Tight on space in Tokyo?

Here is my room in Tokyo. Looks a bit tight, but the hotel is 35 stories tall and appears to have a modern meeting room...

Some recent emails from around the world...

The Latin Americans were kind enough to send me some photos of my session last week.
That is me waving my arm to get their attention.


The team photo - I'm in the back row! (Ken, from the UK, is in front of my right shoulder, and Frank, his boss, from Germany, is in front of his right shoulder. Ken is about 5' 4" and Frank is about 6' 4")

The Japanese folks sent me a map to find the hotel...

And Ken and Frank sent me an email with a heads up that I'll likely be in Istanbul around April 19 and Germany the next week to present to the next two layers of management.

Exciting times around here. Should I keep reading emails, or should I just close that portion of my computer down?

Oh, all right, one more short Brazil story

Now that I am home, I will tell you that I was told it was legal to run red lights between 10 PM and 6 AM. Seems the risk of getting hit is less than the risk of being mugged. In addition, the motorcycle drivers were absolutely crazy down there.

I am home

After a very confusing procedure at the Sao Paulo airport and an hour and a half of one line after another, I was on board and on my way home. I took and ambien after dinner and slept for 7 hours! I woke up at 430 Thursday morning so I was pretty exhausted anyway.

My session went very well; and I was pleased as were Ken, from the UK, and his boss Frank, from Germany. I'll see them in ten days in Tokyo, in the mean time I am home for a little over a week.

Other than being delayed 90 minutes in departing from Sao Paulo, there was an intentional work stoppage; the reason for the lines, the flights were uneventful. My friend Ted, wisely checked on my arrival status and decided we would not have enough time to have a good visit, and as it turned out he was right. My plane was 20 minutes late in landing and I only had about 5 minutes as it was to visit the Red Carpet club and pull down some emails before hustling off to the plane.

I did not watch any movies this time, but slept and read. Please don't forget to come back to my blog sire in early April for more reports from Tokyo.

Signing off, for now, to go be with Lynn, my cleaning and laundry and the pile of envelopes covering my desk.

What is so special about today?

This evening, I get to start flying home. I have a 920 PM flight that gets in to Dulles at 630 AM Friday, a two hour layover (hopefully a visit with my friend Ted Howard) and then depart at 830, landing at DIA at about 1030 AM. Stew, I am afraid it will be dark when I fly over the Amazon, or I would watch out for your buddy, swimming up the river. I think he is pretty far west, and out of my flight plan anyway.

Yesterday was a long day; about 80 % in spanish. Hard to pick up all that I wanted to, but still a good day. (I wonder how I'll manage in Japan; as at least I could pick up some key words in Spanish.) I have my workshop this morning and then a session with Ken and Frank to discuss my observations and recommendations. I feel very good about today. I discovered that one translator will not be there at all today and the other will be about 30 minutes late, but I'll be fine. Seven out of nine of them speak and hear English fairly well. They translate for each other. Their writing may not be the best, so I may offer to allow them to write their stickie notes "en espanol".

last night we went to a fish restaurant - departing for dinner at 8 and leaving the restaurant at 11! I feel like I am staying up until bedtime Colorado, but I get up at breakfast time in London. I was up at 430 AM local time today - just wired, I guess. I may take and ambien on the plane to help me to sleep tonight. I fly United and I don't think the seats are as comfortable, but I'll feel like I am back in the USA; for a week, at least.

I was thinking of the people I have been with in the last two weeks and all of the countries they represent. Pretty amazing, I think. As I think of each, I recall little nuances of some of them, their accents, the relationships we built, the things we discussed. What an enriched two weeks!
Ken and Frank are turning out to be good, fun traveling companions. That makes this job much more enjoyable. If they weren't, I would not be such a good writer and as writers go, I AM THE BEST, don't you think? Talk to me...

How is Latin America, you ask?

Yesterday, we had a half-day kickoff for our meetings here. I was very impressed with the Regional Director. First of all, he showed up! He gave a wonderful kickoff message and plans to stay with us for this meeting. He is committed to this change and it is clear his people know that.

