Hallo Everyone:
I am back in Monheim, Germany. To visit friends and colleagues and work, work, work. A colleague from Accenture, Sunita Poojary, also is visiting so we are getting reacquainted and meeting some new colleagues and some old ( one is actually a year older, Sascha celebrated his Birthday on Friday.) We had many pastries supplied by Wendy who was gracious enough to give me money to bring over, and Sascha brought a cake. We danced and sang most of the day and during lunch we rode horses and played a quick game of cricket.....

On Saturday, Sunita and I left for a short walk to the Rhine river. We returned two hours later....You all are aware that I am directionally challenged.... Below is Sunita with the Rhine in the distance.

Sunita wanted to walk out into the river and I would have let her go if I knew Karl would not be upset that she floated off down stream, never to be seen again. S
he has a few studies to work on so I thought best we stay on shore.

Below is a huge barge or something. It was not accepting passengers.

I told Sunita that the water was like bath water, as in Monheim it is always sunny and a balmy 30C and that a nice dip in the Rhine would do her good.....Lucky, the dog, was having a nice swim. I call him Lucky as it was a wonder he was not frozen.

Tourists!!!! Always have to take pictures!! Sunita will have many memories to take back to Monheim. She has mentioned SEVERAL times that she LOVES Monheim and that it reminds her of her home town in India. Satish, I think she wants to move here.....However her mother has been faking a sickness and has told her on the phone to return. She leaves next Saturday.

This is on our trip back from the Rhine excursion when Sunita thought it wise to follow a map. It took us about an hour to get to the Rhine with my directions and 20 minutes to return using the map......LOL..

Sunita was wanting to ride this horse back to the hotel, she is not in the physical shape that I am, I felt sorry for her. Every step I had to worry that she would fall and not get up again. I had to carry her most of the way and she cried how tired she was the entire trip.

Below is Sunita with Brigitte, I had thought when God made me that he had broke the mold, but evidently he/she created Brigitte in Monheim. LOL, and I do mean Laugh Out Loud, she has the best sense of humor and is a joy to work with.

You can tell that I do not like this woman very much.....

After trying to survive on Pizza for 5 days, I convinced Sunita to accompany me to this Asian restaurant where we suffered through trying to order by looking at pictures on the menu we ordered an excellent meal.

Below is a sign I saw while walking Friday evening trying to get reception fro my Blackberry.

Which STILL does not let me send emails from the Hotel......

This sign has a story to tell...

Having a Cow

Ever talk to someone and they seem like they are having a cow expressing themselves? Mooooooving from once place to another is just an effort for them and they always seem to have a beef about something or a steak in the conversation. They try to steer you the wrong way? Udderly ridiculous!!!

Last night in Mumbai, First Day in Goa

Good Bye Bilu

It's hard to get out of India without someone throwing a party. But looking at all the smiling faces I recall a party at UCB when the honree could not make the party and I believe it was Sascha who said, sorry you could not see all the smiling faces........

You can not out-do the masters of throwing a party, even if if it was a lame excuse as "We are celebrating October and September birthdays...LOL..OMG that actually had me thinking...Neha....Neha ha ha ha.



Check out and see if you find Yatin NOT talking on the phone...HMMMM Romance in the air?? I hope he was paying attention when he gave me a "lift" on the back of his motocycle to the restaurant in busy time (7:00am-6:59am everyday) Mumbai traffic. I think the claw marks are still on the side of is bike.....

Deepali, PYT I will never read another horoscope without picturing you two and Anup Vijaja and Shradha.

Vishal is my resident expert on American movies from 1930 to present. Vijaya is lord of the dance.

Yatin...still on the phone. A group of ladies as fine as these come into your life once, I did not let that moment pass me by.

Rajesh and Sathish, two contagious smiles, had nothing to do with the drinks....

Manali is our resident poet. Dnyanada ( from Canada), makes her name easier to pronounce Yanada from Canada.

This is the Princess with her grandfather in the background. This older guy kept showing up at different parties and functions, a real ladies man.

Finally this is the table they prepared for me. Not sure if Yatin

Shopping trip and temple visit

This started as a shopping trip to get some jeans back in the first week of February so that I had something to work for in my weight loss challenge. they are lose on me now...Sundar....
Sunita, Yatin and Vilas took me out "shopping" and we ended up at this temple. The statues of gods were incredible.

We then went to another "temple", The Mall..LOL. and I had my picture taken with this statue...

Michele this is the size of purse you need to carry all the time.

Below is me, Sunita and Vilas( who just celebrated a birthday this Friday). You wouldn't guess it but Sunita LOVES ice cream....!!!!!

Below is Yatin( the protector) , me and Sunita waiting for our cab to take us home. This was a great weekend and I am always impressed when the team takes me out and sacrifices their time to make me feel at home, most of them had another 2 hour trip to get home after leaving me at my hotel. It is not necessary, as I keep telling them , but it is always appreciated.

I had my eyes on that cone of Sunita's since we left the ice cream shop. I ate mine in something like 10 seconds and I think she just kept enjoying hers to make me crazy.......

Yatin

Below is a childhood picture of Yatin. Even here at one year old he was big. He is my "body guard". LOL. When he showed me this snap ,I asked him if I could put it on my blog. Yatin is co-lead on the Cimzia 46 project with Sunita and is one of the original 12 hired. Yatin and Sunita....two people at opposite ends of the growth spectrum. He is my gentle giant who has a passion for biostatistics. He and Sunita ( Princess) keep Ganesh in flowers at their desk to preside over the ORCHID team to bring good luck.

Lunch from UCB

Last Friday it was my pleasure to take both GSP and GRM ( Eileen that means you have to take GSP out when you come..LOL..we only have 26 people in GSP...) out for lunch. After being here for 2 months and never had to pay fro a single lunch or break chai and several dinners, I thought it would be nice to treat. I know , looking below it looks like maybe I treated half of Mumbai.. It is possible I did, because the waiters had to keep adding tables to accomodate everyone. LOL.


It took 2 pictures to attempt to get everyone in the picture. Typical for Satish and Bhavesh they had arranged that the head waiter bring out a bogus bill of I think it was 95,000 rupees which would have been about 2000 American dollars. The actual was 11,000 rupees and a greatdeal. Evidently everyone over here is related to Satish because we keep getting these great deals in restaurants. ORCHID, all of ORCHID, has been very accomodating and I want to thank them all. I will miss you very much when I leave. From the Horoscope readings from my new friends in GRM to the many many chai breaks to the cafeteria lunches and Spice 5 restaurant trips for lunch and most important ice cream. Not once was I left out of a celebration. Each morning I was greeted by the team and felt welcomed. Each mporning Sundar and i would spar as to who had lost the most weight ( truth be told he looks great) . Sundar graciously gave up his office so that I would have privacy for some of my UCB meetings.

Below Sundar was counting up all the palms from all the drinks he had during lunch. Pankti(I call her "PYT") had to load him in a taxi and send him home. He was still brooding over losing the weight loss contest.......
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