Sydney's great! I had never worked in Sydney, so it was a good change. Everyone was really nice and welcoming - making me feel like moving up here... The environment is just so much more enjoyable - even people from the other departments come and talk to you. I have to say the first day was overwhelming. I never imagined the Ch 9 building site to be so huge. You think Ch 9 in Melb is huge - this site was all grilled off, right to the security gatehouse - it looked like a massive prison with satellite dishes and lots of little buildings around it and the main one near the security gatehouse. At the security gate, there's even this metal gate thing that you have to swipe your card to go through. And even when you do go through, at reception (you go through two sliding doors before you get to reception) and still have to report that you're there with proof of ID - I guess you don't have to do this step for regular staff, but most people do.
I got a visitor pass the first day. Now, I've got a casual pass. =) After my security check and all was OK - the supervisor on shift showed me around, and boy, I got lost. It really is a tricky maze in there.
The building wasn't the only thing that was overwhelming. The actual shift I was on was crazy - three news bulletins with heavy writing stuff - you have to voice or speak a lot of missing stuff (about 60% of the bulletin). The bad thing was, I was thrown into the deep end with the dodgy computer so my work probably wasn't the best. It would help if the comp was faster. =( In fact, everyone tries to avoid that computer whenever they can because it's so slow. For instance, changing a colour usually takes a split second, but this computer takes about 6 seconds, and it drives everyone crazy. They're trying to get Tech Services to replace the comp. But for now, they seem to be suffering with it. So anyway, the shift went well. There were three trainees and there were lots of stuff to do, you practically couldn't go on meebo or check email or sms or call someone on the phone - until after 8pm (and my shift ends at 9pm, but even so, I had to help out the trainees, so no chat, no email, nothing of that). So yeah, it is pretty tight here. I didn't imagine how tight it would be, but it is. I guess now I know.
Day 2 was more intense, because there were only two trainees and work was piled. We were all sitting in the wrong seats, and there was no-one to flick me on air. Apparently someone else had to patch me in separately for some live writing and no-one did because they were so short and they were busy with something else. So it was a bummer. I met more people though... A lot of people whose names start with "A".
Anyway, for dinner, I took a cab (had cab charges and didn't want to waste any of them) and joined one of my colleagues, Cat, and her boyfriend at this seafood restaurant in Crows Nest. The food was really good and it was affordable. The colleague I had dinner with - she's actually from the UK and moved to Sydney not long ago and she came to Melb to help out with the new voice sofware, and we hit it off pretty well. So yeah, she took me out tonight which was awesome. She, her boyfriend and I chatted about lots of stuff, and after dinner, showed them my hotel room, and we spoke till about 12:35am. They had to work the next morning at 8am so I kinda felt bad holding them up. Oops...
Well, I must mention the hotel I'm in. It's the Vibe Hotel in Nth Syd in Milsons Pt. Apparently Milsons Pt is a really wealthy suburb. In fact, the Prime Minister's house - Kiribilli House - is not far from where I live. I love my room too. It's got a great view of the Harbour and the Milsons train station (it's not directly in front where I see the wheels of the train, it's overlooking it - just across the road in front of my hotel, so at a distance...). My room's also got a very comfy homey feel to it, it's great. The only thing is I get the morning sun and even though the curtains are drawn, the sun is really bright and the heat comes through - makes me have to get up really early in the morn. Tomorrow, I'm gonna try and have some hotel breakfast and then explore the place a little bit. Didn't get much chance today cause I was called into work earlier... but I'll try to do that tomorrow.
Missing TY, my animals and everyone in Melb!
Jetting off now to my pillow. Nites!
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