JC - Technology and Stuff

Well, it’s been 5 weeks now since I was downsized from T-Mobile and I no longer get in my car at 7:00am in the morning for my drive to the corporate office. A lot of things have changed. As I was sitting at my desk in my home office this morning I was thinking that maybe it would be a good exercise to write a little about it and all those subtle little lifestyle changes that take place.

First things first, I am fortunate not to be in the same position as some American families who are currently struggling on a day to day basis just to get by on the basics. For that I am thankful. Indeed, I hope not to ever have to face that position. Even so, being ‘unemployed from the corporate world’ does make you think a little more about decisions made on a daily basis. I guess it’s a sort of inbuilt survival mode. I hope this article helps you focus a little on how to survive a corporate downsizing and get back on the track to success.

The most important thing to get past is denial. This is crucial for your long term survival. Thinking “it’ll be alright tomorrow” is not going to get you through. Spending more on your credit cards to compensate for the sad feeling inside is also not going to get you through. You need to admit that your income has taken a sudden decline and that you will have to change your perspective on living and spending for possibly quite some time to come.

Okay, so you’ve got past that. What next? First off you need to make a list of all your monthly and ad hoc expenditures. Be exact and don’t miss anything out. Then add on 10% or so for all the things you also spend money on that you’ve forgotten about or don’t capture. Now write down all the sources of income you have (i.e. Unemployment Insurance) and also write down what you have in savings. Then comes the scary part. How long do you realistically think you’ll be out of work? 6 months? A year? In this economy it may actually be somewhere between those two numbers, or more. So, divide your savings between that number to give you a monthly spend and add to it your new income. Now compare that to your list of outgoings. Swallow. Then swallow again.

Obviously when you are unemployed some things have to change. Some of the little luxuries need to be struck from the spend list and then it’s time to do some serious pruning. The idea here is to make your available money last as long as is feasibly possible. Don’t be overly optimistic about getting another job. Try and be realistic. We are in a tough economy. So, you make alterations to your spend list and shave off a few dollars here and there, but somehow it still doesn’t seem to match what you have available to spend. That’s because you’re still not being as cutthroat as you need to be. Now is the time to move into money conservation mode. Minimum payments, minimum expenditures, maximum efficiency. You’re going to have to examine every aspect of your monthly budget line by line and make adjustments.

When you’re done with all this you know better just how long you can manage for before it gets to the nearly poverty stage. The aim is that you never have to get to this stage. But what do you do next?

When you knew you were being laid off you probably made a list of a million things that you could do with your time. You probably also made a list of all the jobs you meant to get around to. Well, guess what, it doesn’t quite work out like that! Along with unemployment comes personality and attitude changes. Subtle, but changes nonetheless. You have been so conditioned to doing your job every day that for some unknown reason you can’t seem to get into a new routine. Instead you squander time, wander around aimless, look at job boards, chat to a few friends, and generally watch days pass by.

In the same way as you made a list of your monthly expenses you’re going to have to make a list of your new routine. Otherwise you will never get things done. Make time every day for looking at and applying for jobs. Make time every day to get certain tasks done. Try and fill your normal work hours with things that are scheduled. Only use your normal non-work time to do the social things. Changing your routine is hard but it’s this one thing that will ultimately determine your success. Being unemployed makes it very easy to put something off until tomorrow. Don’t be tempted by that thought. You should be trying to get back to work and filling your time with useful and necessary things to do.

Stuck for ideas? Volunteer for something. Embark on a large project that needs planning and organizing. Give back to your community. Cook, redecorate, organize the apartment or house, do the garden. There are lots of potential things you can do. The important thing is to fill your working hours with useful and beneficial things. Don’t cut yourself off from the world and spend your days watching TV, reading or playing World of Warcraft!

As time ticks by you will gradually settle into your new routine and it is this routine that will ultimately determine your success. If your routine is laziness and apathy, be prepared to spend a long time unemployed. If your routine is non-stop morning til night, then you’ll be re-employed a lot quicker. The reason is fairly obvious. Staying busy focuses your mind, keeps you networking, keeps you pushing for something and lowers the odds on you finding a new job substantially.

