The last two weeks have just flown by with so much happening that I really haven’t had a chance to update the blog. Last week we were fortunate enough to have Martin Fowler (known best for his collection of books such as Refactoring, UML Distilled, and Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture) down under participating in a number of conference/seminar events. Since I work for the same company he works in, we were even more fortunate when he found space in his busy schedule to spend time with us at a client site on one of our projects. I definitely took advantage of the numerous opportunities to dine and chat with the man, enjoying the time we spent discussing a wide variety of topics.

I also returned to Aikido for the first time since my accident, training with caution so that I avoided aggravating my leg. Upon entering the dojo, I was reminded of its great community spirit when everyone showed their concern by asking where I’d been for the last month. Last week also marked the last day of employment for another mate, Aaron (AKA DJ Anarchy) at my old workplace, which, of course, demanded some sort of celebration late into Thursday night/Friday morning.

Last Friday then saw to the start of my employer’s first “Team Hug” events for 2005. My company creates these conference-like events so that everyone in the country can share their experiences and knowledge with each other. For us working in Brisbane, it is also one of the rare occasions where we actually get to meet all of our fellow employees down south in person. Saturday is reserved for the internal conference (which I’m told tends to be much better in content and format than most other conferences) whilst Sunday is seen as the chance to relax, and get to know everyone else in a much more social atmosphere. This Team Hug was held at the Australia Noosa Lakes Resort and was a perfect location to do work related stuff without feeling like it was work related stuff. It was also my first time to present at one of these events, and despite the nerves, felt like it was well-received. Thanks to Andy for pairing with me on the entire presentation.

This week I was invited (thanks Michael and Sarah) to a pre-release screening of the movie, Ong Bak. Although it’s not going to win any academy awards, as far as action and martial arts films go, this is definitely one to go and see. I never released some of the things that you could pull off with Muay Thai kickboxing and the star of this movie manages to demonstrate them all. Although the storyline is not going to make you think very hard, the fairly decent length (for an action movie)is filled with enough humour, drama and lots and lots of action to keep you entertained throughout.