Camping on the Beach
Once again... a few weeks have passed since the last update. Outside of work, the main reason being that the internet here is painfully slow. There are days that I want to chuck my wireless card into the bay and switch back to dial up because I swear it wasn't this slow. We have been noticing that they don't seem to have all the luxuries we are used to at home. They have yet to get on the internet shopping bandwagon and all shops are only open M-F 9-5. It can be a pain. Which leads me to my observation that being a successful businessperson here is pretty simple... visit the US a few times a year, figure out what the new in things are (wait a year or two) and then bring them here. For example, this ice cream shop (Cold Rock) opened up down the road from us not too long ago... I'm guessing from the name you can figure out that it is a knock-off of one of our favorite establishments back home. We're thinking that we should raise some capital and put in a fondue restaurant because there appears to be a void in the market for such a restaurant.
Jared finally remembered to bring the camera to work this week and take a picture from his desk (we're moving floors after the holiday break, so he is a bit disappointed that he might lose the wonderful view). Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, thus the picture doesn't really do the view justice. Our office overlooks the King Street Wharf/Darling Harbour, which is a pretty big cruise terminal (day cruises as well as the gigantic floating hotels), so it can be difficult at times to focus on work (great stress reliever though after a contentious call with a client).
We've settled in now and have started to spend more time exploring. Our friends Pat & Nicole from work (they are from Hartford and live in the same building as us) have been godsends introducing us to the secondee community, which is like a little community within the community.
We made a few big purchases the past few weeks... First stop was the bike shop, which by accident we bought matching bicycles. The guy managing the shop was an American, so he took pretty good care of us and even let us take the bikes out for a test spin before buying them. Here, you also have to have a bell on your bike and wear a helmet. I won't be putting any pictures of that up...
Second stop was the surf shop... They were having a sale, so Jared ended up buying a surfboard. Which he was only able to take out twice before cracking the fin and having to send it back to be repaired.
Third stop was the camping store... The big thing here is that everyone camps, so we had to invest in some sleeping bags and a tent. We broke in our camping gear in last weekend with a trip up the coast to a national park near Newcastle (about 2 hours North of Sydney). It is amazing how much pristine coast there is just a few hours out of the city. We went with Pat & Nicole as well as some Pomies (what Aussies call people from England - it stands for Prisoners of Her Majesty). Katie managed to keep her cool with all the bugs. Sadly no S'mores, but the food was delicious...grilled prawns, bacon, steak, and some homemade mince pies, an English/Australian christmas tradition. Pretty relaxing weekend with surfing and games on the beach with the exception of a few pissed (very drunk) Islanders (massive Fijians) coming over to our camp late Saturday night to start some trouble (not sure what the problem was, but the one guy kept telling one of the guys from England that he "pissed in his pocket" - I guess it means he was picking on him or something). In the end the situation was resolved peacefully with the really drunk guy singing his version of Every Rose Has a Thorn (reading/typing this story does not do the random/weirdness of the situation justice).
This past week we experienced our first KPMG Australia functions. Jared's department had their Christmas party (FYI random note - they actually call it a Christmas party, decorate the office with decorations that say Merry Christmas, etc. and not the "Holiday" politically correct nonsense like in the states) on a harbour cruise. It was Hawaiian themed, so everyone dressed accordingly (first KPMG lesson - every function has a theme and everyone dresses up. It is actually quite festive and entertaining to see the things that people come up with).
Katie's department had their party at Freshwater Beach (which is a beach or two north of Manly - where we live). Unfortunately it rained the entire day, but they managed with playing games at the surf club. It was eighties themed which actually is not that different from walking down the street since half the people here are obsessed with the eighties.
The firm office party was last night at a club called The Ivy. In true Aussie form, the theme was "Black and White", so as you can imagine there were several intriguing costumes..from Penguins to Kiss rockstars. The party was quite different from our office parties back home. One, not formal (see costumes above). Two, no sit down dinner (just roaming appetizers). Three, lots of dancing (unlike the five or six people that end up on the dance floor towards the end of the night after a few cocktails). I guess the dancing part is partly justified because you literally might know about 2%-5% of the people at the party (given that there are close to 3K people in our office), so no need to worry about looking like a fool because nobody knows you to gossip about you. Four, observed many things that would never fly in the US... maybe 20 years ago, but not today.
