a foottit's tale

I think we live in the best kept secret in Sydney. We are loving Narrabeen; it just seems to have everything – beautiful beach, the lake, coffee shop just round the corner with sofas and great hot chocolate!

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Here’s a little video of our new pad that Bec made the other day.

Edit: forgot to say, there’s a wonderful commentary from me so make sure your speakers are plugged in. Do I have an Aussie accent yet?!
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Thought I’d make you all incredibly jealous and post a photo from the view from our new balcony.
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I resigned my horrible job in recruitment at Sydney Uni and I am confident that I have made the right decision!
It all got too much, with bad stuff happening all over the show at work following a massive shake up of all the HR teams in the Uni.
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May as well make it 3 posts for the day.

Was browsing the web and searching for Foottits – sad I know – and I now officially have “Popular Albums” accredited to my name.

http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Chris%20Foottit:1927808762

The web never ceases to amaze me.

While I’m on a roll I thought I’d tell you about my recent work trips. Dore Achievement Centres have clinics all over Australia and I’ve recently done trips to Wagga Wagga and Brisbane to visit the clinics there.
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Can you imagine learning the guitar at 18 and then touring the world at 21? Well that’s what the Arctic Monkeys have done and a bunch of us piled into a van and trundled off to the Enmore Theatre in Newtown to check them out.
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It took us only several hours on the Friday evening to drive to our mystery (for me) destination to celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary (‘has it really been 2 years?’ I asked Chris. ‘yeah, hasn’t it gone slowly’ was the response).
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I had some fantastic news the other day. A few of you may know that a couple of years ago, just before Bec and I were about to get married, I attempted to purchase a digital camera from a guy in Hong Kong. The price was so good, I should have realised it was too good to be true, but too excited to be my usual scrutinising self, I went ahead without doing to proper checks. Needless to say, the guy took my money and didn’t send me a camera.

I was rather narked to say the least and made complaints to eBay, but they only compensated me ₤100 or so which was a fraction of the amount. Having been told by a British policeman there was nothing he could do (and that he wished eBay was shut down!) I felt completely helpless but decided to complain to the Hong Kong police via email as a last resort. After submitting my email ‘evidence’ I was told that an Interpol representative would get in touch and take a statement. After a few months and several enquiries later no-one got in touch and I gave up hope.

That is until I got an email from the Hong Kong judiciary a few weeks ago. They had sent a letter to me in March to an old address in Brighton, but obviously I didn’t get it. Nevertheless, they persevered and got in touch by email (thankfully my email address hasn’t changed!) to say that the guy had been prosecuted and that full compensation was awaiting me! So in the end, the guy got his dues and I got a full compensation plus money from eBay. So, there may be a little justice in the world after all.

I always find it exhausting when I start a new job, but I had an entirely different first day today (compared to last time anyway – not that I wish to remember!) and things got off to a smooth start.

I started as the IT Manager for Dore Australia on Thursday and while there’s a lot to do, I run my own show and have a big desk by the window. It’s the simple things The management team seem focused but relaxed (and all seem to be British – English, Scots and Welsh!) and once more I have someone who reports to me and to whom I can give all the crappy jobs!! I can drive/ride to work in 30 minutes and there’s parking, so no more public transport hoorah! So, hopefully this one will work out and I’ll be able to do a good stint. I may even get a trip back to the UK for some training in a few weeks, which would be very cool so watch this space.