Dresden

I was in Dresden Germany early this week working (cough cough) at a customer site. I flew in to attempt to clean up the mess of a colleague. The colleague in question had been a tiny dit dour during past technical discussions with a customer and I was trying to put a happy face on it. I failed. In any case, the scenery was quite nice.

Dresden is a interesting area. I stayed in the historic downtown area. A little reading up on the subject and I learned that the area was literally wiped off the map during WWII. The town has worked tirelessly to resurect itself during the past two or three decades. So it's a town that looks old, but is in fact, quite modern. I believe that the buildings with the dark bricks are buildings that have both old and new brick. The old was burned during the war, the new is just new.

I loved the beer.

Frankfurt

I very much enjoy the open plaza's of Europe.  The open spaces just encourage everyone to come out and stroll and visit.  I found this plaza in Frankfurt over the weekend.  There were flower vendors scattered throughout the plaza, and I found myself wishing that I could buy a few to take home with me.

I had lunch one afternoon when I wasn't working and opted to eat what the locals were eating, brats and fries!  The line was long, but, the payoff was great! 

I had to sneak my camera out to take a picture of the catsup and mustard dispensors.  To extract the catsup/mustard you had to squeeze in the middle, just like a cows udder.  It was very practical, but it amused me very, very much.

There were quite a few butcher shops operating outside the plaza in an area that was reserved for a farmers market.  I'd never seen so many butchers in such a small area.  The the shops were all mobile, and drove away at the end of the day.  I did find myself lusting over all the delicious looking cuts of lamb.  Being a bit of a lamb junkie myself, I loved the low prices and quality cuts they were providing.

Tsujiki Fish Market

One of my colleagues was nearly begging me to take them to the fish market in Tokyo on Saturday morning.  I've been to the fish market perhaps ten times, and to be honest I'm a bit fried on it.  To be a nice guy I opted to take the guy to the market anyway.  I've been fortunate enough to go quite a few times, so I know how to be a decent tour guide.

This was the first time I've visited in the dead of summer, and it was bloody hot and humid.  We hit the market at 5:30AM and by 8AM we were done and settled into a small resturant for "breakfast".  There are lots of outdoor venues to eat at near the market, but my colleage was seeking AC, so we ate inside.  Luckily, he paid!  Anyway, we had lots of sushi and shashimi plus several beers each.  At times it's hard not to like my job!  The fringe benefits can be wonderful.

Next!

I have officially been reassigned to a different group. Since my group had shrunk down to just me (after everyone else had been terminated), I was transferred into a different group. I’m less than thrilled at the placement.

I’m now working for my eighth different manager, during my eighth year of service to this company. Management stability of my product line has never been a strong point of this company.

The group I’ve been transferred into is a group that’s focused on one particular aspect of the industry, and my focus is a different aspect of the industry. The two groups don’t generally mix that well. We all get along, but it’s like tossing apples and oranges together and pretending they all taste the same. We don’t.

I’ve worked for the new manager for two weeks now, and thus I’ve taken to calling this new position “project isolation”.

I’ve broken down and started getting serious about updating my profile on Linked-In, and am about to embark on a semi-serious job search. I’m still pulling a paycheck, but we have another wave of layoffs occurring next week. I’ll survive that round, but I’m not sure about the next round.

I have several sales pending, and if they pull through, I judge that I can survive this year. If they don’t pull through, I’m toast before the end of the year.

The cheese stands alone

And so it was that I found myself in the city of brotherly love last night, telephone jammed against my ear as hard as I could push it, in a vain attempt to hear the voice on the other end of the line a little more clearly as I sat surrounded in a pub with fifty or sixty of my closest chums.

It was near 11PM and I was two (Imperial, of course) pints into my evening. My manager called to inform me that we had another round of layoffs that afternoon. The remainder of my group was terminated. I am now the last man standing in my department. Everyone else has been terminated.

Humm.....I can feel the clock ticking louder and louder. Must perform at a higher level, must sell something, sell anything, must...must...must...

The next one out the door is me. Wonder how long I really have before the axe in my direction.

Parking lots

I recall getting out of the car at a shopping mall one day with my two daughters. The eldest must have been around 12 and the youngest around 8. The youngest automatically reached out and grabbed my hand as we walked through the parking lot towards the mall. The eldest stuck her hands in her pockets and walked a little faster to stay ahead of us.

The youngest asked why the eldest wasn’t holding my hand. I explained that one day, she too would be too old to want to hold my hand, and that she would be able to walk through the parking lots on her own without me. The youngest told me that she would always want to hold my hand, no matter how old she was.

Fade ten or eleven years. The youngest is now living in a college dormitory. I feel like part of me has been ripped off and hidden away.

Now I sit here in our empty house, wishing that I had her hand to hold in mind for just one or two more trips across the mall parking lot. Perhaps she doesn’t need my hand to hold on to anymore, but perhaps, just perhaps, I need her hand to hold on to once in awhile.

Get me outta here!

So I started the New Year off with a bang and came to Japan. I spent one week preparing for customer to visit me at my companies manufacturing facilities’, then one week working/wine/dine/entertaining the customer, and now one week cleaning up all the action items the customer was handing out like cookies to anyone who wandered near our conference room.

I'm tired and I wanna go home! I leave tomorrow after having been here for 21 or 22 days. Too long for me. I prefer the two week trips much more than the three week trips. The food is wonderful, but last night I found myself pondering eating from the local 7-11 just because I haven't eaten there yet. (I came to my senses.) Instead, I went to a new restaurant, one with bright shiny pictures of the food. It was terrible! While I paid attention to the menu before I entered, I didn't pay attention to the clientele. 80% school age children. Last week I was dining on Kobe beef, this week-not so much so. Anyway, the food was pretty nasty, but, at least it was somewhere new where most folks didn't seem to be bothered by my presence.

I'm not sure what I'm going to eat tonight....

Tomorrow I fly home, so I can sleep in an extra hour in the morning. Thank goodness. I'm whipped. I think (haven't calculated) that this is two 80-90hr work weeks in a row.

I think I can, I think I can...

Imperial Palace

I took my customer to visit the Imperial Palace. I should get a second job as a tour guide of historic Tokyo. (A tour guide that doesn't speak the native language.) I could just make things up about the tour....

hummm...

Time flies...

I'm tired. I had hopes that I would come back to work this year with a renewed sense of energy and excitement. I haven't. I'm just weary and want to do something else. I haven't sold anything in nearly 18 months. I can hear the clock ticking (my career expiration clock) in the background. Tick tock, tick tock.

I prayed for a few years that God would help me find another job, but at the same rate of pay. I think my prayer this year is just that I need to find another job. I suppose I should start looking, but I don't really even know what else I would do if I wasn't in this line of work.

I've been in (night/distance) school now for almost three years. Last term was a complete bust. My father had a stroke so I spent a lot of time dealing with that, and no time dealing with school. For the first time in my adult life I earned a "F" in a college course. I tried to bail out of the course, but wasn't able to since I had missed the dead line.

So all in all, this doesn't look like a very exciting way to start the year.