Family is here!

After waiting weeks and weeks, the family is now all here living together! I used an app called Airport All to track their flight, so I easily knew when they landed (which was 20 minutes early!). I anxiously awaited their arrival at the International Arrivals area and sure enough they all came out with big smiles on their faces. 

They brought 9 bags. A nice airport employee pushed a cart of bags for them. He wasn't interested in stopping for our hugs and kisses, so he plowed through the crowd and took the bags another 30 meters, which was fine.

9 bags don't really fit in a small European car, so we jammed them in, to include multiple bags in our laps. After a short drive, we arrived "home". I had handwritten "Welcome Home" notes, plus I blew up balloons and filled the house with stuff. The kitchen was fully stocked and each of their beds had the welcome note along with fresh chocolate from Belgium as well as other toys and candies. I also put their tickets to Buckingham Palace as well as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory near their pillows. They were very excited about everything, in fact they've been sleeping a long time, probably due to all the excitement :)

Our internet connection doesn't start for a few more days so we might be a little quiet online until then.

Very excited to officially start this unique opportunity of a lifetime together as a family!

Start on the right foot

I met the neighbor tonight. The landlord had told me her name, we'll call her Jane Doe. I said "hi, are you Jane", she responded very politely with "yes, I'm Mrs Doe". I'm worried I offended her by not using her last name :( Sounds like I'll have a bit of relationship building to do and I'm a little embarrassed that it didn't even cross my mind to use a more polite introduction.

Moving into a house and dinner with friends

We had a great walk through today and I'll be moving into a house very soon! It's on the west side of London and it'll be great.

David Gurteen and I had dinner together tonight. He's an all time pro in KM and it's such an honor to chat with him about KM and life for hours. We're thinking about doing some work together, but for the most part, it's just so fun to chat.

Brugge

[photos coming soon]

I started the day in Brussels, where I visited the Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula. It was different because the center of the church wasn't as grandiose as most cathedrals, but the walls and decorations were some of the nicest I've seen anywhere. There's a beautiful organ hoisted on a side wall high above the audience. There's a "treasure" area where you pay €1 to look at nice gifts that have been donated to the church.

I had plenty of time before the ferry left, so I drove up to a town called Brugge (or Bruges). Many people recommended it and now I understand why. It's known as the "Venice of the north" due to it's stunning waterways and bridges. 

I drove around the cobblestone streets downtown looking for a parking spot and enjoying the view. I found a spot in the center of town and I jumped straight onto a boat tour. The captain was very funny and told his jokes/stories in 3 languages. I think he knew even more languages, but he stuck with 3 because he asked every person which language they'd prefer.

After the boat ride, and almost 1000 pictures, I walked to the central market, known as Grote Markt. It's a large European center area surrounded by colorful houses and a huge bell tower. The center has outdoor cafés all the way around the inside circle. I read the menu of every place and chose one that specialized in Flemish beef stew. It was good.

I stared at the bell tower while I ate, so when I finished, I felt compelled to go up the tower. 366 stairs later, I was at the top. The view was amazing of course. It's a working bell tower, so sure enough, I enjoyed the serenade at 4 pm. It was loud, but maybe not as loud as you might imagine. (Have you seen the episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike Rowe cleans a bell, it's hilarious, you should search YouTube for it)

It's a circular staircase to get to the top. The stairs are very narrow. "Traffic jams" of people form every few steps. It's easy to meet the people in front of you and behind you because you're all giggling at how crazy it is to climb these steps. There are 3 platforms along the way where you can stop and catch your breath, but of course thats where you find the biggest traffic jams. At one point, we heard a little girl ahead of us yell "go go go", which we all thought was very funny. I guess she saw an opening and was tired of waiting. 

I jumped in the car and drove back to the dock in Calais, France. I felt quite relaxed after enjoying a great weekend in Belgium.

Oh, I bought gas in France. It's a little tricky because you pre-pay at a machine off to the side, then pump your gas. I hope I did it correctly. 

I've started a list of personal and professional things that I've learned on this trip so far. Let me know if you might be interested in hearing that list someday.

How to do Brussels in a day

[photos coming soon]

Place du Grand Sablon

I started the day aiming for a place called Place du Grand Sablon. It's an outdoor market, plus it's where most of the very best Belgian chocolate shops are located. The names of the shops are Mercolini, Neuhaus, Godiva, Wittamer, Leonidas, Passion and several others. I bought macarons at Mercolini and I bought individual pieces at Wittamer.

Musical Instruments Museum

Being somewhat of a musician, I was excited to head over to the "MIM", which is the Musical Instruments Museum. The first thing you notice is that the building and the view outside are awesome. When you go inside, you learn that it's a 10 story building where 4 floors are open and ready. They recommend you start at the top and work your way down. The top floor is a restaurant with a fantastic view of Brussels. The 4th floor is mostly dedicated to saxophones, but actually there's quite a bit of brass there. I learned that the guy that created the sax (his surname was Sax) had pulmonary problems. In fact, most of his family died at a young age due to their problems. He not only created the sax, he custom created many other instruments. He received many patents for his inventions. He lived into his 80s, so they say that music literally saved his life and he said he created those instruments to help others live longer and happier too.

Second floor was string instruments, so I skipped that. Just kidding. It was cool, I liked the old guitars and this was where I realized the incredible professional design of the museum. A few instruments were out in the open, not that you could touch them, but they were right there. The audio guide you carry around automatically played a song using the instrument you were standing closest to - very cool. The bottom floor was pianos and again it was great to see how pianos truly used to be beautiful pieces of art. I suppose they still are, but they've changed a lot. 

Similar to the British Museum, this museum inspired me to realize that tremendous change and improvement really does happen. Even in relatively short periods of time.

As you wander the streets of Brussels, you can't help but smell the sweet aroma of fresh waffles, then notice a trace of chocolate in the air.

