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 |  I travel the country on business, sometimes the world. Come see where I've been. |
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Talk about perks, my job has one of the best ones I can think of! I travel in the course of business, delivering classes for my employer. I am a Senior Training Specialist for Motorola Solutions, and teach classes on a wide variety of subjects centered around 2 way radio communications. I'm qualified to deliver approximately 30 different classes, but about half of those are 'Legacy' classes, and are not in demand anymore. My students are technicians, those who maintain, program, calibrate, and repair large 2-way radio systems. Some of these systems are statewide, and use TCP-IP networking to allow sites to communicate with others. Some are small, traditional type radio sites. The size doesn't matter, in each case the systems must be kept operational at all times, since many of them are Public Safety Systems. So I get to travel, sometimes frequently, 3-4 weeks in a row.... where am I this week? This probably won't have daily entries, but I will make entries when I get to go somewhere, and keep an updated list of coming trips. My schedule changes faster than the weather, so don't be too surprised to see me list an upcoming class, only to remark later on that it is cancelled, or delayed. Delays are fine of course, but a later date might mean that someone else gets to go instead of me,,, Well, here we go with this, let's see where it takes us.  Best Cultural And Regional Honorable Mention |
Virginia Beach, Va The weeks of 6/3 and 6/10 found me (us) on vacation, something different for me that's for sure. Our plans were to go to Virginia Beach for a week or so, mainly to drop off our Akita to his breeder (Faith is her name) for a couple of months so she could train him to be shown at a dog show. My wife has shown dogs in the past, but now she is too old and out of shape to do it, I have no experience with this, so it would require both of us being trained, and who would train us? Faith was more than happy to be reunited with Buddy (Our Akita) for a couple of months. So Virginia Beach was a logical destination. I started vacation on Monday, but we didn't leave until Thursday around noon. In retrospect, we should have left Sunday and spent time seeing other destinations and/or sites. Oh well, I can't undo what's been done, huh. The drive there was not the best on Thursday. Someone (me) had it in his wacky mind that we should drive to Peru Indiana to see a man I know (well, know is a stretch) on FB. He owns a donut shop there, and seems to write well. I was going to encourage him to join WDC. But I never considered that he would open the donut shop and arrive very early (say 5 am), so he would leave early too. We arrived a little after 4, he leaves around 10 or so. Yeah, I should have planned that much better, huh. Anyway, we spent Thursday night in Dayton Ohio. It should have taken us 5 hours to get to Dayton, but ended up taking almost 9 hours. <sigh> The next two days went as planned though. We spent Friday night in Cumberland Maryland, but not before having dinner at Penn Alps. This restaurant is in an area that is inhabited by people of Scandanavian & Amish descent, The restaurant has an excellent buffet that serves good, down-home country type food. We love this place, and dine there whenever we pass thru. My dinner was a Salad, a cup of their Clam Chowder, Ham, Green Beans, Butterflied Shrimp, Fried Fish, one hush-puppy and a dessert sampler (sort of). I failed to grab one of my favorite items though, Fried Clams! Saturday found us stopping in Leesburg, Va to visit a Produce Stand we found long ago. Brossman's Produce Stand. They have THE BEST Lime Pickles there. No, not Lime as in the Fruit, but Lime Pickling Powder. Here's what I found about it on a quick search. "Pickling lime is sometimes used during the pickling process to give pickles an extra crunch. It's a form of food-grade calcium hydroxide. Traditional canning recipes usually suggest soaking freshly sliced cucumbers or other vegetables in pickling lime for 10 to 24 hours before canning them." We bought 4 jars of those pickles, and gave a jar to Faith, and my daughter Jennifer who we met for lunch while there. We arrived in Virginia Beach Saturday afternoon/evening, and stayed at The Founders Inn. This is the hotel that hosted the Akita National Specialty Dog Show two years ago. The hotel is very nice, and is