So, there we have it. Just a few thoughts. You’ve been downsized; not shot at or physically injured. Get over it! You are ultimately in control of your future success and happiness. Sure, it may take some time. I didn’t say it wouldn’t. But it’s times like this in our lives that define who we are and who we want to be.

I haven’t really posted an article about the camera on the G1 phone and demonstrated its quality. Well yesterday I had the opportunity to go visit the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival (near Mt. Vernon, in Washington state) and the only camera I took was my phone! It’s only two mega-pixels and it has no flash and no zoom so I was a little concerned that maybe my pictures would be disappointing. However, I am pleased to say that it performed very well and I am posting the results here to demonstrate.

The first nine pictures are reduced from their original 2048 x 1536 size to 600 x 415, but the last picture is a 600 x 400 crop from the penultimate picture so that you can see the full-size quality. I think overall you’ll agree, the G1 phone takes a pretty good picture. So, there you go, don’t be cautious about substituting your phone on occasions when you don’t want to carry the extra bulk and you’re going to be outdoors.

Enjoy!

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Today is St. George’s Day and the odds of you knowing that are next to none! Everyone has heard of St. Patrick’s day, even Cinco de Mayo, but alas very few people know of St. George’s Day. The English have done a good job over the years of infiltrating many countries across the globe, but they never really took St. George with them. Most of the time it seemed to be in the name of Christianity or trade, never in the name of St. George. And what was St. George famous for? Yep, slaying a dragon.

Actually many countries have St. George’s Day on their calendar and do mark it in some way or another, including Germany, India and Palestine. But for England it’s also their National Day - their day of pride. That is the theory anyway. So I had a look at the British papers today and what did I see? Basically nothing. The Daily Telegraph, The BBC and The Daily Mirror all had no mention of St. George’s Day. Only The Guardian seemed to have an article, and even that talked about Bradford being the most English of cities, sporting Fish and Chip shops, cricket clubs and Morris dancing. All in all, disappointing.

I think it’s a sign of the times of how some countries are starting to lose their identities. Whenever I return to England I am always surprised at how much it has changed since my last visit. Surveillance cameras are everywhere, public places are festooned with video recording equipment. No place in rural England is safe from the ever-watching traffic camera. Cars dawdle on roads that were not built for the current load, gardens shrink as new homes are built on existing plots. Even that ever sacrosanct place, the English Pub, is disappearing. St. George, ‘who is he anyway?’ is probably the response you’ll get in many of the now completely pan-European High Streets of major cities.

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the holy lamb of god
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear: o clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariots of fire!
I will not cease from metal fight;
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.

These were the words we sung at school, the words to a hymn entitled ‘Jerusalem’ that was supposed to signify the beauty, history and pride of England. St. George’s Day fitted in to this England, my England.

Tonight I am proud to be going to our local pub - The 3 Lions Pub - in Redmond, WA, USA where we will be celebrating St. George’s day. There will be a good group of ex-pats there, eating good English fare, drinking good English beer and reminiscing no doubt about our beloved country.

I look forward every year to St. George’s Day and I am proud to be English. Life has brought me to another country to live, but that doesn’t take away my heritage. So, this is a call to all you with some English blood in you:

Celebrate St. George’s Day with pride today…

I knew I’d hit the big time recently when I noticed Paris Hilton sporting a photo of me at one of the national award ceremonies! No, seriously… What do you mean, you didn’t see it? Okay, so maybe even I was a little surprised, but here it is, in all its glory. As you can see, it’s my latest CD that I’ve just released and so far the publicity has just been amazing. They told me not to give up my day job, but what the heck, I guess maybe that’s not so important anymore.

I’ve had a lot of detractors over the years who said I couldn’t sing. Well, what do they know? Ever since I did karaoke in Taiwan in 1989 I knew I had a very different voice than most folks. Who could have foretold then though, how those few Chinese songs would make it so big?

