Honeymoon is over

Been at work for 2 weeks now, dead tired, but now the excitement is wearing off as I start to understand what is happening. The UK workplace is very different, in RSA, if you do not like the workplace, you can happily move along; (but in reality you can't). It appears employers are far more keen to find other creative ways to make your stay better, without spending tons of money that is. And the culture is much more conducive to getting things done. I am still fresh in the wings, and baning my head because it will be about Xmas time before I can really write some code that means anything at all. Embedded OS limitations at Symbian almost create a total new religeon. I think one can ignore or miss the zeal with which some things are held close, especially when the culture is so highly social. Myself I am not a social animal, but the engineering challenges that go with creating a worldwide winner product are definitely there. We want it all, now, and for free - has never been more real than in the phone market.

Well I am not a commentator, but some good things are comming, and untill then I will have to contend with long cummutes! Be warned, traveling 4 hours a day can kill you. I am not sure ow some folk can handle much more than that, but some do. I am not brain-dead, and so I cant really cope with my free-time getting muched up waiting for trains and busses to get from A to B. Next week will be better, mostly because I shall be able to drive to work.

Ah VideoSeven, monitor, I am going to be getting a 19" LCD screen after all, it was a bit of a mission, but I must say, the guys doing support at RTS really do a great job. The screens are really good, and I can find no-one who has complained, bit of a pity that the local distributor has so few phone lines, and the offshore contract (RTS) by comparison always answer on the first ring. It just goes to show, after-sales-service does make for happy customers.

ciao

Start work today

That's a question, not an instruction. Today I start work, I imagine much of the day will be spent waiting, photo for ID passcard, & company organigram. Package details (which are not what I am here for) pension, shares, and so on. I will have lots of people expect that I will remember their names in the morning tomorrow.

Going to take my time getting in, colelct maps for the bus route and see about a weekly ticket as I go along. Got to make the bit between the train and the office as simple possible, because I have to catch to busses up to the office.

Did not sleep much last night, tired and nervous (not apprehensive!).

Oh, our furniture arrives from RSA this afternoon/evening; happy days!

Z

void

This post is for anyone who got the wrong impression of void being nasty. It's a programming paradigm from the C language. Computing languages all allow data storage, more advanced (low-level) languages get very specific about storage in terms of the size and interpretation of the storage. Typical storage is for something like an integer, integers are good, but can only hold whole numbers, float for instance can hold fractions, and so on.

Suffice to say there are many storage types all for different tasks, it is even possible to create storage structures or containers, which can act as holders for a few storage locations all in one. That brings me to void, it is a really really powerfull storage, because it can store anything depending on how you use it. It is possible for a void to store a integer, a float or even a structured container, very usefull if you ask me.
The depending bit is important here. As storage locations go, void is like a great big piece of white paper of unlimited size, without some control that can cause problems, very nasty problems. Loosing track of data in a computing system is never a good thing, pretty much equivalent to the 'where did my file go?' question. That is the nasty part :-)

Custard sorted

Got the bird's custard sorted, now we have a spare used bottle of instant custard powder. The conventional birds powder was a bit harder to find, but works perfectly. I'd still like to try one from home though just to compare.

Link to Welwyn Garden City 'recycling'. group, is another usefull place to visit on the web.

Decent custard

Is there any decent custard to be found in the UK. I am wont to say, that England is not a land of choice, back home, there is Moirs custard powder. And even I can make it up, all it takes is approximate measuring with a spoon, and 2 short mugs of milk, and off you go on the stove. The fact that the only brand on some shelves in the UK is Birds (no offence) is probably due to age. And something is wrong whan all you do is add boiling water! what next, girlfriend in a tin?
Admittedly the fastest custard is the pour out of a box variety, which comes in a few flavours and only 2 brands in RSA and is the best for parties where time is a factor, since good custard does take time. It actually depends on how your guests like pud; straight after the main feast, or served once everyone has migrated into the lounge and comfy with something liquid in the hand already.

