On the Road to Kochi

Ok hitting the skyways tonight.

Emirates ( http://www.emirates.com) (sorry not the first class section) flies out at 21:45 tonight making a bee line to Dubai.

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then after wandering aorund the airport for a few hours, hop on the next bus for India (plane actually) and 10hrs later land in Kochi, India at 4am Sunday - guess they dont have airplane restrictions at night there.

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There will be stops in Coimbatore, Delhi, Banglore, Ahmedabad and final destination Mumbai.

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And for those that are wondering, yes have received my Tiwnrex shots, Typhoid and have Malaria pills.
Pretty bad when you have to consider all this to visit a country that most of the worlds large comanies use for Call Centres because of the high technology in communications and computers availabel there !!

Luckily we wont be traveling by train anywhere, am thinking first class tickets woudl be in order lol
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ADInidNt0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0CjDBndwc8


last couple of weeks had some photoshoots.

One was for Monica Fairweather - fantastic secret agent name.
Making a calendar for her soon to be hubby for his birthday.
Funny girl , who is from northern Ontario and even lived in Elliot Lake as a kid.

Then got one with Heykel - workout guy and Personal Trainer - doing some promotional pics for the Wortley Wellness Centre here in London. Great guy, funny, oozing energy and in fantastic shape. We are trading services, I will take pics and videos of him for his needs and he will kick my ass in the gym - fair trade I think.

ok time for some bacon and eggs , conference calls, email and last stop at Walmart for a few travel goodies and off we go.

For those of you that wonder what I do in between email and travel

well this past month and half , took on the task of renovating our new office space.

Just across the hall from where we are now.
The place had not been touched for years, so between leaks in the roof, lack of maintenance the place was a shambles.

Spend a few nights ripping out old, fixing walls, painting and some flooring.
Flooring expertise provided by my coworker Mark. He did some amazing cuts and tricky placement of new laminate floor - all 1500 sqft of it.

add a wall to create some new spaces

and the place starts to look like someones apartment.

Still more work to do on the board room and the VP's special office space in the Penthouse - more updates to follow.

Ok back on Schedule !

Ok its official !

We are back on schedule for India.
Looks like we are flying out Nov 13th from Toronto, into Abu Dhabi , sit for a few hours and then to Cochin,India.
Second most influential city in India after Mumbai. http://www.cochin.org/
Best part is we are flying Emirates  Airlines from Toronto, should good, unfortunately not first class.

as I wrote this plans changed now flying Toronto to Dubai - again to bad cant leave the airport, but at least I can say I have been to Dubai lol

Though the boss lady and I would have liked to get out of the airport in  to see that part of the world.
No customers there either DANG !!

Anyways until, then have managed to land a photo job with the Wortley Wellness Centre here in London.
Will be taking pics of the staff and the various things they do for their new website.
Should be interesting.
Out of this deal i will get a handful of personal training sessions
Pics to follow.

Am also in the middle of a renovation job for some office space.
is 80% done and moving in people this week. most of it is minor details that wont stop the moving.

here I am from a few weeks ago, Port Stanley Beach. Having a Happy Day !

On hold !!!

Well India got pushed out to November.
Largely due to the now much publicized lack of orgnization there.
Read the news about the Commonwealth Games there and you know our challenges !! LOL

In the meantime have been out to a few local enviromental events.
Car Free Sunday in London, had DUndas street blocked in the core area between Rideout and Wellington.
Was cold overcast day , so participation was pretty low.
Saying that, the light was great for pics.

Then it was L.O.O.K (Locally Organized Organic Knowledge) held on Western Fair Grounds.
(pics to be updated). A bicycle powered generator was built and originally supposed to power the stage , then battery supplier pulled out, So they used the power generated to heat up Apple Cider for everyone. There was some local talent out to play. And a few spectators. Problem was it was cold and rained all day !!!

Then this past weekend was www.350.org for 10/10/10.
In this case I was invited out to Saunders Farm , on Wonderland Rd, (north of Elginfield rd).
Listen the owner of the farm talk about the challenges of growing organicly and how he operates.
You can stop by most days to by his produce (garlic, peppers, onions, chicken, lamb).

