Gotta Dance

I drove north to attend a 3 year old's dance recital and a 20 something's graduation picnic, and to spend time with most of my family. What a great feeling to drive that 400 miles to Berkeley after sitting in the passenger seat for 11 weeks. For some reason, the traffic seemed much lighter than usual.







We attended Maggie's recital first. We sat through 3 pages of dances. The many girls and 4 boys were cute. Nobody knew how to dance. Well, maybe a couple. They were fun to watch. The choreography, done by the adults of course, was the most interesting thing to see. Lots of hip waggling and lying on the floor waggling feet. What would I have done with several novices? Probably nothing too different. Our little dancer had a ball. She didn't care how she did. She had a cute little costume and an opportunity to strut her stuff in front of an adoring crowd. The crowd was adoring their own little darlings, but that didn't seem to make a difference. We met on the lawn outside the auditorium. Karen, Peter and I got a moment to appreciate our little dancer. Then Natalie and Kevin got their turn. Maggie is in love with bouquets. This event was made for her.


After a brief stop at Kevin and Natalie's, we went to a picnic celebrating Cathie's impending graduation. She has earned her Master's degree in Marriage and Family Counseling. As my many friends with this degree know, this is just the beginning. There are lots of hours to put in to reach her final reward. Cathie is a very hard working woman. I think she will thrive with this challenge. She is off to Mexico next to work on her Spanish for a month. Another challenge that she will probably ace. Her brothers and their wives were there. Jeff and Sandi and Sandi's sister and brother-in-law came up from San Diego. And masses of Cathie's friends. It was good to see all these folks honoring Cathie for her accomplishments.

We had a good time at the picnic and decided to carry it on the next day at Karen's. Karen and Peter were flying to Alaska the next day, so we decided to just have breads, meats and cheeses with some interesting accompaniments. The idea was to have little fuss so Karen wouldn't work herself too hard. She had clean-up, which is always difficult after I cook or "prepare."
We had a good time anyway. Nephews Chris and girlfriend Gabriella are on the left, Mark is hiding behind Trina. It isn't that we've waited forever for these young men to find women who complete their lives. We are hoping that these are the two, because we really like them.

And Maggie worked her magic on all of us.

How Was India? What's It Like to be Back?

How do you sum up 11 weeks? India was:

• Hot
• Crowded
• Absolutely opposite LA in every way
• Fascinating from a historical and cultural perspective. Also current events. This is a thriving old/new/developing country.
• Filled with gracious and beautiful people (opposite LA in most every way.)
• It was just like being at home until something typically Indian happens (house boy walks in, lights go out, hot water disappears in 3 minutes).

It was a great experience, I'm happy that I was there. I'm happy that I was there for 11 weeks so it could seem like being home. I'm happy that I'm home.

What's it like to be back?

This is weird. My job is gone. But not totally. We are in constant contact with the people in Bangalore. When they have a question, they instant message us. If it is urgent, they call us on the hot line. There are still 6 people in the office, but we will start leaving soon. It works out well. IBM is learning more every day so they won't need us as much.

I have time to work on projects, between instant messages, and see old friends. I never seemed to have time to walk around much when the phones were ringing constantly. We still have things to resolve for IBM and we have processes to put in place that will make things run smoother for both sides of the world. These are interesting. I can actually apply my whole brain to their solution. Imagine!

I had no problem with jet lag. I told Bill that I thought it was my hyper-slow metabolism. It will probably take a few weeks for it to realize I'm not in India anymore. I still have one more malaria pill to take. Do you think my body will realize I'm gone when it isn't filled with Malarone anymore?

I cooked a pork roast that we've been eating every day. Love pork and missed it in India. Adrian cooked fabulous salmon. Love salmon and missed Adrian's cooking. So the food cravings are out of the way. I don't eat much beef ever, so please don't ask if I missed it in India. I didn't. I even ate beef while there, but the beef and lamb both tasted a little off. I haven't eaten chicken and shrimp every day here like I did in India.

And so the blog changes

If you were just along for the India ride, I bid you adieu. Now you will be seeing pictures of my family, birthday party, trips across the US and miscellaneous thoughts about the future of the LA Times and Tribune Company. Thanks for joining me. It was fun to know that people all over the US were looking at our experiences in Bangalore. But I know that hearing about my personal journey to retirement won't interest anybody but me, really.

Bye, all.

And I Don't Miss You At All

Not

Every one of you holds a special place in my heart. I think I will have to call every help desk number at least once a day so I can talk to all of you so I can hear how you are doing.

