Making a Mountain Out of a Termite HIll
Last week it was back to Katherine once again, this time via Sydney, Darwin, and the 3-hour drive to Katherine. After returning through Adelaide I realized something funny - in the span of three days I had traveled through half of Australia's "big" cities. It still amazes me that in a country the size of the continental US you can count the number of cities here using your fingers.
It was around 6 degrees when I left Melbourne that morning, and each leg of my journey found me wearing fewer layers. Landing in Sydney, off came my winter coat. It was a beautiful morning in Sydney and I had a chance to see some nice views from the plane, first of the harbour with the bride and opera house on display, and then of the Olympic Village.
Landing in Darwin, there went my sweater. It was really strange wearing a tank top with a winter coat draped over my arm. Then it was in the car for the trip to Katherine. The trip was uneventful, and we met some customers for dinner at the local hotel for a bbq buffet. School holidays are this week, so Katherine was packed with families on holiday and I'm fairly certain we got the last available rooms at the motel.
Thursday it was time to go to site for the main event - a show-and-tell of the relocation project I've been working on for the past year with my managing director and the customer's general manager. It was an interesting experience watching them haggle over scope, invoicing, and other such fun. Now there are just a few small loose ends to tie up and then I think this project will finally be done. It was a great learning experience for me, but I'm sure ready to get on with my life. I'm not a huge fan of customer phone calls at 6:30 on a Friday night.
Then it was time to head back to Darwin. We had to make a stop along the way though so I could take a picture of some of the termite mounds that stretch along this road. They are truly amazing - some twelve inches tall, some twelve feet tall. They look like one big giant mound of dirt until you get closer and see that the hills are full of little holes for the termites to go in and out.
Back to Darwin and time for dinner. The concierge suggested a Thai place that had good sangria, belly dancing, and a live band. O, and he told my coworker he looked like Justin Timberlake. Priceless! Then more customer meetings Friday morning, a flight to Adelaide, and a short flight home to Melbourne. Where it was 1 degree, and the city was covered in frost. The warm Darwin weather was nice while it lasted.
It was around 6 degrees when I left Melbourne that morning, and each leg of my journey found me wearing fewer layers. Landing in Sydney, off came my winter coat. It was a beautiful morning in Sydney and I had a chance to see some nice views from the plane, first of the harbour with the bride and opera house on display, and then of the Olympic Village.Landing in Darwin, there went my sweater. It was really strange wearing a tank top with a winter coat draped over my arm. Then it was in the car for the trip to Katherine. The trip was uneventful, and we met some customers for dinner at the local hotel for a bbq buffet. School holidays are this week, so Katherine was packed with families on holiday and I'm fairly certain we got the last available rooms at the motel.
Then it was time to head back to Darwin. We had to make a stop along the way though so I could take a picture of some of the termite mounds that stretch along this road. They are truly amazing - some twelve inches tall, some twelve feet tall. They look like one big giant mound of dirt until you get closer and see that the hills are full of little holes for the termites to go in and out.
Back to Darwin and time for dinner. The concierge suggested a Thai place that had good sangria, belly dancing, and a live band. O, and he told my coworker he looked like Justin Timberlake. Priceless! Then more customer meetings Friday morning, a flight to Adelaide, and a short flight home to Melbourne. Where it was 1 degree, and the city was covered in frost. The warm Darwin weather was nice while it lasted.
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