Saturday, January 27, 2007
Reprise: Down Under
After living in Australia through 2001 and 2002, we had never imagined we would be heading back anytime soon. When we got married in 2003, Nick a good friend of ours from Sydney visited us in Bombay. We have some really good memories of Sydney and a few not so pleasant ones.
Anupam's work required him to head to Sydney for 3 weeks. We headed off on the 4th of January. The flight was at 10pm and of course it was delayed, our seat assignment was messed up and Eve was ready to head to bed. Through all of this we resolved the seat issues so Anupam had the last seat in business and Tricia had the first seat in economy. They were sitting in front of each other. As soon as they took off at midnight, Tricia passed Eve over to me. I reclined my seat all the way and it just about turned into a bed... strapped Eve under the seatbelt and slept the next 6 hours with her. The flight there was quite pleasant.
We got to our hotel, The Radisson at Darling harbour and checked into one of those serviced apartments. Today was Saturday, so I had 2 days to finish jetlagging before I had to start working. We walked around that morning and also did some grocery shopping. After we picked up sim cards for our phones, we called our friends and let them know that we were back in town after half a decade. That afternoon we slept to work off any bit of jetlag we had left.
Sunday we walked around the city reminiscing about the life we had there and how much has changed with us and nothing in this big city.
The week was about the usual for me at a client site, working with 10 people, getting them familiar with our software. I was at the Homebush office which was about a half drive from the city. And the sucky part was that the only place we could lunch there was either the McDonalds or the Sofitel's restaurant. Ah joy.
During the week while I was at work Tricia explored the city and did all sorts of fun things. She had Anna Pai, Anna Vidman, Sheetal and some other friends visit and have lunch with her. Shaney and Nick visited us and it was very good to see Nick again, nothind had changed. He is still the very particular guy I though was cool. I like talking to him because he has a very similar perspective to life. Plus this man flew across the world to come to our wedding and brought us a case of Champagne. A good man. Shaney was very intreresting to speak to too, she is very bubbly and cheerful. I think I have her singing the "Kukuburra" song on some video I was shooting.
Over the weekend we met up with Anna and her friend and headed over to Manly beach. This was a place Trish and I had been many times in the past, either to do the hike or to show our friends around. Cecilia, Anna, Trish, Eve and I went to a little restaurant at the beach, yeah, one of those over priced ones. Cecilia was Anna's childhood friend from Sweden. Now Cecilia had a pretty seet deal. The Swedish government has a deal where people with skilled jobs are required to take a paid vacation for a year and the job is given to someone who has the qualifications but is unemployed, to make this person more employable after the year. So, Cecilia was using that time to travel around the world. Jeez... I love my job, but I'd take that deal in a heartbeat. Travel for a year? My dream come true. Shit man, I'll take a month off, if I could. Maybe when Pia, Vicky and the kids come to visit us.
The next day we headed over to the barbecue that Anna Pai organized. Eve passed out in the cab ride there, so we just took the car seat with her strapped in it, to the lawn area and let her sleep for another 45 minutes. We had so many of our old friends there. Anna, Jessie, Will, Hatice, Alexandra, Naveen, Sri and a few others.Will was a good host and barbecued an assortment of fine meats. We ate lots, drank a bit and caught up with everyone. Eve woke up and then started to entertain everyone. She babbled, held a finger to walk around, pointed at everything, fell over and made everyone laugh... not with her, because she was so earnest, but at her.
The week again was about the usual, but Eve started to get quite sick and had her fever spike a couple of times. We took her to the doctor and got her meds and started the heling process. But then the little monkey passed her disease to us. Tricia and I got really really sick. Hell, I hadn't been that miserable in a while. We met up with our friends over the week and had dinner with them, either at the hotel or at a restaurant. We even had Yum Cha a couple of times.
Friday evening, we were still feeling like crap, but we decided to stick to the plan of heading to Nick's beach house up at Copacabana. So, we took a cab to Nick and Shaney's place, where we loaded up in Nick's car and drove the 2 hours up north to his awesome house up on a cliff. We had a beautiful view of the ocean. Trish and I were popping pills to make sure the fever stayed down. The next day after Eve woke up we headed down for breakfast and then off to the beach.
Cheated! That is how I felt. The water was as cold as in Puget Sound... shit, colder. This was not the mid summer Australia I signed up for. This was a lemon and I wanted my money back.
The water was very cold and Tricia referred to all the Aussies as those crazy peeps. Yup they were in full beach regalia and loving every minute. They swam in that frigid water. Just stark raving mad.
We had a fabulous time with Shaney and Nick. I wish that Trish, Eve and I felt better, but hey, it's all good right. So, Sunday afternoon Nick drops me off at the train station because I wanted to make it to Phil's place for the barbie, where all my work people were meeting. I jump into the train at 4pm and it starts chugging south towards, after a while, the train driver got on the intercom and announced, "So, ok, if you people look out to the left, you will see a few bush fires. We are headed straight for it. Umm... so, we will stop now, don't be alarmed." Way to go buddy, I'm so glad you allayed my fears. We stopped in the tunnel for a few freaky minutes and then pulled into a little no name station that wasn't even long enough for the train. We jump off and we see the traffic is backed up all the way. They tell us that they will send us a bus to take us to Hornsby. I thought I might just make it in time for the barbecue... no such luck. By the time I got back to the city it was past 10pm. I was still feeling crappy so I just crashed.
Back to work the next day, I started working in Integration and the plan was to wrap it up in 3 days. Tricia came back on Tuesday, and I was done by lunchtime on Wednesday. We spent all day walking around on Thursday, met up with Shaney and Nick a couple of times, hung out with Anna for a bit.
