Zzzzzzzz

Well that was one of the hardest weeks I have worked in a while! It started on Monday with a 7am flight to Sydney to lead a proposal for a big project...at short notice.

We had one week to respond and a huge amount of work to do. I had 6 partners working on it with me (translated as...giving me their opinion...but not actually doing that much really). Anyway after lots of ups and downs in the week we did a really good job and submitted a really strong pitch. We will find out next week whether we have been put through to the final round.

Although it was stressful and tiring (3 hours sleep last night) it was actually a great opportunity to really get time with some of the senior people in my part of the company. The good news is that if we win the work then I am going to be the Programme Director....

Sadly I have just got home and Caroline and the boys have gone to a party round our friends the Gates - it is Dave's birthday....so I will be off to bed soon!

It is a big weekend in Melbourne as it is the AFL finals - everyone is talking about it. I would say it is just like FA Cup Final day...maybe even more popular. The MCG is sold out (100,000 tickets) and 10,000 people just turned up to watch the teams train this morning! Collingwood are the favourites (bit like Man Utd) and they are playing St Kilda who are generally more popular. Should be good and I am sure we will watch on our new HD TV! If only we had a sofa to sit on too.

We had an email this week to say that our container is still on track to arrive in Melbourne on 30th September. It then takes 2 weeks to clear customs....can't wait to get all of our stuff....especially my bike as I really want to get out onto the open road!

The weather in Melbourne is still quite variable - generally about 16c with clouds and some sunny spells. In Sydney this week it has been quite warm and sunny - it generally seems to be a couple of degrees warmer there.

The main things I miss about home:

- Green countryside
- Decent tea bags (they are too weak here)
- Football on at the right time of the day (I am losing touch with all the news)
- Sky Sports News (Fox Sports is good...but they talk about AFL all the time!)
- Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
- Dark and warm beer
-.......oh yes...AND ALL OF YOU!!!!!!

Back soon!

Chris