Gail Dickson .. my blog from Down Under

Been a busy week …. was on a MSP (Managing Successful Programmes .. follow on from Prince2) course for most of the week then had to sit the Foundation exam at the end of it.   I passed!   You always feel a bit more pressure to pass when work are paying for it so it was a bit of a relief when he told me I’d passed.   Will probably sit the Practitioner exam on my own … I work better that way.

Other than that I haven’t really had time to do very much.   We are sooooo disorganised for the holiday that next week will be spent getting everything ready.   This time next week we’ll be on our way to Wellington.

Yesterday, Kyle and Bobby went to a birthday party at the local ten pin bowling for one of Kyle’s friends .. they seem to have had fun.   Reggie and I went to visit some friends of mine with kids the same age … it was a good morning as the kids haven’t met up before.

Today is going to be spent getting the remainder of the Christmas presents for the kids, anything else we need for camping etc …

I will try to blog before we head off but then it’ll be a bit quiet for three weeks as we won’t be online till we get back to Auckland.

Work has been very busy this week … 45 contractors leave … there’s bound to be an impact on the permanent staff left.   Haven’t had a lunch hour all week and have been working till 11 or 12 most nights.   Needless to say I was extremely tired come Friday night ….

It was Brown’s Bay Christmas Parade on Saturday and Kyle and I were walking.   It’s a bit like a Scottish Gala Day ….   As normal, half way round Kyle was complaining of being tired out …. It was really hot so I guess he probably was just feeling the heat.

Today was the nursery day out at the zoo …   we were meeting at Western Springs Park first for a picnic lunch.   Had lunch …. Reggie slept through the whole thing because she had been swimming in the morning … then everyone started to head off to the zoo.   Since it was so hot and we’d been at the zoo a couple of weeks ago, we decided to head to the beach instead.   Went north again to Big Manly Beach and spent a couple of hours up there.   It was a lovely day and both kids were exhausted by the time we got home.

This week saw some excitement in Viaduct Harbour … David Beckham was staying at The Westin across the road.   The CSRs spent most of their breaks across the road in the hopes of a sight of him going jogging …. Even had a glimpse of some of their photos on the way up in the lift one day.   I’m actually surprised by the amount of attention he’s getting considering he’s only a “soccer” player!!

Next week, I’m on a course for three days … Managing Successful Programmes and then have to sit the Foundation exam at the end of it.   Thought it might be useful for the career but haven’t managed to read the pre-reading yet as I’ve been so busy.