Merry Christmas
Well doesn’t time fly by?!
First an update on the karate/exercise/losing weight front…..and it’s good news!
Last Saturday, Ben & I successfully graded to 8th Kyu (which is a Blue Belt in Seido Juku) and Jane graded to 6th Kyu (Green Belt). Add to this that I’ve lost 10Kg since July and I feel pretty proud of our achievements.
Second, since late August we’ve been very busy with construction of a swimming pool in our back yard. The pool is complete, but the retaining wall, final pool fencing and paving remain to be done. The pool is 8m x 4m and solar heated and getting constant use at the moment. It was also quite a bit more expensive than the original budget.
Work hasn’t been quite as positive as due to the current global financial farce, the headless chickens are ruling the roost and Rio Tinto (where I’ve been since March 2007) is laying off 14,000 (or 8% of it’s workforce) including a very large number of contractors (potentially including me). My contract has been renewed but with a reduced notice period so we’ll wait and see. Ohh and the best bit is that they announced it a couple of weeks ago but won’t tell the individuals affected until next year.