G’day everyone - I’m back! I was not run over by a red double decker bus, nor was I arrested at Buckingham palace for mooning the queen, nor, as it has been suggested, was I cloned and reinserted back into AQIS (I have been told my doppelganger has started working for us!) . I have been very slack in doing this blog - I still have a couple of cities to write about too. In some ways, a lot has been happening - yet in others nothing! There are some pretty funny stories coming up from the actual tour, so I will continue with that, but first some really quick dot points - I will cover these in future ramblings!

• We finally stopped couch surfing 6 weeks ago and moved into our own unit. 6 weeks rent for bond, then 8 weeks rent up front - which in Aussie dollars was about 11K - was quite a blow to my long service pay.
• Despite being registered with several recruitment agencies and despite my significant skill base (yep, I still have a big head) I was unable to secure work.
  A month ago, I bit the bullet, clinched the cliché, and became a bar tender - or as I prefer to call it, a “pint master”. I get a whopping five pound seventy two an hour - which is 3 pence above national minimum wage! For three weeks I worked there full time, but have now gone to part time.
• 7 days ago, I secured a 4 month contract with Lambeth council. I have more than doubled my hourly rate and am now on thirteen pound fifty four pence an hour. I only have to do a 35 hour week to boot. Because the rent is so expensive - and not to mention all of the other frivolous spending - I also work the bar. I don’t know how long I will be able to maintain it though. I get up at 7:30am, catch a packed tube to work by 9, leave work at 17:00, get to the pub at 17:45, then work there 1800-00:30. I do this Mon, Wed and Fri nights. Works out I do 53 hours per week.
• My new job is as an “operation support officer”. Basically, I am an admin biatch! My unit supports the “Street Care” team - which is the group that deals with keeping the borough clean - be it through street cleaning, rubbish collection, graffiti removal etc. I deal with abandoned vehicles and commercial waste - I provide admin and clerical support to their enforcement team - think AQIS Compliance and Investigations Unit - but there are 20 or so officers in it.
• My main role is updating an archaic computer system - almost as bad as COMPILE - that’s right - Customs Online Method of Producing Invoiceable Lodgeable Invoices - who could forget that old beast!
• I have been kissing arse and kicking date! I have been using the system for the last 5 days and in that time, have created a 10 page user manual for it and have designed a process diagram of how it actually works (ala my famous COMPILE/AIMS diagrams). This was noted by one of the managers, who whispered to me they are thinking of upgrading me from office biatch to Business Analyst - which basically means I will be drawing out heaps of data from the system and analysing it to produce things like key performance indicator information. I am hoping it will also be a significant pay rise!!!

Anyway, that’s enough of an update on that side of things for now - will finish off the trip blogs now. I will be touching on some of these things in future blogs.