RTW - VIII - San Francisco - Feb 11th to 16th

I am determined to finish this series, if only so that I have archives come any trip down memory lane

Just back from Las Vegas, it was time to finally chill in San Francisco...

Good times were had by all as I stayed four days at Julien's and three at Adgenie's (I guess Adrien & Eugenie are Adgenie, just like Tomkat and Bradgelina, no?). Under the same logic, I'd like someone to explain how to combine Julien and Julie... Thx!

Some highlights need to be shared though:

The gigantic pillow fight on Valentine's Day

btw, if you like flashmobs, you'll just love that

So I had a couple considerations from the nightlife, given that Julien took me out quite a bit:
- I finally had an occasion of showing off my knowledge of the capital city of Honduras (Tegucigalpa) as I met a couple girls from Honduras at “French Tuesdays”. Yep... Go figure...

- It's official: in North America, girls and guys learn how to dance in hip hop music videos. Funnily enough, the lower the class, the more like it...

- Kindergarten teacher's assistant is a job that exists. And some find me attractive...

- Young girls don't understand me when I negligently say this line after a nerdy joke
“Well, you see darling, in Rain Man, I'm more Dustin Hoffman than Tom Cruise”
“In what? Is that a movie?”
“Pff... A tray... Lord Darth Vader? … Oh Forget it!”
leaves

Well, the pictures album on fb is there...

Cheers,
P

PS: Mysterious Valentine's day girl, you'll be remembered! What a mystery...

RTW VII - Las Vegas - Feb 7th to 10th

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...

So do the ca. 250$ I've lost at the Texas Hold'em tables... Considering the ca. 7% rake the bank takes I didn't really give money to other players at all, rather the contrary!

I finally healed the itching I had to become a pro poker player. I'm sure I could do it, if I gave it time, but I'd probably die of boredom...

This is still exciting though

And the nights in Vegas, you say?

I haven't narrated anything about going out, so I'm not starting now obviously...

I just think a note is needed about a BFBD, who would repeatedly throw stashes of one $ bills... A better investment than some money wasted in Vegas ;-)

Here's the mandatory FB album, I guess, for the ones not on FB

Cheers,
P

RTW VI - Sydney - February 3rd to 6th

I love Sydney!!

Wow... So I fly to Sydney via Christchurch AND via Auckland... Thank you Mademoiselle, who booked my trip at Zurich airport!

At least I get to shop a bit: Hendrick's for Thomas v/o Fari and an All Blacks shirt for me (after being the equivalent of a big black dude in Japan, I felt entitled to that)

So I arrive in Sydney and, first thing, the customs guy calls me Daniel Vettori, apparently I'm a doppelganger of the Captain of the Kiwi cricket team... OK OK... I'll take it as a compliment!

Thomas picks me up and drives me straight to a Bavarian joint for a so-called Riesenschnitzel... I had had a lot of food in the lounge in Auckland, since my flight had been delayed, but I manage this tiny piece of veal like a German moustache wielding weight-lifting champ... Why do I add this? Because I can...

There follow three days of general happiness with a couple highlights:

I am positively in love with the Opera House :
here my facebook album about it

David Jones – the local Globus, very high-end supermarket... I love it a go shop for a pic-nic and also end up drinking a tomato, roquette, ginger & carrot juice – Fan-freaking-tastic!

Bondi Beach – I think I saw another HSG alum, but didn't have the balls to go and talk to her... Turns out it wasn't her ;-)

Bondi Burger – Oporto is a local fast food chain with grilled chicken, yum yum! Try the Bondi Burger...

Krispy Kreme – my first experience with those donuts, that are apparently so good... Chris Rock thinks so!



Top Gun – this really never gets old... Fari, Kerry & I doing a pic-nic in the park for an open-air movie. Couldn't have been a better movie... To think Fari hadn't seen it... Pfff...

And above all: Congrats Fari & Kerry, I'm so happy for you both!!!!!!

Here the album of my tourism in Sydney

Cheers Mate!
P

RTW V - Tokyo - January 31st to February 2nd

Tokyo was really really fun! Thank you Mio for taking me around...

Eight little considerations about Japan

On business cards, the titles come before the names. In the West, the other way round

On elevators, Japanese people walk on the right side and stand on the left...

They love schoolgirls, and they have bars dedicated to them... The local Hooters I guess!

Manners they tend to bow & clap at lot... and sleep on subways!

