So I always say I should update more often, but do you think I listen to myself? No. It’s been virtually a month, and a heap’s happened. I had a few weeks at uni before going overseas, and those weeks of uni weren’t bad. I felt quite confident, and was pretty well prepared. I nervously accepted the fact that I’d have to do two assignments while I was in the states, and set about ensuring I could at least make somewhat of a fist at them. Oh well.

So on Wednesday the 15th we left, and we lounged in the Qantas club waiting for our flight to be called. I took the opportunity to do some of my uni readings and orientate myself for the assignments I’d inevitably have to do while over there. We were seated next to each other on the flight over, which was expected, but I got relocated to a place with spare seats. This worked out splendidly for me, cos I could spread my uni crap out on the next seat.

Dean and Woo in Qantas Club in Brisbane

I read a lot and watched a few movies on the way over; most of them were pretty good. They were: Lantata, The Oyster Farmer, A History of Violence, and Blazing Saddles to bring the tone down a little :p I’ve gotta say, the writing of Lantana was brilliant. At times, the tension and turn of events were so awkward that I couldn’t help but laugh aloud.

But anyway, we landed in LAX at about 7. I never ceased to amuse Dean with how much crap I carried in my pockets, especially when trying to clear the security scan to get into the gates. We caught a shuttle to the Radisson to book our night’s stay for about 10 days later. We then resided in the Maccas at the airport, playing cards that I bought. The cards purchase was my first experience using their coinage, and I stood there for a few seconds trying to work out what the hell their coins did. I should point out that nowhere on the dime does it say it’s value is ten cents!

We were just about dying from tiredness by the time our flight to SLC came around - neither of us slept on the way over. I was asleep virtually as soon as I was seated.

Salt Lake was pretty nice. It was the first time I’d experienced snow falling, so I relished it, until one night we had to walk 3 or 4 blocks in it to get to our car thanks to Dean’s awesome sense of direction A friend of mine wanted to see me suffer by going out into the snow in my togs and having a photo taken, so I obliged and had the photo made into a postcard and sent off to her.

I collected all the freebies at the show, and by just listening to Dean I became competent enough to carry out a relatively basic conversation about ZENith - at least pertaining to version 4.30; anything else was passed to Dean.

I reluctantly and shoddily completed one of my assignments in SLC. I went for a bit of a walk a few times to shops and stuff. The friggin’ Americans can’t seem to grasp the idea of including the tax in their prices. I went to the dollar store, where their slogan is “Everything’s a Dollar!” and came out with three things, and paid $3.18 because of their stupid tax added on. I might also take the opportunity to say that pennies are useless - thank god we don’t use 1c pieces here any more.

Unfortunately we missed out on going to see both the hockey game and the basketball game we’d planned on seeing, but we had a great time nonetheless - at least I did.

Vegas is like nothing else on Earth that I’ve experienced. I was so excited when we got into our room I was bouncing off the walls. Dean was again amused. The only gambling experience I’ve had has been playing the odd poker machine at the bowls club and playing poker with the boys here at home, so I was a little nervous to say the least. I started with blackjack and got a few hours of entertainment out of $40, and I came out even to boot! So my first table gaming experience was in Vegas. What a baptism. The next morning was poker, and I was even more nervous. My heart was just about jumping out of my chest - totally exhilerating - and I won a small ammount, which was awesome, but short-lived.

View of the strip from our room

We saw a few shows and I had one more assignment to complete, which I slapped together some tripe. It wasn’t a very important assignment, and I knew my marker would be lenient, so I took advantage of both facts, and who wouldn’t given my situation? I loved Vegas, despite the costly nature of merely existing there. I was however dissapointed with the Belagio fountain shutting off at what would be considered an appropriate time if you were anywhere else in the world, but not Vegas. That’s my only complaint, but I figure I’m definitely coming back so I’ll see it then.

LA was fun too. I went on the WB tour and climbed the rope (made it to the top too!) at muscle beach as well as trying a few other aparatus less successfully. I also caught up with some e-friends and saw the Hollywood sign and had dinner with them before returning to the hotel just in time to leave the country.

