Recently in Work Category

Many kids turned out for the skate comp and there were plenty of entries.

The talent shown by these kids is incredible. I'm sorry there wasn't enough prizes for everyone who entered.

Yesterday's skate competition was a huge success with entries in all categories. The day was miserable with a biting wind and misty rain, but it didn't deter the kids, they ran the day and were fair with judging.

We gave out something like 28 prizes, all from the new Enigma skate shop in Wagga, and I'm sure they were all happy. Alex came third in the intermediate BMX and he won a hat, which he swapped for a scooter wheel, plus a couple of other things. There is always lots of swapping after the prizes are handed out.

The Council put the orange mesh up to stop kids from jumping the rail on their bikes, and one kid managed to jump the mesh as well. I got my boss to make an announcement about it when he came down to check on it, and no one else followed suit. The Council is worried about someone hurting themselves badly at one of these competitions, but so far we've been injury free. Usually jumping the rail is every contestant's finale, seeing who can go over the highest and still land right. Not this time though. The one boy who went over yesterday jumped to the ground and just let the bike go.

Last Thursday I put Carly and Alex on the train to spend 6 days with their father at Cowra, and today I'll pick them up from the train. I don't know where the days have gone because it only feels like a couple of days since they left. They'll get the bus from Cowra to Cootamundra, then the train from Coota to Junee. I rang Carly when I got home from work on Thursday to make sure they got there ok and they were at Peter's safe and sound.

I started two weeks holidays on Friday, and Saturday Lauren and Daniel brought the boys over to spend the night with me. The were so good and I had no problem at all although I was a little worried, because usually Carly and Alex are here to keep them entertained.

Saucepans and wooden spoons are still a favourite with kids. Zeke and Riley had a great time making lots of noise.

It's been cold and raining, and apart from a visit with Mum and Reg, I've spent the time at home, and yes, on the computer. Reg got me to look at his computer while I was there and it is so slow. After checking I saw it only had 128 MB RAM, so I offered my old computer to them, which I will add another 512 MB stick, giving them about 1 GB of RAM. They'll be thrilled. That's something I can work on in the next week.

Friday is the skate competition that the Council runs during the school holidays, and with Nikki (Council's Community Development Officer) on maternity leave, it's up to me to run it. Last week I did two movie bus trips for her. Monday was the senior kids, and there were 26 of us. Wednesday was the littlies with their parents and there were 64 of us. I got to watch movies on those days, and had no problems at all with the kids, they were all great. Today I got out of taking a bus to the Handstand Factory in Wagga and one of the other girl's from work is taking them. Friday will be full-on, with setting up and taking entries, but two kids came in to work last Friday and asked to do the judging and commentating for the skate comp so that's one less thing I have to worry about.

I downloaded Firefox today and sent an email to all staff recommending they do the same. The Mozilla site was labouring under the demand from users and it took two attempts to download. At around 2pm there had been around 2 million downloads. At 6 pm the figure had passed 5 million, and at 8 pm another 600,000 had downloaded Firefox. I think Mozilla were hoping for 5 million and they easily got there. I'd say that's a record that will be hard to beat.

Work was crazy for the last couple of days. We've got a tree planting project in the works and it's aimed at people who have larger-than-normal blocks on the outskirts of town. Junee has a salinity problem and the tree planting is aimed at reducing the problem. I had to come up with a mailing list of all the property owners, and using our mapping software and lots of patience we got all the letters sent out late this afternoon. It's business paper week as well this week and our Planning Department had more reports than usual for the monthly Council meeting so it's been pretty hectic. This afternoon I managed to catch up a bit and the pressure should be off for the rest of the week.

Carly and I went along to a Body Balance class at the gym tonight, and I feel totally s.t.r.e.t.c.h.e.d...... I enjoy the class. It's hard work and muscles are stretched to the limit but they end the class with a very relaxing wind-down. You listen to gentle music with a lavender-filled bag over you eyes, and the smell and the music is very soothing. Alex spent the time at the skate park but beat us home. It's cold out.

It's turned bitterly cold this week and we've all had to drag out heaters and extra blankets. Last week we enjoyed 24 degree days and this week is down to 12 and 0 in the mornings. It's hard to take. Last winter I thought about investing in a new heater, and it might be time to do just that. We have gas, but it's old and has no fan and the kids sit right in front of it in the mornings and of course nobody else can feel the warmth. Not good.

Alex is staying at his Dad's tonight, who is leaving next week to live in Moree. I'm sure the kids will miss him. Can't say the same myself though.

As usual, work has been pretty hectic. I had to find all the subdivisions since 2002 and work out how many extra lots had been created, then find out if they're still vacant or a house has been put there. I admit I was feeling overwhelmed by the task. This afternoon I sat down with our Building Surveyor, and we went through them together, looking at the maps, then the parish maps, then the new deposited plans to decide what actually happened, eg. how many lots were created or whether it was a boundary adjustment, or consolidation, and by the time I left tonight we'd nearly got through the lot. So it's true what they say: two heads are better than one. What I thought would take me a month will have taken less than a day. I procrastinated for a week before I finally got in and started it though - a bad habit of mine.

I still have another couple of large tasks that have been put on the back-burner and now I can get stuck into them. One is the annual reporting to the Department of Planning. They want to know every detail of the developments that have been approved for the previous financial year. This year they're asking us to do a trial run and give them the first 6 months of 2007-2008. It was due today, but hey, what are they going to do?