spread out around the grounds, instead of being a high rise like many hotels. We used Hilton Honors points instead of Credit Card, and the rate was very good! It was 40,000 points/night, which is what a typical Hampton Inn runs. Did you wonder about the value of those 150,000 Hilton Honors points I raffled last year during the WDC Birthday month? We used about 175,000 of those points on this trip. The only card charge was a pet fee each night. So cash out for pet fees was about $200. Still, think about how much the hotels would have run (I refuse to stay at a Motel 6 or Super 8, or even Comfort Inns anymore) if I'd paid with a credit card. The time in Virginia Beach was all too short, even though we stayed an extra day. We really enjoyed our time there, but dang, the traffic! Wow.... plus it was too crowded everywhere we went. I got a kick out of taking my wife to the Norfolk Naval Base. She got her first 'up close and personal' view of the aircraft carriers USS Gerald R Ford CVN 75, and the USS Harry S. Truman CVN 71. Her amazement at their size and such was amusing to say the least. Even though I retired 31 years ago, this is still 'old hat' to me, so her reaction was cute. I didn't try to get her a tour on board one though. That would take advance planning/permission, and both of these ships were not available for a tour, nor would she be able to handle the ladders/passageways, not to mention the walking across the brow to get on board. Heck I can't even get her on the USS Intrepid, a museum aircraft carrier in New York City because of the brow issue. The drive home was uneventful, and only 2 days in length, instead of the crazy 3 day drive getting there. We arrive home, and I was beat, just beat. This was not what I'd call a vacation, I thought those were relaxing. Still, it was a fun time though. That's all for now. Til next time, keep on writing, most of all, keep on loving those special people in your life! JimD |
Schaumburg, Illinois The week of 5/27 found me in Schaumburg for meetings with the rest of the team. It was really good because we had not met in person for five years! Yeah, that's a long time to not see your co-workers. Typical for this week, we meetings all week long. I didn't mind though because also in attendance were instructors who teach classes for companies we recently purchased. We also learned what their company manufactures, and some of it is scary. Let me give you an example. To provide that example, I must ask a question. Have you read 1984 by George Orwell? In case you didn't know it was written in 1947, and published in 1949. The scary part? We're living in the times Orwell writes about in his book. I read this almost 55 years ago, here's what I remember from it. First, the country the main character lives in is at war. I think the war is going on somewhere in Africa. The Media broadcasts contain information about the war, telling the citizens that the war is being won. Yet they are losing the war. The Media is telling the citizens what they want the citizens to hear. That sure as heck sounds like our Media in 2024. We're fed stories that they want us to hear, not the 'real news'. Secondly, there are cameras everywhere. These cameras are mounted on traffic light poles, telephone poles, whatever. They are placed all over the city, privacy does not exist. Again, does this sound familiar? Some of the people I met this week for a subsidiary of ours, train technicians on how to maintain these cameras. I saw a real-time video, and what they can do with their software is definitely scary. Not almost, Definitely Scary! I'd say more, but I'm not allowed to go into specifics. So, read 1984 if you haven't, or read it to refresh your mind about the story. And realize that we are living in the times of that book. A book written 76 years ago, long before the things in our world existed. On a 'happier' note, let's discuss my future schedule, and my plans, tentative though they may be. This will be my last full year of employment. I will retire after this year is completed. MAYBE. PROBABLY. It's up in the air, but to be honest, the travel, being away from home with barely 24 hours here on weekends (sometimes) is getting to me. I am exhausted most weekends, I spend far too much time napping and not enough time getting things done. I was given a nice Pit Boss Electric Smoker (I've been wanting to learn how to smoke meats and veggies), but have not used it yet. It's been assembled, but the door latch does not latch correctly. There's about an inch of