Let me out!

So, if you heard an alarm going off in your apartment building, followed by some banging and yelling, would you not feel the need to investigate? Apparently in my apartment building, the answer is NO! It was me who set off the alarm and was doing the banging and yelling after I got stuck in the elevator today.

Elevators in apartments here aren't spacious like at home- they are big enough maybe for 3 people if you squeeze... so when it stopped and all the lights went off somewhere between the floors I knew it was not good. Abdou had just dropped me off, so after about 5 mins of banging, I tried calling him to see if he could turn around and come and rescue me, but his phone was busy, so I tried more banging....still nothing...then I tried crying for a while, that didn't work very well either, so I called one of my friends from work...he was about an hour away, but he called the police and I felt a little bit better knowing that at least someone was on their way...

But it was getting really hot and it was dark, so I decided to bang and yell some more, and then, finally, I heard someone yelling to someone else in arabic-- I only understood the word "elevator" but I figured that was at least a good sign... there was some rattling and suddenly the elevator dropped about 10 feet and now was partly below the bottom floor {I could see grass} but I still couldn't get out.... more yelling, more rattling, then about 10 minutes later I was finally free, el hamdallah!!! That was definitely not an experience I want to repeat anytime soon..

I'm just finishing packing and will be starting my 23hr journey to BC in just over 12 hours!! yay! After a lot of thought I decided that I am not going to bring my bike home this time...the lufthansa strike combined with taking 4 separate flights, I think the likelihood of it getting lost somehwere along the way is pretty high and if I want to do any tris while I'm home maybe I can use one of the mtn bikes we have in the garage..at least I'll finally have an excuse for my crappy bike times!! :P

Okay I really should get some sleep, but hope you're all having a good day and I'll see you soon!

xo C

PS this photo of the burj has nothing to do with this post, but I thought it was a neat shot....they light it up at night and michelle and I caught it at a good angle!

see you soon...

If any of you have visited Venice, you might remember the Bridge of Sighs, the small covered bridge that connects the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace to the prison...apparently it got its name because the view from the small windows of the bridge was the last look at freedom the prisoners had before they went to the jail to carry out their sentences...in most cases this involved torture and sometimes, death (hence the sighing.....). Flying into Cairo from Dubai last night, I felt a strange connection with those poor prisoners...it was a bit of a bumpy landing so when we finally stopped everyone was cheering, except me....at that moment there were very few places I wanted to be less...

HOWEVER, this morning as I was being squeezed and hugged and kissed and welcomed back so genuinely and heartfelt-ly (what is the adjective of heartfelt??) by all my friends at the hotel...I realized that although Cairo really isn't a nice city to live in, I do have a really great group of co-workers, and I didn't realize how much I missed them while I was gone...

The last few days in Dubai were sort of uneventful, mostly because Michelle and I (we think) developed heatstroke- [who would have thought that spending 50 minutes in direct 50 degree sunlight would have any negative effects...] but in spite of this, we got a car and went to Abu Dhabi one day to see what it was like- we explored one of the hotels that looks like a palace, saw the mosque being built in honour of the beloved late ruler of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed who died a few years ago and took a lot of pictures (or "snaps" as our driver called them), orignainally they were going to build it bigger than Al Haram in Mecca (which I now know a lot about!) but that 'wasn't cool' with some of the big guys in Mecca, so they had to scale back the plans a little...but we didn't get out of the car much as it was reaaaaaaally hot- that night, I met up with Stephanie for dinner, it was great to catch up with her!

I am a little late in this, but Michael, who is currently in Argentina (or maybe Bolivia) right now, had a birthday the other day, I hope you had a great one Mikety Mike!! xoxoxo (I also discoverd that Stephanie's is the same day, but passed along her greetings in person)

Soooooo not much else is new, except that I'M FLYING TO BC on Thursday!!!

I was planning to wait to the weekend but Lufthansa is having some sort of labour dispute so i figured if they were out for long, the other carriers might raise their prices (because they know people want to get out of the middle east in August!!) so it's better safe than sorry... although, even though I was so careful to make sure every leg of my flight (and there are a lot of them...) was not with Lufthansa... when I received the e-ticket it said that the Cairo- Munich leg is X airline (see mum....not putting too much personal info online) "operated by....you guessed it... Lufthansa!".....sneaky of them not to show that on the original booking... but I'm hoping that X airline will take responsibility and make sure that its flight goes despite the strike.

