The next few months should see a return to the spirit of “Where’s Matthew”, because it looks like I will be travelling constantly (and all over the world) with my next project. I just got back from an overnight trip to Bratislava (where I saw nothing more than the inside of the airport, hotel, and office due to a seriously-delayed flight). Next week I am headed to Budapest for a few days, then off to New York the following week. I am not sure what’s next after that, but the project spans 60 countries and we have committed to visiting the 20 biggest countries at the very least.

As project lead, I have some say in who goes where. It may come as no surprise that I am happy to put my hand up when the opportunity comes to travel to warm, sunny countries for a few days – even more so if I can manage to squeeze in a long weekend break. Now that I have my team onboard, we will hopefully have enough man-power than I can limit my trips to Eastern Europe in the middle of winter…

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a chance to relax over the holidays. Though I was forced to cancel part of my Christmas vacation to support urgent client requirements, we were able to sneak off for a four-day minibreak in Berlin, leaving Aude’s parents at our place in Paris to look after the cats. (Reports are that Daisy was somewhat horrible to look after, not friendly at all. Some things never change.)

Berlin Television Tower

Aude was in charge of the planning…

The bus depot was one of the highlights of the trip to Berlin. Had to take a photo to remember the moment!

A little gluhwein to warm up in the sub-freezing temperatures…

Inside the church

Francois & Gratiane

Lost again! We seemed to spend a lot of time looking at the map. Not much fun in the cold weather.

Holocaust memorial

The Berlin Wall

A line indicates where the Berlin Wall wall used to stand. It runs around the entire city.

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie

Francois & Matthew enjoy a couple of well-earned beers after a day of sight-seeing.

A section of the Berlin Wall, covered in grafitti

Aude and Gratiane make their mark!!!

So off we went to Berlin to see the sights. We rented an apartment in the Northeast of the city which turned out to be a mixed blessing. The apartment itself was lovely, bigger than our apartment in Paris, but the 10-minute walk to the metro was a nightmare as the temperatures plunged to -10. Next time I go to Berlin, it will be in springtime.

We hit all the major sites – Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall – and managed to squeeze in a few museums as well. We walked around a lot of the city, but the layout of Berlin is not conducive to walking – the scale of the streets and buildings means that everything is too far apart to walk between.

Highlights of our trip included a ride all the way around the S-Bahn on the first night (when our plan to go find a nice spot for a drink went wrong!), misunderstanding the bus driver when he ordered us all off the bus and ending up in the bus depot, freezing every time we went outside, and eating a lot of cabbage. I think I ate cabbage at least twice a day for the entire trip. You did not want the seat next to me on the plane home.

Normal programming will resume shortly

It’s been ages since I have updated my blog, which reflects the fact that I have been very, very busy. I finished my project in Switzerland & Barcelona. I had counted on a quiet December to catch up with life, but the fates are working against me.

I now find myself on another project, based primarily in Paris but which will probably see me travelling regularly to New York and less regularly to other far-flung parts of the globe as we integrate two businesses. At least I will get a chance to practice my French (it’s a French client) and my Air France Platinum status seems secure.

I have mountains of photos that I need to wade through to update this site, and as we come to the end of the year, my attention turns to Christmas and the New Year.

We will spend both holidays in Paris, dashing off to Berlin for a short break in between with some friends. If I am lucky, I might even find enough time to update this blog. And get the tree up… which was supposed to happen last weekend. Best endeavors and all that…

Back to the grindstone.

Better late than never, right? It has taken me ages to get these photos online because of constant travel, and because of the delay I can’t recall all the witty anecdotes that went along with these photos.

That’s not a total loss, because Neil tells me he only logs onto my website to check out the pictures. So no need to waste time writing up memories if he is only going to look at the picture, right?

In any case, these are a few pictures from our first visit to Canterbury since leaving. We celebrated Aude’s birthday with friends on Saturday evening, then met up with some others at the Goods Shed on Sunday morning for brunch, which is where these shots were taken.

