Friday, April 27, 2007
Day ? - What a week
This post will be deleted later, but I thought that I would let everyone know that my week in Sydney was spent witout access to internet, thus I have been unable to post. I am now using internet fromt he airport and thought that being my last day here I should post something. Soon I will leave the southern hemisphere, but I do plan to finish this blog. Feel free to check back sometime next week to see my remaining stories.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Day 12 - Ground Hog Day
I woke up on Wednesday and noticed that my allergies (perhaps, see below) were still adversely affecting me. I got to the office and found my new friend the cappuccino machine. I continued to conduct training and then came lunch. Go figure, lunch was the same sort of sandwiches, orange juice, and sliced muffins (I think I had forgotten to mention them on my other posts) that we had had the previous two days of training. This time they were on bread again, and like Tuesday, I avoided the ones with mushrooms. The sandwiches were sliced in four triangles each and professionally laid out across the platter. The ones with salmon and cream cheese were particularly enjoyable, with the giant capers that they have down here. (The capers were not specifically the enjoyable part, I actually prefer the taste of the small ones).
After lunch we continued training and actually got to the point of finishing all of the material. As a final touch, we provided a demonstration to some of the higher-ups in the company. Nothing too special. The interesting thing about the demo was that it was arranged by the employee who had connected the IP over fiber link that we had used to talk to our equipment. He found, or rather quite blatantly made himself an opportunity to talk about how wonderful his communication link was. He got no reaction for his remarks; everyone in the room saw quite clearly that he was flattering himself.
Throughout the day, and especially towards the end of the day, with my nose was continuing to leak obnoxiously, my throat was dry caused pain when I swallowed, and my entire body was beginning to ache miserably all over.
I became acutely aware that I felt like crap.
I made my way home at the end of the day and promptly climbed my way into bed. The last thing I wanted while in Australia was to become sick. I, like the night before, woke up a few hours later, checked my e-mail and chatted online. This lasted maybe two hours and I was back in bed trying to sleep off my sickness, or whatever else it was. It did occur to me that being sore all over could actually be a result of my swimming two days earlier; the soreness and allergies together causing me to think that I was getting sick. Either way, I was back in bed having successfully spent two days in a row doing effectively the exact same lack of activities at work and in the hotel.
After lunch we continued training and actually got to the point of finishing all of the material. As a final touch, we provided a demonstration to some of the higher-ups in the company. Nothing too special. The interesting thing about the demo was that it was arranged by the employee who had connected the IP over fiber link that we had used to talk to our equipment. He found, or rather quite blatantly made himself an opportunity to talk about how wonderful his communication link was. He got no reaction for his remarks; everyone in the room saw quite clearly that he was flattering himself.
Throughout the day, and especially towards the end of the day, with my nose was continuing to leak obnoxiously, my throat was dry caused pain when I swallowed, and my entire body was beginning to ache miserably all over.
I became acutely aware that I felt like crap.
I made my way home at the end of the day and promptly climbed my way into bed. The last thing I wanted while in Australia was to become sick. I, like the night before, woke up a few hours later, checked my e-mail and chatted online. This lasted maybe two hours and I was back in bed trying to sleep off my sickness, or whatever else it was. It did occur to me that being sore all over could actually be a result of my swimming two days earlier; the soreness and allergies together causing me to think that I was getting sick. Either way, I was back in bed having successfully spent two days in a row doing effectively the exact same lack of activities at work and in the hotel.
Day 11 - Do You Remember Your Latin
Well, it was Tuesday and I was back in the office continuing on the training I had been giving the week before. The system was operational and we had some data to play with, but the customer still didn't know how to use the system. I continued to conduct my training sessions all day long, and as I had mentioned earlier, most definitely helped one lady get her extra hours of sleep in. Oh well.
Training was training, nothing particularly special. For lunch, we had almost the exact same arrangement as the previous Thursday, only this time we had wraps instead of sandwiches. The tasted fine and I avoided the ones with mushrooms. For the first time since being here my allergies started to effect me. I was reassured by Rob from out in the field that there was a haze hanging over the city when he drove in that morning.
After lunch I continued to sniffle and the trainees continued to learn, and otherwise be bombarded with lots of new information. We took breaks when necessary and I became good friends with the automatic (and free) cappuccino/coffee/hot chocolate/latte machine.
That night when I got home, I did NOTHING, Zilch, Nada, and to a lesser extent bubkes. OK, so technically it is not possible to do nothing. To breathe is to do something. To not breathe is also to do something. But in a less strict sense of the word, and avoiding the philosophical discussion of what it means to be a nihilist and believe in nothing, since that is not quite me either. Although, once I am back home, if someone wants to have an intellectual conversation about the ramifications of what it would mean if the nihilism view of the world were the correct one, I would be up for it. Of course, the best movie use of the term and philosophical ideal is in the move 'The Big Lebowski.'
So, back into regular life and away from such words that are obviously derivatives of their Latin roots, (get this, nihilism comes from the Latin word nihil, meaning 'nothing'; thank you three years of Latin in high-school) I really didn't do anything besides respond to some left over work related e-mails after I got home. The e-mail checking lasted maybe until 7:00PM and then I went to bed. And by going to bed, I do mean that I passed out - tired!
The problem with falling asleep that early is that you are bound to wake up before morning, which I did. When I awoke, I worked on posting here on this blog, called the Western hemisphere, and chatted with some people online, and then I went back to bed until morning.
Starting this day, and still not corrected, my sleep schedule has been way, way off from an appropriate one for this side of the earth.
Oh well, maybe it will help me adjust back to US time.
Training was training, nothing particularly special. For lunch, we had almost the exact same arrangement as the previous Thursday, only this time we had wraps instead of sandwiches. The tasted fine and I avoided the ones with mushrooms. For the first time since being here my allergies started to effect me. I was reassured by Rob from out in the field that there was a haze hanging over the city when he drove in that morning.
After lunch I continued to sniffle and the trainees continued to learn, and otherwise be bombarded with lots of new information. We took breaks when necessary and I became good friends with the automatic (and free) cappuccino/coffee/hot chocolate/latte machine.
That night when I got home, I did NOTHING, Zilch, Nada, and to a lesser extent bubkes. OK, so technically it is not possible to do nothing. To breathe is to do something. To not breathe is also to do something. But in a less strict sense of the word, and avoiding the philosophical discussion of what it means to be a nihilist and believe in nothing, since that is not quite me either. Although, once I am back home, if someone wants to have an intellectual conversation about the ramifications of what it would mean if the nihilism view of the world were the correct one, I would be up for it. Of course, the best movie use of the term and philosophical ideal is in the move 'The Big Lebowski.'
So, back into regular life and away from such words that are obviously derivatives of their Latin roots, (get this, nihilism comes from the Latin word nihil, meaning 'nothing'; thank you three years of Latin in high-school) I really didn't do anything besides respond to some left over work related e-mails after I got home. The e-mail checking lasted maybe until 7:00PM and then I went to bed. And by going to bed, I do mean that I passed out - tired!
The problem with falling asleep that early is that you are bound to wake up before morning, which I did. When I awoke, I worked on posting here on this blog, called the Western hemisphere, and chatted with some people online, and then I went back to bed until morning.
Starting this day, and still not corrected, my sleep schedule has been way, way off from an appropriate one for this side of the earth.
Oh well, maybe it will help me adjust back to US time.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Day 10 - Excuse Me Sir
So, I was all hopeful that I was actually going to be able to catch up on my posts, but here it is, Monday night and I still haven't posted about the previous Monday.
The day started off somewhat lazily, but in a relaxed way, not because I slept late, in fact, I actually woke up in time for the hotel breakfast for the first time. (OK, so, actually, this was not my first time awake in time because I was awake on time the previous Thursday, but on that day I was rushing to get to work and skipped breakfast like usual). I went down stairs to get my self some grub and into the nice eating area with heavy utensils and nice plates. There were coffee glasses on coasters at every seat and the utensils sat upon those really thick, almost cloth-like disposable napkins. Seating was by the host and hostess so that they could first mark off your name on the list of registered guests. Breakfast costs $12.50 and is billed directly to the room account.
Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, some smoked sausage links, and very, very floppy bacon. They type of bacon that is cooked just enough to make it warm. The sausages really weren't very good at all and the eggs were pretty bland without adding some more seasoning to them. the bacon was tasty, but it just seemed weird that it needed the be eaten with a knife and fork, not my hands. They also had at breakfast some varieties of mixed fruits and some different yogurts. A couple of the yogurts were themselves flavored with other fruits. The plain yogurt was more like cottage cheese than yogurt. Next to the fruits were some single serving packages of muesli (basically just granola) and some other cereals. After that came the tray of breads for sandwiches or toast and the industrial toasters. The available toppings/spreads for the toast (all in individual packages, too) were a range of jellies, real butter, and (gasp) Vegemite. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to actually try it, so, as suggested to me just a couple of days before, I grabbed some butter to go with it.
When I sat down with my food and spread some butter on a small corner of the bread and the Vegemite on top. My initial reaction was the same as your first reaction might be with a really bitter beer. Oh, if you don't otherwise know, Vegemite is dark, dark brown, almost to the point of being black, which does not make it immediately appetizing when you see it there in the little single serving tray. I was tempted to stop eating that corner of the bread right then and there, and to continue with some jelly instead, but then decided that if I am going to give this spread a chance, I have to actually give it a chance!! I spread the butter on the entire remaining slice of bread, and Vegemite all across the top of that and started eating. What I then quickly began to taste (odd that it wasn't the immediate taste before) was the massive amount of salt in this little spread. I kept eating and the taste, again like beer, became far more bearable. I almost can understand how people start to like it. I will probably give it another try if I manage to wake up in time for breakfast again.
After breakfast I made it back to my room and decided that this extra holiday off from work would be a good day to try to get some of my laundry done. Before hand, however, I did spend some time logging into the system installed at the utility and checking up on performance and configuration, etc. When the work part was done, I gathered my clothes and changed into my swimming suit.
The laundry facilities in my hotel are in the basement next to the pool and work out facility (both of which, now that I am about to leave town as of when I am posting this, have been drastically under utilized). I spent the $3.00 AUS in coins to feed the small front loading washing machine. The detergent was available in pouches with enough detergent for two loads from the hotel staff. The graciously charged the $2.00 for the detergent to the room account. As my one load started spinning away, I went down the short hallway to the pool and started my swim.
Wow I am out of shape.
I swam hard for a lap, panted for air, swam hard for a lap, panted for air again. This went on for most of the 25 minutes that my laundry was cycling. I alternated strokes after each lap, and I do know how to breathe while swimming, so I really am just horribly out of shape. The water in the pool was warm, and not yellow, so I do believe that it was a heated pool. On interesting effect of the pool, however, was the fact that my eyes never started stinging from chlorine and the pool water residue on my lips tasted rather salt, so it is entirely possible (and this might make sense with the drought, though I really don’t know) that the water is purified sea water, and not otherwise the same clean water that comes through the sink and shower.
Around 21 minutes in the pool (I was wearing my stop watch to keep track of the laundry process) I decided that I had swam enough and sat down in front of the row of machines. As I sat there, I had this over whelming sense of feeling awful, in fact, I thought I might faint. I was able to hold back the feeling just barely long enough to get my clothing into the dryer, spend the $2.00, and get back up the lift and back to my room. Once there, I placed my towel across the floor and assumed a fetal position on the floor while my head kept swimming. Exactly what was wrong, I don’t know. It might well have been the over exertion that I had forced upon my body. I am also convinced that I must have swallowed some of the pool water. Anyway, I sat there on floor past the time the dryer had finished its routine and still a little longer, though how long I am not sure.
Eventually I started feeling better. I went down to get my clothing from the dryer, and found in true dorm like fashion that all of the clothes were still quite damp. Luckily my shower was equipped with a retractable clothes line, so I hung up what I could there and placed the remaining items around the room. A photo of the tub clothes line is here below.
Somewhere amidst the clothing strewn around my room, I managed to lie down to take a nap. I guess it was still on the floor. Once I work up, I moved the still somewhat damp items from the clothesline and I showered from after my swim.
Deciding that all I had really done all day was feel bad, I decided that a new good thing to do would be to walk more of the CBD and try to see some of the remaining sites of the city. This walk was designed to take me to Melbourne’s China Town and Greek area of town. Along the way, I found my way into the Royal Arcade; it happens that this is one of the sights mentioned on the ‘Welcome to Melbourne’ video they showed on my plain flight. In the arcade are the statues of Gog and Magog.
The text is hard to read in the photo, but says the following: (I had to look it up because I was having trouble reading the text even with the full sized image I have stored on my computer).
"These two 7-feet giants have been striking
the time on Gaunt’s clock since 1842. They were
carved from clear pine and modelled on the
figures erected in Guildhall, London, in 1708
to symbolize the conflict between the ancient
Britons and the Trojan invaders"
"Mythology tells of the giants Gog and Magog
(also known as Corineus and Gogmagog) having
been captured in battle by the Trojans and made
to serve as porters at the gateway of an ancient
palace on a site later occupied by the Guildhall.
It is traditional for Gog to stand to the north
and Magog to the south."
I cannot tell you for certain which direction is north in the photo, sorry, but I believe that the clock faces North.
After leaving the arcade, I saw this decorated street performer playing his wooden flute (pretty well I might add) to the background music supplied by his sound system behind him. I have some video footage of his playing for all those that would actually like to hear it. (This has not been the only street musician I have seen, but there have not been very many. On Tuesday - day 18, I saw a girl who couldn’t have been older than 7 playing her special small violin).
My next stop was China Town. In typical China Town fashion, there were Chinese arches all around the area, most were erected over the streets entering the area - this was the only one I saw in the middle of the street. The stone lions at the base of the arch happen to be the same ones highlighted in my Australia tourist guide.
Also in the China town area, the normal street lamps have been replaced by lamps that symbolize proper Chinese paper lanterns, but of course these ones are glass.
