There is not much new to report other than we started work yesterday.  One of the older draftsman in the office collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital--we'll find out today if he's okay, but it imbued us with a sense of being a "bad luck charm" to these overly friendly people.  The incident happened within two (2) hours of our arrival in the workplace and it created minor chaos for the next two (2) hours. 

As anticipated, the Aussies' way of engineering varies from what we do in the states and it will take us some time to assimilate, but the task at hand doesn't appear to be overly daunting.  When I first found out about our pending trip to Australia, one of the questions I posed was why it was necessary that we go to Australia to work on drawings that could be electronically sent from Brisbane to Pittsburgh in a matter of seconds.  No one ever gave me a satisfactory reason, but after having a chance to witness how they work, suffice it to say that the engineering group here has no real sense of urgency (it appears to be more of a cultural thing than anything else).

We ate dinner at nice pub last night called Gilhooley's.  It specialized in steaks and I ordered a New York Sirloin.  The cost of the steak and the one (1) pint of local brew I had was in excess of $35 (Australian dollars are trading about evenly with the US dollar).  This seemed overpriced to me until I considered that our habit of tipping does not exist here.  That is mostly because the minimum wage here is more than $15 per hour--it provides a livable wage for all workers, but creates much higher prices for consumers.  The steak, however, was very tasty and I'll have to get used to the fact the the menu describes the weight of a piece of meat in grams and not ounces (the steak I ordered was 300 grams and I ordered it not knowing how big it would be).

That's enough for now--I have to get ready for work.  I'll post again in a few days or when I something interesting to add.