Nia Williams: Farewell Melbourne

Can you believe it? My time here is nearly over. I'm sad thinking about it. I have less than two weeks left here in cold and damp Melbourne, but at least it will be warm and damp where I'm going next!!!  Monsoon season in southeast Asia. I can't wait. I think I deserve a holiday after getting up at stupid o'clock every morning!!

My time here at Five Mile Press has been an experience and an adventure. Not everyday you get a chance to work abroad. Three months have flown by so quickly, I've only just settled in properly, and now I have to leave, it's just not long enough.

So what have I learned about this GROW program? Well, three months is not long enough for a start! It takes while with any job to settle in. My job here has been more or less the same as my job at Autumn, but I have picked up a few tips on the way, which I've put in my blogs. Half an hour lunches is more than enough, sign off sheets are very useful, having your own office space can make the office too quiet, so perhaps Iron Maiden and Alice Cooper ain't so bad after all!!

Working with new work colleagues has been creative and refreshing, whilst making a few friends along the way too. Working in InDesign has been great, but also been working in Quark too. Not enough men in the office, or rather none at all in design/production/editiorial department, I like a good mix of both. Having a proper mock-up table in the studio, rather than breaking your back bending down. Being in the middle of nowhere is a bit of a drag, but having the warehouse next to it is a bonus. I've been to Five Mile's warehouse more times than the Autumn one! Having a sales folder with all pdfs, jpgs, tiffs of each title is more of a helping hand to the sales guys, where they can take what they need as and when without having to ask everytime. I like the fact that the sales guys are in the office day to day, and that they get in on the mockup front when needed. I'm writing this as if it's my wish list. All in all, it's the little things that I've noticed that I think could make a difference to us at Autumn.

My last tip of my blogs are long service leave. At Five Mile, if you have been working for them for ten years, then you get three month leave for your service. I think that's a genius idea. It's important for everyone to be happy in their work.  After all, you spend most of your time at work, and what's better to reward your happy staff than a long service leave. I think more companies should take on this scheme if they want to keep hold of their staff and give them extra credit for their hard work and dedication for the company. I've only got one more year to go, Michael!!!!! I'll start thinkng about my next trip on the plane home!!

I've included some of the work that I've done here for you all to see. Naturally I didn't put all of them in there, as you'd be all week looking at them!!!! He he!!!!

I wanted to add my Sydney trip to this blog too, as it was my mini break before I leave here. I really loved it, lovely place to visit, Although it might have been something to do with the weather there, glorious sunshine and really warm. I can see why the Opera House is the most photographed landmark in the world, and that was just by me!!!! So check out some of the photos. That's all folks. See you in five weeks or there abouts.