The people (two levels below him in reporting structure) were from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. (Sorry Stew, Panama is not represented...) Some are much better in English than others, so every now and then we stop and let them translate for each other. I can pick up about 10% of what I hear, but it is beautiful to watch.

I gave my half hour overview and I felt very good about it. Today is the workshop which I will just observe and take my notes. Thursday morning is my day to conduct my Change Management workshop. After which, I will spend time with Ken and Frank discussing my opservations and recommendations, at this point. I think I'll recommend another trip to Europe; think that would be a good idea?

I will not tell you what kind of drink I had in the bar, mostly, because I can not recall the name, nor what was in it, but it was OK, a fruity rum drink. We went to dinner at a Brazilian Bar-B-Que. I was hoping to go to one of these and this one, I am told is upscale in price. They serve the meat on a huge skewer.

The waiters come by and slice off whatever kind of meats you want from this large skewer and you take whatever meats you like, form Lamb, to Pork, to fowl, sausages, and several cuts of beef. It is not seasoned in any way, other than rock salt, and then exposed to the fire. It was quite good.

There are four of these restaurants in Brazil (three in Sao Paulo), and one in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, LA, DC, Philladelphia, and Minneapolis. If you get a chance, I'd recommend it, but you should go easy on the breads and salads, or you won't have room for the meat. I have been avoiding fruits and vegetables that might be washed in the local water for fear of the after affects anyway.

So far my stomach is doing fine. By the way Ken's cold is much better. He had flown in yesterday morning and he was falling asleep at the table. It was nice not to be the one doing that, for a change!

It was really interesting to hear the dialog about soccer. Frank was a professional soccer player at 17, in Germany. (He is only 37.) He had a horrible injury that ruined his career, plus some bone/cartilage issues thoughout his body. When he introduced himself to these people, he said he comes from a country that plays real soccer; that the Brazilian teams play nice soccer. This set a tone for some friendly table talk, that I am sure will last throughout the session.

Olives

I was asked if they serve olives "over here" in one of the comments. I started to answer, in the comment field, and as I wrote, I decided this was worthy of "above the fold" coverage. I guess that, in it self, speaks to the lack of exciting stuff around here...

I had some olives in Istanbul, but they just could not make a dirty (gin) martini. I had one in the coctail lounge and it was fine. In the restaurant, I ordered a "gin martini with olive juice and two olives". I went through the buffet and got some olives and cheese. When I got back to my table, there was my martini, without the olives, but there was a lemon in it! I sent it back and said I wanted olives. I reminded them I wanted gin. Remember, I had olives on my plate in front of me. They took it away and brought it back with an olive. The lemon was still in the glass! (I could have just plunked an olive in the glass...) I took out the lemon, tasted it (while the waiter watched) and it was awful. Now, these were $15 a piece. Even though Abbott was paying for it, I just could not waste the money, so I sent it back again. I told them "gin, olive juice and olives." They brought another with olives, but it was vodka. I told the waiter that I had just had a good one in the bar, but then I decided just to drink it and not make an even bigger scene.

Until this morning, I did not think this was newsworthy. Probably still isn't but I got a deadline to meet and I needed to publish something!

My business meetings start this afternoon - that will be good... for all of us.

When my bill came, the waiter apologized that he did not understand what I wanted and he did not charge me for the martini. That is customer service!

Some unexpected travel - read all about it!

I had problems with my internet connection for about 24 hours, and finally gave up and asked to be moved to a different room. First they said it was my cable, so I got one from the front desk - same problem. Then they said it was the whole hotel. Then I found out it was a switch affecting only some rooms. So now, I am on a higher floor (11th vs. 5th), a bit larger room (tiny bit larger, mind you) and a more pleasant view on the other side of the building.

Change is good - even though it was a pain to pack and move, yet again. I had lost count, I guess this was the 5th hotel room, so far...

Other than that, I got alot done these past two days and am ready for Frank, from Germany, to arrive and take me to a nice dinner.

I guess it snowed in London over the weekend - boy was I blessed to have nice weather while I was there.

