Thursday, March 4, 2010
If you are reading this post fearing I am publishing some kind of affair and that I am cheating on Kathy.... Wrooong!
Ha ha ha!
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| Rushing to catch the bus? |
The story goes like this, every single day (except for weekends of course) I have to take to train from Hornsby station to Macquarie University station and take the bus up to lane cove west; which have made me realise there is a lot of people doing exactly the same every day.
Why does this impress me? Well, in Venezuela people runs by them own time... That means if you have an appointment by 10 AM you might get on time, but others might get 2 hours later.... ‘On time’ concept is pretty much inexistent term in South American culture... So chances to meet a friend or neighbour in the train or bus are pretty much scarce.
I was impressed because I was just one of those in the routine of leaving at the same hour every single day. Bummer!
Moving on, on my second week working at Cochlear, I was walking from the train station to the bus stop when I notice that my bus was already stopped at 35 metres ahead, closing doors to departure. Chills run through my back just to think about waiting for another 20 minutes to take the next bus and I start running to the bus waving my arms up high yelling ‘PLEASE STOOOOP!!!!’... The bus was moving apart from the sidewalk and I knew at that very moment, just a miracle could make that bus stop... But I continue running toward it.
Then it happened, the bus stopped and the doors opened just in front of me (which was weird, most of the buses in Sydney don’t wait for anyone except they are ahead the schedule, more strange was watching it park 3 meters off the stop). I stood there a few seconds without thinking that much and jump into the bus saying ‘thanks’ very agitated... A blonde girl standing 3 feet behind the driver told me ‘no worries sweetie, thanks [driver] you saved my husband of getting late!... Come darling, you almost missed this bus...’
Without understanding a bit my body reacted to the command of ‘come’ but my mind was ‘who’s she??? Am I in a parallel universe? What’s going on?’
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Took sit at her side, still without understanding and then, she started whispering at me:
She: Hi, sorry for that. Act like my husband, say something!
I just replied ‘Thanks honey’ a little out of tone. She continued:
She: I saw you running toward the bus and I recognised you from before. You always take this bus, isn’t?
Me: Yes...
She: I am really sorry for that, I was telling the driver to stop because you were rushing... and the only thing that came to my mind was ‘Please stop for my husband! He's with me!’...
All of the sudden everything made sense for me... Maybe my face told her more than I was actually expressing when she smiled at me saying ‘I am not crazy! I did it because I have saw you every single morning in the last two weeks!’
That comment triggered my memory as watching her jumping off the bus, to what I reply: ‘Oh yes, I have saw you dropping near lane cove business park, I guess... I am sorry that you had to lie for me... Thanks though....’. The chat went on for few moments up to her stop, where she dropped off the bus saying (again loud enough for the driver lady to hear) ‘Cya home darling. Thanks [to the driver]!’
I continued to my stop and as soon as the doors opened wide the driver told me ‘You're not married!, aren't you?’ giving me an intense and inquisitive look to what I just replied: ‘What are you talk about... We are!!!’ jumping off fast enough to avoid any other question.
I was just amazed that a complete stranger wanted to extend her good will that day to help me take the bus, and then gave me a nice chat for a while. Something even better is that in Venezuela people is not like that (or at least wouldn’t react so warm to a complete stranger) and it just happened at that moment making up my day.
Funny thing is I have bumped with her twice more since then, and every time I got a ‘Hi darling!’ greeting as soon as she sees me to which I reply ‘Hey honey! G’day!’
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Feels like sharing... or at least for me. Today I have been a little reflexive even before getting to the office.
My morning routine to get to work is wake up (obviously he-he)... dress up, take a bowl of cereal (or other type of breakfast, but today I had some cereal with oat flakes) and sit to watch bits of the sunrise. Then I remember I have to catch the train and start running all over... Ha ha ha!
And I start having a thought or two about how important is my work... Obviously there is people who can take my duties but then I remembered a funny story my mom used to tell me ever couple of weeks about the role of everything in the human body.
