Paul's Page

Hello All,

For the last couple of weeks, since June 28th, I have been back in North America. I spent a couple of days here in Chicago getting ready to go on my Bi-Annual fishing trip to Canada and then was in Canada fishing for a week. On this past Sunday, July 8th, I got back to Chicago late in the evening and have been staying around my parents house and seeing a couple of people here and there.

I am uploading some of my pictures from my trip to Canada right now but it won’t be all of them since I still have a couple of pictures to sort through as I took a lot of pictures and don’t want you all to get bored looking as the same darn thing over and over again.

Enjoy and I’ll talk to you soon. Oh yeah, I fly back to Shanghai on this coming Sunday morning at 10:35. Until then you can reach my on my US cell phone, 630-303-6336.
Paul

Hello all,

Well I got to Shanghai on this past Wednesday and it is now Sunday and it is our first day off. I spent the morning having breakfast with a friend who just got back into town and then I went to Walmart again. Here is one of the pictures I took while I was there:

Yeah those are live frogs and the second picture are live frogs in a plastic bag going home with someone and I’ll say this I wasn’t in the Pet section of Walmart.

After that I came back to the hotel before going out to the airport to pick up a new employee. The way I got there was to take a taxi to the MagLev train station and then I rode the MagLev train out to the airport. The reason I’m mentioning it is because the MagLev train only was a 7 minute ride. The train left exactly at 13:00 and picked up speed, A LOT OF SPEED. Check out the pictures and keep in mind that the car ride I took back to the city took about half an hour on a highway.

I hope everyone is doing well. I’m making my list of what I’m going to take to Canada and what I’m going to bring off of tour today so I am getting close to leaving.
ttys
Paul

Well Hello,

I have now traveled to Shanghai which is where the show is starting to setup. We are actually in the process of marking the site out and nailing down all of the plates for the show equipment which should start arriving on the 18th of June.

My last couple of days in Beijing were nice and relaxed. On Tuesday I was originally going to go to the Ming Tombs but we ended up just hanging around Beijing and doing some little things like picking up laundry, some shopping and mailing some stuff back to Mom and Dad’s. On Wednesday morning however we did make it up to the Ming Tombs and to a nearby mountain with a resevoir and Pagoda on top of it. I actually drove from the Ming Tombs to the top of this mountain, my first driving in China. I have been told I did alright driving, I only scared the other passengers once when another car tried to illegally (well it would be illegal anywhere else in the world except China) turn in front of me from behind another car that was waiting to turn. Screams were had but we came through unscathed and I was scream obscenities out the window but it didn’t matter since the only people who understood what I was saying were in the car with me. I hope the guy at least understood my tone though.

After going up to this mountain, which we know how to get there because my friend Paul launches his paraglider from there some times, we went down to another resevoir in the valley below this mountain and just sat around for a while. The cool thing about this resevoir was that the Olympic Triathalon will be held at and around that place next year.

I’ve put most of the pictures from my trip up and I am converting the last of the ones right now and will hopefully put those up tonight or tomorrow. The first Gallery, 2007-06-06, are the pictures from my first day in town. I would talk more about this gallery and the others but the internet seems to have slowed to a crawl so you’ll just have to wait a little longer until things get settled down and I can have a better connection.

Right now I am still in the hotel but tomorrow morning I move out of here and over to my apartment which is where I’ll be for the rest of this city. I will be able to buy an internet connection for a much more reasonable price in the hotel and I will purchase it on a monthly basis so I should be online a lot more when I’m at home.

My Chinese is getting a little better thanks to my time in Beijing and my friends Jianyu and Paul who have been helping me. I’m hoping to get some serious studying done this city so I can get better and be able to communicate with more of my friends that I have made over here.

In case I haven’t said it or people aren’t aware I will be coming back into Chicago in the near future. On the 28th of June, premier night here, I will leave Shanghai in the afternoon and arrive mid-afternoon on the same day in Chicago. I am coming to town for our bi-annual fishing trip to Canada. This trip is it going to be me, Dad, Steve, Andrew, Dan and my friend Stirling who I met in Graduate school and reconnected with while I was in Cincinnati with the tour this past year. On Saturday, June 30, really morning early in the morning we will start our trip up and on Sunday we will fly into the camp and spend a week there. I’m hoping for a lot of good weather, clear nights with lots of Northern Lights, and above all else good fishing.

