Barcelona Bound

It's my cumpleaños and I'll llorar if I want to ...

2006-03-20T22:05:00.000+01:00

Even though I have finals in less than two days' time I find I have to post up a few words about my birthday last Friday, the 17th March. The evening before we had organised to go out with my group to say goodbye to Andreas and I as we are leaving the illustrious section B (one of the two international sections at school) to transfer to ... da da daaaaaa ... section C. Doesn't sound like too much of a change until you realise that half the classes in section C will take place in Spanish. And given that my Spanish barely extends beyond "tengo hambre señor" this will surely pose some learning problems. Ah well - "in for a penny in for a pound" as they say (actually noone say this any more except back in Salopia but then I'm a lad from the Shire at heart). Watch this space for developments - we start next week - yikes !
Anyway the evening passed very well and at Midnight I turned 23 years old (ok 29) with Thanos singing something along the lines of happy birthday in my ear in Greek. It was then on to the Bar Of the Week at Elephant in Sarría. Here Huy was also celebrating his birthday - also the 17th of March - happy birthday Huy ! I think this bar will be a great place in the summer with open air dancing and a fancy line in interior decorations. Some pictures below.
Then on my birthday itself I had organised to go out with my flatmates to a restaurant close to our house for a quiet meal - nothing too extravagent as the weekend had to be spent studying for the exams. 9 o'clock rolled around and before we left for the restaurant Cristina suggested we go for a quick beer while the others got ready. "Ok" said I and we headed off down the street. We stopped at a small bar that I've never actually been in before and I was quite surprised to see four girls from school in there - strange as none of them lived around the area. Cristina and I left and she seemed just as perplexed as I was that they should be in that bar at that time. Anyway we went for a beer and Cristina had to go back to the flat to get some medicine before going to the resaurant. In through the front door we go and - lo and behold - SURPRISE !!! About 40 people from school were waiting in the front room of my flat !!! Including those sneaky minxes from the bar !!! And Cristina didn't even need any medicine !!! It had all been an elaborate ruse !!! Ok enough exclamation marks - it was a great party and thankyou to everyone who came and especially to those who organised the whole thing - it really was a splendid birthday surprise. Wonderful.

A sign I saw in Gracia which hada propellorhead hat on the sign. I don't know what the shop sells but hell I'll buy it anyway !!!

Leaving dinner with my group - as you can see Andreas and I are sad to be leaving - Tom�s and Sergio are also plainly devastated ...

Liiiindy !!!!!

These two are at school every morning at seven to shout at each other - here you see the real love is shining through ... aaaahh

Love this picture - Benjamin my hero Frenchy housemates demonstrates to the Brazilians how to do a proper moonwalk - ow !

Later that night at the Bar Of the Week Huy demonstrates that he's the real reason Robain is so "frenetic" every Friday at school ...

Ryan "Doctor Evil" Kern and I at my surprise party - it's the only picture I have !

It´s that David Bailey time again ...

2006-03-12T22:29:00.000+01:00

As I haven´t written for so long I though it was time to stick a few photos up. Also as sooooo much happened over the month of February (cripes it's a long time since I wrote) I shall summarize all in bullet points :

Ski weekend - headed to the mountains with 200 other IESE students. Skied a bit I think - can't really remember.
Studied in the week.
Weekend after went up to exactly the same place with Cristina and David as Cristina's folks have a place there. Very relaxing weekend and got a lot of study done.
Week - studied a lot.
Attended a "do" called the MultiCultural Fair organised by IESE. Was one of the funniest parties I have ever been to. Basically every country had to Represent and have a stand in a place downtown; the idea being that every country showcase its wares and food. Obviously this turned into a showcase of each country's booze and within twenty minutes I had tried the finest liquor the world has to offer. Oh and a lot of curry at the Indian stand (I actually have to apologise to the Indians for planting a small Union Jack in one of their curries - not my finest hour!).
Two days after this my friend Kresse came over from London to speak at the Doing Good and Doing Well conference. This is a yearly conference organised at IESE where people come to speak about social/environmental issues and how business can be involved in changing things for the better. Something like that anyway. Kresse went down a storm talking about her social entrepreneurial activities ... and then we went out on the town with the Mexicans ... no pictures from this either I'm afraid !!!
The day after I took a little break back in London - photo below. Turned up at Wix's Lane, plonked myself down on the couch and set the world to rights with Sebbo and Bjorny - (Chrissy Wissy was back wum in Shroppers) - I was also considering jet-setting out to the Alps this weekend as there is a rather splendid crowd of chaps and chapesses out in Bourg St. Maurice at the moment but finally my finances/workload prevented me from going ... (... oh get over yourself Franno)
Bond party Friday night - see pictures below
Saturday studied then went out to the Carpe Diem Lounge Club (swanky nightclub) where I decidedly brought down the tone of the place by giving the girls "airplanes" (see the movie Gross Point Blank for details).
Today got up, went to school, studied accounting, went to Kitty's Bar to watch England play the worst rugby I've ever seen, came back here, quick siesta and Bob's yer Uncle (& Fanny's yer Aunt) !!!

Kike breaking the cider at a recent dinner - the cider from Asturias needs to be poured from quite high to add the fizz before drinking

A funny sweet wrapper that David found on the street

Jan Erik Sundt enjoying a beer before setting off on a ski trip

Marc and I decide to try on a few hats on the ski trip - wheeey punters !!!

Thanos at the Multi Culti fair - he's Greek. After I took this photo he insisted that I try his grandfather's moonshine that he'd brought along. I don't remember the three days following ...

