Inn of the Wandering Dragon

So a few of my menu ideas for the coming week...

Baked pepper chicken with veggies (also baked) sprinkled with garlic and herbs along side rice flavored with chives and minced onion.

Ginger / Garlic stir fry with more chicken and veggies on a bed of tasty quinoa.

Salmon steak covered in home made salsa and served with fresh salad.

It sounding (and tasting) pretty good so far.

Aside from a leisurely walk along Elbow Falls, I spent most of the weekend outside in the sun with a good book in hand, much like a contented cat by the fire pit. The concept of just being still and able to relax for any extended length of time is fairly odd for me. Most of my holidays are spent going somewhere specifically to do something. Henna, certain art exhibits, presentations or whatever the case may be, I don't see a lot of true down time. That and I typically find myself too restless and active to sit still for long. This is not necessarily a bad thing as far as I'm concerned. It's just the way I'm built. But on those occasions where I can really sit back and relax, I can certainly enjoy it.

Hotel Providence in the downtown Arts District of Providence, Rhode Island.

Yes, Jinx the dragon accompanied me to Rhode Island this past weekend for the 5th annual Henna Gathering put together by Heather of Artistic Adornment. (This free flow scrabble table is in the lobby of the hotel we stayed in - Hotel Providence.)

I love landing in a new city. While I was disappointed that the Moor workshop had been cancelled, I was happy to have a day to wander the city center of Providence before the actual conference began. The hotel is in the Arts district so we had a blast checking out small galleries, massive murals, shopping and the numerous musicians / artists wandering about on their daily business. I say we because I finally met and joined up with a couple of my room mates - two awesome ladies who flew all the way from New Zealand for this gathering. Nothing makes you ponder the quirks of North America quite like the enthusiastic curiosity of of someone from another country!

The conference overall was well put together with some great presentations on a variety of henna related topics. The role and style of henna in various cultures around the world was my main reason for attending. Of that there were several presenters. There were also presentations in gilding, face painting and the realities of working in a festival environment. Naturally, since there were two presentation rooms, there were other presentations that I would have loved to take part in. There were some great crafting ideas that would be a lot of fun to explore - should I have the time to at some point.

My co-worker was there to answer any questions and naturally he sent me to check out the competition. I wandered and played the less than knowledgeable consumer to see what would happen. I think the response would have been different had I actually walked into the showroom, as opposed to being simply one body of hundreds passing by. Regardless, not one of them was interested in actually qualifying me, and not one of them went into any technical detail. I found it odd that not one of them seemed interested in promoting the quality of their product or some other means of differentiating themselves from the competition. Let's be honest, there are only so many ways that you can build any given product so why not try to make it stand out from the others? Just a thought.

The one booth really stands out in my mind - but not for the right reasons. If there is one thing that bugs me it is not presenting yourself well. This company looked like they slapped things together at the very last minute. Product was set up incomplete, but not a deliberate incomplete as if they were showing the hidden workings, more like, "oops, we don't have X part so just spray paint a piece of MDF and slap it on". The booth itself had sloppy details, like dirty signs and messy papers scattered around, that showed a real lack of professionalism in my opinion. And on top of that the reps seemed less than interested in being there and talking to people. Ouch!

The small things add up in a big way. Even if I did not work where I do, could they have sold me on their product? Not a chance! Especially after visiting the other booths which were clearly put together with more care and spoke with reps who were more interested in talking to people. First impressions can count for a lot and I think sometimes people forget that.