While in China Town, I made a fun purchase of some sesame balls. I was hoping for the variety filled with red bean paste, but managed to purchase the hard, solid variety instead. I enjoyed eating them anyway. I continued to walk around, enjoying my snack, and found proof positive that the Chinese in Melbourne (or at least some of them) are Methodists. I would love to know what some of the ext on the sign says, (Hint!!) though I am sure it is just talking about service times. The church also had a statue of John Wesley out front, which I have a photo of, but have not included in this post.
After China Town was the Greek part of town. Their decorating was a little less extravagant as the arches just blocks away.
There was nothing particularly exciting about the Greek part of town. I have had baklava since being here, but I did not purchase any while in that part of the CBD. The only other specifically Greek decorating I saw was on the sidewalks. The concrete slabs in some areas have the same pattern as around the trees stamped into them. The other cool sight that this part of town had was some souvenir shops where each and every item had Greek writing on them only, and there was also a CD/Music store featuring only imported CD’s of Greek musicians.
When I felt satisfied with having walked around this area, I continued on my way far up Swanston Street and found familiar sights such as a new Aldi opening soon and an Avis rental car office. More importantly, I found the big public library, the old Swanston Street City Baths, and the campus buildings RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). By this time of night, the Library was forcing people out and the Baths didn’t appear to be letting anyone in either, but at least I was able to find out where they are located. At this point it is very unlikely for me to manage to see the insides of either place. I guess I will just have to make it back down to this side of the world sometime again.
The baths, some of the creative RMIT buildings, and the statue of St. George slaying the dragon can be seen below.
Across the street from the library was a nice corner side Gelato shop. I purchased a cone to keep me company as I walked back do to the other end of the CBD. Being that it was late, I decided that I needed a real dinner and stopped at Young and Jackson’s restaurant right at the busiest corner of the CBD. (the corner Flinders and Swanston Sts.) At this restaurant, conveniently also a micro-brewery, I ordered a Cajun chicken sandwich and a beer. The sandwich had some floppy bacon on top of it and was served with fries. The beer, which I ordered based on the recommendation of one of my two waitresses, was a Y&J Hefeweizen. It was a good beer served in a true Imperial Pint glass. It had a definite hint of fruit (seemingly strawberry) flavors, which worked very nicely with the overall taste and texture of the brew and it drank nicely.
The two waitresses were working very, very hard with the full room of tables, and provided very good service, so I decided, though not expected nor needed in Melbourne, to go ahead and tip them a couple of dollars each.
[Aside: I found out in conversation on Tues. – day 18 while having lunch with one of my clients that there have been newspaper article recently talking about how the waiters and waitresses in the city are starting to expect tips thanks to all of the ignorant tourists who don’t know better. Since the wait staff in Australia get paid proper wages, unlike back home, the tip really is what it should be, a completely optional ‘thank you’ to be given for exceptional service, only. I explained to my client why tipping is necessary in the States based on the earned wages and how most wait staff are supposed to report their tips as income. We also discussed the GST (goods and sales tax) that is automatically included in all purchases of goods and prepared foods, etc. It really is very convenient not to have to do the math of taxes and tips when determining what meals fit within your budget, and which ones don’t.]
After dinner, I started walking home and went to bed, needing to be back in the office the next day. On the walk home, however, there were these two confused looking guys walking down the street. They stopped as I approached and asked me if I knew where China Town was located. I told them simply that they were heading in completely the wrong direction, and being a tourist myself, though I have only had to look at it once or twice over my entire stay, I pulled out my trusty map of the CBD. I pointed out to them where we were and how to best get to China Town. It was very convenient that I had just come from their myself. Along with this small activity, I had realized that I was starting to feel much less like a tourist and more like a temporary resident.
I continued to walk down the street towards the hotel when I found, at the corner of Queen Street, a very confused looking couple. I approached them to find out where they were trying to go. They told me, in their noticeably British accents that they were looking for the Queen's Bridge. They were right to think that the bridge belonged at the road with the same name, but there happens to be a very large subway train station in the way. The bridge is actually at the end of the street on which my hotel and office reside, so I offered that they just follow me down the block for a bit. They did and we parted ways when we came to the crosswalk. Melbourne really does have a HUGE tourism industry with a never ending supply of tourists from all over the globe.
[Aside 2: The larger number of photos in this post is to make up for the lack of photos, and even lack of fun things to read about in my next few posts. Fair warning!]
The day started off somewhat lazily, but in a relaxed way, not because I slept late, in fact, I actually woke up in time for the hotel breakfast for the first time. (OK, so, actually, this was not my first time awake in time because I was awake on time the previous Thursday, but on that day I was rushing to get to work and skipped breakfast like usual). I went down stairs to get my self some grub and into the nice eating area with heavy utensils and nice plates. There were coffee glasses on coasters at every seat and the utensils sat upon those really thick, almost cloth-like disposable napkins. Seating was by the host and hostess so that they could first mark off your name on the list of registered guests. Breakfast costs $12.50 and is billed directly to the room account.
Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, some smoked sausage links, and very, very floppy bacon. They type of bacon that is cooked just enough to make it warm. The sausages really weren't very good at all and the eggs were pretty bland without adding some more seasoning to them. the bacon was tasty, but it just seemed weird that it needed the be eaten with a knife and fork, not my hands. They also had at breakfast some varieties of mixed fruits and some different yogurts. A couple of the yogurts were themselves flavored with other fruits. The plain yogurt was more like cottage cheese than yogurt. Next to the fruits were some single serving packages of muesli (basically just granola) and some other cereals. After that came the tray of breads for sandwiches or toast and the industrial toasters. The available toppings/spreads for the toast (all in individual packages, too) were a range of jellies, real butter, and (gasp) Vegemite. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to actually try it, so, as suggested to me just a couple of days before, I grabbed some butter to go with it.
When I sat down with my food and spread some butter on a small corner of the bread and the Vegemite on top. My initial reaction was the same as your first reaction might be with a really bitter beer. Oh, if you don't otherwise know, Vegemite is dark, dark brown, almost to the point of being black, which does not make it immediately appetizing when you see it there in the little single serving tray. I was tempted to stop eating that corner of the bread right then and there, and to continue with some jelly instead, but then decided that if I am going to give this spread a chance, I have to actually give it a chance!! I spread the butter on the entire remaining slice of bread, and Vegemite all across the top of that and started eating. What I then quickly began to taste (odd that it wasn't the immediate taste before) was the massive amount of salt in this little spread. I kept eating and the taste, again like beer, became far more bearable. I almost can understand how people start to like it. I will probably give it another try if I manage to wake up in time for breakfast again.
After breakfast I made it back to my room and decided that this extra holiday off from work would be a good day to try to get some of my laundry done. Before hand, however, I did spend some time logging into the system installed at the utility and checking up on performance and configuration, etc. When the work part was done, I gathered my clothes and changed into my swimming suit.
The laundry facilities in my hotel are in the basement next to the pool and work out facility (both of which, now that I am about to leave town as of when I am posting this, have been drastically under utilized). I spent the $3.00 AUS in coins to feed the small front loading washing machine. The detergent was available in pouches with enough detergent for two loads from the hotel staff. The graciously charged the $2.00 for the detergent to the room account. As my one load started spinning away, I went down the short hallway to the pool and started my swim.
Wow I am out of shape.
I swam hard for a lap, panted for air, swam hard for a lap, panted for air again. This went on for most of the 25 minutes that my laundry was cycling. I alternated strokes after each lap, and I do know how to breathe while swimming, so I really am just horribly out of shape. The water in the pool was warm, and not yellow, so I do believe that it was a heated pool. On interesting effect of the pool, however, was the fact that my eyes never started stinging from chlorine and the pool water residue on my lips tasted rather salt, so it is entirely possible (and this might make sense with the drought, though I really don’t know) that the water is purified sea water, and not otherwise the same clean water that comes through the sink and shower.
Around 21 minutes in the pool (I was wearing my stop watch to keep track of the laundry process) I decided that I had swam enough and sat down in front of the row of machines. As I sat there, I had this over whelming sense of feeling awful, in fact, I thought I might faint. I was able to hold back the feeling just barely long enough to get my clothing into the dryer, spend the $2.00, and get back up the lift and back to my room. Once there, I placed my towel across the floor and assumed a fetal position on the floor while my head kept swimming. Exactly what was wrong, I don’t know. It might well have been the over exertion that I had forced upon my body. I am also convinced that I must have swallowed some of the pool water. Anyway, I sat there on floor past the time the dryer had finished its routine and still a little longer, though how long I am not sure.
Eventually I started feeling better. I went down to get my clothing from the dryer, and found in true dorm like fashion that all of the clothes were still quite damp. Luckily my shower was equipped with a retractable clothes line, so I hung up what I could there and placed the remaining items around the room. A photo of the tub clothes line is here below.
Somewhere amidst the clothing strewn around my room, I managed to lie down to take a nap. I guess it was still on the floor. Once I work up, I moved the still somewhat damp items from the clothesline and I showered from after my swim.
Deciding that all I had really done all day was feel bad, I decided that a new good thing to do would be to walk more of the CBD and try to see some of the remaining sites of the city. This walk was designed to take me to Melbourne’s China Town and Greek area of town. Along the way, I found my way into the Royal Arcade; it happens that this is one of the sights mentioned on the ‘Welcome to Melbourne’ video they showed on my plain flight. In the arcade are the statues of Gog and Magog.
The text is hard to read in the photo, but says the following: (I had to look it up because I was having trouble reading the text even with the full sized image I have stored on my computer).
the time on Gaunt’s clock since 1842. They were
carved from clear pine and modelled on the
figures erected in Guildhall, London, in 1708
to symbolize the conflict between the ancient
Britons and the Trojan invaders"
(also known as Corineus and Gogmagog) having
been captured in battle by the Trojans and made
to serve as porters at the gateway of an ancient
palace on a site later occupied by the Guildhall.
It is traditional for Gog to stand to the north
and Magog to the south."
I cannot tell you for certain which direction is north in the photo, sorry, but I believe that the clock faces North.
After leaving the arcade, I saw this decorated street performer playing his wooden flute (pretty well I might add) to the background music supplied by his sound system behind him. I have some video footage of his playing for all those that would actually like to hear it. (This has not been the only street musician I have seen, but there have not been very many. On Tuesday - day 18, I saw a girl who couldn’t have been older than 7 playing her special small violin).
My next stop was China Town. In typical China Town fashion, there were Chinese arches all around the area, most were erected over the streets entering the area - this was the only one I saw in the middle of the street. The stone lions at the base of the arch happen to be the same ones highlighted in my Australia tourist guide.
Also in the China town area, the normal street lamps have been replaced by lamps that symbolize proper Chinese paper lanterns, but of course these ones are glass.
While in China Town, I made a fun purchase of some sesame balls. I was hoping for the variety filled with red bean paste, but managed to purchase the hard, solid variety instead. I enjoyed eating them anyway. I continued to walk around, enjoying my snack, and found proof positive that the Chinese in Melbourne (or at least some of them) are Methodists. I would love to know what some of the ext on the sign says, (Hint!!) though I am sure it is just talking about service times. The church also had a statue of John Wesley out front, which I have a photo of, but have not included in this post.
After China Town was the Greek part of town. Their decorating was a little less extravagant as the arches just blocks away.
There was nothing particularly exciting about the Greek part of town. I have had baklava since being here, but I did not purchase any while in that part of the CBD. The only other specifically Greek decorating I saw was on the sidewalks. The concrete slabs in some areas have the same pattern as around the trees stamped into them. The other cool sight that this part of town had was some souvenir shops where each and every item had Greek writing on them only, and there was also a CD/Music store featuring only imported CD’s of Greek musicians.
When I felt satisfied with having walked around this area, I continued on my way far up Swanston Street and found familiar sights such as a new Aldi opening soon and an Avis rental car office. More importantly, I found the big public library, the old Swanston Street City Baths, and the campus buildings RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). By this time of night, the Library was forcing people out and the Baths didn’t appear to be letting anyone in either, but at least I was able to find out where they are located. At this point it is very unlikely for me to manage to see the insides of either place. I guess I will just have to make it back down to this side of the world sometime again.
The baths, some of the creative RMIT buildings, and the statue of St. George slaying the dragon can be seen below.
Across the street from the library was a nice corner side Gelato shop. I purchased a cone to keep me company as I walked back do to the other end of the CBD. Being that it was late, I decided that I needed a real dinner and stopped at Young and Jackson’s restaurant right at the busiest corner of the CBD. (the corner Flinders and Swanston Sts.) At this restaurant, conveniently also a micro-brewery, I ordered a Cajun chicken sandwich and a beer. The sandwich had some floppy bacon on top of it and was served with fries. The beer, which I ordered based on the recommendation of one of my two waitresses, was a Y&J Hefeweizen. It was a good beer served in a true Imperial Pint glass. It had a definite hint of fruit (seemingly strawberry) flavors, which worked very nicely with the overall taste and texture of the brew and it drank nicely.
The two waitresses were working very, very hard with the full room of tables, and provided very good service, so I decided, though not expected nor needed in Melbourne, to go ahead and tip them a couple of dollars each.
[Aside: I found out in conversation on Tues. – day 18 while having lunch with one of my clients that there have been newspaper article recently talking about how the waiters and waitresses in the city are starting to expect tips thanks to all of the ignorant tourists who don’t know better. Since the wait staff in Australia get paid proper wages, unlike back home, the tip really is what it should be, a completely optional ‘thank you’ to be given for exceptional service, only. I explained to my client why tipping is necessary in the States based on the earned wages and how most wait staff are supposed to report their tips as income. We also discussed the GST (goods and sales tax) that is automatically included in all purchases of goods and prepared foods, etc. It really is very convenient not to have to do the math of taxes and tips when determining what meals fit within your budget, and which ones don’t.]
After dinner, I started walking home and went to bed, needing to be back in the office the next day. On the walk home, however, there were these two confused looking guys walking down the street. They stopped as I approached and asked me if I knew where China Town was located. I told them simply that they were heading in completely the wrong direction, and being a tourist myself, though I have only had to look at it once or twice over my entire stay, I pulled out my trusty map of the CBD. I pointed out to them where we were and how to best get to China Town. It was very convenient that I had just come from their myself. Along with this small activity, I had realized that I was starting to feel much less like a tourist and more like a temporary resident.
