Monday 6/8/09
Today we went back to walk around a few places we just saw from the bus yesterday. First we went to St. James Park, pretty much in front of Buckingham Palace, and walked around the lake in the middle. Nice place to hang out if you live near. Then we walked over to Westminster Abby. A little pricy to get in, but it was worth it. It doesn't compare to St. Peters in the Vatican, but it's got to be second. Lots of famous people buried here. Kings and Queens, famous poets and composers. Lots of others I don't know. The one I found most interesting was Charles Darwin. Seemed strange to me. The little church next door, St. Margarets, was small but worth checking out inside. The stained glass was art, not just colors. As you walked around you realize that the large stones that make up the floor are actually crypts!
Then we took the "Tube" to St. Pauls cathedral. We didn't feel like paying a bunch to see another church so we just looked around it and found a little place for lunch. From there we hopped the Tube again to the British Museum. It claims to house the largest collection of antiquities in the world. Probably so. It's free and you can see things from 3000 B.C. It has quite a few things from the Parthenon in Athens. We were at the Parthenon a couple years ago and it's a bit of friction between them and Britian. Both agree though, that if the British hadn't sent the pieces from Athens back to the British Museum, most would likely have been beat up and destroyed. That's what happened to much of the Parthenon before Greece started protecting it.
After the museum we took the Tube back to the hotel and took a nap. Our feet were killing us by now. After rubbing each other's feet with some of the peppermint foot stuff we thankfully brought, and then an hour or so nap, we were ready to head out again.
So we hopped the Tube again to Piccadilly Circus. The word "Circus" means a spot where many streets meet. This was some sort of hangout. There is a statue/fountain in the middle that had lots of people sitting all around it. Even when we took off at 10pm. We wandered around the shops and stopped into a brand new Planet Hollywood for dinner. It just opened two days ago and they gave us a 20% off coupon. Then we wandered through Chinatown. Didn't plan it, just took a different way back. It was quite obvious it was Chinatown :)
So then aboard the Tube back to the hotel. We've had enough for today.
See the pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016635&id=1633509060&l=07ce5beeea
Tuesday 6/9/09
Today we fly home. We decided to just get a leisurely breakfast at a little cafe and make use of their free internet. We checked out about 1pm and hopped the Tube again to the airport. Good thing we're headed out in the afternoon. At 7pm the Tube workers went on strike.
So we took the Tube, with one connection, for the hour trip to Heathrow. From there it was pretty smooth. A 10+ hour flight and we are home. Up at 7am for a call tomorrow, and back to normal :)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Sunday
Sunday 6/7/09
Today was sightseeing. We bought tickets for one of those bus lines that circles the city and stops at the major sights. It's a big double-decker with an open top deck. Take a look through the pictures and Kim's comments to see it all. The weather was fantastic. In the morning it was raining, and we were worried a bit, but by the time we ate breakfast it had stopped and was beautiful. Cool and cloudy, but dry. Couldn't ask for better. This time we stopped at a couple Starbucks, and Subway for lunch. We knew what to expect and it made things quicker. We did stop into another pub for dinner called Garfunkles. Seems like a chain there. We saw a few of them. We spent the whole day going around the city. So much so that after shopping at Harrods, we caught the next bus and found out it was the last one. So we ended at their first stop instead of the one near our hotel. So a half-hour walk back to the hotel. Harrods was pretty insane. Hand bags were $1500 - $2000. Watches seemed to start at around $1000. Even the dog collars were $1000. Even the bathrooms were titled "Luxury Toilets" :) O well, it was fun to browse.
Here's the pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016537&id=1633509060&l=8c02cd588f
Saturday
Saturday 6/6/09
Today was spent traveling. Up at 4:30am, call our driver, get to the airport. Actually the traffic wasn't bad at 6am on a Saturday :)We went through security and customs and flew to Mumbai first to connect to London.
