Bill

It has been just over a year since I returned home from Hong Kong so it should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me that I am anxious to hit the road on another cool trip. The question, this time is, where to? Well, fortunately for me, once again, I don't have to decide. Nor do I have to pay. My company is sending me on another international trip; this time to London, to help improve our current business relationship with the customer.

When I was very small (2-5 years old) my family lived in England but, obviously, there isn't a lot I remember about my time there. I also doubt, even if I remember specific locations, that I'd get much of a chance to revisit them. Unlike my Hong Kong trip there are four of us going on this one which, I think, will make the trip much more enjoyable. We will be there from the 4th-11th of October and will be working full days 6-10. Thus we will have the 4, 5, and each night to experience what London has to offer. I think I can safely speak for all of us in saying we're pretty excited about the opportunity.

So far I haven't gotten much advice on things to see, places to go, or food to eat while there so if you have been (or currently live in London) and you have some advice please share! I am meeting up with one guy - a fellow software developer - to deliver a carton of cigarettes but beyond that we have no set plans at all.

Just like with the Hong Kong trip I will be taking plenty of photos and posting them as soon as I get back.

#Work #MyLife #Travel

The ski trip we took was great but it really messed up my P90X flow. I'm not blaming anything but myself for it but day 8 was the last day I did any P90X. This will be changed as of tonight thanks to a casual inquiry from my brother Ted. While I don't blame anyone but myself I figure I should at least explain myself a little.

I had fully planned on doing some of the P90X stuff while on the ski trip (particularly the arms/shoulders/back/and abs) but I was just too tired at the end of each day of skiing to really get fired up for it. The cabin actually had enough room for me to get in my own spot and do the exercises but I just didn't do it. Then, on the last day of skiing I strained my right shoulder some while helping Shannon learn to ski. It was really stiff and sore so I decided to take a few days off from the workouts to let it recover; sadly, however, those few days turned into a week.

I was actually going to start back up last night and thus shifting my chest and shoulders day to Mondays from Tuesdays but I ended up being a work until well after 10pm the last two nights (yes, on Sunday) so when I got home last night I went to bed. However, on Sunday while driving home from work I did get an unexpected leg workout. A guy's car had run out of gas on the main street I was on - it was around midnight but there was still quite a bit of traffic so I parked nearby and helped him push his car out of the way. There was a gas station about one block away so I suggested we just push it there. It turns out the road we had to push it up was a steeper incline than I realized. By the time we got the car up there my legs were like Jello, my breathing was stupid heavy, and I was dead tired. I stopped leaning on the car and was instantly dizzy. I really over-exerted myself pushing that damn car. I walked back to my car and by then the cold had settled in my lungs and I couldn't stop coughing. It was really uncomfortable. I actually had a cough through most of Monday. It is gone now though and my shoulder feels pretty good so I plan on starting back at "week 2" all over again since I have basically been off for 2 weeks. Expect an update tonight.

#workouts #exercise #P90X #skiing

Yesterday was a rough day for me in Hong Kong. To start with I woke up very tired. I think the prior 15.1 hour work day may have taken it's toll on me. However, I got up and did my normal morning routine and, if I do say so myself, was looking really good in this new shirt we bought in NY, and then headed out. It was my first day where I was going to get to the office after 8 - I got here at about 8:10 but I was the third person here. At about 9:30 I was feeling pretty hungry so I headed across the street to Starbucks to buy a scone and a hot cocoa. This was my first mistake of the day.

The Hot Cocoa must have been loaded with sugar because my body almost instantly became unhappy. My stomach was cramping up and, just what I didn't need in hot and humid Hong Kong - I started to sweat. Sure, you may be thinking why did I order a hot drink in hot Hong Kong - well chocolate sounded good and I'm a sucker for chocolate sometimes. Anyway I just soldiered on and ignored my bodies complaints until lunch time. I figured I could get something solid to eat and everything would be fine. I asked my local manger for a recommended place for lunch and he suggested a joint called "Cosmos" - some kind of "healthy food" place. They have these take out "box" lunches that are sitting in a fridge and that they will heat up for you. I picked a chicken and brown rice combo and was lured in by the big menu board behind the cashier hawking their smoothies. I really like smoothies so I ordered the 4-fruit smooth; strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and banana. Mistake number 2!