Food is fantastic:
- Bean based dessert are surprising but really really good “Age man ju” for example
- Sushi in small sushi places costs ridiculous 120 Yens for two standard pieces on sushi (the price of a cheeseburger)
- On the other hand alcohol is really expensive as they get drunk on three drinks. Hehe...

The beckoning cat is a cultural symbol... And I think it's an origination of the popular brand “Hello Kitty”

The Japanese alphabet is an alphabet of syllables, like Lo Cha Ti... Those are all just a letter. That explains why Japanese brands have such odd names like DoCoMo... In Japan, it's just a three letters acronym!

In Japan, foreigners are called gaijins. And we do inspire a bit of shock & awe... Here are some a prioris that Japanese people have about us (often rightfully so)
- We are rude. Tact, Japan style, goes way beyond our normal politeness
- We don't know how to eat with sticks (my style was adjusted)
- We are tall, blond and curly... Oh yeah, I abused that one too...
- We inspire some fantasies for some Japanese ladies...

Here are my pictures with impressions of Tokyo

Voilà, cheers,
P

RTW IV - Shanghai - January 27th to 30th

Oh God!

I arrived in Shanghai and met Aline in my hotel (I had booked a free SPG night)...

Shanghai is closed seven days a year: Chinese new year... And that's exactly when I was there!

So we ended up eating at my hotel... Hmm... Lasagna...

After this odd start, I "moved in" at the girls: Nice apartment!!!

And right then and there started about three days of nice life in Shanghai:

Museum of Urbanism
Museum of Posters of Communist Propaganda
Element Fresh
Massage parlor
Szechuanese restaurant
Xintandi quarter
Bar Rouge


I was babysitted like a real baby! And got to learn:

Straight ahead, to the left, to the right
Very good
Hello
Thank you
Cold water...

So when I left, all I could say in my approximative mandarin was:

Xie Xie Aline, you're a Bing Shuei guide...

Thank you Aline, you're a cold water guide!!!

Hehe...

Make sure to check out the facebook album

Still thanks! I'll be back in 2010 for the world expo in Shanghai!


P

RTW III - HK - January 24th to 27th

Aaaaaaahhhh, a week-end in Hong-Kong with Lam!

Splendid...

After a plane ride to Beijing and two first taste of chinese behaviour
i) In Moscow at Shermentievo: pushing and shoving and disrespecting queues...
ii) In Beijing, where an airport employee clearly just doing his job went on a rant that I needed to pay him "ten dollars" (about as much english as he knew) for his services, i.e. cabbing me around for 300m as I was the last passenger the flight was waiting for! Oh unfortunately for him, I had no money so I gave him 8 roubles in coins...

These two themes ended up being recurrent so I won't really go into it any deeper. I'll just state that you always have to fight, bargain, push, claim, ask twice or more, and and and... Pfff!

Then again, Hong Kong was fantastic with a couple highlights:
- The flight attendant coming to tell me I'm "golden" and she'll take care of me [read: I have an airline gold status and she's responsible for my satisfaction with this flight]... Then coming back a couple minutes later and asking me with a shy smile "have I seen you on television?"

- Very good nightlife in Kowloon and in Lan Kwai Fong

- Shopping and visiting HK with Lam: Where we ended up being little "Victoria Beckham"s (thank you Vince for the nickname) "Lam? Maybe a pullover?"


- The food was fantastic, especially the Thai with Brad, an american golfpro met in aforementionned Lon Kwai Fong (and also especially after Moscow - Wink to Nico)


- Chinese New Year on Sunday was impressive...


- I loooooooooooooooooooove asian kids, they are the cutest... At some point, i had to stop taking pictures, because I thought I might come off a little politically uncorrect**!


If I was a bit let down by the attitude of some chinese people and really liked the one of native HK people, the attitude I come to disrespect most nowadays is the expat attitude, but that will be the topic of another article. And don't mistake me: It's not expats per se, it's people behaving like archetypical expats/colonialists that make me nauseous...

As ever, for more and spicy comments, enjoy the facebook album

Cheers,
P

** or to quote the movie "In Bruges" (quite good actually):
"What two things is Belgium know for?"
"..."
"Well, chocolates and child abuse... And they only invented chocolate to give to the kids..."

RTW II - Moscow - January 16th to 23rd

Postponed too many times, here's my recounting of the Moscow tales, only the ones you haven't seen on facebook though...

