How many ways can the city of Chennai be more perfect?  The beaches along the Southeastern coast of Chennai are lined with silver and white sand.  The temperatures are moderate all year long, as is the case with many seaside cities, especially ones close to the equator.  The is where we find Chennai.  The history of the city has been affected throughout the years by a number of cultures from the Chola Dynasty times of rule, the culture and the art was greatly influenced, with some of the monuments and palaces of this time, the Second Century AD still standing and drawing tourists today.

Later Chennai was ruled by the Pallavas, the Nayaks, the Dutch, Portuguese, French and the British.  Until 1996 the name was Madras, but was officially changed to Chennai by the Government of the Tamil Nadu.  The architecture is striking, from the temples and the monuments to the five star hotels.  Chennai is also a natural wonder and beauty, and the two elements combined make this a wonderful place to do a bit of both, the city life of art and culture, and the natural life of the great outdoors.

To have look at the collection of Mughal works of art one would go to the Government Museum Complex.  Here too are three libraries where one can research all aspects of the Government of Chennai and of the country of India.  One area with many sites close by is by the Marine Drive boardwalk.  Here one will see the 1653 Fort of Saint George, the Saint Mary’s Church and its collection of artifacts from France and Great Britain, and the Palace of Valluvar Kottam.  This palace is splendid as it is designed in the form of a great chariot and is seriously a sight that should not be missed.  And after a few hours spent wandering around the museums, nothing beats a stroll down Marine Drive and along the cool and breezy beach.

We were traveling around Ohio this past summer enjoying the rolling hills, the farms and country side. We were just out for a weekend of driving around and getting out of the city for a while. Looking for places to hike in the woods, farms to visit, produce to sample and buy. Just enjoying the hot lazy days of July in a realxing and casual manner.

We started off in Cincinnati, Oh on a Friday morning in mid July. heading south and west we had no particular destination in mind nor did we really care where we ended up as long s it was out of the city.

Early on we came across a farm that was having a sale. They were having a garage sale, maybe it was a permanent one, I am not sure. There were lost and lots of old and rusty machinery parts and tools: wrenches, hammers, hoes, shovels, spades, picks, gears, tires and so much other junk I could not possibly remember or list. The farmer and his wife were selling some handy work, baked goods and farm produce as well. The couple were really nice. Seems they are tyhe third generation to farm that piece of land and they had been working that farm since 1966. They really seemed to love their farm and the simple yet hard working life it provided for them. After some time talking we bought s loaf of bread, some home made jam, a jar of honey and some fruit. We now had lunch in tow.

We drove on that day getting close to Dayton when we saw a sign for the Air Show in Dayton. Perfect, we were there the same weekend as the Air Show. I love air planes and couldn’t miss the opportunity to see the show since we would be in the area. I got us rooms at hotels Dayton that Friday night so we could spend the day Saturday at the Air Show. It was very exciting to see the planes and hear the roar of the engines. I love going for drives without a plan, you just never know where you will end up or what you might see.

I’m back in Bangkok for only a few days to prepare for Myanamar and then on to India. You’d think I would be scrambling for some last minute supplies, trade in my useless guide books and in all prepare to leave for Southeast Asia. Well I should, but I decided to do a less conventional preparation, which was to learn Thai cooking!

May Sangie runs this food stall in Banglampu, which is a very popular tourist area. Her food is ranked among the best on my list of best foods during my journey and what’s even better is it’s all vegetarian. I’m seriously now thinking of all the food I’ll be able to cook when I get back home. I became so hooked on her spicy and sweet Massaman Curry. I tried it the first time I came through Bangkok and I came back many times. So, with the little time I have left, I will take a Thai cooking class.

I left my 5 star hotel Bangkok has and met with May then next morning and we went to the market to get supplies. As we passed other street food hawkers, May received a lot of yells, which I can’t help think was all about her walking with a geeky white guy from America, especially since they were all smiling and pointing at me. I asked her what they said, and she only replied that they wanted her to pick up some goods at the market. I’m sure they were saying something more along the lines of ‘He’s going to burn your stall down’.

