I’m sitting in a bar in Darwin. Monsoons, on Mitchell Street, to be precise. I’m having a drink, trying to stay out of the heat, and catching up on work. Later I’ll go out for dinner with a colleague.
Darwin is quite hot. It’s very humid. The tropical climate isn’t surprising, though, since it’s in the tropics.
Just a moment ago I was looking at Darwin on Google Maps. It’s a very long way from anywhere.
Spent time exploring more of Sydney’s inner west suburbs yesterday: Leichhardt and Rozelle and Drummoyne and Russell Lea and Five Dock. I’ve been pondering what living in those neighbourhoods would be like.
Then we decided to take a drive up through the Blue Mountains. It was a great day for the convertible, we stopped to buy apples and visit a pub, and even fit in a hike out to a great lookout [pic1|pic2|pic3].
On the way back we stopped in Leichhardt again for a top-notch Italian meal.
In a couple of hours I’m flying to the Top End, to Darwin, for work. I’m looking forward to seeing a new Australian city, however briefly.
I was on a whirlwind tour of new Australian cities in the previous two days, for work.
On Thursday morning I flew (about 4.5 hours) to Perth, getting there at mid-day, having meetings and dinner, and then flying out at about 11pm.
It took about 3.5 hours to get back to Sydney, but with the time change it was just after 6am local time on Friday when I got back. I had no time to go home, though. After a shower and a change and some breakfast I was airborne again, this time for Canberra. It’s only an hour flight to the capital; I’d normally drive it, but I knew I’d be knackered after the redeye from Perth.
I spent only a handful of hours in Canberra, and then it was back to Sydney by 5pm. Even then I couldn’t go home: I went directly to a Twestival planning meeting and then a gig.
I slept well when I finally did go home after that, though.
No rest today, though: it was sunny so we hit the road to see Palm Beach and Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.
I’m in Perth. It’s my first time here. It’s my first time in Western Australia.
I’m here for work and I’m here for 9 hours only. I’m at the airport now after whirlwind meetings today.
It’s a shame, having come all this way, not to be able to spend more time here. I can’t really form much of an impression; though it does seem a bit Wild West.
At our December Christmas party my workplace gave each employee a $100 voucher for Red Balloon Days. We were under instructions to use it and report back on what exciting or luxury experience we treated ourselves to.
I used mine yesterday to do an introductory glider flight with the Sydney Gliding Club.
I’ve never been gliding before; I’ve never been in anything smaller than a Dash-8 commuter plane. But yesterday morning – on a great, sunny day – my mate V and I drove down to Camden Airport for me to give it a go.
The guys in the club are great: friendly, chatty, and more than happy to explain whatever you’d like to know. Their current gliders are motorised with a propellor in front: they can take off without a tow plane. Once at altitude they turn off the motor and just start gliding. The cockpit has two seats beside each other, not in front of each other, which gives everyone a good view (and makes it easier to teach).
We got up to about 2500 feet (762 m) and started gliding. I could see from the Sydney skyline to the Blue Mountains. We swooped and soared all over the incredibly green fields and clustered towns. They let me take the stick for a while and do some banks left and right, then level out. It was pretty cool. The flight experience lasted about 20 minutes in all.
The down side: I don’t know what you call the aerial equivalent of sea legs, but whatever they are I didn’t have them yesterday. I was pretty woozy by the end of it, and would not have wanted the banking and diving and swooping to have gone on for much longer, thanks. I don’t think I’ll be doing it again.
But that’s okay. That’s the point of these vouchers, and what my employer wanted: for us to try things and see how they went. I’ve thought about gliding for a long time: I’ve now had the opportunity to try it at no cost to me, I learned a lot about gliding, I had a great view from on high, and I now know it’s A380s and nothing else for me. That’s a proper experience.
This week has mostly been about work: focusing on it, doing it, learning the ropes at a new place.
It’s also been about dealing with heat during a commute. There’s such a massive difference in temperature where I work (several km inland) from where I live (by the ocean). Like, more than 10 degrees Celsius difference. It was 39.5C at noon outside my workplace today. It’s still 32C there at 9:30pm. It’s warm here in Neutral Bay, but nothing like that hot.
I’m moving closer to buying a car, though. Look for blog news about that on the weekend. Hopefully.
Work work work work, work work work.
It’s really not that surprising, given that I’ve just started. However, I still have the chance to meet the missus in the city after work and go for dinner, which is a good thing.
I’m really pleased with how the first three days of my job are going. There’s some stuff I’m very comfortable with, some stuff that is new but do-able, and some stuff that will be really challenging. I reckon that’s the way a new job should be, yeh?
Today I start work at a new company for the first time since January 1998. In this age of high job mobility that’s pretty exciting.
The Aussie adventure continues: I have a job! I start on 01 December. It’s at a much smaller outfit than the giant corporation I worked at for the previous 12 years, but it’s a role with lots of responsibility and promise and good people and cool things to be involved in. I’m pretty excited about it, and glad to know that some Australian dollars will soon going into my bank account rather than coming out.
I’ve now got nearly 2 weeks to enjoy Sydney in spring.