But tonight we will try making Birds with real milk, because personally the way the english like their custard, it may as well be luke-warm sludge. Custard must skin on top (my fave bits) and leave you feeling warm inside (vanilla). Enough rant, if I get it right, the correct instructions will follow.

So mom, when you come visit from RSA, bring the Moirs!

Space
I thought I needed tonnes of space to live in before I came over, only to discover, we have 2 largely unused and empty rooms after staying in our Garden City semo for almost a month now. We have a really cool landlord, who is hugely oppologetic about the old mail that still comes to this address, I think it's great, because it means he has to come around and say hi every so often and see if the place has caved in or not while collecting mail. Happiness is.

Interview Tactic

1. Be nervous, it actually keeps you sharp.
   
2. Knowing that you are nervous make you more nervous, this makes all sorts of drugs flow through your veins, these drugs which are totally natural, making you even more sharp.
   
3. OK so you get stoked, now just control it and answer the questions dammit!
   
4. Long answers will screw you....
   

Actually I've not gotten the answers that count for everyone, consequently I never bought a book on how to find work in the UK, consequently I had to leanr all the tricks from scratch, consequently I battled. Battled big-time. But if you miss the mark, you just persevere, luck will smile on you sometime.
WOW I got an offer. Strangley the one job I though would be the most dificult to get in was started and over bar the shouting (me elated) in 5 odd hours. I had 3 other positions so close to clinched I was wondering how to choose, and then the embedded role I had been eyeing since I laded just happenend.

Well no this is one stoked dude, I just can't wait to get my Symbian T-shirt now.

Different is good

finally started drizzling, nice and miserable out today, I can do this... Well complaining about the sunshine and you get drizzle just to test your wits:-) I still have no clue why the huge busses roam around half empty all day, and why contractors cannot effectively use small busses?
There are lots of older retired folk out and about in the day here. Lots of people seem to know each other, not surpizing, this is not a huge town at all. nice and quaint really, the downside is that the shops close between 5 and 6:30 in the afternoon, and by 7pm the city center is deserted.

Having fun fixing little things around the house, I must say things are a little easier, but you still get lots of poorly finnished work regardless. Can't wait till all our junk arrives from RSA.

Got Greg's attention here, Rhys is too busy watching the tiny telly.


Rhys loves playing inside all sorts of things, this time it's the washbasket that is going to retire early from wear-and-tear.


Some of the cute little pixie homes growing in the hallway when we opened up after 6 months.


Our little pixie sleeping in the large wheelie suitcase at Ross and Carron's place

Really bigger (distance to an exit)

Bigger and smaller all at the same time. London has a big 'Orbital', first impression is that it works pretty much the same as the 'concrete-highway' in Johannesburg. Big diference is the Orbital is about 20 times longer.
One road marking that still grabs me is the distance to the next exit. I reset the odometer, and then about halfway (since resetting) there I get signs saying that something like what I want is 15m to go. So I think, huh, it's supposed to be another 4 miles to go, and then suddenly the exit is there, wham! I think my odometer is marked in km not miles sometimes but it measures the distance between small towns just fine.
I could write a book on small nuances of change/difference, but each tiny question I have is something comming from my own experiences. We all experience the universe from different viewpoints, wheter we like it or not. Some folk choose to adopt the viewpoint of another from as far possible, ... but different is good.
Take gas for instance, without someone showing you how the boiler settings work, and then you setting to work it out for yourself, you can never internalize. You could ignore the problem (I have partially) and freeze to death in the winter, or go find a manual (hands up all those who save manuals LOL).

I will figure the central heating settings out when the gasman arrives, for now it is disabled, safer. Smoke detectors everywhere, in fact if you like your toast with a layer of black, or your bacon rinds really crunchy in the morning, be prepared for some small surprises. Weather: I never figured it could actually reach 30 degrees, and it gets too hot to bear for about 6 weeks of the year. (Almost no rain either).