I guess the Moscow Metro must be my first topic...
- After some time I was quite familiar, how do you think I re-learnt cyrillic the hard way?
- after some time I even figured out how to find the nearest exit... It's basically only all about looking for the wet trail of incoming passenger. Clearly visible on the ground. Only later would I learn that 'Gorod' means street! Hehe...

Two little anecdotes about specific Moscow sights: Melnikov's House & the Gorki Park

Melnikov's House used to be one of the only privately owned houses in 'CCCP'. It is a little architecture jewel... But it is nigh impossible to find in the Smolenskaya quarter. I promptly lost myself and found myself in front of the Romanov theatre, surrounded by surveillance cameras, armed tall musculous guards, fancily dressed people, Bentleys and men carrying suitcases... Hmmm... Suspicious? No! I'm just a tourist looking for sight number 27 on the plan on page 248. Any potential picture of the guard looking at my plan and trying to make sense of my person would be priceless... Unfortunately, they don't exist... (all other mentionned items you'll find on my facebook album

Gorki Park is a recreational park, but what I ignored is the fact that the youngsters come here in winter to do some ice skating while drinking beer. That was an eye-opening moment...


On a side note about the architecture, there is a diktat of pre-communist conventions and everything is decorated with the same old same old columns and frontons... This made me think of Howard Roark, I instantly understood what the book constantly refers to as overdecorated heavy and useless parts architecture...
*** Wink to Ayn Rand fans across the world!***

Of course, as in the rest of my tales, the nightlife remains a secret, but I can narrate a juicy anecdote of Nicolas and I in the Real McCoy, a meat market for expats and russian girls...
So Nicolas and I queue for the washrooms, that are common to men and women, when I note, in french of course:
P: "You know, Nicolas, when we were at Etag, a girl and a guy came out of the washrooms and the girl behind me assured me it was a common occurence..."
N: "That's true! At the Real McCoy, it's even almost a tradition... Most have done it..."
P: "Ok, even the girl in front of me?"
N: "Yeah, sure..."
P: "Ok, so if I asked her, maybe she'd agree?"
N: "Well... Maybe..."

And at that point, the girl in front of me flashes us her wonderful smile and retorts without an ounce of bitterness:
"I understand everything..."

awkward silence by N and I...

NICE... We chuckled on the way home...

The albums of the Moscow escapade are online:
Here for the cyrillic cultural sights
and
here for the tourist part

Cheers,
P



PS: Stay tuned I intend to release HK, Shanghai and Tokyo quite soon...

RTW I - Athens - Jan 12-15th

*** Pardon my temporary departure from this theorical opinions blog, but this here is my forum for sharing the new of my travels around the world. Enjoy! ***



I had a great time in Athens, but most of the people who know me will know I am fond of antique history and tales... Hence a lover of old stones too!

What is it about Athens that no one knows?

Well there's three things, that I'd like to share:

i) Athens is closed on Tuesdays... The entire city: Museums, Parks, Monuments...

ii) You should go and drink fresh orange juice, wherever you can. There are oranges everywhere, so juices they know about. I had a fresh orange, carrot & apple juice and it did start my craze. I think it'll hold my entire trip... So far it did!

iii) Athens is very slippery when wet. Being build and restaured with a lot of marmor surfaces that were polished by feet over the centuries, Athens becomes a true ice ring whenever it is graced by rain. Yours truly still hurts from encountering these surface with parts of his anatomy not meant for that kind of contact...

The picture album is on Facebook, but you can view it through this link (even if you're not on facebook!)

Cheers,
P

Just to say hi to friends...

GVA-ATH 12 JAN 2009, Depart 17:20, Arrive 23:05 1249 miles
ATH-SVO 15 JAN 2009, Depart 10:55, Arrive 17:40 1432 miles
SVO-HKG 22 JAN 2009, Depart 18:35, Arrive 11:25 4839 miles
HKG-PVG 27 JAN 2009, Depart 13:05, Arrive 15:30 773 miles
PVG-NRT 30 JAN 2009, Depart 13:20, Arrive 17:00 1111 miles
NRT-SYD 2 FEB 2009, Depart 15:30, Arrive 8:00 5942 miles
SYD-SFO 6 FEB 2009, Depart 16:15, Arrive 10:37 7426 miles
SFO-YYZ 17 FEB 2009, Depart 12:10, Arrive 19:59 2254 miles
YYZ-GIG 21 FEB 2009, Depart 19:00, Arrive 10:00 5145 miles
GIG-GVA 28 FEB 2009, Depart 18:15, Arrive 12:15 5726 miles

Actual trip when I'll have added the little back and forth I couldn't book on the RTW:
Athens-Moscow-Hong-Kong-Shanghai-Tokyo-San Francisco-Las-Vegas-Toronto-Montreal-Rio de Janeiro-Geneva (and then three weeks of army to chill down... so that you don't hate me!)