Today we got new computers at work and I've been looking forward to this day since back in November when they were ordered. I've gone from 512 MB RAM to 2GB, and upgraded to a flat-screen 19" monitor. The computers have dual core processors and now instead of waiting for Windows to slowly paint each screen, it's suddenly very quick. It was a happy day.

Most of the day was spent fine tuning the computer and installing all the special software I use for website work. Very little actual work got done until quite late this afternoon. Nobody was complaining, though. It's been a very quiet week. My manager is having the week off and the Building Surveyor is filling in for him. He's hardly been around what with management and council meetings to attend. Not that I'm complaining, it's given me a chance to fine-tune the Junee Rhythm 'n Rail website and website design is probably my favourite part of my job.

Tomorrow's my last day and then I'm on holidays for two weeks so I imaging there'll plenty waiting for me when I get back.

Tonight I'm celebrating and stress free for a while. I completed the rest of my TAFE assignments and can breathe easy until the end of the week when there may be one more. I'm hoping there isn't but there's still one module to go until I complete the course and I guess there'll be some sort of assignment at the end of it. I'm not sure if I've answered all the questions satisfactorily or not but I'm feeling pretty good about it so I won't worry any more. This course is pass/fail and the criteria is to give it your best shot which is what I've done.

It's certainly been beneficial as far as work goes. I've had a substantial weekly wage increase (though it's still coming, hoping for this week), but at the same time the expectations have increased for my output. I'm responsible for a few more things, for example, street stalls and itinerant vendors are my baby now, to approve or deny as I see fit. Usually it's a case of finding a date for the street stalls that doesn't clash with another community group, so it's not that big a deal. And I don't think any have ever been denied! It's also alot easier to sign off on them myself and send the approvals straight out. I know exactly where I'm up to so it made sense.

Later down the track I'll be approving minor developments like car ports and gazebos. Since most of them come in kit form with very straight-forward plans I don't anticipate many problems with that either.

I've got four assignments due in the next two weeks and I'm starting to feel quite panicky about it. I've read and re-read the notes and still can't work out how to put my words on paper. I'm struggling with the flow of a building inspection. I have to write what to check at each of the critical stage inspections and how the work complies with the Australian Standards.

I've got a rough draft of what to check and another list of the Standards, but I was never good at writing and seemed to be just staring at the page, so here I am at the computer instead. A good diversion from what I should be doing, I know. Perhaps tomorrow night I can look at it with different eyes and know exactly how it should all go together.

The other three assignments are more difficult, and I need to get together with the Building Surveyor at work and discuss how I should tackle them. One of them requires me to sit in on an interview like a pre-application discussion so I need to line that up. Then I need to assess the impact of a residential building on adjoining properties and the neighbourhood with respect to a list of criteria.

The third task is to assess an application for a construction certificate against the Building Code of Australia, Australian Standards and conditions of development consent. I did something very similar to this in a previous module but for a whole development.

I'm running out of time and this time of year doesn't help. Why I always leave everything to the final countdown is beyond me.

The Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga is hosting another "Mapped Out" conference tomorrow and six people from work are attending. The conference showcases the use of Spatial Data to enhance the operation and delivery of Government services, and last year we saw some amazing applications that different councils have used.

Our Manager for Planning and Development is one of the speakers, to talk about Junee’s new ‘Landsurfing’ project, which was designed to stimulate business and economic activity by providing answers to critical questions quickly and effectively. The tool will be beneficial for property developers, solicitors and surveyors to quickly locate land with particular criteria. For instance, if you need a large block near a railroad head, with a sealed road nearby, on flat land, you tick the boxes that apply and the program returns all the blocks of land in the area that meet your criteria. It's very innovative for a small council like Junee, and we're all very proud.

I'm doing a TAFE course that I started in July that's turning out to be quite a commitment. It's a Certificate IV course, and involves alot of reading and study and I'm not feeling up to it. I go down to Albury for 2 days each month (but that didn't happen in August, change of plans) and that's great. I can handle the classroom environment. It's the commitment each night to do so many hours that's getting to me. Tonight I've spent three hours going over Council's various management plans so I can write an assignment detailing how they link and cross-reference each other, and what, if any improvements can be made. I've got seven pages of notes so far and there's lots more reading to do. This is the final part of the assignment, I've completed the other four parts already, but it's already overdue.

I'm having second thoughts about it being such a good idea. At the end of the course I should be able to carry out planning functions like assess minor development applications and carry out building inspections, develop and review policies and procedures. I'm feeling rather overwhelmed with all that involves.

At the end of September we have another two days in Albury and enjoy that part. Getting away from home is a major incentive, and working with other people from local councils who know as much as me (or as little as me) gives me the encouragement I need to go on. It's all good for work, I'm learning more than I normally would and at the end I'll have achieved something more.

Last night we had a gathering of the Building & Environmental Services (BEST) team members at team leader Niel's house, and it was a fantastic night out. There was 20 or so people there, most with their families, and we ate and drank, sang along to the guitar with Brent while Alex and 3 others were in the spa for hours. We all had a great time, and left there about 1am.

There were garlic prawns cooked on the BBQ for the entree, and kangaroo steaks among the assortment of meats. With the dessert we enjoyed a sweet wine that was more like a liqueur. I drank Coronas all night till they ran out and finished the night with a bourbon.

Today when we got home from Wagga Neil had left a beautifully wrapped box of gourmet delights and note thanking me for my "prompt and invaluable help". It was such a nice touch.