Work up and looked outside its going to be a sunny hot day! Woke, went to breakfast had pancakes, simple and plain, but couldn’t resist idle and Sāmbhar again, so I had a little with a butter parantha. Too much good food. I had some stomach issues today so a little late to the office. It is a hot day!
Lots of stomach issues today, and I left my meds at the office, so I was very much under the weather today.
First met with Manish and he explained his role with TLM a new product that I support. Then we had lunch more local foods, which were all good. We meet the head of security, Sandeep. He took us for a campus tour outside on a golf cart, the new builing will be about 1.5 in size of their current building, totalling about 8K seats.
Then we had two meetings with two Managed services groups. The first talked about a open source dash board developed and now supported offshore. This is something we need to look at closer as we are looking for something similar and this might be an alternative. The second stop implemented and supports with a full rollout of Remedy. We talked about upgrading Magic, so this was a great view into the future. There were many dashboards which I can see the new technology providing lots of benefits.
Then I spent lots of time in the clean room, we had a RTM issue that I worked with the team. I went to the hotel after 6PM, and did not feel very good. I took lots of meds and lots of sleep. I woke up a couple times, but did not do much till the AM.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Miscellaneous Items
Western dress is more prevalent in the Greater Noida and Noida areas – I saw that in the mall on Saturday, very refreshing to see native wear on Sunday in Delhi.
Roads and traffic are much less hectic in Greater Noida and Noida too, in Delhi it reminded me of my last visit but less traffic as it was an off day.
I noticed this on Friday but there were guys with colourful – neon rackets, I thought maybe racquetball, squash or badminton rackets – with the hotel having some courts, but these were for the flies and mosquitoes, they were best control – during one meal they much have got a big bug as it scared me a bit with the noise of the electric shock.
Noida and Greater Noida is rapidly building many and I mean many new high rise residential and commercial complexes which are in progress, about 10-15 between the two cities and many more in each. Also much construction in Delhi with the continued building of the metro, they still need to connect many communities to reduce the traffic. They work without impeding the traffic and often on pillars over the cities, homes and traffic, pretty interesting. So to say there is lots of construction would be an understatement. I feel every year many new attractions and features will be added to these cities, pretty exciting.
The food at the hotel is very less spicy – Joydeep would be right at home. I noticed this during the first couple means, but with comparing my weekend away meals it was very apparent. It was good to have a mix though. Not sure how my stomach will hold up to the barrage of different, spicy and good food.
Last Friday night I was awoken by a call to my cell after 3 hours of sleep and the plane ride. It was my dad looking for Lowe’s, he must have hit redial as I called when I got to the hotel, so I had some choppy sleep that night and had to convince him I was not at Lowe, but his son in India. I unfortunately got revenge, on Saturday morning, the taxi was delayed with a flat, so I thought I would give a call it was 10AM here and thought it was 7:30PM in the US, but it turned out to be 12:30AM in the US, so I woke both my parents for a brief call but got an early happy mother’s day greeting in too……
Roads and traffic are much less hectic in Greater Noida and Noida too, in Delhi it reminded me of my last visit but less traffic as it was an off day.
I noticed this on Friday but there were guys with colourful – neon rackets, I thought maybe racquetball, squash or badminton rackets – with the hotel having some courts, but these were for the flies and mosquitoes, they were best control – during one meal they much have got a big bug as it scared me a bit with the noise of the electric shock.
Noida and Greater Noida is rapidly building many and I mean many new high rise residential and commercial complexes which are in progress, about 10-15 between the two cities and many more in each. Also much construction in Delhi with the continued building of the metro, they still need to connect many communities to reduce the traffic. They work without impeding the traffic and often on pillars over the cities, homes and traffic, pretty interesting. So to say there is lots of construction would be an understatement. I feel every year many new attractions and features will be added to these cities, pretty exciting.
The food at the hotel is very less spicy – Joydeep would be right at home. I noticed this during the first couple means, but with comparing my weekend away meals it was very apparent. It was good to have a mix though. Not sure how my stomach will hold up to the barrage of different, spicy and good food.
Last Friday night I was awoken by a call to my cell after 3 hours of sleep and the plane ride. It was my dad looking for Lowe’s, he must have hit redial as I called when I got to the hotel, so I had some choppy sleep that night and had to convince him I was not at Lowe, but his son in India. I unfortunately got revenge, on Saturday morning, the taxi was delayed with a flat, so I thought I would give a call it was 10AM here and thought it was 7:30PM in the US, but it turned out to be 12:30AM in the US, so I woke both my parents for a brief call but got an early happy mother’s day greeting in too……
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Sunday 5-12 - India Day 3
Happy Mother's Day to all and an overseas happy monther's day to my mom.
