Sydney Diaries (#2)

Letter to home (#2)

Dear all,
so tomorrow is kuny baby (jigna's) birthday - guess everyone at Bangalore are eager to celebrate her first birthday - dekhu dekhu 1 year palei gala! nani - mora jou party miss houchi seita tu aau mu aau thare celebrate kariba, ok? bhala jaga re khai jiba - our usual pact.

well - i spent the past weekend looking around places near to where I stay currently - one was Darling Harbour - and the other was Bondi beach. Bondi beach is world famous (or so I have heard). However by the time we went - it was getting dark - and since it is winter time here - not too many people were there in the beach. Quite a few of them were surfing - it is a popular sport here. Not much to describe about the place - except that it is semi-circular - and a very clean beach. Relax - this wasn't a nude beach :) As you would expect, the beach is dotted with resorts/apartments/eateries - all of which are pretty expensive. We strolled the beach for about 15 minutes and then had a look at the shops before heading back. Maybe if it gets sunnier sometime later, I might want to take a bath at the beach.

Darling Harbour is very much the area I live in currently. We walked to the place - crossing a Fish Market. There were lovely sea-food items on display - and since most of it was frozen, there wasn't much foul smell. I got attracted to huge prawns/lobsters/crabs. Once my accomodation gets finalized, I will bring home a few things and cook - to hell with my veg manager!! We have anyway started bringing eggs and cooked non-veg items :)

After the fish market area - we went to the Darling Harbour area. It had a maritime museum - whose entry was free. Went in there and had a look at old Australian navy stories. Missed out on the aquarium in the area (have heard it is very good) - thanks to the unenthusiastic group that I am with. But I will make sure I go out there sometime in this visit. At the end of it, went to a mall called Star City. There was a casino in it - but then there were dressing restrictions - and all of us were not dressed appropriately enough. Even a jeans with shoes would have been ok - but I was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt - so could not check the casino.

We also bought some Indian grocery from a nearby area (as in 3-4 kms away - so all in walking) - the south indian morons live only on rice - so all they wanted to bring was rice (10 kgs of it - imagine!)....and ready-to-eat curries (none of them can cook). I bought some ginger garlic paste, and a curry powder.

That's about it now - we are looking for accomodations (preferably for longer duration) - but getting one is not easy (especially with what facilities these guys want). They cannot adjust to community kitchen, or shared bathrooms. That hikes the costs - and also makes availability an issue.

Work is not very amusing as of now - there is no pure Business Analyst work in here. I am doing things which I can - but if things get too technical - like designing/coding things, I might decline doing it. One - it will be difficult for me since I have lost touch of these things, two - I haven't done my MBA for nothing, it is a coder/designer's job! Even if it means coming back soon - I am more than happy with it. I am missing home already :(

and yeah - I sleep late and wake up late - no more acting as an alarm for the manager - it is he who gets annoyed when i switch on the lights late at night :)
I watch some TV till late (around midnight)...

Ok - enjoy the birthday and the subsequent party!Give lots of gela to kuni baby.

Regards,

Sumit

Sydney Diaries (#1)

Letter to home (#1)
Hi,

How have you all been?
I am fine - I just remain a touch busy because it is a client location.

I reached on Sunday evening at Sydney - the flight was on time - reaching around 7 in the evening (2.30 in the noon at India). However the customs clearance took a lot of time. And in the clearance they took away my maggi, and the curry powder. They don't allow cloves to be taken inside Australia. Unfortunately both these items had parts of it as ingredient. In fact there are more restrictions - they even checked my formal shoes which I had packed - just in case there is some dirt. One has to necessarily declare these items when they give the immigration pass on the flight - if caught, you are penalized heavily. So I declared, and some of the items were removed and I was then allowed to go - of course without any penalty. It took a lot of time however - by the time we left the airport - it was 9.15 P.M. It was chilling the moment we left the Airport - cold breeze was flowing - the temperature hovered around 15 degrees celsius. It might rain later in the week - light showers at most.