At the moment, I am about to start taking my bike apart and putting it back into its box- I never use it here (even inside), so I figure I should take it home where it might have the chance of being ridden once in a while.. I really wish I took a picture of it in its box before I put it together earlier this spring...i have the feeling it's going to be like a sleeping bag that you can never fit back into the bag the same way again-- wish me luck!!

Okay hope you're all doing well and I'll SEE some of you very soon. xoxo C

So, now what?

So, last post I told you we were going to explore Delhi our last day there, well that didn't happen as I developed a touch of malaria and didn't feel like doing anything but sleeping (sorry Kelly!!!) Okay, I don't think it was actually malaria, but I wasn't feeling well at all AND I noticed some mosquito bites on my legs, so naturally...

So we sat by the pool a bit more and I slept and then had a snack in the lobby bar- since the menu had about 40 different types of tea, so I figured, "when in rome..."- I told the server that I liked Earl Grey but wanted something 'authentically local' and what would he suggest? He brought me a Masala tea which is basically a tea where milk is brewed with loose tea and other spices.....it reminded me of the chai that yogi made for us every morning in Victoria, but it wasn't so sweet- pretty spicy and gingery- it was good, but I probably wouldn't drink it every day as it required a lot of milk to tone down the spiciness. One of the nice things was that they kept the pot behind the counter on a warmer and brought it, still piping hot to our table when I was running low {wow, I just spent an entire paragraph talking about tea and its service ...I must have been spending too much time around F&B people!!! :P)

After that, we collected our luggage and waited for the car that was arranged to give us a ride to the airport...and waited, and waited.... and waited. Eventually we caught a taxi as we were worried we'd miss our flight and we weren't sure how chaotic the airport would be, especially since we were just two 'helpless' women, all by ourselves since Wally and Double A were no longer with us (the recruiting agent emailed us later saying he got stuck in traffic)!! Anyway the airport was fine and we got a brand new emirates plane- it was clean and spacious and everyone had a personal tv screen and you could choose from hundreds of movies- I watched August Rush, which, sadly, even my boyfriend King Henry the VIII and Robin Williams couldn't save- it was pretty bad.....

Anyway, we arrived in Dubai on schedule (about 12:30am on Friday morning), our favourite airport greeter was there to meet us with cold towels and water, AND for the first time, Kelly's bag wasn't missing!!! YAY! Yesterday we sent off some contracts and met Michelle in the afternoon for some sightseeing..we took a double-decker bus tour and then went on a boat tour on the Dubai creek- it was nice but we spent most of the time chatting since we hadn't seen michelle in a while! Also, it was hard to concentrate on the commentary in the headphones when it was 48 degrees.

Last night was dinner with the HR team and then we said ma'asalama to Kelly :( She will spend a week at home in NB and then is off on another trip to recruit in Australia (not for makkah!) I hope you had a safe flight Kelly!!!

Today Michelle and I are going to check out Abu Dhabi (the Emirate beside Dubai) just to see what's there- we have a few hotels under construction there so maybe we can give them some tips!! ;) Also, you might have noticed I haven't talked about Stephanie much lately, wellll it's because she left cairo just after I left on this crazy trip and a week ago, started a new job as Financial Controller at one of our properties here- I bumped into her at her hotel for a few minutes last night and can't wait to catch up with her at dinner tonight!!

Since the next few weeks are a little up in the air, I am going to change my vacation and spend my time waiting to find out what happens next...........in BC!!! I'm calling the airline today to change the flight will let you know once it's booked (no, Mum, don't worry, I will not put my flight details on the internet...), but it could be as early as next weekend! (Mikety mike, I'm hoping I will still be there when you get back...)

Anyway, sorry this is so long-- I actually started this post to kill time waiting for some ibuprophen to kick in- I was planning to go to the gym as soon as I got up, but woke with a terrible headache, so I'm sorry if the beginning of the post is a little disjointed.. but the headache is a little better now, so I have a date with the treadmill. Hope you're all getting ready for a great weekend and to all my friends who are in Pemberton this weekend, Have fun, say hi to Tom Petty for me, and be safe!!

