Happy Birthday

14 October 2010

Today is my 30th birthday. A lot of people ask me if I feel older. Apparently the ‘big 3 oh’ is what changes things. Still trying to figure out what these “things” are.
I feel exactly the same as I felt yesterday with just a lot more attention. I hope that whatever changes this is supposed to bring in my life, happens, and are good changes.

Was at work today doing what I do best, putting out fires. We went out for lunch to Grasshopper today. Grasshopper is a Thai restaurant on Albert Street (near the Stamford Plaza) and the maitre d' is a wonderful lady who knows me quite well by now since I frequent her restaurant.

She found out that it was my birthday today and at the end of the meal she brought in a very special surprise and even sung me a happy birthday song. This is what she brought out for me. A wonderful surprise!



I will also catch up with family over dinner tonight.
The plan is to have a big night tomorrow which is also the weekend.

Peace out

Where do you think you are going!

11 Oct 2010

It has been an interesting weekend.

Spoke to Tracy on Friday arvo and was told that the project in Brisbane didn’t make it through the final budget proposal and was cut at the end. What that meant was that I no longer had a project to work to from the 18th of October.

I hate to admit it but I was disappointed. I was mentally prepared to say goodbye to NZ Mags and Auckland this weekend and had readied myself for the new challenges ahead and this was a sucker punch that I had not even though of.

Tracy was nice to have told me this on the Friday rather than today and she even managed to get hold of Sarah to inform her of the same.

Sarah was very kind and sent me a lovely text on Friday night saying that she was jubilant that I was going to be here longer and not to be too crestfallen. The weekend gave me time to re-evaluate and get my thoughts sorted to the coming weeks here with all the uncertainty.

No one said this was going to be easy and I am very determined to take on anything that is chucked at me.

Caught up with Sarah in the morning and she has asked me to assist Jo Elwin (Custom Publishing Manager) with a new project. That will be me for the next 2-3 weeks depending on when I get word on what happens with me next.

Its the final countdown...

8 October 2010

One week to go.
Time is fast approaching as I get ready to leave NZ Magazines for my new destination.

We had lunch today with the transition project team as a way to say thank you for everyone who had put in a lot of work (some even working right through the weekend) to make this transition as smooth as possible. It was a great opportunity for everyone to sit around some yummy Thai food (Thanks Sam and Sarah!) and not talk about work or the challenges with the project.

Andrew at lunch asked me a question; What would I miss most about NZ Magazines? This is actually a very tough question and as I pondered over the answer, I realise that its impossible to put down the one thing that I would miss most about this place. This experience has been amazing to say the least; challenging, rewarding and a big learning opportunity.

Time to start looking for accommodation. Sydney gets the usual bad rep for being expensive but Brisbane is at par, if not worse!

Day 3 after Go live day

06 October 2010

This past weekend has been hectic. Everyone pitched in and it was fantastic to see the team working as one…. facilities with IT; IT with production. Excellent!

We shut down Pacific Magazines on Friday morning and started the move process. The movers were in there early and things started getting underway. In the mean time, the IT boys were working hard to make sure that they were ready when the equipment was shifted over to APN premises.

A lot of people worked right through the weekend to ensure that come Monday, things would be ready to go.

I walked in on Monday with an expectation that a lot of things would go wrong. Probably sounds pessimistic but just the scale of the move and the time that we had to get it done wasn’t filling me with a lot of confidence. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that as of home time on Monday, we had a few teething issues but nothing major.
The new staff were in, looking around at the new environment. The NZM staff were probably as curious as them and it was surreal watching the interaction.

Having said that, Things overall were running smoothly! It was an amazing feeling.

There are still a few things here and there that need to be tidied up but I am happy with how this has come about.

Now that this project comes to an end, I can start looking at the next one that is coming up in Brisbane. More on that in the coming days