So, I realize I haven’t been great at this whole “blogging” thing. Actually, I don’t know anybody who IS good about regularly updating their blog. The way I look at it, it’s kinda like signing up for a Gym membership . . . when you first start you are SUPER gung ho about it, and then after a while the ambition just fizzles out. Well, at least you don’t need to pay a monthly fee to blog . . . and at least nobody calls you obese while you do it (or don’t do it). And at least blogging doesn’t require communal showering with old Chinese men. I just feel like you can only blog about life after you live it, so live first & blog later . . . or never. Right?
Anyway, just to make you jealous, I’m writing this update from the upper deck of a Boing747, in a huge, plush, ergonomic, business class seat with enough leg room for Michael Jordan! I’m sipping complimentary Champaign as I fly over continental Australia and read an assortment of international newspapers . . . siiiighhhh, life is tough . . . With that said, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in business class listening to Music Soul Child on my iPod . . .
So this latest business trip has been pretty interesting. Here’s the background: my boss is on vacation, so I was asked to give a 90 minute presentation on his behalf at a one-day conference in Sydney, Australia for all of our General Managers in Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific Islands. Needless to say I was SUPER nervous. My presentation was on Tuesday, and there was to be a run-through on Monday night, so I decided to get in on Sunday to have the day to explore Sydney (it’s been four years since my last visit!)
The trip to Australia was INTERESTING to say the least. My company has a policy that we fly business class for any trip that is longer than four hours, and the flight from Singapore to Sydney is about seven hours . . . so you know what that means . . . When I called the company travel agent to book the flight, he told me that the aircraft was the new Airbus A380! SWEEEEET, business class on the A380! Well, it turned out that I had celebrated a bit too early, because when I reached the Singapore airlines check in desk at the Singapore Airport, they informed me that there was in issue with the ticket. The conversation that ensued went something like this:
LADY: “I see that you have a seat booked in business class, but for some reason the ticket was issued at an economy class rate.”
MIKE: “Ummm . . . okay, so what exactly does that mean?”
LADY: “It means that if you want to fly economy class then you have to fly standby”
MIKE: “Economy class? No, I want to fly business class”
LADY: “Then you will need to top-up an additional $3,000”
MIKE: “On whose credit card? The travel agent made the booking on the corporate card, which I don’t have on me right now.”
LADY: “Well we aren’t authorized to charge the balance to that card unless you can present it here now.”
MIKE: “Well I don’t have the corporate card on me, so what should I do?”
LADY: “Sounds like you need to keep your fingers crossed that you can get on Economy Class as a standby passenger”
MIKE: “Why would I have to fly standby if you already have a seat in my name?”
LADY: “Because the seat booked for you is in business class”
MIKE: “So . . . you’re telling me that there is a seat in business class with my name on it and it will sit empty unless I top up $3,000?! Meanwhile I won’t even be guaranteed a seat in Economy class?”
LADY: “exactly”
MIKE: “Well if it’s going to sit empty why can I just sit there without paying the balance? What difference does it make where I sit, a seat is a seat right?”
LADY: “Wrong. Things are more expensive in business class, the champaign, the meals, the entertainment systems, even the blankets and pillows.”
MIKE: “Okay, I see where you’re going with this . . . How bout I make you a deal. You let me sit in business class, and I won’t eat ANY of the meals, drink ANY of the Champaign, I won’t even look at the magazines . . . damn, I won’t even take the blanket out of the plastic wrapper! I’ll even walk back to economy class to use the bathroom!”
