10.15.2012
It’s been a while since my last post and I have quite a lot
to summarize and share with you all.
Partially it is to blame for the internet access here….its roughly very
slow and everything here has a data cap.
As I upload photos and stream Netflix here…..that limited my ability to
access the internet here. Luckily I
subscribed to DSL which is fairly common here….broadband internet is only in
certain areas of Australia…not yet fully established. You will notice that I got an overdose of the
local wildlife and the majestic landscapes of Victoria.
The weekend of October 5th was my second full
weekend in Melbourne. And it was the
completion of my first week of work at Boeing Australia. To put it in short summary, the “One Boeing”
vision has quite a way to go in order to ensure a seamless transparency between
Australia and the U.S. It has been a
shocking, frustrating and rewarding in trying to get as accustomed to the
culture of the new workplace. As I have
no completed two full weeks I can assure you that with every day it has gotten
better and as I get to know my co-workers better things are becoming more
optimistic. J
Enough of the work related material and more onto the fun
stuff. Docklands the neighborhood that I
am staying in has lots of particularly highly rated restaurants…not something
you would eat out daily or weekly…but maybe monthly. It’s particularly expensive….but the expats
here love to dine here and do have a favorite called Woolshed. It’s a nice casual steakhouse with great wine
pairings. The expats who I have gotten
to know are frequent visitors and have made good friends with the owners who
have shared lots of free samplings of their 200 dollar and up bottles of
wines. Its a great dig and next week will be a great
wine sampling night with food pairings.
To conclude my first week of work my work group of
Industrial Engineers gathered together and went out for happy hour at Watermark
a fairly trendy restaurant/bar in the Docklands, but where Happy Hour has $5.00
Pots. A pot is a size that is between a
pint, and a schooner. The Pot came to be
only in Australia as a Pint became too warm before it could be fully consumed
in the summer heat and a schooner was too small.
The following Sunday, my co-worker the other expat who has
been here for almost 2 years ventured out to a sanctuary run by the Melbourne Zoo
organization in Healesville. Roughly a
1.5 hour drive out into the Yarra Valley (think wine country). Lots of rolling green hills, vineyards and
sheep. Also think lots of torrential
rain…..it was probably one of the worse days to go to this outdoor sanctuary as
I also forgot to bring an umbrella.
Luckily the gift shop offered $5.00 ponchos. J This was a great time, we got to see lots of
Koalas, Kangaroos,Wallabies, local birds, platypus, …etc. We could walk right up to them which was a
surprise as in the States that would be highly prohibitive. All the animals in Healsville Sanctuary have
been bred or were injured and have since been kept in captivity. It was fairly neat to see all of the local
animals even in the rain.
My second week at work went smooth and even though it was
still mostly getting to know the processes and learning all the Australian
vocabulary, i.e. Canteen = cafeteria, arvo = afternoon….etc.
My third weekend, consisted of meeting up with some family
friends from Seattle who were passing through Melbourne on their epic New
Zealand and Australian vacation. I got
to spend a great full day with them exploring and sharing Melbourne with
them. It was great to hang out with them
and discover a few new places that I hadn’t been before such as the Shrine of
Remembrance (A memorial to all the fallen Australian and New Zealand
Soldiers).
The previous night, I discovered a Mexican restaurant with
my American co-worker. We heard from the
locals of this great Mexican place called Mamasitas. We went….waited 30 minutes and were
thoroughly disappointed at our 6 dollar taco and 34 dollar pitcher of watered
down sangria….we were so disappointed at this posh and trendy Mexican tapas
place that we went to the Azteca equivalent fast food Mexican food joint called
Taco Bills. Small portions yes, but
Mexican beers for 7.50 is a deal!
Normally most of the beer here starts at 10 bucks a pint or higher. Mexican is hard to find in Australia and its
just starting to get popular….it probably will never be like the Mexican in the
states… no big surprise there!
The following Sunday my American co-worker and I jumped into
the car and drove the Great Ocean Road, one of the world’s most scenic highways. The road begins about 1.5 hours west of
Melbourne. Prior to driving part of the
Great Ocean Road, we wanted to play 9 holes of golf at Anglesea Golf Club,
where they are known for their Kangaroos.
It was quite impressive to be able to play golf at a great course with
Kangaroos hoping around you. My round of
golf wasn’t great, but getting to experience and see the Kangaroos around you
was!
After our golf round we hopped back into the car and drove
to the beginning of the Great Ocean Road.
This long and windy highway goes all the way to Adelaide, which is at
least 6 hours or more to get to from Anglesea.
The beaches and landscape was spectacular. A lot of I reminded me to the coastline of
Ireland. Majestic white sand beaches
with great surf and steep high cliffs and bluffs are on every bend. It’s a narrow highway…only two lanes and luckily
no semi-trucks pushed us close to the side…
We passed a beach called Bells Beach which is one of the first beaches
to host a surf competition. Lots of surfers on this beach. We continued our way and as the road came to
a point where we had to drive inland, we came to Otway Lighthouse. We didn’t go to the lighthouse, but instead
halfway there we stopped and pulled over to the side of the road. We looked up and there were hundreds of
Koalas in the trees. Eucalyptus trees
are everywhere in Victoria and wherever there are Eucalyptus trees there
Koalas. It was great to see so many of
them in their natural habitat. One was
luckily just beginning to climb a tree and I was able to get a great
photo. After a good 30 minutes capturing
photos of Koalas we continued the great drive until we reached our destination,
the 12 Apostles. These giant limestone
cliffs, not as high as the Cliffs of Moar in Ireland, stood tall against the
raging surf. No longer are there 12 of these towering limestone columns, but
now less than 7. These impressive rock
formations are great and are a world wonder.
After a few good hours walking around to different vantage
points and being super touristy, we departed around 7.30pm in the evening and
took the inland highway back to Melbourne, a good 3 hours, instead of taking
the windy road back in total darkness and taking 5-6 hours to do the same trip home.
This week of work has gone well again and I am finally
getting involved in the local projects, should be good going from this point on. Also, booked a trip to Singapore for the
first weekend of November, booked another trip to Brisbane and the Gold Coast
for some sun before it gets too hot in the summer. The next big event is this Saturday when I
will be going along with a good group of Aussie co-workers to the horse race,
the Caulfield Cup, not the largest like the Melbourne Cup, but maybe the 3rd
or 4th largest in the country.
Horse racing is big here and everyone dresses up. I too will be dressing up too, photos will
come soon.
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