How do you get there from here???

This is Mary and I on our flight to Cape Town. Delta started direct service from JFK to Cape Town (via a stopover in Dakar, Senegal at 4:00 AM). The flight is about 18 hours and with the fight to JFK and the layover, its about 26 hours of travel time total. We were unbelievably lucky to be UPGRADED on the flight, though. For those season travellers out there - what are the chances of being upgraded to business class on an international flight when you only have Silver status? The answer is, when the airline oversells the coach cabin by 44 seats - pretty damn good! I, of course, am on the left. Mary is in the middle and our new friend on the flight, Barrie is on the right. Our flight attendant for the JFK to Dakar flight looked suspiciously like my boss - I am not kidding. He agreed to let us take his picture, but he left the plane before we got a chance. It was weird, I tell you.

Mary flew back home this past Friday and I am anxious to hear if she managed to get upgraded for the return flight as well. Keep your fingers crossed.

Alive and...... well, Alive in South Africa

Hey - remember me? It's the long lost blogger. On my last trip home, I was assured by various friends and family that if I started to blog again, they would, in fact, leave comments. So, I am taking you at your word and will invest some of my previous free time to update you on the goings on in Cape Town.

Since my return to the Motherland 2 weeks ago, there have been many hours logged (not blogged!) at work. A good friend and co-worker, Mary, flew back to Cape Town with me as she is our corporate trainer and was coming down to the train the future users and administrators of the application we have been building and configuring for the last 5 months. It was Mary's first trip to Africa and I *think* she enjoyed it. When she wasn't working 12 hours days or preparing to work 12-hour days, that is! We did manage to squeeze in some fun times - she got to see the famous jackass penguins (pictures to follow) and we spent our one free weekend at a private game reserve about 2 hours outisde of Cape Town and got to see some amazing animals (again, pictures to follow). She kept a list of all the *crazy* things she observed in South Africa - she has promised to send me a copy. I'll be sure to share it with you.

Our project goes live on August 20th, so the countdown has begun. I fly home in less than 6 weeks.

Words to Live By

Every day may not be good, but there's something good in every day.
— Anonymous

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. Sorry I am not there to spend the day with you, but I am sending you these "virtual" flowers!

And to all the other Moms in my circle of friends - Happy Mother's Day to you as well. Kathy, Jane, Sherry, Melissa, Cheryl, Collen, Muffin, Debbie, Anne, Ann, Amy, Joanie, Kelly, Kim, Anita, Elise, Candi, Stephanie and Holly.... I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Black Out

Have I mentioned the power issues in South Africa??? Evidently, the greater Cape Town area (I am not sure exactly how widespread an issue this is in South Africa, but I am willing to bet it is huge) - outgrew its power grid in 2006. Mind you, they were warned that this would happen in 1998. But it seems someone thought they knew better. Uh huh.

As I sit here, in downtown Cape Town, I am typing in total and complete darkness - my only source of light is the screen of my laptop. I can hear the rather loud hum of generators outside my slider (remember the picture from last night? well, picture all that with no city lights).

Since we got here in February, we have become rather used to the scheduled, rolling blackouts at the office (usually on Thursdays), but they last for a minute or 2 and power is restored. Generally, the power will cut out 3-4 times and then you are safe for another week.

This is my second black out in my apartment in Cape Town. The first one was not so fun and I will simply tell you that the security guards at my building are quite nice and they seem to know me now as I was locked out of my apartment with no way to get in without power (security doors and elevators do not work without power - hmmmm - someone should have thought of that!). That power outage lasted at least 4 hours and came back on sometime in the night.

Since I can barely see the keyboard, I guess I will have to stop working for this evening. Darn.


PS - I think I am going to invest in a rather large flashlight tomorrow. Do you think that is a reimbursable business expense? Sue?????

Pictures, pictures, pictures

I finally remembered to take a picture of the really cool vase I bought down here and promised a few people pictures of. Low and behold when I downloaded the picture to my laptop, along with it came a ton of pictures I had forgotten all about. Not sure why some of these have not downloaded before now, but here comes a virtual smorgasbord of pictures - in no particular order!







