Waste in Melbourne, a New Nephew and Potties

Last week was super busy. Socket Software have been preparing for a big expo in Melbourne to present a new What Bin Day product for Australian councils. At the same time Alison and Nelly were spending the week up in Toowoomba with the rest of the family, including James, Dora, Thomas and new baby Andrew who had all just come in from Singapore to visit.

Chris and I were pretty excited to head out on our first interstate Socket Software trip. Packing everything we needed for the expo booth into one check in bag and carry on luggage was a challenge but we just about made it under the weight limit. Even so, it wasn't much fun carting the stuff around the airport and the streets of Melbourne until we could dump most of it at the exhibition centre.

We were glad to see our AV equipment and furniture had already been delivered and set up for us to use when we arrived at the expo hall. Finishing the rest of our prep would have taken less than an hour if we didn't have to contend with the dodgy power cable we were provided. In the end we didn't have many other technical hiccups so I guess we should be grateful, though I must confess that I won't be paying for overpriced and slow internet connections at these things in the future. Live and learn.

Standing on your feet and talking to people for over eight hours a day for two days straight is pretty tiring. There were about 1500 attendees registered for our expo and a lot more in the two affiliated expos next to us so we saw a fair bit of traffic. Things started off pretty slow but by the end of the two days we were happy with the number of councils that we got to meet and show our product. With some luck and perseverance we might even be able to get some decent conversions too so I'd rate the whole exercise as a success. In talking with the other exhibitors we discovered another conference for councils that takes place at Coffs Harbour in June so we'll probably try and attend that next year.

I drove up to Toowoomba the day after we flew back to Brisbane, eager to spend some time with the family. It was lovely to meet Andrew and hold him, a reminder of what we have to look forward to in our little family come March next year. He's very different from Thomas and we're very lucky to have two beautiful nephews. While Nelly seemed a little concerned about the attention we were giving the new baby, she soon warmed up to Andrew and was very loving and gentle as we hoped she would be.

Thomas and Nelly also had a chance to play a lot more than they have in the past. It's great to see them growing up and interacting with cuddles and toys. Sheena arranged for a quick visit to a nearby farm to see some animals which the kids loved as well judging by the shrieks I heard when they came home.

Dora was kind enough to let Nelly play on the piano which would be the first time our little girl has had a chance to use a full keyboard (I'm not considering the little toy pianos we've given her in the past). I was curious about how she would react to it and pleasantly surprised that she didn't just bang on the keys mindlessly. I'm probably biased but I'd say she was enjoying herself which only strengthens my resolve to get us a digital piano once we have the room for it at home. Of course Daddy wouldn't mind playing on it too.

We have been trying to encourage Eleanor to use the potty/toilet for the better part of 6 months now with not a lot of success. In hindsight we probably started trying a little too early which didn't combine well with our daughter's stubborn personality. Our reward system (a sticker and chocolate for a wee and two stickers and chocolates for a poo) started off well enough but lost steam pretty quickly. Playing her off friends at school that had been toilet trained wasn't getting us anywhere either.

Just a few days with Thomas however ignited the competitive spirit in Nelly as she saw us praising and clapping whenever Thomas went to the toilet. Before long she was trying to do the same in Toowoomba and since returning to Brisbane I'm pleased to say that not a day has gone by without something being deposited in our little potty. It might be too early to say that she's cracked it but I think if we keep up the momentum it shouldn't be long now.

This is a picture of her sticker chart. Most of those have only come in the last week and I think we might be running out of room. The other worrying development is the amount of chocolate she's now ingesting as a result of regular success. Small price to pay for progress I suppose. Here's hoping we'll be out of nappies in the next few weeks!

On Our Own with Scallop Pies

I'm sure the three people that read this blog are a little weary of hearing me gush about Eleanor. How fortunate then that this post is about our trip to Tasmania, sans progeny courtesy of two very generous and loving grandparents. We have just spent a whole week away from our daughter and have had a great time exploring the southern region of the apple isle, sampling pretty much every gastronomic delight we came across.

