Our story 2 1/2 years
Aug 26th 2008, 6:58 am
#78
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Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
Hello again everyone.
I got back to the UK via Virgin dead on time on Sat 16th...started work Monday 18th having secured a new role from Australia.
The day I landed was pretty good weather, but since then it's grey and raining in showers.....am I bothered ?.....NO.
It's funny but I feel that I haven't been away that long even though I was in Oz for 2 1/2 years. The sight of footpaths and people walking around is really nice as is the variety of shops in little towns and villages...very pleasant.
Now.....my work which was so important to me. I now work at a consulting automotive engineering firm as head of finance systems (which I have been recruited to replace). The firm is so cutting edge it's untrue. My employer makes, among other things, the Bugatti Veyron gearbox and I just saw it today. It is an immense piece of british engineering and makes anyone feel proud. They also do high performance transmissions for Porsche, F1 teams and Le Mans teams. Mention a V8 supercar here and they laugh a bit. Hardly high tech apparently.
Anyway........I had a conversation today with some finance people and we talked about embedded derivatives. I simply can't see any business in the area I lived in in Australia having a clue what that would be about.
It's certainly refreshing to be (a) among some of the worlds best engineers in automotive design and (b) among a number of accountants that are also pushing changes and improvements through using better and better technology and (c) among some very experienced and savvy IT people. Our intranet is marvellous and the use of IT far better than anything I came across or discussed in Aus.
Accountants for those that don't know, do a lot more than just add numbers up and post a debit and credit and make a P&L account.......which is exactly the impression I got from those I dealt with in the Illawarra. Mention a MOLAP database or order to cash process or mobile sales and I got zero understanding what those topics mean because the business were too small or too 'behind' to understand. (I was interviewed at Qantas....so not in Illawarra..... who did know what OLAP was about but did not totally understand some of what I asked them about their set up.........methinks they are struggling big time)
Anyway....so far so good but as yet it's early days. One thing I just found out is the test car I have been given changed my perception of Skodas. I could have had a BMW but was told to try the Skoda. It's a 1.9 litre turbo diesel and absolutely flies. I drove from Brighton to Birmingham in roughly 2 hours, used hardly any fuel (I have yet to measure consumption) and blitzed past every car that I came across including Audi Q7 who wanted a race, a Porsche Boxster, Porsche Carrera, VW GTI and more besides.
Now Skoda is owned by VW the build quality is very good but my word the performance is amazing.
Anyway, I'll let you know how I go through weeks of rain but so far no bad news.
Enjoy the sun...........PS How many medals are team GB ahead of Australia ? Please rub it in for me!
I got back to the UK via Virgin dead on time on Sat 16th...started work Monday 18th having secured a new role from Australia.
The day I landed was pretty good weather, but since then it's grey and raining in showers.....am I bothered ?.....NO.
It's funny but I feel that I haven't been away that long even though I was in Oz for 2 1/2 years. The sight of footpaths and people walking around is really nice as is the variety of shops in little towns and villages...very pleasant.
Now.....my work which was so important to me. I now work at a consulting automotive engineering firm as head of finance systems (which I have been recruited to replace). The firm is so cutting edge it's untrue. My employer makes, among other things, the Bugatti Veyron gearbox and I just saw it today. It is an immense piece of british engineering and makes anyone feel proud. They also do high performance transmissions for Porsche, F1 teams and Le Mans teams. Mention a V8 supercar here and they laugh a bit. Hardly high tech apparently.
Anyway........I had a conversation today with some finance people and we talked about embedded derivatives. I simply can't see any business in the area I lived in in Australia having a clue what that would be about.
It's certainly refreshing to be (a) among some of the worlds best engineers in automotive design and (b) among a number of accountants that are also pushing changes and improvements through using better and better technology and (c) among some very experienced and savvy IT people. Our intranet is marvellous and the use of IT far better than anything I came across or discussed in Aus.
Accountants for those that don't know, do a lot more than just add numbers up and post a debit and credit and make a P&L account.......which is exactly the impression I got from those I dealt with in the Illawarra. Mention a MOLAP database or order to cash process or mobile sales and I got zero understanding what those topics mean because the business were too small or too 'behind' to understand. (I was interviewed at Qantas....so not in Illawarra..... who did know what OLAP was about but did not totally understand some of what I asked them about their set up.........methinks they are struggling big time)
Anyway....so far so good but as yet it's early days. One thing I just found out is the test car I have been given changed my perception of Skodas. I could have had a BMW but was told to try the Skoda. It's a 1.9 litre turbo diesel and absolutely flies. I drove from Brighton to Birmingham in roughly 2 hours, used hardly any fuel (I have yet to measure consumption) and blitzed past every car that I came across including Audi Q7 who wanted a race, a Porsche Boxster, Porsche Carrera, VW GTI and more besides.
