All Change

Monday was spent hacking some PHP code I found that generates a Shockwave Flash file on the fly from a collection of jpeg images. I'm intending to use this on the charity site I'm redesigning. It ended up working pretty well and I was most pleased with the results. I applied for a position as a "trainee application developer"! I'm a bit old to be called a trainee, but they want someone with all that Micro$oft .NET stuff which I don't do. I don't expect I'll hear from them again but it was worth a shot. We were interrupted mid-morning by Vicky's kids who seem to have developed an inability to get past our drive way. In a slightly flattering and a little bit stalky way, Vicky & Wayne have decided to move house too, and are following in our general direction. Apparently they've found a place between the golf course and the beach and now poor Wayne doesn't know whether to reach for the surfboard or the golf clubs. Di went to see what another firm of agents had to offer, but couldn't find anyone senior to talk to. In the evening I abused Wayne's hospitality again and offered my assistance with viewing the Chinese GP. A British 1-2 was declared a fine result, especially as poor old Mark Webber was much further back. Gotta keep them Aussies in their place.

Tuesday I received a phone call from our solicitors who wanted to make an appointment to sign the house papers. Next Tuesday at 10:30 is the date. We still have to arrange our pre completion inspection and this is now a priority. I spent the rest of the morning writing some cunning code to scrape information off a web page and import it into another using XML/RSS feed technology. Really boring, but very cunning. Better this than being idle. I order myself an 0800 number which will be available in four working days, apparently. The guy I was talking to about this turned out to be from Surrey so we had a reminisce about the old country. Diane has a mob of agents chasing her hide and wanting to force a job on her. She seems somewhat keen about this mob and their persistence may well pay off. Later she and Sam went to see the new Sam Neil vampire movie - Daybreakers. Apparently it was a complete blood fest and the most bloody film ever. I was also quite pleased to find out that Halo had finally received the money I beamed to them. Phew. Di also had the first of her two adverts in the B.O.P. Times. Apparently before you can apply for your real estate licence, you need to give the great unwashed the chance to shout "Oi, You, No!" if the person in question is a bandit. It doesn't stop most agents being bandits of course, but they are at least showing willing.

Wednesday Rhiannon was supposed to go to a school disco but apparently had lost her ticket. Various phone calls were made and the relevant persons notified that a tall year 9 pommy kid would be showing up with no ticket and would need to be let in. The messages were apparently received and their was no shouting and screaming when she returned later on. Di's second advert was in the paper, and with that Di headed over to Caroline to get a character reference.
I spent the morning getting all arty and down and dirty with photoshop, creating a banner graphic with all sorts of layer masks, fading gradients, drop shadows and more levels of opacity than you could shake a stick at. I was rather pleased with the result and although far from a photoshop expert, it is starting to become less of a complete mystery. Out of the blue I ad an email from HiFX claiming that they were now happy with my proof of address and asking me to confirm the "Unique Reference Number" which they apparently send me on the 8th April. Hmm - I got a load of stuff from their NZ office, but no idea about that number. It's not a priority now, since all the cash has gone through Halo anyway. Di went to see yet another firm of agents. This lot were really keen on her starting with them. Can this woman do know wrong? Am I in the wrong occupation? It has crossed my mind that I ought to consider giving it a go too, but then I probably wouldn't be able to keep a straight face when turning on the BS the way my good lady does.

Later than evening, Di told me we were going over to the darkest reaches of Papamoa to help one of her friends set up her hubby's wireless router. It turns out that he'd bought a "router" from the Warehouse, but it wasn't an ADSL router. It needed to be plugged into an ADSL device in order to work. This inter breeding was hampered somewhat by a patch lead composed mainly of thin air but once I'd got into both router and modem, it looked like a right pain to get them both talking and playing nice since they both wanted to own the DHCP service which is a recipe for disaster. It further transpired that they had a UK spec Belkin router which they claimed wouldn't work. This was I suspected a case of changing the VCI setting to 100, rather than the UK specific 38. Sure enough, after a few botched attempts at entering the login details and switching to PPPoA rather than PPPoE it burst into life.

Thursday I thought it would be an idea to start exploring moving the phone line and broadband to our new house. But what's this? Telecom initially said that they had no "ports" available on the exchange and that we might have to go on to a waiting list for broadband. WHAT!!!!!! Fortunately they did some proper checking and decided that it would be available on the day. Phew! The only slight worry was that I might have to call them from the new house if the current occupants don't arrange a cancellation but they claimed the switch would be made there and then. This is I suppose to stop mischievous and malicious requests to transfer lines. We also rented a truck, $70 a day plus 45c per kilometre. It has a tail lift and should we hope fit down the driveway as it's not much wider than a car. Di finally decided which agent she was going to work for. After all the fuss, it turned out to be the one that her lecturer recommended. Sigh.

We popped in to see Vicky, who was full of beans because our neighbour (another member of the Zumba gang) has decided to move into Vicky's place. She has been looking for a while largely because the rental she's in (which shares our driveway) is rather ramshackle and tatty. Vicky's old and new place are both private rentals with no rental agent involved, so there is a great degree of flexibility on dates and Vicky has cunningly arranged to move on the same day that we do, which means that we can share the truck. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't end up moving our neighbour, too.