World Travel

I'm about to embark on a few weeks of travel around the place. Tomorrow I head to Beirut, Lebanon. On Monday and Tuesday I am attending a Middle East Healthcare Insurance conference, then meeting with our local team on Wednesday. Wednesday night I fly back to Tokyo via Dubai.

Then on the following Monday and Tuesday I will be in Seoul, South Korea, for meetings with the Metlife guys. Tuesday morning I fly back to Tokyo, go check the cat, and then in the evening I fly to New York. There are meetings on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and on Saturday I will come back to Tokyo.

Then a week in Tokyo, before heading to London for the week of 29 November. Possibly with a stop in Paris on the way back, but this is not confirmed.

Sonia, on the other hand, will be stuck between Tokyo and Bangkok like normal!

Driving

I forgot to put something on here about drivers' licenses. I got mine. Finally. Last Thursday, I took the morning to head to the licensing centre to go through the process. It took about 3 hours, but in the end I know have a Japanese license. That is not such a big deal, as kiwis get to simply swap licenses over without having to sit tests, etc. The Americans on the other hand...

The big news is that I have a full motorbike license. And that is something that no-one else managed to achieve. Anything over a 400cc bike normally requires people to sit a practical test, which in usual Japanese style is very picky. It includes riding slowly over a "bridge" (a 10cm wide piece of wood), swerving through cones, braking test, etc. The story goes that people who take the test normally fail for the first 4-5 times. The normal way around it is to spend about USD 3000 to attend a school that teaches you how to pass the test (I mean how to ride correctly) over the course of about 40 hours of instruction.

But Kiwis are apparently well-trained enough to be trusted with a full license without sitting the test. So I have my license, to the chagrin of the other guys at work who have had to go through the school...

Post 400 - Where did the time go??

Well Andrew is clearly doing a very poor job of maintaining our blog so I guess that it is up to me...

Tonight is the annual Alico Fancy Dress Halloween party hosted by the Regional CEO. Andrew is off dressed as a Cowboy - I am extremely naughty and do not 'do' either Halloween or Fancy Dress so I am at home alone with the cat - the fact that I really do feel flu'ish with a sore throat and a headache is just validating Andrew's claim that I am unwell and therefore could not attend :-)

Tomorrow I am off to Hong Kong to get my work permit renewed. It seems amazing to me that this means I have been just over three years back with Bravura - time really does fly! I am still (mostly!) enjoying what I do, but a job that did not demand quite so much travel would not be badly received. The rest of next week I will spend in Bangkok - I really will miss that city when the project there ends. It is looking like the end of the year may see the end of my involvement (we shall see!) and it will be sad in a funny sort of way after visiting at least twice a month for the last three years!.

We have been exploring Tokyo by bicycle the last few weeks - we picked up our (not too 'japanese shopping bike' looking) bikes while Kyla was here, and realised that most of the places we go on the weekend are no more than 8 to 10 km away - easily doable in a city that provides ultra wide pavements and expects you to ride on them. It has been good to get some exercise and the fresh autum ('fall') air has been lovely. We slept without the air-conditioner for the first time in ages last night and it was great. The cat has also become much more cuddly as the weather has cooled down - she likes to sleep leaning up against one or other of our legs.

Andrew is currently talking within Alico about a potential move back to Hong Kong next year - our lives are never dull! We should find out within the next few weeks if this is really going to happen. It would be kind of strange because I have not really been here long enough for it to feel like 'home' but I guess I will adjust. My last visit to HK seemed particularly seedy and smelly - I guess it really does depend which part of HK you are in :-)

Not much else happening I am afraid - life just goes on! Hope yours are going well too...

love, Sonia

And one of the cat - just because she is cute....

Where is Sachi.....



















Ah - there she is :-)




I knew there was a reason I spent large sums of money on a silk throw for my bed - it was to keep the cat warm!






I hear that Toby is looking forward to seeing his new home as well..... wonder if he will get to sleep on the bed?

Home again

Well for some reason the blog won't let me respond to comments today - guess that means I'll have to write a new blog to answer your questions.

You definitely can be the next visitor Tiffany -bet you know how to turn off lights and shut toilet doors!

They biked for an hour and five minutes - does that count as serious? If the weather is any good tomorrow Kyla and I will bike up to Andrew's work in the morning to shop for a Yukata (summer weight kimono) that she really wants to get to take home with her. It is about 8km each way so should be a good ride. The Japanese all ride on the footpath so that makes life easier - no chance of being run down by speeding cars

At the moment Kyla and Andrew are making a cheesecake - something she has been very keen to do ever since she arrived. This really is her last opportunity - in 24 hours we will be on the way to the airport - amazing how time flies!