Studying accounting with Eduardo and Sergio

Last Friday's Bond party - I went with Ryan my arch nemesis heheh - before the party we sat and watched the Austin Powers movie whilst drinking copious amounts of Cava ... most photos from this night are not for public consumption !!!

Iv�n trying out my Austin disguise flanked by Brenda and Abelardo

Lena also tries out the disguise in the Universal club

Sebbo !!! A recent flight back to London was a welcome break from Barca. It's great to see that nothing changes.

Juan Revuelta. He go crazy for shoooes maaan ...

At secondary school we had a Lego Club (those from home will know what I mean). I now find myself at Business School and what do I find ... ?

Cristina (in the middle) dancing Sevillanas at the Multi Culti fair

My yearbook picture !!! This is section B in glory. Just quickly from left to right and front to back we have ... Srini, Tiffany, Yours Truly, Rom�n, Greg, Komal, Junko, Ali, Ceylan, David, Gustavo, Alexandre, Till, Blaithin, Aalok, Ana, Edoardo, Eduardo, Salvatore, Federico, Lindy, Kathy, Claudia, Cary, Abelardo, Jorge, Alexis, Raymundo, Kapil, Taka, Julian, Dom, Gary, Juan, Alexia, Joan, Fabrice ok I'm bored now ...

News from the front

2006-03-01T07:13:00.000+01:00

So trimester midterms have been and passed since I last wrote and now have the results. At least most people do - I have not actually opened mine yet. I feel it is better to savour the possibility that I actually might have done well than to know for sure that I've done dismally; it seems to put me in good (albeit slightly unreal) spirits.
As the midterms ended, so two more subjects were started - Capital Markets and "Markets & Managers". I currently sit on the back row with three others (Blaithin (Eire), Kyle (Canada) and Miguel (Spain)) and each "M & M" class hilariously starts with a ditribution of chocolatey treats of the same name (only the yellow ones with peanuts however as Miguel doesn't like the brown ones).
I noticed a strange phenomena that has been growing in class however - the human body as a musical instrument. I first became aware of it when I recieved quizzical looks from the row in front - it seems that I have been unconciously "beat-boxing" (I believe that's what they call it these days) as I try to think about anything but the Cost Accounting class in front of me. I then became aware the other day of a strange tapping coming from the other side of the room and looked over to see Gregory van Hoof (a Belgian) merrily tapping away on his desk to the strange rhythms in his head, head lolling as he imagined drumming in front of a crowd of thousands ... until he was jabbed in the ribs by Cary Spisak (US). My hope is that the musical trend continues and that soon we soon have a complete human orchestra. I want to be the tuba - parp parp !
I am starting to worry too about one of our new professors. I thought on the first day of class that, although he claimed he was Spanish, there was a certain ... I don't know ... Transylvanian tinge to this guy's accent. On the second class he claimed "I a-driiink a-sooo mach cappuchiiiino that I a-neeeverrr a-sleeeep at a-niiiight ..." and then the third class was a case about the supply and demand of a potential market in human kidneys. No joke. The firm proof however came yesterday when he turned into a bat and tried to fly out of a window that turned out to be closed - bonk !
One final note (as I have to go to a field trip to the Danone factory in half an hour - I love being back at scool sometimes!) about the "MBA Olympics". This is an event held in Paris where the top 3 business schools in Europe (yes we are one of those despite apparently vampiric professors) get together in Paris for a mini Olympics. It is a matter of great pride and IESE has won the last three years in a row. My hopes are not high for this year however because, as I was speaking to the Indians about our cricket training (or lack of) and found out that the LBS team has been practising seriously at Lords for the past few months, I looked over their shoulder to see a frisbee being thrown around the lawn by the Ultimate Frisbee team. They didn't catch it once and one guy almost fell in the turtle pond. We'll have to see ...

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more ...

2006-02-13T22:36:00.000+01:00

Yes it's that time again ... trimester midterms oh yeah !

In just three days time I will be plunged again into the depths of midterm exams. Except that this time around one of the three midterms is actually a final exam as the course is only a half-credit and so finishes this week. As a result of the looming challenge I have been living pretty much constantly with earphones plugged in and head buried in book and/or laptop (if that's possible), and so have not much to report from ever-sunny Barcelona. Oh yes - my flatmate David bought a moto today. The fact that when I found out I was more excited that I have been in weeks probably reveals a lot about life here at IESE. In fact I have half a mind to go and take a picture of it to post here I'm so fed up with studying - could do with the break ...

[10 mins lapse ...]

Ok couldn't find it but I can report that the night air here in Barca is positively balmy this evening !

Looking to the coming weekend I have the IESE ski trip to look forward to. This will basically involve 200 students descending on a small town in Andorra, doubling its permanent population for the weekend and leaving it utterly ravaged by the time we leave. That's my plan anyway - I've done it before and I'm sure the others won't take much convincing ... !

On a final note, a very happy birthday to my mother who turned [censored] years old today - feliz cumpleanos mother dear !!!

Bareback Mountain

2006-01-30T01:05:00.000+01:00

I have just come back from seeing a great film at a cinema we recently discovered 10 minutes walk away from our flat. The film was called Brokeback Mountain and had received a hearty endorsement from my ol' mucker Benny Blanco in London. Heath Ledger (aka Scott from Home & Away) and Jake Gyllenhaal (of Donnie Darko fame) headline in what is a very well acted and extremely moving story - however ! One word of advice - don't watch the trailer ! It basically tells you the whole story ! I don't know who's in charge of making movie trailers these days but they should really learn to confine themselves to providing teasers rather than an entire synopsis of the film.

