It must have rained every day in December. Winter was mild, spring was comfortable but summer quickly turned wet. By the time Christmas came around, I just expected it to rain every day. Sure enough, we had a wet Christmas, wet Boxing Day, and not much better into the New Year. Somehow, it just never crossed my mind that all that rain might add up to something.
On Tuesday the 11th of January, we first heard about the disaster in Toowoomba, a good 120k from Brisbane. The city is located on the side of a mountain but a torrential downpour caused what was later called an inland tsunami. A wall of water about two meters high came ripping through the downtown area of the city, taking everything in its path. Home videos and camera phones showed cars being easily swept away, some with people still inside.
Toowoomba and much of the surrounding Lockyer Valley all drain towards the Brisbane river. It didn't take long for meteorologists and disaster management teams to predict terrible flooding as more water accumulated into the Brisbane river. After the 1974 flood, the Wivenhoe Dam was built outside of Brisbane that supposedly would keep another flood from reaching the city. Unfortunately, the same dam which was nearly empty two years ago, which scientists said would take 10 years of above average rainfall to reach 100% capacity, reached near the 200% capacity mark and had no choice but to give controlled releases to prevent a massive overflow. Between the surge coming from the Lockyer Valley and the overflowing Wivenhoe Dam, several Sydney Harbours worth of water were going to pass through Brisbane in a matter of about 72 hours.
That afternoon, a message went out at my office to tell everyone to pack up and go home. I didn't honestly think it would flood that badly in the city, especially considering my place of work and our apartment are at least five or ten meters above the river. Roadways and railways were filling up with people trying to get home before the flooding started and transportation lines were closed. I got home about noon and turned on the news. All the national stations were tuned to flood coverage. The early word was that waters were already high and would continue rising into Wednesday, peaking some time on Thursday. To make matters worse, the huge amounts of rainwater coming downstream were being matched by a king tide.
Our building is on the river, though it sits slightly higher than some of the neighboring buildings. A look out our balcony that afternoon showed the river was already at its banks and was beginning to cover the pedestrian sidewalks that line both sides of the river throughout the entire CBD area. The rest of the day was a bit anti-climactic, though interesting objects were already starting to float down the river. Pontoons (what I would usually refer to as docks) would float by one after the other, some with covered boats and lawn chairs still on them. There was an amazing amount of debris from trees, plants and manmade structures. Huge chunks of polystyrene (Styrofoam) would float along at the fast pace of the river. It was already churning quite a bit with little whirlpools along the edges and near rapids in the middle.
That evening I got in touch with friends to make sure everyone was alright. Several had either evacuated or had decided to wait it out, knowing they lived on a high floor. They knew it might be a few days before they could leave but didn't want to stay in an evacuation center. I went down to the river after dark and watched the river for a bit. It was a bit strange, feeling like you're in the middle of a natural disaster and yet there was no panic, no sense of urgency. A few others were down there as well, watching unmanned boats float by.
The next morning the river was up considerably. It really started to raise quite quickly at this point and I knew it would be days before I was back at work again. My client occupies one of the buildings on the river and I could see the water line getting close to the building, even with a further one to two meters of flooding still to come. I watched more news coverage and decided to go out that afternoon to take a few pictures and let everyone know I was alright. By this time, the floating walkway that connects the CBD to New Farm, one of my favorite running trails, was destroyed. It buckled under the pressure from the river and the constant debris hitting and pushing against it. I watched several of our favorite restaurants go under water. Jellyfish, where we've had great seafood, Groove Train, which we've visited a number of times and the Boardwalk, our favorite place for a beer after work, were all gone. I later heard they weren't able to get insurance because of their locations right on the river and that they may never be back.
All throughout the day, the debris kept getting bigger and weirder. I watched a local restaurant float by. Perhaps the strangest thing I saw went floating by at dusk. About 6pm I heard a loud whistling noise that I assumed must have been some kind of boat. I went out to the balcony to have a look and saw something large and white coming into view from down the river. As it got closer, I realized it was a LPG tank! (liquid propane) This wasn't the small home barbecue size, this was the 20 foot long gas station size tank. Not a minute after it passed the apartment, I could smell the gas 200 feet in the air. I stood there for a few minutes just waiting to hear an explosion but nothing happened. At some point it must have simply run out of gas and floated into the bay, like everything else.
I woke up Thursday morning and took a few pictures of the river at its peak. It was such a beautiful sunny morning but looking out the window was just so odd. The walkway from our building all the way to the botanic gardens was completely submerged, my client's building was clearly flooded, Kangaroo Point had taken on enough water to submerge a few unlucky cars, the ferry stop across from us was destroyed and perhaps the worst part, the floating walkway had broken away and become a missile floating down the river. A few local tug boat captains managed to corral it and escort it down the river and out to sea.
I went out again that day. Our building was very lucky throughout the ordeal because unlike most of our neighbors and many of our friends around the city, we had power. We did however lose the elevators. I went to New Farm to have a look at the damage and ended up helping a few guys carry a kayak full of ice back to edge of the water. The only way they could get in and out of their place was in a boat.
The water receded quickly Thursday night and into Friday. By Friday night, I left for Sydney to meet Carol for the weekend and was more than ready to take a break from 24 - 7 flood coverage. I did get a chance to see some of the cleanup before leaving town and was very impressed by the Queenslanders sense of mateship and resolve to get things done. Volunteers were everywhere and everyone was lending a hand. It was amazing how quickly many people were able to get back to their lives and move on.
It's been several weeks now and things definitely aren't 100% back to the way they were. Nearly every construction project around the city has been delayed or possibly cancelled. The floating walkway is gone and there's no indication if they're going to rebuild. The Eagle Street Pier area is still closed off, which between that and floating walkway have severly limited my running routes. City Cat and City Ferry services finally returned to the river, one month later, though it may be longer for stations that were destroyed. At my client site, we had to roll out our full disaster recovery plan. There are still some leftover issues to resolve, especially with technology that was based in Brisbane.
The floods have been an experience I will always remember. I would never wish a natural disaster on anyone, but I'm glad I was here to experience it.
13 February, 2011
21 November, 2010
I've Turned Tree Hugger
Sorry for the long delay in this blog post. Between working, travelling and wedding planning it has been difficult to keep up with our blog recently!
I returned from a two and a half week sales trip through Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and Hong Kong. It was terrible! Successful business wise but terrible work
Let me back up a bit before I get into the details...My latest project is managing a four day 350 person food and beverage conference and trade exhibition in Shanghai and it is by far the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life. Besides the fact that Asia is just a completely different beast to do business in my company is completely understaffed. My company has 2 full time people (me and my boss) an accounts lady and another Manager who is part time who does more of running the business than project detail like me. We have two contractors who are assisting us with this job as well. One is responsible for all the artwork/design/printing and the other contractor runs the registration engine that collects all data for the delegates. Therefore only me and my boss are working on this project full time. Due to the fact that my boss’ skills do not lie anywhere in the organization/attention to detail/coordination/communication with people, implementation... this all completely lies on me. Therefore I am doing sponsorship coordination with over 100 companies (and fulfilment), creating a 3 day speaker program for the conference and communication with all speakers, working with the hotel staff about conference packages, ballroom and break out room rentals & accommodation, storage for conference materials, working with 4 external venues for the 3 social events (boat cruise, dine around on the famous Bund River and a gala dinner), all while working with 20 chefs to ensure the food and beverage completely WOWs these F&B professionals! It’s a bit intimidating when I can barely make mac & cheese and these people are some of the best chefs in the world. They come up with the most beautiful menus and drinks. It’s really incredible and inspiring to work with such creative well known chefs. I’m also working with bar tender “champions” from around the world, tea, wine and coffee sommeliers too. Did you know there is such a thing as a WATER sommelier? Weird. Anyway, thank GOD our other Manager (the part time one) used to own his own set designing company as he is designing our stage and trade show exhibition space. He is amazing and the sets he builds are incredible. We are very lucky to have him be part of the team.
So that is my project. It is pretty cool but is just a ton of work to put on one person. I have all the confidence in the world in myself to pull off an awesome experience but I am faced with challenges and questions and situations everyday where I feel like a duck.. calm and cool on the surface but peddling my feet like crazy underneath.
Back to my trip...The point of this 2.5 week trip through Asia was to meet with potential sponsors and secure some who were wavering. My boss decided a week and a half before we left that we would just do a sales trip. I had to coordinate 30 meetings in four different cities – and of course everyone is busy so it was just a whirlwind putting everything together on top of taking care of all the other things mentioned above. Fine, no worries, it's part of the job.
My boss got to Singapore on a Saturday and decided to bring his “friend” with him who he recently met online. She also happens to be a Japanese translator and told me that’s why he brought her alone. Ummm too bad we didn’t meet with any Japanese companies? She was good company but also a bit of a princess and another hotel and transportation I had to worry about 2 days before we left. I ended up taking an overnight flight on Sunday landed in Singapore on Monday morning after a 9 hour flight with 1 lay over in Kuala Lumpur. Thankfully in KL at the airport you can get a 30 minute massage for 10 ringgit ($3) so it was good to have that after sitting in coach for 8 hours overnight. I had one hour in my hotel room to get ready in Singapore and then went into 6 hours of meetings. My boss did all the talking, I all the minuting, and trying to not cringe every time he over exaggerated or promised something that I knew would give me a new 10 hour project. He is a fantastic salesman, probably the best I've heard, but at times the things we sell can be extremely difficult to do. Definitely possible but very time consuming and difficult. Remember, he has no idea what goes into implementation. After all the listening and note taking all day my job didn’t start until after the 6 – 8 hour days of meetings. I’d go back to my room to anywhere between 50 – 200 emails from potential sponsors or delegates as the registration deadline happened to be in the middle of this trip. On top of that, I had contracts to draft from the meetings and all the follow up. These weren’t just quick emails either.
I spent two days in Singapore then had another night flight to our next destination – Shanghai; a 1:30 AM flight. Oh and don’t forget my boss sat business class and put me in the back. It’s only a five hour flight but getting to an international flight at 11:30 PM at the airport, waiting, and then sitting on a plane just isn’t comfortable. Needless to say I might have gotten an hour of sleep. We landed in Shanghai and were off and running doing meetings all day and then I’d go back to my room and do all the follow up, etc. Needless to say after all this traveling and working I was very very cranky and angry by the end of the trip. I don’t know how anyone expects someone to be able to perform their best under circumstances like this. I made two pretty big mistakes on this trip too but I just couldn’t hold myself to feel bad about them because I was just exhausted, overworked, and underappreciated. I didn’t book his “friends” hotel dates correctly as they were flashed at me two days before leaving while I was thinking of a million other things. His friend flew to Shanghai a day before us so I realized while she was in the air that I messed up her booking and car transfer so I called the hotel to try and fix it and they said there were no rooms left because it was the last week of the World Expo. This was the case at EVERY hotel in Shanghai! So my boss is freaking out worrying how bad this will make him look in front of his “friend” so he used his “GM get out of free card” as I call it.. and called the General Manager of the hotel we were staying at (our conference hotel) and the GM bumped a guest for her and had her picked up by his personal car. Ugh, a good favour wasted on a chick. Awesome. Awesome. The other mistake I made was writing a company’s name incorrectly on a contract but that was quickly forgotten.
Our last location was Hong Kong which is by far my favourite place in Asia that I have been. It is clean, modern, the skyline is amazing and most people speak English. We stayed at the new W hotel – wow... WOW! It was very modern as were our rooms. I kept finding new buttons that did cool things. The staff even made me two chocolate pyramids that said “Welcome Miss Dasdjfkl;asdfkj” just one letter was out of place but I wasn’t going to make them do it again! Especially after the manager specifically sought me out and said that he had to fix it once.. hehe
I’ve been to Asia 5 times now for work and I’m going back tomorrow for a presentation I have to give on Thanksgiving. After visiting and staying in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai I have a new look on the world. I have completely become a green freak. I was never really into the green movement, I love our planet, but I guess I was always very fortunate to live in the US – where poverty, disparity of wealth, government corruption and filthy living conditions are not everywhere. Americans are so lucky and I wish more of them could see the rest of the world and understand how good they have it. Of course we always want to improve things in our country but I feel so many things have been taken for granted and people just complain to complain. Anyway, the biggest thing I have taken away from my trips to Asia is taking care of the environment. In most places in Asia the rivers and waters are untouchable because they are so filthy, government and other authorities are looking for every way to make a dollar off of you and their people (I can tell by working with local vendors), there are no public trash cans, my eyes literally hurt after days in most of these cities because of the smog, and people are running around with masks on. Which always makes me wonder.. are they sick or do they think I’m sick? I generally have had very pleasant experiences with the people I have worked with in Asia but we always have to be very careful when working with vendors. They are always trying to rip off “rich westerners.” Very frustrating for honest people!
