So, my work and holiday visa would have run out the end of November and they wanted me to stay longer (I still need to work out how much longer).  After a month of getting things together and going through the process I found that I had to leave Australia to actually apply for the 457 Work visa. 

I picked Queenstown.¬† I had been here before for two weeks and it was great.¬† Expensive but great.¬† I didn’t do all the bungy this time that I did last time so it didn’t turn out that expensive.¬† I called today and my Visa had been granted so I can go back whenever, but why rush things?

I did go Skydiving.¬† Wow.¬† I wasn’t really expecting it to be as cold as it was.¬† On the way up we started being able to see our breath after 12000 feet.¬† By 15000 when the door opened my face was already cold.¬† I was the first to leave the plane.¬† Even though I had done this before I still had a few jitters as I sat on the edge with my feet hanging over.¬† A quick push off and we did a back flip comming out of the plane.¬† Falling with your back to the earth watching the plane get smaller seemed much longer than the three seconds it was before we turned to the earth.¬†

I enjoyed this dive more for several reasons.  One was that without a photographer diving with us I could focus on other things; the sceanery, the freezing air on my cheeks, the cloud we almost dropped through.  The mountains here are remarkable (ha ha) with just a bit of snow on top still.  The huge lake and lush green fields were all amazing.

Tomorrow it is back to Melbourne and back to work on Friday.¬† These were my first days off since I started other than one public holiday.¬† I know there are some work-aholics out there but 5 months straight working 8 or more hours¬†every day entitles me to a break.¬† I get another day off on Tuesday.¬† No not to celebrate the election but for Melbourne Cup day.¬† Don’t know what I will do yet but I will find something.

Ok, I thought I would just throw this out there because I think it is very cool.¬† Dropbox is a tool that will sync a folder up across multiple computer, and allow all the version control, sharing, and web accessibility I could want. I started using it a couple months ago when I had the need to move files between work and home and work doesn’t allow access to my webmail.¬† I loaded all the files up and well, it worked just like it should.

I first saw this about a year ago but it was in a closed beta then and I couldn’t test it out.¬† I finally checked it out and I have to say I like it.¬† I haven’t started using the sharing features yet but could see it being very usefull.¬† Anyway, give it a try or at least watch the demo on their site and let me know what you think.