Progress report...One Month

I am now going on almost one month of being in the UK.

Here is what I have to show for it:

Work:
The project is moving along at a fast pace. We have been making numerous trips to Plan offices around Europe and will be visiting their main regional and field programs office in Senegal next week. We are sorrounded by information and in about a month or so, have to come up with the answers around Strategy, Governance, Web site redesign, Implementation and the business case for all major requirements. Personally, this project and its compressed timeline has been a challenge; however, this is what consultants do and this is when I am at my best.

Peter (friend) Visits:
It was great to see a familiar face. its really tough to not have your friends and loved ones around you. As they say, words can't describe it, so here are some pictures. This is what we managed to do in the 2-3 days he was here:

Thames river, London eye (didn’t go up), big ben and
parliament, Westminster abbey (went in but not to main section. The nave was
closed), went to Greenwich and went on top of naval observatory and the meridian
line, took ferry back to Westminster on the thames, went to all the major
squares (leister, Piccadilly, Trafalgar, oxford, etc) and also to covent garden,
went into soho at night to check out the redlight area and Chinatown, went to
tower of london and saw crown jewels (amazing, 530 carats … worlds biggest
diamond.), I went to the theater (English broadway) on Thursday night “Mary Poppins”
yes, yes, i know, i know, but still had to see a major play… went to harrods (what an
amazing and huge store), ive also been to nottinghill and portabella road,
also saw Buckingham palace (sucked, nothing big, saw the changing of the gaurds,
but none of the guards at the gate) although we did see the Horse Guards in a
separate place (not at the palace) … and probably some other places I forgot …
oh went to ritz to try to catch some tea but they didn’t let us in because we
had jeans… went to a wicked bar in Parsons green / Fulham – "Pitcher and Piano"
that was packed at 5pm on Sunday!!!! Had a drink called snakebite – wow…
Anyways, this is a pretty good list, im sure I missed some stuff… but you get the picture…

Ok one more thing - the picture with the "stage door." Well, that was us waiting for Mr. Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) to come out of the Theater where he is performing his famous "nude scene" play - Equus! Don't ask.

Travel:
Helsinki, Finland (Work) - Originally scheduled to fly out at 7:30am Monday morning. No problem, get up at about 4:30, check in at 6ish and things are peachy. Nope, not to be, decided the 'friendly' Finair staff who misguided us with false information and closed checkin earlier then standard. Long story short, when a ticket agent heard of our misfortune and the fact that we work for a non-profit organization, she shed a tear and booked us on the next flight about 3 hours later, free of charge. Its nice to be well connected!
We arrived at Helsinki around 4pm at which point we headed straight to the meeting. 2-3 hours for dinner that night, repeat cycle, meetings all day on tuesday, 2-3 hours at night to ourselves and off we went with another 7:30am flight Wednesday morning. The nice folks there had arranged for a Taxi at 5:30am. However, much to our delight, the taxi did not show up and we eventually got a taxi at about 6am. Again, we came close to disaster but luckly made our flight to Oslo.

Oslo, Norway (Work) - We flew in early AM and flew out late afternoon. We did manage to sneak a peak into the city center where we stumbled on to the "Cool American." Can anyone guess who the cool american is? Well, no, its not a person, its a crisp (aka Potato chips) from none other then our friends at Doritos. Thats right, we have a flavor named after us, because contrary to popular European belief, we are COOL! :o)

Dublin, Ireland (GF visits) - Ok, finally had a chance to reconnect with my better half in Dublin for a very short weekend. Uly, if your reading, missing you already! :o(
Nothing special in the city itself, however, it was alive with many tourists from around the world. We had a chance to catch a comedy show at the www.laughterlounge.com - I highly recommend it to anyone going to Dublin and up for a good ol Irish laughing. Make sure you brush up on your listening skills, because some of it could be very hard to understand. We also went to the Dublin Castle (nothing great - but it was here that the English had set up their strong hold), and the Guiness Storehouse. Some of you may be thinking, ahhhh, Guiness, and perhaps even having the urge to stop reading here and going out and grabbing your own.