. . . needless to say, she wasn’t having it and my 6’2” behind was in ECONOMY class for that WHOLE seven hour flight. (At least I’m flying business class for the return leg of the trip)
I reached Sydney early Sunday Morning and wasn’t feeling too well. It was cold and rainy. I had totally forgotten that it was winter in Australia. . . The southern hemisphere is pretty hopeless when it comes to seasonal conformity. I knew things were going my way again when my suitcase was the first one off of the aircraft (probably because it was the LAST one onto the aircraft after my prolonged argument with the lady at the check in desk.) I hopped into a taxi and headed for the hotel. I thought it would be fun if I pretended to use an Aussie accent and see if the locals could tell the difference. I practiced on the taxi driver, but he wasn’t from Australia, so he had no idea either way. I feel like there is an international unspoken rule that all taxi drivers have to be immigrants. I felt like I was in NYC. My driver told me he was from Iraq. Then he asked me where I was from “GULP . . . um . . . Canada” I said. I simply did not have the energy to enter into a heated discussion about president Bush’s approach to foreign policy and international relations at 5am on a Sunday morning.
I reached the hotel, checked in and CRASHED! I woke up a few hours later, went to the hotel gym, showered, changed, and walked around the city for a while.
- PRESS PAUSE –
News flash from my current plane ride. Is it weird that both of the captains just left the cockpit at the same time to use the bathroom? Who is driving this plane? Oh Lord . . . if this laptop is found amongst airplane rubble in the Australian outback, tell my parents I love them!
- PRESS PLAY -
Anyway, it was Sunday, and I hadn’t been to church in a couple of weeks, so I found an afternoon service at Hillsong Church and made my way there. Service was really good. The pastor talked about how important it is to wake up in the morning and not let yourself think “Man another day of my monotonous routine, shower, dress, work, eat, home, sleep” BUT RATHER, we should wake up and say to ourselves “Man! I’ve never had this day before! I can’t wait to see what opportunities, people, and experiences God has in store for me today!” I thought that was a good outlook, I could probably use a bit of a perspective shift in that area of my life. Everybody at the church was super friendly. It was the type of church where people POUNCE on you if you look like you’re new, or alone, or bored, or Jewish . . . after successfully dodging a few “pounces” and not so successfully dodging a few more, I made my way back to the hotel.
That night my friend Glenn came by and picked me up and took me out for a thorough Australian cultural induction with his friend Dean. We went to a cool area of town called “Newtown” and had African food for diner . . . (okay, maybe not such an Australian cultural induction) . . . we had no idea what to order, but the restaurant manager was really friendly. His name was frank. He picked a menu for us. It was AMAZING! There was some African flat bread that tasted like Crepes, some rice, some yellow “not-rice” (stuff which looked and tasted like rice but I am told it is absolutely NOT rice). There were three vegetable dishes which all tasted strangely like meat and pizza sauce. And then there were 3 lamb dishes. . . . well Frank says they were lamb dishes. I told him I was up to his tricks, “I have lots of African friends, and I know goat when I taste it!” I told him! Oh Foolish Frank . . . sigh . . .
After dinner we went out for Gellatto and, Glen and Dean gave me an official tour of an Australian grocery store, pointing out all of the most important local candy, ice cream, and drinks. Everytime I mentioned I had never tried something, they bought it for me! Now I could get used to that type of hospitality! We ended the night back at Dean’s place hanging out on his balcony taking in the fantastic view of the city. After noticing a couple of my jet-lagged yawns, Glen offered to drive me back to the hotel. As he dropped me off he gave me an Aussie soccer jersey that he had bought for me earlier that day. How cool is that!? “SWEET MAAYTE! OI’LL WEEEAR IIT WIIITH PROIYDE!” I shouted back to the car in my best aussie accent as I walked toward the hotel!
The next day, Monday, I woke up sick as a dog, but I had lots of work to get done in preparation for the big presentation so I buckled down in the hotel room, put up the Do Not Disturb sign and started plugging away on my laptop. I met up with some colleagues on Monday night to do a run through of the presentation, which made me feel much more at ease. Lucky for me there was a SUBWAY right next to my hotel, so I had ALL of my meals there on Monday. For those of you who may not know, I LOVE sandwiches. And strangely enough my little sister shares this same love for them! If I had to choose one single food to eat every meal for the rest of my life, I would have a sandwich. Hmmm . . . my mouth is watering just typing this.