Matt and Aude having brunch at the Goods Shed in Canterbury

MG

Sandro tells a story…

And a photo of Neil, since he mostly likes to look at himself. 😉

Admittedly, I have not been very good about keeping my blog up-to-date in recent weeks. These days, it’s less a question of “Where’s Matthew?” than it is a question of “Where isn’t Matthew?” In short, I have been doing a lot of travelling.

Looking over my frequent flyer statement for the past month, I count:

– 5 visits to Barcelona
– 1 visit to Dublin
– 1 visit to Geneva
– 2 visits to London

It feels like more than that, if I am honest. These days I seem to be living on a plane. The Barcelona flights leave early in the morning and usually involve a 5am start. As Aude can attest, I am not exactly man-at-his-finest at 5 in the morning, no matter how many times I do it.

I am getting better at negotiating CDG airport, though. I have learned all the little shortcuts that means I can make it from taxi to gate in less than five minutes. I know which security lines are consistently shortest, and I can fetch myself breakfast in the lounge on autopilot these days.

I’m also getting to know Barcelona a little better. As the weather gets cooler, we have traded our hotel by the beach for a series of hotels downtown. We are discovering good restaurants and bars, and I have finally been introduced to real, genuine, proper tapas. It is a million miles away from anything I have tasted elsewhere.

The system is pretty straight-forward. The tapas are placed on large plates around the restaurant, and you help yourself to whatever you like. New, different tapas comes out all night. Each one is held to a piece of bread by a toothpick. At the end of the evening, you return to the bar and pay your bill. It’s all based on an honesty system – you hand over your toothpicks, they’re tallied up, and you confess to however many beers you’ve had to drink. Depending on how long you have been at the tapas bar, this may be more difficult than it appears – in which case, they’ll usually work off an estimate! I can’t imagine this system working in England, but it seems to work fine here.

It looks like I will be spending most of my time back-and-forth between Paris and Barcelona until mid-November, after which I hope to reduce my involvement in the project, spending more time working in Switzerland (just in time for ski season – no coincidence!) and less in Spain.

More updates to come. Just wanted to put something on here so that people knew I wasn’t dead.

Life hasn’t been all hard work, though. I was invited to run a five-day training course for some of our recently-promoted graduates, based in Alicante, Spain. Since I only had a week of vacation, there was no way I could turn down a week in the sun.

There were over 400 participants involved in the training, and we managed to take over the entire hotel. The weather was great, with temperatures in the high twenties and low thirties, warm water in the pool and lots of sunshine. My biggest regret was not bringing sunscreen – even though my time outside was limited (as I was preparing classes), I still managed to find enough time in the sun to burn myself. I spent the rest of the trip doing my impression of a lobster.

Delegates playing ping-pong by the pool

Relaxing by the pool

Cruising on a dolphin…

Flying fish!

Playing in the pool

They really laid on a lot for the guys. They had chartered a plane from Paris for all the French delegates, and there was a real party atmosphere as we headed to Alicante. On the second night, they rented an amusement park exclusively for us. On the third day, they brought in all sorts of games around the pool for a team-building afternoon. My two highlights of that day: first, the rest of my team-mates assuming I was a recent graduate (haven’t felt quite that young since I was carded at a bar in the US) and the second, someone coming up and complimenting me on my good English (I was the only native speaker involved in the training!)

The class itself was a lot of fun to run – I have run similar classes before so didn’t have to do much preparation. The delegates do most of the work themselves, and present back on the final day (after spending all night in a nightclub we rented for their exclusive use. Many didn’t get back until 6am, but they still managed to be up and working at 8am despite being told they weren’t required to start until 10h30! That’s a pretty dedicated group.) Here are a few pictures of them giving their presentations…

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

And here are a few team shots as we presented the awards…

The most important moment of the week – the winning scores are revealed!

Student team

Student team

Student team

Student team

Student team