Well I have been on a big project since I started at Microsoft and even though I have had little sleep I am loving every bit of it. I had workshops the entire weekend with this customer and at first got grilled by the Novell and Linux bigots. At first I did not know how to handle this, sure I have had this many times before as a MVP but the loyalty was not there like when you actually work for Microsoft, many times during the workshop I had to keep myself from getting emotional about our products and actually just put the facts on the table, and on many occasions the bigots realized that their products was still trying to catch up with Windows 98.
I can proudly say that after the final day of the workshop biggest bigot during the workshop came up to me and said he now realizes what a pain he had to live with before and is glad that they are going with Microsoft. That gave me a great sense of accomplishment.
There is the lead architect which is my direct interface into the business on the project and I have never met someone so down to earth and kind. He really is a great guy. On many occasions he bailed me out of the “company politics” talk that was going on. At the end of the workshop he asked me if I was very stressed, my answer was yeah but that’s not his problem ;), he invited me to join him quad biking on Saturday. I was surprised and didn’t know what to say. I am not a big extreme sports (not that his is too extreme) fan, however I bravely said ok.
On Thursday night I was like a little boy in a candy shop Ilze was coming up from Cape Town. She is really the fire in my life and makes me tick so you can imagine why I was so happy. I could not wait. My good friends the Wong’s took me to the airport as we decided to all go for supper when Ilze arrived. The funny part of Ilze coming up is every time I get butterflies in my tummy like the first time I went out with her. It’s an exciting feeling but every Sunday when I have to take her to the airport (like today) so that she can get back home its like someone is tearing a piece of me out. Woman are funny creatures, and for those of us that can experience both sides of the story please when you eventually find how woman tick, sit me down and give me the pep talk cause I would love to understand how they work and why they cause all this turmoil inside us!
Saturday came and I was a bit apprehensive, Ilze was always cheering me on and I think she was more excited than anyone else. My customer was awesome, he came to pick me up he had two quad bikes which was cool. So I put all the gear on and wow it’s a lot. It was a very hot day and I was immediately sweating. Ilze was like a mother watching her little boy go play his first rugby game. With a kiss through the helmet away went Carlos. At first I had to get out of the yard which proved very difficult as this was my first time on a bike and I had to do that whole gear thing’s which did not prove to like me for the first five minutes ;), with everyone in the yard laughing at me I eventually got out of the yard. My customer stopped me and told me to take off on 2nd gear and 1st was a bit tricky. Well all I can say is that I enjoyed myself so much that we ended up spending about 4 hours each time coming back to fetch some drinks and one time fetching Ilze.
At first I got the shove from behind telling me to slow down (yup I actually knew what I was doing on the bike (eventually). After half an hour the shoves became screams for FASTER FASTER!!!! Which surprised me!
Anyway all I can say is I managed to stay on the bike 😉 I felt so bad as the one time the customer stopped way to quickly and I didn’t not see him so I ended up going straight in to the back of him! That was not impressive but being the awesome person he is he got off his bike and fist thing was “are you ok” is your neck ok etc, I felt really bad, he never looked at his bike or mine he got on and said ill race you to the river bed. I was flabbergasted I mean these where expensive toys. When we got to the river bed I again apologized and he told me that the bikes were made for this! We then proceeded to go through river beds, rocks etc with these bikes BOY are they amazing. I really want one but I know that next year is going to be a big year for me and I need to know where my priorities are, my house and Ilze by the end of next year I want to have my car totally paid off so I can start on my house.
The rest of the weekend was spent exactly as I wanted it to be just me and Ilze and sometimes we met friends.
We watched King Kong and I really don’t want to go into a full review as I am tired but my recommendation is to go watch it its AWESOME had its scary moments but otherwise awesome I def recommend it!!!!
Well I have a few doc’s to finish for tomorrow and am going to tackle them now. I have Natasha (my boss) constantly in my mind as she is going through a tough time and she needs all the support she can get!
I am looking forward to going “home” (Cape Town) at the end of this new week to see my family and my DOG!!!
It has been really difficult time for me and my friends and family help take the load off where it’s needed and I am really appreciative of all their help!
For those of you that follow my blog for technical tit bits I promise there will be some coming I have a few things to get through but boy are they coming there is so much I have to tell you guys it’s not funny and a lot of it I have just found out is not NDA but I have come to find that many people do not know about it!!!
You all have a wonderful evening and I really hope your weekend goes smoothly!
Carlos