Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Lock, stock and barrel!!

This would be my last post to this blog!!!

Total of 103days in Australia! Phew!!!!

I would like to share all the changes brought into me with this trip. I titled this trip as ‘Sajaa-e-kalapaani’. But eventually, this trip will remain in my memory as a wonderful experience. These changes were only due to fact that I was in a foreign country and there was no one to take care of me. These habits cultivated slowly in to me, coz I had no other option.

Cooking – I can say that I have learnt cooking rice, dal, tomato curry and noodles perfectly. The quality of it went on to become better every day. In the beginning it used to take atleast 2 hours to cook the food, but then the time reduced drastically to 45min. I even tried my hands on baking cookies but was not successful. But experimenting with food gives a lot of fun. Like adding some amount of sambhar powder to dal while cooking makes dal more delicious. Eating the food you prepared always makes you feel good.

Time management – I had to get up on my own and be in the company before 9:00am. It was hard to manage the time such that I even have my breakfast before leaving for office. But slowly getting up early became a routine and also less painful. I have also started implementing multi tasking not only at work but also in the room. At work, I troubleshoot one virtual machine while code on one virtual machine and surf net on my own system. This way I was able to complete the tasks for the day. At room, I cook food, while dishwasher and washing machine are working and while listening to loud music, I take a shower.

Discipline – Living on your own, requires a lot of discipline. If you are lazy, you will starve and ruin your day. You got to get up early, cook food on time and always take time for leisure to sit near the riverside listening to music.

Fun – Living alone, gives a lot of time to think. Before coming here, I was never alone; I always used to have lots of friends surrounded. First few days were very uneasy, but slowly I started adapting it. I started doing new things, like writing posts, working on Photoshop etc. I started finding ways to have fun on my own like playing video games, go to swimming.

Though, the trip could have been more fun-filled if I had at least one friend with me, but still the experience was one of its kinds. I am sure I would never get this much quality of time for myself again in my life, but I would not like to have this experience again. These 103 days were enough for being lonely.

This blog was my closest friend for these three months. I will miss you, my dear blog!!!

With lots of love,
Yours lovingly,

Nitin

Monday, June 9, 2008

The story of Blue Mountains

This Weekend we had great fun. We went to Blue Mountains. We saw lots of places like 3 sisters, scenic world, coal mines etc. But there were few catches on this trip.

First, the temperature there was around 0 degree and had constant shower. Second, I didn’t have enough warm clothes or a rain coat to save my self from cold or rain. Third, the visibility in fog was around 10 to 12 meters. Fourth, we had heavy bag to carry on the whole trip.

These catches became a boon to have more fun on the trip. The cold weather made the trip more adventurous. Luckily we bought poncho to save ourselves from rain. But the freezing temperature and fog gave very little scope to be able to see the scenic beauty of the place.

By we here, I mean Subodh, his wife and me. Thanks to subodh that he brought some warm clothes, food and a map coz of which we managed to have fun. Bush walking, cliff lookout, Photo shoot, water fall were great. The best part of the trip was the skydiving rail with which we came down from the hill. It was at times almost perpendicular to ground and was cool. We spent a lot of time roaming around the coal mines and the experience was awesome, one of the unique in the entire holiday of Australia.

Finally when we were returning from the place we were very much tired and almost slept in the train.

Back in Sydney Office

After completing my work at Woolworths, I am back at SABA, Sydney. I have also shifted to the same hotel in which I first stayed after my arrival in Sydney. Though, I have seen all the places around my hotel, but still I am refreshing my memory by going again to Darling harbour and doing the bird watch. I must admit that even the cold weather doesn’t have any affect on the style statement of girls of Sydney.

Now, I have completely stopped cooking in my room. I am bored of cooking but I think I will have to give up my laziness… oops sorry, boredom and start cooking again. Coz it’s impossible to eat daily outside. There are many reasons to it, like, no Indian restaurants around, cant live on burger and pizza daily and can’t satisfy my taste buds with the Australian style food etc.

