So I spent almost three days in Sydney. It’s so much bigger and vibrant and crowded than Adelaide. It was also quite humid and the cabs have vinyl seats and some with barriers around the drivers. People who catch cabs in Sydney must be violent or something.
We arrived at the hotel and because we didn’t want smoking rooms we had to wait for our rooms so couldn’t change before the first meeting. It didn’t bother me as I wasn’t really casual but my two colleagues were and it didn’t really matter as it was a pretty casual meeting. We were an hour late because the cab changeover time in Sydney is 3pm and 3am and we were in the thick of the 3pm changeover and our cab just never showed. The hotel concierge just went and hailed a cab which we should have done in the first place.
The meeting went ok then it was back to the hotel for a swim and a spa, an absolute must on any work trip I say. The only thing I don’t like about hotel spas is that they turn off automatically every ten minutes. At the conference in Queensland there were loads of kids and we could just ask them to do it – you know how kids love pressing buttons – but we didn’t have that luxury here so we had to take it in turns ourselves.
We were staying not far from Chinatown so had Chinese food for dinner – mmmm, mmmm. I used to get Chinese takeaway a fair bit in my younger, going to the pub lots, days and it mainly consisted of lots of onion, some type of sauce and the meat and vegetables. In other words not very appetising. I’ve since discovered that you can eat good Chinese food and it is quite delicious if you go to the right place, so gradually I go eat at proper Chinese restaurants.
We were sitting outside watching the world go by as it was quite a warm and still humid evening and I was able to buy a souvenir for my son from a vendor doing the rounds along the street to all the diners. It was a hand-held thing with a clear plastic sphere at the top of the handle. You press the button and the lights inside the sphere go around and it looks really good at night because they’re a bit neon. Jaycee Junior absolutely loves it thank goodness. My colleague and two people at the next table bought one each so were able to knock the price down a little bit. Not that it was really expensive.
I also saw Merlin from the last season of Big Brother walk past. My immediate reaction was that it was someone I knew, but of course I have never met the guy. It was a weird feeling.
Friday consisted of more meetings during the day of similar workplaces to our own and a bit of shopping at lunch time.
Friday night was the reason we were there though. We got frocked up as it was a formal do and walked around a bit trying to catch a cab. I was wearing high heels which I don’t normally do so wasn’t happy about walking around that early in the evening but they were fairly sensible high heels and not really high pointy stilettos. We managed to get a cab on George Street and headed over the bridge. We had no idea of what to expect from the evening so were full of anticipation and what if scenarios. What if we win an award. Will we have to make a speech? Will there be lots of people there or will it be a flop?
