About Me – My Experience Inventory!!!
So far life has been pretty cool, lived in two countries and two cities in Canada – so that’s kinda mundane and boring. However, I have yet to spend much time in one job. I think there is no one job that interests me so much that it would be my life’s calling. So far, I have slaved away as a bartender, bouncer, security guy, shopkeeper, library page, shelver, stocker, clerk, filing clerk, IT Support rep, Customer Service rep, Sr. HRMS Analyst, Consulting Lead, and now Sr. PeopleSoft HCM Consultant (you can only imagine how that goes), so I guess I’m a restless soul. My life now is taking a turn of some unexpected sort, but some of the cool things I’ve experienced in my past are as follows:
- Played J’Ouvert and Mas in Trinidad, gotten drunk on great rum on the streets of Port of Spain to the greatest soca and calypso.
- I’ve walked where Jesus is said to have walked to his crucifixion, had a falafel the size of my head with two ice cream scoops of hummus on Ben-Yehuda St and watched the Sunrise and Sunset over the Sea of Galilee.
- Drove a Golf Cart on the airport runway in San Pedro, Belize and then crashed it into a mangrove swamp.
- Kissed under the Eiffel Tower and had wine on the Champs Elysee
- Was in the stands to witness every match in T&T’s World Cup campaign in Germany and cried when the National Anthem was played and then went to an impromptu soca concert in the middle of Dortmund after drawing with Sweden 0-0
- Painted a “beneficial” brick at 4 am in the middle of Prague.
- Been in a dancing boat rocking out to Mozart in Salzburg.
- Gotten kicked out a hotel in Milan while being loud and rowdy.
- Was ripped off by having lunch in Ginza but then having raw unagi in Tsukiji Market the following morning, more than made up for it.
- Been laughed at by a crazy sausage guy in Vienna, who made the spiciest dish I have ever had – CurryWurst with raw Capsaicin.
- Learnt how to make Chapulines in Oaxaca with tons of Limes and Chili and then ate all.
- Diverted enroute from Trinidad to Canada, to St Kitts, to surprise one of my best friends who lived there, then got trashed drunk, and got the Airport Manager to write me a letter to explain my extra delay to my boss at work. Boss calls Airport Manager, and still doesn’t believe my story to this day.
- Went to work by taking a ferry from downtown San Francisco to Sausalito and passing Alcatraz every morning.
- Had Dim Sum in Hong Kong harbour.
- Made love on the grass in Old Port in Montreal.
- Gambled with Thai hookers while playing “Hit the nail into a block of wood” in Phuket
- Had Belgian Chocolates and beer in Brussels and ended up in an impromptu parade with Spaniards, after Spain came back to beat Tunisia on a late Raul goal.
- Watched cricket in the Antigua Recreation Ground, home of Brian Lara’s two world records and Sir Vivian Richards.
- Went up the Matterhorn twice! Had a champagne toast the second time with a bunch of Indians, called my parents from the top of Europe and this is what I got….Rishi : “Morning dad, i’m at the top of Europe, overlooking the Matterhorn”
Dad : <grumbles> …. “Mahnin, Rish! What?? You’re on top of the Matterhorn…. Hmm that’s nice but I have to open the shop now, talk to you later!!!!!”
Rishi : “but …. It’s the Matterhorn”
Dad : “It’s a matter of bills” - Been in a car going at 270km/h on the Autobahn, while looking and moving to Ethiopian and Eritrean music videos on the dashboard, with three Ethiopians.
- Had gun pulled on me by soldiers at the Palestinian border, and then upon knowing I was from Trinidad, having them congratulate me on “escaping” Trinidad!
- Buying my God-son’s first pair of Timberlands for him in the British Virgin Islands and pretending to be a posh millionaire at a resort in Virgin Gorda.
- Learned about the Torah from an Arab in Montreal, while having strong Moroccan coffee and smoking Green Apple shisha.
- Took one of my best friends to Pigeon Point, Tobago and circled the entire island in one day with her.
- Eating a Bake and Shark at Maracas Bay, Trinidad, with lots of pepper, pineapple, cole slaw and coriander.
- Playing hide and seek with Buddhist monks, watching the sunset from the top of the main temple at Angkor Wat.
- Getting sunburnt at the top of Masada and then going to cool off in the Dead Sea, then learning why no one actually swims in there. Feeling salt crystallize on your face, lips and in your eyeballs is not the greatest feeling in the world, but a cool story.
- Watching the sunrise from the top of Tikal and then going for a night cruise with some complete strangers on a riverboat in Lake Aitilan.
- Feeding the Koi at Kinkakuji.
- Flying kites with some Puerto Ricans children in San Juan.
- Drinking Scotch on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh and avoiding William Wallace in a blue tartan. My love affair with scotch started here.
- Driving from Las Vegas with some of my friends after losing money on Black Jack to go see the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam and then driving back in the same to win back the money I lost and then some!!!
- Gone shopping and snorkeling in Margarita Island. Actually ripped off one of the local bars with my lack of Spanish and kissed a local stranger in a bar there.
- Met a Mexican Lawyer traveling in Toronto, we fell in love for 3 days and then she was gone to her boyfriend in New York because destiny hates me
- Midnight picnic with friends on the edge of the Amalfi jetty, knocking back Raspberry Vodka and Amalfi Limoncello!!
- Singing “Volare” in the Blue Grotto in Capri
- Ending up a Papal Mass at Santa Maria Maggiore for Corpus Christi and seeing the Pope, completely by accident, instead of going drinking at some bar.
- Climbed the Cupola at St Peter’s Basilica.
- Partying with Drag Queens in the Dominican Republic
- Extreme 4 Wheel driving at the Fontur, the North-Easternmost point of Iceland, 2 km away from the Arctic Circle, dodging huge rocks, battling 100km an hour winds
- Crossing a residual glacial stream at an Ice Tongue of Vatnajokull and falling into a sinkhole, but thankfully getting out in time before it swallowed me up
- Almost getting blown off Mt Hverfjall by 120km/h winds and falling into the volcano
- Kissing while walking over the Brooklyn Bridge
- Went sea kayaking through underground caves to an atoll in Pattaya
- Been to Kingston Mines in Chicago for good southern cooking and some authentic Blues music, highlighted by an old homeless, “hard on her time” Blues singer coming in for an impromptu performance capped.
- Sampling the best jerk chicken and pork at Scotchies in Jamaica
- Stealing into Brazil to see Foz de Iguacu, without a visa and having conversations with a Argentine bus driver only with eyebrows
- Having 5 choripans in Retiro train station at 4am in Buenos Aires, with a ton of “chimi”, much to the disgust of the local porteno worker without knowing any spanish
- Watching the sunrise while walking along Ipanema beach.
Amazing! Amazing! It almost seems unreal Rishi! I love the Palestinian experience and glad to hear you came out alive. Oh, and the bake and shark sounds yummy. It has been too long since my last trip to TnT or the islands. Let me know if you are ever in Florida. It looks like I just missed you in ATL. I’m driving up there today.
Thank you for sharing your experiences, and for reminding me about what is important in life; things I have forgotten. Best wishes.
where’s my comments
your comments are on the listing mom~~
Hey, I just counted 8 things here where I shared the experience with you my crazy friend:-) — Prague, Salzburg(x2), Germany, Italy (x3)… not too bad, eh?:-)