Tonight's 'Friday Night Drinks' at the office was followed by dinner at a vegetarian restaurant in St Kilda, Lentil As Anything, just down the road from where I live. The concept here is very unique - pay what you want!!! The menu is rather extensive and unique. We opted for the Japanese chef's surprise (upon prompting from our server - who was in dreads with crazy piercings). We had a delicious meal - giant stuffed mushrooms, sauteed eggplant with soy beans and chili paste served over japanese udon noodles, avocado salad, and three different types of curry. It was an all around international affair. In the top picture from left to right: Stephan (Germany), Steve (Melbourne), Linton (Melbourne but on his way to PNG - Papua New Guinea - for field work in a gold mine!), me (U.S.), Ben (France), ?? (Germany); Narrell (Brisbane) is in the last picture. When you're done eating, you just pay what you felt it was worth. Bizarre? I live in St Kilda, remember?
A couple other random office things...
- I received an e-mail yesterday from a URS employee in Houston that is transferring to the Melbourne office in August. Texas is taking over! She actually knows much more about Melbourne than I do, having studied abroad here for four months. She's already been recommending some good spots for live music and nightlife. Will be great to have her around!
- One of the guys in my office has also been suggesting various venues for live music. Turns out he plays guitar and sings and his brother plays piano - they play around Melbourne occasionally and played a gig in San Francisco on their recent 4 week holiday in the U.S.
- Another one of the guys is a semi-pro footy player (that's Australian Rules Football, one step below the professional teams).
- Other guys like to throw the football around the office and actually broke something today. For a moment, it sounded like it may have been the window but ended up being just a glass on someone's desk. Oops.
- One of the senior principals of URS introduced himself today, and through conversation, we realized he had collaborated previously with my grad school advisor in Austin. Oddly, it also happened to be his birthday today, so the FND (Friday Night Drinks) crew sang him happy birthday. Not sure if it's Aussie tradition, but the end of the song was followed by a very spirited round of hip HOORAY, hip HOORAY, hip HOORAY.