Natural History Museum

I stopped by the Natural history museum, but you can skip that unless you have kids under 10 years old with you. 

Metro

I took my first ride on a Brussels metro to get to a place called Atomium. The escalators start moving when step on the first step, which makes sense from a power conservation perspective, but it's a little startling the first time you see it. Inside the station, there's a map hung overhead. Each station on the map has a light beneath it that lights up if a train is currently at that station. That's a kinda cool way to give you a heads up about upcoming trains. 

Atomium

Atomium is 9 huge spheres connected by bars, all in the shape of an atomic structure. The structure tops at 100 meters high. You get to go in a few spheres, then take a lift to the top. One sphere isn't open to public, it's full of mini spheres. The mini spheres are beds for kids and that sphere is designed for a class to come and study science, and spend the night, nice! There's a tremendous 360 degree view of Brussels from the top sphere.

Dinner - Nuetnigenoigh (noot ee nuff)

I checked my phone for a place to eat dinner. The people on the yelp app recommended a Belgium pub called nuetnigenoigh, and a dish called boulettes de veau a la gantoise. I don't know how to pronounce that, but I can tell you it's veal meatballs in a white beer sauce. Here's to crowd sourcing because it was awesome. It was so good that an older couple next to me spoke English and asked if they could take a picture of my food because they had heard it was good too. Then another American couple jumped in the conversation too. There were only 6 tables in the pub, so it became a whole pub conversation about beer and food. Good times.

Waffles for dessert

I ran over to a chocolatier called Frederic Blondeel at 630 for a Belgian waffle dessert, but apparently they had just closed. I knew another place called Dandoy was great, so I looked it up on google maps. They were also closing soon, so I rushed over. The one I went to didn't serve waffles, only biscuits. The woman behind the counter said wait, I'm heading to the other one now, I'll take you. So she did and I helped her carry the stuff she was taking. I got there and ordered waffles with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce. I started to pay and the cashier said nope it's on us, nice! I then saw him smile at the woman I had helped.

Mannekin Pis

Mannekin Pis is one block over from Dandoy, so I stopped there. Wow it's small! No, not that. The whole statue. I expected some 6 foot thing and it's literally less that 2 feet tall. It's blocked by an iron gate and it looks like a little doll on top of a cool platform. Yes it really does piss! I hear there's a female version somewhere close by, but no one really goes to that, so I guess I'll skip it too.

Live jazz at Grand Place

I ended the night at a central area called Grand Place. It's a classically beautiful European city center, with a large open area surrounded by beautiful cathedrals and gothic buildings. I was lucky to see a live jazz concert where I sat, relaxed and typed this up. The concert is ending now, so I'm heading back.

Let's do Brussels!

I moved into a different flat for a few days while the house gets ready. I spent one night there and then jumped in the car to drive to Brussels for the 3 day weekend. 

Did you know that there are European rules for items that you must carry in your car? One required item is a "red triangle" that's basically a little popup road sign in case you break down. You have to carry two breathalyzers and you have to put stickers over your xenon headlights. You have to carry backup headlights and a fluorescent yellow jacket. Then, if you're in a rental car (eg hire car) like me, you have to pay for your car to get a "green card". That card allows the car to travel around Europe.

Before moving to London, I thought the English Channel had a tunnel that you could simply drive through. After some googling, I'm pretty sure that doesn't exist. There is a tunnel, but it's serviced by trains and shuttles which can take you and your car. I found the ferries to be much cheaper, so I opted for that. It's about a 90 minute ferry ride. The one I took had two decks, like a cruise ship, where you could eat, shop or play games. 

I was warned that driving and parking in Brussels might be difficult. I spent quite some time looking up garages and preparing for an easy parking spot. The garage I found online was closed when I got there! I drove around Brussels and stumbled upon a garage that a good friend had recommended. I hope it's ok to leave my car there for three days. 

Dutch and French are the main languages here. There's some English and German too. I've mostly seen and heard French. Sortie means exit and nord means north, I picked up on those words very quickly. 

As I was walking around, I heard about a tragic shooting in Brussels. I looked on my map and sure enough it was 2 blocks from where I was walking. It happened two hours before I arrived. I walked by the area on my way to the chocolate place called Neuhaus. There were many people standing around, including police and news crews. My understanding is that Brussels is safe, so this event is shocking and sad.

For dinner I popped into the first shop that looked crowded. I often like to trust the local crowd for good ideas. The menu was in French, so I used google to lookup each word. Their speciality seemed to be salad so I ordered an apple bacon salad. It was amazing! While I was eating, I started a conversation on twitter and several people chimed in, so that was nice. The restaurant was playing American music from the 90s, so that added a nice touch. 

Big day planned tomorrow, off to bed...

Business Travel

I'm back from business travel, but about to head out for more. For now, I just have a few quick updates. Words of the day - crikey and blimey. I think we've heard them before in the US, so we know they're like "oh heck", or something, but they do say it quite a bit over here. 

Apparently there's something called a Haynes manual or something like that. It seems as though everyone knows what it is. It's a guidebook for fixing your car, I think?I haven't googled it yet. When people refer to it, they seem to be referencing it in the same way we would reference turbotax. In other words, it's a good way to design something that's easy to use (and makes a complicated task much easier to do)

I'm off to a coworkers house for dinner. Such a nice, thoughtful way to make people feel included. I think we should host a lot more dinner parties in the future.

Andrassy Race and Budapest Wrapup

Race on Andrassy

There were still a few hours until my flight so I walked up and down Andrassy. I started to notice police and police tape, and I could tell a race or parade was about to happen. 

A pace car started down the road and the time read 20:22 with one woman running behind the car. I assumed it would end at Heros Square, so I walked that way.

I noticed woman after woman runner, so it appears to have been an all female race. All the signs were in Hungarian so I pulled up google translate to learn what they said. 

