A guy from the New Zealand office has been a visiting. He was presented to me today with instructions that I teach him how to use our Helpdesk system. Frankly I could have done without it as I had fucking work to do!, but it wasn't his fault and I didn't hold it against him.

The training actually went very well. I showed him some things he could run that would slow the system to a crawl and also showed him how to crash the whole thing. Very satisfying. A good day's work.

Nice guy. We had a laugh and he had the kudos of possessing expert knowledge of bad horror films. He also claimed to have worked as an extra on the forthcoming, New Zealand shot "Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans", playing the part of a 'Werewolf slave'. "Underworld" was such a piece of shit that I never bothered to watch the sequel, and I will not be seeing the latest instalment, but actually being an extra in a movie, even a bad one, obviously meant that he got BIG respect from me. He also shared the news that the nickname for Rhona Mitra on the set of "Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans" was Moaner Mitra. Not a pleasant woman, apparently.

We discussed our personal backgrounds and it turned out that he was actually from the UK and that he had emigrated to New Zealand only 3 years ago. To me this was kind of astonishing. He definitely spoke in a strong Antipodean twang. I know that exposure to new people and cultures can change the words, slang and phrases that you use. We have a relatively new guy at work who uses the word 'legend' quite a lot, as in phrases like 'Will Smith - he's an absolute legend!" or 'If Rangers win the cup, it will be totally legend!', and I find that now I am doing the same. But how long does it take to totally lose your original accent completely? I suppose it depends on whether you work at losing it. My Dad left the Republic of Ireland for the UK when he was 21, never went back and he always spoke in a thick Irish accent until the day he died. Nobody except the family could understand a word he said.

Post grinds to a halt as Jerry forgets the point of what he was trying to say...