AECOM Sydney Welcomes Little Feet

First day of work was one day after I landed, 14 November 2016. I managed to walk to the office without getting lost, thanks to the building manager who showed me around the day earlier.

AECOM Sydney office is located in George Street, back to back with Pitt Street Mall. George Street is one of the streets in Sydney CBD, stretching from The Rocks all the way to the south at Central Station. It is 5-minute walking distance from my apartment. Awesome.

This company occupies 9 levels in the building. The office spaces are modern-looking with spacious arrangement. The interiors are creating the feeling of comfort, well, at least for me. There are staircases that interconnect the levels. The meeting rooms and gathering spaces are huge.

AECOM Sydney Main Reception Area

Main lobby

View from the main lobby

One of the interconnecting staircases

Another staircase connecting four levels

One of the cool discussion spaces

"The Hub", the gathering space to eat, to discuss, to do anything with others

Pantry with Nespresso Coffee Machine - my first lesson here in Sydney office

I did a quick google search and this office is actually features in Design Addict and Architecture AU. You can read more about the concept, the objective, the use of materials, and some other things here. I am not an architect but I love this place.

I went through an induction process, just like any other new hires. Safety. IT. Administration. And then I was brought to my team down at Level 5.

I am assigned under Civil & Infrastructure Group, specifically under Ground Engineering team. There are approximately 50 people in the team. I was introduced to the team. I found it difficult to recognize the faces at first. Most of them are caucasian (Ang-Moh in Singaporean terms) and for me who is so used to seeing Asian faces, they all look the same! Luckily, I adjust myself.

My computer with a docking station

Two big screen and a big table where I can spread 3 rows of A3 size paper in landscape

The workstations

The first week was the adjustment time for me.

The team leader spoke to me, we chatted about my past experience back in Singapore and what I wanted to achieve during my 12-month assignment here. I told him I would be open to anything because everything would be new for me. I am coming from different part of the world anyway, so things are different.

I tried to read some papers related to Sydney geological profile, flipped some Australian design standards and revisited some of the technical papers that I thought would be useful.

I did not get any access to my e-mail on my first week, that's the hiccup. Other than that, all were great. I used the quiet week to observe more on the working environment, on the interaction amongst people, on the general behaviours. I used my time after to explore the surroundings. I walked around the blocks to find grocery stores, food places, etc. I tried to settle down.

It was 4 weeks ago, now I can say I have more or less settled on living here. I have my own routine, I resume my yoga practice regime, I know more people in the office and more people know me, I am involved in a few projects that keep me busy continuously.

I have 52 weeks and now I only have a little more than 48 weeks remaining.

I will live it to the fullest.

The theme for these 12 months will be YOLO!

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Sydney Welcomes Little Feet

Hello Sydney!

The first day was a Sunday. I touched down at Kingsford International Airport on 13 November 2016 at 10 a.m. and officially started my journey in Sydney. I lined up for immigration, I waited for my baggage, I lined up to exit the terminal, I lined up again to purchase my pre-paid sim card. 

I chose Optus because I found it to be the most affordable with generous data. There was 50% discount that day. With 20 AUD, I got 12 GB data, unlimited local calls, unlimited local SMS, 10 AUD credit and free international calls to few countries including Singapore.

After that I lined up again in a taxi queue. I boarded the taxi and the journey to my apartment was about 40 minutes. The building manager was waiting for me when I arrived.

My apartment is at the heart of Sydney CBD. What a good location to live. The distance to office is 5 minute walk. The apartment is decent and fully equipped.

Kitchen

Bed

TV Lounge

Dining Table

View from the apartment

After resting and showering, I went out and walked the surrounding. A few blocks away from the apartment is the busiest shopping precinct in the city, Pitt Street Mall. Pitt Street Mall is one block of pedestrian shopping district along Pitt Street spanning from King Street to Market Street. There are a few shopping centres consisting many shops and some retailer stores in the area. There are performances during the weekends by indie singers, break dancers, etc.

Pitt Street Mall

At another side

Sydney Tower Eye, on top of Westfield Shopping Centre

One of the performance

It was a glance of my first day in Sydney. As I am typing this, I am entering my fourth week here. Time flies, time flies.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Little Feet Goes South

Little Feet is finally moving from Little Red Dot!

Nah, I am not going for good. I am away for some time, on an exchange programme offered by the company.

Yes, lucky me. 2016 has been a rough year for me. But as someone wise says, every cloud has a silver lining, I have a few silver linings this year. I am thankful.

So, I am currently moving from Little Red Dot to another dot, but this one is huge dot. I am typing this from the land down under, in Sydney, Australia.

Australia is the sixth largest country in the world consisting 1 main huge island and other 8,221 small islands with the total area of 7.7 million square kilometres, spanning across 3 time zones. Flying from east coast to the west coast takes 5 hours or so. This country is sure huge.

The natives of Australian were the Aborigines. They lived all over the island although most populated areas were along the coast line. They survived by hunting and gathering. They made tools such as spears, boomerangs, etc. There were probably millions of them spreading around the island.

Captain James Cook was recorded as the founder of Australia, but actually a few other people have reached this island before him. Only they landed at the wrong places.

In 1606, Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon sailed between Papua New Guinea and Australia and set ashore at Cape York, believing it was part of New Guinea. He explored for a bit but found that the land was not suitable for settlement, thus returned.

