Lost in the Laneways

I suppose once you've been somewhere for a while, you have to look a bit further for new and exciting things.  Carol and I spend plenty of time in the Brisbane CBD and inner suburbs throughout the week and on the weekend.  We have our favorite cafes, favorite places to lay in the grass on the weekend and favorite place to watch the footy, through we aren't compelled to always go to the same places.  We decided it was time to take a long weekend trip to get away from Brisbane for a bit and see a bit more of a city we've been wanting to get to know - Melbourne.

We wanted enough time to get a feel for the city, rather than just enough time to see a few museums.  It's one thing to be familiar with a city, it's another to get to know it, as if meeting a new friend.  The English language allows us to be quite verbose, but I find Spanish does a wonderful job of separating two different concepts - having awareness of topic or concept versus being acquainted with a person.  The verb 'saber' means to know, as in knowing right from wrong.  But the verb 'conocer' is used to indicate knowing or meeting a person.  So taking my cue from the Spanish, this trip was our opportunity to 'conocer' Melbourne.

Domestic flights are easy and relatively inexpensive in Australia.  Carol and I have both done Qantas and the low cost carriers several times and have found each get you to your destination quickly and comfortably.  Qantas usually has a few more inclusions, while the discount carriers are fully a la carte (have to pay for that ginger ale) and often have more families.  If you prefer to swing with the business crowd and avoid having twenty children and two crying babies on your flight, I'd recommend paying a little more to fly Qantas.  One more twist I wish they'd bring to the US - the discount carriers board from the front and the back.  If you're in the back half of the plane, you have to go down to the tarmac and climb the stairs to board from the rear.  I actually love it - reminds me of flying in little regional planes as a kid.

Arriving in Melbourne, we had four days to conquer the city.  I won't claim we did everything, but we hit many of the highlights and recommendations from friends.  Our first day was a Friday and we got started with a walk around the CBD.  My first impression: Melburnians love their coffee.  There is honestly a coffee shop every block, sometimes two or three.  And, the coffee is great.  None of that percolated, granulated, or artificially caffeinated stuff.  Having heard great things about the laneways, we quickly started exploring the area around Bourke and Collins.  Laneways are the roads between buildings, what Americans would refer to as alleys.  Some time ago, shops started popping up in the streets between the major roads running through the CBD.  These streets often take on the name of the major road next to them, for example Little Collins is next to Collins Street and Flinders Lane is next to Flinders Street.  Between these parallel streets are the laneways.  Rather than being filled with rubbish bins (garbage cans), rats and vagrants, they have cafes, boutique clothing stores and rather inspired looking graffiti.  It gives wonderful character to the city and is a much better use of the space.

Carol and I found our way to a cafe just off Little Collins on a particular laneway, Block Place, that we ended up revisiting several times.  The chairs from the cafes spill out onto the tight laneway, competing for the crammed space between the buildings and giving the area all the more character.  Thinking about it now, we never once looked up to see what buildings were there - everything interesting going on was all down at the pedestrian level.  Not much light gets down between the tall buildings, which made the laneways a bit dark, though something is really enjoyable about ducking into a dark cafe on a rainy day and sitting down for a coffee, displaced enough from the main roads to avoid the honking horns.

Once we fueled up on coffee and breakfast, we toured the city for a few hours before heading to the Taste of Melbourne.  Held at the historic Royal Exhibition Building just on the north side of the CBD, the Taste of Melbourne was much like any other food festival.  It showcased fine restaurants, wines, cheeses and desserts.  There were a few corporate tents but most of the exhibitors were local.  The food was great and we attended a few presentations from a French chef and the head cheesemaker of a nearby cheese farm.  If there was one dish that stood out from the taste it may have been the beef cheeks - it was the second time we'd had beef cheeks in a few weeks and both times it was just amazingly tender.  I understand its a tough piece of meat if cooked quickly, but when slow cooked for 10+ hours, it doesn't need a knife.

