My Princess hits Four, while the Ginga Ninja hits One

Christmas tree up, shopping done

So Christmas is just round the corner innit. I bought all my stuff online this year, no parcels heading to the Mother Land...hopefully a few heading this way, with the help of Santa and his reindeer.

Will post a picture of my crew fixing the decorations and Christmas tree. Ella is a bit too keen - every day she keeps asking if Christmas is here yet...

I tried to quit aint it

Again, the quitter in me just don't wanna know. I even managed to get a whole version release out on me tod and feel good about it, Christ knows why. I guess the salary, the upcoming bonus and getting a year on the clock could well be deciding factors.

In the meantime, Internet success has hit a couple of my small sites, so I'm def in the right direction with all this shit. Just got to scale it up and outsource the whole kafuffle to the Phillipines...

It was 20 years ago...

Bleedin' eck. 20 years ago last week I first stepped onto Israeli soil. It's been steadily downhill ever since, eh? To celebrate, here's yet another enthralling episode in my tale of how I ended up in Israel. And stayed. This time, we're up to Part 13, unlucky for some.

And no, I haven't quit. There's talk of a decent bonus for me coming up in the next month or so, so I'm sticking around for that. Nuts eh?

Getting me a new hobby innit

Well, I know I don't have much time to write here anymore, what with my Internet empire and three luverly kids to keep busy. You don't need to tell me, of course...

But with the little spare time I do have, I've managed to take up a bit of circuit running/fast walking, to get my daily dose of health goodness. And that healthy shit has been helped by getting a decent pair of headphones that slot in to my ears just lush.

Never understood the hype about all these ear plugs and buds and headphones before, but they really make it all worth while, all that sweating and typically boring route now takes on a different perspective as my ears fill with some Clash or New Order or Depeche Mode...

Can't quit to save my life

So I tried twice to quit. Oh yeh, TWICE I told the boss that I need to quit, TWICE he told me to think about it again. It looks like he won't take me seriously unless I actually hand over an official resignation letter, which I've never done before. But am quite happy to oblige him with. What with a deadline looming though, I reckon once they see how little I've done over the last 2-3 weeks I won't need that resignation letter...

Apart from that, all is hunky dory. Except for that bloody heat. Did I mention that it gets hot in August? Thank you Jesus for taking me away from Tel Aviv though, I'm guessing it must be a sauna down there...

Off to watch some football on the TV. Fuck, I mean computer. No more expensive subscriptions for Premier League footy. It's me and Sopcast all the way baby!

On the verge of an empire

I almost did it this week. I sat there with my boss and was just going to tell him when he had to rush off. Bastard. And after he told me that he was impressed with my work (what couldn't be impressive about cutting a bloated 46 page piece of crap down to 16 pages!?), it's just got a little harder to toss this job to the dogs.

But toss it. It has to go. I just picked up another small freelance gig which will bring in another few shekels every month, so I have enough small gigs to help pay the bills without the main earner. The car will be the big loss when I do go, but fuck it, we have another fairly decent car, so shouldn't have too many probs. Just paying those gas bills will be a pain in the arse, but fuck it.

And the web empire I'm building is slowly taking off. Apart from the igoogledisrael.com site (which will have some real big updates soon) I've found some niches which I'm working on which should also bring in some shekels. Small, steady and slow, the idea is to rinse and repeat to bring in the bigger bucks.

And in the meantime I'm down the pool on the moshav, brushing up on my tan and watching my 5 year old junior anglosaxy learn to swim like a fish. Very impressive the lad is. Very impressive!

I can smell a change a-coming...

Aye, things could be a changing as we speak. I'm really struggling to keep up with the workload I have at the moment, and would dearly love to kiss the freckly-arsed daily run up to the northern armpit of Israel goodbye. It's just a waste of time, all that driving, all those endless meetings and all that bollock-churning micro-management that appears to have risen its ugly head recently.

So, one word out of place from my boss, who is very likely to say something out of place, and I may just have to fire myself from the world of office politics. I have never faked shit like I've faked it here and the shit is about to come up and bite me in the arse as he can't stand me faking me it any longer...

You'll be the first to know - or, quite probably, the last, thanks to the modern technology we have in da house these days!

And if I have to watch another re-run of that Lampard goal that certain blind, tosspot of linesmen can't see...