My stomach was in fits at this point so I decided to head into a little pharmacy that sat between my building and Cosmos to get some [[loperamide]]. Now, cosmos gives you a really nice bag for "take away" orders. Its got a cardboard bottom and nice rope handle. Inside there rested my box lunch (in a cardboard box) and my drink in a plastic cup with a plastic bubble lid that was sealed shut. The cup was actually in a cardboard thing-a-ma-jig that helped keep it from falling over in the bag - a pretty nice setup really - except that as I entered the pharmacy the cup fell over in my bag anyway. It only spilled a little - a few drops really before I saved it and stood it back up. Then I just carried the bag at an incline so the cup couldn't fall again. With my immodium in hand I headed back to my desk to eat and treat myself.

The food was pretty good and the smoothie was nice too. I threw the trash away and then addressed my keyboard only to spot, out of the corner of my eye, a big red splotch right in the middle of my new shirt. A shirt I was really admiring earlier in the day because it was cut so much better than the rest of my shirts. Dammit, now it had a big red stain! Some of that spill from when the drink was in my bag had crept down the cup and fallen on my shirt. Too top it off my stomach still felt like crap. So back downstairs I went to the pharmacy in hopes I could find a stain stick. Of course I have both immodium and a stain stick back at my hotel room and the pharmacy didn't have a stain stick. My room is about 30 minutes away and at this point I was feeling so sleepy I thought if I went there I would just go back to bed - not a good option. So, instead I headed upstairs and asked if there was somewhere nearby that might sell a stain stick. My manager sent me down the road to a small grocery store.

Grocery stores here are small - it's part of the nature of the beast that is Hong Kong - space is limited and the only stores that are huge are big name brands like Versaci or something - not grocery stores. So of course the Park and Pack I was in didn't have anything even remotely like a stain stick. However, there was an older French lady shopping there who was kind enough to tell me about a nicer grocery over at the International Finance Center (IFC) called city super. I was there! Except I didn't really know how to get to the IFC - but how hard could it be, it's the tallest building in Hong Kong.

As it turns out it is pretty hard. You can't see the tallest building through all of the other tall but not tallest buildings. However, I'd been there twice - both times while I was working so all I had to do was backtrack to my office and follow the path we had taken the on the prior two trips. Good idea in theory but in practice I had to have actually paid attention to the path we had taken on those two trips. The thing is I have been in constant catch-up mode in learning about all the technologies I have to work with since I got here - and on the trips over to the IFC I've been talking to the other team members about various topics - focusing on their answers and not on the path we took. So, basically, I had no idea how to get to the IFC.

That didn't stop me from trying though. A neat feature of Hong Kong is, because it is so hot, humid and rainy, you can get from one part of the central area to another without ever going outside. That is basically how we had gotten to the IFC before. You enter one building and then just cross over streets into others via overpasses. I had a basic idea of how our trip to the IFC started but before long I was in a huge square building with a one or two major entry points at each corner. I was pretty sure I didn't have to go to a different floor but I had no idea which cardinal direction to travel in let alone which of the exits at each corner I should take so I just started going down each to see if any felt familiar. The problem was none of them did. Finally, some Australian guy walked by and I asked him where to go to get to the IFC. At that point I was in the exact opposite corner from where I needed to be. He told me to just follow the signs to the "Airport Express" and I couldn't miss the IFC and sure enough he was right. About ten minutes later I was at the entrance to the IFC.

