Business Traveller

Today at lunchtime, I went to the ultimate toyshop for computer nerds – Fry's electronics. The place is heaven. I could spend years in there.

On the way out, we ran into a little protest some people were having – near as I can gather, they were upset because the government has said it is going to start arresting illegal immegrants. Anyway, there were a whole lot of cops around.

I've decided that the best way to identify whether you are in a good area or a dodgy area is to look at the cop cars. The area where I am living has shiny, clean cop cars. You can see your reflection in every bit of chrome, and you could eat off the hood (if the cop didn't shoot you for dirtying his car first).

The area where Fry's is has filthy cop cars.

Anyway, on to the point of this story. This cop gets out of his car on a cloudy day wearing his ray bans. It's cold and it's raining – he's wearing a short-sleeved shirt that best shows off his muscles. He turns to look at me, and I swear – it's Sylvester Stalone (with tattoos on his arms)! I really wanted to get a photo of the guy, but he looked like he was just itching to shoot somebody, so I figured that you guys would just have to believe me… 

I was reading this morning about the guy who founded Ikea (since the US stockmarkets recovered, he has been knocked off his perch as the richest man in the world, and now comes in a lowly fourth).

According to the article, he is proud to be frugal, and only flies economy class etc.

Being a guy who travels an awfull lot in business class, and often gets upgraded to first by kind people at the airlines, I can sort-of understand where he is coming from. I try to make a point of doing 1 economy class flight per year (preferably long haul). The reason for this is simple. When you travel in luxury all the time, you get accustomed to it, and it loses all it's magic. By doing this one trip a year, I am reminded how lucky I am the rest of the year, and can enjoy the luxury to the fullest.

Something that I disagree with though is that the guy is genuinely frugal everywhere. Actually, I'd have to say he is tight. My personal view on this is that the rich (especially the super-mega-rich) have a duty to spend their money. Just removing this money from circulation is the ultimate in greed and self-service. They should buy stuff, splurge on luxury items, and have the money circulate back in society. ultimately this will servie their corporate interests also, as the more money that is out there with the people, the more money the people have to spend to keep them going.

So go-one Ikea guy, splurge a little (but remember to appreciate it always).

On Friday, some very nice people in the office kindly offered to take me to their favourite lunch-time haunt.

I got a bad feeling when we arrived there, and the place's name had tomatoes in the name (in my experience this is always a bad sign).

Anyway, we went inside, and I have to say that the place had the most impressive salad buffet I have ever seen. I searched everywhere though, and there wasn't a single sign of any dead animals – not even hidden under a leaf, where it couldn't offend anybody.

I decided to ask the question, in-case they had some under the counter (like some shops do with porn magazines), but there was nothing, so I was forced to eat green stuff – and only green stuff.

The people who took me there noticed I was looking a little strange, so they asked me what was wrong. I explained to them that, in my bit of Africa, it just isn't a meal until something cute and fluffy had to die to make it. I could see that they didn't understand, so I explained to them that – back home – anything that eats green stuff gets eaten by something bigger (or at the very least, a big group of smaller things) – excet for elephants. I told them that the simple act of observing nature for a few years had taught us that – unless you are an elephant – it's best to avoid green stuff. Or at the very least, to ensure that the green stuff is properly supplimented with bits of dead animal.

I then went on to explain the first law of South African cuisine (If it's not meat, and it's not potatoes – it had better be sweet), and they offered me a sea-weed milkshake…

Yup, there it is – the second point of culture shock…

So I’ve been living in California for a week now, and I have to say that there has been very little culture shock. Everybody is friendly and nice, the weather is fantastic if you consider that it’s winter here, and it’s just a beutiful place to be.

 One area of strangeness though… Can anybody tell me why the toilets are 3/4 full of water? I wouldn’t mind, but it’s nearly impossible to finish up without dunking your hand in the water…

For those of you who know me, you’ll know that I’ve been talking allot about how my company is planning to send me to the US for a year.

Well, it’s finally happened. I landed in Californ-I-A on Wednesday 15th, and have been settling in ever since. I’ll write more posts on getting here, and what I’ve been doing soon, but lets just say that the company has given me a convirtable mustang. I call her Sally. I have a sunburned forehead.