The next day was the big presentation. It went really well and I got lots of great feedback and encouragement from all of the GMs in the audience. I think they found the information really helpful, which is really all that mattered. After the presentations and meetings there was a cocktail party which was great for networking and catching up with some of my colleagues in the Sydney office. One of the Regional General Managers had a bit too much to drink and started telling everyone EXACTLY how he felt about them. Luckily he likes me.
At around 7pm I excused myself from the cocktail party to run up to my room and change before meeting Mr. and Mrs. Wykes (some family friends) for dinner. But I didn’t even make it as far as the lobby when I heard a loud, shrill Aussie voice shout my name across the lobby. Sure enough it was Mrs. Wykes. With a big hug she swept me off into the car where Mr. Wykes was waiting. After a long discussion about where to eat they decided to take me on a scenic tour of Sydney, and we finally ended up at a beach-side seafood restaurant called Doyles (supposedly the best in town)! It was a really still and quiet evening, and the view was amazing, we could see the city from across the bay all lit up at night. Dinner was great, we laughed all night and they told me stories about their kids who are working in Dubai.
After dinner they took me out for Gelato and Bondi Beach and we walked around a bit more. Surprisingly I remember a lot of surroundings from my time in Sydney four years ago. All in all I had a great evening. They dropped me back at the hotel where I fell straight to sleep after a long hard day of work and play.
That brings us to today! I got up early, ordered room service, packed, checked out and headed to the airport. Traveling business class is SUCH a great experience. I can totally understand how people could get spoiled by this. You get a special pass to get expedited through EVERY line. The ticket line, the immigration/customs line, the security line, you even get a separate entrance to board the airplane and avoide the boarding line! Not to mention the great business class lounge with free wireless, and free flow Champaign.
Anyway, long story short . . . God is Good. And friends are crucial. Amen, Amen, and Amen again!
Anyway, just to make you jealous, I’m writing this update from the upper deck of a Boing747, in a huge, plush, ergonomic, business class seat with enough leg room for Michael Jordan! I’m sipping complimentary Champaign as I fly over continental Australia and read an assortment of international newspapers . . . siiiighhhh, life is tough . . . With that said, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in business class listening to Music Soul Child on my iPod . . .
So this latest business trip has been pretty interesting. Here’s the background: my boss is on vacation, so I was asked to give a 90 minute presentation on his behalf at a one-day conference in Sydney, Australia for all of our General Managers in Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific Islands. Needless to say I was SUPER nervous. My presentation was on Tuesday, and there was to be a run-through on Monday night, so I decided to get in on Sunday to have the day to explore Sydney (it’s been four years since my last visit!)
The trip to Australia was INTERESTING to say the least. My company has a policy that we fly business class for any trip that is longer than four hours, and the flight from Singapore to Sydney is about seven hours . . . so you know what that means . . . When I called the company travel agent to book the flight, he told me that the aircraft was the new Airbus A380! SWEEEEET, business class on the A380! Well, it turned out that I had celebrated a bit too early, because when I reached the Singapore airlines check in desk at the Singapore Airport, they informed me that there was in issue with the ticket. The conversation that ensued went something like this:
LADY: “I see that you have a seat booked in business class, but for some reason the ticket was issued at an economy class rate.”
MIKE: “Ummm . . . okay, so what exactly does that mean?”
LADY: “It means that if you want to fly economy class then you have to fly standby”
MIKE: “Economy class? No, I want to fly business class”
LADY: “Then you will need to top-up an additional $3,000”
MIKE: “On whose credit card? The travel agent made the booking on the corporate card, which I don’t have on me right now.”
LADY: “Well we aren’t authorized to charge the balance to that card unless you can present it here now.”
MIKE: “Well I don’t have the corporate card on me, so what should I do?”
LADY: “Sounds like you need to keep your fingers crossed that you can get on Economy Class as a standby passenger”
MIKE: “Why would I have to fly standby if you already have a seat in my name?”
