On the last day of work, i.e. presentation day, Lucy, aka the female voice from the GPS, confused us with her odd directions. Luckily by now we oredi know the way to the office by heart.


Traffic was quite bad that morning.


But it made it easier for me to take this pic.

An empty shop sign says 'RENT-A-BOMB'.
I deliberately not drive that morning so as to take a pic of it. =))

We got to the office and prepared for the presentation in the afternoon. #3 and #5 expended lots of energy while binding the documents.


Lunch was at DFO. #2, #5, and I waited mighty long for our usual lunch option. I had #19: my Tom Yum Chicken Noodle Soup.


#5 had Kway Tiau which I refused to try because it's not gonna match up to Char Kway Teow in Singapore. Mmmmmmmmmm...


After lunch, the 2pm presentation was only an hour away. #4 asked for gum on the drive back to office and #2 found exactly 5 pieces in his bag.

#2 took a piece of the gum and passed the bag to #3.
#3 took over the bag, popped 1 piece in his mouth, before handing 1 piece to me. In a split second, he dropped my piece of gum on the floor. =_=

Now we do not have enough gum to go around. Even if #3 wanted to make up for it, he couldn't because he oredi had a piece in his mouth. Not wanting to disappoint #4 and #5 who haven't had any gum, I relinquished my chance.

Regardless, the piece of dropped gum should not be wasted.

#3 unleashed his creativity...

And the gum was smiling in no time. =_=

Probably really happy coz it ain't gonna end up getting violently crushed in anyone's mouth.

20 minutes to the presentation, we started to set up the room.

I'll never forget the meeting room. It's definitely eclectic.

My fellow presenters, #3 and #2, psyching themselves up. The younger two members took the questions.


The presentation document.


I thought it was mighty surreal to watch our mentor (I didn't take a pic of him) get out of the cab, then to hear him speak in his thick accent. It's like having a piece of Cambridge in Brisbane.

I thought the presentation went well. I felt good presenting the info which the team had gathered for the client. Somehow it reminded me of those presentations I used to make in the public service, and starkly illuminated the difference between.

After a 2.5 hour presentation and discussion, our client presented us with huge goodie bags. He said we were now 'half-Aussies'. =)))


We also had something prepared for him.

We bought 3 bottles of wine, maturing at different times, for him. The first bottle for now. The second bottle for next year when his Melbourne branch is opened. The last bottle for the opening of his first branch in Asia in a few years. =))

Afterwards, we went back to the apartment for a quick change before heading for the celebration dinner at Oyama in Fortitude Valley.


There was just too much food and drinks... I had to stop eating about two thirds through... #5 was sitting on my left. He did some kind of stretching just before the 2nd last course to 'make space' inside of him for more food. I tried the same... But there was no space. =_=

I was wearing the Intero cap found in the goodie bag at dinner.


Teppanyaki at Oyama is highly interactive. The chef laid out the eggs on the hot plate like this, before throwing the egg at the panicky customer who's waiting to catch it with plastic bowl hesitantly.


Afterwards, the chef gathers all eggs from around the table, and got me to help him with the next step?!


I was standing beside #3 when he told me in a serious voice: Whatever I was asked to do, that I should make it's edible. =_=


My job was to cut up the fried egg lah! Easy peasy... But dunno who later told me that it was quite ugly!! =_=


During dinner, the man in yellow was very rowdy. #4 got quite drunk and these two were loudly exclaiming something Americans. Then somehow, some girl from another group starting talking to our client across the teppanyaki bar. She later proceeded to ask #4 if he knew a song which consisted of US state names. In the chaos, #4 started singing the US National Anthem and was interrupted halfway because it's not what the girl had asked for. Before we knew it, the elderly gentleman in dark red stood and got everyone singing and acting to some Austrian song?!!

(I have some video footage of the process, and will upload as soon as I stitch them together but I'm not allowed to upload them. =_=)

It was indeed a bizarre dinner.
A bunch of Cambridge MBAs having dinner with a Brisbane-based company in a Chinese-owned/run Teppanyaki restuarant with customers from all around the world singing and dancing to an Austrian song. What a night!!

After dinner, we walked over to the latest club in Brisbane called Cloudland. Apparently, its renovations cost AUD10million?!! Also read about the history of Cloudland.


Here we were... Immortalised in Brisbane with our client.

#4 is missing from the pic coz he had gone back to the apartment.

To say Cloudland exudes an eclectic charm is an understatement.




Though #2 was visibly tired, we persevered and eventually made it to The Beat to check out the gay and tranny scene for a while before heading back to the apartment.

..........................................................................

I have learnt a lot through this project.
The business of fit-out, the business of consulting, the business of teamwork...

More significantly, I realise that I've never worked in a small organisation. It's always been in large organisations with thousands of people under the same name. Perhaps it is time to explore such options.

Somehow, the scale of our client's company, his generosity and the warmth of everyone from the company made this project feel like what I'd imagine a home-stay programme would be.

My 3-week cosy home-stay in Australia is ending...
And tomorrow, I'll be back home with my cats.