Day 9
Back to regular shifts, and the bump in team has been bumped out. That means at night it is an eerily quiet room. Mostly the hum of the servers and laptops ad little else. These are actually the parts of the tournament duty I like the most. There's no pressure to perform, and no real concern over appearances. Enough about work.
Woke up very early relatively speaking. Another 5 hours of sleep and that was it. I tossed and turned until about 9:45, when I decided I'd had enough. Went through my usual morning routine. A little bite of breakfast and catching up on the news on TV and called my wife. It sucks she's not here already, but it will be soon enough. After reading one of my previous entries she said she had no idea there was a tour of an old jail here in town, and that I should wait until she got here for us to experience it together. That sounded like a good idea to me, so that meant once again my plans for the morning had changed.
So, I decided to make the day about some housekeeping, so to speak. I went to get fitted for my tuxedo for the Australian Open Ball. Now, some of you may know that I did buy my tuxedo when I got married, but I didn't pack it for the trip, and had no intention of bringing it. That was for formal events on the North American continent. I am not going to give away many of the details except to say that Colleen will love it, and I thought I looked pretty darn good in the final choice. The rental is reimbursed by IBM (thank you very much) so I didn't have to worry about that, so long as I hang onto the receipt for it.
I stopped by the Tasmania Travel Centre for information about touring Tasmania. The woman there wasn't all that helpful, since I wasn't planning to go from Melbourne to Tasmania, and I wasn't interested in them booking excursions, etc. for me. She tried to chase me off renting (hiring here) a car indicating it would be pretty expensive, but the reality of that is using Hertz, I get a pretty decent deal for my car. She did at least tell me that flying to Hobart instead of Devenport made more sense, and I was generally OK with that. I learned that the average temperature in the summer there is in the mid 70s, so the weather should be nice. I think I at least have that part down, though I still haven't made any bookings. I am not quite sure if we're going to just jaunt around the countryside and stop where we find somewhere, or if we'll use Hobart as a base of operations and just jaunt out from there. I do know that well within driving distance, we will get the opportunity to see Tasmanian Devils being fed in a preserve. It will be good to see the family. LOL (For those that don't know, I love Taz, the Warner Brothers cartoon character, and many people say his personality fits me as well. I'd be lying if I said I didn't understand that.)
The last stop was J.E.T.A. Opals, just to make sure I remembered the trading hours. Last year, I almost ran to the store to be able to buy the opal pendant Colleen has. I found it funny that the gentleman remembered me, and my running, even after 1 year. He said if he could see the pendant again, he'd be able to find her a matching pair of earrings. That would be very cool generally speaking. I have no idea what it will cost, but he'll hook me up just like he did last year, and that's all I can ask.
There was a food court in the arcade (mall) where I was fitted for my tuxedo, so I decided to stop in and see what it had to offer. It was adjacent to Chinatown on one side, so the predominance of eateries were Asian cuisine. I decided to take my first foray into what was touted as Korean food. The first thing I saw made me decide I needed to try it. They served sweet potato noodles, and boy were they tasty. Throw some spicy Korean chicken (once again, sweat on the forehead spicy) and a little Korean barbeque beef (not all that impressive) and a black bean and vegetable chicken (very tasty) and I had the makings of a fine lunch. I even broke apart the low-end chopsticks provided (the spork they gave me was tiny) and showed off my skills. I probably still can't each much rice with the sticks, but I can definitely work on my noodles and the real food.
I walked down the venue in what can now definitely be described as summer. It was somewhere between 34 and 38 C (do you remember your math for converting? If not, you are reading this on the Internet, go google for it, or try this site. Anyway, roughly 93 to 98 degrees) and bright and sunny. I may not have burned, but I have gotten some sun for sure. I stopped in at a sunglasses booth set up here on the grounds. I liked the name, Rudy Project. I also liked the style, very much in the vein of an Oakley. Anyway, I broke down and bought some new sunglasses (my 3 year old Ray Ban's had a scratch in the lens in my field of vision, just enough to annoy me.) I think they look pretty good, and I wanted to treat myself (like the upcoming vacation isn't enough) to something.
I did want to take a moment and once again state that I refuse to let the premise of working at a tennis event damped my spirits when it comes to oustanding tennis. The fact that I might be sitting in an eerily quiet room watching tennis on TV until the wee hours of the morning never phases my passion for good tennis. Anyway, enough of that rant. ;-)
I did book the first leg of our vacation. Special shout out and thanks to Sandy Berman. She used her influence (and 85 million Mariott points) to get us a concierge level room at a Mariott in the Sydney Central Business District. For the two of us to fly economy was only $286 Australian, which worked out to $214 American. Not bad for a short flight on Qantas. It was a one-way ticket, since we plan to fly to Tasmania from Sydney, and I didn't want to mess with too many hops in airports. That means the first leg is now official. We'll fly out on the 31st and plan to stay in Sydney until the following Sunday. Hopefully, that will be enough time to do the city some justice. If not, well I will say we tried. :-) I also rented the car for Sydney. I was tempted to rent a stick, but with the steering wheel on the right hand side of the car, shifting left handed still seemed like pushing it. I do remember saying the same thing in last year's blog. LOL
Well, enough of that. This one has been a long entry. More from Day 10 tomorrow.