I continued to walk down the street towards the hotel when I found, at the corner of Queen Street, a very confused looking couple. I approached them to find out where they were trying to go. They told me, in their noticeably British accents that they were looking for the Queen's Bridge. They were right to think that the bridge belonged at the road with the same name, but there happens to be a very large subway train station in the way. The bridge is actually at the end of the street on which my hotel and office reside, so I offered that they just follow me down the block for a bit. They did and we parted ways when we came to the crosswalk. Melbourne really does have a HUGE tourism industry with a never ending supply of tourists from all over the globe.
[Aside 2: The larger number of photos in this post is to make up for the lack of photos, and even lack of fun things to read about in my next few posts. Fair warning!]
Day 9 - Funny and Not So Funny
Sunday was almost going to be another late start to the day, but when I woke up I actually remembered that it was Easter Sunday. I went online to find the nearest Catholic church. Actually, I would have been more than happy to attend service in a church of any denomination, but I wanted to find out if there were Catholic churches around, or just Episcopalian churches. The church was a small quaint black stone building hidden between tall urban buildings. It had a reasonable court yard in front with a wrought iron fence around it. I do not recall seeing a gate on the fence. In a fashion suitable for emphasizing the big difference between Catholics and Protestants was a big red banner hanging from the church steeple across the front of the church. Printed on this banner were the words "Jesus Died For Your Sins".
A quick aside for some religious talk... what I typically hear as one of the primary complaints against the Catholic religion is the emphasis on the Death of Jesus rather than the Resurrection, this is why protestant crosses do not have the image of the crucified Jesus on them. I know some of the people who read this will say 'Duh, Dan, we all know that', but I am pretty certain that not everyone reading this does know. Although those that don't know also probably don't care at all.
Now, in my typical fashion, I was a little late to Mass. [another quick aside: Ben, the Aussie I met on the train did not know the term Mass when I used it while chatting with him later. I do not know if this is a cultural difference between our countries or something he just didn't know. After all, Lent is not the same term used in all countries.] But I did make it there for the readings and communion, not that I take part being that it is not my place. If you can't think of at least two VERY good reasons why it is not my place, just assume that I am not in a state of grace.
Joining me in the back of the church, where kneeling is done on the floor and there are no seats, were plenty of others who had arrive, though before me, much too late to have a place in a pew. There was also a girl there who was wearing no less than five Rosaries around her neck and one looped as a bracelet around her wrist. There were also a couple of girls, of good dating age for Ben, who were dressed for church in a manner that would prevent them from being admitted to St. Peters at the Vatican.
[Dan has too many asides: When I was going Italy many years ago, we were warned as a group that the ladies/girls attending the trip needed to be sure to pack with them a long skirt or dress to wear when touring some of the more conservative churches that do not allow ladies to enter wearing pants. Along with a long skirt as a dress code requirement for the ladies, all guys and girls had to have their shoulders covered to be allowed into these same churches. When in Italy, the only time I noticed this as an issue was on the day we went to the Vatican when a lady, not in our group, was wearing a tank top and tried to get past the Swiss Guards by placing small white napkins under the straps to cover her shoulders. It was all very amusing. Her boyfriend tried to distract the guard while she ran up the stairs. In three attempts, they never got past the guards, but she did get escorted away all three times.]
So, there I was at Mass. It felt like the perfect beautiful Spring day that should accompany Easter back home, except that it is technically fall down here. Flowers are still in bloom though. There was nothing particularly noteworthy in the service for posting here except that the girl with the Rosaries kept giving the evil-eye to everyone else in the church. I was almost saddened to note that after the service, just like in the States, many people decided to 'beat' the crowd by fleeing the church as soon as he or she had received their communion.
After the service there was a meet-and-greet in the courtyard and volunteers handed out slices of raisin bread and those small individually wrapped solid chocolate eggs. I stayed around for a little while, went to find lunch, and then went back to my hotel. I can't remember what I ate for lunch that day. It must not have been that impressive.
Once back in the hotel, I sent some e-mails, made some posts, chatted online, and made plans for the rest of my day. I again thought about heading out to Phillip Island to see the Penguin Parade, but decided against it for the same reasons that I didn't drive to Healesville the day before. I planned at the time to go there on Monday, but that didn't happen either. It is actually somewhat relaxing not having to worry about your car and traffic, and parking, and parking tickets, etc. (No I did not get any parking tickets here. I thought I might the very first morning, though).
One offer I did have for something else to do that night was attend a Bunny Shuffle. This was just the creative name for the Rave that night at a club called Twister. This offer came from Ben, the guy on the train, and it was because of this invite that I figured out what PHD stands for, and with it, what HSD stands for. PHD is Pure Hard Dance, and HSD is HArd Style Dance. This Bunny Shuffle was an event with dueling DJ's representing both styles of dance. I had a good feeling that I wouldn't be in attendance at this event, but was quite humored by, and appreciated the invitation. They flier for the event is below, and is in fact my only picture for this post.
What I eventually decided to do with the rest of my day, besides walking around the CBD some more, was to find a comedy show to attend. On April 4th and until April 29th there is a HUGE international comedy festival here in Melbourne. It does seem to be an annual event, and a organizational nightmare. The link of information for the festival can be found here: http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/. There are hundreds of shows being performed by an even larger group of comedians in venues all across the downtown/CBD area. Most of the venues even have several rooms or stages setup for the performers. There are performances at almost any time of day that you might want to attend starting at 11:00AM.
I spent far too long trying to determine which show to go see. Originally I was thinking about one titled 'Andrew McClelland's Somewhat Ambitious Solution for Making the World a Better Place (in general)', but decided against it strictly because of the $30 admission charge. I figured that I can be cheap for my first show and then make a more educated judgment on the value later. The show I found instead was listed for only $19 (I know, not a big difference, I must just actually be THAT cheap). This show is called 'Sammy J in Cyclone'. I invited my co-consultant to attend the show with me, and would have invited other people had I been able to reach them, or had they (meaning Ben) not had plans. My co-consultant did join me for the show, and when I went to purchase the tickets I was only charged $15 each. I fronted his money to buy both tickets when I got the the central ticket booth/venue and saw the swarm of hundreds upon hundreds of comedy goers and I think they gave me the 'concession' (student discount) price, even though as a foreigner I am not supposed to be eligible.
Interestingly, my co-consultant claimed to not be a fan of comedy in general. I am not sure how this can be, being that I am convinced that everyone likes to laughs now and again.
We attended the show of Sammy J, where the premise was that we were some 30 people stuck in a small cyclone shelter in the middle of a huge storm crisis in Melbourne. They performer sang some jingles, all very funny, with the aid of his electric keyboard, and intermixed in his cabaret performance opportunities to have fake, though in line with the story, conversations on his cell phone. He also had a back story for the ensuing catastrophe that he had pre-filmed in parts to be played on the projector screen behind him. In short, he was the reason that no one knew that the cyclone was coming to destroy Melbourne. In the videos, he found the time for a side joke in which first a polar bear stole his car, and later, he got to fight the polar bear mortal combat style; complete with dumbed voice overs for 'Fight' and 'Finish Him'. What really impressed me was the fact that they had rented a helicopter to film the fight just for his act in this comedy show. He also arranged a phony interview with one of the most prominent news casters in the city on channel 7. The news caster read, again just for this comedy routine, lines from a script all about the cyclone coming to devastate Melbourne.
I know that my description is a little bit too 'matter-of-fact' but the show was very, very funny. At one point he asked someone in the audience to give out the phone number of a loved one who hadn't been warned about the impending doom. A guy in the back yelled out a cell phone number (all cell phones here have the area code 04) and our comedian called the unsuspecting person. When Sammy asked the guy in the back who we were calling, the response was "I don't know, I made up the number". "Well, its ringing", said Sammy. When we got the voicemail message, he had us, as a group, all yell out in unison "Run for your life, a Cyclone is coming". How would you like to check your messages to have that left for you? Again, very, very funny.
When the show was over, Sammy J (his character name, not his real name, though I don't remember what his real name is), thanked us all for coming and gave us each a sticker that says 'I Survived'. I am looking forward to adding this sticker to my mini-fridge in my basement.
This show had taken us well into the evening. My co-consultant and I parted ways and I headed back to my hotel. On the walk back to the hotel, I noticed a police officer walking quickly in front of me. This caught my attention mostly because I very infrequently notice police officers around town here. As I made my way down the street, the police officer in front of me stopped to congregate with five others. This, I thought was an odd sight. As I approached the congregation, I noticed why the cops seemed to all be standing at that spot. They had four young kids, all about 13-14 in hand-cuffs sitting against the side of the building. I decided that wise choice would not be to ask the kids, nor the cops, why they were sitting there hand -cuffed, and instead kept walking to my hotel.
I am still not sure what the kids may have done, but one thought was that the CBD might have a curfew. Hopefully I will remember to ask the people at work.
A quick aside for some religious talk... what I typically hear as one of the primary complaints against the Catholic religion is the emphasis on the Death of Jesus rather than the Resurrection, this is why protestant crosses do not have the image of the crucified Jesus on them. I know some of the people who read this will say 'Duh, Dan, we all know that', but I am pretty certain that not everyone reading this does know. Although those that don't know also probably don't care at all.
Now, in my typical fashion, I was a little late to Mass. [another quick aside: Ben, the Aussie I met on the train did not know the term Mass when I used it while chatting with him later. I do not know if this is a cultural difference between our countries or something he just didn't know. After all, Lent is not the same term used in all countries.] But I did make it there for the readings and communion, not that I take part being that it is not my place. If you can't think of at least two VERY good reasons why it is not my place, just assume that I am not in a state of grace.
Joining me in the back of the church, where kneeling is done on the floor and there are no seats, were plenty of others who had arrive, though before me, much too late to have a place in a pew. There was also a girl there who was wearing no less than five Rosaries around her neck and one looped as a bracelet around her wrist. There were also a couple of girls, of good dating age for Ben, who were dressed for church in a manner that would prevent them from being admitted to St. Peters at the Vatican.
[Dan has too many asides: When I was going Italy many years ago, we were warned as a group that the ladies/girls attending the trip needed to be sure to pack with them a long skirt or dress to wear when touring some of the more conservative churches that do not allow ladies to enter wearing pants. Along with a long skirt as a dress code requirement for the ladies, all guys and girls had to have their shoulders covered to be allowed into these same churches. When in Italy, the only time I noticed this as an issue was on the day we went to the Vatican when a lady, not in our group, was wearing a tank top and tried to get past the Swiss Guards by placing small white napkins under the straps to cover her shoulders. It was all very amusing. Her boyfriend tried to distract the guard while she ran up the stairs. In three attempts, they never got past the guards, but she did get escorted away all three times.]
So, there I was at Mass. It felt like the perfect beautiful Spring day that should accompany Easter back home, except that it is technically fall down here. Flowers are still in bloom though. There was nothing particularly noteworthy in the service for posting here except that the girl with the Rosaries kept giving the evil-eye to everyone else in the church. I was almost saddened to note that after the service, just like in the States, many people decided to 'beat' the crowd by fleeing the church as soon as he or she had received their communion.
After the service there was a meet-and-greet in the courtyard and volunteers handed out slices of raisin bread and those small individually wrapped solid chocolate eggs. I stayed around for a little while, went to find lunch, and then went back to my hotel. I can't remember what I ate for lunch that day. It must not have been that impressive.
Once back in the hotel, I sent some e-mails, made some posts, chatted online, and made plans for the rest of my day. I again thought about heading out to Phillip Island to see the Penguin Parade, but decided against it for the same reasons that I didn't drive to Healesville the day before. I planned at the time to go there on Monday, but that didn't happen either. It is actually somewhat relaxing not having to worry about your car and traffic, and parking, and parking tickets, etc. (No I did not get any parking tickets here. I thought I might the very first morning, though).
One offer I did have for something else to do that night was attend a Bunny Shuffle. This was just the creative name for the Rave that night at a club called Twister. This offer came from Ben, the guy on the train, and it was because of this invite that I figured out what PHD stands for, and with it, what HSD stands for. PHD is Pure Hard Dance, and HSD is HArd Style Dance. This Bunny Shuffle was an event with dueling DJ's representing both styles of dance. I had a good feeling that I wouldn't be in attendance at this event, but was quite humored by, and appreciated the invitation. They flier for the event is below, and is in fact my only picture for this post.
What I eventually decided to do with the rest of my day, besides walking around the CBD some more, was to find a comedy show to attend. On April 4th and until April 29th there is a HUGE international comedy festival here in Melbourne. It does seem to be an annual event, and a organizational nightmare. The link of information for the festival can be found here: http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/. There are hundreds of shows being performed by an even larger group of comedians in venues all across the downtown/CBD area. Most of the venues even have several rooms or stages setup for the performers. There are performances at almost any time of day that you might want to attend starting at 11:00AM.
I spent far too long trying to determine which show to go see. Originally I was thinking about one titled 'Andrew McClelland's Somewhat Ambitious Solution for Making the World a Better Place (in general)', but decided against it strictly because of the $30 admission charge. I figured that I can be cheap for my first show and then make a more educated judgment on the value later. The show I found instead was listed for only $19 (I know, not a big difference, I must just actually be THAT cheap). This show is called 'Sammy J in Cyclone'. I invited my co-consultant to attend the show with me, and would have invited other people had I been able to reach them, or had they (meaning Ben) not had plans. My co-consultant did join me for the show, and when I went to purchase the tickets I was only charged $15 each. I fronted his money to buy both tickets when I got the the central ticket booth/venue and saw the swarm of hundreds upon hundreds of comedy goers and I think they gave me the 'concession' (student discount) price, even though as a foreigner I am not supposed to be eligible.
Interestingly, my co-consultant claimed to not be a fan of comedy in general. I am not sure how this can be, being that I am convinced that everyone likes to laughs now and again.