Ok - rant over. If you really don't want to know anything about the film, don't read on. Not really much of a spoiler but didn't want to be hypocritical ...

Basically the film is a story about two cowboys who grow rather - erm - fond of each other on a long summer tending sheep in the mountains of Wyoming. Although they carry on their separate lives after they come down from the mountain they continue their "fishing trips" up into the mountains together from time to time.

As we walked home from the cinema Alex joked that he wanted to join the fishing club at school. I felt at pains to point out to him that I was, in fact, the joint president of the fly-fishing club along with it's only other member, Jan Erik from Norway ! I think we'd better get some new members in before people see the film and start getting the wrong idea !

Not just us ...

2006-01-28T23:59:00.000+01:00

I took a little bit of stick over the Christmas break from a few people who had read my blog and come to the conclusion (as a result of various Party Pictures I had posted) that the life of a IESE MBA student is one long string of fancy-free-fiestas, all jape and frivolity. Well I can tell you it certainly is not.

And even if it was then at least it's not just us ! Back at the start of last term a Portuguese chap called Nico left us to go to INSEAD on the Singapore campus and has just started the course this January. I recieved an email entitled "Happy Chinese New Year" with some photos attached. I expected to see images of Nico praying before a 12ft effigy of the Buddha, josticks a-blazin' etc. But no ...

New Year - Singapore Style

... as you can see - these are new MBA students. Give them 4 months of financial accounting and they'll be the ones be staying in on a Saturday night looking like this :

Saturday Night - Barcelona Style

Sad - isn't it ?

COW

2006-01-26T18:22:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post to tell you a little story about today's class - we have a thing called a COW (Comment Of the Week) where the silliest comment made by a student in class is awarded with a fluffy cow at the end of the week. I have a friend over here who we will call "Swiss Tony" as he comes from Switzerland ("oooorghh ... Schavitzerlanda" for those in London - imagine the following in "that" accent ...). We had a case in Human Resources Management about a hotel in California that was trying to resolve problems with their personal valets (a part-time quasi-butler, aka "PV" for short). Now Swiss Tony, along with many others from his region of the world, have problems pronouncing "V"s, preferring instead to pronounce "W"s. Imagine the hilarity then, when asked whether the personal valets were good for the guests, Swiss Tony replies "yes of course - the guests would love to have fun with our peewees" !!!

Incredible ... in-credible !

Had to be there maybe ... ?

Deep in study

2006-01-25T23:10:00.000+01:00

I know I know it's been a while but since I last wrote we have been plunged back into the mire with a brand new set of courses and a whole array of strange and whacky professors to go with them. For those of you in the remotest bit interested, here are this trimester's courses :

Operations Management - Gantt charts galore and more process analysis than you can shake a stick at.
Operational Finance - a short but sharp blast to the head featuring such delights as Returns on Equity and Debt/Equity ratio appraisal. Still interested ?
Managerial Accounting - hard.
Human Resources Management - an extension of last term's Organisation Behaviour class this deals with the tricky ramifications of wayward unions and how best to crush a strike.
Negotiations - my godsend. No cases to prepare for these classes, just turn up and barter away to your heart's content !
Marketing Planning & Implementation - my nemesis. Marketing last term was a mystery to me and this term is proving to be no exception to the rule as we tumble headlong into the murky depths of how best to sell sweets to overweight Italian schoolchildren (among other major dilemmas)

Well, there you have it - that's probably enough about school for now suffice to say that I have also been through a round of interviews for summer placements and have surfaced the other side with a second round interview at Booz Allen Hamilton - a consultancy. "The dark side" as my brother Ed would say but then the dark side does have its advantages ... anyway I'll let you know how the second round goes. Currently scheduled for the 8th of February.

Otherwise I can tell you that I went to see Barcelona Football Club play a couple of weekends ago which was great. Really great - first visit to the Camp Nou and we saw a huge punch-up on the field. The game itself was pretty dull and the fight was the only thing that really got the crowd pumped up - walking out of the stadium felt like we were in the middle of the civil war with everyone chanting "Catalunya - Catalunya" ... awesome.

Last weekend saw the ol' jalopy heading out once more as a small group of us headed out to the Pyrenees for the weekend. Andorra to be exact where we had a jolly good weekend's skiing. The plan had originally included study sessions scheduled into the Friday and Saturday nights but we should really have realised that was a non-starter from the off. As a consequence Sunday night and all nights since have been extremely late ones catching up with work I should have done last weekend. This weekend coming it is set to rain in Barcelona so I think I will stay in to catch up on study. Much needed in these pressing but educational times.

Pictures of Andorra and a couple of the future "Captains of Commerce" you can find here at IESE ...

Ian looking pensive

Ryan looking ridiculous

Vive le moose !!!

A couple in the making if ever I saw one ...

Mmmmm

The last supper before coming back to BCN

He's Canadian - I say nothing

George and Huy - I say nothing

Give it all you got, Davy-boy !

Many thanks to brother in law David for his most educational comment on my last post - it had me in stitches mate and provided some much needed relief !

2006

2006-01-08T19:03:00.000+01:00

Happy new year to one and all !!! Today is the 8th of January which as everyone knows is officially the last day of Xhristmas - what a shame. I am back in Barcelona after a rather long and winding journey down through Europe in the ol' jalopy. Setting off at 10.30pm the day before New Years' Eve, I drove through the night, witnessing a great sunrise when passing through the Champagne region with the roads all to myself. How apt, I thought - Champagne for New Year's !!! "Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends" etc ... two hours later I was snoring in a traffic jam outside Dijon, which struck me as a bit more down to earth. Arrived in Bourg St. Maurice to meet Sebaaaastian and Brrrradders - was shattered but managed to pull through to see in the New Year at the Howell household with Seb's folks, Luke and new ladyfriend Emma. Many thanks to all of you for allowing me to remember New Year for the first time since I was 15 !!!

