I’m just packing up to leave the hotel and wanted to get a quick post in before I do. I don’t know how the next 24 hours is going to work.. I take off from here On Friday at 2:30PM and get home at Friday at 10:20 PM .. but I have to go through yesterday to do it.. Or tomorrow.. or something like that.  

It looks like a good day for 20 hours  of flying. .I don’t feel up to doing much else. . I have some sort of stomach/body flu I went to bed with a stomach bug (let’s just leave it at that).. and woke up happily no longer throwing up.. but with a pretty high fever.. I had a conference call at 6:30 this morning.. I’m sure I sounded *great* :-%    With enough water and aspirin in me I should be able to get through the trip OK.

   Gosh.. what to say at the end of such a long and eventful trip ? The cool thing about doing this blog is that I’ve already recorded most of the things I’ve done.. I guess that’s good and bad.. I won’t have much new stuff to tell someone if they’ve been reading along.

At a personal level, this trip has been both long and lonely.. and at the same time it’s been very peaceful and rewarding. I’ve missed my family something fierce.. Thanks to the wonders of email and VOIP phone calls I’ve been able to talk to my family nearly every day.. so that’s helped a bunch. I’ve had more quiet and  thinking   time than I have since Sam died.. and I’m happy  of the way I’ve used the time.. I’m  happy and thankful that I’m  feeling ‘peaceful’ at this point in my life.

   The work part of the trip has been fun. I enjoy being an ambassador of sorts for IBM.   It has been a little tough taking all the late (eg. 2AM) and early (eg. 6AM) calls that it has taken to keep up with my day job at home.I’ve also loved traveling with my friends from the IBM Academy.. When you travel all over with the same folks for as long as we’ve been doing it’s really like family.. we all are getting to know each other’s families, each other’s quirks.. and each others family’s quirks J /  E..g Glenn , Liesel and Leisel’s family have almost adopted me during my stay here.. It’s been so wonderful.  I had dinner over at Liesel’s mom Mary’s house last night and met Mary’s twin sister, and three of her kids and a spouse or two.. It was great ! ..

 

I’ve loved getting to know more about Australia and China..  I’ve been both places before.. but haven’t experienced them as deeply as this trip. In some ways recording the blog makes me want to get out and experience more stuff. I also feel like I’m doing this travel not just for myself but for Sam too.. does that make sense ?

   Australia has been a wonderful place to visit.. sunny, warm and beautiful.. And that’s just the people !.. Actually the people here are so positive and optimistic it might make you queasy if they all weren’t so darn likableI found a quote by Rudyard Kipling on the sidewalk of all places that sums the place up pretty nicely….

 

.. Bill Bryson’s wonderful book ‘In a Sunberned Country’ told me that Australia has more slot machines per cpaita than any other country.. and more types of poisonous snakes.. What’s not to like ? 

I can sum up my feelings as:

     I did feel well enough to walk down to the Opera house one more time this morning and toss my last SamStone into Sydney harbor.. I really find this SamStone thing to be a good way of honoring Sam while I travel..

Well.. It’s getting on time to leave.. I have a whole bunch of stuff to cram into two little bags.  I can’t wait to see my Family.. Sam.. you’re coming with me.

-jc

ps… I just got a picture of my sister and brother-in-law’s new baby John “Jake” Samuel Liddicoat..   Here he his at one minute old !

Yesterday I had a very thoughtful day on the 4 month anniversary of Sam’s death.. Sam was on my mind even more than usual… even so,.. or maybe even because so…  the day passed relatively peacefully for me   At around 6 yesterday afternoon we all went voer to Glenn and Liesel’s for a dinner.. I came back to my room around 11 loaded with stories to put into my blog..  When I sat down to write my blog entry for the day.. I just couldn’t write about my fun evening.. all I could think about was Sam. I had a sad and peaceful night. …( I’m learning that those two moods go pretty well together). I woke up feeling good.. so here are the stories from last night.