The joke (or story) is:
Once upon a time, the organs and other part of the body start having a discussion about which of all is the most important. The heart, of course, was the first to jump saying ‘I alone... I am the one that makes the blood move through the body, moving the oxygen to every since spot in the body.’
As soon as the heart ended his dialog, the kidney said in a lower tone... ‘Hell no... If I don’t clean up the blood you will be stocked on junk and start failing... That makes me the more important part inh the body’There was a silent for two seconds when the lungs start screaming ‘you are two morons! I am the king in this castle!!!! If I don’t move there is no oxygen in the blood and you two start failing!’
The brain a little bit pissed off yelled ‘SILENCE!!!!!!!!!!!! I... and no one else... I am the most important! Because I made this symphony work! If I don’t tell the lungs to move, the heart to beat and the kidney to clean then nothing work!!’
Every organ in the body stood silent... but then the ass start laughing saying... ‘I am going to prove you all who matter the most!’... The brain, lungs, kidney and heart start laughing saying ‘Come on ass! You are not at all the most important part of the body... shut up!’
And the ass did what other commanded... shuts up for three weeks leaving the crap in and nothing out... At the third week, the brain was collapsed with massive headaches. The heart was nearly attacked; lungs and kidney didn’t know what to do anymore. And then, the ass spoke... ‘Am I important or not? Cause I can 'shut up' for three other weeks!’.
Every other organ admitted that the ass is the most important part of the human body.
So... why did I come up with this story? Because that man was saying that his job was even more important than public transport itself... My first thought at the moment was ‘wow, that guy should be extremely important... But wait... if he is using the train means he doesn’t have car or doesn’t like to bring it to work... wait if public transport stop working... how the hell people gets to work?’ getting to one marvellous conclusion, public transport is the blood in our cities bodies and once more, if ever single piece stop working the right way, everything will collapsed as the ass showed to others :P
Some time people just don’t give enough credit to others works.
Then I looked through the window... My stop was near, so I stood up saying a big ‘thank you’ to the bus driver waving my hand, which smiled happily back at me and sort of satisfied by the appreciation gesture.
I have made something so little (saying thank you and being nice) and yet, meant much to someone that barely knows me at all.
Till next post.
This post might not make sense at all if you are not in software development... But today ended one sprint of the software I am involved with, and it was kind of satisfactory somehow.
Why you may say?
I can begin with the fact that these last two weeks I have been understanding more the product I am working on, but the real factor was that I start feeling productive again; not as near as I was used to in Venezuela but as close to quality software development can be. Even since I started working here I was involved in different software development methodologies which have made me to learn a whole bunch of new things. Cool things!
But these last two weeks I was able to start writing my own code without doing several stuffs out of company’s standard development procedures, it just feels great.
If you are moving to Australia, and still feel that something is not right at work... Don’t worry that much, what’s really important is that you start giving those baby steps... Learn how to work again. I am starting to know I have learned one more lesson of life (tidy related to never surrender or keep walking).
Till next post.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
I don’t know if I have said it before, but I have never felt identified with the baseball as much as I do with the soccer (calcio in Italian). This year (at the soccer world cup) I hope Italy and Australia to get as far as they can (and hopefully never meet in any of the elimination rounds till the grand final)... And my first thought was... if Australia and Italy actually meet in a game... who do I want to support? I can’t be both at the same time!
Suddenly I remembered reading on another blog (I don’t have the link, sorry) the disjunctive topic of supporting Venezuela against Australia in a World Cup... But I didn’t give the proper thinking at the moment because, as much as I would like the Venezuelan team (the crimsons or ‘Vinotintos’) to be in the world cup this year, I really find it improbable yet the team is getting better. But now that I think about it, and remembering the big issue between Australia and Italy last World Cup I should start thinking what to do :P
Maybe a to-do list will be good.
First thing in my list, buy the Socceroos t-shirt.
