B International

sports sunday...

ah - another rainy sunday!!

Yesterday was pretty good, I saw the All Blacks play the Springboks in Tri-Nations rugby.  The atmosphere at the Oliver Twist was great as fans from both teams were load and boisterous watching the match.  Friendly taunts on the poor play from both sides flowed with the pints of lager and as most in attendance play for Rugby Club Zürich.

The All Blacks started off slowly and were soon down 11-0 before coming back to end the half 23-11 and would continue in the second half winning 45-26.

Watching the match and having fun with the team (I played with Zürich for a bit a few years ago), it brought back fond memories from my times with Worcester RFC in Massachusetts.  Good times indeed! Especially the tours.... what goes on tour - stays on tour (well before Vegas!!)

As the pints flowed and time slipped by, I finally made my way home later then planned and stopped off for my ritual Kebap at Deny's next door.  As a card member my next one will be free! haha

Arriving home tired and well fed, I slept until 2am kick-off for the New England Patriots game.  I was online with NFL.com and listening to the game over their Field Pass broadcast from local Boston favorites Gino Capelletti and Gil Santos.  I was also chatting online with people from the US at the Boston Globe's Patriots Chat.

The Patriots beat the Redskins 41-0 in their 3rd preseason game and QB Tom Brady played well in the first half throwing to a number of players, most notably to Ben Watson and not to Deion Branch who is still holding out on his contract.....

So I went to bed about 6am as I also caught some of the postgame show and the interviews with Coach Belichick and Tom Brady...

With today being Sunday and rainy it is a good day to relax. Again went to Bubbles Cafe and read a bit and wrote some more... now it is time to catch a movie and fall asleep...

And in case you didn't notice I finally updated the site with some pics from the Zürich Street Parade ->

miami vice

This is not your 80's Miami Vice...

Gone are the 'production values', flamingoes and sunshine....

This is a much darker Miami the tongue and cheek liners are not the best.

Jamie Foxx is a great supporting actor in not so much what he says - but more on the expressions he tries to portray. 

Colin 'Uni-brow' Farrel keeps his brooding attitude going and in the end tries his hand at other (sad) emotions that would embarass a puppy dog.

Overall it is a good film, but I would wait until it is on cable to record it or a few weeks until the DVD is on sale.....

pull my finger?

Mr. Er President??

Found this one....

1- Go to www.Google.com

2- Type in the word-- Failure

3- Laugh

rugby and NFL

After my normal Saturday business and a stop by the Café, today is a day when I can finally watch a little bit of rugby enjoy a VB beer with my Kiki friends and relax...

at the Oliver Twist in Zürich

So this afternoon rugby and this evening the New England Patriots play the Washington Redskins at Razor Blade field in Foxboro!

OK so it is watching sports - but this will be the first TV I ahve watched all week...

Anyway if I don't see you at the pub then maybe on chat about the Patriot's game.

friday apéro time!

So the weatehr is FINALLY nice out and one of the Kiwi's from finance is moving to the US of A!  So he is hosting a drinks session or in Swiss terms an Apéro!

So a few beers and food before heading out on the town - well ok tonight it is to see MIami Vice!

Tomorrow is Rugby! I don't remember who is playing (Springboks SA v All Blacks NZ), but it will be a good time at the Oliver Twist Pub!!

coffee please?!

In the coming 2 months I will be traveling 4 or 5 times to London and 2 times to the US.  In order to avoid too much travel costs I have to do some work over the phone and video conference.

A 4 hour workshop over the phone.. zzzzzz

A 2 hour project update over the phone..... zzzzzz

A 1.5 hour video conf for global updates.... zzzz - oh yeah you can see me... zzzzz

It is good to be informed and be a part of the action, but the tendancy is that these things never run on time (LDN starts 15-20 minutes late..) and there is always 'follow up' meetings that never happen....

