Fun Day in Boston

The team had our "Fun Day" in Boston today, which was a blast. First, we had the requisite Dunkin Donuts downtown where we all met up (I'm pretty sure it was the second coffee for half of us).

Then we took an adventure to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. This museum used to be the home of a woman of Boston who left her treasures for the city to enjoy. She had all kinds of quirky preferences that have been kept in tact. For example, below one painting of a woman and flying cupids/angels, she has a sculpture of a cupid lying down sideways on a table, to give the impression that it fell out of the painting.

For lunch, we ate at the very hip LTK - Test Kitchen for Legal Seafoods. Good food, crazy waitress, and great location.

Finally we went to an exhibit on modern design showcased at the ICA - Institute of Contemporary Art. The structure itself is a work of art, with a huge overhang over the Boston Harbor. The design exhibit was just up our alley, with interesting pieces such as the newest design of Target Rx bottles, the clay pieces used by Pixar for animation, the Boeing plane being designed for passengers' space and comfort, and more. A very apropos show for us to see!

Thanks to Rob for more pics, too.

Lynnfield, MA

I'm in my Lynnfield office today visiting my team. I like working here - it's so quiet. But there is not much to do, see or report. Tomorrow we are taking a "fun day" off work to see some sites in Boston, so more to say then.

Pictures of Trip to Australia

Sydney Trip 2007

'Ow ta speak Australian

How're you going? -> that is used in place of "how are you?" or "how's it going?" when you great someone.

Dinner menu:

• Entree - this is an appetizer
• Main - this is the american entree.
  

Coffees: Australian cafes have fantastic coffee! Here is the translation, as taught to me by the cafe manager at the place across the street from my hotel:

• long black - this is what you order instead of "regular coffee". It is made from the fancy espresso machine so it has that incredible foam layer on the top. Thicker than drip coffee.
• short black - this is a single espresso.
• long black, drippio - this is a double espresso.
• flat white - from what i can tell, this is a long black with warmed milk/cream included.
• skinny latte - this is a latte made with skim milk
  

Bondi Beach

This may have been my favorite part of my trip (and it was just a couple of hours on the last day)! Bondi is a great little surfing town that's about a 30 minute cab ride from downtown Sydney. We got out early and arrived just before town came alive. Surfers were already waiting for their waves, and joggers were going down the beach. We walked along the beach for a bit, and then the breakfast shops started to open so we had a great breakfast. Fresh fruit juice, English-style bacon, tropical fresh fruit salad and excellent coffee is the norm (plus some egg-selent eggs).

I also picked up a pair of the Oz flip-flops - havaianas. They aren't much, but good grief - everyone in the city wears them; very authentic ;-)

Surry Hills Shopping

Karen and I did some great boutique shopping in Surry Hills, just a few miles outside of downtown Sydney. We found one great shop with a crazy lady who had all kinds of interesting things to say. We had lunch at a little Italian cafe - great pizza. While we were there, the waitress's Vespa was delivered and she was ecstatic.

The Opera

We went to an opera at the Sydney Opera House called Il Trittico, which is a set of three Operas in one show. The second one was by far the best of the three - I cried. The theater itself was much smaller than I would have guesssed - every seat was a good one. We had great seats, very close to the front. Love the opera!

Rockpool

Ok, new restaurant tops the list! Karen and I ate at Rockpool - a sensational menu! It was a fixed price menu of five courses - absolutely delicious. We had a sashimi starter, followed by cod, then my main was lamb, and dessert was a passionfruit sufflee. With coffee at the end we were served absolutely scrumptious salted caramels (and we stuffed some in our clutches for later). We also had a fantastic Australian sparkling wine. Dinner was loads of fun :-)

Day on the Water

I took the ferry to Manly Beach today, about 30 minutes beyond Circular Quay. It rained a bit but it was a cute little town. There is a lot of surfing in Australia. I ferried back, had my second icecream cone of the trip (Coppenhagen flavor called Honeycomb and Butterscotch - it was awesome) and did a bit of window shopping down George Street.

