Archive for the ‘The List’ Category
Keep on writing…
Posted on: June 12, 2012
One point of my list was my aim to write an article and possibly get it published. After talks with my mentor from work (who coincidentally is also in charge of “knowledge management” in my company and hence is used to work on publications) I am happy to announce that I am now working on an idea about how the procurement dept. perceives itself and is perceived by its suppliers. I hope to expand this into an international context, rather than focusing overly on the German market as I feel that the international context raises a whole different set of (cultural) challenges that are associated with the (self-) perception. An added bonus here is that it fits in way better into my former studies, which always we geared towards an international context.
While I am nowhere close to actually starting to write it’s fun to get back to researching a specific topic and as a by-product learning more about the field of work I am in. At work I (still) just tend to go through the motions without really thinking overly about the great picture, developing my article, I am forced to think about the context and the big picture. Hence, right now I am reading all procurement books I can find, added with re-reading my old Operations, Ethics and Global Strategy Books. If any of you has any suggestions on good books I should add to my list, let me know!
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Finally the times for my trips to two of my closest friends are 99% decided. There will be one long weekend full of vino, beach, seafood and (hopefully!) hot Portuguese guys in July and another very long weekend full of Swedish hipness, overpriced beer, stockfish (that’s Swedish, isn’t it?!) and (hopefully) hunky Swedish guys. Obviously both trips will be packed with girl talk, gossip and shopping J
As mentioned before I have never been to either of these cities (well, one could argue I have been to Lisbon or rather the airport of Lisbon on a business trip some time back, but that doesn’t really count…) and even though they were on my “list of places I eventually want to see” they didn’t quite make it to the top. Well, since two of my best friends are living there right now, this obviously changes things.
My “Swedish” friend is actually from Cologne (with a detour via Poland) and we survived an awful lot of Latin lessons together. Somehow we were seated next to each other early in High School and remained “bench friends” until she changed school in 12th grade. We kinda lost touch after that but reunited a few years back via a chance encounter in the tube. Since then we have been close again, with her visiting me in the Netherlands and London and me sending her care packages to Stockholm (where she moved to after she married a German guy who happened to have a good job in Stockholm – yeah, that’s life…). She is one of the most easy-going, open and adventurous people I know and often I miss her being in Cologne desperately.
I met my “Portuguese” friend in Dubai when we both were invited to an assessment center for the executive track at Hult. We both passed (as did everybody else), spent a day touring Dubai and then met again when the MBA started. Since pretty much day one we grew really close and shared all the ups and downs of school and more importantly guys throughout our time in London and Boston (and Shanghai in her case). Especially our time together in Boston will always be special since we shared a house there and killed many bottles of wine whining and laughing about our life. She is one of the smartest, driven persons I knew with the most contagious laugh.
As you can see both these girls are really special and I am really looking forward to the coming months when I see them (after separations waaay too long) again!
(pics. courtesy to the internet)
Home improvement Day
Posted on: June 4, 2012
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I know, this post is way overdue and I apologize for this.
So, here goes the tale: After an alcohol drenched evening one friend gave me a voucher to help paint my flat. Unfortunately this friend lives in a far away country and was not able to make the long trip when the time came to paint. Still, that voucher was not forgotten and always held a special place on my fridge… When said friend came back on one of her too short infrequent trips, time had come to cash in that voucher. After another alcohol drenched evening (I guess you get the hang of it now…) we met the day after, bright & early, only slightly hung-over to paint one of my shelves in a lovely shade of purple. Yes, purple… I inherited a lot of dark brown furniture but also have a lot of red and pink décor items, purple fits quite nicely in here.
So we painted and painted and painted. Surprisingly we managed to only get the shelf painted and not the floor or anything else.
While waiting for the paint to dry off, we also hung pictures to my beloved picture wall, replanted my carrots (yep, carrots, but that’s worth another blog post on its own) and just had a fun time hanging out (with, surprise!, a sip of alcohol).