My manager never picks my call, doesn’t even reply to my mails. I think he is not interested in sending me back. When I call a mediator to speak with him on my behalf I get a date of meeting with the manager on which he will be able to provide me with the return date. Though colleagues here are insisting me to stay for a longer time, coz they are planning to visit Canberra, but now I am missing INDIA a lot. I want to meet my parents, friends and have some good authentic Indian food.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Had a very hectic and terrible week!!!

In the morning I was happy, coz all my work at Queensland was done and only documentation part was left but when I came to office, martin told me that I need to extend my stay for at least two weeks. And for that a series of planning was done.

As per the plan, I started for FIJI Island on Wednesday night 11:55pm and then from FIJI I came back to Sydney. This was because I only had 3 months visa and to satisfy the visa requirements I had to step out of the country and then step back in, which will make my visa valid again for next three months!!!

Anyways, I slept on the FIJI airport that night and came back to Sydney. And without taking rest I again went to Woolworths. I must say, SABA gave some royal treatment as far as the limousine service and room is concerned. Woolworths is a big office. The security was so tight that it took me an hour just to pass from the gate to the desk where I was supposed to sit.

Apart from working till late night on Friday, I also had to work on sat and sun at Woolworths. But Somehow, all the issues at there end were resolved.

So now I am left with few more issues from few other clients. I would be going to there site on Wednesday and Thursday. Then work from home for another 2 or three days (Got to complete the documentation part of Queensland) and then return to INDIA.

Though I am positive about the return date, but not sure if they are going to extend it again.

Fingers crossed!!!!!!!

Friday, May 23, 2008

Errand

Now that I am done with all the tasks except Vertical Clustering which I would be starting the next week, I need to do all the documentation stuff too. Documentation is the most boring job on earth that a consultant has to do! :(

Anyways, after the LDAP, I have nothing on my plate till Monday. Sitting in the office, seeing all blondes around is boring! After every hour, I just move out of the office and roam around for an hour and then return back to my seat.

God! These two and half months i.e 84 days to be precise passed off quickly but these 7 days are too long. I could see that every second is taking 10 times than usual to pass. Atleast when I am in the office time passes off in its normal speed but when I enter the room, time just stops until I forcefully push it for the next second! :(

Anyways, this weekend I would be completing the Brisbane too, by seeing the Australian zoo! Though, I might not find time to go to this place, coz I have to buy some gifts for mom and dad, but I am positive. If I finish this shopping thing early, I might go to Australian Zoo as well.

What increases my urge to reach INDIA soon, is when mom calls me and says that its been 3 months that she hasn’t seen me in a sad voice. She had already planned for all the mouth watering food that I like and all the places that we got visit when I reach back home!!!!!!!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Never felt better

Today, I have not only implemented the Single Active Directory environment but also implemented the double barrel Authentication with LDAP!!!

From past two days, I was banging my head to just configure SABA with single active directory and today I am done with the double as well. Though implementing the double barrel LDAP took a lot of debugging and googling for the exception, but I must admit that I got rid of that exception in a fluke. Before doing some long steps of mailing on technical communites and all, I reluctantly tried few api's and phew!!! as a magic even the double barrel LDAP started working!!!!

The most fruitful day in terms of technology as well as result!

LDAP was the only barrier for us to meet the deadline and now I am left only with implemeting Vertical Clustering on the production environment!!

The deadline of the project was 26th, but as the requirement grew it has been pushed 2 weeks further. But I am not concerned for the deadline anymore as I have completed all the tasks which were assigned to me!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

14 days left

I have two weekends left now. And I have SeaWorld, Australian Zoo and Garden city left undiscovered in brisbane. Apart from these places, I need to go for shopping too.

On the project front still LDAP, Vertical Clustering and Certifications is left.

