ll turn all mine inside out before resorting to that. Hopefully the electrician is coming tomorrow, but we all know how reliable they can be.

We mentioned the parking ticket to the letting agents and they pointed out that we were parked in a greenway that kicks in at 4.00pm. (Over here the greenway, aka clearway, is the rush hour no parking zone.) Strangely the council haven’t yet twigged to that and are apparently still investigating. I won’t disabuse them just in case they feel they have to reimburse us the L30 fine.

I’ve been transferring from one laptop to another now that J has her new toy. My old one is dying by degrees, so I get her old one which is marginally faster and infinitely more quiet, while she’s been playing on a new Dell Inspiron 1520. Nothing fancy, but quite a bargain. The problem is that I still don’t have enough space for all these pics! Some serious backing-up is required.

We’ve been busy with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and have yet to be disappointed. Well, there were a couple of 10 minute spots in some showcases we watched that definitely put us off the real shows, but the ones we’ve been to have all been good to great. We went to a drama based on cockpit flight recorder transcripts last night. Aeroplanes aren’t very good at flying are they? That’s the only drama we’ve seen, all the other shows being comedies. We’ve not paid full price for anything yet, and in fact have got over half of them for free! All that entertainment for virtually nothing. (A good thing too, since we have no jobs.)

Speaking of which… The Credit Crunch and general nearing of recession is not doing well for the temp market and the agencies have been a little downbeat about the amount of work available. I’ve sent electronic applications in for several jobs but with 130 applying for basic office roles there’s clearly a bit of competition. Perhaps I shouldn’t put down my ‘Desired Role’ as “Grumpy Old Man”? J is struggling too though her skills are more quantifiable and she’s at least had her CV sent in for some jobs. She’s explained on her blog that Bursars don’t work the same way up here.

I found the Scottish Library today – a smaller version of the British National Library – and checked out its holdings. There may be a day or too profitably spent in there I feel. They also have a map library so I’ll see if they have any relevant Italian stuff. There’s an aerial photo archive reopening in a few months, and there are a couple of Regimental museums that will need investigation. If only I could make money from this kind of thing…

Three young girls were at the bus stop today. Hard looking things about 14 or 15 with the uniform of girls that age – stovepipes, those ballet shoes, or for one some stilettos, too much slap (makeup), over heavy black eyeliner – I’m sure you know the type. They were carrying on in that slightly loud, in your face way of a bratty teen, and were all eating junk food. Then one of the girls walks over to a bin and PUTS HER RUBBISH IN IT. Restores your faith in humanity. 8-)