Very friendly people, and I mean very. That's the thing that brought me here in fact. I know the LSD trip 6 years ago was only a 10-day holiday, and it was just a holiday, to kind of give us a real honeymoon together and away from it all holiday. (LSD=look see decide); I loved the people then and I still do, oh and everyone is much more ready to help once you have toddlers, I ever have some folk cary the stroller down a whole flight of stairs including child. There are some rude people, but they are the exception. On the flipside, there are also many folk who quite happily want nothing to do with anyone, and carefully ignore you. I suspect they all go home and once the door closes, they finally relax into their own little comfort zones. And creating a comfort-zone is really a necessity.

It will come. But untill then, I am having a great time in England.

Parking too long, or tipping?

I can understand parking too long; or is it just not enough time/money to go through the MOT?

:-)

RPG titles

Wizardry 8
Gothic 2

ISBN 0-201-73484-2

This entry is a book review of sorts, well it will be once I have read enough of C++ templates, The Complete Guide Addison Wesley. In a recent online tech-check test this was identified as a weak area in my C++ programming skill. Strangely I've built my own really big template classes, but was never sure of how I had gotten it to do my bidding, probably through pure patience?

I never learnt about templates untill a few years ago, probably because I am self-taught; and since few people write their own templates, prefering to just use STL and ATL without ever understanding how they work in reality, I was never forced into it. My interest arose out of the possibility to use templates to enforce project architecture, something I've been doing using straight C++ object principles, but I wanted something more, Templates! Like any challenge, this one stands like an Everest waiting for my flag a-top of it.

...ok, this book does something totally different, it covers the material twice, but from a totally different angle each time, because the two authors have differing agendas. This technique makes reading cover-to-cover difficult because you find yourself re-reading what you just read, but it does revise the ideas in a way that makes perfect sense. I'm at the stage where I want to see some neat tips I've picked out in practice before I dive into the last section of the book.

This book is an advanced coverage of the topic, anyone not totally happy with pre-processors, tokens, precedence and operator overloading should do some studying. That said it does cover all the beginner aspects of templates very well. For non-experts this book however looses its usefullness after part 1 untill you've progressed in the core C++ language.

Books C/C++

Free online books
Waterstones

look for "C++ Templates: The Complete Guide", ~David Vandevoorde, et al
Addison Wesley

Jobfinder links

DP connect: I-Profile: http://www.iprofilecentral.com/
DP connect : dpconnect.co.uk
http://www.jobserve.com/
http://www.jobsite.co.uk/
http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/

planetrecruit post my CV onto hotonline where agents seem to find it most often.

Z

Arrived in UK

Flying with little boys is no fun. Age 2 and 4 is probably not the easiest. The tiny babas we saw on the plane were probably all dosed up, and just slept like ouy boys did, well mostly. At least babies can be shut up in the loo for a moment while they howl away? There were 2 little girls a few rows back, good as gold.

It was not too bad, but then again, I never sleep on the plane. rowan tried to, but I think she did not get any real rest, because when we arrived in the morning, we just made it home, and Rowan was bushed. Flying by day is not much better either, although I would have liked to try it. Rhys was very dis-oriented, and fought with Rowan quite a bit whenever he woke up. But both boys were fine in the morning, even Greg who is normallly a grouch when he wakes. Greg even caught some more kip on the taxi home. i must say for all the things that really stink when flying long distance, there are some that make up for it. The emigration queues at Heathrow were quite long, but we managed to skip some of the Queue, and all just in time, because Rhys was really acting up by then. Oh well got to find some work, enough surfing for one day.

Z

Orfline

OK, so I lied, East London does have internet, proves that IS and MWEB actually have far too much money made off the cafes. They do not advertise.

My good buddy Stuart Adkins is stuck, how is this, he is stiting getting bored waiting, so he arranges a 10-day holiday. Just in the middle of the holiday, the train he was waiting for actually does arrive.

almost gone, Adeau.

Offline

Going on a little holiday in east London, offline if you like. I am sure they do not have internet there yet :-)

I remember the time when the internet had not come to us in SA, I suppose it was all much simpler then. We did not know what we were missing. Right now I am missing Rhys, Rowan and Gregory. Just a long driver down stands between JHB and East London, so I get going in the morning.