Got to plan to be able to do justice with project as well as my trip! :)

Now adays on the confrence call where I have much to say about the client, the project status and other stuff, it feels good unlike when in INDIA I used to just complete my status in two line with the status of project.

Feeling very excited about returning back to my place and meeting my family and friends. The importance of friends and family has increased to a much greater extent in my life with this trip.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

20days left

It’s surprising that I have spent 70 days in Australia now! Anyways, I have a counter as wallpaper on the laptop which reminds me that I should start completing the shopping list and also squeeze the most out of the available time.

When Prashant was leaving for INDIA, he was very sad and dull. His ways on the last day were so depressing that I thought he will weep in the next moment. He had a reason to feel so; he came with a bunch of friends here. Even, I had some good time till these Indians were around. Anyways, I am already adapted to loneliness now so I have no issues for the rest of 20 days.

To my surprise, I am not feeling bored anymore. I don’t find time to get bored. I surf, wash clothes, cook, roam around in the city, discover new places etc. To kill the time, I sometime start designing my website on google pages or go for swimming or stay in the gym. At least I have understood the adaptive nature of human being by this! ;)

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Again a great weekend!

Two days back, I met an INDIAN. He arrived in Brisbane two weeks back. I needed a company for the weekend, so I made a plan with him. This time I planned all the places that I missed in my previous trips.

We visited Burleigh beach, Surfers Paradise etc. Surfers Paradise was an awesome place. We were lucky to find lots of tourist there. We had a quality time in the beach, in the malls and in the casinos. And surprise was not the fact that I met lots of Indians on the trip but the fact that they all were friendly. Few also became our guide for sometime and showed us some places which we could not have discovered on our own.

As the day was coming to an end, we went to our last stop, South Bank. Again we strike gold, coz on South bank there was some big Fireworks show organized by the government of Queensland. The Fireworks was not as good as we see in INDIA, but were at least lot colourful. After the firework we took a ferry and came straight to our room.

At night we had Poha, prepared by my neighbour. Must say, he was a good cook. I noted the way to prepare the dish, so I could prepare it myself later.

In all, the weekend was great!!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Updates on Project till date

With the client being very slow in providing the production hardware details, at least I have completed with the setting up of development environment. This development hardware has sites for config, demo, dev and uat. So installation as far as development, UAT and Config is concerned, is 100% complete, though very minor configurations like LDAP is still left. I have also finished up with the scripts for data migration as well. So currently I just see that all the data is migrated properly and my code is working fine on the data files provided by the client.

Next big task would to create a Production environment on the cluster. This would be my first clustered environment and I hope I would be able to do it. Project manager needs us to configure LDAP with a two barrel kind of environment. I haven’t touched the code of LDAP yet, got to see if I would be able to finish up in time.

With respect to project plan, we have very little time left and a big mountain to be crushed.

Life is routine these days

First day of the week would be to clean up all the tasks and complete all the unfinished. So, it is more of a clerical job like, checking-in the code in CVS, updating the progress of project to the project manager and attending weekly meeting with the client to update him and take updates from him.

Second day starts with the new tasks like migrating data for a new object, refreshing the database and getting new requirements from both business consultant of our team and analysts of client. Then we plan for the rest of the week.

Third and fourth day goes with troubleshooting all the failed test cases reported by client and the team. These two days are real frustrating to resolve the issues. But by the end of the day when we finish troubleshooting and resolving the issue, we feel real great. These two days are more like research on the web and improving self knowledge w.r.t to project and general.

Fifth day is always dull, coz I don’t like to work and so I take off by surfing the net or bidding on ebay. I surf for the maps and places that I can visit for the weekend. I take a complete idea of buses, trains or ferries that I am supposed to board.

On Saturday, the day just passes off! I finish up with the clothes and then press them for rest of the week. I feel the day is very short on Saturday, coz by the time you complete all the tasks it is already 6pm and then I just go to the riverside to sit for a while, watching birds and reading the nature.