Decoding of the unusual:
SVO - Shermentievo (Moscow, or should I write MOCKBA?)
PVG - Pudong (Shanghai)
NRT - Narita (Tokyo)
YYZ - Pearson (Toronto)
GIG - Rio de Janeiro International Airport

Stats:
8 flights on an Airbus, 7 flights on a Boeing, 1 flight on an Embraer

Longest flight:
SYD-SFO - 13h22 of flying time
Shortest flight:
SYD-SFO - arrival 5 hours and 38 minutes before depature!

Cheers,
P

The one where I had to kiss my iPod goodbye...

My travels to UAE part II - Ramadan

Where had I left... Oh yeah...
Upon the anouncement of our imminent landing in Dubai, my glance landed on the magazine "Time Out Dubai". On the cover of the magazine, this enticing title "The Dos and Don'ts of Ramadan"... I quickly snatched the mag and opened it at the indicated page...

+++ Aside +++
Now what just about everyone know is that during the month of Ramadan, Muslims don't eat or drink while the sun is up.
It's a bit more than that actually. It's a time of enlightment and spirituality...
From dawn*, nothing is allowed to enter the body as long as the sun hasn't set. That includes chewing gum, smoking or even having sex.
... but also of giving and sharing
After dark, people eat and play games in tents. This meal is called the Iftar and it's quite interesting to witness
+++ End aside +++

DON'T sing or dance in public , any form entertainment is prohibited during Ramadan
And then I tought "oh shit"... Only thought, because the previous line was

DON'T swear in public during Ramadan. In normal times, it will only earn you a frown, but it is a severe insult during Ramadan

I'm some what lost... If you know me, you know that:

This is going to be hard

Bye bye iPod

Snif...
Cheers,
P

* and please distinct dawn and sunrise. Dawn being the moment preceding sunrise, where the sun illuminates the sky without being apparent. This is also one of my pet peeves in french vocabulary:
L'aube et l'aurore en français. L'aube étant le crépuscule du matin et l'aurore le lever du soleil.
Le crépuscule définissant le matin ET le soir l'instant durant lequel le ciel est éclairé par le soleil sans que le soleil ne soit apparent.

PS: Matt damon about Sarah Palin

How I didn't get to sit back, relax and enjoy Cameron Diaz's purple bra...

My travels to UAE part I - Censorship

Aaaahhh... Gotta love all those little questions:
- Champagne? Orange Juice? Water? No thanks!
- Something else? No thanks!
- Little appetizers No thanks!
(she stills brings them)
- Hot towel Yes please!

And then finally: Sit back, relax and enjoy your flight!

I watch "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and it starts with the little disclaimer:

This movie has been cropped to fit this screen and eidted for content

I don't really pay attention and watch the movie, stopping once for the following consideration:

In the end, if it's about Harrison Ford kissing that 60 year old woman with a bit of impatience, I'm not even really sure I'd like to see it... In other words, never mind!

Then I watch a couple of episodes of Family Guy. Just btw, Emirates - Best... Airline... Ever... The inflight entertainment loads another episode of the same sitcom, when you're done. I'm just figuring about 6 potential hours of HIMYM. Legend... Dairy!

After a couple of Family Guy episodes with that bizzare intro with only Brian and Stewie and an excellent foie gras (albeit served too cold to my likings), I decide to switch back to movies...

I know! Life is really tough...

So I figure I'll watch What happens in Vegas . Now I have been scrolling for a couple minutes and I can't really wait for the movie to begin so I fast forward a bit...

The movie is a riot... I just love it!

And then somewhere after an hour and ten minutes, Ashton Kutcher, lovable stupid loser ad perpetum says something that will crush my world

Well, what is it with you women and granny panties. Do you really mean to say "we will never have sex ever again" *

They're comfortable and supporting just like men should be

Well your purple bra in Vegas was really hot

Oh my God! He said purple bra... I should have seen Cameron Diaz in a purple bra, but I didn't...