Here is the long awaited vase picture - isn't it cool???













This is the view from the slider in my living room at night. Sometimes I can see the port of Cape Town in between the 2 buildings on the left.







Here is a sample of some of the shells and sea glass I have found in Africa. Dan is convinced I don't leave an intact shell on any beach we stop at and he may be right. I brought a gallon-size Ziploc bag FULL of shells and sea glass when we came home a few weeks ago.









This signpost is in the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. As you can see, we are 12421 km from home. That means we are 7718.052 miles (approximately) from home. Somehow, the flight seems much longer!






The grow things BIG down here. This is a picture of a cricket - at least, they TELL me it's a cricket. I have my doubts. Now that it is cooler, I have not seen as many of these ugly things, but let me tell you - they are *everywhere* at Sh*prite. And on Monday mornings, it's the worst - I swear they manage to get inside the buildings just so they can commit suicide. Ick.








There is a display of statues on the V&A Waterfront called Nobel Square - Dan wanted his picture taken with Desmond Tutu.

Time Flies...

when you are having fun or just when the time at home is too short and fleeting. It seems hard to believe that my 2-week visit home is over - there are still people I have not seen or had a chance to even call. There are still a few hours left, though, so I will be trying to squeeze in as much as possible. Of course, that is in between some lingering work tasks I still have to complete, shopping for supplies to bring back to Africa, some personal business that still needs to be attended to (maybe the tax return I still have to file?). All that and I seem to have acquired a nice chest cold. That should be *really* fun during 18+ hours of flight time.

I am charging up the batteries for my camera, though. Boston to Cape Town via Amsterdam. I hear Matt Lauer was in Amsterdam earlier this week on his "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?" series. I was also informed that the tulips are still in bloom - maybe I can ship some back to Natick? Then I just need to make sure I am *home* next spring to enjoy them!

Dorothy knew what she was talking about...

There is NO place like home. I think I may have said that once before, when my project assignment was in Manchester. Well, its true and I will say it every time. As much as I enjoy seeing other parts of the world, there is nothing like coming home after a long trip. And I am blessed to have good friends and family who make that home-coming even more special, like: Mom and Dad, who stopped by my house and left me bagels, cream cheese, milk, OJ and Cheez-Its! Bill, Cheryl and Erin who stopped by and left me blueberry muffins, cheese & crackers, cookies, more milk & OJ and some beautiful tulips. Kathy - who in addition to bringing in all my mail for the past 2 months, left me a 12-pack of Coke Zero (they don't have that in Africa yet) and a huge Easter basket of treats since I missed Easter at home this year. It seems my friends are also well-aware of the general emptiness of my refrigerator! LOL. It was wonderful to wake up at 5:00 in the morning and actually have food to eat without having to run out to the store and it made me smile to think of the wonderful people who made that possible.

Quote of the Day

Real Simple magazine sends me a "quote of the day." This is one of my faves:

Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time,' is like saying, 'I don't want to.'
— Lao-Tzu

Easter Sunday - Afternoon

When I returned from tree-surfing, Dan appeared to be feeling better, so we made reservations to go sailing on a harbor cruise. Shortly after we left the dock, Dan decided his stomach was not as well rested as he thought it was, so he pretty much stayed in one place. As for me, learning to sail is on my list of things to do in life and it has been years since I have been on a sailboat. So needless to say, I think I had more fun than Dan did on Easter, but he was a good sport about it. Here are some pictures:



I can't resist adding another picture of Dan with a drink in his hand, but actually the drink was mine and he was just holding it for me. Really.




The water was a bit choppy, so the captain determined it was not safe to make it through the 300m wide inlet and head out to the open ocean, so we spent our time cruising back and forth through the harbor. However, that also gave some of us the opportunity to take the wheel.....



That's the captain on the right and the first mate on the left. They don't look too concerned, so I figure I must have been doing an OK job.



It was a beautiful afternoon for a sail, and I only wish Dan had been feeling better.

