I headed out mid-day on Tuesday from Manly to get down to Wollongong to see where Mark was working. While it was nice to bookend my week with working in the Sydney office, it wasn't necessary, so I figured hanging out at a hotel would be fine as well. I found Mark and his hotel, he made me dinner in his kitchenette, and I, again, slept for a bit before my meetings at midnight.
Wednesday was all at his hotel. I met him and coworkers for lunch at a Thai place in a trendy part of Wollongong, then took an afternoon nap, worked until dinner, and walked with Mark to Clifton, 1km and one town down. We found his coworkers again (plus one of their partners, so I wasn’t the only one who didn’t work together) and sat in the back area of a bar where others didn’t find us until they’d had a drink on the other side.
We conversed - well-traveled people, Australians who’d lived in England, took month-long vacations to America, and still knew which spiders and snakes could kill you. We got a lift back and the cycle started again - a little bit of sleep before a midnight meeting, then up by 7am to catch the tail end of their day.
Thursday the 13th I was headed back to Sydney, and I actually timed my train so I wouldn’t have to wait half an hour to ride an additional 90 minutes, as I did on the way down. I was giving a noon session presentation on UX at APT - cobbled together a few presentation from back in DC, then did a lot of Q&A.
For evening activities, a coworker had made a reservation at Mr. Wong’s, a well-known Asian fusion restaurant. It was down an alley, so you felt cool just for knowing how to get in. And the food was on point. The fried ice cream was a “religious experience” for some of my coworkers (maybe if I liked butterscotch more? It was certainly delicious!)
I took at taxi out to Bondi where I was staying on a coworker's couch for the evening, and we took a walk along the beach and circled the town before heading to bed.
Friday, Mark headed in from Wollongong, but there were company-wide meetings and office sessions that I was busy attending. He came by at 5, we grabbed some beers from the WeWork taps (well, a cider for me), and I introduced him to the dozen people in the office. We rallied some troops (three coworkers and a partner) to go to The Baxter Inn - yet another entrance in an alley that made me feel special.
The bar had a speak-easy feel, and we only had to wait a bit for a table to open up and us to sit. Sadly, it was very, very loud. Still, with some vocal gymnastics, we conversed over whisky and wine.
Mark hadn’t had dinner, so we headed off to a recommended Hunter & Barrel, a round restaurant on the water. I convinced Mark to get the lamb (which was pricey, but worth it!) while I got bread with oil and dukkah (an amazing spice blend).
We finished with a walk over to The Star, a fancy but kinda empty-looking shopping mall so we could try Messina, a recommended gelato shop. We entered by a movie theater but otherwise, the white hallways were pretty echo-y - until we got to gelato. Dulce de leche, strawberry and cream, and chocolate - great end to the evening.
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