India - Mumbai

I spent last week in Mumbai, India, managing on-site press activities at a large event our company held for local senior IT leaders, and inducting a new member of staff on the team. I tagged on a day or so to meet up with a good friend called Tom -- and B's godfather -- who has been based in Dehli for a few years. Tom showed me the real sights beyond the comparative luxury of our hotel.

I'm not even going to attempt to fully describe what I saw on this trip, which was my first visit to India. However, I can confirm many of the preconveived ideas you probably already have; constant noise, extreme density of population, heartbreaking poverty, vibrant colours and arresting smells. The word "intense" is often used by those that have visited the country because everything is accentuated, which creates contrasts between the extremes of poverty vs wealth, etc. I have to say, even though I'm fairly well traveled and I'd received plenty of free advice about my visit, I was still not prepared for what I experienced.

For example, the hotel where our event was held was like any corporate-style 5 star hotel anywhere in the world. However, we left the hotel for dinner on the first night in a "rick" (three-wheelers powered by two stroke engines that don't have wing mirrors because the vehicles travel that close to each other!) and turning right out of the front gate rather than left to the airport, we went behind the hotel to get to the restaurant. This is where the road ended. For the next 90 minutes, we drove on dirt roads heavily congested with people, bikes, motorbikes, cars, trucks, cows, ox, chickens and strewn with holes, rubble, people sleeping, stall selling anything and everything. It was a scene of biblical proportions. We traveled about 3/4 miles in those 90 minutes!

Another example would be the food. It was amazing. In fact, we got up before dawn at 5:45am to visit the Sassoon Fish Harbour in the city. This is where most of the fishermen land their catches from the night before and the women sell the fish to traders. It was a phenominal experience seeing 10,000+ brightly dressed fishermen and women trade their catches; it was like an al fresco trading floor, but the commodity was a little more smelly than stocks and shares.

And I'll never forget the stray dogs. They are the supreme masters at finding the busiest, noisiest place to take a long, luxurious nap. And not a thing will wake them!

There are plenty more examples, especially about how friendly and uber-bright the people are that I met, but I'm under the gun at work.... more thoughts to follow. The photo's are mainly of the fishing trip I describe below, but I'll upload more later.

Brighton, Ho!

In the country-wide search for English oak to be used as the continuation of our floor on the outside, we drove to a timber merchant on the south coast called Roundwood Timber Co. They had exactly what we needed - the hunt is over and the order is in.

We spent the afternoon in Tunbridge Wells, looking around the many book stores and antiques shops. The lower half of the town is very pretty and oldy-worldy, the upper half like every other vanilla-flavour town in England. No, we didn't meet "Disgusted-of-Tunbridge Wells"!

A trip to the South Coast could not be complete without fish 'n chips by the sea. We drove to Brighton, eat to our hearts content and took a wonderful stroll along the pier. It was quite a sight because of the sun set, pictured here. The pier itself is magnificant. It must have bee renovated in the not too distant past because it was very well maintained. It was appropriately tacky in a Victorian way, giving the whole place a definite charm. All along the pier there are amusement arcades, rides, places to eat and, of course, lots of places to just sit and view Brighton from off-shore. B had a particularly good time on the car rides but he wasn't so keen on crashing in the bumper cars - despite being the only one on it at the time!

Visa for India

In order to travel to India next week, I needed to get a visa from the Indian Government. Unfortunately, I can't be without my passport for the two/three weeks it takes to process the application, so the only option was to go to India House in London and stand in line for a "same-day" service. Boy oh boy, was I in for some fun!

On Monday morning, I left home at 5am to ensure I was at the front of the line so that I could get back to work as quickly as possible. Usually, a 5am get-up wouldn't be uncommon due to the distance between my home and the office, but it was especially painful on this morning because I had returned from Australia the day before. Add to this the driving, freezing rain and bitter wind for the 90 minutes waiting in the queue outside the embassy, and you can imagine how I felt when a rather worried looking official from the embassy put a sign in the window at 8am that said "due to power cut, no visa today - come back tomorrow". The words "oh dear, never mind" are something like the printable version of what I, and the other 1000+ people behind me, said! Wet to the skin and very cold, I turned around and traveled the two hours back to the office with the prospect of going through this again the following day.