The Map of Africa

OK - going back to Easter weekend, Dan and I took advantage of the long weekend by heading to Knysna (pronounced NY-sna), which is east of Cape Town and near the border of the Eastern Cape Province. One of the folks at our client was nice enough to give us an itinerary of things to do and places to stop along the way. We stopped for lunch in a town called Wilderness and also made a stop at the local beach where I picked up a ton of oyster shells. We also saw a sign for something called the "Map of Africa," so we took off to see what this was.

After driving up a rather steep mountain and down a dirt road, we were about to turn back after the next bend in the road when we actually arrived at the mysterious destination. The "Map of Africa" is actually a look-out point - and when you look down, you see that Mother Nature has actually carved out with land and water the outline of the continent of Africa! I am sure that the picture does not actually do this justice, but here you go:



Can you kind of see it??? If not, you'll just have to trust me - it was pretty cool.

It's BACK!

I have NO idea where it went or why, but suddenly the "magic" toolbar is back. Just when I was going to make a quick post and go to bed. Well, now I have to upload all these pictures I have been promising. Well, here goes:






The long-awaited baboon pictures! This was quite a few weeks ago, when Dan and I ventured down to Cape Point. It was also my first day at driving on the left-hand side of the road, so these pictures were taken by Dan. Can you see the baby on the back of one of them?




OK, I am pretty sure Dan used the zoom on this one, as I don't remember the baboons getting quite that close. The glare on the photo is due to the fact that we were dafe in the car, with the windows rolled up!




There was about 6 baboons in this group, just hanging out by the side of the road, or on the road itself. Needless to say, they stopped traffic, but we had a great view.

Technical Difficulties

If you are wondering why there have been no posts lately, well, there are 2 reasons. One - Dan and I have spent the past 2 weekends working, so there has been nothing fun to take pictures of or blog about. We are preparing for our conference room pilot, so its been all work and no play. Please wish us luck this week. Two - even when I have found a few spare moments to compose a blog entry and post a few pics from previous "fun" weekends (I know I promised you baboon pictures and I know you are all still wondering what we did on Easter afternoon - I hope its not been keeping you awake at night), Blogger has seemingly "dropped" the toolbar that allows me to attach pictures. I am stumped. Can't find the darn thing. I thought maybe this was an IE error, so I tried logging inwith Firefox. No go. So, if you want to see more pictures, someone is going to have to help me troubleshoot this. I know quite a few techies are *supposedly* reading the blog (although NO ONE seems to be commenting - ah hem). If you have any insights into my Blogger issue, we can resume the pictures from CPT. Rest assured, Dan and I will NOT be working next weekend. Nope - NOT AT ALL. So, there should be some good pictures to post.... if only Blogger would cooperate with me. Sometimes, I just hate technology! LOL. :-)

PS - this same "missing" toolbar also contains the spell check. So, please ignore any mis-spellings.

Easter Sunday - Morning

There are many pictures from our weekend in Knysna, however, most of them are on Dan's camera and I need to download them to my laptop so I can post them. However, there are one set of pictures that never made it to Dan's camera, so I will share them with you now.

One of the "suggested" activities we were given for this weekend was a visit to the "Tsitikamma Canopy Tours." Tsitikamma is one of the national forests east of Knysna and is technically in the Eastern Cape Province. You need a reservation, and the only booking we could get was for Sunday morning at 10:00. Dan woke up feeling rather sick to his stomach, so we agreed this was not an appropriate excursion, given his condition. You will see why shortly. So, I headed out on my own as it was an hour's plus drive from our hotel. Dan went back to bed. :-)

So, what is a "Canopy Tour?" It is the opportunity to see one of South Africa's indigenous forests - from the top down. Suspended from a series of cables, you cross from one platform to another - 10 "slides" in all. I would like to say that you gain an appreciation for the trees and vegetation on the forest floor, but it truly goes by too fast. I was more concerned with braking in time so I did not crash into the next platform.

Here are some pictures....



Suiting up....

















Yes Mom, I wore a helmet!










Suited up and ready to go.














Yeah, well - we kept going.







You could call this "tree surfing"









A safe landing!







