The blessings brought on by Thai food cannot be quantified. Good stuff. Cheap, too, depending on where you go. More importantly, such establishments are
EVERYWHERE. There were three in the Sunnyvale downtown area that we met for the March Power Lunch meeting. Of the three, the March Power Lunch was held at
Siam Taste Thai Cuisine restaurant along the popular
Murphy Avenue.
As usual, everyone took their time gathering together. Eventually, people started to trickle in within a 15-minute span,
15-minutes after the time we reserved. By the way, I wonder what it’s like to be a restaurant owner or wait staff observing all of this: are they going to show up? Are they
really going to need those many tables? How long before I start giving the
three people sitting at a table reserved for ten the “evil eye”? My fear is that laws will be enacted by restaurateurs in an attempt to correct this phenomenon. What if someday laws exist that allow for reservations to be revoked if attendees don’t arrive within a specified period of time? Imagine if that happened to our Alumni chapter – would we ever have a Power Lunch again?? Think about it.
Seven people arrived for lunch. A pretty good number for lunch in (non-Santa Clara) Sunnyvale. All complained about the difficulty of searching for parking, but were quieted by the relative emptiness of the restaurant by the time of their arrival. (We arrived shortly before the lunch rush.) Mini-discussions were held. Unfortunately, a common trait among professionals when they get together is that they MUST talk about work. Incessantly. After that topic was allowed to die, we touched upon subjects ranging from TV (“Did you watch ‘Lost’ last night?”), to work start times (“I haven’t started work earlier than 10am!”), to weekend plans (“Blah, blah, and blah.” – um, I don’t remember anyone’s weekend plans…the artwork on the wall distracted my attention by that point) and, finally, to the climactic and semi-divisive Democratic presidential campaign. On the Republican side, we all – well, a small faction of the group – agreed on one thing: while John McCain may be a competent candidate, his wife sure looks scary! There’s something about too much black eyeliner with icy-blue eyes…she really should move to a dark brown. That was a free fashion tip. ;)
We eventually went back to the topic of work and its philosophical and socio-economic purpose. Large companies versus small companies: what is the amount of individual creativity/innovation does one “hand over” in exchange for greater benefits and relative stability? Ah, the question of the ages.
Please share your answers in the comments section below. No, really. Go ahead.
The only complaint I have about our restaurant is the length of time it took for the waitress to take our order. Perhaps they wanted to be sure our group was complete, considering how long it took for us to convene. Perhaps they were swamped by the 12:30p lunch rush that developed in the midst of our pre-lunch conversation. And we did end up having to sacrifice an extra table after all. Perhaps our lolly gagging had something to do with it? How rare is it to see "lolly gagging" in a sentence?
Lessons from this outing:
1. Thai food is awesome.
2. Friday was a beautiful day to eat Thai food.
3. Eating too much Thai food will cause you to experience a food coma. (a.k.a. "The Itis") FYI.
It turns out that Pub Quizzes are all the rage (well, they were as of the mid 90s, according to Wikipedia…) in Britain. Several years later, the game has crossed the pond (a.k.a. the Atlantic Ocean), jumped over much of the entire United States, and landed at Loft Bar and Grill in downtown San Jose. Teams are formed among the pubs attendees, and several rounds are played where a host asks various teams a series of questions. The teams work together – while still getting served dinner and drinks – to submit their answers for each round. If you like trivia, this is the game for you! Questions are pulled from a broad spectrum of topics, and the more teams involved, the more competitive it can all get.
All in all, there was a question for every single person – all twelve of us – to answer. Clearly, the more people you have on your team, the higher the winning potential. But one thing we learned is that the larger your team, the more challenging it is to communicate. You can’t yell, “Hey guy-on-the-other-end-of-the-table, what’s the name of that country next to Venezuela?”
Seven people arrived for lunch. A pretty good number for lunch in (non-Santa Clara) Sunnyvale. All complained about the difficulty of searching for parking, but were quieted by the relative emptiness of the restaurant by the time of their arrival. (We arrived shortly before the lunch rush.) Mini-discussions were held. Unfortunately, a common trait among professionals when they get together is that they MUST talk about work. Incessantly. After that topic was allowed to die, we touched upon subjects ranging from TV (“Did you watch ‘Lost’ last night?”), to work start times (“I haven’t started work earlier than 10am!”), to weekend plans (“Blah, blah, and blah.” – um, I don’t remember anyone’s weekend plans…the artwork on the wall distracted my attention by that point) and, finally, to the climactic and semi-divisive Democratic presidential campaign. On the Republican side, we all – well, a small faction of the group – agreed on one thing: while John McCain may be a competent candidate, his wife sure looks scary! There’s something about too much black eyeliner with icy-blue eyes…she really should move to a dark brown. That was a free fashion tip. ;)
The only complaint I have about our restaurant is the length of time it took for the waitress to take our order. Perhaps they wanted to be sure our group was complete, considering how long it took for us to convene. Perhaps they were swamped by the 12:30p lunch rush that developed in the midst of our pre-lunch conversation. And we did end up having to sacrifice an extra table after all. Perhaps our lolly gagging had something to do with it? How rare is it to see "lolly gagging" in a sentence?
