This week is really consultant-life at its best. I was in Hamburg on Monday, Berlin on Tuesday, today I am in Aachen and Cologne, and tonight I’ll be back in Hamburg. This means two flights, many short and longer train trips, sprinkle a few taxi’s and two hotels inbetween, and voilá – there we are.
Of course, there is still work that needs to be done in between, let’s not forget about that 
Tomorrow is public holiday, and on Friday I take a day off, so I am looking forward towards four wonderful days of doing whatever crosses my mind (and Tine’s, of course!). But the day is not over yet… gonna go get more coffee.
Cheers!
Archive for April, 2008
This week has a lot going on for me.
Monday and Tuesday I spent at Les Fontaines, the Capgemini University. There I helped to facilitate/give the global Business Case training – that was absolutely exciting. The room packed with 18 participants from Australia to Finland, and me standing in front of them, telling them about financial analysis etc…. I would not have thought that I’d be in Les Fontaines in a trainer role so soon, but boy was it fun! Maybe I’ll get to engage in training that is not dealing with numbercrunching as well – I think that would be even better.
Yesterday and today I am in Berlin, working from our Headquarter, building a training model for an executive workshop. Good to be back in Berlin for a change – remember, I spent my first three months at Capgemini here, and I sure met some familiar faces. The Institute though has already turned on its head staff-wise (no surprise, as everybody stays for three months, and it was January when I left… so no chance of known colleagues still being there). I stayed in a fantastic hotel for this night – you know, one of those with sound and a telephone in the bathroom, with pillows that are actually pillows and not just folded linen, and with a breakfast buffet that would kill me if I stayed there more often. Too good. Mango juice. Salted butter. Two types of salmon. Fish. Cheese. Really really good variety of stuff. They had banana milkshakes. BANANA MILKSHAKES!
So you see why my day was off to a great start.
Now to something of actual importance. Yesterday night I found out about Randy Pausch. Randy is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who delivered (and recorded) two very interesting speeches. One is called “Time Management“, in which he talks about very practical tips on how to get more things done in life. This is not a theoretical talk – it is very down to earth, it is full of things you can directly apply yourselves. The other talk is called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams“. In this talk, part of CMU’s “last lecture” series, he talks about how he managed to achieve his childhood dreams, and how one can work towards that – or help others achieve their dreams.
The “last lecture” series at CMU is asking the speaker to imagine – if this was the last lecture he or she gave before they died, what would they talk about? For Randy, he needs no big imagination. Randy gave this speech knowing he will most likely die from the cancer he has in the next few months. He already knew that when he gave the speech on time management as well. Don’t shy away now! His lectures are incredibly funny. There is no darkness and sadness in them. All this frightening fact really does is make the speeches more intense. For me, on the receiving end, it feels like an incredible gift Randy has given to us. He even made the last lecture a book – how awesome is that!
When you watch those lectures, you wil realize what a fighting spirit Randy has. Not surprisingly, he is still alive, still fighting hard, still making the best out of the days he has. On his personal website you find a summary of all the things I just introduced to you, as we as updates on how he is doing.
A personal note: Six years ago today, my mum was buried. She died on April 3rd 2002, and boy, I miss her more than words can say. Had she known how limited her time on earth was, I am sure she would have given an awesome last lecture, too. Luckily, she had already filled my childhood with love and some really good advice from which I profit every day.
Hey there!
Today, Tine and I went on a little adventure. From my company, I had the invitation to go to the factory outlet of G-Star (a jeans/clothing brand), with the promise of good rebates. The outlet is about half an hour out of Hamburg, and given the sad selection of jeans left in my closet that are wearable, this was something to try.
So we drove there – really in the middle of nowhere – and entered something like a small warehouse, full of clothes. We were greeted by a shop assistant, who looked and acted more like a bouncer in a nightclub. He asked me where exactly I had gotten the invitation from, and what company I worked for. He wanted to see my passport and proof that I worked for the company (glad I had a business card in my wallet). Then, in a very serious tone, he continued like this:
“Alright, I will give you the hardcore introduction, because if we go into detail, it will take us ages. You are entering a contract with us. You may never, ever, re-sell the clothes you buy here, not in a store, not on ebay. If you do not comply, we will sue you. Whenever you come here, you can bring two persons with you. You are responsible for their actions as well. When you come, you need to present your store ID and your passport. If you cannot produce a passport, we will keep the store ID and you can get it back when you bring your passport to identify yourself. There are no refunds, so look at what you buy beforehand. No go over there to the other clerk and pay three Euros for the store ID.”Tine suggested that probably, we would need to do ten pushups whenever we did not put something back in the shelves correctly after looking at it. The shop assistant/bouncer guy was only mildly amused.
After this initial shock, it was quite a good experience. Prices were really good, although I understand that I am not allowed to publicize the discounts they give… so I bought myself three new pants – a jeans, a pair with pinstripes that is missing some buttons, and a pair that has a checkered pattern on it… makes me look like a punk, but in a fashionable way. (I hope).
Now if you’ll excuse me, there is some serious weekend-relaxing to do. And some work, unfortunately… but for that work, I get to help giving a training in our company’s university on Monday and Tuesday – how cool is that! I did not expect to come back to that great place as a trainer anytime soon, I certainly feel honored… now I have to meet expectations, of course.
Yesterday I flew to Munich for a meeting. I did not know when the meeting would be exactly, so I came in early in the morning. I waited. The meeting then was at 2:30 pm, and half of the people who should be in it (1 of 2) was not there but in a different city on short notice. The meeting lasted for two hours, after which I then spent over four hours driving up to where my actual project is, and on the way have my first meal of the day at 9pm, at a truck stop, where they started cleaning the floors around me already. Got to the hotel. This morning, I get to the project office, and it is empty. I come to think that, had I been sitting on my sofa in Hamburg all the time, I could have achieved almost as much, without all the hassle.
Seems like life has played an april’s fool joke on me. Since yesterday.