Stay tuned for more pics - including "Easter Sunday - Evening"

Holy Week

OK, I know the blog has been a little light this week. But, a) long hours of work have prevailed and b) the batteries in my camera died.

However, the good news is that South Africa celebrates Good Friday as a national holiday as well as Monday. It is undecided as to whether Monday is actually "Easter Monday" or "Family Day," but I am not going to argue with a 4-day weekend. Unfortunately, I was not able to schedule a trip to Victoria Falls as by the time I realized the 4-day weekend was fast approaching, there were NO accommodations left at The Falls. Plan B - a trip up the eastern coast of South Africa, also referred to as "The Garden Route." It is supposed to be a beautiful route and we have made reservations at a nice Inn that I have been told can be a "base of operations" for sightseeing around the area. Among the activities I've been told not to miss is the "tree-top tours" where you actually fly between really large trees suspended to a cable. I saw pictures and it doesn't look nearly as dangerous as I just made it sound. Never the less, I will be sure to take pictures. Right - camera batteries are dead. I will suck it up this time and buy a set of batteries. Mom and Dad are mailing me a CARE package, and it contains the battery charger. However, it probably won't be here before tomorrow. Oh, well.

I will miss the celebration of Easter at home this year, but I will be thinking of friends and family, to be sure. I am lucky that I will not be alone, but have my new friend Dan with me to enjoy the sights in Knyzna(he doesn't know it, but I gave the Easter Bunny a heads up as to his location this weekend. LOL). My niece asked me on the way to the airport when I was leaving Cape Town what I had given up for Lent this year. I told her that I had given up my home for the next 6 months and I thought that was sacrifice enough this year. She agreed.

Happy Easter, everyone!

68% Peaceful

My good friend Jane finds these really cool surveys online and posts them on her blog: buildingtheark.blogspot.com This survey was to determine how peaceful you are. Since it's Friday night (or Saturday morning, depending on your time zone) I figured my "peaceful" outlook was pretty good since I have 2 days of rest ahead of me. Now if I had taken the survey earlier today, I am not so sure I would have scored even this high. LOL

You Are 68% Peaceful

You are a very peaceful person. All is good in your world, no matter what's going on. Occasionally you let your problems get to you, but you generally remain upbeat. Your inner strength is inspirational - much more so than you may realize.

How Peaceful Are You?

Spa Services

Another great thing about South Africa - even the prices of spa services are cheaper than at home! A 1.5 hour basic facial is R250 - depending on what exchange rate you use, that is about $35. A full 1 hour manicure is $15 (a pedicure would be about $17). Guess what I am doing this weekend???? I am also thinking that I will treat myself to a manicure every week while I am here. :-) Its not a safari, but it makes me happy.

Kaapstad

Another thing we have noticed in South Africa is that the highway signs do not include directional indicators (that is, north/south/east/west). Rather, they use the names of cities as an indication as to what direction you are headed in; e.g., this way towards Cape Town, this way towards Paarl. That's all well and good if you know the area. For temporary residents like ourselves, it means we go nowhere without a map and even then we sometimes get confused. So it should come as no surprise to me when I was informed the other day by the project manager at our client when I told her that those directional indicators would *really* help me out, that in SA, they make it even harder by randomly switching the language of the signs between English and Afrikaans. "Really?" I said? Uh huh. As it turns out, Kaapstad is Afrikaans for Cape Town. Now see, Dan and I just thought that was another town that was not on our map. No wonder we were confused.

Kalk Bay Improvement Association

There is an effort, it seems, to generate jobs across South Africa to combat the astronomical unemployment rate. Not long after we arrived in Cape Town, we noticed that there are "security" guards in most of the parking lots of area shopping centers. These folks actually direct you to open parking spaces (wouldn't that be just *great* at home during the Christmas season? No more stalking people in the parking lots????). As it turns out, many of them expect a tip. As we were leaving the parking lot behind the resturant we ate at Saturday night, the "guard" stopped us and "asked" for a donation to the Kalk Bay Improvement Fund. We gave him some Rand coin (about R5 --> less than $1) and he was happy. I can live with that.

