Being the techno pygmy that I am, I am not having any joy being able to post photographs. I do not know what I am doing wrong, no matter which method I try. So until I find someone to assist in my ineptness, I will write with no photo's and I have lots to post!
These last few days have been full of surprises and challenges.
On Sunday I went to the Westchester Mall in White Plains, NY with Lee and Mary Rohde, with whom I was staying. The Mall is a place I frequented when I was working at Archbishop stepinac High School for Boys in 1997. It is very much an upmarket mall with Neiman Markus, Tommy Hilfiger, Abercrombie and Fitch, Apple, Sony, Crate and Barrel and many other very, very expensive stores. However, one of the things I went for mostly, was the fresh Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies they made. They came off a conveyor onto a grid and you could buy them hot and amazing. So when we went on Sunday 12th, Guess what? I went and bought two and devoured them instantly apart from a Chinese lunch which was very tasty.
In the afternoon, we went to the Chappaqua Library to a performence of the West Point Military Academy Jazz Combo playing Jazz from the 1920's and '30's. It was great to be there, but of course it made me homesick for the SACS Jazz Band which could have stood their ground in this company with ease.
On Monday morning I dropped off the Toyota Camry that Doug Rohde, Lee and Mary's youngest son, and his wife Christine, gave me for my trip around the USA and Canada. How generous is that! The Camry needed to have its annual State inspection and I had put new front tyres on it on Saturday. Lee and I then went to a lecture through the International Affairs Group on modern China and where to in 2014. It was given by a Chinese Political Science Professor and I certainly learned a whole lot about where they are going, or appear to be going. Scary too!
We then went home for lunch and then Lee, Mary and I went to Club Fit, a gym like Virgin Active and picked up the Camry on the way. after a fairly strenuous session - never gym too soon after a meal - Mary and I went home, leaving Lee to have a session in the hot tub and do his neck exercises. No sooner home than the police called to let Mary know that Lee had fallen and the ambulance was taking him to hospital. I rushed Mary to the hospital as soon as she had organized for her grand daughter to be fetched from Ballet, and we arrived before the ambulance which had lost its way, but Lee had come around by this time and directed them to the hospital as only Lee would.
The facilities at this hospital were most certainly 21st century as was the health care. A doctor, two 'medical assistants, a scribe and a medical student as well as a 'transporter', that is a guy who pushed the trolly around after the initial and thorough examination and hook-up to a huge machine and blood taken, he was 'trolley'd' to MRI and X-Ray and then back to be hooked up. A decision was then made to keep him overnight for monitoring. He was 'transported' from the Emergency wing through to the hospital proper into a single room. Here a second doctor arrived and started the whole thorough process again with a nurse, a scribe and a sister or the equivalent.
Mary and I went back home to collect his regimen of drugs and by the time we returned, the new doctor was still examining him and making decisions. We left at 9,15 having arrived at the hospital at 3.50pm! Then off to supper at Applebees on the way home. Mary contacted the three boys; Lars, Gilbert and Doug and reorganized for someone to take Lee's place for his Tennis the following day. Yes, he is 82 and plays tennis a number of times a week and gyms three times and is in the Men's International Studies group and is a master carpenter and woodworker as well as a wood turner and splits wood for the little wood stove which keeps their massive house warm.
Come Tuesday morning, I was due to leave at around 10.00, Mary received a call to collect Lee. Well, it did not work out. Lee had a vision problem which ended with more MRI and X-Ray of his head, the optometrist and a Neurologist and a doctor. Needless to say, he stayed till 5pm by which time I had left their home to go back to Tim and Barbara in Connecticut. I called and Lee is fine and with all the extensive and exhaustive tests, it appears that he is absolutely fine. The vision things appears to have been a kind of migraine.
So, here I am after the trip from Chappaqua in NY to Bethany in Ct in the Camry - deja vu - as I went on the same road I used to commute in 1997! It rained solidly the whole way.
This morning I Face Booked and after a breakfast of Berry Squares Cereal and a Blueberry Muffin as well as a glass of water (of course) and a cup of English Breakfast Tea, I did some research and printing for the final section of Topic 6 of the new Grade 12 Answer Series Text Book which I then finished composing and writing and then sent it on its merry way to my publisher in Cape Town. The Response to Globalization. Not exactly exciting, but certainly potentially earth shattering!
Then I carted 4 loads of split wood from the wood shed to the basement where the burner is and followed that with carrying and dumping the now unused Christmas tree near the vegetable garden, now dormant of course with the temperatures certainly below freezing at -4C or so.
And here I am typing.
Last Thursday I was at the Google HQ where Doug Rohde is one of the chief engineers, planners. team leaders and management executives. I was so privileged to even get in. Lee, Mary and I met Doug at reception. He arrived on a scooter because the building is longer than the Empire State is high (104 floors high!). The whole loooong building is decorated to resemble Manhattan, so there are street names, buildings replicated, restaurants, districts in NYC, etc, They must have had such fun. Food islands where one can help oneself to nuts, chocolate, berries, cookies, tea, coffee, juices, etc, are interspersed. There is also a moderate sized restaurant on the 4th floor, but the major one is on the 10th floor. It is huge and self-service with salad makings, soup and crackers and croutons, pasta's, pizza's, fish, chicken dishes, seafood platters, pork, beef, sushi, roasted vegetables, desert, fruit, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, a bank of healthy drinks. All free!
Every now and again we came across Lego Centres where there were a myriad tubs of coloured Lego and large tables where people constructed stuff and anyone could add on as they felt the motivation to. here and there were stations to take your laptop if it malfunctioned through the day. Various sized conference, meeting and chill rooms each independently decorated with unique furniture. Games rooms with pool tables, table tennis, Basket ball hoops, ergometers, stationary bicycles, chess tables, fussball, video games and so much more. A library along one wall of the corridor and people can just take out, read and return. Also stationary islands where pens, pencils, post-it notes, lined paper, printing paper, etc. is available as required.
Amazing murals, posters, screens, paintings, decor. The actual working areas, which are very extensive, have 'compartments' surrounded by frosted glass with about 5 people in each. They personalize them to a certain extent, but for me, Doug's desk was the best. He used to have a back problem and could not constantly get up and down, so the engineers made a hydraulically powered table/desk that carried his two massive computer screens as well as all the other bits and pieces, and could be raised and lowered as he wanted. He stands and does most of his work.
So Doug's Team of 25 is part of a cohort of 2000 Google people all around 25 to 35 years old, making me feel decidedly elderly. all either very animated or completely immersed in their work with either a laptop in the crook of their arms as they walked around or glued to their screens in their cubicles or at an eating station or Lego station or in one of the conference nooks or rooms. One room is decorated as a Bachelor apartment and the two couches are made of Victorian Baths with a cutout and lined with comfy cushions as well as a glass topped bath as the working surface and an imitation fridge against the wall with a steel panel so that magnetic goodies could be attached. Whimsical.
Wish I could create a school like the Google office. Just amazing and inspiring.
Here endeth the blog!
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