Sao Paulo Hotel

Here are some photos of my room here at the Grand Hyatt in Sao Paolo.
My room looks exacly like this. (You'll have to click on each square below, or just click on one and see photo's 3, 4 and 5. Sorry, I could not do these the way the rest of the site is done. )

St. Patty's Day - in Turkey, Germany and Brazil

I must confess, I did not even remember what day it was yesterday.

Going through security in Germany was a surprise. I assumed once you go through it in one country, and stay in the secure zones of the airport, you are cleared. Not so. Long wait for this in Germany. I did not have enough time to shop for a Hummel book, beer stein or any other German goodies.

The flight from Turkey to Germany was good, I had a window seat and was able to see the snow-capped mountains of Austria, peeking above the clouds. Similarly, I was also able to view them flying over Switzerland en route to Brazil. My seat was comfortable and the three meals were good. The first was more of a dinner, then a sandwich, then chicken and rice. The Lufthansa flight attendants kept coming by with glasses filled with water and juices, unlike the British Airways flight, when I was given a bottle of water to nurse.

I watched the follwing, and offer my opinions:

• Rocky Balboa - Probably one of the top 7 Rocky movies of all time, at least in the top 10!
• Dream Girls - I was very dissapointed in the music. Rather than re reating the harmony of the Supremes, they musical was more typical of the last 10 years, with a lot of screaming, self absorbed wandering notes. I have seen great movies of the Temptations, Buddy Holly etc. that were much truer to history. Maybe that was not the objective of this movie. Still I had nothing better to do.
• The Queen - I was hoping for some scenes from Windsor Castle, since I was there a week ago (can you believe it?) but it was fun to see.

As predicted, I finished Angels and Demons. I think it was Dan Brown's best book and I recommend it.

A long line to go through passport clearing last night in Brazil, but I still had to wait for 20 more minutes for my bags. A total of an hour waiting and processing in Sao Paulo. It had rained yesterday afternoon, so it was very humid.

A driver was there waiting for me, and we drove for 45 minutes to get to the hotel. There was no freeway, as we have in the US. Mostly 4 lane city streets with stoplights. When I got here the Lufthansa flight attendants were just checking in. They said the prefer staying here, because it is a good hotel. (Pictures above.) I arrived at the hotel at about 9:15 PM, which was 2:15 AM Istanbul time.

I got to talk with Lynn and she is doing well. Keeping tabs on this blog, of which I am very glad. I have received emails from may of you that you are enjoying this site, so I'll keep publishing.

Anyway, a belated Happy Clover Day to you all!

One last comment on Istanbul

The service at the Swissotel was fabulous - the best I have ever experienced.

Itsa small world after all...

Tonight at dinner (at the international buffet in the hotel,) I sat near a couple and their daughter, and I could not help but hear their conversation. I heard "Colorado" and someone's "place up north, in Michigan." I walked over and asked if they lived in Colorado - yes, Littleton. He works in Broomfield. They were on vacation. I said I was leaving in the morning for Brazil. They used to live in Sao Paolo. They have friends who live in Grand Rapids, MI with a place near Traverse City.

You'd have gotten a kick out of this. While waiting for the buffet to open I had a drink in the bar. He suggested I try the Japanese restaurant in the hotel. I smugly said, "I'll be in Tokyo in two weeks, so I think I'll wait." Talk about name dropping!

Good night.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day

Tomorrow, Saturday, I leave the hotel at 6 AM, Istanbul time, to catch an 8:20 AM, 2 hour 40 minute flight to Munich.
I depart Munich on a 12 hour 30 minute flight to Sao Paulo arriving at 7:40 local time, or 12:40 PM Istanbul time, 9:40 PM, Denver time.
There is a 5 hour time difference between Istanbul and Sao Paulo, and a 3 hour time difference between Denver and Sao Paulo.
I am sure I will finish my Dan Brown book, Angels and Demons, and I will start Prey, by Michael Crichton.

A few additional newworthy items

I was told the tour guides spoke english. I got on the bus (alone) at my hotel and the driver had a map above the windshield on the bus. As I am a visual person, I asked him to point out where we were going. It quickly became clear that he did not speak a word of english! I thought "This is going to be a looong morning."

