Vacations suck

Yeah, really.

Not the going into the vacation, or the actual having the vacation, but the Monday morning back into the office after the vacation.

A word to the wise (for those that haven't figured it out yet). Don't take a week off. A week isn't long enough to justify getting someone to do your work while you're away. The natural consequence of this is that there's about a week's worth of stuff on your desk when you drag yourself back in.

Take a bloody MONTH off. Someone will have to backfill for you, and, if the right person does it (cultivate that person of you find one), there will be minimal crap to greet you on your return.

................................................................................................

It's summer here. Winter was a cool winter this year, with a couple of early Saturday mornings on the football pitch crunching through the frost.

Spring was on, if I remember correctly, a Thursday between 8 and 10:30 a.m. Now it's summer. Backyard full of lorikeets, king parrots, cockatoos (white mostly -- a few black before a heavy rain) and bell birds (sound like a bell -- I don't think I've ever actually seen one though.) The pretty birds aren't showing up because of the witty conversation and lovely landscaping; my dear wife drops a couple of tons (or tonnes) of bird seed and soft fruit in the backyard (in the feeders) a couple of times a week. It's like an aviary. And the grass is getting REALLY green below the feeders.

..................................................................................................

One last thing before I get back to emails. There's a professional football league here in Oz, the A-League, started up in '05. FFA (Football Federation Australia) mandated that all A-League teams set up an academy system to help develop young players. My son starts with the Central Coast Mariners Youth Academy this coming Sunday.

He's stoked.