space between it and the fastener on the housing. I might have assembled it wrong, but I don't think so. So there's that to figure out. I want to learn to 'Can' vegetables, I can't on my current schedule. I also really want to rent a French Horn and see if I can still play, see if it still has the draw on me it had 55 years ago. Speaking of fatigue. Even when on the road, I'm very tired at the end of a day. I go to dinner somewhere near work or hotel, then collapse in my hotel room. I spend very little time here, very little time chatting with my anyone. And to add to it all, I will be cross-training a new instructor. He has been doing very good so far. Then again, he's delivering 2 courses, courses that deal with the equipment he maintained before coming to us. I get the pleasure of cross-training him. It will be a pleasure too, because then someone besides me will be able to travel and deliver classes that only I can deliver right now. However, that means he may get to go to Cavalier AFB in place of me. I want to go mainly for one reason. This is where Space Force is!  I will spend most of the week of July 4th cross-training him to deliver that course. It will be a little bit of a stretch for him because this will be a highly tailored course, and he has quite a bit to learn to be able to deliver it. Only time will tell.My upcoming schedule, as of now Week of: 6/3 and 6/10: I'm on VACATION! June 17: Brentwood, Tennessee June24: Halifax, Nova Scotia July 1: Holiday week (Cross-train my co-worker) July 8: Fort Bragg NC July 15: Work From Home (Cross-train my co-worker if he's not delivering a class) July 22: Los Angeles July 29: Schaumburg Illinois Aug 5: Cavalier AFB (NE Corner of North Dakota) Aug 12: Los Angeles Aug 19: International Travel Aug 26: Frankfurt, Germany Sept 2: International Travel/Labor Day That's all for now. Til next time, keep on writing, most of all, keep on loving those special people in your life! Sum1 |
San Francisco, Ca. The week of 5/20 found me in San Francisco for a class. I've spent some time in San Francisco, but it was long ago. I've been there on business 2 or 3 times now, but never in downtown San Fran. And, I wasn't this time either. I was in south San Francisco this time, just north of the airport. It was a fun, but tiring week for me. It didn't start out the best either, but it wasn't due to something I didn't do, or did. Let me explain. The class this week was another of those Networking classes. I have finally taught it enough recently to get the flow of it. What? I don't have the flow down yet, even after teaching it for so many years? Well, it's been modified so much that the flow has changed. Not only that, the course now contains a lot of information about the new router in the system. For some reason this, I found it difficult to really get this router into my brain properly. But I have it now. All we need to do in the training department is straighten out a couple of steps in the hands-on activities. So what happened that wasn't my fault? We ship a large Pelican Case to the customer for this class. In this case, it can be one that contains the router we manufacture, or the new router made by Juniper. Evidently the Project Manager asked for the router we manufacture, since they currently have this router and will for the next year or so. However, the customer wanted to be trained on the new Juniper router. It wasn't until we opened the Pelican Case that we discovered this. As a result we had to scramble a bit and get the correct case sent to us. My support team was fantastic and had the new Pelican Case shipped so we could use it when needed. I enjoyed my time there, but found it difficult to drive to dinner. You might think this is crazy, but again, there's a reason behind everything. For example, the students in my class recommended a nice Mexican Restaurant in Daly City. I found the place easily. However, or but, there were no parking places nearby. I found one, but it was about a 5-6 block walk up, or down, hills. (I mean, you know SF is not known for it's hills after all). I decided to go elsewhere. Even then I parked at least 100 yards away.... I know, I know, I have it so tough, huh. It was fine really, but it was like that all week long. My upcoming schedule, as of now Week of: June 3: Vacation! June 10: Vacation! June 17: Tennessee June24: Halifax, Nova Scotia July 1: Holiday week July 8: Fort Bragg NC July 15: Work From Home July 22: Los Angeles July 29: Schaumburg Illinois Aug 5: Cavalier AFB Aug 12: Los Angeles Aug 19: International Travel Aug 26: Frankfurt, Germany That's all for now. Til next time, keep on writing, most of all, keep on loving those special people in your life! Sum1 |