Most of the women had red shirts that said "a futas boldogsag", which Google says means "happiness, the running". A prominent sign said higgy magadban, which means "believe in yourself". Www.Futanet.hu was the website but it wasn't easy to translate the whole site on my phone.

During the race, there were four guys waking next to me. One of the guys dove to push his friend. Then all the guys looked down at the ground; he had pushed his friend away from stepping in a huge fresh pile of poop. The friends gave each other high fives, laughed and moved on.

I stopped in a pub for lunch. There's a lot of paprika, Greek, Italian and Chinese in the city. The pub was showing handball on one screen and soccer on another. I got a spicy pizza since it seemed to be the special there, very nice.

So if I'm honest, I came to Budapest a little ignorant and a little nervous. I left Budapest feeling humbled and respectful of all they've accomplished. The polarities of Buda and Pest are fascinating. It's an honor to walk their streets, meet their people, try their food, and experience the future happening right now.

House of Terror, a can't miss site

Since I did so much yesterday, today's plan consisted of one thing: House of Terror.

House of Terror

I wasn't sure what to expect, other than a museum that explains the history of Hungary. The museum is on Andrassy ut and it has an unmissable outside entrance where they've created a cutout of the word "terror" that sticks out over the street from the roof. When the sun shines through the cutout, it prints "terror" on the building. I paid for the audio guide and they handed me a mini iPad (and headphones) with a cool app on it.

No photos are allowed inside, so here's the story as I saw and heard:

After World War I, Hungary was surrounded by Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. Hitler started to come in to Hungary and Russia did as well. Some people wanted Russian rule, but a huge majority wanted their own democracy. An election was held in 1945 and democracy won. The communists even had fake ballots and still didn't win. It didn't matter because the government said communists had to be involved, so Hungary was essentially communist. 

A central dictatorship wasn't working, there were food shortages and many other problems. There was rampant discrimination, kids were trained to be communists, even songs and holidays were changed.

People felt they had to whisper to talk and terror was in full effect. Religion was banned, and the government asked for reports where family members reported on each other for acting against the government. People hid weapons to be prepared to fight and 1000s were killed by the government for doing for doing that and other acts of sabotage. Many people were deported if they weren't killed.

The government forced people to farm the land. The government took most of the crop and only excess above the quota could be sold by the farmer. 

They say mail was controlled and spied on. Propaganda was everywhere, bright colors and positive communist messages on radio, news, posters, etc. Religion was banned and replaced by all-knowing leaders. Faith was punished as a crime. 

I'm walking through room after room of professionally designed layout that really makes you see and feel what it felt like during these times. Here's where it got intense...

They pack an elevator shoulder to shoulder. It goes down to the basement very very slowly while playing a video of a man describing how people were killed on Andrassy ut. Since we're packed in there, it heats up quickly with body heat, let alone the message we're hearing and experiencing. 

It was then that I realized this is 60 Andrassy ut. This is the government building and jail where it all happened.

Then you're in the prison, the basement of the building. There are concrete tiny rooms, one room barely fit my shoulders, they said it was 60x57cm. There were 2 light bulbs at eye level and water at your feet. This cell was found in the year 2000. 

Students led a change in the 50s, 1956 was their revolutionary war. The photos and videos were very sad, pure ruin, bridges under water, lots of dead people.

The museum rooms were beautiful. Especially the "room of tears", which was a dark room with thousands of backlit names on 4 walls around the room. There were tiny led lights on top of black sticks to represent candles and lives.

1989 is when the last soviet advisors left. 1991 soviet troops were gone. This museum opened on Feb 25, 2002.

I left the building with several tears beading up.

Walking outside, the street felt different, in fact the world felt a little different. So many parallels to things that still happen today, whether in politics or somewhat in business (in a much different way of course). 

Things felt a little different

As I think about it, there wasn't a happy ending, more like a cautious, "and that's where we are now". 

Buda and Pest

Central Market

Central Market is a short walk from the piers, so that's next. It's a big market. First floor is all fresh vegetables, and lots of paprika and chilis. Second floor is knick knacks and clothes. I got some stuff and tried to negotiate, but the lady laughed at me, maybe I'm terrible or it's not negotiable. I said hello in Hungarian?! :)

Lunch is there, I had veal schnitzel and grilled veggies. Which I'm pretty sure is German, not Hungarian, but I tried. 

Ok, now you go across a bridge and hike up Gellert Hill. Gellert was killed there a long time ago. It's a pretty steep climb, so you know the views will be great. There's a Statue of Liberty at the top and sure enough, the views are spectacular. In fact, there was a wedding being held at the top of the hill. I'm still not sure how she got up there in that dress? 

Gellert Hill

Now walk to the huge Buda castle, which is also on the Buda side. Evetytingbis pretty much on the water, but it takes a little maneuvering around small streets. It costs money (forint) to go up the lift, so I paid and got up there fast. There's a whole little city up there in the castle. And it's a museum now too. Great views. Photos coming...

In planning, I thought that would be all the time I had, but nope, there was still time! So I walked to Fishermans Bastian, which is just a little further up the river on the Buda side. It's another cool town in a castle type setting. And guess what, another wedding! This one had a live singer belting out from the top of the castle, pretty awesome. Amazing views up there too. 

Then I walked across chain bridge, which was the first bridge to connect Buda and Pest. There's a KM statue right there, we'll pretend it's for knowledge mgmt.

Chain Bridge

Now walk up Andrassy ut (street) to Heros Sqaure. Andrassy is the big, expensive shopping district. So fancy that Jude Law was right there filming "Spy" with about 20 tractor trailers, no exaggeration. I didn't see him though. 

Heros Square is a wide open space with fancy statues in it. Photos soon.

That's where I ran into the Nats couple again, cool. They were looking for metro and I had just seen it, so it felt good to chat and help them.

