It’s been awhile. Today I’m going to get a substantial blog post up – I’m committed to doing that today. It’s early on a Sunday morning, the last day in June of 2019. I spent almost the entire month of June in the UK and Ireland, and I arrived home this past Tuesday, and, to be completely frank, I needed to wind down more than just a little bit.
I’m a little worried about my spouse. She took a fall yesterday and she’s banged up a little bit and pretty sore. We’re not kids anymore, capable of bouncing back from a little spill with little or no repercussions. Time to get a little more traction in some key spots around the house.
A little more about the trip I took. I left Lawrence, Kansas on Memorial day, the last Monday in May. Lisa dropped me off at the airport, and I grabbed my backpack, a big suitcase, and a canvas carry-on packed inside a hard-side carry-on – a smart choice, as it effectively allowed me another bag for the trip when it was needed, and it was.
I arrived in Toronto late Monday, and spent a few days there teaching three days of Azure fundamentals to a number of key partners there. It was a great experience, and we had many attendees pass the fundamentals exam and get certified. That was a tremendous win for my fellow trainer, Elias, and me. It was also a lot of fun being in Toronto as the Toronto Raptors were in hot pursuit of their first NBA championship.
Thursday night arrived, and things got real. I hopped a flight from Toronto to London Heathrow, and a connecting flight from Heathrow to Manchester, England. I arrived on Friday, late in the afternoon, and got myself settled in and adjusted prior to the delivery we had on Tuesday. I was working with a few people on that delivery, most notably another member of my training team, Kai, and Kai and I spent the better part of the next week together. We had a solid delivery on Tuesday, got some folks certified, and then hot-footed it to the Manchester airport to catch a flight from Manchester to Dublin, Ireland. Dublin was a lot of fun, but we were under a serious deadline – we arrived at our hotel after midnight, taught all day and implemented a proctored certification exam, then grabbed a train across the island to Galway. It was a beautiful train ride, and it was so green, just as my parents had described it when they had visited Ireland back in the 70’s.
The single worst bed I slept in on this entire trip was in Galway. I won’t be recommending that hotel to anyone I like. That said, I don’t think there were a lot of options for hotels in that little ocean side community. I would definitely go back to Galway for an extended visit, but I know I would be doing so pretty aggressive research about my housing options.
Kai and I had a good delivery in Galway, and, once again, hopped a train from Galway back to Dublin for one more night at the Dublin Westin (single BEST bed I slept in on this trip!). Kai had an early flight from Dublin back to his home base of operations, and I had a late afternoon trip from Dublin to the London Luton airport, way north of London Centre (to be frank, I don’t know how they can still call it London, it was so far out). It was close to my next delivery in Hemel Hempstead, however, so that was my destination. My mistake was booking the trip on Ryanair. Never again. There’s a difference in my mind between a discount air carrier and a blatant money-grab. I’m surprised they didn’t charge by the square for toilet paper, double billing for quilted two-ply. Like I said, never again. They were trying to nickel and dime me to death, and I won’t ever forget that.
I spent a week in Hemel Hempstead at the Holiday Inn, kind of an aging European Spa feel to the place, with workout facilities, a pool, and a hot tub – although I think they referred to it as a ‘jacuzzi’, which I try to avoid as it is a specific brand name.
I taught a five-day class for a great bunch of folks. We had fun taking a look at and exploring Azure, and I think we made an impression. This was my first “solo” delivery on this trip, and I think it went well. I discovered “deliveroo”, which is the UK analog to “Uber Eats”, “Grub Hub”, and “Menufy”. I don’t know how anybody else feels about it, but having food from a variety of vendors available on your cell phone is the height of convenience. There are times that I just don’t feel like getting out and doing stuff after class. I’d prefer to just find my nice, quiet place and chill out. The other thing I liked about the Holiday Inn is that I could use my Amazon Firestick and watch Hulu and Netflix shows. As far as local television programming, the UK analog to SyFy is their Horror Channel, and I spend some time watching old episodes of Star Trek, and another Roddenberry -inspired series, “Earth:The Final Conflict”.
The car selling experience of the owner is going to depend completely on generic tadalafil tablets the bed. Free email marketing also allows more precise monitoring of the effectiveness of buying cialis from canada these mails. There is the way out but which means that you’ll be able to forever obtain low cost generic sildenafil on-line. it’s as effective as authorised sildenafil however prices considerably less and incorporates a progression of tests to guarantee that the generic medication is precisely the same as the first medication. cheap sildenafil http://greyandgrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/City-Wrong-to-Stiff-Sick-9-11-Big-NY-Post-May-2006.pdf Some of cialis online online the most common leaking bladder symptoms include: urinating frequently (frequency); A sudden urge to rush to the toilet to urinate Urinary leakage; small or large amounts of urine leaking without warning or without feeling the urge to go to the doctors and take the prescribed medicine.On the Saturday following my Hemel Hempstead delivery, I hoped into an Uber ( a BMW 5-series sedan – win!) and took an hour+ trip from HH to LOndon Centre and my hotel in Canary Wharf, the Marriott. OK, great hotel, great food, great bar, and fantastic proximity to the training site in the financial district. I also enjoyed a few meals at a little sushi restaurant on a floating strip mall.
I had three delivery days with another trainer, Chris, and it went pretty well. One one-day class and one two-day class. Following that, Chris went off to Belfast for another similar delivery, and I went across the pond to Orlando, connecting through Miami, for a one-day Azure fundamentals course.
I arrived home on Tuesday, June 25th. I put my blog on a bit of a hiatus while I recovered and just got settled in. I came home to wonderful surprises – a new pool liner had been installed just in time for the balance of the summer. Gracie and her boyfriend did some work out in the barn, getting a work space situated for me with the work benches I picked up completely assembled and ready for use.
I’m here, I’m home, and I’m “present”. They say that when you come back from a long business trip, your family is more interested in “presence” than “presents”.
I’m trying my best to stay in the moment, and enjoy the time I have left this summer with my family. Time to grab another cup of coffee.
That’s about five days worth of updates, but I owed that to my blog. I punted most of the days this past week, when my obligation was two hundred words per day, and this makes up for a chunk of that. My goal today was to crank out a thousand words, and it looks like I’m just about to twelve-hundred.
That’s good enough for now.
Peace y’all.
