#12 - Mexican food

San Diego

I visited San Diego first time in 1994. It was a regular conference trip, but the city was beautiful, as well as the hotel next to marina. I enjoyed running on the walking street next to the harbour and the beach. The conference was happily over and there was some extra time before the flight back to home. I got a nice idea. Me and my colleague (Mr H.) enjoyed Mexican food and we were hungry. Soon we were heading towards Tijuana, Mexico, with a rental car.

From the traffic signs warning about Mexican runaways bypassing the highway I knew that we were approaching the border. We parked our car to parking lot next to the border and walked to Mexico. The area was full of beggars, many of them were young children who had lost at least one hand. That was a terrible sight. We continued walking towards the center of Tijuana, until Mr. H. started to feel bad. We could not understand the amount of misery that was packed all over the borderline at the Mexico side. It was time to turn back and drive back to San Diego in order to get something to eat. San Diego has plenty of good Mexican food, probably more tasty than the authentic Mexican food.

Lessons learnt:

Sometimes the reality hits the fool’s paradise.

San Diego area map.
Source Here.com.

#11 - I have been in Monaco (proud member of the European Traveling and Sightseeing Institute)

Years ago I participated in an interesting society that we used to call “European Traveling and Sightseeing Institute” (ETSI). That was a club of people who loved to travel and they even managed combine business with travel. The members of the club volunteered to arrange meetings in order to give the other members opportunity to travel to new locations. The society had sub-committees according to travel preferences, so the members chose their most preferred travel destinations accordingly. Once in a while there was no volunteer to host a meeting. However, the group was fully committed to travelling and those weeks they travelled to the headquarters of the institute in Sophia Antipolis close to Nice, France.

The vision of the club was to digitize the air around the globe. The meetings were organized to achieve the goal. I became a core member of the society when my yearly travel volume hit 150 days. The life of a core member was simple. Day was spent actively in the meetings together with the other members. After the meeting, the core team enjoyed a quick but nice dinner, after which it was time to start working in order to prepare the documents for the next day. It was time to go to bed when there has been complete darkness for several hours. I was a weird member of the society, because I started my regular day by jogging while the others enjoyed the last hour of their sleep. Once the core member got back to home, it was weekend that was dedicated for a lengthy rest in a sofa (even if the other family members preferred to do something else). I enjoyed my life and I was a proud member of the society.

I believe the travel effort was very successful, because so far billions of people around the world have been breathing the digitalized air. Current estimate is that almost half of the global population has been hearing or seeing the services. Additionally, some companies were successful in filling their briefcases with notes and coins of  a currency unit called FRAND. That is a virtual money that was born long time before Bitcoin.

But where was I. I almost lost track of time and forgot that I was supposed to write about Monaco.

I was having my “seventeenth” meeting in Sophia Antipolis. The headquarter of the institute was located almost in the middle of the forest. Besides working, there was nothing else to do than morning runs and late dinners. After a couple of boring visits everybody learned to stay at a hotel close to the Mediterranean beach. Juan Les Pins was my favorite town.

Luckily the meeting was over and I had couple of hours extra time before my flight back to home. I decided to drive to Monaco. If I would be quick, I could still catch the flight back to home.

Mediterranean area around Nice. Route from Sophia Antipolis to Monaco.
Source Here.com

The coastal road between Nice and Monaco was beautiful. I was even more impressed when I entered Monaco. However, I had only one hour to see the whole country. Luckily I was in a good shape. With quick feet I was able to visit the beautiful Casino Monte Carlo, Harbour full of boats, pool and a tunnel, all well-known places for the formula one fans. Unluckily I did not see a glimpse of any celebrities. I managed to see in one hour what the normal tourist can see in a weekend. However, in such a hurry I missed the nice dinners.

Monaco.
Source Here.com

Time was short and I was already in a hurry. The drive to the Nice airport was stressful, but I managed to catch the flight. I am so proud that I have been in Monaco, have you?

Lessons learnt:

Time is a scared resource – use it wisely.

#10 - King’s speech and King-size room

It was going to be an exciting trip to Cannes, France. I was clearly nervous, because I was going to give my speech for a big audience. Luckily the conference organizers had taken care of all the practical arrangements to make my stay comfortable.

I travelled to Cannes together with two of my bosses, Mr T. and Mr P, who had vice president and senior vice president positions in the company. We signed in late night night at a superior hotel next to the Boulevard de la Croisette on the Mediterranean beach. It was time to go straight to bed.

When I entered into my room, the first feeling was a surprise. There was a corridor in my room. After switching the lights on, I started to look around. There was a door to a bedroom. There was also a door to a big bathroom and another door to a toilet. I found also a door to a living room. One more door led to another bedroom, which had an extra door to a third bedroom. As a surprise, I had got a suite of three bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, and a toilet. Anyway, it was late night and I had to make a difficult decision, i.e., in which room to sleep tonight.

The next morning started with breakfast. I was sitting together with my bosses, who discussed about their small rooms. I was listening for a while before I had enough courage to tell them about my suite. Luckily the bosses had some sense of humour, so we had a good laugh about it.

The first day at the World conference was busy. Thousands of people, lot of presentations and new technology gadgets to see, not to speak about all the fancy boats at the harbour. That night I practised my presentation in front of a mirror and felt some tension.

Palace de Festival, Cannes

The big day started. Red carpets guided me to the main auditorium of the Palace de Festival. I felt like a movie star in front of the huge audience, even if I was not a participant at the Cannes film festival. Soon after starting my talk, I realized that it is going well. I started to relax and enjoy being on the spotlight, literally. For a junior professional that was the turning point – no more stress in front of any audience.

At the evening I used my opportunity to relax and celebrate, so I visited the big beach party. If I remember right, Leningrad cowboys was playing and acting their entertaining Balalaika Show. I enjoyed the show at the Mediterranean beach.

Boats at Cannes Marina

Lessons learnt:

Jump into the situation and the tension is gone.

Courage to jump into challenge will be rewarded.

#9 - Sporty pyjamas in England

Beautiful Tower Bridge

I participated a seminar in London and stayed at a hotel next to the Oxford Street. That is close to the Hyde part, which is one of my favourite places for a morning run. Because it was winter time, I decided to pack long underwear, cap and cloves in addition to my sneakers. Later on I realized that such a decision was crucial.

Hyde Park was beautiful in the morning and the first seminar day was interesting. It was time to go to bed. I had difficulties to sleep because the hotel room was so cold. None of the adjustments to the radiator helped and the room service was helpless with the problem.

The next day I was pretty tired. No morning run, but I managed to stay awake the whole day. For the second night the room service gave me a hot water bottle. That felt warm, but I was still feeling cold. I could barely sleep when I dressed the long running underwear and sock on.

For the last night I made a clever move. I filled the hot water bottle, used two blankets, wore the running jacket and running tights on top of the long underwear. That helped a lot and the next morning I was fresh again to give my speech at the seminar.

We Finns feel cold inside and outside in England. We will never get used to that.

Lessons learned:

Dress warm if you travel to England.

Innovativeness is a virtue.

Paddington knew to dress warm in England.