Update

Employment: Signed the employment contract yesterday for the job at ResMed. Woohoo! It's not all smooth sailing though. I've only been offered a 3 month contract position to start off with. ResMed gets their R&D budget every July. So there is no 100% guarantee that I'll get a permanent position once this contract expires. However at the interview they assured me that the chances are extremely high if I perform reasonably well during the 3 months. I have to put that reassurance into perspective seeing that it was said during an interview. It was probably exaggerated and is in no way binding. Either way I don't want to work at my current place anymore. This is a chance I have to take. I just have to make sure they won't have a reason to let me go after 3 months or better yet, can't afford to let me go. At least now I'll have an extra incentive to work harder :)

So yeah, I'm starting this new job on the 5th of May which is in about 2 weeks time. Feeling quite excited. Probably a little subdued by the fact that it's only a 3 month contract position to start off with. But I'm up for the challenge. >:o)

Love: It'll be our 6 month anniversary for me and Sara next week. This is a fairly important milestone in a relationship. 6 months is a point where you know a relationship is serious and that it's not just a fling. Sara's a really special girl to me. She is the most important person in my life at the moment. The 6 months seems a lot longer but it's only 6 months. Don't know if that's a good or bad sign. :)

Family: Don't get to see my family much anymore. We all work or go to uni so the only time we do see each other is at night. And that's only for a few hours especially when we all have other activities that sometimes prevent us from being at home. It's not too bad this way. We tend to enjoy the little bit of time we have together a lot more. Too much time together often leads to fights. I think that's true for most families. Or are we just weird? o_O

Friends: They're all good as usual. Half of them are doing the 9 to 5 grind while the other half are finishing off their uni degrees and will graduate soon. We all stay in touch on email. In my opinion, without our massive email list, we would never have been this close.

Leisure: Recently started playing computer games again. Boy is this a time killing activity or what!? I always lose track of time when I'm playing computer games. That's not all I do in my spare time though. I go to the gym about twice a week. Should really go for 3 times a week but am too lazy :) This leaves little time during the weekdays for TV. In fact the only times I watch TV are during breakfast and during dinner. I have no TV show that I religiously watch. I might catch the odd footy game here and there and every once in a while watch an entire episode of some sitcom. But nothing that I consistently watch every week.

My weekends I like to do outdoor activities. I often spend Saturdays with Sara. (or as me and Sara have so fondly renamed it, "Saraday") But weekends always fly by. It's never like that for workdays! >:-(

So there you go. A snap shot of my life on the eve of the Easter holidays, dated 17th of April 2003. Happy Easter everyone! :)

Had the interview today...

As you may already know, I've been looking for another job for over 2 months now and today I had an interview for a Graduate Embedded Software Engineering position.

The company is called ResMed Ltd. and they make medical products that help in treating breathing abnormalities, especially in the area of sleep apnea. The interview was at their Sydney office in Macquarie Park and it's a very modern 7 storey building. ResMed also has offices in Europe, US and singapore. They have been a Forbes Top 200 company for the past 5 years with a best result of #18. They do most of their R&D in Sydney (which is different) and their main manufacturing plant is also in Sydney.

The interview went really well and I'll be attending a second interview on Monday. After the interview, they showed me around. We were on the R&D floor and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw an entire floor of engineers. The guy then told me that their R&D budget last year was 18 million dollars. Wow. This is where I want to be.

This job, if I get it, is almost like a dream job for me. Doing R&D in a field that I have a huge amount of interest in and for a company that has a global presence. I know if I work hard here I can really go places. I'm so excited. Fingers crossed....