We met up with a local friend that afternoon who took us around a few of the northern neighborhoods and brought us to one of his favorite local cafes up on Brunswick street.  After yet another delicious, filling meal (too much food!!) we headed off to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG or the 'G') to watch a finals game (playoffs that is, not the championship game) between the Hawthorne Hawks and Sydney Swans.  The stadium seats about 95,000 in a big bowl.  We enjoyed the atmosphere, though the stadium was about a third empty.  For some reason there were seagulls all over the field the entire time, moving around when the players came near.  We later found out they brought in two eagles for the next match to scare off the seagulls.

Saturday had an open itinerary, so we spent time checking out St Kilda, one of the suburbs south of the city.  We heard a lot of hype about St. Kilda before going there, though I found it to be somewhat similar to most of the areas we visited around Melbourne.  There is a beach there facing into Port Phillip Bay, which I can't imagine gets much use most of the year due to the weather.  Again, fun little cafes and boutiques abound in the area.  We sat in some wicker egg chairs at a place on the beach and killed a few hours and few glasses of wine.  On the way back to the city we elected to spend some time walking around the botanic gardens at the south end of the city.  Whereas the Sydney botanic gardens have large open lawns, the Melbourne gardens are a bit more compact and hilly.  You can almost get a feel for Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne just from walking around their botanic gardens - Sydney's is grand and is oriented towards the harbor, Melbourne's is hilly cordoning off little areas of similar character and Brisbane's city garden incorporates the river and is a bit more utilitarian.  We spent the evening at the James Squire brewery, trying various pints of the local brew.

Sunday was like Christmas for Carol.  We took a day trip down to Phillip Island, about two hours south of Melbourne.  The island is known for its fairy penguins, the smallest of the thirteen penguin species.  Carol has always had a love for penguins and this was her first real chance to see them in the wild.  On our way out of Melbourne we stopped at the Queen Victoria Markets to pick up a few nuts and snacks for the day.  The market is quite good, though you have to sort through a lot of knick-knacks to find anything.  The penguin 'show' starts at dusk so we decided to stop at a winery on Phillip Island for a few hours.  They had some sweeter cool climate reds and some tasty whites.  We took a quick trip to the end of the island, called the Nobbies, where there are an outcropping of rocks home to many seabirds and large colony of seals.

There are several packages available to see the penguins.  We elected to get one of the deluxe packages, which includes a private guide and special seats.  The event itself is to watch the penguins coming in from the water, crossing the beach and heading for their nests for the night.  We got kitted up with our beach seats, our headsets, lanyards, binoculars and plenty of cool weather gear.  We certainly didn't look fashionable, but we knew we had the best seats for the big event.  The guide gave us all the info we could want and answered our questions as we made our way to the beach.  We sat down near one of the paths where we would have penguins crossing right in front of us.  After a few minutes, we could see them swimming in the water, getting ready to come to shore.  They came in to shore in small groups, gathering together just at the edge of the water.  By this time the light is getting very dim.  The penguins naturally wait until dark, when predators are less likely to spot them.  It must have taken at least ten minutes for the first group of penguins to finally get the courage to get completely out of the waves and make a break across land.  It's quite a funny site - they all look like little commandos with the heads down and arms out wide.  Over the next half hour or so we saw many groups go past, some only a few feet away from us.  Carol could barely contain her excitement!  We spent a bit more time walking around and seeing the penguins heading to their nests and listened to their chirps as we returned to the car and drove home.

Monday gave us a chance to head back to our favorite laneway and spend a bit more time around the city before heading back.  It ended up being a great trip.  I think we would really enjoy living in Melbourne - it's a city with character and plenty to do.  Sometimes our whole experience living in Australia feels like a vacation, but it was nice to take a few days away from work and our usual places to see somewhere a bit different.

If You Can Plan an Event in China... You Can Do Anything!

Really.. the title of this post sums it up.

I just returned from 17 days in Shanghai. After 6 months of full on planning, my food and beverage conference finally arrived and is now gone. I have post event blues, and caught quite a strange bug from Asia. Could just be from pure exhaustion! I've found that each event I plan I put my full energy (which if you know me, that's a ton!), heart and soul into the planning and implementation of each and every detail. Once you are on site, and making it happen, it is completely emotionally and physically draining. Though, you don't realise it until you are done, because you are on such an adrenaline rush, you forget what you are actually feeling and you forget to take care of yourself - especially when you are responsible for 400 + people. Yes, this is totally possible, though I know some people who would argue with me. Anyway, and thankfully, I had the most amazing team on site to help take care of me - simple things like getting me something to eat.

