First House Guest

Andrew on the Bostanli to Pasaport commute ferry.

Andrew was here from the UK office and decided to brave my apartment. Remember, all I have is one bed in there. No chair, no couch, nothing! I did bring my Thermarest over, so we made a make-shift sleeping area. It was nice to have someone there. Last night we headed out for dinner and beers at a nice cafe, hit an ice-cream shop, then stopped at a little coffee house just a block away from my place for some backgammon. I won two games to start, then Andrew came back for the third. The last game went right down to the last roll, and I had a lucky one for the final win. The backgammon and the open air coffee house were perfect for a warm summer evening. Who's next?

Smile!

My luggage came last night. Clean cloths have never felt sooo good. I went by the store the previous night, so I took care of the toothbrush. Another good feeling. It's so different when you are camping and you are supposed to be dirty...

I Know How You Feel...

A young traveler two rows ahead of me on my flight from Frankfurt to Istanbul.

Travel. It can be fun. This last trip wasn't. Flights everywhere are full. Finding a good route from A to B with only a few days notice is very hard. To get over to Izmir, where I am now, I had a Portland to Vancouver to London to Istanbul to Izmir route. Due to all of the different airlines, my bags were only checked through to London. Then, my Portland to Vancouver flight was delayed enough so I would miss my Vancouver to London flight. They quickly re-routed me through Frankfurt right before I got on the plane in Portland. They radioed out to have my bags re-routed as well, but I don't think there was time. I have a nice flight up to Vancouver and check in with Condor. I haven't heard of them, but they are actually some division of Lufthansa. I tried working with both Horizon and Condor to get my bags figured out, but no luck. I was assigned a window seat, and thought I would prefer and isle, I'm not going to complain. That is, of course, until I get on the plane. My "window" seat has no window. Just the hull of the airplane. Sigh...

In Frankfurt, I switch over to Lufthansa for the flight down to Istanbul. Seat in the middle. In Istanbul, I go to check in with Turkish Air. My ticket has been canceled as I did not do my London to Istanbul leg on Turkish. That means two more people for me to go through. Then the flight is delayed an hour. And yes, a seat in the middle.

I land in Izmir at the domestic terminal. Of course, my bags are nowhere to be seen. I talk to the Turkish Air representative there, as that's what I was told to do, and she said "No, you must talk with Lufthansa". Of course, they are in the international terminal. I walk over there, and they finally take my report.

I'm on the fourth day with these clothes, but my bags are supposed to be coming in today...

Some Action???

I may be in Turkey before this decade is out! The HR team here put some heat on our local lawyer, and then he sent a strongly worded letter over to Istanbul. Here is the reply that came back:

"Please do inform your upset VP and the upset HR Director that the Undersecretariat of Treasury General Directorate of Foreign Capital has given its approval for the establishment of Pixelworks’ liaison office and that the document regarding the approval has been mailed to our address."

What does this mean? Well, we should be getting a fax with the approval of the 'liaison office'. We can then send that in for my visa. The only sticky point is I'll be in Turkey next week and needing my passport. Guess that will have to wait until I get back. I leave you with my favorite quote from the string of e-mails:

"Finally, please be informed that nobody is authorized to use strong language with us."

Ultimate Weekends

So, I fly back into PDX late Saturday night, and the next morning I am on the fields at Delta Park for the Rec League finals. While my team, the Glass Banana, didn't make the finals, we played very well. I then watched the Rec League finals and the Spring League finals with my camera in hand:



Then, the next weekend, it was in the car to head down to Eugene. Michael, from Boise, was playing with his KAVU team in the Soltice tourney down there. It was good to go down there and see him, along with Jess and Mark. Of course, I took some pictures of the high-level action:



This next weekend? Well, I'm pretty sure I'll be back in Turkey (no, not with a workers visa) so no Ulti for me...

Mind the gap!

Tonight, another first. My first time eating Chinese takeout on the London Underground. More on that later.

Today at work, we had a customer come in to deal with a few specific artifacts. They heard we had our video expert Dan in town, so they came to take advantage of that. The day went well and we got some good feedback from them as well and improving a few points of their system. They had to head out a little before 4:00, however, to catch a plane. We decided to leave a tad early and head into London for the night. A good plan, but it is hard to leave early. Dan, while having tested many an English brew in the previous days decided to sit this one out. So it was for Martin, Andrew, Paul and myself to hit the city. We buzzed up to Reading and took the train into Paddington Station in London. From there, we went via the Underground to Covent Garden. This is a nice area of London with some higher-end shopping and a pretty good scene. We went to a little bar names Punch and Judy which had a nice balcony overlooking the square. The weather had been great all week, and while not the sun we enjoyed previously, it was still warm and dry. It was nice to be up there and watch the goings on. The two girls walking by drinking straight out of the wine bottle and then screwing on the cap. The bums across the street in their sleeping bags reading the paper as all Brits love to do. And what could be more English than the thatch roof gazebo a worker was taking down nearby.

After having a couple of beers here and dodging the 'shot girl' giving out double shots of tequila, we decided to head on. Martin had a great idea for the next place, so we all fell in line behind him. After a couple circles, we found the bar. Locked up. For lease, if anyone is interested. Looked cool with its South African theme. We then had to pick the next bar at random, but it proved to have some fine Ales.

Now, the thing of mystery happened. London. It is one of the biggest cites in the world. What happens there at 11:00 PM? The city shuts down. The lights in the bar come on and they kick you out. I guess the clubs are open later, but I'm a little past that. 11:00? Wow.

We decided to press on and get some chow. We thought Italian at first, but ended up in Chinatown. We walked into a restaurant that was rather full, but their sit down service was done. Take out for us! We get our bags of "Very Authentic Chinese Food" (yes, that is what the sign said. Very authentic. Not just regular authentic) and start the trek back. Well, by the time we hit the tube, we were starved, so the containers came open. The picture above is of Paul and myself, courtesy of Martin's camera phone.

Back to Reading, and another first for me: a ride in a classic English cab. The thing is roomy in the back. A bench seat for three and two jump seats for a couple more. With the jump seats up, I could probably do Pilate's in there. It also had this clean vinyl smell that reminded me of an old VW bug, but in a good way. The driver, as Martin would say, "didn't spare the horses". We were whipping around the post-midnight land at high speed. I believe a couple round-abouts were taken on two wheels.

This certainly goes in the 'good nights' column in my ledger.

I am off...

...to London, England for the week. Still no word on my Turkish paperwork.

I completed the Africa video this week. That nearly year-in-the-making thing finally came to a head when Kevin asked for his camcorder back. That guy is so pushy. It hasn't even been a full year yet... Anyway, once I got all the video on my computer, I was on an editing mission. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I like the results. Ask for a viewing!

Congratulations Annie and Jim!

My friend Jim was married to the beautiful Annie on May 7th. This wedding was in Taiwan, and, I must say, they take their weddings very seriously. A mix of old and new traditions, family and friends looks like it made for one heck of a one day bash. Jim has 910 photos to mark the occasion. Epic in every way! Best of luck to you both.