First of all I would like to say sorry that it's been quiet for a while. I have been to Germany and the UK and seen some of you in person and I also moved house where I now have no internet. So all not so easy sometimes.

If you read my last entry (and if not, why not?), you might remember that I said that chronologically something else noteworthy happened before the hurricane. It needs a bit of an introduction, so here we go.

Like most other hotels, managers here have to occasionally perform a function that is commonly known as MOD (Manager on Duty) or Duty Manager. It usually hits you twice a month and here is more like what I was used to before I came to Grosvenor House where the whole Duty Manager thing is a real laugh. If you're unlucky you have to sort out real problems like thefts or deal with Overbooking situations or system problems. If you're lucky it's just walking around a lot talking to people who are all happy enjoying their holiday. The whole task is not be taken too easily as in case of any real emergency you're basically it and you better know what to do as to not make a complete fool out of yourself and the hotel. Now, over the years I had ample training of making a fool out of myself, but I was still reluctant to just go and start doing these shifts without pretty much knowing anything.

So, the idea is born to do one shift together with the Security Manager to get some more information on the whole "what-to-do-if"-scenarios. This guy is called Robert and he is from Florida. So, he's also not from the island and is also struggling a bit with the languages. Not as much as me of course, as he would need to lose his tongue to be in as many language problems as I'm in.

He's black and he used to play professional basketball before and therefore (maybe not surprisingly) is not exactly what you would call a small fellow. In fact, he is more of a giant.

I'll leave it to you to imagine what sort of an odd couple the 2 of us make when we go on our rounds in the hotel....

So it is that I find myself on a Sunday morning walking the hotel with Robert. Something you don't get to do a lot on these shifts in London, Germany or say Norway is to check the condition of the beach and surf. So, this is a bit of a new one for me, however the rest is pretty much the usual. You need to check a room (which I'm ashamed to say was so bad that even to our 2 untrained pairs of eyes the room was clearly not ready to be given to paying guests), walk the property, record the occupancy as well as the usage of the F&B outlets and so on. We do all that and somehow pass the rather uneventful morning, go to Lunch and do a final round of the hotel before all that is left is to write up the report.

Robert actually was to do that alone and so I return to my room (I still live in the hotel at that point) and change out of my uniform into something more casual. It's about 3pm now and the shift change to the late MOD is at 4pm. Unlike me Robert is an Operations person and likes dealing with guests and problems. I think it's fair though to say that computers are not necessarily his friends. He knows his way around them just fine, but when it comes to placing the odd comma and making the occasional sarcastic remark about Housekeeping and other departments, there is other people more at ease with the task. You guessed right, that'll be me. As he calls me for help with his report I obviously go to his office and take care of the wording and all the formatting. For all I know, he might still be there trying to get Excel to merge those 2 cells. Bless him.

I know that the more skeptically trained of you are wondering where the hell all this is going, but just bear with me, we're almost there. Anyway, the time is about 3:55pm. All of a sudden the radio (or walkie talkie to some of you) goes crazy. Most of it is unfortunately in Papiamentu so Robert and me are not really any wiser as to what is going on. It takes us maybe 30 seconds to figure out that they are actually reporting a fight between guests at the pool! Once we figure this out we are obviously off running. Now I would like you to know that when you are attending any sort of physical confrontation, it is always somewhat comforting to be in the company of an almost 7 foot, 300 pound giant, that could easily play Linebacker for the Green Bay Packers.

Anyway, when we get to the pool there is a guy in the pool. Now this might not be very unusual in a resort, however, this guy is fully clothed (okay, he has lost one shoe) and he is bleeding rather profusely. There is another guy standing just on the verge of the pool with a pretty big rock in his hand shouting at the top of his lungs.

Now, we do not have the time or the space here to report what exactly had happened the half hour before this incident or the next 3 hours afterwards so I'll give you an Executive Summary. Just so you know, it took the Police and us about 3 hours to figure about half of this out.

