Mexico City

Upon arrival at the office this morning, and still in the haze of a 17-hour time zone difference from Sydney, I learned that I'll be going to Mexico City on Tuesday night. A company vice president is going down to follow up on some questions and he requested my assistance! Hopefully, I can help him my knowledge of the language, culture and operations in Mexico City, and with an outsider's point of view. Regardless, this trip will spice up the waning winter season!

Senador Obama

This is cool! Barack Obama gave the Democratic Party's response to the President's weekly radio address this week in Spanish. It mostly deals with the corruption in Congress, Jack Abramoff, corporate welfare/cutting social programs, and how the Democrat's have a plan to limit lobbyist's influence and reform Congress. The Senator from Illinois does a decent job in Spanish:

http://demradio.senate.gov/actualities/hispanic/obama_hispanic_radio.mp3

A Few Images

I hope that no one will be offended by the following images. Particularly, the photo of the 4' 2" scientologist jumping on a couch. I, for one, am terribly disgusted by any image of him, to the point where I can no longer consider Penélope Cruz an attractive woman because she has dated him. And she's Spanish!

Nevertheless, partly to test my own comfort level and mostly in solidarity with a few Danish cartoonists, the editor of the Daily Illini newspaper and freedom of thought, expression and the press everywhere, I officially publish these images for the public domain.

I'm sorry for the delay.

Mohammed

Tom

Jellyfish, Abalone and Sea Cucumbers

Last night I went to Golden Century, allegedly the best restaurant in Sydney's Chinatown and a frequent destination for celebrities. It's also the restaurant at which I ate shark fin soup back in 2002.

In the spirit of adventure and defiance of my common sense, I had stripped jellyfish as an appetizer and abalone with sea cucumbers (ie, squirmy, cucumber-shaped seafood) as a main dish. The nicest thing I can say about the meal was that it was probably prepared exactly as it should have been and I finished most of what was on my plates. However, I will never again eat any of those creatures, and I'm further convinced that, apart from dim sum and peking duck, I don't like traditional Chinese food. And I think I'll wait until I'm in China to test my palate again.

In other news, it's shaping up to be a grand weekend. Sailing is on the agenda, and I'm working on trying to attend a barbie. Actually a friend of mine is taking me with to a birthday gathering hosted by a friend of hers. The gathering will take place at a bar and it should include barbecued food, so for all intents and purposes, I'm chalking it up as a barbie. Sailing and a barbie, what else would a guy do when he is in Sydney!

Back Down Under

"Back Down Under," now those are three prepositions that I wish I could phrase together more often! The weather is great, the food is great, and the people are great down under in Sydney, Australia.

Upon arrival on Sunday, I revisited some of the highlights of the city such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House, The Rocks, and Darling Harbour. I earned a slight sunburn by walking too long without sunscreen.

On Monday the locals took us out for a long dinner. Generally, the guys here are always up for a good time, and they see any visitors to their office as a perfect excuse to make a night of it. We went to a great restaurant called Waterfront for excellent seafood, beer and wine. I tried a white fish called John Dory, a lager called James Squire, and a cabernet/merlot blend from Barossa Valley. Between the food, drinks and catching up on company-wide gossip, we were out until midnight.

Somehow, I woke up early Tuesday morning to get a work-out in before getting to the office. After work, I met up with an old friend and co-worker for drinks. She was out with some of her friends and the group of us ended up dining at a nice Malaysian restaurant called Melea. In two nights so far, I've had seafood and Asian food, both genres that are very well mastered in this city and genres I plan to eat much more of in my remaining days here in the Australian summer.

A Long Winter ... And Summer Will Soon End

For no particular reason worth sharing, this winter season has been dragging on. This Friday I'll leave Chicago's winter and head toward Sydney, Australia, but I'm only about 60% excited about that. There must be something wrong with me!

Don't get me wrong, I am truly looking forward to experiencing some of the dog days of February with my Australian mates. The crew down under are very amiable and fun, so I'm sure that after work we'll be spending some quality time enjoying Australian local brews, Asian food, and perhaps I'll eat some wallaby or kangaroo. I think it's just that I'm ready for the next step in my life.

For me, at least, the next step would be to work for a company or organization that I can truly believe in or else one that is a little bit more dynamic and fun. If I knew precisely what company or organization that would be, well, my life would be a lot easier. All I do know is that, after almost four years working for the same company, I'm ready to start looking outside. But that is tremendously boring, so I'll switch the subject.

Weekends in 2006
Some of the great experiences of 2006 thus far have been the more frequent visits with family and friends. Thor and Kaylin continue to amaze me with their progress. And on 28 January, Thor came to the Palacio for the first time!

During Thor's visit, the Palacio phone rang. This truly is remarkable because we rarely use this phone. Anyway, my cousin Kyle was calling from downstairs, he was taking a break from the work he was doing in the building right next to the Palacio. Needless to say, Chico Blanco and I had quite the busy early morning, much to the contrary of our typical young bachelor habits.

Back to a typical weekend's activities, on last Saturday Chico Blanco, Mark and I went to a diner in Humboldt Park for some breakfast. After breakfast, Mark and I scoped out four possible locations, including one close to the diner in Humboldt Park. As of today, there are three places we like and, as soon as something newsworthy occurs, I will share more details.

Super Bowl 2006
For the first time in a few years, I watched the Super Bowl. I can't promise that I'll make a habit of it, but I can say that it was fun to hang out with some of the old Calvary crew, even if my preferred team lost.

Back to Today
In a few days I'll be back in Sydney's summer. This is the fourth local winter in a row that I'll get to exchange some of the winter for Southern Hemisphere summer. If and when I move on from this gig, this pattern will be one of the features I miss most.

But, any amount of summer is good, even if it will end soon. Now, it's off to work out so that I'll be ready for Bondi Beach!