2006 HR National Strategic Meeting/ HR Retreat

St Kilda - Melbourne

I arrived in Melbourne at 8:00am Friday morning and over the next 3 days I would call The Novotel at St Kilda home. I didn't expect to be back in Melbourne for work again till next year, but hey! I'm not complaining.

St Kilda, the home of Luna Park....

Cake shops..........

And Greasy Joe's.........

I didn't get a giant room like last time (which is probably a good thing because I get scared when I'm by myself). The hotel was a bit older compared to the other ones I've stayed at for work, but a rooms a room (and there was pay TV which kept me busy during my 'free time').

I was just happy that we had access to all the cakes and biscuits that one person could possibly eat. During the day the meetings and workshops were pretty intense, by the afternoon everyone was dead tired. It was hard having to wake up on a Saturday morning and prepare yourself for a full day of 'work'.

I didn't take any photos (too early in the morning for my brain to function) but we had an amazing hot & cold buffet breakfast. I'm really glad that I don't get that in Sydney because if we did I would now be the size of a hippo.

Friday night dinner - Chinta Ria Soul

The food here was fantastic! It was freezing in Melbourne! and the Spicy Malaysian cuisine was exactly what we needed. Because we had over 16 people we ordered all 3 of the banquet menus available. For the entrée we feasted on spring rolls, curry puffs, tofu isi, ling goreng, lohbak and satay chicken.

The main meals consisted of: mee goreng, mah poh tofu, gado gado, garlic spinach, coconut rice, sambal prawns, chilli fish, curry ayam, beef rending, roti & sambal prawns.

As a food blogger I was just itching to take photos! It was absolutely killing me that I couldn’t share what I was experiencing with my friends who share my love and interest in food. Unfortunately my work colleagues just don’t understand, they think it’s a little weird that I take photos of my food before I eat it. Seeing that I was meeting a lot of my interstate colleagues for the first time I decided to be well behaved.

It's not the cheapest place to eat, but considering that it is located in St Kilda it is to be expected (lucky for me all meals were paid for by the firm).

Saturday night dinner - Dogs bar

Would you believe that this place serves Italian food??

After a few drinks I decided to whip out my camera phones for a few quick snaps.

Dips - beetroot, salmon, eggplant

Antipasto plate

Lamb shanks with mash potato and vegetables

The food here is generally pretty good, the gravy of the lamb shanks was a bit strong for my liking and the others complained that their steaks were a little cold. I'm sure that this wouldn't be a problem for smaller groups.

Sunday morning

HR (minus all the HR Assistants)

It's a tradition that we take a jumping photo every year, why?? I'm not sure....

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I flew back into Sydney Sunday afternoon and the first thing I did was make my way to the Sydney Fish Markets. The Markets were jammed packed with people; I could barely move and felt really uncomfortable.

I thought that maybe the new '2 hrs free parking' promotion had something to do with it, but it’s probably always been this busy (and I hadn’t noticed because I usually come very early in the morning).

After eating a dozen oysters I was outta there!

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I'm glad to be home.

A Crazy Week

I’ve just come back from an absolutely crazy week in Melbourne. It’s really hard to summarise everything into a few short paragraphs but I just wanted to say that it was THE most fabulous week where I felt really spoilt!

My week started early Monday morning when I arrived at our Melbourne office at 9am jumping into my first interview half an hour later. I had been up since 5:00am so I was tired but eager to get started.

Left: The building where I work

Right: This is probably the only photo of myself this whole trip (taken in the lift).

Our Melbourne office is pretty stunning (I think it’s a prerequisite for all law firms to be really nice, though Sydney is due for a renovation soon). The Melbourne office is very 'new age' and 'hi Tech', for example the lights turn itself on and off as you enter and exit the rooms (energy saving purposes). There are cappuccino machines on every level and a glass atrium with arm chairs and a view of the city for people to relax and chill out.

