Having a chance to involve in consultancy profession, I found the story below is so true. My boss (well, at least for the current project) sent this to us in the early Tuesday morning.

What are you doing today? Tapping with a hammer? or showing people where to tap? it is your choice.

Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed? The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom. 

Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed! A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars. 

“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!” 

So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.”

The man sent a bill that read: 

  Tapping with a hammer …………………… $ 2.00

  Knowing where to tap ……………………. $ 9998.00
 
Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.

I am a coffee addict. I drank costly espresso and cheap 3-in-1 instant coffee back in Singapore. Moving to Melbourne, I have new coffee experience. Every morning, I will have my Long black before stepping into office, and afternoon, I will have my Strong Latte for my mid day coffee break. I always wonder why does coffee in Melbourne taste better? Is it just psychological effect?

Here is something that support my observation. I found CoffeeGeek.com.

In preparation for the arrival of the Italian Olympic team, a few enterprising members of the large Italian community in that city (1 million out of 3.5 million total) decided to import the very first espresso machines into Australia and serve authentic Italian espresso. (It is important to note that Italians prefer to drink espresso coffee only, always with sugar and without milk.) These cafés quickly gained popularity amongst the Italian community, hence the tradition of Melbourne being the “coffee” city.

So , my compliment is right. Melbourne is the “Coffee City”

What is unique is that, outside Italy, the Australian and New Zealand café markets are the only other 100% espresso-based markets in the world! The US and other countries are dominated by filter style, or brewed, coffee. You cannot give filter coffee away in Australia or New Zealand. Furthermore, the Australian and New Zealand markets are unique in that the espresso based coffees are nearly always served with milk – approximately 98%, compared to 5% milk based coffees in Italy.

I have travelled extensively in the US, and I cannot say with hand on heart that most cafés there represent the espresso coffee standard of the US Barista Championship or even the World Barista Championship. It is my observation that the US espresso standard (on a national average) is where the Australian and New Zealand espresso markets were 15 years ago.

That means that there is still a lot of room for development.

Interesting article about culture of coffee and cafe. Now I know a little bit more about coffee instead of just sipping it everyday 🙂 Check it out. Cafe Culture Downunder

I am having some problems with the banking system in Australia. Really, this is the time, I really miss Singapore. The efficiency and the processing speed in Singapore is kinda top notch.I am not saying there is any problem with the banks here, maybe, I just need some time to adapt to the way they work.

When I first arrived in Australia, I did a online bank transfer between two accounts. Both are from the same local Australian bank. This type of transfer, in Singapore, the fund will be available immediately. I was expecting the same. The story is, I had no enough fund to pay for my new furniture due to the delay of this transfer. Yes, it took more than 1 working day to make the transfer. Unbelievable. So, I have to call up the delivery department, requested to delay the delivery. What a embarrassing experience.

Next, I went to apply for credit card. I wrote about this before. The bank sent me a letter recently , informing me the card is ‘Ready for Collection‘. Great. I brought my income statements, contracts etc to the collection point (Wait, they don’t send the card to you via mail, due to ‘security reason‘?!?!, you have to move your ass to their office to collect), which was few streets away from my workplace. Now what? The customer service officer couldn’t understand my payslip, and Australian workplace agreement. I wasted my 30 minutes sitting there. You know the result. ‘We need 2-3 working days to verify, I need to fax these to senior officer to verify again, you may give me a call 2 to 3 days later to check the status‘.

Damn.Enough.

Seriously, I miss Singapore at this point of time. I stayed in a society with high efficiency for the past 8 years, I am really having a tough time to get used of the slowness here.

You want to know more? I have similar experience in applying home phone, broadband access and arranging courier service.

I am not complaining. Ok, I am, maybe. I know that I need some time to get used of the working style here.

For the banking service, Thumbs up, Singapore. Well, though I was not a million-dollar customer to them, but they served me like a customer, not asking me to follow ‘their’ rule.