"Sounds of Silence" - Simon and Garfunkel, 1966

SORRY for the "silence" from me this past week...and I'm posting this note to tell you that it's going to continue next week as well. I've been teaching in London this week. And because it was a customized course (for one of the international major oil companies) that I'd never taught before, it used up a lot of my free time. But it went very well -- at least it did from my perspective! We'll see what the client thinks!

Next, I'm off to Cape Town, South Africa tonight, to teach what we call "public courses" Monday through Thursday next week. What does that mean? It simply means that rather than working with students from only one company, I'll be teaching in a hotel conference room and will have students from several companies coming.

I really like going to Cape Town. This will be my third trip in three years. It's a beautiful place, and the students there are among the most interesting that I work with. They are always eager, interesting, and fun to teach. What's the downside of the trip? Well, besides the 12-hour flight to get there from Heathrow (and that's a direct flight...!), it's the fact that it's not the safest city in the world. I just have to be a bit careful there, and I never go wandering off exploring on foot by myself as I like to do when I'm teaching in an interesting place. My hotel runs a shuttle bus back and forth to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront area, so that's probably as far from the hotel as I'll get to go exploring during the week. And the hotel will even pick me up at the airport tomorrow morning and take me back there Thursday night.

OH...and I'll get to catch up with what the South Africans call their "soapies". My personal favorite is called "Isidingo" -- which means "The Longing" in Zulu. (You can't read much on the site I've linked without registering, but perhaps some of you are curious and would like to read a bit about the storyline and characters.) What's especially interesting about the South African soapies is that many of them are in both English and African languages -- going back and forth between the two a bit like some Spanish-language programs on Texas TV do between Spanish and English. It's really fascinating!

I don't think I'll have high-speed internet service while in Cape Town, so it would be too expensive for me to stay on a dial-up connection the length of time it would take to update Lord Celery. I'm really sorry about that, too. I would have loved to post some photos while I'm there.

SO, here's an "I'm sorry but I won't be posting for awhile" note. I'll write again when I can. Meanwhile, have a good week, everybody! I'll be back in the UK in time for the Bank Holiday weekend.

Janet


Listening To: Alana Davis, "Surrender Dorothy"