The first sight was the slums surrounding the airport. (See the pics) Sad. The Mumbai airport was a complete pain. We had to get off our flight to Mumbai, wait for a half hour for a bus to come, we were bussed over to a different terminal, quite a distance away, then we had to go back through security and customs. (It's interesting that the security line separates men from women in India). Then a very long walk to the terminal where they were mostly loaded. We were among the last few. The airline was Jet Airways India. I was surprised that it was very nice. Much better than any of the planes I take within the U.S. Then a 9+ hour flight to London.We got into London about 5:30pm London time and headed for the "Tube". Took a long ride to one stop in the middle of London, transferred to another stop, where we then walked a few blocks to the hotel. We decided to take a walk around a little since it was still plenty light, and stopped in an English pub for some meat pie and fish and chips. :) Here's the pics for Mumbai: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016500&id=1633509060&l=c30bd5dbcf
Here's the pics for London: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016501&id=1633509060&l=56505970de
Today was spent traveling. Up at 4:30am, call our driver, get to the airport. Actually the traffic wasn't bad at 6am on a Saturday :)We went through security and customs and flew to Mumbai first to connect to London.
The first sight was the slums surrounding the airport. (See the pics) Sad. The Mumbai airport was a complete pain. We had to get off our flight to Mumbai, wait for a half hour for a bus to come, we were bussed over to a different terminal, quite a distance away, then we had to go back through security and customs. (It's interesting that the security line separates men from women in India). Then a very long walk to the terminal where they were mostly loaded. We were among the last few. The airline was Jet Airways India. I was surprised that it was very nice. Much better than any of the planes I take within the U.S. Then a 9+ hour flight to London.We got into London about 5:30pm London time and headed for the "Tube". Took a long ride to one stop in the middle of London, transferred to another stop, where we then walked a few blocks to the hotel. We decided to take a walk around a little since it was still plenty light, and stopped in an English pub for some meat pie and fish and chips. :) Here's the pics for Mumbai: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016500&id=1633509060&l=c30bd5dbcf
Here's the pics for London: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016501&id=1633509060&l=56505970de
Friday, June 5, 2009
Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri
Tuesday through Friday I either visited clients with the India team, or ran internal enablement sessions for the India team. I really didn't get much chance to do anything else. Fortunately Kim did.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016356&id=1633509060&l=5507cab8fb
Tuesday 6/2/09
[Tim] today I met with the IBM team in India and we went out to talk with the India Dept. of Defense. Three different groups came in to hear what I had to say and ask questions. The place we went to was an interesting mix of very old buildings, and nice green grounds. They hosted us to lunch. I had no idea what most it was I was eating, but it was good.
Wednesday 6/3/09
[Tim] today I spent the day training the Rational team. Not much to say, just a long day running some talks and a workshop with the internal team.
Thursday 6/4/09
[Tim] today I talked with a team from India's AWACS team. They've been using our development tools for software development, and wanted to know how to use them for their Systems Engineering efforts. So I spent a few hours going over the method/technique to help them with their issues. In the end they said it was perfect :) Hopefully it leads to more between us.
Friday 6/5/09
[Tim] today the team took me to the bigger IBM office to the executive conference room, where about 25 executives from five different Indian companies came to hear me talk. I spent about three hours, going over pretty much the same thing as yesterday. They wanted me to come out to their company and give the three day workshop. I'll let the team in India take care of them. :)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016356&id=1633509060&l=5507cab8fb
Tuesday 6/2/09
[Tim] today I met with the IBM team in India and we went out to talk with the India Dept. of Defense. Three different groups came in to hear what I had to say and ask questions. The place we went to was an interesting mix of very old buildings, and nice green grounds. They hosted us to lunch. I had no idea what most it was I was eating, but it was good.
Wednesday 6/3/09
[Tim] today I spent the day training the Rational team. Not much to say, just a long day running some talks and a workshop with the internal team.
Thursday 6/4/09
[Tim] today I talked with a team from India's AWACS team. They've been using our development tools for software development, and wanted to know how to use them for their Systems Engineering efforts. So I spent a few hours going over the method/technique to help them with their issues. In the end they said it was perfect :) Hopefully it leads to more between us.
