CodeFrenzy

It’s been so long since I posted anything on this blog, I thought it was about time for an update.

First off, I’ve moved to London. Jason and I decided on a whim to come over and see if we could find work – which, as it turns out, wasn’t all that hard. Can’t believe we’ve been here for almost 5 months already (wow, time really does fly by when you’re having fun!!).

Even though the economy was going down the drain and everyone was stressing about the lack of work, Jason and I managed to find work within only 2 weeks of starting to look. Jason scored himself a job at Virgin Games as a Senior .NET Software Engineer and I landed a contract also as a Senior .NET Software Engineer at a small start-up called mFlow. mFlow is actually a desktop application that mixes the music side of iTunes with social networking. The social networking side of it is quite simple really – as a member, you can follow other members and see which tracks and albums they’re buying, as well as which tracks and albums they’re recommending. And the best bit? If someone who is following you buys a song that you recommended, you get paid for it! Great huh? ;)

The atmosphere at mFlow is really cool – we work in an industrial loft style office where everyone sits together. That means everyone interacts with everyone and nobody feels excluded. They’re super well equipped in terms of technology – lots of really grunty servers and well spec’ed dev machines. I personally love my twin 27” monitor set-up drooooool :D.

All the developers at mFlow are incredibly smart and there has been a heap of stuff for me to learn. I work with a couple of other guys on the back-end services whilst a team of other developers work on the front-end. Overall it’s a really cool place to work and it was awesome to be at mFlow when they first launched the application. It’s currently in beta invite-only mode but I hear the ‘real’ launch will be soon. It’s all very exciting because it’s a really neat idea, it’s been well designed and looks reeeeally sexy, and it has the potential to be really big. Fingers crossed eh? :)

Summer is pretty much here (well, in Brisbane summer actually never really wasn’t here), and the thought of being able to cruise on up to the beach with our new car (wooohooo!) has got me thinking about just how little exercise I get on a day to day basis.  I sometimes walk to work, but let’s face it – when you have a fairly regular train service, multiple buses, and now car at your disposal… you know where I’m going with this.

About a week ago, Chris and I “launched” TravelStash.  By “launched” I mean we have now opened it up for general consumption.  Anyone can join TravelStash and use it just like Rheanna and Sanjay did on their recent South Africa trip, Margaret and Alan have on their trip around the South Island of New Zealand and of course, how Chris and I have consistently used it to keep our friends and family updated on all our travels over the past couple of years.

Last time I posted about “Me”, I mentioned that Chris and I were moving across to London. I was due to start my new job at Next Jump in a few weeks time, and Chris was looking for work by sending out dozens of emails every day. Well, that was over a month ago now and during that time, we started realizing that things really weren’t looking good for Chris to find someone to sponsor him for a work permit in the UK (you can read all about his feelings re this here). We waited about as long as we could before making an inevitable decision – forget the UK for now – let’s go to Brisbane (Australia) instead. Because Chris and I are both NZ citizens, we are entitled to live and work in Australia. This means we should, in theory, have no big problem finding work there. The stress and tension created by not knowing whether Chris was even going to be able to stay in the UK for more than 6 months (tourist visa) was awful and so we had to make a call. It wasn’t an easy decision to make because I was really looking forward to my new job at Next Jump and we’d already shipped 4 boxes of personal effects across to London as well, not to mention the $2000 price tag attached to my UK HSMP visa (which is now all sorted out and stamped in my passport, doh!). But it felt like the right decision to make.

Since then, a few things have happened. Chris flew back to NZ (yay!), we spent a week in Wellington applying for roles in Brisbane on SEEK, we both did a few phone interviews for potential jobs, and right now we’re in Brisbane for about a week, doing a few face-to-face interviews with companies that are interested in us. We’re staying with Rheanna and Sanjay, friends from Wellington, which has been so great. (Thanks guys!!)

I’ll tell you what – I have done so many interviews over the past couple of years it’s really quite ridiculous. Including the 10 or so interviews I did with Google, I guess I’ve done about.. 20 or so interviews… mostly technical. I’m kinda tired of doing them, but hopefully I won’t have to for much longer. The stupid thing is that most of those 20 or so interviews have actually ended in job offers, but for one reason or another I haven’t accepted them. Dumb eh? Anyway, right now I’m focusing on the mining industry because it seems like a really really interesting industry to be involved in and there is lots of work for software developers in mining here in Australia. Sweet. I had 1 interview + 1 meeting with a recruiter on Thursday and 2 interviews + 3 meetings with recruiters on Friday. Wowee. Another couple of interviews scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. Busy busy busy!!