These last pics at the farm were taken with my new Sigma 17-70mm 2.8-4.5 DC lens

It was a trade for an 18-200mm that i was not overly fond of. Preference would have been for the Canon 18-70mm 2.8 , but at $1600 retail , did not think my photographic abilities were there yet. And hey could use that money pay off something instead of buying something (damm that maturity).

OK paper to shuffle, email to answer, computerizing to do

On The Road Again - Willie Nelson

Well folks its that time again.

Time to hit the dusty trail on the next adventure.

This time we are headed to India.
Flying out Oct 17th and coming back November 1st.
Mumbai (Bombay) is on the agenda as well as Bangalore and possibly Delhi and some small stops in between.

this should break me of any travel fears once and for all !! LOL

for the curious,  a pic from Distillery District a week ago.

I think a new trip means a new lens for the camera lol
Thinking the Sigma 24-70 2.8 if i can find one on Ebay at a good price.

updates to follow

Back at the Ranch

Well folks would be not telling the truth if I did not admit to having a hard time leaving Shanghai.

The folks in the office were great, lots of good food, a few drinks around the table, lots of experiences.
Some really nice personal moments, some i shared, some i wont share.


The question always while I was there was; 'are you homesick?' , 'you ready to go back home?', and honestly I was ok. If anything at this moment am ready to head back there and spend a few more months.
Felt by the end of July that I was just starting to get comfortable. Was ok with the stares from people when they saw me for the first time, started to recognize the girls working at RT Mart and Starbucks, made a few friends outside of work, was getting comfortable with using the Metro system.

So yes am ready to go back.
Will bring a little more gear with me next time for photo shoots !
And there is still so much of Shanghai yet to be seen.

Would even consider taking vacation time there, or offering to live there for an extended period.

so we are back at The Ranch in London.
We are mapping out travel until end of the year , then 2011 will be here.

So stay tuned, once i have an idea of whats going on , updates will start up again.
So far I see Mexico in the forecast, India and of course ITMA Barcelona , the grand hoopla of textile industry trade shows. Big enough that we have started the planning now.

till the next update
smile

Last week here - only a few days left

Well we are down to the final days at the Shanghai Ranch.
Suddenly time has sped up dramatically, dont feel I have even managed any tourist time and checked things out.

Warning pics not be loaded am unable to edit properly this week or last because of blocking

from the pics you know Shanghai is quite the place.
So a few Sundays ago managed to grab some tour guides for the day.

Joyce (Chinese Joyce) works at Foster Needles another company within our office. Her boyfriend Peter and his brother Diego (well really more like Di Go so I named).
Took me into old Shanghai street.
Lots of shops crowded into small streets, like other towns, but still considering we are in Shanghai still quite busy.

Me and Chinese Diego

then to Pudong (across the river from The Bund from an older posting)
This is where The Pearl Tower is located , quite the building, you can go up inside but as usual the que was backed up for hours.

and at night

Needless to say there were a few people out as usual checking out the sites.

This is Joyce and Peter  with gaggle of tourists behind

this area is also home to one of the tallest office buildings in the world, again you can go up if your willing to wait.

Gotta love the Sigma 10-20mm

then to Century Park.
But we got there just before last subway train so had to leave, without really seeing the park.
Still for what i saw was quite the place.

New model this week !
Chinese Joyce , all summery with her glasses and umbrellas.
girls use umbrellas here, to protect there skin and to stay white, tans are not the vogue here.

Then last week was a trip to Fujian and Guongdong provinces.
About 1.5hrs airplane ride south of Shanghai. Lots more trees, plam tress, more jungle looking.
people look different to.

Very different to say the least.
At diner i was star attraction for the hostess girls, they wanted to talk with me but of course they don’t speak english and I don’t speak Chinese.
So was still fun.

Another update will come before I leave.

Am feeling sad now , at the same time cant wait to drive the vehicle, wil be first time in 8 weeks that I drive a car lol