The Running Man: January 2007

Australia Day 2007

If you are reading this, you may be Max, HY, Yishan, or Mich's friend *hello* (or anyone else who has a blog and went on this Sydney trip). Anyway, this is a summary (in my own unique words) of the weekend ;)
The Melbourne and Adelaide PwC (Mich, Yishan, Angela, and Darrel) people came to Sydney for a visit for the Australia Day long weekend (basically its like a National Day...its the day when Australia became a federation..ie independence from the British). The chief organiser/tour guide was...Max! yes...throughout the entire trip he was pushing (slow) all of us to meet timings and get to destinations...words like "Star City" and "Star City" were often mentioned as possible destinations ;) haha..just kidding Max!
Being excellent hosts and tour guides, the PwC Sydney people (Horng Yuh, Kevan, Hazel, Max and Aiwei) took them to various Sydney attractions...as for myself...well I was just there to add to the crowd and tag along on this wonderfully (warm) Sydney long weekend :) Thx guys...
Our first destination was...Birkenhead Point, where there was some good bargains for clothes to be found...some of us however preferred to chill with a coffee in the shade...

Birkenhead point...

Next stop: Bondi Beach...now I am sure most of you have either been to Bondi or read about it somewhere...don't need to elaborate it much about its sand, surf, atmosphere and beach people. See how packed it was! (coz its a public holiday today, its a Fri and the weather was perfect)

. Whilst some of us (shall remain nameless) wanted to remain in the shade (coz it was too hot), the rest of us were happy to go and have a walk along the beach and check out the cool waters. I mean it is a beach after all and well summer only comes once a year (blue skies!). There were also some crazy guys who were literally throwing themselves off this ledge and doing inverted summersaults through the air...amazing to look at, but also dangerous (touch wood)...really no fear 1..

The surf was also pretty good...there were plenty of surfers there too...thats the ultimate Aussie beach culture.

Running away from the surf

We also had a fried Mars bar at Bondi too...sooo sinful and sweet, but it was good :P luckily I shared half with HY and Hazel :)

You cannot go to Bondi without stopping by Hurricanes (see previous previous post)...which is famous for their ribs. Yumm! we bought back lots of ribs to HY place (because as mentioned previously for a group as big as ours...you had to book at least a week in advance...not kidding) for takeaway - coz that you at least don't need to book in advance. See the mountain(s) of rib bones...and Kevan and Yish look like they are enjoying themselves :P. It was cool just to sit by the balcony, chilling, eating our ribs and engaging in v interesting humourous dialogue (the funniest was between Max and Yish ;) haha..

After the ribs, we just sat back (full...oh so full) and chilled somemore while waiting for it to get dark so the Australia Day fireworks can begin :P
Don't have very good pictures of the fireworks (which was taken @ Darling Harbour on the Pyrmont Bridge) unfortunately, needed a tripod and a clear view...the bridge was packed with people all waving the Aust flag and painted in Aussie colours :P it seems like this is the only day when Aussies are really patriotic about their roots (its also a good excuse to drink :P)

There was one of those old sailing ships that was sailing in Darling Harbour..can you see the mast of the ship? :P

Thank you to HY and Hazel for putting all of us up at their place for the 2 nights...there were some awkward moments at night (especially involving mobile phones that were placed across from Max, and mobile phone alarms that only wake up the light sleepers ;) ahha..well shan't mention that again :P All good fun :)

The next morning, we woke up (thanks to Max's constant prompting :) Told you he was a responsible tour guide ;) and very onz relatively early...8am, all waited for the only bathroom in the apartment, got changed...and headed off to Well Connected in Glebe for a traditional big bfast (see my previous post). Good value food and nice atmosphere...so quiet.