At 5am, I left home again on Tuesday to repeat the process. This time, the embassy did open at 8:30am and, after standing in line for three hours outside, I got a little yellow ticket that entitled me to join another queue inside the building. What a result! An hour later, I handed in my documents and was told to come back in a hour. I instinctively snorted a laugh when the lady assured me that it would be ready -- judging by the way she threw my application form to the bottom of a rather large processing bucket demonstrated that a sense of humour is optional in all government agencies, regardless of the nation.

On my way out of the embassy at 10am to wait for my visa to be processed, I decided to count the number of people in the line waiting to get into the building. I counted nearly 3000 people, the vast majority of whom had no chance of even getting a little yellow ticket to queue inside!

So, you guessed it, four hours later I finally got my passport back. The collection point was inside the same hall that I had been six hour before, except this time it resembled one of those competitions to see how many people you can fit inside a mini. Wembley stadium could not hold as many people as had crammed into that little processing hall. When I finally heard my number come up to collect my passport, the only way to get it was to pass my ticket to the person in front of me in the maelstrom, who duly passed it along to others in front, who finally got it into the hands of the lady behind the bullet-proof screen. There then ensued a frightening exchange of passports as the wrong ones got passed back to people by the crowd in front!

It's now Thursday and I have just regained the feeling in my frozen toes and my inner-calm has been restored. The big question is this; is the embassy specially designed to give prospective visitors a little taster of the fun that is in store upon arrival? I'll see next week.

Sydney; a very sad farewell

My flight on Saturday was in the early afternoon, which gave me a little time to see more of the city in the morning. I took a walk through the main shopping district to the Art Gallery of New South Wales on the edge of the Royal Botanical Gardens. This little map gives a great visual of how well designed the city is -- it has a big park and cultural district in the heart of the city.

The Museum was, you guessed it, terrific. Despite the classical architecture on the outside (looks like the Metropolitan Museum in New York, as you can see in the picture), it's a wonderfully modern and airy space that contains a broad selection of work. I saw some insightful 19 century paintings of Sydney before it was heavily populated, in addition to a special exhibit of aboriginal work, which was beautiful. There was way too much to see in the short time that I had, but it's a definite must for anyone else visiting the city.

On my way back to the hotel to collect my bag, I took a walk through Hyde Park! I'm really impressed by the wide avenues and parks in the city -- and of course, by the glorious promenades all along the bay. It's really nice to be near to the water, especially when it is hot. During my trip here, the temperature only reached 30c, but I understand it can get a lot hotter.

I couldn't resist one more walk past the Opera House to take a look at the bridge in the sunshine. As you'll see from these pictures from the top of my hotel, they are spectacular, but it's nothing compared to being up close and personal with two such iconic structures. They are so big!

In the picture of the Opera House, you can see in the distance (if you click on the picture to enlarge it, like all the other pics) the ocean, just a short journey from the city. Many of the people in our office live along the beaches that line the coast north and south of the city. Bondai and Manley beaches are only a short drive and a lot of people commute easily. What a wonderful scenario -- work in the city and enjoy the urban advantages, then go back home to the beach and space. Wow.

With that, I collected my heavy bag stuffed with books for B and K from my trip and took the short, 20 minute ride to the airport. I was really, really sad to leave Sydney. I really hope I get to go back -- for a few years, rather than a few days!

In one week, I have traveled 27,000 miles during 46 hours in the air on five flights, held 17 one-on-one meetings with key leaders in our business, gave five presentations, met with a number of key editors and spent invaluable time with my internal team and PR agencies in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. Phew. Now back in England, I have the pleasure of feeling like I have been hit by a train at high speed.

Sydney, Australia

There's something seriously wrong with Sydney. Everything is brilliant. Yep. The food is unbelievable (bbq meets asian meets healthy), the people are genuinely friendly, work life balance actually a reality (in fact, it's a God-given right), style exists in abundance without the need to be showy, tradition is upheld without the need for pomp and ceremony, arts are celebrated without a snobbish establishment, and you can have your pie and eat it with the luxury of urban living together with beach society. And don't get me started on the sport or weather....... especially when I read online that the UK has issued a severe weather warning this morning about snow and ice (hahahaha)!

