The Australia Trip

Through my involvement with the BCS/DCD CEEDA programme I was invited to undertake a short trip to Sydney between the Olympic & Paralympic games.
So, I left London on the 16th August and arrived in Sydney late in the evening of the 18th.
I had the weekend to myself so did just a little exploration of Sydney, started off by doing the usual tourist stuff, down to the Rocks and the Harbour Bridge and then visited the shopping area.
I did notice that most Australians were wearing coats and scarfs, this in 68degrees and sunny, I found out later that 68 degrees is cold to them, after all it was winter (a bit like our summer to be honest!)
On the Sunday I trotted down to Darling Harbour to check out where I was going to meet a linked in contact. I then recalled a friend telling me that a good trip is to jump on a ferry and take lunch in one of the outlying areas, so multi-trip all day ticket duly purchased I jumped on the first ferry and off I went, and ended up at Circular Quay, which for those of you who don't know Sydney, is the main ferry terminal.
So, my attempt to get to an outlying area and take lunch was being seriously thwarted.
No worries, I then took the next rivercat to Parramatta, the absolute furthest place I could find on the map and a route that goes past the Olympic Stadium. I reckon I must have been the only person to be at both places in a 3 week period.
At Parramatta there seemed to be a lot of people waiting for the ferry and I was worried about getting back so I just turned around and came straight back home, lunch was McDonalds.
The next day I arose bright and early to meet the client and to conduct the first of three CEEDA assessments.
As these assessments are in the audit stage I am not allowed to tell you all who they are but all will be revealed in a later post.
I visited two data centres, one was owned and operated by the client and the other was a colo facility that had my main client has their anchor tenant, so 3 CEEDA assessments, one Owner Occupier, one CoLo, and one CoLo Tenant.
I was very impressed with the both facilities and this is reflected in their recommended awards, although they still need to get through the audit stage.
I was also taken out to dinner by the client, we went to Cafe Sydney, which overlooks Circular Quay with the Harbour Bridge on the left hand side and the Opera House and the Right, Sydney set fair.
On the Tuesday evening I met my linked in friend down at Darling Harbour and was promptly whisked off in the boat over to the Zoo.
One of my most enduring memories of Australia and Sydney, will be the view from the boat looking back towards the CBD and the Harbour Bridge with the sun setting on a background of purples, oranges, golds and crimsons of a Sydney sunset, breathtaking!
On Wednesday I gave a talk at the Australian Computer Society on the topic of "Is the Cloud Green?" and outlined the EUCoC and CEEDA programme to the attendees.
I also met up with a few old friends the following morning to discuss some possible business ventures prior to a quick trip to Parramatta to meet with Nick Parfitt from DCD and my flight back to the UK.
All in all, a very successful trip and one I look forward to taking again sooner rather than later and possibly for a lot longer.
Until next time, keep up to date with our new website which should be live this weekend (7th October) for news and events Carbon3IT Ltd will be attending, speaking at or generally just mooching about at.