Finally, At Home And Happy….

Its very early in the morning but I shall be very busy today, just like the past few days so I thought that I shall write this post at this moment. Its been already 3 days that I am at home but there has been a lot of work that I am supposed to do which is taking a  lot of time of mine. Yesterday, I was traveling and today. hopefully, I shall be indulged in a task which is very near to heart, a tradition of Punjab which makes me feel very proud to be a part of whenever I can. I am not sure any one can guess what it is but to give a hint, its something which I did organize about 3 years back for the first time and did write a post about it too. No idea still? Well, wait then because if all goes fine, I shall definitely be sharing it here. In this post, I shall just mention about the last trip of mine which has made me extremely happy.

I have been on the road in the last month for all 4 weeks. Three weeks were spent at Colombo and the last one was at Bangkok. I have mentioned already about the first two weeks and mentioned in it that I have a 3rd week pending at the same Colombo and than I shall be facing probably one of the toughest challenges of mine. The 3rd week, like the first two weeks, went really great! I went to a different place this time. It was a little away from Colombo and the traffic was horrible at times but still, it was great. The delegates were having their first ever session of Oracle training and I was very fortunate that I got the chance to kick off things there. We had a great time discussing things related to Oracle. Like the last 2 weeks, when I finished the module here as well, I was presented with gift from the head of the computer science department and they were very kind in saying that all went very well and they are extremely happy. I was also very much relieved after finishing probably the longest of my trip done at an overseas location ever and also from this that all went well. A big thanks to all from my side for all the kind words, giving me such a warm welcome and also for all the efforts made by every one to make my stay a very pleasant one and this includes even the hotel staff too. You can imagine that how nice they were with me that when I told them that I am really sick and tired from the normal menu that I am having everyday and I want to try something else. The issue was that in my booking, I was entitled to pick items only from a specific budget menu which has very less for me as I am a vegetarian. As my stay was a very long one, it was just natural for me to get very tired by having the same stuff every day. So when the catering manager heard me, he himself offered me another menu and guess what, they didn’t charge me for it too and it was counted in the same budget menu too. Isn’t it so nice of him? So a big thanks to Global Towers hotel(Colombo), a place where I stayed 2nd time this time and you can be sure that I shall be a returning customer.

Though I stayed at Colombo, but I still didn’t get any time to go anywhere as like a tourist for the reason that I had a very important session coming up right after Colombo trip at Bangkok. So I had to sit and prepare for it, which took a lot out of me. But still, once I was done with my session at Colombo, I went to the sea shore, which was just opposite to my hotel for a walk. This was my first ever such a close encounter with the ocean and it was just great! I have taken a few mobile camera shots which if you are willing to see, are here. It was just amazing. A little scary too for someone like me who never got a chance to be with the ocean so closely but still, completely worth taking the risk. Having so close to the hotel is probably going to be one more reason for me to go back to Global Towers hotel :) .

I believe the talk about the Colombo trip can’t be complete without me posting the group photo which was taken after the completion of the first 2 weeks of the training. And I guess, somehow, I did manage to put a smile on my face in this one :) . Here it is,

So that finished the talk about Colombo and finally, it was time for me to face probably the most toughest challenge of mine which was waiting for me at Bangkok.

Normally, whenever I take a session,I always have either some sort of training gotten for it or I get a chance to sit in some one else’s session to see how to take up the things myself. But this time, I was going to take up a module which neither I had worked upon before ever nor I had gotten any training for it too. And to make things even more interesting, I was going to take my first session of the same module at an overseas location, yep at Bangkok. You can imagine that how stressed I must be even by thinking about it let alone the situation when I was actually going to be delivering the same at Bangkok. I have mentioned above that I didn’t go anywhere despite staying for 3 weeks at Colombo for this very reason only. I just locked up myself in the room all the time and I was studying not just the course book but also two additional books to do the preparation along with many many notes that I collected from the web. This was going to be my first ever session and if you know me, I would never step in the training room without being completely ready and to be ready, I shall do whatever it would take and that’s what I was trying to do, to get ready as much as possible. Finally, the deadly Monday came and the session started. Since I had no experience about the module and how to deal with its timings and all,  I was extremely careful about all the things but some how, every thing remained under control and I was able to finish all the 4 days without having any issues at all. And the best part, I got a rating which was much much more than the required minimum one! Yes, there is still a lot of room left for me to further polish my skills in this module but the biggest burden which was over my head to get this first session completed on a good note was relieved now. Needless to mention, I was so very happy and to give myself a small treat, on the last day of my stay at Bangkok, I went to Pizza Hut and ordered some really good stuff for me and no , it wasn’t pizza! I wanted to come back home with a smiling face and that did happen. About the delegates, as I always say, if they ask for your contact details after the session and  carry a smile on their face at the end of the session, its a very big sign that all went well and that’s the same which did happen in this session as well.

Finally, now I am at home for few days but there is a lot that’s left for me to do so its not going to be relaxing week at all. Let’s see how week shapes up, hope it would be good.