Well Finally!...
The continuing saga of life in Cincinnati...
Who would have guessed that it would be 6
months and 25 days before I finally go on my first trip out of Cincinnati.
Yes, it's been that long already. My boss used to tell me, "You have to get
away from there you know. There must be enough business reasons for you to
get out of there..." such was his concern for my sanity.
Then again, as I said in my earlier e-mail,
life here may not be ecstatic, but I'm not suicidal either. I've been to too
many concerts of a classical nature, been to Josh Groban's concert, Michael
Bublé's concert, been to the Comedy Club down in Kentucky for an evening's
stand-up comic entertainment. Dinner at friend's or with friends. Okay one
movie. And I think the thing that has been occupying most of my time are my
studies in complementary therapy and my Christian studies. Between these two
things, and all the other stuff, I've sort of been fully occupied. Now I
haven't even started doing the "tourist" things in Cincinnati - going on
architectural walking tours (Cincinnati has an amazing amount of buildings in
the art deco style. I could just spend hours just standing outside various
buildings admiring the art deco work... however most are banks, and I could be
arrested for "casing a joint"...), visit the aquarium - supposed to be one of
the best in the USA, visit the Music Hall, the various art museums etc.
That's coming up... I do have to ensure I leave enough things to do when I
run out of things to study!
Work has been a bit of a bummer. Recent
incidents do not inspire any confidence in the Tax leadership. We recently
hired a new VP from outside. Right now, there are a few directors I do trust,
but the truth of the matter is, they are but cogs in a system that leaves me
wondering what's in it for me here. They also persist in this quaint
American idea, that everyone needs a "broadening" assignment. I would have
thought working at the United Nations for the Security Council was pretty
broad, but nooooo. Broad means broad within the company. Strange how they
have this blinkered view that one cannot acquire the right skills outside of
the company. You must do a broadening assignment else you do not have the
right skills for management. Strange that no one has been able to point to
which skills I am deficient in, seeing that in my years of working as a
consultant has taught me to learn about any client I work with, and learn
fast. So most areas of the company I have been in touch with, I have learnt
enough to work on. Anyway. To date, they think I'm being facetious when I
ask them to find me a hospital that tells a gynaecologist he (why are they
mainly men?) cannot be promoted to chief gynaecologist without spending a year
in paediatrics. And by the way, would they send their daughter to that
hospital knowing that the gynaecologist she sees, might be, say, a
proctologist?
Too many things have happened to leave me
wondering if this vapid environment is what I truly want. However, being
here in this quiet US city means that I have the time to concentrate on my
other interests, so the work front, while a major part of my life, is not
going to be my life! It pays the bills, and that's what it'll remain. In
the meantime, work from the past 6 months is piling up, but even more work is
on the horizon. I'm glad I published all the days I'm taking off the
remainder of this year, because it has stopped people booking things into my
calendar. Did I mention that this year, I ended up with 2 years worth of
vacation days to take in 6 months? Well nearly. Up till now, I had taken a
week in single days and half days. That still left 7 weeks vacation in 6
months. Someone muttered something about "When are you going to do any
work?" My response was, "You guys had a year of me without annual
leave...and I'm not going to forfeit my leave!"
On the studies front, my current studies in
Christian Ethics has also forced me to stop and tease out my thoughts. Word
of advice: unless you are one with a knack for philosophical deliberation,
don't take a topic like ethics. I can't say I really like it, but having
signed up, I'll just have to finish. By ethics, I don't mean the silly games
that professions now play by asking all its members to pass Ethics
examinations: those were merely another set of rules to learn and pass.
Here, what would normally be a snap decision, has to be teased out and
analysed to find the framework, the underlying basis for a particular thought
or idea. A very tiring process. However, it was also quite timely, as I was
taken through reflecting on the use and abuse of power, war, nuclear weapons,
the separation of church and state. All very timely here in the land of Mr
George W Bush. Right now, I'm slowly progressing through the topic personal
relationships. I came in one morning and Linda asked how my weekend was. So
I told her, "Sex, sex, sex and more sex. All I was thinking about the whole
weekend was sex!" She burst out laughing. I had told her beforehand I would
be covering personal relations in my readings. It made for a good start to on
a Monday morning.
