Today - 18th September

Today, I am sitting in a Starbucks close to Oxford circus as I have no internet at home and just did not want to go to LBS to make use of the Alumni business center. Did you know that the Starbucks Coffee Shops were ranked in the top ten best places to work for 2007!!! Makes you wonder what the other work places must be like.. Anyway, its quiet, filled with students from the Unveristy of Westminster deciding what undergrad courses to take.. the start of another school year in the UK.. All the newspapers are filled with the cost for tertiary education and what a terrible thing it is for the government to force its nationals to pay for the ability to study further.. I have to admit I don't know what the big deal is.. this is not a country where the difference between the haves and have nots is so wide that asking one to pay for tertiary education is discriminatory. Furthermore, every bank is offering amazing credit lines to students. I remember taking out very large student loans to go to university and not having a clue how I will repay them, but I eventually did.. and I can guarantee you that the undergrad costs of education is a tiny fraction of what we paid for business school.. Today, I am working on completing an investment memo for work and needed to work in an environment, clear of all the boxes and bags that have to be packed. The movers arrive on Thursday and then the house will be back to being emply and semi uncluttered. I sold the TV, DVD player, the kettle and the toaster yesterday, which now forces me to be out of the house for a bit. For those in the know, a five star hotel is being built adjacent to our block of apartments so the drilling can drive one crazy!!! So back to work for me.. I hope you enjoy all the other postings which have been stored until today for uploading..

Rome in July..

The power of Schengen visa dictates when a person from a third world country, like South Africa, can travel. Thankfully, one visa application for Schengen covers you for a fair number of countries so it does save on passport pages… over the summer months, timing of your application is key as waiting periods can be up to 6 weeks long.. The final date for travel for my previous schengen visa was 17th July (I have had close to 7 since arriving here in 2003), so I was desperate to use it once more before it expired.

I wanted my trip and destination to coincide with something, to make the trip more meaningful in a way, so at the end of June, I first went to Bilbao to see Frank Gehry architecture at its best.

For my last trip, I decided to go to Rome, as it coincided with the start of the July sales, a real summer (not the rainy summer London was experiencing) and the opening of the Valentino exhibition celebrating his 40 years in fashion (I had no idea this was happening).
Dave Clawson was also in town to finalise his wedding suit and so was Paolo (both MBA class mates), so I was fortunate to hang out with both of them. Rome has some of the best ice-cream I have eaten and there are some gelaterias that even add a dollop of cream to your ice-cream! We ate well whilst here, great pasta, carpaccio and the thinnest of pizzas.. If I lived in either Italy or Paris, I would need a crane to lift me up.. its amazing to see these super thin Italians walking on the cobbled streets dressed in the latest fashion, with the highest of stilettos. I am sure not getting your heels into the crevices must be a special talent, not reserved for the sneaker or sandal clad tourists, like myself.
Rome is really a beautiful city. Its small enough to walk through and that’s the best way to see it. I think I used the metro probably twice. Like Paris and London, it has some beautiful bridges that link the banks of the river. I was within walking distance to the Spanish steps, via Condotti, the Vatican and some really good places to eat.

I thought that this wedding was a tourist act like the real Roman in the picture down below but this was a real Italian couple, ever so in love, taking some wedding photos, with the Coliseum as a backdrop.
For me one of the funniest things in Rome, are the Cameroonian bag sellers.. Given that the sales were on in full gusto (Gucci had to implement crowd control and limit the number of people it allowed to enter its store), I wonder if these sellers, who displayed their wares directly outside the stores, offered the SUNSET PRICE!!!



The exhibition site for the Valentino display of dresses. The site was protected by security, just in case someone crazy decided to steal the dresses..




I was last in Rome in 2001 and I have to say that the city has become friendlier, more cosmopolitan and shop assistants more helpful.. I remember walking into one of the stores in via Condotti in 2001, only to feel that the shop assistant followed me around the shop with a spy-glass, thinking that I was there to steal.. This time round, the shop assistant was from China or Japan (in most instances) and very accommodating and friendly.. (note to self, to tell the girls back home about this recent change and to reconsider Rome as a shopping destination.. Take the train in from the airport, its super convenient and significantly cheaper.. Don’t eat near Trevi fountain.. its too touristy. Go to the Jewish quarter – the fruit markets there are just superb. )
I wonder if he is in fact Italian. So called"Romans" are at all of the touristy places. This photo was taken at the Pantheon and they usually charge you for this service..

The beautiful Trevi fountain.. lots of coins are thrown into this fountain every year, only to be fished out by some person trying to make ends meet. The Trevi fountain is where three streets meet. It took 30 years to built with work starting in 1732. The background represents both a church front and a victory arch.