He took me to a point were we were grouped with our tour guides according to the language spoken on the tour. We had a very nice young local man who was quite knowledgeable and spoke fairly good english.

We took our shoes off because the Mosque is still an active holy place - a huge floor of Turkish worship rugs - Friday is holy day and at noon the city is blaring with loudspeakers of the worship chants. People who can not get in the mosques take their shoes off on the sidewalks and worship on their knees and noses right out in public. We were told that the locals do not allow worshiping in the Sophia, (even though it was a Catholic Church for hundreds of years). Even when the Pope's have come to visit, they are allowed to tour the building, as I did, but they may not bless the building or pray in the building.

Yes, those were cats on the motor scooter!

I have tried to call Lynn regularly, but have not had much success. I last spoke with her on Tuesday, seems like weeks ago. She spent two nights at David and Tanya's, so she had good company. My hotel room looks exactly like the room in the photo below.

I sent a load of laundry the other night and it was quite well done. I am set for the next week.

Interesting note, my mom and my boss, our founder, both suggested I take "Airborne" to avoid catching a cold on the planes. I offered Ken, my British boss, a pill, in Chicago, on Friday night, and he said "no thanks mate." Same thing Tuesday at Heathrow, en route to Istanbul. Guess how caught a cold? I supplied him with Contac, Tylenol and Coldeez yesterday morning. He called me last night to tell me he was feeling so badly, he wanted to skip dinner. I saw him briefly this morning and he sounded miserable.

Keep the questions coming, that way I know someone is reading this thing...

You wanted to see some photos?

Here are several of the church of Sophia. It was very dark, but I was able to get some images of Christ's life as represented in the tiles. Most were quite high and quite worn away.



A container of water for washing feet and hands...



Constantine is on Mary's left...



The Altar...




Jesus...

Blue Mosque

These photos do not do the Blue Mosque justice. It was an overcast day (about 55 degrees) and it was hard to get a clear shot.

We were asked to take our shoes off before entering and the blue tiles just don't show very well. It was huge - the third largest place of worship in the world!

This photo shows the folks in my tour group. About a dozen english speaking joined me, the lone American, from Australia, the UK, France, Dubai, and Finland.

Miscellaneous Photos of Istanbul

This is a model of my hotel. My room is on the 4th floor in the lower left tower. The entrance, on the right, is on the 9th floor! Go figure.

This is the view to the west from the elevator. My room faced east...

This is the hotel looking west. In the foreground is a huge soccer stadium.

I guess we are never far from our national presence!

So which one has the cat-bird seat?

Shopping anyone? This place gave me the heebie-jeebies, much more so than New York, New Orleans, or other places I have been. The store owners saw me coming and would follow me down the "Grand Bazaar." We were allowed an hour here and I spent 10 minutes; then just sat outdoors, on a bench and watched and listened to the various people.

This is the Egyptian Obelisk in the middle of the Hippodrome, where the horses raced around this area.

Workshop # 1 is done

I did complete the workshop today in plenty of time. Rushing through a 2-day workshop in a few hours left a lot to be desired from a quality standpoint. I had Country Managers, Generlal Managers all the way down to first-line managers in the session, all with varying degrees of business savvy and experience and varying degrees of the english language, and it showed.
I had a lot of cleaning up to to afterwards (in terms of their input to their change documents.) I think my German and British bosses will see what I have done this afternoon to rationalize the output of the session.

They both commented to me that they want me to come back and do a session for their management. My british boss (I guess I can use his name, Ken) was not feeling well, and in site of my providing drugs to him, was not up to going out for dinner to night. He leaves tomorrow so I'll be on my own tomorrow night here as well. I went to a Swiss Chalet and had Wienerschnitzel for dinner, one of my favorites.

The location was not as breathtaking as last night's (right on the Bosphoros) water front, but the food was good. It was a bit embarrasing, as I was in a small room with only three tables and the only other patrons was a couple. The young man was putting the moves on a young woman. It was clear they hade not met, and his agressive behavior was appaling to me. She just giggled, like she enjoyed it. I pretended not to be offended. Am I old fashioned or what?