We found a lovely self contained apartment on airbnb which just a walk away from Salamanca and Battery Point. The place was newly renovated, comfortably furnished and boasted a spectacular view of the water and their garden. Our hosts were great and helpfully pointed us in the direction of nearby spots of interest, particularly those of the culinary kind.

On our first day out with the car (which I thankfully didn't crash this trip) we drove down to Bruny Island to embark on a boat cruise south to see the magnificent rock formations and local wild life. Some of the sea caves that we saw on the tour were amazing though I think the trademark moment that the guides prepare for is a "thread the needle" manoeuvre between Monument Rock and the cliff side. Kinda impressive what you can do with four jet motors on a small boat.

Aside from interesting geology we were also treated to a close up view of a seal colony. The stench downwind was eye watering though we were told to consider ourselves fortunate that we weren't facing a group during mating season. Apparently that bouquet can be smelled for miles and miles, which is apparently also an attraction for sharks.

The other highlight of the tour was when the guides dropped a submarine mounted camera into the water to show us some of the fish under the boat. It was one of the calmest days of the year so the water was pristine and clear. We were expecting Tasmania to be fairly cold but the day we were on Bruny was actually the hottest of our stay at 30 degrees, so I think more than a few people were tempted to dive in and swim in the sea. 

Our second day of driving had us heading north towards the little town of Ross, which is just south of Launceston. It was a great road to drive on with large dry plains on either side, which was quite different landscape to what we saw on Bruny Island the previous day. On the way we stopped in at Oatlands and checked out the Callington Mill, which if I remember the brochure correctly is one of the oldest working stone mills in the southern hemisphere. Not being a baker myself I can't speak for the flour that is produced but the sourdough loaf we bought from the bakery next to it was certainly yummy.

I must confess that our drive up to Ross wasn't entirely for the scenery. I can't quite remember where I heard about it initially, but I've been fascinated by the Tasmanian scallop pie for many years. Assuming that my love for baked crust and mollusks would be an easy and delicious match, I was quite insistent that we find a specimen of this seafood pastry during our holiday. Ross just happened to be the home of the Tasmanian Scallop Pie Company, so we thought it would be a fairly safe place to find a decent representation of the dish.

In fact, through the course of one week I ended up eating no less than five scallop pies from various bakeries and restaurants. This included both curried as well as creamy varieties and while I enjoyed all of them, there was only one venue where I had to go back for seconds. Let's just say that the drive to Ross was worth it.

Which is great news, because ironically it's now that I'm back in Brisbane doing research for this blog post that I've discovered that the Tasmanian Scallop Pie Company has retail outlets across the country. In fact the city with the most retail outlets is... Brisbane. Go figure.

The other exciting discovery we made was buying two wheels from the Bruny Island Cheese Company. We ended up eating them both for dinner at the apartment one night, along with Tasmanian smoked salmon, salami, apples from a farm that we passed and that sourdough we bought at the bakery in Oatland. Both cheeses were fantastic washed rinds and I thought they were quite different from what we usually pick up at cheeseries. The vine leaf wrapped Oen on the right is quite popular and had a lot of flavour, while the smaller wheel on the left was a sheep and cow milk blend that had a slightly more subtle body to it. Absolutely delicious and horrendously smelly.

Third day on the road was a long and windy drive through the Huon valley, south west of Hobart. Didn't see as many interesting stops to eat at early in the morning but that was alright as we were rushing to get to the Tahune air walk. It would have been hard to come back from Tasmania without at least doing one hike through the wonderful nature trails on offer. This wasn't exactly a rugged trek by any means but we did have fun walking below and above the giant trees in the forest.

