Sydney Stories - Week 10

Hello,

Yet another crazy week at work - Thanks to Ram Navami!!

Uma's passport update finally came through this week. Hopefully Nandha's passport should now be available in a couple of weeks time. Targeting for end of April - early May to get all the formalities done. 

This weekend went to an interesting Malaysian restaurant in Parramatta. It was kind of impulsive decision to eat Malaysian last night and I was glad that I did it. Had the best Mee Goreng so far. I've tried it a couple of times in US (once in Portland and once in Tucson), both the times it was a disaster. The other few times was in Melbourne in the food court in Melbourne Central mall, which was quite alright. So anyway it was a pleasant surprise. The mee was made with chicken and a mix of sea food as well. Interestingly they had curry leaves in the noodles. :-)

In the train I saw a perfectly pink caucasian adorning a bindi, gold earings and bangles. It was interesting to see that when these days our ladies either dont have a bindi or have it in such a way that it is almost invisible. 

This weekend I tried the Assamee style fish aval puttu. It was quite simple actually. Boiled a red snapper fish (which was in a fillet form - no skins and bones)  for about 5 minutes until it was all white, but not too tender. Drained it and mashed it. Sauteed some onions and green chillies and turmeric. Added a bit of all masalas available (garam masala, cumin powder, coriander powder), salt and red chilly powder. Added the mashed fish and sauteed for a little while. That was it. Oh yes, added a generous amount of curry leaves as well. Am not sure if it was exactly the way my SIL made it but am sure it is pretty close.

Easter long weekend coming up. Don't have any major plans. Might catch up with my school friend and my uncle here had suggested that we meet at least once during the 4 days.

Oki doki. Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 9

Hello,

Am a little late this time with my story, however with a good reason. ;-)

The week started off well with all the usual issues, running around chasing up stuff. What did throw me off a bit was when I was bombarded with 2000+ emails in one day on Wednesday. One of my customers did something with a software which is supposed to trigger automatic emails. Whatever she did, the software started sending out emails from history. Getting bombed with 2000 emails in a day was not a joke. First thing, my Outlook crashed. It just couldn't take the load since some of them had huge 3-4 mb attachments. The email server crashed for a few hours. THANKFULLY I did not turn that switch on. Oh well that was enough adventure at work for the week.

This was yet another interesting week as well. On Monday I decided to visit my cousin and family in Brisbane. Found a decent enough airfare for the weekend. The only thing was that I had to fly on Thursday night. Booked the tickets once I got the confirmation that I can WFH (Work from home) on Friday. On Thursday, I had a huge dilemma. Just couldn't decide between - whether to go to the airport directly from work or come back home before leaving for the airport. The case was strong either way. The airport is a 10 minute train ride from office. It made sense to leave from there. However, decided against it. Left home at around 7 PM and reached the airport by 8.30 pm. 

The airports in Australia seemed a little lax on the security front - meaning anybody (not just the passengers) can come up to the gate. US used to be like this pre-9-11. Was interesting to see that one can still do that here. There was absolutely no checking on any form of ID anywhere. Maybe if I had approached the counter to get the boarding pass they might've. The best part of the flight was I got an aisle seat in the first row. These airlines (what they call as Low Cost Carriers)  do not have the concept of first class. So its purely luck and timing for one to get such a seat. It was good feeling to be the first one to get out of the flight. :-) Sitting next to me on the other aisle was a pilot who was probably taking his ride back home. He was reading some novel right after we settled down. When the fligth crew started the saftely instructions he religously stopped reading and paid attention to the instructions. That was WOW - living by example.

I had finished reading up on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People during the week. A great book indeed. Got a few good reminders. I think I will be reading that every once in a while when life gets confusing. Picked up Dan Brown's Angels and Demons from the office book library. There is a fair amount of variety for a free library, with probably about 40-50 books. It's going good, more about that once I am done with it. It kept me company for the short 1.5 hr flight to Brisbane. Reached Brisbane at 10.30 PM. Yes, Brisbane and Sydney even though on the same time zone does not follow Day Light Savings. So right now Brisbane is an hour behind Sydney. My cousin picked my up from the airport which was about 15 minutes away from his place. Had a late dinner. My SIL had prepared an interesting fish dish. It was somewhere between a puttu and aval. Liked it heaps (as the Aussies put it). Had to bug her quite a bit to get the recipe which I finally got in the last day.

