Hello Wellington

And 45 minutes later, I am down in the capital of New Zealand, Wellington. And the weather blows. I really like Wellington, even better than Auckland, but it does have a little bit of the "San Francisco in summertime" problem. Even so, I got my cup of coffee from Mojo (possibly the best tasting coffee in the world, they even put the Silver Fern in the foam like Guinness and the clover) and actually got some work done in the office today.

Goodbye Auckland

Up early this morning to get down to Wellington. Before I left, I caught breakfast near our office at the Viaduct. They had the racing boats out for the tourists.

Stopover In Auckland

Arrived in Auckland late last night (2 AM) and then literally ran from meeting to meeting all day. Well not all day. Basically, we got to about 3 PM and decided to leave for beers (as you do). Our office is down with the other tech companies at the viaduct, nearby to quite a few pubs. While they've replaced most of the America's Cup syndicate warehouses with fancy apartments, it is mostly as I left it a few years ago. This picture is out my hotel window towards some huge tower in downtown. Off to Wellington this afternoon.

Coffee Melbourne-style

The Internet connection in my hotel is bad, to the point of being unusable. So, I've been searching this week for suitable coffee establishments where I might be able to catch up on things after work hours. While there are plenty of coffee shops here in Melbourne (they fancy themselves the most european of Australian cities), most of them do not adhere to /k's rules of coffeehouse greatness:

• The internet shall be free and it shall be fast.
• The chairs will be comfortable and oversized.
• The music will be playing, but quietly in case one wants to listen to their iPods. And if you do play music, it must not be elevator music or techno.
• They should bring your coffee to you, if the wait will be more than three minutes. And it should be better than I can make at home.
• Power plugs. Everywhere.

After much searching, I have found a place that actually fits all of these requirements (except the music): Mag Nation (as in Magazine Nation). Not a coffee shop, per se, but a shop that sells about 600 different magazines (mostly from the UK). The photo above shows the magazine selection on 1/4 of one wall on the second floor. And it happens to have free Internet, comfy couches, power plugs and a decent flat white. Unfortunately, its in Melbourne CBD which is a short tram ride from my hotel. Still, worth it. Now if they would just turn down the crappy techno music . . .

Signage

I see this sign everyday on my walk to work. And I have no idea what it means.

Melbourne Cup

Got a chance to go to the Melbourne Cup yesterday. The Cup is the largest horse race in the Southern Hemisphere, roughly comparable to our Kentucky Derby, with fewer rednecks and more champagne drinking. I got a corporate box to the festivities (through a client) so we were out of the unseasonably cold, wet weather. The picture below is the finish of the Cup, where Japanese horse Delta Blues edged fellow Japanese horse Pop Rocks (who I think ran in the US this year).
While I had a great time, we lost all of our bets. 9 straight races, 9 losses. In the main race, the 7th, we picked 2/3 of the trifecta, but the not the winner. However, I did manage to win a bottle of Chardonnay in one of the raffles in the corporate box.

Melbourne

After twenty-three hours and three flights, I made it safe and sound to Melbourne. A pretty tame flight all in all. In fact, if the entire international terminal in LAX hadn't been made to "freeze" (yes, freeze as in freeze tag), I probably wouldn't have remembered anything about the flight at all. Melbourne is as lovely as always and as a special bonus, it appears that my hotel has been renovated since I was hear last.

My hotel is across the street from the Albert Cricket Grounds, so I celebrated my good travel fortune by catching a quick run.

I'm tired now, so I am going to sleep. Finally.

Off To Melbourne

As part of my new job (which it a lot like my old job), I will be working in Melbourne, Australia for a few weeks. Along the way, I might make it over to New Zealand for a couple of days also. While I'm not that excited to be away from home, it turns out that I will be arriving in Melbourne just in time for the Melbourne Cup, the Aussie's answer to the Kentucky Derby (except with less white trash). My office has scored us some tickets, so expect some sweet photos around Tuesday morning PST.

Louie On The Mend

Sick Louie
Originally uploaded by /k.

Louie dog has had a rough few weeks. Two weeks ago, he fell ill late on a Friday night. Although he had been fine all day, around 11 pm, he got up off the couch, tried to walk out the dog door, puked his guts out and then fell into shock. I rushed him to the emergency veterinary clinic, but they couldn't really figure out what was wrong with him. After stabilizing him around 2 AM, we decided to operate and he had a emergency laprodectomy (I didn't spell this right) around 8 AM Saturday. Basically, they opened Louie up to check out his lower vital organs. They didn't find the perforated large intestine like they thought, but his kidneys were enlarged and inflamed. After two days of touch or go, Louie popped right out of his funk (probably due to the anti-biotic he was on) and was more or less fine.

Today, Louie finally got to trade in his cape and have his surgical staples removed. In another week or two, he should be back out chasing his tennis ball. The only lasting effects will be a large ugly scar down his abdomen, which should be covered once his tummy fur grows back.

Still don't have any idea what caused the kidney problems. His tests all came back negative (cancer, poison, infection, etc.), so they think he might have eaten something.

The picture above is Louie dog today after his staple removal.

Simple

I love when things are made simple. Especially when simple == delicious indian food.

Why can't all things be this way (and no I don't just mean indian food). Captured in San Francisco near O'Farrell last week.