OK, OK, so I've only been here 24 hours and I already love the place. Yeah, yeah, so what. First impressions count. But I now know why thousands of Brits emigrate here every year.

After learning so much about the local business and media landscape in back to back meetings all day, I left the office about 5:30, took a shower and power-nap, and headed off to see the Sydney Opera house and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Through a little luck, I was sat in the stalls of the Opera House about to watch Opera Australia's fabulous production of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd by 7.26pm, four minutes before the curtain went up. It's more of a musical than an opera in my opinion, but the debate has been raging for eternity.

The inside of the Opera House was quite a shock. It's just like the South Bank in London, but with even more concrete (if that can be done!). I was told that the developers ran out of money during the construction of the building, so the inside was done on a budget. As such, it creates the illusion of hyper-modernity, but a little harsh to the eye. I'm not criticising it (I told you, everything here is amazing), but I did expect a little more grandeur for such an iconic building. But on the otherhand, I guess this sums up my experience so far -- it doesn't have to be sumptious just because that is what we think it should be -- it should be functional to the point of perfection with a true focus on what matters, and that's the acoustics, which were wonderful.

Hong Kong in a whirlwind

Yesterday, I awoke to quite a view. The buildings are big in Hong Kong!

I spent the morning in the local office meeting with managers within the business, followed by a long, but extremely rewarding planning meeting with our agency at their office right in the middle of "Central", the uber-chic part of the city. We walked to lunch along avenues upon avenues of high-end shopping malls. I have never seen so many designer stores in such a large number. For example, we walked past an Armani store the size of a multiplex cinema arranged over five floors -- and that was small in comparison to many of the other fancy shops. All the shops are also in malls connected by elevated walkways because of the incredible heat and humidity in the summer. I got a small taste of it and it makes even a short walk hard work.

The bottom line; Hong Kong makes the coisette in Cannes and Fifth Avenue in New York look like Wallmart! For me, it's a little toooo showy. But the buildings are amazing, the buzz of 8 million people on such a tiny island is electric and it's most definitely the Manhattan of the East.

I sped back to the airport at the end of the day to fly on to Australia overnight. All the transport links so far have been phenomenal - on time, clean, airport to center of city with no hassle, clear directions etc. London must be a horrible shock for people from these countries.

This morning I landed in Sydney.... I'm updating this over a treble-shot coffee before heading into a full day of back to back presentations and meetings. Tonight, if I'm still able to keep my eyes open, I'm going to walk to the Opera House and take some pics. The office has views over the harbour to it, and it looks magnificent. Can't wait to see it up close -- can't quite believe I'm here, in fact.

Surreal to the sublime

I woke up this morning to the sound of dogs barking. Now that wouldn't be odd if I was at home, but I was on the 34th floor of a hotel. I listened intently and it was definitely barking. It really didn't seem like the type of hotel to be pet-friendly (Hobbes would have had a great time if it was!), so I looked out of the window. What I saw was quite surreal; a dog run on the top of a 10+ story building that was situated right underneath my window. I did say that the density of building in Tokyo was incredible! Look for the little dots (dogs) in the picture of the roof of a tall building.

After an insightful meeting a very bright executive from Nikkei, the largest and most influential media organization in Japan (and the biggest publisher in the world!), I flew to Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the 5+ hour day flight meant that I didn't arrive in Hong Kong until very late. The flight did provide me with a chance to catch-up on 180 or so emails from the past three days (yes, past three days!) and prepare for my meeting with our local team here in the city. And tonight has been very busy because our firm announced that we have broken the $1 billion dollar in revenue ceiling -- wonderful news!

I did take a short walk around the hotel to get some air before bed. Hong Kong, from the tiny amount that I have seen in the cab in between the train station and my hotel on waterfront, is very much like Manhattan. Huge sky scrapers, neon lights and very sophisticated -- and right on the water. I took the picture of the tall buildings from outside the hotel. I hope to see a little more on the way to office tomorrow morning.

A business day in Tokyo

I spent today meeting with Japanese business executives and experienced my first "simultaneous translation". The company I met provided a professional translator to help me understand their presentation. It took a lot of concentration, but it was very effective. In the city, the day starts around 9am and finishes around 7pm.

