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Sydney Abridged

An experience inside Sydney's hip side & the Google Australia office.

By Thomas Feng

April 5^th, 2015

sydney is hip?

I’m sitting in a car being driven by my 18 year old Sydney sass-queen of a friend: Ellen.

“Newtown is just as hip as your Brunswick St.” she claims.

Please. She’s obviously lying to me. I’ve been to Sydney eight times before this and outside of a nice looking harbour with a pretty bridge this city has no soul: despite the nice weather your things are more expensive, your people are unpleasant and your urban planning is just f***ed. I who hail from the superior town of Melbourne clearly know better than to trust this Sydney local.

We drive down King St and pass the local Lentil As Anything. I take what I said back. This is cool. This is hip. I feel like… I’m… in Melbourne. The pubs have excellent beer gardens, there’s art all around me and I want to eat all the ice cream sandwiches on offer. After looking around a few of the boutiques and peeking in a few cafes (“The Pie Tin” was a stand-out but it wasn’t a pie kind of day), Ellen proposes we go to her favourite cafe which is in a place called Glebe and consume bagels. I oblige.

A brief aside on Glebe: it has a local Saturday market in the grounds of the local school filled with art, craft and music. I dig.

Sass-queen promises that “Well Co. Cafe” will deliver the good cafe vibes found in Melbourne. We arrive to find zero bagels left but despite that, the cafe vibes are excellent: the red walls blend well with the 1970’s wooden furnishings and it’s topped off with chairs which have old wallpaper prints. We order the vegan scrambled tofu with moroccan spice served with sourdough, a side of sweet potato chips and sip on smoothies served in jars: it’s delicious.

Fast-forward many hours and many spoonfuls of nutella and we’re suddenly in “The Blackout” in Ellen’s hood: Linfield. I should mention that yes, we drove across the bridge and yes, it was better than crossing the Bolte. We, which now includes Ellen’s bae Sarah, consume cocktails. I must say my sanity blacks out after my cocktail which was just gin, vermouth and absinthe. Ellen’s “Toblerone” definitely wins the taste test. Somehow we end up singing “Bills” in public.

Sydney officially has a not-so-underground hip side. What was I even in Sydney for?

Scrambled poses with scrambled tofu and smoothies in a jar.

Crossing the bridge. It was amazing. For a Melbournian.

The internship?

I was in Sydney because I was lucky enough to be named a Google Student Ambassador earlier in the year. With the role comes spending a few days in the Google Sydney Office undergoing product & professional training from Googlers before coming back to university campus, liasing with Googlers and running Google events for students.

The most frequent question since my return: “Is the Google Australia Office just like in ‘The Internship’?” Every time I have responded with: “I haven’t seen the Internship. Sorry not sorry.” Every time.

Having seen the office in real life though, I can confirm that it is 13/10 movie-esque. I’m not sure I’ll ever see an office again which has a monorail train as a place for conference calls. Likewise, have you ever wanted to move a specific book on a bookshelf to reveal a secret room which you can do work in to hide from the rest of society? Google Sydney has that.

If you’re running on a very tight schedule you can grab a scooter from one of the numerous racks and scoot across to your next meeting. It also has numerous cafes serving delicious, wholesome food for employees to consume. For free. And a barista on call. Oh, a masseuse too. Is this real life? I often doubt it was.

What actually impressed me most about Google was its celebration of individual passion and dedication to continuously stimulate it. The concept of “80-20” office time where 80% of your time is spent on your assigned work and 20% is spent on building upon a passion/a personal project resonates as I walk through the office. Avid musicians can jam out in the band room. Keen readers can hang out in a pod in the library. Whilst time spent in these spaces isn’t necessarily part of that “20%” time, it encourages employees to make historic differences in areas which people are passionate about outside of their specific “job”. The fact that both Google Maps and Gmail were created in that time pays testament to that.

*I didn’t take many photos with my own camera inside because I was too in awe. Credits to the photos taken on DSLR belong to Mike McCauley & Simon Victory - two other Google Student Ambassadors.

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A Panoramic View of Sydney from the Google office

the pirate ship

Upon the conclusion of each day, there would be a socialising activity for all of the Google Student Ambassadors to mingle into the evening. The first night we were grouped into a Masterchef competition; I was in a group coached by the most sassy Oprah-Winfrey-like woman I’ve ever met whom we called “The Love Goddess”.

The final night we jumped on board a beautiful, old, wooden ship and sailed like pirates across the harbour. Conditions were sublime with a slight breeze providing a gloriously smooth ride. We voyaged under the Harbour Bridge, and passed Tone Abet’s house before realising that the Opera House was right on the other side (a much more pleasant sight). Anchored right near Taronga Zoo, more free food was fed to us and the dance party began.

As the sun set on Sydney Harbour, we drank many vodka sunrises until the early hours of the morning, even after disembarking back at the harbour. To all of the Google Student Ambassadors; from the morning search for hash-browns to having late night beers by the harbour to all of the amazing activities at the Google Student Ambassador Summit, it was a pleasure to meet each and every one of you and I can’t wait to see all of the exciting things you have planned.

Special shoutouts to Toni, Regan & Grace for being excellent company; our brunch and garden adventures will be out next.

Hope you all had a Happy Easter.

Much Love, Tom.

Room 411:"Roomie" Regan & I take on Sydney's Seven Seas.

Footnotes

Thank you James from Google for such an incredible opportunity. For anyone curious, I've been using SnapShots Disposable Cameras the past few months - available at Officeworks.

Button Label

FootNotes

Thank you James from Google for such an incredible opportunity. For anyone curious, I've been using SnapShots Disposable Cameras the past few months - available at Officeworks.

Mind the Gap

Sydney Abridged

An experience inside Sydney's hip side & the Google Australia office.

FootNotes

So much has happened, and all of it has been too important

A trip to Far East Gippsland

September 14^th, 2021

December 30^th, 2020

Between lockdowns

Six months on

FootNotes

So much has happened, and all of it has been too important

A trip to Far East Gippsland

September 14th, 2021

December 30th, 2020

Between lockdowns

Six months on

September 14^th, 2021

December 30^th, 2020