Sydney Stories - Week 19

Hello,

Its 9.20 PM on Sunday night and am able to sit to write a few lines. I think this is not a bad sign at all considering how busy last week zoomed by. 

Have been living on Australian timing during the short stay in India. Probably that has helped not having a major bout of jet lag back in Sydney. However my system was confused quite a bit with respect to the meal I was having. Thankfully no major repercussions in spite of all the action.

My friend Dhamu's brother's wedding went on fine. I guess the only thing they did wrong was to have too many varieties of food and sweets. It took so long to digest that we had to cuss and discuss the shortcomings days after the wedding got over. I had a bit of a confusion as to which side I belonged to - the groom or the bride (I am related to the bride as well). 

Trip back to Chennai was not as eventful as my way to Salem. Luggage for an international trip for a family of 4 was a little more than hands full. Thankfully the weight limits are so restricted that reduced at least 3 suit cases. Nandhitha had a tough time to sleep in an upper berth (along with me). She said she will not climb like a monkey and sleep. Had a bit of a drama there trying to put her and her brother to sleep. The best part of the trip back was the ride from Egmore station to T. Nagar. All the 10 pieces of luggage fitted into the dickie of good old Ambassador except for 1 piece of hand luggage which Appa had to carry on his lap. The charge was Rs. 300 only. A very pleasant surprise for that time of the day. Had a short stay in T. Nagar till lunch. Headed over to Adyar post lunch. Dinner was a very "simple" - thanks to my aunt. Chicken 65 (or Chilly chicken?), prawn poriyal, mixed veggie kurma, puttu, kothu parotta, panneer stuffed dosai, tomato sambar (did I miss anything?), oh and of  course, choclate souffle for desert. Everything was home made except for kothu parotta. 

Headed to the airport after an early dinner. The check-in was a bit delayed when the agents got confused with Uma's old and new passports. However the treatment was royal after that since we were travelling with an infant. The infant carrier came in real handy. Couldn't imagine how we could've managed without that. Thanks Sis!! Nandhitha was excited during the first leg from Chennai to Kuala Lumpur that she hardly slept. Had a very short break in KL, just enough time to have a relaxed coffee and head to the gate. For a change didn't see any movie during the way back to Sydney. 

Was pretty drained out by the time we reached Sydney. An uncle of mine had invited us for dinner at his place. That was very helpful. That night we all slept like logs. Thankfully I had 3 days to settle down before I started with work. Weekend has been busy with shopping trips and arranging the house. Is that a chore or what!!! Guess will call it a night now.

Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 16

Hope you had a nice week.

Week was busy as usual. Weekend was even more hectic for a change - more about that coming soon.

Wonder what it is with people and their Ipods and blaring music. If there is one thing that irritates me the most during the morning commute is when people have absolutely no courtesy for people around when it comes to listening to music. I was almost tempted to turn on the music player in my cell phone on speaker and keep it close to my ears as if I were deaf. On this aspect there is seems to be no racial difference. The only people whom I have seen not do this is probably the Chinese. 

Australia has a lot of Lebanese and middle eastern population. Not sure about other cities, but definitely tons of them in Melbourne in Sydney. It is very easy to identify a Lebanese - they tend to grow more hair on the back of their head than in the front - almost like a tuft. Wonder why!!

Weekend was quite busy. Saturday morning a friend of mine had invited me to take his family on a ride. Confusing? Ok..he has purchased a car about a month ago, but does not carry a driving license. Don't ask my why/how, but that is the case. So he has it parked in his garage for most of the time. I believe he takes it out to some short drives close to his house. So I took them on a drive (in their car) to the Helensburgh temple. The same temple which I visited with my uncle a while ago. It was a good 1 hour drive from his place. After paying salute to the deities headed towards the canteen to have a hearty south indian lunch. Had a masala dosa after a long time. Headed towards Stanwell park beach after lunch. The weather was just perfect. Their son (close to 2 years old) had a blast. Since we had not planned it well couldn't enjoy much in the water. Dropped them back at their place and headed back home. On the way stopped in Parramatta at my favourite Malaysian restaurant for dinner. Had Mee Goreng. It was Ok. At the end I asked the waitress if they had changed their chef. I was right. The main chef was off for a couple of days and a substitute was brought in. Seems like my taste buds are too sensitive. ;-)

