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| A colorful collection of hammock slings in the Market Restaurant at the Real Intercontinental Metrocentre Managua. |
“Sightings from the Veranda in Costa Rica”
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| Tom got this distant shot of the Montezuma Oropendola, which is a New World tropical icterid bird. It is a resident breeder in the Caribbean coastal lowlands from southeastern Mexico to central Panama but is absent from El Salvador and southern Guatemala. |
We spent most of the day yesterday working on paperwork. I prepared a new food list for today’s appointment, which must be reviewed by the doctor for the upcoming Antarctica cruise. We completed all the forms necessary for the appointment, leaving the remainder required for the doctor to enter.
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| The lunch buffet at the Real Intercontinental Metrocentre Managua Hotel in Managua, Nicaragua, was tempting. But, after the complimentary breakfast, neither of us was interested in lunch, a meal we rarely consume. |
We must always do some paperwork for various world travel and financial matters, including gobs of forms to print, sign, scan, and email. Some documents require faxing. Who still uses fax machines? Aren’t they obsolete?
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| Most of the items in this buffet were suitable for my way of eating. |
When we must fax a document, we can either email it to son Richard in Henderson, Nevada, during business hours or email it to our mailing service, where they can fax whatever we need. This is only concerning documents in the US, where all of our document processing is done with various businesses.
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| Seafood, chicken, and ham are great additions to salads. |
Often, mistakes are made on the other end; lost documentation, failure to complete processing, and the necessity of frequently making phone calls using our Skype phone number to confirm everything are correctly done.
This is time-consuming and disappointing. We’ve learned never to assume the paperwork was handled properly, and we tend to check and re-check many times to discover the task wasn’t completed. We could quote dozens of such incidents over these past five years, but…we won’t bore our readers with this.
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| A sushi bar at the hotel. Tom doesn’t care for sushi which I used to love in my old life. Now, without the rice in the sushi rolls, I have no interest. Plus, I’ve lost my taste for raw fish over these past years of travel. |
Oh, don’t get me wrong, we’re not exempt from making errors. In our old lives, I recall having to call when cable and other utility bills had errors. What’s the deal with this?
Even while in Minnesota, we discovered I’d booked our flight to Nevada on the wrong date, and it cost us over US $700 (CRC 398,574), never to be recouped. It was the first significant booking error I’d made that couldn’t be reversed or revised in some manner.
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| Comfortable seating in the sushi bar. |
We, humans, are undoubtedly responsible for the words “human error.” It’s rampant. And, even the most meticulous of us can find ourselves in a pickle from our errors. Why does this happen?
After careful consideration of my own errors, I’ve come to realize it always occurs when I’m multitasking and not paying enough attention. There’s no excuse.
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| The outdoor sports bar. |
Since my flight booking error, this past summer occurred while we were so busy in Minnesota, I’ve carved out specific time without distractions to handle anything that could potentially cause us a problem. Tom and I now review bookings together, checking and re-checking each other’s work in booking events to ensure we have no errors.
In my youth, I was always proud of my ability to multitask. But, as we’ve aged, I’ve discovered doing so is not a benefit at all. Being able to focus on a critical task at a time is more fulfilling in the long run.
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| We sat in the lobby when we prepared the day’s post. |
Recently, I’d read this article, The Myth of Multitasking, and completed the test shown in the report. There’s no doubt that multitasking doesn’t achieve one’s original intention of getting two or more tasks completed at one time in less time.
Sure, I can multitask when cooking a meal; boil the water, stir fry the veggies and cook the bacon in the oven simultaneously. But, that’s cooking, not handling important financial and other matters that can result in chaos if not caught in time.
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| Bread items are offered at the complimentary breakfast buffet. |
Today, we have tunnel-vision in getting our medical forms signed by the doctor, hopefully finding us both in good enough health to embark on the upcoming expedition cruise.
May you be able to focus on what must be completed in your life today! Happy day!
Photo from one year ago today, November 2, 2016:
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| Tom, during breakfast in the main dining room on Radiance of the Seas 33-night cruise circumventing the Australian continent. For more details, please click here. |