About an hour before the Pool episode, 2 local guys ask for a room and are checked into a first floor room. These guys have come to the hotel with the sole purpose of using the room for some sort of deal. They are expecting 2 Asian guys with a lot of cash and the plan is to whack them and take off with the money.

To achieve this plan one of the local acts as bait in the room while the other guy puts a stocking over his face and hides in the closet with a gun (no kidding!).

Whatever happens next exactly is unknown, but certainly the 2 Asian guys prove a lot tougher than the 2 local guys expected. A big fight ensues and they trash the entire room in the process! However, it does not stop there. They crash into the door opposite their own room, take out a lamp in the corridor and eventually one of the local guys crashes through the railings (or more likely is transferred through it against his own will) and takes a dive down one floor into some sort of flower/plant decoration. He loses the gun (which is some sort of antique by the way which I doubt would actually fire) and sustains some injuries which cause him to bleed but do not really slow him down. From here on he takes off through half of the resort leaving a trail of blood and eventually seeking refuge in the pool. The Asians, having tasted blood, are in hot pursuit obviously forgetting the small detail that they have just left about $25,000 and the other local guy behind upstairs.

Needless to say that both money and guy are not there any more when they realize this fact. And so it goes on...

So, we're now back at the beginning...

After we get them separated and out of the pool, I try to stop the bleeding of the one guy until the ambulance and police arrives. I then entertain myself by viewing all places of the action and by trying to get all sorts of credit card information and so on and (I kind of liked this actually) by buying all other guests at the pool a drink. I also try to figure out what the pint or so of blood will do to the water quality in our pool, but I eventually leave that to the Chief Engineer. Kind of funny how suddenly all sorts of senior management show up, but whatever.

Eventually everybody gets arrested but to say that I have even a tiny amount of confidence in the Curacao Police force is a vast exaggeration.

So, so much for doing a nice little Manager on Duty shift here at my new hotel. If you want excitement, this is the place.

I have done 2 more shifts since then. On one of them I had to move out of my own room and on the other one there was a fire across the street, so at least it keeps you occupied.

I don't really know how to get there now, but I want to dedicate this episode to my friend Robert, who helped me through my first shift and who I could count on at all other times. For some mysterious reason Robert got fired last Friday, so Robert, should you ever read this, this one's for you.

Chronologically, I actually have another story to tell you first but the developments here have their own way so let’s get the last 2 days dealt with first.

It’s Month End once again and as you might or might not know that always puts us beancounters in a strange mood. Glad that there are many beans to count on the one hand, however dreading all the work of producing some numbers that most people then won’t like on the other.

This always reminds me of my favorite definition of an accountant:

An accountant is someone who solves a problem you didn’t know you had in a way you don’t understand. Very true.

Month End always means long hours, stress, pressure and god knows what else. This is my second month end in Curacao and it is getting a little better in terms of finding my way around things. Nowhere near what I’m used to, but then it’s also a little more relaxed here. So far so good.

But then God probably thought: Hey, let’s not make it all too boring and let’s better give him something to write home about.

So he came up with this:

What you see here is the path of Hurricane Felix that developed Friday night somewhere off the coast of Grenada.

Friday night it was actually only what meteorologists call a Tropical Storm, but it was upgraded to a Category 1 Hurricane on Saturday and later to a Category 2 in the early hours of this morning.

The ABC islands (yes, Curacao is the C) are the 3 small dots in the blue Hurricane Zone above Venezuela.

Now, as I have pointed out to some of you on various occasions Curacao normally lies below the Hurricane belt and we don’t get Hurricanes here. This is the reason why suddenly the whole island turned crazy. The last hurricane they had was 2 years ago and supposedly it was quite bad and nobody wants a repeat of that.

So, while I was posting journals and doing “normal” Month End stuff on Saturday, my boss and the rest of the Leadership Team of the hotel were preparing for the hurricane. All equipment at the beach and any Food & Beverage outlets outside (which in this resort is all of them with the exception of a cocktail bar and a coffee shop) was collected and transferred inside. Fuel for generators was checked and all available staff was called in. Letters to guests were distributed, torches and radios given out and all the other stuff you can do when you something big, wet and windy is coming was done.