She bought huge amounts of vegetables and four live catfish, it was all more than we both could carry and left them there to be delivered to her stall, all except one live catfish, which she gave me to carry. She lead me down an alleyway that seemed to lead to nothing but a canal. She then explained to me that she was going to give the fish back to the river as a part of her religious practice, or belief, a belief that if one takes something from nature, one must give something back. She said a short prayer and cast the fish into the canal and we headed back to her stall. That gesture made me realize that I was going to not only learn cooking today.

With a rich urban cultural scene that brings in a host of splendid festivals, and a developing arts community, Oklahoma City is the largest city in the state, and has its foothold in the future.  It also is a wonderful place to celebrate and recreate the old-fashioned wild west heritage.  The combination of the old and the new help to make it a city that cares about its citizens.  Mary Myrick‘s work with Public Strategies is very rooted in this community, with two decades of experience here that began with the Cavs basketball team as one of its first clients.

Public Strategies, lead by Mary Myrick, continues to work with a diverse array of clients, from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services to the University of Oklahoma, demonstrating a remarkable ability to take on large-scale projects and implement them with quality and efficiency.  This is in large part due to her team of 150 employees, whose ranks are continuing to swell, and each member holding a very important key to the success of the company.  At Public Strategies, we meet the client where you are, using our expertise to make your own visions of improved organizational communication, project management, or public relations into a reality.  We are based in Oklahoma City, and dedicated to seeing it thrive, so that all the citizens can have better lives.

When the community is allowed to shine, the skills and talents of every individual are given a chance to show themselves, so that all of our contributions can help make the city grow.  Oklahoma’s rich past is not simply a tourist attraction, or a piece of folklore, but part of a continuous weave that speaks directly to the present moment.  With an eye always kept on the public good, we strive to help develop ideas and give you skills so that you can see them through every phase as your dreams turn into realities.

If you’re in search of a residential or business space in Canada, we have what you’re looking for to take care of all your needs.  At TransGlobe Property Management, we strive to earn your trust at the very beginning.  When you’re working with us, your needs are always worthy of attention, and our reputation depends upon our ability to respond quickly to your concerns.  We consider this a life-long relationship, and our revolutionary vision for customer service means that your continued satisfaction is our number one concern.  We have properties all over Canada, and certainly have something that you’ll love.  One of our greatest priorities is our embeddedness in  the communities we serve, because we love what we do, and we also love where we are.

Your needs will always be a priority for us, because we consider that what we do adds to the health of the communities.  You’ll find that at TransGlobe, we’re deeply involved with the life inside and outside the buildings.  Our commitment to the communities we serve is demonstrated in our recent move to fuel-efficient vehicles.  Fuel efficient vehicles are a sign of one way we can all work together to make a more sustainable future for the next generations.

The very notion of moving to vehicles that consume less is something that shows an awareness of where we are, and the times we’re living in.  We like to contribute to a safer and more conscious attitude toward the world in general, and for Canada’s health, it makes sense.  We like green communities, so that we can enjoy the natural beauty of the place today, while moving toward an awareness of our effects on the generations that will come after us.  It’s just one thing that we can do toward helping us move toward a more sustainable life today, in order to pave the way to a future that we can feel good about.

I’m a twenty one year old college cellist and am trying to find an upgrade to my current instrument. I’m still playing my 7/8 size cello that I had in high school. It’s an extremely good quality instrument, though I’m definitely ready for a full size, well and I have been for quite some time. I’ve been waiting to make the transition because I wanted to be in at a skill level where I could start to look at professional cellos. I live outside of Hong Kong and can easily travel to the city, though I’ve also been looking at online sellers. Of course my cello instructor at school will have a say on my final decision, and is offering me directional advice.

I have been to Hong Kong Strings in the city, and actually I kind of consider it to be something of a comfort shop. That might sound weird, but as a child my grandmother took me their and I was so astounded by all of the instruments, I knew then that I had to play. My uncle had been a violinist and even played for a time with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. As a young child he loaned me his violin to try and I enjoyed it so much my grandmother was inspired to buy me my first instrument. That’s when we went to Hong Kong Strings.

