I spent my morning trying to catch up on the current issues with the release of my most recent project. We are still having significant challenges, and we don't have enough resources available to dedicate to the effort of resolving the issues. I've received nearly 400 emails since my arrival, and I spend my morning reviewing and responding to as many as I can.
In the afternoon, I meet with the team to set the agenda for next week. For both projects I am here for, we are at the stage where we need to finalize the documentation to review with our architecture committee. We need to complete this documentation, and then finalize the effort involved in completing these projects.
Friday evening, I eat dinner alone, continue to catch up on my work, and go to bed early to awaken for the early team time.
Saturday
Today I go golfing for the first time in Indonesia. I leave the hotel at 4:45 AM for a 6:30 AM tee time at one of the best country clubs in all of Indonesia. I learned from my colleagues that only members and their guests are allowed to play, and that a membership costs $40,000 USD. The golf course is at the base of a dormant volcano (last active a few thousand years ago) and has mansions - 10,000+sf - on many of the holes. Beautiful course.
You will not find golf courses like this one in Phoenix. I'm not sure they exist in all of Arizona. Arizona has beautiful courses. Arizona has expensive courses. Arizona does NOT have courses where every single lie, even in the fairway, the ball is either above or below your feet. I was in the fairway on nearly every shot, and on every shot I felt I was either choking up on the club, or bending over in an uncomfortable stance in order to hit the shot. The greens were VERY fast, too. On one hole, I literally just tapped the ball enough to get it to move from a stationary position. I missed the cup by a few centimeters, and because it didn't go in, it rolled another fourteen feet downhill.
I also got to experience first hand the Indonesian style of golfing. In America, you get four options: walk and carry your clubs, walk and have a caddy carry your clubs, walk with a pull-cart, drive a golf cart. Indonesia adds a new one - pay for a cart, get a caddy, and you walk the course while the caddy drives your clubs around! Actually, they only drive the cart when it makes more sense for you to walk to your ball (which I did a lot of since it would only go 60 yards). When you drive the cart, they are riding on the back.
So how did I do? Well, of the four of us who played, I was by far the most economical golfer in the bunch. My cost per stroke lower than anyone elses - and it was the worst round of golf I've played in 10 years in terms of score.
So how did I do? Well, of the four of us who played, I was by far the most economical golfer in the bunch. My cost per stroke lower than anyone elses - and it was the worst round of golf I've played in 10 years in terms of score.See the rest of the pictures at the below links:
After golf, I returned to the hotel and worked. My days are filled by meetings, so I'm not able to do my normal job during the week. What I thought would take me 4-5 hours ended up taking me nearly 7. Luckily, golfing only took 4.5 hours to play a full 18 holes. Almost the entire time was spent researching, resolving, and discussing issues with my earlier project. Even in a production state, it's still causing problems.
The more I worked, the angrier I became. I began to realize that we need to create another project to finish the original project. Not something I am looking forward to discussing with my boss. We're in a situation where we are trying to do so much with so little that we're starting to have to make painful decisions. We'll see how it works out.
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