Pizza oven blog...

Just our oven...

click here

Internet slowdown

Due to over-use my internet account has been throttled down to a very slow speed for the last week - hence the lack of posts, or photos. At last I've got full speed back and can put up some more pics.

Our freinds M&S's son A and friends J from Scotland who are on a around the world backpack holiday arrives in the next week, it's going to great to see them, having not really seen A since he was about 9.

I called M&S last night - obviously we're not keeping in close enough contact, as they've got married without us knowing (although they've been together forever), plus M has had some health problems. - Must keep in touch more!!!

OK Here's a swag of photos of the Pizza oven in progress - taken by M whilst we were on holiday.

Training

I'm working some long hours at the moment (what's new) - as I'm in the middle of three weeks systems training for the new Editorial system we are implementing.

The software is from CCI - based in Denmark. See them here.

It's quite a learning curve for all my guys - as it's based Solaris (something new to most of us) and Oracle (ditto) - however it's actually very enjoyable, as it's both new (anything new is good) and it appears to be very stable, and up-to-date.

It's a shame that all our other work is still building up.

See more here

Hearty problem

W felt something was wrong with her heart beat whilst we were on holiday, and this got worse on our return. When told I had a listen, and it was quite a freaky rythm coming from her chest. So she went straight to the doc.

Doc confirmed she's got an arrhythmia. She's been having various blood tests, ECG, Echo cardiogram, etc. and we're now waiting on the results (Probably middle of next week).

She's been told not to worry (yes thats easy!) as stress could make it worse.

Will update as soon as we more info.

Classic !!!

Indians train UK call centre staff

The call centre revolution has turned full circle with Indian experts now training British workers in how to operate the much-maligned message handling agencies.

The United Kingdom's first Indian-owned call centre has opened in Belfast, reversing the controversial trend of British firms switching to the subcontinent to take advantage of cheap labour.

ICICI OneSource, which has 8,000 staff in Bangalore and Bombay, aims to create 1,000 jobs in Northern Ireland over the next two years.

Thanks to http://arbroath.blogspot.com/ for this.

Day at the Beach

Saturday was vet day - Cookie has got to have one of his fangs removed, having broken it in half several months ago. We're told the risk of infection (given his FIV) is too risky. Also Bingley has had one of his Dew claws grow back - something which very rarely happens. I believe it's actually because the vet hasn't removed it correctly (so google search tells me) - of course the vet's not admitting that. Anyway, we've decided to leave it, and see how it goes, although he has already caught it once (thats how we found out about it).

Sunday.

Following a recommendation by RizlaBlue we took Bingley to Little Creatures in Fremantle today. Its a small Brewery / Restaurant just by the Docks. The big plus about it is it's Dog friendly. Rizla has a good summary here. We even met Rizla and Freya which was a pleasant suprise (a suprise because we were lucky she managed to get my email - which I sent very late). Anyway it was very nice to meet her, and she'll certainly be on our 'pizza oven tryout' invitation list.

Following this we managed to sneek past the showers and have a good time on the South Perth Beach (Dog Beach) - Bingleys 1st time by the sea - and he really loved it!



He's now totally shattered, and has slept most of the late afternoon / evening.

Pizza Oven update - Rendered

Here's the latest on the Pizza oven, as you can see it's really coming on. This is after the 2nd layer of special heat rendering (with a fire blanket between the two layers).

Notice that the cat netting melted when the wooden framework was burned out.






Here is the inside after the wooden frame was burned out.



Here it is after final rendering.



Here you can see the marble we've got for the top, we'll then be tiling the front of the oven itself with small ceramic tiles.

Pizza Oven update - the base

M's been hard at work on the Pizza oven, whilst we soaked up the sun in the UK. Here's the base being constructed.
Note we've got two doors to go on, the front to store the wood, and the size is a store for some of the pool bits and bobs.

Tiny egg and rain

Rain - and we don't mind at all, after the heat we had in the UK. Besides, Perth is currently on the least rain for winter for over 40 years, so we really need it. Even if the pool and pond are overflowing.


After the huge egg we got in the begining - hows this one... You wouldn't think it could be a chicken egg. We were too chicken to crack it.

Wooden (Ornaments ?) puzzles

Here's some wooden ornaments (?) I bought in Cornwall. The plan is to stain the wood, and varnish them. I'm hoping they'll look pretty good then...



I will get around to writing some 'real' blog entries eventually...

We're back

We are back from the UK, and I've even had half a week at work. The weather is a lot cooler and even a little rain - which is all quite pleasant after the UK's hottest July on records (along with the hottest day on record).

The flight was a nightmare - simply as always due to duration. We again too the few hours in Singapore to have a bit of a kip and a shower, however next time we go (currently planned for 2009) we'll definately be going business class, it will really be worth it.

We ended up having to buy some new luggage, as we went out with 30kg and came back with 60kg - we bought a load of stuff, despite the incredibly high prices of everything back in the UK.

Bad news on our return is that our older cat Harley has kidney failure and it's not really curable. She's on a special diet (which she appears to like) and may be able to go on some medication later which will slow the progress, but overall it doesn't look good for her.

We been to order a mirror wardrobe for the new bedroom upstairs, and have just started looking for a new car for W (this may take some time). Our 1st weekend back had been spent doing some major pruning in the garden, taking most of today (Saturday) - tommorow we visit the tip to get rid of all the cuttings. - Oh and then of course I work Sunday afternoon...