I have purchased some new camera equipment that I have been needing or wanting for a while now. I have purchased a Canon 30D camera body. I bought this camera now mostly because of the trip to Canada but more important than that I want to stop using the two digital Rebel bodies I have that fit my underwater housing. If I break the cameras that I have now I will have an expensive piece of clear plastic that isn’t worth anything. So I plan on getting the bodies I have serviced, while they still can be, and only use them for when I go diving with them. The 30D will become my primary land camera. I realize that Canon will now shortly announce the 40D is coming out or something like that but what can you do? I have also finally bought a tri-pod with a really sexy swivel head, and also an extender for my Telephoto lense. I think there was something else but I can’t remember now. I wish I had the tripod a couple of times during my trip to Beijing and also the Telextender would have been nice a couple of times. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some really nice picture while I’m in Canada.

I hope you all doing well. I’m heading to sleep soon.

Good Morning Everyone,

Yesterday I went to the Great Wall of China (Huang Hua Zheng) with a friend of mine. I am attempting to upload the all of the pictures from this day but I am also going to try and put a couple of pictures here in my blog as well. Let’s hope that it works.

So the section of the Wall that I went to technically isn’t supposed to be climbed on but since it is in the Lonely Planet Guide book and has had some work done on it to refurbish it you can get away with going to it and climbing on it. As you will see in the pictures it was freaking huge but it was SO AMAZING!!!!!

Here is the first attempt at a picture of me sitting on some stairs leading from one of the “houses”:

We hiked on the wall, up and back for about 2-1/2 hours and I can’t even think of the number of stairs I went up and down. There were lots of ramps we climbed up and down as well. It truly was an amazing day. My GPS said that the total elevation gain for that section of the wall was about 1850 feet. I don’t know how much I can trust it right now but it was sure one hell of a climb.

I am about to go to the Ming tombs now so I’m going to end with another picture of the great wall. In this picture you can see one of the “houses” that are located along the wall but in the distance you can see what appears to be another one before the wall takes a sharp turn to the right. We hiked all the way up to this point.

Talk to you soon. Tonight will be my last night in Beijing I will head to Shanghai tomorrow evening for work However two weeks after that I’ll be flying home to Chicago. Hopefully I’ll do some backlogged posts soon. I heard it was said I don’t do enough at the Rafferty party so I will try to be better and enjoy the pictures.

Paul

Hello Everyone,

I am currently in Beijing right now. I have been here for three days so far and I have been enjoying myself a lot. The first day here, Wednesday we did some driving around and have some good food but we didn’t really go see anything besides out the window of the Car. Yesterday my friend Paul and I went and walked through the Forbidden City, which is HUGE by the way I actually only covered about 1/3 of it and we were there for several hours, and after that we walked through Tiananmen Square. It was fun day and I have lot of pictures that I will hopefully start uploading today. We also went and saw the Beijing university for a little bit and that was very pretty as well.

Today I went and did some shopping, I won’t say for what because some people who might read this might be getting stuff and I want it to be a suprise. After that my friend Jianyu (Jenny) and I went to the Beijing Zoo. Actually we got there kind of late and it was a hot day so most of the animals were in their cages already or weren’t moving around. So tomorrow morning I am going to back early in the morning and see them again. After that I am heading to see the Diabolo Girls from Quidam who are back in Beijing on their break. I will have lunch with them and one of the former girls as well. Then I will go watch a performance that Mengmeng is in. After that we are supposed to go to Dinner and then Karoake, don’t worry I plan on not singing.

Lots more to report as the days go by. I’ll put more pictures up and blogs when I have time. Until then good night.

Hello All,

Just a quick note that today is the last day of shows here in Seoul. It has been a really good city. I’m sorry I haven’t written more this city. It means I am now two cities behind in blogs, sorry.

A couple of notes, In between Seoul and Shanghai where I am at and am going for work I will spend a week in Beijing site seeing. Look for pictures to go up as soon as I can from this trip. I also have some pictures from Seoul to put up as well.