The first two floors of the IFC are a big mall full of fancy name brand clothes and shoes. Name brands here aren't "Levi's" or "Nike" they are "Prada" and "Tiffany". Somewhere in this mix was the City Super that, hopefully, had my stain stick. The floor layout is sort of circular so I just picked a direction and started walking - of course, from my entry point I picked the "wrong" direction as I had to walk nearly 3/4 of the circle before I reached the store. Not to be anti-climatic or anything but they did have a Tide to Go pen which took the stain out of my shirt without a problem.

Now all I had to do was find my way back. Not a big deal until I got back to the square that caused me all of the problems in the first place. By this point my stomach was in agony and I had no idea which way to go. However, I knew I was in the Central part of Hong Kong so I just headed to the Central Building and sure enough it got me close enough where I could find my way and I started to recognize parts of the hallways as somewhere I had been before that day. Eventually I made it back to the office. However I only stayed until 6:30 because I wanted to do 2 things that night; 1. go back to the IFC and make sure I could complete the trip without difficulty because that is where the traders for my Client work and where I may have to go by myself for work at some point and 2. Eat an early dinner and get some sleep.

The IFC trip at this point was a no brainer. So I completed it and then headed up the escalators to the part of town called "SoHo" for dinner. Most of the restaurants there are European and feature pretty similar meals. I wandered around for a bit looking for one that seemed a little better, saw a Lotus (car) for the first time, before settling on "Boca" because there were more people there and I thought it would be nice to hear voices. However, I had to wait about 15 minutes for a table and then, after I ordered, I found out it would take 30 minutes for them to make my meal - clearly I had picked the wrong place. My meal finally arrived and it was huge - way too much food. So I ate about 1/4 of it and then waited patiently to catch the eye of a waitress so I could get my check. Eventually I did and I left $350HKD (or honkies!) lighter. By the time I made it back to my hotel room it was 10:30. So much for going to bed early.

Fortunately, I slept well and I woke up today feeling much better - both my energy and my stomach.

#HongKong #Work #MyLife #Geekiness #Travel

Yesterday I finished my first official day of work in Hong Kong. It was fairly uneventful and kind of boring. I spent the majority of the day getting my machine setup and configured so that I could actually start working today. However, there were a few things about the day that stood out. First and foremost is how quiet everyone is here. I had thought perhaps I experianced an anomoly on Sunday because it was a weekend but Monday was no different. The full 1million+ people were downtown at lunch time but it was pretty quiet. The office I work in is a microcosm of the greater silence. There are about 40 people here and the loudest sound I hear is the clacking of my keyboard. I enquired with my local project manager and sure enough he said this is pretty typical of working in China. This phenomena was further exemplified by my visit to the trading floor where I met with the lead end user of the software I'm working on. The trading floor was full of traders and all of them were busy working but their was almost no sound. There was no yelling or waving of hands with paper. People were moving around in a hustle - they were all just sitting in their chairs and getting work done. Granted, this wasn't a stock exchange trading floor but the banks private trading floor so that should explain some of it but with that many people on the phone and working you would think there would have been a bit more noise.

I did get to have some good food yesterday which was a nice change of pace. I started off with a pretty good Kebab lunch. There is a little street near here called "Rat Alley" with a bunch of small eateries and right around the corner was this little Kebab place. I had a mixed lamb/chicken kebab - spicy - and it was very tasty. Much better than the "Pita Pit" back home. Once I got off work (after about 13 hours) I was hungry but very tired so I was going to just skip dinner but as I went back up the cities escalators I came across a small section of town called "SoHo" that my PM told me had some good restaurants - I had tried to eat here the night previously but nothing was open when I thought of it. This time I stopped at ate at a little mediterranean join that sat above a bar. I had Paella with Seafood (mussels, shrimp, clams, salmon, and tuna) and it was really really good. I will probably end up eating there again before I leave.

The crazy thing is I still haven't had any good Chinese food. So far the two best meals I have had are greek and spanish. What's up with that? I just need someone to direct me to a good Chinese place.

I need to remember to bring my camera to work beause my view from the office is even better than my view from the hotel. I'll try to post that as soon as possible.

