Tasmania

Probably about time i write about Tasmania, ey? It's only been 2 months (-:

Tasmania is gorgeous! As part of the project I was working on, I had to travel down there and conduct two research sessions, and was lucky enough to schedule it so that I could spend the weekend as well.

I flew into Hobart on Saturday morning and spent the rainy cloudy wandering around the city and doing a bit of window shopping. There is a gorgeous market down by the wharf in Hobart on Saturday's, but because of the weather most of the stalls packed up early and people sat hiding under the umbrellas of the cafes and bars watching the poor people without umbrellas wander through the streets (i.e. me). So, I hopped in the car and headed towards my hotel which was about an hour away. (Because there was some mysterious sporting event going on, all of the hotels in Hobart were fully booked so I had to look farther afield to a "resort" south of Hobart in Huonville). On the way, I stopped at Mount Nelson, which overlooks the city for some views, and as could find to be typical, after driving for 10 minutes, the weather went from rainy and cold to sunny and warm. And then 10 minutes later is was cold and foggy. And then 10 minutes later it was sunny again. Which is where, I believe, the local saying comes from, "If you don't like the weather in Tasmania, wait 10 minutes." So true.

And then I was back in the car and driving south towards Huonville. I had booked a Deluxe Teepee at the resort and had high hopes for this interesting location. I had assumed Teepee would be one of the more well appointed rooms. As it turns out, it was. The "resort" was essentially a campsite and the Teepee, was, well, actually a teepee! Surprised the hell out of me! The bathroom was a toilet block with a fairly unpleasant shower block attached and the only source of food within 20k was the camp kitchen, if you had brought food. I had not thought to bring my dinner to the "resort" so bought a frozen dinner from the "resort" manager. It really was a lovely place which I was completely unprepared for. (more pictures here and here) I did manage to go for a brief bush walk to a barely flowing waterfall and saw some magnificent trees. No joke about them. They were HYUGE! One was so big, it had a tunnel which I could walk through standing up. The top half of the tree had fallen off after a lightning storm a few years ago and the remaining trunk was still taller than most of the trees around it!


In the morning, a bit weary, I woke up with gorgeous sun streaming through my teepee window. I rolled out of bed, quickly packed, got dressed, and stepped out into.....the rain. I don't know how the weather does it. Like Houdini! But Sunday was a good day. I drove around a bit in the valley getting gorgeous views when the sun peeked through, went to a little cafe and had what I thought was the best hot chocolate ever, went to the Home Hill Winery which was delicious and might be my new favorite, and then drove back up north towards Hobart with a side trip driving up Mount Wellington. Mount Wellington overlooks Hobart, and the weather patterns at the altitude are, shall we say, changeable. When I arrived at the top, it was sunny and cool. When I left it was snowing and hailing and darn near freezing.
There are videos here and here and some pictures here and here.

Aside from work the highlights of the rest of my stay in Hobart was fantastic sea food and a quick stop at a distillery to try their entire selection of spirits. It was quite a feat.

That seems like a lot already so I'll save the drive to Devonport for part 2.

My travels into the bush

At the beginning of February I had to travel for a few weeks for a project I was working on. The client is looking at ways of supporting people living in rural areas and thinking up new ways of providing them with rural industrial information past radio, newspaper, and simple websites. So, for three weeks I was traveling through three states (New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania). I was planning on going to South Australia but a colleague went instead and was planning on going up to Queensland but this was just after the massive flooding that wiped out large swaths of farmland. All in all, i spoke with wheat, canola, sheep, pig, oyster, and cherry tomato farmers. Financial planners, agronomists, forestry plantation advisers, and a stock and station agent. i went to fields, houses, greenhouses, vineyards, offices, packaging plants, and cattle auctions.

