I am a little late in posting this but I was waiting for Chris to come back last night –he got back to the hotel around 8:30 pm and the first words out of his mouth were “I am about Aussied out”. It was a long two days! This must be the world’s longest interview period ever!!! And he is already off this morning (it is now Friday morning here around 7:30 am) to go to the CSR offices and meet with the CFO and some others. Gut feeling at this point…..not sure. He says the mills are pretty messed up because they have not put much money into them for a years and years and not sure if they would be able to put the money in to make the differences that need to be made.
He went to a long meeting yesterday with the cane growers and said that it was pretty bad because they really got all over the CEO and it was a little embarrassing to be a guest there while he got raked over the coals. I think he was just so tired last night that he is not very positive about anything at this point so I am not going to hold my breath about moving here. He was told yesterday that there were 2 others they were considering for the job (Australians) but they had not even done the assessments (testing) on them so he isn’t really sure if that is the case or not but at this point he cares! He hopes that today he will be able to come back at lunch but we will see!
Yesterday I slathered on the sunscreen and read by the pool for a bit and then walked down to the Flinders Market and shopped a bit. I found a couple stores that had some neat stuff that I want to take Chris back to if we can but we are running out of time. The shops don’t stay open past 5 so if he is tied up tomorrow will be our last chance!!! I found a little place to eat and once again…..service is slow. That would take a bit of getting used to. And I had to figure out how to pay the bill by watching everyone else—they just filed it at the cash register and you told them what table you were at. Of course the waiter did not tell me a thing but I muddled through! But first I had to make sure they took credit as Chris had taken all the money we had exchanged with him and there is no need to exchange more. It is better with the dollar being what it is to charge things –less money.
I did find a bargain on a cute little white shirt and some t shirts for all you bargain shoppers out there!!! And I found a pharmacy and got some more bandaids as we are going through our stash now that Chris has a huge blister! What a mess we are! Mine are much much better.
Today I am going to go with Lorrae to the Reef Museum at 10 am which looks like a neat place to go since we won’t actually be able to go to the Great Barrier Reef itself. And she said that if Chris and I wanted to go later it would still be a neat thing to see twice so that may be what we do. I think he is ready for some non business stuff about now. Let’s face it—he has seen Mark every single day since we have been here and basically will have spent 4 days straight with him so I think he is about tired out!!! Poor guy! He is not as excited as I thought he would be but I think there is a lot to contribute to that—the condition of the mills being the primary thing and trying to understand the Australian culture and how they do things. It has definitely been a learning experience!!!
So I am off to hit the shower and will tell you more tonight what our day was like!!! Sorry if this is boring you to death!!! Will post a couple of pictures also so you can see some more sights!!!