That’s been my experience thus far. You probably won’t hear from me for another few months as I will go in total conference mode from now throughout the conference in late Feb. We are trying to get so much done now so things aren’t too crazy around the Chinese New Year! Everything literally shuts down in China for about 3 weeks in Jan- Feb. Not great for our project but we’ll make it work!
I returned from a two and a half week sales trip through Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and Hong Kong. It was terrible! Successful business wise but terrible work
Let me back up a bit before I get into the details...My latest project is managing a four day 350 person food and beverage conference and trade exhibition in Shanghai and it is by far the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life. Besides the fact that Asia is just a completely different beast to do business in my company is completely understaffed. My company has 2 full time people (me and my boss) an accounts lady and another Manager who is part time who does more of running the business than project detail like me. We have two contractors who are assisting us with this job as well. One is responsible for all the artwork/design/printing and the other contractor runs the registration engine that collects all data for the delegates. Therefore only me and my boss are working on this project full time. Due to the fact that my boss’ skills do not lie anywhere in the organization/attention to detail/coordination/communication with people, implementation... this all completely lies on me. Therefore I am doing sponsorship coordination with over 100 companies (and fulfilment), creating a 3 day speaker program for the conference and communication with all speakers, working with the hotel staff about conference packages, ballroom and break out room rentals & accommodation, storage for conference materials, working with 4 external venues for the 3 social events (boat cruise, dine around on the famous Bund River and a gala dinner), all while working with 20 chefs to ensure the food and beverage completely WOWs these F&B professionals! It’s a bit intimidating when I can barely make mac & cheese and these people are some of the best chefs in the world. They come up with the most beautiful menus and drinks. It’s really incredible and inspiring to work with such creative well known chefs. I’m also working with bar tender “champions” from around the world, tea, wine and coffee sommeliers too. Did you know there is such a thing as a WATER sommelier? Weird. Anyway, thank GOD our other Manager (the part time one) used to own his own set designing company as he is designing our stage and trade show exhibition space. He is amazing and the sets he builds are incredible. We are very lucky to have him be part of the team.
So that is my project. It is pretty cool but is just a ton of work to put on one person. I have all the confidence in the world in myself to pull off an awesome experience but I am faced with challenges and questions and situations everyday where I feel like a duck.. calm and cool on the surface but peddling my feet like crazy underneath.
Back to my trip...The point of this 2.5 week trip through Asia was to meet with potential sponsors and secure some who were wavering. My boss decided a week and a half before we left that we would just do a sales trip. I had to coordinate 30 meetings in four different cities – and of course everyone is busy so it was just a whirlwind putting everything together on top of taking care of all the other things mentioned above. Fine, no worries, it's part of the job.
My boss got to Singapore on a Saturday and decided to bring his “friend” with him who he recently met online. She also happens to be a Japanese translator and told me that’s why he brought her alone. Ummm too bad we didn’t meet with any Japanese companies? She was good company but also a bit of a princess and another hotel and transportation I had to worry about 2 days before we left. I ended up taking an overnight flight on Sunday landed in Singapore on Monday morning after a 9 hour flight with 1 lay over in Kuala Lumpur. Thankfully in KL at the airport you can get a 30 minute massage for 10 ringgit ($3) so it was good to have that after sitting in coach for 8 hours overnight. I had one hour in my hotel room to get ready in Singapore and then went into 6 hours of meetings. My boss did all the talking, I all the minuting, and trying to not cringe every time he over exaggerated or promised something that I knew would give me a new 10 hour project. He is a fantastic salesman, probably the best I've heard, but at times the things we sell can be extremely difficult to do. Definitely possible but very time consuming and difficult. Remember, he has no idea what goes into implementation. After all the listening and note taking all day my job didn’t start until after the 6 – 8 hour days of meetings. I’d go back to my room to anywhere between 50 – 200 emails from potential sponsors or delegates as the registration deadline happened to be in the middle of this trip. On top of that, I had contracts to draft from the meetings and all the follow up. These weren’t just quick emails either.
I spent two days in Singapore then had another night flight to our next destination – Shanghai; a 1:30 AM flight. Oh and don’t forget my boss sat business class and put me in the back. It’s only a five hour flight but getting to an international flight at 11:30 PM at the airport, waiting, and then sitting on a plane just isn’t comfortable. Needless to say I might have gotten an hour of sleep. We landed in Shanghai and were off and running doing meetings all day and then I’d go back to my room and do all the follow up, etc. Needless to say after all this traveling and working I was very very cranky and angry by the end of the trip. I don’t know how anyone expects someone to be able to perform their best under circumstances like this. I made two pretty big mistakes on this trip too but I just couldn’t hold myself to feel bad about them because I was just exhausted, overworked, and underappreciated. I didn’t book his “friends” hotel dates correctly as they were flashed at me two days before leaving while I was thinking of a million other things. His friend flew to Shanghai a day before us so I realized while she was in the air that I messed up her booking and car transfer so I called the hotel to try and fix it and they said there were no rooms left because it was the last week of the World Expo. This was the case at EVERY hotel in Shanghai! So my boss is freaking out worrying how bad this will make him look in front of his “friend” so he used his “GM get out of free card” as I call it.. and called the General Manager of the hotel we were staying at (our conference hotel) and the GM bumped a guest for her and had her picked up by his personal car. Ugh, a good favour wasted on a chick. Awesome. Awesome. The other mistake I made was writing a company’s name incorrectly on a contract but that was quickly forgotten.
Our last location was Hong Kong which is by far my favourite place in Asia that I have been. It is clean, modern, the skyline is amazing and most people speak English. We stayed at the new W hotel – wow... WOW! It was very modern as were our rooms. I kept finding new buttons that did cool things. The staff even made me two chocolate pyramids that said “Welcome Miss Dasdjfkl;asdfkj” just one letter was out of place but I wasn’t going to make them do it again! Especially after the manager specifically sought me out and said that he had to fix it once.. hehe
I’ve been to Asia 5 times now for work and I’m going back tomorrow for a presentation I have to give on Thanksgiving. After visiting and staying in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai I have a new look on the world. I have completely become a green freak. I was never really into the green movement, I love our planet, but I guess I was always very fortunate to live in the US – where poverty, disparity of wealth, government corruption and filthy living conditions are not everywhere. Americans are so lucky and I wish more of them could see the rest of the world and understand how good they have it. Of course we always want to improve things in our country but I feel so many things have been taken for granted and people just complain to complain. Anyway, the biggest thing I have taken away from my trips to Asia is taking care of the environment. In most places in Asia the rivers and waters are untouchable because they are so filthy, government and other authorities are looking for every way to make a dollar off of you and their people (I can tell by working with local vendors), there are no public trash cans, my eyes literally hurt after days in most of these cities because of the smog, and people are running around with masks on. Which always makes me wonder.. are they sick or do they think I’m sick? I generally have had very pleasant experiences with the people I have worked with in Asia but we always have to be very careful when working with vendors. They are always trying to rip off “rich westerners.” Very frustrating for honest people!
That’s been my experience thus far. You probably won’t hear from me for another few months as I will go in total conference mode from now throughout the conference in late Feb. We are trying to get so much done now so things aren’t too crazy around the Chinese New Year! Everything literally shuts down in China for about 3 weeks in Jan- Feb. Not great for our project but we’ll make it work!
02 September, 2010
One Night In Bangkok
Ok, actually make that four nights of haggling, partying, getting massages and hanging around with an Indian business mogul. Seriously, I don't know how Carol gets paid to do this stuff, but she had to go to Bangkok for work to coordinate a few hours worth of live entertainment for about 500 Indian guests that managed to rent out the ENTIRE Grand Hyatt in Bangkok. That's 380 5-star hotel rooms.
The event lasted four days and Carol's firm was essentially subcontracted to provide entertainment on Friday night. That night, she played "band mom" for a few hours (her words, not mine), paid the performers and then we all hit the bar for some top shelf booze poured by three Swedish guys that Carol and I couldn't agree if they looked more like Cary Elwes from the Princess Bride or Val Kilmer from Top Gun. Maybe the world really is our oyster.
Random birthday parties aside, what an interesting city! Since Carol's flight and few nights of hotel were covered, we decided it would be fun for me to come up and we'd take a long weekend. It turned out to be an awesome trip. My impression of Bangkok and Thailand in general is definitely different than our last trip to Kuala Lumpur. The most evident difference is the religious culture. Malaysia is an Islamic state governed by the laws of Islam while Thailand is 95% Buddhist. The city of Bangkok is absolutely blanketed in statues and symbols of Buddha and numerous Hindu gods that play an important role in Buddhism (Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, etc). Mosques dot the KL landscape and some are rather impressive in size, but the temples in Bangkok are just amazing.
To set the stage for our trip, we were met at the airport by Ms. Poo (seriously) who was helping run the overall event and arranged a cab for us. Getting into the miniature cab with Ms. Poo, Carol and I both grabbed for seatbelts and found... no seatbelts. Yeesh. This would become a theme.
We settled in on Wednesday night and got up early on Thursday morning to do some sight-seeing before Carol had to go check out the venue later that night. We started our day by going to the nearby river pier from our hotel area in Silom (pronounced see-lohm) with the intent to take a boat up to the area near the Grand Palace. The river is, well, pretty gross. It's brown, there's trash mixed with chopped up river weeds floating everywhere and dark smoke billows out of most of the boats. The smaller boats are actually pretty funny to see - bright rainbow colored cloth tops with huge car engines that have been Frankensteined into boat propellers.
When we arrived at the pier we also got another taste of something else that would become a theme. We were immediately presented by a tourist station where you can buy a 1 day pass to go along the river for something like 600 baht. Given that its 30 baht to the dollar, that's about 20 bucks for a day of transportation. Not great, but not terrible. Then, we happened to run into a nice local lady who seemed to work for one of the tourist companies that for some strange reason, decided not to try to rip us off. She actually told us that if we were just going to the palace, we should hop on the public boat with all the local people and go there. Price? 14 baht. Now we're talking.
I got on the boat and immediately panicked when I realized my smallest bill was 1000 baht. Great, now I'm that guy. I watched her go up and down the boat with each person giving her exact change or maybe a 20 baht bill. When the lady came to me, I sheepishly showed her the money and gave her my best dumb guilty tourist face. She took one look and walked away. She didn't ask us to get off, just walked away. After the next stop, she ended up coming back and asking again for a ticket, to which I showed her the same bill. She took it, miraculously made change and even gave me a rather courteous smile! Surely she saw what an idiot I was and decided to get everyone else's fares so she could make change for me. Honestly, it was extremely nice of her and not something I would expect from an American or Australian bus driver. Not sure what it is about people in Thailand, but in our experience, they were either really nice (90%) or complete a-holes (10%).
We arrived at the palace, which contains the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It's the site of the royal family of Thailand and has several hundred years of history. Walking inside, we were absolutely blown away. I can honestly say the palace and temple are grounds are probably the most unique and fascinating man-made place I've ever seen. Everything about the grounds has an enormous amount of flair. The trees are uniquely trimmed, the roofs have spikes, mosiacs and murals cover the walls, spires reach up into the sky, statues of evil spirits guard entryways, statues of Buddhas are absolutely everywhere and to top it all off, real 24k gold covers absolutely everything. Wow.
I could write forever about the palace and the temple inside, but a few pictures would probably tell a better story.
