Tuesday, May 31, 2005
“If they really have got WiFi at Playa Vista, then it is time to get back to Boca Chica”… said a self-confessed ardent follower of our blog renderings to himself back in New York last week. He promptly bought himself a plane ticket, packed his laptop and hopped on the flight. His NASDAQ trading he finds he can manage just as effectively alongside the azure-blue Caribbean Ocean from within the Playa Vista bar establishment, and although he is away from his familiar New York surroundings he is adamant that his new “office” environment at the bar has a number of redeeming features!
We are pleased to note that he follows hard on the heels of other very satisfied users from that North American cradle of leading-edge high-tech adoption and they all find the speed and effectiveness we offer on a par with their usual services back home – some more credit points to Verizon!
Why don’t you bring your laptop with you and check out if ‘setting up office’ within the Playa Vista router territory in the perpetual June climate of Boca Chica by any chance should be just your style!
Posted by Playa Vista @ 04:15 PM CST
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
This story also began quite some while ago with our ‘Pennsylvanian knight in shining armor’ observing a woman diligently and happily cleaning the floors of the business next door to the apartment he was using during his stay. He had quietly watched her on each of his sojourns to Boca Chica: She was always punctually at her place of work without complaining and always a smile on her face at 8.30 in the morning. She had an equally smiling young daughter, Gabriela, who in almost the same way as her mother furnished a big smile without a full set of front teeth. Unfortunately the mother’s front teeth had all long since disappeared, but her daughter had lost just the one in recent months due to falling from a motorbike in an accident. Our man from Pennsylvania big-heartedly decided to help out and with the permission of the mother offered to pay for a new tooth to be prepared for Gabriela. The mother was shyly, though gratefully, accepting and the local dentist was consulted. As Gabriela was still growing it was advised a denture with one tooth would be the solution for now and perhaps a more permanent job could be done in the future. Our generous friend was actually in for more than he bargained in the end, because it turned out that Gabriela needed more than just a new tooth – it seemed that she had never visited a dentist and needed 4 cavities filled, repairs to the other front tooth which had been chipped in the accident, full cleaning and then during the treatment an abscess was discovered that needed root canal treatment. Our gallant Pennsylvania Man stayed the whole course visiting with Gabriela for each treatment, paying the full bill on each occasion and confided to us at the Playa Vista bar when the job was finished that he believed it was well worth every penny. The mother was just as delighted and not a little hopeful that if she keeps smiling when our Pennsylvania Man returns next time she might just get the same attractive overhaul!
Gabriela before and after can be seen beautifully below.
Posted by Playa Vista @ 09:45 AM CST
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Every cloud has its silver lining. The cloud, if you should remember reading our blog of 08/04/05, was the frustrating delay we experienced when we finally made our move and asked Verizon to take us into the modern world with a high-speed DSL internet connection. The silver lining is now double layered for we remain not only as pleased as ever with this new service but we are also able to announce laptop friendly WiFi connections anywhere within the Playa Vista territory including the sunbeds on the beach! This service - that finally scatters away the remains of the cloud and lets the sun shine through - is available to all good Playa Vista customers free of charge and is made possible by the kind sponsorship of DR1, via their donation of a wireless broadband router and the installation skills of good old Rob.
Posted by Playa Vista @ 01:36 PM CST
Wednesday, May 4, 2005
We are pleased to say that we have a couple of genuine ‘good-guy stories’ in the pipeline for you… the first goes like this:
Massachusetts Man, our good-guy number one, has developed quite an onerous but benevolent habit of carting something like 150lbs of produce down from Boston to donate to the local Boca Chica high school “Elvira de Mendoza“, and this he now does a couple of times a year. In good old entrepreneurial fashion he saw a market opportunity that he has developed over the years… with the single entrepreneurial omission that he doesn’t make any money out of it!
One fine day he noticed a lot of good paper was going to waste around him at his place of work. The match up was that he in his mind’s eye saw this paper being well used in poor old Boca Chica and where better than one of the local schools he thought. He had the brilliant idea that a lot of the notepads and business paper pads, when finished with, could simply be recycled by using the blank obverse sides. So, he made a point of asking all his work colleagues to put these pads and papers aside for him. From this simple beginning he has extended his product range asking all his friends and colleagues for any kinds of paper pads, pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners or anything of that ilk, that they might be able to spare to add to his haul. Not satisfied with that he also visits the local dollar stores just before setting off to see if he can pick up some additional inexpensive bargains to make up the full load. This is of course working very much counter to pure entrepreneurship because this now involves money actually coming out of his own pocket. However, a recent market diversification has him back on track spotting an opportunity for low value products with large potential demand. He came across the chance of 200 free sample tubes of toothpaste with toothbrushes and promptly stuffed them also into one of his carrier bags and brought the whole thing down to Boca Chica. Once in town he phones the school to make an appointment with the principal of the school in order to present his offering. She, as well as all the contented recipients, is quite rightly very thankful and everybody is now more than ever looking forward to welcoming the creative and generous packhorse the next time he can make a run.
So… if you see our Massachusetts Man struggling through either Boston or Santo Domingo International Airports you might like to give him a hand with his baggage knowing that it is all in a good cause. Perhaps others of you out there have some other creative ideas along the lines of Massachusetts Man’s… we would be only too pleased to pass the information on and keep the supply of good intentions running if that were the case.
Posted by Playa Vista @ 10:17 AM CST