Here are the four aisles of desks that seat the agents and their supervisors. Many wore Indian clothes on this day because I was wearing my new Indian shirt and pants that Ramesh's dad made for me. I wanted to say goodbye to each of them, they have all become a special part of my adventure. But I could not get one word out. They must all know how much I will miss them. I've put the rest of these pictures on the website: http://picasaweb.google.com/pnorman811

Laura and I decided to plan twin outfits for the day. This time the matching peaches was not a mistake.

I'm home. I left later Friday/early Saturday and arrived in LA at 12:36 on Saturday. Too time warpish for me. I'd like to say that I will only fly Business Class in the future. It certainly has its advantages. Price is not one of them. I guess I will have to remember that the trip is not the journey.

This trip and this journey were both fun and educational. Please stay tuned, however. The adventure of leaving The Times is just beginning. I have 4 more months before I actually leave. Tomorrow I get to see what has happened to The Times while I've been gone.

Another group of people that I don't miss at all are the friends who left during the recent buy-outs and terminations. It's happened before, we should get used to it, but each parting hurts. I was supposed to leave before these people left. I hope they all have interesting futures like I am planning for myself.

Stay tuned.

We Didn't Plan This

We didn't plan a lot of things. That it would take more than 11 weeks to get our team working 24 X 7, for example. An interesting thing is that we currently aren't open every second of the week. The LAT team is pretty much covering the hours that we are open in LA at 100% of calls. I can't wait to see what the folks in LA are doing now. I'm thinking they are still pretty busy.

One reason that the LAT team is feeling fairly confident is that they have great help in LA just a phone call away. Whenever they have a question, they are chatting. This almost takes the place of having a Fred on the other side of the partition from you (see several earlier posts for Fred references.) The guys in LA are fantastic. They do everything they can to help the team in India get better. We all have an immense loyalty to the people at The Times. It's important to make this work well.

LAT has merged with the team that handles 4 east coast Business Units. None of these are sending us a lot of calls, so they are able to handle the work load. One of the BU wants to go 24 x 7, but the other 4 aren't ready. I don't know how they will work that one with the limited staff and small number of supervisors. We don't want to let a BU down, so all effort will be made to do that.

Team 2 keeps improving. They are working hard to keep their 4 BU happy as they continue to learn. It's tough.

Another thing that wasn't planned was that Laura and I would be wearing the sameish outfit yesterday. She lives in 901 - 9th floor - and I live in 406 - 4th floor. Imagine my surprise when she showed up in uniform. We were going shopping, I wanted to exchange a little string of sapphires that no one could see on my big body for something more noticeable. She wanted to make undisclosed purchases for people who never will read this blog. We spent the whole day explaining that this was not planned. Ramesh was pretty amused.

What is planned is my departure. Nahum beat me in getting his suitcase packed almost a week early and just keeping out a few things that got stowed away each day after wearing them to work. I had trouble believing that all my stuff would fit into my big bag, my carry-onish bag and my green Book Awards book bag. Chandan was going to lend me a suitcase. So I had to pack all but a couple of things just to see if things would fit. They do! I'm giving away food and booze to those who will accept such things. All chocolate has been consumed by me and the folks at IBM.

Ramesh's dad finished my clothes. I'm wearing one thing today. I've asked that all the women in the group wear their pretty clothes today so I can take pictures of what has inspired me to try Indian clothes. I'm wearing it now. It is very comfortable. It's not as sparkly as theirs, but that isn't really me, anyway.

Look for pictures tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Adrian

Saturday was Adrian's birthday. He had disconnected Gtalk, so I didn't get to talk with him that day. That was sad, but we had the party anyway. I invited all the supervisors and their spouses to the apartment for dinner and cake. I hope everyone had a good time, I sure did. You know how I love to cook.

I've been complaining about the grocery stores in town. Chandan had directed us to one called Monday Through Sunday. I guess the name All Week was taken. There was a problem with the store the first time I was there, something smelly was broken and I was pretty disgusted with it. We went back Saturday morning and it was fresh and clean. Got lots of good stuff for the party. Ramesh directed us to a bakery for the cake. We filled in some empty spots at the little store in the complex.

The picture at the top shows me cutting the cake. There is a tradition in India of rubbing uneaten cake into the face of the celebrant. Barring that, they said the person cutting the cake would do. Don't know if you can see the knife I'm cutting with, but it is formidable. Nobody would consider coming close to me to do any rubbing.