Sunday is always fun, as I execute all the plans that I made for visiting new places. Though I do feel loneliness, but the excitement of discovering new place on our own gives a very little time to think.

It feels good when sis calls me sometimes and shows how much she cares for me. I feel a lot lighter that day after sharing each others experiences. Not to forget the calls from my Btech friend Shiva and from colleagues.

On the whole, the week is moving on a routine. Now I feel bored going to the beaches or theme parks. So instead I am slowly moving towards the malls and streets to see the actual lifestyle of people of Australia.

But as the deadline is approaching, I could feel the heat and pressure of project. I am happy that I have utilized my time enough so I can use my time from now on to concentrate more on finishing the project on time. Though the client is stubborn with the Go-live date of the project, but with only me doing the technical stuff of it, I will have to work hard and fast to complete it on time.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Funny things happened in Australia

Though, I would never like to discuss this but with my short term memory its better that I write it somewhere to remember it ;)

This is a living post. Points will be added as and when funny things happen with me during my stay in Australia.
  1. I very cute girl sits in a cubicle opposite to mine. She is blonde, but her cute smile, good looks, walking style and dressing sense is so amazing that I can’t stop myself from falling for her. Few days back she came near my desk to collect the printouts and I was dying to start a conversation with her, and after adding a lot of stupidity and smile I asked her, ‘What is the size of the paper on which u r taking this printout?’ She smiled at me and said ‘it’s A3’ and then went off. I went straight to the washroom and slapped myself thrice looking in the mirror. God knows, why I fumble seeing a cute girl.
  2. My first day at the client side and my plan was that as soon as I reach Brisbane in the morning from Sydney, first I will check-in in my hotel, change my clothes into formal and then leave for the company. But when I reached my hotel, Martin was already waiting for me and he asked me to keep my luggage near the reception and directly leave for the company as it was already late. As I was in casual, I took a small bag with formals in it, so I can change somewhere. But I forgot, my tie, shoes and belt. So, the whole day I was roaming without a belt, and with formal clothes but sports shoes. I was too conscious the whole day to leave my desk and roam around to see the client’s office.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Movies, I watched in Brisbane

After being in Brisbane, lately I have been watching many German movies. Interestingly, if not all most the movies has story revolving around a whore! But I must say the story of each movie used to be so gripping that we can’t just leave it in the middle. They always mould the story so that it always has a sad ending. We actually feel sorry about their lives.

Anyways, the English movies like Election, Welcome to Moseport, Employee of the month, Jump-in etc. always made my evenings. In Election the way the life of a teacher changes from good to bad was so funny that I laughed rolling on my bed watching it.

If you are an animal lover, Charlottes Web is a must watch movie. The bond between a spider and a pig will surely make you emotional. Its an interesting story of a spider saving life of a pig!!!!!!

Though, you may not like it, but I liked 'I ought to be an actress'. The story was simple enough, but the performance and depth of each scence was superb. I actually liked the way the relationship of father and daughter was shown.

Apart from movies, I have been watching Channel-V, 8, 9, Fox, 10. The comedy series like The king of Queens, Will and Grace, how I met your mother etc are always safest bet. Simpsons cartoon is cool. There is always some character in each of the series that makes me watch the serial.

The serial I liked: Will and Grace, how I met your mother.
The Comedy movie I liked: Click, Election.Now I don’t remember the name of German movies, but I liked all of them.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Something new

I have observed that when I first arrived in Sydney, everything seemed so different. Opera house, Harbour bridge, parks, beaches, people, lifestyle amazed me for few days, then everything became a normal routine. When the routine was getting bore, luckily I was shifted to Brisbane. Here everything was different from Sydney. Gold Coast, sunshine Coast, beaches etc were different. I wait for the weekends to travel across Brisbane and see new places. But again, life is back to the boring routine. Now as per my project plan, I would be staying here till I am in Australia.

