Another month goes by...
The continuing saga of life in Cincinnati...
Well... It's coming up to 6 months since I
arrived here in Cincinnati. In two weeks time, I'd have spent 6 months here.
I need to make 8 months and 1 day to outlast Soon San, when she was over here
on assignment. :-)
Truth be told, it hasn't been that bad. The
work could be better, but I was brought in to clear up a mess, so it's going
to be messy. Nothing to do about that. This last month, the work really took
off, and it was decision making after decision making. We had a deadline to
meet, and didn't get the last bits done till the day before the deadline.
Before then I had to navigate my proposals through the Tax Directorate - all
the regional directors. Linda, my colleague, had never worked at this level
before, and it was a time of great learning for her how things were
pre-proofed with allies before the actual presentation of the findings ever
took place. As I kept telling her, "No surprises - there must be no
surprises..." Now, I hope to have the rest of the month and June to actually
create a defence file. A case file to present our story - the way we see it.
Time to get the creative juices going, because to get this file done, I might
have to be as creative as I was in doing my timesheets when I was back in
public practice. Always called doing my timesheets "doing a Jeffrey
Archer..."
As for the city, it really isn't that bad.
Come on - we even had a Cincinnati Fringe festival!!! Okay - blink and you
would miss it, and it certainly does not compare to the granddaddy of fringe
festivals, the Edinburgh Fringe. Having said that, the Edinburgh Fringe is a
fringe festival, it's held around the Edinburgh International Festival, which
showcases "high-brow" classical performances, while the fringe - showcases
anything and everything else. I attended it once, and believe me, I can still
feel the vibrancy of Edinburgh during the fringe - at every street corner,
people were advertising their performances later that night - or actually
performing. Cincinnati's was a little tamer - but the newspapers did mention
there are only 5 fringe festivals in North America, and this year is
Cincinnati's first. It isn't a month long, but they are planning the next
year's already. Of course, if we have the Cincinnati Fringe, we need
something highbrow, right? Well, the longest running choral festival in the
Western Hemisphere is now on in Cincinnati - the May Festival. So.. it isn't
that bad after all. Oh - for those who wanted contemporary, we had "Jammin'
on the Main" two weeks ago, when the shut down main street, and set up stages
and had modern music. The two sops to the oldies were ... REO Speedwagon, and
as always, Blondie. No, I gave that a miss as it was cold and wet.
Yes, the Cicadas are here. No our pavements
are not covered by them, but in the older parts of the city, their chirping is
loud and incessant. Not unlike the sound of the rural countryside in the
evenings..the chirping of crickets. Except that this is all the time, day or
night. I suppose I grew up with birds in the house, so the noise would not
really bother me. Then again, I live downtown, and we do not really have
them. And yes, when they die, the stench is something else...
And yes, Cincinnati's air quality is one of
the worse in the USA. The past few days have been days of glorious sunshine,
which has meant days of double antihistamines and decongestants and eye drops
- you know it is bad when I need eye drops!! I wonder how long this will
last. Right now, I cannot open my bedroom windows anymore. Earlier this
week, I was having difficulty sleeping and was waking up in a bad way despite
having an air filter. Then realised I had opened the window earlier in the
week, so off came the old sheets and on came the new. Relief! Oh well.
Another adjustment to my life.
Like driving. I still do not really like
driving, and I still do not think driving 4 hours to Chicago is a activity I
would want to engage in. Did I tell you the Americans have great Interstates
or highways, which I get on, and go to the rightmost lane, hit cruise control
when I hit the speed limit. Which around here, is the minimum speed people
travel. And they wonder why the death toll on the interstates is so high.
And the Americans have two things which are crazy. The first thing are 4 way
stops. This is in effect, a cross-road. However, unlike the Brits who
would have marked on the roads which one had right of way, the Americans put a
"Stop" line on all 4 junctions, and whoever stopped first, gets to go first.
I find this crazy, but hey. Okay 4 way stops involve cars which have stopped
moving. The more scary thing is that in America, when you get onto the
acceleration ramp to merge on a highway, you could find yourself merging onto
the Interstate on the LEFT-most lane, i.e. the fastest lane. Remember, the
speed limit is the minimum speed these people travel. And if you are
unfortunate, the merge takes place on a bend... Scary!
Well...I've now owned my car for a little
over 3 months, and Subaru sent me a note calling the car in for servicing. I
rang the service centre up and told them that I had 690 miles on the clock.
After the manager stopped laughing, he told me to bring it in at 1000 miles or
6 months whichever sooner. Well - the car really only comes out on weekends,
and some weekends, it comes out one day - church to groceries and back.
Still. Some do wonder how I managed to clock the 690 miles just doing that
circuit.. The great thing of a sporty car is having the sunroof which I can
open. The bad thing is that with my allergies, it stays open about 15 minutes
after which the roof goes firmly back on, and my allergen-filtered
air-conditioner comes on. Full blast...
We have a guy in our church choir, Gerald,
who recently graduated from Miami University with his Masters in Music.
Normal enough guy. Until he sang a solo one Sunday. I had wondered about
how the choir sits, but Gerald always seemed to get the pew with the women. I
will confess my ignorance, but he was a male alto singer - a counter tenor. I
was amazed. I didn't know they existed. But when he was singing, I could
close my eyes and imagine a black woman singing because it was a woman's
voice, but with the power of a man. It was amazing. Well...thanks to the
wonders of the web, I could do some research on this. Yes, there is now a
renaissance in the counter-tenor voice - a sound that used to belong to the
voice of the castrati - the male singers castrated to preserve their voice.
It was an eye and ear opener. The choir recently had a concert, and Gerald
was wearing a black t-shirt that showed off his biceps - leading to a comment
that we now know he is a true counter-tenor as those biceps needed a dose of
testosterone castrati would never have...
I realise now that my yearning for exploring
new cities has really gone. 6 months, and I have yet to leave Cincinnati...
Actually I do need to get out as I am beginning to crawl up the wall. BUT
guess what - it took me hours, but I still could not plan a vacation. I mean,
I was making decisions involving millions of dollars, without so much as a
pause to sip my coffee. Now, I can't even decide where to go. Well - I
managed to tag one on the back of a course I'm doing in Washington DC. BUT I
couldn't book a trip to the UK, despite the fact I am signed up for a course
there. I just seem to have lost it. Last time, I could just book a flight to
Copenhagen, and worry about what I was going to do when I got there. Now, I
can't be bothered... Is this age??? I wonder...
Anyway. I must sign off and head to bed.
Didn't have much of a dinner, but the brunch with Howard, Brad, Gerald and
Jean was so big, and so bad, I swore dinner would be a salad. I had slightly
more than a salad for dinner, but yes, 3 fried eggs, loads of hash browns,
sausages, bacon washed down with Coke for brunch is not good....
Till next time...
***************************************************************************
It is our choices that show what we
truly are, far more than our abilities..."
~ Prof
Dumbledore
Homepage:
www.oocities.org/dazzakoh
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Amended on:
Sunday August 01, 2004