The group, from the left is Avinash and his wife, Sowmya hiding behind him; Suresh; Teena and her husband; Pinaki and his wife, Daisy; and Rishi. Zuber didn't come and Vijay had to drive his dad to Kerala. The best food of the night was a mango and shrimp salad. I got the recipe from The Times this week. I was thinking it would be veg if I put the shrimp on the side. It had fish sauce in it, however, and that took it off the veg list. Adrian loves fish sauce, so I couldn't resist.

Santhos helped me cook again. So did Laura (that's a picture of her next to me while I cut the cake.) We had a lot of fun. As always, it took longer to make than to eat. As always, I made enough for a small army. Maybe I'll understand kilos by the time I leave. I bought two kilos each of chicken and shrimp. Who knew that was over 4 pounds?

Laura and I went to the Leela for my last brunch there. Good as ever. Then I got my last massage. Laura had never had one before. Neither had I before I came to Bangalore. Now I think they are required for healthy living.

Santhos had washed all the dished before he left last night. We had borrowed half of Laura's apartment for the party. Deepak (now her houseboy) hates for us to share stuff. He speaks only a few words of English, so he didn't understand when I told him that I was paying for 3 apartments and to leave me along while I borrowed stuff. By the time we got back from the Leela, all Laura's stuff was back in her apartment and Santhos was ironing my pants in a spotless kitchen.

I've started packing, seeing if all my purchases and my clothes can co-exist in the luggage I brought. I think I'll be okay. The big purchase, the rug, was shipped and is now rolled up at home, waiting for me to show Adrian the magic of the "look at this carpet" flip. I may have to move the furniture to do that. Hope I don't seem too excited about leaving Bangalore. It's been great here, but I'm pretty excited about seeing both my families - home and work.

5 more days. And counting.

They Are Almost Gone

"What kind of Malaria pills are you taking? Do you have to take them every day? Do they give you nightmares? Do they upset your stomach? Do I have to take them?"

Welcome to India. These are the first questions of every traveler as they get off the airplane. Malaria pills are a big topic. We were all quite envious of Nahum. He only took one every Monday. I guess men have stronger immune systems. We ladies have to take one a day and the pills do make you sleep poorly and, if not taken at the right time, can upset your stomach. Do I have the answer to the last question? No. If I were a doctor, I would be writing a blog complaining about Medicare.

When I got here, this bottle was filled to the brim. At two dollars a pill, that is an expensive brim. We are down to the bottom of the container. I have to take the pills seven days after take off from Bangalore International. I must be going home soon.

Going Native

Purely Personal

As you know if you've been reading, I find the women of India stunning. They wear the most beautiful clothes, regardless of their station in life. I am toddling around in my practical Land's End gear, looking like the Pasadena matron that I am. I've been dreaming of wearing my own shirt, pant, scarf outfit that the women at IBM wear. And we all know that I bought a sari on my second day in India. You need stuff to wear underneath this diaphonous 6 yards of cloth.

Ramesh's dad is a tailor. Ramesh was a tailor too until he spiffed up his English and started driving. I thought I'd be losing weight hand over fist and would be a waif by the end of the trip. Always dreaming. So I waited until the end of my stay to have the dad make me stuff to wear under my sari and a pants outfit. Based on current weight loss, we could have done this weeks ago.

The father and son visited my apartment yesterday. We decided what exactly I wanted and needed and I got measured. Ramesh's father is very nice and, as you can see, looks very much like his son. My new favorite color is orange, so the pants outfit is solid pale orange. I'm sure I will look like a pumpkin, but we shall see. I may need to find a different scarf when all is said and done. We are having a fitting on Monday. I think I will ask to have all the women of IBM wear their prettiest outfits next Wednesday so I can create a photo album to show you exactly what I've been admiring for 10 weeks. I've been admiring the men, too, but for their brains and good presence on the phone, not their tee shirts and jeans.

Business

The IBM team is doing very well. I've asked to have them receive 100% of all calls between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on weekdays. It's a go. Those people who have been hanging up and hoping to get someone in the US can talk to their neighbor from now on. These guys in India aren't perfect, but are getting better every day. There are so many little things that come up that one has never heard of before, it's difficult to be spot on each time. But remember, they are very collaborative. As they find the solution, others learn. We also have links to the people in LA so we can ask for their assistance in seconds.