I am thinking of some good routine to invest my time into for the rest of my stay. I don’t want to change my real self.

Being Nostalgic for future

Weather in Brisbane is unpredictable. In the morning when I leave hotel, it is a bright shiny day, and in the afternoon when I leave Office, I see cloudy and dull evening. After reaching room, sipping coffee and standing in the balcony when I see down to Brisbane, I don’t see any person on the road, but only cars driving through, or ferries going towards north side.

Many times, in the weekend when I am in city, I get a feeling of being Will Smith from ‘I am Legend’.

I imagine the day when I would be back in INDIA. I imagine the fun of being with friends, relatives or even enemies. I believe that we exist because someone is thinking about us but not vice versa.

We waste our time talking on the mobile, or riding on the bike, or thinking about someone when the detour comes. A detour, which could have changed our life. This time, I am not gonna miss it.

Now that I am alone in Australia, and I have started thinking about the good and the bad and the things from past, I try to collect the broken pieces. I don’t want to fix my past but would like to build a new future, bigger one and a brighter one.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Zor ka jhatkaa!!!

I have a diary in my room, where I count the number of days left.



This morning when I reached office, Marty took me out for a chat, we were having a sandwitch when he asked about my return flight details. I casually told him that I would be returning on 30th April. Without a second thought he called the engagement manager in front of me and asked him to extend my date to 30th May! After his chat with the engagement manager, he asked me if I have a problem in staying for a month more and I smiled nodding that I have no problem while barking with anger on him on my second track! :(



After returning to desk, he said that he will try to finish the project by 30th May, and if it doesnt happen, he will make me to return back from INDIA in a weeks time after 30th May to complete it. So for now, I would be working a little harder to finish my work before deadlines!



Gosh! Cant wait to return back to INDIA. Atleast a friend's company would not have made this stay so painfull!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Life in Brisbane

Brisbane life is much easier than what it was in Sydney. Here u see more relaxed Environment. U find very less traffic on roads and lot many tourist places than in Sydney! The nearest beach is just 5min drive from my hotel! And nearest theater is at 5min of walk.

As expected from a small place, people here are very friendly and curteous enough to reply us back.

From the professional Prespective, My client 'Queensland Government' is too prfessional with their work and expects lot more professionalism from us too. I got to come to office before 9am and should leave by 5pm. It was a misconception on my part in believing that work at client side will be very different than what I do in INDIA. It is very much similar, only thing is we got to follow all standards and document every thing that we are doing here. Security of every application and Licenceing of the application is a bit different here.

Martin, Nardia, Tim and Kyle are very friendly. Tim gives me timetables and maps where I can have fun in the weekend. Workplace environment is not as relaxed as it was in INDIA, but I can listen songs occasionaly but only on headphones!

Next big thing, I am waiting for is my visit to Melbourne! If not for work, will go on my own to see the place!

Monday, March 31, 2008

The day For which I am in Australia - DreamWorld - 7th Heaven

DreamWorld was spectacular! I entered this place at 10:30am and the next time I saw my watch it was already 4:30pm(nearing closing time of DreamWorld :( ) I took only one ride of each of the Rides in this much time. There were so many rides out here, that you get confused of thinking which one to try first!!!!

To enjoy this place to the fullest, you should be here with some ADVENTUROUS buddy! You will have fun that you will never forget! Though I was alone, but there was no time to feel loneliness, coz you have no time to think, coz the rides make you so happy, so out of the world experience, that u would like to come here again and again!!!!