While we were there, however, I was so taken by the cellos, a very good cellist happened to be in shop that day trying them out. I honestly couldn’t believe the depth of the sound they made and knew I was destined for the cello over the violin. I didn’t want to hurt my uncle, and I didn’t want my grandmother to think that I was being fickle, so I simply said that I thought we needed more time since it was such a big purchase. Then, over the next several weeks I managed to get my family to say that I seemed to be much more suited to the cello. I don’t remember how I did this, though I do remember positioning the violin like a cello. I thought it would look ridiculous and make me seem foolish, though maybe that did the trick. We returned to the string shop many times and eventually my grandmother suggested we try the cellos. Once I sat down with one there was no turning back, and my grandmother ended up buying me my first half size cello. This happened over a special weekend stay. We made an event out of it and stayed in one of the Hong Kong luxury hotels and had breakfast in a fancy bistro. I can’t help but think of that weekend while I consider buying my next instrument.

This past August I took my wife back to her home town of Hartford CT for a visit. We have talked about it for a long time and she has really been wanting to go so it was time. It was a lovely visit, we spent just under a week there and enjoyed every minute. We got our rooms at hotels Hartford and were really happy with the hotels location in he downtown area. We were able to spend most of our evening on foot walking where we wanted to go only having to drive during the day.

While there we visited various places that were special to my wife while she was a child and growing up. We walked past her old elementary school, middle school and high school. We stopped in the church her family attended while she was growing up. We also went strolling in the park where she use to play with her friends, visiting distant family members and seeing old friends she had not seen since before we got married. It was beautiful and she was so happy to be able to go and see some of the old places.

Out most fun day there was spent at the Hartford Fair, they say it is the ‘Best Little Fair in the World’ we had such a good time we would have to agree. We were like little kids riding the merry go round, the Ferris wheel and the bumper cars. I have to say we were both sorry the next day with all the junk foods we are, but how can you resist it is the fair. Cotton candy, corn dogs, ice cream and fried foods of all types and descriptions. We got the fair early and were there till just about closing catching the rodeo trials, viewing the farm animals, catching some country bands, riding rides and eating way too much.
Blue Adder Use Only

My little brother recently began playing the cello and my mom is extremely emotional about it. She loves the instrument and it reminds her of her grandfather who played it for her when she was a child. He died when she was 16 so her memories of him from her childhood are extremely precious and endearing. One of her favorite stories is about the time that her grandfather saw the virtuoso cellist Pablo Casals play in Barcelona.

I think this occurred in 1919 when he was forming the Orquestra Pau Casals. Those plans were interrupted and halted by the Franco regime, which my grandfather always thought was a tragedy. I don’t know where the concert occurred, but the way my mother told the story it always sounded like some kind of an impromptu recital of sorts. Meanwhile, what is definite about the encounter is that Pablo Casals played the Second Cello Suite by J.S. Bach. That is my mother’s favorite of the six Suites and remembers my father playing the prelude from it and it bringing her to tears.

My grandfather always had a strong connection to Barcelona, he was born there, and would return there throughout his life. My mom has taken my brother and me on vacation there and we love staying in the beautiful top Barcelona hotels. We always go to a small coffee café in the old part of town that my grandfather used to love. My mother is so excited that my brother is playing the cello and can’t wait for him to begin playing the Bach Suites. He is very interested in it and excited to play, I just hope my mom doesn’t push him too fast. I have to admit though, I might do the same because I play the piano and can’t wait to play some sonatas with him.

Hampton, VA is located along the Virginia shore near New Port News, VA and only about 50 miles from the famous Virginia Beach. Hampton sits on the west shore of the Chesapeake Bay near the southern end. Hampton is considered an independent city and therefore is not a part of any counties in Virginia. Hampton is the fifth largest city in Virginia and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The city is named after a Captain Christopher Hampton who started out in 1606 from England with three ships filed with men and boys. The mission identified Point Comfort as a defensive position at the entrance to what has now become known as the Hampton Roads. Which is formed by the confluences of the Elizabeth River and the James River. Soon after in 1607 they established the settlement of Jamestown some 25 miles inland from the bay.

Today Hampton experiences a mild four season climate with the average lows in January and February hovering just above freezing with the days averaging in the mid 50′s. Summers are warmer and humid, day times can get to the mid 80′s in the three months of June, July and August with beautiful night time temperatures in the upper 60′s and low 70′s.