I ended the day with a public thermal bath because they're famous here, I think I heard there are more than 70 or something. I did one at night with a dj and laser lights and all, but I was pretty old for the crowd so I left really early. Still fun to see it. 

I rode the metro back, which is always fun in a different city. I had to pay extra attention because everything on the metro is in Hungarian. And there's not much use of credit cards here, so it's very helpful to have forint. 

How to do Budapest in one day

First, let's start with a quick history lesson, it's important. In BC, it was Celtic. In the 1st Century it was Roman. Seriously, this is 1000s of years ago. In the 5th Century, Attila the Hun built the city for himself. Starting in the 11th Century, important people are killed and things are named and built for them. Keep in mind that the. Danube River runs through Budapest and until 1873, Buda and Pest were on opposite sides of the river and separate cities. 1873, that's not that long ago (especially when we're talking thousands of years of history)! Several wars happened from 1873 until the 1960s when everything basically calmed down. In European terms, this is a pretty new city. 

Pest is pronounced Pescht and it's the "party side". Buda is the calm side (forests, parks, etc). There's some English spoken here, but it's pretty broken, so it helps to learn how to say hello, thank you, sorry, how are you, one, two, etc. "Szia, hogy van" is hello, how are you in Hungarian. It sounds like "see ya, hoagie bahn".

I researched and researched what to do here. Luckily, it's all walking distance right in the city center. I mapped out a path and here's what it was...

Inside St. Stephen's Basilica

Start with St. Stephens Basilica (and chapel). It's amazing and it's only 110 years old. It's stands in a small city square with a shopping district.

Then walk to a pier to pickup a boat ride on the Danube. This was the highlight of my day. 90 minutes up and down the Danube and you can basically see everything. Buda is hilly, Pest is a fun city.

On the walk to the pier I saw guys playing basketball, which I though was cool. But I was also approached by a guy who was pretty pushy and wanted me to buy an iPhone. It took me a minute to move past that.

As I walked, I couldn't help but notice the beautiful architecture. Great scale, about 4-6 stories everywhere you look, and a nice mix between types of buildings. The sounds of people chatting and the smells of paprika and cinnamon fill the air. 

Back to the cruise, I'll post a few photos right here soon and explain them. Gellert Hill, Buda Castle, Houses of Parliament, Margaret Island, Chain Bridge, Statue of Liberty, etc.

As I got off the boat, a couple with Nats hats got on! A simple "go nats" turned into a nice conversation :) I also saw an Orioles photo posted in Budapest, how random is that. 

Alright I'm just getting started and this is already too long, more info in next post...

I'm in Budapest!

I'm taking what the English call a "holiday" and visiting Budapest for the weekend. The airport was interesting because everyone waits in a central area (for all flights), then at the last minute they announce the gate and you make your way to that gate. While I waited, I was able to get forint, which is Hungarian money. I also picked up power adapters because most of Europe uses the two round prongs as opposed to the 3 flat British ones (or the two flat Anerican ones). 

The flight was perfect, then we landed and waited in line (queue) for customs. The guy next to me thought I tried to cut in front of him and he said something like "you know there's one line here, we're all going to the same place". I did a quick personality assessment in my head and decided to respond with "go ahead, it's all yours" with a bit of a stern look on my face. It worked, and he moved ahead quietly. Funny how I would have used different words for different personalities. I happen to catch a glimpse of his passport as he moved ahead and he was from the US! 

Then it was time to find my ride. I had booked a shuttle on the internet and someone was supposed to be standing there with a sign with my name and the (shuttle) company logo. Sure enough, he was there but it was a shared shuttle so we had to wait for a few other people. Then one group cane with about 8 ppl so he had I had to switch to another driver (in broken English). Well I wasn't too comfortable, so I negotiated but when the other driver came up and had the same logo tshirt and spoke great English, I felt better. It worked out perfect and he took me straight there. 

Well, almost perfect. I got to the door and it said hostel, which surprised me, but I went in. No one was there, so I called the number I had. My phone wouldn't connect, but as I started to think of plan b, I received a text saying. "Are you here". So I responded and the guy was at the front door. Oh, there were two other people that walked up and tried to help me a little too, that was very nice. I walked out front to meet the guy and he took me back in the same door, but down a different hallway. By the way, all the lights are off in the hallways, so you have to know where the switches are. 

He took me to his apartment! He rents it out and it's beautiful. It's right downton, in a great area. He gave me a little tour and some helpful tips, he was great. Sure there's noise on the street, but it's all good. 

It was late, so I went straight to bed as planned.

I'll post photos as soon as I get back to London.

Pram, Camden Town, and a Train Pass

A pram is a stroller, or a push chair. It's just like what they used in Mary Poppins. And a brolly is an umbrella, but I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that before.

Have I mentioned that there are fire doors everywhere? Almost every room you go into has it's own locking door. Living rooms, hallways, etc. They do a really nice job of writing "push" or "pull" by almost every handle.

I started my night in Camden Town. Such a cool place, there were a few concerts about to start and two street bands were performing. I was looking for a specific gift for the family, but I couldn't find it. My plan was to pickup the gift, then to head over to Paddington to see the bear and Little Venice. But the sun started to set, so I headed back home instead.

I had bought a one month train pass thinking it was a good value. Today was the last day on that pass. It turns out that I would have had to come into London almost every day to break even. I came in a lot, but not that much, so I think I'll just be buying daily passes from now on. It felt like it was "free" to jump on the train, so now it'll be slightly painful to buy a ticket each time, but I'll tell myself that I'm saving money from not buying a one-month pass. 

Big weekend coming up, looking forward to it! 