We had a great night away in a very quaint little old town about 4 hours our of Tokyo - it was good to get out of the city and be near the river and forest that runs through the Kiso Valley. We tried to get pictures of Mount Fuji for Kyla but it insisted on staying we behind a cloud. We saw lots of other mountains so I guess that will have to suffice.

I'm sure Kyla will have much more to tell you on her blog about her night in a Ryokan, but here are a couple of photos to get you started.



Here is the path down to the Ryokan - very quaint...
And then the Traditonal Japanese Garden our room overlooked

































And here is Kyla acting elegant - Sharon this is the idea for the alcove in the lounge - somewhere to hang our Japanese scroll.

Starving and Exhausted

Well today has been a much nicer day weather wise. We have managed to Starve and Exhaust Kyla all in one day. The morning started around 10 with a 30 - 40 minute walk to Toyosu to pick up our new bikes that we ordered a couple of weeks ago. We stopped for a late breakfast at Tully's where you will be horrified to learn that the mistress of healthy eating had a mocha and a donut for breakfast :-). After collecting the bikes we walked/rode them home again, stopping at the dry cleaners on the way to pick up the week's order.

After a quick stop at home to put on the next load of washing (it is Saturday after all!) Andrew and Kyla rode the bikes up to Bic Camera while I took the train and met them there. We spent a loooooong time looking for a present for Braden (has anyone ever told her she is indecisive?????) before finally making it to lunch at 3pm - delicious noodles for Andrew and I and dumplings and rice for Kyla.

We then rode/walked on to Ginza and more present shopping - for Daryl and Sharon this time. Andrew took over the supervision of the shopping and decisions were made a bit faster! Home again for a change of clothes and then Andrew and Kyla went for some serious 'exercise' riding while I cleaned the house.

With lunch running late, dinner did too and we enjoyed chicken and salad at 8.15 in the evening while sitting in front of the 27 Dresses movie.

By the end of the movie eyes were definitely getting heavy and Kyla has gone off to bed... we'll have to get her up bright and early in the morning to update her blog because I think she missed doing it this morning. Tomorrow we are off southwest of Tokyo for a night in a traditional Ryokan - should be fun :0)

We are still enjoying having Kyla here - she seems to have been reasonably well dragged up! Wonder which of the neices/nephews are lining up to be the next to visit?

Keeping Busy

Sonia here

Well while Andrew has been off working all week Kyla and I have been having a blast around Tokyo. The weather has been dreadful (after weeks and weeks of solid sun I guess it had to rain eventually) but we are proud owners of plastic raincoats and managed to make our way around the city anyway.

We spent Wednesday in having a bit of a cook-up. Kyla is a great little cook - now to work on her cleaning up skills! (seem to recall the same was said of me when I was 12). She assures me that at her house you do all the cooking first and then clean up in one go - does not work so well when you only have 1 metre of bench to work with!

Thursday at Disney was great fun despite the miserable weather. We did a couple of the roller coasters, lots of other rides and then a couple of the Disney shows (great coz they were inside!). We left home at about 8.30 and got back at about 8pm so a long day but lots of fun.

Off to see if we can find Sharon's rice bowls this morning, and then to see if we can get tickets to Cirque de Soleil this afternoon. Decisions decisions, do we spend an extra USD 30 each to get better seats or do we strain our eyes from the back of the theatre... might be a spur of the moment decision coz I cannot make up my mind.

Another grey day

The weather has not been helpful this week. I write this from the gym at lunchtime, looking out through the glass to a grey sky and light rain.

Sonia and Kyla were heading off to Disneyland this morning, hoping to get there before the rain sets in too heavily. Tomorrow is forecast to be worse on that front, so today was really their last chance. Yesterday was better, but they were cooking dinner all day - two appetisers, steak with creamed spinach and garlic mashed potatoe, and some sort of meringue/mousse thing with candied lime for dessert.

Not exactly sure what we'll do Saturday, but Sunday we are off to Tsumago to spend the night in a Ryokan. Should be interesting, but it is about four hours drive from Tokyo.

Rain

Well it seems like autumn has arrived with a vengeance. Yesterday was fine and sunny, although down to around 25 degrees. That is in contrats to the 36 we had the preevious weekend. This morning started at about 15 agrees - at least accordind to the car on thw way to work this morning. And it is raining. So from 36 degrees to 15 in less than 10 days? Crazy.

We went to Kawagoe yesterday, had a look around, then raced back home to make lemon cupcakes (lemon cake recipe) for dinner at my boss's house last night. Kawagoe was full of people (mostly OAPs) who were taking advantage of the cooler weather ahead of the rain coming this week. Lunch was ramen (cheap noodles) in a place somewhere down one of the side streets. It was ok rather than great.