Each level has a colour and HR is located on Level 11 'The orange level'. This is part of our kitchen area and like Sydney, the kitchen is always stocked up with a lot of fruit and biscuits. Mark is a Witness to this, and could tell you that I am a big fan of the biscuits! Though Melbourne doesn't get the fresh hand made ones.

I stayed at the Sebel which is basically the old Treasury building. The place is stunning! It is only 2 mins walk from work, but as you know I'm bad with directions so on the first night I got really lost (I left work at 5pm and didn't make it back to the hotel till 30mins later!).

I thought that my room would be nice, but I didn't expect it to be so big! My suite was 2 levels. This was the bottom floor where I had kitchen facilities, TV, in house movies, cable internet and a couch.

Then you go up these stairs to the upper level to my bedroom and bathroom.

This window reached from the ceiling to the floor and during the night the wind would blow against it so hard that I would wake up a little scared. It was a massive suite for one person to stay in, and like I said before it's probably a bit too big for a scardy cat like me.

Minibar Goodness

The Coffee

On the second day, I came to work with a Hudson's coffee in hand. The girls looked at me with shock and exclaimed "ohhh! you must be from Sydney if you drink Hudsons!". I just picked up a coffee from the nearest place so I could warm myself up (it's freezing in Melbourne! I went no where without my coat). They quickly showed me the error of my ways and introduced me to Donatos a little cafe across the road that makes THE BEST hot choclates!

The Cocktail Party

I run the Graduate program for all of Sydney and Canberra and I often assist Melbourne and Brisbane. This week I was here to meet with the Melbourne Partners and to carry out the 2nd round interviews. From 900 applications we had narrowed it down to 40 people for 21 possible spots. To get to know the remaining students a bit better we held 2 information nights followed by cocktails and drinks. The cocktails were absolutely delicious!!

Breakfast & Dinner

I was basically given a budget to spend on food everday, but the daily total could easily feed me for a whole week in Sydney. I must say that my spending for this time was very sensible. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get the chance to eat and explore many of the places that I wanted to, because at around 6:00pm every night it would pour with rain! I did go to eat buffet by myself one night at Crown Casino (yes by myself...what a nigel!).

Compared to Star City, the buffet at Sante is such good value - $15.90 all you can eat!

I also made my way to Mekong on Swanson Street. Every time I go to Melbourne I come here, it's famous for its Vietnamese cuisine. The store proudly displays photos around the walls of all the Chinese celebrities who have visited. The food is ok....but I prefer Pho An in Bankstown (Sydney) any day!

If you look hard enough you can find some very cheap eats in Melbourne! (The locals will usually tell you). For lunch I found a little Indian retaurant that served a variety of curry from Northern India. Below is a big plate of vegetable curry with tomato rice and salad for $3.50...yes $3.50!

Other times I would just order room service. All the room service Meals were prepared by the hotel restaurant The Treasury, and delivered by the best looking guys!! I'm talking about tall model types....and there I was in my daggy tracksuit - hawt!

Left: Pizza with prosciutto, goats cheese and confit peppers, Right: French onion soup

The hotel also did an amazing buffet breakfast every morning, (no piccies because the hotel people would think I was weird). Instead of honey out of a jar, they had fresh honey comb that dripped honey onto a plate for people to put onto their yogurt and toast - it was just amazing.

I guess despite having such a great time, I really started to miss friends, family and most of all Jacky. You can be at the nicest places but at the end of the day, it is never that great when you don't have someone to share the experience with. Career wise it's been such a long road to get to where I am, and I'm so grateful...

Next work trip - Wollongong!

Good old Parramatta

Melbourne was lovely.

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Today I had my first run in with the Crazy lady that sits near the Roxy. You are generally ok if you avoid eye contact and walk past quickly. Today I made the dreaded mistake of pausing in front of her when I thought that I stepped in something that looked like pee. I glanced at her then at the yellow stream of liquid. As I hurried off I could hear yelling “Youuuuuuuuuu stupiddddddd sluttttttt!”

Well at least she didn't chase me up the stairs.