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.