I usually go for my lunch to the bakery across the road (it's the only place nearby the does cheap sarnies). Being a bakery though, it also sells an assortment of cakes and biscuits. I have discovered that I have absolutely no will power when it comes to sweet things. Going in there every day and being confronted with an array of cakes.....all looking so lovely. Needless to say I'll soon be a very fat bloater.

It can be very stressful sometimes, trying to manage a property from the other side of the world. I thought that to lessen the worry, I would arrange to have it managed by a letting agency. While I was home at christmas, I called up 1 agency and emailed 3 others. No-one replied to my emails, and the other agency didn't return my call. I ran out of time, and had to come back here having no-one to look after the property. Luckily my tenants are very responsible chaps, and not much has gone wrong. I do panic when I get an email from one of them however as I did the other day.......the boiler had broken down. Turns out it only need a new thermocouple and a friend of one of my tenants replaced it and got the boiler working again. That boiler is like a thorn in my side. I've had so much grief with that thing. Still, it could be worse.

No much going on here. The weather is turning cold, although we do have clear blue skies every day, we just have a very nasty cold wind. Back to the boiling hot showers to heat me up every night since the house doesn't have heating (like all houses here). Shopping list for tomorrow: little fan heater.

Had a full day course at work today. It was run by a company set up by the guy who wrote 'how to win friends and influence people'. It was basically all about team building. It was quite good, except that I somehow managed to get put in a team with the CEO of the company and my boss. It made me pay attention I guess.

Was feeling very happy about getting out of the office today though as I was tired and hungry and wanted to get home. I bought a little bag of jelly sweets that were shaped like little men, and I was eating them while wandering up and down beside the bus stop. I was off into dreamland, enjoying the sugar and thinking about what I was going to have for dinner and I noticed one woman looking at me strangely. It was only then I realised what I had been doing....taking my little jelly men out of the bag, holding them up to my face and saying to them 'who's a little jelly man, who's a little jelly man, who's going to bite your head off.....'

Must really start to pay attention to my surroundings and not go into these dreamlike states and start talking to myself.....

My first week in my new job wasn't too bad. Will be getting training for the first few weeks with a gradual introduction to doing actual work. As the company makes software for medical labs and hospitals, every new person gets to have a tour round a lab. It was fascinating stuff. Best of all was the department where they prepared the tissue samples for the pathologists to look at. They had loads of jars filled with things like skin and moles. I saw what a piece of breast tissue looks like. (White with bright yellow wavy strands coming out of it).

In other news, the weather here seems to have taken a turn for the worst. It's suddenly gotten cold. It's the one thing I really hate about this place. When it gets cold in the house, you just have to suffer it. No central heating. As I type I'm wearing a t-shirt, long sleeved top and heavy sweatshirt. My feet and hands are still cold though.

Good news! I got a job. It's an 8 month contract for a company called Sysmex who develop medical software. Had a stressful few days trying to get a work permit sorted. Had to get up at 5am today and get a taxi into the city and queue outside the immigration office. I got there at 5.45am and there were 22 people in the queue in front of me. Goodness knows what time they got up at. After waiting for 3 hours, I got my permit. Huge weight off my shoulders, I can tell you.

I'm very tired, but trying to stay awake so that I can enjoy as much of the beautiful weather as possible. Today is Thursday, and I start work on Monday, so I need to make as much of the last days of my holiday as I can. Trip to the beach is in order I think.