If it's the first Sunday in the month...
The continuing saga of life in Cincinnati...
...it must be time to
hit the road again!
I'm just not doing this
right. I was going to the UK mid-September. Somehow I agreed to going to
Germany on business in the week before then. ("But you might as well come
here before you go to the UK...") This is really not turning out to be a good
idea for me...
(i) I usually book my
flight beforehand. Making me change my ticket costs money, but what I dislike
more is not so much the financial cost, but rather the hassle of not just
booking flights, but working out which company policy I come under just to be
reimbursed, or at least not be out of pocket. Last time when the German trip
was tagged to my home leave, it took two and a half days to work out the
replacement flights, and the policies under which I could claim. This time
round, it took a day and half to work out the right combination of
flights/policies etc. It's hassle I could do without...
(ii) When I go on
holiday, I do not lug along a computer, files, papers, suits, ties and proper
shoes. Unfortunately, the German operations I will be visiting do not believe
in smart casual - back to lugging suit and tie around. After all those stuff,
there really isn't much space for shopping left in my luggage... Unless of
course, I were going for job interviews, in which case the suit and ties would
come in handy. Hmm.. now that's a thought...
(iii) These meetings
are important meetings, and really, it would be better for me to go straight
into the issues after the meetings, rather than try to "take a vacation" and
forget about the things. In many ways, that's my fault: unlike some people
I know who can leave the office behind, it takes me a while to do that. And
when I am only away for a week, by the time I really relax, it's time to get
into gear for work again!
(iv) It's worse with
this trip as I will be flying back into what I forecast would be a rather
turbulent meeting back in Cincinnati, where our Western Europe finance folk
are coming in for a showdown with our business process team. I would if I
could, take an extra day or two of vacation and duck the whole issue, but in
many ways, Linda (my colleague) and I have been instrumental in identifying
some of the issues that are the subject of the showdown. Well, it's now a
global issue, and other regions will have ring-side seats at this meeting. I
hope it all peters out before I come back, but Linda said she'd keep me
informed...
Anyway. Enough about
work. For now, that is...
++++++
Well. I've had the
great experience of calling 911 - the American version of 999 for help.
Let's see how can I
best relate this: I had returned from my home leave, and come Sunday, wanted
to go to church. I couldn't get unlock the car with my remote control. Oh
oh. Okay, maybe after all those weeks, the battery just went flat. So I
called Subaru Assist, who sent someone out to jump the car. And it did
start. So I said thank you, and drove out. Then at the first traffic light,
I noticed the lights on my instrumentation fading. I immediately tried to
turn on the hazard lights, and move the car to safety. Then the car cut out.
And started locking down - The steering locked, the shift selector locked, the
pedals locked, even the keys locked. The only thing that worked was the
door, so I got out and called for help.
Thankfully, it was a
Sunday morning, and there was little traffic on the road. However, I was in
the middle of the road - literally. And had no hazard lights or any means of
warning other cars. So I called the cops.
Anyway. The long and
the short of it all, is that in leaving a small vanity light on in the car
before I went on my last trip, I did not just drain my battery - I killed it.
Dead. And my Subaru is equipped with an anti-theft device that claimed to
(and I can verify that it can) effectively lock-down a car and prevent it from
moving. Guess what? It's set to lock-down a car if the battery is removed -
a way some car thieves disable car alarms. So with the battery dead, the
anti-theft kicked in.. and I was left with a disabled car.
A mounted policeman
came by and stayed with me until the tow truck came. Every now and then, he
would ride into the street to put himself between the on-coming traffic and
the car... again, I can only thank God it was Sunday, and that I was still
downtown when the lock-down occurred. Having the cop there was pretty
reassuring, and in fact he was a really great guy. I actually remembered to
write to Capt of the District to express my gratitude.
The next day, I got my
car back from Subaru with a brand new battery - and no charge for all the
services received. Trang,
my ex-boss (well I don't directly report to her, but in the weird ways of P&G,
she's still my "functional manager"- whatever that means) was most surprised
that Subaru did not charge me anything for the towing & repair. In her words
-it was probably because it was a Japanese operations... Then again, my
Japanese colleague here looked me in the eye and said, " Don't you think
leaving a light on inside your car for three weeks, destroying the car battery
is a little negligent?" Okay Takeshi, but I'm not going to argue this
point....
Oh by the way - at the current rate of driving my car
will finally make 1,000 miles at the end of this month. That's 6 months
before I've officially broken-in the car... I'm afraid Colin is right: when
it's time to sell the car, no one and absolutely no one will believe that
mileage on the car.
+++++
I can't remember but,
have I ranted about service here in the US? Especially the airlines? If I
have, forgive me. BUT I must admire the length they go to avoid giving bad
service. They now do not give any service at the check-in counters. Here, you
check yourself in, tag your own baggage, and carry them to the baggage people to
put it in the plane. I suppose I should not complain. They might want me to
load it into the plane myself...