Fort Lauderdale, Florida This weeks of May 6 and May 13 found me in Ft Lauderdale once again. I've grown to really enjoy this area, made all the more better by my friend Ariel being there the first week., We had a good time seeing each other, he even bought dinner one night at one of my favorite restaurants, The Pirate Republic. That's not a cheap place to dine at, but since he was the 'Senior Motorolan', paying for dinner fell to him. It didn't matter really, the money came from this project, so I could paid too, but that's how things go with us. The classes I delivered were both Networking classes, it was good to once again get my hands on the equipment as well as deliver the classes. It had been far too long for this, so I thought it was good, the class results proved my belief. I was able to relax at night both weeks, and spent the weekend in Clearwater with my ex-Father-In-Law. You might wonder why I would spend time with an ex-In Law, so I'll tell you. He's much more to me than just an ex-in law. We were shipmates on my first submarine, and were close friends while on the boat., Of course being married to his daughter meant we stayed in touch throughout the years. It was a good weekend, other than me having a pretty rough Allergy attack Saturday. But getting Flonase in my sinus', and eye drops in my eyes quickly cleared things up. Still, I spent far too much time Saturday napping, he didn't seem to mind. One of the big reasons for spending time with him is that he lives alone now. He lost his wife to Alzheimers almost 2 years ago, so is alone now. His youngest daughter live about 3 hours away, so he gets few visitors. He will turn 89 this year, so visiting him was almost a must. It was a good visit, just tiring for us both. Since I will be ending my time in San Francisco today, and will write a blog entry for this week later this weekend, along with editing this one to add restaurants I dined at later. I need to sit back and relax some, but wanted to post this at least. My upcoming schedule, as of now Week of: May 20: San Francisco May 27: Schaumburg Illinois June 3: Vacation! June 10: Vacation! June 17: Tennessee June24: St. Johns Newfoundland July 1: Holiday week July 8: Fort Bragg NC July 15: Work From Home July 22: Los Angeles July 29: Tennessee That's all for now, it's about time to get going again. A short entry today as a result.. Til next time, keep on writing, most of all, keep on loving those special people in your life! Sum1 |
Los Angeles, California This past week I was once again in Los Angeles delivering a class to LAPD. This is my 4th or 5th time working with them. I had not delivered this class since 2020 and it showed. My knowledge of the subject is sound, it was the timing and flow of the class that was off. It's fine though, everything went well, and since I'll be delivering the same class in Ft. Lauderdale this upcoming week, it was a nice tune-up, so to speak. Besides, Duncan Angami, the manager of the radio shop did offer me a job, in a way. He said that if I retired from Motorola because the travel was too much, but still wanted to keep working, that there was a job with LAPD for me. I'm not sure how serious he was, but I'd not take it if offered. Why? I'm not a big-city person, I'm much more comfortable with a city the size of Bloomington/Normal (~130,000 in this city). I spent my evenings resting and going to bed early because I didn't really want to get adjusted to PDT because I will be on the East Coast next week. I was successful until Thursday, but that was expected. The flight home last night was bumpy, but the plane had a lot of empty seats. As a result I was able to lie down in my row and relax some. We landed at O'Hare right about midnight. I knew it would be a while to get my luggage and my van, and drive the 2 hours home. Sometimes I hate being right. I got home last night about 3 am, and will have a whopping 25 hours here before leaving tomorrow morning. Wash had to be done, I needed to unpack and repack, and rest. I napped 6 hours today, and managed to get 4 hours of sleep last night. I think I'm ready for the week, Since I will be in For Lauderdale for 2 weeks, I will drive to Clearwater Friday evening to see my ex Father-In-Law. He and I are close friends, and always will be He knows his daughter and I are divorced, he encouraged me to divorce her 2 years ago when I saw him. He understands, and while he doesn't know the details about our relationship, he does understand why we had to do it. My upcoming schedule, as of now: Week of: May 6: Fort Lauderdale May13: Fort Lauderdale May 20: San Francisco May 27: Schaumburg Illinois June 3: Vacation! June 10: Vacation! June 17: Tennessee June24: St. Johns Newfoundland July 1: Holiday week July 8: Fort Bragg NC July 15: Nebraska July 22: Los Angeles July 29: Tennessee That's all for now, it's about time to get going again. A short entry today as a result.. Til next time, keep on writing, most of all, keep on loving those special people in your life! Sum1 |
