Melbourne Trip

Recently, I was asked to go down to Melbourne to assist with some internal controls testing relating to inventories. As this was one area where I felt I needed more experience in, I saw it as a good opportunity.
On the first day, I was out of the house and in a taxi to the airport at 6:15am. The trip was quick, and was in the terminal by 6:50. As I had been assigned an exit row seat, I needed to check in manually so that they could see that I was suitable to sit there. 5 minutes later, I had my boarding pass in hand and was through security, waiting for a colleague, who was going to be with me on the trip. He had a Qantas Club membership, and was going to take me into the club. However, his taxi was running late and only arrived at 7:40, which was the advertised boarding time for the flight. As a result, there was no time to go in :(.
As the flight was a morning flight, they had complementary newspapers, so I loaded up on reading material and boarded.
The flight was pretty much 100% full, and we took off on time. Once in the air, we were served breakfast, which consisted of yoghurt, bacon & egg muffin & sliced apple. Eating breakfast was a challenge, as my tray table was broken.
Between breakfast, the newspapers & ABC local radio, the flight passed by very quickly, and we landed in Melbourne slightly early.
There was a rental car booked for the trip, so I went to collect the car. In a sign that working in Melbourne is like working in Sydney, I was given a Camry, with NSW licence plates.
The rest of the day was spent on site, testing controls. Once that was finished for the day, it was time to check in at the hotel.
On the drive to the hotel, there was another sign that working in Melbourne is like working in Sydney; the radio stations were virtually identical, with very similar playlists & even the same shows.
At the hotel, I was given a King sized guest room. The room was showing a bit of wear and tear, and is probably due for refurbishment.
We decided to have dinner at Crown, and settled on a seafood restaurant. Interestingly, we both had steak.
After dinner, and a wander around the gaming area, we returned to the hotel.
A few observations while walking around:
Most of the dealers looked uni aged, and probably should have been studying. There was even 1 dealer who looked underaged.
At least 2/3 of the floor space was for pokies.
Most pokies in the casino were 1c or 2c, and were well patronised by people with grey hair.
The next morning, we had the buffet breakfast at the hotel. The buffet had a wide range, which meant that you could have anything from a continental breakfast, to a European breakfast (with a cold plate of ham, cheese, smoked salmon etc), traditional breakfast, and even Japanese breakfast.
After breakfast, it was back to work. I was to visit a couple of retail outlets and test controls there, while my colleague returned to the main site from the day before and finish his testing there.
Visiting the retail outlets was interesting, as it was very different to the other sites I had been to, and was a very interesting experience.
Once the testing was finished, it was time to pick up my colleague and head back to the airport.
Once checked in, we headed to the Qantas Club there.
Entering the lounge, I felt under dressed, as 80% of the people there were in a suit & tie. The wine area & bar were very popular areas.
As it was now 2:30pm, and I had not had anything since 8:00am, I was feeling peckish. There was a buffet there, which consisted of cheese, ham, salami, potato salad, rolls/crackers/etc as well as chicken & corn soup.
Food/drink, Internet access & a quiet area - who could ask for more :)
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and it was time to board the flight back home. As with the flight down, the flight back was 100% full.
The flight back was uneventful, with a snack of a muesli bar and roasted chickpeas served, and we touched down at 5:30pm.
The taxi home was during peak hour, and was painful, taking around 80 minutes to get home.

Zuo's Bucks Night

A friend of mine, Zuo, is getting married soon. As a result, he had a Bucks Night last week. (It's late, I know, but better late then never).
The night started off at a Uyghur restaurant, where there was a whole roast lamb pre-ordered. In addition to the lamb, we ordered various items off the menu.
One interesting observation from the menu: the chicken section of the menu consisted of 5 dishes of chicken with vegetables. Fortunately, there were pictures, so that you could see that all 5 chicken dishes were in fact, different.
In addition to the lamb, we ordered more lamb (but in skewers), some dumplings & one of the aforementioned chicken with vegetables dishes, this one cooked in chilli.
The lamb was brought out with some fanfare, and resulted in many of the surrounding tables taking photos of the dish.
Ordering the other dishes meant that there was plenty of lamb left over, so there was plenty of leftovers to go around.
After dinner, it was time to dress the lucky groom up in an improvised Supermen outfit for a trek across town to karaoke. While on the way there, we came across another person dressed as a legitimate Superman, who was also on his bucks night, so there were photos taken of that.
Once at the karaoke bar, we had a fun 2 hours singing loudly.
A fun night was had by all.
I'll upload photos, once I figure out the best place to upload them to.