Awesome week & Lombard pics

I figured I just had to update this week after realising on thursday that I have it pretty nicely here in Sydney currently. What happened thursday, you ask? well..it started the day before with all Googlers receiving an army camo shirt and cap, and Thursday was paintball day! All of the engineers had an off-site, which included six games of paintball against the others in the office - including my boss! This resulted in lots of paint, spent paintballs, and even a shot to the neck from my new gf of a month, Katie - impressive bruises all around (which I still have!).

No, the more fun part came walking back into work AFTER paintball. Yes, I walked to work at 5:30 pm, in sneakers, a tshirt and tracksuit pants, listening to my mpp3 player and wearing a scarf so my welt was hidden. Why, you ask? Well, I had some stuff I wanted to finish early, but thursday is also they day where they have free beer and wine, plus free food after, and during which a few people from the office play board-games. So that was enjoyable, and after which I then also walked into timezone in town to practice some guitar hero arcade - because today (Sunday) there was a contest - came 5th, winning a free shirt and a $30 voucher (plus a figurine, meh, and soccer ball, for some reason...). So, all in all, a pretty cool week, hard to top any time soon!

Miscellaneous update 1, is that work is still going very well, and we now have a new target to aim at - 100,000 users by the end of september! eek...at least it's a bit quiet for now, but that'll change mid-september.
Update #2 is that my other lease on my old house has finally finished, which means bond back (once fridge is removed) and no more double rent! Which goes nicely into...
Update #3: long overdue pictures of my new Lombard St apartment! No, not the Lombard st in San Fransisco, but one in Sydney. My two new housemates are the afore-mentioned Katie Bell, a fellow Googler, as well as Greg Darke, a PhD student in IT at Sydney Uni. pics!
The first is taken in a park just outside - we're up on level two on one of those balconies. As you can see, it's part of a much large estate, so all the gardens (including weird tropical-themed walkway) are taken care of, and both Greg & I get our own car-park :)

Next picture is the view over the balcony! As you can see, another place I can see the centre of town from, which is nice - though this time much closer, and from the western side, so a short walk into work. And finally -


A picture of inside, notice Greg on the guitar and Katie on the drums. That's it from me, another update hopefully around late september early october after our work hunter valley visit, and 100k launch!