Hamburg, Germany (Work) - Flying out for a one day stay to gather feedback from the Germans on how they do things at Plan Germany.

Dakar, Senegal (Work) - Next week

A bit of Humor to add laughter to your lives:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NzCg-oKVBk
You need sound, it is generally work safe.
Basically about two friends who are from a small town in England, and moved to the states.

Cheers!

-Houman

British Pound hits a high! Oh great, just what I needed...

British Pound Passes $2 Mark

The U.K. pound topped $2 for the first time since 1992. Meanwhile, the dollar extended its losses against the yen after U.S. inflation data showed core prices, which exclude food and energy costs, rose less than expected last month.


Ouch! This doesn't help at all.

First week Working in Woking

Ahoy from the United Kingdom!

Ok - here is a bit of background:
I have been extremely swamped at work over the last two weeks and to add to the matter, I have no internet access at my apartment (and no phone.) I am cut off from the world! However, i do occasionally get a chance to come to the office during off hours and use internet.

First week in Woking, Surrey (city, county):

Here is the flat (apartment) above. As you can see its pretty nice, so we're very lucky to have a flat like this for the 3 months here on such short notice. However, as I said above, too bad we dont have phone or internet. Another annoyance is the Washer/Dryer, oh my does it suck. I miss my gigantic washer and dryer at home where I could wash all my clothes for a week or two in one or two loads. The ones here are much smaller and could only take in about 5-6 articles of clothing and take 2-3 hours time to wash and dry (in one.) Another thing we're missing is a microwave. Oh how nice it was to have a microwave and be able to pop things in and out comes dinner. Anyways, something unusual is that we have two bathrooms as my roommate and I share the apartment but get to have our own baths, niiice, I like!

Ok on to the town itself, Woking:

Well, the best way to put it is that its almost like old town Alexandria. Small, charming, and most of the stores and entertainment options within a 10 minute walk. Can't complain, apt to work is about a 10-15 minute walk. Grocery store (morrisons) right across from us. Here is a pic of the town center. Woking is about 45 minute (40-50 miles) south west of London. I live and work here so don't really need to go into the city much.

Btw - you may have noticed the metal statue and the plane (unless your blind.) These were put up in honor of HG Wells, the author of the "War of the Worlds". Interstingly enough, Wells lived in Woking in the late 1800s and that is when he wrote the book! I believe that in the book (or movie) the Martians first land in Woking!!!! Also, Woking has the first and oldest Muslim Mosque in all of UK.

Work:

Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP) - www.accenture.com/adp

Summary of what ADP does within Accenture: "Nonprofit organisation that provides high-quality consulting services to donors, non-governmental organisations and other nonprofit entities working in developing countries."

Basically, affordable consulting for non-profits/NGOs that concentrate on doing good in developing countries around the world.

My piece of the pie: Plan International - www.plan-international.org

I work for a non-profit child aid and support organization that helps children around the world with everything from development education to basic needs such as medicine and care.

Plan focuses on five key areas (from the site):

Education - All children, young people and adults deserve access to learning and life skills that enable them to realise their potential
Health - Everyone has the right to grow up healthy
Habitat - Improving living conditions to provide a safe environment for all
Livelihood - Working out ways for families to improve their income
Building relationships - Creating a worldwide community working to improve children's lives

What I do / will do for Plan:

I am here to help Plan with their Global web strategy. They want to increase awareness of their objectives through the rich medium of the web. This will help them with raising awareness, increasing sponsorships, and will make it easier for Plan to get the right information out to their supporters including breaking news and developments around disasters and relief like the recent Tsunami. Time is short (12 weeks), and there is much work to be done. Pressure is on as the work We do here has an impact at a scale greater then just improved efficiency and presense for an organization, it will hopefully trickle down to helping reach Plans goals and objectives aimed at improving the lives of children around the world.

As I explained, its been rather busy here and I havent had much personal time on the web, however, I will try and update this blog as much as possible!

Cheerio!

Cheers,

Houman