Never thought I'd see the day when "Jiffy Lube" became a place dearly missed.
I had to take our Honda in for an oil change the other day, and despite making an appointment in advance with the dealer's service, they had no record of me on file when I arrived. Then a one-hour promised wait turned into three. TO CHANGE MY OIL. I lost half my day, and paid 150 bucks for the privilege. Hungary has taken huge strides in the past decade towards implementing quality levels of customer service, but that sure wasn't on display yesterday. It was the perfect storm of ineptitude. Throw in the ripped up roads currently being fixed, and, all told with my driving to and from the dealer, I spent 5+ hours on my friggin' OIL CHANGE!
The road construction is another irritating issue. In a normal setting, minor roadwork would be conducted overnight, when traffic is least, thus minimizing the delays to commuters during the day. Not in Hungary! THe fixation with the 8-5 schedule is at play even here, meaning even road crews work bankers' hours. You can imagine what this does to commutes. Mind-bogglingly inept! THey'd get much more work accomplished, in a much quicker timeframe, and without inconveniencing thousands of morning commuters, by simply WORKING FROM 10pm -6am. NOPE.
But I digress from my otherwise happy existence in Hungary. The kids are doing well in school, we are getting rain, and I'm getting ready to open another country this Monday, meaning I'll get to spend a lot more time in Romania. Hired new employees to service the new market, and my staff has been awesome in getting this launch ready. Life's good.
And today we celebrate my youngest's birthday! Happy 7th!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Monday, September 3, 2007
kids & travel...
What a mess this morning. We are back to school days in Budapest, meaning the roads are crowded as what seems like half the city is taking their broods by car to school. Its really only about 10%, but BP's tiny roads (two lanes here equal a single lane in a Utah suburb) really make one think that not only is the entire city in their car and on the road, but that Vienna picked up and drove over on a whim as well.
The kids, as expected, had great days. I love that the kids have essentially the same classmates and teachers each year. No adjustment period necessary. Andrew drew first blood on the homework front--he's got five days to write an essay on his Summer Vacation. Natch, he'd like to put it off until the last minute. That ENDS this year--we got him started on it right way.
I picked them all up at 2 and took them home. The joy of working almost 24/7 means having the liberty to sneak away from the office on occasion and pick the kids up. Makes for a nice late afternoon lunch hour.
Tomorrow after dropping hte kids off is is off on a routine jaunt to Zagreb, Croatia for a meeting with my staff out there, as well as a sit-down at the corporate HQ of the regional bank we are trying to take our business over to. Long day tomorrow--out the door at 650 am, back by 9 or 10 at night. Meh. it seems so routine, but man, the Utah equivalent would be heading out early from Nephi for Vegas, pulling in for a two hour meeting followed by a 1 hour staff meeting/lunch, then a straight drive back. Would I be that crazy? Prolly.
Almost had a coronary last night thanks to Delta. Went online to double check our reservations for Hawaii, and naturally, Agi's Skymiles-based reservation had disappeared. It took me over three hours on the phone to fix it. THREE HOURS. All ended well though. By the end, not only was her reservation rebuilt and synched with mine, but we were both upgraded to business and first class for the the flight over. Not bad for three hours of phone hell.
Couple more work emails (that no one will answer, as I just realized that today was LABOR DAY in the US, meaning the office is closed. Congrats to me--just worked a holiday. Again.
The kids, as expected, had great days. I love that the kids have essentially the same classmates and teachers each year. No adjustment period necessary. Andrew drew first blood on the homework front--he's got five days to write an essay on his Summer Vacation. Natch, he'd like to put it off until the last minute. That ENDS this year--we got him started on it right way.
I picked them all up at 2 and took them home. The joy of working almost 24/7 means having the liberty to sneak away from the office on occasion and pick the kids up. Makes for a nice late afternoon lunch hour.