Z

excitement + [lesson part 2]

Moneys should be in the bank this morning. Change of plan.

1. clean up loose ends for modbus gateway contract. Finalize tickets to Heathrow, clean up medical aid oweing?
   
2. Conrad will drive to EL on the week-end.
   
3. Draw cheque while in EL, get haircut :-)
   
4. Sell car in EL (rust-free) Barry to sell as time allows.
   
5. get tickets back to Jhb, and 1 nite only at Town lodge.
   

The car will still be insured (must fetch needed forms), checked visas, no extra paperwork there,
do our TB X-rays in East London. Wheeeee. Strangely 450K in ZAR does not feel like a lot of money.
Not like I could run off now could I?
Meanwhile...

Gran said, that when she got to East London, it looked quite drab, the shops in looked like second-hand outlets,
nothing like what she was used to in the Netherlands. Perhaps like jumbled, I think we understand the african
accent that must have pervaded everything?
Max worked for Premier Timbers at the time, and he is the one in our family who knows wood. I think he
managed to convey a bit of that love to his sons and grandsons. Myself I am not that handy, but my brother
has built much of his own home himself, with a lot of emphasis on tiles and timber. As long as I remember, I
remember Grandpa (I called him Oupa at the time) doing things with wood. I did inherit some traits from my
gran as well, I call it the 'stick-in-the-mud' outlook. I prefer very much to be staying at home in my
comfort zone.

History Lesson

As the day draws closer, it gets harder to remain sure of things, so many little details end up not
getting the attention you wanted to give them, and you wonder if the losses are worth it all. So I draw a little
courage from the story of how my father (Rudy) came over to South Africa from the Netherlands.

The journey for Max and Geisje started in Bussem (near Amsterdam) around 1948. Max was a carpenter, and Geisje
was working as a child-minder and then latter as a sick-aid, all the while with their first son Rudy
(Rudolf Fritz) in tow. There were many people comming to SA from the Neterland at the time, and even after
you got a permit (valid for 1 year) you had to have work already over here, you then had to raise a lot of money
for the passage.
It was much more difficult to travel at that time too, and they were delayed a whole year because they could
not get transport.
The employment situation in Holland was not good around then, and the young couple had eventually sold pretty
much everything for the fare. By this time, the permits they had been issued had expired, and had to be renewed.
Rudy was 3 already when Max sailed to East London directly on the Sterling Catle in 1951.
Sailing time was probably 2-3 weeks, and once Max got started, he had to lend money from his employer for the
fare, so Rudy and Geisje could come over.
The whole move must have been quite a strain; you get ready by getting rid of all un-necessary goods, and just after
you have sold off all of your possesions, you get delayed.
And then you are stuck without a teapot, so you
buy another, knowing you will have to sell it off again at a loss latter.

Gran came through on the emigrants ship 9 months latter. Rudy was seasick every day, (and we thought children
did not get sea sick :-)
Gran said the trip was very
beautifull, (probably boring latter), looking at the huge green waves all around the ship. The bay
of Biscay was rough and when rounding the cape things also got a bit rough, but otherwise a pleasant journey. The young mother
and child landed in Cape Town, they then had to make their way for 2 days by train through the Karoo and on to East London.

Here we come

Money transfers start today, so now the priorities shift up a little. Yipeeeeeeeeee. Now there is really nothing standing in the way of us landing in the UK nExt week-end. Scarry, I suppose if you did this whole trip by sea 45 years ago, you had a bit of time on the boat to considder and make all your plans perhaps? I suspect some things were simpler 2 generations back when my grand-parents came out. But they did not have the internet, and movies, phone-calls and all we have today to re-assure that in fact the shift is not that great (LOL). Africa was wild, but it must have ben frightening. Suppose I should go visit one last time. Matbe they wil never ever see me before they make an exit....

Enough sad
This is a happy day, now just got to sell the car!