Sure Horizon

Archive for November, 2009

One of the world’s most fascinating cities, Bangkok is an enormous metropolis, with a huge variety of cultures, languages, and traditions passing through its borders at any one time.  It is a magnificent place to escape to, getting away from the usual and everyday, and entering into an unusual place where just about anything can happen.  There is an amazing nightlife here, which is really rather famous, but there are also a stunning array of attractions during the day as well, and there is truly something for visitors of all ages.  For restaurants, it’s absolutely superb, and for hotels, Bangkok, Thailand extends its spirit of generous hospitality toward providing you with excellent accommodations.

There is a sense of exotic mystery here, as well as the extreme cosmopilitan sensibilities offered only by cities of its size.  There are people from all backgrounds and all walks of life here, making up a constantly shifting cultural atmosphere that is endlessly fascinating.  There are plenty of local artists doing amazing new work in the fields of visual arts and performance, and there are also many international artists who live here, or have done work here, drawn by the magnetic energy of the place, as well as the strengths of the potential collaborators.  One joint project that worked out tremendously well, and gives some idea of the artistic possibilities in Bangkok was a production by Witness Relocation from New York City with some members of the renowned Patravadi Theatre.

Witness Relocation is a company devoted to experimental dance forms, mixed with theatre, to make amazing and radical spectacles that ask very difficult questions about what it’s like to live right now.  They were here in Bangkok for a 2 year residency recently, and the work with Patravadi was quite stunning, and suggested possibilities for a future of transcultural collaborations.  Merging and re-mixing cultures without resorting to simple answers or a sentimental idea of togetherness were some of the marks of this production, which earned great critical response from audiences as well as the international arts community.  Projects like these can speak very well to how artists might pave the way for deeper patterns of respect as well as understanding.

Washington DC is always an exciting place to visit. With more things to do than could be accomplished in one lifetime, seriously, one could spend their entire life there and not see it all.   Several decades ago the Smithsonian Magazine did a story on the collection housed in the museums that make up the Smithsonian. They reported in that article that if a new born person were to start viewing the objects the Smithsonian Museums have on display for 20 seconds each that person would be in their 80’s when they were done. This doesn’t include some of the huge museum in DC that are not a part of the Smithsonian complex like the National Gallery and the National Archives.

Washington DC is a great vacation destination for everyone young and old alike. With museums housing collections of some of the world finest paintings and art objects, there is something to accommodate every taste. The National Gallery house classical and modern works of art from antiquity to the present day all under one roof, it can take days just to view this collection. The National Archives offer a look at the first American Flag, original draft of the Constitution and much more, Americas history is housed there.

The Smithsonian Museums house collections in a variety of museums. The Sackler and Freer galleries are dedicated to Asian art. Next-door is the Museum of African Art. Just up the mall is the Air and Space Museum and next to the Museum of the American Indian and across the mall is the Natural History Museum, just to name a few of the Smithsonian Museums.

If you get enough of museum going there are all the monuments and buildings to visit. The White House and Capitol are very popular with DC area long with the monuments that dot the National Mall. Memorials to Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson offer history lessons of these men. Monuments to the fallen in WW I, WW II and Vietnam are memorials to those who have given their lives to protect their country.

The best part of all this is that nearly all the museums and monuments are free to visit. When booking rooms at a DC luxury hotels they can provide much information regarding all the sites to be seen in the DC area.

The accessories and various options that are available for and with hot tubs in today’s market are almost as fun to purchase as the hot tub itself. The continued technological growth has not only made hot tubs more affordable, but has also made them diverse and almost personalized. There are many models available that are suited to specific personalities, families, incomes and space sizes that it is no wonder there are more hot tubs in private homes today than ever before. And for this reason, there is no excuse to resist looking into a personal hot tub if you and or your family has the interest.
Choosehottubsdirect.com has many models, brands and optional features and accessories to choose from and are also there to assist buyers with the information they need to make their best decision. It is always recommended that a little bit of investigation into models and styles as well as the various alternative features is pursued prior to initializing a purchase. This is primarily due to the amount of choices one discovers when they actually begin looking. Some hot tub models will have certain features included and it is best to make a priority list and search for a tub that is closest to matching it.

If your top two tub feature priorities are lighting systems and stereos it will be relatively easy to find models that include them. The question will then become what type of lighting elements are strongly preferred and any special requests involved with the stereo. It then becomes important to be informed that remote controls and special effects lighting displays are available as accessories. There are some spectacular lighting effects available for relatively little money so it may be a good idea to go with a model that just has the basic lighting elements and add your own options later. The same thing applies for stereos and other features. Depending on the extent of your preferences and needs, differing degrees of investigation are required for the hot tub purchases.

