I just have to love the last part of the year.

On the company I work for, the arrival of autumn means that we have to brace and be prepared for a plethora of projects.

And that’s good. But tiring. And stressing.

But at the same time, keeps us alert and sharp and help us polish our skills and discover new ones.

Fun, fun, fun.

I’m here pondering about a lot of stuff.

I had too many surprises in the past months, leaving my comfort zone and moving into the troubled waters. I’ve met a bunch of people, some were great, some were not that great but in the end they impacted my life.

Changing our own behaviour always brings new experiences and help us evolve and grow, no matter how old we are. Aim for the change, you will have fun.

I’m still adjusting to the new environment and finding the joy in it. Don’t get me wrong, this is great, not what I expected, but great indeed.

Have a good one!

Sunday afternoon…

The TV programming is lame and bland. I’m just zapping like there’s no tomorrow.

I’ve accomplished, rather finished a task that was in my to dos for this Monday. I grasp a tool that I’ve used just one and in a moment of inspiration, I’ve completed it.

I’m juggling with a bunch of things right now and redefining others, one at a time, which is fine.

The time seems right, and the climate is too.

I’m going to push a little more to see what happens.

Have a good one.

I’ve been far and away and came back.

I’ve known you for so long, I came to appreciate you, consider you as part of my life as anything could be.

This is the time and this is the place.

Turn the table once more, evolve, change.

After all, it’s your life: live it!

I’ve been neglecting this site a lot, but since I have some other stuff to do I haven’t finished my post for SA yet…

I’ll make some time and complete that…

Read you around!

9:00 P.M. April 4, 2009

Going to the boarding gate, I realzed that I’ve been in this airport for nearly 9 hours… Tired, anyone?

I was one of the first passengers to arrive to the gate, and it where it started: Afrikaans was being talked by some of my fellow passengers.

As someone who likes to hear other languages; I heard some English, Dutch and German words in the mix. That was later corroborated to me…

So after the regular boarding pass and passport verification, I boarded the plane.

To my surprise, my seat was near the end of the plane (there’s a joke about this, but since this is a G rated blog, I will omitt it) and in a three seat row, fortunately(?) I had the aisle seat. I sat with a couple that was going to SA on some unknown purpose, to me at least. I initially assumed they were South Africans, but they were queued to the “Other countries passport lane” when we arrived.

This time the plane only took the usual measures and up we went, another 10 hour flight to arrive to my final destiny…

Sunday, April 5

The flight was quite uneventfull, and we arrived to SA pretty much on time…

We got off the plane and went to the customs area where three lanes were open: South African passports, Other African passports and all the rest! Just kidding, it was called “Other countries” but it felt it like that…

One odd thing though, a family of three went ahead everybody on the queue, and nobody said something… These people can be found everywhere, right?

Anyway, off to pick up my luggage and find out if something happened to it… No news on that, both pieces arrived and were unharmed…

Now I had to do three things: first get some local currency, second call back home and third grab a cab to get to my hotel.

After sorting both things right away, well to my spouse demise, it was almost 1 a.m. when she answered…

So I went where the taxis were suppose to be and I was up to the first surprise of many, basically all airport taxis (at least the ones I saw in that area) were high end cars: Mercedes, BMWs, the sort… That’s a change from the ones we have back home!

The second thing I noticed: pretty much of the people working in the service jobs are black. This doesn’t pretend to have a futher lecture or to be read between lines, just stating a fact. Evenmore, the weekend after I arrived I had the chance to know a tour guide, and he told us that since the car he drives at work it’s the model some taxis use (a Toyota Minivan) sometimes people signal him to stop, but when they notce he’s white (he’s from Scotland) they put an amazed look…

Anyway, we went through some of the highways towards Johannesburg and found the view as any other country I’ve been, but with one difference: we were on the left side of the road and the driver was sitting in the right of the cab… Say, what?

That’s one of the most strange things I’ve ever saw, I know, it’s an inheritance from the English…

We only stopped once to ask for directions and arrived to the hotel. Taxies could be somehow expensive here, wel it depends on what you think of it: It charged me R350 (which are around 35 USD)…

I checked in, I unpacked and proceed to take a LONG bath… After that, i went exploring. Our offices are very near where I was staying , and since there were 10:30 a.m., I went exploring…

I ran into this little shopping place just around the corner, I went on walking and noticed another thing: this city had to be an up-scale one… In the surrounding there is an Ashton Martin, BMV and Ducatti dealers… And on the streets too…

And there I went, there is a construction ahead (I later found they are constructing a subway) and another mall… which brings me to other “odd” thing, most of the shopping sites have hotels associated to them…

There, our offices in South Africa. Wow, only a 10 minutes walk… This is going to be easy tomorrow… OK… Let’s explore the mall…

Next: Working in South Africa

Almost a week ago, I embarked in a new adventure: to support for the company I work, a project in my area of knowledge.

This adventure will send me across three continents to a country I didn’t now nothing at all (well, with exception of its location).

