Stockholm! Vin Diesel! Tom from home!

Wow. Had a crazy weekend in Stockholm. What a beautiful city. The combination of a prosperous society with brilliantly intricate architecture was wonderful.

So I met Heather on Friday and we went right out to meet her friend Denise and a couple that she knows that lives in Stockholm. Always nice to have a guide. He took us to a great outdoor bar and the weather was wonderful. Everyone looked so glamorous. I've never been to Hollywood, but this is totally how I imagine it. Lots of big sunglasses and blond hair.

We ended up in a beautiful restaurant/bar/club called Hotellet. You can see pics of the bar at:

http://www.restaurangguiden.se/sth/ostermal/hotellet/main.htm

Ended up eating very late, so we were basically chomping on our chicken while a club was in full force around us. Fun, but a bit strange. Lots of wine of course. The scenery was quite impressive also. Heather's friends from her business school class in Copenhagen were great fun and we all got along well. Plus it was really great to see someone from home - especially someone as cool as Heather.

So for the rest of the weekend we walked around (a LOT) and saw the whole city. Stopped in the modern art museum (free!) and the palace. Had beer and great Swedesh meatballs...just called meatballs in Stockholm, of course.

Here's a few pics. I'll have more soon when Heather and her friends post theirs.

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAMmTlyzatWjEOA

On the flight back, Vin Diesel was sitting in first class 8 rows in front of me! Though it was a bugdet airline, so I heard him say "This is first class?" Ha.

Then in Heathrow airport, I'm about to get to the tube and two backpacking lads come up to me and say "Are you Dan?" I told them I was tired and didn't want to sign any autographs, but if they hurry, they might catch Vin Diesel getting a cab. Just kidding. It was Tom and Karl from home! They went to my high school and are just starting their post-college "eurotrip." Lucky guys. So we went out last night to a few bars in Clapham with my flatmate Natalie and her friend Sophie. Lots of fun. They apparently got very lost in the city center, so were pretty late. I guess London is a tricky city. It was really cool to hang out with them and I'm going to meet them again tonight, so I'll try to get a few pictures for our Moms. =)

Oh, and here's some pics of my flat and office I took last week:

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAMmTlyzatWjEXg

Cheers!
dAn

Travel Tip from Tom

It is wise not to book a flight more than 8 weeks in advance because before 8 weeks there is no incentive from the airlines or travel agencies to rush to fill up the plane. The majority of great deals come between 6 and 8 weeks prior to departure. On the flip side, you should never book a flight less than 7 days in advance because then you get killed with fees.

Britain losing it's sense of humor?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050524/lf_afp/afplifestylebritain_050524214117

BA deal - today only!

So for those folks looking to visit me (should be everyone), I just saw this British Airways deal that seems pretty reasonable for trips this Fall.

http://london.ba.com/index.asp

Make sure you read the find print at the bottom (copied below). But I found a flight in November that came to a total of about $450. Taxes really get you on these. Just noticed it needs to be booked by today though! Anyway, gives you an idea of what to look for. If you book too late prices really go up a lot.

* One-way based on round-trip, 7-day advance purchase, non-refundable, select economy class midweek (Mon.-Wed.) fares for travel Sep. 1-Oct. 26, 2005 and Dec. 16-Dec. 23, 2005 from New York JFK and Newark to London on British Airways only. Higher fares apply for other travel dates and from other departure gateways. Weekend travel (Thu.-Sun.) has $30 surcharge each way. Fares subject to gov't. approval & do not include gov't. fees/taxes of approximately $110 and a $2.50 September 11th Security Fee. Min. stay Sat. night required. Max stay 11 months.New bookings only, made May 17-26, 2005, subject to availability.

Busy and Stockholm!

Sorry for the delay (already) in posting this week. All the sudden I got really busy. Mostly in a good way though.

I'm going to Sweden this weekend! Heather is heading up to Stockholm from Copenhagen and I'm going to meet her and some of her friends there. Bought the ticket at the sort of last minute, so didn't really get any of these great inter-Europe flights, but it's still not too bad. Really excited to get started on my travels around Europe. I sorta feel that it's half the reason I'm here.

Work is going well. Been moving forward on the project that has been assigned to me. My boss has this great management style where he basically says that everyone owns some part of the system and gets help from the other people if he needs it, but in the end the owner is responsible. This allows you to really run with something, but I guess it also means that if someone leaves the team we are in a situation where that part isn't really known to anyone else. Anyway, it's good for me now. Plus, they are starting to build risk management capabilities into the system (Cristal), and they are sorta surprised to find out that since I've been doing that for a while I know a little bit. So I'm moving towards working on that too -- which is much more interesting than my current project.

As for social life, been doing some of that too. Mostly hanging out with people from work. They are lots of fun and we do a fair amount of heading to the pub for a few beers after work. I was supposed to go on a boat trip on the Thames this weekend with one guy from work and a whole load of his friends, but the boat never showed. So we decided to go to a bar instead (of course). It was a really fun place called Mash and since there were so many of us it was like I actually had a few friends. =)

Ok, back to work. Going to be around late a lot it seems, so if you send me an email with a good time to call between 9am-3pm NY time I should be able to.

Cheers!
dAn

Photos

Here's some photos from New York before I left and also some in London. You can see the small hotel room I stayed in, my new flat, and some touristy stuff I've done.

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAMmTlyzatWjEGg

- Dan