Nothing Rhymes With Pirate

One of my projects was "officially" unveiled today in all the papers!

The National

Gulf News

7Days

It doesnt mention the hotel specifically, but you can see it in the pictures!
(Photo 8 in the Gulf!)

This is their nice way of saying "We have shortened your working hours (to normal hours that everyone else gets), but you can work longer if you want to. And the guilt trip is to count yourselves lucky that we give you Christmas and Boxing Day off!"

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From: HR
To: Everyone-dxb
Subject: Ramadan Timing

To: All Staff,

Please note that during the Holy month of Ramadan the official office hours will be reduced to 9.00am to 5.00pm in line with UAE Labour Law.

However the office will remain open with support staff cover as normal from 8.00am to 6.00pm so that those of you who wish to work additional hours are able to do so if your work commitments require it. Working hours for site staff will be dependent on specific site arrangements. Please note that as per our normal office practice we shall be giving everyone additional holidays for Christmas day and Boxing Day.

We expect the holy month of Ramadan to start from 31st August or 1st September. The exact start date will be announced in the local news paper or radio.

Best Regards,

HR Manager

We have a program installed on our computers at work called MsgPopup. Its pretty much like instant messaging and you could be in the middle of working on something and a little window just pops up on this screen.

This message came through yesterday:

Daniel
(01/06(Sun)AM09:54)
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the cleaning lady is trapped in our toilet the handle and lock has fallen off, current situation, she is stable, so far, will keep u updated as im sure u are very worried

Theres a new cleaning lady in our office who basically just walks up and down and around into all the rooms and cleans the kitchens and bathrooms. ALL DAY. She's chinese, short and slight built.. She looks slightly cross-eyed, but it could be that her eyes are just really close together. She doesnt know any english but I notice she's picking it up a bit as I noticed Azar (one of the Pakistani office assistants) trying to communicate with her. She can be spotted walking around with headphones on or sitting in the fire stairs smoking.

I went to my first meeting last Wednesday for Dubai Sport City. Its a massive area (like a suburb) with 3 sport stadiums, a training academy (I've heard its for Manchester Utd), 3 malls, hubs of residentials, parks, golf course and a 700m canal that will have abras (boats) travelling along it.
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I woke up with little problem in the morning to have a cold shower (i didnt notice the big red 'heat tank' switch which was next to the light switch), steal a bit of someone's toast and be picked up by the company's other driver, Nasir, to be taken into work. My first view of the city was hazy under the blanket of dust and the masses of construction workers and cranes dotted around. It was a quick 5-10min drive and we pulled up in a back street behind Lal's Supermarket. Passing the delivery vans and going behind the garbage dumpster was the office building door! The lift is cosy (4 people is almost comfortable. 5 would've been disrespecting personal space). I got taken to the 1st floor main reception, which was wrong, and then up to the 3rd floor to meet Asha whos been my email contact. She gave me the initiation and then we went around the office (across 3 floors) to meet everyone else, including my director, Andree. I must've seen about 80 people, but I only recollect about 10 names. I'm employee number 154 at the moment!

I spent most of my day reading through manuals, sifting through project files and looking at images. The manuals made out that the systems were quite orderly, but in fact it was a mess! In comparison, implementing the Site Image systems were a good move!

Because of Ramadan, the working hours at the moment are shortened to 9-5 (usually 8-6). I was questioning about lunch but was assured that there'd be no problem with finding food somewhere! Lunch is for an hour from 1pm, and I went out with Madeline (british girl who is the PA to the directors), her housemate Sang Ok (who went to UNSW and worked at SI!), Duncan (british guy who works in the team next to mine) and Matt (another brit LA in my team who sits in Andree's room). We were heading to a deli cafe inside the Fairmont hotel, but that was full so we got led upstairs. They all apologised for lunch being so expensive, but at this point, i hadnt bought anything or even seen prices so what was I to know? There was a bit of a drama as Duncan's meal came out wrong and after a talking to to the manager, he got to have a dip into the buffet. So after a split, my Fairmont Club sandwich with fries and some water ended up costing 50dhs (about $16), which isnt too bad for a nice cafe/hotel lunch!

I went to the supermarket downstairs while I waited for Matt to finish up so we could head back to the Villa. Everyone had warned me off the meat there, which was a bit unnerving! Still, I love a supermarket and it was bustling with people and packed with lots of strange packets of things, shelves of ghee (ha!) and snack bottles of camels milk! It was kind of a mix between a Bi-Lo and one of those indian/chinese grocery shops in Ashfield. After walking the aisles and noticing i'd been there too long, I rushed back to meet Matt.

