Since
my last newsletter, a lot has changed, but fortunately in the right
direction *twofingerscrossed*. After 14 weeks of university I have
successfully finished my first semester of my Master's degree. It's
been a tough examination session but the results more than satisfied
my expectations. To support myself and my party-expenses ;) I joined
a CBD (Central Business District) based hotel throughout the semester.
It was quite surprising what you get yourself into as a waiter at
a high-class hotel *haha*. Lots of propositions and a pile of room-keycards
from very direct women ;).
Illustration 1: Melbourne
Bay and me
During my stay,
Larissa, one of my oldest and best friends from Germany paid me a
visit and we had a very good time! It was really cool to meet up in
Australia but unfortunately a cold had struck me and the "fun"
had to be limited (see illustration 2). Though I was glad I could
make it up to her when she visited me for a second time, here in Sydney.
Illustration 2: Larissa,
I and Steffi in Melbourne (from left to right)
After the semester
ended i packed up my stuff in Melbourne and moved to Sydney for the
summer. Here, I re-joined the Business Consulting Team in order to
do another internship with SAP.
My primary job is to develop a Knowledge Management Strategy for the
Business Consulting Asia/Pacific Team. Admired goal is to successfully
develop and implement key processes that would allow the Team to capture,
and effectively redistribute gained knowledge/ experience derived
from performed Business Consulting projects. For that matter I will
stay in Sydney till the 27th of February 2005. I'm very glad that
I can say how awesome our team is and how much fun we have together
both at work and outside the office ;).
Since moving up
to Sydney there has been very little time at home. Almost everyday
there is a party going on or something nice to see. Weekends are packed
with adventures and sometimes good trips. Together with Simon (friend
from work) and his friend Monika we went hiking in the Blue
Mountains - to be exact in the Valley of Water. It was an amazing
time with unbelievable views over the valley itself, plus we did some
pretty damn good hiking job that day. The facinating thing for me
was how diverse the landscape got just along the edge of the valley.
On the illustrations below you can see what i mean:
Illustration
3: Monika
and Simon in the Blue Mountains
Illustration
4: Blue
Mountains - the beginning
Illustration
5: Overview
of the Valley of Waters
Illustration
6: Victor
on the edge of the cliff
Illustration
7: Blue
Mountains - view from the Valley
On my
Birthday, I was invited to join my manager (Hi Pierre-Francis!), to
celebrate both our birthdays together with two other Sagittarians.
The party was great fun with live music from two Irish Guys ;). All
of us had to sing at least one song together with the band and I surely
did make a fool out of myself *hahah* - really need to start taking
singing lessons!
Thanks for all the nice SMS's/Birthdays greetings from your side of
the world, guys! I really appreciate it!
Illustration
8: 11th
December 2004: Gosia, SunJoo, Pierre-Francis and I
On Christmas
Eve, my good old friend - Rafi - invited us to his house for the so-called
"Wigilia". In accordance with Polish traditions we celebrated
the beginning of Christmas with a nice dinner (of course fish!). He
put so much effort into it that I really felt like being back home!
Thanks!
Illustration
9: Christmas
Eve - Rafi, Angie, and I (they cooked Dinner!!!)
Illustration
10: Christmas
Eve - Sylwia and I
Illustration
11: Ha
Ha... Check out our priorities ;)
On the
first Christmas holiday I was invited to join Sylwia at her place.
A very nice girl, that I have just met recently. Dinner was great
and we kept on chatting till the early hours of the day. Great fun
and great food.
On the
27th of December I went with my friend Jurek and his daughter Jessica
to Port
Macquarie, which is situated around 400km north of Sydney right
on the coast. Jurek dropped me there, where Mick picked me up to start
our camping. In the Crowdy
Bay National Park he had already started a camp, 5min walk to
the beach, situated in the middle of a forest. First I was really
suprised to see all the Kangaroos jumping all over the place but after
a while you get used to the funny looking creatures ;). Every night,
and sometimes during the day, you had to watch out to avoid being
run/jumped over by a Kangaroo *smile*. Together
with Gosia, we shared a tent that I had borrowed. I think it was made
in the 1960's :). During the day we were going to Port
Macquarie to windsurf/ boogie board, shop provisions, or just
to go lie down at the tourist beaches. The nights were filled with
guitar playing artists entertaining the campers at their camp fires
and of course since we were a group of almost 20 people there was
lots of booz involved! One of the most impressing sights for me were
the idyllic beaches and rock pools (natural swimming pools) that you
could find just hiking for a couple minutes on the coast line.
Illustration
12: Laurieton
near Port Macquarie
Illustration
13: The
Beach near our Camping site (4min walk)
Illustration
14: The
Beach near our Camping site 2
Illustration
15: Rock
Pool number 1
Illustration
16: Rock
Pool number 2 (this one is really awesome)
Illustration
17: The
hike to the Rock Pool was as dangerous as exciting
Illustration
18: Vici
as a camper *haha*
Illustration
19: Tourist
Beach in Port Macquarie
After
the small bush camping trip, Simon invited Gosia, Jens and me to join
him and his family/friends to spend New Year's Eve at his place. Beforehand,
he went to the Hunter
Valley (north of Sydney) to buy wine which we had on New Year's
eve. With excellent New South Wales wine (beautifully tasting Shirazes)
we enjoyed the evening watching the famous fireworks from his Balcony.
