Latest news with #tourguide
CNA
2 days ago
- CNA
How I learnt to appreciate goodbyes – even the painful ones
During a recent trip to Osaka, my husband and I took a one-day guided tour to Northern Kyoto where we stopped by scenic viewpoints such as Amanohashidate, Ine Fishing Village and Funaya. Our guide was a bespectacled, well-dressed Japanese man named Jay. We enjoyed his company very much – he was polite, thoughtful, and unexpectedly funny. The bus arrived back in Osaka around 7pm. Before dispersing the tour group, Jay left us with this parting statement: 'In Japan, we don't say 'sayonara'. We say 'mata' because 'sayonara' usually means 'goodbye and I will not see you again'. 'Mata', on the other hand, means 'goodbye, and see you next time again'. So instead of saying 'sayonara' to you, I will say 'mata' because I will want to see you all again someday.' His words stuck with me. Days passed, and still they lingered in my mind. Unable to shake the idea, I did some research to understand more. The full Japanese term is 'mata itsuka' which directly translates to 'someday, again'. It is used when you're expressing a wish to either do something again (which was previously unsuccessfully attempted or unfortunately ended), or to meet someone again (even though you do not know if it will come true). DIFFERENT SHADES OF 'GOODBYE' 'Goodbye' is a complicated word, often loaded with big feelings. We've all had our fair share of saying goodbyes, and we say it all the time: A casual 'see you tomorrow' to a coworker at the end of the workday; a bittersweet farewell to a lover with whom you hope not to cross paths again; a sombre goodbye to a departed loved one, where you fervently wish for one final moment together. Some goodbyes are light-hearted and full of gratitude. On my trip to Osaka, I spent five days exploring the city and indulging in hearty street food. On the last day, I boarded the plane bound for Singapore. While it was being readied for take-off, I looked out of the window and saw the ground crew waving goodbye to us passengers on-board. I waved back – to thank the ground crew and also Osaka, for the days spent and memories forged. Some goodbyes are uneasy and difficult – but necessary, to pave the way for new beginnings. This is when we close certain doors behind us, in order for new doors to be opened ahead of us. In June 2022, I left my first corporate job – the job I'd had for seven years. It was the job that had seen me through young adulthood and even becoming a wife. It was the place where I'd met colleagues who became dear friends, where I had bosses and mentors who opened up my world. We had bonded through afternoon bubble-tea breaks, birthdays and festive celebrations. It was the place where my career first sprouted – where I'd picked up and honed important skills for work I still use today, and learnt to speak up for myself. Just going by my emotions, I wanted to stay. But I also knew staying put was not what I truly needed. I needed new ways to grow, new goals to work towards. So I made the difficult decision to say goodbye to the camaraderie, comfort and familiarity. Recently, a friend of mine sold her matrimonial home of five years. During our conversation, she confessed that saying goodbye to the house was harder than she'd expected. She teared up recounting the times spent in the home that had seen her and her husband welcoming their bundle of joy, and all the milestones in their child's first few years of life. She knew it was time for them to move to a bigger place. Still, it takes courage to move on and let something new take root. WHEN 'GOODBYE' HURTS Some goodbyes come with pain, loss and grief. My dad lost my mother many years ago to cancer; and I lost him when he too died two years ago. Bidding Dad goodbye was probably the hardest farewell I've ever said. My grandmother – my dad's mum – told me many years ago: 'There's nothing scary about death. You say bye-bye to everyone you love and go where you need to go next.' She is now 92 years old, and has outlived her husband and two sons – my grandpa, my uncle and, most recently, my father. During my father's funeral, I'll never forget the sight of my grandmother bursting into tears when she saw his portrait placed in the middle of the altar. She wept and said: 'How can you just leave me alone and go off first?' She'd been 'prepared' to say goodbye – but even rational understanding couldn't really protect her from the full hurt of a painful goodbye. She's mostly bed-ridden now, and is sometimes unable to remember or recognise me as her granddaughter. Still, I always make sure to show up in her room whenever I visit for weekly family dinners to greet her: 'Ah Ma, I am Ah Bi. I'm here.' Sometimes she remembers me; sometimes she doesn't. Sometimes she reaches for my hand; sometimes she is unresponsive. Occasionally, she asks, 'Why you never tell me you're coming? I could've asked the helper to cook more dishes' – forgetting that Sunday dinners are a weekly standing affair for our family. Now, in her twilight years, I often remind myself to cherish and appreciate each moment with her a little more – because as clichéd as it sounds, we really do not know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory. Some goodbyes, we simply never get to say. It could be as simple as another phone call, another 'I love you', or even getting to say 'I'm sorry for not doing enough for you'. But life doesn't always give us the opportunity for goodbyes or closure – and this is a grief of its own. AGAIN, SOMEDAY 'Goodbye' doesn't just mark endings and changes. It reminds us that life is a series of comings and goings. Sometimes we have regrets about the way things ended or changed. But what matters most is that we learn and grow from each goodbye – each ending and each loss – before we centre ourselves for new beginnings again. We all need to learn to say goodbye to what is no longer meant for us, whether it's a job, a relationship, or even a fun hobby. We need grace and courage to walk away from something that no longer serves us, so that we can find something else that does – new opportunities and experiences, new chances to fall in love again, new interests that make us feel alive. Not all things are forever, and that is perfectly okay. Perhaps there may come a day where I rekindle old friendships that I thought were lost; where I reunite with people that I had once let go of; or where a door that had been shut to me will reopen. When the time is right. When I am ready. Till then, mata itsuka. Chua Jia Ling, 32, is a bank executive.