Initially it was supposed to hit sometime between midnight and 5am on Sunday, but that prediction became later and later.

Our Systems Manager is currently away on a conference in Chile, so guess who the back-up is. Correct, good ol’ me. Good that I know so much about UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), Server Backups, Data Tapes etc. NOT.

So after getting a couple of hours sleep at home, I go back to the hotel at 3am to make sure $200,000 of servers are safe.

No way I wanted to be stuck at home anyway. Having only moved in on Wednesday and with all my gear still in boxes I was nowhere near prepared for something like this (that’s not quite true actually; I might not have any candles, torches, food or anything else useful, but I do have a supply of beer, rum and coke as well as a bottle opener and a glass, so really, how serious could it get?).

By the time I leave home it is already raining. And one thing is for sure, hurricanes do know their rain (it will end up dropping about 20 cm of rain).

I listen to the radio on the way and I have to say they do a good job here. All the announcements are in 4 languages and so even people like me can hear and understand whether they will survive the night or not. By this time it is now a Category 2 Hurricane and the centre is supposed to pass about 60km northwards Curacao which I hear is not all that much distance.

I spend the next half hour covering the phone switch and the 2 server racks with plastic foil (the roof in this hotel is not to be trusted) and hope that should it all go down that we can bring the systems back up. At this stage it rains, but otherwise it is spookily quiet. Apparently not a good sign either. However, we do have electricity so nothing to worry about at this point.

I then go back to Month End work. Let me tell you, you have no idea how much you can get done at 4 am.

It seems there are more people in Housekeeping and Engineering than during the day as well as the General Manager and the Hotel Manager milling around so they really don’t need me there.

The wind eventually starts at about 5:30am, but it’s far less serious than expected. Yes, it blows quite a bit, but I can easily say I have been outside back home with the fire brigade during far more intense storms clearing streets and railroad tracks.

I’ve tried to capture the scene in a few pictures, but I guess it does not really convey the wind. Trust me though, our lobby does not look like this normally.

This is the Lobby view we are normally so famous for:

The outlet you see next is actually aptly named Seabreeze…

Anyway, it all blows over and while we they do close the airport and stuff, there is no major damage or casualties. At no point did we lose power or the water or gas supply. The only thing is that half of the nice sand on our beach is gone and that’ll cost to refill.

One idiot guest obviously has to go for a swim in the ocean while “the surf’s up”, but I don’t even move when the excited chatter over the radio starts. He can drown alright for all I care.

But hey, whatever. Another day, another Month End.

On the upside, even with all the stuff going on, I have a full first draft of the P&L distributed and some of my Balance Sheet reconciliations done by the time I go home around noon on the second. I also know that people here really care about their hotel and the guests in their care, so what more can I ask for.

I’m also glad it happened the time it happened as normally stuff like this happens when I’m supposed to travel.

Now I’m looking forward to getting the rest of Month End out of the way and then getting home to Germany on Thursday. Hoping and looking forward to seeing some of you this weekend on the various weddings, the Herbstfest or back in London next week.

Have a good week.

As promised in the last entry, here are some pictures of my car. We are back to Fire Engine Red. Enjoy!

Let me tell you how not to buy a car in Curacao.

As mentioned previously I believe, you can’t do nothing without a car on this island. (Note to all Bavarians: Bayrische Doppelverneinung funktioniert auch im Englischen, wenn auch nicht ganz grammatikalisch richtig).

You will need a car whether you like it or not. The roads are in a reasonably good condition compared to what I have seen in the Dominican Republic for example. They like their speed bumps (or drempels as our Dutch friends like to call them) here and you might encounter (or more likely run over) the occasional stray dog, herds of goats or iguanas, but that’s it. Ah yes also, for some reason people can’t drive in rain, even though that clearly does not stop them. Let me tell you, if and when it rains here, it is raining hard and there is lots of water on the road. The concept of aquaplaning has not sunk in here yet and the fact that the tires on most cars are not up for it either does not help in any way. Anybody up for some real skidding?