See you SOON!!!!!! xoxoxoxox C

Done!?

Namaste!

So today we finished our last day of recruiting on this leg of the trip- (there is talk of a SE Asia run at some point but it's not planned yet) so today was a little bittersweet :( I think we're all glad to be finished for now, but we have grown pretty close, so we're sad to be leaving each other...

Wally left tonight to see his wife in Dubai before he goes to Canada next week; Double-A is leaving for Jeddah at 5:30am tomorrow - Kelly and I have the day to explore Delhi and are flying back to Dubai tomorrow night. I think we're all pretty glad to be done in India...today's interview venue was AWFUL.. it looked like the carpets hadn't been replaced (or vacuumed!!) for about 10 years and there was a smell of rotten food all over the place (look carefully at the picture-- the carpet, the wall and the stains and rips in the table skirting...classy!!!)-- they were setting up for a wedding downstairs so I think it must be some sort of budget banquet hall...a cockroach actually ran down the wall during one of my interviews today and the candidate didn't even flinch... ewwwwww. We went through a LOT of purel today...

(aside: in our company, we have a strategy called nicknamed "GEM-" Globalize, Energize, Maximize...well, we have added a 4th letter in the acronym during this trip....SANITIZE!!! hand sanitizer has become our best friend- an excellent weapon against the "BO handshake")

Kelly and I had some pretty funny interviews along the way though, some of our favourites are as follows:

Kelly: Mohamed, it seems you have quite a long beard- our grooming policy states that any facial hair must be short and neatly trimmed...are you willing to tidy it up if you're hired?"
Mohamed: Oh yes Miss Kelly {stands up and strikes a pose}, I will shave every day, and make myself VERY handsome for you!"

Me: Okay Mohamed, well it's been great getting to know you today, do you have anything else you'd like to add, anything else I should know?"
Moh'd: {Stands up to leave, but hesitates by the door}
Me: Um Moh'd, are you okay, is there anything else?"
Moh'd: {blurts out} "Miss Catherine...you are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen" {runs away and slams the door}

Kelly: "So, tell me Moh'd, what are your hobbies, what do you do besides work?"
Moh'd: "I am an artist!"
Kelly: "Oh really!?"
Moh'd: "Oh yes, I love to draw. {proudly} I could draw your figure if you like!?"
Kelly: "I don't think that's necessary..."

[Editor's note--clearly, Moh'd #2 doesn't get out much.... and you probably think I'm changing the names.. actually even in India and Sri Lanka, 80% of the people we met are named Mohamed!!]

Several times during this trip, I have proclaimed "Okay, I'm not drinking for the rest of the trip..." Kelly just laughs, as we always seem to end the day with a bottle of wine (or 2). Tonight was funny, after we poured the wine, we toasted and without thinking I said "to Mecca!!"-- Double A cracked up, and then I finally realized why he was laughing so hard...Muslims aren't supposed to drink...and worse, the holiest place in the Islamic world should NOT be toasted with wine... even a nice Californian Cab Sauv....!! oooops, I guess that's why they're not letting me in :P

Here are a couple of pics from today...
I'll add some more tomorrow after we actually see some of Delhi.

Okay, that's it for now~over and out from catindelhi. xoxoxox C

Another Day, another city....

Getting out of Mumbai was WAY less stressful and chaotic than I expected- the airport was fairly quiet and we flew Kingfisher Airlines which is owned by "the Richard Branson of India", who also happens to own the brewery of the most popular local beer here (Kingfisher beer). Anyway our flight to Delhi was about 1.5 hrs and it was great- I watched FRIENDS, ate some (spicy!) lunch and had a short nap and we were there! The plane was brand new and the staff were so friendly (and good looking!).

I don't know if I speak for the group, but I am pretty glad to be out of Mumbai- we didn't have much time to explore, but the parts we did see on the way to the airport today were pretty grim...we did however, meet some interesting people @ the rooftop bar at the hotel including Phillip, a young german guy who is doing an internship with VW, and Kent, and american guy who just finished a 4 month term teaching MBA students in rural india.