Also happy Birthday to my oldest neice, Bella, she turned 7 today.
Today started early with a 7AM wake up and my eagerness for my first Indian breakfast. They had my fav - Idle and Sambhar, I had plent of this to eat. I also saw Chole, which I thought was a meal, but found out it was a nothern breakfast dish, I learned something new. They did not have Puri - bread for Chole - I wanted to compare it with Seema's as she makes this very tasty. Instead the had Kuchta , which was a fluffy but plain tasting, stil was good with the gravy dishes. they had the typical eggs, pancake and bacon too. Again lots of good food, rested a bit for my sightseeing outing. The taxi was delayed as it had to change its flate tire, so we began a little late. Anwarul came with the cab on my journey and we met Ashish in Delhi, many sites were very familar, as we past the Akshardam - bad spelling and the Oberi hotel I stayed during my last vist, We were on to the Lotus temple/ Last trip the sightseeing was on the weekend so there was limited queues, we waited for about 15 mins to get into the temple, then had a lengthy walk, needed to remove our shoes, so I keep my socks on. We walked up to the temple on a mat, I saw many foot prints as I walked and noticed i was making foot prints too, my feet were wet as the mat was watered due to the temp. I remove my wet socks. We lined up to get into the temple and they gave a brief into in Hindi and English, no picutures or talking in the temple. It was very cool and a unique bulding, we sat for a bit, then left for some pictures. While taking pictures, two young kids approached me and asked for a picture, I said not problem. I stick out a bit as I am so big and fair skinned. They family appreciated it and the one ran away saying his name was Rohit, i responsed as mine was Jeff. The kids were happy - it was very strange to me and odd....
We left the temple for the Otob Minor, I thought it was going to be just one tower, but was I wrong, they had a small qeue but no too bad, it was 1PM and getting a little hot, not very sunny so I lucked out a bit here. We stopped for a couple breaks, but overall very good weather, better than I expected. The had one completed tower and one completed walk way, the others sites were buiding and beginings of anothe tower and more walkways, It was similar to the other fort I visited last trip, every turn had a new bulding with unique features, This was really old and cool. There were three difference attempts to complete these buldings starting the 1700s. pretty old.
Then we went for dinner in Connaught place, QBE, it was on the third floor, very nice, we had the buffet, and half way through the electicty failed, so it was a candle light meal. Food was very good and a little more spicier then the hotel, which was good too. We left by candle light too as nohting was working, there seemd to be a major outage. This area is known for shopping and eatings. We looked for some store to get an indian dress but as it was Sunday all were closed.
Then we went to India gate, all the roads to were closed do to some demonistration and lots of police presence. We got left off, near the park on the India gate and took some close pictures, lots of food, panni puri and ice cream and lots of picnic lunches. this is the closest I got as last year we were prevented even to get this far. very nice view. We travelled around India and all the government offices and officer house, lots of good views, then headed home. two sighing were golds gym, they are very global now, interesting. I also saw many american cars - Ford, which was odd, toyota has a bigger presence too, bigger and SUVs are poplular too. Heading back to the hotel it started to rain, we got some, which was unexpected. Got to the hotel and rested had dinner and watch the Channi and Ragistan, spelling if off match, which the underdog Ragistain team won in Japur their home town, now updating the blog and heading to bed - good night.
Thanks Anwarul and Ashish for a great day!
Friday, May 10, 2013
Saturday 5-11 India Day 2 Trust Release
Got up at 5AM, early to watch/help offshore support the upcoming Trust release, met the driver in the lobby by 6AM, office at 6:10. It’s a nice cool morning. Got to office, release is in full swing, I was introduced to more members of my team. Took a break and an outside tour of the NIIT campus. They are building two more buildings to complete the campus. it was very nice and the weather was cool with a breeze. Breakfast was order Alo parahta, another favorite. The release was completed with great success, the team did an excellent job as usual, thanks! Going to the hotel for lunch then some travels with Hitesh and Suvrata in the evening. I had lunch at the hotel and asked for a favorite bread - Romali Roti - it is a very thin tasty bread they indicated they dont server it but my regular server indicated he had some special for me and retuned with two slices, this is some really great stuff. The servers cooks and mgmt all know me now and are extremely friendly and too acoomodating.
