One Last Chance to See the Sights

It took until my last day of work at the bank on Friday to get all the numbers "spot on" as they say here. After we spent a little time to "tidy" things up, I returned from the operations center back to the main bank office to say so long to everyone...I then went out to dinner for what seemed like the first time! I went to a steak place called "RARE". When you order a filet here, you need to know how many grams you'd like it to be. I had a choice of 300 grams or 450 grams. I actually had no presence of mind to visualize what 450 grams looks like or how big that would really be but I just interpreted my choices to mean 8 ounces or 12 ounces (and was hoping it wasn't something like John Candy had to eat in the movie The Great Outdoors when it arrived).

So I am waiting for my dinner and wondering why it is taking long... and where my salad is? The menu said dinner comes with a side salad. I am waiting and waiting and then here comes my steak, potatoes, vegetables....and side dinner salad. Now I know it is a small thing but I thought all people like to have their dinner salad..... before dinner. It turns out in AUS if you want salad before dinner, you need to tell them you want your salad as an entree'!? I guess that means you get it on its' own plate before your actual dinner. I was informed by my waitress that salad before dinner is actually an american custom. In AUS, salad comes with your dinner. So now my dilema is, if I eat the salad first the steak will get cold. If I eat the steak first, my salad my wilt and get soggy.....seems I still have lots to learn.

I woke up Saturday morning wondering what to do besides starting to pack for the long haul home. The sun was shining, spring was in the air, people have been shedding their winter jackets for days now (although some still head up into the high country for snow skiing), people everywhere are preparing for Fathers Day Sunday Sept. 4th (a really big deal around here), and I..... just wanted to be outside. I got the idea to jump on a tram and go to the local zoo....because a) I found out that would be easy to do by tram and b) Simon and Garfunkel said "everything's always happening at the zoo".

After walking all around trying to figure out where to get a tram pass and the right tram line number to get on, I arrived at the Melbourne zoo. It was a beautiful day to be outside. I saw all the usual creatures, real live kangaroos, and koala bears too. I forgot that many young parents with children in strollers all flock to the zoo on such days so getting around myself was a bit hectic with strollers.... and skinny walkways.... everywhere. It was a nice pleasant time though.... and fun watching the elephants and giraff's feeding.

It was also fun to people watch and go about their everyday lives. I got to hear a mom yell and scream at her kids with the full accent and funny words....like "I am going to spank you flat as a lizard if you don't get over here"!?

After I had my fill... I headed on tram line #55 back to the city where I visited Swanston street (jambed packed with shoppers). On the way there, the tram operator announced the stop for the "hey" market. You know.... I have heard of a "straw" market....but never a "hey" market. Now I find myself wondering if there really is such a demand for "hey" or "straw"....and why do we need an entire market (or tram stop) for such? I will have to see what that's all about. In the shopping district, a silver painted guy caught my eye as he was playing the part of a "mime" riding the local trams....very entertaining.

I had walked my last step about 4PM and although it was just a 30 minute walk back to the hotel, I was walking all day....so I opted for a cab....I wasn't "going" very well....and was coming down with a sore throat / cold (probably caught from all the kids / germ bags at the zoo). I thought great, this will make the 24 hours of flying tomorrow a real joy!

With only hours left in Melbourne, I was determined to go out to dinner again....sore throat and all. This time to Donavans down in St. Kilda on the beach (recommened by my work friends). The first thing I did was get the whole dinner salad subject matter taken care of. Dinner was great but very expensive (in fact, everything here is very expensive). Only the cab fares seem reasonable. For the first time ever in my life, I had a steak that cost $80 AUD. That's about $88 USD. All I could think to myself is my Lord, how is this guy going to pay for his huge family of 8 people sitting right next to me? Are we going out to dinner or making a mortgage payment here......I think I am about ready to return home!

Saying Goodbye to New Friends

As I walked away from the bank today after saying good bye to my new friends, I stopped and took a picture of the building where I spent most of this week. It was an educational experience and a cultural experience too. It was sort of weird saying so long to the people here at the bank because we all knew that chances are, we will never see each other.... ever again. We will certainly talk with one another over the phone, but trips like this overseas just do not happen too often.

We all felt happy to associate a name....to a voice... to a face. To my new friend in operations Tony Todara, I wish you good luck with your new family member Tony. Enjoy your 5 weeks off of work getting "acquainted". I know the conversion has been a "bit of a prick" and left you feeling "necked after work", but your help and effort was greatly appreciated.

To Paul Jeffries, I wish you health and happiness. I enjoyed talking with you Paul and learning all about your work (and your world travels too) very much. To the rest of the team (Mark, Guarav, Jenny, Sammy, and Orianna), it was a pleasure to meet with you. Special thanks to Sahil for making all the local arrangements and most of all, thanks to everyone for so much cooperation in getting this upgrade done.

My acknowledgements would be remiss if I did not mention the one and only Peter Pappas. You are one of a kind Peter, it was great working with you "mate". You are a person filled with personality. I wish your "Footy" team the best of luck. I may even follow the AFL a bit.... even after I return to the US....I want to watch and see how they "crack-em".

You know.....I must say that travelling around the world and making new friends builds character. It shows you that people don't always see the world through the same lenses you are wearing. Meeting the nice people here at ANZed and working with them all week..... is something that will stick with me forever.

De-Cafenated.....

So after being here for several days, only today I find that the closest thing to normal American coffee with cream is not actually a "long black" at all, it is a "flat white". Yep, even the coffee machines around here have the word "flat white" on them. I was told early on that a long black is the way to go but after trying a flat white today, I am sticking to it. Neither of these choices is anything like Starbucks but "flat white" will do for the remainder of my journey. I did ask for half and half in one cafe' and they looked at me funny asking "half and half of what?". They honestly do not know what half and half is. They have "milk" and "skinny milk" and even some other forms of milk in between but don't even ask for cream (I did that once and they think cream means make your milk foamy by injecting steam into it). My god, I have never tried so hard to get a good god damn cup of coffee in my life.

It is not how you say it, it is what you are saying....

I think there is only place on earth where people are more keen to security measures in the financial services business arena than the US.....that's right, it is Australia. At the bank today, I learned that ANZ has security officers that walk around the buildings and departments just sort of watching and monitoring. One co-worker told me that when he walked away from his PC once without locking it first, an officer came over, sat down and sent an email to his boss! I couldn't quite understand what he said in the email but the boss wrote back......replied to the email and you can just imagine. They do this to teach a lesson to the people! We were working with some reports today and when we were done with this one pile, I simply grabbed the pages and threw them in the trash can next to my work area....the guy next to me about fell out of his chair diving for the can! He said that if a security officer walked by and saw that.....it could be his job! Now all this could have to do with the PAYMENTS area I was working in where employees are literally authorizing millions of dollars in cash movements (between other banks) every day. Anyway, I was very intrigued by all this....

At the end of the day, the guy I was working with (Tony) says he is absolutely "necked". Now I wanted to say listen dude, I am not really interested.....but he laughed and could NOT believe I have never heard that word! I told him I know what naked is, just not necked. Clearly, he was tired. After work I went into a store to do some shopping and when you do this, the clerks come up to you and say "How are you going?". Well, I just said I am not going anywhere but in the store?!? The funny thing is that I would get it if they said, "how are you doing?" or "how is it going?", but nooooooooo, they want to know "How Are You Going". The next time someone says that to me, I am going to say....... "By Walking", that is how I am going!