05302008_Sydney North Shore_
Originally uploaded by ZeeDesertRat
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Sydney North Shore Video
05302008_Sydney North Shore_
Originally uploaded by ZeeDesertRat
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Rain
So here I am again, about 7:30 PM on Thursday, enjoying a Carlton Draught, and sitting at the Curve Bar lounge area overlooking the street and watching the sheets of rain go by. I got back from dinner just a little bit ago, and since it’s early I decided I should write something. Dinner tonight was at this Thai fusion type place – had a chicken coconut noodle soup which was pretty good, although it wasn’t anything special or worthwhile of any more typing. The seafood risotto I had for lunch however is.
Risotto is a popular dish here in Australia – coincidently and not thinking about it until now I realized I had it again last night. Today’s dish certainly scored higher though. The risotto itself was saturated with the spices, broth, and wine, which is how it should be I believe. From watching the Food Network the dish is essentially a rice that is cooked down with a broth which is continually added. Every bite today had flavor and the accompanied seafood was spectacular. I’ve determined that Australian’s never overcook prawns. Never. It is a fact that I have yet to have an overcooked shrimp here. Bravo! The other item I might mention is that when you order something with prawns, you get a good amount of them. In the US if you order seafood pasta with prawns you’re lucky to get five rubbery items. Here, you receive a generous dozen prawns perfectly cooked so you can taste both the cooked flavor and their raw essence. Next, this had some baby octopus complimenting the prawns, and a final charcoal grilled octopus tentacle seasoned with salt and pepper. Yes, tentacle, and yes it was outstanding. I’ll order this dish again for sure. It was at The Local restaurant that is just up the street from my distributor’s office.
Today was a good day. I feel like I am accomplishing something. Today I worked on my deal registration process that is dearly needed in this market both for my partners and for myself. The way it works is that a reseller gets a certain margin or discount off list pricing as their profit. They can do what they want with this – discount it, keep it, pay it all to their rep, whatever. I really don’t care. If they don’t register the deal they get ten percent off list. If they register it they get thirty. Well, the advice my distributor gave me was to start at fifteen points and then give another for the registration. We have a large partner here that is the gorilla and they need to be babied with the extra five points. The other side of the equation is that other partners competing for the business will only get the ten or fifteen points. It’s a great program in the US and has worked very well, and now I have the support of one of my go-to partners, my boss, my distributor, and also most of my company. I’m dealing with lawyers, so they’re never really on anyone’s side – if any one side really won then the lawyer couldn’t charge by the hour anymore.
Also today I increased my sales funnel close to $100,000, which is a good amount for this market. That goes to one of my resellers who I finally got to know and speak with, and gain some trust. They are a good team and I spent the last couple days with them in Melbourne. I’d write about Melbourne except I only spent twenty minutes in the actually city, and I was in traffic during that time as well on the way to the airport. I can say that Melbourne’s airport bar is lacking in many areas including: having no beers on tap, having no real ‘bar’, and having no real lounge or place to sit which is anything bar-like.
So here I sit with my computer, my beer, my good day, and the rain. I miss my rain just as the desert does.
Risotto is a popular dish here in Australia – coincidently and not thinking about it until now I realized I had it again last night. Today’s dish certainly scored higher though. The risotto itself was saturated with the spices, broth, and wine, which is how it should be I believe. From watching the Food Network the dish is essentially a rice that is cooked down with a broth which is continually added. Every bite today had flavor and the accompanied seafood was spectacular. I’ve determined that Australian’s never overcook prawns. Never. It is a fact that I have yet to have an overcooked shrimp here. Bravo! The other item I might mention is that when you order something with prawns, you get a good amount of them. In the US if you order seafood pasta with prawns you’re lucky to get five rubbery items. Here, you receive a generous dozen prawns perfectly cooked so you can taste both the cooked flavor and their raw essence. Next, this had some baby octopus complimenting the prawns, and a final charcoal grilled octopus tentacle seasoned with salt and pepper. Yes, tentacle, and yes it was outstanding. I’ll order this dish again for sure. It was at The Local restaurant that is just up the street from my distributor’s office.
Today was a good day. I feel like I am accomplishing something. Today I worked on my deal registration process that is dearly needed in this market both for my partners and for myself. The way it works is that a reseller gets a certain margin or discount off list pricing as their profit. They can do what they want with this – discount it, keep it, pay it all to their rep, whatever. I really don’t care. If they don’t register the deal they get ten percent off list. If they register it they get thirty. Well, the advice my distributor gave me was to start at fifteen points and then give another for the registration. We have a large partner here that is the gorilla and they need to be babied with the extra five points. The other side of the equation is that other partners competing for the business will only get the ten or fifteen points. It’s a great program in the US and has worked very well, and now I have the support of one of my go-to partners, my boss, my distributor, and also most of my company. I’m dealing with lawyers, so they’re never really on anyone’s side – if any one side really won then the lawyer couldn’t charge by the hour anymore.
Also today I increased my sales funnel close to $100,000, which is a good amount for this market. That goes to one of my resellers who I finally got to know and speak with, and gain some trust. They are a good team and I spent the last couple days with them in Melbourne. I’d write about Melbourne except I only spent twenty minutes in the actually city, and I was in traffic during that time as well on the way to the airport. I can say that Melbourne’s airport bar is lacking in many areas including: having no beers on tap, having no real ‘bar’, and having no real lounge or place to sit which is anything bar-like.
So here I sit with my computer, my beer, my good day, and the rain. I miss my rain just as the desert does.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Trials of Port and Scotch
The short story is that I went out with one of our resellers here in Melbourne for dinner and drinks and headed back to the hotel. At the hotel I felt like having one last nightcap and went to the bar. There I met Paul, a New Zealander who loves thousand dollar bottles of wine, port, and scotch. We proceeded to try a few and he bought. We went through four ports and three scotches until Paul decided to tell me war stories and his family history. Apparently he was a father at twelve years and got a lot of men killed.
I'm glad it's before 11:00 PM and finally away.
I'm glad it's before 11:00 PM and finally away.
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