We had a good time seeing all the things we missed about Australia. Mostly we had a good time seeing our friends. Isn't that what life is all about?
]
The journey and the friends you make. We have traveled and call quite a few friends.
Anupam's work required him to head to Sydney for 3 weeks. We headed off on the 4th of January. The flight was at 10pm and of course it was delayed, our seat assignment was messed up and Eve was ready to head to bed. Through all of this we resolved the seat issues so Anupam had the last seat in business and Tricia had the first seat in economy. They were sitting in front of each other. As soon as they took off at midnight, Tricia passed Eve over to me. I reclined my seat all the way and it just about turned into a bed... strapped Eve under the seatbelt and slept the next 6 hours with her. The flight there was quite pleasant.
We got to our hotel, The Radisson at Darling harbour and checked into one of those serviced apartments. Today was Saturday, so I had 2 days to finish jetlagging before I had to start working. We walked around that morning and also did some grocery shopping. After we picked up sim cards for our phones, we called our friends and let them know that we were back in town after half a decade. That afternoon we slept to work off any bit of jetlag we had left.
Sunday we walked around the city reminiscing about the life we had there and how much has changed with us and nothing in this big city.
The week was about the usual for me at a client site, working with 10 people, getting them familiar with our software. I was at the Homebush office which was about a half drive from the city. And the sucky part was that the only place we could lunch there was either the McDonalds or the Sofitel's restaurant. Ah joy.
During the week while I was at work Tricia explored the city and did all sorts of fun things. She had Anna Pai, Anna Vidman, Sheetal and some other friends visit and have lunch with her. Shaney and Nick visited us and it was very good to see Nick again, nothind had changed. He is still the very particular guy I though was cool. I like talking to him because he has a very similar perspective to life. Plus this man flew across the world to come to our wedding and brought us a case of Champagne. A good man. Shaney was very intreresting to speak to too, she is very bubbly and cheerful. I think I have her singing the "Kukuburra" song on some video I was shooting.
Over the weekend we met up with Anna and her friend and headed over to Manly beach. This was a place Trish and I had been many times in the past, either to do the hike or to show our friends around. Cecilia, Anna, Trish, Eve and I went to a little restaurant at the beach, yeah, one of those over priced ones. Cecilia was Anna's childhood friend from Sweden. Now Cecilia had a pretty seet deal. The Swedish government has a deal where people with skilled jobs are required to take a paid vacation for a year and the job is given to someone who has the qualifications but is unemployed, to make this person more employable after the year. So, Cecilia was using that time to travel around the world. Jeez... I love my job, but I'd take that deal in a heartbeat. Travel for a year? My dream come true. Shit man, I'll take a month off, if I could. Maybe when Pia, Vicky and the kids come to visit us.
The next day we headed over to the barbecue that Anna Pai organized. Eve passed out in the cab ride there, so we just took the car seat with her strapped in it, to the lawn area and let her sleep for another 45 minutes. We had so many of our old friends there. Anna, Jessie, Will, Hatice, Alexandra, Naveen, Sri and a few others.Will was a good host and barbecued an assortment of fine meats. We ate lots, drank a bit and caught up with everyone. Eve woke up and then started to entertain everyone. She babbled, held a finger to walk around, pointed at everything, fell over and made everyone laugh... not with her, because she was so earnest, but at her.
The week again was about the usual, but Eve started to get quite sick and had her fever spike a couple of times. We took her to the doctor and got her meds and started the heling process. But then the little monkey passed her disease to us. Tricia and I got really really sick. Hell, I hadn't been that miserable in a while. We met up with our friends over the week and had dinner with them, either at the hotel or at a restaurant. We even had Yum Cha a couple of times.
Friday evening, we were still feeling like crap, but we decided to stick to the plan of heading to Nick's beach house up at Copacabana. So, we took a cab to Nick and Shaney's place, where we loaded up in Nick's car and drove the 2 hours up north to his awesome house up on a cliff. We had a beautiful view of the ocean. Trish and I were popping pills to make sure the fever stayed down. The next day after Eve woke up we headed down for breakfast and then off to the beach.
Cheated! That is how I felt. The water was as cold as in Puget Sound... shit, colder. This was not the mid summer Australia I signed up for. This was a lemon and I wanted my money back.
The water was very cold and Tricia referred to all the Aussies as those crazy peeps. Yup they were in full beach regalia and loving every minute. They swam in that frigid water. Just stark raving mad.
We had a fabulous time with Shaney and Nick. I wish that Trish, Eve and I felt better, but hey, it's all good right. So, Sunday afternoon Nick drops me off at the train station because I wanted to make it to Phil's place for the barbie, where all my work people were meeting. I jump into the train at 4pm and it starts chugging south towards, after a while, the train driver got on the intercom and announced, "So, ok, if you people look out to the left, you will see a few bush fires. We are headed straight for it. Umm... so, we will stop now, don't be alarmed." Way to go buddy, I'm so glad you allayed my fears. We stopped in the tunnel for a few freaky minutes and then pulled into a little no name station that wasn't even long enough for the train. We jump off and we see the traffic is backed up all the way. They tell us that they will send us a bus to take us to Hornsby. I thought I might just make it in time for the barbecue... no such luck. By the time I got back to the city it was past 10pm. I was still feeling crappy so I just crashed.
Back to work the next day, I started working in Integration and the plan was to wrap it up in 3 days. Tricia came back on Tuesday, and I was done by lunchtime on Wednesday. We spent all day walking around on Thursday, met up with Shaney and Nick a couple of times, hung out with Anna for a bit.
We had a good time seeing all the things we missed about Australia. Mostly we had a good time seeing our friends. Isn't that what life is all about?
]
The journey and the friends you make. We have traveled and call quite a few friends.