Anyway, you should also note that cars here are not the beloved treasures or status symbols that they might be to people in Germany or England. They are real utilities and in everyday use. In fact, it’s a bit more like France here. A car without a proper dent is not really a car anyway.

We have talked about accidents in this space before (I passed a sign the other day which announced that there have been 13 traffic deaths in 2007 so far; quite respectable for an island of about 150,000 people) and there are certainly a lot of “restored” vehicles out there. Thus, you have to be careful when looking for suitable mode of transportation.

I’ve had my fair share of trouble with my last car, so I did not want a car older than say 8 years or one with a lot of mileage either.

Cars here are mostly Japanese or Korean, with a few US manufacturers thrown in. You do see the occasional BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and rarely an Audi, but that’s it as far as European cars are concerned. At least the islanders know to keep their fingers off any French voitures…

Most of the cars are automatic and you really need air condition. Because there actually is a lot of sun, a black car is not too clever either.

I arrived on July 11 and more or less immediately went to a car fair on July 14. Keeping the entire just mentioned in mind I actually found a car I liked on that day. The car was ANG 12,800 or about GBP 3,600 or EUR 5,300 in real money. Now I did not bring that sort of money with me to the island in cash and they wanted either cash or a check.

However, they also offered financing (at 9% interest) with the same bank that I am banking with anyway, so why not do that? Problem solved. Most local people seem to do the same thing.

Okay, so on the 14^th of July I sit in a little marquee in a big car park, fill in a ton of paperwork, provide copies of my contract, of my passport and also of my driving licence and generally sweat a lot. 

The paperwork is then supposedly passed to the bank on Monday, although I’m not entirely sure if that really happened. In any case, the bank then takes almost 2 weeks and a bit of chasing up to get to the point that they contact my employer. The employer is kind enough to confirm that I actually do exist and that yes, they pay me a somewhat large salary (as stated in my contract, which the bank already has) compared to most people on the island. Very well. I don’t know this for sure but I presume the thought process at the bank then goes something like this. Right, we have got all the paperwork, we have verified it, so let’s do nothing for another week.

Once that week is up, they come up with this: As my contract is for one year only they are willing to finance the car over one year. So far so good, but wait, there is another condition. I also need to find a local person with a salary comparable to mine that is willing to vouch for me, i.e. someone who is willing to pay for me should I default on my loan. Rrrrrrrrrright. Now, I don’t know about you, but the only people I would approach for a favor like that are my parents or maybe the 2 loan sharks that call themselves my brothers. Last time I checked they were neither in Curacao nor local people. I don’t feel I can ask anybody else, so let’s forget about it. Great! Took the bank just 3 weeks to figure that out. Now we’re back to the drawing board.

The place that is selling the car knows someone at another bank, so the suggestion is why don’t we try that one? What else can I do, so let’s fill in more paperwork and copy some more contracts, payslips, bank statements and god knows what else.

These guys actually take a week, but at least they say yes. So, I just have to go there one day and sign my life away. So, I get there and wait for the representative for half an hour. Now for my favorite part: When it’s finally my turn they have to somewhat sheepishly admit that the director is in the process of authorizing the loan on his PC but has left to go somewhere and they can’t find him. As long as the file is open on his PC, nothing can be done. Now let’s think about this for a minute. We are talking a loan for ANG 12,800 here which the director himself has to approve. ANG 12,800. The owner of the hotel that I work for is in the process of trying to find a buyer for the hotel. Here we are talking a loan of something like ANG 120,000,000. Who is approving that loan then? The Governor of the island? Good old Queen Beatrix? Maybe God himself?

Anyway, two and a half hours later I have signed everything they want me to sign, I have a new bank account (probably have bought an encyclopedia of some sort) and have missed most of the working day.

We are now on day 33 of trying to get a car. The next day the car sales people actually get the check from the bank and we are ready to tackle the next problem: Tax and Insurance. But this is too boring in detail. So, in summary, the insurance will get it wrong once (my name is actually not Marriott) and have to start over (add 2 days), but once that is sorted it takes only another day for the license plates and on Thursday 23 August I get my car. So it took only 40 days in the end….