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Globe and Mail
Lawyer Brian Greenspan's summer on Niagara tour bus taught him an unexpected lesson
Every day, prominent criminal defence lawyer Brian Greenspan guides (upset, angry, difficult, despondent) clients through the complicated legal progress. In this instalment of 'How I Spent My Summer,' Mr. Greenspan shares how it's not altogether dissimilar from his summer job at 22 years old: shepherding groups of (tired, cranky, bored, drunk) tourists around Niagara Falls in a tour bus. Either way, if you want to get paid, it's all about composure. I was born and grew up in Niagara Falls, a city for which I still have enormous affection and wonderful memories. My computer screen is Niagara Falls, I hang paintings of Niagara around my office. I just love the place – probably even more so when I moved away to Toronto for law school in '68. To pay for school, I drove a taxi in Toronto during the winter, but every summer, I'd come home to my mother's house. I looked forward to it all year. At home, from May until Labour Day, I had to be available twelve hours a day, seven days a week to drive a tour bus for the City of Niagara Falls. I didn't work all those hours, but I had to be ready to take three tours a day at three-and-a-half hours each. I called in most of the time to be both the tour guide – with a microphone in front of the steering wheel – and also the bus driver of a huge 42-passenger blue and white bus. Taxi-driving made me better at driving the bus, and vice versa. I would get primarily American tourists for the comprehensive tour: We started above the Falls, went to the power plants and the Table Rock House, down the river to the Great Gorge Trip, we stopped at the newly-built Skylon Tower – I could give you the whole tour, right now, as I have probably a thousand times over the years. I'm a bit obsessed with the Falls. Knowing this, a friend got me a job with the tour guide company. He sold tour tickets in the street and they'd get on my bus for my lesson. I knew a lot already but I read a great deal to learn more. Did you know the drop of Niagara Falls is about half the drop between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario? Or that Niagara River is one of the few rivers in North America that flows north? All of this is still in my head fifty years later. It's not going anywhere. I can't remember what they paid me per hour, it was that low. The real money was in tips. There was a sign by the door at the bus, placed there deliberately so you'd pass it every time you got on and off the bus, that said 'Unless completely satisfied, please do NOT tip the driver.' Most people wouldn't have even thought of tipping until they were told not to. Reverse psychology works very well. Unbeknownst to the passengers, tour guides got kickbacks every time they bought a ticket to something. If they paid $6 to go up the tower, for example, I got a buck. If they went to the restaurant I recommended, the restaurant let me eat for free. If they bought a souvenir, I'd get a 10 per cent kickback. All of these were good incentives, though I was being honest with passengers too, because I really was enthusiastic about the Falls. It must have shown, because some weeks I'd make upwards of $300. That amount of money today [about $2,700] was lucrative. That said, I had to earn it. I had to be very even-tempered and accommodating and not get frustrated. There'd be angry people who needed to be calmed down, sometimes intoxicated people, people with a lot of cranky kids who cried. The human element of managing 40 different personalities could be very difficult some days. Staying patient and maintaining composure was always the most important thing. I use these very same skills every day when practising law. Whenever a client comes into my office, I have to assess what they need and how to best interact with them to get the best results. I have to be patient, I have to keep their interests in mind, I have to respect the fact that they're relying on me to guide them through the legal process. I know about something they don't know, and I need to tell them what they need to know and answer their specific questions but not be too complicated about it that it's overwhelming or confusing. And if they're angry or difficult, just like the people on the bus, it's my job to stay calm and try very hard to be understanding and empathetic to their problems. If I want to get paid, that's the job. As told to Rosemary Counter
Telegraph
20-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
‘I retired from my six-figure banking job to be a tour guide'
This is the first in a series about early retirement: how our readers did it, and what they are doing now. Would you like to take part? Get in touch at money@ The only word on the exterior of St Paul's Cathedral is 'resurgam', meaning 'I shall rise again' in Latin. The discreet reference to the second coming of Christ is one David Harry is keen to point out to guests on his walking history tours of London. But Harry feels the motto also reflects a second coming of his own. 'It's a symbol for my ongoing change in career; my own rebirth, as it were.' For the past five years, the 61-year-old has been one of the capital's most prominent tour guides. Donning a stripey blazer, Hawaiian shirt and a Panama hat, Harry leads guests through London's forgotten back alleys and ancient landmarks to reveal a history 'you can't Google,' he says. His evenings are spent combing through his own extensive archive of old magazines, books and sundries to unearth forgotten chapters in London's storied past that can be related to his guests. This second career came after an early retirement from a stressful job in a bank. 