Friday was alright. I was working from Brisbane. Had to attend a few conference calls, a few emails and the day was done. Caught up with my nieces a bit. They were all quite busy with their studies and exams. After a bit of persistence from my side, I was served the "snapper aval puttu" for lunch. Friday evening caught up with my cousin with grilled chicken wings with a home made sauce on the side. Saturday was cool. In the morning the whole family was involved in making Tiramisu - an Italian coffee based desert. Talking about coffee my cousin has a barista style coffee maker at home. Every morning he fills it in with fresh beans, roasted, powdered and coffeeed. Wow...now that was some luxury. :-) Coming back to Tiramisu - one of the deadliest desserts. Deadly is so many ways. Will leave it to your imagination. ;-) Later in the day we went to Sirromet vineyard. Did a bit of wine tasting. My first lesson into wine tasting in fact. Not sure if I got all the flavours they talked about, but yes some flavours were strong and distinct. We were accompanied by one of my SIL's relative who stays in Brisbane. Dinner was yet another treat. Pulao, masala naan, butter chicken and channa masala. Yes of course the dessert was Tiramisu.

Sunday morning I woke up quite early. My body clock was still on Sydney time. Since nobody else was caught up with Angels and Demons until I heard someone walking around. Day started with fresh brew coffee as usual. Went for a short walk to the local corner shop for Sunday news paper. A tradition for my cousin I believe. Karne their dog accompanied us as well. She's a well disciplined labrador who earns for attention every once in a while. Brisbane has a unique architecture of home - what they call as queenslanders. Basically wooden houses built on stilts which can be relocated elsewhere easily if required. Later in the morning helped my cousin with his lawn moving. That was a first as well. It wasn't too tiring as such but a good work out. Breakfast was yet another sinful treat with blueberry pancakes. Wow...he prepares that with passion. :-) Just had 2 of them and I had to skip lunch. Later in the day went on a drive down to Gold Coast. It was claimed to be the Las Vegas of Australia - well that was a long shot. I would probably say close to San Francisco for the touristy things (not by size). Maybe I would've had a different opinion if I had visited during the night. On the way back stopped at Mt Coot - Tha. It is a look out point with a nice view of Brisbane city. Later in the evening was treated to "The Story of India" by Michael Woods. Couldn't finish both the DVDs since had to retire early. Dinner was yummy prawn curry, an assamese style brinjal with potato curry and a bit of left overs from the previous night. I could squeeze out the recipe for the "snapper aval puttu", but couldn't get the one for the prawn curry. I was told it is "complicated". Hmm...ok maybe next time. :-)

Monday morning had an early morning flight back to Sydney. Reached office at 10.30 AM. The moment I stepped foot well....weekend was already history. My team member was all ready with problems for me to tackle. Oh well...that's for next week.

Appreciate your patience.:-)

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 7

Hi There,

Hope you had a good week and a good weekend.

Anybody who wants to find a job in Australia will be asked one question - do you have Australian experience? Doesn't matter if the person had worked for 10 - 15 years in several other countries. Aussie experience is a must. I used to wonder why it was so and then realized there IS something with the way people work here. It's about resistance to CHANGE. I would call Australia the "Museum Country". You don't have to go in search of museums to look for historical artifacts - it is there everywhere. They maintain their "history" very well. For eg., in Sydney's Town Hall station there are few escalators which have wooden steps. They probably must've been built while escalators were first invented in the early part of 20th century. Some of the trains that run are probably 30 years old. 

Talking about trains and TownHall I think I have figured out the exits from TownHall station. Now I have my favourite compartment in the train. Which if I board will take me closest to the exit that I need to take. However this applies only for the route from home to work (and vice versa). If ever I need to catch the train for somewhere else...well the saga continues. :-)

This week I had a change to my grocery shopping strategy. Decided to buy the veggies required only for 1 week - thanks to the wastages. Menu for this week - Bhindi Masala and Kadai Chicken. Had a bit of a "chef's block" before I could decide on what to cook. ;-) Both of them turned out quite alright. I was happy with the chicken that it was cooked to just the right texture.  

Saw the movie - Water by Deepa Mehta on the World Movies channel. WOW.  Wonder why such movies don't make commercial success. Probably because it brought to light a few of the dirty secrets of Hinduism? 

On the home front, Nandha's passport process is slowly moving along. The process has become slightly complicated because I am sitting here. Expecting them to join me as soon as Nandha's visa is done - hopefully sometime in April - May.

