West Coast Travels

Hi from San Fran. Having fun bouncing around visiting Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle and San Francisco so far. A lot of fun, but also a lot of work. Got the UK work visa taken care of and then the application mailed off in Vancouver, but this left me passportless so I had to do a land crossing to get into the US. And now training taken care of in SF and working here for a couple more days.

I'm heading to LA on Wednesday for a work medical and visit with friends and going to catch up with my brother's family in Anaheim Saturday night. And since my UK visa has been approved (in amazingly short turn around!), I'll be able to fly back to Calgary (was worried I'd have to do another passportless land crossing). Though Calgary will just be for a day to pack up furniture to move to Winnipeg (so much fun). Thinking furniture will be for a new cabin I'm buying with my dad in Arnes.

Must say I've taken on too much work and since I'm doing more work than I'd like. Seems management type work means I can't just disappear without responsibility anymore. Kind of sucks. With that said, I should be back in Winnipeg by ~Aug 29 and back in London August 6 for a meeting. Of course all the HR stuff hasn't been settled, which is a bit of a stress, but I assume it will get taken care of. So in the meantime, here's a couple fun links...

108 Occidental Gallery
My friend Justin has opened an art gallery in Seattle. Check it out if you're in Seattle!

3Prong Power Inc
Friend Dan in Berkeley has started up a company that upgrades Toyota Priuses to full electric. Saw one of the cars yesterday and was quite neat.

www.drhorrible.com

When the Hollywood writers went on strike last winter, it was speculated that television and film's loss would be the Internet's gain.

It's been several months since the strike concluded, but there's finally evidence that that lull in production has resulted in a game-changing online creation from Hollywood professionals looking for a new avenue.

The first episode of the three-part Web series “Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog” was posted Tuesday at drhorrible.com, and it doesn't take a mad genius to realize its quality, its humour and its inventiveness signify a great leap forward for online video.

The series stars Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother”) as Dr. Horrible, a wannabe mad scientist who blogs about his unrealized dreams for world domination and his refused entry into to “Evil League of Evil.” For example, he's working with a vocal coach on his maniacal laugh....

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080717.wgtdrhorrible0717/BNStory/Technology/home

London music and decisions made

I just ticked off #2 last night! (http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/apr/03/london.music http://www.thedublincastle.com/) Apparently the bar (and Camden) is the origin of Madness (of "our house, in the middle of the street.... our house......") judging by all the posters on the wall....

So when is help coming to check out the other venues? Pretty sure I've been to the Hope & Anchor, but didn't see any music. And the Windmill (Brixton) is minutes from my flat.

And speaking of my flat, I just got my transfer offer yesterday and looks like I''m a Londoner. And I think I've swung some deals (with work & landlord) so that I don't have to move out of my flat even though I'll be in US/Canada till Aug 1 (serious considerations at $1700/month). Anyone want to sublet for the next month? Or need a vacation flat in London this July? I'm leaving tomorrow for a week in Milan to "get to know the team" there, then Phillie for a meeting on the June 25-26th, then back Canada to get my Visa and relax (road trip out west for sure). And almost certain that I'll be rolling through SF on my way to London (late July / early August).

I'm kind of unwinding at the moment. Could be travelling to Italy today and enjoying a new city, but I've decided to take my time getting out of London (i.e., leaving tomorrow). Was all kind of stressful this week including balancing two jobs (Olympics and "normal" CH2M are in different offices, so it's almost like 2 jobs) and me rejecting the first transfer offer and having people freak out that I'd go home (which I contemplated, via Africa of course), but worked out in the end. Sort of. Even with a good raise, I'm sure my standard of living will be lower (my latte while writing this email was £2 / $4). Though 25 days of vacation, 8 statutory holidays and a seemingly weeks of sick time (which Brits do flagrantly abuse) will be nice. Not to mention my flight to Italy tomorrow, which I still haven't booked, will be $120 last minute - can't complain about that!!

I babble with my latte induced whir... so... I'll be back in US/Canada all of July and mid-late August till early September I'll be working in Northern Ireland, but besides that (and assuming I don't move, which isn't looking likely) I will have a 1 bedroom London flat with futon in the living room!! And there's lots of good live music! Hint hint :)

Leaving London, but just for a bit...

Hey folks. Just another quick update. I’ve been busy working in London the last month and a bit since Thailand. Mostly working on the Olympics project, but slowly working more on the DuPont projects (Ireland, Netherlands stuff). But only have another week here in London and then need to get out of the country to get my work visa and such. So I’ve given up my flat as of this coming Friday and I’ll be living and working out of our Milan office until flying to Philadelphia for a June 26th meeting. With all this said, I still don’t have my transfer offer, and if it really sucks, I won’t be coming back (my way of ensuring I get my 25% raise to adjust for $6 beer).

