Lights and Islands

Everything except for the plumbing is done now. Apparently that blasted sink is still making its way on the delivery route from Melbourne to Sydney, so with luck we'll have it by the end of this week. At least we have working lights now in the front and back. Alison and I have had a couple of BBQ dinners in the new area and aside from the bugs we love it. I'm sure we'll get used to sharing the outdoors with the wildlife.


You wouldn't think that a sensor light would be difficult to setup, but the one we bought must have been the finnickiest of the bunch. Half the time it was picking up a bus driving past on the street but refused to register the two of us waving our arms in front of it. I think I got it right in the end, though it only comes on once you turn the headlights off when driving in.

Coming up to Friday was pretty busy as Flight Centre flew all the technology guys out to Hamilton Island for a weekend conference. Working on a weekend isn't usually all that flash, though with a view like this from the room I found it pretty hard to complain too much.



Friday was a free day so we made the most of it on the beach with a bit of volleyball, swimming and frisbee. Staying true to Flight Centre culture, a fair few people jumped into the pool bar and proceeded to get really sloshed. Not really in the mood to get hammered this early in the trip, some of us decided to brave the 2.5K trek up to Passage Peak to enjoy the view. The last 900 metres or so were absolutely brutal (at least I thought so) and my camera bag was feeling very heavy by the end of it. Much cursing and sweating later we reached the end of the line and stopped to rest and take in the view.



Saturday was the day of the actual conference. The overall theme was "Challenge" and was par for the course with cheesy corporate planning days. One thing that Flight Centre do well with conferences though is organising guest speakers to give talks. This time we got to listen to Jesse Martin retell his solo unassisted voyage around the world. Pretty fascinating tale really, though if I were being cynical I would point out that he's looking for more channels to push the DVD about his trip.

The conference venue was remarkable, overlooking the mouth of the harbour and the air strip so we got to see boats and planes come and go all day. There may have been quite a lot of traffic, but this is still the prettiest intersection I've ever seen.



Saturday night turned out to be fairly boozy once more, though I retired early to get up the next morning at try my hand at sea kayaking. Not to say that I didn't down a few beers along the way. Wouldn't want to go against the grain after all.



Back at work again now and still feeling tired from the weekend. Got to get my energy levels back up though as we're going to be turfing the front yard this Saturday. No rest for the wicked!