Monthly Archives: January 2008

If its sunny in January – get out there!

Posted on January 30, 2008 by | Leave a comment

I have had the most wonderful weekend of sun. This is pretty near to a January miracle. It is completely inadvisable to stay inside should such a phenomenon occur. This is because the sun, may not be back for many, many, many days if at any time before April. A grim thought but most definitely a possibility.

January and February can be tricky – wedged between New Year where you realise all that you didn’t achieve in the year just past, the sense of uncertainty in the new year ahead and for me the dreaded Valentines day in February, coupled with endless, and I mean endless, grey days is just awful!

Since moving to the UK I have become a believer in the importance of getting out there.The first summer I was here, and despite the Brits peeling off their clothes and basking in the smallest patch of sun, or claiming heat exhaustion whenever the temperature hits the teens, I did not manage to get out of jeans. I was waiting for it to get actually get hot. I have since learned the wisdom of getting out there when the sun peaks from behind the heavy grey sky.

So armed with this knowledge I got out there.

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Learning

Posted on January 30, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Judge Business SchoolIt is just over a year since I was accepted into JBS, 5 months since I have had a positive cash flow of my own and it seems since September I have mulled over and digested an endless amount of information. If the required reading lists for Lent Term are anything to go by I have quite a lot more to learn in the next 6 weeks.

While the volume of work is not showing any signs of lessening we have had some interesting events this term already. Certainly, lovely to not be quite so dependent on the 8 hour lecture day that featured heavily in the first term.

As part of the Operations Management – a course most definitely distinguished by a propensity to reduce any phrase to a 3 letter acronym – we went on an excursion. Just like school really. However, rather than visiting a pond to count the number of type of pond weed or mapping the stalls at the Victoria Market, we went to a car factory. And not just any car factory but the only factory that produces the famous London Taxi. Well that is until the factory in China that they have struck a deal with starts producing!But hey-ho it was still pretty interesting to see a real live factory.

There has also been a definite change in the teaching style and also in my own ability to participate in the process. So I do suspect it is a deliberate change. Regardless, I feel like I am learning, a full participant in the experience rather than being taught. We spend most of our time doing case studies, we have a lecturer who does not give out lecture notes. Now while I know this is not ideal for some in the class. I love it! This guy asks you to listen to what he is saying, he talks in concepts – it is terrific.

Then there was the talk by the Channel 4 guys, with who I was lucky enough to go out for dinner with and a sneaky beer after that. Next week Google is coming to chat, today we had a guest lecturer who spoke on Intellectual Property and Patents and in March I am off to do a project with Saatchi.

So while it would be grossly untrue to suggest that this term is easier than last. I would be willing to say that I am enjoying the variety in the learning experience that has been made available to me already this term.

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The 3S’s: Ski, Sun, Snow

Posted on January 24, 2008 by | 1 Comment

Definitely one of the benefits of living on the other side of the world is the access to the international delights of ‘the continent’ as they say from over here on the Island.

It has been many, many years since I have sought out the delights of the snow fields. But last weekend twenty intrepid MBA students head to Andorra – risking the wrath of lectures and the careers department who had scheduled events – with the desire for some guilt free outdoor time.

As with all budget trips we took many forms of transport, landed at incredibly inconveniently placed airports, caught more forms of transport and finally arrived at our destination. As with all budget trips it took a long time.

Andorra is a sliver of a country wedged between France and Spain, causing a somewhat schizophrenic language, cultural and political situation for the population. For me, who has quite rightly been described as linguistically challenged, it was a nightmare. I had no idea whether I should be saying hola or bonjour. However, with the exception of the seriously grumpy lady in the ski hire place, everyone was pleasant as I tried my best to communicate in probably a language that sounded nothing like Spanish or French!

It was wonderful to rediscover the bliss of being outside, in the sunshine, whizzing down hills. I even managed to achieve red runs with a modicum of style. The black ones were not so elegantly done but you can’t have everything!