Carol and I were smart enough to bring sunscreen with us but somehow dumb enough not to put it on that day. It was about 85 F, muggy, and very sunny. We got burned. At the end of our adventure through the palace, we stopped and had a quick water break to find where we wanted to go for lunch. We scoped out a restaurant district and headed there on a walk that seemed to take forever in the heat. When we got to the area we were supposed to be, we couldn't seem to find the places we were looking for so we just settled on going into a random little restaurant who didn't have a word of English anywhere. The lady who served us was very cordial and spoke just enough English that we could point to dishes and tell her shrimp, pork, chicken or beef. She served up some delicious fare that probably ended up being my favorite Thai food of the trip. Total bill? 138 baht. That's an excellent lunch for two for under $5. Sweeeet.
Next stop was the Wat Pho, a temple that holds several records including the most Buddha statues in a single place and the largest reclining Buddha in the world. The big reclining Buddha is about 150 feet long and barely fits in his building.
There were so many Buddhas everywhere! Big Buddhas, small Buddhas, standing Buddhas, seated Buddhas, reclining Buddhas, Buddhas under trees, and Buddhas kneeling to even bigger Buddhas. Some of the Buddhas were being repainted in an initial layer of black and then covered with gold, of course.
We took a cab back to the hotel, which had seatbelts this time but no buckles. Cabs are stupid cheap in Bangkok, 35 baht for the first kilometer and something like 8 baht for each kilometer after that.
That night we met Ms. Poo again, who took us to see the setup at the Grand Hyatt and then out for a local Thai dinner. Again, great food. At this point I should probably mention that traffic in Bangkok is horrendous around rush hour. Our hotels are exactly 5k apart (3.1 miles) and it took us about 45 minutes to get there. Good thing we had a nice cushy conversion van with, you guessed it, no seatbelts.
Friday was pretty slow in the morning but we had the party in the evening. Carol was busy with the entertainment for most of the afternoon. While she was working, I did a little shopping and got a 90 minute Thai massage from a reputable looking place for 450 baht ($15). Fortunately, I didn't have to deal with the awkward 'happy ending' question. If you've never had a Thai massage from a real Thai woman, I suggest you stretch before the massage and make sure you aren't on a full stomach. My massage was on a mat on the floor and for good reason. I'm pretty sure it was more like 90 minutes of WCW Raw than a nice relaxing massage. She seemed to put me in all sorts of crazy tap-out positions and definitely stretched muscles that probably haven't been stretched like that since the day I was born. I actually felt very good when I was done and I didn't have that gross oily feeling since Thai massage doesn't use any oils.
I grabbed a quick dinner and met Carol for the birthday bash. To make a long story short, we watched the entertainment, had some top shelf cocktails and then stayed drinking with the band until about 4am. Somehow, the 70 years young birthday boy and about 50 of his elderly friends managed to still be partying and watching traditional Indian dancers when we left. Apparently this isn't abnormal for this kind of function. My hats off to Indian birthday parties.
Getting the band back to the hotel turned out to be quite a chore. The bassist and drummer were absolutely smashed. To make matters worse, half the band still had equipment on the stage behind the performers and we had to restrain the bassist from attempting to dry hump the belly dancer. We got the band back to the hotel around 4am, helped two of singers with their room key and put everyone in bed, about 45 minutes before they had to get up again to go catch their early morning flight. We did not envy the headaches they must have had on their nine hour flight back to Melbourne.
Saturday morning came around and we went to the Weekend Market that is just north of town. I have never in my life seen a market like this. It has some 15,000 stalls. We spent an entire afternoon there and I don't think we saw more than 20% of the stalls. Clothes, decorations, kitchen items, ceramics, beads, jewelry and tons of food. We ate, we shopped, we haggled. It really was fantastic - I just wish we had brought our camera!
That night we had dinner at a nice little local restaurant and got ourselves a 60 minute foot massage from the same reputable place for $300 baht. I specifically say reputable because 1) some places offer 2 hour massages for 200 baht - that's just sketchy 2) some of the massage places look like the cure for cancer is on their floor, 3) I've heard numerous stories about being offered a 'happy ending', even at hotels. The only time I honestly felt unsafe in Bangkok was during our massage - not because of anything the masseuses did but because we heard loud cracking sounds coming from outside. It was election night I had completely forgot about the insurrection that had happened just a few months before. The loud sounds stopped after about 5 minutes and I still have no idea what they were, but it turned out to be nothing.
Sunday flew by. We visited a temple in the morning, the Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn). It's big, it's pointy, and it has ludicrously steep stairs.
After that, our sightseeing was complete with a trip to a final temple at Golden Mountain, a man-made hill with wonderful views of Bangkok. The temples really are spectacular and there's something about taking off your shoes and sitting in front of Buddha with both travelers and local Thai people that really makes you feel a common sense of purpose.
We spent most of the afternoon throwing back beers and eating well at a western style Thai restaurant near our hotel before heading back to the airport. My only advice on things to avoid would be the Patpong Market in Chinatown or any other tourist market. Initial prices are astronomical and the quality of nearly all the goods is absolute crap. If I could recommend two things to do while in Bangkok they would be 1) the Grand Temple and 2) the Weekend Market. The city really left a positive impression on me and there are tons of fun things to do, but just make sure you don't miss those two.
The event lasted four days and Carol's firm was essentially subcontracted to provide entertainment on Friday night. That night, she played "band mom" for a few hours (her words, not mine), paid the performers and then we all hit the bar for some top shelf booze poured by three Swedish guys that Carol and I couldn't agree if they looked more like Cary Elwes from the Princess Bride or Val Kilmer from Top Gun. Maybe the world really is our oyster.
Random birthday parties aside, what an interesting city! Since Carol's flight and few nights of hotel were covered, we decided it would be fun for me to come up and we'd take a long weekend. It turned out to be an awesome trip. My impression of Bangkok and Thailand in general is definitely different than our last trip to Kuala Lumpur. The most evident difference is the religious culture. Malaysia is an Islamic state governed by the laws of Islam while Thailand is 95% Buddhist. The city of Bangkok is absolutely blanketed in statues and symbols of Buddha and numerous Hindu gods that play an important role in Buddhism (Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, etc). Mosques dot the KL landscape and some are rather impressive in size, but the temples in Bangkok are just amazing.
To set the stage for our trip, we were met at the airport by Ms. Poo (seriously) who was helping run the overall event and arranged a cab for us. Getting into the miniature cab with Ms. Poo, Carol and I both grabbed for seatbelts and found... no seatbelts. Yeesh. This would become a theme.
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| A Frankenboat |
When we arrived at the pier we also got another taste of something else that would become a theme. We were immediately presented by a tourist station where you can buy a 1 day pass to go along the river for something like 600 baht. Given that its 30 baht to the dollar, that's about 20 bucks for a day of transportation. Not great, but not terrible. Then, we happened to run into a nice local lady who seemed to work for one of the tourist companies that for some strange reason, decided not to try to rip us off. She actually told us that if we were just going to the palace, we should hop on the public boat with all the local people and go there. Price? 14 baht. Now we're talking.
I got on the boat and immediately panicked when I realized my smallest bill was 1000 baht. Great, now I'm that guy. I watched her go up and down the boat with each person giving her exact change or maybe a 20 baht bill. When the lady came to me, I sheepishly showed her the money and gave her my best dumb guilty tourist face. She took one look and walked away. She didn't ask us to get off, just walked away. After the next stop, she ended up coming back and asking again for a ticket, to which I showed her the same bill. She took it, miraculously made change and even gave me a rather courteous smile! Surely she saw what an idiot I was and decided to get everyone else's fares so she could make change for me. Honestly, it was extremely nice of her and not something I would expect from an American or Australian bus driver. Not sure what it is about people in Thailand, but in our experience, they were either really nice (90%) or complete a-holes (10%).
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| The Temple of the Emerald Buddha |
I could write forever about the palace and the temple inside, but a few pictures would probably tell a better story.
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| A guardian spirit |
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| Beautiful mosaics and gold sculpture everywhere |
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| The palace grounds |
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| Crazy trees at the Grand Palace |
Carol and I were smart enough to bring sunscreen with us but somehow dumb enough not to put it on that day. It was about 85 F, muggy, and very sunny. We got burned. At the end of our adventure through the palace, we stopped and had a quick water break to find where we wanted to go for lunch. We scoped out a restaurant district and headed there on a walk that seemed to take forever in the heat. When we got to the area we were supposed to be, we couldn't seem to find the places we were looking for so we just settled on going into a random little restaurant who didn't have a word of English anywhere. The lady who served us was very cordial and spoke just enough English that we could point to dishes and tell her shrimp, pork, chicken or beef. She served up some delicious fare that probably ended up being my favorite Thai food of the trip. Total bill? 138 baht. That's an excellent lunch for two for under $5. Sweeeet.
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| The giant Buddha's head |
There were so many Buddhas everywhere! Big Buddhas, small Buddhas, standing Buddhas, seated Buddhas, reclining Buddhas, Buddhas under trees, and Buddhas kneeling to even bigger Buddhas. Some of the Buddhas were being repainted in an initial layer of black and then covered with gold, of course.
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| The reclining Buddha |
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| More Buddhas |
We took a cab back to the hotel, which had seatbelts this time but no buckles. Cabs are stupid cheap in Bangkok, 35 baht for the first kilometer and something like 8 baht for each kilometer after that.
That night we met Ms. Poo again, who took us to see the setup at the Grand Hyatt and then out for a local Thai dinner. Again, great food. At this point I should probably mention that traffic in Bangkok is horrendous around rush hour. Our hotels are exactly 5k apart (3.1 miles) and it took us about 45 minutes to get there. Good thing we had a nice cushy conversion van with, you guessed it, no seatbelts.
Friday was pretty slow in the morning but we had the party in the evening. Carol was busy with the entertainment for most of the afternoon. While she was working, I did a little shopping and got a 90 minute Thai massage from a reputable looking place for 450 baht ($15). Fortunately, I didn't have to deal with the awkward 'happy ending' question. If you've never had a Thai massage from a real Thai woman, I suggest you stretch before the massage and make sure you aren't on a full stomach. My massage was on a mat on the floor and for good reason. I'm pretty sure it was more like 90 minutes of WCW Raw than a nice relaxing massage. She seemed to put me in all sorts of crazy tap-out positions and definitely stretched muscles that probably haven't been stretched like that since the day I was born. I actually felt very good when I was done and I didn't have that gross oily feeling since Thai massage doesn't use any oils.
I grabbed a quick dinner and met Carol for the birthday bash. To make a long story short, we watched the entertainment, had some top shelf cocktails and then stayed drinking with the band until about 4am. Somehow, the 70 years young birthday boy and about 50 of his elderly friends managed to still be partying and watching traditional Indian dancers when we left. Apparently this isn't abnormal for this kind of function. My hats off to Indian birthday parties.
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| The band in their best 70s getups |
Saturday morning came around and we went to the Weekend Market that is just north of town. I have never in my life seen a market like this. It has some 15,000 stalls. We spent an entire afternoon there and I don't think we saw more than 20% of the stalls. Clothes, decorations, kitchen items, ceramics, beads, jewelry and tons of food. We ate, we shopped, we haggled. It really was fantastic - I just wish we had brought our camera!
That night we had dinner at a nice little local restaurant and got ourselves a 60 minute foot massage from the same reputable place for $300 baht. I specifically say reputable because 1) some places offer 2 hour massages for 200 baht - that's just sketchy 2) some of the massage places look like the cure for cancer is on their floor, 3) I've heard numerous stories about being offered a 'happy ending', even at hotels. The only time I honestly felt unsafe in Bangkok was during our massage - not because of anything the masseuses did but because we heard loud cracking sounds coming from outside. It was election night I had completely forgot about the insurrection that had happened just a few months before. The loud sounds stopped after about 5 minutes and I still have no idea what they were, but it turned out to be nothing.
Sunday flew by. We visited a temple in the morning, the Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn). It's big, it's pointy, and it has ludicrously steep stairs.
