Sydney Stories - Week 27

Hello,

Last week was quite interesting. Got a chance to attend a complimentary conference conducted by IBM and other co-sponsors. It was inaugurated by a key note speech from Max Walker. Apparently he is a celebrity down under who has dabbled in international cricket, australian football, TV shows etc. His theme was "Imagination + Association = Possibilities". He seemed to start off on a good note, however somewhere down the line lost track in his own stories and time was running out. Eventually hurried up his speech constantly watching the time cue card. The rest of the session was quite interesting. The topic of interest I chose was Agile methodologies. It has been the talk in our office for a little while now. There has been a bunch of problems going on and someone said "Oh we need to go Agile. That will solve all our problems.". Until last week I didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about. Now I have some idea on what it is.  Basically, they have clubbed a set of good habits  for those with bad habits and given a nice little name. 

Apart from the topics presented, the conference was well organized at the Hilton in Sydney. Food in corporate parties here is something that I continue to be baffled by. They really give a lot of attention to keep the taste buds working full steam. Some exotic appetizers and desserts were made available.

It was a deciding week for the Australian Masterchef. Aussies have made their preferences very clear. They prefer a cooking reality show over an electoral debate. The TV timing for the electoral debate had to be shifted after the Masterchef finale was completed. Of course I couldn't get a chance to watch it live. It was dinner time and it means Dora time at home. :-)

The local chef tried his hands at chicken tikka masala over the weekend. On googling the recipe, the wikipedia on chicken tikka masala says there are 48 different variants of the recipe. I probably came up with a 49th version of it myself. Tried a new way of making grilled tikka by pan frying bite sized pieces of marinated chicken. Came out pretty well. 

Oki doki. Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 26

Hello,

This weekend marks 6 months of my stay in Sydney. Been quite interesting so far. On the work front, am getting to know stuff just enough to be dangerous. I had a colleague of mine in Wipro who kept saying this - "I may not know much, but I know enough to be dangerous". I think I know exactly what he means now. Last week happens to mark 14 years of professional life as well. Guess am becoming an old dog. ;-)

2 girls sitting in the train the conversation goes like - yeah...am not saying she's not nice, but she's a bitch. ;-)

Currently on a book called "New Game, New Rules". It is about what Australian enterprises should do to compete in the global market. Quite  interesting read so far. Most of the things in there is quite common applicable to any country. However he brings about certain specifics about Aussie work culture. One interesting thing, there's really nothing much being exported from here except for wool and beer (probably oranges?). More about it after I finish it.

Had an awkward situation in our GP's office. We had first consulted with an Indian doc for Nandha and Nandhitha a few weeks ago. We were not quite impressed by her and decided not to go to her again. This week had to go to a GP for Nandha since his coughing didn't seem to subside. It was the same office which had 5 doctors. So we visit this old Aussie doc. He does a few checks and calls up "Hey Geets...there's this kid...blah blah blah..". Apparently he called up the other doc whom we didn;t want to see to get an opinion. On the way out "Dr Geets" says, don't forget to come back on Tuesday for a follow up. Somebody should've  taken a pic of me...would've been interesting. :-) Is there a Doc - patient etiquette guide? 

This weekend had been to a friend's house for lunch. Had great sambar sadham a.k.a "bisi bele bath" after a long time. Decided to make it a day off for the kitchen and eat out for dinner as well. My favourite Malay restaurant had closed down. :-( Need to find a good Mee Goreng place now. Ended up with good old Thai. 

Oki doki. Have a great week ahead.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 25

Hello,

A quick week rather monotonous zoomed by. Just as I was wondering if I would get enough topics to write about, Sydney presents itself with something interesting.

It seemed like an orchestra at our place where all 4 of us were coughing and sneezing one after the other. Nandhitha was the worst hit and she picked up a fever as well. This morning I took her to a neighbourhood medical center since the fever didn't seem to reduce even after a day of paracetemol. 4 out of the 5 duty doctors available were Indians. Our luck we got to see a Korean (or Chinese?) doctor. He did the basics and suggested a paracetemol for fever and something else for her cough. I had already started on that dose for her for the past 2 days. (Oh athaan yenakku theriyme..) ("Oh I already know that...") . So he asked why are you here then? I said, I don't know, you tell me, she's had fever for the past 2 days and paracetemol by itself is not working. Doc says...Oh.. you need an antibiotic? Ok here you go.. I had to shell out $95 for this joke. 

Aussies or maybe Sydneites take security seriously, maybe a bit too seriously. I have written about the high security in my apartment lift. Have to time the entry like in Mission Impossible else I will lose the chance to get out at my floor. ;-) Maybe it's all for good. Safety is always good. However what I saw today seemed a bit over the line. Nandhitha wanted to use the bathroom in the clinic. I was shown the direction and just as I was about to move someone reminded me to pick a token. I was first surprised why I would need a token to use the toilet. The tokens were marked Male and Female with some number. Took a male token and headed towards the rooms. There was a female toilet alright. The male one had an out of order board. I thought...what the heck I will still give it a shot. Nandhitha was in a hurry as well. I tried to open the door...no luck. Thought maybe someone was inside...knocked a few times, but no sound. Then I realized I had to enter a "secret" passcode to open the toilet door. The passcode is what was given in the token. Technology.... 

Uma's b'day was spent quite uneventful since Nandhitha was not feeling well. Had to go out and buy medicines, thought will get some Malaysian. 8 PM on a Friday night the restaurant was closed!!! Ended up getting a takeaway from an Indian restaurant. Turned out pretty good. This weekend a cousin were supposed to visit us. We were all prepared and as I was just marinating the chicken (for chilly chicken ) on Friday night got a call from him that he mixed up the flight bookings and he was not coming this weekend. In a way it kinda helped because Nandhitha was not keeping well. All of a sudden Saturday seemed a bit too free since we didn't have to prepare for hosting a dinner. These days it's almost 50-50 deal with Uma on the cooking front just so I don't lose touch. Tonight made aloo gobhi (phool gobhi to be precise) with amchur masala. Had a different kick to it.

Have a great week ahead.

Chetty