Everyone I have met in Japan has been so polite, welcoming and very charming, despite my total ignorance of the language and customs. However, it looks like the 20+ page "etiquette in Japan" guide that my Japanese colleague forwarded to me has prevented me from making any mortal mistakes!

In just a short time, I have found that we share so many things and have so much in common. Except........ February 14th, Valentines Day, is a really big deal here in Japan, but it's a day for the girls to just treat the boys with chocolate. Now that's the kind of country I could live in!!!

At lunch, I enjoyed the best sushi I have ever had in a tiny "hole in the wall" restaurant near the office with the local team. The chef is pictured here. He instructed me on the art of using chop sticks properly with sushi. After demonstrating that I had taken on board his instruction, he told me that he would serve me the same type of food as the locals. According to my colleagues, if the chef sees that a foreign visitor is not good with chop sticks, he makes the rice base more compact so that it is easier to pick up and it doesn't risk making a mess of the customer's shirt (which would cause embarrassment, a really bad thing here). The downside of compact rice is that it doesn't taste as good. But I got the real-deal, and I can tell you that the sushi was out of this world.

This evening, the president of the company kindly took us out to dinner and we had a fabulous traditional Japanese meal at "Kurosawa". This restaurant is owned by the son of the famous Japanese movie director, Akira Kurosawa; among a long list of brilliant movies, he directed Seven Samurai, widely accredited as one of the most influential films ever made.

Tokyo, Japan by night

A member of our team based here in Tokyo kindly offered to show me around the city for the afternoon. It turns out that my hotel is right in the middle of a cool neighbourhood, most notable for its famous pedestrian crossing. It featured in one of my all time favourite movies, Lost in Translation".

In keeping with the movie theme, we walked through a beautiful shrine to the Park Hyatt hotel, the place where Lost In Translation was filmed. We had tea on the 54th floor in the bar overlooking the entire city from all sides. This is where my hero Bill Murray downed his whiskey night after night, but I have to say that the view from this building-top bar stole the show. It was breathtaking.

My eyes were starting fading fast after 30 hours without sleep, so it was then back to the hotel via an electronics shopping district. Noisy!

And the top photo is the view from my room at night. I think I'll sleep with the curtains open tonight.

Tokyo, Japan!

At work, my team is based all over the world; west and east coast US, UK, Sweden, Germany, France, Brazil, India, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Africa and Australia. This accounts for the black circles under my eyes that appear by Friday night. This year, I decided to set aside a small budget to meet my team in Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and India and meet the local business leaders we work with to better understand their business needs. Personally, I think that for all the technology in the world, a face to face meeting is still the best way to really understand client needs and build effective working relationships/high performing teams.

Enough of the management-speak already! Over the next few weeks, I'll share some of the sights I see and encounters I experience along the journey. Personal time is going to be very short on this trip because I have back to back meetings in each city and I'll be traveling London to Tokyo, Tokyo to Hong Kong, Kong Kong to Sydney and then home from Sydney via Hong Kong to London -- all in six days!

As my first update, I left London yesterday and flew 12 hours overnight to Tokyo, landing at 10am local time on Sunday. The immensely efficient airport ushered me quickly onto a bus to the city, which took 90 minutes. It took so long because Tokyo is ENORMOUS. Its a city of more than 35 million people, dwarfing London or New York. From the airport, we drove through 30 or so miles of industry on the outskirts of the city, which is on the sea, before we reached the city-proper. When we finally arrived in the center, the density of buildings is quite astonishing.

I'm stopping at the Cerulean Hotel, recommended by the local office. The view from my room is breathtaking. The immense sprawl of the city can be seen here -- and this is just looking in one direction! Click the pictures for bigger images.

I'm now off out to see what I can see and make the most of my free Sunday afternoon.

Construction - End of Week 3

The builders continue to move at a lightening pace. Here is the demolition team on Monday taking out the back wall, ready for the insertion of four reinforced steel joists. Each one is the width of the house and their aim is to keep the second floor where it is! The second picture shows the opening up of the ground floor and the third shows the status of the build on Friday, complete with roof structure, just three weeks after they started.