Farewell to Melbourne - Homeward Bound!

November 14, 2007

Hi All,
I am burning the midnight oil here on my last night in Oz - trying to get some work stuff wrapped up before I lose the day tomorrow in transit. However, before digging in to my follow up, I took one last walk through town -- going through downtown on Bourke Street, then down Swanston to Federation Square, and one final stroll along Southbank enjoying the beautiful Melbourne skyline.

After a light dinner and final performance of the fire-show out in front of the Crown Casino, I wandered to my holiday inn home for the final stretch of hotel living. It will be SO WONDERFUL to be home with Bobby, the kitties and our still-seems-new-to-me home.... plus, I can't wait to expand my wardrobe beyond the same 4 things I seem to have worn for the past 3 weeks.

So, as I close out this chapter of the "See Kim Trot" adventures I'm feeling very fortunate to be happy, healthy and having enjoyed a very productive trip with a good dose of fun squeezed in to all the available free slots in the schedule. My many thanks for all your good thoughts, warm wishes and encouragement -- until the next adventure....

Big hugs,
Kim

A Day at the Races - Aussie Style!

November 10, 2007

Hi All,


Just a quick note to share my photos from the wonderful day that Hatice and I spent at Flemington racetrack with my friend & consultant, Peter Askew, today.

Peter very kindly flew in from Canberra this AM to meet me for a good catch up on the trip, followed by a great outing to the races. We had gloriously gorgeous weather, a grand time and even a good run of gambling luck -- entirely due to the excellent "in absentia" handicapping of my beloved hubby -- using his tips, we had the chance to cash a number of tickets throughout the day!

Here's the link to my web album from the races: http://picasaweb.google.com/KimberlyBWeir/EmiratesStakesNov2007?authkey=fchNEM_hD3Q

My favorite part of the whole spectacle of the day was the unabashed style of the Melbourne crowd -- from the littlest wee one, to the awkward teens, to the dashing young men and glamorous girls -- the city clearly loves good fashion and a good time in equal measure. I simply don't think there is a place in the US where that many teenage boys would willingly and boldly put on suits, ties, cufflinks and hair product to rival the finery of their girlfriends' hats, heels and slinkly little dresses -- the people watching was simply spectacular!

On the horsie side, the track is beautiful -- set with the wonderful cityscape of Melbourne in the background, and covered with a rainbow of bountiful roses everywhere -- plus, all of their races were run on the turf -- so the green grass, blue sky, puffy white clouds were the perfect backdrop for the color & pageantry of the racing steeds and their fans.

Bobby's picks for the races were a huge hit -- as even the races where we didn't cash tickets, our horses were mostly in the mix at the end so we had much to cheer for. On race 3, we had 1st and 3rd (here they only say "win" and "place" - but place means 2nd or 3rd). In race 4, Bobby gave us the 2nd place horse -- but we dropped the ball with our bet. In race 5, we had the winner (but I forgot to cash the ticket before we left the track! I suppose the bookies will make the most of the $1.60 dividend that would've been paid for my $5.00 bet). Race 6 was the big race, the Emirates Stakes, and after putting our combined bet on Bobby's primary picks, I went ahead and bet $5 on his one long shot of the day... the 16... and she won!!! It paid $200 --- and made me very proud -- as you can see from the photo above.

Tonight I think Hatice and I are going to explore one of the famous greek or italian neighborhoods for dinner -- and I'm hopeful that tomorrow I can make a serious dent in some of my follow up as well as planning to visit a couple of the famous Melbourne shopping districts like Chapel Street and St. Kilda..

Happy Weekend to everyone -- I'm still happy & well, but looking forward to waking up next saturday in my own bed!

Hugs,

K.

Happy Diwali -- From Oz!!

Hi All,
Just a quick note from the capital of the land down under, Canberra! I hope this finds all my nearest and dearest happy & well.