Olympic Park

I visited Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park tonight. It's on the east side of town and a bit of a trek to get there. The energy of the Olympics is still there, but wow it's a relatively spacious, barren area now. There's a park, there's all the olympic stadiums, there's the crazy statue thing, and there's a nice little town area. The town looks like a London town but it's so new. The design is very London, but the buildings and the walkways are very different materials from the rest of London. I saw a sign that the park recently opened on April 5, so if I'm reading it correctly, it's brand new.

The phrase of the day is "isn't it". Brits often end their sentences as a question, so it's easy to tack on "isn't it" at the end (kinda like "ya know" or "know what I'm sayin"). In the accent it's pronounced "id'n it". Makes for a nice informal feeling.

Meeting experts

We'll start with the word of the day "quid". Its basically another way to say "buck", like "dollar". Its usually relatively slang, so its something like "can you believe they spent 50 quid on that". I think it comes from quid pro quo, but not quite sure.

I was lucky to get some time with Lee Bryant tonight. He's the founder of a company called Post Shift. They're helping companies re-think how they organize and operate. He taught me about an org model known as Jitter Jewel (or something like that), which I'll have to look up. He talked about holacracy as a nice org model.  Then he talked about a book called organize for complexity and he referred to a model called betacodex. Such a great conversation and I look forward to keeping in touch!

1000 visitors, thanks!

Google tells me that over 1000 people have visited this blog, thanks for checking it out! I hope its interesting and valuable. I realize that my writing skills need help, so maybe I'm slowly getting better. To be more technical, its actually 1000 devices that have visited the blog, so if you've used a couple laptops or phones, then that counts as a separate visitor. We'll count it, thanks!

Heavy work day today, so all I have is a quick story. Several times today I heard "we can do a quick rag" or "we can rag this" and it took me a second to realize that means Red, Amber, Green - as opposed to the red, yellow, green type of status that we might provide in America.

Speaking of red amber green, did you know that English stoplights turn yellow/amber before they turn green? Wonder if that would change the behavior of people honking at green lights when they want the person in front of them to take off like a drag race?

In case I haven't mentioned, all the photos are over at Instagram/klowey22

Help one another

I helped four different people today. One older woman ran and then jumped on to a train. I jumped up and gave her my seat, such a simple thing, but she was quite thankful. Later, a young guy near Tower Bridge was looking for London Bridge, I didn't even need my phone and I was able to help point him in the right direction. Which is similar to my third experience where a young woman was looking for a specific tube station. She was about 3 blocks away and it was easy to show her on my phone how to get there. In all three instances, I had my situational awareness hat on and I noticed people around me smile as I helped. I think it's in the air. Oh, the fourth person was actually two people. They were trying to take a selfie of Big Ben and the Eye, I asked if they'd like me to take it and again they were so thankful. I guess I've come a long way from being the lost boy with a strangle hold on my phone for help.

There was a lot of tube track maintenance today. I walked for an hour to get to the Tower of London. I arrived 3 minutes before a tour started by pure luck. The tour guide was great. He told many stories and had a great British sense of humor. I especially enjoyed the Crown Jewels and the White Tower. The tower has ancient weapons and gear used to protect the tower.

Entrance to Crown Jewels inside Tower of London

During my long walk, I touched the Monument for the first time. The monument marks where they think the tragic and devastating fire of 1666 started. It's similar to the Washington monument in that you can climb to the top and get a great view, but I didn't climb up today.

World book day? I saw one sign that talked about world book day and I think that's the event everyone is dressed up for! Let me google it...

I finished the day at Trafalgar Square with a free London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) concert. I was an hour early so I walked right up to the front row. I met the guy next to me, he had come down from Scotland just for the concert. Nice guy, retired and traveling after losing his wife to cancer 3 years ago.

As soon as the concert started the crowd chanted "sit down" because the whole front row was standing up. I sat down but most others didn't :( It caused quite a little tension. The tension sparked after the first song, a group of anti-Putin protestors jumped up waving Ukraine flags and booing the Russian soloist :( Security handled it quickly and the crowd cheered as the protestors were literally dragged off. I was about 5 feet from them and on high alert. My quick observation was that they weren't violent and I was lucky to be right.

Romeo and Juliet was the closing piece and it was captivating. Most of the front row had sat down and peace had been restored. I loved it.

What a series of fleeting moments.

Time. Living in the past, present and future

The concept of "time" blows my mind. We live in fleeting moments that we call the present. These moments blur into the past and the future.

I began my day at Wimbledon. I have childhood memories of watching the Wimbledon championships with my parents and brothers. At a young age it's hard to grasp the game itself, let alone how quickly it changes over time.  

The Wimbledon museum brought back many fond memories. It helped me see how much the game has changed, even in my short lifetime. Due to visiting Wimbledon and the British Museum, I'm gaining a new hope that knowledge management will eventually morph into "how successful businesses are run". Or maybe it won't, and that will be ok too I suppose.

Wimbledon

The tour guide at Wimbledon explained that "Wimbledon" is the name of the area, not the name of the club. The club is private and it's called the "All England Lawn Tennis Club". The tourney started in 1877 when one of their tools broke and they needed to fix it. They could have asked for money from members, or the club owner could have paid to fix it, but someone had the brilliant (strange?) idea to start a little tournament to raise funds to fix the broken tool. The rest is history, it's now one of the most popular tournaments on the planet. It's certainly paid for that broken roller. From a business perspective, this sounds almost like gamification to me, and again, I tie it to km and wonder, what kind of tourney or game would help businesses?

The other piece I remember is a single quote. As the final two competitors enter on to centre court for the final battle, the last words they see before entering the court are "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same..." (from the poem "if"). What a powerful mental model to take onto the court - ie, both of you are winners, one will lose today, but move beyond that "distraction" and get back up trying with a good attitude.

That's only the first third of my day, so I'll post the rest if the day separately. 

Catch that train!