History here is deep and rich from the natives in the region to the first Europeans to arrive in the early 1600′s. Students of American architecture will find pre colonial architectural styles, colonial, federal, Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco and modern.  With a rich and long history your hotels Hampton can be an excellent source of information to find out about the sites to see in the area that would be if interest to you.

Only minutes from the Chesapeake Bay and a short drive to the ocean Hampton has everything a water lover can desire. Off shore fishing, deep sea fishing, boating and site seeing cruses are just a few of the things that can be done on the water.

Good customer service is a key quality in any successful business. Regardless of the type of business, customer service is essential to enhancing our experience and creating a desire in us to want to come back. When we go to the doctor we expect the assistants, nurses, and doctors to work with us and see to our needs with a helpful and positive attitude. We wouldn’t even consider going back if our needs and concerns were ignored or brushed aside. The same applies to retail and specialty stores. We have all at one time or another experienced wandering blindly through a store to find just one item while there is not a single associate available to help. If a store wants to maintain business they will provide a knowledgeable, helpful sales staff to assist in locating product and answering questions.

One such business that has consistently excelled at customer service is Next Day Blinds. As a result, customers are able to find what they need quickly and easily at any of their many locations such as Next Day Blinds Timonium. Whether you call or order your new blinds from home, they send a professional out to measure each of the windows you will be covering in order to guarantee that your new Next Day Blinds will be a perfect fit. They will also install them for you to make sure that they are set up correctly. Next Day Blinds also stands behind their products by offering a lifetime warranty. As further evidence of their outstanding service, they have won both the Angie’s List Super Service Award for 2008 and the Better Business Torch Award in 2009.

In today’s struggling economy businesses need to step it up a notch and demonstrate to us why they deserve our business. Don’t settle for mediocre service when there are companies out there like Next Day Blinds that offer tremendous service as well as excellent product.

I had one of my best experiences last night. I was on my way back from Petra to my Dubai UAE hotel on a bus and we stopped at a rest area for a bathroom break and snack break. The driver pulled out this huge basket loaded with food. He plopped down on a picnic table and began to chow down. The other passengers and I were just hanging around wondering just how long it would take our driver to finish his meal. We were worried we wouldn’t make it back in time, his meal was really huge.

Suddenly, he motioned for me the a few other foreigners to join him at his table. The sun was just setting and Ramadan fast was about to be over. He was just waiting for the sun to set before he broke his fast and he wanted us to join him in his feast. I had never before in my whole life eaten so well and every bite was delicious. He had bowls of rice, pita and stewed lamb. They, the bus driver and the Jordanians showed me how to take a piece of pita, fold it in my hands and scoop up the stewed lamb onto my platter. I’m left handed, so I had to make an extra effort to do it with my right hand, which is the custom. The left hand is considered the hand one uses for the bathroom.

It was so amazing to me that these people, how I though probably consider me an infidel to join them in a dinner celebration, especially something as sacred as Ramadan. The driver personally looked after us and made sure we had a constant supply of pita and rice to sop up all the lamb stew juice. It only took us about 20 minutes to finish the feast and we were once again on our way back to Dubai. This was the most memorable evenings of travelling in my life. I wished the whole experience would’ve lasted longer than 20 minutes.

Customer Service is not a complicated matter, though sometimes it may seem that way to a consumer who is frustrated by the service or the lack of service that they have received. Steve Barbarich has been on both sides of the issue and as a businessman has a strong focus and offering the best service possible. This can mean different things to different people, and can also be viewed as different depending on the company’s field and structure.

Depending on the type of business a company is involved in, customer service is often seen in various perspectives and also as at different levels of priority. This can be based on whether the company offers direct services and then again if they are vital services or more optional and luxury. Generally, it is expected that the more luxury oriented a service is, the more important excellent customer service becomes. This however, should not and is not the actual case. In addition, some companies may have no direct contact with consumers and some are Internet based. All of these variations can be confusing to business owners as to how to best serve their client or consumer.
It is extremely important to realize that this does not have to be the case. And in reality, it should not be the case.