Woo at the top of the rope

The flight back was less comfortable, but we managed to sleep a bit. I got enough sleep to last till 11:30pm the night we got home - Dean however lasted until 8pm :p

We were greeted with some shocking news of Dad’s health and went straight to the hospital from the airport. We had enough time with him to show him some of our goodies and tell him some stories before he got wheeled off into surgery. For those who don’t know, he had a quadruple bypass on Monday, and is since recovering in the ward quite well, but will take some time to get used to it I’m sure. The good thing is, it’s a preventative operation, as he hasn’t had a heart attack, and the op will most likely extend his time of good health substantially.

Looking forward to poker on Wednesday - I think I’ve got the Vegas edge now that should help me.

Hello, everyone, and happy Thursday. Dad is doing well, and is now out of ICU and into the regular old ward. He’ll probably be there for a week or so yet, but its great that he’s doing so much better.

Brek … 24, the sooner the better. This weekend, I hope. When’s good for you?

I’m off to Rob and Nadia’s for dinner tonight, so that’ll be nice. I’m hoping for pasta, but then, I always hope for pasta wherever I go, which makes for strange looks in mexican restaurants, but sometimes life is tough.

I hope that SLC can make a crack at it this weekend, perhaps as a prelude to the F1 Grand Prix on tv. Coverage starts at 10am, and I know that Glenn and Blacky are down for the watching. Perhaps if we can’t get together for lunch, then dinner or something might be the go, post race? Who’s down for that?

Happy Birthday to Lara, today. 40 must hit hard.

Also, before I forget, we need a 24 soon … Brek available this weekend any day? Let me know.
Poker next Wednesday, regardless of the number of players. It’s happening folks, don’t you disbelieve it.

Now, the LA component of the adventure: we arrived and checked in to the Airport Radisson, where dad and I had such a pleasant stay last time. Correctly figuring that hiring a car would be prerable to taxi rides in LA, we hired a Camry with GPS and set off - the mission, was to find a) lunch and b) Warner Bros Studio Tour for Woo (I went with Dad 2 years ago). Mission one was accomplished with Taco Bell near the studio, and eventually we found the tour location of mission two for Woo to get on the 4pm tour. I went to Bank of America and was generally screwed around by bureaucracy before hitting a laundromat with a Domino’s pizza emporium next door. Fate?

6pm I headed back to the tour locale, where Woo had just finished the tour and had a good time. The trip home took a couple more hours, and we had In-N-Out burgers on the way home for tea. I went to bed, Woo went to the bar upstairs for general merriment.

Next day - Saturday - was our final day in LA, and indeed, the US. Woo was meeting friends, who were going out for food with him, but I had nothing particular planned, so I checked out LA Airport’s reknowned strip clubs, where the special of the day was $1 Steak and Chips. Hooray! The $5 cover charge, and the $6 cokes mitigated that success somewhat, but it was still a good way to kill a few hours. Ultimately, though, I got bored, and by about 4pm, I caught a cab back to the Radisson to sit in their upstairs bar and read my book with a few Sam Adam’s.

The flight back sucked, always sucks more than you remember it sucking. This flight didn’t even have Video on Demand, so I tried to sleep, which is usually a fruitless endeavour, but I had some limited success on this occasion. Catching an international flight from LAX is an example of how stupid people can be - you have to line up in no less than 3 lines throughout the check-in process. And again, I repeat my constant decree: I’ll never fly economy again.

Well … until next year./sigh

Dad is doing well - they removed the sedation last night, and he has stirred, so that’s all encouraging.

Vegas, as always, was a blast. We pulled down our booth on Wednesday afternoon in Salt Lake and headed out to the airport. I bought an extra suitcase to help transport things, so we were up to 3 bags to be checked now. The lady at SLC airport was a bitch and made us pay $25 because our bags were too heavy. Whatever, I blame Mum’s stupid dolls. :p

The flight to Vegas was short, there was a really unpleasant woman in front of Callun who complained every time he moved. In the end, they moved her to another seat. We didn’t care, in fact, we laughed about it. Karma wasn’t kind to us getting our bags though, and we ended up a little late for Folies Bergere at the Tropicana.