Alrighty...looks like a short story this time - you've been spared. :-) 

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 5

Hello,

So its been a month since I reached here. Its been quite a ride already. :-)

Talking about ride, there is one thing I am pretty impressed about here in Sydney. It is the T-way (Transit way) bus transport system. In Sydney there are various modes of public transport for intra-city travel - train, bus (normal), bus (t-way) and of course they have a ferry system as well. The train network does cover a lot suburbs, however that is not helpful if I need to reach someplace away from the train line. The option then is to take a bus. The speciality of the T-way system is the city has paved a separate lane just for the buses. Therefore there is absolutely no chance for a traffic jam to happen. Unless of course if a bus breaks down. It is the ultimate express bus service for intra-city travel. Luckily there is a T-way stop right outside my apartment complex and about 6 buses stop here. I take those buses whenever I need to go to Parramatta  (Parra for the locals) for shopping. 

This weekend I did the groceries myself taking my trolley. It was not bad except when I had to take escalators to go down with a trolley completely loaded with veggies and groceries. There was only one casualty - one broken egg. :-) I suddenly (??) got a craze for Thai food and have bought a couple of ingredients (basil leaves, fish sauce) to start cooking Thai. I think it must be my Friday lunch at Saap Thai which is making me drool for more. Found a nice website for Thai recipes - http://www.thaifoodtonight.com/thaifoodtonight/home.htm. I'll let you know next week with my Thaixperiments.

Yesterday visited a school friend of mine for lunch who is living in a suburb called Liverpool. It was a good T-way journey cutting across Sydney from north to south with the company of Outliers. Had a good time there. Lunch menu - mutton briyani, chicken varuval and prawn something. Covered all the bases. :-) 

Work has been getting crazy and crazy. Sometimes it is like one of those Sun TV soaps having to manage under currents. I got my first customer complaint with this client this week. I survived a month!! :-) The best part was I had updated my manager just the day before on what was happening here and what is to come. Lo and behold the next day the customer calls up my manager to complain about me. Thanks to my update, my manager was not taken by surprise - which could've turned out nasty. 

Adventures continue.... :-)

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 4

Hello,

A relatively quiet week this time. Work was hectic till Thursday. Friday felt so relieved since it was a holiday in India. Not that people in India disturb me but I get busy in the afternoons disturbing them chasing up on work to be done. This time there was no chasing up possible...so left everything to Monday. The funny thing is Monday is a holiday in the US. So my boss in US will not be on my back either until Wednesday Sydney time. Might've as well taken a long vacation myself. :-) 

With all the "adventures" that were happening so far I missed out on one update i.e., my trip to the Opera house. It was actually a couple of weeks ago on Australia Day - Jan 26th. Yes, Indian Republic day coincides with Australia day. Me and 2 of my colleagues went to see some events happening around the Opera house area. Opera is an interesting architecture. However I  think it loses its charm once you get too close to it. It's nice to see from far but nothing much up close. I don't know maybe its just me. Of course didn't get a chance to go inside and view the auditoriums. Maybe that will be interesting.

Saw a boat race. Bunch of boats all dressed up and competing in the Sydney harbour bridge area. It was alright. Later in the afternoon there were a series of cultural events going on. A few of them were good to see - an afro pop show, a spanish dance show etc. Apparently there was an Indian dance show as well but missed it. Got a chance to see the New South Wales Premier (Chief Minister). Interesting to see the minimal security that was arranged. There were the usual police forces roaming around within the crowd in groups of 6. However there were no special Z category security for the politicians on stage. There was fireworks planned as well. I retreated back to the hotel before it started. Didn't want to get stuck in the crowd when everything was over.

Anyways..this weekend was alright. Got my home phone and internet setup. Feeling much relieved. Had invited one of my relative's family over for lunch on Saturday. Typical Salem style food. Brinjal sambar, cabbage poriyal, tomato rasam and kudal appalam. After lunch they took me along for one of their shopping rounds. 

Today I caught up with some of the pending DVDs - Kandasamy and Kandhakottai. I really pity those who paid money to watch in cinema theatre esp giving the exorbitant rates these days. I can understand that the director has tried to be a little...just a little creative on a typical robinhood story. I almost watched it till the end. I know I am vetti enough...but it really tested my patience and had to quit just before the climax. ;-) Kandhakottai was nice to watch. 100% Kollywood masala. Nothing more nothing less. BTW, saw SA-RO-JA last weekend. Very interesting movie. The cast and the untimely quirkiness was refreshing.

Finishing up on reading "High Performance Entrepreneur" by Subrato Bagchi. Yet another interesting read. It has a lot of directions / insights for one to think about when somebody is looking to start a business. Maybe it might come in handy some day. 