Here are a few pictures of the last couple of days (including some shots of the bay in Mumbai taken from the car, a "traditional" Indian lunch provided by the recruiters, the view from my new room in Delhi, "double guns" in the pool and the title pic with me with the red dot was what the desk agents did to us when we checked into the hotel today- apparently it's supposed to bring health and propserity...and no, it's not permanent), and I'll give a report on Delhi once I've been here a little longer, but for now, it's time to hit the pool :)

Mmmumbai!

So, the rest of our time in Sri Lanka was good- we are making offers to some really great candidates, but I left with the feeling that there was a huge amount of the country we didn't experience...I would have loved to have seen where they grow the tea etc... oh well, at least we saw the elephants (that was definitely the highlight for me) and maybe I'll be back someday...(maybe not during the rainy season though..).

We took a midnight flight from Colombo and arrived in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) a few hours later, finally arriving at the hotel about 4am... after about 4 hrs hours of sleep (the recruiters picked us up at 10am), we were standing in front of the powerpoint again telling a new group of Muslim guys why they should come with "us"to Makkah....this morning more than ever, I felt like a musician on tour--- I really realllly had to think when I did the part about being "so happy to be {insert city name here}" also, I have about 5 different currencies in my wallet at the moment-- it's confusing since Morocco and the UAE both use Dirhams, Sri Lanka and India both have Rupees, Tunisia and Jordan use Dinars and Egypt and Syria have pounds!!! AND, none of the countries we go to seem to accept the currencies of the others for exchange-- it really is easier to carry US actually..

Needless to say, we haven't had much time at all to see Mumbai, but so far it looks exactly like the parts of cairo that I dislike...really dirty with lots of traffic. On the plus side, all the people that we've met are really nice (even though they could really stand to use a little more deodorant!).

The hotel we are staying at (an intercon) is pretty nice- EXCEPT for the fact that it's way too hightech- the lights are all on these stupid touch sensors and mine was doing some weird exorcist thing and actually shut off completely a few times this morning while I was trying to take a shower; Wally had the opposite problem as he actually had to unscrew the light bulb from his lamp to make it turn off! I don't get mad very often, but after only 3 hours of sleep, standing in the darkness, wet and covered in soap, I was pretty f#$%^ P.O'd!! It seems like a trend in hotels lately to adopt all this super new-age technology, which is fine, but please, GMs--- for the love of god, make sure it's user friendly, otherwise it just annoys the guest (and I mean REALLY annoys...)

After our interviews today we sat in their rooftop bar, had a drink and watched a huge storm roll in over the bay...

Tomorrow is another day of interviews here, then we fly to Delhi on Tuesday morning realllly early. El Hamdallah, we have that day off, so we might try to see some of the sights, I think the Lotus Temple looks sort of neat- we also want to see the Taj Mahal (I'm not going to link that as I'm sure you all know what it is..), but apparently it's a few hours away so we'll see if we can find the time...pft all this interviewing is getting in the way of our sightseeing agenda :P

Okay, I really need to get some sleep but I hope you're all having an excellent weekend! bye for now,

C

My Sri Lankan B-Day...I might be old now, but at least I got two cakes!

No wine!!??

Today was a little less exciting than yesterday- instead of seeing elephants, we interviewed about 150 people- it was sad, as life here for some people is quite hard and salaries are pretty low, so a lot of people are forced to leave their families and work in other countries (like KSA) and send the money home, also, a lot of people talked during the interviews about the Tsunami of 2005- some had lost everything, including friends and family members.....I remember hearing on the news a lot about Thailand, but not about the effect on Sri Lanka... it was really heartbreaking- especially when halfway through the interview it was evident that they didn't speak enough english to be considered for a job with us... :(

Every month here there is a public holiday on the day of the full moon- I think someone told us that it's a Buddhist holiday, but everyone seems to celebrate it... anyway, this month, that day is today! We were pretty excited until we found out that it also meant that all the restaurants are dry...
I'll leave you with some pictures...the view from our interview room in the morning and at sunset (notice the full moon already visible), and me being stupid and pretending to eat a lobster... (well I actually did eat it, but I took the shell off first...) mmmm.