Driving on the wrong side of the road.....

I need to download some pictures, but I figured I would update you on the happenings of the past few days.....

Work is, of course, busy. But, it turns out, the client celebrates the end of each work week with a braai in the courtyard of the offices, complete with beverages and their award-winning sausages. We missed our first braai last week, but we managed to drag ourselves out of the office Friday afternoon to join our new friends for the festivities and made a few new friends to boot. We might make this a weekly event. In fact, I think the IT department has responsibility for serving in a few weeks, so Dan and I have already volunteered to help. As long as no one tries to order in Afrikaans, we should be OK. Or, they will just get what we serve them. LOL.

Saturday, I decided to try driving in Africa for the first time. Since we got here, Dan has pretty much been the designated driver, but I figured that was not really fair. That, and the fact that he is taking off next weekend with some friends that are coming into town and if I do not want to be stranded, I better figure out how to drive on the wrong, I mean *left* side of the road. It went pretty well, actually, especially when you consider that a) I have not driven a standard transmission in several years, b) they drive on the wrong, I mean LEFT, and c) you also sit on the *right* side of the car and shift with your *left* hand. It took me about an hour to figure out the friction point in our little VW, but I think I have that down straight. The bigger issue is that my hand seems to want to pull to the right and I keep shifting from 1st to 4th instead of into 2nd! I am working on it and I am happy to say I have recovered quickly and there have been no stalls or near death experiences.

So on our driving tour on Saturday we went back to Chapman's Peak and, since Dan was the passenger this time, he could really enjoy the beautiful views. We also drove down to Cape Point, which is one of the most southern points in Africa. On the drive into the National Park, we came across a group of baboons right next to the road. Since I was driving, the pics are all on Dan's camera, so I will get them and post them later this week. We took a tram up to the top of the mountain and then climbed the rest of the way up where there is a pretty cool lighthouse. The wind could just about knock you over. But the views were great - again, more pictures later in the week.

We are hoping to finally secure long-term accommodations this week, so we will let you know how that goes. So far, we have been pleasantly surprised by the inexpensive cost of food here. It is only marred by some strange shortages of key food items. At the top of the list is Diet Coke (referred to in SA as Coke Light). There seems to be some issue with CO2 supplies and as a result, the local stores are literally OUT of Coke Light. I am seriously hoping this is resolved soon, or I may be asking for care packages. Perhaps the local bottling company could benefit from the services of a fabulous supply chain management software? The other odd shortage seems to be whenever we order a dish with tuna - two separate places over the past week have been out of tuna. Not sure what the story is there.

Lastly (and then I am going to bed), there seems to be some concern that my buddy Dan is doing nothing but drinking down here. Here is the reply I sent in response to one such pointed question earlier this week:

"Rest assured that I am trying to keep up with Dan as best I can, but since I am (strategically) behind the camera (and it’s *my* blog), the incriminating pictures will pretty much only reflect my drinking buddies. However, we are taking the “work hard, play hard” ethic very seriously. We only drink after we have billed 40 hours for the week (whether that occurs on Wednesday night or Friday night will be up for review)."

Since we have to start over on our 40-hour cycle bright and early tomorrow morning, I will say good night. Check in later in the week from some more pics.

I need a replacement.....

Many of my blog readers know that I am a regular platelet donor at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Because of my extended assignment in Africa and the potential that my extra-curricular travels may take me into a malaria zone while I am here, I will most likely be not be able to donate for the next year and half (you are automatically deferred for one year after you have left a malaria zone). This is difficult for me, as donating at the Farber has become part of my routine over the years and the staff at the Farber have become my friends (I promised I would at least stop by when I get back!). I am hoping that I can convince some readers to consider donating platelets - if the Dana Farber is not convenient for you, there are many blood donation centers around the world that collect this live-saving blood product.

I suppose I should tell you why this is so important. I am going to plagiarize the brochure from the Dana Farber here, but I am pretty sure they won't mind:

Platelets are the clotting agents of the blood, which help to control bleeding. Cancer patients, trauma victims, and transplant recipients are only a few of the many patients who may require platelet transfusions. At the Dana Farber alone, they transfuse more than 8,000 units of platelets a year. And that number is not decreasing....

