Worst business trip ever
Yesterday, a bunch of us from work flew down to Melbourne to farewell Andrew. It was quite an emotional event for pretty much everybody there. By the end of the day, my handkerchief was fairly soaked from all the boohoohoo-ing but I was glad to have been there to see him off. It was also nice to have spent some time talking to some of his family.
I guess it’s now time to move on.
On a lighter note, here are some things that I noted about Melbourne:
- People like driving slow on freeways. When the speed limit says 100, the average speed seems to be about 80-90.
- There is a distinct lack of tall buildings in the suburbs. When we drove around SE Melbourne, I failed to see a single building that was over 2-3 stories tall. It’s very easy to see a lot of the horizon.
- Their freeway system seems to actually work. We travelled from Tullamarine airport (in the NW of Melbourne) to Dandenong (in the SE of Melbourne), a distance of about 60km on freeways only. This allowed us to bypass the CBD completely (ah well, didn’t get to see trams this time). Oh, and the trip only took about 45 minutes as well.
Here are some things that I noted (not specifically about Melbourne):
- GPS navigation systems can be pretty funny sometimes. Put four engineers in a car with a GPS and I guarantee that hilarity will ensue. Having a street directory in our possession, we compared our route with what the GPS thinks is the best route to our destination. We decided that the GPS wasn’t a very good navigator and so we overrulled it on a number of times. On one of these occasions, the voice said “in one hundred meters, if possible, do a U-turn”. Too bad the reason why we overruled it was to jump onto a freeway. Good luck trying to do a U-turn on a freeway…
- Virgin Blue boarding passes are cheap pieces of fax paper with your details printed on it. At least with Jetstar, you get a more solid-feeling piece of cardboard.
- Virgin Blue flight attendants have a funny sense of humour. Maybe this is a requirement for the job…
Can’t really think of much more right now. May post some more later.
I hope the tie was of some use.
Yes, the tie was indeed of much use. It is interesting to note that funerals are starting to get kinda colourful…
Apparently the “driving slow on freeways” is because the police in victoria catch anyone doing 1km over the limit.
Hmmm… that doesn’t explain why they drive like 10-20 below the speed limit. Besides, those radar guns arnt accurate to 1 kph and so anyone who breaks the speed limit by such a small margin can easily take it to court and debate it over.