Heaven & Hell
Snowboarding brings out the best and worst in me.
When there are blue skies and powder I feel as if I‘m surfing down the clouds with the world at my feet. The views, crisp air and the swish of the snow produce an unparalleled serenity.
In my trip to the French Alps last week I enjoyed only a few of these moments.
Unfortunately the rest the week was hell. As the days went by the temperatures dropped and the mountain turned into a huge block of ice. As a consequence I am now covered in bruises. Some physical, others emotional.
The highlight of the trip involved a spectacular accident. I was at 2600m, racing down a narrow blue run when I turned a corner and saw a huge red sign in the snow rapidly approaching. I thought a quick carve to the right would save me.
I thought wrong.
I crashed straight into the middle at high speed. I lay in the snow winded, completely tangled up in the sign. Once I could breath I sat up to see my husband sitting at the side laughing. To top it off he was accompanied by a crowd of 20 people laughing along with him. The humiliation! At least I was disguised in my goggles.
There were also a few embarrassing falls of t-bars and lifts. Only in France can a t-bar go around a corner on the side of a cliff.
All in all it was a fun trip. Maybe we’ll go again in March.
Santorini
What can I say? The wedding was full of fun, drama and excitement. There were magical moments and it feels great to be married. We’re now island hopping in Greece and loving it. Thanks to everyone who helped make it such a wonderful day.
La Defense
The nice thing about my current project is that all day I’m telling people they have to do less work than last year. When I add that we’ll be doing most of the work for them they look like they’ve just won the lotto. It’s truly fab.
Today I went out to lunch with Monique at Arche de la Defense. We bought our Baguette Parisiennes, sat on the stairs and people watched. It has been said a million times before but there really is no better way to experience a foreign city than with a local. I’m sure I stick out like a sore thumb here. I’m a good foot taller than most women and I’m resigned to the fact that no matter how expensive my outfit is I’ll never achieve the effortless elegance of the French. I watched in awe as Monique glided through the crowd in her fire engine red suit and matching patent heels. It’s not just the clothes, it’s the confidence with which she carries herself and the sky high eye-brow raises as she Voila’s her way through life. Although I bet she couldn’t survive on witchetty grubs if she got stuck in the Australian desert.
Bonjour
I flew into Paris this morning. The trip to the office was uneventful. There was a time when a taxi ride in a foreign city was an adventure. Battling against language barriers, dodgy drivers and trying to pretend I knew exactly where we were heading was all part of the fun. Now I just flash the address and they type it in, mumble a cursory oui, si or ja and we cruise silently to my destination. I’ve stared at enough hotel ceilings to last a life time and it takes me a good minute every morning to work out what country I’m in. Thankfully this is the last trip for a few months.
I was back in Holland last weekend for the famed holiday Queen’s Day or as the Dutch call it “Koninginnedag”. It’s such a tongue twister and sounds something like cone-ing-in-a-daaahh-insert hacking up spit sound. Try is some time for a laugh. The basic idea is to wear head to toe orange, walk the streets drinking beer from plastic cups and buy lots of crap you don’t need from the street markets. It’s more fun than it sounds. We wandered around in the sea of orange for a few hours marveling at the things people dared to try and sell. Every time we walked past a band Jarno broke out into one of his spontaneous little jigs that involves a lot arm waving and jumping up and down. It’s a Dutch thing. Their lack of inhibition often results in people dancing in the streets, in broad daylight, sometimes even without music. I just stand around waiting for it to pass. Part of me wants to join in but my reticence runs deep and my feet remain firm on the pavement. After a bit of eye-rolling I dragged him off to have dinner with Lora Borderliner and Klaas Spineless. It’s only 4 weeks until the wedding…..
A close call
I almost called off the wedding on Sunday. It was Easter and my husband to be ‘forgot’ to get me an Easter egg. Scandalous, just scandalous.
I finished off the project in Milan last week. Drank espresso, admired the Duomo and was ogled in a way that only Italian men can ogle.