#HongKong #Work #MyLife #Travel

I left on friday morning flying out of the Charleston WV airport at 6:30am. I arrived 50+ minutes later in Chicago at 7:30am Local time. The wait in Chicago was long. My flight left there at 12:30pm which, while waiting for, I upgraded to Economy Plus on my flight. I couldn't upgrade to business class because I didn't have any frequent flyer miles with United. On my flight into Chicago I sat besides a friendly and chatty guy from Wyoming then on my flight from Chicago I sat beside a friendly and chatty guy from Kansas City. The guy from Kansas City travels to Hong Kong about 5 times a year so he gave me a couple tips on how to navigate the airport upon arrival and he told me that I can actually visit a lot more of China than I expected. He then took some sleeping pill and slept for most of the flight. He was kind enough to let me know I can get beer/drinks for free on an international flight - so I had a bit of gin and orange juice with my first lunch which was a "Southern Beef BBQ". We were fed three times on the flight. The first meal (the BBQ) then a snake of chinese noodles (alot like Top Raman) and a cookie, and then a a hot turkey and cheddar sandwich.

The flight was seemingly endless. I slept for about 2 hours after the first meal then watched the following movies "Premonition", "Shrek the Third", and "Next" I also read most of a book, a newspaper, and three magazines. However, eventually we landed in Hong Kong at about 5pm Saturday without incident.

The process getting off was pretty smooth. I found a place to convert my money and get an "octopass" which you can use to ride the public transportation or to buy things at alot of different stores. I then went through customs which involved them stamping my passport and sending me on my way. I had to take my hat off when I went through security and they scanned everyone who walked through with a heat sensor. The terminal was really large - and really empty. It has clearly been built to support far more traffic than I saw coming in. Finally I had to take a small train to the baggage claim area and then I was off to the train to ride to the Hong Kong Island. Once the train arrived at the "Central Station" I had to get a cab. I gave the cabbie my hotel's address (written in Cantonese) and I was off. $24HKD or about 3.25 US later and the Cabbie dropped me off on the wrong side of the street for my hotel (The Bishop Lei International House) so I had to navigate the traffic with my bags. Check-in was uneventful and I am very happy with my room; pleasantly surprised with it's size. I have a small living room with a tv and minibar fridge (which I will use to store some of my own stuff in, a nice, but small, bathroom, and a bedroom that is almost filled by the bed. However, the room feels far larger thanks to the floor to ceiling windows and the great views. After I had gotten all of my clothes unpacked and stowed away I headed to the hotels restaurant for dinner then I came back to my room and went to bed at about 9pm.

Today I woke up around 7am and got ready for the day then I just started to wander around Hong Kong. To be honest the fact that I am here is just starting to sink in. The air stinks and my breakfast was really bad. I think I ate at something like a Hong Kong version of McDonalds. It was very cheap (about $3.50 US) but it wasn't worth that much. The air is not only smelly it is also very humid. The organization of this island is pretty windy and there are a bunch of hills. My hotel is in the "Mid Level" and all of the business stuff is down on the lower part. There are actually covered escalators to help you get between the two but they only travel in one direction and today they were going down. Perhaps in the evening they go back up? I was pretty comfortable walking around in my jeans and shirt but they were too much on the walk back up to the hotel. The hill is pretty steep and I was sweating really heavily by the time I got back. During my walk around I did find a bunch of pubs and other places to eat and I found where I will be working starting tomorrow; so it is nice to have that out of the way. This afternoon I'm going back out and I am going to try and find a grocery or market to buy some water for the room and maybe some bananas. Hopefully my next meal will be better as well.

It rained a bit earlier while I was sitting here and now the sky has really cleared up a lot and my visibility is great. I can see all the way to Kowloon (mainland Hong Kong). Each week I am going to upload photos to a new album on the webpage. Here are the first of this weeks photos.