I think it was during 1992 at an old pub in Bournemouth that I really hit my stride. I remember the strained look on several of the customers’ faces as I belted out my rendition of “Don’t let the sun go down on me” on that cold winter evening. I’ve never seen the pub as crowded as it was that night, people jammed up against the door, not daring to leave and experience the 20 degree weather outside. Oh, I was glad the tele-prompter was working that evening.

Things came to a head in late 2000 during a visit to a nightclub in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, after a local bouncer made off the cuff comments to me that my hair looked a little gray to be gracing the establishment. I informed him I was actually a circuit karaoke star back in England and that impressed him greatly. Unfortunately the decision to put me up on stage probably wasn’t a good career move on his part as I later heard he had returned to a farm outside Rio and was milking cows with his sister. It did however, seal my place in Brazilian folklore and almost certainly led to the recording deal in late 2008.

So, there we have it. You can go out to the stores now and experience my unique growling sounds in glorious Dolby stereophonic whateverness. The album has limited availability in America from what I have heard, but is stacked five deep on the shelves of Moldovia.

One of the interesting side-effects of my rise to fame has been the unexpected celebrity fan base. Just last week during a photo-call at Selfridges in London, Victoria Beckham showed off my photograph to an unsuspecting press group. Apparently they had asked who she listens to in the car when taking the boys to soccer practice and she mentioned that “the music of John Cox gets them especially psyched up to play.” I guess that’s a good thing!

On other fronts, the launch of my music career has unexpectedly collided with the launch of my guru lifestyle book release. Entitled “How to stay happy, Even when your life sucks”, the book has led to a number of unexpected outpourings of love. At an apartment complex in Florida several people have even set up a makeshift shrine where devotees of the teaching can come and pay homage on a daily basis (see below).

I am hoping that I can cross-pollinate the music CD and the book, for even greater public awareness. Who knows, the teachings of my book may well become something that every down and out can use to lift themselves to greater glory. I have already been contacted by a number of social-marketing executives (why do they all call themselves CEOs?) who have recommended that for “just $19.99 and a sign-up to their latest MLM course” (whatever that means) I can experience 16,000 extra followers in 30 days. Amazing! They even mentioned merchandising too. At first I didn’t understand what they were talking about but they had a couple of t-shirts printed up and I can understand the attraction a little better now.

Actually, just around the corner from that apartment complex in Florida, right in the middle of a parking lot, there is a guy who is hoping to cash in on things on an even bigger scale. He is convinced that by making a graffiti drawing of me he can attract worshipers to his own “patch of space” and sell books and CDs on commission. I told him “to go for it”; he seemed a nice guy.

So the tour of suburbia is now complete. It’s been a hectic few days. Quite honestly, I don’t know what all the fuss is about. I’m just a normal kind of guy after all. So maybe the book is kinda interesting, but the CD is certainly not up to Madonna’s standards (even though I’m sure I saw someone just like her wearing my t-shirt somewhere!). A little old Jewish lady told me that was a good thing and she rubbed my nearly bald head. I’m still trying to work out if that had some kind of significance. Pete from the pub told me she just liked touching short hair, but I’m not so sure. I made a note to send her a copy of the book anyway.

This morning I got the video in from my agent. Well I say agent, actually he’s just some guy that insists on taking 10% of everything in return for sending me things. Anyway, the video he sent me was pretty cute. Apparently they had some billboard thing of me running in a couple of big cities, promoting my book.

Actually it was quite funny. Far more people had seen the photo of me and Paris and wanted to know where the CD was. You just can’t please everyone can you?

On a more disturbing note, I hadn’t realized that fame brings with it its own share of psychos. Some woman from Bethlehem, PA had bought up every piece of memorabilia from my 1998 tour of Taiwan (I hadn’t even realized there was any) and made some huge scrapbook devoted to idol worship. Her next door neighbor told police she chanted loudly and played some kind of growling music every night, right up until the early hours. Eventually she flipped out when she heard there wasn’t going to be a follow-up CD and the neighbor had to call police. They found her surrounded by posters and photos of me, mostly arranged in some kind of ’stalking collage’. The officer that contacted me told me “I had had a lucky escape.” I told him “thank you” and put the phone down. I didn’t really understand what he was talking about. Still, I think it’s always nice when the police are looking out for you.