Loads of eateries

Jan and I decided to have a drink at a bar that used to be a hotel, which made for great architecture and scenery. I must say, if we had been single, the ratio would have been quite beneficial ;-)

For dinner we surprising realized we were walking in front of the place we were looking for - "est." or "Establishment". It was so froo froo that we passed and walked on (although Karen and I hit up the bar for a cocktail later in the week). Jan spotted a great place for dinner - Redhouse Brewery Restaurant. We had a "tasting board" which included four tastings of an interesting little nibble of food paired with a taste of their beer - the Organic Hefeweisen was the best. Also interesting was that although we had traveled a 2 hr flight from the conference we were attending, one of our clients found us in this restaurant! Pleasant to see someone, but he wanted to talk work :( Bugger.

Circular Quay

The area called Circular Quay (pronounced in French, like "key" in English) is only a few blocks from my hotel. That is the area that has the wharf with ferries, the Contemporary Museum of Art, The Rocks (old area of town), lots of fancy restaurants, the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.

Next to the Opera House, which is beautiful, is next to the Botanic Gardens. We walked all through the gardens and saw beautiful trees and flowers, including the "spring walk" which is covered in spring flowers like Cherry Blossoms, tulips and camellias (it's early spring in the Southern hemisphere). We also saw an enormous amount of bats!! There was a tree full of them - they were waking up, stretching their wings when we came by. Very interesting.

BYOB in Australia

Went to a Tapenyaki Japanese restaurant last night with some coworkers and it was bring-your-own-beverages for alcohol. They didn't even charge an opening fee. I read an article on the flight over and apparently this is also becoming popular in the US in cities like Chicago and some others that I can't remember.

Electric Slide... sort of

I am at a casino for a conference. The result of this is that many old people vacation here so I see so many interesting things. haha!

Tonight some coworkers and I got a drink at one of the hotel bars. There was a live band but it was definately the old school bar band kind of thing. But then a bunch of senior citizens got on the dance floor and struted their stuff! It seems that the "Electric Slide" of Australia (ok, at least the Gold Coast) is more involved with more spinning. Everyone was doing it on the dance floor.

My friend and I were asked to dance, but beating us by 10 drinks and 40 years, we were forced to decline.

Nicer in the Southern Hemisphere

I new that people from the South are the nicest, but I didn't realize that applied to hemispheres, too :). Aussies are so considerate! When we got on the shuttle for United airlines in San Francisco, two Australian men got up and insisted that me and my female coworker take their seats. When we got to Gold Coast and had another airport shuttle to take, it cost 5 Aus$ (crazy, I know, and the bus driver literally blamed George Bush for it), one man didn't have any cash and another man ran after him and said "Hey buddy - I'll get it for you. Return it to someone else some day."

Such nice folks here.

Down Under

I arrived in Gold Coast, Australia today! Man, that was a long flight from DC - 24 hrs. I took an ambien and slept most of the way. I was lucky to have a window seat with no one in the seat next to me, so it was not bad at all. Also, my coworker helped me get into Economy Plus, which gave me a bit of extra room - lucky me :)

I am only a bit jet-lagged so I went right to the gym when I checked in, which made me feel better. I've had to lay on the caffeine, but it's not bad at all. The hotel isn't great, but it is a casino, which should make for a fun conference.

Gold Coast reminds me of Florida, Chicago and California - and none of the above. Lots of surfing around here. My hotel room has great view of the river in two directions overlooking houses with spanish-styled roofs and the blue mountains in the distance. I can also see the business district a couple of miles away with a significant number of tall buildings, but not as condensed as Chicago.

I ate lunch with my friend at Koi - a hot little joint in town that we took the monorail to. It won an award this year for the best new restaurant in the area. It was interesting - dolled up dates, chic older women, and casual neighborhoodies all in one.

I'm looking forward to getting out and exploring more later, but that's all for now.