UK

Rochester, NY

9:55 AM

Yesterday was a busy one. I am currently hosting Charles, in the U.S. via just south of London, England, I believe Surrey. I met his Buffalo host on Tuesday in Batavia, NY for dinner and drop off. I had two meetings yesterday so he chose to be dropped off at the mall.

My first meeting was with someone very special to me, my coach from a while back. I still consider her my coach because I continue to apply a lot of what she taught me. It had been at least 18 months since we had sat down together one on one. This was informal, on the patio of an Atlanta Bread Company. It was great to see her. She showed me pictures of her new son and I discussed some of the things happening with me. Because of our relationship dynamic, we went back into the coaching environment. She always does a good job at taking my complicated thoughts and actions (or sometimes lack of action) and breaking them down into common sense things to do. It was wonderful to reconnect.

From there I went to a lunch meeting with a friend from the Rochester Business Alliance. Our talk was so much more than business stuff, and that was great. Deep conversations are always fun to be a part of. Answers typically don’t come out of them, but it is still fun to tackle those types of questions.

From there, I headed back towards the mall to pick up Charles. My meetings had run late and he was waiting outside of TC Hooligans area. We went to the lake so I could change into shorts. The temperature difference from the city to the water’s edge was drastic. I went from being in a sweat walking around the High Falls area to being cool in shorts and a tee shirt.

I wanted to be outside so I took him to Charlotte Beach (not pronounced like Charlotte, NC, pronounced like Sha-lot). We walked down the pier and looked at different boats. From there we drove a block or two and walked down the Genesee River Trail. This follows one of the few rivers flowing northward. Charles is a huge train aficionado, in his English accent, he would say a trainspotter. As timing would have it, halfway into our walk a cargo train came puttering by. Charles was giddy and me, not being a train guy by any means, was also interested. He shot a video on his camera of the CSX #6207.

After the walk my family got to interact with the man from the UK. My aunt, uncle, and cousins sat with us on their patio over cocktails. Then it was dinner with my parents. After the feast Charles showed us lots of videos and pictures form his travels and the UK. He showed an air boat ride on the everglades and the gators that come with it, some penguins and koalas from Australia, and the beautiful greenery of England on a hot air balloon ride. Charles is a big David Letterman fan, but does not get the chance to watch him over there. He said he used to come on like at 4 AM, but wasn’t sure anymore. He had bought a tape, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it work. We watched it anyway and it was refreshing to meet someone who didn’t know who Lindsay Lohan (Dave’s guest) or Paris Hilton was. What a joke that they are role models.

That’s it. I will show him some of the Rochester sites today. I’m not exactly sure what we will do because the weather is grey and wet, but he’ll have his video camera and lots of questions as well as lots of words that we say and are different than that in the UK. I’ll be taking him back to Batavia this evening.

Well done, chap. Cheers. Cheerio. Tah.