Anyway, that’s about all the major news I have today. As I mentioned earlier, the last few days have been a little hectic and out of control. I’m looking forward to being able to return to normality and get out of the spotlight a little.

Well, wouldn’t you know it. Just as I was putting the finishing touches to this article I got a call from that guy who says he’s my agent. Apparently some dude in Piddletrenthide, England found a picture of me dating back a hundred and twenty years. I don’t know how it can be me though; I told the guy I wasn’t even 50 yet.

He emailed me a photo he’d taken from the book (see below) and I have to say, it does actually look fairly convincing.

It wouldn’t be so bad, but the book is actually about convicts that were deported to Australia in the nineteenth century. Maybe that explains my love for Marmite and Vegemite. Then, to make matters worse, this guy from Piddletrenthide finds yet another book with a picture of me in it, but this time he’s accusing me of being a wizard.

Just what is going on? I have never even done any magic. Well, apart from the time I got out of my homework by pretending I had the measles, but that was a very long time ago.

Anyway, most of the media coverage has died down a little now, thank goodness, although I did just get a call from some woman asking about doing an ‘author signing’ at a Barnes & Noble in Lexington, Missouri. I told her “I didn’t think so,” and hung up the phone. Heck, I don’t even know where Lexington, Missouri is. The price of fame…

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Things I have to write, just because:

Disclaimer: The blog post above is a complete work of fiction and is not meant to imply anything otherwise
Pictures: Photos were produced on the PhotoFunia website. Stop by and try it. It’s a lot of fun.

Thanks for indulging me…

Well it’s been just about 3 weeks since I wrote my ‘controversial’ blog post about whether you should complain about your local pub or restaurant. I have had a lot of feedback, both public, private, wanted and unwanted. It’s been a very interesting experience and something I felt I needed to follow up on.

The good news (for me) is that I am still alive! No one took out a contract on me (although I think a couple of people were close to it!). The other piece of good news is that some actions have been taken in the pub in question and little by little, improvements are showing up. So, credit where credit is due. I’m going to run over some of the differences that have been observed in the last couple of weeks and you can judge for yourself how ‘complaining about your local pub or restaurant‘ actually can make a difference.

So, what have been the ‘big’ changes? Here is a list of some of the observed differences during the past 3 weeks:

• Kitchen is now open an extra hour in the evenings on Friday and Saturday (let’s hope that gets extended to the whole week)
• New ‘buzzer’ system installed so that servers know when their food order is ready
• Full-time food expediter/runner employed to help with service
• Extra person added to busy shifts (I think this one is still a work in progress and being monitored)
• More attention paid to restroom and table cleanliness
• Better restraint shown with regard to taking breaks and personal calls
• I think a new system of allocating tables to servers is being / has been introduced to better handle customer load and service (but I can’t be absolutely certain on this one)
• Website updated to match ‘happy hour’ and main menu in pub
• Slightly better presence from management during busy shifts to observe pub ‘workings’

There are still some gaps, but I am confident that those, too, will be closed as time moves forward.

So, was it worth me writing the original article? Was it worth encouraging the wrath of all that work in a place I enjoy going to? I have to emphatically say ‘yes’. I believe my words have benefited the experience of others and ultimately benefited the long term reputation of my local pub.

To quote a part of my original article:

“So, should you ever complain about your local pub or restaurant? YES - You have an investment in it, whether you realize it or not. Your investment is not in shares, but in time and a contribution to the atmosphere and ambiance and clientele. You as a regular customer often see more of the workings of the place than the management. I urge you for the sake of the business and your relationship to let them know.”

Don’t let life pass you by. Don’t put up with things you are not happy with. Make your thoughts and feelings known. No one is a mind reader. No one can change something they know nothing about. You are ultimately responsible for the experiences in your life.

“When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” - R. Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983)

In a change from the normal technology things I write about, I decided to post one of my poems today. I hope you enjoy it:

The New Baby

We’re having a baby, my mummy and me
It’s something to do with our eggs.
Not the sort that you have for breakfast with toast,
But the sort that grows long arms and legs.