Bloomington, Illinois Thank God for small favors! After a pretty exhausting schedule in February and March, I finally spent a week at home! Since February 11, I've now had 2.5 weeks at home, with a Saturday 'visit' here and there. It wouldn't be so bad if the classes were in the same time zone, but that was far from the case. Starting the week of February 11, I was in Dover New Hampshire, Hillsboro Oregon, Frederick Maryland (flew from Hillsboro directly to Frederick), Hillsboro Oregon, FOUR days at home, Bangkok Thailand for 2 weeks, a week of no delivery so I rested all i could, Dover New Hampshire, and St. Johns Newfoundland. Yeah, it was very tiring for this old man. But I survived and was able to spend the entire week at home. No, I wasn't idle, I prepped for a class I will deliver in July (more on that in a minute) ,and reviewed the course materials for my next 2 classes. I accomplished what I wanted to get done, that was my goal all week, Did I work 8 hours a day? Nope, but like I said, I accomplished what I needed to do. This class in July will be at Fort Bragg. This is a small system, one that few customers purchase. The class itself hasn't been delivered in 10 years too! As a result, I spent a bit of time reviewing the course materials and ensuring they are up-to-date, writing hands-on activities as needed. Things like that. I also napped whenever I could or wanted to. Tuesday was a day that concerned me a bit, and made me realize jusat how exhausted I was from the time zone shifts. Essentially I was dead to the world. I had Zero energy when it came to doing the simplest of tasks. The rest of the week was fine though, so I have to ask, "Was Tuesday an Aberration? Was it a day that was different than the rest for some reason? Or was it a reminder that I'm not so young anymore?" It was both. In 2021, I learned to pay attention to my body, and listen to what it was saying. So I rested more than I thought I should, and feel much better about things now. Am I all set to go? No way. I will take things as they come and pace myself all I can. My upcoming schedule, as of now: Week of: April 29: Los Angeles May 6: Fort Lauderdale May13: Fort Lauderdale May 20: San Francisco May 27: Schaumburg Illinois June 3: Vacation! June 10: Vacation! June 17: Tennessee June24: St. Johns Newfoundland That's all for now, the time at home was so relaxing and refreshing. A short entry today as a result.. Til next time, keep on writing, most of all, keep on loving those special people in your life! Sum1 |
Dover NH & St. Johns NL Well, after spending two wonderful weeks in Bangkok Thailand, meeting Kåre Enga in Montana   , I managed to get a week at home. That was needed, and welcomed Gee, I remember a time when all I wanted to do week in and week out, was travel. Now it wears on me, so a week at home is welcomed with open arms. I spent that week relaxing a bit, studying for upcoming classes, preparing Powerpoint Slides for a class in July (Fort Bragg), and just getting my feet back on the ground, so-to-speak.The following I was in Dover New Hampshire again. The training coordinator who originally scheduled their classes did not realize the type of system they have, and classes they didn't need had been scheduled, while classes the did need were not scheduled. That was corrected a couple of months before this class, it's how I came to be in Dover a second time. Overall, the class went very well, the travel home was a nightmare. Part of it was my fault, a lot of it was United Airlines fault. Why? Once the class was done, I shopped at the local Wally World. I needed a small collapsible bag, and knew I'd find it there. However, this delayed me some, plus the traffic around Logan Airport was a nightmare as usual. I arrived at the ticket counter a little over an hour before my flight. I had plenty of time though, since you