Uhms, now that I think about it... Socceroos shirt is gold and green (more gold than green), Italy is blue and Venezuela is crimson... By very little I can wear the Venezuelan flag with my t-shirts :P
Socceroos t-shirt
Second thing to do is get to know the proper time-zone of the games so I can watch it... The only problem is that South Africa has many of their time-zones 7 to 8 hours of difference with Australia :S Which means some of the games will be played at night in Africa (extremely early in the morning for me... DAMN!
Looking up for a time-table?
Third thing to do, get a TV... As the time has gone by I haven’t bought a TV-Set yet... mostly because I didn’t have the money to invest on it, but I didn’t want to get a LED display with less than 200Hz and 40”. Why???? Well, I expect to buy a really good display adapted for upcoming technology changes...
All of the sudden I started dreaming about having the World Cup here in Australia... Can you imagine me uploading pictures of every game for each of my readers that can’t go to the games with me? Ha ha ha ha... Very improbl.... OH WAIT!!! Australia is actually trying to be host of the World Cup 2018 or2022!!! COOOOOOOOOL!!!
Here is the link of the request, if any of you feel like sharing... share it :P The ad campaign is called 'Come and Play' and already has several awesome TV-Spots posted below...
Enjoy it.
Can’t wait to have the games right here xD Sweeet!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
I have no idea if I have told you, I love swimming... Specially if I can go deep into the sea...
I know, is dangerous... Even more in Australia with all those sharks, deadly jellyfishes, stonefishes, etc. But I just can’t help it. Something in the sea calls me, telling me, kind of whispering ‘come... enjoy it... feel relaxed’. Today I just learned there is yet something else to be careful with... Rip currents.
As you might have read before, I posted once or more that I have went to some beaches here in Sydney, which I must admit, I thought beaches in Venezuela were awesome, but this beaches... The Australian beaches are something out of this world. But today I bumped into this news article.
I haven’t been near that beach, and to be honest I didn’t know the meaning of ‘rip current’ which I had to Google it (here is the definition on Wikipedia).
You might be thinking ‘Oh Rod... Why are you posting such awful news?’ Well, browsing a bit more I just found out useful tips just in case a rip takes you away.
how rips works.
How do I know I am in a rip?
If you start feeling struggling against waves and water, you might be in the middle or really close to a rip (No matter if you are in Australia, Venezuela or the States). Whatever current that takes you into deeper waters is a rip. There are strong and weak ones but in any case, if is pulling you to the sea you must understand something irregular is happening.
What to do in a rip?
First, be calmed. A rip won’t suck you to the bottom of the sea; it will take you far from the shore. In that case you need to start swimming in a parallel direction of the shore (trying to not get exhausted) till you stop feeling the waters getting you deeper. At that moment you can start swimming back to the shore.
How do you prevent rips?
Stay close to lifeguards. They will warn you if they see one close to you.
Stop swimming???? Nah... All you need to do is being careful.
How to identify a rip and to avoid it.
Till a next post.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
A couple of weeks ago, Kathy and I went to the cinema to watch Avatar (awesome movie by the way). Waiting for the movie, some trailers started to be on screen and then popped into scene the Qantas ad called ‘I still call Australia home’ (the song gave name to the ads, song by Peter Allan). I saw that commercial before arriving to Australia in September, but it was until today (when I wanted to show it to my friend) that I found out this song had been used by Qantas from long time ago on several other TV/Cinema ads.
Here I will share with you some of these videos. Enjoy’em.
I still call Australia home (not from Qantas, but first time sung by Olivia Newton John... Yeah, the one from Grease) - 1984
I still call Australia home - 1997
I still call Australia home - 1998 - 1999
I still call Australia home - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003
I still call Australia home - 2004 - 2005 - 2006
I still call Australia home - 2009 (you should try to watch this one in higher quality -
see it directly from youtube)
The awesome thing about all these videos is, I hope some day my offspring feel the same tickles I feel when I start watching every single of them.