We’re having a baby, my mummy and me
Just before Christmas, I’m told.
It’s so long to wait, it seems such a shame,
By then I’ll be ever so old.

We’re having a baby, my mummy and me
We’ve got to eat masses of food.
Our tummies are growing ever so big,
And it’s looking a little bit rude.

We’re having a baby, my mummy and me
We went to the clinic today.
My mummy’s baby kicked ever so hard
But mine had got nothing to say.

We’re having a baby, my mummy and me
Daddy’s taken my mum for a test.
He said they wouldn’t be gone very long
And he’s sent me to Granny’s to rest.

We’re having a baby, my mummy and me
Mum’s bought back a new baby boy.
I prodded and poked it, he started to scream;
Daddy told me it wasn’t a toy.

We’re having a baby, my mummy and me
He screams and he shouts every day.
He feeds and he burps, then changed, falls asleep
And he never comes outside to play.

We’re having a baby, my mummy and me
It’s such a big burden I’ve carried.
But I don’t think I’m ready to have one just now
I think that I’ll wait ’til I’m married.

(C) John Cox - Not to be reproduced in part or in whole without permission.

Well I packed up my desk today. My comfy compact corporate cubicle is now empty of any personality it once had and the dusty photos of the family are stored in my backpack for safe-keeping. My on-off relationship with T-Mobile is once again heading to an ‘off’ cycle. Maybe I’ll be back there again some time in the future. In the meantime it’s an opportunity to do something different - in the middle of a recession.

I have worked at T-Mobile in Seattle several times since early in 2002, both as a contractor and as an employee. I have enjoyed watching a small telecoms company grow into something that is now challenging the behemoths of Verizon and AT&T. Their phones and their phone plans are second to none and time and time again they have won Customer Service and innovation awards. They are fundamentally a good company.

Unfortunately though like so many relationships, especially ones that are realistically one-way, there often comes a time when a period of break-up is necessary. Now is one of those times. T-Mobile has bid me a ‘bon voyage’ and sent me out into the wilderness to fend for myself. Now I’ll have to learn a new daily routine. No more 7:30am trips to the kitchen to fill my coffee cup; no more 11:45am visits to the Chinese restaurant; no more meeting-packed days in conference room 4H; and no more all-hands meetings to learn the scoop on the upcoming phones. Now I’m merely a customer once again.

It’ll be nice to be in charge of my days again. It’ll be nice to have lunch with my wife. It’ll even be nice to be a little scared about where the next pay check is coming from. Change is inevitable in life and ultimately change is a good thing.

You can expect a change in direction and content on my blog going forward. I always write about whatever is on my mind, and that is one thing that is not going to change. It’s just that now there will be different things on my mind, and those are the things I will write about. It’s time to devote more time to writing. It’s time to get out and help some people develop better life skills. There are lots of things to do.

T-Mobile? Yes, I’ll miss you, of course I will. Breaking up is never easy. But there’s a big wide world out there that’s calling my name.

It is very easy to get comfortable in life, especially the everyday things we do. You know what I mean, things that don’t affect ‘the big picture‘. Things we do automatically and out of habit. The question is though, does that make it alright? Or should we take more notice of the little things? Things that we don’t like or agree with?

It’s all a question of boundaries and familiarity to a certain extent. Let me explain. If you go to dinner at a restaurant you have never been to before and you are really looking forward to going there, then you tend to pay a lot of attention to the ‘experience‘. If the food is not good enough or the service poor, you will surely complain. If, on the other hand, you’re at home and your partner cooks something that is not up to expectations, you’ll suffer through it and generally not say a word. Why is that?

Like I said, the difference is one of boundaries and familiarity. In the big scheme of things, one ruined your evening and the other just disappointed you for a few minutes. At these two diverse ends of the spectrum it’s easy to differentiate. The problem occurs somewhere in the middle.

