Dammit Doug

Wearing cowboy boots all day hasn’t helped my demeanor much.

Here is to the girlfriends that I can no longer make up with and to
the future heart breaks that I will realize. A friend of mine
perished this week. Worked his whole life for a company and talked plenty about the pending retirement. One month before he died I asked everyone to get
along and negotiate how they’ll perform the job. After the planning
was in place he bitterly stated that he knew the plan was false
because no one asked him for his advice. Damn it Doug. I wanted
you to share from the beginning. God speed mi amigo.

Slanapa 440

Howdy Slans,

Thought I would try a different format for this month's contribution. Possibly generating some traffic on my blog, but also being slightly lazy. Work is going excellently; I am having the opportunity to learn from people that are bringing me to a level of maturity that cannot be done alone. School is commencing as planned, and progress towards the CFA exam is slow. Otherwise, just living in my house and tolerating the heat of the beautiful southwest.


hehehe, this is me before the end of my first cup of coffee.

Actually, while abroad I ran into an old friend of mine, Homer Simpson. Well, really, it is my father.




This was the London Irish vs. the London Wasps. Wasps won and even though it was fun to watch the best rugby that I have ever seen, it was a rather boring game.






This is me from inside the Eye of London. It is ferris wheel overlooking the city owned by British Airways.

Rygbi

Did you know Wales is the home of Rugby?

While in London I went to a professional game. Probably the best
Rugby that I'll ever see; even if it was a slightly boring game.

Freedom

I really enjoyed buying a ticket for unlimited use on the tube
yesterday. It was very satisfying to walk through the automatic gate
event-free. I guess I came to London to get the confidence of being
here. This, I accomplished. I don't think that I needed to be here to
get that confidence, but I didn't know that before just now. Makes me
wonder if there is an easier way to gain confidence in what I know/my
abilities.

Missed the train

I think that I told you earlier that I planned for the unkown in my
schedule by padding the temporal distance between activities. In that
case it was extra time needed to get from the airport to the train
station in Paris. I also purchased a train ticket from Geneva to
London, online, through RailEurope.com or somewhere like that. I had
an hour and 15 minutes between trains; no problem. Little did I know
that Gare de Lyon and Paris Nord were two different stations,
seperated by a 35 minute taxi ride in the bustle of downtown traffic,
even if it was a Sunday. Then I checked the information kiosk where
to check in and had to go through security. I literally had to go to
my coach through 7 others because I couldn't make it to the proper
end of the train before the doors closed. In fact, I wouldn't have
had a chance if it weren't for a lady on the exact same route, fluent
in French. Wow, I got lucky. But here now. All's good. Spent the 2
+hours from Geneva to Paris talking with a German lady. She is the
assistant to the high commissioner of human rights for the United
Nations. Wow, we had a great talk. Ranging from the hierarchy in
Austrian business to the UN ambassador (her former boss) who was
killed in Iraq two years ago. Tears came to my eyes.

Something else we discussed. German heritage from her perspective. I
hadn't ever heard the family stories from a local who witnessed the
great wars. Concluding that terrible time her parents were displaced
and started from scratch. Much like the people of the western US.
Well, I am pooped and want to hang by the bar on coach 6. ;-)

Before I depart from this brief message, let me include a couple of
statements of our (German lady) conversation. She spoke of a personal
story that she learned of the importance of honesty. I mean real, up
front, no holds barred honesty. Like, not saying to a friend who is
dying of cancer false words of hope. Go with and be God is the morale
we presented. In that note, I hope my Welsh girlfriends aren't
distracted by my uncommitted tone of making plans. It will work out
perfectly, this I am sure.

Matt