Friday Night in Melbourne

I have been in Melbourne since tuesday night and it has been raining off and on since then. Tonight it started pouring with lots of thunder and lighting. We had worked a bit late and i went wandering down the road a bit in search of some dinner. The area I am staying in is called Prahran, and its super trendy. hipsters galore. Lots of shops and bars and restaurants.

The hotel I am staying at is an "Art Series" hotel and its super clever.
 Its called "The Cullen," named after the artist Andy Cullen. I can't say i am a fan of his art. Take a look below. Aside from the questionable art its a great hotel. good location, nice cafe, and a friendly staff.

Working in the Melbourne office has been good. Its a nice little office on three floors with desks that are bigger then mine. I still blame Abigail for the size of our desks. Everyone in the office has been super nice. I was telling them today about our 'feats of strength" and i may try and create a few events for the office here to compete in next week. Here are a few pictures of the office for your viewing enjoyment.

Today we drove out to the Ford facility to their design office to check out the concept for U357. The design contact there is a guy that graduated from my college a few years before i did. In fact he bought a glass cocktail table that i displayed at the student show when i was in college. i hate to use the phrase but it is a small world isn't it?

Thats all for today as i am tired, but i will leave you with a few random pictures.

Cheers.

Sydney Day one evening

Andy and i met up with Alistair for dinner last night and luckily the rain had mostly subsided, allowing us the opportunity to have a little walk around the harbor. Dinner was quite good and conversations as to the difficulty of installing the paris motor show left me feeling glad that i don't have to install that show.

After diner we were able to stroll the harbor and check out the the "Vivid" art installations. They were very, very cool. There were multiple buildings with extensive projection mappings on them including the Opera house. The bridge over the harbor was also fitted out in LED, and in the evening fog was quit a spectacle. Below are a few pictures of the evenings site seeing. 

I am currently packing my bags readying for check out. We will be visiting the Fox studios venue this morning to get a feel for the space where the event is going to be held. We will then be traveling to Sydney to put pen to paper and figure this whole thing out. 

This is certainly and exciting adventure. Imagination never gets dull does it?

Cheers.

Andy and Alistair are standing over a detailed scale model of Sydney, set beneath a glass floor. Neat.

First day in Sydney.

Today was acclimation day. Tomorrow we have a venue site visit and then fly to Melbourne in the evening.

We arrived at our hotel with an early check in just in time for breakfast. The rooms are nicer then all the rest of the rooms i stayed in during this past show season, but in the end its a bed and a bath. The first thing in did in my room was to plug in my power adapter and promptly blew the power circuit in my room. Whilst i was at breakfast "engineering" came and fixed it. leaving me a cryptic note.

i was able to sneak in a short run this morning before my energy level dropped to zero, requiring a nap.

I ran out to the Sydney opera house, which in person seems far less grand then it does in film and photo. It is still a very cool building and location. (pictures below)


here is a link to the run:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/318704091


Andy and i went on a short walking tour of the general vicinity and strolled by the Sydney Imagination office. We did not actually venture in, we sort of just sauntered by. (picture below)

We were going to wander back to the Opera house tonight as there is a cool digital projection event thing happening right now but alas it is pouring rain. We will try and check out out next week when we return to Sydney. Here is a link to the event:

http://www.vividsydney.com/events/lighting-the-sails-the-spinifex-group-aus/

I will post more tomorrow once we have seen the venue and traveled to Melbourne.

p.s. check out the picture of the currency. All of the paper bills has little transparent windows in them. odd but cool.

Landed in Sydney.

After a long flight we have arrived in time for morning rush hour traffic. It's winter in this hemisphere so it's grey, rainy, abs slightly muggy. I will post more interesting and pithy posts once I get some rest. 

Cheers

LAX

Waiting for my flight to Sydney to board. Seated next to a phone charging station, the woman next to me has decided the treat us all to a techno playlist that can clearly be heard kicking through her ear buds. I so need to sleep right now. 

LA bound book worm

Dude across the aisle from me is reading a paperback novel. It's entitled "Guilty Wives." Looks like a real page turner.

Boarding time

I am now fully boarded. These are my clever shoes boarding the plane. 

And so the adventure begins

As per usual i overestimated the time it would take to get here, park, and check in. So I have a nice robust 2 hours of time to kill. I prefer getting here early and relaxing as opposed to the ken way of flying where you run to make it to the gate just as they announce final boarding call.