There is a pub I go to that I like to think of as sort of my second home. It’s a social gathering place where I meet up with a lot of friends and we discuss the small, and not so small, things in life. For those Americans that are familiar with the concept, it’s a sort of ‘Cheers’ bar (‘where everybody knows your name‘). Because it’s a ‘comfortable‘ place for me, I generally tend to overlook little problems there and treat it more like I would treat dinner at home, as in my analogy earlier. But should I?

I was seated next to a couple last night, having dinner and there was a problem with my food. It turned out the kitchen had run out of potatoes and was using ‘instant mashed potatoes‘ instead of real ones on the plates. In the scheme of things I was disappointed, but not angry. It was more that no one bothered to tell me in advance and offer me an alternative. After all, instant mashed potatoes are a little like wallpaper paste, and I really do not enjoy eating them. What I didn’t realize, however, was that the couple sitting next to me had also ordered a meal and they received instant mashed potatoes as well. For them, the substitution of the potatoes appeared more of an issue than for me (on the surface), because they were less frequent visitors to the pub. Their comment was that it might affect when they came back to the pub again to eat. Nothing was done to offer them an alternative. I complained, like I said, and a few minutes later I noticed that all meals that would normally come with mashed potatoes were now coming with fries. But still no apologies to either me or the couple.

You see, the strange thing is that if you are a regular visitor to a pub or restaurant then the owners view you as if you were their partner getting a bad dinner, rather than a first time visitor having a special night out. They subconsciously figure you’ll come back anyway, so no harm done.

Society enables this habit and in some ways even encourages it. We all let little things go unnoticed until one day those little things have increased in size and become big things. Then it’s too late to stand up and say something. The question is, when do you start to say something? I’ve put together a list of little things I’ve noticed that happen in this place that I, a regular customer, see on a frequent basis. No one thing on its own is a deal breaker, but taken overall it’s a serious list of problems that will and has affected customers returning to the pub.

• Servers and bar staff disappearing on smoking breaks during shifts
• Servers taking long personal phone calls during shifts
• Customers waiting long periods of time to get served because servers do not notice their arrival
• Tables not cleared promptly after customers leave
• Menus that limit the customers from getting snacks at certain times of the day, but instead insist they have a full meal
• A kitchen that closes earlier than any other pub in the town
• Out of date information on marketing materials including websites and ‘happy hour specials‘ on the bar
• Lack of servers on busy shifts and no ‘on call‘ person available
• Lack of opportunity for new servers to work ‘good‘ shifts (this causes very high staff turnover - again not good)
• A ‘keep it in the family‘ approach to employees that leads to an abuse of authority and a lowering of staff standards
• A reluctance to advertise or market to new customers or to promote the pub’s uniqueness in certain market segments
• A kitchen that believes pub customers are second rate to the separate restaurant customers
• Restrooms that never get cleaned mid-shift
• Management that is rarely present and working / overseeing things during the busy hours
• A general management attitude that believes adequacy is a good enough standard to aim for

Now of course there are lots of things that the pub does right. Of course it does, or else I and the other regular patrons wouldn’t continue to go there. But that’s not my point. My point is that we notice the little things and each little thing adds up, especially if we say nothing about it. Little things build to big things and in the end they lead to tragedy. If your partner constantly makes meals you dislike, in the end something else will cause a big blow up and it could even mean divorce or something similar! When we are unfamiliar with something we speak our mind more readily, and that is a good thing. Complacency and familiarity leads to different reactions.

So, I have decided to stand up for my little ‘Cheers‘ pub and say something. I run the risk of being unpopular. People get offended very easily, especially when they see it as a personal thing. But, at the end of the day, it’s just a business. I am someone who spends money, just like the next person in the pub (probably a lot more than most of the next persons actually), and I have a right to voice my opinion. I also have a right not to go there. The pub also has a right to ask me not to go there. I hope that does not happen. All I am asking is that the little things are attended to before something good with great potential becomes something bad that affects the majority of all its day to day customers.