It’s a red Chevrolet Cavalier Coupe and its all mine. Well, actually I guess it belongs to bank, but whatever.

Thank you to all the people at Economic Car Center and everybody who drove me around for 6 weeks or lent me their cars.

So, what is the lesson in all this?

You don’t need me to tell you this but some bank will screw you over, either here or anywhere.

I do have the money in the UK but did not want to take out the money via cash machines or wire it as Barclays charges you an arm and a leg for that. With the limits in place I would have needed something like 10 Cash machine transactions where you get charged by Barclays and the local ATM supplier every single time.

Obviously I should have done that anyway or brought more money to start with. The credit alone will cost me something like GBP400 over the course of the loan and I could have at least saved a bit of money towards a hair transplant (which is now more necessary than ever) paying the car up front.

Unfortunately, it’s raining today, so I won’t take pictures of the car now, but watch this space for an update on the car soon.

Take care

Before I get into my reporting today, let me try and answer a question I have been getting a lot. Where the hell is Curacao? Somewhere in the Caribbean, isn’t it? But where exactly?

Well, Google to the rescue and here we go http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Curacao&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=0&ll=12.118352,-68.966331&spn=0.002392,0.005375&z=18&iwloc=addr

What you can see is the hotel where I work, most easily identified by the pool and beach. I actually tried to find my butt parked there on the beach for all of you to see (it’s a nice butt you know), but I have zoomed in as much as it would go and it won’t do it. If you then zoom out it will give you an idea where the island lies in relation to the rest of the Caribbean, South America and the US. Pretty cool, ey?

Okay, but back to the reporting. I thought about writing about Month End, but I think it’s not applicable to most of the audience and boring anyway, so let’s forget about that.

There is also only very little I can write about the social part this week with the exception maybe that I am officially too old for listening to Techno and House (even in a rather inebriated state) amidst hundreds of sweating and jumping locals and Dutch. The beach doesn’t help there either for some reason.

I then actually wanted to write about apartment hunting with its ups and downs and the progress of getting a car with only its downs. However, when I was out apartment hunting this week something else happened. Those of you, who haven’t yet watched enough Jamba ringtones commercials on MTV to be rendered brain-dead, might remember that I wrote about not having yet seen an accident in my last entry. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.

In the 2 hours we were out and about looking at apartments I saw a little boy getting run over and we passed another collision involving 2 cars.

In addition, last Sunday I have passed the scene of a heads-on collision.

I believe all of the involved will live to tell the tale, but the boy surely will not play Softball for Curacao this year. The ladies in the car that got hit in the side have suffered a broken collarbone, concussions, whiplash and various abrasions and I doubt it has done many good things for their blood pressure either.

Now these 2 accidents happened around lunch time so I guess we can only blame the general carelessness here when it comes to driving. The heads-on collision on Sunday (which looked by far the worst and I where don’t actually know what happened to those involved) I would bet my afore-mentioned butt on that alcohol was involved. Everybody has a drink (or 7 or 8) here, especially at the beach on a Sunday and then gets in the car to go home, so I guess it’s just something that you have to deal with.

The one thing I do like about this here is that they have not yet completely lost the plot when it comes to the laws governing this. So, if you do have an accident here while driving intoxicated, you can’t sue the guy who sold you the drinks, like the way it is now in many other parts of the world. Here it’s just: Better luck next time.

I don’t really know how this fits into this, but it’s far too cool not to tell you. The guy that drove me around to look at apartments (and who will most likely become my landlord) is some sort of local celebrity here. I haven’t quite figured out what it is he exactly does, other than driving around in one of his 8 cars and showing people apartments or houses, but he seems to own lots of houses, he owns part of the mobile phone company, is a famous DJ and among other things owns a radio station.

Needless to say that his own radio station is playing in the car.