At the beginning of the Shanghai city run, actually on Premier day, I will fly back to the US for our bi-annual Canadian fishing trip. I will arrive in the US on the 28th of June and I will travel to Canada on the 30th of June and will be back on 8th of July in Chicago. I will then be in town for another week where I hope to see some people but I will be primarily spending most of my time around my parents house.

Skype – I have discovered the world if Skype. I now am making phone calls through the internet and also am receiving calls through the internet which are forwarded to my cell phone. Now instead of calling me overseas all you have to do is call a local Chicago phone number – 630-448-4971. Calls to this phone will forward to my Skype account and then I have my Skype account forwarded to my cell phone. When I get to China and get new phone numbers I will change the forward so it continues to come to me.

That is all I have time for now.
ttys
Paul

Hello Everyone,

Just a quick update. I am in a small town about an hour north of Sharm El Sheikh on the Red Sea called Dahab. I have been diving a lot, still, and in general enjoying myself. I leave here on Tuesday morning to go visit another friend up until the 9th of March which is when I’ll be flying to Seoul. I will try and post a couple of pictures from my travels and scuba diving tonight or soon. If not you’ll just have to wait for the big upload when I get to Seoul.

Until then I hope you are all doing well.

Hello All,

We’re setting off presently for my trip into the Red Sea. I’m on a boat in a harbor online, pretty cool. Lots of diving and pictures to come soon.

All is well, we should have left last night but some people were late in arriving.

ttys
Paul

So I had decided to take the last Sunday of our stay here in Dubai off to combine it with my usual day off on Monday so I could have two days off in a row before leaving. I decided that for these two days I would take the Al Boom Dive Shop shuttle on Sunday morning to go to do two to four dives in Fujairah then spend the night in the hotel overnight, do two more dives on Monday and come back with the Dive Shop shuttle on Monday afternoon.

So this morning at 5:30am I awoke and got ready to head to the dive shop. I arrived about 6:45 and by 7:15 we were on the road. We arrived shortly after 9:00am and because we left a little late I was a little rushed to get my gear ready. I was slapping stuff together when the dive shop coordinator came up to me and asked me if I wanted to go to a different site, a wreck called Inchcape 1, to which I asked if there was anything to see and after being assured I said of course. So the first boat left and I continued to get my gear ready to go on a smaller boat to the wreck which was just a short distance away. After the short boat ride, literally 1-2 minutes long, we were moored off to a buoy in about 100 feet of water. As we were gearing up we were looking over the side and noticing the numerous jelly fish that were floating by and I was informed the ones that look like a line of pearls are the ones to worry about because they are the ones that sting. So after checking the see if the water I was about to roll into was mostly clear of the bad jelly fish I rolled in and surfaced to pick up my underwater camera and we were on the way down.

After descending for a while, we’re in 100 feet of water and it takes a while to get that deep, the wreck starts to appear. This wreck wasn’t anything that special, and was actually kind of smallish. It was sunk to become an artificial reef a while back and it was doing its job very well. There were just schools of fish all around it and life encrusted to the boat all over the place. So we started a slow clockwise tour around the boat and I was snapping pictures left and right, some of which came out okay. After a short 19-20 minutes it was time to start heading back up  So we started ascending from 100 feet very slowly and then at about 15 feet we just hung out for about 3-5 minutes while our bodies adjusted from being so deep. At 15 feet is where things started to get a little more exciting. Remember those string of pearl jelly fish I was mentioning? Well they were just flowing on by like we were going the wrong way down a one way street in a busy city center. Thankfully for me the only portion of exposed skin for me was just around my face. I had a full hood on as well as a full length wetsuit, gloves and full booties so I faired very well. The other two people who I was diving with weren’t as covered as I was were suffering a little more. I was just floating there taking pictures while hanging out and of course I finally got stung on my right cheek and below my lips as one floated by unnoticed by me. This actually happened to be my fist jelly sting and I have to admit I didn’t care for it that much. Now mom don’t worry it was not life threatening in any sort of way it just stung and I quickly used my glove to clear it from my face.

