We are finally committed to getting a pergola built after years of procrastination and false starts.  Reliable tradies are hard to find in NZ and we have thankfully found a unicorn to do our build.

He seems to follow Dad’s DIY ethos of “build it solid”, with several tree’s worth of wood.

There is still a polycarb roof to be added and some decisions to be made around flooring but The Duchess has the styling all planned out so I look forward to seeing that in time.

The last few weeks has been a grind of self-study, regularly disappearing off to the library or a cafe with the laptop when I needed a change of scene from the home office, prepping for a tough Microsoft exam to get formal certification for the years of Azure admin experience. (For The Oldies’ benefit Azure is Microsoft’s cloud service so it’s all about how to set up and secure things “stuff” in the cloud instead of on a company’s own computers).

I sat the exam on Friday morning (from home) and was surprised and relieved to see the “Congratulations!” page at the end, scraping over the bar with a pass of 744.

In other news on Tuesday I had a face-to-face interview for a role at a law firm – and actually enjoyed it! I thought I presented well, the interviewers were friendly and the role matches my skillset well so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for feedback next week. It was refreshing to be asked real questions by engaged human beings, rather than be peppered with tough behavioral questions from a script.

If I’m lucky enough to secure the role it would mean digging out the suits and ties and returning to the office most days, however providing The Duchess can manage most of the weekday dog walks (or we can find a good doggy day care again) I’m fine with that – getting back on the train will do wonders for my books read count! (Currently on 7, about 100 short of my friend Holly’s current tally).

If that role doesn’t come off it’ll be back to the study, this time for the Solution Architect exam, which is even tougher.

Went back to the World of Wearable Art show again this year, this time taking The Duchess with me to enjoy the music, dance and crazy, creative outfits. She loved it (as I suspected) so this might become an annual tradition now.

Here are some highlights from last year’s show to give a flavour, though it’s much more eyecatching being there!

Interviewing for IT roles has always been a bit painful, however at the moment — between AI filtering of CVs, the high number of quality candidates you’re competing with and the ever-lengthening list of skills and experience listed on job descriptions — it is starting to feel like an ordeal trying to get ahead of the rest and nail a role.

The technical part of the interview :

The STAR behavioral part of the interview :

Thankfully the Wellington job market is starting to bounce back from the massive Government layoffs so new job postings are starting to pick up. In the meantime it’s just a case of getting some more certification onto the CV to prove I know my Azure and obsessively check Seek every half an hour to be an early applicant on anything suitable.

Finally made it to the Doctor Who Exhibition at Takini Exhibition Center in Wellington to have a gawp at the costumes, monsters and sonic screwdrivers. A bit steep at $30 given I was in and out in 50 mins but my Inner Nerd had a blast.

Some interesting video clips presented by Mark Gatiss to give n00bs an introduction, attempts at educating visitors by highlighting “real scientific theories” — which given time was limited I confess to ignoring — and heaps of props.

I’m now getting hold of the classic Tom Baker era episodes to rewatch from behind the sofa.

Dave Grohl’s confession to fathering a child “outside my marriage” was so memeworthy I just had to nick one and post it, though I personally couldn’t care less as it’s none of my business.

I guess there’s now a vacancy for the “nicest guy in rock” label (which in fairness he never courted).

This week saw the passing of actor James Earl Jones, the iconic voice behind Darth Vader (as well as Mufasa in The Lion King and “This. Is. CNN.”).

Very different voice to that of West Country bodybuilder Dave Prowse that physically portrayed Darth in the original trilogy, who seriously expected his “alright my lovely?” accent to be adopted in the final film.

Thankfully James was brought in to bring that menace and authority to the role, which he was still performing in last year’s Obi Wan Kenobi series.

I can’t put into words how much joy Star Wars has brought me since it first came out through to today – I even watched a couple of them on the flight back.

Made it safely back to NZ last week, and it took a good 4 days to get over the jetlag, longer than normal.

Now the holiday is over it’s back to hard reality and the need to earn some money to pay for pink wine and dog biscuits.

I had an interview with a previous employer while in the UK for a role I really fancied, however I’ve not heard back from them since so I suspect they’ve offered that to someone else.

Yesterday I also had a second Teams interview with a classy MSP (managed service provider) for an engineering role; it seemed to go fairly well, though my lack of recent MSP experience may count against me – the market is tough at the moment with 100s of candidates applying for each role so employers can hand-pick those ideally suited to their requirements.

The next couple of weeks will be about getting back to self-study and adding some certification to the CV to make myself more saleable.

The heating also broke down, which was an expensive bill we could do without, though thankfully the worst of the Winter chill is over and the engineer we rang was able to come and fix it within a couple of days.

Am now waiting for the Visa bill for all the expenses on the trip – there will be a drum roll when I open that one … still, worth it to catch up with The Oldies again.

Spent the day prior to my trip home ticking off one of the major London tourist attractions I somehow haven’t done, the Tower of London.

It was a lot more interesting than I had expected, largely thanks to a fun tour by a bloodthirsty Scots yeoman giving us lots of grisly tales of executions. (The pic below shows him explaining how they held up the severed head to warn those watching what happens to traitors).

He also advised that the first two and the last man to be beheaded were called Simon and warned me (the only Simon in the crowd) to be careful!

The crown jewels were cool with lots of the coronation paraphernalia on display, however the full suits of armour were even more impressive, including full sets of horse armour.

I even got up close with one of the famous ravens, with him checking me out for at least a minute before hopping away. They were the size of a cat and totally unfazed by humans.

The Duchess would have loved seeing the place (except the birds) so maybe a return visit will be necessary when we do our Grand Tour.