Day 6
Day 6 was the first day of real work, but since this isn't a blog about work itself, I am going to avoid discussions on that. :-)
The weather has improved, and summer has definitely kicked in. It was in the mid 80s yesterday, and promises to get higher as the week progresses. Threats of thundershowers did not materialize, even though the radar showed distinct chances. You can see the current radar outlook live if you like. Just hit the Bureau of Meteorology Web site. If nothing else, you can be jealous of me languishing in tropical weather while winter marches on in the US. :-P
Part of the day I spent fixated on looking at new houses in Australia. I saw a commercial for a local builder, that I equated to be like Anderson, KB, or Centex homes in the states. No, I am not planning on moving, and no I don't have a job here, but boy do I love this country. While I know that feeding the fantasy is not good for my mental health, I will say The Palladium is definitely a floor plan I could live with, and is actually in the price range of my current home (adjusting for Australian Dollars of course.) I preferred the Georgian facade, in case you were wondering. LOL I was told a reasonable approximate conversion is to take square meters and multiply by 10 to get square footage. That puts the house just a bit larger than the current one, but not overly so, which reinforces the premise that I am looking in the right price range. At least I can dream. :-) I wonder if the team would let me work as a mobile employee from Australia?
Dinner last night, which will be likely my last away from the venue was at Squire's Loft City Steakhouse. I was in heaven. The guys I met from Melbourne when I was working on my first book introduced me to this restaurant last year. The review site isn't directly for the restaurant itself, but the review is accurate. It was outstanding. I talked Andy and Judy into going, and we all ate our fill. Judy is a wine afficionado, so I usually take the time to enjoy a bottle with her. In this case, we had a pretty good Cabernet Savignon (she may have thought otherwise, but I drink a lot of beer, which likely means my palette isn't as educated as hers) and a dessert wine. That was a bit sweet for my tastes, but she seemed to enjoy it, and I am usually willing to experiment.
From there, we decided for a couple of pints before turning in. The suggestion was Irish Times, an obviously Irish pub down the road from the hotel. I, however, knew a better suggestion. I suggested Pugg Mahone's. It was close to the restaurant, just down on Hardware Lane, so we were able to walk there in a couple of minutes. Monday is backpacker night. That's significant in the sense that it is designed to attract young bohemians backpacking their way across the country. To do so, they have seriously discounted pint specials. From 8PM until 10PM, pints are $3 Australian (well, for some reason, the pints of Kilkenny that Andy favored were not, but my Toohey's New definitely was.) After 10, the price goes to $4 until midnight, and then stays at $5 until 3AM (like I am going to do that again soon.) Andy and I were both determined to retire before 11:30, and that meant we did wander off just as pint prices cross the $4 barrier. Still not bad, when you consider pints normally run in the $6 or $7 dollar range around here.
On the way back, I popped into the convenience store and purchased a toothbrush. It seems I did manage to forget something. :-) I had been using a travel brush I got (Qantas gives you one if you fly business class) but it was too small in my opinion, and was unwieldy to manage. Now I have an Oral B, and I couldn't be happier.
One note I should mention was an interesting discovery, especially looking at the world through my American eyes. :-) Diet Coke and Coke Zero in the US both claim to be zero calories, and zero grams of carbohydrates. Not so here in Australia. In fact, Coke Zero actually has more calories and more carbohydrates than Diet Coke. They both taste the same as their US counterparts, and the calorie and carb counts are miniscule, but I did find it interesting nonetheless. Colleen told me to suck it up, and so far I have. I am just not sure why it gets listed as zero in the states and some positive value here. I think part of it is that the Australians don't actually report calories on their packaging. They list energy in kilojoules. One calorie equals 4.186 kJ (thanks google) so technically everything has the ability to produce energy at some level. Dunno if that is significant or not, but it definitely has given me something to think about. The Better Health Channel web site sponsored by the Victoria Government has some interesting tidbits about the whole thing.
OK, guess I should wrap up Day 6. We start split shifts tomorrow, so Day 7 will be an interesting start to the rest of my time here.