Here is the lyrics of the song:
I've been to cities that never close down
From New York to Rio and old London town
But no matter how far
Or how wide I roam
I still call Australia home.
I'm always travelin'
And I love bein' free
So I keep leavin' the sun and the sea
But my heart lies waiting over the foam
I still call Australia home.
All the sons and daughters spinning 'round the world
Away from their families and friends
Ah, but as the world gets older and colder
It's good to know where your journey ends.
And someday we'll all be together once more
When all the ships come back to the shore
Then I realize something I've always known
I still call Australia home.
No matter how far
Or how wide I roam
I still call Australia home.
From New York to Rio and old London town
But no matter how far
Or how wide I roam
I still call Australia home.
I'm always travelin'
And I love bein' free
So I keep leavin' the sun and the sea
But my heart lies waiting over the foam
I still call Australia home.
All the sons and daughters spinning 'round the world
Away from their families and friends
Ah, but as the world gets older and colder
It's good to know where your journey ends.
And someday we'll all be together once more
When all the ships come back to the shore
Then I realize something I've always known
I still call Australia home.
No matter how far
Or how wide I roam
I still call Australia home.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
This weekend Sydney was pretty moved... I know it will sound cliché... but as moved as I have never seen it... Ha ha, obviously, I haven’t seen that much of Sydney in four months I have been here.
To tell you about what kind of things we did this weekend... on Friday, my wife decided to establish a research about the Sydney Festival. An annual event of Sydney (I don’t remember if this is the third year of the event) where lots of people gather in several places of the city, to celebrate summer... Late arvo same Friday one of my fellow team members at Cochlear was telling me about the festival and well... Opinions of locals have serious weight on my perspective and planning of what to do on the weekend. And so, Sydney’s Festival was list’s top priority.
If you want to know more about the festival, click on the links, or watch the video bellow.
The hot Saturday (yesterday) went on with music and dancing... well, to be honest, the dancing was kind of erratic more than with a rhythm particular, but hey! At least the people that I saw knew how to move the feets, and that, compared to many other countries, is outstanding. At the end of the night, we tried to grab a spot in the domain to enjoy the Al Green concert... but duh! Al Green was the top scorer of the Sydney Festival first day and we were getting at last to grab a place. From our point of view, we only could see Al Green moving the hands on top... Still though the show was good, but we hit the road at the fourth song due to the amount of people in the concert; odd 120,000 people in there when a mate made an interesting observation...
“I think the train will collapse as soon as the concert ends”
As the Saturday was a lovely sunny day... Kathy and I decided to go to the beach today (Sunday) and so, we choose “Curl Curl” as the beach to visit with some of our friends... Needless to say more... ‘One image worth more than thousand words’ is a old saying in Venezuela... Here (Oz) is ‘images speak be themselves’
How do you think my awesome Sunday was?
By the way, I took this picture... I have no idea if my photography skills are improving but still I am proud of it :P
By the way, I took this picture... I have no idea if my photography skills are improving but still I am proud of it :P
Till next post.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Maybe you don’t quite understand the title of this post but I will explain it shortly. But to get to that, I must tell you first that I am working!...At this point I am sure you have read my previous post, titled ‘Christmas present or Channukah miracle’ were I was mentioning that I found a job just at the moment I was starting to lose my temper (But I got to admit, for me it was pretty much easy as I just had few interviews before being accepted).The real thing was I was addressed to start working from January 4th, 2010. So I had a bit of resting before starting my duties. And so, I started this year with a series of inductions about to things get done around here... Not much to talk about and I am certainly not going to talk about the insights of my work, but I funny thing (for you, not for me) happened yesterday at the end of my journey. I was heading to the exit of the building, minded in my brand new book “Agile – principles, patterns and principles...” (if you aren’t from IT... is NOT a sporty book, so don’t ask) and I jumped in the bus to then take the train to my home. As the reading went on and trying to get mentally compiling the code of the book pages... fighting with the authors of the book trying to get into my mind a simplistic yet powerful thought that I tried several times to sell (in idea) to director or project managers of one of my clients. In the heat of the fight with me virtually writing the code with the authors I started noticing a faint voice coming from the front of the bus; which shortly after a few moments when from low to a more louder sound till hit me quite strong
“SR!!! LAST STOP! YOU NEED TO DROP OFF NOW!”