We got to the Villa and turned on the air-conditioning and sat around.. and then Matt said he needed to go to the shops to stock up for his weekend camping trip. So we drove up to one of the local malls (Mercato) and went to Spinneys. Like, WOAH. This supermarket was so freaking rad.. it was bright, wide and stocked! There are 2 other major supermarkets (Carrefour and Choithram) which I will definately check out when I come across one!

My final week of work was breezing through quite nicely. I was wrapping up my Oakdale report, doing all my "lasts", sorting out my files and deleting all bludging evidence off my computer.

They had organised for farewell drinks to be at 4pm on Friday in Paddington.. and with no suprise, it was 410pm and I was still sitting at my desk (Giving me a "final deadline - for old times sake" isnt cool at 2pm). RS was practically half-way out the door when Jess noticed that I was still working.. "Umm, Ross? Did you want us to send this out?". He then realised I was still there and decided to stay on with me while everyone left. I asked for him to give me 10mins, which he did.. hovering over me at all times. I ended up getting kicked out, which was really frustrating for me as he kept making it out that he would be embarressed if I wasnt there and he was. Image infront of everyone else? I dunno.

I made it, which was no big deal.
Quick speeches.. and the giving of the massive card and an Oroton A4 business folio, which will look very swish when I go to meetings. (Better than the dodgy pen/pacer thing that I heard that they had initially bought me!)

Photos: Goodbye SIHQ

I will miss that place. The working relationships, the friendships, the gossip and the insider-jokes. Its like being the seniors in high school. You've got your cliques and niche all sorted out with a level of respect and trust by everyone else. I'll be the little fish in the big pond (a really big pond! With 10 times more people than I'm used to!). Its a really small world in this design/construction industry and no doubt I will see them all again.

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After drinks, Dayna took me out to the Modular party to see Robyn playing at the Oxford Art Factory. Its a new venue and they've used to space where Central Station Records used to be on Oxford St (under Qbar). I was thinking that they'd just keep the 2 rooms the way they were (where the clothes was in one room and the records in the other), but they had completey decked it out with lights, glass, mirrors an art and it was TOTALLY AMAZING!!! May possibly be the best venue that I have seen in Sydney at the moment. (Big call, I know.) Robyn did a great set in her Muscles' "Ice Cream Is Gonna Save The Day" tshirt.. and the girls of SYLK definately had the best dance moves of the night!



Photos: Robyn / SYLK

On Monday night, we went to a trivia night at Paddo RSL hosted by the UNSW 4th Year landscape student to raise money for their graduation exhibition. We had 2 tables there.. turned out to be a bit of a industry schmooze. Joely was at an Aspect table and Sutto was with some randoms. Jamie Durie was hosting!



Our table was winning most of the rounds, with Alex being man hugged by the Tiny Dancer after he won a round of true/false. We also won the meat tray as Slat-dawg beat 2 other tables (including one of our own!) to scissor-paper-rock.

After the last round, they announced that some weirdo geeky table behind us won. Andrew checked and found that we ended up coming 4th. At least I knew the last question about the Amorphophallus.

We had half a day out of the office in Paddington on Friday where we went to the Grand National for a late lunch as kinda like a farewell for Mike. The group then split up to go see some galleries. We stopped at the Blender for a Lomograpix exhibition, Dinosaur Designs (its sculpture!) and the Australian Centre of Photography.


Photos - SI Excursion to Paddo

I also did stops at Incu, THAT and Tsubi (heehe) before meeting everyone at the Royal at 5-ways. We were supposed to see more after that but the rest of us just headed straight to the next pub (Rose, Shamrock & Thistle).

Saturday started hopeful.. I'd left my place at about 10am and headed over to to see Dayna. Walked past the scruffy homeless dude going through a bag in the alleyway and stood on Dayna's stoop and called her to buzz me in. No answer. Maybe in the shower? Wouldnt be unusual that she wasn't ready, which I've discovered is a bit of a pet hate that someone isn't ready at an agreed time. I don't mind if its 'last touches' type thing, as I've been known to do. Anyways, I decided to make my way over to the organic markets up near the fountain and have a snack (profitijes for breakfast - YES.) and have a look at some shops. An hour goes by. Strange. At this point I consider getting the car and driving off, but I give her the benefit of the doubt and call again, to find that she's just sitting in the living room. "Umm, where you going to call me back?" "Uhh.. when did you call?" "Almost an hour ago" "Ok.. let me just go have a shower". You could image what I was like when we met up 40mins later.