Friday 6/5/09
[Tim] today the team took me to the bigger IBM office to the executive conference room, where about 25 executives from five different Indian companies came to hear me talk. I spent about three hours, going over pretty much the same thing as yesterday. They wanted me to come out to their company and give the three day workshop. I'll let the team in India take care of them. :)
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Sunday and Monday
Sunday 5/30/09
Each day we have had quite a spread for the breakfast buffet. (See pics). We have been extremely impressed with how much the staff at the hotel is so eager to please and they are sooooo polite. Today I have to do some work. I need to prepare the content for several of the things I will be working on in Bangalore, India next week (since I just found about a few days ago and it's not ready.) So, it's relax by the pool and work on the content. A true mix of work and pleasure :)Tonight it's pack up and get ready to leave early tomorrow.
Monday 6/1/09
Had to make the 5:50am bus, so grabbed some apples and oranges in the room, made some coffee and headed out. Things go smoothly here, I'm impressed. I must say the Asian airlines are great. Clean and the service is extremely friendly, I find myself bowing back to them all the time without even thinking about it because they're so friendly and polite. Our first flight was a six hour flight to Singapore. We had a five hour layover there. We were advised that it might be enough time to get into the city and back, but it right on the edge of enough time. So we didn't chance it. We explored what was the best airport I've ever been in. It had several lounges, a movie theater, a gym with a pool, several places where you could stop and use a computer on the internet, a few different "entertainment" areas set up with PS3's and XBox's with games. (No Halo though). One room set up with what looked like one of the "Band" outfits. (the drums and other instruments). Tons of different restaurants. And mostly very high end shopping. Cartier, Monte Blanc, Tiffany, ...The prices were pretty expensive there though. The highlight though was that we found a secluded area of the airport that had four massage chairs. These were the very high end expensive massage chairs. So we laid back in them for a half hour or so and tried all the settings. Here's some pics for the Singapore airport: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016195&id=1633509060&l=c6e46dd260
Then, aboard another flight (four hous) to Bangalore. What a difference from Seoul. The airport center was actually pretty nice and new, but not so the surrounding area between the hotel and the hotel. We saw a lot of what we might consider poverty. Beat up shacks and buildings, trash around, rubble, dirt roads,... And then we turn into our hotel, the Leela Palace.
You can check out the pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016199&id=1633509060&l=2fe92c02ec
Each day we have had quite a spread for the breakfast buffet. (See pics). We have been extremely impressed with how much the staff at the hotel is so eager to please and they are sooooo polite. Today I have to do some work. I need to prepare the content for several of the things I will be working on in Bangalore, India next week (since I just found about a few days ago and it's not ready.) So, it's relax by the pool and work on the content. A true mix of work and pleasure :)Tonight it's pack up and get ready to leave early tomorrow.
Monday 6/1/09
Had to make the 5:50am bus, so grabbed some apples and oranges in the room, made some coffee and headed out. Things go smoothly here, I'm impressed. I must say the Asian airlines are great. Clean and the service is extremely friendly, I find myself bowing back to them all the time without even thinking about it because they're so friendly and polite. Our first flight was a six hour flight to Singapore. We had a five hour layover there. We were advised that it might be enough time to get into the city and back, but it right on the edge of enough time. So we didn't chance it. We explored what was the best airport I've ever been in. It had several lounges, a movie theater, a gym with a pool, several places where you could stop and use a computer on the internet, a few different "entertainment" areas set up with PS3's and XBox's with games. (No Halo though). One room set up with what looked like one of the "Band" outfits. (the drums and other instruments). Tons of different restaurants. And mostly very high end shopping. Cartier, Monte Blanc, Tiffany, ...The prices were pretty expensive there though. The highlight though was that we found a secluded area of the airport that had four massage chairs. These were the very high end expensive massage chairs. So we laid back in them for a half hour or so and tried all the settings. Here's some pics for the Singapore airport: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016195&id=1633509060&l=c6e46dd260
Then, aboard another flight (four hous) to Bangalore. What a difference from Seoul. The airport center was actually pretty nice and new, but not so the surrounding area between the hotel and the hotel. We saw a lot of what we might consider poverty. Beat up shacks and buildings, trash around, rubble, dirt roads,... And then we turn into our hotel, the Leela Palace.