Istanbul Tour

I am set for a tour tomorrow morning (and I will take pictures!)

Introduction to the city's imperial history by driving around the Golden Horn and the great walls of Constantinople.

St. Sophia: The magnificent Byzantine Church of all times; one of the finest and largest architectural works of art in the world. It has been nominated to be the 8th wonder of the world by many historians.

Blue Mosque: One of the biggest mosques of Istanbul from 17th. century architecture is one of the principal adornments on the skyline of Istanbul. Also famous for its blue tiles and 6 minarets.

Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts: Former Palace of Ibrahim Pasha; today a museum in which you can see the old Turkish way of life.

Hippodrome: The former center of sportive and political activities of Constantinople. During the visit you'll be able to see the Obelisk from Egypt, Serpentine Column from Delphi, and fountain of Wilhelm II.

Grand Bazaar: In addition to its historical importance, it's a bazaar that will tempt even the nonshoppers with its rich collection of precious handmade carpets, jewellery, leather and souvenirs.

Another quick update

Last night, all 25 of us took two small busses to a restaurant right on the waterfront. Our first course was quite good, but I have no idea what all of the appetizers were. Second course was a seafood crepe, the third being lamb, of course. The lamb course was served under silver steam covers and 13 wait people removed them all at the same time. I mentioned to the man next too me how blessed I felt, that last night was a dinner at our church where 10% of the people would be served a fabulous meal and 90% would get rice and water, to make it clear how blessed we are. Not to compain, but the dessert was awful!

I was fine; after a Turkish Coffee this morning, right in the middle of my workshop, my computer started a routine to look for SPYware. The group was quite surprised to see my computer do this at 11 in the morning, but my computer thought it was 3 AM!

I have a few administrative things to do, dinner tonight with my British "boss" touring and photos tomorrow, fly to Brazil on Saturday, and then Sunday and Monday to relax. Dinner with my German "boss" Monday night.

I really am fine, although I think I'll try to fit in a nap before dinner so I don't fall asleep on him. I am really doing quite well, in that regard.

I am OK

These people eat dinner very late and get up very early. I am fine. Had a very good day with the group of 25 folks here in Istanbul. Tomorrow is "my" change management workshop, so I need to get a "good night's" rest. I have no pictures, yet, but stories of people and food to share. After noon tomorrow, I'll have more control over my time, so I'll update you all then. For now, I am happy, healthy, well fed, and have some new friends from Dubai, Switzerland, Poland, and S. Africa. I have tasted Sushi, Turkish Delight, and some good foods, of which I have no idea what it was. This hotel (the Swissotel) is very different from the little spot in Maidenhead, UK. It is quite large, quite modern and the foors do not squeak! There are so many buttons near my bed, I bet not even Lynn could figure them out. I had to call downstairs to find out how to turn on my desklamp.

Oh well, even old dogs can change!

Ciao'

Safe

I can not get to my blog to see it, but I did want to report that I am safe in Istanbul. I'll be presenting to day to 17 people from all over Europe. Got in late last night and am up early this morning, Wednesday. It was dark and rainy when I came in and is still pretty much the same, but our meetings are here in this (very modern) Swissotel.

Lynn is down at David's and Tanya's and I am glad. MOre when I can - going to be a busy couple of days, and if I can not get to my blog, I hope I can still add some content. Friday is a free day for me, before I fly to Sao Paulo on Saturday.

So, what did Bob do today on his "day off"

I want to report that what I said yesterday must have seemed so ungrateful. Today was marvelous. I slept very well, thanks to the Ambien. I had Smoked Salmon and scrambled eggs for "breekfast" at the hotel.

Went to Holy Trinity (Church of England) whereupon two one-year old girls were baptized. The church was not quite what I expected - close to our liturgy, but not the same, and I did only recognized one hymn, and at that just the melody and bass parts - the kings english was a bit strange to me.



Then I walked to a little park on the River Themes to read. It was a beautifl day for my activities - a high of 57 degrees.