Tomorrow after dropping hte kids off is is off on a routine jaunt to Zagreb, Croatia for a meeting with my staff out there, as well as a sit-down at the corporate HQ of the regional bank we are trying to take our business over to. Long day tomorrow--out the door at 650 am, back by 9 or 10 at night. Meh. it seems so routine, but man, the Utah equivalent would be heading out early from Nephi for Vegas, pulling in for a two hour meeting followed by a 1 hour staff meeting/lunch, then a straight drive back. Would I be that crazy? Prolly.
Almost had a coronary last night thanks to Delta. Went online to double check our reservations for Hawaii, and naturally, Agi's Skymiles-based reservation had disappeared. It took me over three hours on the phone to fix it. THREE HOURS. All ended well though. By the end, not only was her reservation rebuilt and synched with mine, but we were both upgraded to business and first class for the the flight over. Not bad for three hours of phone hell.
Couple more work emails (that no one will answer, as I just realized that today was LABOR DAY in the US, meaning the office is closed. Congrats to me--just worked a holiday. Again.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
The big initial post...
Hey family & friends--the Palmers in Budapest have finally taken the big step onto the "internets" (hehe--as one unfortunate senator called it). We are far from the serial types of bloggers who post every little mundane detail of their lives online--one-- we have no time for that and two-- what few people who do stumble onto our site would be bored to tears.
This is more to allow us to more easily stay in touch with family and friends at "home" (a relative term, since we have been here now in the big BP for almost four years...).
"Home" will always be Utah, it appears. After an extended debate on where to become an actual homeowner, Budapest or Utah, we settled on Utah and found a great place last summer. It needs a bit of work, but should be a fun project with a lot of yard and garden to play with. So we rent and live in BP, and own & visit in Utah.
Ali and Andrew just returned from their first-week class trips for school. Aidan is still on his and will return this weekend. We love that about their school, Lauder Javne--in the younger grades the first few days are always set aside for a 2-3 day educational trip to somewhere in Hungary that allows the classmates to bond. There is an element of cohesiveness here that seems to be missing in other academic settings. I also like the fact the keep the same set of main teachers through the first 5 grades. The teachers get really familiar with the students strengths and weaknesses, and are far better able to tailor the program to each kid's needs and abilities from year to year.
Ashton is getting homeschooled this year for first grade. I think Agi & I can handle that curriculum :-) We had hoped to get him into the same school but inadvertently waited too long to submit his paperwork last year, and he ended up on a waiting list. Rather than put him somewhere else, we'll homeschool and get him next year. He's flying along, already reading pretty well anyway.
Agi & I have a long-awaited company trip to Hawaii coming up that we are excited about. It'll be good to get away for a week.
This is more to allow us to more easily stay in touch with family and friends at "home" (a relative term, since we have been here now in the big BP for almost four years...).
"Home" will always be Utah, it appears. After an extended debate on where to become an actual homeowner, Budapest or Utah, we settled on Utah and found a great place last summer. It needs a bit of work, but should be a fun project with a lot of yard and garden to play with. So we rent and live in BP, and own & visit in Utah.
Ali and Andrew just returned from their first-week class trips for school. Aidan is still on his and will return this weekend. We love that about their school, Lauder Javne--in the younger grades the first few days are always set aside for a 2-3 day educational trip to somewhere in Hungary that allows the classmates to bond. There is an element of cohesiveness here that seems to be missing in other academic settings. I also like the fact the keep the same set of main teachers through the first 5 grades. The teachers get really familiar with the students strengths and weaknesses, and are far better able to tailor the program to each kid's needs and abilities from year to year.
Ashton is getting homeschooled this year for first grade. I think Agi & I can handle that curriculum :-) We had hoped to get him into the same school but inadvertently waited too long to submit his paperwork last year, and he ended up on a waiting list. Rather than put him somewhere else, we'll homeschool and get him next year. He's flying along, already reading pretty well anyway.
Agi & I have a long-awaited company trip to Hawaii coming up that we are excited about. It'll be good to get away for a week.
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