You can check out the pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016199&id=1633509060&l=2fe92c02ec
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Saturday
Saturday 5/29/09
Greg took off early this morning, so after breakfast Kim and I took the subway into the northern part of the city to catch the tour bus that circled the city, stopping at various tourist spots and historical sites.
Some shopping sites, some ancient palaces, a couple museams, and a few other spots. You could get off at any spot, explore what was there, and catch any of the buses that came after the one you got off of. They would arrive at that spot every half hour. We spent all day doing that. Started at about 10am and finished the last one at about 6pm. We were pretty tired...especially our feet. Getting off at the last stop there were hundreds of police in riot gear with shields. We weren't sure what was going on but decided not to wait around to find out. After taking the subway back, we stopped in at a pizza place to see how well they made deep dish pizza in Korea. Good, but they make it crispy. I don't think the deep dish version is supposed to be crispy like the thin crust version. O well, it was good. We changed into our swimsuits and headed for the Jacuzzi. After that I worked a little bit on cropping and enhancing some of the pictures we took today, wrote most of this section, and then crashed :)You can see some of the pictures posted by Kim on Facebook here:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015924&id=1633509060&l=368b4aac34
Some shopping sites, some ancient palaces, a couple museams, and a few other spots. You could get off at any spot, explore what was there, and catch any of the buses that came after the one you got off of. They would arrive at that spot every half hour. We spent all day doing that. Started at about 10am and finished the last one at about 6pm. We were pretty tired...especially our feet. Getting off at the last stop there were hundreds of police in riot gear with shields. We weren't sure what was going on but decided not to wait around to find out. After taking the subway back, we stopped in at a pizza place to see how well they made deep dish pizza in Korea. Good, but they make it crispy. I don't think the deep dish version is supposed to be crispy like the thin crust version. O well, it was good. We changed into our swimsuits and headed for the Jacuzzi. After that I worked a little bit on cropping and enhancing some of the pictures we took today, wrote most of this section, and then crashed :)You can see some of the pictures posted by Kim on Facebook here:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015924&id=1633509060&l=368b4aac34
Friday, May 29, 2009
Friday
Friday 5/28/09
Today Greg and I spent the morning working on some things we'll be doing in India next week. We all took a taxi up to Itaewon. It's a street with lots of shopping next to the U.S. Military base. Greg and I met with Sean Kae, my old colleague and manager, who's now the VP of development for Samsung. We talked business, but Sean also gave us some tips for what to do over the weekend here.
After that we took a quick trip up to Namdaemun Market. A pretty massive swap meet type of atmosphere covering many square blocks. You could spend a whole day and not see it all. We did find that like most swap meets, you saw the same thing at a hundred different sellers. Interesting, but nothing I wanted. After a couple hours, we were pretty spent though, and actually spent nothing, and made our way to the subway and took that back to the hotel.
Tonight, Sean Kae picked up Kim and I for dinner. He took us to a traditional "safe" Korean barbaque. Very good. One thing I have learned is that when they say "spicey" here, they really mean it. In the US it means you get some spice instead of nothing. Here it means you sweat and blow your nose a lot :)
Thursday, May 28, 2009
First Days
Tuesday 5/26/09
A very long, 13+ hour, plane ride (coach of course) and we arrived. A little sleep on the plane helped, along with the Ambien. :) We were told how great Ambien was for sleeping on the plane. "take it and sleep for 7 hours and wake up ready to go!". Right. I was expecting something just short of Sodium Pentothal, but all it did was make me sleepy. O well, it did help. We felt pretty good on arrival.
We took an hour taxi ride to the COEX Intercontinental hotel. Very nice hotel. One interesting thing was under the hotel. A giant mall. We're talking a couple city blocks square. A bit of a maze. We had to get a map just to make sure we didn't get lost. Could probably spend about two days walking around to get to all the places.
