Inside ASI-AP

Sunday I flew Brisbane to LA – a 14 hour flight with me only getting about 1-2 hours sleep. Not to be encouraged. I arrived in LA at 7am with almost 8 hours between flights. I was happy that David Riffle and Marilyn were coming to meet me at the airport so we could get breakfast on the Sunset Strip. It was funny going to a restaurant with Marilyn, David and Greg and feeling that Marilyn and I would be treated as Aussies – but then Marilyn does have a US accent so she was treated as a local again and I was the only foreigner. Pancakes as big as manholes were on the menu. Hmm, I am so glad that the waitress suggested Marilyn and I share a stack since we were both ordering plain stacks. HUGE. I have attached a picture of David’s.

Then David took us to Kodak Theater where they hold the Oscars and American Idol final. It is pretty cool to walk around and see where Jack Nicholson and others normally sit in the front row. Then we went to Santa Monica beach for a quick look before heading to the airport. Marilyn and I were on the same flight so she was lucky I could help with all the bags! I was pleased to sleep almost the whole way from LA to DC (about 5 hours).

I started my first of five weeks in the Alexandria office on Monday. It is like arriving at my second home moving back into the Alexandria apartment. I have to say it is much more settling than living in a hotel for a few weeks. I am sure the apartment has seen a lot of use in the last 12 months, but I just want to note thanks to Megan and Jennie for all their assistance in making this a welcoming and comfortable place to stay.

The work week was pretty normal except that meetings with Bob, John, Edward and everyone is in person. Initially I had to catch up on email having been off the air for a few days and travelling the previous few weeks.

On Tuesday I had lunch with Marilyn and Stephen Hodder (Law Society of South Australia) as Stephen was in DC on holidays before going to a conference in NY. It was great to meet an Australian customer on foreign soil.

I spent a fair amount of time on SUP Revival plans to work with customers who are not current on the plan to come back and upgrade to iMIS 15. iMIS 15 offers a lot of new features and is a great motivator to rejoin. Also I met with Edward to review some of this process plus his BSC Participation scripts. We discussed potential changes to this based on what the item is trying to measure – Edward is reviewing further.

On the weekend I took the train into DC to see the Cherry Blossoms. I realised that last year I did not see them in full bloom. I was amazed at the number of people that come out to see them – if you are afraid of crowds, don’t go to see them. Also it was the annual Kite Flying day.... I have attached some pics. Sunday was a lazy day watching cable catching up on rest.

The weather was great in LA – probably 26 deg Celsius. When we got to DC I had to pull out the jacket for about 4 deg C. The week started off cool (16) then got warmer on Wednesday (about 20) and then cooled off again on the weekend (9 and 8 tops). So if you are heading this way you may want to check out the temperature. It is looking like 19 - 21 for Innovations and sales training time. I find the weather channel site pretty accurate and it has both Celsius and Fahrenheit temps.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/driving/interstate/tenday/22301?from=36hr...