The demographics and layout of the conference are as follows:

The conference was for 300 executive chefs, food and beverag managers of 5 star venues, general managers of such establishments, and various exeuctive level individuals as well. My company's job was to create a 3 day learning program consisting of world reknown speakers presenting on various topics. This was coupled with a trade show of top suppliers of the food and beverage world along with 3 social functions. Our focus was on authenticity, technology and innovation in the Asia Pacific region for food and beverage. Needless to say, the food was out of this world.

I had the privlege of working with one of the executives of food and beverage for the asia pacific region. I also worked with a hand selected 20 person council of Executive Chefs and F&B Directors to create the culinary experiences. Each meal was well planned and themed, educational and inspiring. There were 3 breakfast and lunch venues that delegates rotated through as well as 3 morning tea breaks and 3 afternoon tea breaks. The Council was also very involved with the menu selection of the 3 social functions. As you can imagine, being an F&B conference, food was the focal point! The concepts were delicious and incredible - from creme brule in santized egg shells to sushi wrapped in US dollar bills, it was nothing I have ever seen before. Too bad I didn't get to enjoy it that much as I was so busy!

While liaising with 20 council members for the last six months, I've also been the main point of contact for 56 sponsors, 19 speakers, 3 social functions and all of the delegates/sponsors on site (400 + people in total). Obviously I couldn't do this by myself. Thankfully we had a wonderful team on site to help.

My team consisted of 10 people, including my boss. Six of which, were on the job I did last June in KL.

Shane: Trade Show manger - responsible for assiting all sponsors with their booths (43 booths!), custom designed some booths, designed the set for the conference and the gala dinner, and assisted with the AV, set and trade show suppliers.

Maria: Registration Manager - managed the registration desk, collected money, managed name tags and social function tickets and general enquiries (geez people have a lot of questions)

Jen: External Events Manager - responsible for the evening functions

Chris: Design Director - was the producer of our conference daily highlights video and did all conference branding leading up to the event. Wrote scripts for the opening video of the conference

Mark: Technical Director - stage managed and called the show for the plenary sessions (damn this is a really really hard job)

Dave: Technical Director Assistant/Graphic Designer - made the on screen presentations and managed all computers running the show in the ballroom

Nicky: On site help - there to help with whatever needed. Also a FANASTIC singer and sang for the opening of our celebrity chef and at the gala dinner. She also kept me sane. Police woman by day and jazz singer at night!

Trevor: In house designer - helped with our buffet design presentation, custom designer for social functions, dance coordinator, and again another one who kept me sane

Sally: Local - lovely Sally was our local guide and runner! Whatever we needed she'd find it 10 times faster than us and cheaper! She ran around Shanghai for us getting things we needed and helped translating

Ryan/Michelle - film crew of the week. Filmed and edited all the conference highlights and comedy points.

Me - event manager. Responsible for everything that happened during the plenary sessions, all sponsor fulfillment, and chef liaising.

Unfortunately, only Shane and I were full time on this job. In retrospect, we needed at least 2 other people full time on this. Jen only came into the picture a few weeks ago to take the night jobs off of me. If she wasn't there, I probably would have literally gone insane.

I got to Shanghai 8 days before the conference started and it still didn't feel like enough time! Shanghai is a 10 hour flight direct from Brisbane. I had a lay over in KL and upon landing in China I had to take a 2 and a half hour bus ride from Hangzhao to Shanghai. Got to Shanghai with Shane at 3:00 AM on a Sunday. We were both up for our 9:00 AM breakfast meeting ready to go and plan for the week! Meetings with the AV, trade show, set design company, prop house, chefs, General managers, sponsors, speakers, our client, ahhh the list goes on and on. We hit the ground running and little did I know but 18 hours would be the shortest work day I'd get in 15 days. All the prepping went reaonsably well, except with the set company. First of all, they bumped in 18 hours late, built a really crappy set, so after much argument, Shane makes them redo the entire set. Time is a funny thing in Asia. They usually start when you tell them they should finish, and half the time the crew is asleep! I have no idea how these companies work their employees but it is something I've seen in Shanghai, Bangkok and KL! After redoing the sett all is fine.