When Cathy began working for the substance abuse crisis  hotline she did not realize that theories of excellent customer service would be essential to her position. She knew that she needed a full understanding of the dynamics of substance abuse and full understanding of illegal substances and alcohol, as well as addictive and abuse prone pharmaceutical medicines. She had a strong background in these elements as she had studied addictive personalities, substance abuse dynamics and substances that are commonly abused in college. She actually felt fully equipped to deal with the demands of her new job. That is until her first day there.

Cathy was trained on the various types of circumstances she would be likely to face on the phone and was also fully trained on how to respond to most situations. However, what she was not quite prepared for hit her when she answered her first call. That was the reality that she was dealing with an actual person on the other end who was in an actual real life crisis and desperately needed her help. It was surprisingly not Cathy’s most recent education that came to her mind in response, but some skills she had learned at her first job that she accessed at that moment.

When she was seventeen Cathy worked for a about a year in a neighborhood cafe. While she was there she learned some very valuable lessons about how to deal with customers and the basic and non-negotiable element of respect. She ended up dealing with a multitude of circumstances that required strong skills in customer service and actually grew a great deal a person through the experience. It was on the crisis line that Cathy drew on these theories while she didn’t forget her education in substance abuse, her skills in excellent customer service guided her through the process. Experienced and professionally oriented businesspeople like Steven Barbarich understand the connection of excellent customer service to all businesses and fields.

Arts and the country of India, walk hand in hand.  And this is not more evident than in the city of Chennai. The city so supports artistic endeavours of the people, that there are many centers that offer classes and seminars on the arts and crafts, and on the diversity of the artistic creations of the people.  From contemporary and modern, to classical and traditional, all types of work, exhibits and shows are celebrated.  And aside from the galleries and museums, there are a number of ways to experience the world of art in the city, from paintings hanging on the walls of the restaurants, to those hanging in the lobbies of four star hotels, Chennai celebrates the visual arts world.  It is just part of the culture, an integral part.  The School of Arts and Crafts was started in 1850 as the School of Industrial Art.  Many children began attending the school due to the influence of Roy Choudhury, who had taken over control of the school in 1929.

Many of those who were so inspired traveled from cities such as Paritosh Sen, Gopal Ghosh and Suhil Mukerjee in order to study under such an influential and enthusiastic man.  A few decades later, the school became an accredited college.  The arts have made this city a prime shopping location for tourists wishing to bring a bit of the Chennai culture home with them.  Everything from jewelry to icons set in bronze, to sculptures of stone and marble to the traditional bells made from steel, are to be found in the markets surrounding the school.  Fashionable wares are also to be found, such as the fashionable accessory of the Western world, the pashmina, to the scarves and the saris so well designed with composition and color.  Any market, visited at any time, will illustrate and provide the culture of this artistic community, and the opportunity to bring a small part of that culture home.

We drove to Tarragona because it was once the old Roman capital of Spain. We found a hotel to stay for the night and as soon as we put our bags down in our room, we hit the town hard. The Amphitheater was our first stop, it was great. The ruins of the hippodrome was huge, which included the towers that were still standing. One of the towers was wrapped in chicken wire. We found out that this was to stop pigeons from nesting in it. What was sad about this, is some pigeons got trapped in the chicken wire and left to die and decay away. We saw a couple of more ruins before we decided it was time to down a bottle of wine and have some dinner.

One of my colleagues from work, Mary, who is from Spain, told me to book a room in one of Zaragoza Spain hotels, because it’s a great place to visit. On the way there , we wanted to see an old Roman aqueduct, which we were told three different way to get there, which had us driving around in circle for about an hour, so we decided to head on to Zaragoza and skip the aqueduct. There was a great Cathedral that originally was a mosque, it even had the four minarets. We got to climb inside one of the minarets, not that spectacular. We decided to have dinner in our hotel room and get an early nights sleep, for tomorrow we head to Barcelona!

It will be our third time in Barcelona, so we felt like our own tour guides. Our first self tour was the Gaudi Parc Guell. We figured Gaudi must have been on drugs to get his buildings to look like they did. Our next self-guided tour was the Sagrada Familia. We were astonished at the amount of changes that had taken place since last we visited. Then, of course, it was time once again for a bottle of wine and a nice dinner somewhere. Ah Spain, we love you so!