Tuesday 24th August
At last !!! Seems like I've finally got this thing under control. Pretty whacked, but at least I can start to move around a bit.
I decided to test my new found mobility by registering at the embassy this afternoon. It just happens to be waaaaaaay on the other side of town, but its done and bugger, bugger, bugger ... looks like the regular weekly Aussie does are on hold because of the 'security concerns'.
PS Vicki, you will be very happy to know that my ciggie case set of the security alarm :P
I got a taxi there, went for a short walk and got a taxi back, then another short walk, getting up those three flights of stairs to my room after that was some effort. Its amazing how quickly you can go from dancing all night to barely getting up the stairs.
Now for the real trivia, I have finally found a conditioner here to suit my hair. Hard water, crappy shampoos, dirt and humidity just do not mix with high maintenance hair. I just dont know why, but suprisingly the shampoos and conditioners they sell here are not designed for frizzy hair. ( mmmmm wonder if its because everyone here has unfrizzy hair ? ) My 'crowning glory' was returning to its natural state, so I'm more than happy that it at least looks semi decent now. The colour is going to need a touch up soon, so watch this space for the results .....
All this browsing on the net is no good. I keep finding things I want. If you have an iPod, check out this new
Altec Lansing gizmo. Can I put this on my Christmas List or better still is someone going to volunteer to put this on their Christmas list to buy for me !!!
Wednesday 25th August
Wow, do you realise I've been here 2 weeks today.
Got myself out of this room and went to work today. Luckily I took my supply of dry old biscuits because lunch was a nice spicy buttered rice. That would have gone down real well.
I gave them some options for the database today and the decision was to go with MSDE and .NET. I don't really mind as this will give me a chance to learn said .NET. The only problem is all the machines are Win 98 and the best has 128mb memory. This means that my machine requires an upgrade to at least W2K and I'm pushing for 512mb. The computer guys came around to do the upgrade and tried to argue that the machine I'm using had 128mb already. It only had 64mb and we had to do some show and tell to sort that little one. It turns out they only have 128mb chips here (probably cause everyone seems to run 98) and with only 3 slots ( again they tried to tell me 2 ), well even with my poor maths I knew 512 wasnt in the running. After lots of mucking around, it turned out that there was not going to be any upgrade today because neither of the chips they had with them would work in the machine. Rather than keep messing around with upgrades, I have asked them to get Virtual PC for Mac and I'll run 2000 on here. This will make it easier for me to keep the code 'portable' while I'm developing and if I need any d/l's, etc, again I can use my connection. The dialup here is just soooooo bad. I couldn't even d/l a 1.5mb file today. It well and truly justifies the cost of my broadband. ( There I go again Justification 101 )
After dinner of Friday, Maggie took me for a drive and showed me a few nice food places, etc off in the alleys not far from me. Went for a toddle after work and found some tinned soup. Got the hotel to heat it up for me, I ordered some toast with it too, but obviously that got lost in the translation as I ended up with untoasted toast, but what the heck, it was a really nice change from the diet of the last few days. Will have to check out the other places this weekend, I should be back into eating mode by then.