Category: A Minimalist’s Memoir

“Why the fuck are you being so nice to everyone?”  The normally calm Maple Bear CEO was shouting at me. “Tell them you need something else to eat!”   I burst into tears. It had been a very long day. It started out well. Only smiles on the first school tour. It deteriorated from there. Five…

We accepted the invitation in a flash. Who wouldn’t want to attend a destination Indian wedding?  The venue was the Ritz-Carleton Hotel in Muscat, Oman. Every room was reserved for the guests of our South Asian Maple Bear partner in the UAE and his bride. I immediately nixed the idea of wearing Indian formal wear.…

A visit to Eva Peron’s grave. A tango show over dinner. Picturesque views of the magnificent Andes. Meh. Nothing could ever hold a candle to our memories of Argentinian beef.  We flew to Buenos Aires from Brazil and soon after, headed to Mendoza for wine-tasting. Driving near Tupungato, a wine region several hours away, we…

At a meeting in Lanzhou, China, on the ancient Silk Road, we ate sunflower seeds and discussed spread sheets.   Rodney’s attack of sciatica began in Istanbul. It worsened on our long flight to China from Dubai. Still, at the public marketing event, he smiled widely for a picture. (Nice corsage, eh?) And in the evening,…

The flight from Mumbai arrived at dawn. Our first stop was Port Louis, the capital. Mauritius serves as offshore headquarters for Maple Bear East Africa.  In a nondescript office building, in a conference room inexplicably painted pink, we held a board meeting. Where the hell had we landed? Mauritius discombobulates. A population of French-speaking South…

Good morning, Vietnam!  The dinky plane bounces off the runway. At the Dalat Palace, in the former French colonial hill station, Catherine Deneuve in Indochine haunts us over high tea. Next, an exciting but terrifying bus ride to the coast to Nha Trang. To relax, we rent bathing gear and soak in a barrel of mud. Small…