New Year's Day and I was very excited to be able to use my new snow chains on the car (see picture). We drove up to Val d'Isere to meet William and had a great day's skiing (for "skiing" read "lunch" however - we were on William's timetable). Seb and Bradders left that evening to head back to London and I stayed with Paul, Debs and Guillaume to ski another day before realising the back wheels on my car had completely frozen ! After sliding round Val for a couple of hours (it was like doing a constant handbrake turn around town - awesome) we eventually got the wheels unstuck with the help of monsieur Ogh-he-hogh (think that was his name) in the garage and off I set down to Barca. The drive down through France was "thimply wonderful" - was a shame my camera was broken as there were some pretty spectacular views dropping down through the Alps.

Have two days of Finance interviews coming up starting tomorrow - should really be studying the "Capital Asset Pricing Model" and "Weighted Average Cost of Capital" (zzzz) but golly it is tiresome. Anyway just wanted to stick up the photos that Sebbo sent over from New Year - thanks for them chief ... hasta luego !

Arrival in Val (note the snow chains)

Snow really was this deep !

Extreme off-piste action

A frozen lunch at la Fruitiere restaurant

Windy : if you're reading this in the States - make sure you get yersel' upstate now ya hear - ah hear its really budeful this time o' year ... ya just gotta ... :)

Partridges etc.

2005-12-28T21:18:00.000+01:00

Weather : dark & overcast - beginning to snow
Temperature : minus two & falling
Earth : hard as iron
Water : like a stone

Good conditions for hunting ? You bet your ass.

We in the UK have a particularly morbid way to celebrate the birth of Christ around this time of year. The tradition comes in many forms but always involves inflicting pain on small animals. The Boxing Day Hunt leaves from the grounds of Ludlow castle at midday to huge cheers from an adoring crowd. Red-coated gentry mount their steeds and charge off into the fields to do battle with crafty mr. Fox. At the same time teams of barber-coated huntsmen trawl through the damp forests armed with double-barrelled shotguns. They are preceeded by a crowd of "beaters" whose sole purpose is to disturb pheasants from their slumber so that they can be shot (that's pheasants with an "h" mind - we're not completely stuck in the dark ages here !).

There has been much debate over the ethics and legality of hunting over the last couple of years in the UK, which eventually led to hunting with dogs being banned back in February last year. An argument in favour of hunting is that it makes the connection between eating meat and the death of an animal. A hunter will say "yum yum - I need to eat so I hunt - it is my most basic right". To which I absolutely agree. But there comes a point where it's clear people are doing it just for fun - a local shoot in Shrophire has to hire a JCB each new year to bury the mounds of pheasant (with an "h") carcasses.

There is a point to this rambling and it is this : whilst others practise their hunting method of choice the family Lewis decided to try something a little different this year and so headed deep into the Shropshire hills armed only with ... hawks. Yes - hawks. Harris hawks to be precise and there's a picture of one below. He's called Mo. See how fearless I am when face to face with such a lethal killing machine. See how wonderful it is to see man living so seamlessly with nature. Aaaah. Mmmmm. I won't mention that Mo actually fell off my hand after the picture was taken. Actually fell off ! I didn't even know that birds fell over !

They called me Captain Fearless by the end of the day

Sister Camilla also showed little sign of fear

Christmas itself was fantastic. Turkey galore and the usual fuzzy mix of endless puzzles and chocolate boxes filled the Lewis household as it does every year for three or four days. Now I have to try and get the car back on the road and start heading back to Barcelona. Boooo ! Hopefully stopping in France on the way through to spend New Year with a couple of old spankers from school staying out there, then on to Barcelona after that.

Mmm. Need more turkey.

Mum, Camilla and me

A studious Lewis Christmas

When I finally came around on Boxing Day I realised that Chris had bought me a ticket to go and see Wolves play Reading at Molineux. The last time I had been was Boxing Day last year when we drew with Brighton 1-1 so was expecting a similar good-spirited result this time. It wasn't to be however as Wolves had obviously had a mulled wine and turkey party just before the game and couldn't physically run around the pitch. Dreadful - made worse by the fact that Reading didn't even play very well and still ended up stuffing us 2-0 !!! At least I had the famous Balti pie at half time (the real taste of the Black Country !!!).

The indominable figure of Billy Wright watches over the Wolves ground

Come on the Wolves !

(addendum - sitting next to mother in the kitchen where she has just discovered predictive text and has succeeded in sending my sister a message saying "hi this is mutterss pop love nun" - gawd bless 'er !)

(additional addendum - domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys, however, can fly for short distances at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. They can also reach speeds of 25 miles per hour on the ground. Imagine that !!! That is a really wild turkey !!!)