I looked around trying to identify the place and then I thought “this is not Macquarie Centre! Were the bloody hell am I???” I looked to the driver lady saying ‘I am supposed to drop off at Macquarie Centre... How do I get there from here?’ and she looked immobile and unbreakable... Just opened her mouth to say ‘Boy... you are quite far from Macquarie at all... You are at the moment at Denistone East and you better go off this bus as is out of service from this point on... You can wait the bus at the other side of the road to go back to Macquarie if you want (16 – 18 bus stops overdue from here)... The bus will be here in an hour or so. Bye!’ closing the bus’ door and leaving me there, feeling lonely and lost.
In Venezuela there is a common saying when someone is hopeless lost... Being as ‘lost as Lindbergh’s son’. My first thought was, ‘let’s take a look to the bus timetable’ just to realise the bus I was supposed to take was the very last for that day and the zone is just a small residential area with big trees closing my view to any direction I could try to. Then I pulled out my cell phone, dial my wife number to hear a lovely voice saying ‘hi there... you don’t have no money to call, browse internet or anything else... if you want to recharge your phone this is pretty much the time now!’I looked everywhere, no store near... The Lindbergh’s son feeling as on as ever before... I had to calmed down a bit, take several deep breaths then feel a bit relief when the bus appears at the very end of the road. Jumped back into the bus with my eyes wide open just in case I went right by the train station again...
Friday, January 1, 2010
Ok now, I am a little more recovered from last night :P Here is a video from my New Year Eve as transmitted by Sydney.com
My point for view allowed me to capture even more scenery as I was in front of one firework launcher, having an awesome view of the harbour bridge; no music though (which I have to do some research to find out if is only provided at the Opera House or if there are other places where we can listen it as the show plays).
I love Australia even more now and being sincere with you, everyone at least once in a lifetime should spend new year eve here, in Sydney.
Sydney’s video of New Year Eve 2009 - New Year Day 2010.
Event’s down side.
I just have three comments here:
First, I have no idea if is the combination of visitors, drinking and excitement... But at the very end, the park was a total mess, rubbish everywhere and to be honest... There were three or four couple at least that took its rubbish with him to dispose it where authorities wanted to (one of them were us). That is not cool people... that’s why they wanted to charge $30 each when some regulations for this show came out, but then was dropped due to several claims.
Second, No music. We were in a remarked spot by Sydney events as shown in the website. We had public order, public restrooms, fireworks right in front of us, but no music at all. I have no idea if the firework vessels can carry some huge speakers or announce to the people to bring a radio and tune a channel to hear it.
Final thought, public transportation. I know it is supposed for us to abandon the park right away the ending of the show to found 12 buses waiting for us... But it took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to abandon the park, and we had to walk near 3 kilometres (1.8 miles) to reach a bus. At 2am in the morning, being there since 10am day before, crowded with stuff for the day camping... the walking is hard. But this is a good way to start the new year with a little of fitness.
Guys, to be honest, at the moment I am mentally and physically exhausted. I woke up today at 7:00AM, 31 of December, 2009; and at this moment... 1of January 2010 I have been up for almost 21 hours of waiting the fireworks, waiting the new year and even more important... Be with my friends and loved ones (though my family is really far away back in my hometown, Venezuela).
Sydney's New Year Eve is just, the best thing I have ever seen. I was surrounded by so many cultures, joined as one... Holland, France, Spain, Mexico, Germany, Italy, England and... well, I don't even remember now... to tired :P
I promise I will upload soon the fireworks video, so you can share my enthusiast and amusement with every light coming from that lovely harbour bridge :)
Have a new year and my very best wishes :P
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