My friend Angela invited me at the last minute to join her at the Simply Red Concert at the Sydney Opera House on Wed., Oct. 13. Or as I would later learn - it wasn't so much "in" the Sydney Opera House as I expected, but outside on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.
We arrived a bit earlier to have a drink at the Sydney Opera Bar and it was pouring down rain, so we were contemplating not going after all. Fortunately, the rain stopped and we had a ball at Simply Red's Farewell Concert.
Now here's my confession - when Ang invited me to see Simply Red - for the life of me I couldn't name even one song that they sang. But she assured me that I'd know several of their songs so I went along with no expectations and was pleasantly surprised that I knew many of their songs - like "If You Don't Know Me By Now".
This evening was one of those treasured moments when I'm so glad to be here in Sydney - it was an unexpected, spontaneous evening of music, we were lucky that the rain stopped just in time, we were rocking it out and dancing on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, had a fantastic panoramic view of the city and surprisingly it was a warm night too!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Inspiring Women in Australia
On Oct. 11, I had the honour of attending the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce's lunch honoring Inspiring Women in Australia. This was also my first time to actually be in the same room as the new Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The other women were Gail Kelly the CEO of Westpac Bank and Catherine Livingstone the Chair of Telstra the #1 telecom company in Australia.
Creativity Galore!
There's this great market at the Entertainment Quarter that I love going to on Saturday's. And I always love to get fresh flowers yet didn't have enough vases to put them in - so I made one!
Here's me and my friend Lisa at Colour Me Mine - a great creative outlet (Oct. 10)!
Here's me and my friend Lisa at Colour Me Mine - a great creative outlet (Oct. 10)!
Breakfast on the Bridge
As the Sydney Harbour Bridge is such an icon I guess it's not a surprise that it's a recurring theme on my blog. Last year I did the "Sydney Harbour Bridge Swim", then a few weeks ago I did a 9K run across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and now here I wake up insanely early (arrived at the bridge at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 10) for Breakfast on the Bridge.
It started out great - so impressed that they actually put real grass (I expected turf) on the bridge - only to be poured on with rain! Fortunately the folks I was with had a good sense of humor and fun spirit that rose above the rain soaked picnic and dreary rain!
It started out great - so impressed that they actually put real grass (I expected turf) on the bridge - only to be poured on with rain! Fortunately the folks I was with had a good sense of humor and fun spirit that rose above the rain soaked picnic and dreary rain!
Soccer: Australia vs. Paraguay
As Cisco is a technology bid sponsor of Football Federation of Australia and their drive to bring the World Cup to Australia in 2022, I hosted media at the Australia vs. Paraguay soccer match (or as they call it here in Australia - football) on Oct. 9.
Long Labour Day Weekend In Canberra (Yes, Canberra)
Whenever I told someone that for the long Labour Day Weekend (Oct. 1-4) I was going to Canberra inevitably their first response was "why, it's so boring".
I was surprised at this response as the only other time I went to Canberra for work to attend the Network Centric Warfare Conference (April 2010), I managed to squeeze in a visit to the Australian War Museum and was impressed and knew then that I wanted to see more of Canberra. And with a recommendation from Peter Blasina that the Floriade is Canberra at it's best I decided to go on the Labour Day Long Weekend (next to last weekend of the Floriade).
Now that I've spent the long weekend there, I can say that Canberra's like a city with a split personality. There are tons of museums to visit and explore (this is something Canberra shares with Washington, DC) during the day yet after-hours when you goto the highly recommended towns of Manuka (pronounced Monica) and Kingston known for their shopping and restaurants - it's like a ghost town.
I was thrilled that my friend Lisa could join me as it made the trip all the more fun and it was great to have the company!
We left on Friday, Oct. 1 and what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour drive ended up being closer to 2.5 hours due to the holiday traffic. Which meant that we arrived too late to see the Bowral Tulip Time Festival so we had to appreciate it from outside.
Side-note: I have a hard time pronouncing the names of Australian towns (remember the Kogarah Mayoral Ball which I kept pronouncing "cougar-ah"). Bowral is not "bow-ral" (like the bow of a boat) it's actually pronounced "barrel" (like pork barrel).
On Sat. Oct. 2 we first headed to the National Portrait Gallery and candidly we weren't all that impressed with the standing exhibit. We were more impressed with the "Young Talent" exhibit where young Australian middle and high school students' artwork was presented.
Then we headed to the Canberra Glassworks where made our own piece of glasswork - a paperweight.
A week later we actually received our finished glasswork.