The drive and trek didn't actually take as long as we thought it would so we ended up exploring a little more of the Huon area by heading south to the charming town of Cygnet. Lots of art galleries but we were most impressed by the Red Velvet Lounge where we stopped for lunch. By far the best food we had seen that day and very friendly waiters.

After stuffing ourselves silly on the hand cut fries and ox tongue sandwiches we drove along the coast to Peppermint Bay, stopping to pick some wild blackberries from the side of the road. Seems like we came to Tasmania at the wrong season for fruit picking and all of the cherry farms were closed so it was nice to have a chance to experience a little foraging.

We couldn't dally long however as we were in a rush to get back to Hobart and try our luck on a Friday night at Garagistes, a small and popular restaurant that doesn't take bookings. Due to us arriving minutes after the doors were opened we managed to score a table and had a fantastic meal there. We knew that the food would be special and we both noted with approval that they had a collection of Nathan Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine on their book shelf. The dishes certainly didn't disappoint.

In fact we had quite a few nice dinners out in Hobart, most of which were selected through Urbanspoon recommendations. The other standout that we would heartily recommend that people try is Ethos. Excellent food that has been sourced from local producers and cooked in a simple and honest manner. A great contrast to Garagistes with their more modernist slant.

The next day of driving involved heading east towards Port Arthur and the Tasman peninsula. On the way we dropped into Barilla Bay to get a platter of oysters. Sure do like seafood in Tasmania.

The drive down to Port Arthur was a little gloomier than the previous days on account of the rain. It was drizzling fairly heavily by the time we got to the Port Arthur entrance and it was a little later in the afternoon than we thought so we decided to forgo the convict trail for a few more stops along the coast line. Glad we did as there were some gorgeous rock formations that we could see from lookouts. This was the "Devil's Kithen", a large sea cave where the ceiling had collapsed to reveal an archway to the sea.

On our final day of driving we set out to the north west up the Derwent river to see how far we could get. Maybe it was just fatigue from driving or a lack of interesting things to see around that side but we stopped at the Salmon Ponds to have a quick look around before driving back towards the city.

We weren't sure if we would make it into MONA (the museum of old and new art) but since we didn't have much else on our itinerary for the afternoon we decided to pay the entrance fee and check it out. I wasn't sure what I'd think of the material given that some of the exhibits were quite alternative, though in the end I had a really good time. Shame that the layout of the building is deliberately disorienting which didn't sit well with Alison and the iPhone handouts they distributed didn't work half the time. I found quite a few of the collections to be very interesting if somewhat confrontational, though I must admit that the number of orifices was actually lower than what I expected.

After MONA we opted for one last driving adventure and took the rental car up to the lookout on Mount Wellington. Due to the cloud there wasn't a lot that we could see (understatement of the year) but at least we can say that we've been there.

So after all that we're back here in Brisbane again. Alison is up in Toowoomba tonight and will be bringing Eleanor home tomorrow so that I can be a Daddy again. It was nice to have a week as a couple but nothing quite beats having our little family back together.

Tea and Family in Malaysia

We're back from two weeks in Malaysia and Singapore where we spent heaps of time with family. So much that we didn't manage to fit in our usual catch ups with friends this time around, though I guess we did just see most of them in February during our last visit. After all, our main purpose for this trip was to be there for Francois and Sam's tea ceremony, which also served as the first mostly full Chua gathering I can remember in over 10 years. It was good to see the UK contingent though a few absent cousins kept it from being a truly complete meet up.

I didn't end up taking that many photos of the event itself but what I did manage to snap can be seen here. Eleanor was dressed in the same Chinese outfit we had her in for CNY earlier in the year though I think she's fitting into it a lot better. Very cute and it's nice that we got another wear out of it.