Cheers!
Woke up very early relatively speaking. Another 5 hours of sleep and that was it. I tossed and turned until about 9:45, when I decided I'd had enough. Went through my usual morning routine. A little bite of breakfast and catching up on the news on TV and called my wife. It sucks she's not here already, but it will be soon enough. After reading one of my previous entries she said she had no idea there was a tour of an old jail here in town, and that I should wait until she got here for us to experience it together. That sounded like a good idea to me, so that meant once again my plans for the morning had changed.
So, I decided to make the day about some housekeeping, so to speak. I went to get fitted for my tuxedo for the Australian Open Ball. Now, some of you may know that I did buy my tuxedo when I got married, but I didn't pack it for the trip, and had no intention of bringing it. That was for formal events on the North American continent. I am not going to give away many of the details except to say that Colleen will love it, and I thought I looked pretty darn good in the final choice. The rental is reimbursed by IBM (thank you very much) so I didn't have to worry about that, so long as I hang onto the receipt for it.
I stopped by the Tasmania Travel Centre for information about touring Tasmania. The woman there wasn't all that helpful, since I wasn't planning to go from Melbourne to Tasmania, and I wasn't interested in them booking excursions, etc. for me. She tried to chase me off renting (hiring here) a car indicating it would be pretty expensive, but the reality of that is using Hertz, I get a pretty decent deal for my car. She did at least tell me that flying to Hobart instead of Devenport made more sense, and I was generally OK with that. I learned that the average temperature in the summer there is in the mid 70s, so the weather should be nice. I think I at least have that part down, though I still haven't made any bookings. I am not quite sure if we're going to just jaunt around the countryside and stop where we find somewhere, or if we'll use Hobart as a base of operations and just jaunt out from there. I do know that well within driving distance, we will get the opportunity to see Tasmanian Devils being fed in a preserve. It will be good to see the family. LOL (For those that don't know, I love Taz, the Warner Brothers cartoon character, and many people say his personality fits me as well. I'd be lying if I said I didn't understand that.)
The last stop was J.E.T.A. Opals, just to make sure I remembered the trading hours. Last year, I almost ran to the store to be able to buy the opal pendant Colleen has. I found it funny that the gentleman remembered me, and my running, even after 1 year. He said if he could see the pendant again, he'd be able to find her a matching pair of earrings. That would be very cool generally speaking. I have no idea what it will cost, but he'll hook me up just like he did last year, and that's all I can ask.
There was a food court in the arcade (mall) where I was fitted for my tuxedo, so I decided to stop in and see what it had to offer. It was adjacent to Chinatown on one side, so the predominance of eateries were Asian cuisine. I decided to take my first foray into what was touted as Korean food. The first thing I saw made me decide I needed to try it. They served sweet potato noodles, and boy were they tasty. Throw some spicy Korean chicken (once again, sweat on the forehead spicy) and a little Korean barbeque beef (not all that impressive) and a black bean and vegetable chicken (very tasty) and I had the makings of a fine lunch. I even broke apart the low-end chopsticks provided (the spork they gave me was tiny) and showed off my skills. I probably still can't each much rice with the sticks, but I can definitely work on my noodles and the real food.
I walked down the venue in what can now definitely be described as summer. It was somewhere between 34 and 38 C (do you remember your math for converting? If not, you are reading this on the Internet, go google for it, or try this site. Anyway, roughly 93 to 98 degrees) and bright and sunny. I may not have burned, but I have gotten some sun for sure. I stopped in at a sunglasses booth set up here on the grounds. I liked the name, Rudy Project. I also liked the style, very much in the vein of an Oakley. Anyway, I broke down and bought some new sunglasses (my 3 year old Ray Ban's had a scratch in the lens in my field of vision, just enough to annoy me.) I think they look pretty good, and I wanted to treat myself (like the upcoming vacation isn't enough) to something.
I did want to take a moment and once again state that I refuse to let the premise of working at a tennis event damped my spirits when it comes to oustanding tennis. The fact that I might be sitting in an eerily quiet room watching tennis on TV until the wee hours of the morning never phases my passion for good tennis. Anyway, enough of that rant. ;-)
I did book the first leg of our vacation. Special shout out and thanks to Sandy Berman. She used her influence (and 85 million Mariott points) to get us a concierge level room at a Mariott in the Sydney Central Business District. For the two of us to fly economy was only $286 Australian, which worked out to $214 American. Not bad for a short flight on Qantas. It was a one-way ticket, since we plan to fly to Tasmania from Sydney, and I didn't want to mess with too many hops in airports. That means the first leg is now official. We'll fly out on the 31st and plan to stay in Sydney until the following Sunday. Hopefully, that will be enough time to do the city some justice. If not, well I will say we tried. :-) I also rented the car for Sydney. I was tempted to rent a stick, but with the steering wheel on the right hand side of the car, shifting left handed still seemed like pushing it. I do remember saying the same thing in last year's blog. LOL
Well, enough of that. This one has been a long entry. More from Day 10 tomorrow.
Cheers!
posted by Derek Botti at
7:17 AM
1 Comments:
My children love Taz too. They have just discovered Bugs Bunny and all his friends. They were asking the other day if there really were Tasmanian Devils so be sure to take a picture so I can show them they are real.
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