After our time at our safety stop we slowly ascended the rest of the way and got out of the water. Annabell who was covered the least was suffering from the most jelly stings so she got the use of the Vinegar first. Vinegar is what kills the stinging cells and helps with the poison that is there. So after she complained a lot about how the vinegar stung just as much as the jelly sting I took the vinegar and put it into my hand and wiped it onto my face. It stung a little of course but less than if the jelly was still there. We settled into taking off our gear as we headed back to shore.

We had beaten the first boat back to the hotel because we didn’t have to go as far and couldn’t stay down as long, because of depth, so I was relaxing changing lenses on my underwater housing when the other boat arrived. After they had rinsed off all of their gear they started to relax and we started chatting. I starting talking to one guy and he, as per usual, asked where I was from. I recognized his accent as being from the US so instead of my usual answer of South Canada I said Chicago. This guy said “no way, where at?” I said “Lisle” he said even louder “NO WAY, where at?” to which I replied Mom and Dad’s address to which he said “I live two blocks from your parents house”. Needless to say we were quite shocked and chatted for a while about what the two of us were doing in such a random remote place. Turns out he works for the military and was over here on holiday and he came for the morning dive with a friend of his. So we chatted for a while and then it was time for me to go on the second dive and he asked for my card and phone number and maybe later he would call and we would get together for dinner or something.

So about 5:30pm or so he called and said he would meet me in the Hotel Lobby about 7:00pm for dinner. We had a nice little meal at one of the restaurants here at the hotel and talked about just anything and everything from home to work or what was the likelihood of us both being here. It was a very nice dinner and talk because we both spoke the same way, fast and muddled for myself at least, and I was able to understand everything he said without any difficulty either. I wish I had met him earlier in the city. In any case after dinner we went and walked around for a bit after getting my camera and we stood in front of the dive shack together for an obligatory picture.

It just goes to show you that no matter how large this world really it, it is still REALLY REALLY small.

Hope you all had a nice weekend, I know I did. New pictures going up soon.

Whoever said it doesn’t rain in the desert is a complete LIAR. Today we were sitting in our Head of Department meeting which started at 1:00pm. By 2:30pm it had started to sprinkle a little and by about 3:00pm we had to go inside because it had started to rain in ernest. By 3:15pm it was outright POURING. About this time I got a call to go to the artistic tent because there was a water problem.

Earlier in the city we had gotten a complaint that a drain that was under the floor was giving off sewage smelling gas. So we took a piece of plywood and caulked it down to contain the smell. When I got to the artistic tent the floor was taken up over the sealed drain and there was not about 5 inches of standing water over the top of the drain. Please note that the floor is only about 7-8 inches above the floor overall.

So we pulled the plywood up with the hopes that the the drain would start running and of course because of the quantity of water overall in the system nothing really happened at all. Shortly after that I got a call to go into the Big Top where there was now water flowing over the curb of the big top and onto and over our backstage floor. So we started scrambling. Pumps were fetched and pluged in drains were opened up where possible and nothing was moving. So we ended up cancelling our 4:00pm show because we were littlearlly flooded out and we started trying to get the lighting instruments that normally sit on the floor out of the 4 inches of water they were sitting in. Right now I can hear the hair driers being used in the tents to continue the drying process of the plugs and instruments.

So we were starting to win the war outside of the tent and were about to move full force with the pumps inside the Big Top, we had litterally lowered the pump under the stage when all of a sudden the drains started flowing. I mean they were flowing fast and what was about 4 inches of water in the big top was gone in about 2 minutes. We were all standing there shocked and wondering why all of a sudden this happened. To this point now tonight we still don’t know what opened up and got rid of all the water. We don’t know if someone somewhere threw a switch and opened something up or turned on a pump or if a trashbag cover the drain finally gave way but all of a sudden we were fighting the water and the next second it was virtually gone.

Right now we have a big pumper truck on site should we run into another heavy rain storm like that but let’s hope it doesn’t happen.

So when in Dubai if someone tells you it never rains call them a LIAR. When I get some pictures back I will be sure to put them up on my web site for all to see the flooding.

Hope everyone is doing well. Me and my wet feet are about to go home tonight.

ttys