March 1997
We spent another month in Indonesia, before Kim's role in the benchmarking project came to an end, and we both returned to Australia in the first week of July. Before leaving, we raced around, determined to do a host of sightseeing activities. These included a day's walk through the tea plantations in Jakarta's Puncak region (Puncak meaning Peak); visiting the Safari park and other general touristy things in the big smoke (definitely given a new meaning in Jakarta's pollution!). We managed also to fit in a weekend at Bandung, home of the famous Bandung Institute of Technology, where Sukarno and Hatta (founders of the modern Indonesian republic) studied, and close to an active volcano that we walked around. Mind you Kim looked somewhat different from when we set out on the journey, to the time that we arrived. Our trip up the mountain was by means of a taxi car hired for the day. Kim propped herself in the front seat with prospects of fine views. Well, it was a fine view of the rear of two large coaches belching out an enormous amount of thick black smoke. She was forced to cover her mouth with a handkerchief. What she didn't anticipate however was that the coach directly in front was ejecting blobs of black oil which came directly through the front air ventilator (no airconditioning in this vehicle) directly onto her long sleeved orange shirt (a one time favourite). Despite three attempts at the dry cleaners back in Jakarta the shirt was never to return to its unblemished state again. And it was supposed to be cleaner outside Jakarta! After all this, we felt we deserved a swim and a genuine Australian style cappuccino at the Chedi hotel, in Bandung.
Finally, before flying back to Australia, we managed to spend 3 days in Singapore, where we caught up with Brian and Leti Cohen, Wong, and Sandra Oorjithan. We took in most of the sights of Singapore including the Singapore Zoo, which alongside San Diego and Sydney's Taronga zoo has to be one of the great zoos of the world.
While in Indonesia Kim really hadn't had a chance of organising her next Senior Women in Management (SWIM) placement, so, upon returning to Sydney, the Department of Veteran's Affairs grabbed her to do a 5 week project analysing the medical needs of veterans in the different areas of New South Wales while she simultaneously set about interviewing a range of organisations in which to do her next placement.
After a process of elimination she settled on the Commonwealth Ombudsman's Office in Sydney. It was a good choice. She thoroughly enjoyed her time there. Her brief was to identify systemic issues and develop a strategic plan for the amelioration of relationships with two of the office's largest government agencies. By all accounts, Kim's role was seen to be advantageous. In fact even after only two weeks at the organisation Kim was told that she could leave tomorrow and they would have had a benefit from her being there. In a world of work environments where one often doesn't receive the amount of positive feedback one should, it was nice to get that form of approval.
It was interesting not only to work in such a high profile
organisation, but Kim
also enjoyed the range of opportunities which were provided in this
placement. With only 90 people nationally, lines of reporting were
shortened enabling Kim to work directly with the head of the Sydney
office and on a number of occasions, directly with the head of the
agency itself.
While at the Ombudsman's office, colleagues were invited to wear a hat
for the Annual Melbourne cup day. Kim was told that the more outrageous
the better. Nevertheless we think they were pretty amazed when
Kim fronted up in the crest of her ``pineapple outfit"! (past readers
may remember the famous Exotica Party outfit). Kim's boss could not hide
the incredulity from her face as she asked Kim ``does this come as part
of an outfit and if so why?" The answers were given and Kim leaves as
one of her claims to fame at the office the ``most stylish hat
award". The certificate is a treasured item!
As the time allotted by Kim herself at the Ombudsman's office drew nearer to a close, Kim once again undertook the selection process for her next placement. Having worked for an organisation of 90 staff she decided to work in the Telecommunications Industry at Telstra, Australia's second largest employer with a staff of 72,000. At the time of writing she is still undertaking her placement at Telstra and has thoroughly enjoyed it also. Working in the Employee Relations area of Telstra, Kim has been involved in setting up a Career Transition Service for the organisation. It had been widely publicised in the national press that Telstra was due to downsize (euphemistic for getting rid of) 22,000 people over the next 3 years, 9,000 this financial year. It seemed like an interesting time to be involved in an organisation in transition and it has been. The Career Transition Service will provide outplacement (interview skills, resume preparation etc) and a placement service (matching individuals with jobs) for all ex Telstra employees. The juxtaposition of placement and outplacement services is a first for Australia, and given the magnitude of its scale there was international interest in being selected as the preferred tenderer. Being involved in this selection process was also an interesting aspect to the work. Employees will benefit from this service in a shrinking organisational environment. The Unions however, (who felt their power base being threatened by this management initiative) were none too happy and caused some initial delays. This has since been overcome and the Career Transition Service is due to commence on 2 April 1997. The process has been an interesting one to be at the forefront of.
Kim is now investigating potential candidates for a fourth and final placement on her SWIM program This is likely be in the private sector. At the beginning of July, Kim will return to her home department of the Department of Veterans Affairs. It is anticipated that she will be placed in a new position there where she can demonstrate her new skills. It will bring to a conclusion what, for Kim, has been an invigorating and satisfying past work/financial year on the Senior Women in Management.
Greg arrived about three weeks after the others, and, shortly after, we all (the six of us) decamped to a lovely house on the water's edge which Kim and Russell had already discovered on a previous trip to Nelson's Bay.
Greg and Kim had taken off earlier than the others, ostensibly to meet with their business partner Ross Breadman. About 5pm, the rest of the family, who had by this time set up residence by the water at Nelson's Bay, received a phone call from Kim to say they were still at lunch in the Hunter Valley! Kim, Greg and Ross had taken their business negotiations two hours away into the Hunter valley to lunch at Roberts, one of the premier restaurants of the region. As Ross is a particular friend of Robert (the owner and chef), lunch was an extremely leisurely menu dégustation. This gave new meaning to the long business lunch!