We attended the show of Sammy J, where the premise was that we were some 30 people stuck in a small cyclone shelter in the middle of a huge storm crisis in Melbourne. They performer sang some jingles, all very funny, with the aid of his electric keyboard, and intermixed in his cabaret performance opportunities to have fake, though in line with the story, conversations on his cell phone. He also had a back story for the ensuing catastrophe that he had pre-filmed in parts to be played on the projector screen behind him. In short, he was the reason that no one knew that the cyclone was coming to destroy Melbourne. In the videos, he found the time for a side joke in which first a polar bear stole his car, and later, he got to fight the polar bear mortal combat style; complete with dumbed voice overs for 'Fight' and 'Finish Him'. What really impressed me was the fact that they had rented a helicopter to film the fight just for his act in this comedy show. He also arranged a phony interview with one of the most prominent news casters in the city on channel 7. The news caster read, again just for this comedy routine, lines from a script all about the cyclone coming to devastate Melbourne.
I know that my description is a little bit too 'matter-of-fact' but the show was very, very funny. At one point he asked someone in the audience to give out the phone number of a loved one who hadn't been warned about the impending doom. A guy in the back yelled out a cell phone number (all cell phones here have the area code 04) and our comedian called the unsuspecting person. When Sammy asked the guy in the back who we were calling, the response was "I don't know, I made up the number". "Well, its ringing", said Sammy. When we got the voicemail message, he had us, as a group, all yell out in unison "Run for your life, a Cyclone is coming". How would you like to check your messages to have that left for you? Again, very, very funny.
When the show was over, Sammy J (his character name, not his real name, though I don't remember what his real name is), thanked us all for coming and gave us each a sticker that says 'I Survived'. I am looking forward to adding this sticker to my mini-fridge in my basement.
This show had taken us well into the evening. My co-consultant and I parted ways and I headed back to my hotel. On the walk back to the hotel, I noticed a police officer walking quickly in front of me. This caught my attention mostly because I very infrequently notice police officers around town here. As I made my way down the street, the police officer in front of me stopped to congregate with five others. This, I thought was an odd sight. As I approached the congregation, I noticed why the cops seemed to all be standing at that spot. They had four young kids, all about 13-14 in hand-cuffs sitting against the side of the building. I decided that wise choice would not be to ask the kids, nor the cops, why they were sitting there hand -cuffed, and instead kept walking to my hotel.
I am still not sure what the kids may have done, but one thought was that the CBD might have a curfew. Hopefully I will remember to ask the people at work.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Day 8 - Life as an Aussie
I had now made it to the very beginning of my second week in Australia and a true weekend day. I did actually log onto the customer system to check that it was performing appropriately before starting my day. In doing so, I was still in my room when, as I stated in the previous post, the cleaning lady arrived. I heard her knock, came to the door and struggled to make her understand that I was still in the room and that I was OK with her not cleaning it, again.
I had decided to make it out to Healesville sanctuary, a key tourist sight down here, and had sent asked my co-consultant and the girl Troy from dancing (she had given me her e-mail address) if they would like to join me. Both refused, but Troy suggested that I pet a Kangaroo. Pet a Kangaroo?!? Healesville is a place to do that?!? Well, that secured my desire to go regardless of if I were going to have any company. I had earlier been looking up how to get there and decided that a planned Group Tour bus out there would be, 1) too expensive, and 2) too touristy. What other options do I have? I thought about driving out there, but figured that without a navigator, my left-hand-side driving ability was not good enough to get me there without first getting lost. Again, what other way to go? Melbourne has good public transportation, maybe I can get there that way. I looked it up and found sure enough that the subway train (as opposed to the street-car/tram) taken to the end of one line and a bus to the end of its route would get me there. This route, I decided would be best because it would be relatively cheap, was not touristy, and did not require that I get myself lost driving.
I consulted the train and bus time tables (the bus company made it very easy by listing on their table the arrival times of the subway) and found myself the best time option for getting to the sanctuary. I also noticed that the final bus trip to the sanctuary is at 5:05PM on Saturdays. They do, however, make another loop ending at the stop before Healesville.
I walked down to the central subway terminal, just a few blocks from my hotel, and boarded the train towards Lilydale. On the train, the seats were positioned in general three on one side, two on the other (like your S-80 airplanes) with some seats facing center for elderly/handicapped, or those with bicycles. What was truly unique about the train was that the seats alternated facing forward and backwards with regard to the direction of motion. I thought this was a brilliant idea. I hate riding backwards on subways and would prefer to stand. That, and this allows friends and family to sit facing each other, or overly lazy people like me to put our feet up.
I was not the only one with my feet up. The 16-ish year old kid across the aisle from me was also sitting with his feet up, but he was facing away from the direction of motion. I noticed the kid, not just because of his proximity to me, but also because he was wearing a white hoodie (they advertise hoodies here all over the TV and tram stops), black shorts, and a big neon yellow safety harness hanging loosely from his waist. This, I thought was an interesting fashion statement. On his jacket, were the letters PHD.
As we were prgressing from stop to stop, I noticed that the area actually felt very similar to taking the subway in Chicago. Subway is a slight misnomer because the train did travel on ground level more often than it was under ground, but it did do both. Out the windows you could see various tagging on the buildings.
The kid across the aisle started talking to me while I was sitting there, (not because of taking the photo, I did that after he had exited the train) and we managed to talk for the full 45 minutes until he left the train. We discussed cultural differences between Australia and America and rules for driving with and without learners' permits and restricted licenses. The rules and ages are about the same, actually, well at least now that Kansas requires you to be 18 now to drive by yourself at all times of day.
The kid asked me if we have gang people just walking down the streets and if we have tagging in America, too. I told him that like anywhere else, it depends on the part of town you are in. He also asked me about clubs and what type of music they play there. He proceeded to show me a short video of himself dancing the night before at some club, which like the US, require you to be 18+ to get into. He freely told me his fake idea so that he can go to clubs, and that he works at one. What I had figured by the conversation was that PHD was the club he works at. I found out the next day that I was a little off (but that is for tomorrow). It also finally clicked why he was wearing the harness. It looks that much cooler at raves and other techno clubs in which all the lighting is done by black-light and neon-light. I also found out that this morning the kid was on his way home from being at one of these clubs all night long.
[Side note about techno: The TV on behind me is showing clips of cricket to the beat of a pretty decent techno song. Cricket is much more interesting in clip form with techno playing, and is otherwise a game that I understand nothing about the scoring of. What is a wicket?]
We had a good time talking and he asked me for my MSN chat/IM handle. Coincidentally, I only know one other person with MSN and only signed up for a chatting account on that network about a month ago. That brings the dork you know and love up to five IM accounts on different networks.
[Side note 2 about techno: Lindy Hop (swing) dancing to techno is AMAZING!]
Anyway, eventually the train found its way to Ben's stop and he departed the train. I continued on until the end of the line in the small, but somewhat quaint town of Lilydale (there is no need to make a special stop to see the town). When I got there I had 30 minutes to wait for the bus and decided to find myself lunch. I ordered a Cheeto at one of the three little cafes on the main drag of this town. They did not call it a Cheeto, I picked up that name in the Salt Lake City region. The sandwich was a grilled ham and cheese with tomatoes. Sliced tomatoes would have made it easier to eat, but it was still good, and much better than the macchiatto I drank with it.
In the town was this little stop that I couldn't resist taking a photo of. The photo looks washed out and grainy because I enhanced it to emphasize what is inside the drive through...
I was shocked, and humored immediately. Of all drive through liquor stores!!! This one did actually have an inside, too, that you can almost see from the photo. I am not sure if they leave the alcohol out when they close shop for the day (oh, they call them Trading Hours here, times for all stores from open to close). It is important not to let this skew your opinion of all things Australian, because their government has many signs and TV commercials about drinking and driving, and dozing while driving. They have signs on the freeway that say stuff like "Drowsy? Take a Powernap!" I also noticed one sign in a parking garage (and if I head back to that part of Melbourne I will take a photo of it) a sign that said "If you drink and then you drive then you are a bloody idiot!" I thought it was brilliant!
When my time in Lilydale expired, I went over to the bus and road to Healesville. I was trying to pay attention to the stops in case I needed to walk from Healesville to the next nearest bus stop. I inquired to the bus drivers when we stopped for them to change shifts and was told that the stops are about 5km apart. That is not a short walk, but if I missed the 5:05 I needed to know how to get home by catching the 7:35 bus at the next stop.
We got to the sanctuary and I paid (out of my personal pocket) the admission to the park. Once there I got to see all of the famous Aussie animals and learn a little bit about their lives in the wild.
I saw dingos...
and various bats and birds and Tassie devils, who are apparently plagued with some weird face disease in Tasmania, and the only remaining rock-wallaby in Victoria (they have this plan to raise more by placing the young marsupial offspring in the pouches of other types of wallaby so that the rock-wallabies can become pregnant again). I also saw a platypus (no photos of it because the cage was too dark and flash was not allowed) and I saw a guy in one of the shows that the park gives throw and catch a boomerang three times in a row. He explained that there are a right and left handed version and that you can tell by the sharpened (not cutting sharp) edge.
I, of course, got to see the Kangaroos and Koalas, too. And sure enough, they do let you pet the Kangaroos and also the regular wallabies. Pictures of them are below. Kangaroos are very very soft! Wallabies, not as much so. They do not let you hold or pet the Koalas because it is too high stress for them and and because they like to claw into whatever they are being supported by. Some guy tried to save a hurt Koala on the road and received 170 stitches for his effort. The Koala keeper did not know if the koala survived. Oh, Koalas have opposable thumbs and three fingers to make their five digits per hand.
Koalas in a tree...
A friendly Kangaroo...
Some young kids playing with a Wallaby...
And me petting the same Wallaby
When I left the park it was barely in time to catch the bus home. thankfully I didn't have to walk. I watched some controlled brush fires off in the distance of the country side, and by the time I got home over two hours later, I was too tired to do anything else, so I went home, checked my e-mails, chatted with Ben who IM'd me and then went to bed.
I had decided to make it out to Healesville sanctuary, a key tourist sight down here, and had sent asked my co-consultant and the girl Troy from dancing (she had given me her e-mail address) if they would like to join me. Both refused, but Troy suggested that I pet a Kangaroo. Pet a Kangaroo?!? Healesville is a place to do that?!? Well, that secured my desire to go regardless of if I were going to have any company. I had earlier been looking up how to get there and decided that a planned Group Tour bus out there would be, 1) too expensive, and 2) too touristy. What other options do I have? I thought about driving out there, but figured that without a navigator, my left-hand-side driving ability was not good enough to get me there without first getting lost. Again, what other way to go? Melbourne has good public transportation, maybe I can get there that way. I looked it up and found sure enough that the subway train (as opposed to the street-car/tram) taken to the end of one line and a bus to the end of its route would get me there. This route, I decided would be best because it would be relatively cheap, was not touristy, and did not require that I get myself lost driving.
I consulted the train and bus time tables (the bus company made it very easy by listing on their table the arrival times of the subway) and found myself the best time option for getting to the sanctuary. I also noticed that the final bus trip to the sanctuary is at 5:05PM on Saturdays. They do, however, make another loop ending at the stop before Healesville.
I walked down to the central subway terminal, just a few blocks from my hotel, and boarded the train towards Lilydale. On the train, the seats were positioned in general three on one side, two on the other (like your S-80 airplanes) with some seats facing center for elderly/handicapped, or those with bicycles. What was truly unique about the train was that the seats alternated facing forward and backwards with regard to the direction of motion. I thought this was a brilliant idea. I hate riding backwards on subways and would prefer to stand. That, and this allows friends and family to sit facing each other, or overly lazy people like me to put our feet up.
I was not the only one with my feet up. The 16-ish year old kid across the aisle from me was also sitting with his feet up, but he was facing away from the direction of motion. I noticed the kid, not just because of his proximity to me, but also because he was wearing a white hoodie (they advertise hoodies here all over the TV and tram stops), black shorts, and a big neon yellow safety harness hanging loosely from his waist. This, I thought was an interesting fashion statement. On his jacket, were the letters PHD.
As we were prgressing from stop to stop, I noticed that the area actually felt very similar to taking the subway in Chicago. Subway is a slight misnomer because the train did travel on ground level more often than it was under ground, but it did do both. Out the windows you could see various tagging on the buildings.
The kid across the aisle started talking to me while I was sitting there, (not because of taking the photo, I did that after he had exited the train) and we managed to talk for the full 45 minutes until he left the train. We discussed cultural differences between Australia and America and rules for driving with and without learners' permits and restricted licenses. The rules and ages are about the same, actually, well at least now that Kansas requires you to be 18 now to drive by yourself at all times of day.
The kid asked me if we have gang people just walking down the streets and if we have tagging in America, too. I told him that like anywhere else, it depends on the part of town you are in. He also asked me about clubs and what type of music they play there. He proceeded to show me a short video of himself dancing the night before at some club, which like the US, require you to be 18+ to get into. He freely told me his fake idea so that he can go to clubs, and that he works at one. What I had figured by the conversation was that PHD was the club he works at. I found out the next day that I was a little off (but that is for tomorrow). It also finally clicked why he was wearing the harness. It looks that much cooler at raves and other techno clubs in which all the lighting is done by black-light and neon-light. I also found out that this morning the kid was on his way home from being at one of these clubs all night long.
[Side note about techno: The TV on behind me is showing clips of cricket to the beat of a pretty decent techno song. Cricket is much more interesting in clip form with techno playing, and is otherwise a game that I understand nothing about the scoring of. What is a wicket?]
We had a good time talking and he asked me for my MSN chat/IM handle. Coincidentally, I only know one other person with MSN and only signed up for a chatting account on that network about a month ago. That brings the dork you know and love up to five IM accounts on different networks.
[Side note 2 about techno: Lindy Hop (swing) dancing to techno is AMAZING!]
Anyway, eventually the train found its way to Ben's stop and he departed the train. I continued on until the end of the line in the small, but somewhat quaint town of Lilydale (there is no need to make a special stop to see the town). When I got there I had 30 minutes to wait for the bus and decided to find myself lunch. I ordered a Cheeto at one of the three little cafes on the main drag of this town. They did not call it a Cheeto, I picked up that name in the Salt Lake City region. The sandwich was a grilled ham and cheese with tomatoes. Sliced tomatoes would have made it easier to eat, but it was still good, and much better than the macchiatto I drank with it.