The 'Gaint Drop' was the scariest of all! You can think of going for a ride for second time on any of the machines here, though they may look scary and they might be scary, but for Gaint Drop, you will think atleast thrice for taking a second ride!!!! The machine takes you to a height of some half a kilometer above the ground and then u stay there watching the birds view and waiting for the drop, and the time when you are least expecting it, you will be dropped and by the time you reach down u get so scared that you will cry out with your loudest possible! The journey of 5 to 10 seconds, when you are falling freely from that height u will experience the hell - ufcourse in a good way! ;)

The second scariest was the Claw. This gives you the same experience as Gaint Drop but the height is less. The good points in the ride were that, it gives you a view where you actually see down while falling, and this rising and falling happens every minute. So you are prepared for the next rise and for the next fall. And believe me you will enjoy this ride the most. I wasted my time more here, coz I had this ride two times. :)

And then the list of scary rides moves on from 'Tower of terror' to 'Cyclone' and so on...... Cyclone is the same ride which Aamir khan had in DCH. Actually, this roller coaster was in Sydney near Harbour Bridge, but then they shifted it to the DreamWorld. Ufcourse the ride was mind blowing!

The only Frustrating part of all these rides is that you got to stand in a queue for atleast 15min. Anyways, this was not the case with the water rides, they were too big. There was one interesting ride which was called 'FlowRide'. Here the flow of water was in opposite direction and you had to slide through it. And by the time you reach down, it pushes you back with a force that you again reach back top!

Not to forget, There was a small Austalian Wild life park and Farm Lands etc. The Farm lands were to show the kind of lifestyle Australian Farmers live. In the park, I saw a huge crocodile, bengal tigers, kangaroos, bears, snakes etc. The place was to have fun with the family, so just skimmed through it! And spent my time on those adventurous machines. For lunch, I used to take some junk food or burger and eat it while I am in a queue, so saving every single moment of my visit. :)

The day passed of with great fun! At 4:30pm, I went into the IMAX for rest and saw the movie 'Space Invasion'. Even this experience was beyond my expectations. Here I actually felt that I am seeing earth from above the satellite. The view of earth and the satellite was so magnificient that it blows off your mind. The view from there actually makes you feel, how big the earth is, and how small we are! You get to see the biggest dynasty of GOD! You ponder, how GOD must be ruling it, how is he able to listen to us, how is he able to solve the problems!

Anyways, had to rush out, coz the last bus was at 5:50pm and I had to be at the bus stop atleast 10min before that. By the time I reached back room, every part of my body was crying out with pain. I fell on the bed like a dead man!

Friday, March 28, 2008

HoneyMoon Period is over

After completing my work at IAG, and also completing with the customization issues for AMP I had no work. When I asked Mark for the next good thing in which I will be involved into, he was confused but said that I would staying in Sydney for 2 weeks more.

As I was going to stay for two more weeks, I filled my refrigerators with a full stock of beer, wine, eggs, milk etc, But the very next day I got a call from Martin that I need to be in Brisbane in another 3 days. Though it was sad coz there were lot of things in refrigerator which cant be finished in 3 days, but I was excited for the Brisbane trip. I stayed in Sydney for 20 days.
The new Client Queensland Governement had a pretty good office. It was large enough that it took me two days to actually memorize the route from security to the IT department. Anyways, the very first shock I got regarding the work I am supposed to do was that of Environment. It was again Clustered environment with Websphere, and this time I had to create the setup from Scratch. The more frustrating thing is that the environment which I am going to make will also need to be configured for LDAP. Now the icing on cake, I had to replicate this envirnment for UAT, DEV and Production environment as well.

Apart from the environment setup, I also had to write scripts which will extract data from there legacy LMS system to SABA. The very first day they gave me the details of Dev machine on which I had to make the setup and also schema Diagram of there Legacy system. I could imagine that the tough days has just begun, while the honeymoon period of Sydney is over!!! :(

Bird Watching

Must say, the kind of body language and the kind of dressing sense that I have seen in Sydney cant be imagined with Indian girls. And surely it is gonna take more 100years for our Indian girls to get that bold and to adapt that attitude.

But a chinky girl will spoil your mood. Every third girl passing-by is a chinky here.

