By mere coincidence, the Loch Ness Monster was caught on video while Kim was doing some travel reporting. Ironically, as she reported her disappointment in not seeing the Monster during our visit, it suddenly appears over her right shoulder peeking its head out of the water. You’ll see its lazy movements as it raises its head out of the water a few times and then disappears into the dark waters of the loch. We are negotiating with National Geographic now for the copyrights. Loch Ness Monster “The term "monster" was reportedly coined on 2 May 1933 by Alex Campbell, the [View Full Entry]

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The Isle of Skye is a magical place. It is amazingly under populated and the scenery is rugged and unforgiving. We stayed in the town of Portree and ventured about the island for a few days. Skye is full of big open rolling mountains with sparse foliage and a few villages scattered about. The ground is rock with a six to twenty-four inch layer of peat. We visited the Talisker Whiskey distillery and learned how they make single malt whiskey. We were warned to stay out of the pub across the street from the police station in Portree because that [View Full Entry]

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We spent a few nights at the George Hotel on George Street and then three nights at the Classic House bed and breakfast. Both are very nice but the later was not as near to the Royal Mile as we would have liked, but it is within a few miles. We walked the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace. It is a beautiful city. We also enjoyed the food and nightlife on George Street … there is no sign of any economic trouble there. The taxi drivers said that business is good so they are only making a little [View Full Entry]

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Last week one of the CPA Global dedicated teams, took a day tour to Camp Wild in Haryana, India. We took a break from work and had a team building experience. The team celebration included mountain climbing, repel, and a zip-line. I love working for CPA! This team is the CPA patent engineers and support staff that are dedicated exclusively to supporting Microsoft. Marty from Microsoft also joined the festivities and even tried the repel. Thank you CPA, it was a blast. Please forgive me for not giving names on this blog, but this team is highly skilled and are under [View Full Entry]

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James, Karita, Kim and I headed for the Himalayas for the weekend. It was 10 hours up and 6 hours back. We had a 4 day weekend because it was Diwali. "Diwali (or Deepavali) is a major Hindu holiday, and a significant festival in Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Many legends are associated with Diwali. Today it is celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs across the globe as the "Festival of Lights," where the lights or lamps signify victory of good over the evil within an individual. Diwali is celebrated on the new moon day (approx fifteenth day) of the month [View Full Entry]

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We visited Rajasthan with James and Karita. James has been in Delhi about 2 years and Karita has been here about 18 months. He is from Boston and she is from Finland but they met in Bejing a few years ago. They invited us to join them for a few days in Mandawa which is about a 6 hour drive from Delhi. Upon our arrival in Mandawa, we were surprised to hear a story that a Bollywood producer has paid 95,000 rupees (about $2000 US dollars) to burn a Mandawa Haveli which has 200 year old frescos painted on the inside. [View Full Entry]

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The first stop in Italy was Florence. I expected David to be the highlight of the trip and we were not disappointed. You are not allowed to take pictures of David (by Michelangelo) so you'll have to go for yourself and meet him in person. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Michelangelo) Somehow I thought that you could wander into any restaurant in Italy and be blessed with the most heavenly food of your life. Not true. Its like any other place in the world. You have to research and read the reviews before you sit down to eat. The best three we found in Florence were [View Full Entry]

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Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. The city is best known worldwide for its famous leaning bell tower (The Leaning Tower of Pisa). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisa Siena, like other Tuscan hill towns, was first settled in the time of the Etruscans (c. 900 BC to 400 BC) when it was inhabited by a tribe called the Saina. The Etruscans were an advanced people who changed the face of central Italy through their use of irrigation to [View Full Entry]

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Rome ... is the capital city of Italy and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with more than 2.7 million residents, and a metropolitan area of almost 4 million inhabitants. It is located in the central-western portion of the Italian peninsula, on the Tiber river. Rome stands on top of more than two and a half thousand years of history, was once the largest city in the world and the centre of Western civilisation. Rome is still the heart of Christianity, being seat of the Roman Catholic Church which controls the Vatican City as its sovereign territory, an enclave of [View Full Entry]

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I was feeling in perfect Health. In fact, we were at the Urban Pind (UP) the night before jumping around and being goofy. Thursday is expat night. We were in bed by 1:00 AM. At 3:00 AM, Friday morning, I was wakened by a sharp pain in the lower part of my left rib cage. It felt like a severe case of runners cramps, the kind where you lift your arms and just keep running until the cramp is gone. So I tried to lay down but the pain was intense when laying down and not so bad when I was [View Full Entry]

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