I went to towns called Moe, Devonport, Mt Gambier, Wagga Wagga, Geurie, Bathurst, Dubbo, and Tamworth. these are places that most folks here have heard of but hardly anyone has been to unless they have family out in the bush. The towns are regional hubs for a sprawling agricultural and mining industry that not only serves Australia but the insatiable China and India as well. Living on the land in Australia is tough. When it's not raining (10 year drought just ended) its flooding. Family farms are being sold to escape the crushing debt of years of failed crops and falling prices while large consolidated industrial farms are moving in chopping jobs and slowly killing some communities. It used to be that they could grow sheep and sell them at the market in town with little thought, but now everything from the price of the dollar to the food riots in Africa effect how much money they get that year. It was interesting to see, for folks who live in the boonies, how global of a perspective they must have. But every single person I spoke with loved their job and wouldn't have had it any other way. so there you go.


So, as for me, I had some time to for enjoyment along the way. (If you want to skip the stories and go straight to the pictures, they are here and here) I spent two separate days in Melbourne. The first I managed to spend walking around the city, had a look at the Crown Casino, which i distinctly remember from the last time I saw it 10 years ago and then stumbled onto a lovely wine bar and stumbled into a fascinating conversation with an Indian/Australian couple who had lived in NY and DC, and most recently Sydney. By the time I picked my head up to order food, the kitchen was closed. My second day in Melbourne (2 weeks later) I spent in the Yarra Valley wine tasting and visiting a delicious cheesery (all with free tastings of course!)




In Bathurst, my hotel was on the Mt Panorama Speedway. There is a full-on race track with straight-aways and a pit road and all which becomes public road when there are no races. My hotel happened to overlook the speedway and I took the truck out for a spin through the curves (at the speed limit of about 40mph). embarrassing videos are here and here.




 In Tamworth, I visited a cattle auction. For those of you who have never visited a cattle auction, and I'm assuming there are one or two, it is one of the smelliest and loudest places you can go. There are little cows being sold to fattners, bulls for breeding, heifers for nursing, meat, leather. Cows of all different kinds and colours. And the stockyard is a maze of swinging doors with cattle moving from truck to pen to truck herded on by men in jeans, cleanly pressed button-down shirts, cowboy hats and accompanying boots with large colourful batons for motivation. The agents stand on a walkway above the pens while the buyers (farmers, processors, feed lot owners) stand in a covered walkway between 2 rows of mooing, generally displeased bovines, cowboy boots on the rail, hats tipped back listening to the agent/auctioneer do his best impression of the micro-machine guy as they silently nod, wink, wave, or point to indicate they are willing to pay the dollar to kilo price being repeated and repeated by the agent. i have never stood so still. I'd be pretty embarrassed to have to submit a receipt to the company for 12 heifers because i sneezed! 

That leaves Tasmania. But I think I've written enough for now, so I will leave my 5 day jaunt across Tassie for next time.

Pictures from NSW and Victoria

Traveling & Reading

I want to write quickly about 2 great books I just finished reading. The first is a book called Design Is How It Works: How The Smartest Companies Turn Products Into Icons. The author, Jay Greene, looks at how well known companies like Porsche, Nike, Lego, OXO, REI, and Virgin Atlantic amongst others (companies that provide both products and services) create their products, continue to innovate, and use different strategies to engage their users. Unlike most of the management books out on the market today, it doesn't just look at one person or one process, but it looks at similarities between companies that have succeeded, and at times failed, and then succeeded again and why. There is a certain part of his theory which I am thinking of expanding on and will try and present at an upcoming professional conference. We'll see if that happens.

The second book I read, and absolutely loved, is Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh. This is the first book I've read by him, and after reading the first page 5 or 6 times, I wasn't sure I would be reading any more. But I got into it and was incredibly impressed. His ability to interweave and stretch plot lines, the depth of his references to cultures and literature across the globe, the dark humor, and the time he spends building characters only to utterly destroy the images he created chapters earlier was enthralling. My only regret is not keeping a pencil and notepad next to me to write down and look up all of the SAT words that I vaguely remember but can't define.

I've been traveling a bit for work and I have plenty of interesting stories to come about that, but no time now. So I'll just leave you with a teaser of where I've been.