Grrrr...

I still watch the end of the movie. I'm a sucker for romantic comedies and today I ceremonially proclaim myself to old to change that... Hehe!

Well, long story short, I went to the beginning of the movie after that and there it was staring me back in my face:

This movie has been edited for content!

Cheers,
P "I'll live... really!"

* With the much vaunted speaking.like.every.word.is.its.own.sentence

PS: Episodes of those great american sitcoms restart from Sept 22nd - Download on Amazon to avoid censorship... Possible? Who knows?
PPS: Today, just to test of course, I tried to retrieve some stuff from the internet today and everything was blocked - OMG OMG OMG...
No wonder men are not allowed to look at women, that would trigger a lot of unreleased... Hmmm...
Let's just say the western guys have Maxim, FHM, oh well...

Wow... What a nice pair of gray pants!

"Probably 1% spandex, 6% elasthane and 93% coton. I really like the rugged grey look".
That's what I could have been thinking, while watching a young lady walking in front of me. Said pants spanning from a pair of very nice black leather mid-heeled shoes all the way along very nice legs to an adorable... belt!

But let's take a step back: I've been in Montreal for a while and almost gave up blogging. There are various reasons:

• Life was taking up so much time. The project was quite intensive and all side activities all did require more time than I had in the first place.
• Facebook makes many purposes of the blog quite moot: Status updates and photo-sharing are no longer an exclusive of bloggers. You could even argue that everyone blog their lives on facebook.
• Losing time on the internet was taken up by this amazing online postcards site

But then I went on holidays and reflected about that among other things*.
Maybe I need to refocus my blog on opinion pieces and humorous updates of my life? May some commentary about political** and world news?

And then I went to the military and saw a very good new american sitcom: Californication, where a man very committed to his midlife crisis blogs about his (sex-)life as an author.
At that point I thought: I need humor, politics and sex in my blog... Here you are:

And then I was back in Switzerland and several people told me:
How was Canada? I read on FB that you've been to Vegas? Cool! Oh and by the way: I just loved your piece on elevators and hookers!

That's it, I'm back in business...

It was a sunny lunchtime in the Niederdorf and I was walking with my take-away basil chicken in a little bag and my iPod softly feeding me some mid-nineties forgotten rock songs and the odd Julio ballad. When I noticed this pair of pants and the matching vest with long black hair to top it off. My attention focussed on a perfectly shaped... belt.

I tuned my pace to be just 3 meters behind her and at same speed.
After maybe 20 seconds, I decided that I had to see if shirt and make-up*** were kept the slient promises of the ... well... belt!

+++ Aside +++
Now in order to take a nice discrete peek, you have to overtake at considerable speed (suited up, I call it a decisive businessman walk) and then stop in front of a shop, you are then at a 90° of the frontside. Thankfully the Niederdorf offers an abundance of art galleries that lend themselves to this exercise.
+++ End aside +++

For the males among the readers: a very nice face, dark brown skin, but even that was not the best feature... Thank god for tense second shirt buttons!
For the females: Pink shirt, tailored, very nice...

So there I am wondering for a second why old gravures of the city of Zurich are labelled in french and discretly watching a young woman approaching and then passing in my back. I intended to resume my walk and go eat my take away food, when she stops beside me and takes a look at lifesize photographs of almost naked people. Attractive and intriguing... Hmmm... I stay there beside her about twenty seconds and resume walking shortly after her, repeating the exercise, but instead entering my office building - that's 2 seconds of 90° of front!

I'm waiting for my elevator, when she enters the mini-lobby too, so I figure she comes to the therapeutical massage salon...
Nope! She rushes a bit and steps into the elevator with me. At this point it is clear, she is one of the many new people of the office that I don't know. Wow!

I'm Patrice...
I'm Alicia****
[short silence - both faces brighten up, big smiles]
You're the one I'm meant to talk to about this one project, we've exchanged a couple mails.
Yes, I'll just eat and drop by for coffee. Are you very busy?
No no...

