Seriously, Mr. T?

Things are coming together. It’s Friday night, just had some dinner that I’m sure I’ll describe in detail shortly, and I’m back in the hotel sipping some Johnnie Walker Black while watching the Melbourne – Manly Rugby match. I literally just turned it on, but can see how this might be comparable to American football. There’s no offensive or defensive “line” but there does seem to be a system of downs. Basically the player that has the ball runs until he’s tackled and when he is downed the player rolls the ball behind him to another player on his team where they can throw it backwards or kick the ball forwards. No first down, or four chances – they just run, get tackled, and then start up again. Just saw a run go out of bounds right by the goal line. It starts with something called a scrum that seems to be similar to a hockey face-off. There was a goal! So a running goal gives the team four points. Also noticed another thing – when the player runs there is no really blocking by the other players. There’s no linebackers’ creating a hole for the runner to go through, he’s on his own. No pads, and these guys are also pretty huge. There’s also a kick for extra points (not sure how many), which he missed. Hey look, another running goal, and the kick made it that added two additional points. Melbourne is ahead by 10 now. What is very cool about it is that there’s very little stop in the action. Basically, it’s football with rules more similar to hockey.

Anyway, I am in on a Friday night, but I don’t mind having a night in. Tomorrow night I’ll be up in Neutral Bay that is on the other side of the Harbour Bridge north of Sydney with the managing director of our distribution partner. We’re meeting up at the Oaks Hotel, but it’s not really a hotel as so much as it’s a pub. There are hotels that are hotels, and there are hotels that are just pubs because historically above a pub would be accommodations for travels, hence the name hotel. I thought it was nice of him to invite me out.

So dinner tonight I ventured back into World Square here and came across some restaurants, but found this little Japanese place just across Liverpool Street called Sakae. Just a little place, but packed. I am either very lucky or just have a knack for finding good places to eat. After a quick once over on the menu I determined for sure that I needed a Sapporo… which was actually brewed and imported from Canada. It was in the steel can though, and I did think it was very good. Okay, for those of you that haven’t heard my rant on Japanese beer, here it is. Don’t get Japanese beer in the bottle. It’s not Japanese, it’s Canadian. No, seriously, check the label. I was surprised that the canned Sapporo was made in Canada, but it was actually okay. My opinion on Japanese beer in the bottle is that it’s just relabeled Molson Ice or something like that. Also for the record, I hate Canadian beer. It’s crap. Yes, it really is and if you want to go head to head about it we can – you bring the crap Canadian beer and I’ll bring the Seagram’s 7, 7up, and Lemon the drink I discovered with Rik Lal at PF Chang’s of all places.

So, the beer was good – that is what I meant to say above. Next ordered were scallops sashimi and an curry udon combination which had udon noodles with a mixed tempura. The scallops came out first. They were served with thin slices of lemon. I love scallops – they’re sweet and you can tell if they are fresh very quickly by taste, smell, or just looking at them. These scallops were very fresh – I would say they were taken from the shell shortly before serving them to me. Absolutely sweet and a slight fresh taste of the ocean which only raw shellfish lovers know. As the English here would say, “they were lovely”. Next up was the tempura since they were hot and the udon was still ‘burn your tongue’ hot. Very good. Tempura should be fried just to where it’s crispy on the outside and so the friend batter outside the shrimp or vegetables can soak up some of the tempura sauce. I’d say the tempura zucchini was the best I’d ever had, but the best tempura shrimp prize still goes to Sushi Brokers in Scottsdale, AZ. Finally was the main dish, udon. Udon is a thick Japanese noodle – probably about the thickness of a straw and generally cut just over a foot long. Japanese curry isn’t unlike Indian curry except I think it is a bit thinner in consistency and spiced more with garlic. The dish itself is served in a bowl with chicken, potatoes, and onions in it and resembles a thick soup or stew with the udon noodles. It was by far the best curry udon I’ve ever had, which I’ll admit it’s a lot mainly because I’ve liked it, but not all that much. This dish makes me want to order it again and it beat out when I first had it with my dad in San Jose, California.

Today I also visited my company’s office address. It’s considered a virtual office – essentially for companies that just need one office for their sales guy to work out of, occasionally use a conference room, etc. The location itself is pretty impressive – it’s in Darling Harbour which is a very nice area to be in, and the building itself is towering and also houses Price Waterhouse Coopers and IBM – both very large customers of mine already. Today we discussed our ‘upgrade path’ for the office for when we might need a more permanent setup there when we hire on a sales engineer and or an inside sales representative. My job in Australia is to build up our market and sales revenues here to expand our business presence in Asia-Pacific. Actually, it’s to increase sales by 300% of last year’s revenue by the end of this year, so I’ll be busy.

Lastly I’ll leave you with this - Mr. T does Snicker’s commercials in Australia and I think that’s sad.