Now at the gym, need to concentrate on the weights. Should be more information(?) On Kyla's blog.

One exhausted Kyla

Sonia here...

Well Kyla has indeed arrived and managed to make tentative friends with our very nervous cat. Made us realise how much of a stressful experience moving back to NZ at some stage will be for Sachi - she does not cope well with people other than 'her' people in the house and Kyla put up with a lot of hissing before a tentative truce was called.

Kyla really picked her day to arrive. Narita airport always has a decent amount of turbulence on descent. Today was exceptional. My plane got in about 40 minutes after hers, and for the first time in all my flying history I had a landing aborted just feet above the runway because the winds were buffeting the plane so badly the pilot could not hold it steady enough to touch down. We turbo charged back up into the air when we ran out of runway for him to keep trying :-). Pleased to report that Kyla did not have quite that scare, but she did get a pretty bumpy approach that she seems to have dealt with just fine. We will make a world traveler out of her yet!

We spent the morning at home and introduced her to the concept of Saturday morning house cleaning. Then headed up the road to introduce her to her first taste of 'real' sushi. She gave it a good shot but I think it is fair to say she prefers Sharon's chicken based variation. The Japanese would be horrified! We had a great 'counter' experience at the Sushi Bar though with a couple of the sushi chefs and a two of the other customers taking great delight in testing Andrews Japanese skills. The noise was as always in the sushi shops loud and boisterous - a very interactive experience- much to Kyla's amusement.

Afternoon was spent out and about running weekend errands and then dinner at home (can we have non-Japanese food being the request :-)...). The Freaky Friday movie finished the day off - with very heavy red eyes it was off to bed and hopefully a good long sleep.

Looking forward to some fun days ahead - visiting the beach tomorrow, shopping Monday, Disney Tuesday, cooking a three course dinner for Andrew on Wednesday, Kawagoe or Kamakura on Thursday and Cirque de Soleil on Friday. We will be exhausted by the end of it!

We'll let you know how it goes.

Ok

Found her. Guess she does not have to catch the bus home after all.

Hmmm

5 more minutes then I give up and go home. Kyla can find her own way to the apartment.

Flight update

Apparently Kyla's flight arrived at 603 instead of 630, but there is no sign of her. Perhaps I was too late (arrived here at 630) and they sold her into slavery?

Real time

On the way to the airport to collect Kyla. Pouring down and windy - great way to start.

Friday night

Well Kyla is on her way. I see from the flight status that she has landed in Sydney, and now has a couple of hours to wait before her flight leaves for Tokyo.

I am trying to decide whether to spend my evening doing the cleaning, or wait until tomorrow morning once I have collected Kyla and Sonia from the airport. I think it can probably wait - the place doesn't look too bad. And I have had a hard day (cue violins), and want to finish watching The Matrix again. So I think the cleaning will keep for 12 hours...

New News

There is none.

I am at the gym, trying to stop myself getting bored on the treadmill. I was thinking that it has been quite a while since the last update. That is because there has been almost nothing happening here.

I am sure that you will appreciate me having avoided coplaining about the heat (up to 40 degrees some days). This week it is officially cooling down. Not today, which is up to about 34 degrees, but tomorrow the forecast is for a high of 24 and rain. I am sure that Sachi and I will freeze. Tomorrow happens to be a holiday, so I will dress her up in a teatowel if she starts shivering too much! Wuss of a cat...

The holiday season is pretty much over now. The expats who were heading home for the summer are now back. And I am about 6 weeks away from officially working for Metlife instead of Alico.

I finally got a bike park in my building so the motorbike is now convenient. And no longer takes up space in my friend's garage. His place is about 45 minutes away by train or 20 by car. So not hugely convenient for popping out for a quick ride. Moving the bike across also meant I could clean it for the first time. I realised I need to get some wheel cleaner to shift the chain oil and grease that has speckled the inside of the wheel.

We have planned a diet of raw fish, horse sashimi, okonomiyaki, monja, and chickens' hearts for when Kyla is here next week. Should be gun trying to capture her facial expressions on camera. And then putting her on the back of my bike - but she can use the friend's spare helmet so that any regurgitated raw fish does not mess up my helmet. And I wonder how she will find wearing a kimono and wooden sandles all day?

Buenos Aires

Well it has not really worked out very well. On arriving here in Argentina I
immediately caught a cold/flu. Fever, aches, etc. For the past few days I
have dosed myself with panadol-equivalents and tried to manage my way
through it. Last night was hard, with a very sore throat when I try to
swallow. Not much sleep was had, between jet lag and the throat.