She gets off the elevator, I stay in and whisper to myself
"Welcome back to Zurich"

Hehe...
P

* Also the fact that anyone visiting my blog did so via google by looking up such atrocities as "Jeune trainee hard", "M109 Kawest" or the odd "video super hard Claudia Schiffer"
** instead of writing long comments on my socialist youth friend's blog
*** Composing this anecdote reminds me strikingly of the shock I once provoked in my Canadian team after alluding to the recto and the verso. Of course this can be attributed to the lingering diktat of political correctness, the closeness to the word "rectal" that will get you fired any day, but I prefer to chalk it up to plain old ignorance seeing that both words mean the same in english:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recto
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/verso
**** of course, this name has been changed to protect privacy

Canada

Hello World,

I'm flying to Canada on Monday... Banking case in Montreal!

Everything else in Europe is kinda cancelled for the coming three months...

Ciao,
P

PS: when I come back, I'll be like this

I won't be from Quebec (hopefully)

I won't be William Shatner

And I hope to be a master beaver chaser...

Ultimate consulting kick? Or kick in the nuts?

I am in Vienna... On a somewhat short notice! But let me tell you the tale of a consulting day abroad. To some, the ultimate consulting kick, to me right now much more of a pain...

So I just cancelled a few lunches, angry girls, sorry sorry sorry!

Then I got to wake up very early this morning and ...
.. .meet a colleage flying to Milano in order to get to Lugano
"I'm just as fast as with the train"
... greet a fellow consultant of another firm happy to get two flights for his Monday program
"I connect in Vienna towards Romania. Just got to love the lifestyle"
.. found myself next to some transcended colleague in the plane enjoying every second of it...
"I'll have another glass of orange juice... God I love this!"

"Big fat whatever..." I'm just thinking of my much needed sleep!


A day of work in the Vienna office later, I am in my hotel room: Radisson SAS Style ( high-class SAS)

Vois...
C'est moi ce soir qui fait le premier pas, on s'ennuyait un peu mon coeur et moi. Je reviens près de toi...

"Oh look the same soaps as at the Park Hyatt in Milano and the same Villeroy & Boch sinks as in my favorite restaurant in Luxembourg..."

No soap cup though, I guess I'll have to put in down on the back of a glass?


Is there a million dollar "customer discovery" project waiting to be sold, where the output would just be to convince the hotel director to sleep in his hotel just once?

At least the room's colors match my stuff. This for some reason makes me happy for a second...


... The minibar is on the house, or on hte company, or on the client... I don't really know.
I pop a bottle of sparkling and fire up the laptop, there's some more work to do. And networking or blogging or somesuch...

On tv, ARTE proves that leftists also get their share of nakedness, only not in club of any kind (too expensive), but in the sleazy outfits conceived by some "artistic genius": i.e. quasi-naked like in this piece Eldorado ARTE runs right now... I shortly hesitate to settle on Canale5: Indecent proposal in italian! But then I end up on an italian music festival... I.e. beautiful ladies aplenty and no need for sound... I cut the noise and listen to my newest fad instead. Bliss!

Je sais...
En amour, il faut toujours un perdant...

Thank you Julio!

As for me, back to work, I still have an hour of it...

The ultimate kick? The perks they hold us with? A kick in the nuts I'd rather say...

Signing off,
P

Last week kinda socked...

Lately, dared by "Bedide Frau", I bought a pack of socks at H&M with the days of the week on them... I then proceeded to prove via MMS that I would them every single day!

And now lovely Yvonne from the office taunted me and told me: "Isn't that blog material?"

Yes, definitely... Contrary to popular belief, I remain a dork and I'll prove it to the world!

Saturday and proving it!

Sunday, walking by the lake

Tuesday, moving house... leaving Seehüsli!

Monday, back at work

Wednesday, jetting to London for the night...

Thursday, coffeine day!

Friday, a jacket, a scarf, a ticket to a party... and the socks of course...

And on Saturday, the socks kinda hang out with their peers, but always as a couple...


Well well, chill y'all, I wish I were eating something with someone, but that was not to be...

P

Bonus Link for the valentine haters

Backlog - Mobile - January 2008

Sing to U2 tune The CFAs are coming...


Whisky degustation with the BCG boys... Amazing!


Nice and Cannes last week-end with Little Miss Sunshine...




Oh... And this one has been a tough week-end, but nonetheless:

"Happy birthday Dude!"

Signing off to go lunch,
P

Backlog - Mobile - end of 2007

I beg your pardon, if this is full of personal messages...

Romeo's CDC application


Barcelona, as Wayne Newton elegantly states it

"Though we go ooooohhh our separate ways, still the memory stays, for always, danke schoen"

Why I became fat in Luxembourg...