For example, there was an issue last week about how to find a seat license for Mac users who are installing VPN (remote access) software. I know, this means nothing to many of you. Think of how it sounds to a person who is responsible for coming up with an answer and doesn't have it. I reviewed the solution with the group. We got a call soon after needing the same information. The gang knew what to do this time and resolved the issue in moment. An actual Editorial person was actually pleased. And wrote a very nice note.

This is the trend. More nice notes, fewer disgruntled clients.

Travelers

Nancy is leaving tonight. But, ssshhhhh, don't tell her. On the drive home last night, I reminded her that she needed to be packed and ready to go when we drive in to work at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. She was stunned that she was leaving. Even though we have discussed this before, it was news to her. A difficulty with our coming and going is that the airplane usually arrives at 11:55 p.m. and leaves at 1:55 a.m. It's the same airplane, gassed up and ready to fly. So the plane leaves on Friday, but we tend to kick people out of the car at 11:30 on Thursday. Got it? I can't wait to see what happens today at 4:30 p.m. Expecting Chaos, praying for full bags and a cleaned out apartment.

I leave next Friday night. Laura got a flight that stops in New Delhi instead of Frankfort, Germany. Since the first leg of the flight is domestic, she will be leaving during the day on Saturday. I'll be leaving her my local phone so she can keep in contact with Ramesh at all times. She will be giving the phone to Ramesh when she leaves. I don't know what he'll do with it, but he was very pleased at the prospect.

I'm getting very excited about leaving. We discussed 11 weeks being a long time. But it's just time and it passes. I'd be just as excited if I'd only been here 3 weeks. Transitions are what is exciting. I am so looking forward to the next one. Who knows what being in LA at The Times without my old duties will look like? Will I actually have time to walk around the building and visit people, see how they're experiencing the new HelpDesk? Who knows? Pretty exciting stuff, no?

Coorg or Bust?

I've been wanting to go to Coorg since I came here. It is written about as an idealic, green slice of heaven - the Scotland of India. Chandan has been listening to this desire and we decided that we would go when his girlfriend came to town. Laura and Nancy agreed to go as well. And here is the foretelling statement - we were not able to get a room on-line, so asked Naveen, Ramesh's boss if he could find one. He said not to worry.

We set off earlyish Saturday morning. It's never the time that the driver would like, but it was early enough for us. The road we took is the old familiar road to Mysore. The turn off to Coorg comes just before Mysore. Ramesh had said the road was being repaired 6 months ago when he was last there. I'm sure he was right because it it still being worked on. In some places it was 60 mph to be stopped short quickly at a dirt road that merged into another speedy place. It just kept us all awake.

Our first stop was at the Golden Temple, a Buddhist temple. This and the surrounding area is the home of many Tibetan refugees. The monks were so colorful in maroon and beige-gold robes. We were also treated to the drums and horn playing that calls the monks to their prayers and mantras. It was very exciting to hear. The Temple was beautiful. It was amazing to see this totally diverse community in the middle of Karnataka. It was like having Chow Young Fat wandering around. These are very striking people.

Our driver was supposed to take us to a cultural event. But he suggested the elephant park instead. Chandan wanted to see the elephants. He had a vision of a wild animal park where the elephants roam fairly freely. I felt bad that he didn't get to share that experience with us. Instead, we were in a bamboo forest with two poor elephants being prodded into walking a short circle. I knew I wasn't going to get on top of any elephant. I'm too stiff and un-sure-footed. So I found this little elephant statue and climbed on board. Even that maneuver had my friends gasping for fear I'd end up head over tea kettle. I got on and give my best Yippie-ki-yi-yo whoop. A proud moment for all old ladies everywhere.

Nancy was more bold. She actually got up on the elephant. The trip was ruined for her, however, because all she could think of was "poor elephant." She feed the elephant 5 cucumbers when she got off the thing. That was the most fun for her. She is a pretty agile woman. She hopped down on to and up off of that elephant without a thought. I saw a lot of Indian's struggling to adjust themselves, but Nancy was all over the thing is seconds.
Despite Chandan's dismay, we had a good time there. Laura danced her way across a swinging bridge (fear drove her to scamper.) Chandan and Divya took pictures with Nancy's camera and chatted with us. They are such a nice couple. I would never ask Divya how old she is, but Chandan is younger than Adrian. He told Divya that he called me Mom. Mother hen, more like it. That has become the joke throughout the whole trip. One waiter stuttered on "Ma'am" and called me Ma'am Ma'am, which sounded like Mama. That was too much.

