Stop two was Amman in Jordan, and a lesson in preconceptions and assumptions.
It wasn't my best journey, I was given a great seat at an emergency exit on the first plane but some dutch person decided he would spend almost an hour stood in front of me. Now I understand they need the leg room they are so tall, but it doesn't need to be my legroom! I was on the verge of air rage but being British never said anything. I also had a guy in the row in front who kept trying to take selfies with me in them. So I kept ducking my head, again I never said anything, I was frightened of losing my temper. Bjoern, sat across the aisle form me just couldn't stop laughing.
Then Bjoern had a bad few hours, lack of sleep, lack of food and lack of decision making, just got to him. So OTN Tour Tip #1, ensure you include a dictator or selfish person. 4 people traveling who are all polite means 'nobody minds' and no decisions are taken quickly. Alternatively we need a random generated decision maker app. However wonderful food, coffee and a Skype lesson from his wife on how ignore Bjoern, everything was OK again.
I then tried my hardest to get us thrown out the lounge by reaching out to a stack of coffee mugs, grabbing one and turning it up the right way. Problem was I had grabbed a jug of milk in error and then poured it over not only the floor and myself but the stack of at least 42 mugs. Wish I could understand turkish, I bet they had some colourful things to say about me.
Once we finally took off for Amman, that flight was fine, the only issue being that we didn't arrive until 2.30am. Our host from the local, Jordan Amman Oracle User Group was fellow ACE Director Osama Mustafa and he was waiting for us at the airport, now that is dedication. We actually arrived at our hotel at 4am, just as the call for morning prayers was starting.
graduates celebrating |
The audience was now very technical and they loved the sessions deep down in the database, and that combined with a very late start, a combination of local culture plus time spent looking for our students, and the university cutting short our access to the venue, meant I decided to drop my sessions for this event. I had good conversations with individuals about Cloud Applications and adoption, so I didn't feel too bad, and for the audience it made sense.



Again the evening had many great talks and sharing of stories about using Oracle, what community is all about. Bjoern as promised gave the Solaris presentation and a new SIG was born.
Another great evening and another culinary highlight was this amazing hot chocolate drink.
1st Jordanian Solaris SIG |
We managed a late start on the Sunday, before being collected again by the wonderful Osama and taken to the airport, where we had time for a foot massage (again an Osama treat) before flying on to South Africa.
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