Sydney Stories - Week 36

Hello,

Hope you had a good week.

Have you ever tried to dry your hands using the hot air blower in public bathrooms and ever had your hands dried up? In the Sydney Town Hall railway station they have installed a power blow dryer system. You need to insert your palms in a slit when two quite powerful jets of warm air dries you up. It was quite impressive. Never seen the air hand dryer so effective. Wonder how many other public toilets have caught up with this technology.

These days I happen to meet a lot of my apartment mates in the train. I guess you start to gain respect after you've been seen around with your wife and kids. The same guys never bothered to talk to me earlier. ;-) In fact one of them also works in the same building as mine. 

After a long break from good Malaysian food my appetite was well satisfied this weekend with Malaysian food for 3 days in a row. Friday is my usual Thai day took yet another deviation this time. This time, I found a small Malaysian restaurant tucked into a corner in a nearby train station. I happened to see that by chance while coming back from somewhere. The effort was definitely worth it. Finally had some decent char kway teaw. Keep getting confused for the right spelling. Maybe anything goes for Malay? 

On Saturday morning my friend Siva called me up and asked if we were interested to join them on a trip to Blue Mountains national park. Agreed to join without much research. It is technically about an hour's drive from our place. However it would've helped if we knew where we were supposed to go. I assumed he knew and he assumed I knew. Poor GPS can only tell us the way if we give a destination right.  It took about 5 hours to go where we wanted to go. Decided never ever to step out of the house "unplanned". 

The particular spot where we wanted to go was in a town called Katoomba. Ended up in yet another Malaysian restaurant for lunch. Had kway teaw, nasi goreng and hokkien mee. Wasn't disappointed at all. My friends hadn't tasted Malay food before, they were a bit hesitant looking at the dark coloured nasi goreng. They were quite happy too.

The Blue mountain national park is where one of the popular landmarks of Australia where the three sisters peaks are  located. Thanks to all the adventure in the morning we didn't have much time to spend there. Managed to take a cable car ride (the last one trip for the day actually) across the mountains. It was quite impressive. A lot of my friends had underplayed the Blue mountains saying there was nothing much except for the 3 peaks. I think we will be going back there a few times. 

And yes,  made a decent kway teaw (again for the 3rd consecutive day - "something wrong" (as Nandhitha would say)). It was kway teaw minus any meat. I think the chives and bean sprouts makes the difference. 

Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 35

Hello,

Fairly quiet week this time. These days I have been making some frequent trips to visit "Justice of Peace" or in other words Notary Public officers. Have to go to them to get some documents attested once in a while. Wonder whatever training they undergo, they get to become next to "God" to prove the authenticity of myself and documents. The best part of this deal is it is free. Everywhere else there was always some nominal fee involved. In US, some bank officials had this "power" but they still used to charge a fee of $2 per signature (if you did not have an account in their bank). Here they sit in the premises of the city courts and do this as a volunteer job. Apparently any citizen could be a volunteer I guess. I saw a "trainee" JP - an asian lady who was attesting one of my documents.Talking about courts, invariably I see at least one TV crew waiting outside the city court. Noticed this in Melbourne, a similar phenomenon here as well. Probably awaiting for some hot news that's happening within the chambers?

The food courts down here have a good practice which I don't think have seen elsewhere. Towards the end of the day most of the vendors pack up their left over food and sell it at a discounted price. Thought it was a great idea to avoid food waste. The only problem there is they tend to mix up combinations which are not always suitable for my choice.

Last saturday was a Thai day at home. My cousin and wife had visited us as part of their visit to Sydney. Menu - fish cake, tom yum soup, chilli basil fried rice (kao pad grao) and fish curry. Except for the shrimp paste everything else was made from scratch. If at all I open a Thai restaurant it will be named Kaffir. :-) Any dish can become a Thai dish the moment you put in some kaffir leaves. The fish cake turned out to become a fish bonda and the fish curry ended up being a bit too salty. Learned a few lessons there. 

That's all folks.

Have a great week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 34

Hello,

Nandhitha and myself have been toying around with my new Nokia 5233. Finally I have been exposed to the touch screen interface on a cell phone and both of us were busy sliding things around. This phone has some real cool design features like the orientation changing when you tilt the phone horizontally.

The most dreaded thing that I dont ever want to think about happened last weekend. I was feeding some flavoured yogurt to Nandha (yes, I have progressed that far) and Nandhitha was also having some as well(sibling pressure). While she was half way through her yogurt she wanted to feed me her flavoured yogurt. There was no simple way I could explain to her that I can't take it and why I can't take it. She said "Try it daddy, try little you will like it". Now that was a boomerang!! I couldn't even move around since I was still having Nandha on my lap as she kept bringing the spoon loaded with yogurt. Had to really tackle it to have my shirt and jeans take the beating than my mouth. Now THAT was interesting. Uma was just watching this all along and laughing and she said - ok now you got some story for this week. Of course I did!! (Ok - you can stop laughing).

