Another very busy two workweeks – both professionally and personally (and not fun personally). Had one day off and found a great meetup group with professionally guided hikes.
I was out to dinner at local pub when the owner asked me to speak some ladies regarding Trump. Very nice grandmothers who have their book club in back room of pub. The discussion quickly varied to “why does the UK need to import an American to work at the waste station”. I said I was a recycling expert not a waste person. I sort the recycling by visually identifying the different types of metallurgy and placing into the appropriate bin and no one in England qualified. Three laughed while one was like “are you serious Clark?” and went on to bemoan the loss of English technological leadership. She left and we (with the ones who suspected I bs’ing them) started discussing the quality of the Thai food and Korean food in the town. She came back right as I noted I lived in Korea – and she said “they can’t sort their own waste either?”
Hiking to Arundel Castle
The hike was great 9 miles through a national park, getting off at a one stop and hiking to next stop at Arundel (pronounced Air ran dell not Ah run del). Not sure why the English changed it. Very friendly people – either Expats to UK or UK citizens that had lived outside the UK. But off to a rough start on a couple of conversation-
A guy said he was a labor lawyer – so I asked “Why is so hard to fire people here?” He response was “No one should ever fired – I am a leading activist for developing stronger labor rights”. While another person was interested in renewable energy and I told them it is not economical compared to natural gas and UK should start fracking….she said she was in Greenpeace and protested often at fracking hearings. But had a pint with both of them at our stops….ok to disagree. 3 pubs in 9 miles not really a pub crawl.
Looking forward to meeting Sharon for weekend – original plan was to meet a friend in Madrid but then I had a work meeting in Vienna so rescheduled – not glamorous a pain. In Vienna – hotel and office in same building – so never stepped outside.
From Week 155-156. Posted by JC Travels on 1/13/2017 (8 items)
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