The answer is always Seven

2005-12-19T22:44:00.000+01:00

It was revealed today after extensive empirical research that the answer to any numerical (and most probably non-numerical) question is, in fact, seven.
What's my favourite number ? Seven !
How many years does it feel I've been studying business in Barcelona ? Seven !
How many mistakes did I make on my accounting final exam today ? Seven !
Actually I made more mistakes than that on my accounting final but hey - who's counting ?! Fernando Penalva that's who - our esteemed financial accounting professor. Blessed with a brain the size of France and natural teacher's way Fernando recieved a standing ovation at the end of our last accounting class last Friday. A standing ovation ! When was the last time ANY teacher got a standing ovation ? Let alone for accounting for crissakes, jeez ! Yes last friday saw the last of our classes for the first term here at IESE. Scarce was the time had for celebration however as we had just two days over the weekend to prepare for the dreaded finals. This morning we saw just how scary Financial Accounting can really be when it wants to, and in the afternoon a three-hour case exam on the inner politics of a Spanish construction company. After the exams had finished and having successfully resisted the urge to throw myself off various bridges on the way home, I began to study for tomorrow's exam - Decision Analysis. Many thanks to study partners Noelle and David this evening for their fine banter and unerring devotion to the cause. When I find out what the cause that we've been working towards is I will of course let everyone know.
So just two more days to go until the holidays and I have no idea how the body will react to having more than an hour's free time to do ... well ... um ... whatever it is people do with their free time. I have a vague memory of beer, wine, good food and The Church pub having something to do with Christmas Cheer. Surely the order of the day. Hurragh !
I was talking today about how ironic it is that one of the first courses they gave us here at business school is "Decision Analysis", a course which teaches the very skills one would need to come to the emphatic decision that one should NOT come to business school. Cor blimey that's ironic - now if I could only think of a way to link that little thought with the number seven, this would be a great little entry to the blog.

(addendum - pictures to follow as soon as I find the lead to my camera - grrr)

Expenses to expenditures, revenues to receipts

2005-12-13T19:51:00.000+01:00

Special Purpose Entities - good or bad ? There has been much discussion in academia recently over whether these legal constructions remain a valid financial tool for a company to conduct its operations. As a quick resumé, an SPE is a speciality-purpose company; result of a collusion between corporation and investment bank, as a vehicle to hide assets (or liabilities) from the balance sheet.

(did I just write that ? i'm going insane here ...)

Legally speaking, the SPE owns the asset that the corporation wants to use. Investors are found by the bank to supply 3% of the owners' equity and the corporation proceeds to use the asset under a normal lease agreement.

(did I just write that too ?!? jesus wept ...)

Suffice to say that these legal entities are still in widespread use - despite their notoriety. What darkens them in the public eye is that they were widely used in the time leading up to the ENRON debacle and were in fact pivotal in its downfall. I'd like to take a moment now to ... discuss the erm ... downfalls of ... and um ... up ... sides ... ...... ....

zzzZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ..........

At last some more pictures !

2005-12-06T23:25:00.000+01:00

Been rather hung over today as it is a holiday in Spain and last night saw mucho festivites in the evening. I won't go into the sordid details but it started with an outing to the IESE "cigar and whiskey club" which was hilarious - you can probably guess how the night went on from then. There will be pictures ! Ok have been trying all evening to try and get videos onto this blog as there are some hilarious videos people have taken which you simply have to see. Being quite the techy as I am I'm sure they'' be up before too long ! Anyway below are a couple of pictures. The first is one that Mikhail took in Organisational Behaviour. It shows Taka and the professor (Pablo Cardona) in the middle of an exercise to do with coaching. Taka was blindfolded and had to build a tower out of wooden blocks as high as he could. I remember thinking that the force must be strong with this one as he managed to build a tower that was 11 blocks high without it falling - it was spooky !!! I, by contrast, was positive I could have managed a height of 3. Anyway here you have the classroom in all its splendour - this is where I am currently spending half my life folks !!!

In class with Cardona

The next photo is at the start of La Rata (otherwise known as Iván) and Rodolfo's stag (bachelor) party. I am on the left beaming like a Cheshire cat as I knew the "surprise" that was awaiting both Rodolfo and Iván just five minutes after this photo was taken. Unfortunately due to long-standing legal precedents set way back in the 13th Century I am not able to divulge the details of said surprise. It did involve ice though. I can say no more.

Rata and Rodolfo's bachelor party

Now what's this next one? Oh yes - the night before the above party I was taken out to dinner at the invitation of Noelle's parents. Before the mid-term exams I worked a lot with Noelle who was absolutely convinced that she would fail her exams. I however seemed to have more faith in her than she did so we made a bet that if she got a C in Financial Accounting and a C in Decision Analysis I would have to pay her €100. IF however she managed to get two Bs instead, she would have to pay me €100. Luckily for me my faith was well-placed and she got the two Bs. Jolly well done ! Hence the offer of dinner from her parents. We went to a restaurant called Torre Alta del Mar which is a restaurant at the top of a 50m tower overlooking the harbour in Barcelona. The views are spectacular and you can see the whole city. Amazing food, really fantastic wine and great banter (not so much from me as I was slightly zombified by that week at school). This place is well worth a visit when (if?) anyone comes over to visit. Here are the (ever so cheesy) photos :

What a couple of posers !!!

Noelle's mother and I

A few days before THAT (golly really must keep up to date on this blog) we had a thanksgiving dinner in the flat which was great as we found that we can host a seated dinner for 32 people !!! It was my first thanksgiving (yes ever!) and so was really entertaining, especially for me. Lindsey (David's girlfriend) did almost all the cooking which was amazing (she neglected my offer of a recipe for "turkey á la banana" - sorry), and then everyone (mostly the students from the US) brought a traditional thanksgiving dish aswell. Obviously the night then turned into a drunken stumble to the nearest club ...

Cristina and I at Thanksgiving

And finally I got sent this picture which was also from the London Banking Tour. Thought it was quite nice so put it in ...