We are now officially on a mandatory three week holiday from work. We won't complain. We're taking a few trips to take advantage of the time off.
Hope that you all have a Merry Christmas!!!
Jared finally remembered to bring the camera to work this week and take a picture from his desk (we're moving floors after the holiday break, so he is a bit disappointed that he might lose the wonderful view). Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, thus the picture doesn't really do the view justice. Our office overlooks the King Street Wharf/Darling Harbour, which is a pretty big cruise terminal (day cruises as well as the gigantic floating hotels), so it can be difficult at times to focus on work (great stress reliever though after a contentious call with a client).
We've settled in now and have started to spend more time exploring. Our friends Pat & Nicole from work (they are from Hartford and live in the same building as us) have been godsends introducing us to the secondee community, which is like a little community within the community.
We made a few big purchases the past few weeks... First stop was the bike shop, which by accident we bought matching bicycles. The guy managing the shop was an American, so he took pretty good care of us and even let us take the bikes out for a test spin before buying them. Here, you also have to have a bell on your bike and wear a helmet. I won't be putting any pictures of that up...
Second stop was the surf shop... They were having a sale, so Jared ended up buying a surfboard. Which he was only able to take out twice before cracking the fin and having to send it back to be repaired.
Third stop was the camping store... The big thing here is that everyone camps, so we had to invest in some sleeping bags and a tent. We broke in our camping gear in last weekend with a trip up the coast to a national park near Newcastle (about 2 hours North of Sydney). It is amazing how much pristine coast there is just a few hours out of the city. We went with Pat & Nicole as well as some Pomies (what Aussies call people from England - it stands for Prisoners of Her Majesty). Katie managed to keep her cool with all the bugs. Sadly no S'mores, but the food was delicious...grilled prawns, bacon, steak, and some homemade mince pies, an English/Australian christmas tradition. Pretty relaxing weekend with surfing and games on the beach with the exception of a few pissed (very drunk) Islanders (massive Fijians) coming over to our camp late Saturday night to start some trouble (not sure what the problem was, but the one guy kept telling one of the guys from England that he "pissed in his pocket" - I guess it means he was picking on him or something). In the end the situation was resolved peacefully with the really drunk guy singing his version of Every Rose Has a Thorn (reading/typing this story does not do the random/weirdness of the situation justice).
This past week we experienced our first KPMG Australia functions. Jared's department had their Christmas party (FYI random note - they actually call it a Christmas party, decorate the office with decorations that say Merry Christmas, etc. and not the "Holiday" politically correct nonsense like in the states) on a harbour cruise. It was Hawaiian themed, so everyone dressed accordingly (first KPMG lesson - every function has a theme and everyone dresses up. It is actually quite festive and entertaining to see the things that people come up with).
Katie's department had their party at Freshwater Beach (which is a beach or two north of Manly - where we live). Unfortunately it rained the entire day, but they managed with playing games at the surf club. It was eighties themed which actually is not that different from walking down the street since half the people here are obsessed with the eighties.
The firm office party was last night at a club called The Ivy. In true Aussie form, the theme was "Black and White", so as you can imagine there were several intriguing costumes..from Penguins to Kiss rockstars. The party was quite different from our office parties back home. One, not formal (see costumes above). Two, no sit down dinner (just roaming appetizers). Three, lots of dancing (unlike the five or six people that end up on the dance floor towards the end of the night after a few cocktails). I guess the dancing part is partly justified because you literally might know about 2%-5% of the people at the party (given that there are close to 3K people in our office), so no need to worry about looking like a fool because nobody knows you to gossip about you. Four, observed many things that would never fly in the US... maybe 20 years ago, but not today.
We are now officially on a mandatory three week holiday from work. We won't complain. We're taking a few trips to take advantage of the time off.
Hope that you all have a Merry Christmas!!!
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