I was up with my alarm at 07:00, so I could leave my parking space by 08:00. My mission was to find the factory close to the airport. The traffic was OK for a rush hour I guess I was going again the flow out of the City. Once I had crossed the Swan River it was a straight road and I was at the factory before 08:20. It was good to put a face to people I new from emails and conference calls.
The day went well, and allowed me to settle in, and get a factory tour to better understand how the produce was manufactured. The day went quite quickly, we finished a final conference call at about 16:30 then we all left the office at 17:00. I went for a drive out towards the Perth hill near Kalamunda. On the way I saw quite a few road trains as I was on a freeway for a while. The sun was very low in the sky at one point, and although it made for a great sunset, it was a pain to drive towards. I was back at the apartment just after 18:00 to secure a free parking space till the morning.
Day 2 was a pretty normal working day, working on the ERP project and installing Lansweeper on some of the local machines. Lunch can be a bit of an issue the local food establishment does sandwiches which are all meat related in some way, my only choice is a smoked salmon sandwich. I tried a couple of veggie salads, which were OK but the portion was massive. I did a detour in the way home, and managed to add Black Swan to the bird list, I also got a close up view of a White Ibis wandering around the industrial estate at work.
Day three ways again run of the mill at work, on the journey there I spotted a Comorant however there are several Australian version and I’m not sure which one it was. On the way home I took a detour to ensure I got back to the apartment after 18:00, and I’m glad I was there was a great sunset and I happened upon a park near the swan River with a great view of the sun setting with the Perth skyline as a back drop.
Another routine work day, for day three, but I was starting to get dragged into tasks not related to ERP, which is to be expected, as there is not any dedicated IT staff on site. I left just after 17:00 so to kill time for parking after 18:00 I headed to a road called Zig Zag Scenic Drive, however when I got there I was at the wrong end of a one one road. To get to the right end would have meant it was probably dark by that time. It did look a lot like what I imagine the bush to look like though. On the way back I spotted two Wallabies. I had Thai for dinner, $10.50 and BYO.
My flight to Sydney was at 12:20 so I was only in the office for a couple of hours, on the Friday. I took some photos of the factory for marketing as I had made them a promise to do so. I left the office just under 2 hours before the flight, but even though had a hire car to return, and baggage to check I still had plenty of time. Qantas have a self-service check-in and bag drop, there is no choice. Basically you use a kiosk tell it who you are and where you are going and it prints your baggage label, then you use the scales, my bag was 21kg just under the 23kg limit.
The security queue was short, and the departure lounge was not packed. I bought a book and some water then wandered around the terminal. There was a press conference going on in one corner, TV crews were there apparently something to do with domestic flights. We boarded at about 12:00, the flight was quite packed, but I got my meal early as I had requested a veggie meal, worth remembering. The in flight entertainment included the film Gran Tourino, so I watched that.
We arrived before scheduled and it did not take long to find my luggage, and collect the hire car a Toyota Camry automatic, which is bigger than I am used to, but it was an automatic. No satnav meant I had to use my phone, I managed to miss the first turning as the traffic was very congested at the airport. I ended up going anticlockwise round the city, and ended up driving over the famous harbour bridge albeit in the dark. I was glad to get to the Adina apartments and dump my bags. I didn’t venture out to eat instead I opted for Barramundi chips and salad at the complex cafe, which was excellent. I grabbed another beer and headed up to my room, there was a two hour difference from Perth so I would be I wanted an early night.