Coming over from Brisbane with Nelly was a little more tiring than our last flight as now that she's grown to big we didn't have a basinet for respite. I usually get at least a few hours of sleep on the flight but I don't think either of us managed much rest this time. At least we had a bulk head row and two lovely old Italian grand mothers next two us that offered to look after the little girl for a while. The trip back to Brisbane was far worse with no sleep until we arrived home at 3AM so here's hoping that our next international flight with Eleanor in her own seat will be a little easier. I'm sure we still have it easy as far as crying babies on airplanes go.

Eleanor has always been a good eater and chowed down on heaps of local faire on her first visit to Malaysia. This trip she took it to a new level as she inhaled dish after dish, often unassisted. With so many aunties around she had lots of people putting food in her mouth as well and they were only encouraged when Nelly happily consumed a stream of tiny morsels. All of her Lau Ma (elder aunties) were particularly impressed with her ability to tolerate spicy food for someone her age. My favourite photo was one we snapped of her shovelling in a mouthful of fish head noodles. That girl sure loves noodles.

Yvonne acquired a dog since the last time we were back in Kajang in February. A cute little tea cup poodle named Elmo who resides in her room upstairs most of the day. Nelly seems to be developing an affinity for dogs and she particularly enjoyed saying hello to Elmo every day. It was particularly adorable at breakfast each morning, watching her struggle at the top of the stairs about whether to stay and play with Elmo some more or to descend slowly down the steps yelling "Nummy nummy nummy" (which is her word for food) at the top of her lungs. Most of the time food won out but I think it was a tough decision.

The second leg of our trip involved a drive down to Johor to stay at my cousin Ivan's house for the Moon Festival. I haven't had a mooncake in Malaysia for some time and this was Nelly's first chance to play with a lantern, not that she really seemed all that fussed about it. Not even the big bear lantern than played music and blinked lights when you turned it on, shame. We deflated the bear and brought it back to Australia on the off chance she might like it as much as we did one day.

Ivan's house had a fleet of toy cars that Eleanor became enamoured with. "Car" seems to be a new favourite word now as well and she loved driving the house around with a little assistance. I blame the Giggle Mobile for this fascination as she was certainly fond of tooting the horn and turning the wheel.

Our stay in Malaysia seemed to fly by pretty quickly and it was quite sad to leave Ah Ma and Ah Kong at the airport. At least they'll be in out with Mak Long next April for Eleanor's second birthday (yikes that's approaching quickly!). Ah Kong couldn't resist buying Nelly a toy she wanted before getting on the plane.

Next stop was a short stay in Singapore for a few nights to see James, Dora and little Thomas. We had seen Thomas just a while ago when he came to Toowoomba but James and Dora did not get a chance to see Eleanor then, so this was the first time the six of us have been together since Christmas at Coolum. It was really nice to see the kids play together and how they've changed in such a short time.

My most recent trip to Singapore had me staying at the Marina Bay Sands hotel, which is right across from the new Gardens by the Bay but I didn't get a chance to check it out. Not wanting to miss it again we woke up early on Saturday to spend the morning walking around the trees. The Cloud Forest and Flower Dome looked interesting but we didn't feel like coughing up $28 each to go in, maybe next time when Nelly is a little older. The $5 for the elevated walkway was fine and well worth it for the view of the gardens and the surrounding area. 

For lunch that day we stuffed ourselves silly at the Regent high tea buffet. We'd been looking forward to this for a while and there were certainly a great selection of dishes to sample. Perhaps the only disappointment was the absence of the chilli crab sauce which was a previously available item. The kids were very well behaved and won a few admirers by the end of the day, including the head chef.

It was wonderful to have such a long uninterrupted break to spend time with Nelly and Alison. I really feel like she's grown up during our little trip overseas. I still wouldn't say that she's talking conversationally yet, but she's certainly speaking with new words and a vocabulary that grows by the week. In the back of my mind throughout the holiday I was thinking about how different life will be now that I'm home all the time with the new business. Given that I'll be able to spend more time with this little angel I'm so pleased that we decided to try a change in our lives.