'I can't believe how happy it makes me,' says Harry of his new role. 'I just love every minute of it. I am glad I made the decision to retire when I did and I can't believe how lucky I am.' 'I gave up a six-figure salary willingly' Harry's life is unrecognisable from what it was before the pandemic. After almost 25 years in a corporate job, he retired in 2020 aged 55 and gave up his comfortable six-figure salary. Most people can only dream of doing this. Just 5pc of workers retired when they turned 55 last year, normally the earliest someone can access their pension pot, according to analysis by cash deposit firm Flagstone. The majority of workers retire at state pension age, which is 66 for both men and women and expected to rise to 68 by the middle of the 2040s. About one million people have continued to work full-time after hitting the current pension age, according to official figures last year. Fortunately for Harry, when he began his career in 1996 he signed on with one of the last remaining gold-plated private sector pension schemes. It meant the former Deutsche Bank vice president – who joined the German financial giant as a photocopy operator and worked his way up – retired with about £40,000 a year. 'I knew you could retire at 55 and I was in the final salary pension scheme, so I was very lucky indeed,' Harry says. 'My friend left [his job] and told me how much better life was outside the bank too. I realised I could afford to do it and if I did well as a tour guide I could live comfortably.' It was then that he decided to take the leap and hand in his notice. The money would serve as a safety net, Harry planned, allowing him to turn a hobby into a second career. Shortly after retiring, Harry's mother died, leaving him with a modest inheritance that allowed him to further cushion himself during the transition. He says she would have backed his decision to quit, having given him plenty of encouragement when he trained to become a magician. 'My mother had always been very supportive of me and she passed away between when I made my decision to leave the bank and hand in my notice.' He had qualified with the City of London as an official tour guide while working at Deutsche Bank and steadily built up his confidence in the role. 'I was moonlighting in the last few years before I made the jump,' Harry says. Years performing as a Magic Circle magician under the pseudonym 'the Delusionist' at corporate events in his spare time had also convinced Harry of his ability to hold an audience. 'I was already a performing magician so I had those presentation skills,' he says. 'I used to wake up in terror every morning' Looking back on his time in the corporate world, Harry says he was 'institutionalised'. He adds: 'I had been there for 25 years, I didn't understand how much freedom could come from being self employed.' He says that overall he enjoyed his time with Deutsche Bank. 'They trained me up and paid me reasonably well.' Yet he recalls how the 'pressure from deadlines and enormous decisions' that came with his senior position 'wears you down' over time. 'Every morning I would wake up in terror before having to look at my inbox thinking what's the next thing I am going to be asked to do or look at.' The father-of-two soon saw a steady trickle of interest in his tours of London, building out a small following from his existing work tour guiding in the Square Mile. Despite losing 'about 60pc' of his salary, he soon qualified as a tour guide with the City of Westminster, receiving hundreds of positive reviews on travel website TripAdvisor. His first tours took guests to filming locations from the Harry Potter franchise, following the young wizard's journey through London from being dropped off by the purple Knight Bus in Borough Market to the Ministry of Magic entrance in Westminster. 'I started doing Harry Potter tours straight away,' says Harry. Other tours led by Harry focus on London's espionage history, following the footsteps figures like Ian Fleming and notorious Cambridge Five member Kim Philby. He says his success as a guide has matched the income from his pension, while he also sees healthy demand from corporate clients, for whom he creates bespoke tours, as well as occasional viral hits on TikTok. 'Two and a half years ago I posted a random video on TikTok and it went viral. Now I post every day about London stories, so TikTok pays me and I sometimes get recognised in the streets.' His best ever month on the video sharing platform earned him £1,000, after signing a monetisation agreement which pays content creators a small fee per 10,000 views they receive. A recent video of Harry's on the site attracted almost 200,000 views and delves into how an IRA bomb explosion in 1992 at the foot of the City's Gherkin had the effect of revealing the remains of a teenage Roman girl. A Latin inscription now marks her final resting place. 'Now I have got more work than I need and I have to turn it down,' says Harry. He is kept busiest in the summer months, when tourists flock to London. 'It's seasonal,' he adds. 'In the winter I can do two or three tours a week, and in the summer I have done up to three tours a day. But that's quite tiring.' Some of his favourite guests are Londoners. 'I love guiding Londoners because they've already got quite a lot of knowledge.' He adds he only wishes his mother could have seen how he has spent his retirement because he knows it would have won her approval. 'It's the one regret I have that she wasn't around to see what I have done with my career.'
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Yahoo
Video shows alligator eating baby gator in Florida's Everglades
The Brief A tour group in Florida's Everglades got more than they bargained for on Mother's Day: they saw a bay gator being eaten by another alligator. Alligators are known cannibals, and males especially are known to be more aggressive with other gators. A tour group in Florida's Everglades came across an unsettling sight on Mother's Day this year: they witnessed an adult alligator eating a baby gator in what the tour guide called a "National Geographic moment." Video taken by Kelly Alvarez shows the adult alligator chomping down on a baby alligator in Shark Valley Everglades National Park on Sunday, May 11, as two young gators watch nearby. A tour guide could be heard saying that the alligator is eating its own children, though it's not clear that's what was really happening. "An alligator mother will eat all the babies if conditions are bad—like a drought or no water. She's just a wild animal after all," Ben Welch, an alligator tour guide in South Louisiana, told travel writer Judith Fein. RELATED: What causes nearly every alligator attack on humans? Study says it's our fault "That's what happens when kids are naughty and misbehave," the tour guide joked as the tourists watched in horror. Dig deeper: According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, larger alligators often eat smaller alligators. They're considered one of the biggest threats to the survival of smaller gators, but adult alligators can also be victims of cannibalism. There are multiple reasons why they may eat each other, not just because they're hungry. RELATED: Alligator made famous in 'Happy Gilmore' dies at more than 80 years old "Sometimes it can be territorial, but very often alligators are cannibalistic," Florida wildlife officials told FOX 13 Tampa. Typically, the males are more aggressive, especially during mating season, which runs from March until June. But as long as the weather is warm in Florida, alligators are more active in general. The Source This report includes information from Storyful, the Perceptive Travel blog, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and FOX 13 Tampa.
BBC News
16-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Everton fan 'followed in Nan's footsteps' as Goodison Park guide
The granddaughter of a much-loved tour guide at Everton's Goodison Park stadium said she was very proud to keep her nan's legacy alive by following in her Barnes, who worked for the Blues for 43 years, was described as "the face of Goodison Park" following her death in December 2023 at the age of granddaughter Elle Barnes-Reen first joined Everton on work experience before working her way up to become the club's tour and commercial events of Goodison Park's final men's first-team match on Sunday, Elle described what the club and its stadium, known as the Grand Old Lady, meant to her. "Everton Football Club is pretty much my life," said Elle."My career has always been at Everton, so I think it's been a part of building who I am as a person."Her grandmother Lily started working at Goodison Park in 1979 and spent 18 years giving tours of the Toffees' said she was only 16 when she had her own first taste of working there."I just fell in love with the place," she said. "I wanted to be more involved. I wanted to learn more." Over the years, Lily shared her love for all things Blue with enthusiasm was clearly infectious."My nan taught me everything that I know and seeing her deliver the best tours I could possibly imagine, learning the history and the facts from her - that was special to me," said Elle."When I took over the full tour, and she just had an eye-to-eye moment with me, no words spoken. But it was just a 'we've got there'."The Blues will move to their new 53,000-seater arena at Bramley-Moore Dock this this week, it was announced that Goodison Park will become the home of Everton's women's said the last men's first-team fixture there on Sunday would be an emotional moment."This place is a museum of memories," she said. "Not just for me, but for everyone I've met along the journey."It's a sanctuary of where you just feel belonging and unity as a family." Many Everton staff stay with the club for groundsman Bob Lennon started in 1988."I've seen a few managers here," he said."Colin Harvey was one. He wanted the pitch cut short and well-watered before the game [while] Sean Dyche wanted it wheat-long and dry."He remembered a time when Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola "wanted it cut short" and had jokingly asked: "Have you got no petrol for your mowers?"The reply was: "You're playing at Goodison Park. It's our pitch and we will play how we want to play it!" Bob said the move to Bramley-Moore Dock would be an adjustment period for players, staff and fans alike."It's a fantastic stadium but it will take a few years to get it softened up to the Everton ways," he predicted."It's like a brand new house. You've got to put your own stamp on it."As it is now, it's just a building with no soul on it."It's up to the players, staff and the fans to give it some." Kit man Tony Sage, meanwhile, has enjoyed 25 years at Goodison Park."Personally, I've never wanted to leave Goodison but when you see what has been developed on the dock, it's fabulous," he said."It is going to be tough for many Evertonians. "It's a big change in their lives. It's been their life for so long - so many wonderful memories for a lot of them. "But this is it. It's coming to an end. We're just going to embrace it." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
