Travelling Worm

This is the blog of a 25-year-old bookmark. I proudly boast my own Hallmark serial number, 95 HBM 80-1. You’ll probably want to read all about me and my Travelling Companion (the TC) .

Today’s travel notes

The other day I dozed off inside a good book and woke up to find myself at the Atlassian office in Sydney. What on earth is Atlassian? The TC rabbits on about them all the time. Evidently they’re the guys who make Confluence wiki, JIRA bug tracker and some other equally odd-sounding things.

A little bird tweeted that Atlassian are making some big announcements next week. This worm was there during the busy run-up to the big day.

My impressions? Beer fridges, everywhere.

Word of the day: Standup.

Travel tip

When you visit Atlassian in Sydney, remember there’s an upstairs too. That’s where the TC hangs out. Take her some chocolate and your welcome is assured.

Recommended restaurant

Peace Harmony, corner of Erskine and Sussex streets, about 5 minutes’ walk from the Atlassian office. It’s a vegetarian Thai restaurant. The TC raves about the tasty food, the peaceful atmosphere and the outstanding service.

The book I’m in

The Linnet Bird, by Linda Holeman.

The photos

Me inside Atlassian, getting pally with Charlie. He’s the weird looking blue dude with his arms in the air, holding up a saucer (or whatever):

The Atlassian offices are in the old Corn Exchange building, near Darling Harbour in Sydney:

Here’s a closer view. The JIRA team is right behind this window:

Back inside now, this window lights the FishEye/Crucible team:

Charlie is a bit of a clothes horse. He gets dressed up in various outfits and then hangs around the meeting rooms or Atlassian events, all primped and proper. Here’s me chatting him up. He’s dressed for the board room, where the occasional game of poker happens too:

Me and Charlie outside the Fishbowl meeting room:

Me and Charlie in the area of the engineering and product management chiefs. Their desks look out on a gym, so Charlie feels comfortable in less formal attire:

I doff my mortarboard to Jason of the design team for his endless inventiveness in Charlie’s wardrobe.

Guess what? Hand was there too. You remember Hand, the annoying creature who attached himself to the TC when we were in Surfers Paradise last year. He’s an intrusive fellow with a finger in every pie. So it was no surprise when he insisted on attending a standup at Atlassian. A standup is a weird ritual practised by ‘agile’ programmers. This worm doesn’t think they look particularly agile, loitering around in a circle and uttering the odd technical phrase every now and then.

Here’s Hand getting underfoot at a standup. The feet are attached to the technical writing team:

Can you guess which foot belongs to the TC?

That’s all for today dudes.