Global Gathering Singapore 2012

When I first accepted a position at Flight Centre, someone gave me the book Family Village Tribe to provide a little insight into the sort of company I was about to join. This was actually with the intention to deter me from joining the company, but I was blown away by what I read and was truly impressed by the way that staff were rewarded for their contributions. One particular section mentioned the Global Ball, where the top consultants around the world are flown to a country for what was described as an incredible, no-expense-spared extravaganza to celebrate the best performers of the year. Past years included locations like Las Vegas, Paris, Hawaii and Barcelona with world class bands and phenomenal guest speakers like Richard Branson, Michael J Fox and Lance Armstrong.

The first awards night I attended with the company was only a few weeks after I joined in June 2008. This was also where I got my first exposure to how Technology in Flight Centre qualified for the Global Gathering. I remember it being Hawaii that year and the developers that qualified to go on account of their commitment to their customers and the quality of their craft. Leaving that night inspired I hoped that being nominated and qualifying for a Global Gathering would be something that I could perhaps achieve in my tenure at Flight Centre.

Three weeks ago I found out I did, and would be flying to Singapore for the 2012 Global Gathering on the category of Leadership within Technology. It's a crazy and humbling experience on so many levels thinking back to that first awards night in 2008. I would never have believed that I had the ability to lead back then, let alone win an award for it.

Global would last over three days with no extension in my case, as we're already heading back to Singapore in September for my cousin's wedding. My flight flew out of Brisbane on Thursday night to get there bright and early on Friday morning for registration. The main venue for the conference as well as our accommodation was the newly built Marina Bay Sands, which is both opulent and large enough to serve the approximately 3000 Flight Centre staff that would descending on its door steps.

Arriving early in the morning meant that we could get registration and check in out of the way early even if our rooms wouldn't be ready for a while. Not keen to waste time sitting around, I headed out into the city with Russell and Si to find some breakfast and wander around the CBD. This included the mandatory visit to Takashimaya for a serving of takoyaki of course. Just what we need to wake us up after a sleepless flight.

Walking around the city was tiring work so we decided to treat our feet to a little fish foot spa. It was the same place that Alison and I went to last time, though it did seem like the shop had fallen into disrepair. The fish seemed hungry enough though and the boys had a good time.

By this point we decided to head back to the hotel to check into our rooms. It's the simple things that impress me, so when the curtains automatically opened after we put the key card in the room slot I was pretty stoked. Especially when it revealed a fantastic view of the Gardens by the Bay. That and we also had three phones in our small hotel room. As I said, it's the simple things.

As we had enough time for one more excursion before the official activities were due to start, Russell and I left Si to walk down to the Singapore Flyer. The ride was amazingly smooth with a fantastic unobstructed view of the city from the air conditioned capsules. Impressive engineering and we had a great vantage point to appreciate the size of our hotel and the SkyPark atop it.

After getting back to the hotel we changed into our beach gear with complimentary sarongs and headed down to the buses that would take us to the welcome party at Tanjong Beach on Sentosa island. It wouldn't be a trip to Singapore without a few Singapore Slings, in this case courtesy of Singapore Airlines.

I kicked off my thongs (a move that would result in me spending the better part of an hour trying to find them again later) and started moshing around the beach with handfuls of burgers and Tiger beer. It was great to see heaps of people from head office that I knew there, a lot of whom like me were experiencing a Global Gathering for the first time.

The crowd really started going off when they announced the head line act for the night (which bear in mind is usually supposed to be the big surprise for the Saturday night, not Friday). Who better to get a beach party going than Fatboy Slim himself? It was an awesome long set and we were dancing until well past midnight with wild gyrations punctuated only by a series of fireworks and frequent trips back to the tents to get more beer. It was one heck of a party.

The next morning we awoke unwillingly to our alarms and descended on the conference hall for breakfast, dressed in themed conference t-shirts. We all hoped that there would be sufficient grease and fat on the buffet table but the food turned out to be quite disappointing. What I would have done for a decent sausage roll that didn't taste like it had been kept warm in a steam bath. Ah well, smile and press on.