Me with a bunch of Bankers

Right this is me signing off for today but before I go I have to tell you that about an hour ago I had a look at the stats for this blog and saw that someone from Norway has been reading it !!! So a big "Goddag" goes out to all my Norwegian fans !!! And "takk" for your support !!!

The Morganator

2005-12-04T22:10:00.001+01:00

Have just finished another mammoth ABP paper this weekend. "Morgan Components" - the extraordinary case of one man's struggle to bring costs down in an under-utilised car panel plant in Ireland. The economic background is stark, the overbearing Eastern manufacturer is demanding even more reductions in price - what is our epic hero "Sean o'Fearna" to do? Should he cede to the demands of the Eastern Empire or stand firm like a modern-day William Wallace and demand that prices remain high...?
- "You may force down down our margins - but you'll never take ... our FREEDOM !!!!".
Maybe I'm reading a little too much into the case. Forgive me as it's all I've been thinking about over the last 48 hours. Did manage to snatch a couple of hours last night though where I went out to dinner with a few friends (big shouts out to Oriol, Pablo, Sergio, Santiago, Ryan, Lena, Ian and Cristina). The food was great (well for me at least - unfortunately three of the eight got food poisoning and have spent all day "studying" in the latrine). Then today all day again at school (I know it's the Sabbath but there is a chapel on campus so I guess that makes it ok). A phat burger on the way home with Cristina and now I'm shattered. Early start again tomorrow though as I have to do a "special occasion speech" in front of the whole class tomorrow. Because of this ABP paper I haven't actually prepared anything yet but have a cunning plan in mind ... then we have Marketing (a pricing case about the "Hartmann posh-luggage company" or something).
Then tomorrow evening I am going to look at motos (sorry mother but the time has come). Yesterday up at school my friend Huy took me up the road on his and then let me have a burn on a piece of flat road (there was zero traffic so it wasn't TOO embarrassing when I practically had to make a three point turn in road about 20 metres wide because I was going so slowly ...). Anyway after a couple of high-speed runs up and down this deserted highway I was ready to triumphantly ride back to school with Huy riding "pinion" after which he let me loose on my own! It was incredibly good fun (I even pulled a wheelie at one point - sorry Huy) but I am aware that it's a very different story when traffic becomes involved.
To finish on, just a thought that occurred to me the other day. We were in a case of OB which was to do with "360 degree" appraisals which basically means once (or even twice) a year everyone you work with - colleagues, bosses and people that work for you - get to tell you anonymously exactly what they think of you. How horrible! This (along with any talk of "core competencies" and "skills matrices" really doesn't sit that well with me although luckily the last time I had to do one was just over 7 years ago when I was at JP Morgan. Coincidentally on the same day we studied the case I found out that the human body's cells regenerate at such a rate that after 7 years not a single cell remains of your former self ... isn't that odd ?!? When I thought about it I realised I have only just managed to purge the last traces of that 360-degree experience from my body - and as far as is possible, I swear that I will never again be sullied by such corporate filth !!!

..... FREEEEDOOOOOOOM !!!!

(sorry not much sleep this weekend)

Canary Phwoar

2005-11-22T23:51:00.000+01:00

Just a quick photo of everyone on the London Banking Tour sporting our Citigroup umbrellas in Canary Wharf - would love to give you a left-to-right rundown of everyone's name, country of origin and previous occupation but have yet to do the marketing case for tomorrow so I fear it will be a late enough night already !!! Ciao.

Hairy Mary's

2005-11-21T20:18:00.000+01:00

Oh yes and another thing - I went for a haircut the other day ...

"Tell it to someone who gives a crap" I hear you saying.

Well I only mention it for it's anecdotal value. I had been looking for a normal barber around where I live for a while without much success and so was quite happy when I found what looked like one just round the corner. I went in and they agreed to see me straight away. I first realised the place was a bit more "fancy" than I thought when they gave me a book of David Beckham photos to look through ... "just a trim thanks" I replied in my best pidgen Spanish. They agreed but eventually cajoled me into having a hairwash aswell. I've had these before and the lady standing behind the washbasin was rather pretty so I agreed. I sat down, shut my eyes and the washing began. It pains me to admit it but it was all rather nice, being more like a head massage than a hairwash. Imagine my surprise then when I opened my eyes to see not the pretty lady I thought was massaging my head but the campest looking man in Barcelona !!! "Que tal ?!?" he cried !!! In my surprise I jolted upright, knocking the shower head clean out of his hands. This in turn sprayed water on the old lady sat next to me who started to squeal in Catalan. Everyone was staring and it was very embarrassing. I shuffled back to my "cutting seat" (still in my orange smock) and suffered the rest of my haircut in red-cheeked silence ...

Walking in from the cold

2005-11-21T19:14:00.000+01:00

Yes folks Barcelona is no longer the sun-soaked Mediterranean paradise it was back in September. The winter nights are drawing in around us and the dark spectre of term-end exams has appeared on the not-too-distant horizon (four and a half weeks - cripes!).

Last Friday saw the annual IESE London Banking Tour, which is a tour of investment banks around London organised by IESE. Last Friday. London is COOOOLD at the moment !!! David, Alex and I headed off on the Thursday night and arrived at the Wix's Lane residence at around one in the morning. We were able to stay there as Sebastian and Christopher had agreed to vacate the premises in lieu of a weekend in Barcelona which was jolly kind of them (thanks chaps!). We got to bed around 2.30 in the end and had to be up at 5.30 to get to Canary Wharf by 7.30. The day then proceeded with a trip to five different banks where we had to pretend to be wowed by their "people oriented culture" and "commitment to core values" ... zzzzzzz ... Actually we did meet some interesting people and tonight I have just finished a bunch of applications for internships next summer. The most interesting of these would be with Barclays Capital in their Debt Capital Markets where they help companies raise finance through debt. My god did I just write that that sounds interesting ?!? I'm going crazy. Still it can't hurt to at least apply.

