An assortment of photos from Sydney follows.
It’s quite common to see surfers strolling through the streets of Sydney. In fairness, this was just across the road from the beach though! 
The first picture was just across the road from this, Bondi Beach.
Ross, master of the ocean.
The white ladies. This was taken at the Primo Italiano Italian Festival.
While leaving Agata’s place I couldn’t help but laugh at this sign. Otis, the lift company, are located at 5-9 Ricketty Street. Oh dear, that was an unfortunate choice!
I spotted Tunnocks Caramel Wafers in a speciality sweet shop in Pitt St Mall. I just couldn’t resist.
The budget airline Oasis Hong Kong has appointed liquidators. Technically the court appointed the liquidators, but anyway, the airline is in liquidation. My sympathies to anyone who has booked flights with them and is waiting to hear. In my experience, liquidators are absolutely ruthless and out solely to maximise their fees. KPMG is the liquidator in this case, I doubt it will be any different.
What a shame, Oasis was a great way to get from Europe - Asia - North America. Their 2 routes were major hubs and very useful for the global budget traveller.
I was at a blogger’s breakfast with the guys from Mahalo this morning. It was interesting to meet some Sydney tech people. There was a mix of people. Primarily fairly switched on, fairly corporate looking suits. A spattering of geeks and Jason devotees. It was quite a small affair, about 25 people all told.
I definitely made one or two interesting connections. Karl is an impressive guy. He’s 16 years old and maintains a gaming server network of 628 servers. He and his dad run the business with one other technician. Impressive for 16.
The overall feel was very corporate. A lot of guys in suits. Initially only 1 woman before Zara and Jason’s wife arrived. I wonder if that’s typical of the tech scene in Sydney. I hope it’s a more mixed bag. I’m on the lookout for a few more events to check out.
Henry very kindly booked me a ticket for Tim Ferris’s 4 Hour Work Week session in Sydney. I haven’t read the book, but I’ve heard about it, and I’m curious to meet the man behind the idea. I wonder if I can get hold of the book and cruise through it before Friday.
Last month I flew from Johannesburg to Bangkok, via Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways. The flights were each relatively pleasant, the entertainment was pretty good, and the price was unbelievable, definitely unbeatable.
When leaving the first plane from Jo’burg to Abu Dhabi, I left my phone on the plane. I realised as soon as I got to security at gate in Abu Dhabi. I went straight to the Etihad desk where I met Charles. He jumped on the radio and somebody went out to check the plane. No luck, my phone had not been found.
I checked my bags and my pockets again. I re-walked my route. I was convinced my phone had to be on the plane. Charles took me back down to the gate, and had the bus driver check all 5 buses in use on that flight. No sign of my phone.
I consoled myself that it was time to get a new phone, left my email address and contact information with Charles, and boarded my next flight. I was doing my best to focus on non-attachment, the impermanence of all things, and so on. I was just about to fall asleep, when I thought, it would be great if Charles turned up on the plane with my phone. Stop dreaming I told myself, the phone has gone. Not two seconds later, there’s a tap on my shoulder, and Charles is in the aisle of the plane asking me what type of phone it was. Then he handed me my phone. Charles had sent somebody back to double check the plane, and rushed the phone to me just before we departed.
That’s customer service.
Charles could easily have passed the phone onto lost property or left somebody else to deal with it. My phone could so easily have fallen through the cracks. Charles will definitely impact, positively, on my next decision to fly with Etihad Airways. I’ve emailed Etihad to thank Charles.
I’m heading off now (6:15am!) on a road trip to Jo’burg for a few days. Will be offline most of the time, but back on email briefly next weekend then fully probably on Tuesday or Wednesday from Bangkok.
Adios amigos…
I was at the Cape Town Vespa store a few days ago. All the sales people we met were talking trash about the much cheaper Vuka bikes. One chap said to us “The brakes fail after 500km.” When pressed, what he meant was, the brakes need tightened regularly on the Vuka bikes.
True, it does need maintenance. It doesn’t ride as well as a Vespa. Some would say it’s not as stylish. The Vespa has much better brakes. The Vespa is probably a lot safer. But the Vuka range starts at R5′000 ($600 USD) while the Vespa range starts at R40′000 ($4′800 USD) for an equivalent CC. So naturally you’d expect the Vespa to be better quality.
Just for the record, I ride a Vuka.
The end result of my experience is, I actually think less of Vespa. Simply because they talked down the competition. If they’d talked up the benefits of their brand, I’d probably hold Vespa in much higher regard.
It was a great, real life example of the old marketing adage, focus on your positive points, don’t put down the competition. From personal experience, it’s absolutely true. Talk up your product, don’t talk down the competitor’s.
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