Now Skoda is owned by VW the build quality is very good but my word the performance is amazing.
Anyway, I'll let you know how I go through weeks of rain but so far no bad news.
Enjoy the sun...........PS How many medals are team GB ahead of Australia ? Please rub it in for me!
and who cares about 'embedded derivatives' or 'MOLAP database or order to cash process or mobile sales' . Your life seems to depend on one upmanship: having to outdo people by having a fast car or having a better database. I know in later life that when I look back on my life I won't remember or care for whether I had a fast car or state of the art computer system at work: I will remember the sunsets over the ocean and the mountains I climbed with my wife and children.
Aug 26th 2008, 3:53 pm
#79
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Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
Not shallow at all...you missed my point. Those subjects I mentioned ARE my work so I have to understand them..being good at it pays my bills and allows me to do what I like in my recreational time..These subjects are just non existent in the area of NSW I stayed in. Also for my wife (medical professional) standards were just not as good as what she had spent 20 years in back in the UK. My job requires me to have a very good PC......if I had to go back to a time in the UK when PCs did not exist as they do now yet do the same work....would I want to do that ?..........NO....yet that is what I endured in Australia and my god is it frustrating.
Imagine being a Ferrari technician one day then being forced to work on push bikes for the rest of your career....you'd hardly be challenged or satisified but that is how I can describe the difference for me and my wife based on our UK experience then what we experienced in NSW.
Cars........point I intended to make but did not do very well is the Aussie culture of big engined V8s is old school and not very high tech....and that Skoda can produce extremely good vehicles that are cheap and fuel efficient. Aussie culture of big engined V8s is shocking for the environment. Do we need high tech ?...yes because oil is running out. Hope that explains things a bit better.
There's many people that do care about cars for the love of engineering and development......doesn't mean they also don't relish the times spent with family looking at sunsets or,.......as I will surely do......run through fallen leaves with my boys in Autumn.
I think my 2 1/2 years was giving Australia a good go and we will miss sunshine and the views but beyond that, its culture, history long term friends and family and the closeness of having many European cities on our doorstep we will be making our focus now. I am sorry to say but the culture where we lived was not very good but I am sure that does not reflect on the whole of Australia.
Imagine being a Ferrari technician one day then being forced to work on push bikes for the rest of your career....you'd hardly be challenged or satisified but that is how I can describe the difference for me and my wife based on our UK experience then what we experienced in NSW.
Cars........point I intended to make but did not do very well is the Aussie culture of big engined V8s is old school and not very high tech....and that Skoda can produce extremely good vehicles that are cheap and fuel efficient. Aussie culture of big engined V8s is shocking for the environment. Do we need high tech ?...yes because oil is running out. Hope that explains things a bit better.
There's many people that do care about cars for the love of engineering and development......doesn't mean they also don't relish the times spent with family looking at sunsets or,.......as I will surely do......run through fallen leaves with my boys in Autumn.
I think my 2 1/2 years was giving Australia a good go and we will miss sunshine and the views but beyond that, its culture, history long term friends and family and the closeness of having many European cities on our doorstep we will be making our focus now. I am sorry to say but the culture where we lived was not very good but I am sure that does not reflect on the whole of Australia.
Glad you're happy ... but some of your post seems so shallow. Who cares if you have a BMW or Skoda and how fast it goes and who cares about 'embedded derivatives' or 'MOLAP database or order to cash process or mobile sales' . Your life seems to depend on one upmanship: having to outdo people by having a fast car or having a better database. I know in later life that when I look back on my life I won't remember or care for whether I had a fast car or state of the art computer system at work: I will remember the sunsets over the ocean and the mountains I climbed with my wife and children.
and who cares about 'embedded derivatives' or 'MOLAP database or order to cash process or mobile sales' . Your life seems to depend on one upmanship: having to outdo people by having a fast car or having a better database. I know in later life that when I look back on my life I won't remember or care for whether I had a fast car or state of the art computer system at work: I will remember the sunsets over the ocean and the mountains I climbed with my wife and children.
Aug 26th 2008, 7:31 pm
#80
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 8,147
Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
at least you gave it 2 1/2 years which is more than some give it.
you tried it and came home, but you know what this place is like - if you are too honest you get shot down in flames for your opinion.
good luck for the future
you tried it and came home, but you know what this place is like - if you are too honest you get shot down in flames for your opinion.
good luck for the future
Aug 27th 2008, 1:41 pm
#81
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Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
Hello again Tired With Twins...I think we had some forum chats years ago as I too have twins.