+++++
Last Thursday, I gave
up on trying to do my AQP and wanted out. AQP is our in-house Accounting
Qualification Programme, which all of us in Finance & Accounting have to
accomplish or else we cannot "progress". Theoretically, if we were qualified
public accountants (like I am) we could submit an Accounting Resume to our
internal Accounting Qualification Board, who would assess if we were up to
scratch. However, the Tax Department has finally decided to comply with the
edicts of Finance, and we are under the cosh to complete all everything in
time for the Tax Leadership's meeting at the end of September.
Here am I, chartered
accountant of England & Wales of 12 years standing, with current CPE, having
to click through a web based training and examination on basic accounting...It
was fun at first, because it was a matter of how fast I could get through the
stuff...However, I am about to leave for Germany/UK, and I had to get through
so many, and what didn't help was when the computer system did not register I
had completed and passed the training... :-(
Still once the novelty
and fun wore off, and the boredom and frustration set in, I just had to carry
on and get through them - that's the way this game is played. I can choose to
play or walk away. At the moment, I'll play, but I can see that there will
soon come a time I will decide to walk on by.
So on Thursday, I gave
up and went out for dinner with Brad and Howard. I hadn't seen Howard in
weeks thanks to my travels. I saw Brad when I visited his Church for service
last week. His service starts 30 minutes later than my church, where Howard
is the organist. On some days, those 30 minutes can be oh so important to the
process of getting out of bed!
Anyway. Dinner was in
a part of Cincinnati I've never been to, called Northside. I was on an
instant messenger with Howard when he suggested Northside. I asked him if the
Northside was near the Darkside... He said he wasn't sure, but we'd have to go
round Springrove Cemetery to get there... I had a chuckle so I told Linda
about my IM exchange. And somehow the conversation drifted into the topic to
cemetery plots (Linda was telling us how she and her siblings have bought
plots near each other in Springrove), funeral practices (I didn't realise that
in New Orleans, they do not "bury" the dead - the tombs are all above ground
thanks to the water table), and arranging funerals (a new colleague of ours,
just buried his still-born daughter). Someone asked Linda why she had done
this morbid deed of buying herself a plot. Her response which I agreed and
supported, was that during the time of grief, the last thing one would be
thinking about would be all these funereal arrangements. I could share my
experience of burying my uncle, how there's so much to do, and if you did not
have it all planned before, or have someone who could remain detached, you
could be scalped by funeral directors who would offer you "...the best for
your loved one who has passed on.." Well...if she's passed on, she sure does
not need the lead-lined hermetically sealed casket made of rare sequoia wood,
lined with the freshest rose-scented silk that is just going to sink into the
ground out of sight anyway! As we told the funeral director when we went to
choose a casket for my uncle, "Tim was a practical, down-to-earth person.
Keep it dignified, and simple." Then again, this is the practical side of
me. I'm definitely of the toast-and-toss persuasion. If in living my life,
I have not touched the lives of the people who meet me in ways that they
remember me by...then a 6 x 3 plot with a marble vase is not going to help.
It's the old footprints-in-the-sands-of-time idea: the physical bits will
pass, but the memories - ahh! In the memories lie our immortality. That's
how great people live on.
And how was dinner?
It was great! A place called "Slim's" on Hamilton Avenue. Very simple, fixed
price meal. But delicious, although when things were sweet, they were really
really sweet..
++++++
Rather morbid turn of
writing that. Must be too may hours of trying to do 8 AQP training for the
past few days and nights! Thankfully, they are done! Once I finish this note,
I'll start packing my things for the trip. Polish the shoes, press the shirts
etc. I am looking forward to the trip to England. It will end with a
weekend workshop at the seminary with whom I'm doing my theology studies. But
before then, I'll spend a week based in London, catching up with old friends,
and in between lunch and dinner, do some reading, have lot's of coffee, walk
the great London parks and just sorting out some thoughts about life, the
world and everything. Rather expensive city to be spending time ruminating,
but I'll be living most of it in university alumni accommodation. Back to
being a student, but it will be waaaaaaaayyyyyy cheaper than being in a
hotel. I will be in a hotel for the first weekend I'm there, but that was
unexpected, and results from the German trip. If not, I'd have booked myself
into the alumni rooms for the whole stay in London. And cost can be kept down
by scrounging lunch and dinner invites :-)! Hey - I buy when people visit
me. It's just fortunate or unfortunate that I'm currently in a part of the
world no one wants to visit...Still. I'm looking forward to meeting some
people I haven't seen in years - some for 10. Yup - it's been 10 years since
I left the UK. I went there for university in 1986, and finally left in
1994.
Yes, it will be good to
meet some of the old guys again... Okay. Till my next letter.
Regards Darren
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Amended on:
Saturday September 04, 2004