need to be checked in 45 minutes before your flight. Imagine my surprise to learn that the Gate I would depart from had restricted issuance of boarding passes, and required their permission. The check-in desk called the gate, and the gate said I couldn't board. I've come to think that the flight had been oversold, with my seat already given to someone else. I ended up being booked on a later flight, and arrived in Chicago at 11 pm. This meant I missed my connecting flight to Peoria. So, I rented a car from Avis for the weekend (MUCH cheaper than a one-way rental on a Friday night) and drove home. I didn't arrive until after 2 am though. I wanted to get home Friday night vs Staying at a nearby hotel in Chicago because I would leave Sunday morning at 5 am. Such is life huh. I do have it much better than many people. I left for St. Johns Newfoundland at 9:40 am Sunday, and had a scheduled 5 hour layover in Toronto. As luck would have it, the five hour layover became 7 due to flight delays. I didn't arrive in St. Johns until after 11, and at my hotel about 12:30 am. I was in bed around 1 though, only to get up at five to start my day. I was pretty tired, but managed to get through things. Still, it was quite a weekend of travel, don't you think? Class this week has gone very well, it's actually two classes back to back. Still, all's well on the 'home front' here. I really like St. Johns, except it's rained almost all week., Yesterday I drove to the Cape Spear Lighthouse, and probably will again today. Why? Near the Lighthouse is the Eastern most point in Canada, and in my eyes, the Eastern most point in North America. I realize that some of the Aleutian Islands are over the 180 degree line of Longitude, but I'm not counting them. No insult to anyone living there intended. Id like to get a photo of that area, or better photos than what I took yesterday in the driving rain.  Cape Spear Lighthouse Noteworthy Restaurants: St. Johns Fish Exchange https://sjfx.ca/ I couldn't come to a small town like St. Johns and not sample their seafood, could I? Their Fishing Admirals Feast was outstanding! IT consisted of the Chef's Selection of daily fresh seafood. The dish had Cod, Salmon, Fish Cakes, 2-Shrimp Skewers, Steamed Veggies, and Rice. Each of the fish filets had a different sauce on it. To me, that made the dish! YellowBelly Brewery https://www.yellowbellybrewery.com/food/ For some odd reason, I lkonged for a simple burger, saw their menu, and figured I'd drop by here, I chose well. Their Salt-Vinegar Cod bites were crispy and hot out of the oil. The Guilty Pleasure Burger came with crumbled Bacon, Tomato, Letttuce, Tomato Aioli, Onion Jam, Breaded & Fried Provolone Cheese, Crispy Prosciutto, and a Deep Fried Pickle Spear skewered on top of the bun. Everything I didn't really need, but wanted. It hit the spot, and removed that yearning for a burger. I am currently scheduled to return here in June, we'll see if I dine at these two restaurants then. I fly home tomorrow, and will spend the next week relaxing/working before flying to Los Angeles on Sunday. Til next time, keep on writing, most of all, keep on loving those special people in your life! Sum1 |
Two Weeks In Bangkok The class I delivered to the Department Of State in Bangkok went quite well. My only trepidation about the whole delivery was that I would be delivering one portion of the class for the first time. Especially since I didn't 'qualify' to deliver that class the traditional way. A policy has been set that "To qualify on a new course, the person qualifying must sit in the class when it is being delivered. Once that is done, a Team Teach with a qualified instructor must be done." None of that happened. I had the equipment shipped to my house in December and spent a week studying the course Powerpoints, and performing every lab available for the course. Fast forward to April, and you can understand my angst. Especially once I learned that the State Department is doing far more with this small device than the course is written for. I became a mushroom, learning on the fly, and trying to remain one step ahead of them. I was successful in some of it, not so successful in others. But it all seemed to go well with all attendees quite happy. I want to say a couple of other things about the class. Most of the students were American Citizens working for the Embassy. There were 12 students in class, only three were from Bangkok. The rest were from Embassies in Kathmandu, Manila, New Delhi, Frankfurt Germany, and