Eventually we got to our “upgraded” room … (I use the quotes around “upgraded” because the rooms we booked are actually undergoing refurbishment, so there wasn’t a lot of choice for them, really :teehee:) which was on the 20th floor, with a view overlooking the strip. If it wasn’t for the smoky smell, it would’ve been perfect.

I hit the hay relatively early, but Woo pushed on for a while and checked out the scene at the Trop’.

Thursday we had to play some poker, and played at stakes that were a little too high to be comfortable. The “No Limit” tables I play at online have a $25 buy-in, so the most you’ll get called for is usually $25. This table had a buy-in from anywhere from $50 - $400, so if you bet $10, people would have no problems calling a bet that size. It’s all relative. Anyway, a few wins, a few more losses, and the “gambling” component of Vegas was complete.

We had lunch at Aladdin’s buffet … the best buffet in Vegas imo. Shrimp beyond counting, and other fine foods made it a very pleasant, but ridiculously plentiful lunch. (this was a one meal day, no other food was required all day). We saw a ventriloquist at the Rio, and I booked tickets to Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood’s live show, from “Who’s Line is it Anyway?” later that evening. We also had tickets to see La Femme at MGM grand at 10:30pm, so the evening was pretty full-up. By about 1am, I hit the cafe for their steak and eggs special, and went to bed a little sloshed, and very content. Woo walked to the fountains at the Bellagio, but missed them by mere minutes. At least he got to talk to a hooker on the way about the vegas lifestyle.

Coming up next … Los Angeles, the city of Angels.

Well, I’m back - this morning Mum collected Woo and I from the International airport. This was our scheduled arrival time and we hadn’t yet been told about dad’s surgery - M&D basically chose to let us finish our “tour of duty” in the states, as they realized there was nothing to be gained by telling us any earlier. We went to the hospital to find Dad had been shaved down - this left him looking rather thin and comical looking. After about an hour his pre-meds kicked in and was very dozy, as it was time to go.

His surgery went well and ended up being a quadruple bypass. At present he is in intensive care and will be for 2/3 days. His vitals have yet to be returned to normal so he is not conscious however his colour is quite good.

I’m quite tired now, and I imagine Woo is too - I’ll blog a bit more about Vegas/LA area tomorrow probably.

Hello my pretties, and may I say a hearty congratulations to Glenn for his update yesterday - it’s nice to hear how you’re all getting on back home. I’m also glad you’re doing things that I would argue against, that just goes to prove how right I always am :p

ok ok ok, the show is going great, I think. The photo above is of our both, Woo and I looking resplendent in our posh finery. With 2 days to go, we’re pretty much out of CDs, and have about 300 (out of 1000) beach balls to give away. General wisdom (in Australia at least) is that you don’t give away stupid carp that’s unrelated to your core business at a trade or consumer show. I think in America that’s not the case - these people love stupid free crap, and more often than not, they’re just waiting for an excuse to talk to you.

The beach balls are a case in point … they’re 10″ blue beach balls with my logo and the words “ZENworks Automation” on it. About 1/2 the people see the “ZENworks Automation” on the beach ball and engage you to ask what that means. That particular phrase is also plastered over our booth, too, but the beach ball focuses their attention, I think, otherwise they’re walking in an “information overload” daze.

Well, today’s Tuesday, which means the Sponsor Party is on tonight - basically means we have to work while attendees get plastered and stumble through the exhibit hall. Then tomorrow, we’re bailing on the conference party to get the hell out of dodge, so to speak, and head to Vegas.

Oh yeah, while we are at Blacky’s place, Charlotte showed us her latest trick. It’s magic.

Last time I blogged was ages ago, so let’s just start with Friday night and work our way forward. I think we had fried rice for dinner and flicked between Friday Night Games and the Commonwealth Games - I’m not sure which is more pathetic *ouch*. When Lara went to bed, I played poker on the PSP for quite a while and made the final table in a tournament.

