i haven't blogged for quite a while. i've tried though several times, to sit down and write something, but it find that it is difficult to write something and really get into "rambling" mode without spending over tens of minutes. hehe, this will be short, i think, since i have a million and one things to do, not to mention Revision, which i must begin sometime... so, what have i been up to?

Prague

in a few words, wow! this is the second time i've visited, but this time hosted by kpmg to attend the European finals of a business case study competition. there were 10 teams, from luxembourg to sweden to south africa... any, we had 3 cases on some really interesting companies - toyota, mcdonalds and vodafone. and it seemed to get more and more interesting with each case study. i won't bore you with the details of our recommendations, but i will say (with pleasure) that we got 2nd place! what made it even more special was the fact that all of us were studying non-business related courses and that we were all asians - something everyone kept on asking us about.

i came to really appreciate good teamwork, which i felt was the key factor to our success (i guess getting second is still considered so!). we each looked at thing from starkly different perspectives, not only compared with other teams but also between ourselves... i also noticed that unlike many other teams, we used much less frameworks, and used more thinking on the spot, which i think allowed us to identify more relevant issues.

special mention to freddy as he was truly our strategy powerhouse... [structure, structure, structure]. and to eleanor, who would, with her marketing skills, be able to sell ice to an eskimo!

the UK and South African teams at the final banquet:


A composite photo of the cathedral in Prague Castle (can you see where the pics join? there are 4 pics in total!):


a really nice restaurant that we just happened to stumble upon. not expensive, great service, exotic and innovative foods, great wine and a relaxed atmosphere!


North England

we visited huddersfield, leeds and lake district. lake district was awesome, with so much nice scenery all compacted into a small northern region, making it highly accessible to lazy people like us :) apparently, there are about 50 books written about the lakes each year! that's how captivating it is... i think if i go next time, i might spend a bit more time hiking up mountains, but we did have a fair share of that getting to aira force, which was a nice waterfall. oh, and there were countless sheep, and i can swear i saw a llama! many thanks to carman, we made a safe trip to the north and back.

embarking on our brave journey north!


posing at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park


here we are with some hills at the lake district


rachel "logs" on