Whenever you put all of us together eating, some quite humourous topics and discussion come up (mainly involving 1 person ;) and Yishan has here moments of humourous brilliance..haha. It was good and relaxed...perfect start to a Saturday morning :) in Sydney...weather was good again. The itinery for the day...was Newcastle then Hunter Valley (the wine growing region in NSW)...it was going to be an all day affair! fun fun fun :)

Us at the famous Brewery @ Newcastle, drinking Ginger beer (again...another place I have been...so see prev post)...delicious

Just the coolest guys in Newcastle (at the Wharf)

Me, Darrel, and Angela at a Harris de Wheels hot dog place in Newcastle...can see Yish in the background (I think) :P

After that brief stopover at Newcastle (where there doesn't look like there is anything else to do :P) its off to the wine yards of Hunter V

One of the stops was at the HV Chocolate Company...

After much prompting from our tour guide...we finally hit the vine yards where we tasted, bought and took many pictures :) of the beautiful surroundings and atmosphere...wine (esp the sweet desert wine) was pretty good too!

This picture was taken at the Iron Gate Vineyard (there was an iron-gate to the cellar...but a wooden gate outside :P). Where we were rushing to get there by 4pm (because they close at that time). Unfortunately due to an unexpected toilet break by our tour guide (sorry...but its my blog...ahha) we were late by 10mins and missed the sweet red wine it was meant to be famous for :P sorry max! so have to settle for a photo outside the cellar :)...oh well got something to look forward to next time in the region...

When we got back to Sydney, it was about 7.30pm and we were all tired and hungry...luckily our next stop was Lowenbrau (by special request...so that we could try the Mango beer ;)...ordered 2 of those meat platters for 2 at $68 each...for the 9 of us! All I can say is that it was more than enough..even with myself and Max on the team..it was a struggle to just finish one of those platters..haha..well done everyone, put the girls to shame :P

Max and his pork knuckle...yummm...

After dinner, I separated from the group to go to one of my friend's 25th bday party at a bar nearby (many thanks to Max for driving), so really this is part of my blog now...what an intense yet fun night. The theme for her party was jazz...needless to say I was boring and didn't really have any sort of jazz type of clothes :P (sorry). Drank too much I think and probably did some silly things..oh well...its all for fun and I think most of my friends were drunk already so no harm done :P.

After the party, linked up with the rest of the group...at Star City (well done to Angela for winning some Sic Bo) at about 3am in the morning haha...needless to say we all slept pretty well :)

The next morning...we all woke up late (again at HY's place...thx) had dim sum @ Market City in Chinatown and then went off to Paddy's market...where the girls were looking for a big/giant calculator for their audits...well they found it!. Then it was on to Pancakes @ the Rocks for...pancakes!

Later that day everyone left for their respective States...it was a fun weekend and am thankful and grateful that I was allowed to be a part of it :) it was great fun and had many laughs (cannot even remember the bedroom incident...Max?!) should definitely do it again sometime...another PwC trip together somewhere ;) oh well...haha..
THANK YOU HY AND HAZEL FOR BEING EXCELLENT HOSTS AND MAX FOR ORGANISING (Don't forget the ski trip tour too)

We have TV!!!

Yes! after 2 weeks of living here (pictures of my new place and surroundings will be up soon - as soon as I have populated my bedroom) at Rhodes, we have finally got tv reception. Before, we had one of those crappy rabbit ears type of antennaes and the reception was just shocking and blurry...sadly no tv :( that was one of the the worse days (weeks) of living in Sydney. However, when I got home today....to my delight, I found out that we have got tv reception...apparantly we mistaken the cable point (ie. thought it was a jack for cable tv only ie. Foxtel or SCV...so was considering subscribing to cable tv just so we could get some decent reception) for one that can only be used for cable tv :P but in fact..when you purchase an adaptor for it...it is actually a proper external aerial point :P ta dah!!!...we were not too smart, but luckily we didn't start subscribing to cable tv. Very happy atm...now if I can only just get my double bed here :P...

Ergonomics

Just received this email...

Hi guys

Just letting you know that Barbara Robertson, our Ergonomics consultant will be in on Wednesday morning from 11am. She will pop by and see you all to make sure your offices are set up correctly for you. Please let me know if you miss seeing Barbara and need me to arrange an alternate time.