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| Wat Arun |
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| Find Carol! |
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| View from the bottom of the steep stairs |
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| Carol hitting the gong on Golden Mountain |
After that, our sightseeing was complete with a trip to a final temple at Golden Mountain, a man-made hill with wonderful views of Bangkok. The temples really are spectacular and there's something about taking off your shoes and sitting in front of Buddha with both travelers and local Thai people that really makes you feel a common sense of purpose.
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| View from the top of Golden Mountain |
We spent most of the afternoon throwing back beers and eating well at a western style Thai restaurant near our hotel before heading back to the airport. My only advice on things to avoid would be the Patpong Market in Chinatown or any other tourist market. Initial prices are astronomical and the quality of nearly all the goods is absolute crap. If I could recommend two things to do while in Bangkok they would be 1) the Grand Temple and 2) the Weekend Market. The city really left a positive impression on me and there are tons of fun things to do, but just make sure you don't miss those two.
15 August, 2010
A Busy July
Wow, was July a busy month. Only now, half way through August, do I feel like I can finally catch my breath. Several major events happened one after the other, namely the Gold Coast Marathon, my CISSP exam and our trip back to the US for Carol's cousin's wedding.
The marathon went like a dream. In my last post I talked about how this new lifestyle has given me time to run. My training regimen was actually not too rigorous, running about three days a week on average. There are so many trails to choose from around our apartment, which helps keep it interesting. For about the month before the marathon, my regular training consisted of two, maybe three weekday runs averaging somewhere around eight miles each and then a long weekend run anywhere from 10 miles to somewhere around 20 miles. The training runs definitely got easier as my body got more accustomed to longer distances. When I started training, my average run was probably about 5 miles at 8:00min/mile. I thought that was good. It's amazing how much you can accomplish if you go just a little further and little faster each week. By the time the marathon came around, a 13 mile run at 7:30 pace seemed simple.
When I first committed to run the marathon, my target finishing time was four hours. Anything in the ball park of a four hour marathon is something to be proud of. I stand by that now, having done one. As my training went on and I started to get more comfortable with a quicker pace and longer distance, I decided it would be good to shoot for 3:30.
Traditionally, two weekends before a marathon is the 'test run' where you go out for your longest training run. For first time marathoners the recommendation is somewhere around 80-90% of the full marathon distance. I decided to set my watch for three hours and see what happens. Well, at about the two hour mark I had to start walking. This was only two weeks til the big day. Not good.
I racked my brain, talked to my Mom and did plenty of reading to figure out exactly what was wrong and decided it was nutrition. I wasn't eating during my training runs and the body only has so much glucose available until it has to start burning fat directly, which is much more difficult to burn. This is what it means to 'hit the wall'. The body simply doesn't have the energy to keep going. On top of that, drinking more water seemed to actually slow me down. It felt like it would just sit in my stomach rather than rehydrating me.
That led me to put together a race day water and nutrition strategy, which turned out to be a saving grace. I did a few test runs with Goo packs (little gooey glucose squeeze tubes that pretty much taste like Gatorade flavored toothpaste) and had pretty good success. I also figured that drinking sports drinks rather than water would help with faster, smoother absorption. For the marathon (42.2k, 26.1mi), I decided to have one Goo pack every 10k and drink a half cup of Gatorade every 5k.
The marathon started at 7:00am Sunday, so Carol and I went down to the Gold Coast a day early to relax and see some friends. We had a great, and very relaxing evening. The race was on the 4th of July, so I drew some American flags on my bib with the help of our friends four year old daughter. Marathon runners were given the opportunity to put a nickname on their bib, so naturally I chose 'Happy B-Day USA'. That night, the last thing I wanted to do was to introduce any unknown variables into race day, so I brought my own food for dinner and breakfast the next morning. I had an early breakfast (just cereal and some juice) and we headed off for the starting line.
July is the middle of winter here, so it was relatively cold that morning. Getting to the starting line involved plenty of muscle rubbing and jumping up and down to keep warm. I thought I would be nervous at the starting line, but I wasn't. I knew I was prepared and I was ready to go. The gun went off, I crossed the start line, and the race was on.
There were about 5,000 participants, so there were plenty of people to pick through at the start. Pace runners with balloons were set up at the 4:00, 3:45, 3:30, 3:15, and 3:00 marks. I started somewhere in the 4-4:30 area and had some catching up to do. The first 5k was shoulder to shoulder with other runners but I managed to get past the 4hr balloon pretty quickly. The 3:45 balloon took more effort. That one went down around the 10k mark. After that, things started to loosen up and I could really run at my own pace. That's when the fun started. I really felt great for the first half of the marathon, chasing down one balloon at a time. I love to set little goals when I'm running - catching certain runners, speeding up to a certain point on the horizon, picking up pace for one song on the mp3 player - all these keep me entertained and help my overall time.
Before I knew it, the 3:15 balloon was in sight and I was closing. I started to wonder if I wasn't getting out too hard, too early. Most of the content I read before the marathon described the ideal first half as nothing more than 'an exercise in holding back'. I decided my pace was within reason and kept going. I passed the 3:15 balloon somewhere around the 25 or 30k mark. My nutrition and hydration strategy seemed to be working well. Two hours in, I felt hydrated, had good energy and the sun came up to give everyone a beautiful day looking out over the ocean.
Just as it was all coming together, I knew I had hit the hardest part of the race. The same sages who warned me about holding back at the beginning of the race also told me that 'the real marathon begins at 30k'. I believed them and I prepared for it. Sure enough, the last 10k is the hardest. The joints are starting to feel it, the feet are starting to feel it and it starts to be more work than fun. Still, being prepared, I kept on pushing. Towards the end, I passed fewer people and there seemed to be large gaps between runners. I counted down each of the last 10k, mentally marking off one by one and getting that much closer to my goal.
The last kilometer flew by. I wish every kilometer felt like that last kilometer. I was tired, but I suddenly had energy. All the work of the 41k before it was nearly forgotten. People were everywhere, cheering loudly. Kids were pushing to the front to get high fives. The sun was shining, my heart was racing and I could see the finish line coming.
Sure enough, I bounded down the final straightaway beaming with excitement, fist pumping. I caught Carol in the audience yelling her loudest. Right on cue, the announcer rang out "Jason Porter - Happy Independence Day!", and I crossed the finish line. What a feeling. The few minutes after that were a bit awkward. I felt quite nauseated at first but got a drink of water and had a seat to relax before taking off my timing chip. A nice volunteer came over and actually offered to undo my laces and take off my chip for me! I can't say there is any other occasion where I'd ask someone to untie my shoe laces for me but that was awesome. My legs were pretty stiff for the next 24 hours and I felt pretty close to 100% in 48 hours.
I can honestly say I don't think I've ever been so proud of myself in my whole life. This was a competition with myself, something that I wanted really bad, just for me. Looking back now, the whole thing just feels great. I got amazing support from Carol - saw here once in the course and at the finish - and also had support from a few friends who came to watch. It really meant a lot to have them there in my big moment.
When it was all said and done, my net time (start to finish) was 3:07:22. Here's proof! It was even good enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2011! I doubt I'll make it back to the US for it, but I hope someday things work out and I get the chance to do it.
I'm beginning to understand the connection between exercise and highly successful people. Motivation and persistence are without a doubt the biggest factors behind success and it sure takes a lot of both to run a marathon. It's all a matter of personal motivation. If you enjoy running (and that may be a big if), there is nothing like the rush of race day and the feeling of accomplishment crossing the finish line. I would estimate that some 95% of people in their 20's are physically capable of finishing a marathon, the question is simply a matter of motivation.
With that big accomplishment under my belt, it was time to switch from exercising the body to exercising the mind. The next weekend was my CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) exam, for which I'd been studying for about three months. I took study leave the day before the exam to get in a last bit of studying and then went to the exam on Saturday. It was hard - probably harder than any exam I took in college. Total scheduled exam time was 6 hours, I probably used all of 4:30. I'd studied hard but many of the questions seemed to have more than one good answer.
This weekend, to my surprise, I got an email saying I passed! I can't believe it - I'm so excited. Now I just have some paperwork to finalize and I'll have my first major professional certification.
The day after the exam, Carol and I left for the US. It was a whirlwind of a trip, stopping in Denver, then Bethlehem, then New Jersey in the space of a little over a week. We had an amazing time, but I'll save that for another post. Since then, we've been to the Ekka (basically the state fair of Queensland), did our first trip to Ikea and got new housewares and furniture, bought a used dresser and are re-staining it, saw an amazing Beatles cover show at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) and there's lots going on at work. Carol just signed a huge contract that will have her busy til February and there have been several changes at my job that could have an interesting downstream effect.
This has already been a busy winter, but I'm sure there's more to come.
The marathon went like a dream. In my last post I talked about how this new lifestyle has given me time to run. My training regimen was actually not too rigorous, running about three days a week on average. There are so many trails to choose from around our apartment, which helps keep it interesting. For about the month before the marathon, my regular training consisted of two, maybe three weekday runs averaging somewhere around eight miles each and then a long weekend run anywhere from 10 miles to somewhere around 20 miles. The training runs definitely got easier as my body got more accustomed to longer distances. When I started training, my average run was probably about 5 miles at 8:00min/mile. I thought that was good. It's amazing how much you can accomplish if you go just a little further and little faster each week. By the time the marathon came around, a 13 mile run at 7:30 pace seemed simple.
When I first committed to run the marathon, my target finishing time was four hours. Anything in the ball park of a four hour marathon is something to be proud of. I stand by that now, having done one. As my training went on and I started to get more comfortable with a quicker pace and longer distance, I decided it would be good to shoot for 3:30.
Traditionally, two weekends before a marathon is the 'test run' where you go out for your longest training run. For first time marathoners the recommendation is somewhere around 80-90% of the full marathon distance. I decided to set my watch for three hours and see what happens. Well, at about the two hour mark I had to start walking. This was only two weeks til the big day. Not good.
I racked my brain, talked to my Mom and did plenty of reading to figure out exactly what was wrong and decided it was nutrition. I wasn't eating during my training runs and the body only has so much glucose available until it has to start burning fat directly, which is much more difficult to burn. This is what it means to 'hit the wall'. The body simply doesn't have the energy to keep going. On top of that, drinking more water seemed to actually slow me down. It felt like it would just sit in my stomach rather than rehydrating me.
That led me to put together a race day water and nutrition strategy, which turned out to be a saving grace. I did a few test runs with Goo packs (little gooey glucose squeeze tubes that pretty much taste like Gatorade flavored toothpaste) and had pretty good success. I also figured that drinking sports drinks rather than water would help with faster, smoother absorption. For the marathon (42.2k, 26.1mi), I decided to have one Goo pack every 10k and drink a half cup of Gatorade every 5k.
The marathon started at 7:00am Sunday, so Carol and I went down to the Gold Coast a day early to relax and see some friends. We had a great, and very relaxing evening. The race was on the 4th of July, so I drew some American flags on my bib with the help of our friends four year old daughter. Marathon runners were given the opportunity to put a nickname on their bib, so naturally I chose 'Happy B-Day USA'. That night, the last thing I wanted to do was to introduce any unknown variables into race day, so I brought my own food for dinner and breakfast the next morning. I had an early breakfast (just cereal and some juice) and we headed off for the starting line.
July is the middle of winter here, so it was relatively cold that morning. Getting to the starting line involved plenty of muscle rubbing and jumping up and down to keep warm. I thought I would be nervous at the starting line, but I wasn't. I knew I was prepared and I was ready to go. The gun went off, I crossed the start line, and the race was on.
There were about 5,000 participants, so there were plenty of people to pick through at the start. Pace runners with balloons were set up at the 4:00, 3:45, 3:30, 3:15, and 3:00 marks. I started somewhere in the 4-4:30 area and had some catching up to do. The first 5k was shoulder to shoulder with other runners but I managed to get past the 4hr balloon pretty quickly. The 3:45 balloon took more effort. That one went down around the 10k mark. After that, things started to loosen up and I could really run at my own pace. That's when the fun started. I really felt great for the first half of the marathon, chasing down one balloon at a time. I love to set little goals when I'm running - catching certain runners, speeding up to a certain point on the horizon, picking up pace for one song on the mp3 player - all these keep me entertained and help my overall time.