Now get this: When we stop at the scene of the accident with the little boy, he gets out of the car, checks out what happened and then makes a phone call. We are still in the car and the radio is on. 10 seconds later the radio station plays some sort of “Breaking News” music and then you hear the words of the guy 10 feet next to you over the radio. You see him say the words but hear them over the radio. How weird is that? Traffic and news reporting on a whole new level.

He does the same thing at the other accident. Welcome to Curacao.

Anyway, it looks like I might have found an apartment which might be finished this year. The first time we looked at it, he said it would be ready on August 10. As we went back on Wednesday I could not see any considerable change over the last 2 weeks other than a few palm trees planted in the yard, but he insists it’ll now be ready on August 20. We’ll see. I think it’s impossible, even with Polish workers.

The car story is so sad I won’t even bother you with it. Still no car…

I’m also not in the mood to tell you about the rest of my week right now and in any case I stayed in Friday and Saturday, so nothing special there.

Maybe things will pick up a little today. I can’t sit around all day again.

Hopefully more soon, until then, take care

Weekend….

Right, if it weren’t for the weather, the Payday Fridays are not so different here compared to good old England.

Everybody skips the office late in the afternoon and goes for a drink. Of course there are no pubs here, but there are tokos. These establishments are some sort of mixture between an off-licence (Trinkhalle oder Bierbeisl) and a kebap shop.

They are invariably run by some Asian family and usually have a Happy Hour and some Chinese food. But whatever, during Happy Hour you can get beer for about a dollar, so what could be better?

Well, actually the beers could be a bit bigger and most of them have some work to do on their toilet facilities, but still…

One of the differences is that everybody arrives by car and will usually leave again by car something like 5 to 15 beers later!

I have not yet seen a bad accident and the chances of getting stopped by the police are apparently virtually non-existent, but getting back into a car with someone you just had ten beers with to drive you back home still makes me a bit uneasy.

In any case, that is all I can offer you for my Friday. 10 beers or so at a Toko…

But, do not despair, it gets better on Saturday.

After a relatively early night, I’m all good to go for something big on Saturday.

First of all, it is very hot, so that would suggest going to the beach. Unfortunately I need to lose another 10kgs and a bikini-wax to be able to do that, so that is out of the question (although a beach will actually feature later in the day).

So, when my loyal side-kick Marianela suggests to go and check out the local Ostrich (Straussen-) Farm, I’m all up for it.

It is actually quite a bit (maybe 25kms or so, i.e. the other side of the island) but at least this time we have air-condition.

The Ostrich farm is quite something. The place supplies Ostrich meat to the whole Caribbean and they have about 600 of them. The farm is trying to be completely ecological, so what happens to all the rubbish they generate?

Well, with the exception of any plastic or metal, they feed it all to these guys.

These are Pork Belly Pigs (Haengebauchschweine) and they eat about anything. Because of their bellies they can’t really move around so all they do is eat and sleep, which sounds alright to me. They are however, really ugly f@#kers as well, so everything still comes at a price.

The farms also keeps emus (which are rather bad-tempered bastards, if I may say so myself) and 3 crocodiles. The emus are really for decoration only, whereas the crocodiles will take care of everything that is left over in the slaughtering of the ostriches. You can’t use everything and stuff like the lungs and the hearts is going to the Crocs.

Now, who would have thought, but they do actually have some Ostriches as well.

In fact, they have them in all shapes and sizes.

The unfinished product….

At a few days old…..

At a few weeks old

And Mr & Mrs Ostrich

For those of you who are taking notes, the birds become fertile after about 11 months. They then have to literally shag for their life.

If they don’t turn out to be really fertile, they get slaughtered. Only the best “producers” are kept alive…

Now let’s think about that for a minute. Consider you’re somewhere between let’s say 12 and 14 years old and not really quite sure what to make of your body. You’re then told to either

a)      knock up as many chicks (haha) as you possibly can in the shortest period of time or

b)      getting jumped on by some horny geezer every 5 minutes who doesn’t really know what he’s doing and as if that isn’t already enough, pop out a couple of babies, eggs or whatever very soon or

c)      getting fed to the Crocodiles.

Wouldn’t that be something???