Got picked up by Hitesh and off to Noida, to the IPL mall, it was huge lots of activity going on inside and out. Got in the budiling through a security check and it looked very similar to KOP, except for the names of the shops and the people. I was packed. We met Suvrata and walked a bit, saw Hallmark, TGI Friday, KFC, Pizza Hut, Staples, Dunkin Dounuts too. Many home town offerings. Lots of people and I stick out very much. I started starring back and smiling just to see if I got any reactions, and did...so it was fun. We look at a couple clothing shopes but they dont have a big and tall shop for me here, hope for some luck tomorrow in Delhi. We went to a sport bar, I think it was called the sports bar to have some drinks and snacks and continue to watch the cricket match. We had some Indian beer - very good, and snacks, Paneer, mushrooms and chicken. all very tasty and we had some good talks.
We walked some more and hit the food court, we were looking for a restraunt proiving Romali roti, and stopped at on but did not offer this bread. I was almost full with the snacks, but it was dinner time. We had 3 types of bread - mint parntha - very good, thought it was taste link mint, but only a hint of that, layered parnatha - again good, this a crusty crispy chapta, very good but plain, we had another paneer dish and dal. Again more talks and eating, very nice. We had desert - Kaffe, I think Inidan ice cream - very rich and tasty it had a nut flavor and some cold noddles, which was odd, but added great tecture to the ice cream and was overall very good, I woudl have never guessed this and probaly would have avoid the paste altogether. It was a late night headed home after 11PM. A great night.
Thanks Hitesh and Suvrata for a great evening!
Got picked up by Hitesh and off to Noida, to the IPL mall, it was huge lots of activity going on inside and out. Got in the budiling through a security check and it looked very similar to KOP, except for the names of the shops and the people. I was packed. We met Suvrata and walked a bit, saw Hallmark, TGI Friday, KFC, Pizza Hut, Staples, Dunkin Dounuts too. Many home town offerings. Lots of people and I stick out very much. I started starring back and smiling just to see if I got any reactions, and did...so it was fun. We look at a couple clothing shopes but they dont have a big and tall shop for me here, hope for some luck tomorrow in Delhi. We went to a sport bar, I think it was called the sports bar to have some drinks and snacks and continue to watch the cricket match. We had some Indian beer - very good, and snacks, Paneer, mushrooms and chicken. all very tasty and we had some good talks.
We walked some more and hit the food court, we were looking for a restraunt proiving Romali roti, and stopped at on but did not offer this bread. I was almost full with the snacks, but it was dinner time. We had 3 types of bread - mint parntha - very good, thought it was taste link mint, but only a hint of that, layered parnatha - again good, this a crusty crispy chapta, very good but plain, we had another paneer dish and dal. Again more talks and eating, very nice. We had desert - Kaffe, I think Inidan ice cream - very rich and tasty it had a nut flavor and some cold noddles, which was odd, but added great tecture to the ice cream and was overall very good, I woudl have never guessed this and probaly would have avoid the paste altogether. It was a late night headed home after 11PM. A great night.
Thanks Hitesh and Suvrata for a great evening!
Friday 5-10 India Day 1 Clean Room
Got some sleep, woke around 10AM. This was the best hotel shower I ever had seen. No bending over to get under the water or squeezing close to the wall. The shower head was on the ceiling and it also had a shower wand – great refreshing shower! Got to the lobby around 12 noon, no time for breakfast but not hungry after late diner. I am craving idle and Sāmbhar though. Met Pranay at the lobby, drove to the office about 15 minutes. The new G Noida office stands out and is represented by the NIIT colours, - building looks very modern. Guards let us into the campus, then walked to the door, more guards, sign in to get badge – met Sona. Went to the 1st floor for SEI, past the clean room. I was shown around a bit – they have mural paintings and picures of the SEI office on the walls – going to my desk or meeting room ran into Hitesh. Had a meeting with Sachin, Pranay, Sona, Sachin, and Anwarul to review my travel plans, all is good. Then met with Rhonda, she got me up to speed with many SEI – NIIT projects. She recommended some travel changes which we will work out the details next week. Then the long awaited entrance to the clean room. It was just another room, nothing fancy. Just lots of people working hard. Was introduced to many team members from the RTM, RTO, SW, Mobius, ODR teams, it was nice to put a name to a face. Went to lunch, a couple pasta dishes, rice and fish, Suvrata attended, good to see him. Then back to the office and ran into many other old faces, Ashish, Sachin and Bala. Good time catching up. Back to the clean room to catch up on emails and as others came in I was introduced. Left office around 7PM, back to the hotel, I had a buffet dinner bottled water, roti and naan, pasta, okra, eggplant, Dal, lots of good food, had some old favourites and tried a couple new plates. Desert I had my favourite carrot dish! There was entertainment too, I was watching them cook the breads – it was very entertaining and educational for me……as I like making pizza dough from scratch…..this was an experience – then off to bed for a quick night of sleep as it will be an early morning to the office.