I'm especially thinking of Padre Burgart as he is in the final days of preparation & packing for his return to Costa Rica for La Ruta de los Conquistadores http://www.adventurerace.com/eng/about-race.htm -- an epic mountain bike adventure race from the pacific to the atlantic coast of Costa Rica. Dad has riden La Ruta 7 times over the past years -- I am very, very proud of him (and a bit worried and anxious too), and I'd ask all my friends to wish him the very best of luck over the dates of Nov 14 - 17.... it's a superhuman undertaking, and despite my dad's amazing strength and conditioning, it's a brutal adventure and he'll appreciate all good thoughts. You can email him at calatlaruta@hotmail.com, or check his website for updates: http://eteamz.active.com/sites/calburgart/index.cfm?

It's been a very busy week for me, with not a lot to report under the "exotic travel" category -- despite the cool accent of our hosts, and the lovely locations of our meetings, it's really been a fairly unremarkable work week -- with nonstop meetings, presentations, dinners, lunches, and even breakfasts for schmoozing -- I've been in "meet and greet" mode for what seems a little like forever, but I must say I've been enjoying the fabulous local wines (all for the good of the cause, of course!).

I haven't had much time for photos, but here's my collection from my afternoon in Sydney Harbor and Zoo, enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/KimberlyBWeir/SydneyAustraliaNov5th?authkey=6y8cjxZZ44o

As a quick recap, I left Mumbai on Saturday AM after a wonderful dinner at the home of Mahijeet, Soina and Tarika Singh -- and began my travel to Aussieland. I arrived in Singapore to find a new boarding pass awaiting me, as my flight had arrived too late to catch my connection (and thus, I missed my chance to ride on the new A380, the "dreamliner", drat!). Of course, if one must spend an unexpected 4 hours in any airport in the world, I think I'd take Singapore any time -- it's positively gorgeous with orchid gardens, all the madison avenue shops, and even my favorite, Shanghai Tang! I enjoyed some decadent window shopping, and then camped in the very comfy lounge to get some work done before boarding at about 1am for Sydney.

I arrived in Sydney about 11am, thrilled to return to this beautiful city -- and especially the totally hip Taj Hotel Blue. The weather was glorious, and after a wonderful catch up with Bobby on the phone, I rounded up Hatice (my colleague from Fairfax County, who arrived from VA on Sunday AM) and we went out for an afternoon of "power-fun" on Sydney Harbor. We had a lovely lunch at Circular Quay (pronounced "key"), and then took the ferry over to Taronga Zoo -- the zoo with a view! We rode the aerial tram to the top and wandered our way back to the water, enjoying all the local fauna -- koalas, kangaroos, emus, crocs, elephants and even a wombat! Our time was pretty short, so we motored through the zoo and back across the ferry in time to walk back to the hotel through the botanical gardens and then met up with Morris (who had flown from India on Friday) and Geoff (one of my consultants based in Canberra) to review our game plan for the week.

I won't bore you with the details of our work meetings, but we spent Monday & Tuesday in Sydney -- with a wonderful dinner at Darling Harbor with our partners from Sydney who had supported our seminar earlier that day with the highlight of fireworks over the water. Tuesday afternoon we had the chance to observe the phenomenon of Melbourne Cup activities as all the young professionals came pouring out of their offices about noontime, dressed to the nines, to gather in a myriad of watering holes to celebrate the "Race that Stops a Nation". We were at the Qantas lounge awaiting our flight when the pretty grey named Efficient made her bold move and won the race in commanding style, then we were off to Adelaide. We were in Adelaide less than 24 hours, but enjoyed it very much -- especially the very warm welcome of our partners there. We had gorgeous weather, great food, excellent attendance at our event and even a quick tour about town before dashing back to the airport en route to canberra. We were scarcely here in the hotel 5 minutes before our first engagement, a dinner for many of our partners here. Today, we had about 35 at our seminar -- which started promptly at 7:30am, and after a full day of meetings, I just got home about a half hour ago from a lovely dinner hosted for us by the ACT government. ... it's just about midnight on Thursday, Friday is Diwali -- I need to send a note to all my friends in India!