If the MBA doesn’t work out – maybe ski bunny is an option?

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Tyres are pumped, lets roll

Posted on January 15, 2008 by | 1 Comment

My poor bike has been in need of some love for a while now.
In the last few weeks things had started to get just a little bit desperate. Braking was becoming a complicated business – it required some serious precision and forethought not to over shoot the traffic lights but equally to stop well short of where you wanted to be was rather annoying. Then there was this horrible, arthritic crunching coming from the poor chain grinding over the cogs.

So this morning I dragged myself from under my snuggly-warm doona and got my bike and I up to Station Cycles for 8am. No mean feat in the rain and the dark of a Tuesday morning!

Now, I want to digress for just one moment – indulge me?

The Marketing lecturers last term went on a LOT about the achievement of ‘Customer Delight’ and its impact on business. Essential your experience of the business is way beyond what you expected and you find yourself being deeply delighted. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it and it happened to me today.

When I collected my bike it was just like new and I glided home with no effort, noise and most importantly no crazy breaking calculations.

However, the source of my delight was none of these practical things. It was the courtesy bike. This morning I was issued with a courtesy bike! Complete with lights, basket and lock for my use over the day.

Cambridge is not so big that you can’t walk from one place to another, so today would not be ruined without a bike. And when I think about it not once when I have put my car in for a service at home, where the mechanic is always in an impossible to access place, has anyone offered me a courtesy form of transport. Not even a lift to the train station! Now I am aware that with BMW and other more luxury cars (that have never graced my garage) you may be offered a courtesy car. But who would have thought that such a system would exist for the humble bike. And better yet it was available to all regardless of brand, age or prestige of their cycle.

What a wonderfully egalitarian view!

Such delight.

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My husband’s new best quality – media concierge

Posted on January 14, 2008 by | 1 Comment

So it’s a tough gig being my husband and he does a pretty good job.  We both work, and with 2 kids, a house and a fish our family just doesn’t function unless he’s doing his share (or as he likes to point out, more than his share).  So sure, he does most of the cooking and yes, and he does most of the shopping, and some of the laundry, and does the garden…you get my drift, he’s a fully evolved and super-involved husband.

There’s a lot of things as a full-time working mum in LA I just can’t get to right now.  Sleep.  Regular eye-brow waxing.  Reading Sunday’s NY Times.  Going to the gym.  Updating my iPod.

So it’s in that context that my husband has upped the ante with his new role in our family – my media concierge.  For my birthday right before xmas he got me the new iTouch (ie iPhone without the phone bit).  That in itself was a great present (he’d forgotten my birthday the year before in an uncharacteristic move so it was doubly appreciated).  But the best part was that he’d loaded all my photos, all my favorite music (he’d even sucked it up and included Kelly Clarkson and the Dixie Chicks which he has no time for), plus some Aussie faves (Sneaky Sound System) and other things he thought I’d like, including movies and tv shows.   And the best part was he signed up for keeping it updated on an ongoing basis.  BEST PRESENT EVER! 

 I mentioned this to a friend who had heard of a small company in LA who had just started providing media concierge services to people like me who consume lots of entertainment but don’t have the time or inclination to get the electronic shit together.  So maybe this is the start of a new trend in business.  Or maybe just husbands?

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School is back with vengence

Posted on January 14, 2008 by | Leave a comment
Inside of Judge Business School Cambridge University

It is just as if there was no break!

And after only one lecture – all be it a 3 hour epic on the wonders of operations management and supply chain. However, this is nothing compared to the 400 pages of reverting text I most consume before tomorrow on Globalisation.

When returning to work after a break there was a well held view that your post-holiday-blissed-out-state would be untouchable for 2 days if you had a 2 week holiday for instance. The absolutely most horrendous meeting could be booked for that first day, your inbox could be groaning with long complaints and all your team could have resigned. But you would sail through. Well, until day 3 of course, when the enormity of the disaster would be realised and you would be back in the tense state as is the norm for work.

No such luck in this student world.