Thursday 5-9 Travel to India
Got up, finished packing for my second flight and trip to India. Checked out, got a taxi to the airport, pleasant trip and driver. He talked about not liking to fly – I too feel this way. Got to the airport stopped at the club, continental breakfast – had some muffins and asked when I should leave for the flight. They told me leave at 10AM for a 10:20 flight. At 10AM , I checked the board it indicated final call, so I got a little nervous, then walking to the plane, I say that the status was changed to closing – I panicked a bit more and started running – got to the terminal and they indicated I had plenty of time – it was a scare tactic which worked for me--- I think they were laughing at me too…so calmed down and had a long walk to the plane. Not looking forward to this as the last plane I could not relax and sleep. Got on the plane – it was different and bigger, I was happy! I was able to lay back and strech out a bit. Caption spoke a lot this time before takeoff, he was boasting that he hasn’t needed the emergency details yet and not planning till retirement – pretty confident.
Lunch was provided, salad, Indian chat, rice dish, with chocolate mousse – good a bit spicy – they provided samosa for dinner snack – very good –crust was very light! Watched a few movies – Argo, taken 2 and something else – to let the time go by – flight was very good. They had an update flight monitor, which was cool - we traveled through Europe above the middle east and thru russion to India. When we arrived it was only 40 degrees and hazy – I quickly learned to convert temp – double and add 30, so it was 110 – HOT! Got to the lobby – ears finally popped – used gum during the landing this time. Long walk to get to immigration and customs – started sweating a lot – not much AC at the airport. Got through Immigrations and customs no problem, got to the exit and saw Sachin waving. Got out of the Airport and got greeted with the heat – walked to the cab and started our tip to Greater Noida – about a 2 drive to go – saw the newer roads and infrastructure – in Noida an G Noida – lots of construction – residential and business – lots! Got to the hotel, security check before entrance, arrived around 1AM – very nice, got to the room , then went for dinner – 24/7 they opened it for me – got some Dal dish – lots of very good food, went to bed around 3AM after winding down a bit. – good day
Lunch was provided, salad, Indian chat, rice dish, with chocolate mousse – good a bit spicy – they provided samosa for dinner snack – very good –crust was very light! Watched a few movies – Argo, taken 2 and something else – to let the time go by – flight was very good. They had an update flight monitor, which was cool - we traveled through Europe above the middle east and thru russion to India. When we arrived it was only 40 degrees and hazy – I quickly learned to convert temp – double and add 30, so it was 110 – HOT! Got to the lobby – ears finally popped – used gum during the landing this time. Long walk to get to immigration and customs – started sweating a lot – not much AC at the airport. Got through Immigrations and customs no problem, got to the exit and saw Sachin waving. Got out of the Airport and got greeted with the heat – walked to the cab and started our tip to Greater Noida – about a 2 drive to go – saw the newer roads and infrastructure – in Noida an G Noida – lots of construction – residential and business – lots! Got to the hotel, security check before entrance, arrived around 1AM – very nice, got to the room , then went for dinner – 24/7 they opened it for me – got some Dal dish – lots of very good food, went to bed around 3AM after winding down a bit. – good day
Wednesday 5-8 UK Day 2
Another early day, but no team line was needed and no new issues were reported. The RTM release was going very well after lots of long, hard and good work by many people. Hopefully the rest of the week going well and the team can rest up and have some outside enjoyment. On the other side we are ramping up for the big semi-annual Trust release so another couple teams are putting in long hours to make this release very successful too.
Today, I was catching up on emails over the last week and setup time with the teams to work with each of them. I had time with Ops team – Helen to resolve yesterday’s eroded message and show here how to triage in the future. I sat down and she reviewed and performed her day to day processes – very manual intensive and lots of information was with her and not documented, so I can see how this process takes a long time, very error prone and hard to train. We talked about GTX benefits, concerns and improvements, and the whole team provided some improvement suggestions, which I will review with the team onsite. This time provided me with lots of insight into the business users world which will help me support this in the future. Secondly I sat with the recon team to provide insight as Chris was training them on the GTX product so they could use to search and independently perform research. They asked many questions and I got some additional insight on how this app will be used. I have a few follows on user set and searching.
