Sweet Sixteen and the heart grows fonder

While Matt jets off overseas, this girls and I have filled in the time. We had a lovely afternoon at Sentosa with Sir Kiwi - Felicity's class mascot. No guessing which country her teacher comes from. Sir Kiwi is given to the Star of the Week and you get to take him with you for the weekend and have a photo that goes up up on the class wikispace. We think Felicity's photo idea (below) with Sir Kiwi is awesome.

With Matt gone, I have gotten a bit used to attending parties by myself. First was Sri from work's wedding which was a wonderful fusion of Indian and Western meets a little bit of Chinese and then my friend Pen's 40th birthday which was a 1920's theme. Best celebration was Matt returning the morning of our 16th Wedding Anniversary and organising a three course meal in the cable car to Sentosa. It was beautiful with the view constantly changing as day turned to night. We had a nice family day on Saturday - went to Pinnacle @ Duxton for the cheapest and best view of Singapore and then did a spot of geocaching - finding our 99th cache!

A Weekend in Germany

Over the weekend I rented a car and embarked on some sightseeing.  Saturday was Stuttgart with James and Cyrus.  The built-in GPS in my Mercedes took us straight to the center of town and we found a carpark next to the town hall.  We wandered past a farmers market in the city square, admiring the historical architecture and somewhat lamenting the more modern concrete squares.  As the home to major Mercedes Benz factories, Stuttgart was heavily bombed in the war.  We did like the large amount of pedestrian-only streets.

At the end of the day we dropped James at the airport before heading on to the University Town of Tubingen.  It was just falling dusk but Cyrus and I were very impressed with the old architecture and cobbled streets of the historical center.  I liked it so much that I went back alone on Sunday morning to explore it further.  Being a Sunday, nothing was open and it was fairly quiet, but it was just very beautiful to see all these really old buildings.  I then climbed up to the castle which had first been built almost a thousand years ago and then expanded and modernized over the centuries.  It had a great vantage point high above the river and town.

The afternoon took me to Ludwigsburg which is famous for its baroque palaces and gardens.  Being the end of winter, nothing was blooming yet in the gardens, but the palaces were impressive to walk around.   The smaller, orange-y Favourite Palace was built only 500 meters away from the Residence Palace as a retreat and hunting lodge.  It seemed strange that they were so close together.

In Boeblingen

This week I have been in Boeblingen, Germany.  A small town outside of Stuttgart, it is home to Mercedes Benz and the German headquartes of HP.  I've been here facilitating a class called HP Software Manager MILEstones along with a friend from Australia and some newly met colleagues from the US.  The class is about developing great managers and is structured and delivered quite differently from more traditional manager training.  It's very interactive and includes sessions on innovation and storytelling as well as some of the more expected topics on leading your team.  This was our Phase 2 of facilitator training and according to our coaches we stepped up and delivered at a Phase 3 level, which was great feedback to get.  I really enjoyed spending time with the guys from Peak Teams, observing and learning new tips on how to be a great facilitator.   We also had great feedback from the majority German audience, who happily for us had excellent English and a good sense of humour.

  

The journey here was via Helsinki with Finnair.  When I boarded the plane in Singapore wearing a polo short, nobody mentioned that the transfer to my Stuttgart flight would be outdoors.  In the snow. At minus 6 degrees.  I did have another shirt in my carry on bag, but my winter clothes were all packed under the plane.  It was very cold and by the time James and I boarded, my shirt was white.

  

We basically spent the entire week here indoors at the hotel we were staying at. I did get out for a walk to the older part of Boeblingen on Sunday afternoon when I arrived.   Today we are heading in to Stuttgart to see what's there.  I'm actually staying here for another week, to have meetings with my US and European counterparts.  It's a long time to be away from home but made sense to take advantage of me already being here.

 

 

For Queen and Country

We've been doing our patriotic duty this week.  Tuesday night was our first game of mixed netball, playing for the AHC Rough Diamonds (Australian High Commission), complete with green-and-gold cheer squad.  I'm afraid we were soundly trounced by the New Zealand Chamber of Commerce team but it was fun and I finally scored the only goal for our team after many missed attempts.  What was particularly tough were the 15 minute quarters in the Singapore heat and being brought to the realisation that my body is not as young as I think it is.  I finished the game with a bruise on my hip, a graze on my arm and a sprained foot.

Last night we again did the tough yards for Australia, attending the AustCham Australia Day Ball.  As a staff member, Lucinda began the day at 9am doing setup, then organised the paparazzi line to greet the guests, spent the evening ensuring the band were looked after in between a bit of dancing and we finally got home a little after 3am.  It was a fun night and Lucinda looked gorgeous in her dress.  The girls had sleep overs and this afternoon is recovery time for everyone!