Here's mine - I used a technique called "Fireworks" where I pinched (3x) into the glass to create this "firework" effect:
And here's Lisa's paperweight - she pinched 10-12 times into the glass to create many beautiful translucent bubbles. With the deep blue, it's like water bubbles in an ocean.
Then we headed to The Floriade which is a flower festival combined with a state fair (although Canberra's not technically a "state" but a territory). While there - as you'll see in the Flip Video - we participated in a "hanging flower basket" contest and we both better keep our day jobs as they were not spectacular.
The next day, Sunday, we headed to Kingston Markets where I did a bit of local artisan shopping:
Then onwards to the Royal Australian Mint where they make coinage not just for Australia but Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Indonesia. I was really keen to visit the mint as I had many questions about Australia's coinage that I was looking for answers to...
* Australia is a commonwealth country so initially used the British coin system of pence/shilling/pound. And I learned that in early 1960 Australia moved to its own "decimal" money system.
* The Australian $.50 coin has 12 sides (docedadon) and started out as a rounded edge coin until the coin's silver contents exceeded its face value so they changed it (now why they changed it to a docededon which is quite a large heavy coin, wasn't answered).
* Originally the $1 started out as a paper note but as it was wearing out too quickly they replaced it with a $1 coin (has 5 kangaroos).
* In 1988 the $2 coin was introduced (what's odd is that while both the $1 and the $2 coins are both gold in color, the $2 coin is smaller than the $1 - go figure).
* In 1991, Australia did away with the $.01 and $.02 because they were more expensive to make than their face value. So believe it or not, no pennies in Australia. Their smallest value coin is $.05.
And in the Royal Australian Mint's gift shop I made my own $1 coin and give a shout out to my nephew Kai and niece Kalea (I also purchased each of them a $1 coin from their birth year):
While at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, we were encouraged to check out James Turrell's Sky Scape which when you go into this pyramid you see a small slice of the sky. Imagine my surprise when I actually saw it that it was just like another James Turrell Sky Scape I've been to near the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Tetsuya, you'll recognise this!
Having just seen Australia elect its first female Prime Minister by a very, very small margin between the Labour, Liberal/Coalition and Independent Parties it was very educational to visit the Old Parliament House which had great explanations of the basics of Australian Federal Government.
Then of course, I had to go and visit the current or "new" Australian Parliament House where the House of Representatives and the Senate meet. And this was one of the highlights of my trip to Canberra.
I was so impressed and amazed with how "open" Parliament House was - I could actually go to the roof of the Parliament House where it's covered with grass and you can enjoy a 360 degree panoramic view of the city. Conceptually the architects built it this way to represent that the people are always "on top" guiding the politicians on the direction of the country. Also, before driving back home I enjoyed a coffee in the cafe at Parliament House that was quite literally right "front and center" of the building and again enjoy a great view of Old Parliament House and the Australian War Museum in the distance.
I was surprised at this response as the only other time I went to Canberra for work to attend the Network Centric Warfare Conference (April 2010), I managed to squeeze in a visit to the Australian War Museum and was impressed and knew then that I wanted to see more of Canberra. And with a recommendation from Peter Blasina that the Floriade is Canberra at it's best I decided to go on the Labour Day Long Weekend (next to last weekend of the Floriade).
Now that I've spent the long weekend there, I can say that Canberra's like a city with a split personality. There are tons of museums to visit and explore (this is something Canberra shares with Washington, DC) during the day yet after-hours when you goto the highly recommended towns of Manuka (pronounced Monica) and Kingston known for their shopping and restaurants - it's like a ghost town.
I was thrilled that my friend Lisa could join me as it made the trip all the more fun and it was great to have the company!
We left on Friday, Oct. 1 and what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour drive ended up being closer to 2.5 hours due to the holiday traffic. Which meant that we arrived too late to see the Bowral Tulip Time Festival so we had to appreciate it from outside.
Side-note: I have a hard time pronouncing the names of Australian towns (remember the Kogarah Mayoral Ball which I kept pronouncing "cougar-ah"). Bowral is not "bow-ral" (like the bow of a boat) it's actually pronounced "barrel" (like pork barrel).
On Sat. Oct. 2 we first headed to the National Portrait Gallery and candidly we weren't all that impressed with the standing exhibit. We were more impressed with the "Young Talent" exhibit where young Australian middle and high school students' artwork was presented.
Then we headed to the Canberra Glassworks where made our own piece of glasswork - a paperweight.
A week later we actually received our finished glasswork.
Here's mine - I used a technique called "Fireworks" where I pinched (3x) into the glass to create this "firework" effect:
And here's Lisa's paperweight - she pinched 10-12 times into the glass to create many beautiful translucent bubbles. With the deep blue, it's like water bubbles in an ocean.