I was also grateful that this time round, I had a local to provide me with some insight on where to go, what to see and most importantly, where to eat and drink. I also got to see some parts of Rome, where the Roman’s go, which makes the visit all the more different. Thanks Paolo.

Things to see in London (Part II)

In London, you are always rushing around to such an extent that some of the simple pleasures in life, just seem to pass by. This combined with the inconsistent weather makes the viewing of a beautiful sunset a rather rare experience, especially if you come from a country, like South Africa, where you are guaranteed constant sunny weather for close to 300 days a year..

In the summer, at sunset, you are often at home or having dinner as it is late. I remember that during the summer of 2004, when we were doing our investment banking internships, the only time I caught a glimpse of the sun or sunset was I took a bathroom break and walked past a window. In the winter, when it gets dark at 3pm, you dont even get to see the sun setting, so when you get to experience a whole 20 minutes of it, it is something special..

As you all know, especially Sarah, watching a beautiful sunset, is something that John and I enjoy doing.. we have captured sunsets in almost every country we have been to, and most especially in Africa, after many a sundowner on the beach or on safari.

These photos were taken in Hyde Park, walking back from Knightsbridge. The view is across Serpentine Lake, where you can often find a few old English men going for a swim, amongst the swans and ducks who live on the lake. It kind of makes London look peaceful and serene.. In a city as big and hectic as London, you can have these special moments..

JT in concert.. (for Notty)

A few days later it was off to see Justin Timberlake in concert.. all inspired by my friend Nothando who was heading over from Cape Town to watch him.. South Africa did not make the cut for his 150 concert tour so if you really want to see him in action, you had to splash out.. I don’t think I saw as many women congregating in one location in London, as I did at the concert.. at least 99% of the crowd was female and probably in their early 20’s.. the last time I had been to a concert was in 2001 to see Sting in Hyde Park.. so very different..

And concerts have changed significantly since then.. in those days, there was only one act.. at the JT concert, it opened with Fergie, there was a hint of Nelly Furtado and then we had Timbaland for about 45 minutes.. Not to mention the amazing dancers, back up singers and the lighting.. Its all about entertainment and not so much about talent these days… kind of made me feel old..

Wimbledon.. with Venus and Maria..

So while John has been away I decided that I should make the most of being in the UK and Europe.. which meant that I had to go to Wimbledon – a first for me as I do not enjoy queues and 2007 was the first year of selling tickets online at 8pm the day before… you have to Love the NET.

So I ended up getting tickets to centre court. I had no idea who would be playing but the thought of being on centre court and eating strawberries and cream has been a childhood dream. For once, I had to be thankful for the wet weather as it postponed the Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams quarter final match to centre court .. How lucky was I! This was followed by Serena Williams and Justine Henin.. not as impressive as the match before..

I think I ate 4 cartons of strawberries that day. It tasted better than any of the strawberries bought at the local stores, so it must have been that thick cream poured all over it.. so much for the diet that day..
As a foreigner, we all have views and stereotypes that the Wimbledon Tennis championships is reflective of all of UK society, truly refined and orderly, everyone immaculately dressed and polite. The image of English gentry comes to mind, especially in their new kit designed by Ralph Lauren. Everyone is so orderly and polite How different the real, day to day UK is, with the pushing on the tube, the rude teenagers who do not give way to the elderly or the CHAV, in their burberry knock-offs and muffin tops..

You have to love Venus Williams, not only did she win this match and the finals, but she dared to bring her ultra flash gold patented bag onto centre court with her.. I do wonder if this was a product placement or in fact, mere functionality..

13 days before I bid London farewell.

I have been terrible at updating this.. so much has happened, so many continents have been travelled since I last wrote, but keeping this updated has been challenged as a result of Tiscali (ISP in London) disconnected my service 3 weeks early due to a technical hitch... which they cannot do anything about and it will take 2 weeks to reconnect.. Let me not tell you how unimpressed I was... Anyway, this weekend I am in Venice with Andreja, a friend and housemate from my MBA period. Her parents live about 2 hours away and since I did not want to apply for another visa (one has to conserve those pages), we thought Venice would be an appropriate meeting point.. so more from that trip a little later. Relocating to the US is probably the most stressful thing I have done in a while.. more stressful than the undergrad exams I took, especially those I did not study for, and more stressful than trying to apply for your nth passport in South Africa.. It is stressful as no one in the UK understands that you are actually closing shop in their country and moving.. Every UK service provider needs a local forwarding address! Its stressful because I need to decide now, what will go with me in my 2 suitcases, what needs to go into storage before we move into a proper house as opposed to an apartment.. what I need to post..but I will get there.. in the next 13 days.. but before I go into the mundane things.. there will be a few postings of all that I got up to from mid June to now.. and its not been a quiet period... lets start with all that went on in the month of july 2007..