I was able to empathize with this little black bird, as I am sure he felt like an ODD DUCK!


Then, I walked to the Bel and Dragon, for a beer, a seleection of home made breeds, beef and Yorkshire Pudding (a traditional mid day Sunday meal.) It was served with garlic, and the breeds were served with olives and baked garlic. It was a fabulous meal.

The Queen was In!

I went to Windsor Castle and I can not describe it in words

I was prohibited from taking photos inside, but being resourceful, I'll post a couple of mine and a few from the net. First of all, when the flag is flying, that means the queen is in! As you can see, she was, though she did not come 'round to see me!

I could not believe all of the rooms, china, swords, armor, tapestry, coats of arms, furniture, candles, paintings (on the walls and the ceilings!) and crowds of people.

They had many many dining areas, some for "only" about 30 people and others for state dinners:

Talk about change!

As I went into the Castle, I noticed a sign that indicated that I had missed the changing of the guard, so I took a photo of the guard across the quadrangle.

Then, as I was walking around here came three more guards, marching right at me and then down the way...

Later, just before leaving, I tried to catch the changing of this guard, but I was just a moment late with the camera.

Notice he is so shy, he is looking away!

What a treat!

I was about to leave the castle, and asssumed that the note that St. George's Chapel was closed, since it was Sunday, was accurate. Just for grins, I walked up to the door and it said
"Open for worshippers only - evensong service at 515 PM".

So, I went into town, had some fish and chips and a beer and came back for the evensong service. The choir consisted of 12 men and 12 boys sat facing each other and most of the people were off to the sides.

There were about 15 of us who got to sit right behind the men, look over their shoulders and hear the beautiful harmony. Some with pipe organ accompaniment and some a cappella - just marvelous.

What a treat!

How is the food, you ask?

I did enjoy a small buffett at the British Airlines club in Chicago and a spot of hot chocolate and warm cookie on the plane. Breakfast in bed was some granola, a fruit smoothie and a "bacon roll" (a roll with a slice of warm ham in it.) I was looking forward to going to lunch but between waiting on my luggage (I am spoiled by Denver and Chicago's systems) and the cab ride here, it was noon when I showed up to find they did not have a room. They offered me some tea, a place to open my computer and do a little work, and a cookie.

Last night's dinner was the first real meal. The hotel's presentation of a potato leek soup, a crayfish sausage with a spot of crayfish bisque and the duck breast was quite enjoyable.

I am looking forward to their Sunday breakfast before church and a roast dinner in Windsor, after the changing of the guard at Windsor Castle.

More later!

General Comment

Not to dimish the awesome feeling of being in a foreign country, I will say that the photos of both my seat on the plane and this hotel have me a bit skeptical of the other sights I will see. The seat sounded so comfy, and after about an hour, it was not. I did enjoy seeing "The Departed" (Lynn you would not like it....) and did get up for some stretches. This hotel is in need of updating, but it is a beautiful day and I am going to leave the computer and go enjoy the country side. I can hear the whistles of the referees at the childrens' footbol games down the road.

More after later.

Cheers!

Istanbul - it is becoming clearer

I have discovered that in Istanbul, I am staying at a hotel called the Swissotel for 4 nights.

Check out the view from the standard room. I'll see what I get....

View from the rooftop terrace!

I think I will try to go see the The Church of the Divine Wisdom (Hagia Sophia in Greek) which is one of the most impressive and important buildings ever constructed.
Its wide, flat dome was a daring engineering feat in the 6th century, and architects still marvel at the building's many innovations.
Called Hagia Sophia in Greek, Sancta Sophia in Latin, Ayasofya in Turkish, it was built on the site of Byzantium's acropolis by Emperor Justinian (527-65 AD) in 537 AD.
Ayasofya was the greatest church in Christendom until St Peter's Basilica was built in Rome a thousand years later.
Ayasofya is awe-inspiring--one of the first things to see when you're in Istanbul. Luckily, it's right next to Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and the Byzantine Hippodrome, and right across the street from Yerebatan, the Sunken Palace Cistern.