Where are you now and what is your circumstance?
I'll be honest about our expereience in the Illawarra area of NSW...which could be very different from what we would have experienced elsewhere in Aus. I have been back in the UK for just over a week and I am now enjoying all manner of things I took for granted before:
There will be more to add in due course.......
Where are you now and what is your circumstance?
I'll be honest about our expereience in the Illawarra area of NSW...which could be very different from what we would have experienced elsewhere in Aus. I have been back in the UK for just over a week and I am now enjoying all manner of things I took for granted before:
- friends
- family
- history
- villages
- wide choice in the shops
- English countryside
- premier league football
- culture of our communities and how close things are to hand
There will be more to add in due course.......
Aug 27th 2008, 1:43 pm
#82
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 132
Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
culture of our communities, wow where do you live...on a box of tourist chocolates???!!!! 
Aug 27th 2008, 9:05 pm
#83
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Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
Australia is not for everyone and everyone is different.
However I take issue about technology etc. Australians are very innovative people and have designed some of the worlds most useful industrial equipment. That said in your post you did not like the fact that Australia was behind the times.
If the environment and the world is to be saved I think we need to be a bit slower with technology and stop throwing things out which still work and do the job. Just because people feel "oh this is not up to scratch I need a new faster one" its not good for us as a people living on an overcrowded planet.
Happiness is not things or technology or mine is bigger or smaller and better its contentment, care for the planet, so we should stop throwing things out that work the crunch will come not in my lifetime but it will come.
However I take issue about technology etc. Australians are very innovative people and have designed some of the worlds most useful industrial equipment. That said in your post you did not like the fact that Australia was behind the times.
If the environment and the world is to be saved I think we need to be a bit slower with technology and stop throwing things out which still work and do the job. Just because people feel "oh this is not up to scratch I need a new faster one" its not good for us as a people living on an overcrowded planet.
Happiness is not things or technology or mine is bigger or smaller and better its contentment, care for the planet, so we should stop throwing things out that work the crunch will come not in my lifetime but it will come.
Aug 28th 2008, 12:25 am
#84
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Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
Well I just visited UK and can vouch for the culture of community in Cambridgeshire, North Yorkshire and Somerset at least - visiting family and friends in those places the sense of community was tangible - nothing like that around here.
Aug 28th 2008, 9:33 am
#85
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Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
Thank you thank you thank you.
Same down here in Kent & Sussex.
Having said that I did still meet some very nice people and the best friends we made were an Australian family who we got on with very very well.
I also met a second generation immigrant (ie born in Aus) who told me to my face in no uncertain terms "just piss off back to England and don't come back". If that is the welcome we can expect having tried to live and get on with people for 2 1/2 years (and help Australia with two people with jobs on the MODL) then no thanks. You can keep the sunshine if my boys are going to experience that in later life.
Same down here in Kent & Sussex.
Having said that I did still meet some very nice people and the best friends we made were an Australian family who we got on with very very well.
I also met a second generation immigrant (ie born in Aus) who told me to my face in no uncertain terms "just piss off back to England and don't come back". If that is the welcome we can expect having tried to live and get on with people for 2 1/2 years (and help Australia with two people with jobs on the MODL) then no thanks. You can keep the sunshine if my boys are going to experience that in later life.
Aug 28th 2008, 9:39 am
#86
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Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
i understand that would be really sickening, however an immigrant comming to the Uk has to deal with hell of a lot worse than that on a daily basis. Its the same the world over!
Aug 28th 2008, 9:42 am
#87
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Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
So tell me about your opinion on the advances being made in technology to assist Rio Tinto and BHP gouge out tons and tons of iron ore and coal and yet allow the water table to be disrupted in the same process ? Should they stop doing it to save the planet yet also risk the economy? Not easy choices.
Best piece of kit I know of to come out of Australia is the Hills Hoist....terrific.
Australia is happy to supply Uranium to those that want it to fuel nuclear power, but oh no suggest having a nuclear power station in Australia and they go very shy. They also see no moral duty to take back any nuclear waste they help produce. Some very mixed up thinking in there but I am no expert and will stand corrected on someones better factual knowledge.
We must have advances in technology period. I am no techno geek by a long shot, but I do know the millions of cars in the world are cleaner today as a result of technology than they were years ago.....at least the ones outside Australia are as they have moved on from V8 gas guzzlers!
