Kenneth Down UnderPublished 17.11.2005 Week One - Touching down and living it up | |
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Kenneth Steinsvik
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After being pampered by "lovely" flight attendants, Kenneth begins life in Perth at a five-star hotel and starts his Australian working life with a day off - tough! It's probably safe to say that we won't be seeing him back in Ølensvåg anytime soon.Friday, 23 September 2005Departed apartment 05:15Route: Haugesund - Oslo - Amsterdam - Singapore - Perth Saturday, 24 September 2005Arrived in Perth today after a 28-hour journey. The trip went very well, in accordance with plan and no delays. Especially positive was the flight with Singapore Airlines. Super airline with great service, lovely flight attendants in Singaporean national dress and a large variety of entertainment. You could choose from a huge selection of films, documents, music and games. The 12 hours from Amsterdam to Singapore passed very quickly.After a short taxi ride I checked into the Parmelia Hilton Hotel. Taxis are very cheap here but the hotel was very expensive and fancy (approximately 1100NOK per night, plus 165NOK for full breakfast). It should be mentioned that the price also included a bowl of fruit delivered to the door by a slightly dubious room service waiter. Need to find a less expensive place. At these prices I will soon be looking very thin when I come home. Sunday, 25 September 2005After a good night's sleep my Australian body clock is beginning to develop. Started the day with a tour of Kings Park. Coincidentally, it was the "Wild Flowers Festival" here today, not that I was here for that reason. However, the park was fantastic, took lots of pictures. Kings Park is absolutely something that is worth seeing if you travel to Perth and is every botanist's wet dream!One thing that I could not help noticing today was all the people that were out training. I think I saw as many joggers in a few hours as I have seen in a generation in Norway. And this was on Sunday morning! This country must be in superb form. Joggers, cyclists, rugby and marshal arts were all on show. No, this was no mugging I was witnessing, but sparring in the park. The girl with the boxing gloves was frightening; I don't think I will try anything with her. Monday, 26 September 2005Today is a holiday and most places are shut. I asked a taxi driver why it was a holiday and the best answer he could give me was that the Queen of England had a birthday two to three months ago. They had probably decided to hold this holiday on a Monday to make a long weekend of it. Very logical! (The taxi driver was telling the truth - the rest of Australia celebrated the Queen's birthday on 13th June 2005 whereas Western Australia waited until 26th Sept 2005 - Ed)I started my day with a walk in Perth following a route found on map in the hotel. I discovered many of Perth's finest buildings and places. One of the places was Perth Mint, which is Australia's oldest operating mint. The guide told a very interesting story about the mint and about Perth's history. Tuesday, 27 September 2005My first working day! I left the hotel a bit early, eager to get started. Since the breakfast in the hotel is very expensive, I decided to buy something on the way to work. While I was eating my sandwich in the park I could see lots of parrots flying around. An amazing sight!At 08.30 I met Scott Robertson at the Clough Building. I was a bit nervous since this was my first day, but everything worked out. The people working there was very friendly and helpful. I felt like this was a good start to my stay in Clough Oil & Gas. Wednesday, 28 September 2005Spent the entire day at work. Received engineering data today and I'm struggling to get the data into Pims. Duplicate tags, missing line numbers and so on.Had a meeting with Scott and Phil about external users in New Delhi, Abu Dhabi and a third location which I can't remember the name of. They are worried about the link to these locations and the solution might be setting up separate servers there. I think solving this problem can be a big challenge. Thursday, 29 September 2005At work I continued to import engineering data. The quality of the data received is not ideal and I'm using a lot of time cleaning the data. By the end of the day I got almost everything into Pims.After work I met Pete at Adelphi bar. He is a friend of Richard and a great guy! He showed me around in Perth and we went to different bars. I had a good time. I am meeting him after work tomorrow and we are going out with some colleagues of his. Looking forward to this! Friday, 30 September 2005Got a bit of a shock at work today. As I was delivering my timesheets at 16.00, I saw a small crowd standing in the office drinking beer and wine. It turns out that Lisa was leaving Clough and that's why they were drinking.After work there was a get-together with free drinks for the Panna Project. This was nice and I met a lot of people here. After a lot of drinking I joined some of the young engineers and we went to several nightclubs. Crazy Night! Saturday, 1 October 2005A bit tired today after a long night yesterday. Went for a walk in a nearby park. Very beautiful place!This is my last day at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel. Tomorrow I'm moving to Mounts Bay Waters Apartments. I spent most of the day exploring the streets of Perth. I saw my first Aborigine today. It was not what I expected, since this was a drug addict guy living in a park. Sunday, 2 October 2005
I left the hotel early ready to move into Mount Bay Apartments. My room was not ready when I came, so I left my bags in the reception and went to the Zoo instead. Here I saw kangaroos, wombats, koalas and Tasmanian devils. Took a lot of great pictures! I met a Norwegian couple there. They told me about a Norwegian party at Lamba Bar on Thursday. This could be fun, so I think I'm going. | |