Last days in Sydney

After sydcon, I went back to doing largely what I was doing before Sydcon: walking around, reading, trying new things, and so on. At one point I had a kangaroo burger, which tasted rather like stewing meat, as it was both tough and heavily seasoned. I also discovered that what we call a milkshake they call a thickshake, as milk shakes are more liquidy.

I went to the Powerhouse Museum one day. It's basically a Miscellaneous Museum, as they have a rather wide range of exhibits, ranging from computers and the Internet, steam engines, and the environment, all the way to design and fashion, and now a temporary exhibit on Princess Dianna. Overall it was thoroughly enjoyable, and well worth the 10 bucks.

I also had the pleasure of eating at a ramen house. Ramen was one of the foods I grew to love in Japan, and it made me happy to be eating at one again. Most people in the restaurant were Japanese, and when I entered I was greeted with "ashemasen!" (sp?), and the tempura ramen was tasty, if much more expensive than in Japan. It made me happy.

I did experience a moment of panic. I managed to get a phone interview with a company back in the US, and decided to give them my mobile number here, rather than my US number. A half hour call could cost me eight bucks, and I thought I'd try to be cheap. Well, it turns out that, unlike other countries, you drop the leading digit when dialing a number from abroad. So, whereas normally I'd dial "0432" to reach my mobile number here, from abroad I'd tack on the country code of "+61", and chop off the first digit, so I'd call "+61-432". I didn't realize this (Skype will call anyway, whether the leading zero is added or not,) and ended up missing the call. Fortunately they agreed to reschedule the interview. Next time they're calling my US number.