LADY: “Because the seat booked for you is in business class”
MIKE: “So . . . you’re telling me that there is a seat in business class with my name on it and it will sit empty unless I top up $3,000?! Meanwhile I won’t even be guaranteed a seat in Economy class?”
LADY: “exactly”
MIKE: “Well if it’s going to sit empty why can I just sit there without paying the balance? What difference does it make where I sit, a seat is a seat right?”
LADY: “Wrong. Things are more expensive in business class, the champaign, the meals, the entertainment systems, even the blankets and pillows.”
MIKE: “Okay, I see where you’re going with this . . . How bout I make you a deal. You let me sit in business class, and I won’t eat ANY of the meals, drink ANY of the Champaign, I won’t even look at the magazines . . . damn, I won’t even take the blanket out of the plastic wrapper! I’ll even walk back to economy class to use the bathroom!”
. . . needless to say, she wasn’t having it and my 6’2” behind was in ECONOMY class for that WHOLE seven hour flight. (At least I’m flying business class for the return leg of the trip)
I reached Sydney early Sunday Morning and wasn’t feeling too well. It was cold and rainy. I had totally forgotten that it was winter in Australia. . . The southern hemisphere is pretty hopeless when it comes to seasonal conformity. I knew things were going my way again when my suitcase was the first one off of the aircraft (probably because it was the LAST one onto the aircraft after my prolonged argument with the lady at the check in desk.) I hopped into a taxi and headed for the hotel. I thought it would be fun if I pretended to use an Aussie accent and see if the locals could tell the difference. I practiced on the taxi driver, but he wasn’t from Australia, so he had no idea either way. I feel like there is an international unspoken rule that all taxi drivers have to be immigrants. I felt like I was in NYC. My driver told me he was from Iraq. Then he asked me where I was from “GULP . . . um . . . Canada” I said. I simply did not have the energy to enter into a heated discussion about president Bush’s approach to foreign policy and international relations at 5am on a Sunday morning.
I reached the hotel, checked in and CRASHED! I woke up a few hours later, went to the hotel gym, showered, changed, and walked around the city for a while.
- PRESS PAUSE –
News flash from my current plane ride. Is it weird that both of the captains just left the cockpit at the same time to use the bathroom? Who is driving this plane? Oh Lord . . . if this laptop is found amongst airplane rubble in the Australian outback, tell my parents I love them!
- PRESS PLAY -
Anyway, it was Sunday, and I hadn’t been to church in a couple of weeks, so I found an afternoon service at Hillsong Church and made my way there. Service was really good. The pastor talked about how important it is to wake up in the morning and not let yourself think “Man another day of my monotonous routine, shower, dress, work, eat, home, sleep” BUT RATHER, we should wake up and say to ourselves “Man! I’ve never had this day before! I can’t wait to see what opportunities, people, and experiences God has in store for me today!” I thought that was a good outlook, I could probably use a bit of a perspective shift in that area of my life. Everybody at the church was super friendly. It was the type of church where people POUNCE on you if you look like you’re new, or alone, or bored, or Jewish . . . after successfully dodging a few “pounces” and not so successfully dodging a few more, I made my way back to the hotel.
That night my friend Glenn came by and picked me up and took me out for a thorough Australian cultural induction with his friend Dean. We went to a cool area of town called “Newtown” and had African food for diner . . . (okay, maybe not such an Australian cultural induction) . . . we had no idea what to order, but the restaurant manager was really friendly. His name was frank. He picked a menu for us. It was AMAZING! There was some African flat bread that tasted like Crepes, some rice, some yellow “not-rice” (stuff which looked and tasted like rice but I am told it is absolutely NOT rice). There were three vegetable dishes which all tasted strangely like meat and pizza sauce. And then there were 3 lamb dishes. . . . well Frank says they were lamb dishes. I told him I was up to his tricks, “I have lots of African friends, and I know goat when I taste it!” I told him! Oh Foolish Frank . . . sigh . . .