Double A (our nickname for AbelAziz) got a new camera- a nikon digital SLR (but I'm not sure which model - sorry Teeg, Celeste, Taylor and Jim..) when he was back in Jeddah and I am in LOVE with it-- he doesn't really know how to use it so I keep stealing it to play around with it- it takes such nice pictures and makes mine look so inadequate... Hypothetically, if someone (like me!) had a birthday coming up in the next day or so, and someone else (like mum & dad) didn't know what to get me, maybe they could give me some $$ to put towards one of my own when I come to visit....totally hypothetical though! ;)

Okay, I'm going to bed now- tomorrow I need to get up early and go to the gym- I was doing so well in Dubai and I don't want to get out of the habit just cuz we're on the road again.

Miss you!

xoxo C

Rain and elephants!!

So, we arrived safe and sound in Sri Lanka (we're staying in the capital, Colombo) this morning after an overnight flight, and I think we were all preparing ourselves for an airport experience like the one in Damascus (ie: pure insanity and chaos), but it was actually one of the best and most efficient airports we've been in so far- we sailed through passport control and by the time we were done (which was only about 6 minutes) our luggage was already on the carousel AND nobody's was missing!! (yes I realize I'm probably jinxing us for India-- can you all knock on wood for me please?)

The other surprise when we stepped out of the airport was that we immediately got soaked by this strange water falling from the sky- that's right, it was RAINING!!! I haven't seen rain for over 5 months so it was really odd! And it's not a nice misty rain like in Victoria- here it rains like it means it!!! Apparently this is the monsoon season, which is the least popular time to visit the country- which is evident when you look around- besides a few other people on business at our hotel, Kelly, Wally, AA and I seemed to be the only non-Sri Lankans around.

We arrived at our hotel this morning @ 6am, but since today was our only day off in SL, we decided to re-adopt our motto from Lebanon/Jordan/Syria: "sleep when you're dead"... so after just a few hours of sleep we all met in the lobby to take a van to an elephant orphanage- a place which had been recommended to us by the recruiting agents. It was about 2 hrs away, but the drive was really picturesque and took us through some really beautiful countryside.

I don't think any of us really knew what to expect- I've seen shows on tv about how animals are treated in some countries around here, but when we got there I think we were all pleasantly surprised- the elephants go down to the river twice a day for a "bath" (they didn't seem that clean when they came back, but I think it's a social thing for them...)- we caught them on their way back from their second bath of the day- about 40 of them came storming down a really narrow street- we followed them and had a cup of tea while they got put back in their areas, then after about 10 min, we were told it was safe to go in, so we went to find us some elephants!!

After bathtime, it's feeding time, so when we found them, they were all happily munching away on palm leaves and branches- some of them had a chain on their foot (a long one, don't worry) but I think it was unnecessary, since they didn't even seem to notice that we were there. Kelly bottle-fed one of the baby ones, which was really cute, but he was slurping the stuff so fast that it was getting all over her, so when my turn came, I passed and let someone else go... (yes, princessy, I know..but eeeew!!). There was only one sad part- a poor girl who was missing a foot because she stepped on a landmine :(

Anyway it's getting late so I should get to bed, but here are a few pictures from today. Hope you're all doing well!

xoxo C

PS: (sorry Michael)- Have you seen the news about the hostage swapping with Pallestine/Israel/Lebanon? Although they say this is a step toward peace, I'm glad we're out of that area now...things sometimes have a way of turning nasty in a hurry there...

Safe travels little bro :)

Just packing for Sri Lanka- we finally leave tonight- all this time spent shopping in Dubai has made it necessary for me to leave a bag full of stuff here- thankfully we're coming back! Also, packing has made me realize that for someone who isn't really all that technically savvy, I travel with a ridiculous amount of electrical and computer equipment...AND I actually seem to use most of it almost every day!

But enough about me... my bro, Michael, aka Mike, aka Mikety-Mike etc etc.. is leaving today for a 1.5 month trip to South America- he'll be visiting Argentina, Peru and some other places, I think.....if you want to keep up with his travels, you can visit his brand new blog!!


Have a good trip Mikety Mike, have fun and stay safe!!

xoxo C

Even though being a professional triathlete is my dream job, I'm glad pictures of me throwing up aren't all over the internet!

Poor Simon! But he won the race-- and $60K- so I guess it's all in a day's work...

I can't wait to see him and the rest of the Canadians race in Beijing next month!

