Work, work, work...

Sunday, 8/29/99

What a week! Working seven days straight, averaging 10 hours day. Neither bragging nor asking for sympathy, but offering a feeble excuse for not writing more or sooner. On top of that, Ron has borrowed my power cord, so my battery will probably run down in the middle of thisÉ I'll try to wrap the melodrama of work into a single paragraph so that I can get on with the lifestyle observations, but project has been so all-consuming, it may not let me. We had a major milestone this week, with the top Aussie management returning from their trip to Acer America (and their vacation to England) to sign off on the "beta" version of the application. Arriving directly from a 24-hour flight from London and lacking in confidence from their Texas experience, they were not in a receptive mood. On top of this problems with the "process" team in Taiwan and the development team in Emeryville raised additional red flags on the project, and at one point project management was on the verge of sending everyone except me back to California. I'm the lucky one, because training has become the major issue, and we've committed to additional pre-rollout training. Not only do I have my work cut out for me, but the end of the project keeps getting pushed back, and my homecoming recedes into a hazy future. The current plan calls for Ron and Bob to return to Emeryville to whip the development team into shape, while David, Jack, and I remain. I worked straight through the weekend to get the first draft of my Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) complete, spending all afternoon today with David and Ron in the hotel business center on the 5th floor. We go in early tomorrow to prepare for a 9 am meeting with the Aussie management.

On the lighter side, the big local news (aside from East Timor, the campaign for a constitutional republic, and the apology to the indigenous Australians) has been the McDonald's campaign to reintroduce the McOz burger. And just what is the McOz, you may askÉI'll tell you tomorrow. Just got the message that the battery's almost gone.

Monday, 8/30/99

Where were we? Oh yes, the McOz. I saw the banners outside the ever-present franchises long before the story hit the press; intrigued, I sought out the nearest Mickey D's to check it out--kangaroo burger? Breaded platypus? No, it's a "traditional" Australian hamburger, which features a slice of "beetroot" (plain old beet to us) and grilled onion. Actually not too bad (especially for those of you used to "live tacos"), but I'm not sure I want to get used to sweet hamburgers. When the story broke in the newspaper, I learned that the product had actually been introduced earlier, but they withdrew it from the market because McDonald's was worried about exhausting the local supply of beetroot. Apparently they've solved that problem, and they're supporting the product rollout with a major advertising campaign which shows ordinary citizens (including teenagers who speak American hip-hop slang) lapsing into Strine (the Aussie dialect) upon tasting the burger. As it turns out, Hungry Jack (which is what Jack in the Box is called down under) has been selling them as Aussieburgers all along. They lost the clown down here, but he still does the voiceover on the commercials.

Let's talk about the money. Roughly $1.50 AUD to $1.00 USD, so $50 bills are commonplace. The currency is mildly colorful (purple, pink, blue, and orange-red), slightly smaller than US bills, and features little transparent plastic windows. Interestingly, there are no $1 bills; the smallest denomination is a $5. On the other hand, there are $2 and $1coins, but no pennies. Most peculiar: the $2 coins are smallest, about the size of our dimes, but much thicker. The $1 pieces are the size of quarter, but 50% thicker and made of a yellow metal. The 10¢ pieces are the same size, but thinner and silver. The 20¢ pieces are the size of our 50¢ pieces, and the 50¢ pieces are like silver dollars, but much heavier and with polygonal edges instead of round. There are 5¢ pieces, but you don't see too many of them.

Prices are as marked, tax included. There is a new universal sales tax system (called GST) scheduled to go into effect next July, but I have no idea how taxes are computed now. The queen's head is on most of the coins, but this is another source of controversy: there is an election scheduled on a referendum to change Australia's status from whatever it is (a member of the Commonwealth?) to a constitutional republic. A key point in the debate between the republicans and the monarchists is whether the queen's image will be removed from the money if Australia becomes a republic. Curious.

There's another issue going around about apologizing to the aboriginal population for a "stolen generation" of native children. I haven't really followed this issue closely, but I believe it centers around children who were somehow removed from their native culture in order to introduce them to the benefits of the white society. The prime minister is willing to say he's sorry, but refuses to apologize. Or apologise.