Today is Saturday, and as I had seen very little of Buenos Aires I decided
to venture out anyway. It was sunny, but has turned cold and windy. I am
currently cowering in a cafe with a plate of ricotta ravioli. How long can I
stretch this out before having to do the sprint back to the hotel? There I
will sit in the lobby (no late checkout available) and read my book until
4pm when I head to the airport. The flight leaves at 9:30 tonight, but my
colleagues one is earlier and we will share the taxi out there.

Maybe I will get a chance to come back, and it will be better next time?

Goodbye Uruguay

Well I guess it is time for an update. I'm sitting on the plane, waiting to
take off from Montevideo to go to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The trip to get here was long - about 30 hours not counting getting to the
airport and to the hotel at the other end. And not without some hassle. The
flight from Dallas to Miami was delayed, when the pilot and mechanic decided
at the last minute that the plane was not going anywhere. We duly
off-loaded, and trotted around to another gate where they eventually
delivered another plane from a hangar. And we took off, but having lost more
than 1.5 hours. Given that my scheduled transfer time in Miami was just
under 2 hours, I started to feel a little stressed. When we got to Miami, I
was the first off the plane and literally sprinted to the next gate. This
took about 10 minutes, while wondering at every step whether I needed to
clear immigration to exit USA. Apparently not. In the end I made it, and we
took off about 10 minutes after I got on board.

Sunday and Monday were horrible weather-wise. It cleared up on Tuesday and
today (Wednesday), but I spent all day running workshops so my experience of
Montevideo has been limited to lunch at a horse racing track on Sunday.
Watching rain stream down the windows and appreciating the fact that I was
not riding horses in a storm. So only a couple of miserable photos out the
(dirty) window from the hotel. And lots of photos of the workshop.

What I did see on the way to the airport was a mix of old houses that
reminded me of Kelston or New Lynn as it used to be, and a series of
soviet-looking apartment blocks that look out over the river/coast. One bit
around the coast did make me think of parts of Mission Bay - the wide
footpath with a low stone/concrete wall next to the beach.

Hopefully Buenos Aires will be better. It is all of 1 hour (or less) from
Montevideo.

Spanish is the first language for all of these countries. At my workshop
there were people from Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Uruguay, Mexico, Panama,
Venezuela, and Chile. I was the only one who could not speak Spanish, and
the conversations often erupted into lively Spanish as people clarified
amongst themselves what I had said in English. Many of the attendees spoke
some English, but it is definitely a second language rather than first. Very
nice group of people.

In Buenos Aires I have one more day of workshops, not run by me. Then on
Friday we are meeting with a couple of brokers and partners. Because they
have a Global guy here, they are taking the opportunity to stroke egos a
little. Clearly I am very important...

Updates

Well I guess it is past time for another update. I'm writing this from the couch, with the sliding doors open to the balcony. At 6pm at night, it's still more than 30 degrees. Tokyo has got very hot and humid over the past few weeks. Very ugly to be out and about in this sort of weather. And it's likely to continue in the same vein for another two months. Bring on autumn and winter!

I was in Athens the week before last, running a conference for our Central & Eastern Europe regional team. 16.5 hours to get there, and the same on the way back. Not great. Athens itself is a bit grimy, and full of mad drivers. More run-down than I expected. But the food was wonderful. Greek salad with fresh tomato, cucumber, and feta. Very good, and the best I have ever eaten anywhere.

Sonia arrived back from Bangkok this morning, and is in town for the week. Then the following week back in Bangkok, while I head off to Montevideo and Buenos Aires to run another conference. What a life? But then you realise that the flights from here go to Dallas, then Miami, to get there. A bit of a laugh when you think this is an (ex?) IT guy teaching product development and sales guys how to do their jobs properly?

Tomorrow morning we are driving down to Hakone for the night. Not a long way, but Sonia decided she wanted to get out of Tokyo. I've taken Monday off, so we drive back on Monday afternoon. This way we will (hopefully) skip the traffic jams leaving and returning to Tokyo.

That's all for now, I think.

Catching up with the McCabes

Well this weekend saw me staying on in Bangkok to catch up with the McCabes who are en route to Auckland. It was great to see them all again - boy those kids have grown. Lauren is up to Wendy's chin and Ashley and Andrew are as tall as each other.

We spent lots of time in the hotel pool as well as heading off to the mall for a race around YOYO Land (the local entertainment park inside the mall) on Saturday and to a different mall for lunch and a 3-D version of Shrek 4 on Sunday. Who would have thought I was with my most hard-core missionary friends when they did not even suggest church on Sunday!

We had a great time and it was sad to leave again on Sunday night. Andrew is off in Athens this week - left last Friday morning and gets back sometimes next weekend. Will be quiet at home with just me and the cat.

Was going to post Sachi's latest picture but the camera seems to be missing. Maybe Andrew took it to Greece and we will all get to see some holiday (oops I mean 'work') shots :-)