So then you have some 'happy' senior manager thinking that all is 'blue sky' and everyone is 'on board' and we are 'moving in the right direction'...

hhmmmmm....

riaaaght...

fitness daze

With all the rain we've had lately, my body is not enjoying it.  Either arthiritis is setting in or I am out of shape...

either way - I think years of pop warner football, high school adn college soccer and then Rugby may be taking its toll.  Either it is from too much sports or because of the lack of sports that I now find myself in this situation.

Although I have been watching what I eat (especially while traveling) and doing calenstetics (like grade school stuff), sit-ups and push-ups, I still need some kind of real physical activity. So now morning jogs are part of the routine.

Nothing special maybe 2 miles three times a week. It is about .5 miles to the local track adn I go around 6 times.. an average between sprint, job and walk as I do not wnat to do too much and yet get bored by plain old running.  So I am back home wihtin 30 minutes.  I need motivation to do this and the rain has provided part of that - I am not Old!

So I do not question it I just go out and run. Don't think just do!

I am still working on a 'Mornin Mantra' to keep me going, so hopefully we will see progress in a couple of weeks.

another day at the office

As written before, there has been some external opportunities for jobs in London and also here in Zurich.  Interestingly enough things became quiet through August as this is the continental holiday season.

Now that most people are returning senior managers have come back energized and looking forward to a new direction (even my own manager is back this week).

Needless to say, that means that was once a quiet time and causing me a bit of concern - has now turned into either clear cut - sorry we are going into a different direction - or actually we feel we can utilize your skills in a better way to benefit you (being me) and us (being them).  Other feedback has been - we are not sure you have enough client experience especially at a senior level.

Well that part is true of late, but if you read through my whole CV - you will see that I do have experience - only it has been a few years... but complex product knowledge, execution and client interaction is very strong...

I should find out by the end of this week or early next week on additional interviews and next steps, but I guess I need to be a bit patient as I am told these things could still take a month to organize and agree - that is if I am hired... and of course I will be!

sitting in the cafe

As I write this in the cafe it is crowded from the rainy conditions outside and the fact this is a pretty cool place to hang out.  So it is kind of loud today, but really who cares... well to be honest there si one noise that stands out the 'hunnn, hunnn' droning of a women hwo is obviously bored with her friend's conversation.  They are almost 20 yds away and you can hear her (she must be a moaner - they joke).

As I drown her out and take in the scene, I am owed (as usual) with the crowd, as you can hear conversations in german, spanish, french and portuguese... and then there is me the American.

But I do speak a bit of german (mixture of high german and swiss german), better then most Anglos that have moved to Zurich for work.  Although I have not taken many lessons and learned mostly from going out - it depends on the conversation to tell how bad or good my german really is.

I will always speak german (or try) until the conversation gets too complicated and I struggle too much the other person then asks where I am from or until the person I am talking to prefers my english to my german (ah but your german is not so bad...ahem right).

Since they know me here and I always speak german they always speak german to me, even though they suspect I am British (not too many Americans stay in Europe long enough to learn german).  When I am unsure of the german word, they rephrase the question in german, so then then give me the words to find and use for myself. I like that.

another rainy sunday...

Yes it is raining yet again on a Sunday. It also rained yesterday and will rain again tomorrow...

Summer is officially over here in Zurich as is often the case ther may be a few warm sunny days, but that is about it - no more swimming or rollerbalding unless you are covered up.

Today it was especially tough, because I was up until 5am on a football chat and viewing the NFL.com play-by-play for game notes and then also the Patriots and Cardinals game updates at MVN.

I am still hoping to see most of the games this year, but you never know.  I should be home the weekend of the 16 and again the 23rd of September and maybe can see 2 Patriot games - even if only on TV hanging out with friends.

I am looking to get a Sling Box to be able to watch Boston sports!  Once I have this set up I will be able to all the sports and no longer have the boring announcers assigned by CBS/NBC to do the European commentary.  Plus I will get to laugh at the US sports commercials - yes I do miss those.. Outside of sports I do not miss much except maybe Dunkin Donuts.  So bring on NESN and ESPN...

So staying up late and 'watching' the Patriots win 30 - 3 over the Cardinals was probably not the best for a preseason game, but then again if I will be up until 3 to 5am - I will need my practice too.