High speed trains leave on the hour and the half hour (in some places). If you miss it, another comes in 15 minutes, but it will take you twice as long to get there. This morning, I had to run to catch the fast train. I made it and then we ran into track delays anyway. No big deal, I enjoyed the ride and yet again I noticed several instances of people helping each other. People that don't even know each other will help carry bags, hold a train door, or several other things. Its really nice.

I also noticed many people dressed up in costumes. The costumes were mostly cartoon characters or custom costumes. There must have been some large event happening, but I don't see much about it on the web. "Timeout" is probably the best website to get info like that and I don't see much about it there either. 

Science Museum

I started the day at the Science Museum. I was hoping for hands-on activities, but there weren't very many. I was hoping for a nice balance of old science versus new science, and I was happily surprised there. I felt very old looking at computers in a museum that I had actually used when I was little, including the first pong game. The highlight was right at the front door and its hard to explain. Its a large circle about 4 stories tall with digital white lines in it. The lines spin around the circle and crash into each other. When you get to the top floor there a large sign that says "dont touch it" and they fully intend for you to touch it. When you do, it causes a loud noise and a minor electric shock. Its fun :)

Natural History Museum

Then I went next door to the History Museum. As you might expect, its full of rocks, bugs, space, human history and several other topics. I enjoyed the 'earthquake room', where you watch a short video and the floor shakes. The room looks like a grocery store, so several items make noise and even fall off the shelves, its quite an experience. The dinosaur room had a very long line, so I skipped it and the live butterfly exhibit came with a cost, so I skipped it. I figure we'll be back with the family to see those later. Oh, I enjoyed the "ant display" a lot. They built a glass enclosed area, about 5 or 6 square feet. The bottom is full of water and there are two circular wooden platforms. The platforms are connected by one stick. One platform has leaves on it and the other platform has an ant colony in a glass case. The ants carry large leaves across the stick and put them in the colony. Pretty fascinating, but I definitely checked my shoes and arms after walking away. :)

Oh, check out this front entrance to the Natural History Museum - great!

I walked one block over to the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. I honestly had no idea what to expect. I was guessing art, but I wasn't sure. There was a short line to get in and it started to rain. While getting wet, I read the V&A sign that said "architecture, ceramics, fashion, furniture, glass, jewelry, painting, etc".  Perfect.

Victoria and Albert Museum

I thought it was a great museum, I enjoyed it, especially the Italian sculpture area. One quote really stuck with me "before world war one, design was global; after world war one, design de-centralized". It  made me wonder if maybe we're heading back towards global design? Do these pendulums swing back and forth over long periods of time?

I looked at the time and it was only 4pm, so I decided to run over to Wimbledon. It took 30 minutes to get there, then I walked their parks for 30 minutes before getting to Centre Court. I should have gone to Centre Court first because I missed the last tour by 9 minutes. I bought a tube of official 2014 Wimbledon tennis balls and came back home.

I was home just in time for Britain's Got Talent. The last act was really good and Simon put them through with the 'magic buzzer', which means they skip the next round and go straight to the live shows. Each judge only gets one magic buzzer for the season, so this was Simon's big move.

Great day, love this place!

Got a house today! We'll be just outside London, close to work and close to the city, very excited.

I went to the British Museum tonight. Fascinating place. So many items from thousands and thousands of years ago. I especially enjoyed the Tennyson quote right as you walk in "and let thy feet, millenniums hence, be set in midst of knowledge". Can always count on Tennyson for km quotes :) 

British Museum

I especially enjoyed the Enlightenment area. All the talk and artifacts of how we began to look at the world differently during that period. I hope there's a museum dedicated to the knowledge age some day :)

It was still early, so it struck me that I hadn't been to Abbey Rd yet, and I do love the Beatles, so I looked it up and it was quite close. Got there and felt cool to walk back and forth, back and forth, right where the boys did. Yup, I was that guy and there were only about 10 of us there doing the same thing.

From there it's a short walk to the Lords Cricket Grounds and Regents Park, so I did both of those as well. Well, the cricket grounds were closed and a guy told me it's an expensive long tour, so I just peeked through the gate.

Abbey Rd

Regents Park was fantastic. Paddle boats for little and big kids, playground, and a walk along the water. Truly reminded me of the duck pond at Virginia Tech, but even larger scale.

Referring back to "out of the norm", the tube broke down on my way home. I had been warned it happens a lot. I ride almost every day and it's only the second time I've experienced it. 

I got out and walked the 30 minutes to Waterloo and I'm glad I did. I saw an amazing beatboxer at Piccadilly and I watched them build a stage at Trafalgar square. I saw a sign that said something about OpenAir concert, LSO. I'll be sure to google it and see what I can find.

Regents Park

Such a great city to just walk around, meet people, eat, browse, study and learn. 

Stories from the field

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to do this, but I sure enjoy inviting myself into conversations on the tube or train. Last night there were two girls and a guy heading into London together. The guy started to look out the window while the girls chatted. At one point they tried to include him, but he had zoned off and didn't hear them. He had quite a serious look on his face so they started to guess what he was thinking about. I offered that he's probably thinking about nothing. They said "no way". He finally "came back" and they asked "what were you just thinking about, looking so serious". He paused for a second, thought about it, and said "nothing". Mhm. We all shared a great laugh.

There's something strangely validating about learning that people are people, no matter where they live or what accent they have. All four of us in that story came from different backgrounds.

While walking across one of the bridges in London, I learned that the Queen was the first to start a walk across this particular bridge. It was a big ceremony. But the bridge started to wobble and they called off the event. Then, they basically used km to crowd source a solution from anyone that had an idea of how to make it less wobbly. Of course the ideas came in droves and they took the best one and fixed it immediately. They still call it the wobbly bridge because of the incident, but I call it yet another km success.

Out of norm

I wonder if part of "experience" is knowing what's "normal" and what's "out of the norm". More than 21 days have passed for me here in London and I'm definitely beginning to understand what's in, and out of the norm. It's a good feeling.

