Jim Travels The World

Hey all back to the States next week for a visit, then back to Melbourne on 29th, then to Sydney for some business meetings the next day, then back to Melbourne, then back to work for a week, then off to Tasmania for holiday. let me know if you have any questions.

A word that my boss Rohan likes to use when comparing American to Australia is "infrastructure". As in "Australia doesn't have quite the infrastructure to America when it comes to goods and services." Like, no pay-at-the-pump at most gas stations. No online bookings for many hotels. You get the idea. One place this was very apparent was this weekend as Lisa and I rode the very long train ride to Frankston and then on to Stony Point with the intention of taking a short ferry ride over to French Island national park. Weather forecast looked good. We get to the pier, and to purchase our ferry tickets (which, it did look like a very short ferry ride... we could see most of French island from the pier) we go to the stony point general store/ferry service station. The woman behind the counter tells us that we can take a ferry over, but there's a chance that the winds might pick up and the ferry wouldn't return. We would have to spend the night on this island, ...

been conducting informal poll of some Aussies about what they think of Americans. My results so far:  Australians think Americans are arrogant, ignorant about worldly matters, and that they all carry guns. I do think sometimes we get dirty looks on the train when Lisa and I are chatting loud enough that other people can hear our accents. It's not like we experience the same kind of dirty looks that a Muslim would have gotten in NYC on the subway in 2002, but it definitely is weird to be a foreigner. I don't think Americans can enjoy the same sort of friendly welcome (that we always assumed we had) as in the pre-Dubya days. pictured: your average arrogant, ignorant gun-toting american

it must have seen something scary

My company works with the Kangaroo Hoppet, Australia's largest cross-country skiing event. I built the registration form. On Friday I was to go with my coworker up to Mt. Beauty to assist with the race, to answer any questions they may have about the system when on-site. Well, the coworker got sick, so it was thrust upon me to rent a car and get up there myself. Normally, I would research a trip and find out what to do when i got there, but this was totally out of nowhere; I was expecting my coworker to be my guide. We drove out of Melbourne through the little country towns down into the beautiful valley around Mt. Beauty in Australia's "alpine country". Alpine country in Colorado means 10,000 feet. Here it means about 4000. Dinner in Mt. Beauty If you're wondering, I did not eat the Tavern Boner steak. But I'd be lying if i said I wasn't a bit curious. Alpine country here is crazy. It's like rainforest covered in snow. No pine trees like back home, ju...

with most things, Oz is behind the US in terms of technology. Broadband adoption and speed is slow, Aussie-made website are cluttered and unfriendly (especially the gov't sites). And then, in the midst of that, occasionally there are items so strangely high-tech it's like something you'd expect in Japan. This LCD monitor installed in a hand dryer in a men's loo is an example: so after you poop, the advertisers can getcha for that 5 seconds you're drying your hands.

Today, for the first time in 3 months, I got behind the wheel of car. For the first time in my life, that wheel was on the other side of the vehicle: It was a little crazy at first, Lisa had to be the watchdog during my first few turns in and out of traffic. But all that led us to Dandenong National Park and through the little towns of Melrose, Olinda and Sassafras. crazy tree in Sherbrook forest: and a panorama (click on it to see the full size):