Sydney Pics

It took a while but after literally a month after being in Sydney, here are some pics!




Night picture of Darling Harbour. This is where I spent all of my nights eating out with my coworkers. Food was good, but expensive. It reminded me of my days hanging out in Georgetown back home.




Australia is really scenic. When I first arrived in Sydney, only thing I couldn't get over was how blue the waters were.



View from one of the ferries I took.



The famous Sydney bridge. I never went on it, and I think this was the closest I got to it.




The even more famous Sydney Opera house.




One of the views from the office.



At Manly Beach.


Well that is all the pics for now on Sydney. I didn't really get a chance to go sightseeing as I spent most of my time inside the office and in my hotel room working some more. Hopefully in my next business trip, I'll be able to take some time off to explore and enjoy a new city/country properly.

Sydney

I just came back from a very sudden business trip to Sydney. I made all my arrangements literally a few days before my departure date. it was quite hectic but at the end it worked out, as with all things in life.

The flight to Sydney was long, and both my flights to and from had plenty of turbulence. I hate turbulence and was unable to sleep comfortably at all. When I arrived o Sydney, I was excited that I would be entering their summer season. I packed all my summer clothes and the heat I experienced when I entered outside of Sydney International Airport excited me especially since it was really cold back in Tokyo.

I arrived in Sydney on Sunday afternoon, so I was able to look around for a bit before I actually had to start working on Monday. I hit up Manly beach and walked around downtown Sydney. It was a lively afternoon and I got instantly tanned from the strong Australian Sun. Little did I know that this was the last time I would really be able to enjoy the summer-like feeling as the rest of the week would be rainy and cold.

Working and living in Sydney for that week was fun. The office environment was enjoyable. Everyone took frequent coffee breaks (the coffee was great in Sydney) and hearing people speak consistently with Australian accents were cool. Actually it took me a few days to fully understand people and likewise with them understanding my "American" English. By the end of the week some of the Australian lingo and accents had stuck with me. Some of the "big wigs" of the company came to the Sydney office while I was there and we all went out a couple of times for drinks and luxurious dinners. I ate mightily well that week that I could feel my stomach getting more and more pregnant. It was worth it though.

Well, I need to get back to work. I took pictures during this business trip, so I will try to post some of those pictures here when I get a chance. During the trip, my manager informed me that my workload will increase. So my personal time will get even smaller. Well.. back to sweeping chimneys!

Winter Hooters

Geez.. it got really cold. Yesterday felt like it was like mid December. What happened to Autumn?? I have yet to bring out my winter clothes. I was hoping I could procrastinate for at least another week, but it looks like I will need to do my transition this weekend.

On other news, I was able to check out the new Hooters in Akasaka this past Wednesday. This is the first Hooters in Japan and this was its opening week. The line to get in was pretty ridiculous. Fortunate for us, we got in rather quickly and only waited 30 minutes!!! The atmosphere and decor was nice bringing U.S. Hooters with a touch of Neo-Japan. The food though was a bit disappointing.. actually very disappointing. The price for 20 piece wings was around 25 US dollars if not more. The wings were pretty cold and the world famous sauce was watered down. 3 mile island sauce had as much heat as a thousand island dressing. My friends and I also ordered other items like curly fries and chicken quesadillas. At best they tasted as good as their frozen counterparts you can get at the supermarket. The service was OK. We only got served the wrong orders twice and it took a handful of attempts to get our waitress' attention. Final verdict, not sure if I would go back to be honest. Oh well it was a nice experience and if I ever have the craving for over-priced American food again, I have another choice to add to my list!

Still busy ...

Man.. this month has been crazy. The new project has been kicking my butt and my personal time has been reduced dramatically. The project is still in the beginning phase and will only get busier as the other phases get approved by the higher ups. I really need to take a small vacation as the weekend is too short for me to recover. What I really want to do is take a road trip back to Karuizawa or another resort city like Hakone. I am thinking that taking like a Friday off should be sufficient enough for me to accomplish this. In non-related news, I have been able to keep up somewhat with my American sports. NBA will start next week which I am excited about. I am hoping Orlando will keep their focus all season long and keep Miami in check. On the football front, the Cowboys have been struggling. Thank god I am not working with a bunch of Redskins fans. I know if I was back in the U.S., I would not be able to hear the end of it from all my friends and co-workers. Well I got to head back to work... it going to be another long week....

Busy busy busy

For the past couple of weeks, I have been bombarded at work. I got assigned an additional project that has a ridiculously tight deadline. The project is supposed to be up and running in a couple of weeks but to be honest, I'm not sure if the team will make it. All I can do is my best, but I am really curious on how everything will turn out. Other than work, nothing much else has been going on. The weather is getting cooler, but this past weekend, it was a bit warm and felt August-like. I can't wait until the temperature stays consistently cool so I stop arriving at the office drenched in my own sweat. :)

Football is BACK!!

I can't believe that the NFL season is back. Man.. its amazing how time flies. Seriously, days literally end in a blink and weeks zoom by like they were days. I honestly feel like something I did 2 weeks ago was like yesterday. It really is sad to know that time accelerating like a Bugatti Veyron. It was never like this for me a few years ago. Maybe this is what happens when one reaches their 30's? Not a good feeling. Anyways, I was so disappointed that my beloved Dallas Cowboys couldn't pull off the comeback to defeat the dreaded Redskins. They played horrible all game long really. The penalties, silly play before half time, and questionable play calling really hurt the Cowboys' chances of winning the game. I really hope the team can fix their mistakes and give a good showing against the Bears next week.

Man.. talking about football really makes me want to play. I still have yet to find a Flag/touch football team or casual people who play around my area. Most of the teams I found online are hardcore and are in a league. I have no problem being in a competitive team, but if I can't make a practice or two, I don't want to get crucified or alienated indirectly like I've experienced before. It does make me miss back home where I can call a friend out of the blue and ask to throw around the football or get a gang to play a couple of games. I'm not totally sports deprived though. Basketball is going well. I've been playing every week and in two weeks I'll be playing with a new team down at Waseda University. I'll still be with my original team, which on a different topic will hold our first BBQ together this coming weekend. The team I'll be meeting up at Waseda belongs to one of my old coworkers that invited me to check out their team. Hopefully that will turn out well, because I'm always open for new competition and more excuses to play basketball. I'll probably probe to see if they know anyone who plays flag/touch football casually. If you notice, I didn't say tackle as I have already come into the realization I am an old fart and will probably break some of my bones if I play tackle football again.

Nice start to September

It was a good weekend. As mentioned in the previous entry, I met up with my childhood friend on Friday. It was good to see him again. We hung out at Shinjuku and Roppongi for dinner and some drinks. At the beginning of the night we were thinking of making it an all nighter and catch the first train home, however as the night rolled along, our age caught up to us and we left right before the last train. On Saturday, I enjoyed a nice BBQ with friends. We were originally going to do the BBQ by Tama river but due to the crazy hot temperature especially for September, we ended up doing the BBQ on my friend's deck. It was a good time. On Sunday, I satisfied my month long dim sum craving in Tachikawa's "Chinatown". I ended up over-indulging myself and paid the price later. I probably won't eat dim sum again for a very long time. Finally, on a completely different subject, I wasn't planning to do Fantasy Football this season, however yesterday I got an e-mail from one of my old leagues of my auto draft results. As expected with auto drafting, I got a really bad team. I ultimately decided I would stick with it and see how well I do. I can only pray that my starting QB.. actually my only QB on my team, Jay Cutler will have a Drew Brees-like season... Good thing there is no money involved with this league.