Today, I was catching up on emails over the last week and setup time with the teams to work with each of them. I had time with Ops team – Helen to resolve yesterday’s eroded message and show here how to triage in the future. I sat down and she reviewed and performed her day to day processes – very manual intensive and lots of information was with her and not documented, so I can see how this process takes a long time, very error prone and hard to train. We talked about GTX benefits, concerns and improvements, and the whole team provided some improvement suggestions, which I will review with the team onsite. This time provided me with lots of insight into the business users world which will help me support this in the future. Secondly I sat with the recon team to provide insight as Chris was training them on the GTX product so they could use to search and independently perform research. They asked many questions and I got some additional insight on how this app will be used. I have a few follows on user set and searching.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Tuesday 5-7 UK Day 1
I woke, got ready for the office, headed to the Pret store for breakfast, some drink and fruit, then headed to the office. As I got inside, I was escorted to the 4th floor then let out. It was 7:30AM and nobody was there, I roamed around and started yelling anyone here. I finally found someone, Steve, he indicated that I was very early and nobody shows up for an hour or so. I took me on a brief tour, kitchen area and to the conference room for my stay that day. Around 8ish more people rolled in, then was meet by Jason and he showed my around a bit. Later I got introduce to the ops tea, Roy, Helen, Mellissa and Nic, and Chris from GWP US arrived too. We were on the conference line all day working with the Ops, Mutual Fund team all day, a few minor issues, issues were identified and resolved in a timely manner. I was happy that I could contribute a little too. The Ops team was a little behind due to an issues that needed 20 message resubmitted, so I was pretty hectic during their cut-off times, only one eroded message that didn’t make it. Had a late lunch, again headed to the local convenience store, EAT and PRET. All in all a very successfully day. Left the office a bit late after talking to my onsite teams, so I returned to the hotel and took a trip to the Buckingham palace, it was a 10-15 minute walk from the hotel. You had to go through this park, and it was really nice out. Lots of picnickers, rugby, soccer, aerobic classes, lots of people enjoying the weather and having fun. I had to walk loops around the house and crossed many major roads but finally got in front of the palace, retro guards were in place and some doing some walking drills, changing of the guards happens at 11:30 AM. Then I found the real guars with automatic guards, well suited for some action. Walked back, hit some shops and dinner, then back to the hotel for an early night. It was a long day.
Walking the roads in UK was a bit different as the driving is on the opposite side as US, but each intersection, it was clearly marked on the road, look left, cars approaching from the right. This was extremely helpful to maneuverer the walking traffic and not getting hit by an oncoming car. This town and country is growing on me after a down day yesterday – not bad at all
Walking the roads in UK was a bit different as the driving is on the opposite side as US, but each intersection, it was clearly marked on the road, look left, cars approaching from the right. This was extremely helpful to maneuverer the walking traffic and not getting hit by an oncoming car. This town and country is growing on me after a down day yesterday – not bad at all
Monday 5-6 Travel to UK
Watched a movie, the new Die Hard movie - but could not sleep. Tried to lay down, but the seats are made for 5'10'' individuals. Having the seat in sleeping postition I had to bend my knees so I could not fit, not confortable. I tried this for a bit, but then just sat there. Took a trip to the front of the plane, talking to the pilot and stewardess, we talked about London and the purpose of my trip a bit, the pilot didnt seem interested in getting back to steer the plane. I had a packet of cherry infused rasins, they were OK. They had a monitor with a channel to view the flight patterns and proivded real time info, which was cool to keep track. Before landing we had breakfast - Fruit and a croissant
Plane landed all was good - I could not pop my ears and the tension was building. We left the plane, went through imigrations - fast track - no problems - guy told me to hold my nose and blow - worked a little bit but had lots of strange sounds coming from the head.....
I exchanged some money, got my luggage, went through customs and found a taxi, the driver did not say a word. We found a hotel, but I thought it was the wrong one, so went in and checked. I was right, he drove me to the wrong hotel. The driver blamed it on me,but he was wrong. We got to the correct mayfair hotel and they driver did not take credit cards, so I went into the hotel and they indicated they would pay for the trip and add it to the hotel bill. Checked in, got my luggage and relaxed for a bit.
I went for lunch - EAT was the name - real original - kind of a Wawa - got some food and drink, then walked, walked, got lost, walked, got lost and walked, found a park, then finally found the SEI office and walked and got lost more. Lots of upscale car dealers and retail stores, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Hugo Boss. etc.......
Went back to the room for a break, caught up on some emails and bagage.
Went to dinner a Lebanese restraurant. Never had this food before, they provided bread and pickles - olives. The pickled turnips were great. Food was spicy but not hot. Had some spicey peppers too, not too bad. The meal was good but I dont remember want any of it was called. They also gave me 3 pieces of desert all very good, sweet and tasty - no names.