Kim and Russell visited the Hunter again recently and attempted to book into Roberts restaurant (Kim wanted Russell to have a similar experience), but found it booked out. It remains on our list of ``to dos''.
In November last year, we enjoyed a visit by Pete and Lu (Russell's
parents) who stopped over in Sydney en route to a long-planned trip to
New Zealand. It has been 18 years since Pete was in Sydney last, so he
was keen to see what might have changed since he had lived here as a
boy. One of the last things he remembers doing before leaving Sydney
in the late 1940s, was having a dinner at Doyles restaurant at
Watson's Bay, so we
tested out the current menu. As can be seen from the photo, one could
not complain about the generosity of the servings! The greater
portion of Pete's flounder was off the plate rather than on it.
While Pete and Lu were here, we journeyed up the Parramatta river by Rivercat, a trip which can be well recommended. The voyage transports one from Circular Quay to Parramatta, passing beautiful harbour views, mangrove swamps and derelict factories - one feels very much on a journey into a great mystery, traveling along a landscape redolent of the river journey in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. At the journey's end, the cityscape of Parramatta hoves into view, and we were able to disembark for some obligatory feasting at one of Parramatta's excellent restaurants. Needless to say we quaffed the odd bottle of wine or two while Pete and Lu were with us...
The conference was a real buzz, and Russell felt so inspired that he ``volunteered'' to run the next conference in Sydney in 1998. Meanwhile, Terry Bossomaier, from Charles Sturt Uni, Bathurst, was feeling similarly inspired by the Artificial Life conference in Nara, Japan, (where Russell had also given a presentation) that he was also proposing to run the next conference in Australia. It didn't make any sense to run two conferences of a similar theme in the same location without doing a joint effort, so that is what they are considering. A joint Complex Systems/Artificial Life conference in Australia could be the result (we'll keep you posted). The details have yet to be determined eg whether to hold the conference in Sydney or Bathurst etc.
Meanwhile, back at the workplace, it was back to reality for Russell in his position as the Distributed Systems Manager. In late July, the Academic Computing Support Unit (in which Russ works) took its first independent external audit of its quality system - and passed! So the ACSU is now officially ISO9002 certified, which for the rest of us means that we run a system of checks and balances that ensure our customers get quality of service, and that this system conforms to an international standard (the ISO9002 standard).
Just before Christmas, the directors of the New South Wales Centre for Parallel Computing expressed a level of concern to Russell about one of his staff members working at the Parallel Visualisation Facility (located at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern (ATP)) and strongly suggested to Russell that he should remove that staff member. This was done. The extraction necessitated a replacement and a bit of damage control to do. So, (you guessed it) since the beginning of the year, Russell has been working two days a week at the ATP sorting out the structural and procedural problems there.
For his birthday (eleventh) last August, Blair received a set of roller blades much to his delight. These he has ridden up and down our street, as well as, on some occasions around the café when we have brunched with friends. On a few occasions, we have taken him for a spin around Centennial Park (a wonderfully large park in the centre of Sydney). On one of these occasions Russell even braved the technology to go with him. At Christmas Blair received a new mountain bike, which appears to have taken the roller blades' place as a weekend attraction!
We have managed to fit in quite a few other activities with Blair, including amongst other things picnics at the bottom of the garden; a walk through the beautiful Wolli creek area with Kim's friends Vicki and Chris, and an excellent day out at an open day for the Australian Technology Park (ATP). The ATP is crammed with high technology and, upon arrival, we found Blair making a beeline for the latest Silicon Graphics O2 workstation in order to play Doom. Blair also starred in a liquid nitrogen and bubble show, playing the role of a star scientific assistant. He also participated in a display of the Grouputer, an electronic whiteboard in which every participant could enter their ideas using a keyboard. Blair had strong competition in this from a group of very vociferous schoolgirls. The Australian Technology Park is built on the disused Everleigh rail workshops, so, with its remnants of a bygone era provided interest on another level as well. In addition to the train sheds, blacksmith forges are still in current use.
Another weekend found us at Ruth Mearns property just out of
Bowral. Ruth has a few hectares there, so while the adults sipped
beer, wines and champagne, the kids rode the ride-on lawnmower and
under supervision rode the 90cc motorscooter, much to their delight
and some under the watchful eye of the adults. A ritual game of
cricket also ensued, (have to keep up those traditions) involving all
the kids, and some of the adults. Mostly this involved the entire
field, along with the batter trying to get the other batter out!
(That's not really how cricket is supposed to be played is it?)
With 1996 having been a year of no major holidays (at least for Kim) we expect to remedy this situation by taking a few more breaks this year. In fact, after considering a number of possibilities including the Great Barrier reef, and Noosa (which were all washed away (slight exaggeration) in the cyclone), we are now sitting in Capella lodge, with a view out over the south part of Lord Howe Island, a truly stunning piece of land. We have absorbed our time by walking the trails around the peaks, snorkeling the depths of the coral reefs, watching the fish being fed at Ned's beach (around dinner time these ordinarily curious and friendly fish become piranhas!!), and otherwise gourmandising Island style.
We are also planning and looking forward to visiting Western Australia in August to join Henry, Russell's grandfather, and the rest of the Standish clan in celebrating a major milestone birthday.
However, with the fullness of time, the World Wide Web technology has developed, allowing us to bring the CCSS, including all past issues, to our techno head friends via the Internet. This also allows for the pictures to be in colour, (if you've only got the paper version it hasn't been feasible (read economic) to bring it to you in colour (sorry). If you are interested, (and able) point your browser at:
http://parallel.acsu.unsw.edu.au/rks/ccss
Kim and Russell.