The only source of platelets is a healthy donor - there is NO substitute. Because platelets only have a shelf life of 5 days from the time they are collected to when there are transfused, there is a constant need for donors.

Platelets are collected via procedure called apheresis. Basically that means they draw the blood from your arm, spin it through a centrifuge to spin off and collect the platelets and then they return the red blood cells back to you. It's actually a pretty cool process and takes about 90 minutes. You get set up in a comfy bed with lots of blankets and you can pick out a movie to watch on your own screen. Then they give you a snack and a drink and you're on your way. Because your reb blood cells are returned to you, you can actually donate platelets as often as every 2 weeks, whereas there is 56-day waiting period to donate whole blood.

I started donating platelets when I was in my early 20s and wanted to make a donation to many of the worthwhile organizations in the Boston area. I could not afford, financially, to contribute as much as I wanted to, so I figured I could always donate my blood. Over they years, I have come to realize that there is no greater donation than giving of yourself (literally!)and there are so many people who will benefit. What requires only a couple hours of my time will directly impact the health of several people within the next 5 days. Medical research and technology has delivered tremendous achievements over the years, but they cannot reproduce blood products. They rely on the human donors to meet this need.

I hope some of you will consider this worthwhile experience. If you have questions about the process, I would be happy to give you my perspective. Better yet - call the Kraft Family Blood Donor Center at the Dana Farber and they will answer any questions you have. Their number is: (617) 732-6620 or you can email them at: blooddonor@partners.org - and tell them I said Hi.

Penguins

I know Mary has been waiting to hear about the penguins. Well, we found 'em! There is an area near Simon's Town called Boulders where 2300 South African jackass penguins live in a protected colony. I wish I had taken a picture of the sign that is posted as you are leaving the reads, "Please check under your cars for penguins." Yikes! We saw that sign a little too late, but I don't think there were any casualties. They are just the cutest things and they look at you and tilt their heads as though you are having a conversation. Adorable.

Chapman's Peak

There is a stretch of road just south of Cape Town that basically "hugs" the coastline. It's actually a toll road (about $3), but the fare is most definitely worth the views. As the designated driver, Dan did a great job navigating the curves, but once I start driving down here (nope, haven't tried that yet), we should go back so Dan can get the full effect. There are several places you can turn off and take pictures or have a picnic. Here are a few of the pictures of this amazing view.

Team Dinner

Thursday night, Tr@deStone hosted a dinner for the core members of our new project team. At their recommendation, we went to a venue called Moyo at the Spier wine estate in Stellenbosch. According to my guide book, "Moyo is about much more tha a meal; it's a Cafe African culture experience. Food is served as a delicious buffet, while indigenous dancers and musicians entertain with traditional drumming." That pretty much sums it up, except that the experience is much more FUN! At one point, I turned to Dan and said, "I feel like I am in the middle of 'The Lion King'" and sure enough, the singer started singing, "The lion sleeps tonight." I can't make this stuff up. There are so many great pictures from that night, but here are a few:




One of the traditional African dances they performed.




This lady had a great voice and sang songs in English and other African languages (don't even bother asking me which ones!).




Everyone has their face painted when they arrive - this is one of our team members at the client, Willem. The resturant even drapes a blanket across the back of each chair in case you get cold (we were eating under a huge tent).




This is a group picture of *most* of the core project team. Note the face paintings on everyone! It looks like I am wearing the drum, but I am really just standing behind it. :-) From the left, Photy (our project sponsor), Chirag, Lourena (the project manager), Dan, me, Chris (from the logistics team at the client), Jaco (a Tr@deStone partner in SA) and Willem.





These are some ducks that were wandering around the estate and came right up to our table. Dan was trying to decide whether to pet one (he didn't). Willem did, however, and he said it bit him!

