Sydney Stories - Week 31

Hello,

After several weeks of being late, this time for a change this is coming out sooner in spite of being one of the busiest weekends.

Had colleagues come over for lunch today. It has been close to 7 months since I've been here and only now got the opportunity to have them over. It was a completely south indian deal except for the appetizer - quesadilla. It was ven pongal, dosai (masala, egg, plain), bele sambar, chutney and chicken kozhambu. It was a north indian gang so most of them have had dosais only in restaurants and hence were excited to have "home made" dosai. 

This week I attempted to add Uma to my bank account. Yet another example for victorian age aussie rules. Yes, I couldn't add her to my account. They needed a "100 point" identification for Uma. All she had of course was her passport which gives you only 50 points. Why should it be so difficult to add a spouse to a bank account? For one, I couldn't add her to my existing account. I had to create a new one to include the spouse. I couldn't even get her a supplementary credit card because she "fails" to meet the identification criteria to be able to "utilize" any of the bank's financial "services". 

While waiting for the bank to open we saw a jeans shop which has some amazing deal going on. Since I was also looking out for one, decided to make use of the offer. While we were in the shop selecting a pair the attendant came around and said that the offer is no longer on. However since we were the first customers for the day (the shop had just opened), she agreed to honour the previous offer. That was a real time deal changer. :-) So any way, couldn't get a bank account came away with a new pair of jeans,

I have this ritual of eating Thai food on Fridays since 2001.  Of course there were exceptions ONLY where Thai food was not available. This Friday I was tempted by a malaysian restaurant close to work called Jimmy's Recipes. One, I think I've been missing a good char kway teow for a while and second, the ladies in the restaurant wore the traditional batik dresses (like in Spore airlines uniform). There's something in that design. ;-) So I took a deviation from the ritual. Damn what a disappointment. They gave me something which was a cross between a kway teow and a chopsuey. So, I've decided not to deviate from my ritual. Is this what happens when something is done "religiously"?

One thing I should appreciate about public transport in Sydney is the support people with handicaps get for their travel. They have a system when someone on a wheel chair boards the train, information is given to the station where they are supposed to get down. A guard goes there ready with a temporary ramp to be fixed in to get the wheel chaired person out. I guess that is one of the signs of a "developed" country - the support available for old and handicapped people. But of course, I have seen trains (in US) where this is done in a mechanical fashion. At the press of a button a ramp stretches out so that the wheel chair can get off and not have to wait for a person to come and help. Oh well, Aussies definitely have a long way to go. 

Today I was relaxing a bit in the morning and Nandhitha came up to me and asked me if I was tired.Not knowing what her intent was, agreed that I was tired. She came back with a pump (one used to fill air in balls) aimed it on my arm and started pumping. At the end she asked "Now do you have energy?". I was absolutely speechless. Wonder where she picked up energy and pumping part.

Have A Great Week !!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 30

Hello,

I should say that I am getting some pressure now to get week 30 out of the way. Am missing my SLAs consistently by a day. :-(

There is a non-stop radio station in Raaga - http://www.raaga.com/live/. I wonder what their logic is to mix up the songs. They have not failed to impress me so far. It has been the latest kitchen music for quite a few weeks now. Who care's for MP3 and iPod when there's such good non-stop music on the net!!

Using swear words seem like a norm here. This is a stark difference compared to folks out in the US of A. Over there, just in case someone uttered the "non-utterable" they will apologize for it big time. Here they simply don't seem to care...at least most of them. There seems to be so much of stress built up here in spite of having the "work life balance". You just throw in a small bit of a surprise element and you had it. 

Weekend was hectic as usual in spite of visiting a cousin's house for lunch. Beginning to hate public transport more and more over the weekends. All our plans went for a toss simply waiting for buses. An activity that should've taken 1 hour  took almost 3 hours to complete just because of waiting for public transport. As such time has a different premium on weekends. Don't feel this pinch during weekdays while I go to work probably because the frequency is not bad enough. 

That's all folks!!

Have A Great Week Ahead!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 29

Hello,

For a change a very relaxing weekend in spite of all that could be done. Getting the groceries done during the week makes quite a bit of difference for the weekend. 

A friend of mine and his wife from Melbourne had visited us on Saturday. Had a spread starting with sweet corn chicken soup, chilly fish, bhindi masala and pasta. The sweet corn soup from y'day morphed into hot and sour soup for tonight. The chilly fish was a complex mix of indian, european, chinese and thai spices. Turned out pretty well. Sunday was quite relaxing for a change without having to do much. The fact that I am able to write this by 11 PM means something.

Nandha has started moving around quite a bit making it dangerous to leave anything on the floor. He targets anything that has a LED or anything that is colourful. Food items if any left on the carpet is another source of attraction for him. We bought a play pen where he can roam around within boundaries. He has been fine so far however a bit of a circus when he is not in the mood for his pen.

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Apparently I dozed off y'day typing up to the above paragraph sitting on the couch. And I thought I had a relaxing weekend!!

Nandha has had a home-hair cut now. I suppose he looks more of a boy now. People got confused seeing his long hair (bound with hair-clip). 

So anyway, wonder what is up with food that "may" contain "traces" of something. Something is either there or not there. Noticed this while I was buying pasta. Every brand had this warning "May contain egg" or "May contain traces of egg". Not that I am bothered by the existence of egg or not, but I know people who are strict vegetarians. Wonder if they can eat pasta ever!!! 

Finished up reading the book called "New Games New Rules" for the Aussie industry. It was more about how to handle union issues and how restructuring the impact of unions will help Australia. However I can see the effect of it in non-union organizations as well. This country needs reformation big time. They've been living in their own little world down under, guess it cannot continue for too long. I still am not able digest the number of people the suburban railway system employs. One to wave the flag, one to see the waving of the flag and another to drive. And yeah, there is a guard in every compartment. No wonder the unemployment rate is low here.

Oki doki.

Have A Great Week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 28

Hello,

Last week was eventful because 2 of my colleagues returned to India after a short stay for one and a long stay for another. A couple of farewell parties including an impromptu dinner at our place as well. We managed to do masala vada and pasta. There was one guy by the name of Ashwini (yes a guy) I need to talk about. He is an absolute vegetarian to the core who cannot even consider cakes if they are made with eggs. He eats Indian and Indian food only. One of my achievements in the last 6 months is to have him try "other" cuisines such as salad and Subway. Every time he is in the mood for a salad or Subway I am his official "orderer". At Subway he used to rely on me to order the right bread, veggies and sauce that will suit his taste buds. Oh well, he was an interesting person.

Am currently on a book which talks about how the union system is affecting the productivity in Australia. Here for any job done by 1 person anywhere else in the world, it would take 2 Aussies to do the same.One of the unique things about Aussie police is that they always roam around in groups of 4. Not just police, in Melbourne even the suburban train ticket inspectors move around in groups of 4. I can understand having a backup, but 3 backups? Probably the police unions decided that no policeman should wander in the dark (or bright daylight) on his/her own. I kind of see this in many places. Looks like it is an union thing.

Oki doki...a short one for last week. Seem to be forgetting the stories a bit. Hmm...short term memory retainment. ;-(

Have a great week.

Chetty

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