View of the Sydney Opera house along the harbor
Hola
Sorry for the ridonculously long time since I've blogged! What happened? I co-authored some hot e-marketing communications and the leads came rollin' in. Tons o'work to do. Good news... I closed my first sale! Woo hoo! More to come. Heather congratulated me in email and copied everyone in our little company. So nice to be recognized! Here was her message:
Subject: sales legend announcement!
As expected, Deidre has hit the ground running and today closed her first Harvard ManageMentor deal with the Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service!
Congratulations Deidre!
I am very grateful for your efforts and proud of you Deidre... looking forward to a fruitful future!
Traveled to Canberra (pronounced "Canbra", Brisbane (pronounced "Brisbn") and Sydney to meet customers and prospects at a Case Study event we put on. Didn't really get to see much of any of the cities-- typical biz travel: airport, taxi, hotel, meeting room, taxi, airport. We did, however, have a beautiful walk along the harbor the night we arrived in Sydney. It is much warmer there than it is in Melbourne, so I was thrilled to be wearing a sleeveless dress and sandals (Sydney is about a 9 hour drive north of Melbourne along the coast, about the same distance as Washington DC to Boston). The view of the opera house and the bridge at night was spectacular. Heather took us to dinner at one of the best restaurants in Sydney called Cafe Sydney and we were seated on the rooftop overlooking the city. Amazing food and service
and view.
The restaurant is in a gorgeous old building called Customs House.
Here is a bit about Customs House:
Customs House is located on a significant site where the local Eora people are said to have watched the First Fleet land. The Aboriginal flag is now permanently flown from the building.
For 150 years it was the primary trade gateway for goods and services in to Sydney. The building and square in front of it provided a focus for major national celebrations. In the 19th and 20th centuries dual role of Customs was to raise revenue by taxing trade and to keep society physically and morally isolated from socially unacceptable goods, products, ideas and diseases.
The Australian Customs Service occupied Customs House until 1990. The City of Sydney was given the building to operate in 1994 by the Federal Government.
And now we are drinking and partying on the roof!
The newly refurbished Customs House is a 21st Century multi--functional building where you can come to hang out, use the library (reading room overlooking the Circular Quay) or enjoy a meal at one of the restaurants. It is a re-adapted heritage building with a contemporary interior. As you enter the building, the atrium features a glass-covered walkway over a spectacular full-scale model of the Sydney CBD (you look down and the floor is suddenly glass, under which you view the city model), a relaxing, stylish lounge area with an extensive collection of international newspapers and magazines, Internet access and an ever-changing TV/multimedia wall screening eye-catching multimedia content.
There is a very cool helix staircase and mod furniture for hangin' out.
Here is a bit about Customs House:
Customs House is located on a significant site where the local Eora people are said to have watched the First Fleet land. The Aboriginal flag is now permanently flown from the building.
For 150 years it was the primary trade gateway for goods and services in to Sydney. The building and square in front of it provided a focus for major national celebrations. In the 19th and 20th centuries dual role of Customs was to raise revenue by taxing trade and to keep society physically and morally isolated from socially unacceptable goods, products, ideas and diseases.
The Australian Customs Service occupied Customs House until 1990. The City of Sydney was given the building to operate in 1994 by the Federal Government.
And now we are drinking and partying on the roof!
The newly refurbished Customs House is a 21st Century multi--functional building where you can come to hang out, use the library (reading room overlooking the Circular Quay) or enjoy a meal at one of the restaurants. It is a re-adapted heritage building with a contemporary interior. As you enter the building, the atrium features a glass-covered walkway over a spectacular full-scale model of the Sydney CBD (you look down and the floor is suddenly glass, under which you view the city model), a relaxing, stylish lounge area with an extensive collection of international newspapers and magazines, Internet access and an ever-changing TV/multimedia wall screening eye-catching multimedia content.
There is a very cool helix staircase and mod furniture for hangin' out.
I had my iPhone on the flight back to Melbourne, in Flight-mode as required. When I got in to the cab to go home, I went to check my messages and the phone was nowhere to be found. Ouch! A cool $1,000 gone. Good thing we have lots of hot sales leads. Anyway, I tell the tragic story (ha!) of the lost iPhone because it had all of my trip pics and more stored in it and they hadn't been backed up yet. So, you are seeing some stock web photos. Luckily, Brendan is a gadget whore and gave me his "old" phone--a Nokia E71 (awesome phone!). So all is well in the world again.
Back in Melbourne, we enjoyed dinner with some of Brendan's Kiwi friends.
Who were nice enough to share their Cadbury "chocolate fish" with us. a delicacy from NZ. Chocolate covered marshmallow. Notice the candy wrapper... "Kiwi as". People from New Zealand say "Sweet as" when something is really cool or good, so "Kiwi as" is a play on that expression.
Did I mention that the summer is WAY over? The temperatures have gone down to 40F some nights, days are still in the 60's. They don't call it "fall" here; they call it autumn. Many of the trees here are Gum trees which don't change color at all, so compared to New England, it is pretty lame in terms of colorful leaf peeping opps.
I brought the Frangipani tree inside since she and I have the same tropical temperament.
Daylight savings in April meant turning the clocks back. Bizarre. Just like when I was looking at apartments and the ads were all bragging about the "north facing" windows. I truly am "down under". The funny thing is that people here are just like me; they think 50F is super cold and they put on hats and scarves. Just like in Wistah Mass it gets dark really early.
I'll try to get back on the regular blog sched.
I'll try to get back on the regular blog sched.