After dinner we went out for Gellatto and, Glen and Dean gave me an official tour of an Australian grocery store, pointing out all of the most important local candy, ice cream, and drinks. Everytime I mentioned I had never tried something, they bought it for me! Now I could get used to that type of hospitality! We ended the night back at Dean’s place hanging out on his balcony taking in the fantastic view of the city. After noticing a couple of my jet-lagged yawns, Glen offered to drive me back to the hotel. As he dropped me off he gave me an Aussie soccer jersey that he had bought for me earlier that day. How cool is that!? “SWEET MAAYTE! OI’LL WEEEAR IIT WIIITH PROIYDE!” I shouted back to the car in my best aussie accent as I walked toward the hotel!
The next day, Monday, I woke up sick as a dog, but I had lots of work to get done in preparation for the big presentation so I buckled down in the hotel room, put up the Do Not Disturb sign and started plugging away on my laptop. I met up with some colleagues on Monday night to do a run through of the presentation, which made me feel much more at ease. Lucky for me there was a SUBWAY right next to my hotel, so I had ALL of my meals there on Monday. For those of you who may not know, I LOVE sandwiches. And strangely enough my little sister shares this same love for them! If I had to choose one single food to eat every meal for the rest of my life, I would have a sandwich. Hmmm . . . my mouth is watering just typing this.
The next day was the big presentation. It went really well and I got lots of great feedback and encouragement from all of the GMs in the audience. I think they found the information really helpful, which is really all that mattered. After the presentations and meetings there was a cocktail party which was great for networking and catching up with some of my colleagues in the Sydney office. One of the Regional General Managers had a bit too much to drink and started telling everyone EXACTLY how he felt about them. Luckily he likes me.
At around 7pm I excused myself from the cocktail party to run up to my room and change before meeting Mr. and Mrs. Wykes (some family friends) for dinner. But I didn’t even make it as far as the lobby when I heard a loud, shrill Aussie voice shout my name across the lobby. Sure enough it was Mrs. Wykes. With a big hug she swept me off into the car where Mr. Wykes was waiting. After a long discussion about where to eat they decided to take me on a scenic tour of Sydney, and we finally ended up at a beach-side seafood restaurant called Doyles (supposedly the best in town)! It was a really still and quiet evening, and the view was amazing, we could see the city from across the bay all lit up at night. Dinner was great, we laughed all night and they told me stories about their kids who are working in Dubai.
After dinner they took me out for Gelato and Bondi Beach and we walked around a bit more. Surprisingly I remember a lot of surroundings from my time in Sydney four years ago. All in all I had a great evening. They dropped me back at the hotel where I fell straight to sleep after a long hard day of work and play.
That brings us to today! I got up early, ordered room service, packed, checked out and headed to the airport. Traveling business class is SUCH a great experience. I can totally understand how people could get spoiled by this. You get a special pass to get expedited through EVERY line. The ticket line, the immigration/customs line, the security line, you even get a separate entrance to board the airplane and avoide the boarding line! Not to mention the great business class lounge with free wireless, and free flow Champaign.
Anyway, long story short . . . God is Good. And friends are crucial. Amen, Amen, and Amen again!
1 comment:
So you had a cross continental business presentation in front of global executives from all across the world (repetitive, no?) at the young and tender age of 22 at the time and concluded your trip with a first class business flight back to Singapore where you now LIVE.
Not sure if it hit you yet, but damn this YEAR has been INCREDIBLE!!!!! You've been to more countries in the past year than I've been to cities. You done more business presentations than I've done software installations. And finally you've managed to annoy more internationally hot flight attendants/crew than I've met. All in all this has been an incredible year fo ya man. The question is looking back on it all, what does the Lord Jesus Christ have in store for the young David. Has he conquered his international Goliath? Or will he build his kingdom and empire in the US of A.( United States of Atlanta).......
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