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.