I'm a working girl again...!!

And no, the title does not mean I am walking the streets. I am officially one of the working class again (well full time anyway!) I've always worked part time on various projects since I moved to the States, but up to last week nothing day to day permanent. Well I'm proud to announce that I will now be earning my own nail extensions and hair highlights as a bone fide working girl.

So what am I doing? Well before I moved to the US I used to work as a consultant trainer of a piece of engineering / manufacturing software. It's well known in the UK in the small to medium business sector and we used to also license our product in Australia. Well the UK company has acquired the Australian one and now I am leading a support team looking after the well being of the Australian customers. Hmmm...Australia...isn't that thousands of miles away? Well yes, it's not exactly around the corner, but with staff still in Australia and in the UK and here in the US we can offer a global support network (and I will be traveling backwards and forwards to Australia to offer consultancy and training there too).

So exciting times. I'm a director of the new business which gives me lots of incentive to be hands on. All this meant I need to organize myself in Jacksonville. I have an office at home, but here its the spare bedroom and we just use the PC there for gaming most of the time.... but now, it's my mini office....

So what are all my goodies?


1. Is my new windows 7 professional, 64bit HP laptop (in white - how girly!) on my super new media stand that Hubbie bought me for Christmas..me with wireless mouse, keyboard and loads of more usb ports + built in speakers...well impressed I was!
2. Hubbies gaming PC which I have commandeered - I feel a bit bad, but look at that lovely screen. the laptop runs a VPN to the office in England and this one has various other goodies installed.. they are networked together so sharing files, printer etc is a cinch.. I surprise myself sometimes!
3. My new wireless Skype phone... means I'm not tied to the office and can roam the house (and maybe watch American idol !) I love it..in fact I love Skype...
4. My Toshiba external hard drive which I've set to auto back up anything useful.. best $60 I ever spent, and still only used 20gb out of 250!
5. My 'Crackberry' of course, synching with Outlook ... I'm not addicted, honest ... in fact i might be dragged over to the Apple dark side when my contract expires....maybe..hard to beat $49 / month, free wireless, unlimited text and 300 minutes (I don't talk much... that's what Skype is for!)
6. Is Hubbie's wireless gaming controller and one of his games...it's collecting dust ( another reason I don't feel so bad about nicking his PC )
7. Call me weird, but I LOVE BIC pens, especially in blue. It's good to like the cheapest pen on the market as I believe in this apartment the furniture trolls come out at night and eat them...I'm just saying!
8. So I bet you are wondering what number 8 is all about....

This is my time zone calculator for Australia.. It's too hard to remember what time it is in all the states...so I have this little aid memoire!

So you can see I'm all set up... the two things that are missing in the picture is my trusty sidekick who is always 'helping' me when I am working and of course, a cup of tea...well I am British afterall!

Badminton, English tea and cricket!

In an effort to get fit again I have started playing badminton again. There is a club at Yate's YMCA in Jacksonville on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays...enough times a week to help me shed a few pounds and take out some frustration smacking a shuttle cock (known as a birdie over here, don't ask me why!) I used to play prior to moving to the States, but it's been about 2 1/2 years and it's a bit of a shock to the system. For the uninitiated, think tennis mixed with racket ball with a goose feather shuttle instead of a ball..it's fast, and the air con not being the best at the YMCA, very sweaty...but very enjoyable. I've played since I was about 7. My brother and I were forced to play because we had to go along with our parents to their badminton nights..basically it was a cheap babysitting service, however we both took to it..I used to play for my county in the UK and my brother was at one point world number one in mixed doubles and won a bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics

I guess you could say that he took it a little more seriously than me! Anyway, I babble...I was going to say after badminton last night I slept like a baby and when my husband got up at 5.45 this morning I stayed up and went and switched my computer on..while it was firing up I made 1st cupper of the day. For my non-English readers a cupper is a hot cup of tea... it's the best thing first thing in the morning. When I first moved here I did get into the whole coffee scene, but gradually I'm back to the hot tea with milk of course...I'm British! Currently I'm drinking PG Tips for my first cup of the day, then after that it's anything in the cupboard...Early Grey, or Earl Grey Green Tea are my favourites..

Anyway, where was I,..ahh yes..tea made I sat down in front of my PC and checked the feeds on my IGoogle page...I have a feed for CNN and BBC for the news, my friends Blog, weather for here, home and my parents and BBC sport...the first link on the BBC sport was Live Ashes coverage....


OMG I had completely forgotten...THE ASHES STARTS TODAY


The Ashes are a cricketing tradition, a competition of 5 test matches (each 5 days long) bi-annually between England and Australia. Normally Australia gives us a complete beating, as they did down under in 2007, however they are not so strong this year and there may be an opportunity for England to repeat their 2005 triumph. For a feel for how exciting cricket can be watch this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpipsMt4c2A&feature=related


The BBC let you follow the action via a revolving text, but when visiting the page I spied a link to 'Live Commentary' (you guessed it no cricket on US t.v.). Normally these links tell you 'sorry, not available in your area' as they contravene agreements between other sports channels who are airing the same commentary...however as no one in the US is bothered about the Ashes, it logged me in straight away and I had the dulcet tones of Geoffrey Boycott wafting through my speakers... Hurrah!!!
I can't drool over KP, , or roar on Freddy as he runs in to bowl...but I can be there in spirit...

I will officially be up early every morning (maybe!) to continue my listening... if it could rain a little every morning in Cardiff then that would suit me too as I would not have to get up so early (there's a 5 hour time difference to here).... please start you rain dances now!