Sydney Stories - Week 13

Hello,

A fairly quiet but hectic week at work. It's the annual appraisal cycle going on right now. It's an interesting experience to be talking to all the team members and their negotiation tactics. Not that I am doing this for the first time but it's been a while.

What is it with us folks and lack of courtesy? The other day while I was in the train on the way to work had another "interesting" experience. The trains have a setup of 3 seaters and 2 seaters. The very first seat though...is a tad smaller than a regular 3 seater. Yes, 3 "small" people can fit in, but not always. So there I was taking a such a seat (another fairly "built" lady was already sitting there). There comes this hulk of a guy...one of our own and squeezes himself in that "3rd" seat. I started choking to an extent that I couldn't breathe properly. I excused myself and got out of the seat and traveled standing for the rest of the way.Why!!

I have harped about inefficiency of the Aussies many a times. Wonder what it is with them to underplay the human capital. People are used to hand out restaurant discount coupons, announce the sales going on in a shop etc. They all look so old marketing techniques. Can understand that this provides employment to many - but can't those people be better utilized?

One of the cool things I am seeing here is the 3 way pedestrian crossing signals. I had noticed this for the first time near Flinders St station in Melbourne. I see that more in Sydney. Normally the pedestrians get a green signal to walk in one direction only. So, I were to reach a point diagonally opposite to where I am I would have to wait to clear 2 signals. However here esp where they are big roads and longer signals they have diagonal crossing for pedestrians. Basically the automative traffic is stopped on all directions and you can pretty much walk whichever direction you want. Apparently not all of Aussie is bad. :-)

This tennis partner of mine, he works in the same building as I do. I've never seen him before or even if I did woulnd't have recognized him. The other day I met him at the train station. He taught me new route to get off from a different station than what I normally used to and walk to work across a park. Glad that I found it because I always thought the previous station was too far from work. So anyway, I bumped into him 3 times the same day. Talk about coincidences!!

The over enthusiast in me wanted to compete with my favourite chicken masala to prepare my own. Turned out to be a disaster. Luckily I stopped the process midway before adding it on the the dish. Resorted back to good old Kumar's masala. :-) Got to figure out that magic ingredient. ;-)

This weekend saw a couple of hindi movies - Ishqiyaa and Jaane tu ya jaane na. Ishqiyaa basically was inspired to watch after listening (and seeing) to the Dil to bachha hai song and the suspense behind the plot. Unfortunately the language was soo rural that I could only get a gist of the overall movie - in fact not even that. :-(  Jaane tu was one complete masala. Kept me occupied during my weekly ironing. :-)

Have a great week!!

Chetty