New Job!

Well the big news is that I (Ben) have a new job. It has taken a long time. It took longer than I thought. It was not a pleasant process. More later perhaps. I'm going to be working at a software company. Should be able to take the ferry to work. It has been a long time since I actually went to an office every day so I'm a bit nervous of course but hopefully it will be fine. You can never tell what a place is going to be like to work in until you get there. It has actually been a huge relief and I've been much happier since accepting it. The really great thing is that I've had a couple of weeks off before starting.

We've also been settling in a bit more. Have started to put pictures up and buying various bits and bobs that make life a bit more comfortable. Still got loads to do - we need to do something about the grass and I'm grass clueless. I bought a box of grass stuff ages ago but it has been sitting there looking sad.

We also went to see some of my Australian family of which there are quite a few. All lovely and interesting people and I'm hoping we will meet the others and see more of them. Fascinating to see how the Aussie lot turned out compared to the English lot.

Last week I took Ariel out for the day - day off school to have fun. We used to do it with my father - each child once a year could choose what they wanted to do. I have very strong memories of going to see Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger and traipsing around Hamleys and some museum or other. Anyhow I took Ariel out. We took the ferry to downtown and went to the Custom's house where there is a fabulous model of Sydney that you walk over (it is below a glass floor). And then there was a virtual world of the area before the white people arrived. And then we took a train. And then we took a monorail. And then we went to the PowerHouse museum which is a science museum. But we had snacks and a pie first to get our strength up. And then we went in. And then we had milkshakes. And then we built stuff in Zoe's House. And then we got back on the monorail. And then we had an icecream with berries. And then we got on the train and realized we never really had a cell phone with us the whole time. And then we pondered whether we'd be able to do the really really long walk from the Ferry back home. And then one of us fell asleep and Ariel kept waking me up. and then we walked home via the golf course and found two golf balls. One was not easy to retrieve but we found a stick and a thin arm and all was well. It was a good day.

This week I'll take Lily out.

Me: "Do you want to have a special day too?"
Lily: "Yes and I want to go on the monorail and have treats and ice cream."
Me: "Great."
Lily: "I want to go with mummy."

I need to work on this.

The Sydney Film Festival just ended. We went to see five films. One dodgy Turkish one. One cute one set in New York called Bella - recommended.

Two Israeli ones which were really powerful and highly recommended. Beaufort is a feature film chronicling the lives of an army unit prior to the move out of Lebanon a few years back. Really well made and absolutely gripping.

Hothouse (Ha'Bitchonim) is a documentary about Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails and detention centres. One of the most chilling cinema experiences you can go to - whatever you think politically. I doubt any of these three will make it to general release but well worth finding them on DVD.

Other bits and pieces.
Click here for some relatively recent photos:

For Chai Tots

I've been playing soccer with a bunch of generally unfit men and loving it. I even bought a pair of boots.
Sharon joined a gym. She also "won" (read purchased) a punching bag on ebay which we have hung in the garage - need to buy some gloves now.
Next week we drive to Melbourne (873km !) to see Danny and Anna from Tsur Hadassah / Boston and then I start work and then we go away with Greg and Karen and some others to a farm for the weekend.

Beachead Secured

[Wrote this a while ago]

So we have now been in Sydney for just over two months.

This is what we have been up to....

Location: We are living in an old one storey house with pretty ceilings and a little front and back garden on a fairly quiet road next to a bowling green and a little park. It's 10mins walk to a beach and there are shops and places to eat in walking distance. Pre-schools are a drive away so we have a car and consequently hardly walk anywhere which is a shame.

Kids: Ariel (5 in July - which is Winter here which is confusing the hell out of me) and Lily (3 in a couple of days) are in pre-schools. Lily just two days a week. Pre-schools are ok but not quite as warm or small or loving as in New York - but hey we were spoilt there even if we did not always realize it at the time. Ariel seems to have started to catch some Australianisms or rather a bit of an accent here and there. They have settled in well. Lily wants a Dora (the Explorer) cake and talks incessantly about her birthday but also seems to want to be a baby again. She is quite a handful as always but if she was constantly quiet and easy then she would not be the exhausting blessing that she is. She often gives me a hard time but that is probably because I'm not as patient as Sharon with her manipulative shenanigans. Sometimes like today we will have a lovely day together and then she says she does not love me - heartbreaking :(

Ariel has adjusted pretty well to his new bigger class. He talks a lot and plays very hard. He has become uber-competitive about everything whether it is the first one to get undressed to being the tallest or fastest or whatever. Everything has winners and losers and he doesn't like to lose. It is a bit exasperating at times but in the right environment is nice to see - he plays football in a very focussed way and has basically learnt to swim and is getting into cricket. He loves to run. He never stops asking questions - probably a good 200 a day at a guess - and mostly plays well with Lily. Lily has recently learnt the concept of whispering "secrets" but she is not a very good whisperer but they enjoy plotting together against us.