But let’s not get side-tracked here. The birds obviously don’t know about that and frankly, even if they would, they would not understand it.

This is because they literally must be the dumbest animals out there.

So, while some of them can sport some pretty impressive running and reproduction statistics, their brains are about the size of peanuts. No kidding, their brains are actually smaller than their eyes!!!

But enough about stupid ostriches….  Okay, one last Ostrich picture maybe...

It is hot, very hot, and time to get out of the direct sun.

So we make our way to Jan Thiel Beach for a drink and to look at some other local attractions.

Jan Thiel is a very nice neighborhood and also one of the nicest and most popular beaches here and pretty much entirely crowded with Dutch people.

Now, it seems that going topless here is acceptable and this brings up another interesting question. I don’t think this only applies to the Dutch, but why is it that only women you could do without seeing them topless actually go topless?

There are loads of hot Dutch girls here who I would very much like to see topless, but no, it is only their gravity-challenged mums showing off their wares. Sigh….

Anyway, at five it’s happy hour and the long drinks are a little bit more than a pound or maybe just 2 euros. There is a DJ that knows something else than Salsa and gets the crowd moving very quickly.

Marianela immediately establishes a good connection with the 2 barkeepers (how do girls do that?) so we get served very quickly indeed. So, after maybe 7 Bacardi and Coke between 5 and 6 and quite a few drinks later on, the party is in full swing. The Dutch are really enjoying themselves here and even the inevitable Salsa band can’t stop them.

It’s also good to know that some of them who have been here for a while still get quite a sunburn and glow in the dark, hehe

Well, there is only so much Salsa I can take so we take off with some of the Dutch guys from work for Dinner at a Steakhouse (yummy).

After that we go to Sopranos, which is a very cool Piano bar here (www.sopranospianobar.com) . They have this very good piano player who knows about every song there is (www.barryfromboston.com). So, having quite a good time there as well…

And so, about a $100 later I finally get home at some point in the morning.

I’m not sure if I can keep this up, but it was certainly a good Saturday. So good, that I need all Sunday to recover.

If any of you ever make it here, we’ll try to duplicate a day like this.

Enough for today folks… need to prepare to go back to Sopranos.

Take care,

Wolfi

Okay then, let me give you a little run down on week 2 at work.

Still no car, which is starting to get annoying. Apparently we are now waiting for the bank, which I fail to believe, but whatever…

I’m slowly getting settled at work and have started looking at stuff I’m comfortable with, i.e. the PMS (Property Management System) and POS (Point of Sale) systems of a hotel.

As I told you last time, the hotel has just changed PMS and there are a few things to work through. I get going on that and manage to save the hotel about $17,000 in taxes in about two days. Breakfast revenues of one restaurant had been mapped incorrectly and the hotel was going to pay it all to the government in taxes. Wolfmeister to the rescue.

Well, that made my boss happy as well as putting me in the good book with the F&B guys as it gave them $17K more sales in one go. We’ll see if it remains that way next week after Month End.

I also finally get my bank card. It turns out that for my bank I’m Wolfgang Benodl, which is a variation I haven’t come across before…

On Thursday we get visited by the Area Director of Finance who’s come to look at our Balance Sheet and bank reconciliations. I get to have lunch with him and he sort of tells me his life story and what a great boss I have and in general what a great region I’m now in. He tells me to take it easy a lot and wishes me the best of luck on a couple of occasions which somehow makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. Well, he’s French, but this time I’m not sure if that explains anything….

On Friday a couple of important things happen. I get paid for my traveling and relocation expenses and it’s also Payday. So suddenly I have lots of money to spend! This is another story in itself though…

I also go and pick up my boxes from the airport which got shipped here a week ago.

I first borrow a car from a guy in Engineering who has a nice big van. However, there is something wrong with the clutch and the car’s engine always dies as soon as you step of the gas.

Apparently he has a way of braking and staying on the gas at the same time but I have not yet mastered that skill, so after the first 2 traffic lights when the engine dies and only very reluctantly comes back alive I decide to go back to hotel.

