Hello! Safe to say I've strayed my pattern of sitting down and blogging at some point every Monday night.. but it's also safe to say this past week has been one of my busiest yet!! I didn't think it was possible to feel as tired as I was earlier this week, even the (obviously) favourite hobbies like blogging just had to go in favour of sleep. 

Anyway, so it's been busy, but my goodness it has been amazing! Work-wise, last week was a nerve-wracking one, with various execs, heads of departments and big cheeses (including CFO and our global Scot Forbes Alexander) being introduced to our new Financial reporting tool, BI, and along with that, my 6000 word guide on how to use it! So far I've heard positive feedback which has been super encouraging, but time will tell in seeing how useful it truly is. With my main project now completely finished, I've been able to divert my attention on the website revamping, taking the training exercises on Sharepoint (the web application platform used by Jabil to allow employees to update, edit and share content on a html-free website) and interviewing various members of Finance whom I've become familiar during my last six weeks here. In questioning various areas of Finance, I've acquired not only answers to website-related questions, but also had an insight into communications between the various departments, with every single person interviewed giving me extensive feedback on their website usage, their awareness of Finance Transformation's overall roadmap and goals, and how they feel we've communicated the relevance of those goals to them. The feedback has been overwhelming in terms of scale, and so I need to cultivate actions from these responses, tuning the website and its content in a way that everyone feels connected and has a perspective of Finance as a whole, as that is one of the long term goals of Finance Transformation. I am relishing the space and freedom in this new task to structure it how I like, but on the flip side with so many open people on hand to assist and direct me should I require. This has been a theme throughout my internship, and it has been such a blessing. It has been my first experience of someone saying to me "Ok, you're educated, impress us with this piece." Once again it is a challenge I am relishing!

So after a Gelato filled Friday evening looking out on the beautiful waterfront at St Petersburg, Stacey and I left for our first of two theme park days last weekend, Islands of Adventure in Orlando at 6.40am. On a Saturday. All in the name of Harry Potter and Rollercoasters. But the day was amazing, Harry Potter land has been done really well, covering the little town of Hogsmeade, Hogwarts castle, The Hogwarts Express, Butterbeer (delicious) and even that cheesy music we've all grown to love (don't deny it). Pictures:

This day also marked the reconquering of a long living fear I have. Of rollercoasters (just ask Stacey). All it took was going straight for The Incredible Hulk rollercoaster at 8am when we'd just arrived. I was terrified, but it turned out great, and from there I was set! We did a spiderman ride, log flume, white water rafting, duelling dragons, and plenty melting in the sun. Sunday at Universal Studios was more of the same, but with more focus on their films and recreating them in the most convincing way possible. One terrifying but hugely thrilling rollercoaster they have added to the park in recent years has been Rip Ride Rockit, which allows you to select your own theme tune to the ride of your life! Lots of fun. Here's the ride in action from a distance, with some fittingly dramatic music coming from a speaker next to me. You may need to crane your neck. Yes the rollercoaster goes vertically upwards to begin with!

So, two weeks to go and I'm still thoroughly enjoying it out here! Anyone else feel like it'll be a drag going back to uni? I'm quite getting into this full time working malarkey, it ain't too bad!

Hope everyone is well and loving it!

Aidan