Saturday I took Charlotte grocery shopping as usual and then came home and read the paper. I had a look at the horse racing, but decided against betting, although I told Blacky about a horse that was running. It ended up winning at juicy odds. Blacky had only backed it for a place and I hadn’t backed it all. Lara and Charlotte made a delicious pineapple and coconut cake in the afternoon, while I lay on the couch fighting off the onset of an allergy/cold type thing. I summoned up the strength to get Red Rooster for dinner and then we both crashed at about 9pm - crazy early for a Saturday.

Sunday morning Bek called to firm up the arrangements for SLC. She said she’d call Blacky, but he called me first. Having vowed to do things that Dean would usually argue against, we decided South Bank would be our venue. Turns out Dean was right and South Bank presented all kinds of pains in the arse. First was getting there - Blacky walked and Brek scootered - but the Glaramobile had to deal with thousands of kids doing some kind of crap triathlon (I choose not to mention the name of the sponsor) and the associated road blockages. We eventually grabbed a park on the road, but it was only for a hour. We met up with the rest of the gang - N.B. Leyton had not responded to the original SLC SMS so we assumed he wasn’t coming - and wandered along Little Stanley St before settling on Toscani’s as the lunch venue. I had to go and move the car and some stage, and when I got back everyone’s order had arrived except for mine. After a while, we managed to grab the attention of a waitress, who may or may not have been using pens to hold her hair in place, and apprised her of the situation. She didn’t get back to me for quite a while, but we heard he tell the kitchen staff that the item in question was in the computer ordering system but had not been delivered. By the time she came to talk to me about the it, the others had pretty much finished, so I said not to worry about it. She came back later with my meal and they gave it to me ‘on the house’ as they had already prepared it. It wasn’t particularly impressive and I wasn’t particularly impressed. The free meal didn’t even make up for the crap milkshakes we endured.

After a quick scout around the markets, we headed back to Blacky’s (that’s what it’s called at the moment) once we found a set of stairs that went to the lower level car park and stopped at the IGA for some ice blocks. We watched an episode of My Name is Earl and checked the footy scores - at last something went right for me - and complained about Dean pillaging the poker accounts. Didn’t hang around too long as Brek needed to get to the shops (hopefully my call about them being open to 6pm was correct) and I needed to make dinner - Char-grilled chicken salad. Was OK, but I was interrupted by a phone call about the car we are selling. That’s good, as it’s the first phone call we’ve had in over a week, but the woman asked me a lot a of questions in the ‘I know you’re hiding something and I’m going to find out what’ kind of vein. It sounded like she was interested though, so hopefully we’ll have a sale….

Now I’m at work and three sheets to the wind…the result of a deal I had with a few other guys about 5 years ago that whenever any of us got promoted we would shout a round of drinks. There’s been a few promotions since our last get together, so we had some serious catching up to do. Seeing as we were at the Irish Club, pints of Guiness and Kilkenney seemed appropriate….now I’m not so sure….

Well, I guess that makes it Monday morning back home, so I thought I’d whip up a quick blog entry for ma homies back home. Things here are good, although the constant nosebleeds due to the incredible dryness of the air are quickly tiring. It’s snowing, as well, so there hasn’t been much incentive to go outside of late.

Let’s see - when we last spoke, I was about to go shopping and have breakfast with Lisa. We met her at her house, and picked up a heap of boxes that had arrived at her house - most of which were Mum’s stupid dolls - and then headed to this “Waffle and Omelette House” which serves, you guessed it, waffles and omelettes, pretty much 24/7 from what I gather. Woo had an spanish omelette which would make you full just looking at it, Lisa had a waffle, and I had biscuits and gravy, which was absolutely great. We then hit up a supermarket, and I bought a sim card for my phone, so I wouldn’t be woken up by my mobile ringing throughout the night I also redirected my 1800 number in the States to my new mobile, so that works pretty well.

