I am starting my day with a short item ... but you may look at the time aand think have a funny definition of "start". But I'm in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico - I arrived here yesterday from London, a lunchtime (UK time) flight of over 11 hours to Mexico City, and an ongoing connection to Guadalajara which got me clear of the baggage hall ten minutes shy of midnight (local time) - that is 6 a.m. UK time. A VERY welcome sight as I came through to the public area at the airport was a sign with my name on it, and one of the delegates on the Lua Course that I'll be teaching standing behind it, with his car in the parking structure across the way. I was in the hotel by midnight-30.

I am tempted to write something of a travelogue, but it was frankly something of a standard journey made by countless millions, written up by hundreds, and many of them doing a far more interesting job than I. I suspect it was my longest ever scheduled flight, and the three hour scheduled layover followed by a further hour's flight has left me very glad that I'm taking today 'quiet' - to type, relax, recover. Actually, I took the opportunity of the flight to skim-read a couple of the Lua texts, and I expect I'll be writing up and playing about with some of the ways of presenting certain Lua topics during today. My class will be a record 30 delegates (that's by special negotiation, but can be done!) so I need to be fresh and on the ball.

But I will add that I noted a friendliness of the staff at Mexico City and Guadalajara airports, and at the hotel, which with my customer service hat on I say "we should learn from that" in the UK. As a newcomer who doesn't speak Spanish (project - work out a few common words - later today) I was so open to being treated in the way that I see happen on some occasions in the UK - but actually, here, it was a model. I felt like a welcome visitor even at customs and immigration, and not just someone who had to be processed and was giving them more to do.

What could I see of Guadalajara in the dark, as we drove in? Well - very little, and as ever I'm working so any chance to see the sights / be in the pretty and tourist parts will be be an unexpected bonus. But I did note a dual carriageway we drove down, slip roads and parallel roads off the side to service local businesses, very much in the way that will be familiar to those of you who have driven extensively in the USA - town and city business areas. The businesses were shut and boarded and didn't look at their best (neither did I at midnight) and it was quiet, and went on and on. Looking a hundred yards up the side streets, though, they were lined with cars and trucks (white van / 4wd type not 44 tonners) and very clearly the "strip" was backed by the residences. All very low to the ground; a spread out city, and where the this housing spread up to alongside the main drag, it is very clearly more 'township' than 'suburb'.

It's 7 ... and there will be a breakfast buffet available. Mexicana offered actually quite nice food for us in cattle class yesterday, but in quite small quantities and now that I think about it I didn't really have anything substantial after we had left Irish airspace. Off for brekkies, and I had said "short post" I think!
(written 2009-07-27 12:51:56)

 Z201 - Holidays and Business Trips
  [2469] Beyond the Pale - (2009-10-22)
  [2313] Seeing Guadalajara - a first glimpse downtown - (2009-08-01)
  [2269] Sipping at York - (2009-07-05)
  [2265] A chance to do the tourist thing - (2009-07-01)
  [2208] A beautiful coastline - (2009-05-30)
  [2200] England, Scotland, Northern Ireland - (2009-05-26)
  [2198] On the road, at a Service area thats a cut above the others - (2009-05-25)
  [2101] A B C D of GA and TN - (2009-03-23)
  [2100] Visiting Family - (2009-03-23)
  [2098] A room without a view - (2009-03-22)
  [2090] Melksham to Georgia - (2009-03-19)
  [2030] The final step to being British - (2009-02-07)
  [1868] Liverpool - a friendly city - (2008-11-03)
  [1746] London for the visitor, for free - (2008-08-09)
  [1740] Vertical London - (2008-08-06)
  [1657] Farewell, Newcastle to Stavanger, Haugsund and Bergen - (2008-05-29)
  [1457] A day in Ljubljana - (2007-12-04)
  [1454] From Sunday to Monday, from Melksham to the Balkans - (2007-12-03)
  [1299] In the USA for a few days - (2007-08-11)
  [1293] Weymouth - Sunny Summer Sunday afternoon - (2007-08-07)
  [1291] Day trip to Weymouth - (2007-08-05)
  [1231] Sur le Continent - (2007-06-13)
  [1150] Helsinki - what comes naturally - (2007-04-15)
  [1143] A course in Helsinki - (2007-04-11)
  [1120] 1200 miles in 3 days - (2007-03-28)
  [1025] Tomorrow's keywords - London, Training, Course, PHP, Ruby. - (2007-01-08)
  [1004] Old dog, old tricks - (2006-12-22)
  [878] Easy criteria to meet - (2006-09-25)
  [684] Staying in the country - (2006-04-13)
  [620] Familiar names, close to home - (2006-02-23)
  [548] San Francisco - (2005-12-30)
  [518] Passport office - a much improved system - (2005-12-05)
  [420] Towards Tebay - (2005-08-20)
  [374] Instant availability - (2005-07-11)
  [373] Vik, Iceland to Melksham, England - (2005-07-10)
  [370] From Iceland - (2005-07-06)
  [368] Vacation Week - (2005-07-04)
  [81] Cafe keyboards - (2004-10-10)
  [65] Ireland - (2004-09-27)

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