Anyway. If you remember, I mentioned a
while ago that I felt I had lost the urge to see new cities, and that I was
feeling a little old. In a sense, perhaps that is so. The reason why I am
off to Washington DC tomorrow is that there is a Lymphatic Drainage course I
want to attend there. Now Lymphatic Drainage massage is a special form of
massage used in Europe for the treatment of lymphoedema. It was devised by Dr
Emil Vodder, and his techniques are still the most widely used around the
world. This stimulation of the lymphatic system is used in complementary
therapy as a boost to the immune system, to control water retention and to
deeply relax the subject. Although I took a course in this in Singapore, and
have a certificate from Raffles, to see it done by the Vodder school would be
good. It will be a good refresher and I hope it will be fun. After the 3
days of courses, I have all of 5 days to wander around Washington DC, to take
in the history and grandeur, and of course, the 4th of July. One would think
that there would be some celebration of Independence Day in the capital of the
USA... Anyway. I'll let you all know whether wandering around a city, just
me and my Lonely Planet guidebook still works.
I still cringe whenever I hear pompous Brits
and Europeans (the necessary use of the conjunctive "and" here does tell you
that Brits are not Europeans. Neither camp think so, and neither should we)
proclaim dismissively that Americans have no culture. Usually said by people
who believe that all Americans live as they are portrayed on television.
Now, to base an opinion only on soap operas and reality shows does point to a
distinct lack of thought... Anyway. Culture. Of course America has culture
- a rich tapestry even. It's just something you have to sit, look and learn.
Perhaps "learn" is too ambitious an aim. Accept. That's is probably the
better term. Take for instance, American men and their trucks. Why do
American men of the Mid-West and the South like their trucks? Young boys
aspire to own one. Men end up owning more than one. They are not the world's
most comfortable form of carriage, and while the storage space is helpful for
when someone is moving, other than those particular times, why would you drive
around in a truck? One day, I turned to Linda and asked her why her husband
was so hung up on getting a new truck since they gave away the last one to
charity. She turned round and said, "Please find out and tell me. By the
way, when you go down to Texas, they all have their shotgun hanging out in
their trucks." On the other hand, there is that Southern hospitality. The
vowels get longer, and the expected banter gets loooongeeer. It's charming.
But one thing though - southern Ice Tea is not something I'd give any
diabetic. It's like having a little tea with your sugar. And I mean a
little tea with your sugar. Still - they have interesting food (ever had a
burgoo before?) and interesting way of life. Will the march of
homogenisation, I mean globalisation reach inland into these areas too? Who
knows. What I do know is that when someone speaks of the Americanization of
another country, they are not speaking of the American values of the South.
Nope, not at all.
Okay. I should end here and head off to
bed. I have to come back from church tomorrow and actually start packing for
the next 9 days. My concession to the company for taking leave straddling the
year-end is that I am going to bring my computer along with me. I'll just
check-in every evening just to be sure there are no fires. If there are, they
have my mobile number anyway. I am hoping to bring everything in one carry-on
bag. Now after years of travelling on business, would I be able to slum it
and take only the minimum...? The barest minimum? We shall see. I used to
have a bag that just fit the carry-on requirements which travelled the
trans-Siberian with me, and that was great as I could stuff it and know I
could still bring the bag on. Now, all my bags are either over or under the
carry-on requirement. Those which are under, are really over-nighters for
those turnaround short trips I used to do from Singapore. So I bought another
bag touted as "fitting carry-on requirements". Now either they have shrunk
the carry-on requirements, or I have just imagined the old bag was bigger.
I will know when I start packing...
Anyway. Until the next time, my best wishes
with you all. Do write to me and let me know how you all are doing. Apart
from good old Lesley and Paul from Singapore, the rest of you have fallen
rather silent lately...
Warm regards
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Amended on:
Sunday August 01, 2004