For any business respect for the customer and should be an essential component of its philosophy. When service providers, sales persons and resource assistances respect their consumer that alone has a great effect on the perspective they will have in approaching their work. Secondly it is important to be aware of, and also for the customer to be, and extremely informed on what exactly it is that you are offering. And most importantly, it is essential that the customer receive what it is they believe they are paying for. And it is also important to ensure that the customer is satisfied with the service or product they received. To realize that the customer’s satisfaction with a product or service is as important as receiving it is a frequently overlooked aspect of customer service. What this means is that post purchase support should be available and ready for the consumer’s needs and questions.

I had my first meal in days, I was afraid of getting Delhi Belly, a fear that never came to fruition during my whole stay here in Delhi. Anyway, apologies for the lack of communication over the Internet. I’ve been busy with my travel companions Delhi Belly, he was occupying the toilets where ever we went. Poor guy.

Well, despite having to find a toilet everywhere we went, we managed to get out of one of the four star hotels in Delhi and go out and about in Delhi town. We took a half day tour with a hired driver who took us all around the old and new Delhi. The first place he took us too was the Muslim mosque located in old Delhi. I was handed a colorful gown that made me look like I was from the Delhi circus. We had to take off our shoe to enter the mosque and leave them outside. I really didn’t want to do that, but there was a shoe minder who would look after our shoes. My male companion gave him a tip to make sure no one walked off with our very expensive shoes, which, by the way, looked very out of place amongst the old worn, dusty sandals.

Once we were inside, we saw that big room where the Muslims gather and practice their praying. That’s about all there was to see inside besides watching some foreigners being yelled at for trying to smoke right in the middle of the mosque! We left only after about 15 minutes, really, there was nothing to see here, but I did like my new colorful frock. We collected our shoes and headed back to our hired tour guide. We told him we’d like to see something more interesting that that old mosque, so he took us to the Red Fort. We stayed outside, because we thought it’d be too hot inside, plus, the queue to get inside was long, very long. So, we just took some photos all the while being bombarded by all the souvenir hawkers wanting us to buy what ever they were selling. We ended up only buying postcards, it was really too hot to do much more, so we left.

The heat was getting to us, so we had our tour guide take us back to our hotel, and we told him to pick us back up tomorrow at the same time he did today, but we told him to show us not the touristy parts, but the local life. We wanted to experience the actual India. He smiled and was very happy to hear our request.

The other night I was sitting in Starbucks waiting for a friend. A “customer service moment” happened, and not a good one. There was an older gentleman sitting at a table ready a New York Times paper with a magnifying glass. At the same time, two of the employees were doing what appeared to be standard practice at 6pm, which was cleaning the cafe. One woman was carrying out the kitchen mats which were all stacked up. I have carried these mats and they are heavy and a pain to deal with when you are tired. The other woman was mopping the floor.

A bit of time passed and the older man folded up the paper, and asked–yelled–the woman stacking the mats, if she would call him a cab. She replied a disgruntled ‘yes’, and went about her business. The reason the older man yelled the question was, as he explained later, he was hard of hearing. He didn’t hear the disgruntled ‘yes’. So when the woman came back, he asked her again. And this annoyed her. She replied in a very condescending manner, that yes she would call a cab for him, as soon as she was finished with what she was doing. I thought about this for a moment.

I mean, just by looking at the gentleman you could see that he had had a long life, a lot of experience. He could not hear well, could not see well, and as he moved from his table to a chair next to me so he could better look out for the cab, he could not walk well either. The one woman had been rude, and the other woman mopping the floor moved to the far end of the cafe, seemingly to avoid becoming involved in the situation. The man sat down, and explained to me–he wasn’t shy–that he was just worried about getting stranded there. I have worked in the service industry, just as does Steve Barbarich, and I know what good customer service is. But more so than that, I just know what it is to see another human being.

What these women saw at first glance a cranky, old man who was yelling at them. And they didn’t take the time to see anything more. He was a nice man, only yelling because he couldn’t hear himself talk. So I got out my cell phone and called AAA Cab Company. My friend showed up just then, so I told the employees not to worry about the phone call for the cab, that it was already made and they could continue cleaning. I said goodbye to man, and he said thank you. I won’t ever forget his face.