Before I knew it, the 3:15 balloon was in sight and I was closing. I started to wonder if I wasn't getting out too hard, too early. Most of the content I read before the marathon described the ideal first half as nothing more than 'an exercise in holding back'. I decided my pace was within reason and kept going. I passed the 3:15 balloon somewhere around the 25 or 30k mark. My nutrition and hydration strategy seemed to be working well. Two hours in, I felt hydrated, had good energy and the sun came up to give everyone a beautiful day looking out over the ocean.
Just as it was all coming together, I knew I had hit the hardest part of the race. The same sages who warned me about holding back at the beginning of the race also told me that 'the real marathon begins at 30k'. I believed them and I prepared for it. Sure enough, the last 10k is the hardest. The joints are starting to feel it, the feet are starting to feel it and it starts to be more work than fun. Still, being prepared, I kept on pushing. Towards the end, I passed fewer people and there seemed to be large gaps between runners. I counted down each of the last 10k, mentally marking off one by one and getting that much closer to my goal.
The last kilometer flew by. I wish every kilometer felt like that last kilometer. I was tired, but I suddenly had energy. All the work of the 41k before it was nearly forgotten. People were everywhere, cheering loudly. Kids were pushing to the front to get high fives. The sun was shining, my heart was racing and I could see the finish line coming.
Sure enough, I bounded down the final straightaway beaming with excitement, fist pumping. I caught Carol in the audience yelling her loudest. Right on cue, the announcer rang out "Jason Porter - Happy Independence Day!", and I crossed the finish line. What a feeling. The few minutes after that were a bit awkward. I felt quite nauseated at first but got a drink of water and had a seat to relax before taking off my timing chip. A nice volunteer came over and actually offered to undo my laces and take off my chip for me! I can't say there is any other occasion where I'd ask someone to untie my shoe laces for me but that was awesome. My legs were pretty stiff for the next 24 hours and I felt pretty close to 100% in 48 hours.
I can honestly say I don't think I've ever been so proud of myself in my whole life. This was a competition with myself, something that I wanted really bad, just for me. Looking back now, the whole thing just feels great. I got amazing support from Carol - saw here once in the course and at the finish - and also had support from a few friends who came to watch. It really meant a lot to have them there in my big moment.
When it was all said and done, my net time (start to finish) was 3:07:22. Here's proof! It was even good enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2011! I doubt I'll make it back to the US for it, but I hope someday things work out and I get the chance to do it.
I'm beginning to understand the connection between exercise and highly successful people. Motivation and persistence are without a doubt the biggest factors behind success and it sure takes a lot of both to run a marathon. It's all a matter of personal motivation. If you enjoy running (and that may be a big if), there is nothing like the rush of race day and the feeling of accomplishment crossing the finish line. I would estimate that some 95% of people in their 20's are physically capable of finishing a marathon, the question is simply a matter of motivation.
With that big accomplishment under my belt, it was time to switch from exercising the body to exercising the mind. The next weekend was my CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) exam, for which I'd been studying for about three months. I took study leave the day before the exam to get in a last bit of studying and then went to the exam on Saturday. It was hard - probably harder than any exam I took in college. Total scheduled exam time was 6 hours, I probably used all of 4:30. I'd studied hard but many of the questions seemed to have more than one good answer.
This weekend, to my surprise, I got an email saying I passed! I can't believe it - I'm so excited. Now I just have some paperwork to finalize and I'll have my first major professional certification.
The day after the exam, Carol and I left for the US. It was a whirlwind of a trip, stopping in Denver, then Bethlehem, then New Jersey in the space of a little over a week. We had an amazing time, but I'll save that for another post. Since then, we've been to the Ekka (basically the state fair of Queensland), did our first trip to Ikea and got new housewares and furniture, bought a used dresser and are re-staining it, saw an amazing Beatles cover show at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) and there's lots going on at work. Carol just signed a huge contract that will have her busy til February and there have been several changes at my job that could have an interesting downstream effect.
This has already been a busy winter, but I'm sure there's more to come.
23 June, 2010
3 Weeks of Dancing, Drinking and Dining around Asia... for work!
I just returned from a very long but fun 3 weeks of work in Asia. It was an amazing experience and I really look forward to planning more events in Asia. There were lots of times of fun, some struggles and frustrations with communication and cultural differences, but overall it was a great experience and opportunity.
Upon starting a new job in a new country I was thrown into the middle of a project right away. I was given the opportunity to be Conference Manager for a well known alcohol marketing company in Australia. All of the marketing, branding and registration had started but none of the details of planning, implementing and executing had been initiated. For the past 4 months this is what I have been working on and it has been mentally and physically challenging but I’ve loved every minute of it. As Conference Manager I oversaw a 6 day conference in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia (KL). There were also post-conference trips planned to Vietnam, Cambodia and Langkawi.
I took the 8 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur with my boss and his son (who was my apprentice) 3 days before delegates arrived and 4 days before the conference actually began. The rest of our team came up a day later. Let me introduce to the phenomenal group of individuals who consist of our on-site staff:
Maria – A beautiful Italian woman who has 20 years experience in the event industry. She served as the delegate/registration liaison, coordinated accommodation and airport transfers. She is the perfect Italian – she speaks Italian, is very outgoing, hugs everyone, easy to get along with, fun to be around, partier, uses lots of gestures, but speaks with an Australian accent
Chris – Tall, slender European looking man who drinks about 8 espresso shots a day. He was the creative design team of the conference. He designed all the logos, branding, and any other printing collateral. He likes Scotch and dancing with Asian women as they are about half his size so it was quite a funny image. He is very handsome, articulate and probably the most creative/artsy person I have ever met. He also worked the multi-media during the business sessions. One would never guess that he is 34 with 4 kids! He looks 28 and has a lot of energy... maybe it’s all the espresso
Shane – Part retired Shane was the master-mind behind the big trade show we hosted. He used to own an event management company and specialises in designing sets. He is an expert in sound, lighting and AV as well. He is a very kind man, a little soft spoken, but tells dirty jokes all the time. So it takes you for a whirlwind at first! He is very funny and kept our team laughing the whole time.
Nicky – Brisbane Police Academy Cadet trainer by night and jazz singer by night! This incredibly multi-talented, confident, kick-your-ass lady is the best person to have on site at an event. If you need something, she will find it. If someone is bugging you, she will get them to shut up and get out of the way. If there is an accident, she can direct traffic. She is also extremely thoughtful, very articulate, to the point, no non-sense-kind-of-chick. But yet once she puts on a sparkly dress at night for a performance, she is elegant, graceful and has everyone’s attention.
This was our team (plus my boss and his son) for the week. I couldn’t have done this conference without them. I’m sure you can tell they are a solid group of people! My job was to manage the conference, manage food and beverage, coordinate the master timeline so people know what they are supposed to be doing and where they should be at all times, making sure staging/equipment is bumped into venues and bumped out, coordinate with all hotel staff and our client, and most importantly look over all the alcohol that was shipped from Australia to KL. This included alcohol distribution to every event, coordinating transportation of alcohol to each venue and counting all the empties at the conclusion at each event.
For the 3 days leading up to the arrival of delegates I met with key people at the hotel who would be assisting with our event – operations manager, sales manager, rooming managers, the general manager and food and beverage staff. Here is an overview of the week:
Day 1 and 2
200 hoteliers, publicans and alcohol suppliers arrive from Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and in between.
Day 2
3:00 – 6:00 PM Registration
6:30 – 9:30 - Opening Party
Day 3
8:30 – 3:00 PM Business Sessions
7:00 – 10:00 PM Dinner at the Petroleum Club in the Petronas Towers
Day 4 (free day with many different activities)
7:00 AM – 2:00 PM Golf Outing
10:00AM The Royal Selangor Pewter Factory Tour
5:00 – 6:00 PM Wine Tasting
7:00 – 10:00 PM Tastes of the World
Day 5
4:30 – 7:30 Trade Show with a Difference!
8:30PM Chinese night markets
Day 6
8:30 – 3:00 PM Business Sessions
7:00 – 12:00 AM Closing party/gala dinner
Day 7
Departures (yes people missed their flight because they were participating too heavily in the closing party!)
Before I go into detail about each event let me tell you about Kuala Lumpur. KL is a very unique city. It is truly the crossroads of Asia. It has a fusion feeling to it- a combination of modern architecture with old traditions. It is a Muslim country with a mix of Chinese, Malay, Thai and Indian people. The city is full of more designer shops than I have ever seen. On one street there will be massive shopping malls and the next will be alley way with tiny outdoor restaurants that have play-school looking outdoor furniture. There are people walking around in burkas with Louis Vuitton purses amongst children, men and women begging in the street with missing limbs and other deformities I have never seen before. The amount of women in burkas was a shock to me and my delegates. It really is something very hard to get used to seeing. These women who are fully covered walk with their men (about 3 feet behind them) who are wearing shorts, t-shirts, and sandals. The women in the Tiffany stores and Dolce and Gabbana shops are the women in burkas. One night I was walking through the busy/haggling Chinese markets and a women in a burka nearly knocked me over (accidentally) and this black covered thing startled me so much and it was so strange to hear a voice behind it. It was a very kind and apologetic voice but a very strange experience.
The Malay people are very kind people. They smile a lot and are extremely hospitable. I would say their demeanour is similar to the Caribbean culture, they are always on island time. And in the event industry that can really make my job difficult. This cultural difference brought a few obstacles. For instance, I’d tell people to bump in their equipment at 9:00 AM and they would get there by 11:00 AM. I had to have alcohol delivered to a venue at 2:00 PM but they wouldn’t answer their phones for me to let them know it was going to be late as they pray every Friday between 12 – 2. The King’s birthday happened to be a few days before our conference so of course everything was delayed. And the traffic in KL is insane! It is worse than NYC. If you get in a cab you have to tell them to turn the meter on or you will get screwed. It is a hustle and bustle city.
We stayed at a 5 star hotel, but you still had to be careful about things like drinking the water. Apparently the city is downhill from a sewage plant and hospital and people have gotten different forms of Hepatitis from the water. So, as you can see, the city is truly a mix of modern and old.
Day 2
Opening party – the opening party was designed to introduce and integrate our delegates into the Malaysian culture as this was the first time most of the attendees have been in Malaysia. We had the party at a venue called Feast Village. It is attached to an adjacent hotel and is a massive open space with 11 different themed restaurants – Spanish tapas, Malaysian, Chinese, Korean, Thai, just to name a few. It is literally a village of restaurants all gorgeously and elaborately decorate and themed with the food. It was a very glamorous food court. There was a main stage in the open common area where we had all different kinds of entertainment. We had a colourful Malaysian drum symphony, a Chinese mask changing performance, acrobatic man, a contortionist, and an Indian Bhangra Troupe performance. We wanted to bring all the cultures of Malaysia to our delegates at once. They absolutely loved it! And were very full and thirsts were definitely quenched! It was a fun evening and I had the pleasure of staying late at the event to count all the empty bottles to finalise corkage fees. This is something I had to do after each event.
Day 3
Business Sessions and Petroleum Club VIP Dinner – This day began with rehearsal at 7:00 AM for a day of business sessions and keynote speakers. We opened the sessions with a funny video that Chris and Nicky made. I guess I forgot to mention the video on the pre-conference days. Our client has a really recognizable costume character as a logo. It is a massive foam beer bottle, one that you need another person to help put on over your head and then comes with suspenders and bootys. We wanted to make a funny opening video revolved around this costume man. So my boss and I took the massive costume (in a coffin size box, not kidding) on the plane with us! Nicky offered to be the person in the costume. So for 2 days Nicky, Chris and two of Chris’ camera man professionals hired a car and drove all over KL filming the logo man in all the landmarks in KL. Keep in mind Nicky was wearing this costume for 8 hours and it was 95 degrees and HUMID. Needless to say the video was definitely well worth it. It should be on Youtube soon and I’ll send it out when it is. We showed the opening video, everything from arriving in the airport to arriving at the hotel, and the audience loved it! They did a fantastic job and was a great way to start off the conference.