In the town was this little stop that I couldn't resist taking a photo of. The photo looks washed out and grainy because I enhanced it to emphasize what is inside the drive through...
I was shocked, and humored immediately. Of all drive through liquor stores!!! This one did actually have an inside, too, that you can almost see from the photo. I am not sure if they leave the alcohol out when they close shop for the day (oh, they call them Trading Hours here, times for all stores from open to close). It is important not to let this skew your opinion of all things Australian, because their government has many signs and TV commercials about drinking and driving, and dozing while driving. They have signs on the freeway that say stuff like "Drowsy? Take a Powernap!" I also noticed one sign in a parking garage (and if I head back to that part of Melbourne I will take a photo of it) a sign that said "If you drink and then you drive then you are a bloody idiot!" I thought it was brilliant!
When my time in Lilydale expired, I went over to the bus and road to Healesville. I was trying to pay attention to the stops in case I needed to walk from Healesville to the next nearest bus stop. I inquired to the bus drivers when we stopped for them to change shifts and was told that the stops are about 5km apart. That is not a short walk, but if I missed the 5:05 I needed to know how to get home by catching the 7:35 bus at the next stop.
We got to the sanctuary and I paid (out of my personal pocket) the admission to the park. Once there I got to see all of the famous Aussie animals and learn a little bit about their lives in the wild.
I saw dingos...
and various bats and birds and Tassie devils, who are apparently plagued with some weird face disease in Tasmania, and the only remaining rock-wallaby in Victoria (they have this plan to raise more by placing the young marsupial offspring in the pouches of other types of wallaby so that the rock-wallabies can become pregnant again). I also saw a platypus (no photos of it because the cage was too dark and flash was not allowed) and I saw a guy in one of the shows that the park gives throw and catch a boomerang three times in a row. He explained that there are a right and left handed version and that you can tell by the sharpened (not cutting sharp) edge.
I, of course, got to see the Kangaroos and Koalas, too. And sure enough, they do let you pet the Kangaroos and also the regular wallabies. Pictures of them are below. Kangaroos are very very soft! Wallabies, not as much so. They do not let you hold or pet the Koalas because it is too high stress for them and and because they like to claw into whatever they are being supported by. Some guy tried to save a hurt Koala on the road and received 170 stitches for his effort. The Koala keeper did not know if the koala survived. Oh, Koalas have opposable thumbs and three fingers to make their five digits per hand.
Koalas in a tree...
A friendly Kangaroo...
Some young kids playing with a Wallaby...
And me petting the same Wallaby
When I left the park it was barely in time to catch the bus home. thankfully I didn't have to walk. I watched some controlled brush fires off in the distance of the country side, and by the time I got home over two hours later, I was too tired to do anything else, so I went home, checked my e-mails, chatted with Ben who IM'd me and then went to bed.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Day 7 - Kings and Queens
I think I mentioned before that the Aussie's take off both Good Friday and the Monday after Easter as holidays every year. Well, Day 7 was Good Friday. Being a good ol' American boy who doesn't know how to stop working, (I know there might be some debate on this issue and the level of sarcasm you think I have while writing it) I actually did work on Friday. Actually, I was not alone. My fellow consultant, who decided not to take part in the Thursday festivities of software training, and I met in the morning to discuss the operating status of the System as installed for this utility and more importantly, the direction we wanted to go with the government trials. This actually took us several hours of true legitimate work time.
While we were having our meeting, which happened to be in my hotel room since I have a table and with his moving out of his apartment, he doesn't, the cleaning lady knocked on the door. This was the first of four consecutive days in which she, with her thick Ukrainian (I think) accent, knocked on the door while I was either working, typing these posts, or otherwise taking advantage of the weekend by starting off my day extremely leisurely. I would say that I had been sleeping late, but I wasn't.
I could understand the cleaning lady's accent perfectly, but she noticeably could understand almost as many as one in twenty words through my accent. Finally, while Brian was going through some documents, the cleaning lady and I managed to understand each other enough for her to understand that I wanted a 'Do Not Disturb' tag for my door. She walked away and came back quickly with a tag. I hung it and shut the door so that we could finish with our work. Somehow, later on in the long weekend the tag disappeared from my door. I am not sure what was going on.
Eventually around 3:00PM, having not yet eaten, I was in a position to take advantage of the day and see some sights. I had earlier determined that this would be a good day for a walk around Melbourne to see some of the gardens, including the Royal Botanic Garden. The Garden is elegantly situated south of the Yarra river in a park known as Kings Domain. Across the street from Kings Domain is the Queen Victoria Garden. Now, sadly, I found out later by flipping through my tourist guide book that I missed a couple of key sights at the gardens. I may or may not make it back to tie off the loose ends, we'll just have to see.
In the Queen Victoria Garden is a nice monument in her honor (I think this and the other pictures for this post do a very nice job of depicting the wonderful weather we have been having here)...
The inscription on the monument is this:
"Erected by the People of Victoria
In Honor Of
Her Most Gracious Majesty
QUEEN VICTORIA
She Wrought Her People Lasting Good"
From the QVG (they don't call it that here, but I am lazy) I walked further from the city, and across one street, to Kings Domain, which is a substantially larger park. Being right next to each other they are basically the same park.
Fair Warning, there are going to be a lot of photos in this post of the gardens because I think they are beautiful, or otherwise entertaining photos, and if nothing else, I have a lot of them to share, for example, the old guy on the bench (I did not go to say hi, I am not that weird)...
While walking around, I found my way to the Lynch Gate to the Botanic Gardens...
...and past some 'flowering' cacti...
...and near some neat trees...
...and adjacent to some bamboo...
...and eventually down to the Ornamental Lake...
...from there to the Arid Garden...
As the sun began to set I had to find my way back out of the gardens and domains...
...and back to the city. On my way I found dinner, a chicken on foccacia bread sandwich, and some street performers. The street performers consisted of a guy dressed as a stereotype of a Brit with big buck teeth and a full Windsor knot on his tie and a girl dressed in all black. He did some juggling routines and she was a contortionist, able to get both feet behind her head and then stand on her hands.
Beyond the performers, I found my way to the front of the Crown Casino (the largest casino in all of Australia). I did not go in, but I did stay to see some of the 'light' show. The lights in this case all came from huge gas powered flame-emitting burners...
And that concluded my day.
While we were having our meeting, which happened to be in my hotel room since I have a table and with his moving out of his apartment, he doesn't, the cleaning lady knocked on the door. This was the first of four consecutive days in which she, with her thick Ukrainian (I think) accent, knocked on the door while I was either working, typing these posts, or otherwise taking advantage of the weekend by starting off my day extremely leisurely. I would say that I had been sleeping late, but I wasn't.
I could understand the cleaning lady's accent perfectly, but she noticeably could understand almost as many as one in twenty words through my accent. Finally, while Brian was going through some documents, the cleaning lady and I managed to understand each other enough for her to understand that I wanted a 'Do Not Disturb' tag for my door. She walked away and came back quickly with a tag. I hung it and shut the door so that we could finish with our work. Somehow, later on in the long weekend the tag disappeared from my door. I am not sure what was going on.
Eventually around 3:00PM, having not yet eaten, I was in a position to take advantage of the day and see some sights. I had earlier determined that this would be a good day for a walk around Melbourne to see some of the gardens, including the Royal Botanic Garden. The Garden is elegantly situated south of the Yarra river in a park known as Kings Domain. Across the street from Kings Domain is the Queen Victoria Garden. Now, sadly, I found out later by flipping through my tourist guide book that I missed a couple of key sights at the gardens. I may or may not make it back to tie off the loose ends, we'll just have to see.
In the Queen Victoria Garden is a nice monument in her honor (I think this and the other pictures for this post do a very nice job of depicting the wonderful weather we have been having here)...
The inscription on the monument is this:
"Erected by the People of Victoria
In Honor Of
Her Most Gracious Majesty
QUEEN VICTORIA
She Wrought Her People Lasting Good"
From the QVG (they don't call it that here, but I am lazy) I walked further from the city, and across one street, to Kings Domain, which is a substantially larger park. Being right next to each other they are basically the same park.
Fair Warning, there are going to be a lot of photos in this post of the gardens because I think they are beautiful, or otherwise entertaining photos, and if nothing else, I have a lot of them to share, for example, the old guy on the bench (I did not go to say hi, I am not that weird)...
While walking around, I found my way to the Lynch Gate to the Botanic Gardens...
...and past some 'flowering' cacti...
...and near some neat trees...
...and adjacent to some bamboo...
...and eventually down to the Ornamental Lake...
...from there to the Arid Garden...
As the sun began to set I had to find my way back out of the gardens and domains...
...and back to the city. On my way I found dinner, a chicken on foccacia bread sandwich, and some street performers. The street performers consisted of a guy dressed as a stereotype of a Brit with big buck teeth and a full Windsor knot on his tie and a girl dressed in all black. He did some juggling routines and she was a contortionist, able to get both feet behind her head and then stand on her hands.
Beyond the performers, I found my way to the front of the Crown Casino (the largest casino in all of Australia). I did not go in, but I did stay to see some of the 'light' show. The lights in this case all came from huge gas powered flame-emitting burners...
And that concluded my day.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Day 6 - Style and Ease
Its amazing how a change of scenery can help to improve your work morale and make your week seem to pass more quickly, well that and knowing that its a Thursday and your clients don't work on Friday.
Thursday was scheduled as my first day of training. I had been up at 2:00 AM my time arranging international shipments and was up again at 7:00AMish getting a verification on the arrangements, that and I think I posted that morning. Check me on that if you wish, I believe all of these posts claim US-PDT. I figured that since this was my first real full day in the office (rather than the field) I would wear my polo shirt with the company logo. I strapped on my brand new non-expiring (a mistake on their part) consultant security/ID badge and hiked the 12 miles up hill in the snow to the office. By 12 miles up hill in the snow, I mean half a block down hill on a nice, mild-climate day. Almost every day here has been beautiful. The worst weather has been morning clouds. Actually, the 'worst' weather Melbourne has experienced for the entire duration of my stay was later this same day when it rained (or more accurately drizzled) for about 2 hours in the middle of the day.
A somewhat adjusted version of my ID badge is here:
I was standing in the lobby, through the security gate, waiting for the elevator when a guy in a suit walked up and said 'You must be Dan'. He introduced himself as network/fiber communication expert and told me that my shirt was a dead giveaway identifying me across the room. We chatted briefly on our way up to the cubicle assigned to me. As it is, the login account they assigned me to use has very limited permissions, including an inability to use the internet. I guess this will keep me on track for the next two weeks, but there go my chances to look up stuff to do during the nights while on my breaks.
I spent the first couple of hours helping setup a room full of laptop computer for our training. Short of a LAN party, you will be hard pressed to see as many cables strewn across a table as we had on this occasion. Extension cords, network cables, power strips, power cables and transformers, eight mice, the eight laptops themselves, and a projector with cabling. It was a mess.
It didn't take the couple of hours to setup the computers, but rather to help the IT guy install our software. Eventually we finished and I began to teach the class how to use the system.
For lunch, they brought in a bunch of half sandwiches and some orange juice. There were several varieties of sandwiches including one that I picked up thinking that it was something new to try, maybe a roast beef one. What I found out was that it contained portabella mushrooms. YUCK! I tired it, at least, but couldn't get more than a couple of bites down. So, instead, I pulled the mushroom out and ate the other veggies and bread.
I continued to teach after lunch and was most definitely putting one attendee to sleep. Go figure, Dan talking so much that someone fell asleep. (On a side note, she was falling asleep again today, Tuesday).
After class I left to again trudge through the 'snow', but this time really was uphill, not that a hill matters for the distance two building and made my way home. I killed time by checking my e-mails, posting on here, and consulting maps to find out where I was to be going that night and eventually made my way to 12 McKillop Street to take part in the big weekly swing dancing event here in Melbourne. The street and venue themselves were pretty cool, but I didn't have my camera with me.
I got in, watched the dancers for a while to determine whom I should dance with and eventually discarded my BluesShout jacket and started dancing. In general, the level of dancing in Melbourne is very good. This is an event with plenty of beginners and they all know how to do a swingout. The music was the same as what you might find at any Lindy event in the States, actually, I could just about sing along to almost everything they played. Mostly the songs were pretty good, some I have just heard too many times. I was asked during one dance if the music I dance to back home was similar and I told the lady that basically what I just wrote here.
While watching the dancers, I decided that there was one lead clearly better than all of the others (yes including me, I am not THAT conceited). What I found out later was that he is actually from NYC and is also in town for an extended business related stay here in Melbourne. He, however, is here for 3-6 months and had already been in town for three weeks. There was no clearly #1 follow in the crowd, but several of the girls were excellent dancers.
Coincidentally about NYC is that there was a girl in a white "I [heart] NY" shirt, (I never managed to dance with her) and a guy wearing a black "I [heart] NY" shirt. I did manage a dance with the girl friend of the guy wearing the black NY shirt, and it was very convenient that I did. It turns out that they both live in Sydney and were only in town for his sister's wedding. Well, I chatted with her for a while, he walked up and chatted for a while, and then he offered me a place to stay in Sydney when I head up there for the vacation portion of my trip. How cool is that?!? I am a huge fan of the whole Lindy community way of life. You offer someone a place to stay when they need it, and someone will offer you a place to stay when you need it.
I kept dancing through the night and at one point had a girl come up to ask me to dance (no, this isn't the noteworthy part). She introduced herself (I can't remember what her name is) and immediately asked if I was from America. Wow I must stick out like a sore thumb. She politely cursed at her friend upset that she had lost the bet to her about where I was from. We decided to play a trick on the friend, though, by grabbing the guy from NYC. She raised his hand and said America. She raised my hand and said Canada. George from NYC immediately ruined the joke for us by saying 'No he's not, he's from St. Louis!' Well, we had tried.
