From Kathmandu to London
I had a very leisurely lunch today (around three hours) in a Moroccan restaurant called “Sidi Maarouf” on Edgware Road in central London..
I was with my young friend Alexei who is ethnically Russian, was brought up in Moldova, and now lives in Germany. He is such a bright and thoughtful man with a couple of degrees, five languages, and lots of international work experience.
The amazing thing is that I have only met Alexei once before when we spent about half an hour talking in a small aircraft at Kathmandu airport in Nepal as we waited to have an aerial view of Mount Everest. In fact, we never even took off because the weather was so bad so neither of us ever saw the mountain [see here].
That was 14 years ago. Thanks to the Internet which has enabled us to keep in contact and a training course run this week in London by his employer Akamai Technologies, we were able to renew our friendship after a decade and a half. Don’t you just love the Net?