Braai

Braai is the South African term for a barbeque. And our hosts at the guest house invited Dan, Chirag and I to join them for a braai Wednesday night this week. Robert and Corrina have been wonderful and I think it is safe to say that all three of us would recommend their guest house to future visitors to the Brackenfell area.... Robert also introduced us to a traditional South African liquor called Amarula. Its a cream liquor made from the marula fruit. It is traditionally served over crused ice with a sprig of fresh mint. It's very, very yummy. We will be bringing some of this home! We had grilled chicken and lamb chops - the lamb was actually raised on Corrina's parents' farm! You all know how much I love a home-cooked meal and this was a wonderful treat.



Robert and Corrina, our hosts





The bottle of Amarula (now empty).



Dan enjoying his Amarula.

Daily Thought

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
— Anais Nin

SPAM

Anyone with an email account these days undoubtably receives alot of what is termed, SPAM mail - that unsolicited mail that gets circulated around the globe. You know what I mean - forward this email to seven of your closest friends and Microsoft will send you a check for $10k or you will have tremendously great luck for the next 5 years, etc, etc, etc. However, once in a while you get an email that makes you stop and think. These are the ones I like. Since this is my blog and I can post whatever I want to :-) I have decided to post the following content of an email I received from my Dad last night. I did not go check the authenticity of these stories at snopes.com because its irrelevant. Whether or not Colin Powell actually said what is claimed below is not the point. The point is that, as Americans, we have a lot to be proud of - regardless of political affiliation. Would Bill Clinton have sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia during the same crisis - absoultely he would. So read on and remember to thank a Veteran today.

Every American should read these Four Great Stories

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was
asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just
an example of empire building' by George Bush.
He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has
sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight
for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever
asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.

You could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then there was a conference in France where a number of
international engineers were tak ing part, including French and American.
During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room saying
'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an
aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he
intended to do, bomb them?' A Boeing engineer stood up and
replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can
treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply
emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three
cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a
day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from
sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use
in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck..
We have eleven such sh ips; how many does France have?'

You could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that
included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French
Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with
a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of
those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped
their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, 'whereas
Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.'
He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these
conferences rather than speaking French?' Without hesitating,
the American Admiral replied 'Maybe it's because the Brits,
Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak
German.'

You could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...

A group of Americans, retired teachers, recently went to France
on a tour. Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in
Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his
passport in his carry on. "You have been to France before,
monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted
that he had been to France previously. "Then you should know enough to
have your passport ready." The American said, "The last time I was
here, I didn't have to show it." "Impossible. Americans always have to
show your passports on arrival in France!" The American senior gave
the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. "Well,
when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in '44 to help liberate this
country, I couldn't find any damn Frenchmen to show it to."

You could have heard a pin drop

Henry Ford's Polar Opposite

So you remember the saying that Henry Ford once told people that they could order his Model T in any color as long as it was black? Well, they seem to have the opposite perspective in South Africa - Dan and I have noticed that about 90% of the cars in the parking lot at our office seem to be white. Now, you *could* assume that this is due to the strong African sun and that white reflects all that sunlight - EXCEPT that the interiors of these cars all seem to be BLACK. Go figure.

Preparations........

Never let it be said that PSO is all work and no play. We spent part of our weekend preparing for the new project. As you can see, Dan was anxious to impress everyone on his first project. With a glass of fabulous South African wine in hand, he was diligently studying the Retail Supply Chain Management textbook he brought with him from the States - on a SATURDAY night, no less. I thinking that is a far cry from what anyone would call fun, but we will have many more weekends to drink wine *without* the textbook! :-)

OK, I lied.

I just noticed that I promised to add more comments and pictures to the blog on Saturday and here it is Monday night and I am going to upload a few pictures and go to bed..... Today was our first day on the new project and I think it went really well. Its a very complex business, but I think there is a lot we can do to add some value here (geez - do I sound like a consultant or what???). Anyway, my brain is pretty fried, so this will be a short post, but there will be more to come, I promise. The highlights so far - we have already ate lunch at 2 of the local wineries, driven down into Cape Town (well, I must be honest - Dan is doing all of the driving, and so far he's only almost gotten us killed once), I put my feet in the Atlantic Ocean (it was *way* colder than the Cape Cod - I swear!)and stopped at a roadside bazaar/crafts market (I bought a gorgeous seashell and have my eye on some other items to bring home). The scenery is just as gorgeous as you hear about - the coastline is just amazing. The wierdest thing so far is to keep reminding myself that it's summer down here and winter at home. Here are a few pictures from the past few days - keep in mind we did quite a bit of sleeping this weekend, so the weekends to follow will have more stories and pictures, I'm sure.