 

Last night was really, really fun.. There The 20 of us took a ferry across the harbor then a bus up to Glenn and Liesle’s rented place up in Mosman.  Liesel’s mum Mary and her 17 year old sister Nadia were helping out . Add I Glenn’s kids and there were about 30 of us in all.   It was packed and fun. Liesel had been working all day preparing a huge array of wonderful food.. Lots of yummy spreads, great bread, grilled shrimp, meat-piish things, lamb chops, couscous with chick peas, and lots and lots of Australian wine and Tasmanian beer (very tasty).. For desert she made a Palava which is a meringue shell filled with fruit and whipped cream… it was absolutely delicious.   We had tons of fun telling stories, singing songs and playing with the kids.   I did a few science stunts.. including the standard burning-steel-wool-on-a-coat-hanger trick and the plasma-ball-in-the-microwave trick. The latter worked great until the glass I was using in the microwave blew up with a loud bang.. oooops.   Here are some pictures from the evening.

 

At one point I handed my camera to 4 year old Thomas and asked him to take some pictures.. here they are for you to critique

 

Our senior member (40 years in IBM !!!!)  Karl-Hienz from Germany told a joke which I captured on my camera for your enjoyment.. He’s  a really unique guy…

 

Today passed pretty quickly.. We concluded our meeting in mid afternoon and I walked home. I tried to do a bit of shopping but I really couldn’t get into it. I decided to go back to the hotel and take a run… as I walked I was doing my walking meditation mantra (‘Diane, Max, Sam, Gabe)…   which I always have and still use….  Just as I rounded a corner to cross the street to my hotel I looked down.. I(I was on ‘Sam’ in my Mantra).. and check this out..

One of the rain grates had SMC cut deeply into it by hand.. It was like a jolt.. I went walking around looking at the other grates.. and only that one so far has had this image… Amazing Sam…

 -jc..

 ps. Thanks to everyone who posted to Sam myspace yesterday. We are glad that he is still in your hearts !

Not much to report today… I spent the day in meetings with people I really like.. It’s times like this make me really glad I work for a company like IBM. There are so many different types of people, so many countries, so any interests, so many stories. Yesterday I was in a room with 90 folks from my company and I was the only American. It made me realize what it must feel like working for a predominantly US company and being from another country.. Actually.. I just heard that there are now more folks working for IBM outside of the US than in.. The world is flat.. and so is the beer here. Here are a couple of scenes from my day at work.. not too exciting.. but that’s why they call it work.

We worked until about 6 then walked over to Darling Harbor for dinner… (doesn’t that just sound cute.) I have to confess that I was not in much of a mood to socialize. I find that I often get sad around sunset.. my inclination was to go off an be by myself but I let myself be swept along with the group.. and I’m glad I did. Dinner was really nice.. Again I was surrounded by friends who have been with me at least in spirit since Sam died.. That’s been four months tomorrow.. Simply unbelievable.
I think I mentioned before that I’ve been reading a book Diane gave me called ‘True Love’ by Thich Nhat Hanh.. One of the things it’s teaching me is how to use meditation to channel some of the sadness that comes up over me .. and even some of the anger .. into love for Sam. Myself and my family.. it’s a weird kind of emotional judo.. but it’s getting me through this trip.

After dinner my friend Glenn and I took a long walk through the city back to the ferry he has to catch for home It was really great talking to him again.. we talked about our families, about Sam.. about work.. just a little.. and then more about our families.. I spent a lot of time talking about how my family I doing and how were managing to move forward.. and about the things that are so very hard for us.. There’s not much anyone can say that helps.. but it sure helps when people will listen.. and Glenn is a good listener..

Our walk took us through some parts of Sydney I hadn’t seen yet.. it is such a cool and livable city. Well.. it’s livable to look at but it was really wicked hot tonight.. as hot as a mid summer night in Burlington.. I cease to function over 70 degrees.. so I was like a wet rag by the time I got home . Here are a few more pictures I got of this wonderful city

Ooops. It’s about 1AM and I need to get on a work call. I’m sending out love to my family, frinds and to Sam.. Gnite all

I’m at my friends Glenn and Lisles in Syydney.. nice day here.. I’m using their computer to add pictures from my earlier post.. more on today later tonight.
-jc

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I’m writing write now from somewhere over the pacific ocean… no actually.. I think we’re already over Australia ! . I was sorry to leave Shanghai.. It’s such a cool and lively place. It’s hard getting on a plane that isn’t heading home.