Oh to be a corporate whore

After a Company Day of witnessing people get actually excited, even animated about their job in hi-tech, I have to say that I could have picked a better profession, those many moons ago...maybe it's the independent spirit in me, but listening to the big cheese saying he demands things from us made me cringe, a cringe beyond normal cringes...coupled with some of the cringe-worthy comments from my team in a closed session with our department boss, I have to say: some people really, really need to get a life.

So, I bolted before the final session of marketing-speak speeches. There's only so much a man (with a soul) can take. And spoke on the phone with two of my freelance gigs that are pulling in some cash, without any of the built-in corporate politics and bollox. One of these gigs even pays me to write about football, believe it or not...

Anyway, thought I'd pop in to say hello. How are you me little darlings?

Open Spacey remixed

Oh dear. Cubicle Corner has now become Open Spacey II. Instead of suffering one nerdy, American woman with no life, I'm now sharing with two more American ladies. I have given them names, just so they feel at home: Lumpy, Frumpy and Grumpy. Can you tell how much I'm impressed with my new teammates?

I'm trying to build up work other than Tech Writing and it's coming along nicely, and end April/May I have no idea how I'm going to fit everything in, I have way too much lined up...could be time to call quits on Open Spacey II and the luscious ladies...I really hope so, but am playing it day-by-day at the moment until I have contracts signed sealed and delivered. In the meantime I'm Bullshit King as I tell my boss that I'm lovin' it where I work...

Expect some pictures coming this way soon...the insurance paid out last week and I'm picking up my new shooter today. Only a point-and-shoot number, but a decent one.

Thieving gits

OK, so this week was a bit of a nasty one for us anglosaxies. Living on a moshav has been great fun up til now, but on Monday morning we were brought back down to earth with a flying visit from someone who took a liking to our 3 computers, cameras, wallets, and, best of all, the new Renault parked outside (I'd only got it a few hours earlier and it still had the plastic wrapping on the seats...). I should also mention they stole my kids' Nike shoes (covered in mud) and 3 tri-cycle/scooter thingees parked on the porch outside...fucker.

A window was the entry point, not even smashed, but gently pried open. And quietly too, because we were all asleep in the house at the time...which is the scary part. Got to say, the thought of someone looking in on my kids as they slept - which is almost certain as "he" would have had to go past their room to get to the wallets - sends a chill down the spine...

But, at the end of the day, all we lost were a few possessions that hopefully the insurance will cover. At least we're all OK, which is the main thing, right?

But I do hope the thieving bastard gets his karma. Let's hope he falls over the tricycle he maybe gave to his kid and breaks his fucking neck.

The story goes on...why did I stay in this country? Beats me...

So the story goes on. I know it's been a couple of months, what with new babies being born, new houses being moved into and new cubicles being occupied, but here it is, Part 12 of my adventure, the story of why I ended up here so long...plenty more to come peeps!

What d'ya think?

Just wrapping up a site for my father, he of the olde driving instructor worlde back in Blighty. A profession that is clearly, er, lacking, in the Holy Land. But if you were looking for driving lessons in Eastbourne (suntrap of the south), would this site do it for you? Clean, professional and easy to contact, those were the main criteria. No flashy bits and bobs...

Back into the fast lane. Of corridors.

Hell on wheels.

Well, that's what it feels like to get back into Corridor Land world, which shall now be rephrased Cubicle Corner. However much I try to convince myself, I ain't made for sitting in cubicles and listening to politically correct discussions about work and boring TV shows and cats. It's not that the people I work with are nasty or anything - although I did manage to raise the wrath of the Super Geek here for having the audacity to question why a document was given a specific name, oh dearie me - it's just that I know it ain't the environment for me. An example: at lunch last week I was just cringing as the guys in my team went over the fine points of Microsoft's usability...as the table of Israelis next to us discussed the intricacies of Messi's goals for Barcelona. I'm guessing you know where I'd rather have been sitting...

What's also a killer is the commute. I'm now some 2.5 hours on the road every day, which is eating into my quality time with the kids. I miss picking them up from the kindergarten, taking them to see the lambs, or standing on the sidelines as my boy takes football lessons...

Having said all that, things are moving along in the background, as they usually do with me, and I'm quite prepared to jump ship at the drop of a hat. I had a very interesting chat last night with a guy who used to work at the original Corridor Land. I've been helping his startup out now and again and now it looks like they have some money to invest in some writing work. And my next door neighbor and I (he's also a hi-tech refugee) are having weekly beer sessions trying to fathom out ways to make some cash on the Internet. We think we might have twigged onto something...

One day it's gonna happen, I tell ya!