I got done with The Lost Symbol last week. Guess I should not reveal the secrets so will not talk much about the book. It was quite interesting till the end and I must say that I was a bit disappointed at the end. Maybe there was no other sensible option?

Had a busy weekend travelling around. Went to the Helensburgh Venkates(h)wara temple with a friend's family to wish Happy B'day to Pillayar. It was fairly quiet at the temple. The main events were slated for Sunday where the idol was supposed to be take to the beach nearby to be dissolved. I guess Nandhitha (and Nandha) will be missing on a lot of fun that happens in India with such festivals. If not for religious reasons, I hope to expose them for the fun part as much as possible. Let's see how it goes. On Sunday we went to Coogee beach. Had a good burritto after a loong time. The last time was while I was in Phoenix - missing Chipotle!!. The beach was nice. It was not warm, but not too cold either. Did the usual beachy things for a little while and got going when it started becoming chilly. On the way back did a bit of city tour unguided by the GPS. 

The GPS was too obedient for my own good to take me where I wanted to go. I wanted to drive on the famous "Harbour bridge", one of the icons of Australia, however I had also given a restriction to avoid tolls. It so happens that I had to pay toll to drive on that bridge. GPS being obedient it kept me going round and round within a few city blocks. After a few circles I switched off the GPS and followed the signs on the road  - the traditional way. I wish the GPS told me not to try for the impossible. :-)

Some recent photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/ncchetty/SydneySeptember2010#

Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 33

Hello,

I have been reading the Lost Symbol by Dan Brown recently. I have a weird feeling with the number 33 and my 33rd week in Sydney. It has been the most terrific / terrible and rewarding week so far. For those who don't get this you need to read The Lost Symbol. Dan Brown has been keeping me good company these days. I hate it when my station arrives as I am in the last few chapters and it is literally a page turner. 

Work week was crazy with facilitating meetings between India and US - had to work till everybody came online which is sometimes till 1 - 2 AM. Coupled with a holiday offshore, things didn't move as fast as I expected.  However it had a good ending on Friday when one of my documents got approved after 8 months with a nice word of appreciation from the client. Yes, it took 8 months to get a document approved.

Last weekend I got several new things, a new mobile (thanks to an inconspicuous water spill on my 2.5 yr old Blackberry), a GPS, and even a car (2008 Toyota Camry - Altise). Australia decided I should get a new name as well!! Yes, I am officially now "Chetty Natarajan Chenni" where Chetty is my first name and "Natarajan Chenni" is my surname / last name. Thanks to a small error made in my passport years ago. I have traveled on that passport so many years, applied for various official documents using that as proof - NOBODY has questioned my identity so far. I got this rude awakening when I was attempting to register the car in my name. The lady in the RTA (Road Transportation Authority) explained to me what my name is according to my passport which is what they will go by. It was not a funny feeling when someone questions your identity and name. According to 100 point system I had to have either my bank account or a phone bill that will reflect my name EXACTLY as in my passport. Luckily got my bank account fixed without much discussion and got it registered on Monday. Now I have the simple task of changing the name on my passport because all of my other documents are documented as who I am.

The car purchase by itself was a bit of a story. I have been researching for the last 2 months. The initial few visits to a car dealer gave a completely different experience than what I've had in the US with car dealers. Here they almost looked at me like dirt when I told them that I am looking for a used car about 3-4 years old. Nobody even bothered to come around and show the cars that are available the first time. Car financing was yet another story. My visa is so special that nobody wants to give me a loan beyond my visa period (which btw expires in March 2011). There is a concept called novated leasing here which is almost like a company leased car. When I enquired around it seemed like a viable option where my visa didn't have to matter. I did get mixed inputs on that where some said it will be possible and some said it will not be. Finally one guy did say that he can get me a lease regardless of my visa condition. Ultimately he was wrong. My application got rejected after 1.5 weeks of processing. I had already booked a car by then (based on the earlier "promise" sent to me in email). Finally my uncle came to my rescue and pulled a few strings here and there with his bank to get it sorted out. As it turns out rules are rules but not for everybody. 

Anyway, it is a major relief to be able to move around as I wish without depending on public transport. 

The weather is getting nicer and nicer. Have shifted from a long over coat to a blazer now. Looking forward to spring and summer. 

Have A Great Week!!

Chetty