at the KLM lounge on the way out of Houston. bought some sunnies at the duty free store, the lady there was not so friendly. i'm trying not to take these personally, find that when i get to a new place i'm very inclined to take things personally...til i get into some kind of comfort zone...
on the bright side i then met a very nice girl who loves her job, who works in the KLM lounge...so, what's the answer to being happy?
i'm happy to be heading back to The Hague. Eric and I were booked to head out to Capital Grille last night. A return trip after Eric had the best steak he's ever had there. I must admit to eating more red meat than i have in ages. My vegetarian exploits ended about a year back.
Instead, we ended up at Houston's with a bunch of other folks from the project. some serious workaholics in that group.
I'm sticking to my guns on the quality front...despite my gen y friend Alex's opinions on the consequences of quality...maybe that's part of what makes me happy
i know, a random, ill conceived post...but that's me today :)
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
rockin out in Houston, Texas
after landing in Den Haag and getting relatively settled...off to Houston for a week of training some of the guys over here...this kind of random changes in schedule makes my head spin a bit, and, i'm usually more comfortable with order and routine, but this trip has surely tested my ability to handle pressure, adapt to a new environment...each time those boundaries are tested, i think they're also widened a bit...but then again, who wants their boundaries always tested??? is that some kind of masochistic attempt to distract myself from other areas of my life? sometimes i think the answer is most definitely yes...but...
I landed in Houston and caught a taxi to the hotel...my initial impressiions were of the warm weather, signs for the weekend gun show downtown and the laid back nature of the people here...then again, in most restaurants there are signs warning that unlicensed gun carriers can be punished with 10 years jail and a huge fine...how can such laid back people need guns so much?
the work's been quite good...i feel underprepared, tho that's how i often feel...the combination of not good enough training material and not enough time to prepare make the delivery not quite as good as it should be...not looking for perfection, but i think these folks deserve better...on so many jobs over the past few years, these symptoms have been widespread...maybe that's the next revolution - to quality? i like quality
rocking out? a guy from work and i had been talking about how we like to play a bit of guitar - so, at Best Buy last night we went to the acoustic guitar testing room and jammed a bit...it was the most fun i've had since the DSC in Mysore...funny though, coz the room's virtually soundproof, so there was this South African guy and I (Reuben Aldum), playing along, for as long as we liked while no one could hear us...heaps of fun
couple of days and i'm back on a plane to Den Haag, which I'm really looking forward to...tho, after just reading my mate Bec's blog...don't look too far forward, the good stuff's going on now :)
I landed in Houston and caught a taxi to the hotel...my initial impressiions were of the warm weather, signs for the weekend gun show downtown and the laid back nature of the people here...then again, in most restaurants there are signs warning that unlicensed gun carriers can be punished with 10 years jail and a huge fine...how can such laid back people need guns so much?
the work's been quite good...i feel underprepared, tho that's how i often feel...the combination of not good enough training material and not enough time to prepare make the delivery not quite as good as it should be...not looking for perfection, but i think these folks deserve better...on so many jobs over the past few years, these symptoms have been widespread...maybe that's the next revolution - to quality? i like quality
rocking out? a guy from work and i had been talking about how we like to play a bit of guitar - so, at Best Buy last night we went to the acoustic guitar testing room and jammed a bit...it was the most fun i've had since the DSC in Mysore...funny though, coz the room's virtually soundproof, so there was this South African guy and I (Reuben Aldum), playing along, for as long as we liked while no one could hear us...heaps of fun
couple of days and i'm back on a plane to Den Haag, which I'm really looking forward to...tho, after just reading my mate Bec's blog...don't look too far forward, the good stuff's going on now :)
Sunday, July 5, 2009
lost in translation/ india & dutch mashup
this post has 2 parts, instead of breaking it up into 2 posts...
pt 1 - lost in translation
coming to the netherlands and looking like a local means that i get approached with folks speaking dutch to me - a lady at a cafe asking me what my lunch was...a bloke parking his bike behind me, telling me that I didn't need to move out of his way...people serving in stores. what's interesting about The Hague is the mix of people - Ive seen just about every representation of cultures here, all speaking Dutch, so the default is to speak Dutch...unlike India where I don't look Indian, so the default is whatever English the local can manage...
