Amazing mobile world

Modern travel is a most wonderful thing, in spite of layovers and security lines. Even though I often travel it never ceases to amaze me that I can have an early breakfast in Trinidad with my client, lunch in Miami, supper in Dallas, and get home to little old Yarrow, British Columbia in time to get a good night's sleep. On my trip I can access and work on my files, blog and write an article for a magazine. I can receive picture updates from those still working in the shop and provide input as necessary as well. I can share texts and phone calls with those I love. As needed I can answer emails to clients. On the plane I can watch movies on my iPad to help pass the time between naps.

As a kid growing up these all were only imagined things - stuff of fiction. I have no doubt that the technology and capabilities will quickly get better in coming years. I can hardly wait!

Progress

It has been a long and sometimes bumpy road to actually start construction on the site in Trinidad. Gathering the required information about regulation and local requirements has been a challenging journey. No one locally has ever done a similar project and as always, our project didn't fall into any known or definable categories.

I like to compare it to building a very fancy cake. We are asking for the cake to be baked locally while we supply the decorative icing. As usual, the difficulty is that everyone is fixed on the fancy icing which will be provided by our team and added after all the basic (and normal) work is complete. Island time obviously runs at a very different pace than back home. 

The good news is that the first site work is now being done. Today, the temporary construction road was laid into the site. It is just in time for the first containers to arrive - as I travel back home tomorrow. on my next trip I will see hopefully see buildings.

Blank canvas

After many, many months of dreaming and planning (fourteen versions of the master plan) it is extremely exciting to travel to the work site in Trinidad to actually spray some meaningful marks on the ground. I laid out the larger features and buildings and physically walked through the layout. Even though I had a firm understanding of how it would look as I designed at my desk, it is very satisfying to lay things out on the ground and walk the property from one end to the other. First, I was the train as I 'chugged' around the track, visualizing each element and feature as I 'drove' by. Then I walked to each ride location and could clearly see in my mind's eye how everything related to each other and the beautiful surroundings. I could visualize everything clearly. I could smell the flowers and hear the waterfalls, music, and excited guests enjoying the rides. This is going to be a fabulous park when it is done!

A blank canvas is a most wonderful thing! Everyone else on the site saw this when they looked.