So, tomorrow we wrap up our time in Canberra and I take my last domestic flight of the journey as we travel to melbourne, where we'll get a nice weekend to catch up and take in some sights -- including the races on Saturday! Monday & Tuesday I'll do work in Melbourne, and then head home on Wednesday.

I'll send another missive before I fly home -- thanks for all your kind thoughts and notes.

All's well here in tomorrowland -- happy friday to everyone in yesterday!
Love,
Me

Magical Mumbai - Truly My Favorite Spot

November 2, 2007

Hi All,

Happy to report that I’m healthy, rested (as of last night), and finishing up the week in India in good shape. Tomorrow AM I’ll fly to Sydney, via Singapore – arriving in Australia on Sunday AM.

Monday through Thursday of this week was fairly non-stop motion with our seminar on Monday morning in Delhi, my trip to Gurgaon (one of Delhi’s biggest industrial suburbs) that afternoon, followed by dinner with my speakers on Monday night. Then Tuesday I had a couple of AM meetings at the hotel, traveled to Hyderabad in the afternoon, and a were the honored guests at a dinner/reception with AMCHAM and IACC upon arrival Tuesday evening. Wednesday’s seminar & luncheon in Hyderabad went very well (much better than Delhi’s), and after one office visit dashed to the airport for the flight to Mumbai (at this point our speakers all went their separate ways).

Yesterday I was able to a little bit of catch up work done, and I spent about 3 hours with one of our major prospects which was quite productive. Upon return to the hotel in the afternoon I did a bit of shopping near the hotel – no silk rugs or large purchases… I promise! (Although I did stop by the shop where I’d purchased a few of my rugs the first time, and I enjoyed a few minutes trying on a whole host of diamonds – at amazing prices…. One day I’ll have to get organized about sharing what you can find here in case anyone would want me to buy for them.)

Oh – as an interesting aside, I saw the Chancellor of Germany yesterday, Angela Merkel – she was here, staying at the Taj Palace, with a huge German trade delegation. http://www.mid-day.com/news/city/2007/october/166356.htm As I was waiting for a table for breakfast yesterday AM I noticed a number of guys in suits with wires behind their ears, and realized that at the table sort of directly in front of me (in the middle of the sealounge breakfast area – not quite a public restaurant, but not a private dining room either – it’s the Taj Palace “tea room”) was the woman whose picture I’d seen in the paper. As I stood there, she and her group (about 6 people) got up to leave and she walked right by me just like any other business person would…. My brush with global power, only in India!

Today I’m camped out in my favorite spot – near the gorgeous Taj pool, on the marble patio, with ceiling fans and tropical steam with horns & sounds from the nearby traffic creating the most unique office environment! I pretty much plan to tackle follow to this week’s events all day so that I can start “fresh” with Australia – beginning with work on my presentation on the way to Singapore tomorrow. Tonight I am being kindly taken to dinner by Mahijeet and Soina Singh – lovely members of the “Indian family” that has so kindly adopted me – they took Steve and I to dinner when we were here last time and I really look forward to the evening with them.

I have confirmed that Halloween simply doesn’t register here in India – I heard from a few of the guests at our seminars that their children learned about the holiday in school and a few had mini Halloween parties with costumes, but for the most part there was not a trace of the holiday to be found – at this point, all eyes in India are on Diwali – which happens on November 9th – I’m sure it’s an amazing thing to behold. Here’s a link to learn a bit about this most famous of Indian holidays: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali

I’ll check in from OZ – hoping to spend some of Sunday afternoon at they “zoo with a view” before the schedule of meetings, seminars, and dinners kicks in on Sunday evening.

Thinking of all of you – thanks for your kind notes & wishes!
Kim