Sydney becomes dead after 7-7.30 in the evening - shops shut down, and there are very few people on the road. We have taken up an apartment close to the city center (around 3.5 km). yet it was very lonely on the streets. The apartment was around 9 kms from the airport. The apartment is very good. It is a two floored apartment - the ground floor has one bedroom and an attached bathroom. The top floor has another bedroom - non attached bathroom, a kitchen area (with all facilities - fridge, microwave, toaster, gas, electric chimney, grill, utensils & crockery), a living room kind of an area with TV - dining table - music system and a 3 seater sofa, and a small room with two bunk beds. The entire area is carpeted - and one has a vacuum cleaner to clean things. The bathroom on the top floor has a washer and a dryer for washing clothes. The shower area is an enclosed one and everywhere you get both hot and cold water. And yes - the toilet is with the tissue - no taps around to wash! So one necessarily takes a bath after one completes the daily routines.

The nearest station is about 1.5 kms away - and then the office is just 2 stations away - again a 0.5 km walk there. However even for this short journey -the ticket costs you 2.6 Australian dollars one way. The office is in a place called Martin Place - it is the Central Business District of Sydney. There are a lot of offices around the place - and one usually sees people dressed formally. Contrary to what I hear about the U.S, the Australians seem a lot more formal at office. Many of them wear suits, and some wear formal shirts and pants. Not many wear a tie though - which helps us. So after the first day we just wear formal shirts and trousers, without the ties. Ladies are dressed formally as well - skirts/trousers with shirts. And some have suits. We sit in the IT department area in one building. The business sits in another building across the street. The area has several shops. And a lot of food areas, However everything is a touch costly in Sydney. One paratha with a bit of chola cost me 6 dollars. So you can imagine it is tough going. Each office floor has a pantry - you can take biscuits, tea, coffee, breakfast cereals, fruits. So that helps in the morning. Lunch is the issue as of now.

We return back aroun 5.30 or 6 in the evening. Go back home - I take a bath again - and then to the kitchen. These south indians can do anything and survive on rice. My manager is pure veg - he didn not want non veg to even come to the house. Thankfully one of the other guys has brought non-veg pickle - so that opens the gate for me to bring in non veg when I feel like it. The first night sine all our maggies had been disposed - we survived on maggi soup. The next day these people were content with rice (which was more a khiri) and pickle (andhra pickle - highly spicy). yesterday i prepared some curry from frozen mixed vegetables - I took that with rice (again - more like a khiri). I take up a banana or bread in morning and then come to office.

People in Sydney are multi-cultural - there are a lot of chinese (or chinese looking) people around - less Indians than I had imagined - Dubai and Singapore had hoardes of them - here there are few people. I can understand most of their accent (thank goodness!)....but am yet to understand my role in the project - will get more clarity over a period of time.

That's about it - the daily routine is more like - wake at 6-6.30...go to office at 8-8.30....leave office at 5.30-6....cook at home from 8 in the evening - and then sleep at 10 amx (insisted by the manager since he sleeps early)!!

I am very annoyed with my manager - I share the room with him - he sleeps early, and he wants me to wake up eaely (because he wakes up early to do some yoga!) - not that he wants me to join him in doing yoga - but the fact that I can act as his alarm - and simultaneously use the bathroom so that he ain't interrupted when he wants to use it. All this - plus the constant nagging by him every 5 minutes - what is the status, what is happening - etc, etc - I have always had managers who were not THAT eager to get updates. And to top it all - he brags about himself - the first day he mentioned about how he has been working very well - how happy his customers have been - I am already tired!

That's about it - I have taken up a SIM card here - but outgoing is very costly - I will also buy a calling card - it will be cheaper for outgoing calls. Anyway my contact number is +61-449841496
Hou - rahili - everyone please take care of yourself.

Regards,
Sumit