I danced with the friend who picked me out of the crowd as an American and it turns out that it was in fact my STLBX shirt that gave me away, go figure. I will make it harder for them this next week. Anyway, this girl's name I can remember because it was unique... Troy. She and I talked and traded stories about being stuck for long, long periods of time on Amtrak. She has beat anyone else I have ever heard of with her 19 EXTRA hours being stuck on the train beyond the normal travel times. She also told me about offering Vegemite to the train carriage full of Americans she had been stuck with on the train. Apparently the correct way to eat it is to spread butter on bread and then it on top of the butter.
Vegemite, if you don't know, is a very salty, highly concentrated yeast extract. Think of it as all of the pasty remains left over after brewing the wart you use for beer. it is black, and weird looking (I tried it at breakfast the Monday after - i.e. the day after easter). It is edible, but is most definitely an acquired taste. Apparently the train full of fellow Amtrak passengers all hated it, Troy did not first give them butter since she had none.
As the night wore on and people started to leave, the oddest thing happened... the music got FASTER! Why, I don't know, but maybe because there was finally enough space to dance on the floor once many of the other dancers left. Over the course of the evening I spent $7.00 AUD on water because the third floor dance venue was quite warm. This $7 bought me TWO 600mL (rough 20oz, ea) bottles of water. OUCH! I am glad I am here on company money. That $7 became a major portion of my dinner expenses for the day. There was no cover for the dance, but had there been, I would not have expensed it. I always feel weird about expensing entertainment because I honestly don't know the policy; it comes out of my own pocket instead.
Much closer to the end of the night the DJ's did start playing slower, more bluesy music which made me happy. I danced through to the last song and was then going to make my way home. Troy, however, invited me to join her and several others for a true Australian post dance experience...Slurpees at 7-Eleven. I had a soda/pop/carbonated beverage made without High Fructose Corn Syrup (none of their drinks have it as an ingredient!!!!) instead of a slurpee and with that something called a Banana bar, or something like that. Might as well have been fruitcake, but tasty.
The 7-eleven exodus was a pretty brief trip (a whole 3 blocks! 7-elevens are ALL OVER THE PLACE here) after which the few of us quickly dispersed to our individual residences. At this point, I think it was 2:00AM so I went to bed.
[Trivia for the day: Why 'Style and Ease'?]
Thursday was scheduled as my first day of training. I had been up at 2:00 AM my time arranging international shipments and was up again at 7:00AMish getting a verification on the arrangements, that and I think I posted that morning. Check me on that if you wish, I believe all of these posts claim US-PDT. I figured that since this was my first real full day in the office (rather than the field) I would wear my polo shirt with the company logo. I strapped on my brand new non-expiring (a mistake on their part) consultant security/ID badge and hiked the 12 miles up hill in the snow to the office. By 12 miles up hill in the snow, I mean half a block down hill on a nice, mild-climate day. Almost every day here has been beautiful. The worst weather has been morning clouds. Actually, the 'worst' weather Melbourne has experienced for the entire duration of my stay was later this same day when it rained (or more accurately drizzled) for about 2 hours in the middle of the day.
A somewhat adjusted version of my ID badge is here:
I was standing in the lobby, through the security gate, waiting for the elevator when a guy in a suit walked up and said 'You must be Dan'. He introduced himself as network/fiber communication expert and told me that my shirt was a dead giveaway identifying me across the room. We chatted briefly on our way up to the cubicle assigned to me. As it is, the login account they assigned me to use has very limited permissions, including an inability to use the internet. I guess this will keep me on track for the next two weeks, but there go my chances to look up stuff to do during the nights while on my breaks.
I spent the first couple of hours helping setup a room full of laptop computer for our training. Short of a LAN party, you will be hard pressed to see as many cables strewn across a table as we had on this occasion. Extension cords, network cables, power strips, power cables and transformers, eight mice, the eight laptops themselves, and a projector with cabling. It was a mess.
It didn't take the couple of hours to setup the computers, but rather to help the IT guy install our software. Eventually we finished and I began to teach the class how to use the system.
For lunch, they brought in a bunch of half sandwiches and some orange juice. There were several varieties of sandwiches including one that I picked up thinking that it was something new to try, maybe a roast beef one. What I found out was that it contained portabella mushrooms. YUCK! I tired it, at least, but couldn't get more than a couple of bites down. So, instead, I pulled the mushroom out and ate the other veggies and bread.
I continued to teach after lunch and was most definitely putting one attendee to sleep. Go figure, Dan talking so much that someone fell asleep. (On a side note, she was falling asleep again today, Tuesday).
After class I left to again trudge through the 'snow', but this time really was uphill, not that a hill matters for the distance two building and made my way home. I killed time by checking my e-mails, posting on here, and consulting maps to find out where I was to be going that night and eventually made my way to 12 McKillop Street to take part in the big weekly swing dancing event here in Melbourne. The street and venue themselves were pretty cool, but I didn't have my camera with me.
I got in, watched the dancers for a while to determine whom I should dance with and eventually discarded my BluesShout jacket and started dancing. In general, the level of dancing in Melbourne is very good. This is an event with plenty of beginners and they all know how to do a swingout. The music was the same as what you might find at any Lindy event in the States, actually, I could just about sing along to almost everything they played. Mostly the songs were pretty good, some I have just heard too many times. I was asked during one dance if the music I dance to back home was similar and I told the lady that basically what I just wrote here.
While watching the dancers, I decided that there was one lead clearly better than all of the others (yes including me, I am not THAT conceited). What I found out later was that he is actually from NYC and is also in town for an extended business related stay here in Melbourne. He, however, is here for 3-6 months and had already been in town for three weeks. There was no clearly #1 follow in the crowd, but several of the girls were excellent dancers.
Coincidentally about NYC is that there was a girl in a white "I [heart] NY" shirt, (I never managed to dance with her) and a guy wearing a black "I [heart] NY" shirt. I did manage a dance with the girl friend of the guy wearing the black NY shirt, and it was very convenient that I did. It turns out that they both live in Sydney and were only in town for his sister's wedding. Well, I chatted with her for a while, he walked up and chatted for a while, and then he offered me a place to stay in Sydney when I head up there for the vacation portion of my trip. How cool is that?!? I am a huge fan of the whole Lindy community way of life. You offer someone a place to stay when they need it, and someone will offer you a place to stay when you need it.
I kept dancing through the night and at one point had a girl come up to ask me to dance (no, this isn't the noteworthy part). She introduced herself (I can't remember what her name is) and immediately asked if I was from America. Wow I must stick out like a sore thumb. She politely cursed at her friend upset that she had lost the bet to her about where I was from. We decided to play a trick on the friend, though, by grabbing the guy from NYC. She raised his hand and said America. She raised my hand and said Canada. George from NYC immediately ruined the joke for us by saying 'No he's not, he's from St. Louis!' Well, we had tried.
I danced with the friend who picked me out of the crowd as an American and it turns out that it was in fact my STLBX shirt that gave me away, go figure. I will make it harder for them this next week. Anyway, this girl's name I can remember because it was unique... Troy. She and I talked and traded stories about being stuck for long, long periods of time on Amtrak. She has beat anyone else I have ever heard of with her 19 EXTRA hours being stuck on the train beyond the normal travel times. She also told me about offering Vegemite to the train carriage full of Americans she had been stuck with on the train. Apparently the correct way to eat it is to spread butter on bread and then it on top of the butter.
Vegemite, if you don't know, is a very salty, highly concentrated yeast extract. Think of it as all of the pasty remains left over after brewing the wart you use for beer. it is black, and weird looking (I tried it at breakfast the Monday after - i.e. the day after easter). It is edible, but is most definitely an acquired taste. Apparently the train full of fellow Amtrak passengers all hated it, Troy did not first give them butter since she had none.
As the night wore on and people started to leave, the oddest thing happened... the music got FASTER! Why, I don't know, but maybe because there was finally enough space to dance on the floor once many of the other dancers left. Over the course of the evening I spent $7.00 AUD on water because the third floor dance venue was quite warm. This $7 bought me TWO 600mL (rough 20oz, ea) bottles of water. OUCH! I am glad I am here on company money. That $7 became a major portion of my dinner expenses for the day. There was no cover for the dance, but had there been, I would not have expensed it. I always feel weird about expensing entertainment because I honestly don't know the policy; it comes out of my own pocket instead.
Much closer to the end of the night the DJ's did start playing slower, more bluesy music which made me happy. I danced through to the last song and was then going to make my way home. Troy, however, invited me to join her and several others for a true Australian post dance experience...Slurpees at 7-Eleven. I had a soda/pop/carbonated beverage made without High Fructose Corn Syrup (none of their drinks have it as an ingredient!!!!) instead of a slurpee and with that something called a Banana bar, or something like that. Might as well have been fruitcake, but tasty.
The 7-eleven exodus was a pretty brief trip (a whole 3 blocks! 7-elevens are ALL OVER THE PLACE here) after which the few of us quickly dispersed to our individual residences. At this point, I think it was 2:00AM so I went to bed.
[Trivia for the day: Why 'Style and Ease'?]
Day 5 - Bummer, Hummer (part 2)
Uncharacteristically, I am going to discuss today while posting about a day already past...In between my earlier post and now I had to run because I had promised the cleaning lady that I would not be in my room if she came back at noon. I almost didn't make it. So, when I left, I threw some clothes in the wash, messed up the detergent, got in a swim (wow I am out of shape), and came back while my clothes where 'drying'. The water actually seemed like salt water rather than chlorinated water, but either way, I must have swallowed some because I started feeling queezy, actually I felt like shit, and had to lie down. I am posting about this now because it fits so well with the title of my current post. I am feeling better now and will actually get out and do something fun today once I am done posting.
So, when I left off, we had just made it back to Melbourne, I was checked into my hotel, and I changed and shaved. I went down the block (seriously only two buildings away) to the utility office. Once there and through security (I actually beat Brian there because he went shopping across the street for moving boxes for his apartment in town), I proceeded to give my overview presentation. It went pretty well, though was a nice review for the project lead, and was definitely causing one lady to fall asleep. The other six people present were (or were pretending to be) interested in the overview and, between them and the project lead, were asking lots of questions.
Thanks to the wonders of technology, I added as a final touch, a nice description of the failure in the substation from earlier that morning with lots of pictures to demonstrate the location of the failure. Thankfully, the project lead acknowledged that the failure could not have been a result of our equipment.
After the presentation, I drove the consultant Brian and all of his moving boxes over to his apartment and waited there for him to drop them off. I am quite certain that the spot was for standing, not parking, so I didn't wonder out of eye-sight of the vehicle. The car, by-the-way, is a white Toyota Camry, 2007. I don't think I mentioned that earlier. Anyway, one of the nice sights of the day drove up to find me while I was pacing around the car. Can you guess what?
A Hummer!
Well, fine, it was an H2. Either way, I don't like Hummer's. Gas guzzling, expensive monstrosities. This one was yellow, labeled SoundSTREAM on the side, and absolutely packed full of amplifiers and subs in the back (the driver opened the tail gate while I was there). With the H2 was a Mazda 3 with a spoiler, blue, and with the same logo on the side. Well, obviously it doesn't matter that I don't like them because many people do, and apparently not just in the US. While I was standing there waiting, some girl drove up in her little white something-or-other, saw the Hummer, got back into her car to pull out her camera, and took a picture of the 'car'. And she wasn't the only one. A second girl, this one with her boyfriend, waled by and stopped to take photos with their cell phones.
I took advantage of the opportunity to start a conversation with this girl and asked her what the deal is with Hummers. She told me that people in Melbourne LOVE Hummers because they are SOOO expensive and so few people actually have them. With gas prices at $1.30 a Liter (roughtly $5.00 a gallon) I couldn't even imagine having a car that only gets 6 miles to the gallon. I think about it this way, with my current drive from my house to the office back home, it would cost me $10 a day with Aussie gasoline prices and driving a hummer. Thats just too much!
Well, thats my rant.
Brian had at this point showed up, and I don't think he had ever seen a Hummer. He got in my car and we drove back to my hotel parking lot. From there, we walked down to one of the bridges to the Southbank to meet up with our primary contact within the utility. The three of us walked the river for a little bit looking for a restaurant at which to eat dinner. This picture is of a different portion of the Southbank and is during the day, whereas we were walking at night, but I don't have any of the area we were walking along. The tower in this photo sits atop of a fine arts building. I believe it is a theatre, but it may be an art gallery with the theatre next door.
We were interrupted in our walk along the Southbank by a phone call stating that the work at the substation was complete, but that we had another minor hardware failure. Late that night, I sent e-mails to my office and arranged for a spare to be mailed ASAP.
While I was talking to the guys at the sub (the same guys who had knocked on my door to get a drink the night before) the two I was with chose our restaurant...the one with special lobsters and crabs that cost $130 EACH. Between the three of us we ordered neither the crab, nor the lobster, but we did have a nice bottle of wine. Sticks was the brand, I think. We had the Cabernet. I am just not used to nice wines having screw-off lids, but that is the way many of them are heading anymore.
My dinner was a nice fillet of Mahi Mahi with Cajun prawns wrapped in little bread shells. The flavors were all nice, but the portions were a little small for me, especially considering that I hadn't has lunch and breakfast was only a small box of cereal (you know those individual packages). Both of my companions for the evening ordered the Kingfish cutlet.
On a quick aside, I noticed by seeing a particular KFC commercial here (actually, I have seen it several times now while watching the telly before going to bed) where they absolutely pronounce the T in FILLET. Fi-LET.
We supplemented dinner with some gelato, courtesy of my client as a thank you for dinner, at a desert counter in the neighboring arcade (mall); and that was our evening.
So, when I left off, we had just made it back to Melbourne, I was checked into my hotel, and I changed and shaved. I went down the block (seriously only two buildings away) to the utility office. Once there and through security (I actually beat Brian there because he went shopping across the street for moving boxes for his apartment in town), I proceeded to give my overview presentation. It went pretty well, though was a nice review for the project lead, and was definitely causing one lady to fall asleep. The other six people present were (or were pretending to be) interested in the overview and, between them and the project lead, were asking lots of questions.
Thanks to the wonders of technology, I added as a final touch, a nice description of the failure in the substation from earlier that morning with lots of pictures to demonstrate the location of the failure. Thankfully, the project lead acknowledged that the failure could not have been a result of our equipment.