Of course, the huge news is Matthew Thorpe (the "Thorpedo"), who is breaking record after record in the Pan Pacific games. This swimming competition is held in the new Olympic pool, just at the end of the block from the Acer building. We see busloads of school children crowding around the facility as we take our daily walk to the Heritage CafŽ for morning coffee or for lunch. The cafŽ is a lovely little spot nestled in the Olympic visitor centre, which seems to be a refurbished old railway station (a new modern rail platform sits just on the other side of the cafŽ). Typical morning fair includes the usual danish and muffins, but the uniquely Aussie treats are sausage rolls (very large pork sausages encased in a flaky pastry) and meat pies (both beef and chicken curry). There are also breakfast sandwiches (on rolls or croissants) that look like your Breakfast Jack on steroids. I usually forego the food and settle for a "long black"--a very tall espresso that goes a long way toward making up for the wretched instant powder that masquerades as coffee at the office. The others usually take a "flat white" with their breakfasts, but capaccino, latte, and macchiatto are also contenders on the menu. We're regulars now, so the man at the espresso machine knows our orders by heart and misses us when we don't make it in for breakfast. The lunch menu features an interesting variety, including foccaccia-based based sandwiches, tandoori chicken on turkish bread, meatball baguettes, vegetarian sandwiches, salads, and numerous hot dishes. All the seating is outdoors, so we bask in the balmy Aussie spring, watching the crane raise the Olympic hotel next door.

Enough food for now. What about television? Basically, it sucks. Mostly sports, a lot of American reruns (including crusty favorites like "Get Smart" and "Lost in Space"), a few current US series, and a smattering of local programming. I saw a local sitcom called "Dog's Head Bay" that wasn't very funny. The Simpsons reruns are a daily event, as in the States. Curiously, Fran Drescher seems to be a big favorite. There are two Fox channels. The first is all sports. The second isÉ all sports. Actually, Fox Two seems to have variable programming: the first week I was here it was the Encore cable channel (all movies, and a decent alternative), the second week it was Showtime; but it's going into its second week of all sports now. I guess most of you know I'm not an especially big sports fan to begin with, but they scrape pretty low to fill so many hours on so many channels with obscure sports. Even CNN and BBC seem to have sports on for a disproportionate amount of time. Then there's the Asian Business News channelÉ With the long hours we work, I find my evening entertainment sorely lacking. Where's the All Star Trek channel? "Deep Space Nine" late at night once a week, several seasons old. I worked in my room all day Saturday (TV off, as I've already OD'd on rugby and racing), and I was desperate enough to watch Waterworld (commercials and all) in the evening, and find it extremely entertaining (well, not entertaining enough to stop working). Actually, I saw a BBC documentary on Jack Kerouac last night that was quite interesting (although the narrator's Irish brogue was rather disconcerting). I never thought of Neal Cassady as a family man. Movies are quite expensive here, and they're all on delay (Big Daddy and Wild Wild West open soon), so there's nothing I really want to see anyway. Star Wars has been and gone.

There are gambling clubs, but that's no appeal for me either. As I've noted before, drinking is a big entertainment, but again, not my style: I had a glass of wine with Ron after work and spilled it all over myself (can't take me anywhere). Fortunately, there is dry cleaning here in the hotel, so I just went upstairs and called Guest Services; I'll expense it. So (back to food), eating is major entertainment. I've been out to dinner a few times with colleagues, but mostly it's been room service. Rather overpriced, but the menu is good, and the service lavish. One meal a day is almost more than I can eat, and I'm still well under my per diem.

Unfortunately, the gravy train of the luxury hotel looks like it's about to end. Ron negotiated a nice deal of $139 USD per night, which is good value for a 4-star hotel in the most visited city in the world, but the client is starting to squeal about the expenses, so we may be forced to move shortly.

Janet arrives tomorrow morning, so she should get to experience it for at least a night or two. And my entertainment quotient should improve immensely, so I don't really care where we stay. But I do hope she gets a little bit of the deluxe treatment, as she certainly deserves it. At least we'll be staying downtown, so she'll have ample opportunity to explore and enjoy the city. My evenings (when I get in before 10) should be more fun, and we'll have some wonderful weekends. I'm counting the hoursÉ it's 5 am in California and 10 pm here. She gets in about 6 am Sydney time. In anticipation, I'll sign off for this week. More adventures to come.