Then we headed to The Floriade which is a flower festival combined with a state fair (although Canberra's not technically a "state" but a territory). While there - as you'll see in the Flip Video - we participated in a "hanging flower basket" contest and we both better keep our day jobs as they were not spectacular.
The next day, Sunday, we headed to Kingston Markets where I did a bit of local artisan shopping:
Then onwards to the Royal Australian Mint where they make coinage not just for Australia but Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Indonesia. I was really keen to visit the mint as I had many questions about Australia's coinage that I was looking for answers to...
* Australia is a commonwealth country so initially used the British coin system of pence/shilling/pound. And I learned that in early 1960 Australia moved to its own "decimal" money system.
* The Australian $.50 coin has 12 sides (docedadon) and started out as a rounded edge coin until the coin's silver contents exceeded its face value so they changed it (now why they changed it to a docededon which is quite a large heavy coin, wasn't answered).
* Originally the $1 started out as a paper note but as it was wearing out too quickly they replaced it with a $1 coin (has 5 kangaroos).
* In 1988 the $2 coin was introduced (what's odd is that while both the $1 and the $2 coins are both gold in color, the $2 coin is smaller than the $1 - go figure).
* In 1991, Australia did away with the $.01 and $.02 because they were more expensive to make than their face value. So believe it or not, no pennies in Australia. Their smallest value coin is $.05.
And in the Royal Australian Mint's gift shop I made my own $1 coin and give a shout out to my nephew Kai and niece Kalea (I also purchased each of them a $1 coin from their birth year):
While at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, we were encouraged to check out James Turrell's Sky Scape which when you go into this pyramid you see a small slice of the sky. Imagine my surprise when I actually saw it that it was just like another James Turrell Sky Scape I've been to near the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Tetsuya, you'll recognise this!
Having just seen Australia elect its first female Prime Minister by a very, very small margin between the Labour, Liberal/Coalition and Independent Parties it was very educational to visit the Old Parliament House which had great explanations of the basics of Australian Federal Government.
Then of course, I had to go and visit the current or "new" Australian Parliament House where the House of Representatives and the Senate meet. And this was one of the highlights of my trip to Canberra.
I was so impressed and amazed with how "open" Parliament House was - I could actually go to the roof of the Parliament House where it's covered with grass and you can enjoy a 360 degree panoramic view of the city. Conceptually the architects built it this way to represent that the people are always "on top" guiding the politicians on the direction of the country. Also, before driving back home I enjoyed a coffee in the cafe at Parliament House that was quite literally right "front and center" of the building and again enjoy a great view of Old Parliament House and the Australian War Museum in the distance.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Sydney Harbour Bridge 9K Run
In the beginning of July, my friend Angela and I made a "fitness resolution" to find a personal trainer to help us loose weight, get fit and eat healthier. We found this great trainer named John Donaghey who we work out with two mornings a week (yes can you actually believe I get up at 6 a.m. for a 7 a.m. training session), has helped us build a nutrition plan and on top of this we also take a boxing class at Mcmahon's Point which offers this amazing view of the bridge.
We also said we wanted to train to run the 9K Sydney Harbour Bridge Race (that's 5.6 miles). And that's exactly what we did this past Sunday.
I did it in 1:03 (which means a 11:25 mile which isn't so great, but certainly gives me room to improve next year) and Angela beat me by at least 10 minutes. Amazingly after the race I felt really good - so I definitely think the training's helped!
What I enjoyed about the race was the run across the Sydney Harbour Bridge (it's longer running across it than it is commuting across it each day) and the scenic route it took us through the Royal Botanical Garden and Sydney's CBD.
Check out this FlipVideo:
After our race, we went to breakfast in The Rocks and my friends Matt and Thomas joined us. Earlier that morning, Thomas completed the half-marathon! Here's his take on it:
We also said we wanted to train to run the 9K Sydney Harbour Bridge Race (that's 5.6 miles). And that's exactly what we did this past Sunday.
I did it in 1:03 (which means a 11:25 mile which isn't so great, but certainly gives me room to improve next year) and Angela beat me by at least 10 minutes. Amazingly after the race I felt really good - so I definitely think the training's helped!
What I enjoyed about the race was the run across the Sydney Harbour Bridge (it's longer running across it than it is commuting across it each day) and the scenic route it took us through the Royal Botanical Garden and Sydney's CBD.
Check out this FlipVideo:
After our race, we went to breakfast in The Rocks and my friends Matt and Thomas joined us. Earlier that morning, Thomas completed the half-marathon! Here's his take on it:
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