Olympian positivity

What do I like about the Olympics? The fact that it is in London, the medal league tables (some people tell me I am highly competitive), the copious amounts of sport on every TV channel known to man? Nope, what I like is that news coverage is invariably more positive and upbeat than at any other time in the (four) year (period). It seems like stories of bombings, killings, floods and economic crises have to work that bit harder to steal some of the limelight. If it didn’t take 9 billion pounds and 7 years to plan the 2 week festival of sport, then I’d vote to do it on a monthly basis.

Are you hearing me?

I started to try and analyze some of my own conversations at home (obviously made more difficult because I’m trying to do it at the same time as actually having the conversation). I have started to wonder if it is just me who thinks that our conversations are constantly happening on two levels; firstly what is actually being said, and secondly; what the other person thinks you are actually saying. I’ve found myself saying out loud more and more, “listen to what I’m saying, not what you think I’m saying”, and oh yeh, let’s not even start to think about the subtleties of doing it across two languages. Great for mental agility, less good for easy living!

Rome, the Vatican and the CTO

I headed to Rome directly from Madrid. I travelled there with our global CTO (and his wife) who had flown in from Colorado in the US. He had wanted to spend some time talking through some things before our meeting in Italy, so I managed to convince him to come to Spain a day early. I was also very pleased to be able to introduce him to the team there. I continue to believe that to really learn a language you need to understand the culture of the country…another reason why I was happy to go with them to some bona fide flamenco dancing on the Tuesday evening. It really made me look forward to my week’s Spanish lessons at the end of August – I’m itching to immerse myself in all things red and yellow and to understand the land and the people more (even if I doubt I’ll get much of a flavor of it whilst in Gran Canaria...).  The two day meeting in Rome went well and that plus a fascinating visit of the Vatican archives, a roof top dinner and farewell drink for my now ex-boss, and a well-received wall chart all meant that the week whizzed by and that I was pretty exhausted by the end of it. After 11 months in two new jobs, I was ready for a holiday…

Yo vivo a Riberia del Loira

Before travelling to Milan last Friday I started my Spanish lessons in Utrecht (as you do). Some very basic stuff you understand, but it meant that on the Tuesday morning of my last week at work I managed to order my taxi in Madrid in Spanish for the first time. A small step but definitely one in the right direction! I was proud as punch all day until I told the story to one of my local colleagues. He didn’t know how to put it, but he was very kind as he explained to me that I had effectively proclaimed to my somewhat surprised Spanish taxi driver (who spoke perfect English) that I “live” (vivir and yo vivo) in the office, rather than I wanted to go (ir and yo voy) to the office… Back to the drawing board it seems…

Enlightened working

I worked from home on the Monday after the trip to Milan. I spent the day working on a 6 metre wall chart which I will present in Rome on Thursday. The only (series of) tables in Biarritz big enough were outside in my parents’ garden so I spent a pleasant day outside avoiding emails but still doing real work. It was glorious, if only I had thought to put some sun cream on the backs of my knees…

The turning worm the morning after

The weekend of July 27-29 was spent in Lake Como for an old friend’s wedding. It was unfortunate that Sandie and the kids didn’t come – it was such a beautiful place, they would really have enjoyed it. That said, they probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the drive out of Linate airport….I should know by now that I’m no good at multi-tasking… that includes trying to speak to colleagues and drive in unfamiliar countries. It was only after I finished talking to Jean-Francois about work that I realized I had been driving in completely the wrong direction (even despite the GPS having been configured by the Avis rep before I left the airport). It was even more unfortunate that the conversation lasted an hour… Thankfully I was meeting my schoolboy friends so despite arriving at Lake Como in the driving rain at 11.30PM (thanks to Kieran’s telephonic co-piloting powered by Google Earth), I still found them in the nearest local bar, just as I had left them the last time. Thankfully some things never change. The weekend was a success and Mick and Eva were married by the end of it. One thing however that did cause much mirth was the fact that I, “Mr. Organised” by comparison to my old school friends (and the vast majority of the world’s population if you listen to them), managed to get myself locked out of the hotel on Saturday night. At 2AM I finally ended up sleeping on the couch in an apartment that had been rented by the most disorganized member of the whole group. How the worm had turned…

De retour!

Although it’s been a month since I last posted I definitely hadn’t forgotten about my blog. Quite the contrary if anything; I’ve actually been travelling round Europe for both work and pleasure scribbling random thoughts on odd scraps of paper which I’m finally managing to make into full sentences tonight. I hope you enjoy this series of rapid fire posts which will seek to bring you up to date on the events of the last four weeks…