It was finally time to join the working masses. After nearly 11 months not having to set an alarm or get up at half-past-ridiculous unless it was for something exciting, the thought of work was more worrying than actually getting back into it. I have started off as a structural draughtsman which is a new thing for me. But as I said in the interview, draughting is draughting and I am sure that I will pick up the knowledge on the go. So far I have been working with one engineer and have spent more time re-doing his work than actually getting anything out of the door but things may change.I am really enjoying the cycling into work everyday although the NZ summer hasn't decided whether it is here to stay yet or not. I have so far biked through rain, hail, sleet, strong winds (nearly always headwinds of course) drizzle and some sun. To keep us from falling into the groove of getting up and going to work, coming home and going to bed we are trying to keep ourselves busy in the evenings too. Tuesday nights have become climbing night. Katie is showing real potential at climbing and quite frequently gets to the top of the various different routes with relative ease which leaves me floundering getting my feet stuck in the holds and cursing the climbing wall! As well as the climbing we are trying to swim regularly at the QEII pool round the corner from us. Again Katie is leaving me for dust in the swimming stakes and as she waits to start work she has regularly started to swim 1-2km with no problem.Finally I thought we should mention that as a celebration for completing my first week at work and the bonus that the homeowners were away for the weekend and really just for the hell of it we held the first Parklands Beer Festival here at the weekend. The supermarket around the corner from us stocks beers from all around the world including some good British ales. We managed to get a good cross section of local microbrewery ales, some good Belgium beers, some beers from ol' Blighty and a few more in between. This was to be a civil affair with the many drinks savoured and commented on over the afternoon with a BBQ providing good food and Tom and Rachel for company. I think we finally finished "sampling" the ales around 1am on Sunday morning! As a cure for our slightly thicker than usual heads we spent Sunday lounging around and had a picnic in the gardens in town trying not to think about the "W" word on Monday!