Enchanted by Ireland 1

Katie and I had a lovely trip to Ireland with her family! After a week and a half, we are positively enchanted by the Emerald Isle and will hope to return soon.

Our trip actually began in Paris for the annual Jimmy Buffett concert. Because we would only be in Paris for 24 hours, we chose to walk around and enjoy the great city rather than queue up for a prime spot at the Saturday show. This was just fine, though, as there isn't a bad seat in the house for these small concerts and we still had ample opportunity to catch up with our Parrothead friends after the show.

Sunday we took a flight to Dublin, where we were greeted at the airport by ads for Guinness - a refreshing change from the luxury watch ads that usually greet us at European airports! Katie's parents, sister, and brother-in-law picked us up at the airport (They had already been in Dublin for a couple of days.) and we were off to Galway. I hadn't realized how small Ireland is geographically but it only took two hours to drive from Dublin (East coast) to Galway (West coast).

Upon arrival in Galway we headed immediately for the Galway Oyster Festival! It was a big tent with, wait for it, oysters! And beer! Specifically Guinness! My first Guinness in Ireland was really lovely. People claim that Irish Guinness tastes better and it may well do but I would need a side-by-side blind tasting to test that claim. Taking it on faith, though, I just drank every Guinness I could get my hands on throughout the trip! I love Guinness on its own but it goes very well with seafood as well, including the Kelly(!) Oysters (from just a few km away), the mussels and clams, and the fish n' chips there at the festival.

That evening we went to The Quays, a local pub/bar/music venue/restaurant for dinner. The food (fish n' chips and beef and Guinness stew - which we ordered every chance we could on this trip) wasn't great but they let you add four oysters alongside any Guinness for a small additional fee so we liked that deal. The music was pretty nice too so it was a good start to the evening.

After dinner we attended Trad on the Prom, a show of traditional Irish music and dance. It featured unique Irish singing, instruments, and Riverdance-style dancing. It was sort of hilarious in that, every time the emcee would introduce a performer, he would remark that that performer had won X number of world championships. I'm not sure exactly how many competitors there are in the "world" championships of traditional Irish dancing but it would seem that the majority of them were there performing that night! This became a running joke of ours for the rest of the trip; with every performance we saw we wanted to know how many world championships had been won by the performers!

Our Monday began with a run along Galway's Prom[enade]. It was cool, foggy, and oh so green - exactly as I imagined Ireland would be! We followed this up with recovery nutrition at Dungeons & Donuts, a hybrid donut shop and tabletop RPG parlor. The donuts weren't amazing but the flavors were creative and the atmosphere was unique!

After a visit to Katie's Chocolate Shop (Both Barrett sisters' names were well represented by Galway food service companies!), we drove around Galway Bay to our next destination. En route we stopped for tours of Hazel Mountain Chocolate, a local artisanal chocolatier, and Dunguaire Castle, a 16th-century tower house located on a huge bog that feeds into the bay.

First impressions of Ireland were enormously positive. The people were - as they would say - lovely, the landscape was green upon green upon green, castles and ruins were ubiquitous, and the Guinness flowed like water!

The United Kingdom

I spent the last week in the UK on business with meetings in Oxford and Cambridge. Katie had never been to London so we flew over for the preceding weekend just to soak it up a bit. In the security line at the Houston airport we bumped into Mike Unton, another Lovett alum, which was a good way to kick off our trip.

The flight from IAH to LHR was a significant one: for the first time in my life I attained Continental Platinum Elite status! I'm not sure it will change my life much but I have already been upgraded for this week's flight to DC so I'm excited about it. En route I watched Up and GI Joe. The former was pretty good while the latter was about as expected.

We arrived early Saturday morning and met up immediately with Mike Cox, another Rice alum who's currently working on a project in the UK. All last year while I was in Switzerland, Cox and I schemed about what we would do when this project started and we were finally on the same side of the Atlantic again. However, his project was delayed and delayed until it finally started shortly after I returned to the States--doh!

Cox was still recovering from a Christmas party the night before but he rallied quickly and we struck out together for the Texas Embassy. At the Embassy we met up with several IMD alumni, a few of whom are in green businesses--very cool! After lunch we donated a large Rice banner to add to the UT, Texas Tech, TCU, UH, and Baylor banners already present in the Embassy's upstairs bar. The manager humored us with a formal unveiling ceremony--go Rice!

Then we walked around London and Pub crawled a bit. Lisa Piguet, IMD's MBA admissions director, was in town so it was a thrill when she joined us too. Cox, Katie, and I had to duck out early, though, for dinner at a little French restaurant in the theater district. Dinner was delicious and full of fall/winter fare, such as pumpkin risotto, which paired well with the cold London weather.

Such a meal required that we walk around a bit afterward, which was basically an excuse to pub crawl some more. First we set our sights on a place with warm drinks and we found one quickly. There we also bumped into George DeMontrond, another Rice alum, whom I last bumped into at the Jimmy Buffett concert in Paris. Small world!

After our hot drinks it was time to take advantage of our proximity to Ireland so we migrated to an Irish pub for some Guinness. We also tried Guinness Red but quickly returned to our pure roots. Finally the pub closed up so we wound down with cocktails back at our hotel.

Sunday we walked around seeing London's historic sites during the day and then caught up with my IMD classmates, Randy and Ijeoma, for Indian food in the evening. It was great to see those two with whom I shared so much last year and, although they are both facing their own challenges now, it was gratifying to see that they are doing so well.