This term is looking daunting. Strategy, Innovation, Operations management, International Business, People Management and Climate Leadership. All come with an enormous spiral bound book and the promise of multiple assessments and even some rather sneaky exams.

It was wonderful to see everyone again and to even start a routine. However, my promise to myself that I can have one day off a week this term is looking in jeopardy already!

Actually this lament may not be entirely true – there is the ski trip at the end of this week to look forward to.

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Sunshine on the weekend

Posted on January 12, 2008 by | Leave a comment

I woke up this morning, with the hesitation that follows a large night of celebration.

Would my head hurt, how scratchy would my eyes feel and could the ache be lifted by coffee and vegemite toast alone?

This week the MBA class endured 2 three hour papers. We sat together in a hall, with an invigilator striding up and down in his flowing gown booming about the evils of mobile phones in examination rooms. And wrote and wrote and wrote for three hours solid, not once but twice.

When it was all over at 12pm on Friday, and I didn’t have to return to my room, to bend over my desk I felt normal for the first time in many months. For a moment I could be without a nagging noise at the back of my head reminding me of the readings to be completed or the assignment to be done. I have to say I felt wonderful and while I write this and Saturday turns to Sunday I feel that I have had a rest. I have breathed.

The celebration was extensive, including 3 drinking establishments, the compulsory fast food stop, a spot of dancing and strangely enough a film in the middle of it all. Just such a great night with some lovely and charming company.

And today has also been great. Cambridge was doused in winter, sun. I wandered about through the shops, enjoyed a coffee in my favourite coffee shop – Indigo and watched the day pass.

On Monday it all begins again but what a gorgeous weekend I have had.

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“Head explodes in curious incident of one to many beta’s”

Posted on January 7, 2008 by | 2 Comments

Right that is it…..

There is just no more room in my poor little head for any more information. If I have to cram one more bit, one more tiny-winy, combination of letters, numbers or Greek symbols into my brain the outcome will be detrimental to all of those fragile pieces of information hanging in there by a precarious thread.

Exams are truly THE worst. I can not think of anything that creates such physical inertia, the sense that it is okay not to wash your hair for 4 days and that it is perfectly normal to wear the same tracksuit bottoms for 3.

My goodness this was easier the first time round….

Right…. better get back to it!

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Happy New Year in Los Angeles

Posted on January 2, 2008 by | 1 Comment

I have been 15 months in LA now and I each time I leave I feel more and more settled as I return. I can’t put my finger on what beyond time has made me fall in love with this metropolis. It could be the laid back attitude of beach side Venice in the winter sunshine, recent drinks with neighbours or the knowledge that having a new job means I can stay.

LA in winter is a treat, with few cars on the road a batch of awesome new films in the cinemas and the late morning sunshine.

Happy New Year everyone, I hope 2008 is your year.

This photo was taken in our garden on 31 December 2007

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English Time

Posted on January 1, 2008 by | 2 Comments
It is true. I can’t believe it. I have been in the UK now for 3 years; 2 jobs, 4 bedrooms, 2 flatmates, plenty of holidays in wonderful places, lots of laughter balanced with tears and one whole term at Cambridge. There are some splendid and amazing things about England. Tradition oozes through so many parts of life from the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace to the well held belief that a cup of tea will dry all tears, create a space for friendship and laughter. The greatly maligned food has some saviors such as clotted cream, mince pies and cumberland sausages. All such old fashioned fare are welcome in my fridge at any time.Despite all this there are some things that still completely mystify and baffle me.

Why do sinks have separate hot and cold taps? Do they really think people use a basin full of water to wash their hands?

Why can’t I have a plug for the hairdryer in the bathroom if I can have them in the kitchen?

Why is the weather such a topic of conversation when really it varies only a few degrees with each season?

Why is it that the trains don’t work when it rains, snows, is sunny and when the leaves are dropping?

Hmmm … I suspect that the answer is that is just how it is. Tradition. I guess you have to take the good with the bad!

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