I returned from London on Saturday as Sebastian and Christopher were still here in Barcelona along with Amy and Mondana. It was fantastic to see them and we passed a marvellous evening in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona in a great little tapas restaurant. Afterwards three friends from school Madhur (Indian and a.k.a The Big Easy), Juha (Finnish and very much so) and Alexandra (English and busty) were holding a party in a nightclub in town so we headed there. I'm not too sure what impression Seb and Chris took away from the whole proceedings but suffice to say their impression of IESE students is not what it was beforehand. For one thing the first person they encountered was Rafa (Mexican and hyper energetic) whose preferred greeting that night was a wolf whistle and a hug before whirling off into the depths of the nightclub. Then a girl from second year who I can never remember the name of (American and taller than me by a clear foot - seriously) followed by random selections from the IESE rabble. I think it takes someone from home to come visit to really appreciate how erm ... "diverse" ... my fellow students really are !!!

Lots else has happened since I last wrote here : most importantly the week before last saw me thigh-deep in mid-term exams. We have yet to recieve the scores for Decision Analysis (which I think I did ok on) but we have recieved results from Financial Accounting (cue fanfare...) I got a 96% - which sounds amazing but then 25% of the class got a 94% or above and given that only the top 15% or so get an A in this class it's very likely that even with only 2 wrong out of 50 I'll still just get a B ! Madre mia.

Otherwise the courses are going ok - I have to go and see the ABP (Analysis of Business Problems) professor tomorrow as I haven't been participating enough in the case studies. I had thought I was doing ok but apparently the old adage "could do better" is coming back to haunt me; I seem to remember my old school reports being littered with comments like this so I have resolved to buckle down even further than I have been and really get my head stuck into the books.

( pictures to follow as soon as I get some of the London trip - forgot my camera :( )

The loooong w/e

2005-11-01T09:28:00.000+01:00

So - last weekend (it is Tuesday now) was a long one - today is a holiday so in Spain that also means that nobody works on the Monday - including dedicated 1st year MBA students. Early last week Cristina, Lena, David and I decided we would make a weekend of it and travel outside of Barcelona. There is a well-known town called Cadaqués about 2 hours up the coast where a lot of people in Barcelona either have second houses or holiday for the summer. By the Saturday we had rustled up a mob of around 16 people and so we all headed off at various times (Lena's car being typically bang on time and Alexandre's typically 5 hours late!). We (Andreas, Srini, Blaithin and I) stopped in Figueres on the way and whiled away a couple of lazy hours in a shady square mulling over our future dreams & aspirations. It turned out that none of us wanted to do anything more than run a restaurant or coffee shop !
The drive on to Cadaquez was really spectacular (see pics) - even if Andreas (Swiss) did insist on showing us his expert super-fast Alpine driving skills. Got to Cadaqués, had a couple of drinks with the rest of the posse, then headed out to the most spectacular restaurant I've been to. You drive out of town about 5 kilometres until you come across a remote lighthouse on the peninsular. All you can see as you drive up is the beam of white light circling through the mist then you come across the restaurant nestled underneath which glows a fiery yellow. An impressive sight followed by impressive food - "whiskey and cream reduction" etc. Fancy like ! Headed back into town afterwards where Alex and I took on the locals at pool (and won) before taking on Ryan (and losing). Usual shenanigans then ensued - drinking, dancing, not remembering much etc. etc.
Next morning (having gained an hour due to time-savings) at half eight five of us set out across the coastal mountains to trek back to the Cap de Creus lighthouse to see it during the day. It was a gorgeous day and a really great walk which included some bracing dips in the sea along the way.
And so, after a day spent wandering around the picturesque little streets of Cadaqués, the relucant drive back to the real world, and Barcelona.
And now, after half an hour's procrastination on a Tuesday morning, I really must get back to study. We have mid-terms next week and Financial Accounting is calling me ...

The long road to Cadaqués

Srini showing us he's the picture of health

Andreas is just happy to be alive

Alex feeling the chill

Now THAT is a poker face!!!

Cristina at the restaurant at the Cap de Creus

David losing it

Curry in Catalunya ...

Feeding time at the zoo ...

Lena watches the transactions with suspicion

Ooh the happy couple!

Ian at Cap de Creus

Costa Blanca

G.D.C.

2005-10-27T00:44:00.001+02:00

WELL, it's now quarter to one in the morning and I have just got back from the first meeting of an exclusive club known mysteriously as the G.D.C (or known not-so-mysteriously as the Gracia Dining Club). Present at said event were Tiffany (US), Abelardo(Mexico) and err ... well just me actually (very exclusive). Just so that no-one's continent had preferred status we chose to go to a Sushi Bar called KibuKa - good sushi but super-slow service. "The bant" was flowing all too well too which, coupled with the fact that I couldn't find a cab for another half hour, means that I now find myself writing at this ungodly hour having not really prepared for my OB (or "Organisational Behaviour" - worth an entry by itself) exam tomorrow. Whoops ! Better scoot, hasta luego

Career Weak

2005-10-25T23:27:00.000+02:00

Ok so tales of derring-do will have to be postponed for a while due to extreme tiredness - a theme I am guessing will be repeated throughout the course of this journal.

