14 June 2006

Stamford, Connecticut

My first trip with Bill in almost two years. We’re here to meet with Glencore, who is interested in our solutions.

We flew here last Tuesday. We caught the 8:18am flight from Vancouver to Chicago where we had a two hour stopover. Then it was a one hour 45 minute flight from Chicago to White Plains, NY. The nice thing about travelling with Bill, the super elite aeroplan guy, is the access to the Air Canada and Star Alliance lounges. It totally beats waiting in the regular gate area.

It made for a long day, though. I got up at 5am and we landed at White Plains at 4pm. As we were approaching the Westchester County Airport, I saw the many mansions that dot this obviously high income area. Martha Stewart, David Letterman - they live in Westchester County. I’ve never seen so many mansions in one area before.

Stamford is about 30 minutes from White Plains. We got to the Marriot Stamford after 6pm. Bill and I had a detour - we passed a sign that said Open House so we popped in to tour the gorgeous house that was for sale for $2.1 million US. The real estate agent was all over Bill! The house was grand, the workmanship was top-notch. The kitchen was amazing and the masters bathroom was like a spa. Sigh... How the other half lives...

Today, we met with Glencore. We discussed and got a demo of the system, PhysOps, they are planning to roll out in the near future. We showed them Shell Navarik and Cargo Watch. For me, my focus was to study how they define and model a “voyage”. I learned a lot today about the world of shipping and I’m glad I was able to come with Bill for these meetings.

Other highlights so far...
- Somehow I qualified for access to the concierge lounge where there’s free food and drinks
- I wore a blouse and skirt to work for the first time in a gazillion years
- I ran for about 45 minutes around Stamford after work today

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