Went back to the hotel for bed.
Plane landed all was good - I could not pop my ears and the tension was building. We left the plane, went through imigrations - fast track - no problems - guy told me to hold my nose and blow - worked a little bit but had lots of strange sounds coming from the head.....
I exchanged some money, got my luggage, went through customs and found a taxi, the driver did not say a word. We found a hotel, but I thought it was the wrong one, so went in and checked. I was right, he drove me to the wrong hotel. The driver blamed it on me,but he was wrong. We got to the correct mayfair hotel and they driver did not take credit cards, so I went into the hotel and they indicated they would pay for the trip and add it to the hotel bill. Checked in, got my luggage and relaxed for a bit.
I went for lunch - EAT was the name - real original - kind of a Wawa - got some food and drink, then walked, walked, got lost, walked, got lost and walked, found a park, then finally found the SEI office and walked and got lost more. Lots of upscale car dealers and retail stores, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Hugo Boss. etc.......
Went back to the room for a break, caught up on some emails and bagage.
Went to dinner a Lebanese restraurant. Never had this food before, they provided bread and pickles - olives. The pickled turnips were great. Food was spicy but not hot. Had some spicey peppers too, not too bad. The meal was good but I dont remember want any of it was called. They also gave me 3 pieces of desert all very good, sweet and tasty - no names.
Went back to the hotel for bed.
Sunday 5-5 Travel to UK
Got up early to pack and clean the house as I have a 2PM birthday party for my oldest niece. Leaving my house a little late, getting to my sister’s place, I got an email that my flight has been cancelled. I had to call the emergency airline travel company and they moved me to a 10:50 flight out of Newark, still will be picked up at work at 6:30. Had a great time at my nieces party and telling everyone goodbye, I headed to Oaks. Some of my team members were finishing up on a weekend RTM release, then I got another email about my flight being delayed, till 2AM. I called and had my tavel to the airport delayed till 10:30. I went out for dinner and then went home to get a few last minute items.
Got to work, Joydeep was there to take my keys, they road the car to the Newark ariport. The driver was a talkative guy, so the ride went fast. Got to Newark airport, signed in, dropped off the luggage, then stopped at the club for a meal - buffet with India dosa, with plenty of water. Boarded the flight on time, seats were odd as the had some facing the front, others facing the rear of the plane.
Got to work, Joydeep was there to take my keys, they road the car to the Newark ariport. The driver was a talkative guy, so the ride went fast. Got to Newark airport, signed in, dropped off the luggage, then stopped at the club for a meal - buffet with India dosa, with plenty of water. Boarded the flight on time, seats were odd as the had some facing the front, others facing the rear of the plane.
Second Trip to India May 2013
Going to UK, India and UK, to support RTM release and business users in UK and see my team in Greater Nodia Indai.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Work Day 4
Today we woke up to a raining day. Expectations were lots of interior work and mud, mud, and more mud. We got to the site and assignments were given out, I selected a off-sight project. About ten of us went to another house in Waveland, a hard hit area, to finish some task to get this house to its owner by EOY. We completed some siding, added installation, caulked. This was my first time using the power tools. I forgot the name, but it was to measure and cut the concrete singles to fix, which were then nailed into place and caulked. We arrived back to the main house at around 4PM, just in time to cleanup the job site. The house looked amazing, exterior had its final coats of pant, paint touch up was competed, the house numbers were nailed into place, interior window boxes, ceiling lights, soffet vents, some base flooring was nailed down. It finally looked like a home to be. We also were assigned some cleanup activities in an adjacent house, used for staging of cabinets and other stuff. Today we left the raining job site for dinner and hopefully another Phillies victory.
Other notes
While we were walking back to our car a lady pulled off to talk and thank us for our efforts and wanted to let us know this is still appreciated. As we walk to our jobsite we often get honked at, which just shows their appreciation. A family located across the street of our build site, daily stops by twice a day with goodies, chips, donuts. He is always cheerful and appreciative of our work to date. We see them throughout the day wishing us the best. Today he stopped over and talked to a group of us about how pleased he was of our work and accomplishments.