Thanks

Fleur Myers Office Services Supervisor
Ebsworth & Ebsworth Lawyers

...too bad its not a Feng Shui consultant haha...although I would think that if this was a S'pore firm it is possible...haha

First Week at Work

Its the end of my first week at Ebsworth :), an exciting time and plenty of new people to meet and things to learn :P. Had 2 days of induction (sorta like a Go Audit session for 1 person...teaching me just the basic stuff about office procedures), that was pretty good...2 days of doing nothing. Its back to the dreaded timesheets again (my audit friends you can understand this)...where I got to somehow find 6hrs of chargeable time per day (that is my quota), but unlike audit, its really stuff that the partners or seniors get you to do (could be anything from Corporate and Commercial stuff) and its really bits and pieces...6 hrs!!! how to how to? unlike an audit where you go on an engagement for the entire day and you can simply charge the full 7.5 hrs to the job, whereas here its

all in office and OA is not really an option :P...its actually you that has to go out and find the work (unless the partner happens to come into your office and dumps a case file on you). This is exactly what happened on my first day :) haha...a senior partner comes into my office and gives me the 2 cases to look into (one of which involves the appointment of auditors under the Corporations Act believe it or not?! :P) and wants me to write up some research on the matter! Now, here I faced another problem...for the past 2 years my head has been filled with Dr and Cr, PnL and Bal Sheet...now I am 'thrown into the deep end' and had to somehow remember how I did legal research and write advice up (which I did in law school in 2004)...if you don't do something everyday then eventually you will forget it. This is what happened..had a brain freeze...$#@^ luckily when the partner left, I could ask my buddy (a junior lawyer) and call up my lawyer friends (all in Perth) to find out where to start :P phew! Still see that I will encounter some difficulty, namely remembering how to be a lawyer and what I learnt at law school so many years ago :P (also this firm is mostly made up of Aussies...only another asian lawyer here :P) well no one said it was going to be easy haha...

Anyway at Ebsworth...would you believe I have my own secretary! (ok...well a shared secretary) don't know how to handle that or what work to give her..haha...oh well will figure that out over time. I also have this dictaphone thingy, which I am meant to dictate and upload onto the server and someone (my secretary? or typing pool) will type out what I say (could be a letter, memo, advice, etc)...haha...can you imagine doing a FS by that means? How to talk slowly and clearly and also add in the pronouceaction :P its like a totally proper callover...but this time definitely with partner review :P haha...oh well time will tell and I suppose its part of everyday lawyer life.

Also there are free lunches provided by the firm from Mon-Thurs, and free softdrink in the fridge in the lounge (picture above)...save $$$ :). The reason for this is because of 'staff welfare' - but I believe its so that you got no excuse to go outside (and procastinate) for lunch and rather can go straight back to your desk to work! :P haha...more productive method (also the caffine in the free coke helps). The office (and the entire building is quite nice and new :) Here are some of the pics from around my office:

Transparent glass elevators for the entire building can see outside onto the streets and Sydney skyline...pretty cool design :)

An open office concept, the secretaries sit in the middle isle, while the rooms are for the lawyers :)

A fountain outside my building...to bring wealth and prosperity (Deutsche Bank is also a major tenant)...haha...nice feature

The next year should be an adventure, and this week will probably be my most relaxed one of all..so wish me luck my friends and see you online (hopefully) haha...

Outdoor Cinema @ Bondi

Just got back from an outdoor movie session at the famous Bondi beach. Its been almost more than a year since I last went to an outdoor cinema session and that was in S'pore :P. This time however I was with friends and we had a huge picnic and although the weather was cold, wet and salty (of course mah..we are at the beach). We had a huge amount of food :P and it was like a picnic. We were watching an Aboriginal movie (yeah..I know its a very arty type of movie) that apparantly won some special awards called: 10 Canoes... It was pretty good, with plenty of naked natives in it haha...and although I wouldn't endorse it completely, its one of those where you either loved it or hated it...I can say that this had its bits of humour in it as it was telling a story about an Aboriginal tribe and some of the characters in that tribe (it had subtitles coz it was in Aboriginal...sounds like Indo or Malay a little :P but with more clicking sounds). Anyway here are some of the pics from it: