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Published: July 11th 2007
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Not too much exciting going on at work last week. The big event of the week for me was a workshop I gave to a group of the office staff on the inter-company data system. The system is basically a relational database system that allows us to trace sales history, orders and inventory, whether sales are on track for the month or the year, etc. The system has been in the New York office for a while but is new to the Australia office. David e-mailed me before I came and asked me to get some training in the program to help them understand it better here. So, after a quick instructional overview in New York and playing around with the program for about three weeks here, I was asked to lead the workshop. It went pretty well - people said they understood the logic behind building reports a little better, and I generated reports during the workshop for everyone to follow how to do it and to provide some standard reports that management can send out to the sales reps and office staff to keep them updated on the monthly and yearly sales progress.
On Wednesday night, Clara
threw a 4th of July party for me and invited six friends over to dinner. The table was decorated in red, white, and blue, and Clara was actually able to find American flags at a party store to hang around the kitchen. We had hamburgers and hot dogs, roasted peanuts, Budweiser, and Samuel Adams. It was a lot of fun (more than I had thought it would be), and it felt a lot like home once we pulled out the sparklers! Fireworks are illegal here, so we couldn’t do anything big, but Clara had some sparklers she found in her pantry (they tend to put one or two sparklers on birthday cakes here). We lit them at the table as we sat down for dinner - it wasn’t until after the smoke alarm started going off that I thought to tell her we usually do sparklers outside! Haha But no worries… The sparklers were what finally made the whole thing feel like 4th of July back home! All of Clara’s friends have decided that they want to celebrate 4th of July every year as an excuse to get together for dinner and joked that they’ll call it “Amanda Day.” We
also called my parents that night as everyone was leaving (10:15 PM here, 8:15 that morning back home) because everyone wanted to wish them an Aussie Happy 4th of July!
Last weekend, I went back into the city on Saturday. While the weather was still nice, I walked around some down by the harbor and the Docklands. Once the rain started, I headed over to the National Gallery to check out the artwork I didn’t get to see last weekend. On Saturday night, Clara and I had been invited to dinner at a coworker’s house (a Norwegian, actually) with some of their friends and another coworker and his wife and kids. It was a nice evening and a good chance to get to know some people at the office better. That’s one thing that’s been really good about this trip - everyone at the office and all of Clara’s friends have been very welcoming, giving me suggestions about the top things to see and do and inviting me along to dinners and sporting events. I’m getting to know so many more people and getting to know the people in the office better than I would be if I were
living on my own or working for another company. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever met a Laerdal employee I didn’t like - the atmosphere within this company is great - very relaxed, and everyone seems passionate about what they do and the goal of the company to offer quality products to improve emergency response and hospital care and to “help save lives.” I don’t know whether the unique atmosphere is because it is a Norwegian company or because it is a smaller, private company or both, but it’s definitely a fresh change to the stories you hear about normal corporate cultures. On Sunday morning, I went to a local market - it wasn’t as big as I thought it would be, and I didn’t see anything to buy that I couldn’t live without (or wouldn’t have trouble getting home), so I just wandered through the stalls for a while and went back home to take a walk along the beach, do some Bible study, and watch TV.
This weekend, I’m taking a road trip down the Great Ocean Road along the coast. I’ll leave from work Friday, drive about 2.5 hours to Lorne to
spend the night, spend Saturday driving along the coast, spend Saturday night in Warrnambool (where I hope to spot some whales), and then drive back about 3.5 hours to Melbourne. The coastline is supposed to be spectacular, with lots of cliffs, rock formations, lighthouses, shipwreck sites, and fishing villages along the beaches. So, as long as it doesn’t rain (knock on wood), I should be able to get some beautiful photos to post next week!
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