The Good News!

The good news is that we will finish our work 4 hours early. That means that there will be time for sight seeing and fun! Chinatown! Singapore History Museum! Arab Street Bazaar!

The bad news is that they still have not uncovered my luggage. (*sigh*) Never checking luggage again!

Me minus luggage

This is what I get for checking my bag.... I'm in Singapore, but my luggage is not. Hmmm..... There is a flight arriving about now that may have my bag on it. If not, then I'm heading to the mall next door to try and find some work clothes for the week. It is, of course, perfectly managabele, just not the way I was planning to spend this day....

In other news, my room is gorgeous and I think I'll be OK for jet lag. I slept approrpiately on the plane, and slept OK last night. With any luck, I'll get a call soon that says I'm free to spend the afternoon sight seeing! That would be nice...

Notes from the road

It is a great time of year for a Phoenician to be in UK. The weather is cold, damp, and rainy - nothing like the 90+ degrees at home. It is lovely! The only downside is that I've needed to take taxis into the office in the morning to arrive looking presentable. But that is company money, so all is well.

I've said "au revior" to a few people already - folks that I may or may not see again depending on the vagaries of their business travel. But I have been able to see everyone that I wanted to - for the most part - and avoid the ones that I wanted to avoid. Whoo-hoo!

Despite the fact that I have a number of stateside projects in critical phases, I have escaped with only 1 meeting scheduled during my teaching time. However, I have had 7 meetings scheduled after hours. Of course, that is an impressively low meeting total for the week for me - especially considering that I had 6 hours of meetings in ONE DAY last week!

I enjoy my job, and I enjoy my various teams. I like all of the problem solving and I even like the fact that I can travel some. But I will be more than happy to go part time and then leave. I am tired, and ready to be done for a while.

And that is my story....

Here and gone again!

The last two weeks have been a bit crazy what with work and business travel. I'm hitting the road again this morning - for a little Louisiana time - so I didn't want to get away without at least a quick note.

Last week's business trip to NY was a true test of my new hair and face routines. It is one thing to get them to work here, but quite another to see how they perform in such a totally different climate! I'm happy to report that everything worked very well. My hair was fine with the current cleaning system even when I layered products on to straighten it every day. My face wash doubles as a great makeup remover - even mascara! - and takes up very little space in my travel bag. All in all, I've significantly reduced the amount of stuff - and the space required to hold that stuff - for travel. Needless to say, I'm just doing carry on luggage on this trip!

My plants are doing OK without me. One of my cilantro is unhappy and one of my rosemary as well. I'm not sure why since there are thriving examples right next to the unhappy ones. I'll spend more time on that next week. The oregano is going nuts! And the mint is, of course, trying to take over the world. I'm excited to see everything working. Who knew that I could do this?

The next 3.5 months will be very busy for me. I'll be very glad to see the end of June! But I should be home more and able to balance my work load a little more evenly going forward. I plan to not go this long without posting again!

Are you a good trip or a bad trip?

The distance between a good business trip and a bad one can be quite small. This one has been good for a number of reasons that I'll just run through quickly before I lose my connection!

1. Good people
2. That help me find what I need (like this juice to counter my cold or this shop)
3. Good food (WOW!)
4. Purposeful work - Yes, I really, really, REALLY did need to be here because I would not have been able to figure this out without seeing expressions on the faces around the table
5. The bare minimum of time away from home!

From this point, I just have a Christmas party and some packing to do and then I'm on my way. In fact, the next time that most of you hear from me will be when I hit Dallas at 6:20 CST tomorrow!

Whoo-hoo!

On the road again

Well, some things just don't change. I'm back in Brighton in the same hotel with lovely little architectural details. And sweeping staircases that I consider all mine - since I rarely see anyone else on them! And, of course, as always in such lovely old buildings, some issues with minor details such as unreliable plumbing and internet connections that disappear for 36 hours at at time!




But the world outside looks quite different now, 6 months from my last visit. There are no boats out on the water this time - and nobody around to even rent them from if you wanted. All of the rental shops are boarded up tight.












Last trip, it was difficult to find a stretch of "beach" without people. This trip, there was nobody out at 3 pm - and the sky was starting to discourage even these folk.


The pier - with the Helter Skelter in front - is fairly quiet, even though they have an indoor arcade there. I guess the walk out to the end is a bit too much to ask for when the high is 4 C and the wind is whipping around like crazy.


But the sea gulls still don't mind. For whatever reason, they seem to be a little more relaxed in the winter. Or maybe flying just gets them too cold!