Another little adventure before the conference started was electronics shopping. Electronics shopping in China is like putting 10 Home Depots together! You have to first find what you are looking for, and then you have to determine if it is ligit. You always walk out buying something you never knew existed and wonder what the heck you were doing there in the first place! I walked in to buy a few cheap cell phones, we didn't make it past the first aisle, and managed to buy a Wii, 35 wii games, a keychain that is a video camera, a mouse, and well the cell phones. Which, to my utter suprise, by the end of the week I could only read half of my screen! So I'd get a text that said "can you please urgently confirm _____ or else I'll die?" ... it wasn't that serious but you get my point.

Day 1 really started on Sunday with the bump in of the set and trade show. We were also preparing for registration. Had 350 satchels to stuff with sponsor brochures and we had 24 hours to find 350 luggage tag holders for the satchels as they didn't come with them. Sally, our lovely local, found 400 for US$50 along with black hair ties to make them. We were up until 1:30 in the morning stuffing satchels on Sunday evening.

Monday, the rest of the trade show was getting moved in. Let me step back a bit as I don't believe I mentioned the venue this was held. It was held at a very large hotel in Shanghai (1,000) rooms, with a massive ballroom. A U-shaped hallway outside of the ballroom was used for the bigger sponsors booths and a third of the ballroom was used for smaller booths. The rest of the ballroom was used for plenary sessions. Bumping in 43 booths and checking in 400 people isn't easy. We messed up here. Big time. Well we were supposed to have this big beautiful registration desk made by a company that supplies tupperware and large containers - but instead they showed up with their trashcans and brooms! Our plan B was to use the cloak room at behind our first allocated spot, but one of the booths was taking up more space than they should have been! So we got stuck with just a few tables for registration. It looked ugly, and we weren't prepared for the registration to start. We didn't get a lot of our printing from our suppliers until Sunday night which caused us to be stuffing satchels and tickets until the second the desk opened at 3:00 PM. So the conference kind of started off on a bad foot with very angry people waiting in line. There was literally a consistent line of people for 4 hours straight. My phone was rining every minute (I'M NOT EXAGGERATING) from delegates, sponsors, speakers, my boss, etc. I was spread so thin it was very stressful and difficult to place priorities. On top of that, we had the welcome party starting at 7:00 PM. We concluded registration and herded the masses on the buses to the welcome party at another venue. I unfortunately was unable to attend as I was trying to sort out issues with customs for our sponsors. Bribes were made and agreed, but it all got there! On top of this, we had our first full day of business sessions starting at 8:00 AM the next day, which I was responsible for the master running order, making sure speakers were there, and getting them on and off stage. We also had massive directional signs (about 8 ft tall) and I noticed a typo on one of the signs for day 1. We had to fix all the signs which caused us a very late night.

Day 2 - Tuesday - Business Sessions and Dine Around

Went to bed at 3 and got up at 5:00. Take a shower do my hair and make up really well as you can never show anyone how tired you are! Again the addrenaline is pumpin..... but I know my body was getting ready to kill me. Go downstairs for our 6:30 am daily breakfast team meeting, check out the lovely buffet displays, then head straight to the ballroom. 7:00 AM technical director is running through the presentations, slides, music, videos, to ensure we are all on the same page. Now the ballroom work is very interesting. It really is a thankless job and most people can't see the wonderful and amazing work these people do! You have to hire a local company for all the equipment. We hired a guy who is from Singapore and spoke fluent english. Though his crew of 7 spoke no English (that's what I was told). Therefore, he had to translate everything our technical director was saying. The Technical DIrector is the one who calls all the ques, lights, cameras, music, slides, etc. Our translator's name was Elton but his lead guy on his team was Mr Meow. Well, at least that's how it was pronounced. So Mark and Dave sat in the back in a row alongside Elton and 4 of the Chinese men while the remaining 3 sat with me next to the stage micing people up and throwing them on stage. We had all headsets on so we could communicate. Though there were times when delegates were out of the room and we were in rehearsal. Our stage manager would always have to que Mr Meow first during rehearsal. So he'd say "Mr Meow?" Then the 4 Chinese men next to Mark would say, "Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow!" All in a row and right after another. Oh the little things you remember and keep you entertained!