Springfield Va. Speaking of Frankfurt Germany, I may be going there for a week in late August, as well as two weeks in January/February. Plus, my Embassy contact told me that they are trying to ramp up their training since they are hiring a lot of new people, some with no RF background whatsoever. They have a technical/electronic background, but nothing to do with RF. I guess most have a bit of an IT background. If you are looking for a job, and have some kind of electrical/electronic background, you might consider applying. I didn't get out much while there, mainly because it was pretty hot, and the Bangkok traffic. Besides, I discovered that the Conrad Hilton has an executive lounge that serves an awesome breakfast (buffet), as well as a small lunch and dinner buffet. With food that good, and free to boot, I found it hard to do much in the evenings. The hotel does have 5 nice restaurants that serve excellent food. I found I didn't like going to the Bar/ Lounge on the first floor though. The music was incredibly loud, and the band's drummer seemed to think that he was the most important member of the group, not the singer. He was very loud, at times drowning out the singer's voice. I just couldn't deal with that. I did get out on the weekend, and that was a mistake I'm afraid. I bought a few small items, and at one of the stalls my debit card was compromised. I woke Sunday morning with a text from my bank about a Fraud Alert. And again on Wednesday. The bank locked my card so it couldn't be used, I didn't even lose a penny as a result of this. It also meant I couldn't use the card myself though. I didn't mind, I'd rather have my money safe than compromised. On Monday I went to my bank and received a new card. My old card was shredded by the bank. On Friday, my Embassy contact pulled money from his account and gave me 7000 Baht, about $220 American. In exchange, I sent him enough to cover that, plus a little extra, via Paypal. It all worked out.I did snap a lot of photos Sunday, emphasis on Snapped. I'm love taking photos, but I could never be mistaken for being a photographer. I have one below that I posted in a previous entry, and am keeping it here with this entry. I did go out twice to dine, one was dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, the other was a BBQ place that was very good. Plus, when I returned from that Sunday outing, I had dinner at Polo Chicken, Thai style Fried Chicken smothered in Garlic! Yummmmmm.  We won't talk about me discovering I still can't walk on air. A skinned forearm, bruised and sore right leg, and somehow I bruised a rib on my left side. Minor stuff, all healed now. That's it for an update. Til next time, keep on writing, and care for those you love! Jim |
First Working Days In Bangkok Well, Monday arrived and I wasn't quite over the Jet-Lag yet. I was fine really, but not quite ready to deliver classes. Things go on though, there is no can't, there is only do. First though, I had to get an Urgent Work Permit (UWP) to deliver the class. The thing is, I breezed through Customs at the airport, no one would have known if I was working or not. But you know how things are, I do try to follow the letter of the law, so there I was at Chamchuri Square at 8:30 am. Imagine that you're to meet someone you don't know or have ever seen, at a center about the size of any LARGE shopping center. You're supposed to go to the 18th floor, but there's no obvious way to get there You can't ask for help easily because very few speak people English. Yeah, that was me Monday morning. Somehow I found my way to the 18th floor. I happened to wear one of my Motorola Training Polo Shirts, and as I was leaving the elevator a young lady saw me and took me in tow. Of course she was my contact person and recognized me because of the shirt I was wearing. How fortuitous that was! I handed her my required documents, thirty minutes later I had the UWP. I managed to the US Embassy (my customer this week), and arrived in the classroom about 10:45. The Motorola Sales person was there, and he spent a good 20-30 minutes talking the students before I could begin. I saw what time it was, we promptly went to lunch.  