After the presentation, I drove the consultant Brian and all of his moving boxes over to his apartment and waited there for him to drop them off. I am quite certain that the spot was for standing, not parking, so I didn't wonder out of eye-sight of the vehicle. The car, by-the-way, is a white Toyota Camry, 2007. I don't think I mentioned that earlier. Anyway, one of the nice sights of the day drove up to find me while I was pacing around the car. Can you guess what?
A Hummer!
Well, fine, it was an H2. Either way, I don't like Hummer's. Gas guzzling, expensive monstrosities. This one was yellow, labeled SoundSTREAM on the side, and absolutely packed full of amplifiers and subs in the back (the driver opened the tail gate while I was there). With the H2 was a Mazda 3 with a spoiler, blue, and with the same logo on the side. Well, obviously it doesn't matter that I don't like them because many people do, and apparently not just in the US. While I was standing there waiting, some girl drove up in her little white something-or-other, saw the Hummer, got back into her car to pull out her camera, and took a picture of the 'car'. And she wasn't the only one. A second girl, this one with her boyfriend, waled by and stopped to take photos with their cell phones.
I took advantage of the opportunity to start a conversation with this girl and asked her what the deal is with Hummers. She told me that people in Melbourne LOVE Hummers because they are SOOO expensive and so few people actually have them. With gas prices at $1.30 a Liter (roughtly $5.00 a gallon) I couldn't even imagine having a car that only gets 6 miles to the gallon. I think about it this way, with my current drive from my house to the office back home, it would cost me $10 a day with Aussie gasoline prices and driving a hummer. Thats just too much!
Well, thats my rant.
Brian had at this point showed up, and I don't think he had ever seen a Hummer. He got in my car and we drove back to my hotel parking lot. From there, we walked down to one of the bridges to the Southbank to meet up with our primary contact within the utility. The three of us walked the river for a little bit looking for a restaurant at which to eat dinner. This picture is of a different portion of the Southbank and is during the day, whereas we were walking at night, but I don't have any of the area we were walking along. The tower in this photo sits atop of a fine arts building. I believe it is a theatre, but it may be an art gallery with the theatre next door.
We were interrupted in our walk along the Southbank by a phone call stating that the work at the substation was complete, but that we had another minor hardware failure. Late that night, I sent e-mails to my office and arranged for a spare to be mailed ASAP.
While I was talking to the guys at the sub (the same guys who had knocked on my door to get a drink the night before) the two I was with chose our restaurant...the one with special lobsters and crabs that cost $130 EACH. Between the three of us we ordered neither the crab, nor the lobster, but we did have a nice bottle of wine. Sticks was the brand, I think. We had the Cabernet. I am just not used to nice wines having screw-off lids, but that is the way many of them are heading anymore.
My dinner was a nice fillet of Mahi Mahi with Cajun prawns wrapped in little bread shells. The flavors were all nice, but the portions were a little small for me, especially considering that I hadn't has lunch and breakfast was only a small box of cereal (you know those individual packages). Both of my companions for the evening ordered the Kingfish cutlet.
On a quick aside, I noticed by seeing a particular KFC commercial here (actually, I have seen it several times now while watching the telly before going to bed) where they absolutely pronounce the T in FILLET. Fi-LET.
We supplemented dinner with some gelato, courtesy of my client as a thank you for dinner, at a desert counter in the neighboring arcade (mall); and that was our evening.
Day 5 - Bummer, Hummer
So, Wednesday was to be our last day at the substation, but only a half day there, and then a direct drive from Ballarat back to Melbourne. In Melbourne, I was scheduled to give an overview presentation of our company's system to some of the employees of the utility as a precursor to the true training I have now started last Thursday, continuing Tuesday and Wednesday 10,11-April.
The day started off the same as Tuesday, I remembered to grab my free bottle of Orange Juice and small box of Purina Corn flakes from the kitchenette in the room, we'll call this a snack, and we got on our way to the substation. Once at the substation we were greeted not with "G'Day", - which yes they do say here, but not paired with "Mate". "No worries, Mate" is a common saying - but instead with "Bad news". We were then informed that a 'Catastrophic failure' of one of the transformers feeding our system had occurred the night before and caused an electrical outage for a couple hundred customers for about 30 minutes in the middle of the night.
Crap!! There goes our trial! How did this happen?
What the utility workers knew, as did we, my companies equipment has safety fuses all over the place and could not cause this type of failure. The failure was in fact on the High Voltage side of the transformer, outside of our equipment, but inside the internal switching mechanisms of the transformer itself. In English, there was a manufacturers failure in the unit. Not our fault; nothing we could have controlled; a failure suitable for a claim against the company that made the unit.
Hooray! We can continue the trial!!!
And continue we did. I had planned to capture some engineering data from the equipment, so I pulled out the second laptop I had brought with me and proceeded to run trials with 50% of the hardware. This lasted all morning while the guys at the utility arranged for the proper work to be completed at the substation to put us back at 100% by nightfall, this ended up not happening, either, but we are still operational and working well, just at less than 100%
I can show you a picture of the failed hardware that is not ours...
SubstationStartup+029_sm.JPG)
The black stuff you see is crude oil. And it smelled like crude oil. Nice thick, hard to describe if you haven't smelled it yourself, but it brought back memories of oil wells and crude oil and learning about throwing cow pies as Frisbees. Fun stuff.
When my data collection was done, and when we realized that there was nothing else that we could do to help, we left. We skipped lunch and drive right into the city. We thought about stopping, but the last easy place to stop before getting onto the highways in the city was this place...
and I am trying hard not to go to places that we have at home (even if the name is different, although I don't count BP gas stations, at which we had stopped on Sunday). So, we continued into the city, parked the car, and I grabbed a change of clothes and ran up to check into my hotel room before my presentation. I even had time to shave (GASP!!) thanks to skipping lunch. I made up for it later with dinner, but that will be my next post. Sorry, but I have to run.
The day started off the same as Tuesday, I remembered to grab my free bottle of Orange Juice and small box of Purina Corn flakes from the kitchenette in the room, we'll call this a snack, and we got on our way to the substation. Once at the substation we were greeted not with "G'Day", - which yes they do say here, but not paired with "Mate". "No worries, Mate" is a common saying - but instead with "Bad news". We were then informed that a 'Catastrophic failure' of one of the transformers feeding our system had occurred the night before and caused an electrical outage for a couple hundred customers for about 30 minutes in the middle of the night.
Crap!! There goes our trial! How did this happen?
What the utility workers knew, as did we, my companies equipment has safety fuses all over the place and could not cause this type of failure. The failure was in fact on the High Voltage side of the transformer, outside of our equipment, but inside the internal switching mechanisms of the transformer itself. In English, there was a manufacturers failure in the unit. Not our fault; nothing we could have controlled; a failure suitable for a claim against the company that made the unit.
Hooray! We can continue the trial!!!
And continue we did. I had planned to capture some engineering data from the equipment, so I pulled out the second laptop I had brought with me and proceeded to run trials with 50% of the hardware. This lasted all morning while the guys at the utility arranged for the proper work to be completed at the substation to put us back at 100% by nightfall, this ended up not happening, either, but we are still operational and working well, just at less than 100%
I can show you a picture of the failed hardware that is not ours...
SubstationStartup+029_sm.JPG)
The black stuff you see is crude oil. And it smelled like crude oil. Nice thick, hard to describe if you haven't smelled it yourself, but it brought back memories of oil wells and crude oil and learning about throwing cow pies as Frisbees. Fun stuff.
When my data collection was done, and when we realized that there was nothing else that we could do to help, we left. We skipped lunch and drive right into the city. We thought about stopping, but the last easy place to stop before getting onto the highways in the city was this place...
and I am trying hard not to go to places that we have at home (even if the name is different, although I don't count BP gas stations, at which we had stopped on Sunday). So, we continued into the city, parked the car, and I grabbed a change of clothes and ran up to check into my hotel room before my presentation. I even had time to shave (GASP!!) thanks to skipping lunch. I made up for it later with dinner, but that will be my next post. Sorry, but I have to run.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Day 4 - To See or Not To See
To see, or not to see: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to offer
The drafts and glasses of outrageous prices,
Or to take arms against a sea of bottles,
And by consuming end them? To drink: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The head-ache and the thousand natural toxins
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consumption
Devoutly to be wish'd. To drink, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of drinks what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal toil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of such long days;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The employer's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of distant love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a beer beaker? who would laptops bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary day,
But that the drink of something after dinner,
The undiscover'd country from whose brews
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather beer whose grails we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of draft,
And enterprises of great sip and libation
With this regard our currents turn dry,
And lose the name of action. - Something dark now!
The far bartenders! Mates, in thy invoices
Be all my selections remember'd.
<<<>>>
It was on Tuesday that my fellow consultant and two of the employees of the utility went out drinking together. Well, actually, my fellow consultant doesn't drink. He had an Aussie variety of a Bacardi mixer, not realizing that it was in fact an alcoholic drink. I had sampled two of the beers off of the display of taps. I had yet to look beyond the obvious eight choices into what else might be available. Matt from the utility ordered us a round of Carlton Draughts (watch the slide show on their web page here: http://www.carltondraught.com.au/CarltonDraught.aspx its pretty funny, as is the flash beer video itself). The beer was OK, drinkable, but nothing particularly memorable for me, plus it violates the rule of not drinking anything you can see through. I asked Matt if any of the selections were dark beers and he returned for our second round with Carlton Black. That was a good beer. Very drinkable. Thicker in flavor and aroma; very tasty; not too bitter; a good malt balance. All in all, it was a very good choice, so we stuck with that for the next round, too, before calling it a night. It actually reminded me of 1554, one of my all time favorites.
We had a good time, just the four of us chatting about all sorts of fun stuff. Matt and Rob from the utility both (and to the dislike of their wives) purchase and build gas powered airplane replicas and fly them around. Discussion touched on work, and industry, but for the most part avoided such topics, favoring sports, culture, etc. It was a good night and my first good non-tourist like social type activity with the locals. All of my other time had been spent sight seeing and hanging out with Brian the consultant (from New Zealand).
The only other truly noteworthy activity of the evening was dinner at the Chinese restaurant down the block. The meals were pretty good (we shared our orders). I found it interesting that white rice had to be asked for separately and cost extra. We also had a sampling of appetizers, all items that I can't identify for you, but can say that they aren't found in buffets in the States.
The work part of the day was typical. We found a slight issue with some fiber optic cable and otherwise completed the standard startup check list.
Easily the coolest part of the day, but not in an overshadowing sort of way, was the fact that not five minutes after I had returned to my room after dinner, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see the two guys from the utility who simply asked, "Well, mate, are we going out for a drink or not?"
[No pictures today, sorry]
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to offer
The drafts and glasses of outrageous prices,
Or to take arms against a sea of bottles,
And by consuming end them? To drink: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The head-ache and the thousand natural toxins
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consumption
Devoutly to be wish'd. To drink, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of drinks what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal toil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of such long days;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The employer's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of distant love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a beer beaker? who would laptops bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary day,
But that the drink of something after dinner,
The undiscover'd country from whose brews
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather beer whose grails we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of draft,
And enterprises of great sip and libation
With this regard our currents turn dry,
And lose the name of action. - Something dark now!
The far bartenders! Mates, in thy invoices
Be all my selections remember'd.
<<<>>>
It was on Tuesday that my fellow consultant and two of the employees of the utility went out drinking together. Well, actually, my fellow consultant doesn't drink. He had an Aussie variety of a Bacardi mixer, not realizing that it was in fact an alcoholic drink. I had sampled two of the beers off of the display of taps. I had yet to look beyond the obvious eight choices into what else might be available. Matt from the utility ordered us a round of Carlton Draughts (watch the slide show on their web page here: http://www.carltondraught.com.au/CarltonDraught.aspx its pretty funny, as is the flash beer video itself). The beer was OK, drinkable, but nothing particularly memorable for me, plus it violates the rule of not drinking anything you can see through. I asked Matt if any of the selections were dark beers and he returned for our second round with Carlton Black. That was a good beer. Very drinkable. Thicker in flavor and aroma; very tasty; not too bitter; a good malt balance. All in all, it was a very good choice, so we stuck with that for the next round, too, before calling it a night. It actually reminded me of 1554, one of my all time favorites.
We had a good time, just the four of us chatting about all sorts of fun stuff. Matt and Rob from the utility both (and to the dislike of their wives) purchase and build gas powered airplane replicas and fly them around. Discussion touched on work, and industry, but for the most part avoided such topics, favoring sports, culture, etc. It was a good night and my first good non-tourist like social type activity with the locals. All of my other time had been spent sight seeing and hanging out with Brian the consultant (from New Zealand).
The only other truly noteworthy activity of the evening was dinner at the Chinese restaurant down the block. The meals were pretty good (we shared our orders). I found it interesting that white rice had to be asked for separately and cost extra. We also had a sampling of appetizers, all items that I can't identify for you, but can say that they aren't found in buffets in the States.
The work part of the day was typical. We found a slight issue with some fiber optic cable and otherwise completed the standard startup check list.
Easily the coolest part of the day, but not in an overshadowing sort of way, was the fact that not five minutes after I had returned to my room after dinner, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see the two guys from the utility who simply asked, "Well, mate, are we going out for a drink or not?"
[No pictures today, sorry]
Friday, April 6, 2007
Day 3 - Hi Ho, Hi Ho ...
Monday, April 2 was my third day here and being a Monday meant that I was actually supposed to work. For those that don't know, the field portion of my work is done in electrical substations. Typically, this portion of any trip is slotted for one full day, two if major problems arise. For this trip, we planned 2.5 days so that we could do extra tests and performance analysis.
My guess is that you all don't really want to hear the work related details of my trip, and since some of it borders on confidential, I now have two good reasons not to tell, but I can show you a picture of a substation...
