Catching Up!

Okay, folks. I guess I owe everyone an apology for being so behind on my blog posts this week! We have been working kind of late this week, but not too bad. Unfortunately, I have had to do some things for the Charlotte office most nights this week, so I just haven’t had the chance to type up anything to post for you guys. But no worries – I’m back, and I think I will be able to get back to more regular postings in the coming days.
Most importantly, because of my delayed posts, I am behind in giving a shout-out. Havaleh: Happy birthday! Only 2 days late. Wait, is that right? This time difference throws me on dates… Anyway, I hope it was a good one!
Work has been pretty normal. I think I told you guys in the last post that the client is really nice. Things have gone pretty smoothly, although our due date just got bumped up by a month, so we now have 6 days to wrap everything up. It is going to be tight, but we are in pretty good shape. I never thought we could knock out an entire audit in two weeks, but I think it just might happen!
The client has some interesting things about it. First off, the building is actually an old school. think I might be sitting in the reception area next to where the principal’s office would have been. And yes, the bathroom are run down and old just like every school you have ever been in. In the middle of the school is a canteen that is run by a lady who kind of fits the “lunch lady” aspect. (For you Adam Sandler fans: “Sloppy Joe, Slop-a-Sloppy Joe.” Now it’s in your head, too!) The canteen serves burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs, snacks, whatever. Although the $2.70 bottle of Coke threw me! I think we’re going to eat lunch there tomorrow, since we are trying to leave the client by 3, so I’ll let you guys know how the food is. After years of eating cafeteria food as a kid, surely it can’t be that bad! Although I was a little upset that I didn’t see square pizza on the menu – my favorite!
So as I said, the client has some interesting things about it. Better than the school setting is probably the people who I have been working with. They are pretty entertaining. There is one woman who cracks me up. And the best part is her phone. She gets at least three calls a day, probably more. The ring tone is a country song from the early 90s. John Michael Montgomery’s “Sold (Grundy County Auction).” (Yes, I will admit that I actually figured out the song after the second call, even though the ring tone is mostly music, not words.) Now the reason that ring tone is so funny is two-fold. First off, I heard someone tell the lady yesterday “That’s a catch little song.” No idea what it was, but “catchy.” And here we come to the second reason why the song is funny: Why did the other lady not recognize the song? Because there is not a whole lot of country music over here. In fact, I really do think this ring tone is the first time I have heard a country music song since I have been here.
To add to the entertainment, I heard another lady’s phone ring in the office today. Her ring tone? MC Hammer’s “You Can’t Touch This.” Wow.
So the client is good, and things are going fine. Although I quickly figured out that people were serious when they talked about how bad the weather is here! It was freaking freezing out on Tuesday night. So I cranked up the heater in my room as high as it would go. Of course, I learned my lesson, because I woke up sweating three times in the night, and couldn’t get the heater to cool off enough. Oh well.
Wednesday was a beautiful day, though. The best I can say to describe it is like Charlotte in late October or early November. Cool, but not too cold. It was really clear, the sun was out (rare here, as it is usually overcast or raining), and the air was just perfect. Of course, the cold streak was back with a vengeance this morning, and today was another cold day. Oh well. In fact, I had to call the main manager on this job this afternoon. “So how’s Canberra?” he asked. “Cold,” I said. He just laughed at me.
Outside of the client and weather here, things in Canberra are pretty good. The area where I am staying is called Dickson, and is about 10 minutes from the city. So we pretty much stay around the hotel for dinner, since there is a little shopping center right across the street. I read somewhere that this area is known as “Little China.” There are Asian restaurants everywhere. Seriously, I think out of the 15 restaurants around here, 5 of them are non-Asian. Although the food has been pretty good. We went for Indian on Tuesday night, and it was excellent! Although here’s the one thing that blew my mind: You had to order rice separately and pay extra for it. For those of you who don’t eat Indian, this rice thing would be similar as to not getting rice with your Chinese food.
Today at lunch, I made a comment about how many liquor stores there are in this little three-square-block area. I really think there is one on each corner. But then I laughed and said, “Well, it is really cold here.” Yudith, the girl I am working with, laughed and said, “What else is there to do?” The sad part: It’s true!
Tonight we headed into Canberra. Just for you guys, I wanted to get some pictures. Of course, there really is not all that much in Canberra to take a picture of. Especially at night. We found the Parliament House, which is probably the most famous thing in Canberra. We pulled up in front of the House. Obviously, no one was around, since it was 7:30 and we were looking at a government building. Yudith suggested I stop the car, leave it running while I take a picture, and then we can go. Two-minute process, right? And, as I said, no one was around, so it’s not like we were holding up traffic or anything. The things I do for you guys… I snapped the picture and turned around, and a car had pulled up behind me. All I saw was the top of it, and I thought it was a cab because of the lighted sign on top. The guy rolled his window down, and I thought, “Odd. Why would anyone need a tax here?” I bent down to look in, and it was a cop. Or a 12-year-old dressed in a police uniform. It was hard to tell for sure. He pointed at my car (running with Yudith sitting inside and my door open) and said, “Umm, you can’t park your car here.” I told him I was sorry, that I hopped out to take a quick picture and that I was getting right back in. He smiled and said, “It’s fine. No worries. Have a good night!” Gee, maybe he figured out I was a tourist. You think? Although I would think the camera flash might have tipped him off before he ever spoke to me…
After the run-in with the cop, we headed to a little area that had been recommended by one of Yudith’s friends. This area of town had a bunch of little restaurants. To get there from the Parliament House, you have to go around the City Circle. Yep, you guessed it; a road that circles around the Capital Hill (where Parliament House is). As we were driving, we noticed that the roads that exited off the circle were named after Australian cities. First Perth, then Adelaide. So I said, I think they are going in order. I’ll be Melbourne is next!” Yep. The roads went in order geographically. Yudith made a comment about how I caught it, and I said, “How sad that I know Australian geography but not US geography?” Although since there are only something like 7 real “cities” in the country, it makes it a bit easier. At least, that’s my excuse…
We walked around for a while looking for something, finally got cold and desperate, so we ducked into a little pub. Man, the food there was awesome! I had this surf and turn special that was killer! A waitress came over and cleared our plates and brought us a dessert menu. We decided we had worked hard all week and deserved a treat. The steamed pudding looked interesting, but I had no idea what it was, so I asked the girl. She didn’t know and had to go find out. When she walked away, I told Yudith, “She’s American.” Yudith had picked up the accent, too, but wasn’t sure if she was from the US or not. I said, “I think she’s from California.” Yudith laughed. When the girl came back, I said, “Can I ask where you’re from?” She said, “Los Angeles.” Yudith’s eyes got huge. She couldn’t believe that I knew. Then the waitress said, “What about you?” I said, “North Carolina.” She said, “Well, I was going to say South Carolina. But at least I knew it was somewhere in the South, over on the East Coast.” Yep, I am quite talented at finding the Americans over here!
Okay, I need to get to bed, since I have to get up kind before too long. Besides, you know it is getting too late when Judge Judy comes on TV! I did find out that I will be coming back to Canberra next Sunday evening, and staying until Wednesday afternoon. So I’m sure I will have plenty of new random stories of this place later, as well as some pictures for you guys. I’ll try to post this weekend what I have so far.
Have a great Thursday, everyone!