Business has been quite good since I got here actually … I may do a record month this month and next. Being in the right time-zone helps quite a bit.

Thursday night I had to fly to Ohio for a meeting with clients there, which was a good flight in business class, but it was raining and unpleasant when I arrived after 1am Friday. I had to wake the manager at the hotel in which I was saying to check me in after hours. I slept till about 8am, and then called the client and arranged a 10am meeting. Meeting went well … very well … and then said, at about 11:30, “so … is 11.30am too early for lunch for you guys?”

IT guys never pass up a free meal, so we hit a nice place in Columbus called The Cheesecake Factory, which was packed with about 200 people even at 11:30am. I flew back to Salt Lake via Atlanta, departing Columbus at 2pm, and arriving back at the hotel, after several late flights, at about 9pm. It was raining in SLC, and the drive home was difficult.

Woo greeted me at the door, by spraying me convincingly with silly string. A random end to a very boring day.

Saturday, Woo and I set up the stand at Brainshare, it looks great. We hung the banners with fishing line, and stuck another banner around a table with carpet tape - basically heavy-duty double-sided tape, from what I gather. I’ll post a picture when I remember. I called Lisa, who’d just finished work, and we arranged to meet at her place so I could collect more boxes. Woo and I stopped for lunch at Apollo burger, and enjoyed their delicious “greek style” burgers, and drinks the size of a bucket.

At Lisa’s place, the long-awaited boxes were the custom hawaiian shirts - they’re both too big, but look pretty good - and the beach balls, which are smaller than I expected, but still way awesome. Oh, and more dolls. Woo and I took photos of the ones received so far, and emailed them to mum, so she could hopefully keep track of which ones she was still yet to receive. I think we have about 9/10 so far. :rolleyes:

It started snowing pretty heavily Saturday night, so I had an early night. Today (Sunday) we’re off to brunch with Lisa’s friends at Hopper’s Grill, and then the show starts at the Salt Palace at 2pm, till 6pm or so. There’s a welcome function afterwards, but it’s usually pretty lame, so we’ll see how it goes.

Hello, one, and hello all from the USA. We finally made it, although the trip was as long and gruelling as I recalled. The initial setout wasn’t bad at all - QANTAS club for the two hours prior to departure, and then Callun was moved to another seat with a spare beside it, which worked out great for both of us … me because I got the two seats I’d hoped for, and Woo because he could keep all his study materials on the seat beside him. The new QANTAS flights have Video on Demand to their entertainment system, which means you watch movies according to your own schedule. If a movie sucks, you quit and start another one, not having to miss out on the first 20 minutes or whatever when they all started at the same time.

I saw The Weatherman, a Nicholas Cage film in which his life as a weatherman becomes progressively more complicated; History of Violence, in which a suburban man who defends his store gets unwanted mob attention; Shopgirl, in which Steve Martin charms shop assistant Claire Danes, who is looking for a relationship, where he is not; The Squid and the Whale; in which a family falls apart; and The Constant Gardner, in which a conspiracy is uncovered and Rachel Weisz is hot. I also read the first of the birthday books from Rob and Nadia - The Gunslinger by Stephen King. Productive flight.

Cleared customs and then had like, 5 hours to kill at the airport terminal waiting for the next flight. This is where the real boredom started. The first few hours we passed at McDonalds playing cards, before moving along to California Pizza Kitchen, for more cards. Cards were eventually discarded when it became too hard to concentrate and we sat staring into space for the last few hours, making fun of people when eyes became focused.

The flight from LAX to SLC was slept through, and barely noticed. That was good at least. We EVENTUALLY got our luggage and our hire car, and head out from SLC airport to our hotel, which is perfect for what I was after. Cheap and easy. :teehee: They have wireless internet here for $5 per stay, which is unbelievable, and I fell asleep pretty much immediately, while Callun went looking for dinner. He returned with a Chimichanga from the local mexican place and graviously gave me a taste.

This morning, it’s shopping and catching up with Lisa, and then this afternoon, washing and packing for my trip to Ohio tonight. Fun and games.