June 2011 – The Ducksoup Blogs

Sydney & Manly-Post #4 “If it’s Thursday it must be…!”

I bit of a whirlwind trip, but it did mean I was able actually go to New Zealand! For a few hours!

After breakfast, we caught the water taxi back to the Circular Quay and then taxi’d our way out to the airport to catch the Noon flight to Auckland.

Once we’d landed at Auckland Airport around 5PM, there was a 1/2 hour drive into downtown to the Hilton Auckland where I had a room booked.

Shortly after checking in the NZ District Sales Mgr picked me up to go to a meeting with his sales team and several potential customers. I provided a high level explanation of what the HP Digital Hospital program could bring to their facilities.

And that was that! Back to the hotel… grabbed a bite to eat… had a short walkabout the harbour… off to bed!

Sky Tower… during one episode of Amazing Race, the contestants had to climb the mast of Sky Tower and retrieve a Travelocity roaming gnome from the top!

I caught an early flight back to Sydney, but wasn’t able to connect with an Air Canada flight back to Vancouver, so back downtown via train from the airport to the Circular Quay to a hotel to rest!

One last morning snap of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from the train as I headed out to the airport

My flight back to Vancouver meant that I arrived there before I left Sydney due to crossing back over the International Dateline… also flew over Hawaii again!

I spent a night with niece Heather in Abbotsford and visited Mum before flying home the next day!

Sydney & Manly-Post #3 “Training at Q-Station!”

The WW DH team spent the next two days in multiple sessions presenting the HP Digital Hospital Program, core technologies and delivery services to the Sales and Consulting teams from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan. I’ve not included any picture from the actual training as it was for internal use only, but I have included some pictures from the facilities.

After two successful days of training, the teams dispersed back to their home countries. At the request of the New Zealand team, rather than heading home, I was off to Auckland!

Sydney & Manly-Post #2 “A Day in Sydney!”

Monday was set aside to allow for recovery from the jet-lag before our training sessions start on Monday. I met up with the whole HP DH team in the morning at our hotel; Jared Walker, Giorgio Capellani, Ray Giles and Dr. Vinod.

We spent all morning and a bit of the afternoon exploring Royal Botanic Gardens.

A view across the bay to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair and The Domain – Yurong Precinct

What kind of fruit tree is that!!! Wait! That’s not fruit… that’s fruit bats!

Not fruit but fruit bats!

After a light lunch, we got ready for our ferry ride from downtown out towards Manly.

Approaching the jetty at our destination

We’ve arrived at the Q Station… Q stands for Quarantine!

Sydney Quarantine Station
From the 1830s until 1984, migrant ships arriving in Sydney with suspected contagious disease stopped inside North head and offloaded passengers and crew into quarantine to protect local residents. As Australia’s longest continuously operating quarantine station, the site has undergone significant change over time. Today Q Station provides heritage accommodation housed across the 30-hectare Sydney Harbour National Park at North Head

RMS Lusitania arrived July 21, 1895… she was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915 near Ireland

We settled into our accommodations and met up with many of the incoming attendees.

Sydney & Manly-Post #1 “Back to Oz!”

As part of my role in the HP Worldwide Digital Health Practice, I was sent to various locations around the world to develop the local practice and to deliver training.

Even though I’d been in Sydney and Singapore in May, I returned to Sydney from June 17-25, 2011.

At the invitation of the HP APJ Region, the WW team gathered in Sydney to deliver Digital Hospital Program training to the Sales & Consulting team from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan.

There’s no quick way to get to Sydney from Sarnia; a 3 hour drive to Toronto, a 4-1/2 hour flight to Vancouver and a 15-1/2 hour flight to Sydney. At least I was able to have enough time to pop out from YVR to Chilliwack and have a short visit with Mum and be back for my late flight on Friday night.

I landed in Sydney on Sunday morning, having ‘lost’ a day while flying over Hawaii in the middle of the night. A cab took me downtown to the Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel at Circular Quay where I was booked into for that night.