My client organised the speakers and they were phenomenal! They had speakers discuss entrepreneurship, success, memory training, and of course sessions related to their business specifically. It was a great program that concluded at 3:00 PM that day. After the sessions I rushed around to get things together for the dinner at the Petroleum Club in the famous Petronas Towers. Let me tell you, it was extremely difficult to work with this venue. The Petroleum Club is a member only access club that is run by a handful of conservative traditional men. I believe the club used to only be open to men. I got one of those weenie handshakes when I met the manager and he wouldn’t look me in the eye. It was very frustrating and made m experience planning it extremely challenging as I was responsible for coordinating the food and beverage and planning the night. The club also has a very strict formal dress code that must be met so thankfully none of our delegates got turned away. As my client is involved in the alcohol industry they provided their own alcohol for each event. We had all the alcohol shipped to our hotel and then distributed to our off-site venues. As the Petroleum Club has strict security our hotel representatives has to scan every single case of alcohol (all 79 of them) through the security scanner! So it took a while to get all of that through. Thankfully that was delivered a few days in advance so it would be properly chilled.
Anyway, I got to the Petroleum Club two hours before the group to coordinate table place cards and last minute food and beverage coordination. Our attendees arrived at the Petroleum Club and enjoyed cocktails with a jazz pianist for the first 30 minutes. They were then seated at the floor to ceiling window view overlooking KL (the club is on the 42nd floor of the 82 story towers). As a surprise, our team member Nicky, came walking down the large staircase and walked throughout the 12 tables and sang 3 songs. They absolutely loved it! Everyone was eating and then all of the sudden they hear this wonderful voice and when they look up it’s Nicky! Wow! It was great. After dinner we had an Australian comedian do a 20 minute stand up. It definitely pushed the envelope a little bit but thankfully most of the crowd enjoyed it and had a great time.
Day 4
Tastes of the World – during the day of Tastes of the World was pretty hectic as I had my team and I running a golf outing, a tour of the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory and a wine tasting. The day concluded with cocktails in the open atrium of the living room. Then the group was split in half and half of the delegates went to a Chinese restaurant and the other half went to an Italian restaurant which were both in the hotel. After the delegates were in their restaurants Maria told me I was taking a night off to go have fun so Chris, Nicky, my boss’ song and Chris’ two camera pros went out in town. We went to this beautiful bar on top of a 35 story hotel that is wide open and has a pool in the middle of it. There are booths outlining the sides of the bar that are clear boxes that hang over the edge of the hotel so you can see straight down to the street! And you have the best views of The Petronas Tower and the KL Tower. I was still nervous the entire time being out thinking something would go wrong but Maria insisted I go do something to get out of the hotel for once. We then walked the streets found some back packer reggae bar and had a beer. On our way back we scoped out the DVD sellers on the streets and headed back to the hotel to check on the delegates at the third restaurant/bar for the after party. Each night attendees could go down to the Latin American themed bar to mingle and have fun (in the hotel). It is a fantastic bar with cigar lounges on the first floor, full service restaurant, beautifully decorated, with a live Columbian band! We had so much fun dancing with the delegates here! I would dance for a little bit.. run to the kitchen and count some empty bottles.. then run back and dance some more. The band was a ton of fun and they would come out and dance with everyone and it was a blast!
Day 5
Trade show with a difference! This was the capstone event of the conference. Our client came to us in the beginning of the planning stages and said that they needed to do something to spruce up their trade show, to make it fun and interactive and truly create an experience for the suppliers and delegates. Our team came up with the concept of having 4 themed-bars to display all the alcohol products. Shane designed the bars and they looked AWESOME!
The event started with a presentation from the GM of the company... which Maria and I were asked to participate at the last minute. Boy did I not know what I was signing up for! My client has this ongoing joke about fitness that helps promote products. They have a whole program designed around this and the main characters consist of the two main executives and two girls named Push and Pull who are fitness instructors. Our client needed two girls so Maria and I volunteered. Now, I didn’t bring any work out clothes with me and I didn’t have time to get any so I asked Nicky if she could buy me a pair of shorts. She comes back with these teeny tiny biker shorts just before the event begins! We were given an XL shirt by our client to wear and head bands. Once everyone was in the ballroom we had to start the show by running in to Rolling Stones music, running on stage, and lead the crowd in exercises to Olivia Newton John’s song Lets Get Physical. It was hilarious... but I didn’t like how the delegates were looking at me after seeing me in that gear! Especially since I was in blacks all week!
After the 30 minute presentation it was time to reveal the bars! Let me back up a minute... Our set designer Shane created the sets and sent the construction drawings to a local supplier in KL. He was overseeing the construction of the sets this whole week and had to teach the local suppliers how to do a proper curtain reveal – a kabuki drop! The massive bars were covered with beautiful white curtains and were revealed one by one with an amazing multi-media show Chris put together that listed each product and had a sexy video to go with the introduction. The four bars were an ice bar for white wines, sports bar for beers, vineyard for red wines and an art deco Manhattan themed bar for swishy cocktails! The ice bar had actual ice sculptures that were designed to put the wine in to keep it chilled, the sports bar had 2 flat screen TVs, one underneath the glass table, the vineyard had wooden barrels and shelving, and the art deco was just designed beautifully in a black and white checkered them. We had the head chef design a finger food menu that matched each theme. After each bar was revealed we brought the comedian from the Petroleum Club back to the stage along with Nicky. We had live cameras and did interviews around the trade room and made it an interactive event. We also raffled off prizes. It was a very fun event and our client loved it! Score!
After the 3.5 hour show Maria and Nicky took a group of people to the haggling Chinese markets and got lots of cute hand bags and accessories and had fun bargaining. I was assisting with concluding the event and doing the bottle counts! Man, there were a TON of empty bottles!!! And of course, after all that everyone ended up at the Latin American themed bar for some fun dancing!
Day 6
Final day of events! Wow I could not believe how fast everything was going. We had another full day of business sessions – 7:00 AM rehearsal – 3:00 PM. Our final event was the gala dinner which was held at the adjacent hotel. In retrospect, I’m really glad we decided to switch venues, get out of our current hotel, and display this amazing ballroom! A little strange that the two hotels are competing properties, but oh well.
This whole day was just crazy because I was running around the different venues, securing final payments, corkage, bills, tidying up loose ends before everyone left the next day, and checking on the musicians rehearsal/sound check for the gala dinner. Well, when I went over to check on the equipment at first (10:00 AM which was 30 minutes after equipment was supposed to be bumped in) nothing was there! So I immediately called our AV contact and had him get his people there ASAP. I went to check on them an hour later and half of the equipment we requested was not there, the lighting guy disappeared somewhere, only 1 person spoke English, and things just were not looking good at all. Thank God we had Shane and Vanitha there. I forgot to talk about Vanitha! She is a KL local and a friend of Robert’s so she was a gem to have on site and help us with communication problems as she speaks multiple languages. The kerfuffle pushed back rehearsal by 2 hours but the musicians were able to finish in a hour. They were even able to enjoy the sit down dinner I arranged for them!
The other aspect of this event is that the headline artists were all a surprise to the delegates so we had to keep them artists hidden!
Jason arrived just before the dinner began so I was happy that I could bring him to the final event. We had all the delegates congregate in the hotel lobby and we had a human tunnel of staff from the other hotel leading the guests through the other hotel lobby down a set of stairs and down two really long escalators. They were each given a drink at the top of the escalators so it was a fun site to watch all the smiling faces go down with drink in hand! After some pre-cocktails we opened the gala doors and everyone found their seats. It was a nice relaxing event and I got to enjoy it while Maria and Shane kindly offered to stage manage. Nicky did some singing in the beginning and after dinner the main event began! We had 3 huge Australian rock stars.. one of which was part of INXS. You probably wouldn’t recognise the names but let’s put it this way... everyone was on the dance floor once the music started! It was a great site. At midnight the event concluded and of course everyone ended up at the bar in our hotel dancing and smoking cigars. It was a wonderful night.
Overall, it was a very very successful event and I am so fortunate to have been managing this international conference. The delegates were so much fun, our client executives were wonderful, we worked our butt off but it was fun. I worked 20 hour days for 10 days straight but it was definitely worth it... especially for the next three days....
The next day, Friday was departures. I had some de briefing meetings the next day and things to finalise with our client but I was checked out of my hotel at 3:00 PM with Jason. My boss met me in the lobby to wish us well and he handed me a sock.. yes a sock... that had a bottle of Dom Perignon in it! It was nice enough that he was sending me to Langkawi with Jason to oversee 26 other delegates in case they would need any assistance. I made so many good friends from the conference that Jason and I ended up sharing the bottle with one of the delegates. Langkawi was superb, the resort was amazing, Jason haggled the price of a ring he got me from a department store, we ate great Malaysian seafood, and had drinks by the pool. Yea.. definitely worth working 20 hour days!
On Monday, Jason and I said our goodbyes and I headed off to Shanghai for a site inspection for another client. Not too much to report there as I was working the entire time. I got to see the World Expo though! Which was amazing. The pavilions were incredible. Morocco was my favourite. The Saudi Arabia pavilion was a 9 hour wait! I said no thank you! Shanghai is an amazing city. Lots of smog though... kind of irritated my eyes after a few days. The city is massive, people have no sense of personal space, the streets are wide, and nobody speaks English! Crazy city. But that is for another blog post as I hope to be back there in the near future.
Upon starting a new job in a new country I was thrown into the middle of a project right away. I was given the opportunity to be Conference Manager for a well known alcohol marketing company in Australia. All of the marketing, branding and registration had started but none of the details of planning, implementing and executing had been initiated. For the past 4 months this is what I have been working on and it has been mentally and physically challenging but I’ve loved every minute of it. As Conference Manager I oversaw a 6 day conference in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia (KL). There were also post-conference trips planned to Vietnam, Cambodia and Langkawi.
I took the 8 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur with my boss and his son (who was my apprentice) 3 days before delegates arrived and 4 days before the conference actually began. The rest of our team came up a day later. Let me introduce to the phenomenal group of individuals who consist of our on-site staff:
Maria – A beautiful Italian woman who has 20 years experience in the event industry. She served as the delegate/registration liaison, coordinated accommodation and airport transfers. She is the perfect Italian – she speaks Italian, is very outgoing, hugs everyone, easy to get along with, fun to be around, partier, uses lots of gestures, but speaks with an Australian accent
Chris – Tall, slender European looking man who drinks about 8 espresso shots a day. He was the creative design team of the conference. He designed all the logos, branding, and any other printing collateral. He likes Scotch and dancing with Asian women as they are about half his size so it was quite a funny image. He is very handsome, articulate and probably the most creative/artsy person I have ever met. He also worked the multi-media during the business sessions. One would never guess that he is 34 with 4 kids! He looks 28 and has a lot of energy... maybe it’s all the espresso
Shane – Part retired Shane was the master-mind behind the big trade show we hosted. He used to own an event management company and specialises in designing sets. He is an expert in sound, lighting and AV as well. He is a very kind man, a little soft spoken, but tells dirty jokes all the time. So it takes you for a whirlwind at first! He is very funny and kept our team laughing the whole time.
Nicky – Brisbane Police Academy Cadet trainer by night and jazz singer by night! This incredibly multi-talented, confident, kick-your-ass lady is the best person to have on site at an event. If you need something, she will find it. If someone is bugging you, she will get them to shut up and get out of the way. If there is an accident, she can direct traffic. She is also extremely thoughtful, very articulate, to the point, no non-sense-kind-of-chick. But yet once she puts on a sparkly dress at night for a performance, she is elegant, graceful and has everyone’s attention.
This was our team (plus my boss and his son) for the week. I couldn’t have done this conference without them. I’m sure you can tell they are a solid group of people! My job was to manage the conference, manage food and beverage, coordinate the master timeline so people know what they are supposed to be doing and where they should be at all times, making sure staging/equipment is bumped into venues and bumped out, coordinate with all hotel staff and our client, and most importantly look over all the alcohol that was shipped from Australia to KL. This included alcohol distribution to every event, coordinating transportation of alcohol to each venue and counting all the empties at the conclusion at each event.