In fact the only saving grace at breakfast was the plate of Berocca that they had next to the juice table. Great idea and it allowed most of us to survive until we could find more sustenance at lunch.

Heading into the conference hall when it opened up was an experience that I'll not likely forget soon. Each country came prepared with banners and huge flags that they would wave with patriotic pride. The energy in the room was electric and all the noise from the crowd and stage made sure that the adrenalin levels continued to surge. It was so crowded and chaotic in fact that I was separated from the rest of the group and sat down in the first spare seat I found in our section.

The awards went on for a while and it was clear to see that the show was geared at the retail portion of the company. There were a few categories for head office and corporate but the consultants were the true focus of the day. After a few inspirational videos we were introduced to the guest speaker for the day, nobel peace price winner Muhammad Yunus. I'm afraid that I didn't recognise his name immediately, though once he started to talk I think I'd seen him speak in an online talk about microcredit. It was a great talk about the social responsibilities of business and what we can do to make a real impact on people, but to be honest it felt out of place in a conference meant to celebrate the commercial success of the company.

The next big announcement was the destination for next year's conference, which gives the people in the room something to aim for once they get back to work. It was a short video clip (once again chock full of testosterone and energy) which revealed that Global Gathering 2013 would be held in Cancun. We all agreed that if Singapore was a wild experience then the same gathering in Mexico would be off the charts. Suffice to say that more than a few consultants in the room roared when the words came up on the screen.

With the official conference activities over we retreated to our rooms to rest, get dressed and have a few more drinks before congregating once more for dinner. The theme for the evening was supposed to be "A touch of the orient" so I tried to comply with one of my old chinese shirts. Seems like almost everyone else opted to go for black tie instead.

Food at dinner was only marginally better than breakfast, but that was ok as we were too busy gawking at the return of the morning's flags, drums and other props. Energy levels had not dropped one bit and guests were kept entertained by lion dancers, acrobats and fire twirlers. Then to top it all off it was announced that our MC for the night would be ROVE McMANUS. Just a little gig for him no doubt.

It took the better part of three hours and lots of drinking to sit through more awards that night. Eventually they ran out of names to call out and we were all herded in the direction of Expo Bay 2. It was far from glamorous, in fact it's just a big hall with a concrete floor, but that's where the head line act would be playing and it was a wise move to keep us off carpet and breakable hotel furniture given the state of the crowd by this point. The opening act was Taio Cruz which was pretty darn awesome so I had my fingers crossed for a big main act (my vote was for Foo Fighters or Black Eyed Peas). Sad to say that one of the other rumours turned out to be true as we got a pretty big clue that the band would be the Scissor Sisters. Not really my kind of music but it was fun enough to dance to through the night.

I would have been more than happy to get lots of sleep the next morning but that would have been a waste of our last day in the city. Good thing that Russell isn't a heavy sleeper so it was easy for us to get out and head to the SkyPark for our recovery breakfast. Great view, but once again unforgivably bad food.

Russell, Si and I met up with Jason and HuaQi for a food day in the city. To start off we had some chinese sweet meat, herbal tea, bak kut teh, clay pot chicken rice, popiah, pregnant mullet and sugar cane juice. Made up for the disgusting hotel breakfast.

We then chilled out at the tea house in china town for a while before catching a beer at Brewerkz followed by a cab to East Coast to gorge on a Singaporean staple. Chilli crab! Well, to be precise we ordered Black Pepper crab and Friend Butter crab as well for variety. Served along side several deep fried buns for dipping and you get a magnificent feast to finish off a fantastic weekend in Singapore.

I still can't believe what a great weekend it was. This post is far too long for me to put more photos up so the rest of the pics from the weekend can be viewed on this album. Great times and certainly a highlight of my time at Flight Centre.