May 24, 2008
It was a crazy week as I got sick with a cold, no doubt the result of going from 100 degrees to 50 in a few hours, but it never really got a serious hold on me and I even felt good enough to go for a run this morning.
Work has been really hectic: This trip was ostensibly for training but as soon as I started to sniff around in the project stuff I shelved that real quick. The short story is that we have a big meeting June 10 with our French customers to decide if they want to go ahead with this project or not. When I'm finished with them they definitely will want to go forward tee hee. I told my boss that we just need to have so much crap that it becomes impossible for them to say no and he just laughed. He is great, very smart.
We need to provide a bunch of information about how we will integrate French into our product and training. Things haven't changed a bit since I showed up in Europe 29 years ago: everything has to be in French even though they speak English, France is best, we are the greatest, and screw everybody else. OK, works for me, that's why they hired me.
We also have to show our backgrounds and plans for how we will support the customer when we go live. The trickiest part is obviously translating our product and disseminating the info to the key French super users using various training tricks and change management skullduggery, which is my specialty.
I have almost prepared the material and will complete tomorrow so we can review Monday.
The other thing that is weird is day breaks at 5 a.m. and so therefore do I! Same thing at night - night doesn't fall until 930, so not exactly early to bed weather. So it has been easy to work longer days and not feel exhausted.
This morning I woke up at the crack, worked for a few hours, then went for a run along the Sea Wall, which winds all around the downtown area in a park-like setting. This is clearly a people-friendly city, everyone walks everywhere just the way I like it. Lots and lots of water and green everywhere you look.
I went shopping and blew $36 in about two seconds flat. Very expensive here, yikes.
Later today I will to "Eat Vancouver", some sort of food festival.
The babes are right off the hook. Wow. Classic situation that you see in every country: There is always a "best place" - most jobs or culture or best weather or all of these. In Canada, it's Vancouver, hands down. There is not too much winter at all, which is the big one for Canadians. For that reason and all the beauty of the city and area, it's a BABE MAGNET.
More on that later.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Grik goes back to Canada eh?
Monday May 19, 2008
Today is a holiday in Canada and tomorrow the start of an 8-day training session for me. Welcome to San Francisco! Well, that's what Vancouver kinda looks like except it drizzles all the time and there are snowy mountains in the background and there is a homeless person every 10 feet. Well, I guess that part is like San Francisco. The main difference is everyone smokes everywhere here. Haha. Nobody smokes in California any more - we all do it in dark corners like the other junkies.
Also, the weather is muggy, I'm not used to it. Not used to the rain either, but it's almost better than that glaring sun that starts this time of year and pounds down on you without a single interruption for 6 months. Almost better, but ask me after a week or so!
I am trying to emulate my normal life as much as possible for these 9 nights, so I went food and wine shopping and will cook my dinner just like I would at home and watch a ballgame or whatever. Maybe not all the time, but I'll give it a go.
No downgrade in lifestyle here kiddies: I'm in a 21st floor 1 bdrm apt. with complete kitchen, balcony, two big plasma TVs, daily maid service, and a complete gym downstairs. Not too shabby. Office is right around the corner, can't beat it. I will take pics and put them in here.
I haven't poked around yet, but I will. The office is right around the corner and so is Robson Street, the main drag with all the shopping and restaurants you could ever want. If you're in Vancouver, this is definitely the place to be.
I have subscribed to mlb.tv for 20 bucks to see if i enjoy watching the games on my PC. Doubt it, but I can watch the Blow Jays quite often.
May 20, 2008
First day at work! It was very exciting, everyone was so nice to me. Wow. My boss was busy when I got there so I went around and introduced myself to the gang.
We had this huge kerfuffle over a possible ONE DAY trip to France. I whined about it, didn't want to create a bad impression, but I thought hmmm, we are setting precedents now, so let's get the rules straight. And here they are for posterity's sake: all trips start and end from Sunnyvale CA - no quick hops to Vancouver and starting from there. Ugh. Each trip to Europe is in economy and 14 hours is too long for this old horse to be sitting around, so each one will be cut off with an overnight on the east coast, then a 7.5 hour shot to Europe. Perfect. Takes 40% of the trip away and 3 time zones. The good news is that my AA miles are all MINE. Yippeee!! The key to the whole shooting match is arriving in the morning on day one in Europe and staying awake the whole day and sleeping at a normal time.
So now it looks like I will be back home a week from Thursday for a week or so, then head off for about 2.5 weeks in Paris. Should be fun and very challenging. I will be resurrecting my French after a bit of a hiatus, but it won't be a problem for very long at all.
All in all a great and busy first day!
Today is a holiday in Canada and tomorrow the start of an 8-day training session for me. Welcome to San Francisco! Well, that's what Vancouver kinda looks like except it drizzles all the time and there are snowy mountains in the background and there is a homeless person every 10 feet. Well, I guess that part is like San Francisco. The main difference is everyone smokes everywhere here. Haha. Nobody smokes in California any more - we all do it in dark corners like the other junkies.
Also, the weather is muggy, I'm not used to it. Not used to the rain either, but it's almost better than that glaring sun that starts this time of year and pounds down on you without a single interruption for 6 months. Almost better, but ask me after a week or so!
I am trying to emulate my normal life as much as possible for these 9 nights, so I went food and wine shopping and will cook my dinner just like I would at home and watch a ballgame or whatever. Maybe not all the time, but I'll give it a go.
No downgrade in lifestyle here kiddies: I'm in a 21st floor 1 bdrm apt. with complete kitchen, balcony, two big plasma TVs, daily maid service, and a complete gym downstairs. Not too shabby. Office is right around the corner, can't beat it. I will take pics and put them in here.
I haven't poked around yet, but I will. The office is right around the corner and so is Robson Street, the main drag with all the shopping and restaurants you could ever want. If you're in Vancouver, this is definitely the place to be.
I have subscribed to mlb.tv for 20 bucks to see if i enjoy watching the games on my PC. Doubt it, but I can watch the Blow Jays quite often.
May 20, 2008
First day at work! It was very exciting, everyone was so nice to me. Wow. My boss was busy when I got there so I went around and introduced myself to the gang.
We had this huge kerfuffle over a possible ONE DAY trip to France. I whined about it, didn't want to create a bad impression, but I thought hmmm, we are setting precedents now, so let's get the rules straight. And here they are for posterity's sake: all trips start and end from Sunnyvale CA - no quick hops to Vancouver and starting from there. Ugh. Each trip to Europe is in economy and 14 hours is too long for this old horse to be sitting around, so each one will be cut off with an overnight on the east coast, then a 7.5 hour shot to Europe. Perfect. Takes 40% of the trip away and 3 time zones. The good news is that my AA miles are all MINE. Yippeee!! The key to the whole shooting match is arriving in the morning on day one in Europe and staying awake the whole day and sleeping at a normal time.
So now it looks like I will be back home a week from Thursday for a week or so, then head off for about 2.5 weeks in Paris. Should be fun and very challenging. I will be resurrecting my French after a bit of a hiatus, but it won't be a problem for very long at all.
All in all a great and busy first day!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