Friday (04.03.09)

So, Friday, April 3rd arrived and 5 P.M. too so I took a cab to the airport for my 19:40 flight.

In Mexico City, if you’re traveling abroad, you have to be in the airport at least 3 hours before your actual take off hour to avoid any inconvenience.

The cab arrived to my house, I say goodbye to my wife and put my luggage in the cab.

The driver was very friendly and made my trip uneventful and enjoyable. We ran into some traffic (it was Friday, after a pay day and the beginning of a huge holiday in Mexico) but we made it in an hour.

I went to the airline counter and the usual suspects were there: the classic teenager giving her mom a hard time about the weight of her luggage and its distribution (there was a limit of 25 kg a piece), the ill tempered husband giving his wife a hard time about EVERYTHING and the family of 7 (?) doing last minute arrangements…

I lasted less than five minutes in the counter, getting my boarding passes and everything… I proceed to pass the security check, where the guys in there were checking, yes, but a pair of girls that were in THE OTHER SIDE of the security check… No further comments…

I arrived at my gate and suddenly I felt in Germany: in the gate besides mine, there was a Luftansa flight waiting to board…

The boarding in my flight started after an hour (on time) and I get to my seat (very comfortable, indeed… Two seats and I had the aisle one, woohoo!)

So Heathrow airport here we go!

…

…

Not so fast, you naive man!

it seems like for some reason, the turbines of a 747 couldn’t be started by the common method (I totally ignore it) due to Mexico City’s altitude and should be started using an alternative method (that’s the actual reason the captain gave us, I’m not kidding… Even cars now deal with altitude differences)…  Should I get down and push? (extra point to the ones who know the movie where this line is brought up).

Anyway, near 30 minutes later all the turbines are up an running and we can take off… But since we delayed we have to take a number… Finally, we took off. It’s fascinating how a enormous thing like a 747 can lift off so smoothly… Wow!

I watched Yes Man while dinning and after that I doze off…

Saturday (04.04.09)

Around 11 a.m., London time, they woke us up to serve us breakfast… I watched a chapter of  “The big bang theory” and got ready to landing…

We circled London and had the chance to see the Parlament and its tower and some two floors buses…1:30 p.m.

Heathrow airport

We were sent to pass some gates and I was sent to Gate 5 to wait for my 9:15 p.m. flight to Johannesburg…

The first thing I did was buying a calling card, but those things have more instructions than a plane so I spent it all trying to call home with no success…

After wandering a little I found a place where some internet cards were sold and through its magic I could call home and tell the news.

Solving that, I roamed the mall, excuse me, the Terminal 5 and went to grab something to eat…

Roaming Heathrow

And that’s when I found out: I will need a converter (which I did not have) to connect my laptop and charge it… And in the airport the UK ones were sold but (and this is a big but) in South Africa it’s a different plug!!!!

So, to the hell with it! I will buy one when I arrive…

More roaming and finally, time to board my ‘Burg flight…

On my way to the gate, I have to had a proof that I had been in Heathrow so I went and got my proof (and you know what is my proof since you asked for it)…

To follow: Now to South Africa…

Funny how things happen.

A little poking here and there, and suddenly change happens.

And I’m not referring to the change that started on January 20th in the U.S. but the change I was talking about in my previous postings.

Yes, as part of the five years cycles that I was talking about, I discovered that I was moving to a new project.

And I’m happy about it since it is going to provide change not only to me but to other people as well.

There is going to be opportunity to grow, to get to know new people and to learn new things.

However, it is also sad…

Why?

Because, I’m moving from one of the great projects that I had the chance to participate in, I won’t be talking to G and K and punching FPs around and agreeing upon new conventions and processes, having our Wednesday meetings and talking about different issues.

Nevertheless, I know were going to be in touch and share other moments, other experiences.

As I was trying to figure out how to say farewell, I remembered a song and I went and ask my twitter  friends (thanks SS, M and ET) who sang that song… I only remembered that it talked about encounters and dis encounters, about finding friends…

So, as in the song from Semisonic with the same name as the title of this post, let me post this quote from its lyrics that reflects what I’m going trough:

Closing time
Time for you to go out to the places you will be from
Closing time
This room won’t be open till your brothers or your sisters come
So gather up your jackets, move it to the exits
I hope you have found a friend
Closing time
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end

Thanks, for giving me the chance to be part of this. You have a special place in my life. See you around!

P.S. The video for Closing time by Semisonic is here (via YouTube):

As in my previous post, there are some things cooking and I’m waiting impaciently to see what is the final result.

As I get additional information, I will post it here. In the meantime, I’m maintaining the status quo.

Have a good one.

Hi, welcome back.

I have the tendency of noting patterns in things, people and the sort… Not in a la A beautiful mind style but in a way they are noticeable for me…

So, in my own life things tend to change every 5 years and based on recent news and events, a change may be developing.

I know I can’t control all the things that may led me to that change but some of my actions do, so…

Wish me good luck. Let’s see if this happens.

Have a good one!