Katie caught an early Monday morning flight back to the US while I journeyed out to Oxford, where I spent Monday and Tuesday. Our principal supplier is headquartered there and it gave me a great chance to spend time with their CEO. By the end of the trip it was clear that personal relationships matter so much more than spreadsheets, contracts, or technology. We've been working on a deal with this company for months and the in-person time to solidify it was well worth the expense of the trip. Also in Oxford I found something that pairs very well with Guinness: steak, mushroom, and Guinness pie!

Wednesday I departed Oxford early for Cambridge, where I had never been before. One of the world's largest consumer electronics manufacturers was conducting a day-long meeting to determine how best to enter the home energy management market and they asked me to help craft their strategy. I was honored to be invited and excited to participate. After a full day of reviewing data from focus groups, evaluating the existing competitive landscape, and positing possible entry paths, I left feeling extremely energized by the process and excited about their direction. If they can succeed in this market it will do a lot of good--for them, for their consumers, and for the world at large--so I wish them the best with it.

Wednesday evening I returned to London to meet with a new VC--headed by a Rice alum. It was a great meeting and I'm excited about his firm--for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. This was followed by dinner with Cox and Scotch back at the hotel--where we were joined by another Rice alum living in the area.

At the end of five days I was exhausted and very satisfied with both the professional and personal aspects of this UK trip. What struck me most was that I met up with seven IMD alumni and four Rice alumni during the brief stay. Although the schools are small, I was impressed with the global distribution of their alumni. Next time I'll make sure to hook up with a TJ alum or two as well!

Pics are in my facebook album.

Weekend in Paris Part Deux

Paris was 24 hours of awesome. My favorite wingman met me at Gare de Lyon, we dropped off my stuff--which all fit in my laptop bag--and kicked off the day with lunch in an outdoor cafe near the Louvre. The sun was shining, the people-watching was great, and we won our first battle against grapes, duck livers, and snails. After a lazy lunch, though, what to do, what to do?

I pulled up Google Maps on my phone and searched for Museums around us; it didn't let me down. The National Picasso Museum, while not exactly close, looked the most interesting and digestable in an afternoon. So we walked over to the East side of Paris, enjoying the glorious weather.

Picasso's works weren't exactly what I was expecting--which was a pleasant surprise. They were presented chronologically, which my readers know I love (a la my musical explorations), so it was apparent how his style evolved over time. It was interesting to see that he had dabbled in classical and impressionist (like his good friend Henri Matisse) styles before really finding the cubist and other styles for which he is--in my mind--famous. I also didn't realize that he had done so much sculpting, so it was interesting to see his later-life sculptural interpretations of his earlier-life paintings. Cool.

We then ambled all the way back to Paris's west side to visit Lavinia, a wine store that had been recommended to us as the "Spec's of Paris." Spec's (the largest wine/spirits store in the world, just a few blocks from my house in Houston) it was not, but it was definitely cool and had an awesome selection of French wines, which was exactly what we were seeking. We spent 90 minutes inspecting every bottle and debating the pros and cons to kill time before dinner. We walked across the Seine, stopped for a quick cafe, and then finally arrived at Aux Charpentiers, my favorite little restaurant in Paris.

Joel, the general manager is always extremely gracious and this time was no exception. We started off with some champagne to nourish us while we poured over the menu. At long last we decided on three courses and got down to work. First up: foie gras paired with a sauternes and, naturally, escargot. Hassin and Cox: 2, Duck livers and snails: 0.

Next course: roast duck in a dark sauce (the contents of which escape me) and sardine fillets marinated in citrus. The piece de resistance here, though, was the 2002 Chateau Lynch-Bages Pauillac. 2002 wasn't a stellar year in Bordeaux but Lynch-Bages has never let us down and we figured that the 2002 might be more approachable now than a blockbuster like 2003 or 2005. We were right! It was drinking beautifully and, although it would have paired better with one of the beef entrees, it still went smashingly. Well structured, layers of currant and peppery spice with a long finish. Delicious!

We ended with a poached pear drowned in a cassis wine reduction and something very chocolatey with raspberry sauce. Perhaps the sweetest treat of all, though, was our bill, which was 1/2 what we paid for lunch. I love Aux Charpentiers!

Having won another victory over grapes, duck livers, snails, AND the recession, we had no choice but to celebrate. We decided that the rest of the night would be devoted to Guinness. We wound our way to the Latin Quarter, resolving to stop at every bar we encountered that advertised Guinness. The fact that we didn't know exactly where the Latin Quarter was (In fact, looking at a map now, we may have actually already been in the Latin Quarter when we embarked!) only supported our Guinnessification.

Our meandering took us into places ranging from dodgy pubs to swank cocktail lounges. In one of the latter establishments we saw advertised a Cocktail du Jour. We asked the bartender, who must have been 8' tall, what it was and she didn't know; we were the first to inquire about it all day. Naturally, we had to have it and it turned out to be a foaming, glowing punch bowl of sorts with lots of straws. So much for our Guinness-only night but we figured that a diverse porfolio never hurt anyone.

Finally we arrived at a bar that was playing great rock music. Plus we met some law students from La Sorbonne who were cool so we decided to stay. A couple of Guinnesses turned into a few, flaming shots were ordered, and here the details start to become hazy. The pictures indicate that we had an awesome time and I would expect no less!

Our bar eventually shut down and the girls invited us to come with them to an after-hours location. We headed off toward this mystery destination but one of the girls got very upset when I jokingly tried to sell her to her friend for 10 euros. This meant one of two things: either this girl was a total drama queen or I had had enough to drink that things I found funny weren't quite as amusing to others. In either case, we figured it was time to call it a night.

Sunday morning came too early and I had over 100 new emails to sift through on the train back to Lausanne. Oh well, what a great time and I'll be back there next weekend!