The red dot is Cape York (Source: maps.google.com)

10 years later in 1616, Dirk Hartog, on his way from Netherlands to Batavia, accidentally reached Shark Bay. He found nothing interesting thus continued sailing to Batavia. He named the island T Landt van d'Eendracht, after his ship.

He landed at the west coast of Australia

In 1622, an English voyage was shipwrecked and landed on Montebello Island, east of main island of Australia. The shipwreck caused the death of 93 mens and the surviving 10 men sailed to Batavia by long boat. After that, British was banned from using the southern route.

John Brooke was stranded there

In 1623, Jan Cartensz was commissioned to continue the expedition of 1606. He landed at Cape Keerweer, explored and found the Aborigines to be poor and miserable looking with no knowledge of precious metals and spices.

In 1627, Francois Thijssen ended up near Cape Leuwin at the most south west of Australia. He then mapped more than 1,500 km of southern coast from Albany to Ceduna.

411 hours. That's how long you will walk.

In 1642, Abel Tasman set ashore at Blackman Bay. Due to failed attempt to sail to North Bay, he swam and planted Dutch flag at the shore of North Bay. Two years later, he sailed back to Australia and mapped the northern coast of the island. He named it New Holland. However, his expedition was considered disappointment since he did not find any trading area or useful shipping route.

The routes of the first and second exploration

William Dampier sailed to King Sound, Western Australia in 1688 and returned to the region in 1699. He was the one who took note of the peculiar hopping animal in the region.

King Sound, where William Dampier marooned his ship

In 1696, Willem de Flamingh charted parts of the west coast and it significantly improved the navigation route on Indian Ocean. Parts of the places that he charted were Rottnest Island, Swan River, Dirk Hartog Island.

From Rottnest Island to Dirk Hartog Island

In 1770, Captain James Cook, upon completing another voyage, continued his exploration of the South Pacific. He first reached New Zealand and sailed further west and finally reached the west coast of Australia. He continued to sail north along the east coast and charted many then unknown features of the island. One of them was the potential of Botany Bay as settlement area. James Cook was then back to Australia on second and third voyages to continue mapping the east coast, which he named New South Wales.

In 1787, Captain Arthur Phillip was sent to set up a new penal colony in New South Wales. On 26 January 1788, British flag was raised at Sydney Cove, Port Jackson. Since then, the date has been remarked as Australia Day.

After that, many expeditions to map Australia were carried out by British. The colonial expansion started from Sydney and the Aborigines were oppressed. Until today, only about 2% of the residents of Australia are the native Aborigines.

It's a bitter history for the Aborigines. After so many fruitless expeditions, finally the British found the true value of Australia and the ecosystem was ruined from then. However, perhaps the true beauty of this magnificent land was destined to be sought and found by the big country that could help the development.

Enough for the history lesson. Note for myself, I shall make this one year fruitful and I shall find more about myself that is still hidden.

Little Feet is going to keep walking, running, waltzing, dancing.

Little Feet is having millions of footprints in this land down under.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Bandung Trip - Lembang Again

The itinerary after CUPS was repetition of 2014 Itinerary of Lembang. We planned to visit Dusun Bambu, Lembang Floating Market, and Tahu Susu Lembang. The post can be seen in http://littlefeetroundtheworld.blogspot.sg/2014/08/bandung-trip-dusun-bambu-how-god.html and http://littlefeetroundtheworld.blogspot.sg/2014/08/bandung-trip-back-to-lembang-again.html. 

This time, we visited LembangFloating Market first so that we could catch some nice photos. We spent quite some time in Floating Market before moving on to Dusun Bambu. It was unlucky that we reached there around 4 p.m. and the archery field had closed for the day. Bf's heart was broken he could not play Katnis Everdeen.

The entrance fee to Lembang Floating Market is IDR 15000 (~SGD 1.6) with a complementary cup of coffee/tea/milo. 

Lembang Floating Market

Turning left from the entrance to enjoy the surrounding before enjoying the foods

<3 <3 <3

Mini Europe?

Floating House - China Style

Traditional Gazebo

Fish Pond 

Seating Area 

We enjoyed a plate of rabbit meat satay and rujak (fruit salad with sweet peanut sauce) before moving on to the next destination: Dusun Bambu. The entrance fee is IDR 20,000 including a bottle of mineral water. As compared to our visit 2 years ago, there have been change and expansion in this place.

The map is getting bigger, some area are still under construction

Taking the angkot inside

New photo spot

It's getting greener

Kids' Playground - additional IDR 50,000

The superstar of Dusun Bambu

The landscaping is getting much better

Mom and Dad in Dusun Bambu

Purple - Red - Green - Grey

Family

At the Floating Platform

The paddy field at the back of the entrance

With a stream too

We drove out of Dusun Bambu at around 6:00 p.m. to Tahu Susu Lembang. After having some nice bites and buying some tofu and tempeh snacks, we drove to Maja House. Maja House is a cafe/bar for chillax atop Lembang. When seated outside, customer can view the lights from Bandung city. We were quite disappointed by Maja House because it no more served alcohol. So, we ordered mocktail but it was no good. Instead of mocktail, it tasted like sugar syrup. Not recommended.

Interior of the lobby

The syrup :(

I don't understand the meaning of this quote, really

We drove back to the city, had our dinner, and prepared ourselves for the journey back to Singapore the next day.

Bandung, till next time.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Bandung Trip - fin