London

This weekend in London was awesome. After a week of being sick enough to keep me out of the office (The doctor was positive I had malaria--yikes!) I managed to shape up enough to travel on Friday without incident. Friday evening itself was uneventful and I just settled into my hotel in Westminster.

Saturday I met up with an IMD alum from 2007 who had helped me with my job search last year. It was good to meet him in person and we spent a few hours just walking around the city. "Impressive" is the word I would use to describe London's architecture. It is full of very impressive classical buildings. I didn't recall it having quite as much Gothic architecture as I noticed this time but hey, I love Gothic architecture, so no complaints there!

In the evening I met friends from the Petroleum Club of Houston, who happened also to be in town, at The Orrery, a fantastic little restaurant with a lovely terrace for dining. The lobster, lobster, lobster appetizer was exquisite and the dark truffle risotto incredibly rich. The latter paired especially well with the Paolo Scavino Barolo Carobric 2000 (WS 94 points), which opened up into an excellent, beautifully textured wine. I had no room left at the end but managed to finish the chocolate fondant anyway. :-) What a meal and what an evening!

Sunday I spent more time walking around. This time I made for King's Cross Station to pay homage to Harry Potter. After that I spent some time at the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, both of which were very cool. For lunch I met the former president of Wiess College at an Indian restaurant before heading back to catch some Wimbledon.

It's too bad that Andy Roddick couldn't quite pull it off; what a coup that would have been for an American on Independence Day weekend! US men's volleyball also didn't quite come through, finishing 3rd in the beach world championships. American women, though, had a much better weekend, with Serena and Venus dominating Wimbledon and our women winning the beach world championships.

During the marathon 5th set between Roddick and Federer, I met up with an old friend from Lovett College who is currently finishing his MBA at Oxford. We watched the end of the match and then made our way to Shepherd's Bush Empire for a Jimmy Buffett concert. This venue was excellent! Although it was larger than The New Morning Jazz Cafe, where he played in Paris last year, it still seated <>

My friend and I were standing down near the front--maybe 30' from Jimmy--and having a great time singing at the tops of our lungs, meeting other Parrotheads, and drinking Guinness. The concert was great and I'm so glad I could make it. Unfortunately, while I was videoing "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw" a rogue beachball jarred my phone from my hand and now my picture-taking capabilities are defunct. Oh well, if you're going to break your camera, that's not a bad way to do it!

Now it's back to work in Lausanne, where I have a tremendous amount to accomplish this week. Because of my sickness last week this will be my first time in the office in a while--bring it on!