SubstationStartup+020_sm.JPG)
So, I spent all day in this substation doing actually very little. I examined our equipment, met with some of employees of the utility, and watched as connectors were added to the 22000 Volt bus work. To give you perspective (Mom, you should skip this paragraph): 120V will shock you; 240V will likely cause some permanent damage; 480V will disable your reflexes making it impossible for you to let go (i.e. it will kill you); 7000 Volts can arc through the air a distance 6 inches or more to your person, enveloping you in flames, though if you actually manage contact, you will die instantly from the shock; voltages above that can arc greater distances and otherwise cause more damage. But see, by knowing this, I know to NEVER TOUCH ANYTHING in a substation without the proper protective equipment, if at all, and in general, I touch nothing, instead letting the customer do all the work. And, most utilities have proper warnings, and reminders about safety, and some, like this one, require that everyone be properly inducted before entering the switching yard.
After spending the day in the substation, which did afford me the opportunity to get some sun, we left back to the new hotel for dinner. The restaurant attached to the hotel was actually a very well trafficked establishment and a reasonable classy sports bar atmosphere. Every beer they pour from the draft was placed into a glass wit that beer's logo (too much effort if you ask me, but a nice touch nonetheless). Also attached to the restaurant was a small gaming (i.e. casino style) room with slots that you could see from the doorway. I didn't bother going in. I had for dinner that night a lamb curry dish that was tasty, but had absolutely NO spice, which it could have used, but was still good. I drank a Stella Artois (sp?) beer with the dinner.
The night before, in the same restaurant, I had the Barramundi fish from the list of specials. It was very, very good and served over a bed of fries with an ornamental salad on the same plate. I drank a Beez Neez honey wheat beer with the meal. For ketchup, (no, I still don't eat it, but i did try it again) they have packets of 'tomato sauce'. These packets are more like the jelly packets you see at some restaurants. The difference here is that there are two cups in the single packet and the top doesn't peel off, instead there is a four sided pyramid protrusion from the center of the container.
What I found out about the container by accident, is that you are supposed to grab the opposite short ends across the long diameter and pull/squeeze together away from the pyramid. The accident part of this was that I wasn't thinking, not realizing this was designed to squirt the ketchup, not open the container, I shot some of this sauce a clear meter into the air before it fell splattering over the table. Only a slight embarrassment, but luckily the only other person to see it was my fellow consultant to the power company.
So, this made two dinners in a row in the same restaurant. We decided that the next night (see my Day 4 post when I get that far) we would eat somewhere else. While in this restaurant (called the Red Lion), however I did get to have my introduction to Aussie Rules Football (AFL, Footy) as there was a game on the telly. Think a cross between Ultimate Frisbee, Rugby and Soccer. The 25 (maybe 22) people per team are on the huge field (in this case the game was in the MCG, Melbourne Cricket Ground). They punt/drop kick or pass (volley ball style hand gesture one holding the ball, thumb side of the fist hitting the ball) the rugby ball all over the field. There are possession rules based on tackles, but in general, it is the job of the ball carrier to get rid of it before being tackled (Do you remember the game 'Smear the Queer' from elementary school?). Anyway, scoring is done by kicking the ball through the air through four uprights in a line that start at ground level. Six points if you get through the center two, one point if on one of the sides. Scores for this game get high, like 102 to 84 (I think) for the game we were watching. Each suburb in the Melbourne area seems to have its own Footy team.
After hanging out in the bar watching the game for a while, I returned to my room. I actually have a photo of this room, but more importantly, the bathroom, in which I had a jacuzzi tub and a shower with no door, no base, just a drain on the tile floor of the bathroom.
And so that you can see the room and the rest of the bathroom...
My guess is that you all don't really want to hear the work related details of my trip, and since some of it borders on confidential, I now have two good reasons not to tell, but I can show you a picture of a substation...
SubstationStartup+020_sm.JPG)
So, I spent all day in this substation doing actually very little. I examined our equipment, met with some of employees of the utility, and watched as connectors were added to the 22000 Volt bus work. To give you perspective (Mom, you should skip this paragraph): 120V will shock you; 240V will likely cause some permanent damage; 480V will disable your reflexes making it impossible for you to let go (i.e. it will kill you); 7000 Volts can arc through the air a distance 6 inches or more to your person, enveloping you in flames, though if you actually manage contact, you will die instantly from the shock; voltages above that can arc greater distances and otherwise cause more damage. But see, by knowing this, I know to NEVER TOUCH ANYTHING in a substation without the proper protective equipment, if at all, and in general, I touch nothing, instead letting the customer do all the work. And, most utilities have proper warnings, and reminders about safety, and some, like this one, require that everyone be properly inducted before entering the switching yard.
After spending the day in the substation, which did afford me the opportunity to get some sun, we left back to the new hotel for dinner. The restaurant attached to the hotel was actually a very well trafficked establishment and a reasonable classy sports bar atmosphere. Every beer they pour from the draft was placed into a glass wit that beer's logo (too much effort if you ask me, but a nice touch nonetheless). Also attached to the restaurant was a small gaming (i.e. casino style) room with slots that you could see from the doorway. I didn't bother going in. I had for dinner that night a lamb curry dish that was tasty, but had absolutely NO spice, which it could have used, but was still good. I drank a Stella Artois (sp?) beer with the dinner.
The night before, in the same restaurant, I had the Barramundi fish from the list of specials. It was very, very good and served over a bed of fries with an ornamental salad on the same plate. I drank a Beez Neez honey wheat beer with the meal. For ketchup, (no, I still don't eat it, but i did try it again) they have packets of 'tomato sauce'. These packets are more like the jelly packets you see at some restaurants. The difference here is that there are two cups in the single packet and the top doesn't peel off, instead there is a four sided pyramid protrusion from the center of the container.
What I found out about the container by accident, is that you are supposed to grab the opposite short ends across the long diameter and pull/squeeze together away from the pyramid. The accident part of this was that I wasn't thinking, not realizing this was designed to squirt the ketchup, not open the container, I shot some of this sauce a clear meter into the air before it fell splattering over the table. Only a slight embarrassment, but luckily the only other person to see it was my fellow consultant to the power company.
So, this made two dinners in a row in the same restaurant. We decided that the next night (see my Day 4 post when I get that far) we would eat somewhere else. While in this restaurant (called the Red Lion), however I did get to have my introduction to Aussie Rules Football (AFL, Footy) as there was a game on the telly. Think a cross between Ultimate Frisbee, Rugby and Soccer. The 25 (maybe 22) people per team are on the huge field (in this case the game was in the MCG, Melbourne Cricket Ground). They punt/drop kick or pass (volley ball style hand gesture one holding the ball, thumb side of the fist hitting the ball) the rugby ball all over the field. There are possession rules based on tackles, but in general, it is the job of the ball carrier to get rid of it before being tackled (Do you remember the game 'Smear the Queer' from elementary school?). Anyway, scoring is done by kicking the ball through the air through four uprights in a line that start at ground level. Six points if you get through the center two, one point if on one of the sides. Scores for this game get high, like 102 to 84 (I think) for the game we were watching. Each suburb in the Melbourne area seems to have its own Footy team.
After hanging out in the bar watching the game for a while, I returned to my room. I actually have a photo of this room, but more importantly, the bathroom, in which I had a jacuzzi tub and a shower with no door, no base, just a drain on the tile floor of the bathroom.
And so that you can see the room and the rest of the bathroom...
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Day 2 - $13 Pide and 11 Apostles (part 2)
Wow, those who are checking for my posts regularly must hate me now... here it is April 5, my 6th day here, and my last post was on April 2, my third day here, and I haven't even finished talking about day 2!! I haven't even hit the part of my travels that explains the title of the post!!
Oops!
I think it was actually before we saw the Koala that we stopped in Lorne for lunch. WE found a nice juice bar (in this case, 'juice bar' fits the literal meaning). I don't remember the name of the place, but it had an orange awning and looked like any fun hole-in-the-wall coffee shop in The States. You order at the counter, the menu is chalked on the wall, packed full of people. One of those places where you order, then sit, and wait for someone to walk around asking 'Who ordered the Pineapple/Watermellon?' That was the fresh squeezed juice I ordered (and no I don't know how you sqeeze a watermellon).
My drink arrived about the time my coworker had finished his fresh squeezed drink AND breakfast (he had ordered fruit with yogurt and honey). Good thing tipping is not the rule here. Actually, I tend to tip well even with terrible service, but it really is not customary here. In fact, my coworker (I think I mentioned before that my 'coworker' is actually a fellow consultant to the power company that I am here visiting and lives primarily in New Zealand) told me that Aussie's love when Americans show up and tip not knowing that it isn't expected. Now, if service truly is very, very good it is then fine/normal to tip a few dollars, but not our assumed 15-20%. I digress...
The breakfast I ordered, was the $13 Pide (see, I am now explaining the title). If you don't know, like I didn't, or haven't figured it out yet, a Pide is the Australian spelling of what we in America call Pita. the pronunciation is the same. My Pide was a much thicker bread than what I think of as pita, but very tasty. It was covered with smoked salmon and eggs and a small amount of some light sauce. The tastes all worked very well together. My traveling companion just had to sit and wait while I enjoyed myself eating slowly, enjoying the beautiful weather of an early morning at an ocean front restaurant/town.
Pide is not the only major spelling difference I have found. The one that I would have stared at for quite a while had I not heard it pronounced while the TV on the plane had closed captioning on is 'gaol'. How would you pronounce that? Am I just an oblivious, sheltered , midwestern boy? Now, I did not just accidently misspell goal. In fact, 'gaol' is pronounced and means the same thing as 'jail'. I have not been to gaol here, so don't worry, but the old Australian Gaol is one of those other big tourist sights in the Melbourne area. I have not yet gone touring there (and don't know yet if I will manage to).
We finally got back in the car, I was still driving, dealing with the left hand side of the road stuff. In fact I have driven all but 10 meters of the entire trip, all 12+ hours worth. With a few more stops for photos, we finally made it to the spot of the 11 Apostles...
So, in actuallity, the site is called the Twelve Apostles, but since one recently fell over (notice the pile of rockes in the lower left of the photo above) the site is now the Eleven Apostles. The name doesn't really matter, from the site of the visitor's center you can only count 9 or 10 (depending on the strictness of the count). Along the cost of Australia, however, there are multiple dozens of such structures. The natural process that creates them can be seen in this photo of a sign at the sight.
We left the Twelve Apostles and quickly went back on our way worried that we wouldn't make it to Ballarat in enough time to find the substation before dark. We created our own route on the fly and drove through some beautiful fields and country side.(in a very calm rolling hills and big FLAT plains sort of way). If I hadn't already mentioned, Australia (and this area specifically) has had 10 years of below average rain fall. The last five years the country has been under a big drought. The clouds you see in the photos all cleared away and never produced any rain on our drive. In fact, the further fromt he coast we traveled, the fewer the clouds became and the warmer the temperature. With the weather change came the visual verification, by way of endless brown fields of dead grass, or the effect of the drought. Hopefully the rain will come again. They REALLY need it.
Oops!
I think it was actually before we saw the Koala that we stopped in Lorne for lunch. WE found a nice juice bar (in this case, 'juice bar' fits the literal meaning). I don't remember the name of the place, but it had an orange awning and looked like any fun hole-in-the-wall coffee shop in The States. You order at the counter, the menu is chalked on the wall, packed full of people. One of those places where you order, then sit, and wait for someone to walk around asking 'Who ordered the Pineapple/Watermellon?' That was the fresh squeezed juice I ordered (and no I don't know how you sqeeze a watermellon).
My drink arrived about the time my coworker had finished his fresh squeezed drink AND breakfast (he had ordered fruit with yogurt and honey). Good thing tipping is not the rule here. Actually, I tend to tip well even with terrible service, but it really is not customary here. In fact, my coworker (I think I mentioned before that my 'coworker' is actually a fellow consultant to the power company that I am here visiting and lives primarily in New Zealand) told me that Aussie's love when Americans show up and tip not knowing that it isn't expected. Now, if service truly is very, very good it is then fine/normal to tip a few dollars, but not our assumed 15-20%. I digress...
The breakfast I ordered, was the $13 Pide (see, I am now explaining the title). If you don't know, like I didn't, or haven't figured it out yet, a Pide is the Australian spelling of what we in America call Pita. the pronunciation is the same. My Pide was a much thicker bread than what I think of as pita, but very tasty. It was covered with smoked salmon and eggs and a small amount of some light sauce. The tastes all worked very well together. My traveling companion just had to sit and wait while I enjoyed myself eating slowly, enjoying the beautiful weather of an early morning at an ocean front restaurant/town.
Pide is not the only major spelling difference I have found. The one that I would have stared at for quite a while had I not heard it pronounced while the TV on the plane had closed captioning on is 'gaol'. How would you pronounce that? Am I just an oblivious, sheltered , midwestern boy? Now, I did not just accidently misspell goal. In fact, 'gaol' is pronounced and means the same thing as 'jail'. I have not been to gaol here, so don't worry, but the old Australian Gaol is one of those other big tourist sights in the Melbourne area. I have not yet gone touring there (and don't know yet if I will manage to).
We finally got back in the car, I was still driving, dealing with the left hand side of the road stuff. In fact I have driven all but 10 meters of the entire trip, all 12+ hours worth. With a few more stops for photos, we finally made it to the spot of the 11 Apostles...
So, in actuallity, the site is called the Twelve Apostles, but since one recently fell over (notice the pile of rockes in the lower left of the photo above) the site is now the Eleven Apostles. The name doesn't really matter, from the site of the visitor's center you can only count 9 or 10 (depending on the strictness of the count). Along the cost of Australia, however, there are multiple dozens of such structures. The natural process that creates them can be seen in this photo of a sign at the sight.
We left the Twelve Apostles and quickly went back on our way worried that we wouldn't make it to Ballarat in enough time to find the substation before dark. We created our own route on the fly and drove through some beautiful fields and country side.(in a very calm rolling hills and big FLAT plains sort of way). If I hadn't already mentioned, Australia (and this area specifically) has had 10 years of below average rain fall. The last five years the country has been under a big drought. The clouds you see in the photos all cleared away and never produced any rain on our drive. In fact, the further fromt he coast we traveled, the fewer the clouds became and the warmer the temperature. With the weather change came the visual verification, by way of endless brown fields of dead grass, or the effect of the drought. Hopefully the rain will come again. They REALLY need it.
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