The plan is to secure a job for at least one of us while we’re here, fly back to Wellington mid-next week then come back about a week after that, after shipping all our stuff over and saying goodbye to everyone all over again. Hopefully then we’ll find us a nice place to live and settle down a bit! We haven’t had our own place for more than 6 months now and it’s getting a bit tiring living out of backpacks, suitcases and other people’s kindness.

So yeah, it’s been a bit of a stressful and confusing time but I think we’ve made the right decision. The last few days in Brisbane have been really cool – it’s a really nice city, the weather is wonderful (I LOVE the sunshine!), there are beaches near by and it looks like we’ll be able to afford to live in a neat apartment with a pool and gym in the complex. I’m not complaining :P. Oh, and it’s also a bit closer to NZ too, so hopefully friends and family will be able to come and visit us more often than they would’ve if we had ended up in the UK!

Anyway, I’ll post again when I have some more definite news on where I’ll be working and stuff like that :)

After close to 3 years on www.mindtrip.co.nz, I decided to try something new, perhaps something more relevant to my field (technology). Boy it’s hard thinking of new domain names that haven’t already been taken!

Since I was choosing a new domain name anyway, I figured I might as well try a different blogging engine too. To date, I’ve been a true Textpattern fan. However, everyone else I know that keeps a blog seems to be using WordPress these days. I couldn’t help but wonder what I was missing out on. So I’ve taken the plunge and I’ve switched to WordPress. We’ll see how it all goes!

Things will probably be a bit broken and won’t look finished for a while, but hopefully that won’t last for long. Please bear with me in the meantime!

Plenty has changed since I last blogged about me. In fact, plenty has changed since I last blogged at all. I must admit, I’ve been a bit slack and haven’t been maintaining my blog much recently. I must do better. I really must.

So a quick update – as mentioned in a previous blog post, Chris and I finally decided to pack up and move overseas. We quit our jobs at Trade Me back in November ‘07 and the plan was to travel throughout South-East Asia for 3 months and ultimately end up in London where we would both find IT work and earn the big bucks.

Our 3 months in South-East Asia were amazing. I can’t stress that enough – if you haven’t been… GO! Asia has so much to offer and even the NZ dollar gets you so far! Thailand and Cambodia are cheeeeeap and cheerful, Japan was cold and expensive. Bangladesh was fascinating, Singapore was hot and sweaty, Malaysia was wet and Hong Kong was busy. Anyway, we haven’t done Vietnam yet so we’ll be going back… one day :). If you want to read all about our adventures in Asia, go to TravelStash – Chris And Annie, our very own travel blog.

During our holiday, I was offered two jobs – one at Google in Zurich as a Software Engineer in Test (omg, after so many years and so many interviews!) and another at Next Jump as a Software Engineer in London. Took me a while because it was a really tough decision to make, but eventually I picked Next Jump because the role was much more in line with where I want my career to head. Google then tried to convince me to join them in London instead. Let me tell you – it feels great to be so wanted! Anyway, I stuck with my decision and began the process of applying for the UK HSMP so that I could start at Next Jump as soon as I arrived in London. This application form ended up being a real mission, requiring me to provide all sorts of documentation, most of which I didn’t have access to, especially from some beach resort in Thailand! So my parents and brother did a great job helping me out, and together we got all the documents and forms done and sent off. The most memorable part of this process was jumping onto the back of a dodgy little motorbike with Chris AND a driver (yes, 3 of us!), wearing nothing more than shorts, singlets and jandals (psshhh, who needs a helmet!!), and weaving in and out of traffic on our way down to the main post office in Phnom Pehn to post my drivers’ license off to London. That would be enough to give any traffic cop in NZ a heart-attack!

We ended up in London on the 21st of February ‘08, a little ahead of schedule. Only a couple of days later I received my letter of acceptance from the Home Office in the UK – my HSMP application had been approved. However, it was only then that I found out that I had to go back to NZ to finish off the process and get my ‘entry clearance’. That took me a bit by surprise but what the hell, going back to NZ means I get to see my family and friends a lot sooner than I’d expected which is all good! Chris started looking for work (he needs someone to sponsor his work permit) by sending out a million emails a day to recruiters and large IT companies alike. Hopefully he’ll find the right role for him and we’ll be able to stay in the UK!! :)

Anyway, I’m writing this article from NZ so right now I’m waiting to have my biometrics meeting and get my entry clearance so I can finally start my new job at Next Jump. I’m really excited and can’t wait to sink my teeth into a new job! Looks like I might even get to go to New York for 3~4 weeks training on my way back to the UK so that should be awesome! Now I just need to get my brain back into geek mode and I should be fine… lol ;)

So I’m finally moving overseas! We’ve quit our jobs at Trade Me, sold pretty much everything we owned and are now in the final steps of packing and preparing for our move.