   As I said last night, It’s a 10 hour flight.. it passed incredibly quickly. I fell asleep through the movie ‘Borat’  twice.. I’ll bet I’m the only person who’s ever broke down at that movie.. There’s a scene where Borat is on his knees crying about something… it just triggered something..   Anyway.. I’m looking forward to being back in Australia… Tonight we’re going to see some sort of amazing fireworks display at the 75^th celebration of the Sydney bay bridge.. I’ll let you all know how it goes..

      Well.. back to yesterday. Our last day in Shangahi was great.    I  did a very fast walkabout through the city with my friends Mandy, Takeo-san, Karl-Hienz, Deb and Philipe. We began at the Old Town which is architecturally beautiful if a little touristy. We all did a bit of  shopping for home. At the center of the Old Town is the beautiful YuYu gardens.. They are part of a 400 year old manor house. It was so cool to walk out of one of the worlds biggest cities into a quiet, green oasis. Occasionally you’d get a view of a modern skyscraper peeking over a quiet waterfall or hear a train going by.. but for the most part, it was a different planet.  Here are some pictures of the Old Town and Yu Yu gardens

 

   After the park we went back to the crazy cafeteria again. I had fried square things, fried thing with eyes and tails.. a tentacle thing bigger than my head.. nothing had names.. no one spoke English.. it was ordering blind. It was wild.. What’s even funnier is to see the names of some of the dishes we didn’t get.. (I hope)   Enjoy the food

 

It was just after lunch so we walked across to the French concession. It was the centre of a French colonial presence here for many years. Evidently in the early 20^th century it was called ‘the Paris of the East’. It had nice architecture…full of upscale. Shops and restaurants. It could have been anywhere.. It was not for me.

At that point my friends and I headed back to my hotel. They jumped on a subway and I ran up to the north part of town and got some more fancy multi-color LED’s.. The streets were PACKED on this saturday !

I went back to one of the stalls Hua Pin had helped me negotiate. The same people were there.. but this time, no interpreter ! Then I discovered the ultimate negotiation tool . I complimented their beautiful children.. I got what I was looking for at less that half the price of my first visit. For what it’s worth, the things I bought are less than 25 % of the price  I could buy them in the states.   On the way home I wandered through a market that had mechanical tools, lathes, milling machines, welders… Oh for a bigger shopping bag ! All three of my boys would love this place.  Max and Gabe.. you have got to come here with me sometime.

 I didn’t need to leave the hotel until 5:30 so I took my time getting back to the hotel.. Even so.. I got back there in plenty of time.. or so I thought !.. My cell phone time was still one hour off !!!  We had to jump in a cab for the airport  the moment I got there.

(Not before I put a SamStone in one of the plants in the lobby)

 

I had the cab drop me off at the Shanghai Maglev Train station. This is one of the worlds only 2 trains that instead of ridding on wheels, it floats on a magnetic field created by super cold superconducting magnets.. It makes the 35Km trip from Pudong to the airport in 7 minutes (!)..compared to the hour it took me to drive it last time.  It has a top speed of 430KM/hr  (over 250MPH)/.. but today we only went 300km/hour.. that’s about 190mph.. and it was silent !

 

I got to the airport in plenty of time.. I uploaded my pictures to my laptop.. but didn’t have the bandwidth to upload them to MySpace.  As I was looking at my pictures, I noticed another theme… I call it lost in translation.. For your watching pleasure.. here are a few of my favorite near misses on translation.

 

OK folks.. I think we’re landing soon.  I’m looking forward to meeting up with my friends in Sydney in a couple of hours.. More from there…

I love you all… G’day Diane, Max, Gabe and Sam.

-jc

ps.    This is what I always do right before I check out of a hotel