Apparently you take a lot of pictures when you're waiting around....

I think in the blogging world there is a rule that you're not supposed to change a post after you've posted it, but instead of doing a second one for the day, I thought I'd just add to this one (which earlier today was just a bunch of pictures) and tell you two things:

a) Today we saw Mamma Mia! the movie version of the broadway musical of the same name and it was SO good! There was something for everyone- music, romance, comedy and a star-studded cast (Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and a few others I recognized but didn't know their names...). It was probably one of the best movies I've seen all year actually. BUT...if you don't like ABBA music, you probably won't like it.

and b) we finally heard today that we got our visas for India (el hamdallah!!) so we fly to Sri Lanka on Tuesday night, and to India from there a few days later!

These pics are a few from the last few days... some shots of me with my real estate empire, my new car, having drinks at an apres ski bar in the mall beside Ski Dubai, some crazy fruits I found in my room and a helicopter landing on the helipad at the Burj, which is apparently part of their "upgraded" airport pickup service (the pickup costs more than the room! who has that sort of money!!!???)

Okay, off to find something on the menu that I haven't tried yet......wish me luck ;)

Miss you all!

xoxo C

Wish you were here!

So, I'm just saying.......if any of YOU were stranded somewhere, unable to leave because the Indian embassy had your passport, and all you could do all day was work-out, shop, swim and eat in restaurants in a luxury hotel...... I would immediately come to said place to keep you company during this difficult time. But I guess I am a better friend than all of you!!! ;) (Jen Smerdon is excused since she is currently trapped in California- I feel your pain Jenny...)

As you can probably tell... we're still waiting, and it's getting booooooring..I think my limit for staying in the same hotel (even one of ours) is about 5 days and it's been about 6 now....

Last night the HRD, Dir. Sales and GM from Makkah were in house, so we had dinner at...wait for it......a Lebanese restaurant! Kelly and I almost died when we heard where we were going :P

Today is the weekend so I slept in, had a good workout this morning then Kelly and I went to a another hotel to check it out and maybe have this great brunch we'd heard all about, but we got there and the people who were waiting in line were all dressed in suits and fancy dresses etc, so we figured a) we were underdressed, and b) it would have been realllllly expensive, so we walked around for a bit, but it was sooooooooooo hot... apparently today it was only about 40 (I can't believe I don't really think that's hot anymore!), but with the humidity it "feels like" 47.....so we went to an Italian place for a pizza and tried to cool down. Then I took a nap and tonight we're going with some people from the hotel to a pub nearby...I should actually get ready now...

So, in summation--- YOU should come and visit me in Dubai. Thank you.

xoxo C

In the middle of it all...

As frustrating is it is to be stuck here (yes we're STILL in Dubai..), the UAE is such an amazing and exciting place to be right now--- it is a hub for business for the entire world- it's absolutely booming right now and is showing no sign of slowing down anytime soon! There are people of every nationality here, and all here for different reasons-- sitting in the lobby bar last night, Kelly and I were definitely aware of some pretty major business deals happening just a few feet away from us!!

In the few days that I've been here I've met some really interesting people-- my room is on the 27th floor, so most of these meetings happen in the elevator- because you either start a conversation, or stare at the person for the next minute and a half.... I've chatted to a Belgian guy here to do flight simulator training with Emirates air (he flies a private jet..), and an insurance broker from Australia.... in the pool the other night we met an Iranian/Canadian guy (from Vancouver) who owns a business that produces and imports re-bar and concrete to Dubai- the retail price of both of these items has doubled in the last year, so he's pretty happy about that! Especially since Dubai probably uses a million pieces of re-bar a day.... (no exaggeration).

As much as I love and miss BC, there is something really exciting about being in a city that literally never sleeps (most of the construction happens at night since it's so hot during the day) and is changing at such a breakneck pace-- it's definitely not sustainable (even now they are struggling to find enough labour to keep up with the construction) and things will slow down eventually (every place reaches a saturation point for hotel rooms, office buildings and condos), but it will be cool to look back on it and be able to say that I was there when it was at its craziest!

Because of the delay, Moses had to go back to seattle... Ma'salama Ya Moussa, you will definitely be missed!

Anyway, gotta get to the gym, but hope you're all having a great day.

xo C