Life here has been quite good. I haven’t been travelling at all, mostly because I’ve been content spending time in my own flat and working. It’s been a while since I’ve been this settled in a place I call my own and just as long since I’ve really felt engaged and excited about work (field projects have a different excitement). I must admit that working on the Olympics is a bit energizing. I’m putting together quite a significant presentation for this Monday (dry run) and then Wednesday (to our client) that summarizes most of what I’ve been working on (and the entire team) for the last few months. The presentation will then continue forward (in some form) for a multitude of things (contractor initiations, other client meetings, etc.). So I’m heading into the office momentarily (yes, it’s Sunday) to finish off the presentation. Kind of sad, but since I’m not going to be around for the next month, I’m trying to NOT give the presentation, though it’s looking like I know the information too well and can’t delegate it all. But not much use getting my face up front with the client if I won’t be here to follow through.

And looking forward, I’m hoping to be back in Canada for the July long weekend. Yes I know, apparently this is not the best time to come home with other guests and such in town, but it seems that when you start making work commitments you have a little less say on things. Well, actually, it’s only the June 26th meeting in Philly that has really tied my hands. I could still end up being in Canada till the end of July depending on how long the work visa takes. And when I get back to the UK in late July / early August, I’ll only be here a week or two before heading to Northern Ireland for about a month. That’s it in Ireland though as I’ve kind of insisted on making London my home base for now. After making friends and getting to know the place, I just couldn’t bring myself to moving to Dublin right now. Especially since my company has a much bigger presence in London and isolating myself in Dublin just isn’t the right thing to do.

So hopefully I’ll have a flat in London again by September 1st? (important info for you travelling & likely-to-visit types) Though feel free to come and visit before then if you’d like, but I’ll probably be staying in hotels in either London or Dublin (could be worse). I thought about keeping the flat, and still a chance that I will if work pays for it (which they currently are, but until transfer letter gets in my hands and terms get settled...). Just keeping the flat seems the easiest, but flats seem easy enough to come by and at $1700/month, I don’t think I’ll be here enough in the next two months to justify me paying for it! But then again, moving my crap this week sure seems like a lot of effort too never mind having to look for a place in the future and the idea of hotels again… sigh…

Trying to think if there’s anything else somewhat exciting that I’ve forgotten... hmmm... I've seen a few shows lately including The Weakerthans this past week – a really good indie band from Winnipeg of all places (so had to go). I was supposed to go up to Inverness / Aberdeen this weekend to visit Pat & Stef and Pat’s brother Graham from Victoria (I knew Graham from elementry school / Camp Stephens), but work just got too nuts and I couldn’t take the days off (sheesh – I’m working Sunday!). But next weekend in Italy with my friend Jen from Amsterdam should be loads of fun, so I’ll quit my bitching. And I’ve made a few new friends in France, Spain, etc. that will all make wonderful visits sometime in the near future!!

But that’s it for now, must get to work!! Hope to see many of you in the coming month or so. Definitely those in Winnipeg & Calgary. Maybe those in Victoria? Maybe those in San Francisco / LA (not sure how the US visits might work as I will be passport-less while my visa application is in progress and the US has just put passport requirements in place - maybe on my way back to London, though not exactly on the way, are some work justifications i.e., ways to get work to pay for stop off).

If I had to vent right now... how come Europe is become less restrictive on passports and travel, work, etc. (I travelled from Poland to Germany without a passport!!) while North America is going the other way. Just a thought for the day...

I missed summer in London and what to do with my life :)

I have a few blogs in progress, but doing the photos takes too much effort!! So just thought I'd give a shout from London with no photo.

It's actually mostly sunny today, but cool. When I got here on Tuesday it was really nice, warm and sunny and I'm told it was like that all last week or even longer. And then it started to rain Wednesday and just stopped this morning for a bit (probably rain again this aft). Everyone is joking (sort of) that the last couple weeks were the London summer and that I missed it. Hmmm...

So I'm back working on the Olympics for the next few weeks. And then after that I'm supposed to start working with the usual CH2M HILL office (more commonly referred to as the Kensington office). Not sure how engaged I am in anything right now. Still wondering why I left Bangkok.... the money hadn't run out and there were beaches, massage courses, cooking classes and, well, lots of things to do! Sigh...

