South-East Asia Followup

Honestly, it all seems like a fast blur to me now. I'm trying to recall details of my "week" in Asia, and although it was only 2 days ago that I returned it is difficult. So I've taken advantage of access to photoshop and seeing my pics on the big screen at home. Here are a few stories in picture form, to make up for the lack of verbal acuity.

The food was special. Most of the time it could give you an opinion itself. They call that "fresh" although my stomach and brain often rebelled against the "fresh" hot innards dripping out as my fingers fought to remove bits of shell, legs, and heads.In Singapore, I also found the night images far more breathtaking than those of the day. Here's my hotel and some of the things to see just outside it.

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I thought it was cool how these lamps looked completely different depending on the angle. The mosque was interesting from every angle.

I'm really surprised by some of the photos possible through a camera phone!

And last, but not least, many aspects of my time were dominated by thoughts of Starbucks. For those not in the know, Starbucks has for years now produced a collection of collector mugs. Every major city in the world that has an outlet has a collector's mug available there an no where else.







A friend's friend is collecting... all of them. And so I was tasked to pick up some of the local varieties while away. For example, I'm really happy with my Kuala Lumpur (new edition) mug as pictured here. I came back with one bag more than I had left with and it was packed full with 6 new mugs.

FYI, I think I've now started to collect these silly things. So far I have one from Singapore, one from Kuala Lumpur, and rarest of all, one from Amsterdam. Amsterdam has only one Starbucks outlet and most people have no idea where.

Busy Busy Home and Happy!

If tonight's pool dive had been recreational, I would not have gone. Tonight, however, I had students expecting training and no amount of lack of sleep, train lag, or headache was going to stop me. And five minutes after I was in the water, I was happy. Five minutes after.

We used the outdoor pool. A balmy 23C calls for a slightly thicker wetsuit than I own. So moments after I demonstrated a giant-stride entry my face expressed way more than I wanted to. "Flibbity gibbits that's cold!" or something similar quickly left my mouth.

But true to form, just as a wetsuit should, within five minutes the cold water in my suit warmed up, my breathing slowed, and I relaxed, happy to be underwater.

I'm pleased to report that the lesson went well! We used every moment of the allotted hour but managed to cover all the requirements for confined water dive 2 and while we didn't have have for play, we all had fun. My students impressed me, working smoothly through some of the most difficult skills.

I'm also pleased, but surprised to report that work today went well too! It started so really poorly.

I awoke at 06:15 this morning inside a freezing cold medieval stable. The thick brick and stone walls (with thick wooden beams) along with the modern appointments and renovations made for an incredibly beautiful hotel room! But it was 10C when I awoke and crawled out of bed. It felt much like the giant stride later.






(Centuries old construction and vaulted ceilings blended with antique lamps and modern touches.)

I really thought work was going poorly when we finally made it to the meeting 40 minutes late. And when the security guard told me I couldn't take my laptop computer into the building to do my software sales presentation, I was pretty sure I had made yet another international (barely) trip for naught.

And yet it went really well. It left me time to talk with the customers about what they had and what they wanted. I could describe what our software was supposed to do without it being there to contradict me. (Nice!) I honestly came away with a positive feeling.

We'll be back in the water tomorrow. The warm water, indoors. And I'm off to bed now. My own warm bed. So it's been busy, really busy, but right now I'm home and happy!

Gas Lamps