Random sick-day

First, let me comment on the weekend by saying that it was wild. Atleast Saturday were I went to a birthday party at eleven and came home around eight. There went my Sunaday :)

Yesterday was such a random day. I woke up as normal but feeling sick - headache, sore throat and no energy at all. Unfortunately my day was scattered with meetings at work, including a 7pm teleconference with Asia, so I could not stay home. One big cup of coffee washed down two alvedon, and off I went. The first meeting (team-meeting) I managed to get through fairly ok. Then I tried to work somewhat effectively until lunch. For lunch I went home, ate a sandwich and went to power-nap. Came back to the office at five, feeling a little better and worked until 7pm. Then I spent another 1hr 45 min. on the phone with the Philippines talking baout engagement initiatives and trying to focus. Thank god they did most of the talking and I just had to write, listen and ask a question here and there. Left the office at 8:55pm to go home and finally get some rest. A random day to say the least. Today I feel a little better - not perfect but better. And unfortunately today is also going to be a looong day - Teleconference with Spain at 9:30 to start the day and then Organizational Leadership-class from 6-9:30pm. It is going to be loooong!

/J

Valentines and shit.

I mean 'shit' as in stuff; not as in crappy. Because it was a good weekend.
I did not know that Valentines was a big thing in Mexico, but it appears so. All the usual merchandise-crap is out and people are ordering flowers, chocolates and so on. I resent this weekend (maybe because I haven´t had a date for it in ages) but it started good enough on friday. My boss Karen was very sweet and gave me a little Valentines gift. She loooves me, I´m spieeecial! :)

Friday night me and Magda went to meet our norwegian friend Idunn, her boyfriend, roomie and mutual friend/colleague of ours Lisette for a glass of wine. A glass nearly always turns out to become more and so this time as well...but I stopped at three which was responsible of me. Saturday morning I was woken at 9:32 by our made who came in to get my laundry. Very nice but a tad early on a saturday.. In any case it did mean that I got up and had a great morning; made breakfast, watched svt-play, listened to Lantz i P4 and did some reading. I like those kind of mornings, even though I like a sleep-ins even more. The rest of the day was spent with Jorge studying and then at the movies. I was 'Hurt Locker' - about bomb technicians in Iraq. Very good movie; one an a half enthusiastic thumbs up!

Sunday I was also up early (go figure) and had another nice morning. After delicious breakfast tacos I did some more studying and then went for a run with the other sunday-joggers along Calzada del Valle. For you who wonders how it looks, see below. Like that it goes on for 2.5 K and then back. It is quite perfect; my house is about another 1 K from there, so the perfect distance.

The afternoon I spent with my wife (read:Magda). we went for a nice lunch in the sun, then light shopping at Palacio De Hierro with a frappuchino ending. Wonderful! And today it was back to reality; Monday at the office are never great, but atleast this one was fast. I have som much to do I barely notice the time. Plus I did a little overtime so I feel good about myself. Just to celebrate a little more I went for a run. Now I am eating some of the skittles I bought in McAllen and are planning to, slowly but surely, move towards the bed. For sleeping ofcourse.

Kram J

McAllen TX

So I finally got the chance to do some boarder-hopping this weekend. My friend Carlos was going to McAllen Texas with two friends and invited me to come. Mexican go because it is cheaper to buy thing there; clothes, electronics, appliances etcetera. So at 7am saturday morning I was ready for the road-trip. McAllen is about two and a half hours away from Monterrey so it is not that far. Everything went fine with crossing the border, and Texas offered great weather - sunny and about 25 degrees. We visited Barnes & Noble, a big outlet-mall, Macy´s and another big mall. What did I buy? Two books, one polo-shirt, two sleeping boxers and a pair of really cool shorts. All in all - nothing I really needed. I did however find the perfect tent at Ralph Lauren´s 'Big and Tall' which I considered buying there for a sec or two. 4XL, what do you think about that???

In between shopping, we managed to get late lunch at the Olive Garden. Finally, after hearing about it for so long! I asked the waiter: -is this really italian food or is it american italian food?? He looked at me and said: -it is mexican italian food. Whatever croos-over it might have been it was good and I asked for a doggy-bag for the first time in my life. It felt goood! They also had a really funny sign at the door, as you can see below.

We arrived back in MTY at 0:30am, and I found Magda and Allan in our kitchen having beer and tequila. So for me, it was just a quick stop in the shower, then out with them to a friends party and then Topaz. I dropped in bed at 5 or so, dead tired. So today I slept in, went for coffee at Starbucks and then just finished a movie. Saw 'Into the wild' - really good! Now I plan to go to bed to be rested for yet another work week. I'm getting indoctrinated good; on the path to becoming a corporate slave. Love it!

// Jonny Bravoo

Long weekend = party weekend

So what can I say, another weekend with more partying than anything else. I do deserve it; I put in my time at the office and with school. Friday was not even supposed to be a festive night - I was just going to watch a movie with Jorge. However a mutual friend was out partying and there we go..

Saturday was also an interesting experience. A friend at EGADE had her birthday celebration and Me and Mags joined in. We went first to an Irish pub for drinks (yes it looked exactly like a 'Irish' pub anywhere) and after that to a very mexican club called Tucanas. With very mexican I mean (besides the fact that the two of us was the only extranjeros there) the music which is very fun. It is all spanish songs, reggaeton and salsa-spirit and boy do people dance. It is so unfair the way latin people have the rhythm in the blood; some of us actually have to work in order to make steps resembling salsa. The good news is that extranjeros (foreigners) very often get 'A' for effort.

Sunday offered drinks at a place called Akbal - red structured tapistry, velvet drapes, chandeliers and awesome DJs. Small place that fill up fast. It was really good, since it was a long weekend many people were out even though it was sunday. I seriously considered club-hopping but at three I decided it was better to pack up and go home. It is after all a workday tuesday..

Well, the saying is that you only have as fun as you make it and let´s just say I am doing just that. Now I have four days of work, school and normality to look forward to (maybe even time for a run!). Then I most surely will be at it again.. :)

Sleep tight! JZ