I'm back.....

These last few weeks flew by - many late nights and early mornings at work - proposal is in and team did an awesome job.  Have to wait for the next stage, orals (what a terrible word) where we go in and present "something".  It's not like I've done this before so I'm just stumbling through each stage and learning a lot. Chasing the work is fun though.  Of course if we get it then a whole new set of challenges! Most likely I will move to the new client, leaving behind my old team......who I really love and the current client who I also really love.  Nature of the job I guess.  Nothing guaranteed of course but the Partner has basically said, "we get it, you go".  Right then.  I guess the exciting thing is that I'm really starting to get some good experience consulting.  Some folk seem to land at Cisco and never move, I think that's contracting, not consulting and my one ask when I joined ACN was that I get to go to other clients - seems to be going fine.

I also wanted to finish my Italy trip - Lake Como.  This place was so beautiful.  The Lake is magnificent with little towns dotted all around it.  You get to them via ferry.  Jo did an awesome job ferreting out some great walks for us (yet really was a walking holiday!).

View from my hotel balcony, sunnier shot further down

Day we arrived we went on a little hike - got caught in a HUGE downpour, totally fun though as we say the "worlds" smallest river.......

Jo organizing, she was the uber travel planner

I think this is the Bellagio,  just one of the sights as we scooted around the lake

Cool tree

While we walked up in the hills we also weaved through the villages.  This in such sharp contrast to Cinque Terre, everything very "put together" here.  

See at the end a little "alter".  They were everywhere

Look closely and you will see a little building up on the hill, in the center almost in the middle of the picture.  We hiked up to this church.  This was really fantastic.  The path zig zagged up the hill and I was very grateful for all the marathon training, quite a hike and we'd already been walking for 3 hrs

Church at the top of the climb

View from church - this place is like Queenstown on steroids.  Lake Como has a similiar feel to Queenstown but bigger in every way.  It also has that uniquely laid back Italian feel, even as there is a sense of bustle.  

Sunny version of the view from my balcony.  Now here's a really really tricky one.  If you can, pop the photo out and zoom in.  As you look at the photo start at the pointed peak in the center of the photo, go left and about half way down the snowy ridge line stop and drop down to just above the middle line of the mountain.....you'll see a building......that's the church we hiked to!

Random boat shot, very beautiful with all that wood

This the group that was at Lake Como,  Rose and Jo, Karen and Sarah and their two children, both of whom are very very cute

 

The week that is

It's been a big working week.  My optimism about that 14 miler run on Saturday didn't quite come through, although I did run 15 on Sunday.  The last 7 days have gone something like this; working until midnight on Friday then back in the office at 8am on Saturday, out of the office at 2pm.  Sunday awesome run to Sausalito then back at the day job Monday,Tuesday, Wednesday........long days.  We are in the middle of the annual performance process so I have been part of a range of discussions to finalize peoples performance reviews.  I actually enjoy this on a lot of levels (much helped by having a fab team working for me) but we do run a particularly rigorous process so alot of new learning for me as I sit through and contribute to the various discussions.  Alongside this we are continueing to pitch for new work and I went to meet the "prospective" new clients.  Given I've never done this type of thing for ACN before that was also a new learning moment.  The Partner and my manager are being totally fab about coaching me through parts of it and I feel no small privellage in having been asked to contribute at all!  All of this has pushed me outside my comfort zone but also tapped into some of the skills I haven't been able to use for a while.  It's all exciting and exhausting....it hasn't made for the best training week but some weeks just are what they are and I'll make sure to get my long run in this weekend (well if I don't I'll go nuts). 

Italy continues

 After a fab time in Milan and the marathon done we headed to Cinque Terre.....via a short detour to a shopping outlet mall Jo had found about a half hour out of the city!  Needless to say I spent most of my time sitting in a cafe.....We caught the train to Cinque Terre.  Quick wikipedia intro for those that don't know any thing about this area:

The Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It is in the Liguria region of Italy, to the west of the city of La Spezia. "The Five Lands" is composed of five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Villages are linked by a train system

View from my room

First night we had a little picnic in the room

Had to improvise on the glassware - yeah, Rose's idea, worked a charm

The obligatory church shot - Rose not delighted by the constant bell ringing

Couple of ways to get between the villages - this the "low" road, all quite civilized......more later

This was a cool idea.  This is a paddle boat you can hire.  There is a little sun deck behind, you can paddle out into the water, anchor down and slide into the water till your hearts content.  Great way to keep kids occupied while you sun on the deck I think.

Example of being on the "high" road.  Round corners to be confronted with more spectacular views.  The whole place is breath taking.

Another view of  Manarola

Rose and Jo looking the part, maybe 2hrs into our five hour day.