On Sunday 2nd December (like 5 days away!! :|), Chris and I hop on a flight to Singapore. From there, we have 3 months to make our way up to Hong Kong. On the 3rd of March, 2008, we will board another flight that will land us in London. At that point, we will start looking for work. We’re not sure where we want to live yet but it will all depend on where we can both find work. I have a couple of potentially great offers, one in Zurich and the other in London and I’m having trouble deciding where to go!

Now, for the pièce de résistance – Chris and I have been working like mad to get our travel blog up and working better than ever before we go. The URL for the site is http://www.travelstash.com and the URL for our ‘group’ is http:/www.travelstash.com/chris-and-annie/. There you go, now you can all keep up with our awesome travels!

Anyway, if you have any suggestions / travel tips for cool cats like us in Asia, or if you have a job you think would suit Chris or I, please leave us a comment. Every bit helps! :)

Other than that, bye bye NZ!

What an awesome season! We lost every game in the last two seasons and this season, the Instant Puddings rose to the challenge and won the entire season! That’s right, we won!! WOOOHOOO!!

Well it’s been ages since I last blogged anything, so I thought I’d get back into it with something quite easy-going. So here we go…

I’ve been playing a bit of indoor soccer for the last few weeks and I’ve been really enjoying it! I’ve been playing for a team called “Instant Pudding” and… well, we’re getting better!! The guys on our team have some great soccer skills but I think all our fitness is lacking somewhat. But we are getting better! You can view our results for last season here.

Tomorrow I start playing for another team, “Dynamo Needarest”, a team set up by Chris and myself made up of a bunch of Trade Me guys and gals. Should be loads of fun but boy am I gonna be knackered and possibly quite sore after two games a week!

Anyhoo, one of my biggest gripes so far has been the fact that I haven’t been able to find indoor soccer boots in my size. I’ve been playing in my running shoes and although it’s worked out ok, I keep stubbing my big toe when I kick the ball or when I run and stop really fast. That’s not so much fun. However, today, I finally found a pair that fits! A pair of Puma children’s size 5!! Doesn’t matter though, what matters is they fit and they were cheap :) Rebel Sport had quite a good variety today (they didn’t last time I had a look) so I’m very excited about my next game.

Chris also got some new indoor soccer boots today – very nice. I’m sure we’re both gonna play like pros now that we’ve got the right gear (hehe, or not!).

Below is a pic of our hot new shoes.

Our new indoor soccer boots

And below is a photo of what seems to happen to me pretty much every game. Even though I play in a social league, there are some guys on the teams we play against that play real hard. Their high-powered kicks always seem to send the ball straight at me. On the bright side, I’ve saved a few goals for my team!! :|

A soccer ball imprinted on my thigh

Hehe, I love these article titles.

Anyway, a bit of an update – although not much has really happened since my last update (how boring).

Lets see, since last June, I have…

1. Been a software developer at Trade Me for almost a year (woohoo!) – AND – I haven’t even broken anything yet… heheh… phew


2. Worked on several big projects at Trade Me – namely helping develop the new look and feel of our DVD section (for which I wrote a cool google-suggest style AJAX enabled search but unfortunately you have to be a member of Trade Me to see this), adding support for rural and commercial properties in Trade Me Property (for which I was project lead! Oohh yeah!), and lots of other cool stuff…


3. Re-designed and totally over-hauled Travelblog – now it does cool stuff like geocode cities that you visit on the fly and allows comments to be posted! :)


4. Been on an awesome 5-week holiday to Europe, San Francisco and Tokyo with Chris – check it out at the “Travelblog”:http://travelblog.mindtrip.co.nz…


5. Been to Noosa for a bit of fun in the warm ocean…


6. Done a bit of web development contracting work on the side…


7. Found out that two or more jobs at once doesn’t leave much time for watching TV…


8. Tested out my interviewing skills by performing 6 technical tests on some developers wanting to work at Trade Me… it’s weird being on this end of the interview…


9. OH and how can I forget… I interviewed for a Software Engineer in Test position at Google AGAIN, but this time in person and in Zurich. Oh, and I didn’t get the job. Again. But you can read all about that here if you’re interested, of course… :)

Next in the to-do list is…

1. Studying for and hopefully doing some form of Microsoft Certification – I think it’s called Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD)


2. Doing a bit more work on Travelblog so that I can maybe even make it public


3. Working on Chris’ and my new little project… (which is top-secret at the moment so will post about it when a bit closer to it’s go-live date)


4. Plan another looooooooong holiday somewhere, perhaps Asia this time :)