A LIFE WELL-LIVED...

NEW ZEALAND Aotearoa (The Land of Long Clouds) INVERCARGILL New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS)!

THE INTERVIEW Not long after I quit Farmers Trading, I got a call from another placement consultant. He has a client located in the southern-most part of the country. They are looking for help converting a number of their Milling Production Systems from COBOL to PL/1. From the skills-list, PL/1, which was on top, was the only thing I wasn't comfortable. Despite that, his client was willing to have me for interview. They flew me to Christchurch, then to Invercargill-the site. Donald Walker, head of Application Development, met me at the airport. After a short drive to Tiwai Point, the site of the Smelter, I was introduced to a number of staffs of their Computer Department. John Williams, an elderly gentleman, head of the Department; Donald Walker; and Brian Eagan, head of Systems Development-the "Guru", were my interviewers. During the course of the interview, I got the impression that they want me in. Indeed, I was offered a generous package! They checked me in the best hotel in the city. After a short rest, they picked me up for a welcome dinner in their leading restaurant. I flew back to Auckland the following day, prepare myself for the biggest move I was going to make since coming to New Zealand. THE POSITION I flew back to Invercargill, to a warm welcome, and checked-in the same hotel, in the meantime. At the office, as a Senior Programmer, I was seated next to the head. Again, some names might have slipped through the cracks. Besides John, Donald and Brian: Sharon Mathews; Malcolm Chambers; Peter Hope; Biggle; Grant Butler; Peter Cummings; Stephen Machin (pronounced "mation", hence they call him Info from Information). It must have been my intense desire to learn things, that to me, understanding and coding PL/1 programs quickly became second nature. THE IMMERSION They threw to me every legacy program, both written in COBOL nd PL/1, that needed optimized, or worse, re-written. They were so lucky, I was so productive, and I was lucky too, professionally, I learned many things. They sent me to in-house trainings on ADABAS/NATURAL II, VAX O/S on DEC machines, and eventually to Sydney, Australia for SAP Functional and Technical desciplines. THE ALUMINIUM BAR-CODING SYSTEM One of the big Projects I was involved in and proud of. Robert Shaw (not the actor), was my partner from the User community, and Sharon Mathews, from Programming. The guys at the yard/warehouse told me that its implementation caused thirty-two dock workers their job. They advised me not to get in the dockyard alone.