Paris, gare du Nord...


Hotel laundry... Boy do I miss this...


Ze MIS Modell... Dedicato a tutti quelli che... Thank you Stéphane!


I told you so... Adrien!


At the very moment of shooting this, it seemed like a good idea...


A party I went to in Geneva... Yeah, that was a real sausage party!


Let me quote Mike Myers "Silly is you in a natural state, and serious is something you have to do until you can get silly again." Sév & Luci!


The world is our playground? Extraordinary holidays... Merci MICK!!! (qui d'autre arrive à organiser des vacances et te fait rencontrer ton boss, sa copine qui est partner dans la même boîte, etc???)


That's me buying a bottle of water at the airport and having it sealed to drink at the gate (and by the way Tony: "yes, I only felt so so that morning in Vienna")


Those clown noses I put up in our office somehow keep disappearing...


Wild...


Dude in front of christmas tree... In Miami, they don't even know that fir trees exist for real...




Stay tuned for the first samples of 2008...
P

PS: I know I am the very very very last one, but I finally added Skye to my arsenal... A very special thank goes to Seb v/o Pint for that one!

That bloody splinter...

Yesterday, while sitting at home in front of a beer...

*** Aside ***
Dinner with Susan was great, but at some point I had to come home to Marc... y'know
*** End aside ***

Well rather than while sitting... While getting seated opposite Marc, a splinter (80% of the size of a match) got out of our wooden bench and into my thigh!

An hour of surgery later, I had suffered quite a lot and endured Marc's comments

"The thing I'm the most worried about right now is you farting"

To produce my wound, Marc had used:
- Plum brandy
- His swiss army knife
- An old pair of tweezers
- Kitchen paper

What the pictures show are just the remnants of the last bit of the splinter... What a night!

Ciao,
P

Tous mes amis sont partis (pardon Victo & Bechara)...

Mon coeur a déménagé...

Paul a fini ses exas, Marc P. part à Londres, Nicolas S. est à l'école de recrues (seriously? and you're 25 y.o.?), mes parents et ma soeur partent spontanément à Paris quelques jours...
Mais surtout, surtout!, mon coeur a déménagé...

Du coup, je m'explique vu que certaines et certains ont un peu de peine avec mon status actuel sur FB*

Voilà, my life in a pic IV:


On y voit donc:
1) Que j'ai passé le week-end à Zürich au nombre de factures
2) Que je suis passé au bureau à Zürich au petits cadeaux laissés sur mon bureau:
- les haribos que Stein me ramène du Danemark (Guldbamser?)
- le CD des photos de notre petite escapade à Cannes par Anja
- un cube BCG pour jouer en découvrant notre nouveau "Brand identity". C'est effectivement marqué "Set your data free" sur la photo, pour ceux qui vont double-clicker dessus pour agrandir comme Adrien par exemple... Risquerais-je un "oh yeah" ?
3) Que j'ai une réunion avec des objectifs [NDLR: pas atteints, mais ce n'est pas une raison pour ne pas avoir quelques heures de travail sup' en découlant pour autant]
4) Les pounds et les euros restant de mes autres week-ends amusants...
5) Les cartes de visites et, surtout!, les cartes de restaurant dont la collection me tient un peu lieu de revanche contre la morosité ambiante...

Bref, que du bonheur a priori, sauf qu'elle n'est pas là et que Lamartine m'offre un dépeuplement aussi triste que le temps de cette mi-juillet...

Hugs!
P

* For ref: "Patrice is missing someone a lot... and that's a lot worse than missing a lot of people a bit..."

My life in a pic III : Geneva hotel room II

1. Des lunettes oubliées par un ami joueur de Magic à la Seehüsli en janvier
2. Des lunettes de soleil de pimp et des menottes avec fourrure pour une soirée "Red Light District" ä Hambourg le week-end passé
3. Une chemise blanche "Massimo Dutti" de Barcelone, dont la vendeuse avait oublié d'enlever l'anti-vol... Envoyé par Diane depuis Barça après être passé corriger l'erreur... - Thx Diane!
4. Ma demande de visa pour la Russie dans 6 jours
5. La lessive faite à l'hotel...
6. ... et le parapluie, parce Genève est un peu moisi, surtout en ce moment où tout est dépeuplé - Thx Lamartine!

Gruss, P