I hope you enjoy the pictures, given they probably show more about what we did than I could ever do 🙂
Working down the list – NOT (today)
Posted on: June 3, 2012
Crappy, crappy weather! Today was supposed to be THE day for the city tour of Cologne. Doing a city tour shouldn’t be a tough thing to do one might think. Well, it actually is when there is torrential rain pouring down heavens gates since last evening. While in theory I could still board a bus and see the city, I actually want to enjoy it and not get soaking wet. Hence, I will try again next weekend and just hope for better weather.
However, I don’t want to leave you without at least a first glimpse of my hometown (pics are from last summer, but the city pretty much still looks the same):
To not waste the day, I at least make good on my intention to keep on blogging. So far I have lined up 3 posts (in addition to this one!) already with intentions to do another two or three so you will be entertained until I find time again to sit down and “blog my heart out” 🙂
With that, I hope you are having better weather wherever around the globe you are!
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So, I tried to kick-start my resolutions and made an appointment at my hairdressers’ to get my perm.
May I say FAIL?
I wanted to go from this
To something more along those lines
And ended up like this
Jup, you see correctly – new cut, a little shorter, lighter colour but NO curls 😦
Sadly it seems I don’t have bad hairs (aka certain days, when my hair just sucks) but bad hair (aka my hair sucks because it’s to fine and to straight to accept any kind of perm that is available right now). After some discussions and some real life material (the girl from the flower shop next door – may I say bad hair gone worse?!), I was finally convinced that a perm might (with the current technology – hey, I can always hope!) not be the very best idea right now. Well, since I was already there and, admittedly, a little disappointed I went on with cut and colour anyways…
Sooo, as already indicated, point 1 from my list I was, sadly, unable to accomplish and hence need a new point to add to my list. I still don’t have an idea as to what the new resolution could look like, so I’d be grateful for any suggestions you can come up with 😉
Till then!
The List
Posted on: January 5, 2012
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Disclaimer: I will alter the list, if points prove to be unachievable (already happened, but more about that later) but will add new points for them, so I’ll end with a minimum of 12 at the end of 2012. Also, the list is in no particular order but will be “worked” off as I can work them into my schedule.
- Get a perm – always wanted to have curly hair
- Write an article (and possibly publish it if I am able to) – somehow I miss writing
- Do volunteering I: Read stories on a regular basis to little kids
- Do volunteering II: Not sure what yet, maybe soup kitchen?
- Visit Stockholm – Kathi beware
- Visit India – Indians please give me a good excuse to make the trip (like a wedding)!
- Visit Lisbon – Sara, we need to make good on our visiting schedule!
- Do a Sightseeing-tour of Cologne
- Sew a skirt
- Run a half-marathon
- Renovate (or at least assist) a flat – Where I will live in
- Actually stick to writing this blog – anybody remember my Amsterdam blog? yeah, thought so, too :-S plus see item 2
Admittedly, most of these points are going to be a lot more fun than a “challenge” and I will do them very, very gladly, but the fact remains that some will be hard work and most of them I’d probably, possibly not do if I don’t feel a kind of “obligation” to do them (yeah, I am lazy I know!)…
2011 & The Idea
Posted on: January 5, 2012
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Hi there,
so, after a pretty damn awesome 2011, 2012 promises to be exciting but will be hard pressed to beat all the memories, fun and incredible experience I was lucky to make in 2011.
You may wonder what exactly made 2011 so amazing:
- Living in London, Boston and Cologne
- Finishing my MBA and starting a new Job
- Being THE German amongst THE Indians and South Americans
- A visit to Shanghai with Maya
- Seeing long lost friends again and making plenty of new friends all around the world
- Being truly international
- Hult Global Case Challenge and other projects
- Sailing in Boston
- Lingo’s
- “My Pub” in London
- The Portuguese aka Vampi 😉
- Living for 3 months with my best friends
- Skydiving
- …
You see, it’s a hard to beat list 😉
Hence, to set myself some goals and to give 2012 a reasonable chance of living up to 2011, I am intending to do at least 12 things I always aimed to do, but somehow never managed to do or never mustered the courage to do it. (Admittedly, I stole the original idea of “12” from my sister (I aimed to make New Years resolutions like to lose a couple of kg’s, eat more healthily & a bunch of things that will go into “The List” anyways) – thanks Eli!)
So, follow me on the journey of 2012!
12thingsfor2012 