Cricket on the Subcontinent

While J & N were snow bunnies I was in deepest darkest India - Gurgaon New Delhi to be precise for the 6 monthly Leadership meet. Arrived on Sunday 19th Feb, took a few days to acclimatize including another 14 hour bout of Delhi belly, then everything was fine. The rest of the team flew in on the Tuesday night, then let the fun begin. Five days with senior management which actually ended up pretty ok. We've known each other long enough now that we're starting the relax and get a some of the more difficult issues that people have a hard time discussing. Even when we all got smashed several times in several bars, no one got hurt.

Didn't do any touristy things this time, all business, restuarants & heavy drinking (Castle - South African beer). We spent one evening at someones home which was very nice & they looked after us all very well. Great meal & no-one got sick.

Saturday was the big cricket match. Management was split done the middle & back filled with the rest of our Indian colleagues. High heat - 35 deg C, 18 overs each side. Managed to score 20 runs (a couple of 4s) and take 2 wickets. Then we all retired to the members tent for Kingfishers (Indian beer) & presentations. We all had fun & the New Yorkers & Germans all now understand the rules of cricket - harder than they thought.

Sunday the entire India HUB had an off-site event at the Grand Hyatt which was all presentations, eating & drinking. Nice to relax with everyone including there partners etc.

So, what did I learn that may shape the Portman future........basically, I've got the following opportunities

• Possible 2 year stint in NYC - talking to one of the managers on Friday - J&N are supportive - return back to Oz for N's high school - we'd swing by Oz before going to NYC - early days, not even sure this role would suit me - let's see - informed my manager & he's ok with this direction
• New roles are being formed across the globe which I'm pretty sure I could handle now-a-days. Some in Asia - possibly Oz. Could be a little early to jump to one of those roles, although like being a trail blazer
• Staying in Prague for another year just as a senior manager helping with other functions coming over - the centre could grow to 120+ people by end of 2007 - not just IT
• Or just come home & be a surfy or climbing bum by the end of the year

Pretty boring stuff........................fun stuff still to come...........

• Paris in April including EuroDisney
• Greek Islands in July
• Venice/Dolomites in Aug/Sept
• No money in November :-)

J is about to start her TEFL (Teaching English as Foreign Language) next week for 4 weeks. So you mighten see many new entries again.

That's it from M.

Austrian skiing holiday

N & I are back from our week learning to ski in Austria. We both joined ski school. My instructor was Franz, who has been an instructor for about 40 years. He liked cuddling all the girls....as you can see in my memento photo with him.

We stayed at the Berghotel a Kinder hotel, designed to cater to the needs of families with children. They ran a creche from 8am til 8pm, Monday to Friday, for babies to 10 years. They will even feed your kids at lunch and dinner. N sometimes forwent an afternoon of ski lessons to do the activities they had planned.

Our usual day started with ski lessons from 10 to 12, lunch until 1:30 then ski school til 3:30. Cakes were put on at 4pm. Then swim until dinner. 5 families from N's school went along, 10 kids all up. The hotel had informed the ski school that 10 kids were coming from CZ, so a CZ ski instructor was hired for the week-he ended up with 2 kids. N ended up with an Austrian girl whose English wasn't great.

Nikita at her ski lesson


2 minutes walk from the hotel was the ski school...down the hill...


Hinterstoder, this is where the gondola starts its ascent.


View from the hotel's pathway, where the gondola to town descends.


First morning view from our balcony

Slack Blogger

I've been very slack in the blogging department. Life is strolling along and we are coping quite well with the cold. Most of this month has been particularly freezing, with the last couple of days enough rain to make the paths very slippery.

My tennis is improving and is great fun, with a great group of people. All of us are going skiing in Austria in a weeks time (mid term break). M is going to India and is a bit sour that he is missing out, but deep down I don't think he is keen on the idea of skiing?! So Michele, N and I might come to Colorado to visit you one day, we'll see if N is still 'ski mad' after a week of continuous skiing.

I had my first Czech language test, testing the last 6 months of learning. My teacher was very please, 92%. The class has changed a lot over the last 6 months with only myself and one of M's colleagues lasting the distance. But a new person has just started, so there are three of us again. I can read a fair amount of Czech(and I could translate this whole paragraph into Czech without any problems), but still have trouble with conversation(I have to think very hard to interpret what someone is saying, then think even harder to reply).

I've committed myself to a TEFL(Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course in March, which in Australia we call ESL. So my Czech, unfortunately, will be on hold for a while. The TEFL will open up some casual teaching opportunities, which would be something different!

I can't believe we have been here a year...it passed very quickly. Billabong has put up a huge billboard poster on the bus route to N's school, with the ocean and 2 surfers- dressed in Billabong, watching the sets holding onto their surf boards. I don't know whether to laugh or cry! Seems like a ludicrous campaign in a land locked country...but then again it definitely has a"wish I was there" factor. I'll have to take a photo so that you can truely appreciate the absurdity of the placement-behind the billboard is field with multi stored housing(the ugly 15 storey Czech ones) and to the side the old Krc hospital.

J