A Tale Of The Sunny Coast

“Pack your bags and leave for Sunshine Coast tomorrow!”

“How long for?”, asked I with curiosity.

“Hmm. I reckon one week or two at the max. This one should be easy assignment for you”, answered my boss.

“Ok. Thank you”.

Travelling at short notice never bothered me. It was the first time that I heard of Sunshine coast. Little did I know, that this place was soon going to be my “second-home”.

It was already dark by the time I reached the coast. I was staying in an apartment close to the sea. Travelling for sixteen hours drained my energy. So, I decided to take a stroll across the beach. The cool winds and surging of the waves re-energised me.

Next morning, I started early for work. It was a beautiful sunny morning. We discussed work and laid out process for the tasks at hand. It was indeed an easy assignment, as my boss had said. First week went by smoothly.

It was last day of the second week of my stay, when I got a call. “Hey Rich, can you extend your stay for some more days. I believe we got a problem here. The network is broken and we need to isolate and fix the issue. We will have a team of some more local experts flying on Monday to support you”.

I agreed to stay back and re-scheduled my tickets. Internet in my apartment was lousy. If I needed free wi-fi, I would go the beach and connect to the hotspot. This place was more like a retirement spot. There were only a handful of restaurants in my area. I visited each one of them during the week. Very soon everyone in the area started to know me by name. I was turning into a “local”.

We were witnessing an intricate, knotty network issue. There was no easy way to troubleshoot. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. We were working hard day and night to find the root cause. Every week I would meet new local team members- flying in Monday and flying out Friday. Only I was to stay here-I was several thousand miles away from home.

The complexity of the work kept me engaged. I was learning something new at work every day. This is what had truly kept me going for months. Aside work, I had no real life here. Whenever I felt lonely after work, I would go for a walk across the beach. This was my only favourite pastime here.

While I was working on a new issue, I had the privilege to meet my technical leader, Mike . Mike was a benevolent and cheerful leader- very humble and meek. He soon turned to be my mentor and role-model. I enjoyed his company. I liked to call him as “The Wise Mike”.

I noticed that Mike had a bizarre phone ring-tone which he always refused to admit. Besides work, we spoke at length about world history. I also found out that Mike was a life time gold member at Dan Murphy’s, the local liquor store. One afternoon, Mike shared the stories form his early days in Scotland.

“Oh, you are a Scottish. Your accent sounded more Irish”.

It wasn’t the first time someone told this to Mike. Mike became nostalgic and pulled out his phone to share a photo from his youth.

“Wow, You look handsome. I bet you could steal the limelight from Tom Cruise”, said I.

Mike smiled. “Well, you know now why I never wear a tie. I don’t want people around to mistake me for a Hollywood star. Jokes aside , I am growing old and fat. I need to exercise more for my upcoming push-bike tournament at France”.

While we were having our coffee break, I noticed a man with a peculiar hair-style.

“Mike, who is he?”, asked I with piqued curiosity.

I learnt that this guy was popular in our team as “Bob, the sideshow”.

While some coveted to itch his hair, the more creative network geeks made a login banner on the network that mimicked his rare hairstyle. Oblivious to the reality, Bob would only look at the login banner with a smile and say “the coconut tree looks great on the welcome page. Well done guys!”

It would be no exaggeration to say that this place was cursed. We would solve one problem and a new one would be ready. Mike’s role had been very similar to a captain of the sinking ship. After spending close to five months, the day to leave finally arrived. It was indeed a day of celebration. We had nailed every issue and handed over the network -smooth and steady, to the client.

“Good job guys and girls. Thank you for your hard work and perseverance. This was certainly not easy. It was a roller coaster ride and we have made it together as a team. Congratulations!”, said our happy director.

As we hugged and bade farewell, I turned back. “Mike, I am going to miss your ring -tone”.

To this Mike only burst out with laughter. “Don’t worry, we will meet again, somewhere ,some part of the world. This is not a good-bye”.

I haven’t met the Wise Mike ever since then. I hope someday our paths will cross each other again. The trip to sunshine coast is over but the memories are etched forever and our everlasting bonds firmly cemented.