For the 3 days leading up to the arrival of delegates I met with key people at the hotel who would be assisting with our event – operations manager, sales manager, rooming managers, the general manager and food and beverage staff. Here is an overview of the week:
Day 1 and 2
200 hoteliers, publicans and alcohol suppliers arrive from Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and in between.
Day 2
3:00 – 6:00 PM Registration
6:30 – 9:30 - Opening Party
Day 3
8:30 – 3:00 PM Business Sessions
7:00 – 10:00 PM Dinner at the Petroleum Club in the Petronas Towers
Day 4 (free day with many different activities)
7:00 AM – 2:00 PM Golf Outing
10:00AM The Royal Selangor Pewter Factory Tour
5:00 – 6:00 PM Wine Tasting
7:00 – 10:00 PM Tastes of the World
Day 5
4:30 – 7:30 Trade Show with a Difference!
8:30PM Chinese night markets
Day 6
8:30 – 3:00 PM Business Sessions
7:00 – 12:00 AM Closing party/gala dinner
Day 7
Departures (yes people missed their flight because they were participating too heavily in the closing party!)
Before I go into detail about each event let me tell you about Kuala Lumpur. KL is a very unique city. It is truly the crossroads of Asia. It has a fusion feeling to it- a combination of modern architecture with old traditions. It is a Muslim country with a mix of Chinese, Malay, Thai and Indian people. The city is full of more designer shops than I have ever seen. On one street there will be massive shopping malls and the next will be alley way with tiny outdoor restaurants that have play-school looking outdoor furniture. There are people walking around in burkas with Louis Vuitton purses amongst children, men and women begging in the street with missing limbs and other deformities I have never seen before. The amount of women in burkas was a shock to me and my delegates. It really is something very hard to get used to seeing. These women who are fully covered walk with their men (about 3 feet behind them) who are wearing shorts, t-shirts, and sandals. The women in the Tiffany stores and Dolce and Gabbana shops are the women in burkas. One night I was walking through the busy/haggling Chinese markets and a women in a burka nearly knocked me over (accidentally) and this black covered thing startled me so much and it was so strange to hear a voice behind it. It was a very kind and apologetic voice but a very strange experience.
The Malay people are very kind people. They smile a lot and are extremely hospitable. I would say their demeanour is similar to the Caribbean culture, they are always on island time. And in the event industry that can really make my job difficult. This cultural difference brought a few obstacles. For instance, I’d tell people to bump in their equipment at 9:00 AM and they would get there by 11:00 AM. I had to have alcohol delivered to a venue at 2:00 PM but they wouldn’t answer their phones for me to let them know it was going to be late as they pray every Friday between 12 – 2. The King’s birthday happened to be a few days before our conference so of course everything was delayed. And the traffic in KL is insane! It is worse than NYC. If you get in a cab you have to tell them to turn the meter on or you will get screwed. It is a hustle and bustle city.
We stayed at a 5 star hotel, but you still had to be careful about things like drinking the water. Apparently the city is downhill from a sewage plant and hospital and people have gotten different forms of Hepatitis from the water. So, as you can see, the city is truly a mix of modern and old.
Day 2
Opening party – the opening party was designed to introduce and integrate our delegates into the Malaysian culture as this was the first time most of the attendees have been in Malaysia. We had the party at a venue called Feast Village. It is attached to an adjacent hotel and is a massive open space with 11 different themed restaurants – Spanish tapas, Malaysian, Chinese, Korean, Thai, just to name a few. It is literally a village of restaurants all gorgeously and elaborately decorate and themed with the food. It was a very glamorous food court. There was a main stage in the open common area where we had all different kinds of entertainment. We had a colourful Malaysian drum symphony, a Chinese mask changing performance, acrobatic man, a contortionist, and an Indian Bhangra Troupe performance. We wanted to bring all the cultures of Malaysia to our delegates at once. They absolutely loved it! And were very full and thirsts were definitely quenched! It was a fun evening and I had the pleasure of staying late at the event to count all the empty bottles to finalise corkage fees. This is something I had to do after each event.
Day 3
Business Sessions and Petroleum Club VIP Dinner – This day began with rehearsal at 7:00 AM for a day of business sessions and keynote speakers. We opened the sessions with a funny video that Chris and Nicky made. I guess I forgot to mention the video on the pre-conference days. Our client has a really recognizable costume character as a logo. It is a massive foam beer bottle, one that you need another person to help put on over your head and then comes with suspenders and bootys. We wanted to make a funny opening video revolved around this costume man. So my boss and I took the massive costume (in a coffin size box, not kidding) on the plane with us! Nicky offered to be the person in the costume. So for 2 days Nicky, Chris and two of Chris’ camera man professionals hired a car and drove all over KL filming the logo man in all the landmarks in KL. Keep in mind Nicky was wearing this costume for 8 hours and it was 95 degrees and HUMID. Needless to say the video was definitely well worth it. It should be on Youtube soon and I’ll send it out when it is. We showed the opening video, everything from arriving in the airport to arriving at the hotel, and the audience loved it! They did a fantastic job and was a great way to start off the conference.
My client organised the speakers and they were phenomenal! They had speakers discuss entrepreneurship, success, memory training, and of course sessions related to their business specifically. It was a great program that concluded at 3:00 PM that day. After the sessions I rushed around to get things together for the dinner at the Petroleum Club in the famous Petronas Towers. Let me tell you, it was extremely difficult to work with this venue. The Petroleum Club is a member only access club that is run by a handful of conservative traditional men. I believe the club used to only be open to men. I got one of those weenie handshakes when I met the manager and he wouldn’t look me in the eye. It was very frustrating and made m experience planning it extremely challenging as I was responsible for coordinating the food and beverage and planning the night. The club also has a very strict formal dress code that must be met so thankfully none of our delegates got turned away. As my client is involved in the alcohol industry they provided their own alcohol for each event. We had all the alcohol shipped to our hotel and then distributed to our off-site venues. As the Petroleum Club has strict security our hotel representatives has to scan every single case of alcohol (all 79 of them) through the security scanner! So it took a while to get all of that through. Thankfully that was delivered a few days in advance so it would be properly chilled.
Anyway, I got to the Petroleum Club two hours before the group to coordinate table place cards and last minute food and beverage coordination. Our attendees arrived at the Petroleum Club and enjoyed cocktails with a jazz pianist for the first 30 minutes. They were then seated at the floor to ceiling window view overlooking KL (the club is on the 42nd floor of the 82 story towers). As a surprise, our team member Nicky, came walking down the large staircase and walked throughout the 12 tables and sang 3 songs. They absolutely loved it! Everyone was eating and then all of the sudden they hear this wonderful voice and when they look up it’s Nicky! Wow! It was great. After dinner we had an Australian comedian do a 20 minute stand up. It definitely pushed the envelope a little bit but thankfully most of the crowd enjoyed it and had a great time.
Day 4
Tastes of the World – during the day of Tastes of the World was pretty hectic as I had my team and I running a golf outing, a tour of the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory and a wine tasting. The day concluded with cocktails in the open atrium of the living room. Then the group was split in half and half of the delegates went to a Chinese restaurant and the other half went to an Italian restaurant which were both in the hotel. After the delegates were in their restaurants Maria told me I was taking a night off to go have fun so Chris, Nicky, my boss’ song and Chris’ two camera pros went out in town. We went to this beautiful bar on top of a 35 story hotel that is wide open and has a pool in the middle of it. There are booths outlining the sides of the bar that are clear boxes that hang over the edge of the hotel so you can see straight down to the street! And you have the best views of The Petronas Tower and the KL Tower. I was still nervous the entire time being out thinking something would go wrong but Maria insisted I go do something to get out of the hotel for once. We then walked the streets found some back packer reggae bar and had a beer. On our way back we scoped out the DVD sellers on the streets and headed back to the hotel to check on the delegates at the third restaurant/bar for the after party. Each night attendees could go down to the Latin American themed bar to mingle and have fun (in the hotel). It is a fantastic bar with cigar lounges on the first floor, full service restaurant, beautifully decorated, with a live Columbian band! We had so much fun dancing with the delegates here! I would dance for a little bit.. run to the kitchen and count some empty bottles.. then run back and dance some more. The band was a ton of fun and they would come out and dance with everyone and it was a blast!
Day 5
Trade show with a difference! This was the capstone event of the conference. Our client came to us in the beginning of the planning stages and said that they needed to do something to spruce up their trade show, to make it fun and interactive and truly create an experience for the suppliers and delegates. Our team came up with the concept of having 4 themed-bars to display all the alcohol products. Shane designed the bars and they looked AWESOME!
The event started with a presentation from the GM of the company... which Maria and I were asked to participate at the last minute. Boy did I not know what I was signing up for! My client has this ongoing joke about fitness that helps promote products. They have a whole program designed around this and the main characters consist of the two main executives and two girls named Push and Pull who are fitness instructors. Our client needed two girls so Maria and I volunteered. Now, I didn’t bring any work out clothes with me and I didn’t have time to get any so I asked Nicky if she could buy me a pair of shorts. She comes back with these teeny tiny biker shorts just before the event begins! We were given an XL shirt by our client to wear and head bands. Once everyone was in the ballroom we had to start the show by running in to Rolling Stones music, running on stage, and lead the crowd in exercises to Olivia Newton John’s song Lets Get Physical. It was hilarious... but I didn’t like how the delegates were looking at me after seeing me in that gear! Especially since I was in blacks all week!
After the 30 minute presentation it was time to reveal the bars! Let me back up a minute... Our set designer Shane created the sets and sent the construction drawings to a local supplier in KL. He was overseeing the construction of the sets this whole week and had to teach the local suppliers how to do a proper curtain reveal – a kabuki drop! The massive bars were covered with beautiful white curtains and were revealed one by one with an amazing multi-media show Chris put together that listed each product and had a sexy video to go with the introduction. The four bars were an ice bar for white wines, sports bar for beers, vineyard for red wines and an art deco Manhattan themed bar for swishy cocktails! The ice bar had actual ice sculptures that were designed to put the wine in to keep it chilled, the sports bar had 2 flat screen TVs, one underneath the glass table, the vineyard had wooden barrels and shelving, and the art deco was just designed beautifully in a black and white checkered them. We had the head chef design a finger food menu that matched each theme. After each bar was revealed we brought the comedian from the Petroleum Club back to the stage along with Nicky. We had live cameras and did interviews around the trade room and made it an interactive event. We also raffled off prizes. It was a very fun event and our client loved it! Score!
After the 3.5 hour show Maria and Nicky took a group of people to the haggling Chinese markets and got lots of cute hand bags and accessories and had fun bargaining. I was assisting with concluding the event and doing the bottle counts! Man, there were a TON of empty bottles!!! And of course, after all that everyone ended up at the Latin American themed bar for some fun dancing!
Day 6
Final day of events! Wow I could not believe how fast everything was going. We had another full day of business sessions – 7:00 AM rehearsal – 3:00 PM. Our final event was the gala dinner which was held at the adjacent hotel. In retrospect, I’m really glad we decided to switch venues, get out of our current hotel, and display this amazing ballroom! A little strange that the two hotels are competing properties, but oh well.
This whole day was just crazy because I was running around the different venues, securing final payments, corkage, bills, tidying up loose ends before everyone left the next day, and checking on the musicians rehearsal/sound check for the gala dinner. Well, when I went over to check on the equipment at first (10:00 AM which was 30 minutes after equipment was supposed to be bumped in) nothing was there! So I immediately called our AV contact and had him get his people there ASAP. I went to check on them an hour later and half of the equipment we requested was not there, the lighting guy disappeared somewhere, only 1 person spoke English, and things just were not looking good at all. Thank God we had Shane and Vanitha there. I forgot to talk about Vanitha! She is a KL local and a friend of Robert’s so she was a gem to have on site and help us with communication problems as she speaks multiple languages. The kerfuffle pushed back rehearsal by 2 hours but the musicians were able to finish in a hour. They were even able to enjoy the sit down dinner I arranged for them!
The other aspect of this event is that the headline artists were all a surprise to the delegates so we had to keep them artists hidden!