So instead of massage course tomorrow, I have a meeting with the regional business group manager that will largely resolve my future in Europe (?). Outcomes range from me saying "thanks, no thanks, I'm going travelling and back to North America to work in a coffee shop" to me getting a really sweet UK salary with paid accommodation (thanks Mum & Dad, I already know your vote!). Reality is probably somewhere in between, but closer to the latter as I'm more ambivalent about what happens right now and they're in dire need. You see, one of the key London hydrogeologists is in the Territorial Army (sort of like reserves) and just got called up to Afghanastan. So its gone from "we're interested in having you join...." to "we're desperate to...". Combined with my ambivalence, seems a good time for negotiating!

Since you're reading this, you get to think through with me what my key requirements are:

1. I'm going to be in London till late June and I'm sick of hotels. They're paying for the accommodation and this will continue (negotiating point #1a), but I want it to be in the form of a per diem that I can use for whatever (point #1b) i.e., there are a couple sublet opportunities that have come my way that will be much nicer than hotels - also, if the sublet is less than my per diem, then I pocket the cash.

2. They've requested I attend a meeting near Philadelphia on ~June 30th. I've already told them I'm taking 3 weeks off in North America after this meeting. I need to confirm this and make sure all tickets are paid for. I'm hoping work in San Fran will pay for a trip there too. And hopefully I'll just have to pay for 1 ticket to Winnipeg. And I need to move the meeting so I can make the Canada Day long weekend in Winnipeg.

3. Upon returning from North America in say late June, they want me to work in London for a bit and then work in Dublin. Ideally they'd like me to settle in Dublin for the rest of the year, but they'd accept a London residence if I resist (client is in Ireland and the client is pushing for "local staff" even the project site is in Northern Ireland and would still require flying to the site???). And they'd also like me to support the same client in the Netherlands and France. Which all sounds great in a lot of ways, but wow, I'm just starting to make a group of friends in London and thinking about which neighbourhood I'd like to settle in and now boom, time to change cities again! I've been living out of the same two suitcases since January and haven't been more than a month anywhere in probably the last two years!! And if I settle in Dublin then I won't be able to work on the Olympics project at all because they're in London and.... So many things to consider. If they want me to be mobile and live in Dublin, then we're seriously talking a "show me the money" type thing. Settling down somewhere is high on my priority list and this sounds like the opposite.

4. I'm a part time employee. Everyone seems to forget this including you, me, my boss, everyone I work with, etc. This is my attempt to make work a lower priority and other things (historically travel, relationships, volunteer work, etc.) a higher priority. I'm more or less failing and working too much and doing too little of the other things. Good for the bank account, bad for the life. How can I tell work people that I will commit to stuff but don't want to work too much? I pulled it off fine in San Francisco after working for many years and then people just accepted it because I did a good job when I did work (usually) and maybe more so just because it was San Francisco (more laid back than London). But I need to subtly bring this up tomorrow that I don't want to manage 3 projects, support 4 others and work on 60 hours per week. Or if I do work 60 hours per week, I take every second month off (which is fine when you work field jobs, almost like contract work, but not so hot when you're managing the projects with a high level of responsibility).


Okay, since I'm babbling after 2 cups of coffee, here's a funny one. This was my list of priorities from an email exchange between Laurel and myself a couple weeks ago (I've deleted her answers as I wouldn't want to influence anyone - also her response of "move to Ireland for the hot Irish chicks" while very true, I'm thinking going where the chicks are hottest isn't the best way to plan my life... though there is definitely more thought required on this point). She was requested to put these in order or priority and figure out what to do with my life. Feel free to take a stab and then I'll average responses and do what people say so that I don't have to make any decisions myself :) Cheers!

__ Work on Olympics project in London - committed (and now doing) May 13 - May 31

__ Start long-term commitment for Ireland/Netherlands/France project June 1

__ Support a project in Canada, ~1-2 week effort (could fly to Canada, but not
conducive with above European work commitments or Canada vacation schedule)

__ Visit friends (Jen L. and Darran & Jenny) in Netherlands (but might be
working there soon enough to make visiting now silly)

__ Visit Canada for at least 2 weeks (family in Winnipeg, move stuff in Calgary)

__ Visit Calgary to move possessions from friend's basement to ??? and to help
Mr. McNeil celebrate finishing his PhD!! Thinking of maybe putting my car
back on the road to drive out to Calgary, maybe Vancouver too in first weeks
of July...

__ Visit Laurel in Egypt? Ethiopia ? E....? some E country in Africa :)
Actually, it's Ethiopia, and could also do some Engineers Without Borders work
in Tanzania. But I don't think Africa is worth it unless I can take a full
month off and just not sure how to fit this into my upcoming work schedule.

__ Visit San Francisco to do training, have fun, etc. Could almost certainly
get work to pay for this if I was already in North America.

__ More travelling, maybe China, maybe India in October with a newly-made friend,
France to visit some new friends, maybe over there, how about there, how
about... (again, work commitments seem to inhibit my travel desires)