I spent hours on Saturday checking the arts installations in the empty buildings of the Gängeviertel in downtown Hamburg. Those buildings are awaiting demolishment for 7 yeras now and a community of artists proposes that the buildings be refurbished and offered as affordable living and work quarters for creatives in Hamburg.
Unfortunately my battery went dry when I was about half way through my visit, there was so much I wanted to photograph. But I ended up jamming and busking with some musicians I had met at the Mobile Blues Club before, so I wasn't too disappointed.
More info at www.gaengeviertel.info.

 

One of the best concerts I went to. Ever.
Last Friday, near Bremen, thanks to a generous ride offer from Steve.

My colleague Manish sent us an interesting link to this slideshow at BusinessWeek:

Queen's School of Business Tour

 

Temperature at 9 o' clock in the morning.


At my uncle's in the middle of São Paulo. Yes, it's true.


Tomorrow, the beach! See you in 2009.

I went with the people of the Meetup.com group "Brussels New in Town" people to Antwerp Bruges to see the ice sculptures exhibition. It was cool, literary, 12 degrees below zero in the exhibition tent and I was glad that Singean had told me to wear warm clothes. It was a nice Saturday afternoon.

I am looking for a new suitcase for next year. Being a management consultant living 5 days out of 7 in a hotel will certainly be a new routine for me. And, since it will be quite a tough routine, I am doing some research to get the basics right.
But it is not that easy to find out what I'll need, consultants don't seem to blog too much (with the exception of Paul Dunay, maybe, but social media is his speciality). And, surprisingly, luggage manufacturers don't seem to have models aimed at the 4+1 management consultants, which indicates that, just maybe, this is a niche which could be filled. At least it gives food for thought for the future of this blog.
I decided that, for a 5 day stay away from home, I would need the following:

• an extra suit (jacket and pair of trousers)
• 4 or 5 shirts
• at least one t-shirt, if not more (have to figure out if I should wear undershirts)
• 3 or 4 ties
• a pair of jeans for the evenings
• an extra pair of shoes, just in case
• underwear and socks
• one pullover, possibly
• a pair of shorts for sports. If the hotel has a pool, speedos
• toiletries

I used the tip to start with half of the suit jacket, fill the case with the rest and then flap the other half of the jacket over the other clothes. This should avoid getting the jacket creased across the middle, it makes sense.

Surprisingly enough, I found out that all of the items above fit in my carry-on (inflight) trolley. I wasn't very confident it would, but suspected it. That's why I did this small experiment. It worked.

Next week I'll take this trolley with me and look for a substitute. After all, althought it is still in good condition, its looks aren't what they once were. But it has served me well since 2004: China - Brazil - Germany - Brazil - Germany - Moscow - Germany - Brazil - Germany - England - US - Canada - Germany - Belgium. Not too bad for a case that cost me around 15 dollars, if I am not mistaken.
I am also talking to some of my consulting colleagues to see what their experiences are. What has worked for you?

This is for my college media and design professor Luli Radfahrer, who posted a similar picture after a trip to Holland. The picture above comes from the same country, from Utrecht, and is a counter-example of good design. The flies, btw, are stickers, not originally placed by the manufacturer.

It was great to be in Trossingen again and feel kind of at home once more. I was very fortunate to meet several of my friends, listen to great music and see the first snow of the season. It was a great weekend, even though I am really, really tired.

 

I took this picture when the ICE back from Stuttgart was passing exactly in front of my former apartment in Mannheim. Nothing special about the picture, but I just found it interesting to be suddenly in one of the trains that would bother me for months with their screetching noises...
BTW, the building to the left is a DHL building.

My friend Guilherme came visiting from Amsterdam and we took the opportunity to go to a Son of Dave concert at the Botanique, a cultural centre in downtown Brussels. The activities that they have there are impressive!
The show was very good and we had great fun, what SOD does as a one man band is indeed amazing. But it was also a concert without surprises, as I had seen several performances of his on youtube and elsewhere. Google for him, it is certainly worth it.

[I've googled for you:

official site

blog

wikipedia

myspace

planetharmonica review

telegraph article

videos, loads of them!]

From 081018 Son of Dave at the Botanique

For those who don't know him, SOD is a former member of the Crash Test Dummies and performs using simple percussion, his voice, harmonica and a loop box. And that's it. Really cool.
More pictures on Picasa, as usual:

081018 Son of Dave at the Botanique

I met these three wonderful girls for 20 minutes while changing train connections in Mannheim, tha was great! And this is maybe my favourite Mannheim photo ever! Don't you agree?

I present you the PWC Minis!

At least they have Cooper in their name...

The inverted Bloody Nix cocktail. It tasted like gummy bears, flavour coca-cola, they said.

Collaborative grafiti art during the Nuit Blanch.

The main square, also Nuit Blanch.

People being transported by the fire fighters during the night. 

A concert I will have to see in 10 days. Look him up on youtube.

The view from the studio's window. Now I don't have it anymore.

Playing some harmonica street music in Brussels, with an environmentally friendly amplifier.

I am staying at a hotel near the Delloite building in Diegem, Brussels. To get to the train or bus stops I pass their parking lot, which is packed with blue Cooper Minis, often with Delloite green side-view mirrors. I then asked one of the Mini drivers about the cars and she told me that Delloite had hired 400 new people and they all got Minis to start with.

The DHL SPL office is in the town of Vilvoorde, just outside Brussels. I took the chance on Thursday after work to explore the streets a bit. The following picture is a 360° panorama taken from a roundabout.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

I am testing drop.io with this picture, but you can try to download the original panorama here.

I made some other stitches and put them up on drop.io too: http://drop.io/vilvoorde.

Of course there are more pictures and you can take a look at them on Picasa, it is worth it.

080925 Vilvoorde

I applied for and was invited to the EBS Symposium this weekend. It is an impressive event held by the European Business School, a private institution, and its students. It seems that 1200 people were invited, among students, young professionals and representatives from the business world.
The list of speakers was also impressive, with many high caliber personalities there. Unfortunately, many simply didn't show up, maybe because of the consequences of the games played in Wall Street last week. But, just as an example, the German or European bosses of the main consultancies were all there. Again, impressive.
I stayed with 4 other students i nthe apartment of 3 EBS students. This was a good thing, as this created a group of familiar faces with whom I spent most of the time during the event.
We were well taken care of. Besides the simple, but free accomodation, we had a very good shuttle service, all meals taken care of, internet access and even a very nice party on Friday evening, at a winery. I didn't stay for the party on Saturday nigh.
Some of the talks were very good, like the one from John Major and the one from Dr. Burgess, EMEA Chairman of BearingPoint. Other talks were not as good and I missed one or two talks because they were post poned or simply cancelled, without notice. But there was always something going on, so that was ok.
Furthermore, there was a good career fair and pre-scheduled interviews with interested employers. The list of companies was very good, of course. But after being in Berlin, Mannheim, Darmstadt and München at career fairs, you start recognize some of the faces and new information gets more scarce. The interview with KPMG was very interesting, though, and I got the confirmation that I would be invited for the next partner round. But this will probably be after Belgium and Brazil, in 2009. Let's see.

I have put some pictures up on Picasa. I hope you enjoy them.
Tomorrow I should be leaving to Brussels, finally.