Now I’m in Dusseldorf eating lots of Bratwurst. I actually understand some German as it’s similar to Dutch. I’m not sure how that’s going to help me when I’m sipping chardonnay, lounging around in the spa of my Melbourne mansion. I guess I can brag about it at parties….
Ski
I haven’t been updating my blog lately. I blame this on a vicious throat infection, a busy project at work and in all honesty, I’m a little hesitant to spill everything after the google search aftermath in 2005. Time to get over it. The original goal of this site was to keep in touch with all of you in Australia and if people here find it and don’t like it, they should stop reading.
Lots of highlights over the past few weeks:
•Went to Italy on a short but fun snowboarding trip
•Had a job interview in Dutch, got the job and then turned down the offer.
•Jarno got a new mc for the wedding. He’s a very nice, funny guy from Friesland.
•On Monday I start the new phase of my project where I travel for 12 weeks through London, Milan, Paris and Cologne Can you see that I’ve been writing too many power point presentations lately? Tuesday, a new update without dot points.
Zurich
Last week I went to Zurich for work. The fleeting glimpses I caught of the city were breathtaking. Contrary to the stereotype of the Swiss, I found them fun, smart and very stylish. I tried some of the famous Sprungli chocolates at the airport and fell in love instantly. I was in such daze after trying a couple that I accidentally picked up a box of diabetic pralines. So in the end I paid 20 euro for some plastic tasting chocolates and was predictably inconsolable.
The reason for the trip was to convince 12 people from different countries to start working in the same way. From experience I know this can be a futile exercise. The Germans thinks they do it better, the English agree but don’t change anything and the Italians and French tell us that their laws are just too complicated for anybody else to understand. So generally there’s a whole lot of talk and not a lot of action. Surprisingly enough, this time we got quite a positive response. There was no break out of WWIII and not even any swearing in foreign languages. I think, maybe, just maybe, we might have even made some progress.
Shocking I know.
Barthelonna Baby
This weekend I went to Barcelona with Izzy. Don’t I sound like a jetsetter? It was a whirlwind trip as we had only two days. We headed straight to the old centre as Izzy so eloquently phrased it, “It has old stuff AND shopping!” This combined with the sunny skies, Gaudi masterpieces, yummy tapas and sangria resulted in great time. Jarno is on a training course this week in Munich so I’m going solo. Some Photos: Prague Barcelona
Prague
I spent the weekend in Prague.
What a spectacular city.
It’s loaded with beautiful old castles and has a rich, exciting history. Amazingly enough it was a communistic country only 15 years ago. We visited a museum and were shocked by a documentary over ‘The Velvet Revolution’. It was much more violent and scary than its name suggests. Inspired by our new insights into communism, Jarno and I discussed the problems of the world over a romantic dinner under the Charles Bridge. Previously we’d concluded that much war and heartache would be solved if religion didn’t exist. Our visit to Prague forced us to the new depressing conclusion that due to mankind’s inherent greed, war is totally unavoidable. Apart from that it was a lively fun long weekend…. I’m busy this week so it’ s a short update.
Incredible
I just remembered why I came to Europe.
The moment hit me as we turned a corner and saw the breathtaking sight of the Amalfi coast.
It’s miles and miles of soaring cliffs and gorgeous ocean broken up by pretty italian seaside towns. I’ve never seen anything like it. You must come here! On the way we passed through Garmisch to see the castle inspiring Walt Disney and then spent a couple of days in Florence. You know how it is, checked out a few Michelangelos & Botticellis, wandered through old churches and watched the sun set over the city. The hardest part of the stay was choosing between a chianti and cappuccino on the sun soaked terraces…. We then drove down through Tuscany to the coast here. I never want to leave. Tomorrow we’re off to the Isle of Capri to hire some scooters and zip about and then on Monday we’re going to climb Mt Vesuvius (hope it doesn’t blow!). Then of course there’s Pompeii.
