A Jellyfish lunch

Had lunch with Derek from work at Jellyfish today, as we were both "working from home" and he lives near me. I had some fairly spicy pasta with salmon and chillies. I know it did say chillies, but I was not prepared. Anyhow turned out to be OK.
We did talk some work, as apparently the big boss in APAC, has gone out with a message saying to rate any employee over "solid" needs written approval from two line managers above each other. We were both quite un-happy with that as we both had "excellent" previously. Given the 2 days to get the performance reviews done, there were not much time to argue. Apparently it has something to do with no pay-rises being given this year, and if anyone had documented evidence that they were doing very well, there could be too much pressure. So neither of us were very happy and agreed "what is the point of this process then"?
At the table next to us were two people having lunch "together", each one working on their own Laptop...
Did not manage to do much catching up as day was very busy outside lunch. Still have 35 un-read e-mails and it is time to wind down ;-(

Brand New Train

Today I took the new train from North Ryde to Chatswood. It opened on Monday, 3 years late.
As trains go, it was quite nice. It was very deep, 2 long escalators down, which is needed as it goes under a river. They have had lots of problems with it but for me it will be quite useful going between Optus & Vodafone on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Sunday outing to Rozelle

I have been taking the new Fast Ferry to work recently. A touch of luxury, with A/C and news on TVs. It also only takes 18 minutes compared to the 30 minutes the Manly Ferry takes. This means I can get the 7.10 fast ferry and still arrive at circular quay before the 7.00 regular one. It does cost a bit more but so far it is worth it.

However the fast ferry only runs weekdays during rush hours, so yesterday when we were invited to Charissa for Filipino lunch we went on the normal one. It is very exciting taking it on weekends as it has to navigate all the sailing boats, and sometimes it is very close. Picture above is of the ferry going the other way.

There are some great shots of the Manly ferry during the winter storms last year on Youtube - see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skQeGxFnyCA

In any case lunch at Charissa's was great! We ate so much there was no need for Dinner when we finally got home, and we had a great time. I had no idea what to expect, but we started out with soup that had pieces of pork in it (she also did a variant of this with Salmon in). I also got a dish with mixed chicken and pork pieces cooked in soy sauce and vinegar, but the best part was mixed beef & pork mince with spices wrapped in filo pastry and fried in oil. With this we consumed a good mix of Amber Ale, Champagne, a white and a red bottle of Cape Mentelle Marmaduke and a bottle of Chardonnay. An excellent Sunday afternoon.

Retail Therapy

Work is still hard, so I spent yesterday recovering by doing some shoe shopping. I have been after new deck shoes in brown leather, but they have been hard to find. Most ladies ones are pink or white or blue. However by chance wondered by a boating store and they had a pair. I am not sure they are the right size so wandering around the flat with them. I hope it rains later on today so that they can adapt to my feet. I have also been mourning the loss of my favourite Nike sandals. As they do not sell them here, and I don't remember what size they were I can't get them replaced on the Internet. Many friends of mine are big fans of Teva's so I got a replacement pair yesterday and hopefully they will do the job.

I am invited for a Filipino lunch which I am looking forward to. I have no idea what to expect. I have been to the Philippines once about 13 years ago, so don't remember much. BTW is anyone missing a T-Shirt that says "Cebu" on it? Cebu is a place in the Philippines, but I did not go there (I went to Boracay), and I definitely did not buy a T-shirt saying Cebu, however it did appear in one of the boxes I un-packed after moving here...

Congratulations Ove!

Ove was my 1,000th visitor and he will get free accommodation and some meals in Manly, next time he passes by (family included). Considering he lives in Sweden it is likely it will not be next week, so offer is extended to number 1,001 and all others by request.

I am quite amazed that so many of you actually bother to read my ramblings ;-) 

I have made 120+ posts over 209 days, which means several of you visit every day. 

Thank You!

Fridge Magnets

In 1993 when we moved out of London, I collected all the Fridge Magnets words in a jar that used to contain some kind of baby food (that visiting friends left behind). During the 4+ years we lived in Stony I did not manage to either break into the jar or smash it to pieces to get the words out.

I just unpacked it again in the new flat and thought of what tool might help me open it and suddenly came across a can opener, and thought why not?

It worked fine, and now all of them are on the fridge waiting for visitors to write funny sentences. I found some words that seemed to be from a different set, and first could not get it. Finally I made out they were from a pack of Baccardi Breezers and had words like flavour, melon, spirit, % etc. They will be a great compliment to the other ones.

Welcome to create!

(for distanced friends I could write a list of the words and you could post your sentences as comments to this. Does that sound like a good idea?)

Fish & Millionaire

We have had some storms with high winds and horizontal rain recently so going to the beach was not on the cards today. Instead went out for lunch at lovely Manly Fish Cafe. They remembered us from last week, so decided to set expectations for the future by modifying the meny & continue moving the furniture around.

I have been there a few times now and always have the same table, where I move the chair to get a better view. Today I asked them to swap the Garlic Prawns that came on top of the Silver Dory for the Garlic Crayfish Tails that normally come with the Ocean Trout. They happily agreed, so now I will think of how to modify the menu for next week ;-). In a place like Manly where there are many tourists and day-trippers, it is good to go more than once to the same place so they understand you live here.

Afterwards the weather was still bad so went to see the movie "Slumdog Millionaire". It is about an Indian boy from the slums that goes on "How to be a Millionaire" to get back in touch with a girl he lost touch with. For various (and not very nice) reasons he answers the first questions correctly and the movie starts with him being questions by the police for cheating, when they broke for the evening, with one question left for the next day. It was good, worth seeing if you have nothing better to do, but not absolutely brilliant. It is made by the same guy who made "Trainspotting" although they are completely different movies.