Jason arrived just before the dinner began so I was happy that I could bring him to the final event. We had all the delegates congregate in the hotel lobby and we had a human tunnel of staff from the other hotel leading the guests through the other hotel lobby down a set of stairs and down two really long escalators. They were each given a drink at the top of the escalators so it was a fun site to watch all the smiling faces go down with drink in hand! After some pre-cocktails we opened the gala doors and everyone found their seats. It was a nice relaxing event and I got to enjoy it while Maria and Shane kindly offered to stage manage. Nicky did some singing in the beginning and after dinner the main event began! We had 3 huge Australian rock stars.. one of which was part of INXS. You probably wouldn’t recognise the names but let’s put it this way... everyone was on the dance floor once the music started! It was a great site. At midnight the event concluded and of course everyone ended up at the bar in our hotel dancing and smoking cigars. It was a wonderful night.
Overall, it was a very very successful event and I am so fortunate to have been managing this international conference. The delegates were so much fun, our client executives were wonderful, we worked our butt off but it was fun. I worked 20 hour days for 10 days straight but it was definitely worth it... especially for the next three days....
The next day, Friday was departures. I had some de briefing meetings the next day and things to finalise with our client but I was checked out of my hotel at 3:00 PM with Jason. My boss met me in the lobby to wish us well and he handed me a sock.. yes a sock... that had a bottle of Dom Perignon in it! It was nice enough that he was sending me to Langkawi with Jason to oversee 26 other delegates in case they would need any assistance. I made so many good friends from the conference that Jason and I ended up sharing the bottle with one of the delegates. Langkawi was superb, the resort was amazing, Jason haggled the price of a ring he got me from a department store, we ate great Malaysian seafood, and had drinks by the pool. Yea.. definitely worth working 20 hour days!
On Monday, Jason and I said our goodbyes and I headed off to Shanghai for a site inspection for another client. Not too much to report there as I was working the entire time. I got to see the World Expo though! Which was amazing. The pavilions were incredible. Morocco was my favourite. The Saudi Arabia pavilion was a 9 hour wait! I said no thank you! Shanghai is an amazing city. Lots of smog though... kind of irritated my eyes after a few days. The city is massive, people have no sense of personal space, the streets are wide, and nobody speaks English! Crazy city. But that is for another blog post as I hope to be back there in the near future.
23 May, 2010
Cooler Nights and Lifestyle Changes
Fall has come to Brisbane! Well, kind of - it's still in the 70s every day. The evenings have certainly gotten cooler. The daytime doesn't really seem much different than it has been over the past two months but evening temps are dropping to down to the high 50s. I try to keep in mind that everything is essentially off by six months from what I'm used to. That said, this would have been the best November I've ever had in Chicago!
People are still outside at the cafes and bars, though Carol and I had a good laugh when they brought out the gas patio heaters when it dipped into the 60s. We've both been really enjoying the cooler weather, especially in our apartment. I honestly don't think we've had our doors closed for more than a few hours total in the last month. If we get cool, which hasn't really happened yet, we can just close the doors and the overall temp in our building stays very comfortable. I can tell already it's going to be hard to return to A/C and heat for eight months of the year.
Since the days have been nice, I've been playing golf just about every single weekend since the beginning of February. I got a cheap used set of sticks at a local clubhouse that included a walking bag. My regular golfing mates and I walk every round, which not only saves a few bucks on carts, but lets us play when the course is too wet for carts and gets us some exercise. Its been a few years since I've played with consistency like this, since high school really. It's certainly showed up on the scorecard the past month as I'm finally getting the touch back in my short game and hitting the driver straight! Few things make me feel better than a good day on the course.
Golf was something I never did in Chicago because the environment really wasn't very conducive - the courses were further away, I didn't have many golfing buddies and many of the courses were quite pricey. That, and they were only really playable for a few months a year and I spent most of those months playing beach volleyball or going to baseball games. I've realized (I just typed realised with an 's' - apparently I'm getting in the habit of spelling in Aussie English!) that moving somewhere different always presents different opportunities. Living in a metropolis is obviously not the same as living in a small town, just as living in a college town is different than living in a moderate sized city. Aside from the physical characteristics, going somewhere different also gives you the opportunity to redefine your daily routines.
My office just hired a new employee this past week who is from France and I had the opportunity to take him out to a welcome lunch. We started talking about food, since neither of us particularly care for the food here, and I realized (did it again - realised) that my diet has been very different from when I lived in the US. Living in Spain for six months in 2005, I loved the food but my diet was very different. I ate a small breakfast, a bocadillo for lunch and usually had soup and a sandwich or something similar for dinner. I really didn't eat that much and I never cooked - thanks to a very gracious host Mom. In Chicago, I cooked at least half the nights of the week but probably went out at least two or three dinners a week. Eating out was easy, relatively cheap, and usually as tasty as anything I'd make at home. Lunch was almost always bought out, and breakfast was a rarity. Being on the road all the time meant I was either forced to eat out or couldn't get groceries with any consistency.
Here, I usually eat a small breakfast, bring a decent lunch four times a week and cook almost every night. The grocery store is a short walk away and food here doesn't save very well (less preservatives?) so we go nearly every day. We also don't have a car, so we couldn't get more than a few days of groceries anyway. Eating out is a nice excuse for Carol and I to get out of the house but it certainly isn't very economical. Most main courses start at $25 here and its very easy to rack up a $40 tab without thinking about it.
This is what I mean by changing daily routines. Not traveling means I cook more, I see Carol more, and importantly, I have more time in the evenings to do other things I want. I have a certification exam coming up in July and have a nice little 1,200 page book that I've been studying. I'm also training for a marathon in July, for which my company is sponsoring me. I probably run three times a week for at least 60 mins and spend several hours a week reading for my exam. On weekends, if Carol and I aren't traveling, I have extra time to go for a long run and some extra studying. I also have plenty of time to golf, as I mentioned before.
It's funny how changes in environment cause a change in routine and changes in routine have effects on all sorts of things. Carol's Dad gave me a 'life wheel' a few years ago where you're supposed to rank personal satisfaction with various aspects of life. It helps to make sure everything is in balance. The spokes include: physical environment, career/school, money, health, friends/family, significant other/romance, personal growth, and recreation/fun. Each of these has changed in some way since we've gotten here. Physical environment - well, pretty obvious. Brisbane is great. My career is interesting, I like my client and my job is overall going well. Money is a fun little roller coaster, considering the fluctuation in the Australian dollar and the volatile world economy, but Carol and I are very comfortable and certainly not worried about money. My health is the best it has been in a while. With the amount of running I've been doing and the reduction in eating out, I've lost a decent amount of weight. I don't think I was overweight before, I'm just a bit more runner-scrawny now. Friends/family has definitely been the one thing that I would rate lower here than in the US, but that isn't really a surprise. We do have a number of friends here that we like to see, but we spend far less time with them and it isn't the same as being around people you've known for years or your whole life. Family is thousands of miles away - nothing we can do about that. As far as significant other, Carol and I still have the same wonderful relationship and are still very compatible living together. Personal growth has gone up for sure, with the marathon and certification. Traveling also counts for personal growth - we both love to see and experience new things. The last piece, recreation/fun, may have gone down a little, but not much. We don't go out and party as much as we did in Chicago but we still have every opportunity to go have fun whenever we want.
We always viewed this as an opportunity to do something different and experience something new. I'd say it's certainly lived up to that - in more ways than I realized (did it again!).
People are still outside at the cafes and bars, though Carol and I had a good laugh when they brought out the gas patio heaters when it dipped into the 60s. We've both been really enjoying the cooler weather, especially in our apartment. I honestly don't think we've had our doors closed for more than a few hours total in the last month. If we get cool, which hasn't really happened yet, we can just close the doors and the overall temp in our building stays very comfortable. I can tell already it's going to be hard to return to A/C and heat for eight months of the year.
Since the days have been nice, I've been playing golf just about every single weekend since the beginning of February. I got a cheap used set of sticks at a local clubhouse that included a walking bag. My regular golfing mates and I walk every round, which not only saves a few bucks on carts, but lets us play when the course is too wet for carts and gets us some exercise. Its been a few years since I've played with consistency like this, since high school really. It's certainly showed up on the scorecard the past month as I'm finally getting the touch back in my short game and hitting the driver straight! Few things make me feel better than a good day on the course.
Golf was something I never did in Chicago because the environment really wasn't very conducive - the courses were further away, I didn't have many golfing buddies and many of the courses were quite pricey. That, and they were only really playable for a few months a year and I spent most of those months playing beach volleyball or going to baseball games. I've realized (I just typed realised with an 's' - apparently I'm getting in the habit of spelling in Aussie English!) that moving somewhere different always presents different opportunities. Living in a metropolis is obviously not the same as living in a small town, just as living in a college town is different than living in a moderate sized city. Aside from the physical characteristics, going somewhere different also gives you the opportunity to redefine your daily routines.
My office just hired a new employee this past week who is from France and I had the opportunity to take him out to a welcome lunch. We started talking about food, since neither of us particularly care for the food here, and I realized (did it again - realised) that my diet has been very different from when I lived in the US. Living in Spain for six months in 2005, I loved the food but my diet was very different. I ate a small breakfast, a bocadillo for lunch and usually had soup and a sandwich or something similar for dinner. I really didn't eat that much and I never cooked - thanks to a very gracious host Mom. In Chicago, I cooked at least half the nights of the week but probably went out at least two or three dinners a week. Eating out was easy, relatively cheap, and usually as tasty as anything I'd make at home. Lunch was almost always bought out, and breakfast was a rarity. Being on the road all the time meant I was either forced to eat out or couldn't get groceries with any consistency.
Here, I usually eat a small breakfast, bring a decent lunch four times a week and cook almost every night. The grocery store is a short walk away and food here doesn't save very well (less preservatives?) so we go nearly every day. We also don't have a car, so we couldn't get more than a few days of groceries anyway. Eating out is a nice excuse for Carol and I to get out of the house but it certainly isn't very economical. Most main courses start at $25 here and its very easy to rack up a $40 tab without thinking about it.
This is what I mean by changing daily routines. Not traveling means I cook more, I see Carol more, and importantly, I have more time in the evenings to do other things I want. I have a certification exam coming up in July and have a nice little 1,200 page book that I've been studying. I'm also training for a marathon in July, for which my company is sponsoring me. I probably run three times a week for at least 60 mins and spend several hours a week reading for my exam. On weekends, if Carol and I aren't traveling, I have extra time to go for a long run and some extra studying. I also have plenty of time to golf, as I mentioned before.
It's funny how changes in environment cause a change in routine and changes in routine have effects on all sorts of things. Carol's Dad gave me a 'life wheel' a few years ago where you're supposed to rank personal satisfaction with various aspects of life. It helps to make sure everything is in balance. The spokes include: physical environment, career/school, money, health, friends/family, significant other/romance, personal growth, and recreation/fun. Each of these has changed in some way since we've gotten here. Physical environment - well, pretty obvious. Brisbane is great. My career is interesting, I like my client and my job is overall going well. Money is a fun little roller coaster, considering the fluctuation in the Australian dollar and the volatile world economy, but Carol and I are very comfortable and certainly not worried about money. My health is the best it has been in a while. With the amount of running I've been doing and the reduction in eating out, I've lost a decent amount of weight. I don't think I was overweight before, I'm just a bit more runner-scrawny now. Friends/family has definitely been the one thing that I would rate lower here than in the US, but that isn't really a surprise. We do have a number of friends here that we like to see, but we spend far less time with them and it isn't the same as being around people you've known for years or your whole life. Family is thousands of miles away - nothing we can do about that. As far as significant other, Carol and I still have the same wonderful relationship and are still very compatible living together. Personal growth has gone up for sure, with the marathon and certification. Traveling also counts for personal growth - we both love to see and experience new things. The last piece, recreation/fun, may have gone down a little, but not much. We don't go out and party as much as we did in Chicago but we still have every opportunity to go have fun whenever we want.
We always viewed this as an opportunity to do something different and experience something new. I'd say it's certainly lived up to that - in more ways than I realized (did it again!).
12 May, 2010
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