The day went on, until 5:00 PM, relatively smoothly, and all were happy. In the evening we shuffled all delegates on buses which took them to one of two very famous restaurants on the famous Bund. We of course, stayed in the ballroom and kept rehearsing people for the next day.

The two restaurants we chose were in walking distance (about 10 minutes). We decided to host an afterparty at the conclusion of dinner at one of the venues. Therefore, the other group had to walk or get themselves over to the party. Due to street regulations, buses, etc it wasn't an option to bus over the attendees from one venue to the after party. Therefore, we needed to personally escort the 125 delegates from the restauarnt to the aftery party. With that amount of people and keeping in mind the numerous traffic lights and people getting lost I needed help with walking people from one place to the other. Therefore, I took Maria, Dave and another hotel staff member to assist. We get to the restaurant and escort the delegates to the other venue. All went pretty smoothly. We walk them into the after party and then me and Maria headed on the bus back to our hotel (as there was bus parking here). Looking back, I definitely shouldn't have let some of my other crew actually stay out with the delegates.

Day 3 - Buiness Sessions and Free Night

Got my normal 2 hours of sleep, went to the 6:30 AM breakfast meeting, and to the ballroom for the run through of the days presentations. Our Technical Director is there but no Dave. Dave has the master computer with ALL of the files, videos, presentations, graphics, pretty much the show. 7:15 AM roles around and I'm starting to freak out a bit, calling his room a million times and his phone. 7:20 AM - I send a search party for him. Is he in an alley way with his head cracked open somewhere in Shanghai?? Did he get kidnapped? Did he get drugged? All of these thoughts crossed my mind. 8:00 AM (when we were supposed to start), people start coming in and NO DAVE. Then, at 8:10 AM Dave walks in, looks terrible. I decide not to give him crap and to just get the show up and running ASAP. Well the rest of the morning did not go smoothly. Wrong videos were played, presentations and sound got a bit messed up, one person gave us 100 photos to load on the computer 5 minutes before his presentation, people decided to take the clicker with them and run off the other side of the stage so I had to run on stage and give people a clicker (just looks bad). It was so stressful and a lot of it could have been prevented if we would have had that extra hour to run through everything. The afternoon went well so we were all very glad about that. The evening consisted of running through rehearsals for the next day and running through all the presentations, videos, graphics etc. The rest of the crew was setting up at an off site venue for our 1930s themed gala dinner. This consisted of a full day of set construction, dance and band rehearsals, set up of cooking stations, bars, etc. Thankfully the ballroom crew got 30 minutes for a sit down dinner that evening as it was a "free night" for delegates and sponsors. However, there was a special VIP dinner that took place for the top sponsors, my client's company executive and the celebrity chef! As the celebrity chef is a western food expert, we decided to collaborate his dishes with a well known Chinese Chef in Shanghai to create an east meets west fusion menu. Apparently, it was delicious, I wasn't there, but I wish I was! However, I did become good friends with the celebrity Chef and he offered a free dinner at his restaurant as a wedding gift when I get back to the states! I'm def going to take him up on that!

I believe I got 3 or maybe 4 hours of sleep on Wednesday night thankfully.. I really really needed it.

Day 4 - Business Sessions and Gala Dinner

Got up at 5:30, 6:30 breakfast meeting, 7:00 run through rehearsals, and an 8:30 AM start time! 30 minutes later - woooooohooooooooo. The day went really really well and smoothly. Our client concluded the conference with thank yous and recognizing people on stage. Unexpectedly he called me out to come on stage and gave me the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. It was a very nice gesture. Our whole team was brought on stage too (those who weren't at the gala dinner venue rehearsing) so it was great to recognize all the amazing efforts our team made to make this conference a success.