My Menus So Far

Dinner Last Night

Pan fried Duck with a sauce
Apple Salad
Ox-Tongue Salad
Beer: Tsing Tao

Breakfast today
Scrambled Egg with tomato, corn, and onion (didn't taste right)
Toast (OK)
Chicken and Mushroom Sausage (not good)
Tea (very bad and I like tea)

#HongKong #Work #MyLife #Travel

I have been remiss in getting information on this blog but that is due, in large part, to how incredibly busy I have been the last couple of months. As you may already know our house was hit by lightning and our front tree was knocked down. However, we also took a trip to my mom's house for her commitment ceremony in upstate NY and then we swung by Hershey Park in Pennsylvania on our way home. Once we made it back to the familiar territory I was deluged with work. Our company has never been so busy - and thus - nor have I.

While I can't say much about the work I am doing I can say that I have been very busy. I have been doing some normal annual work for one client, building a totally new product for another, helping finalize and tweak another product for another client, and now I am also learning about a homegrown finance application used by a big banking institution. I have been learning about it in anticipation my going to Hong Kong for about 5 weeks to work directly with the end users in the client's offices there. It is pretty exciting but also a touch stressful. It seems like it is a huge opportunity for both myself and the company so I really want to do the best I can. I'm pretty stoked about going and think it will be both challenging and fun at the same time.

I don't know how often I will blog while I am there but I hope to get one post in each week to kind of sum up what I saw and did. I am hoping I get a little bit of time to be a tourist but I'm not currently planning on having much. I will, however, take as many photos as I can and, as usual, I will share the best with you here.

Once I have a bit more time I will blog more fully about the trip to my Mom's and provide some photos for that as well. Who knows, maybe I will get to at least write the rough draft of that post on the flight to Hong Kong. I'm only going to be in transit for about 20 hours so you never know. I have to read a book and do some work for one of those other clients while on the flight.

#Work #MyLife #Travel

The company I work for, SBCS, has moved from it's old digs to a deluxe apartment in the sky. Well, maybe not penthouse level but a significant step up; particularly for me. In our previous offices I was in a windowless hidden corner that only someone familiar with the building was likely to encounter. Now, I am in a nice large office with a wall of windows that overlook a small plaza in downtown Huntington. I share the office with three co-worker friends; Jason, Ed, and Ryan. The four of us get along very well so we opted for a very open floor plan that reduces personal privacy in order to provide for a much more comfortable work environment.

Jason provided an older sofa that we put in along the middle of the wall of windows (the eastern wall) and then each of us has a corner of the office facing toward the center of the room. Ed in the SE, Jason in the NE, Ryan SW, and I am in the NW. We have a small coffee table in front of the sofa, and along the western wall we have a shared bookshelf, a small "dorm" fridge and a microwave (provided by me). Ed is bringing in an espresso machine and a hot chocolate maker that will sit on top of the microwave. Behind each desk we have one of those "motivational" posters framed in oak.

Beyond the fact that the four of us get along so well our shared habit of not keeping a lot of paperwork makes our layout work very well. We all prefer a non-cluttered desk/workspace and so the shared vision is very clean and open. Kudos to our boss, Mark, for putting the four of us in one room as it made it very easy for each of us to have a pleasant shared work environment. I think the four of us are all pretty excited about the layout.

So far, it seems, everyone in the company really likes our setup. The rest of the offices seem to be more partitioned with each person having their own private workspace. Various visitors have referred to ours as the dorm room and/or bachelor pad. It is very inviting and comfortable. The four of us are very happy with the way it worked out.

We only moved about 3 blocks from the old office but the location is much better. We are very close to Pullman Square (a shopping/dining area), we are directly above Schlotzsky's deli, and just around the corner from the Marshall Hall of Fame Cafe. Our favorite Mexican joint, Rio Grande, is half a block away, and Quizno's is just a block to the east. Overall, the new location is very convenient to all of our normal dining choices whereas we were three blocks further away from everything before and our only really convenient restaurant was Wendy's. I doubt we will visit Wendy's again for quite a while.

#Work