Best piece of kit I know of to come out of Australia is the Hills Hoist....terrific.
Australia is happy to supply Uranium to those that want it to fuel nuclear power, but oh no suggest having a nuclear power station in Australia and they go very shy. They also see no moral duty to take back any nuclear waste they help produce. Some very mixed up thinking in there but I am no expert and will stand corrected on someones better factual knowledge.
We must have advances in technology period. I am no techno geek by a long shot, but I do know the millions of cars in the world are cleaner today as a result of technology than they were years ago.....at least the ones outside Australia are as they have moved on from V8 gas guzzlers!
Australia is not for everyone and everyone is different.
However I take issue about technology etc. Australians are very innovative people and have designed some of the worlds most useful industrial equipment. That said in your post you did not like the fact that Australia was behind the times.
If the environment and the world is to be saved I think we need to be a bit slower with technology and stop throwing things out which still work and do the job. Just because people feel "oh this is not up to scratch I need a new faster one" its not good for us as a people living on an overcrowded planet.
Happiness is not things or technology or mine is bigger or smaller and better its contentment, care for the planet, so we should stop throwing things out that work the crunch will come not in my lifetime but it will come.
However I take issue about technology etc. Australians are very innovative people and have designed some of the worlds most useful industrial equipment. That said in your post you did not like the fact that Australia was behind the times.
If the environment and the world is to be saved I think we need to be a bit slower with technology and stop throwing things out which still work and do the job. Just because people feel "oh this is not up to scratch I need a new faster one" its not good for us as a people living on an overcrowded planet.
Happiness is not things or technology or mine is bigger or smaller and better its contentment, care for the planet, so we should stop throwing things out that work the crunch will come not in my lifetime but it will come.
Aug 28th 2008, 9:45 am
#88
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Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
Not where I have been and from me they would not....but yes I imagine it goes on.
I used to work with about 50 people from India brought over specially to do a task where I worked. We welcomed them with open arms. I simply can't see that situation ever going down well in Australia......(the 'taking our jobs' whinge)
I used to work with about 50 people from India brought over specially to do a task where I worked. We welcomed them with open arms. I simply can't see that situation ever going down well in Australia......(the 'taking our jobs' whinge)
Aug 28th 2008, 9:49 am
#89
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Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
Not where I have been and from me they would not....but yes I imagine it goes on.
I used to work with about 50 people from India brought over specially to do a task where I worked. We welcomed them with open arms. I simply can't see that situation ever going down well in Australia......(the 'taking our jobs' whinge)
I used to work with about 50 people from India brought over specially to do a task where I worked. We welcomed them with open arms. I simply can't see that situation ever going down well in Australia......(the 'taking our jobs' whinge)
Well sadly its so prvelant in the Uk now it makes the news eevery day, even yesterday one lad was killed for just being a foreinger!!!!!! The BnP and the far right are making huge gains in our inner cities and its a scary place to be diffrent at present. I certainly wouldnt like to be an incmer at the moment!
Aug 28th 2008, 3:43 pm
#90
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Re: Our story 2 1/2 years
The UK has 3x the population of Aus...so we probably have 3x the number of idiots too......although there will be variations by region. I just happen to think I lived in an area with more than their share of idiots........!!!
PS....Idiot is probably a bit of a strong word to use. A better word may be dinosaur.......as in people that have not moved on and adapted to changes.....people that still think they can swear in an interview for example (as I endured) or people that think medical people who have studied and qualified under a world pioneer in a field may perhaps be not as knowledgeable as them because they don't hold an Australian certificate.
Without going in to detail, its hard to see how anyone can have more knowledge on a subject than the man that invented a certain medical development and is renowned as the worlds premier expert and is the man to whom people are sent from Australia to learn from..........
PS....Idiot is probably a bit of a strong word to use. A better word may be dinosaur.......as in people that have not moved on and adapted to changes.....people that still think they can swear in an interview for example (as I endured) or people that think medical people who have studied and qualified under a world pioneer in a field may perhaps be not as knowledgeable as them because they don't hold an Australian certificate.
Without going in to detail, its hard to see how anyone can have more knowledge on a subject than the man that invented a certain medical development and is renowned as the worlds premier expert and is the man to whom people are sent from Australia to learn from..........
Well sadly its so prvelant in the Uk now it makes the news eevery day, even yesterday one lad was killed for just being a foreinger!!!!!! The BnP and the far right are making huge gains in our inner cities and its a scary place to be diffrent at present. I certainly wouldnt like to be an incmer at the moment!