Last year there were big landslides (some of the actual tracks are still closed).  We came across this  as we were about to go into one of the villages.  On the left, out of shot, is the other part of the house.  It was kind of surreal.

As we journeyed back to our village we popped in and out of others.  This the most spectacular  food stop!

This gives you a sense of how high we were at times...........Still away to go before we reach the village.

You walk through working vineyards clinging to the side of the hill.  Can only imagine how old these vines are.

I think this was our first day, behind is a beautiful view of the ocean

Highlight had to be dinner at Billy's!  Crammed into a tiny space they brought us the fresh caught fish on a tray so we could choose which one we wanted.  Funniest moment, at the end of the meal 6 bottles various types arrived on the table where we proceeded to help ourselves to each one - a little tasting session then served ourselves one or two of our choice - Lemoncello being my favourite!  You couldn't do it in NZ - folk would drink the entire bottle.  No idea how they charged us either, nobody appeared to be keeping track.

Busy working week.......

We are in the middle of pitching some new work so I am learning a lot about proposal writing and keeping your day client happy!  Actually kind of fun and a little scary as I learn new things.  It has meant only one run this week but I am optimistic for my 14miler tomorrow as we really really have to get this done today (being Saturday of course).
I still have more Milan pics to post so will get to that tomorrow!

This is what happens at home

on a lazy Sunday afternoon when Irene is avoiding work and has a new "toy" to play with.........
Random shots of:

Me at my computer.....yes, doing work.......

The most recent medal haul: Big Sur and Milan

My "office"

The treadmill multi-purposing

The "new plan" - ultra training starts in earnest on June 10

Runners porn, at least according to Irene

Lounge, without me on the couch

Irene decided I should wash my car.....so she could be further distracted

And I could work in the uncharacteristically warm SF heat......

As at this second and several hours after the photo shoot she still hasn't started working........

Italy

So I think I just visited two of the most beautiful and romantic places in the world.......Cinque Terre and Lake Como.  I really loved Milan, mostly because it's not a natural tourist destination.  It has great sights to see, including the Duomo.

Which is amazing in it's detail.

The marathon village was cool too, in part because I got to share it with my pals......who left a little message on the wall

Milan is a fashion, design destination, the shop window displays were quite something.

And the ice cream "tasting" choice post marathon was quite something else....

                                         

But the delights of Cinque Terre, while different, were equally and perhaps a little more unexpected.

More later.

Beyond tired

I know I've been slack on the blog.....coming back from Italy and then running Big Sur, well, I'm beyond tired.  But I do want to share all the adventures.  Top of mind, this weekends marathon - it was fantastic fun from beginning to end.  It really is a tough hilly beautiful course.  We had sun, fog, wind.....no rain thankfully.  The adventure begins having to catch a bus at 4am to the start line, for a 645am start.  I stayed in a swanky expensive hotel (this because I didn't get it together early enough to book and get the marathon rate.....), that was 5mins from the shuttle pick up point.  Dozens of buses ferried the 4000+ runners to the start, no cars allowed.  They close State Highway 1 for the race so everyone has to bus to the start.  I decided to go with a Pace Team this time.....I should have done this long ago.  Basically you choose a finish time and start with a group who has a pacer whose sole task in life is to get you across the line on time.  It was totally awesome.  The guy was fantastic, joking, being a tour guide, asking questions.  You find yourself running with a bunch of strangers who you end up chatting with.  I was very nervous about this run, given I ran a marathon two weeks ago.  But the pace team was great.  We lost some folk along the way (there are some mean hills on this course) then at mile 23 someone in front of us had fallen and was bleeding from a knock on the head - our pacer dropped to help and told us to keep going.  A group of four of us kept chugging along.  Best moment was when a voice from behind said "I've been with you guys for 23miles, I'm not letting you go now.......".  It was a woman from NY, in the end her and I paced each other to the finish, including the very gnarly hill that is part of the last mile.  It's an odd way to meet folk but for 2miles we were best friends, keeping each other going and determinedly crossed the line together, 5 mins under our goal time (5hrs).  It was totally inspiring and fun and worth every step.
Italy pictures next.

I've seen the rain........

In case anyone is in any doubt that it did rain, a lot...........

Around mile 17.  Laughing because the puddle was so big it stretched across the entire road, no place to go but through the middle of it.
Off to Big Sur Marathon this weekend, drive down to Monterey after work.  I'm a little afraid, it's a tough course.  Slow slow slow BUT this year we get to run the entire course (last year the road was flooded out so only an out and back, this year, point to point.......).  Going to be beautifully scenic, crowd is always fun and and and...
Will add other holiday pictures over the weekend (assuming I survive the marathon).