But it ended up being a nice sunny afternoon down at the markets. The only crap thing being the throngs of women grabbing and clawing at EVERYTHING. It was so intense. I thought ladies on the north side were way classier than that.


Photos: Kirribilli Markets

On Sunday, I found that my Spathiphyllum Peace Lily is starting to sprout a flower!


I went down to Concord Hospital late in the afternoon to meet mum as my grandma had been admitted. Her doctor was worried that she's got a low platelet count in her blood and wanted to know why she wasnt producing enough. At this point they're not sure why and she refuses to have any major test or any surgery if it leads to that. Just to let nature take its course, not that she's on her death bed or anything.

I was sitting next to a mini wooden deer in Murph's car yesterday when we were driving to Erskinville for thai food. She stole it from a nativity scene last Christmas.

As we stepped out of Maggie's Thai, a man rode past us on his unicycle and then across the zebra crossing outside the Rose. That was pretty cool.

This afternoon, we're going on a SI excursion for lunch and galleries in Paddington. Kinda like a farewell to Mike who leaves mid next week to start SI Melbourne.

When I hear "Wow, I got another present!"



I thank her greatly for giving me a Krispy Kreme with our afternoon tea.
Speaking of which, I have to stop drinking so much tea. I went from drinking maybe 1 cup a day to about 2, sometimes 3, for the past couple of days since Tuppy's. I dont think its good for me.

Murph opened my mail and handed this to me:



Its a $5 voucher to Taste.
When we went there the other week, we dropped our bidniss cards into the big fishbowl.

Could this be better than the spag bol lunch?

My favourite Worm turns 2 today. Apparently Kosta has taken her out on a day trip for a ferry ride and a visit to the Wildlife Park at Cockle Bay. Too cute.

Her birthday also coincides with my 2 year anniversary here at SIHQ. Its pretty uneventful so far.. the best part so far might be the left over spag bol I am eating for lunch right now!

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I had Tracy and Chris' wedding on Saturday.
I didnt attend the ceremony at Burwood.. I later heard that I missed out on the biggest wedding lunch buffet ever. The reception was at Zilvers, next to the Capitol Theatre in ChinaTown. My parents like going there for yum cha. It was a proper chinese banquet steez, so we were pretty excited about that!

I got to sit next to Antonia, which was a nice little reunion after not seeing her for about 5 years. Vivian was sitting on my other side and together we were the only azns at our table. The others would watch to see what sauces and during the 1st course of suckling pig, Viv whispers "should we tell them that its jellyfish?" and I replied "no, let them think its a noodle".

Here we are getting our pick on.. teaching the amateurs how to use the toothpicks


Photos: Tracy & Chris' Wedding Reception

We promptly left work at about 3pm on Friday to go to play lawn bowls at our local club! After a overcast day with threats of storms, it actually cleared up to be breezy and heaps sunny and warm (which contributed to many beer headaches).

Photos: SI @ Alexandria-Erskinville Bowling Club

I came in to work this morning and found this on my desk



Thinking I was a bit special until RS says to Jess "Hope you liked the chocolates!"
"What?" I said, "she got chocolates too?" /feign shocked expression

I dont recall being given chocolates from a boy before.. except for someone like Ronald stealing chocolates from Joh Bailey at Myer and giving them to us. Oh wait, there was that time when Nash gave me a dark chocolate Lindt bunny.. when I didnt eat dark chocolate. It had been sitting on my TV ever since, until I had to throw it out last week when I took the TV to MB.

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I brought the girls of SIHQ singlet tops under the business shirt.. and then it was the ballet flats.. and now I see they have taken a liking to the shirt tucked into the pants with a skinny belt. Oh you trendsetter, you.

Sifting through our in-house photo directory just now to look for some material for my AD project and found this:



How much of a gay hangout does that bridge look?
Check out the outfits.. and how the dudes look so casual.
The photo is so old school its been scanned from a film print. Haha.

( Photo Story )

Nick, Alex and I have been signed up by SI to do a Speechcraft course with Toastmasters. It was actually a condition during my appraisal a couple of months ago for my pay-rise. Haha.



We rocked in about 15mins late, as AL & Nick stopped to have a beer downstairs. I think we got branded the bad kids. There are about 14 other people who are attending and after our introductory "interview" technique where we had to get up in pairs to ask eachother a set list of questions, we found that most people work in corporate organisations and were there on their own (so the 3 of us had a bit of a pack mentality)

Theres 2 lecturers. There's Ruth whos a tall, elderly lady. Kinda hippish/arty. Wears glasses. Thinning short pale red hair. The gentleman is Joe.. who imemdiately reminds me of Bernard Chumley from Little Britain.

