Actions Paintball

Anupam from work organised an outing today for a game of Paintball. The event was not an official event sanctioned by the bank.

I invited Nigel along to play with all the others that came. We went to Actions Paintball which is based in Swanson. This is the first time I have ever played Paintball. Due to not playing before I was not completely sure how many paintballs to purchase at the beginning. I started with a Starter kit which included 100 paintballs and cost me $40.

I also purchased an extra 100 paintballs at the start for $18. After a break in the game I ended up purchasing a second "reload pack" to keep me going. I purchased 300 paintballs in total. At the end I had used approximately 250, so I did not order too much.

We split into two teams. Overalls were provided for $4 each. Andrew Kyle's overalls had a big whole in its bum. In my Team we had myself, Sam Look, Andrew Kyle and two of his friends, Sam Look, and Chris Hacking.

We played a series of scenarios which included 'capture the flag' games. Of particular note in our team was the excellent efforts of Sam Look and Chris Hacking. They were excellent at pushing forward and were the key to winning many of the games.

After Paintball Anisha and I went to Kim and Nigels place for lunch.

Additional Information: Paintball is a high adrenalin action-packed team sport. Actions Paintball offers to both the social & tournament player excellence in competitive Paintball.

Jeremy Jung

I came to work this morning at my usual early time. A contractor from Gen-i was in the building looking for a PC to use. Given the temporary status of our building there was not too many spare for this unannounced visitor.

When he motioned to to Jeremy's PC as being a potential spare I advised in casually that this was Jeremy's PC and that he must be running late this morning and to expect him in. Some hours passed and Jeremy still had not arrived at work.

My Manager Aaron Gissing is away on holiday in Fiji with one of the experienced Gen-i contractors Llyod left to hold the fort. He came around and asked everyone in client services to come to the board room. There he made the announcement that Jeremy had had a heart attack and had passed away.

Jeremy was only 24 and this had come as an awful shock. With both of us being new at the bank (at least new in Auckland for Jeremy) I had not got a chance to get to know him a great deal. Of the few lunches we had and conversations spoken, Jeremy was a lively character who was a great asset to the team. He was a bit of a joker but I loved his jokes.

Additional Information: Gen-i was formed four years ago when Telecom Advanced Solutions (TAS), Gen-i and Computerland joined forces under the Gen-i brand. Today, the company has 2,000 staff across 17 locations, revenues in excess of $1.6 billion and a client list that spans 3,300 public and private sector organisations on both sides of the Tasman. -gen-i.co.nz

My first day at ANZ National

Today was my first day as LAN Analyst at the ANZ National Bank. I got in to the city early this morning, not taking any chances with getting parking. I successfully got a car park and went onto Queen Street.

I was a bit early, so I went to McDonald's for breakfast. After breakfast I went to my new job. I met my manager, who introduced me to the team. The other guys in my team were equipped with three monitors each!

The main logging application is Unicenter Service Desk. This is the same application that I used when I was working at Datacom for logging jobs for VTL and New Zealand Post (When I wasn't using the web version).

Basically, I spent the day sitting with one of the team, watching how jobs were processed and dealt with. I also got most of my accounts sorted for the various applications I will use, and sent off requests for accounts where approval is needed.

At lunch time I went to JB Hi-Fi and had a look at the PC's and DVD's on sale. I asked about the Asus Eee PC previously advertised in their catalog. They advised me that they are out of stock. In fact, the guy at JB Hi-Fi told me they weren't making any more Eee PC's. I don't know whether to believe him or not, as it's a brand new product on the market.

At the end of the day, I was subjected to awful traffic when trying to get out of the city! I filled up the car with petrol and went home.

Additional Information: With a profit of $1 billion in the year to 30 September 2007, ANZ National is New Zealand’s largest company based on profit and assets

My last day at Zeacom

Today is my last day working for Zeacom, destined to move to my new position with ANZ National on Monday. It began as a day like any other day. I walked in the door, said good morning to Matt and Wayne, then the rest of the helpdesk as I went to my desk.

Wayne asked me to come into his office, so he could complete some of the formalities on a checklist he had. Wayne told me that a morning tea was organized for me at 10:30am this morning.

As 10:30am came around, everyone from support gathered around, and so did a moderate number of the rest of the staff. Due to the time of the year, unfortunately a lot of the team were still on holiday and out of the office. Nevertheless, there was a significant presence of people.

Wayne made a speech about me to everyone, and I followed shortly afterwards. I was given a card and the company gave me a $50 Westfield voucher as well. Zeacom has organised some morning tea goodies which I consumed with the rest of the staff.

Deepak Kulkarni has been away on leave for about 6 weeks at Zeacom and is due back on Monday. As part of a very elaborate joke on him, the support department has removed his entire desk and replaced it with a couch. His flight from Sydney has already been cancelled, so this will no doubt add to his stress levels on his return.

For lunch I went the Subway Grafton. The Manager there Ravi seems to recognize me. Undoubtedly because I eat there quite often.

At the end of the day, I had handed off my keys and mobile phone to Wayne, and emptied out my desk of various items and returned them to their originating departments. I gave most of my stationary to the new tier 1 agent Levi.

Earlier in the week I had sent an invitation to the Zeacom staff, and a couple of selected friends that I used to work with at Datacom for drinks after work at the Cardron Speight's Ale House in Mount Eden.

After work I pretty much met up there straight away with Matt, Dolly, and Harpreet. Alan Mason from Datacom arrived, as did Mark McIntee from ExpressData (Formally Datacom). Anisha was there with me of course as well. Jolene (Formally Datacom) also arrived later on in the night, with her dispatcher at Urgent Couriers Jamie.

I had a couple of drinks and generally a good time tonight. I am going to miss working at Zeacom, with the only reason for leaving is purely financial reasons. All departments in Zeacom has been fantastic to work with; Support, Sales, Development, Installation and Training, and Marketing. The Management team in support is second-to-none.

Additional Information: The goldmining town of Cardrona was formed in 1862 when a group of miners stumbled upon gold in the Cardrona Valley. The first settlement, the Upper Town, springing up where the historic Cardrona Hotel, built in 1863 still remains.