So, should you ever complain about your local pub or restaurant? YES - You have an investment in it, whether you realize it or not. Your investment is not in shares, but in time and a contribution to the atmosphere and ambiance and clientele. You as a regular customer often see more of the workings of the place than the management. I urge you for the sake of the business and your relationship to let them know. But gently…

Tuesday March 3rd

Honolulu, in particular Waikiki, is not at all like Florida. Actually it is a mix of Mexico, Brazil and Florida all wrapped into something that is unique. Now this of course is just my opinion. Others may believe differently. I have been to all the places I mention and that is why I state it like I do. Waikiki has the tropical sea and vacation atmosphere of Florida, but the intensity and building density of Mexico and Brazil. Actually it has some of the cultural differences that the two other countries provide as well, but those cultural influences are more from Japan than anywhere in South America.

I’ve only actually been here in Hawaii, on O’Ahu, for just over 24 hours now and so I can’t claim to be all knowing about this island paradise. I have traveled to many countries however and so I am using a little liberty to compare it using knowledge gained from other places.

The weather this week is expected to remain overcast and a little windy. The daytime temperatures have ventured up to 80 degrees and it’s only dropped down to 68 in the evenings, but with the wind it’s felt a little cool on occasions. Heck, I shouldn’t even complain. Back in Seattle I wouldn’t be wearing my shorts, as I am now!

I’ve never been to Hawaii before and I came here with a number of expectations I have to admit. I have visited the Caribbean a few times over the years and so I always imagined Hawaii as an expensive version of that. To a certain extent that is true. Hawaii is definitely a little more expensive than the US mainland, and the terrain is a little like the Caribbean, but here the similarities stop. Hawaii is far more American than the Caribbean. The buildings, the stores, the cars, the ambiance. It is also far less laid back than my experience of the Caribbean. Sure, it’s a vacation destination so it has a certain ‘slowness’ to its pace of life. But very dissimilar to the Caribbean, in my opinion.

Do I like it here? That ultimately is the bottom line. So far, so good, as the saying goes. It’s taking a little while to get used to the place and how it operates. I need to step out and see the ‘real’ Hawaii, away from the tourist places. Still, this is really just ‘day one’ and there are five or six more to go. By the end of the week I’ll know a lot more about America’s tropical paradise; the Aloha State.

Friday March 6th

So, the end of the vacation is in sight. The weather has not been the kindest to us so far, but you cannot choose your weather when you leave on vacation. I expect I am the only white person here this week with half a suntan though! Most people would not be at all affected by the little sun we have had here, but for me it was like a blisteringly hot experience. I actually have a little sunburn on my legs! Crazy. But it doesn’t take much sun to make me happy!

We haven’t wandered too far this week; we’ve been content to explore the local haunts and walk our way backwards and forwards along Waikiki beach. To that extent, we have succeeded. The prize find was a little old pub called the Harbor Pub, somewhere that’s been open for nearly 30 years and looks like it too. I wouldn’t recommend it as the prize eatery of the year, but if you’re looking for a little local dive, then this is definitely the pub for you. We ate there the other day and had a few cocktails and home cooked pizza and were very impressed with the ambiance and the cost.

On other fronts, Waikiki is just like many other tourist destinations around the world. It has its quirks and oddities that set it apart from other vacation spots of course, but fundamentally it is a vacation destination. I read on the Internet that the island of O’Ahu is the most densely populated area in the USA (if it was treated like a state). It’s only because the rest of Hawaii is not so densely populated that saves it from being the winner overall. That said, of course it is still a little piece of paradise. Sitting in a local bar, facing the sea, with some Hawaiian music playing and a cocktail in your hand will make you forget almost everything!

Culturally Hawaii is very different than the rest of the USA. The island people have their own way of life and their own looks too. You can tell you’re not in New York, Texas, or Florida, just by looking at the people and what they are doing. It’s little things that make the difference to a place. Take breakfast at McDonalds for instance. With every breakfast meal you get a portion of pineapple! Crazy, yes but Hawaiian nonetheless! In fact I have to say, pineapple seems to be served with almost everything. And there’s fresh fish, plenty of it. Nice and raw too, if you like it that way.

Overall, Hawaii has been a great experience. I’ll be counting the days ‘til the next visit, where I hope to see more of the islands and a little more of the culture. Until then, aloha to you all.

(Pictures to follow soon…)