The day of business sessions concludes at 5:30 and there is a 7:00 PM departure for the gala dinner. I had just enough time to get all dolled up (black tie attire) and actually take off my glasses and wear my contacts that I hadn't work in the 15 days leading up to the gala. I kept getting really bad eye infections each time I came back from China from my site inspections leading up to the event. The smog really hurt my eyes and I'm sure long working days didn't help. Regardless, I was told I had an ulcer on my eye 3 days before I left for Shanghai. Needless to say it didn't end up being as serious as it sounded but I still couldn't wear my contacts for a while. Anyway, I was happy to not have to wear my glasses!

So the gala dinner was very very interesting to plan. It was a huge group effort as the venue was a blank canvas that we had to turn into a 1930s black tie theme party! The venue we chose was originally constructed as a slaughterhouse and has been reinvented as one of Shanghai's most unique event centers. Ferrari, Mercedes Benz and all kinds of fashion show launches have been made here. Oh, and if you walk around to some of the back areas, the pathways where the piggies used to walk up, you can still see blood stains. The venue can "comfortably" stand 1,500 people (so they say.. maybe 1,500 small asian women), is circular, cieling height of about 30 feet, and all the windows are floor to cieling glass, and has a raised circular floor in the middle that is made of glass and you can see all the way down to the ground floor (6 floors down).

To make this event happen, we worked with a totally different team of chefs apart from the chefs I worked with at the hotel. For inspiration the chef team researched common food served in the 1930s clubs. We had to order cooking stations and build bars (remember, empty room). We worked with an absolutely fantastic bar consulting company that designed all the drinks, did mixology tricks, wore 1930s gansta costumes, etc. Actually, all staff were costumed in 1930s gear. Shane designed the sets and we worked with the same set company that did the set for the ballroom. It was an art deco type stage with two stair cases. We also worked with an AV company for the music. The hardest part was coordinating the food stations and getting all the equipment the chefs needed as well as staying within food and safety regulations. We also worked with a local entertainment company who recommended performers for our cabaret entertainment! The event took about 30 hours to set up and rehearse. The venue doesn't heat the room until an hour before the event starts so our poor dancers, Jen, musicians, etc were FREEEEZINGGG while setting up. Thankfully Jen was smart and said our event started at 6:00 instead of 8:00 so they got it turned in earlier!

The event began with the arrival of guests. 8 buses in total arrived outside the venue, and the guests did the same walk the piggies did when it was a slaughterhouse. It's a long windy, bumpy (i took the elevators I had stilletos and did that walk so many times anyway!), dark, a bit creepy walk that ends at the entrance of the circular venue. Guests walked in the room to a cabaret show, some small tables with lanterns, food stations, bars, mixologists (all in white and suspenders), and each guest received a white, red, or black scarf. The rest of the evening consisted of scantily clad girls doing 5 minute random routines, the most beautiful aerial act I've ever seen, Chinese mask changing act, a xylophone act, and a big band to back it all up. It was great and I was able to enjoy myself and have a drink.. even better. I actually got to talk to the guests for once as well and they had great comments which I really appreciated. I guess they really don't see all the bad things that happen in the background!

The evening concludes and everyone boards the buses. The buses were making a stop at a 1930s venue to continue the party. I was staying on the bus to go back to the hotel but as everyone is getting off I literally got dragged off the bus! So I got to mingle some more with the delegates and have a great time.

Day 5 - Wrap Up

Day 5 consisted of cleaning up, wrapping up, sending things back, getting things in order, debriefing, and trying to get a second to finally breathe! I went to bed at 8:00 PM and didn't wake up until 9:00 am saturday.

Saturday me, Shane, Maria and Jen stayed to explore the city some more. We even made friends with one of the speakers who came shopping with us at the markets! In the evening we all had a celebratory wonderful dinner in downtown Shanghai (thanks to our boss!).