I then borrow another car which is a black (d’oh) coupe and not really suited for transporting luggage. It is also slightly dirty (massive understatement!!!!!!!!) and the air-condition does not work, but it does drive without problems.

So, apart from the fact I’m already drenched in sweat by the time I make it to the airport, I get there just fine.

Then it’s visiting the Cargo company and the Customs people a couple of times back and forth until everybody agrees I need to see at least another 5 people till somebody will first inspect my boxes and then actually allow me to take them away.

Here is some advice for you:

When moving to a Caribbean country and trying to pick up your stuff, bring lots of time, patience, humor (even though you do not want to try that humor on the Customs people; the same applies to any form of irony or sarcasm by the way), and if at all possible somebody who speaks the local language.

Coming back to the car, it is also advisable to bring a car into which you’ll be able to fit your boxes.

Now I sweat very quickly even in the best of conditions.

But just imagine me standing in direct sunlight (and we are talking 33’ Celsius in the shade, so no idea how hot that would be without shade) and trying to wrestle 30kg boxes into some sort of tiny trunk.

I would like to be able to say that I was sweating profusely, but that would just not do it any justice.

Water was cascading down my face to an extent that I could not see through those streams anymore.

It was ridiculous. Once I had somehow stuffed it all in, it was back into the oven that is a black car without air condition in this weather.

It must have been a glorious sight for the guys in the hotel lobby when we pulled up: Some completely wet guy close to madness trying to pry some boxes out of a car.

For some strange reason that I guess has something to do with a sense of duty I went back to the office which immediately had everyone in hysterics when they saw me. They probably thought I had fallen into the pool.

Anyway, I now have a DVD player which of course I can’t plug in anywhere and other bits and pieces, so I guess I’m glad.

And because writing all this makes me tired, I’ll tell you how I spent my weekend and my money some other time.

Take care

Wolfi

Alright, it's Sunday and I have survived my first week at work.

I've attended my first meetings and I have met most of the key players in the hotel. I have also met most of the staff I will be responsible for and that will be another adventure in itself.

There is the usual hotel problems here just like everywhere else. In addition, the hotel has recently changed property management system and so there is a few quirks still to iron out. I guess that will be my job...

Apart from the technical expertise, the language will prove the most difficult. I will start Spanish lessons at some point soon, but nothing definite yet.

I also attend the longest departmental meeting ever (over 3 hours) and get a feel for what is important to people here.

Overall, the hotel is humming with groups and weddings and is fully occupied most of the week. So, when I come back from car shopping on Wednesday evening, I'm told to pack my gear and that I'm going to the hotel next door. They are booking me out instead of real guests. Bit of a pain, but there you go.

Yesterday sort of the same thing happens. This time I can stay but need to share my room with another colleague who is in the same boat. The things you do for your employer...

After work it's mostly out to go apartment and car hunting. I think I have found a car on Wednesday and I will hopefully get it next week. It's done via a broker and currently he is trying to get the price down a bit more. I haven't heard from him in 2 days so I guess he was not really successful. We'll see.

I'm also out to look for an apartment but have been less successful this week. The place I have seen is too small I feel and the other place has no cable TV or internet, which is not an option.

I might still go for the small place as it even has Housekeeping included once a week and is very close to work. As long as I'm alone, it would certainly do.

On Friday we go to the cinema and see Transformers which is awesome. The cinema is okay as well and that is a big relief. I guess I'll pretty much see all the movies coming out from now on. On Saturday I start on that quest by seeing Shrek 3 which is funny, but you realise that it's running out of steam.

I've also played Softball again on Thursday and yesterday along with socialising afterwards. People in Curacao really like to sit in front of the corner shop and have lots of beers together. As most of you know, this fits me quite well, so no problems there.

All in all a successful week I guess and I'm starting to settle down. My shipped boxes have actually arrived as well, even though I haven't picked them up yet.

Tonight and tomorrow I'll be doing a night shift so I might find some time to email some of you individually. We'll see. In the meantime I'm off for a nap at the pool (hehe) for some sleep preparation for tonight.

Take care