After that it was a pretty normal day of class delivery for me. As I mentioned, the US Embassy in Bangkok is my customer this week, my students are all employees of the Embassy. They are not necessarily from Bangkok though. Three of them are, three are from Washington DC, the others are from Dhaka Bangladesh, New Delhi India, Frankfurt Germany, Manila Philippines, and Kathmandu Nepal. Thankfully all of them are speak English. It would be a long, trying class is they didn't speak English. Class is fine, everything is good in that regard. I'm staying at the Conrad, a Hilton hotel. Why such a 'fancy' place? Because I was here in 2018 and stayed here. It's a quarter mile from the Embassy, so just a short walk. It's a hard walk in some ways, because of the heat and humidity. I'll live, I'm sure of that. Since I am lucky enough to be a Hilton Diamond Member, I have access to the Executive Lounge on the 29th floor. (My room is on the 26th floor). The food there is awesome with a wide variety of options for you for breakfast. It's a buffet and amazingly, completely free! Wow! Breakfast has become my main meal of the day. There are 5 restaurants in the hotel, I won['t leave the property until the weekend. The reason for that is fatigue, traffic, and not really sure where I want to go. Monday night I had dinner outdoors at a restaurant on the 7th floor. I know I'll be back. That's it for an update. Til next time, keep on writing, and care for those you love! Jim |
Meeting Enga I was fortunate enough to be scheduled to come to Bangkok, Thailand for two weeks this month. I was even more fortunate that Kåre Enga in Montana was there also, and we were able to meet. What an interesting day it was, and for several reasons.Liam (as he is known here) is a charming man, one of about my age, though we won’t try to compare ages here. We met at the Hostel he’s staying at and there was an immediate connection! Part of it was our mutual love of all things Writing.com, part of it was the similarity in age. I think another part of it was our inner desire to meet and interact with other people. I’ve never stayed at a hostel, but his hostel is about what I imagined a hostel to be. It has a small lobby where we sat and talked. Guests are not allowed in the rooms, which was fine by me. He described his room though, and frankly, it sounds a little like a barracks I lived in early in my Navy career. I think there are six beds or so to each room, and a couple of bathrooms also. So much like a Navy Barracks from the 70’s, but newer of course. Enga and I sat down to talk about anything and everything. As we started talking, a young man sitting nearby turned around at something Enga said. As it turns out, Timm (the young man) is from Switzerland. The discussion immediately switched to discussion of the dialects the Swiss speak. Timm was surprised that Enga knew of the languages, and could speak them to some extent. I don’t think he’s fluent in any of them, but he knows enough to be polite to people while speaking their language. What a skill to have! I mean, I speak only English, I butcher that all the time, making me very reluctant to butcher another language. It was very interesting as Timm and Enga talked about things. I became a listener then and learned a little about each of them. Liam is far more traveled than I am, I travel for business, he travels for leisure. I loved listening to them talk though. I don’t get to meet a lot of ‘foreigners’ in my travels. When I have traveled internationally, most of my students have been Americans because I work on a US Military base or at an Embassy. The times I have taught a class for the citizens of a country are few and far between. Listening to Liam and Timm talk was very interesting for me. The places the two of them have been! I did manage to have photo’s snapped of us. In this photo you’ll see his hat is pulled down far over his head. He doesn’t want his face to appear on social media at all, I’m honoring that request. I do have permission to post this one.  We went to lunch at a nearby place named Porwa Restaurant. I loved that the name was written in English as well as a local dialect. It wasn’t true Thai, even I could tell that. I couldn’t read a thing of course, it was just nice to be exposed to a written language, even if I couldn’t read it. I’ll leave it to Liam to tell you what we ate. I was a rice dish with cucumber and fried chicken (I think). Liam and I talked a lot during lunch also. I have to say that it was a truly pleasurable day. I’d love to spend more time getting to know him, but he has to return to Udon Thani Monday, while I have to start work then. We’ll meet tomorrow and spend a bit of time talking again, then part ways for a final time. At least for now, because you never know what tomorrow will bring.  Jim Dorrell |
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