From a business perspective, I think I need to remind myself that km is still out of the norm for most orgs and it just takes time, perseverance and resilience to get there. I'm confident that km is getting better and better.

I'm about to travel out of the UK and I have no doubt that I'll be rushed straight back into the feeling of having-no-idea-what's-normal and what's-not-normal. I'm crazy enough to love that feeling.

Phrase of the day is "table it". In America that means "wait, put it to the side". In England it means "bring it up, let's talk about it". 

I ate at a place called Wagamama last night. I had some kind of lime curry chicken and edamame, it was awesome. No wonder the place is so crowded all the time. And I've heard that wagamama isn't even rated that highly on the curry rankings...

Gardens that Blossom

The gardens are blossoming all over the UK right now, really beautiful. (Garden=yard)

I woke up this morning realizing that my dreams now have British accents in them. Awesome.

We did an extensive house search again today, I've put a few offers out and hopefully one sticks this time. I learned there's a mumsnet.com thats a way for mums (or what we'd call moms) to get together.

Words of the day were pushchair=stroller and lorry=truck (which maybe I've already said?)

I'm starting to look outside of the UK for a bit of travel, where would you recommend?

Hiking Cornwall and an island castle

Today I hiked a trail called the Southwest Coastal. The trail wraps the coast for 300 miles. I started in a town called Lizard. I wasn't sure how much time I would take, but I found a map on the wall of the town store. The map recommended two hikes. One was 90 mins, the other was 3 hours. I decided it do both. 

I walked and walked, mentally prepared for 5 hours. I was the only person on the path for the first few miles. The path went along the coastline on top of tall cliffs. The massive rocks in the ocean were spectacular as the rough seas crashed on to them.

All of a sudden there were about a dozen people around. I had made it to Kynance Cove, a beach rated as one of the most beautiful in the world. 

Kynance Cove

I wandered around the stunning cove and then headed back on the trail to lizard. It had only been about 100 mins! The hike back was 20 mins faster, so all in all it was about a 3 hour hike. It was fantastic and I highly recommend it.

Then I drove over to a place called St Michaels Mount. It's a castle on a small island just off the coast. If you wait for low tide, you can actually walk a path to the castle! I was about 2 hours early for low tide, but it was low enough that people were waiting on the path for the ocean to subside. Standing there waiting with folks was a great way to meet people and share laughs as the ocean would randomly spray and soak us. 

St Michael's Mount

 I had a great conversation with one of the folks right next to me. After awhile, she asked where I lived in the area, I said oh I'm from America. She was shocked and she said I must be picking up the accent :) I did say "LIT tra lee" at one point, maybe that did it. Oh I also said "shall we give it a go", when the water was starting to subside. 

She had no idea what a compliment that was for me. Actually, she does now, because I mentioned it.

The drive back took many hours. The holiday traffic gave me time to try the radio for the first time. The very first commercial I heard was Snoop Dogg doing an ad for a grocery store. 

I'm so thankful for this huge opportunity and I'm looking forward to the family being here soon.

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)

Started off the day talking to a local in Bath who told me that Nicolas Cage and Johnny Depp live in Bath. Thats pretty cool if its true, I'm sure she wasn't making it up.

When you look at UK maps, you see lots of "AONB" marked everywhere. I had been meaning to look it up and somehow I finally stumbled upon it, it stands for Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Most of the places I went today are established as AONB.

First, I started at a place called Black Sands. Its a beach and the windy roads to get there were quite unbelievable. I think my blood pressure shoots through the roof every time I have to drive for miles down a one lane road that is barely paved and completely lined by 6 foot bushes. There is something special though to doing a drive like that then falling into these areas of AONB. Blacksands has these stunning cliffs that fall right into the beach and maybe I was early, but I was the only person there for awhile.

Black Sands Beach

Then, on my way to Salcombe, I stopped at slapton sands beach. I'm so glad I did because I learned thats the beach that US Army and Navy forces practiced their d day invasion for Normandy. There's a memorial there dedicated by the US and its quite amazing to stand there and imagine those practice rounds. Apparently the practice was called Operation Tiger or Exercise Tiger.

Slapton Sands

I finished the drive over to a place called Salcombe. The plan was to walk from Salcombe to Bolt Head, which is about a 60 minute hike. I started the hike and asked a few people how to get there. After talking to some very helpful folks, I realized that every single person I've talked to so far has been not only friendly and smart, they're legitimately willing to stand and talk for as long as you'd like. So refreshing.

I reached bolt head exactly at the 60 minute walk and that was after taking many, many photos along the way. What a stunning walk, it's somewhat secluded but it overlooks the water and its actually pretty popular (several other folks for hiking it today as well).

I started to hike back and I happened to catch a ferry that was leaving. So I jumped on and it was amazing because I got a chance to take photos from the ferry, and meet the captain who told stories about each house and the area.

Since I grabbed a ferry, that gave me time to eat lunch before my parking meter ran out. I had the best fish and chips and mushy peas in Salcombe that I've had so far in the UK. I think I've either built up a tolerance to boiling hot food or I've gotten smarter about talking to people first, before taking your first bites.

The final stop of the day was Bantham beach. Again, an extremely windy, bush-lined road to get there. I made it safely and wow that beach is massive. I don't want to exaggerate but it has to be at least a quarter mile of sand before you even get to the water, amazing. There are cliffs surrounding the beach and there are big houses on top of the cliffs, but just a few houses, not too many. There are pretty large roads at the entrance to the beach too and I noticed lots of families lean up against the rocks. The water is full of surfers and the beach offers surfing lessons. There's a beautiful island out in the water, which makes it captivating to stand there watching surfers, looking at the island, then turning back to see houses on cliffs and the big rocks.