In just two weeks of my stay in Sydney, I had to cover all the bids flying by, so I leave office at around 5pm and go straight to harbour bridge. I have observed that more good looking Australian girls can be seen near Imax theater, rather than the Opera House. Almost 1000 girls pass-by daily, when I am sitting near the Darling Harbour, out of which 80% come with their boyfreinds, 10% are fat, 9% fly in there own world and 1% who are good looking and alone doesnt see me! :(

Anyways, Daily routine of gym-office-harbour-room is no more thrilling for me, now waiting for the day when I will reach Brisbane. All my hopes are on Brisbane now!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Day 11 - Back to Pavillion

My First client, IAG squeezed me for every doubt they had, and drilled me for every issue they had! After those harsh days, I am back to Sydney office. Until I raise any alarm, I can sit here quietly with no work and enjoying my paid holidays at sydney! ;)

Day 10 - Third day Onsite

Gosh, Clients work veery differntly. They ask the same question but from different angles. And we get confused if we are answering correctly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, Last day went with solving all their queries and performance tunning of server.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Day 9 in Sydney - second day at onsite

After much head brreaking sessions and research and trouble shooting, I was finally able to resolve the notification issue!!!!!!!!

Wasnt left much for the day so came to SABA office, downloaded Black and white and went straight to room afterwards.

Day 7 and 8 - First Weekend in Sydney

When I opened my eyes, it was 11am!!!!! This ruined my pans of going to beach. Even it was very sunny day. So I planned to wash all my clothes on saturday and have this beach plan executed on sunday!

Washed all my clothes, pressed them, cooked food and had a nap. By the time I got up, it was 5pm. I planned to go to Opera house, instead of wasting my time inside the room. So got ready fast, went down, and took a cab strainght to Opera house.

Opera House, was good. Harbour bridge was big enough. Restaurants, parks, surroundings, boat ride etc were good enough. The thing frustrated me was that I took atleast 7 photographs on request for couples. Seeing me walking alone, many requested me to take their photograph, while they pose!!!!!!!!!!!! !#$#@$!#$!$

Anyways, after reaching the saturation point of frustration, took a cab and returned to room agian. Cooked some food, ate it and went back to bed!!!!!

While going to sleep, I already made up my mind that I will not go to beach tomorrow to become photographer!! :(

Anyways, On sunday I went for swimming, then to sauna bath for some time. Roamed around city for sometime, got some beer.

Day 6 in Sydney - First Onsite day

Today, Martin took me to IAG. My first Onsite day and My first Onsite Client.

IAG has 13000 employees, so ufcourse the architecture was clustered in Websphere. The first issue I got was to resolve Notification server thing in that Clustered thingie.

Gosh!!!!!! Horible!!!! I never touched Websphere, on top of that it was a clustered Environment. The day passed off, just in understanding the architecture and in understanding Websphere.

After 6pm, I went straight to SABA office, to try hard get the laptop issue resolved. Somehow, I was able to figure a utility which resets administrator password to null. This research and reseting took a long time, and it was almost 9pm in the office. On my way back to room, it started raining heavily. Gosh! rains in Sydney cant be predicted!!!!!!!

I was very excited about the weekend, as I had lots of plan for it. So went early to bed, to getup early!!!!!

Day 5 in Sydney

Prady came to office today!!!!!! He is a cool guy! The problem is, he shifted to sydney with his family, so I cant expect him to take me to pubs or sydney!!!!

Anyways, as usual, the day went on with me hitting my head on my laptop to reset it. The only option left with me was to throw this laptop in a bin, and ask for a new one. But I was warned by prady that this will make me waiting for atleast 15 days, and still might not get a new one!

After coming back to room, I got a call from prady, he gave me number of his friends in Sydney. I met them on Sydney Harbour. These guys were kids from MBA college in their final sem. They were good enough to show me the streets of Sydney. They took me to Indian restaurants, central station, Indian stores etc. These kids(!!!!!! Am I growing old! :) ) were passing comments among each other for every girl that were passing us, just like we used to do in our college days. Fuuny incident is, that one boy told us that the girl walking is surely a french. He said, he could make out through the height and the physique. But later when the girl turned, she looked chinese. And then all sorts of nasty comments flowed!!!!!!