As you may (or probably will not have) guessed from the title of this entry I have just finished the two days that comprise the first IESE "Career week". This involves companies (pretty much evenly split between Investment Banks, Consultancy firms and Pharmaceutical companies) coming to campus to demonstrate to us how wonderful they all are and how imperative it is that we offer up our lives in sacrifice to them at the earliest opportunity. I have to say that none of them really lit my fire although I will probably apply to all of them to cover my bases should I suddenly lose my soul and decide that I can't survive post-Barcelona without being a Strategic Management Consultant or a Structured Finance Analyst.

Last night I was kindly invited by one of said companies (Booz Allen Hamilton) to attend a dinner in my honour at a devilishly swanky restaurant at the top of a tower by the port. I ended up sitting opposite a senior partner of the firm (a big cheese in the consultancy world by all accounts). I thought it rude not to partake of the copious amounts of cava & wine offered and ended up in a heated argument with him over the ethics of foie-gras - I decided if he loved it so much he could have mine and I duly heaped it on his plate. The next course was rice cooked in octopus ink and I took great pleasure in pointing out that the senior partner resembled an broken down ink-jet printer when he spoke. He laughed. Or at least I was. Afterward we headed out to Carpe Diem (a nightclub on the beach) where we proceeded to eat into Booz Allen Hamilton's profits yet further by ordering bottles of spirits ... for €150 a piece! Madre mia!

Anyway I was impressed with their attitude towards nightlife so will make an extra effort to be polite on my Cover Letter when I apply.

I now find myself deeply engrossed in an accounting case and have read, made notes on and generally been confused by the marketing case for tomorrow whose subject is along the lines of "Canned Mushroom Production in the early 80's". Who says business school can't be fun eh !?!

Por fin !

2005-10-24T05:21:00.000+02:00

Pues Barcelona, ya he vuelto !

At last I find twenty minutes of my precious time to make an entry onto my "Blog". Not that I expect anyway to be reading this right away as I haven´t actually told anyone about it yet... never mind - here we go, chocs away etc. - What On Earth Am I Doing Back Here in Barcelona?

Well the truth is I'm not really sure. Since starting the MBA program in earnest three weeks ago I have been finding it difficult to find the time to breathe. They really weren't kidding when they said you're life is effectively over until the Christmas break. My typical day goes something like this :

6.30 : wake and get ready to go to school - of late this has involved a high amount of stupidity and singing with my French housemates Alexandre and Benjamin. This is definitely required as the rest of the day is a rather much more sombre affair.
7.45 : trip to school either on the bus (yuck!) or in Cristina (another housemate) 's car (note for anyone from Ludlow : Volkswagen Golf, A reg., left 'and drive, bit asthmatic, decent Kenwoods in the back though). This usually involves more singing.
8:00 : group meeting at school to discuss the cases of the day. Am usually late due to singing but the group is (usually) pretty relaxed. As this is a "usual" day I'm describing here I can confidently say that I am totally bemused as regards anything to do with Accounting or Marketing - surely can the Dark Arts of business. Ok let's see if I can work out how to put a picture of my group in here ... wow that was easy ! This is on a bar crawl night we had at the end of the first week of class - I was (reluctantly) captaining the team and we came third ! But I digress - the average day continues ...
9:30 : classes begin and depending on what classes we have my brain receives a different level of frying - from the shallow olive oil sizzle of Organisational Behavious right the way through to a full-on melted-lard deep-fat frying from Marketing or Analysis of Business Problems. Actually it's not as bad as I'm making it out to be and in actual fact the majority of classes I do enjoy as long as I've prepared enough for them.
12:15 : lunchtime and we all head off to the cafeteria on campus for a jolly old troughing. Usually take a salad or bocadillo as it's the quickest queue and means I can get back to prepare for the class that I have inevitably underprepared for that afternoon.
14:00 : fried brains anyone ?
13:30 : Spanish class - oh hurragh ! Before the MBA courses started we had two weeks of intensive Spanish classes so my Spanish group (grupo seis) is the first group I "bonded" with here and I still have a special place in my heart for them. Aahh !
17:00 hometime ! Well not quite - time to either meet with the group again (Mondays and Thursdays) or head to the library to start preparing the cases for the next day.
18:00-21:00 head home at some point in the evening and grab something to eat. The rest of the evening is spent in equal parts studying and worrying about not having done enough work for the next day.
00:30-01:30 to bed with a mug of cocoa.

Well there it is - my average day. Pretty exciting eh? Well at least I'm in Barcelona ! Someday I'll get to see something of it too I'm sure ...

I will leave you with a couple of pictures (haven't taken so many since coming here but will get hold of someone else's soon) and next time I promise to tell some of the more interesting things that have happened to me since coming here - wild tales of swashbuckling adventure, sorrowful yarns of heart-rending romance and reflections so deep and philosophical it'll make your eyes water. I promise.

Anyway some photos ...

(Above) Male housemate bonding from left - David McCartney Miller from the depths of Oregon, Benjamin Pirroneau from Paris and Alexandre Guerrin from Lyon.

(Above) One of my female flatmates (on my right) is Cristina from Alicante. The girl on my left is Ceylin a girl from class and the guy in the glasses ... I have no idea who the guy in glasses is.

(Above) And last but not least here on the left is my last housemate Lena, who is sporting the very latest in fashionable punkwear. Mmm ! We're not really sure where Lena is from but it's somewhere kind of East. I don't know. Anyway the guy on her right is George from Italy (yes that is a broom on his head - don't ask) and the ever-so-polite chap on her left is Paul from England.

ok - here endeth the first blog - critical comments welcome !!!