Oki doki - Have A Great Week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 3

Hi There!!

 

Sometimes I think if I will have any material to write about for the week. Sydney provides me no lack of opportunities. ;-)

Last week was quite hectic that all my household stuff from Melbourne had arrived. "Worked" from home on Wednesday to be able to be at home when the stuff arrived. It took a couple of days after that to completely get things to their rightful place. Actually no, I still have some stuff to be sorted out. Atleast setup the kitchen first. FIRST THINGS FIRST. :-) Technically my very first meal in this house was instant cuppa noodles (I dont consider brewing black coffee as a meal). The second meal was a slight progression - Maggi 2 minutes with frozen veggies and egg. I got frustrated with my cooking progress and made chicken curry yesterday inspite of being invited for dinner at an Uncle's place.

Met another school friend on Saturday. Spent a couple of hours with him catching up on life and people. He happens to have taken a reverse turn in career (compared to me). His family owns a hotel in Salem. They have a family restaurant run in Bangalore. He left all that, picked up a few IT courses and started his IT career here.

So here comes the adventure... - Saturday night I came back from a friend's place at around midnight. The lift in the apartment did not work. OK...not too bad...5 floors I can climb up of course. Only when I reached my floor I realized that the keys I had on me will not open the door from the stairs into the floor. Security reasons!! So I come down look for some emergency maintenance numbers to call - nope. No luck on that front. I called my realestate agent who's supposed to be taking care of such stuff. No luck. (He did call me on Sunday afternoon to say that he can't help me out there.) I would've climbed up and down the 5 storeys a couple of times trying to get out via various exit points. Luckily I found one after about 30 minutes (or so it seemed). If I didn't find it I would've been stranded in the steps outside my apartment until someone from my floor could open the door. PHEW!!

I've been using wireless broadband to stay connected from home until my regular internet connections becomes active. Sunday morning that ran out of the pre-paid charge. I was on the phone with Uma in the morning and the call got cut suddenly. All my communication channels were disconnected without any notice. I get an SMS from Uma asking why I cut the call. I couldn't respond back to that either. I do a recharge somehow. A email junkie as I am couldnt stay away from the internet. So I checked my Gmail on blackberry and lo...all my re-charge went for a toss. Apparently the pre-paid charge amount I selected should not be used for browsing the web. Yet another lesson.

 

Later in the night I get an SMS from Uma, but just couldn't reply. It was quite a helpless feeling when you are not able to communicate back!! Luckily the ordeal ended now that I back at work and as connected as I can be. :-)

On the book front have completed reading Blink. Definitely an interesting reading a lesson or 2 to pick up.

Have A Great Week!!

 

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 2

OK I lied. I didn't have to wait till next Saturday to find a place to stay. Thank your God or Good Time or whatever your belief may be that you will not hear about my house hunting woes for a little while.

Last week I got connected to a real estate agent who was known to a relative of mine. She RELUCTANTLY agreed to meet me. The stress here is because it was so obvious. Anyway, we did meet and she did show me a house. Remember, if I came alone without my relative's "recommendation", the reply would've been "sorry no private inspections. Please come during an open house next Saturday." One would think such recommendations are not necessary in "developed" countries...no sirree (or madaam). 

However I didn't like the house she showed. It had some dead cockroaches lying around the floor. REJECTED!! She had a couple of other houses to show that I was interested. However I was told that I had to wait till Saturday. I simply don't seem to understand this SYSTEM!!

Anyways...I did get a house to move into on Friday in a suburb called Westmead. I suppose I stood a better chance against the one other who applied who didn't have a job!!  I vacated the hotel just in time before my relocation allowance ended (2 weeks of hotel stay). The apartment is in a heavily secured complex. The area is quite calm with only hospitals around. It's a 10-15 minute walk to the train station. Hope that reduces a little bit of mass that I added during my stay in India.

Here's a little bit about Australianism or Aussiesm. If you were to use start talking like an Aussie here's a simple trick - any word that had more than 2 syllables, you have to break it at the 2nd syllable and add an "ie" or an "oh" to it. For eg., "Australian" - "Aussie", Breakfast - "Brekkie", "Wentworthville" (a suburb) - "Wentie" and so forth. Oh...the other trick is to pronouce "a" as "i". If someone tells you "Have a good die", it means "Have a Good DAY". 

Had a busy weekend shopping and setting up the house. Hopefully I get settled by end of this weekend once the rest of my stuff from Melbourne gets delivered.

Cheers

Chetty