Had a great time roaming around the sydney street with them. Not to forget, the Chicken-biryani that I had was good. Though not as good as of Hyderabadi biryani, but still eatable! ;)

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Day4 in Sydney

I finally got one laptop, though was not as good as it was expected, but I had no choice. The whole day, I was downloading songs, chatting with friends.

Afternoon, I went out with one of my colleague for lunch. I had Chicken-kebab. Though, it was not as good as what we get in INDIA, but had australian taste! (Now dont ask me what an australian taste is, once you reach some foreign counry you will feel a kind of taste in every meal.)

After finishing with the office work, I went straight to room, left my bag there, sat for 5 minutes and then again went out to explore city more. I also went to IMAX theater and watched 'Beowulf'. That was the time when I realized that even Animation movies gets scary, if seen on a 3D screen! Sound effect and 3D made that ordinary movie look more interesting. It was an awesome experience.

After the movie, went home and cooked food! I must say that now I have atleast learnt how to make rice, with appropriate amount of water and appropriate amount of heating. I also learnt how to boil milk. And last but not the least, I have learnt how to wash dishes!!! :)

The important change that I have observed in these four days, is that I have started keeping the room clean. I take 10min out daily to clean the room. The only thing which makes this possible for me to do is music. I play loud music, and do all the work!!!!!!!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Day3 in Sydney

Well, the day passed off with me working on some work given by my manager.

Later reached home to watch INDIA winning the series in cricket.

Cooked some food, then roamed around city, got some beer, then went to sleep!

:( You can call this as the boring day!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Day2 in Sydney

Gotup early in the morning to reach office early! And much to my surprise, I found only one guy sitting in a 3-roomed flat, which he called it as an office! !@#!@#!@#$!@#!@#!@

Anyways, I tried calling my managers and no one responded, so shot a mail and went back to room! :)

Again had a nap and ate some rice and dal(MTR product), which I brought from INDIA.

After 6pm, I went to Darling Harbour and was roaming around watching birds getting cozy with their bf in some corner!

For night, I tried preparing egg-curry! And after eating it, I felt that instead of aspiring to work in movies, I should think of becoming a cook! hahahahaha Seriously, speaking the curry was good in taste!

Watched a movie on the laptop, which I got in the office and then went to sleep!!!!!!

Sydney Day1

After a lot of Grilling, I was able to get out of Sydney Airport. Took a taxi and went straight to my room in Meriton Apartments. Meriton Apartments is a 70 storied building (approx.) with 10 floors underground! Mine is at 43rd floor. Room was just like the room were Aamir khan stayed in DCH. Had every facility from kitchen, dishwasher, washin machine, internet to gym and swimmimg pool in the Apartment. From balcony, I could view the whole city.

Took a nap, and then went out in the city for Bird-watching! ;) Kent Street which is the center of the city, had lots of theaters, pubs, discs, malls etc. I went into Woolworths for shopping and returned to room.

Watched a movie and went to sleep!

hahahahaha

Now, dont tell me that the day went boring, I had fun roaming around the city discovering traffic sense, mono-rail etc. Must say, stay in sydney is awesome experience!

Halt of 5 hours in Singapore

Singapore Airline ki Air-hostess ek dum Pariyan thi!!! Kash hamare domestic air flights mein bhi aisi Air-hostess hoti!!!

And to say about Singapore Airport, it had 3 terminals. And to travel from one terminal to another there were sky-trains. The Airport was too big.

Not wasting even a single moment I roamed around the airport for atleast 4 hours! Items from Electronic to ;) were too costly!!!!!!! And I didnt had time to waste standing in the queue of custom-free section. Anyways, timepassed off quickly on the airport.