Sun, 23 Dec 2007
Kathleen and I organised a BBQ for the entire apartment block. It was great catching up with our neighbours in the back garden just before Christmas. We spent a lot of time this year maintaining the garden in working bees, so this was a time to enjoy it.
The strata arranged to purchase a BBQ that everyone can use whenever they feel like it. We put on a stack of snags, and most people brought along a salad or something.
The weather played nice too - nice sunshine in the early evening, just perfect for outdoor eating and drinking.
Our neighbours across the hall even announced that their second child would be along in six months!
We're hoping that this will be a bit of an annual (or even quarterly!) tradition - it's nice to have that sense of community in a place like Sydney.
Mon, 10 Dec 2007
On Saturday night, we went out for dinner for Denzil's birthday. Lu booked a new place in Surry Hills on Bourke St near Taylors Square called the Singapore Heritage Restaurant.
The restaurant itself has probably the most usual bio of a chef that I have come across. Suffice to say that the website speaks for itself.
So the chef became a bit of a figure of intrigue throughout the dinner, and we ended up asking the waiters to see if he would come out and say hi so we could let him know what we thought of the food. Actually, it was more of Kathleen's idea, since she is more inclined to say what she thinks than most people.
So Alvin the chef came out and said hi, and happy birthday to Denzil. He was short, too - sitting down, I was as tall as he was standing up (and even with, as V pointed out, platform heels. Trust V to notice).
We stayed around for cocktails afterwards in their downstairs bar - a nice evening.
Sunday Picnic
Tina K.O. invited the gang down to Steele Park in Marrickville for an afternoon picnic yesterday. It was a really nice afternoon, a little warm and humid, but a nice breeze allowed Eva to use her kite.
Then the weather changed, and we got caught in the afternoon storms as the clouds rolled in and the sky went from blue to black. Eva ended up losing her kite in the river, too.
We ended up driving back to Tina's place as the rain stopped and the sun re-emerged, where we drip-dried and sat around in the late afternoon humidity, falling asleep.
Thu, 06 Dec 2007
Part of the hassle of being a consultant is that every large organisation that one works for requires at some stage the completion of compulsory training.
So far, I've completed such training at four different organisations, all revolving around similar generic themes of ethical behaviour, risk management, adherence to protocols and procedures, etc etc etc.
Today I had a little bit of spare time and, having to complete a couple of compulsory online training modules, started on one entitled "Doing The Right Thing". Blah blah blah don't take bribes, look out for safety hazards, treat everyone equally blah blah blah.
After I finished (complete with online test that required 100% pass rate on 20 multiple choice questions and which I failed 3 times), I turned to the team admin girl behind me. "Wow, that took ages! Wonder how much this'll cost the bank, requiring everyone to do it, too."
"You should've let me know you were doing it," she replied. "I've got a cheat sheet."
"What? You mean you already have all the answers?"
"Yes, I've done the test already for High Up Person One and High Up Person Two."
"Oh, OK."
Awesome. An online test on Doing The Right Thing that is bypassed by everyone except the dumb ones (i.e. me).
Sat, 01 Dec 2007
OK, last post on this topic, I swear.
Tim Kring apologises to Heroes fans:
- says that they made a mistake with the pacing of the show this season
- new cast members weren't introduced correctly
- the Claire/West love thing isn't really working
- the save the world plot took too long to explain
- Hiro was in Japan too long
Maybe Channel 7 should apologise too. The 'season finale' of the second season of Heroes was on Thursday, just as the pace and storylines were starting to get better (still can't believe they tried to kill off HRG - the ending of the episode wasfantastic). They're actually two episodes short of the 'real' season finale, which is half the length of the usual series due to the writer's strike in the US.
I just hope 7 pick up where they left off, rather than messing about with the order, showing repeats, late at night etc. ala Channel 9, otherwise we'll be downloading them.