I always thought (delusionally?) I could be kinda alright (but still with nerves) with talking infront of people.. but it was quite intense! I found I fidget a lot, especially with the prospect of getting picked to stand up and talk inpromptu for 30 seconds! And myself and another girl, Raquel, got the most umm's and ahh's in the first section. Heheh.

I might have to do my 'ice breaker' next week, where we have to talk for 2-3mins on ourselves. Theres another 5 weeks of the course to go.. and they guarantee that we'll all be able to talk comfortably infront of a group by the end! Hrmm.

My worst nightmare almost came true last night when I was going through my computer and couldn't find any of my photos from March 2006 onwards.

But its ok, I found them.

Today, I find that my iPod is possibly fragmented and after a running a scan, I cant defragment it, so it looks like I'll have to wipe the whole thing. Maybe a blessing in disguise as I've been meaning to reload and reorganise the music on there.

In other news, the university offers were released today and our little Murphy has been accepted into her organisation something-or-other degree at UTS. This is what I made for our pinboard:

I was just outside doing a photoshoot for our company brochure of the new kids, Luke and Hollie.. and I was scrolling through some of the older photos I had taken and found this one of Stevie and Joel.



I miss those dudes.
(and yes, Joel is straddling a palm tree)

On Friday night.. after a lot of umm'ing and ahh'ing, I decided to man-up and get dressed to go to Virg's birthday drinks with Sue. We got to Dragonfly (for anyone who doesnt know.. this used to be the old EP1 where we used to go to for those "Free Cocktail Parties", like, 7 years ago - HAHA!) and it hadn't opened yet, so we met up with Sue's brother, Alan and his friend Chris. Walked for a bit and came back to find the doorman pulling groups of guys out of the line. We lined up and they wouldn't let Alan + Chris in! We stood off to the side just to see whats happening and it was all like "Sorry.. no guys in tonight unless you're a member". Alan + Chris walked off so we went in. There were still heaps of guys inside.. so I dont really understand how their policy works.

We drank our free champagne & orange ("ohmygod.. this drink is so ugly") and left for a bit because Alan needed girls to walk in with them at Lady Lux! When we walked inside, there was about 10 people in there! It was really boggling why they do that. Exclusivity? Do girls really feel that threatened? - Surely not early on in the night? Was it because they were woggy-looking? Stylish, well-dressed ones at that. Chris bought a round of drinks and we stopped for a photoshoot, haha! "The wallpaper! Get the wallpaper!"

Went back to Dragonfly.. and after a couple more drinks.. laughing at 'Fuzzy', general bullshitting to random people and seeing the kids go nuts to Sneaky Sound System's 'Pictures' and Bloc Party 'Banquet' (they're STILL playing that?).. it was time for me to get home and say byes to Mum as she jetsetted off to HK early Saturday morning.

Saturday YumCha plans were almost dashed when I was sitting outside KamFook in Bon.Junc with Amelia & Philippa as we were waiting for Megan.. one of the ladies started closing the doors and then we see some firemen rushing up the escalator escorted by Westfield management. The people inside just kept on eating and talking.. and then the mega centre sirens went off. Noone seemed to be leaving or even stirring. A crowd of people had gathered at the escaltors on the level below.. we thought there might have been a jam of panicking people but it seems they were just gawking at something. A little bit of drama, but then we decided we should probably line up for a table as a sudden rush of people just showed up out of nowhere.

Milky came up from Canberra and joined us to have something to eat. We then went shopping for Telitha's 21st birthday present! What a debacle, kekek! So many shops! In..out.. in.. out.. coffee.. in... out. And the worst thing was.. I ended up buying something for myself. I'd been eyeing it off for ages.. and having Nick in the other ear going "BUY IT! BUY IT!".. so it wasn't hard to resist!

And then.. we went to IKEA.


NICK

I didnt end up buy anything at all (not even $1 hotdogs) because when we got to the warehouse, it was all sold out! But Nick got lots of stuff.. and now I know where to find the clothes hanging rails.

I also took Nick to see my apartment.. but we didnt stay long because theres not much to do there at the moment and he needed to get back home. Such a fleeting visit. Visitors are cool!

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RS left flew out last night to go to Dubai/Abu Dhabi and he'll be gone for the week. There was a chance that I could've gone too (poor Jess hasn't renewed her passport!), but I kinda said no.. as he'd be just meeting the clients and other consultants. But we haven't really done any work on it since the last presentation, so I'd rather not be left to talk up our current situation! Probably next trip though...