This is a picture of Dan, Chirag and our teammate, Hashaam, who lives in London and did us the tremendous favor of picking us up at Heathrow and taking us out for lunch at a true English pub.



The Hind Head Pub in Bray, England



Gorgeous Camps Bay Beach where the water is freeeeeeezing!


More pictures later - this internet connection is so slow it is taking forever to upload pictures......

Are we there yet?????

No, really - are we there YET? Well, if I am blogging, I must be somewhere with an internet connection. We landed, safe and sound in Cape Town this morning. It was a long, long, trip; I will blog more details and post some pictures tomorrow. But for those that have been wondering and praying for our safe travels, we are at the guesthouse in Brekenfell. We are meeting for breakfast in the morning, working for a few hours and then meeting a business associate for lunch. Hopefully we will do some sightseeting in the afternoon.

24 hours.... and counting!

So, in less than 24 hours I will be on the plane headed to London. Am I packed? Nope. Will I be? Sure. I figure I will just keep running on adrenaline until I get to the airport. At that point, whatever did not get done at home will just have to wait. I changed the blog template this evening - this one is called, "Harbor." I thought it was appropriate. I also thought I would post a quote I have been holding on to for a while now - I think it is just as appropriate.

"Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging becuase things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better."

-- King Whitney, Jr.

Ironically enough, this quote was left on my pillow at the Annaheim Marriot a few months back. It was the first and only time I received a quote instead of the standard pillow chocolate. But since I never really ate the chocolate anyway, I figure this was a great substitute. :-)

Here's to challenges! The next post will probably be over the weekend, but perhaps I will have a picture or 2 from our layover in London.

Transitions - Quiksilver

I started this blog to document my travels for work - specifically when those travels took me to Manchester, England earlier this year. When I left Manchester in July, I was assigned to a project in Huntington Beach, California working for Quiksilver. Quik started selling boardshorts to the local surfing community back in the '70s and has transitioned into a multi-billion dollar company specializing in sportswear for men, women and children. There are not many pictures to share from this project as I flew home every week (which should also explain the lapse of blog entries over the past 6 months - I have been in a near-constant state of jet lag). But I would be remiss if I did not include a least a few pictures. So, here you go.

I was really lucky to have two great Tr@deStone team members on the project with me - Alicia and Kevin. And they must be represented in the blogosphere! I will miss working with them - I spent more time with them then anyone else in the past 6 months! We had a running joke at Quik that we were "in the closet."

Let me explain - as most consultants will agree, we (consultants in general) are not exactly given top of the line accomodations at client sites. Since we are transitional "employees," there are not generally offices or even cubicles available to us. We work where there is space. As long as we have a table, a chair and an internet connection, we are good to go. Phones are sometimes optional. That's one of the many reasons we have cell phones. :-) At Quik, we were assigned workspace in the "Sportswear Closet" (that's what the phone said as our caller ID whenever we called anyone). Basically, it was the sample room. We were surround by next year's collection of boardshorts, ski jackets, shirts and pants (and some of them are really cool - you'll see). Near the end of the project, Quik needed to relocate us to another workspace, so our joke then became that we "came out of the closet." I don't have any pictures of the closet, but here are some others.

Alicia hard at work in our "new" workspace








Kevin in front of one of the many great surfing posters that can be found all over the offices








This was the poster I looked at from my desk in the new workspace - pretty much looked at this model's behind! LOL









Sunset on Sunset Beach - Alicia and her boyfriend Sam hosted a roll-off barbeque for Kevin and I. I was able to take off my shoes and walk on the beach in February and I even picked up a few shells to bring home.