Today was one hectic day. Started off early in the morning to Parramatta with a huge shopping plan. The first stop was to get a hair cut at a chinese salon. This guy is just amazing. This is the second time I've been there. I think I will go there until I live in this area. My haircut is usually simple - No. 2 on the clipper all around. This guy takes so much care to make it a perfect job. He kept walking around me over and over searching for  strand after strand of stray hair to trim it. As you can imagine it is not an easy thing with my hair. ;-) 

There was a Mother's Day sale going on for baby stuff at Babiesrus. I was hoping to cash in on this sale to get stuff for Nandha and Nandhitha. Had to do a bit of travelling to get to a branch where they had the stuff I was looking for. Finally got all I wanted to buy. Thankfully a sales rep came along with me in the shop suggesting better things than what I had intended to buy. The best part was her suggestions were even cheaper than what I had selected. Haven't seen such customer service before in Australia. 

On the way back an interesting incident happened in the bus. Well..actually 2. While I was walking I saw a bus that goes to my house coming even before I could get to a bus stop. I thought I will try my luck and waved my hand. Normally they wouldn't stop. This guy did. Once I got in he told me that he could've lost some (driving) points and close to $450 fine if he was caught doing that. A good samaritan and lucky me. On the way a asian (could be Chinese or Jap) family got on. A couple and 3 kids. During one of the steep turns the stroller toppled (the youngest kid - a little over a year maybe was inside). The mother trying to grab fell over as well. Boy...that was some scene. The driver immediately stopped the bus and came around to check if everything was alright. He gave them a piece of paper and asked them to write down their name and contact details. He later explained that whatever happened has been captured in the camera in the bus. If in case they got hurt and wanted to claim insurance, the bus company will cover them completely. Free insurance for the passengers. Now that was a first for me.

After I reached home, took help from one of my relatives to give me a lift back to the shop to get the goods I had bought. Luckily his car was big enough to get all the stuff. Finished the weekend grocery shopping along with him. 

This weekend the special here is Ginger Chicken. I tried hard to get a recipe from the internet to make it Indian style. No luck on that so made up my own recipe. Turned out pretty OK.

Have a great week ahead.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 15

Hello,

Hope you had a good week.

This week went fast as usual. Had an opportunity to attend a free seminar in my area of work. It was 50% information and 50% marketing for their training programs. I suppose (reckon?) it is fair enough to expect a sales pitch when someone offers "free" information (coupled with food and drinks as well). Well I did get a new insight or two. So it wasn't too bad.

Nandha's visa process is taking 2 steps forward and 1 step backward. After some follow up I got to know that I had to produce proof of health insurance for us here. Initially when I asked about it I was told it was not necessary. Now that is required, thanks to Aussie efficiencies (in the insurance company) I have to wait for 48 - 72 hours to get a letter printed and emailed to me. That translates to 6 - 9 working days, which is 1 to 2 calendar weeks. On further persistence I was told that it may happen earlier but I cannot follow up until 72 hours. Oh well...

Saturday morning started with a few You Tube videos - thanks to my brother. Stumbled upon one over the other for about an hour. Got to know about another "self-help" guy - Tony Robbins. He seemed to make sense. His website has a free DISC survey as well. I had taken this DISC survey last year while I was in Bangalore. It is an amazing assessment of myself. I realized how badly "fish out of water" I was doing the work I was doing in Melbourne. No wonder it pushed me to quit. 

The weekend the schedule was a little disrupted when I got a call from my school friend (Siva)  to accompany him and his family on a trip to the aquarium. The aquarium was alright. Nothing spectacular if you have seen other similar ones. This was quite similar to the one in Melbourne. Of course there was always some new variety that I see in every new aquarium. I did learn one interesting fact though about Snapper fish. They are considered "protogynous hermaphrodites". In English, about 50% of them turn from female to male as they grow older. My friend's son (about 2 yrs old) was initially apprehensive about all the fishy fishy things around but got comfortable with the "environment" by the time we got out.

This weekend's cooking experiment was black-eyed beans masala and thai style chicken fried rice. Both turned out well. The key to make restaurant style fried rice (I think) is to really make it so i.e., to fry the rice. So far I have always added rice at the end. However, after watching a couple of YouTubes I've changed my strategy to fry the rice along with some veggies. Not completely healthy considering the amount of oil used. Guess an occasional indulgence can be permitted. :-)

Have a great week ahead.

Chetty