Venit, vidit...

... vicit. After coming back from a trip in South-East Asia my father had an appointment for a heart check last week. What should have been a kind of normal check turned out to may have been a life saving test. During the procedure the doctors found out that one of the blood vessels in his heart was completely blocked. Immediately the balloon thing was done to extend the blood vessel and they put a little net to keep it open. Well, this event was shocking: my father, 56 years young, doing most stuff right for his health was close to have a heart attack… makes me reflect on my life, my attitude to health, particularly to my own health… and on the other hand that I should enjoy life more actively, just enjoy the moments more consciously. As I talked the first time to my dad as he left the hospital he told me: “Thomas, life is full of surprises, enjoy the moments, all that can be over so suddenly.” I am honest, in general I have this attitude that I do not listen well to everything my parents say but this time it was different, I think. However, I am happy he is fine and I do really wish he will be able to teach his grand children one day Polish.

… non vicit. In the week after the amazing dolce vita weekend in Milan I had an interview day scheduled with one of my favourite future employer. 8 hours travel for 3 hours interview… all about behavioural interviewing: “Please tell me a time you had to take a decision… a difficult decision… a decision and then the circumstances changed… a decision with positive/negative result…” and some cases in between: “Please estimate the total number of shampoo bottles in hotel rooms that are globally sold every year…”. Very dynamic people, nice offices, very international atmosphere and the opportunity to learn from the best… all this points made me consider this company as one of my dream employers. One week after my little dream was over… “We regret that we have decided not to pursue your candidacy.” I still love the company but I am not that happy with the recruitment procedure… though the decision was taken immediately after the interviews it took one week and another request from my side to send me an automatically generated e-mail with the following ending: “Replies to this message are undeliverable. Please do not reply.“ Well, I try to get feedback on my interviews but you can imagine that is not too easy :-). Anyway, now I am back on the application carousel and do preparation for several interviews next weekend.

That were the two most touching and most disappointing events of the past 2 weeks. Well I was also extremely happy to hear that for the first time one of my pictures made it into a magazine: GRUS (check out page 18)… thank you Nora, I do really appreciate that and you know how much it means to me… Besides that I was writing on my thesis, did some interviews with sourcing consultants, reflected on the critical elements of supplier development, went to the career days fair to see and be seen, got cheered up by my ex girlfriend and had a great night out with my Italian (& Russian) friends when Amedeo visited Zurich.

P.S. I had the opportunity to shoot with my brother's latest weapon: Nikon D200... see the results: "after the storm I", "after the storm II" and "garlic is getting wild" and I can't wait till I get a new camera...

dolce vita

Last week I was sitting at my desk in St. Gallen, reflecting about supplier development in Russia and the developed research construct as the phone rang. Rici, a fellow survivor from Piter offered me to come to Milan over Easter… I was a little bit struggling as I just bounced another city trip plan but… MILAN… dolce vita… and the opportunity to meet some people who shared my experiences in Russia was just too tempting. I accepted the nice gesture! At the moment just in the train back to St. Gallen, je ne regrette rien! In just 2 days I had the chance to see Milan from its various facets… from looking at models on Rici’s balcony at Via Spartaco… to a very sweet Italian family get together this afternoon with delicious food… in between lounges, churches, cafes, friends, new people and of course plenty of espressi!

We left Friday at noon and were lucky with the traffic jam at the Gotthard as there was just a 3 kilometres queue (can be up to 15 kilometres long at the Easter weekend!). Arriving in Milan the first sightseeing out of the car (the fact that it was not a Fiat Punto but a VW Polo disturbed my stereotype a little). At Via Spartaco then ‘buon giorno’ and ‘ciao a tutti’. We left immediately for a first walk, took a break for Panzerotti behind the Duomo and ended in the Castello with a phone call and apologies for a late arrival at the dinner with Rici’s parents. After a delicious Milanesi dinner with his lovely parents we headed for Matteo’s flat… hugging, kissing and plenty of ‘ciao’ there. It was great to laugh and talk bullshit with the boys I have had such a great time with! After a beer and of course an espresso we headed to the twelve columns, grabbed some ‘walking beers’ on the way and stayed then outside, preparing for nightlife the Milanesi way… very cool indeed! The night ended at Porta Ticinese in a life music club with one of the strongest drinks in my life, the ‘invisible’.

This clear liquid caused that I was a little tired the next day as we got up at 11 and continued to explore the city. Once again the rule seemed to be proved that you can never experience a place than with a local matador! Passing Bocconi University that creates Italy’s leaders of tomorrow to Milan State University with its fantastic building from the 12th century we continued to the city centre with its shopping streets. We started at Via Monte Napoleone, dropped into Gucci’s store (great interior design) and Armani center (disappointing as it doesn’t meet the expectations of a luxury brand store and annoying that Armani seems to be the master of brand extension: you can find from Armani chocolate to underwear and toilet paper everything with his label), checked out the Bulgari hotel from the outside and back on Via della Spiga what represents in my opinion the stylish fashion shopping of Milan. No money, no shopping… too many temptations but I could resist. Well, it was rather the rational of my wallet… but for sure some of my first salaries will be spend in Milan ;-) we took a break with gelati from tre gazzelle and enjoyed them in front of the Duomo, checking out fashion victims, suburb gangsters (mostly meet the first characteristic too), models, invasions of tourists and other ‘see and be seen’s’.

Saturday night started at Palo Alto with an ‘apéro’ an amazing institution: 7 EUR make you get a big tasty drink and access to a delicious home made buffet à discretion. We continued with a bunch of people to Milano(where I could say ‘ciao’ to Paolo and that is somehow sponsored by the Italian furniture industry therefore has amazing interior design), then an ethnic lounge that served drinks in fruits (it felt for a sec like at the beach on a sunny afternoon though it was 2am in downtown Milano) and ended at Princi with some fresh pizza slices (I am jealous as the Milanesi can even finish their nightlife in a stylish way with great patisserie as back home I usually end up in a smoky kebap place… that of course has its charm too!).

Sunday was dedicated to a lovely brunch with the Bonetta family and its new members. Unfortunately I had to leave early afternoon to get back on track with my work on Monday. Grazie mille to the Bonetta’s and others for the fantastic weekend! Italian lifestyle and dolce vita was just a great escape from daily business. Furthermore I had the opportunity to experience this cool city from a local perspective though for only 48 hours and despite my non-existing Italian.

flickr-mania

Well, photography becomes a bigger and bigger passion. flickr.com is the community where I share my impressions... there is a feature on flickr.com that is called "explore": it chooses the best 500 pictures of a day according to different characteristics.
I made it so far 4 times into flickr explore (well, I am a little bit proud):

1. The Hermitage, 2. On the way home - the Hermitage, 3. Russian wedding, 4. Sultanamet: The Blue Mosque

thanks for all the regular visits to see "the world through my eyes".