I think we're splitting hairs, Great Britain, I think just about all of the UK is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Balcony and The Stage

In business, we often talk about the 'balcony and the stage'. Its an analogy to "thinking big picture" and "getting the job done". We say its wise to bounce back and forth from the balcony to the stage. I've been coached several times that "I can see the big picture really well, I can see over the horizon, its a rare skill, bring it the forefront". As I walked higher and higher up the Cheddar Gorge, I realized that its more like a blimp view that I enjoy, its different from the balcony or the stage. I bounce into the balcony and the stage because its necessary (and sometimes I enjoy it :) ). For example, as I walked higher and higher, the gorge made more and more sense to me and I enjoyed it more and more.

As I approached the top of Cheddar Gorge, I noticed that the climb was getting easier. The huffing and puffing was at the bottom, but the higher you went, the more beautiful it became. Climbing the 274 steps at the beginning was a challenging, detail oriented, step by step process; whereas hiking up the mudpaths filled with rocks was a creative journey. At the very top, you could see over the horizon and everything changed. This reminded me of how it feels at the beginning of all major projects.

Thinking back, at one point, there were stairs and there was a mud path right next to them. I found myself choosing the mud path more than the stairs because it felt better.  The stairs were a nice guide, but the mud path felt creative and empowering. I think the comparison to work is that the stairs are like competency models and career paths; the mud path is like collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement.

There was a young boy singing (quite loud) as he came up the path. What a beautiful thing. At a young age, it would have been easy to whine or complain during the whole hike, but no, he was leading the pack and bringing everyone along joyfully.

Maybe its best to mostly skip the stairs and take the mud path in life. I'm willing to bet the mud path is where most innovation and improvement has happened. Sing while you're doing it, but be careful to sing with contagious passion as opposed to singing with distracting ego. The short term thinkers might ask "what did you accomplish by thinking so long term?" You might say, I accomplished a journey, I was open to enlightenment, and I found an increasing readiness to help others at any second. As I got into the hiking rhythm, I wasn't thinking about each step, I found myself thinking "who else is around and is there anything I can do to help". The steps fell into place and it felt amazing. I think that might be a key piece of the big picture.

All of a sudden the phrase "you alright?" made a lot more sense.

Stonehenge, Bath and Cheddar Gorge

Yesterday I noticed a friend saluting a bird, so I had to ask why she did that. She said 'dont you know about magpies?' As soon as she said it, I vaguely recalled that word from childhood, but couldn't quite remember. She reminded me of the nursery rhyme and said its old superstition to salute a magpie when you see it. And depending how many you see, it means something different (e.g. one for sorry, two for joy, etc). Fascinating. I wonder how many people in England do this?

Today I went to Stonehenge, the town of Bath and a place called Cheddar Gorge. All 3 were fantastic, better than expected. Stonehenge is like a field of dreams. You kinda know what the rocks look like, but it feels different when you're standing there in the field and see how there's nothing around for miles. There's a long line of cars coming in too, which is just like field of dreams. Apparently the rocks are from 3000 BC, craziness. There were two chinook helicopters flying around too, I wonder if thats common.

Then I drove over to Bath. My gps wasn't picking up a signal too well, so I was doing my best to navigate through road signs. That reminds me that we call it 'sat nav' in English, as opposed to gps or navigation. Other word of the day is 'queue', definitely don't use the word 'line' here, its a dead giveaway that you're not local.

Bath is such a lively city. The smells were appetizing and the sounds were jubilant. There's a University of Bath in town, so its a relatively young crowd. I didn't realize it was so Roman in architecture, which is fascinating to think how far away Rome is. I made it to the Roman Baths and they're a must visit, I didnt realize the brilliant engineering behind the flowing of the hot springs into the bath. I honestly thought it was old stagnant water when I had seen pictures :) I was able to catch a bit of a cricket match at the Bath cricket club, which was cool.

Which leads to the highlight of the day, a place called Cheddar Gorge. It's a deep gorge with extremely steep rock walls and a winding road that has a small town at the bottom. Its 274 stairs to the top and a 2 hour hike around the gorge. I did both which gave me some time to think. I'll talk about this more in the next post.

You alright?

There's a hand dryer in the public bathroom here. It blows really hot air, but it really doesn't dry your hands at all, its strange. I left the bathroom yesterday and the guy next to me said "only in England do we have hand dryers that burn your hands and still keep them wet, special engineering, that Dyson chap might survive". Thats a perfect touch of British humour for you.

KM is going really well. I must say it feels like organizations have passed through the hype curve and "readiness" is on the rise. Maybe I'm spoiled by the folks I meet and talk to, but when I talk about knowledge continuity, talent markets, org network analysis, work out loud, expertise location or even just communities of practice, there's a genuine interest and readiness. Exciting!

We didn't get the house and I learned that's called "being gazumped". I googled it and sure enough its real. Its when someone swoops in and takes a property from you at the last minute. It sounds like no one is happy about it, but it happens. No worries, we'll find another spot.

I was writing an email today (for the house search) and I typed the word "favorites". It underlined the word in red and I thought, what, thats spelled correctly. Oh wait, they spell it favourites, so I autocorrected and sure enough that removed the red line. Funny to think that spell check doesnt know how to spell. (just kidding Brits :) )

We had kit kat and haribo (gummy bears) today in the workshop. Its interesting how different they taste. Makes me wonder if they're made differently here or if its the surroundings...so interesting... I had lots of Cadbury chocolate because that tastes better here and I learned a new chocolate called Kinder which looks like kit kat but is solid chocolate. Love it.

Did you know they talk about "stones" for their weight here? You weigh "9 stones" or "15 stones" or you "just lost a stone". I think a stone is about 12 or 14 pounds, something like that. I'm probably the last to know all of these things :) I think I've said this one before but a pretty common phrase is "you alright?", it means "how are you?", I like it a lot and I'm using it already.