I haven't forgotten

The blog is here.....I am back from Italy, awesome awesome trip.  I have pics and adventures to share - had to take some primitive less than "1st world" phone and internet not easily accessible.  Downloading pics etc and will do a BIG data dump of adventures later in the week.

Marathon done

I woke to a very very wet marathon day! Early breakfast at the hotel then I caught the subway to the marathon start - located near a very cool expo building that was definitely an architectural highlight. Given the weather hundreds of us milled about in the carpark waiting for the start. I had paced some of those little sack things that heat up when you expose them to the air, so mostly kept the chill at bay. The course was flat a wound through farmland initially, including a sweet little town that was a picture perfect image of a "little Italy". Coming into the city I saw a bunch of other sights as well but the real highlight had to be running around the Duomo. It really is an impressive building. Given the weather I was surprised at the number of folks out cheering. It really is true, Italians are very expressive - even if I didn't know what they were saying ('go' does sound a lot like 'die' when you are running tho....). Rose and Jo met me at mile 20, so a real boost to get me through the last 6. It really did rain the entire time and some puddles were unavoidable. Yay for the best running socks in the world, no blisters! Rose and Jo met me at the end with my chocolate milk (and dry clothes) then we caught the subway back to the hotel. Now to find somewhere to eat!

Milan day 1

Got to the hotel at midnight and happily fell into bed. Took the path of least resistance and stress and cabbed it from the airport; not cheap but guaranteed fast, safe and efficient. Met up with Rose and Jo in the morning and we headed off to the marathon expo. That after we got Jo some crutches. Seriously the girl has plantar faciatus and it has flared up. Didn't hold her back tho as she rented some crutches from a pharmacy down the road. Took the subway to the expo - small but efficient affair. This year the marathon is combined with a relay so about 10k running, so a nice crowd and along way from NYC or Big Sur for that matter. Rego done we did some sightseeing - Duomo (big arse church), pizza and people watching for lunch, wandering around the up market shops including some very impressive shop fronts (photos when I get home). Evening (when the rain came) we headed down to the canal to partake in the Italian tradition of aperitifs, which turned into dinner as these proved to be impressive buffets. Enjoyed two non-alcoholic cocktails before we headed back to the hotel. Tired but happy with the days adventures. I think the marathon will be a wet one, which is nicer than a hot one....will see, hard part will be making the call what to wear at 6am before a 920am start.

Marathon flight

7 hour delay at SFO. Now at Frankfurt with a 4 hour layover. Arriving in Milan around 11pm - ditching all thoughts of the fast train into the city and will cough up the cab fare. Such is life. It really hasn't been unpleasant and United staff very pleasant. I navigated the change of connecting flight etc thanks to the uber efficient Germans. Food at the terminal is fresh and yum after mediocre plane food. Rose & Jo will be in Milan hours ahead of me (not the original plan but I emailed the hotel so they should be able to checking (all in my name). So just chilling and enjoying the adventure. Oh and United offered up a pretty sweet compensation deal, so no complaints from me.

Milan update

Actually it's really SFO update - engine broken. Depart at 2pm....nah.....430pm....nah....8pm....nah....830pm... Promises promises. They did take us off the plane after 2 hrs son some part of the system is working. Got a meal voucher. Not sure about my connecting flight yet. Some folks got a little angsty - jeeze. I think the airlines done fine myself (at least they picked the fault before we took off!). I'm relaxed, on holiday after all. I'll arrive eventually and the only thing I have to do between now and the marathon is pick up my bib.

Milan.....

Sitting on the tarmac waiting to fly. Flight delayed for 1.5hrs.....sigh. Nothing to be done about it but wait. I have a connecting flight Frankfurt > Milan. All going well I will still make it, time will tell. Rose & Jo flew out Monday, heading to Venice. It was great to show them San Fran. Hung out in the Mission Friday then kayaking Saturday near Monterey. Lots of baby seals and otters, schweet. Michelle also flew up from LA to say hi. Afterwards we went to Santa Cruz and road the wooden roller coaster. First time I have visited for a while - kind of surreal to think I lived there for two years. Sunday I went running and the others headed out for brunch. Met Rose and Jo later and did the mandatory Golden Gate Bridge. All up a fun time. I meet them again in Milan; marathon Sunday then more adventures. Not a bad life!

7 hour extravaganza

Sunday a group of us headed to Oakland to watch a 7 hour silent movie accompanied by a live orchestra. Napoleon was made in 1927 and has been restored. It was fantastic and I am as surprised as anyone that I actually sat through it and was riveted. There were two intermissions and a dinner break so all up 9hrs worth. Beautiful theater too.



Saturday went to see Boy again....interesting to see it through American eyes!
In-between kept at the training and enjoyed a mixed bag of weather.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone