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Travel Networking-Monthly Luncheons-Los Angeles
NETWORK FOR TRAVEL CLUB (No membership fee required)
Date: Sunday, December 6, 2009 - DINNER at 4:30 PM
Time: 4:30 PM - Socializing for ½ hour. 5:00 PM dinner is served. Travel presentation follows immediately. 7:30 PM - End of event. Optional Attire: Wear any costume/jewelry of your exciting trip, Eg: Mexican dress or shirt.
Place: Siam Best Restaurant 2533 Lincoln Blvd. (one block South of Venice Blvd. Venice, CA 90291 tel. (310)827-8977 Fax: (310) 827-0988 From Downtown L.A., take the Sta Monica fwy (10) West, exit Lincoln Blvd., turn left, approximately after 1-1/2 mile, the restaurant is on your right side. Street parking free on Sundays.
Cost: $18.50 ** per person, includes travel show, dinner, tax and tip.
**We receive inquiries asking if it is possible to attend the presentation only and skip the lunch. Our primary goal is to meet and network. The lunch price is secondary. We use the place for 3-1/2 hours and our menu is discounted as a group. It is a STRICT policy of the restaurant to count PER HEAD. We are a voluntary group. We do not charge a membership fee and our club has to pay operating expenses. In order to avoid unpleasant issues with the restaurant owner, it has always been our policy to charge ONE PRICE for the function (with or without lunch).
Menu: Green salad, Chicken Sate (two sticks of charbroiled chicken breast meat served with peanut sauce) and Pad Thai Noodles (thin rice noodles in tamarind sauce with bean sprouts, chicken and shrimp). Vegetarian: Green salad, Pad Thai noodles with tofu and two pieces of vegetable egg rolls. Includes, soft drinks, Thai iced tea or iced tea. Desert: Fried Bananas.
SPEAKER: WENDY WINDEBANK. Photographer and travel slide presenter, Wendy has indulged her wanderlust with visits to many fascinating areas of the world. Website: www.windebank.com. e-mail: wendy@windebank.com
TOPIC: ICELAND – LAND OF BEAUTY, FIRE AND ICE
Iceland offers magnificent, diverse and unique scenery formed over millenia by volcanic action and glaciers. The capital, Reykjavik, welcomes visitors with inviting restaurants and cafes, a fishing harbor, quaint shopping streets, and a large pond with birdlife. Day trips leave from here going in various directions - the "Golden Circle" tour visits the historic birthplace of the Icelandic nation, Thingvellir, and a photogenic geyser area; the highlights of the Southern Coastal Route include the Jokulsarlon lagoon, a walk behind a gorgeous waterfall and the black sand beach at Vik. On the west coast, the Snaefellsness Peninsula has dramatic glacier landscapes, a twisted lava rock coastline with screeching gull colonies, and photo ops of Icelandic horses. The picturesque town of Akureyri in northern Iceland is situated on one of the many majestic scenic fiords and dazzles the eye with its colorful houses. It's accessible to the volcanic wonderland of the Myvatn area with soda craters, unusual lava formations, bubbling pools of mud, hissing geysers, and relaxing outdoor turquoise geothermal nature baths. Aaah!
R.s.v.p.: Odette Ricasa cell: (323) 578-3601 E-mail: Odette25@aol.com
Website: www.webspawner.com/users/travelnetworking
We hope to see you at our future meetings. We would love to hear about your travels.
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An article written about our travel club:
ALL TRAVELERS WELCOME AT THE NETWORK TRAVEL CLUB!
"Come travel with us for the price of lunch!" smiles Odette Ricasa, the volunteer driving force behind the Network Travel Club. "We're a group of travel addicts in the Los Angeles area who meet once a month to exchange travel tips and ideas."
Established in 1992, the Network Travel Club has no membership fees. It's a “Pay-as-you-attend Affair” with the cost of lunches ranging from $18 to $20, depending on the location. This includes a complete lunch, payment for the speaker, and normal operating expenses such as printing of flyers, etc. "It's as though we're taking a tour of Los Angeles," Odette quips with her infectious smile, "But without the bus!"
I have to admit that I'm a travel junkie, so this sounded like my scene when I ventured out for the first time last year to their luncheon held in Hollywood. Since then, I have taken a tour of LA from Glendale, to Downtown, to Sherman Oaks, to Westwood, to San Gabriel to Beverly Hills. Odette rings the venue changes with great skill and diversity and so far I've sampled Cuban, Moroccan, Indian, Lebanese/Syrian, Italian, French and even Uzbekistan fare, all a mere car ride from home!
Stan Mazin and Linda Quintana who have been long time members are the gregarious volunteer emcees at each luncheon. They get everyone to introduce themselves and give a short talk about their recent travels. This enables travelers to make a mental note of whom to chat to after the lunch for information on specific destinations.
Before lunch is served, each member may give a short introduction about himself/herself and share information on a recent or future travel.
Odette is gradually getting through the tough job of using up her accumulation of 1,022,519 frequent flyer miles! She recently gave a talk on how to make this dream yours. She has traveled to one hundred sixty two (162) countries. Slide shows with speakers on different countries tempt new and old travelers to try something they've not experienced before.
Instead of being the "armchair traveler" try being the "luncheon traveler" - it's definitely more mouth-watering! Seating is limited, please make reservations.
Details of the meetings are announced in the L.A. Times on the second Sunday of the month under Programs and Features of the Week in the Travel Section.
Visit their website: www.webspawner.com/users/travelnetworking
Anybody interested in joining the Network Travel Club may contact the Muse herself, Odette Ricasa: tel: (323) 578-3601
E-mail: Odette25@aol.com
Written by : Wendy Windebank from England - Pacific Palisades
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Lourdes Odette Ricasa:
Writing Accomplishments: AUTHOR of three (3) Books
Books available at www.authorhouse.com
1) October 2002 - Unguarded Thoughts - contains 246 poems filled with the spirits of travel.
2) January 2004 - Excerpts from Life - contains 245 poems describing memories and fantasies.
3) January 2005 - Pieces of Dreams - contains 201 poems and yearly newsletters.
March 2007 - winner first place trophy - International Speech Contest Toastmasters International Area G Division held in Mission Viejo, CA.
Published in the Sun Post Orange County Register newspaper.
2006 - 2007 - Four (4) times Best Speaker Winner San Clemente Toastmasters Club.
November 2006 - Motivational Toastmasters speaker - San Clemente high school.
1999 - 2000 - Three (3) times Best Speaker Winner Los Angeles Toastmasters Club.
1989 - present - Sends a Holiday Newsletter, a description of countries traveled during the year.
Appeared in a TELEVISION INTERVIEW:
June 22, 2004 - T.V. interview with Encore, an award winning public access television series televised on Adelphia, Charter and Time Warner reaching 400,000 households each month in 34 cities throughout the Greater San Gabriel Valley.
Featured in Articles:
September 5, 2007 - featured in the Front Page of the PHILIPPINE NEWS....This Fil-Am lady has been in 162 countries.
May 6, 2004 - Business Vestnik Vostoka Business Weekly, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Poem published: Samarkand, the Garden of My Soul, Poetic Look of Guests in Uzbekistan.
Spring 2003 - U.S. Servas Open Doors News - Servas Magazine, Place is Memory.
October 1999 - Los Angeles Unified School District Newsletter, An Artist and World Traveler.
Travel and Art Accomplishments:
1997 - present - Completed 130 framed paintings in media of charcoal, pastel chalk, watercolor and oil. Currently on display at her home in San Clemente.
- Plays classical and pop piano music.
- Loves to travel and has been to more than 166 countries, all of Europe and Iceland, all continents including Africa, Middle East, Australia, South America and Asia.
Social Activities and Accomplishments:
2004 - present - Member, Adventurous Womens Club.
1999 - present - Ethnic Dinner Coordinator, Over the Hill Gang (Ski and Travel Club).
1998 - present - President, Network for Travel Club (Group of Travelers).
1998 - present - Member, Women Welcome Worldwide, a global club of travelers.
1997 - present - Member, Servas, an international organization for friendship and World Peace.
1994 - 1995 - President and Board Member, Corregidor Lions Club.
Articles written about Odette:
An Artist and World Traveler . . . . . . . Lourdes Odette Ricasa
Los Angeles Unified School District October 2001 issue
ITD A publication of Information Technology Division
Staff members may know Lourdes Odette Ricasa as a Programming Analyst working in Systems and Programming. But did you know . . . she also has considerable artistic abilities and is a seasoned world traveler. ITD staff on the 14th floor of the IBM tower is already familiar with her One Hundred and Five paintings in oil, watercolor, pastel, charcoal and colored pencil exhibited among the cubicles. The artwork certainly helps to create a pleasing environment.
She has always enjoyed sketching and painting while growing up in the Philippines. As an adult, she refined her painting by enrolling in art classes at Pasadena City College and the Mission Renaissance Art School. According to Odette, her nickname, these classes have really helped her to improve her painting technique. Among her favorite artwork is a pastel composition entitled Monique. It was painted while on a short trip to Biarritz, France located near the Spanish border. Among her other favorites is a watercolor portrait of her piano teacher.
She believes that painting is a very spontaneous and joyous experience. When you really enjoy an activity, you can always seem to find the time, revealed Odette. She likes to paint during her travels and many of her compositions are created from postcards or other illustrations.
Odette also has a passion for visiting foreign countries. This hobby was originally sparked while studying geography in high school and college. Over the years, she has traveled to more than 140 countries and has a world map with red pins indicating the various destinations that she has visited including Samarkand, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. For example, in her 1998 holiday newsletter, she reported on her travels to the following destinations: Ho Chi Min City, Tallinn, Estonia; Tortosa, Spain; Carcassone, France; Angkor Wat, Cambodia; Louisville, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Portland, Maine.
She also loves to write and has written a book containing more than a hundred poems relating to her travel adventures and is currently searching for a publisher.
While attending to business on the 14th floor of the IBM Tower, please take the opportunity to view this remarkable collection of paintings. Should you happen to exchange travel stories . . . the chances are pretty good that Odette has visited the same destination.
- Article from Newsletter: US SERVAS OPEN DOORS NEWS - SPRING 2002
PLACE IS MEMORY - One might consider suffering from a split personality when considering Odette Ricasas dual life as Programmer Analyst and Servas enthusiast. But then, many Servas people could fall under the blessing. Odettes additional blessing is that she combines another passion into traveling: painting. Odette was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the USA in 1971. As artist-traveler, she finds her muses in the places and people she encounters. These images are represented in figure drawings, still lives, wind-blown landscapes of Spain and rural scenes of Asia, I can express my many moods and feelings while I am painting. I feel my art articulates the balance and integr
Send E-Mail to: odette25@aol.com
Copyright © 2009 Odette Ricasa. All Rights Reserved