Sunday, we decided to take a road trip. Our local help, Sally, grew up in Hangzhou which is 2 hours outside of Shanghai and the city where Shane and I flew into. We heard from numerous people how beautiful Hangzhou is so we decided to make a trip of it! Sally hired a driver for us and we hopped in a van and drove to Hangzhou for the day! Unfortunately it was very rainy, wet and cold, but that didn't stop us! We walked along the beautiful lakes, temples, and local homes. I wasn't wearing very good shoes to wet weather so my feet ending up freezing so I asked Sally if we could go back to the hotel so I could get more suitable shoes. It wasn't very far away and on our way Sally was speaking Chinese and kept saying something that sounded really similar to "bull sh*t." All of us were kinda looking at each other like what does that mean!?!? So I asked Sally!

"Sally you keep saying bull sh*t. What exactly does that mean" me

Sally giggles and replies "soggy shoes"

Great.. add that to my very limited Chinese vocabulary - nihao (hello), xie xie (thank you) and soggy shoes!

We had a good laugh about that one. Sally proceeded to take us to lunch which I couldn't even tell you what we ate. But it had eyes, maybe some legs, something spongy, and something that might have still been alive. Ha, it was definitely an experience but great.

After a great day with Sally, Maria and Jen, Shane and I had to say bye bye as they drove back into Shanghai and we stayed in Hangzhou as our flight took off the next day. Shane and I had a great dinner as we reminisced about all the crazy things that happened... we even got some laughs out of things that just did not seem funny at the time!

We left for the airport the next day. I sat down in my seat and as I was looking around minding my business a big cockroach comes zooming across my arm rest!!! I looked at the cockroach and said, "nihao" as I figured it understood Chinese.

Well It's been one year and 3 weeks since I started working in Australia. Living here has been great for both me and Jason personally and professionally. Looking back to the first week we moved here, I'd never thought that in the upcoming year I'd execute 2 medium sized conferences, 4 concert tours, travel to Asia 9 times (Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai), create a small network of 6 wonderful friends, return back to the US for a week for a wedding, explore Queensland, see an opera at the Opera House, gone camping, pet dingos, koalas and kangaroos.... that now I think I really need to start planning my own wedding! Under three months to go. Shit, if I can plan an event in China, I can do anything

The Brisbane Flood

It must have rained every day in December.  Winter was mild, spring was comfortable but summer quickly turned wet.  By the time Christmas came around, I just expected it to rain every day.  Sure enough, we had a wet Christmas, wet Boxing Day, and not much better into the New Year.  Somehow, it just never crossed my mind that all that rain might add up to something.

On Tuesday the 11th of January, we first heard about the disaster in Toowoomba, a good 120k from Brisbane.  The city is located on the side of a mountain but a torrential downpour caused what was later called an inland tsunami.  A wall of water about two meters high came ripping through the downtown area of the city, taking everything in its path.  Home videos and camera phones showed cars being easily swept away, some with people still inside.

Toowoomba and much of the surrounding Lockyer Valley all drain towards the Brisbane river.  It didn't take long for meteorologists and disaster management teams to predict terrible flooding as more water accumulated into the Brisbane river.  After the 1974 flood, the Wivenhoe Dam was built outside of Brisbane that supposedly would keep another flood from reaching the city.  Unfortunately, the same dam which was nearly empty two years ago, which scientists said would take 10 years of above average rainfall to reach 100% capacity, reached near the 200% capacity mark and had no choice but to give controlled releases to prevent a massive overflow.  Between the surge coming from the Lockyer Valley and the overflowing Wivenhoe Dam, several Sydney Harbours worth of water were going to pass through Brisbane in a matter of about 72 hours.

That afternoon, a message went out at my office to tell everyone to pack up and go home.  I didn't honestly think it would flood that badly in the city, especially considering my place of work and our apartment are at least five or ten meters above the river.  Roadways and railways were filling up with people trying to get home before the flooding started and transportation lines were closed.  I got home about noon and turned on the news.  All the national stations were tuned to flood coverage.  The early word was that waters were already high and would continue rising into Wednesday, peaking some time on Thursday.  To make matters worse, the huge amounts of rainwater coming downstream were being matched by a king tide.