Cheers!
The weather has improved, and summer has definitely kicked in. It was in the mid 80s yesterday, and promises to get higher as the week progresses. Threats of thundershowers did not materialize, even though the radar showed distinct chances. You can see the current radar outlook live if you like. Just hit the Bureau of Meteorology Web site. If nothing else, you can be jealous of me languishing in tropical weather while winter marches on in the US. :-P
Part of the day I spent fixated on looking at new houses in Australia. I saw a commercial for a local builder, that I equated to be like Anderson, KB, or Centex homes in the states. No, I am not planning on moving, and no I don't have a job here, but boy do I love this country. While I know that feeding the fantasy is not good for my mental health, I will say The Palladium is definitely a floor plan I could live with, and is actually in the price range of my current home (adjusting for Australian Dollars of course.) I preferred the Georgian facade, in case you were wondering. LOL I was told a reasonable approximate conversion is to take square meters and multiply by 10 to get square footage. That puts the house just a bit larger than the current one, but not overly so, which reinforces the premise that I am looking in the right price range. At least I can dream. :-) I wonder if the team would let me work as a mobile employee from Australia?
Dinner last night, which will be likely my last away from the venue was at Squire's Loft City Steakhouse. I was in heaven. The guys I met from Melbourne when I was working on my first book introduced me to this restaurant last year. The review site isn't directly for the restaurant itself, but the review is accurate. It was outstanding. I talked Andy and Judy into going, and we all ate our fill. Judy is a wine afficionado, so I usually take the time to enjoy a bottle with her. In this case, we had a pretty good Cabernet Savignon (she may have thought otherwise, but I drink a lot of beer, which likely means my palette isn't as educated as hers) and a dessert wine. That was a bit sweet for my tastes, but she seemed to enjoy it, and I am usually willing to experiment.
From there, we decided for a couple of pints before turning in. The suggestion was Irish Times, an obviously Irish pub down the road from the hotel. I, however, knew a better suggestion. I suggested Pugg Mahone's. It was close to the restaurant, just down on Hardware Lane, so we were able to walk there in a couple of minutes. Monday is backpacker night. That's significant in the sense that it is designed to attract young bohemians backpacking their way across the country. To do so, they have seriously discounted pint specials. From 8PM until 10PM, pints are $3 Australian (well, for some reason, the pints of Kilkenny that Andy favored were not, but my Toohey's New definitely was.) After 10, the price goes to $4 until midnight, and then stays at $5 until 3AM (like I am going to do that again soon.) Andy and I were both determined to retire before 11:30, and that meant we did wander off just as pint prices cross the $4 barrier. Still not bad, when you consider pints normally run in the $6 or $7 dollar range around here.
On the way back, I popped into the convenience store and purchased a toothbrush. It seems I did manage to forget something. :-) I had been using a travel brush I got (Qantas gives you one if you fly business class) but it was too small in my opinion, and was unwieldy to manage. Now I have an Oral B, and I couldn't be happier.
One note I should mention was an interesting discovery, especially looking at the world through my American eyes. :-) Diet Coke and Coke Zero in the US both claim to be zero calories, and zero grams of carbohydrates. Not so here in Australia. In fact, Coke Zero actually has more calories and more carbohydrates than Diet Coke. They both taste the same as their US counterparts, and the calorie and carb counts are miniscule, but I did find it interesting nonetheless. Colleen told me to suck it up, and so far I have. I am just not sure why it gets listed as zero in the states and some positive value here. I think part of it is that the Australians don't actually report calories on their packaging. They list energy in kilojoules. One calorie equals 4.186 kJ (thanks google) so technically everything has the ability to produce energy at some level. Dunno if that is significant or not, but it definitely has given me something to think about. The Better Health Channel web site sponsored by the Victoria Government has some interesting tidbits about the whole thing.
OK, guess I should wrap up Day 6. We start split shifts tomorrow, so Day 7 will be an interesting start to the rest of my time here.
Cheers!
posted by Derek Botti at
2:01 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home