Have you guessed yet that we didn't find a room in Coorg? The driver and Chandan tried valiantly to find a place, but we had to go back to Mysore and stay in some dirty 2 star hotel that was found for us at the last minute. In the meantime, we were literally kidnapped and taken to a local Bollywood send up. Lots of people singing and dancing and making funny faces. It was all in Kannada, the local language. This was the cultural event that Naveen was determined to have us enjoy. Okay for 10 minutes amusement, but you know those Bollywood movies are 3 hours long. We left after 10 minutes and drove down the hill to Mysore in the dark. Got to the hotel at 11:00 at night.

I've been to Mysore 2 other times and have never seen the Palace. This time we did. I made it almost all the way through this beautiful building. Sweat was pouring down my back and I was afraid to lean on anything for fear of leaving a puddle. We left before we went up the long staircase to the dancing rooms. Our guide was so informative. We had a good time in there. You can see how pretty it is there. Isn't this a gorgeous bevy of beauties?

When Harriet, Harold and I were in Mysore 9 weeks earlier, we wanted to go up Chamundi Hill to see a panoramic view of the area. That day they had a "political protest" on the hill. Lots of police, lots of protesters. I finally got up the hill on Sunday. It was a pretty drive. There is a Hindu temple at the top of the hill. We didn't remove our shoes and walk through. We took plenty of pictures from the overlook, but Nancy and Laura both had their picture taken with a reclining cow at the temple. One of the sounds of this trip since Nancy arrived is "cow, cow, cow at 9:00." She is fascinated with all things cow. Divya and Chandan were in the back of the van this weekend. Divya often got Nancy's camera to try to get the one last shot of the cow. I think Nancy finally has photographed every cow in Bangalore and the road to Mysore.

We went back to the palace that night to get a picture or 100 of the palace lit up. This is what KJ and I wanted to see when we visited on our trip to Ooty. We just had gone to a hotel for a drink and then decided to drive by the palace on our way to dinner. There are more photos of everything: Palace, hill, temples, friends, on this website: http://www.picasaweb.google.com/pnorman811 . The palace is lit only on Sunday from 7:00 - 8:00. We timed this perfectly. Our driver was getting used to our unique style of traveling (changing our minds every two minutes.) It allowed us to see a lot during the weekend.

And now we are back "home", ready to go back to work. Divya is on her way to the airport to return to New Delhi and work. After all we did, it seemed like I had known her for a very long time. An all around excellent weekend.

June, It's June

"Fresh and alive and gay and young, June is a love song sweetly sung.
June is busting out all oooooooooooover." Love those show tunes. That one is from Carousel.

The week has been mostly work. We have moved the LAT people up to taking 75% of all Times' calls. It is a good thing. On Thursday, we only had 2 people on the helpdesk in LA. Gernard needed some personal time off. Dean's back would only allow him to crawl. That left Clif and Cynthia. As it was, we still rely on them to take care of some things we can't. Even when we are taking all calls in India, we won't have the ability here to correct some problems. When I get back home in two weeks, we can finalize exactly how this help will be offered.

The Newsday people are starting to take LA calls under the watchful eye of the LA people. I don't think they got many. Yesterday and today is the last day for many people at The Times. Right Sizing. Re-engineering. Gleefully dancing off the shipping. I still have 5 months. But I digress. I don't know what the IBM guys have in store for the LA team to learn the Newsday team material. Actually, they have had several classes, but have taken no calls. I know the clever folk of Bangalore will figure it out. They want to move to a 24 x 7 schedule for these two teams combined, but the US team wants more experience on both sides before they let that happen.

We are planning an excursion this weekend. We're finally going to Coorg. This is another hill town, but this time they grow coffee instead of the tea grown in Ooty. And honey. We don't get Ramesh this time because we have lots of people in the group. Nancy and Laura, of course, and Chandan with his girlfriend, Divya. Ramesh's boss has arranged an outing for us on Saturday night to go to a place that features local dancing and singing. Can't wait to write what that is about. Then on Sunday we go to Mysore and I may FINALLY get to see the lights on the palace.

Ramesh says I won't be able to do it. I told him I am fitter and can walk further. But he says I will have to cross a street, two of them. I'm still petrified of the traffic here. We will see how brave I get. Nancy has crossed the busy street in front of the Forum. I'm not sure if she is brave or crazy. I've asked her not to do that anymore. So has her relatives. The traffic is bad, but the sidewalks in Bangalore are trecherous.

If KJ and Sophie are still reading this blog, I want you to know that Nancy locked herself out on her balcony. I was in the apartment so it wasn't tragic. But really, ladies! This is getting old.