...something i bought over from India is the Indian head wobble, present in every conversation i had towards the end of my time there - consisting of a side to side and forward and backward motion of the head, it can mean - yes, no, maybe, thankyou, i'm not sure, i don't understand what you're saying, of course, don't be silly, congratulations, excellent, you're welcome, as reassurance that it is so...meaning, you can come away from a conversation feeling totally confused as to the conclusion. BUT, towards the end of my time in India, I was starting to get it - using my own head wobble to the correct effect, depending on the tone of the conversation, in conjunction with a facial expression to convey an unspoken message...however...
when translated into an office environment in The Hague, it didn't quite translate...someone asked me a question, which i answered with a yes and head wobble as reassurance, leaving the other person a bit bewildered, thinking maybe that i had some kind of nervous tick...
back to the office...like any other office, but i do enjoy the work..and my time in India has made the time in the office infinitely more bearable - some of the things i picked up from practising, the length of the time i had off...have refreshed me somewhat..and the prospect of heading back and taking a similar break soon makes the office more palatable as well...looking at the people in front of the computer screens, with shallow, impersonal interactions is a bit disheartening though...
i've found a permanent place to stay - well as permanent as 3 months worth anyway, pretty close to the hotel i'm in at the moment - just off downtown, in chinatown. nice walk to the office and a tram out to yoga and the beach
back to mysore - my last week was a real blur, though i got to say short or long goodbyes to most folks...and enjoy most of my time...i think i've still got some mysore words left to post...right now though i'm off to get a tram to a 915 yoga class - the dutch aren't really early risers, specially on a sunday - though some folks just rolled into the hotel, still primed after a night at the clubs and abusing the reception guy for champagne...
pt 1 - lost in translation
coming to the netherlands and looking like a local means that i get approached with folks speaking dutch to me - a lady at a cafe asking me what my lunch was...a bloke parking his bike behind me, telling me that I didn't need to move out of his way...people serving in stores. what's interesting about The Hague is the mix of people - Ive seen just about every representation of cultures here, all speaking Dutch, so the default is to speak Dutch...unlike India where I don't look Indian, so the default is whatever English the local can manage...
...something i bought over from India is the Indian head wobble, present in every conversation i had towards the end of my time there - consisting of a side to side and forward and backward motion of the head, it can mean - yes, no, maybe, thankyou, i'm not sure, i don't understand what you're saying, of course, don't be silly, congratulations, excellent, you're welcome, as reassurance that it is so...meaning, you can come away from a conversation feeling totally confused as to the conclusion. BUT, towards the end of my time in India, I was starting to get it - using my own head wobble to the correct effect, depending on the tone of the conversation, in conjunction with a facial expression to convey an unspoken message...however...
when translated into an office environment in The Hague, it didn't quite translate...someone asked me a question, which i answered with a yes and head wobble as reassurance, leaving the other person a bit bewildered, thinking maybe that i had some kind of nervous tick...
back to the office...like any other office, but i do enjoy the work..and my time in India has made the time in the office infinitely more bearable - some of the things i picked up from practising, the length of the time i had off...have refreshed me somewhat..and the prospect of heading back and taking a similar break soon makes the office more palatable as well...looking at the people in front of the computer screens, with shallow, impersonal interactions is a bit disheartening though...
i've found a permanent place to stay - well as permanent as 3 months worth anyway, pretty close to the hotel i'm in at the moment - just off downtown, in chinatown. nice walk to the office and a tram out to yoga and the beach
back to mysore - my last week was a real blur, though i got to say short or long goodbyes to most folks...and enjoy most of my time...i think i've still got some mysore words left to post...right now though i'm off to get a tram to a 915 yoga class - the dutch aren't really early risers, specially on a sunday - though some folks just rolled into the hotel, still primed after a night at the clubs and abusing the reception guy for champagne...
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