As you can imagine, I am busy with meetings and discussions during the day, which was the purpose of this last minute trip. (I consider myself fortunate to have slipped out a few hours early to get these shots on the way back to the hotel!) And, I'm catching up with all of my colleagues at Christmas events in the evening as well. Chances are good that I won't have much more time to take pictures or post before I leave here - early Saturday morning Colonial time and even EARLIER Saturday morning Blue Sky time - but I thought I'd get a few things up to let you know that I'm alive and well.

Random Brighton pics

I wandered Brighton on Sunday. Here are a few random snapshots of the day.

The West Pier burned down and hasn't been rebuilt. The billboard shows how it was.


I'm assuming that this church is no longer a church - since the sign out front is for a "Dirty Fashion Show". I love the super bright, white cook shop building next to the old church building.



There are always points in the walk where some building suddenly appears to have a tower and spire.

Just for the record, here is the buidling to which that tower actually belongs.


Here is the major walking landmark in Brighton. The 3 roads that lead from the clock go to the seafront, the train station and the mall!



This Jimi Hendrix-esque street musician was thoroughly enjoying himself. He was good enough to stop a number of people even as the rain picked up.


I was close to my hotel, so I put the camera away and moved off. The rain still wasn't actually falling hard - just misting. By the time I got back to the hotel, the top of my head was soaked, but the hair beside my face was just damp. Silly English rain!

UK weekend

Well, I am almost through the weekend. I expect that time will feel like it is moving very quickly from here. It has been really good to have a few days off. And they have really been days off, which has been quite important.

It started out on Friday night. After we finished what was one of the most exhausting classes that I have ever taught, Eva, one of my friends and work colleagues here, took me out to the Glastonwick Beer, Music and Poetry festival at Coombes Farm. The farm was set in the middle of "the sticks" with rolling green hills and sheep and cows around. There was camping for the serious beer drinkers and a shuttle bus for the faint of heart. The average age at the festival was probably 45+. I saw people taking notes on the ale program (yes, there was an ale program) and comparing notes with friends. Eva and I tasted the 10 or 12 ciders and perries (a tradtional West Midlands drink like cider but made of Perry pears). One of them was BAD, but 2 were really good. The music was good. Eva's boyfriend is great, and her friends were a lot of fun. We enjoyed the evening and were home by 11.

Saturday I hopped the express train (yeah!) from Brighton to London. I got an all day tube pass so that I could just wander around a bit without having to worry about exactly where and when. Since I've seen most of the sights, I just decided to hit the markets and see if anything struck my fancy.



So, I went up to Camden first and wandered the markets there. It was a really good thing that I did not have more cash to spend, because I could've seriously spent some money there! Dylan would've loved it. I found something for Dylan there - that he has been looking for for a while - and could've spent some serious money for him as well. I think that he would live in Camden if he lived in London. I also got my ears pierced there as well. Eventually, I'll put the diamond studs in the upper holes and put my hoops and funky earrings in the lower holes. I'm looking forward to that.


I then went off to Portobello Market. I found Donovan things there and took some pictures. I'm in random picture mode, so they may or may not mean anything to anyone else, but I'll post a few here.




Today I wandered Brighton. I have a number of random Brighton pics that I'll post next time. At the moment, I'm going to head out to find some dinner. Food is ridiculously expensive here in the hotel, so I'll walk around the corner and see what looks good!

No phone! No phone!

Well, the bad news is that my Vonage phone does not want to play with the UK internet. In other words, unless the few tips that they sent me in e-mail work, I won't be calling any of you! However, you can leave me voice mail on it and I can hear the message in my personal e-mail. Not great, but better than nothing!




The good news is that all is going rather well. I managed to sleep on the flight over and stay awake all day yesterday. I walked along the shore a bit, and explored the general environment. There were a number of people out and about enjoying their "very warm" weather - not warm by my standards but VERY humid! As I write this, I can hear the sea gulls. My hotel is right across from the 'beach', so I get a good breeze and am trying to be very quiet in the mornings to not wake up all the holiday guests here.


The first day of work was all spent in facilitating a Six Sigma class. It went well, all things considered. Not perfectly, you know, but no class is ever perfect. I did what I could. I will be alternating class and meetings all week this week, so I shouldn't get bored! But I am rather tired - and it is only 8:30 here.


Anyway, I pulled a few pics over from the camera. Other than that, I'll sign off and try to get my phone to work again before going to bed. Enjoy!



The hippie band playing down at the beach. When I commented on the band at class today, I was told "that's Brighton!"




The "old pier" just across the street from my hotel.







An old church, with my hotel in the background. Did they do the hotel in red brick to match the church?







This one is for my guys. Look! This China China is walking closer to my hotel than our China China is to the house!