Wednesday 5/27/09
Got to spend the day exploring the blocks around the hotel. Checked out the subway system, walked through the Hyundai department store where everything's got some big name like Gucci, along with the exorbitant price. Then wandered around the underground mall some more. Wandered what Star Trek would be like to watch at the megaplex of 24 theaters in Korean (yes all in that underground mall).
Then about 3:45 I took a taxi over to the IBM office to meet with some of the team. We went over what we would be doing on Thursday with the Korean DoD. Then I ventured out and took the subway back to the hotel. Even had one transfer! The subway in Seoul is pretty good. Once I figured it out I think I could go anywhere in the city on it. At 1/10 the cost of the taxi it's a good deal.
That night my colleague who brought me out here, Greg Hansen, flew in. Greg, Kim and I walked to a Korean Barbeque place for dinner. A very ethnic experience. No one there spoke English so it took a lot of pointing. :)
Thursday 5/28/09
A whirlwind day. In the morning the teammates from Korea picked Greg and I up at the hotel, we drove about an hour to the local airport, bought tickets for Busan, flew an hour, got off and rented a car, drove an hour to the Korean DoD location. Just a day's commute :) Greg and I put together some slides along the way.
We presented and spoke to some people who will be working on a submarine project, and some researchers from their Defense Development agency. They seem to need some serious help with Systems Engineering. Then, drove back to the airport, bought a ticket on the next plane back, then drove through the horrible traffic to the hotel. Got back about 8pm. A long day.
Kim's posting some of the pictures on her Facebook. Check here to see: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=233064&l=5f5ca7252b&id=1633509060
A very long, 13+ hour, plane ride (coach of course) and we arrived. A little sleep on the plane helped, along with the Ambien. :) We were told how great Ambien was for sleeping on the plane. "take it and sleep for 7 hours and wake up ready to go!". Right. I was expecting something just short of Sodium Pentothal, but all it did was make me sleepy. O well, it did help. We felt pretty good on arrival.
We took an hour taxi ride to the COEX Intercontinental hotel. Very nice hotel. One interesting thing was under the hotel. A giant mall. We're talking a couple city blocks square. A bit of a maze. We had to get a map just to make sure we didn't get lost. Could probably spend about two days walking around to get to all the places.
Wednesday 5/27/09
Got to spend the day exploring the blocks around the hotel. Checked out the subway system, walked through the Hyundai department store where everything's got some big name like Gucci, along with the exorbitant price. Then wandered around the underground mall some more. Wandered what Star Trek would be like to watch at the megaplex of 24 theaters in Korean (yes all in that underground mall).
Then about 3:45 I took a taxi over to the IBM office to meet with some of the team. We went over what we would be doing on Thursday with the Korean DoD. Then I ventured out and took the subway back to the hotel. Even had one transfer! The subway in Seoul is pretty good. Once I figured it out I think I could go anywhere in the city on it. At 1/10 the cost of the taxi it's a good deal.
That night my colleague who brought me out here, Greg Hansen, flew in. Greg, Kim and I walked to a Korean Barbeque place for dinner. A very ethnic experience. No one there spoke English so it took a lot of pointing. :)
Thursday 5/28/09
A whirlwind day. In the morning the teammates from Korea picked Greg and I up at the hotel, we drove about an hour to the local airport, bought tickets for Busan, flew an hour, got off and rented a car, drove an hour to the Korean DoD location. Just a day's commute :) Greg and I put together some slides along the way.
We presented and spoke to some people who will be working on a submarine project, and some researchers from their Defense Development agency. They seem to need some serious help with Systems Engineering. Then, drove back to the airport, bought a ticket on the next plane back, then drove through the horrible traffic to the hotel. Got back about 8pm. A long day.
Kim's posting some of the pictures on her Facebook. Check here to see: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=233064&l=5f5ca7252b&id=1633509060
Saturday, May 23, 2009
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