Our building is on the river, though it sits slightly higher than some of the neighboring buildings.  A look out our balcony that afternoon showed the river was already at its banks and was beginning to cover the pedestrian sidewalks that line both sides of the river throughout the entire CBD area.  The rest of the day was a bit anti-climactic, though interesting objects were already starting to float down the river.  Pontoons (what I would usually refer to as docks) would float by one after the other, some with covered boats and lawn chairs still on them.  There was an amazing amount of debris from trees, plants and manmade structures.  Huge chunks of polystyrene (Styrofoam) would float along at the fast pace of the river.  It was already churning quite a bit with little whirlpools along the edges and near rapids in the middle.

That evening I got in touch with friends to make sure everyone was alright.  Several had either evacuated or had decided to wait it out, knowing they lived on a high floor.  They knew it might be a few days before they could leave but didn't want to stay in an evacuation center.  I went down to the river after dark and watched the river for a bit.  It was a bit strange, feeling like you're in the middle of a natural disaster and yet there was no panic, no sense of urgency.  A few others were down there as well, watching unmanned boats float by.

The next morning the river was up considerably.  It really started to raise quite quickly at this point and I knew it would be days before I was back at work again.  My client occupies one of the buildings on the river and I could see the water line getting close to the building, even with a further one to two meters of flooding still to come.  I watched more news coverage and decided to go out that afternoon to take a few pictures and let everyone know I was alright.  By this time, the floating walkway that connects the CBD to New Farm, one of my favorite running trails, was destroyed.  It buckled under the pressure from the river and the constant debris hitting and pushing against it.  I watched several of our favorite restaurants go under water.  Jellyfish, where we've had great seafood, Groove Train, which we've visited a number of times and the Boardwalk, our favorite place for a beer after work, were all gone.  I later heard they weren't able to get insurance because of their locations right on the river and that they may never be back.

All throughout the day, the debris kept getting bigger and weirder.  I watched a local restaurant float by.  Perhaps the strangest thing I saw went floating by at dusk.  About 6pm I heard a loud whistling noise that I assumed must have been some kind of boat.  I went out to the balcony to have a look and saw something large and white coming into view from down the river.  As it got closer, I realized it was a LPG tank! (liquid propane)  This wasn't the small home barbecue size, this was the 20 foot long gas station size tank.  Not a minute after it passed the apartment, I could smell the gas 200 feet in the air.  I stood there for a few minutes just waiting to hear an explosion but nothing happened.  At some point it must have simply run out of gas and floated into the bay, like everything else.

I woke up Thursday morning and took a few pictures of the river at its peak.  It was such a beautiful sunny morning but looking out the window was just so odd.  The walkway from our building all the way to the botanic gardens was completely submerged, my client's building was clearly flooded, Kangaroo Point had taken on enough water to submerge a few unlucky cars, the ferry stop across from us was destroyed and perhaps the worst part, the floating walkway had broken away and become a missile floating down the river.  A few local tug boat captains managed to corral it and escort it down the river and out to sea.

I went out again that day.  Our building was very lucky throughout the ordeal because unlike most of our neighbors and many of our friends around the city, we had power.  We did however lose the elevators.  I went to New Farm to have a look at the damage and ended up helping a few guys carry a kayak full of ice back to edge of the water.  The only way they could get in and out of their place was in a boat.

The water receded quickly Thursday night and into Friday.  By Friday night, I left for Sydney to meet Carol for the weekend and was more than ready to take a break from 24 - 7 flood coverage.  I did get a chance to see some of the cleanup before leaving town and was very impressed by the Queenslanders sense of mateship and resolve to get things done.  Volunteers were everywhere and everyone was lending a hand.  It was amazing how quickly many people were able to get back to their lives and move on.

It's been several weeks now and things definitely aren't 100% back to the way they were.  Nearly every construction project around the city has been delayed or possibly cancelled.  The floating walkway is gone and there's no indication if they're going to rebuild.  The Eagle Street Pier area is still closed off, which between that and floating walkway have severly limited my running routes.  City Cat and City Ferry services finally returned to the river, one month later, though it may be longer for stations that were destroyed.  At my client site, we had to roll out our full disaster recovery plan.  There are still some leftover issues to resolve, especially with technology that was based in Brisbane.

The floods have been an experience I will always remember.  I would never wish a natural disaster on anyone, but I'm glad I was here to experience it.