The Gong

I stayed overnight in Wollongong for work last night... I'm so tired now I can't for the life of me think hard enough to even do a blog entry... So here it is in no particular order... On the flight back I think I caught the merest glimpse of the opera house as we climbed over the ocean... We flew out of Sydney, but I don't feel like I've been there unless I've seen the opera house, it was a tiny little curved shape shining in the sun as we climbed to 8000 metres.

My cow-orker who we went with drinks like a fish. A bottle of wine from the mini bar after the two glasses with dinner, more over lunch, etc. etc. Someone has to pick up the slack for non drinkers like myself I suppose.

We were up there doing a demo of some RFID hardware. We took with us two RFID readers, two laptops, five example books, a five port ethernet switch, a flat panel touch screen PC, a slip printer, a sticky label printer, a hand-held RFID reader, a barcode scanner, a USB hub, a power board and at least eight power supplies, not to mention numerous ethernet cables etc. etc. etc. etc. We had SEVEN BAGS between us on the plane, not to mention the three boxes we shipped up separately. And I got it all working on a table there for the demo. I rule.

As we climbed out of Sydney - flying is still a novelty for me, so I insisted on a window seat - we slowly approached this thin layer of cloud, climbed through it quickly then we were above it, fine broken cloud slowly going orange in the sun set.

I almost bought Krispy Kream donuts at the terminal. There was a trolley selling them right next to our gate, but I resisted. I had too much to carry for one thing, plus I don't DOOOOO brands. Plus evildoom_bunny has a wobbly bottom.

As we got onto the plane a large jewish lady (she had covered hair and two small boys with skull caps) was trying to take a huge shapeless bag onto the plane. The wouldn't let her, so she started compressing it down and insisting it'd fit. Later I saw her and three kids sitting in business class, so they must have worked something out.

Did I mention this wasn't going to be coherent or ordered?

On the way to and from Wollogong, we crossed a bridge called, I kid yoy not, "Tom Ugly's Bridge", which stretches from Tom Ugly's Point across the narrow end of Botany Bay. The only explanation I can find on Google goes

"Opinion is split between two theories as to the origin of the name Tom Ugly. But both are linked to the area's indigenous people and early settlers.

"One holds that one of the early residents of the area was named Tom Huxley, but that local Aborigines couldn't pronounce the x, so they called him Tom Ugly.

"The other relates to the local Aboriginal word for one, which is "wogul". The theory suggests a white settler in the area who only had one arm and one leg was known to locals as Tom Wogully, and the name was corrupted to Tom Ugly."

I shall have to conduct further investigations.

I'm going to start collecting boarding passes. I've only been on four flights this year (my record is eleven in one year in... Must have been 2004) but at this rate, I'm becoming crucial to the whole organisation! Eep.

I was dragged into the Qantas Club in both Sydney and Melbourne by my cow-orker. I was sitting in Sydney, in my suit and tie, nibbling on some bree I got from the free supplies of snacks, and I said "I don't think I can pretend I'm a socialist any more." I've said this once before - when I was sitting in a spa bath in an en-suite in a bed and breakfast in Ballarat a few years back....!

I decided to have breakfast in my room, just because I could. Never done that before. So I filled in the little slip - yogurt, scrambled eggs, bacon, mushies, chamomile tea - I basically ticked all the things that sounded tasty. And left it on my hotel room door handle as instructed. I'd ticked the 7 - 7.15 AM box, but by 7.25 - no breakfast! I called them up and they said "Ah, you're the guy who forgot to put his room number on the tag". *slaps head* Clearly, I'm an experienced traveler - not! But... I guess I think like a programmer. I figured since they were getting the tag off the door to my room, they already HAD that information - why record it redundantly on the thing as well??? But no, it doesn't work like that :-)

I was in room 635, with a fabulous view of bugger all. One side of the place looks out onto the ocean apparently. It was pretty with the moon shining off it the evening when we drove along the shore looking for dinner. Weirdly, when I was on the way home, I was listening to Qantas's in-house comedy channel on the plane (hosted by Adam Spence from JJJ - very surreal) and some American comedian was doing a bad sketch about his hotel room... And he was in room 635! Weird.

Speaking of comedy, I watched television on the plane, first time since the Superbowl back in February. "Thank God You're Here", that new comedy thing from the D-Gen guys. Actually very damn funny - a very simple idea done very well.

Ok, I might have some photos of the trip later, will post 'em.

[Next day: Why didn't someone point out to me that I mis-spelt "Wollongong" in the first sentance???]