Travel: The move itself was actually relatively easy. We packed up our stuff and got to the airport with 16 bags plus another 5 or so pieces of hand luggage. People looked at us like we were nuts but that's OK. Everything else was sent and has now arrived. It was a bit crazy but not too bad - Marci (old friend) was a big help at the airport. We flew via Tahiti (Air Tahiti) which apart from a sweltering quick layover in our NY coats, and exaggerated sense of hand luggage, and no air-conditioning, - was extremely civilized. We had 2 rows to ourselves for most of the flight and the widgets slept for a good portion of the way. On arrival in Sydney we eventually found a nice member of staff at the airport who helped us out of the terminal as more people gawped as if we were nuts.

The first month or so we spent at Alan and Molly's place (Sharon's parents). Made for a very easy landing. They were exceptionally hospitable and it was (and continues to be) great to have help with the kids. We got here at the end of Summer so we spent a fair amount of time in the pool and looking at the views of Sydney harbour. We decided to get our place painted so we ended up staying a bit longer than expected and then when we did move had a frustrating two week wait to have a phone line and internet set up. I was still working until the end of February so was doing lots of calls and meetings on the phone at silly times in the morning. I had expected to do a bit of local client work here but that did not materialize which was no great loss.

Leaving work has been a relief. The whole of 2006 was a major pain in the rear-end from a work point of view and the source of much stress and general unhappiness on my part over the last year or so. The first few months of the year was laced with a great deal of uncertainty about whether what would happen. Our New York office was dismantled and most of the US team moved on. From April or May I worked from home which was great in that I saw more of the kids but was also a bit difficult as our apartment was not really chosen with working from home in mind - read "Ben gave many product demonstrations in his pyjamas from the bedroom". More significantly I discovered that I really like working with people face to face and not over long distance telephone lines. Post-acquisition I was working with people all over the place and ended up doing a horrendous amount of travelling once my main US colleague quit. So as I said it was the right decision to leave.

I'm now in he process of looking for work which I really do not enjoy. I had found one Sydney-based company while in NY that I wanted to work with and had a couple of interviews and it did not work out and I had a whole set of meetings and interviews with a rather well known search company. The last set did not go very well and it did not work out - I'm pretty bummed about it but have moved on. As a side note they asked me the following question - "Let's play a game where we take it in turns to place round coasters (of the same size) flat on a round table (of any size) without any coasters overlapping. The last player to be able to place a coaster wins - what is your strategy for winning". Now since I'm not a engineer and do not think in these ways and have not done any kind of geometry or math in about twenty years my attempts at answering this were laughable. The answer is quite elegant and if you are interested I'll let you know. Anyhow, I'm back looking for work and will try not to get too down about it. Worst case scenario I'll be a beach bum I guess :)

Sharon is thinking about going back to work but has had her hands full getting us all settled in and anyway has not fully worked out what she would want to do. The kids are at home for the next two weeks on holiday so I can't imagine that any progress is going to be made on that front for a while. Pesach was OK (I wrote this email a while ago). We had Seder here with Alan and Molly and friends of ours from our street in Israel (Mark and Leanne) who now live 10 minutes down the road. Ariel spent the whole day wondering out loud about who was going to find the afikoman and who did I want to find the afikoman and what happens when he finds the afikoman etc etc. Ariel found the Afikoman. He did an OK job on the four questions and both of them just about managed to stay awake although Ariel did fall off his seat in tiredness at one point. It will be good to stop eating matzah for another year.

What else? Not much. It will take us a while longer to get settled in and our wise friend Eke who has travelled more than most reminded us that it takes a year to really settle in and make good friends etc. We have done this before but it is getting tiring. I did not make the most of New York which was silly so I want to get to know Sydney and understand this place called Australia.