Gee, that was quite a sight. Sydney was pumping this night with over
2 million visitors. Friends of mine, which stayed close to the Harbour
Bridge (at Circular Quay) had to wait since early afternoon just to
save a place to sit. The next day I was walking home and you could
see the fun and excitement they must have had the night before in
their tired faces!!! *BIGsmile*.
During
my internship i was invited to come along to the SAP Consulting Field-Kick-Off 2005, which took place on Mt.
Buller, one of Victoria's best Ski-Resorts. It's about 3,5h away
from Melbourne and is situated around 1,800m above the sea-level.
All together it were amazing three days, packed with outside activities
for team building and association with other colleagues across the
Consulting Organisation in Australia/ New Zealand. And yes, of course
there was a descent amount of alcoholic intoxication involved in the
evenings :p. Here's some pictures from that three-day event:
Illustration
20: My
Team: Tom, Greg and Pierre-Francis (from left to right)
Illustration
21: My
Team: Dave and Pierre-Francis (from front to back)
Illustration
22: My
Team: Max
Illustration
23: My
Team: Mikael and Greg (from left to right)
Illustration
24: My
Team: Simon
Illustration
25: The
landscape around Mt. Buller is very beautiful
Illustration
26: Guess
who's that?! It doesn't look like it, but it was freezing up there!
Illustration
27: On
top of Mt. Buller
Illustration
28: Pierre-Francis,
Mikael,I and Greg (from left to right)
Illustration
29: Veni,
Vedi, Vici - the Conqueror of Mt. Buller
Illustration
30: That
view was astonishing. 1880m on top of the world.
Illustration
31: Pierre-Francis
and me on top of Mt. Buller at the weather station
After all the action
on top of Mt.
Buller and around i had a nice catch up with my German Neighbors
from Sydney ;). We met at the Southbank promenade in Melbourne before
I had to fly back to Sydney the next day. Jens a study buddy from Monash was
also there.
Illustration
32: Steffi,
I and Sigrid in Melbourne!
Illustration
33: Jens
was also with us :)
The next weekend
my friends Jurek and Marzena have offered me and Patricia to come
along to the Royal
National Park some 2h south of Sydney. The park itself is the
second oldest national park in the world, right after the Yellowstone
Park in the United States in America - not bad, huh? Anyways, since
it was a most beautiful day and so we had prepared ourselves to go
to the beach as well. Check out the landscape:
Illustration
34: The
are south of Sydney is most beautiful
Illustration
35: Marzena,
Jurek and Patricia (from left to right)
Illustration
36: The
Beach (Wooloongalala - or something like that)
Illustration
37: Road
Trip!
Illustration
38: Finally
at the Beach...
In the last week
before my internship ended i had a great fare-well party at my place.
It was a awesome barbeque with lots of friends, laughs, drinks and
fun. We partied on a beautifully warm Friday night and I guess it
was almost 20 friends coming. Great fun!!! Somewhere around 3am even
the toughest buddies gave in to the alcohol and we called it a night.
I'm still waiting for some pictures from that event and will send
them to you later on.
Now, i have finished
my internship at SAP and moved back to Melbourne. After a tough week of looking at apartments
I finally found a beautiful place in St. Kilda, one of the wildest
suburbs in Melbourne. Basically I live across the "Prince
of Wales", one of the most popular Disco-Bars in Melbourne.
To get to the Beach I have to walk around 3mins through a small park.
Albert Park (where The Formula 1 just took place), is around 5mins
away. The apartment itself is not too big and not to small. But I
tell you - the location is incredible. Just to give you an idea:
Illustration
39: The
Red spots indicate, where my new place is
Illustration
40: Luna
Park in St. Kilda
Oh, one last thing *hehe*.
Just some more pics. After all, each of them tells more than 1000
words, right?! ;)
Illustration
41: German
neighbors and housemates: Sigi, Steffi, Gerd, Ariana
Illustration
42: "Rough
Water Ocean Race" at Bondi Beach (1,5km)
Illustration
43: Steffi
and I at my house (we're neighbors)
Illustration
44: Manly
Beach - my favorite Beach in Sydney so far
Illustration
45: American
Bay - on the edge
Illustration
46: American
Bay - overview
Illustration
45: American
Bay - Simon on the edge ;)
Illustration
47: American
Bay - it's a deep way down
Illustration
48: Hawkesburry
River - Lion
Island - an hour north from Sydney
Illustration
49: Christmas
Eve - there wasn't enough space for everybody :)
Illustration
50: Patrica
and I @ Darling Harbour
Illustration
51: Patricia
and I :) Click on the picture
Illustration 52: Magda in
the Valley of Waters in the Blue Mountains
As from the 29th
of March I will start working for SAP
Business Consulting based in Melbourne. My work will be focused
on the continuation of Knowledge Management efforts, but the future
focus will be in the field of Value Engineering. I will continue to
work for SAP on a part-time basis till the end of my studies in December.
It awesome to work for such a cool company - where ever you go they're
already there! *smile*
As
you might be aware... my contact details have changed:
- Phone Number:
+61-395-936-640
- My new address
is:
205/363
Beaconsfield Parade
St. Kilda West, VIC 3182
Australia
Everything else (email,
mobile, webpage address, etc.) stays the same...
As usual
I wish you all the best success, a happy new year, good health and
peace and love for 2005! A-Doosh!
Live your
dreams,
Victor
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