Work Day 3
Today we awoke to a very overcast day. Breakfast was unusual, bacon, sausage and donuts, sounds like a winning combination. Off to the work site and we are again split into many groups, some the same as yesterday and some different. I started out carrying drywall, this was a hard job to recruit for. Afterwards work with a couple guys cutting boards for the top of the soffet area, first large sheets were cut into strips, then those strips were cut out so that air vents would fit into them. Finally these sheets were given to another team to be applied to the roof. After a couple hours of this work, I moved on to painting. Did some touch up painting of the exterior then work on painting the first coat of the side deck wall. It was a pale green...This completed my day. The drywall contracts took a couple hours completing the whole interior house, it was amazing to watch them work, such precision and speed. They slapped the drywall up and nailed it into place, while cutting out all needed cutouts for windows, doors, vents, electrical boxes, etc. Then they applied mud and spread it out evenly, pointed corners were a must. Finally they completed the ceiling with a textured white ceiling material. Other contracts can to the site to compete the roof with shingles. I was told they completed in hours during the down pouring rain. Yes it rained for the most of the day, making Mississippi mud, hard to walk and work in this mess. I often made tasks difficult as many were working in the areas were rainfall wouldn't reach them. Scaffolding and exterior painting was pretty much off limits. During lunch we took our team picture with our trip t-shirts. After work we all rain for the showers as it was out to dinner, as Hancock bank sponsored a dinner at Shaggies, a local popular seafood restaurant on the coast of the Gulf. It was raining something fierce. Dinner was tastey and spicy, corn on the cob, shrimp, sausage, jumbolia, deserts, etc. Thank you Hancock for you hospitality. There were a couple birthdays which were celebrated with cake and a birthday song. Then it was game time! The rest of the night was spent support the fightens and celebrating their first world series victory since 1993. Off to bed for another working day.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Tuesday - Work Day2
Work up on time and got ready for the second day of work. I felt really good, surprisingly. Had the standard Continental breakfast and headed to the sight. This time we volunteered for a number of different jobs, I selected installing windows. We had about 10 windows to installing. First we carried then into there spots, made sure the were nice and level, nailed them into place and applied flashing. This was a pretty good experience. Then I we off to build the frames for the soffet around the end of the roofs, which ended the morning as lunch time came, a lot quicker this day. We headed to Wendy's for lunch. When returning to the job site, we completed the soffet installation around the entire house. Then end with a number of odds-n-end jobs, like carring drywall. The house now had tar paper on the roof, porch had it ceiling placed, complete siding and soffet was completed and painted. There were jobs of caulking, and many other contractors ran wire and plumbing throughout the house. When leaving today it look very close to a complete house, but there is much more to do. After this workday, we went to the bay saint Louis beach, relaxed in the sand and gulf of Mexico to wind down the day. Our group then went to Pizza Hut for the dinner buffet. Then most retired at the site in preparation to tomorrows tasks. I finally got caught up on most of the blogging
Tidbits
I all driving a minivan with 6 others....I will try to get there complete names but for now first names only, Joe, Mike, Bill, Angela, Vera, and Macky. I think we all get along very well and have had lots of good times to date. We travel to and from the job site and take our meals together.
The guys and girls have separate cabins with bunk beds, the guys have wooden bunks, beds are too bad, espescially after a hard day of work. The showers and bathroom as connected to the main building, showers are trickles of hot water as long as you can hold the spiket on, but all is good after a hard days work.
I am now drink water from a can donated by Anheuser-Busch, never had their water or had water from a can, but it does the trick.
The guys and girls have separate cabins with bunk beds, the guys have wooden bunks, beds are too bad, espescially after a hard day of work. The showers and bathroom as connected to the main building, showers are trickles of hot water as long as you can hold the spiket on, but all is good after a hard days work.
I am now drink water from a can donated by Anheuser-Busch, never had their water or had water from a can, but it does the trick.
Monday - Work Day 1
Alarm went off early, earlier then expected 6AM EST, but 5AM here. I was probably the first to wake and wake others. Went back to bed for a quick rest and then got up and ready for breakfast. We had a continental breakfast and off to the worksite. We started with an introduction to the Habitat employees and other volunteers. We were given pieces of wood with number on it, which dictated the job and group we were assigned to. I was given group 4 and a star, the star meant a special initial project. The special project had to go offsite to perform some offload detail. The house that we were working on had the flooring established and a couple walls framed out nothing much more. My initial task was to off load a truck with a number of prefabricated framed walls. But before our work, the 4X4 got stuck in the red mud of Mississippi. We managed to set plywood and wood near the tires to eventually get the truck on solid ground. Then we spent about an hour of offloading the truck. Once that was finished we returned to the jobsite to join our group, #4. My task was to carry wall framing to their location in the house handing them over to another group for nailing, once that was done, we put up scaffolding to apply plywood to the exterior walls. Others were assigned many tasks, like painting, nailing, cutting, etc. Lunch time came and we went back to out site for shrimp poboys. After our hour break we headed back to the work site. There we were assigned carrying the trusses and stage then on top of the roof for another group nailing them down. Finally my last job of the day was getting cut plywood on the roof to get it all nailed in. We finished all the framing, exterior walls, roof, soffet painting and many more that I can't remember or know of. We decided to go out for dinner and hit a very good mexican restaurant and watched the Monday night game. Then returning to bed for some well over due rest. I felt really sore heading to bed and feared the next day. Not much time for blogging
Rejuvenate - Sunday Trip to Mississippi
-Disclaimer, I am not a blogger or creative writer, but doing so to communicate in one massive format and not have to send multiple emails. Some fact may not be true or entirely true read at your own risk.
