OTN Tour of Latin America 2015 : GUOB, Brazil – Day -1

As I mentioned in the previous post, I got to bed at the hotel in Sau Paulo at about 03:00. I woke up at about 07:00 and did some work for a couple of hours before hitting breakfast with the wife. At breakfast we were joined by Francisco and his son. 🙂

After breakfast, Debra and I went on a sight seeing trip. I was in Sau Paulo about 2 years ago, but I saw nothing of the city as it was such a short visit. I did have a few photos from the event in 2013, as well as a couple people sent to me (here).

Trying to do Sau Paulo in 4 hours pretty much means sitting in the car a lot. 🙂 Even during the day the traffic is heavy. Added to that, the temperature was in the low 30’s. With the lack of sleep and the temperature combined, we were struggling. Added to that, our driver started to feel ill. I did get some photos, which you can see here. Once again, wide angle is on, so don’t assume everything in Sau Paulo is bowed. 🙂

Despite our struggles, it was really nice to finally see something of the city!

When we got back from sightseeing, we popped across the road to get some food and bumped into Francisco, his son and Alex. 🙂

Then it was back to the hotel, with a plan to get some sleep. Instead, I started to catch up on blog posts, as well as spending £54 (or $84 USD) on washing. 🙁 It’s a sad day when you have to pay someone to do your washing! At least this way I should have enough clothes to complete the tour. 🙂

I’ll pretty soon be off to bed, ready for the GUOB conference tomorrow. Happy days!

Cheers

Tim…

PS. I’m going to us the English spelling (Brazil), rather than the Portuguese version, as it’s the only way I have a chance of staying consistent. No offence meant by spelling the name of your country “wrong”. 🙂

OTN Tour of Latin America 2015 : AROUG, Argentina – Day 2

I mentioned in the previous post we were spending the day sightseeing today. Last time I was in Buenos Aires I did a bus tour. You can see some of the photos here.

This time Debra, Mike, Cindy and I went on a private tour in a minibus. I took the GoPro with me, so I’ve got a bunch of super wide angle photos (here). I’m sure anyone who does photography will laugh at them, but they look fine to me, so long as you look at them on a large screen. 🙂

It was a really nice day. We got back early, so Mike could go back to the conference to do his final session. Debra, Cindy and I spent the rest of the day chilling in the executive lounge at the Hilton, taking advantage of the free internet. It’s good when you are with people to have a good honors (not honours) status! 🙂

We were there for a few hours, but at about 20:00 we headed off for the airport. Debra also gets access to the lounge at the airport, so we spent 25 minutes there before heading for the plane.

I’ve already posted all my thank you messages, but once again, thanks Argentina! I hope to see you soon!

On the flight I watched Project Almanac, which was kind-of predictable, but good. After a little over two hours we were in Sau Paulo. Last time I came to Sau Paulo the taxi ride to the hotel was very slow as the traffic was a nightmare. Travelling at 02:00 meant the roads were quiet and we breezed through to the hotel. I was in bed by 03:00. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

OTN Tour of Latin America 2015 : AROUG, Argentina – Day 1

I woke up far too early and spent a few hours on the computer.

A number of folks on the tour have built up so many Hilton Honours points they get access to the executive lounge, so I was signed in as a scummy guest and I got breakfast for free. 🙂

At about 09:00 we walked across to the AROUG event, which had the following order of events.

  • The day started with an introduction to OTN and the ACE program by Pablo Ciccarello.
  • I was up next with my “Pluggable Databases : What they will break and why you should use them anyway!” talk. I had a full room and the response to it was really good. I got some good questions at the end and amazingly, I managed to finish on time. 🙂
  • Then came Debra Lilley with “PaaS4SaaS”.
  • Next up was “Controlling Execution Plans (without touching the code)” by Kerry Osborne. This was a double session, split by lunch.
  • After that was Mike Dietrich with his “How Oracle Single/Multitenant will change a DBA’s life” talk.
  • I closed the day with “It’s raining data! Oracle Databases in the Cloud’. Once again, a busy room and some good interaction with the audience. I’m not sure how many people feel ready for a move to the cloud, but the level of interest is definitely high.

I got really tired in the middle of the day. At one point I sat in a big chair and started to nod off, so I went out and got a giant cup of coffee, which perked me up. 🙂

There were a couple of the other speakers I was interested in seeing, but they weren’t presenting in English, so no luck there. 🙂

After the event we walked back to the hotel and I was coerced into drinking alcohol. Well actually, I just fancied it. 🙂 Due to the fact I rarely drink, I felt very drunk very quickly. My alcohol tolerance is truly pathetic. 🙂

From the bar we wandered over to meet the other speakers and organisers at a barbecue restaurant. You might think that wasn’t the best place for a vegetarian to be, but you would be wrong. There was loads of good stuff I could eat, plus excellent company! 🙂

After far too much food, we headed back through the rain to the hotel and then to bed.

This really concluded the AROUG event for me. All my sessions were on day 1, so I get day 2 to do a bit of sightseeing. 🙂

I’d like to send out a big thank you to everyone who came to the event, including the attendees and the speakers. Also, big thanks to the organisers at AROUG and the ACE Program, who made this possible for me.

Cheers

Tim…

LAOTN Tour 2003 Interview Videos

During the OTN tour of Latin America, Pablo Ciccarello filmed a number of interviews with the speakers and has recently posted links to them here.

Right at the bottom on the page there is a link to an interview with Dana Singleterry and myself.

If you are interested in listening to our opinions of the tour, drop by and check them out.

Cheers

Tim…