Early Sunday morning 4AM - woke up, got ready finished packing then let for SEI to meet the shuttle which leaves for the airport at 6:45. Not much on the road at 4AM, so I made good time and was actually early for the shuttle. About 6 were taking this shuttle to the airport, we left little before 7AM and got a the airport around 7:30, checked in and waited for our 9:40 flight to New Orleans, we were so early I was able to exchange my seat for the emergency seats which had better leg room. We meet up with the rest of the 15+ at the airport. Flight was delayed on the landing pad as we were rerouted to bypass camp David as something top secret must have been going on. We still got to our destination on time. We got our luggage and rental car. Headed for lunch, we stopped at some restaurant called Cotter Brown's, watch some NFL highlights and had some grub. Menu was tasty, poboys, hoagies, awesome cheese fries, alligator, etc. While eating this person leaving said hello and asked me how i was doing, I replied back with a thank you. He stopped as if he knew me, so I just started to talk further. He just wanted to say thanks and show appreciation for all the work done and what we were about to do. -this was not the last time people showed there appreciation- We were on the cuff of the Mississippi rivers so we walked up the levy to see the river and barages being towed up and down the river. To waste some time we headed to a local park to see the river up close, there was lots going on, cook outs, football, volley ball, lots of fun. While walking in the park a couple people spoke up and asked us what we were doing and we talked for a while and they were extreme thankful for all that we were about to do. We left for the Langniappe site, which was about a hour drive. We arrived found our bunks and meet up with the rest of the group. Dinner was served around 6PM, sandwiches, soup, Mac-n-Cheese. I was all good and tasty. Orientation started around 7PM. This session lasted for about an hour, rules and regulations, short video about the going ons in bay Saint Louis, Langniappe projects, and Habitat projects. We were all excited to start working in the AM. Some headed out to watch the Sunday night football and ALCS games. We meet up with our Dublin counterpart, where else by the bar.
Early Sunday morning 4AM - woke up, got ready finished packing then let for SEI to meet the shuttle which leaves for the airport at 6:45. Not much on the road at 4AM, so I made good time and was actually early for the shuttle. About 6 were taking this shuttle to the airport, we left little before 7AM and got a the airport around 7:30, checked in and waited for our 9:40 flight to New Orleans, we were so early I was able to exchange my seat for the emergency seats which had better leg room. We meet up with the rest of the 15+ at the airport. Flight was delayed on the landing pad as we were rerouted to bypass camp David as something top secret must have been going on. We still got to our destination on time. We got our luggage and rental car. Headed for lunch, we stopped at some restaurant called Cotter Brown's, watch some NFL highlights and had some grub. Menu was tasty, poboys, hoagies, awesome cheese fries, alligator, etc. While eating this person leaving said hello and asked me how i was doing, I replied back with a thank you. He stopped as if he knew me, so I just started to talk further. He just wanted to say thanks and show appreciation for all the work done and what we were about to do. -this was not the last time people showed there appreciation- We were on the cuff of the Mississippi rivers so we walked up the levy to see the river and barages being towed up and down the river. To waste some time we headed to a local park to see the river up close, there was lots going on, cook outs, football, volley ball, lots of fun. While walking in the park a couple people spoke up and asked us what we were doing and we talked for a while and they were extreme thankful for all that we were about to do. We left for the Langniappe site, which was about a hour drive. We arrived found our bunks and meet up with the rest of the group. Dinner was served around 6PM, sandwiches, soup, Mac-n-Cheese. I was all good and tasty. Orientation started around 7PM. This session lasted for about an hour, rules and regulations, short video about the going ons in bay Saint Louis, Langniappe projects, and Habitat projects. We were all excited to start working in the AM. Some headed out to watch the Sunday night football and ALCS games. We meet up with our Dublin counterpart, where else by the bar.
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