Diary of a Brand Manager

I've decided to twist the blog into something else - and write about my daily job and what its all about. 

Not sure how specific i can be - but lets try anyway. 

My thought for today: i live 2 minutes from the most beautiful lake in Horsens, and the restaurant there closes during winter months. Its such a shame. So many people use the lake for fresh air walks and recreation in winter. 

And i've been toying with lookingat a pop-up cafe for the Schulstad brand products... Maybe, just maybe. This could become something... Lets investigate! 

Some Rome photos

We've just come back from a few days in Rome, where we stayed within about 200m of St Peters square and the Vatican. Amazing location, and can heartily recommend the B&B that we stayed in. Think its website is www.bedandbreakfastdiroma.com

Here are some photos... including some decent one of the inside of the Sistine Chapel, I got about 10 decent shots before the guard told me that it wasnt allowed. Who knew?!

The last few weeks

Just a quick update with some photos from the last couple of months, including our trip to the Denmark v Malta World Cup Qualifier match (won 3-0 by Denmark), and at the startline of the Skanderborg ½ Marathon.... we both came home in just about one piece. Although Christina managed by "blow pieces" just after the finish line - after I pretty much force-fed her bananas and raisins (to replace carbs.....). Didn't really go as planned :oD

Getting married!

Just thought I'd update on the past couple of months, just for the sake of good order.

A pretty dismal showing for summer in Denmark was somewhat placated by a week in the northern part of Tuscany in Italy. Way out in the wilds. I'd love to insert some of the great photos I took, but I managed to lose our camera a couple of weeks ago... together with about 3 months of photos. Christina spent a week in Brazil soon after arriving back from Italy, and was flown around in helicopters, private jets and wined and dined. Unfortunately the photos from that trip went the same way! Really must make a mental note that placing a camera on the roof of the car when loading the boot isn't the best place for it. Ah well.

Oh, and we're getting married! I proposed back in June at midsummers, and we've finally found a place for the reception, so have been able to set a date : September 12th 2009!
Still a while off, but we need that mental room to get everything together.

Apart from that, we've been doing a couple of half marathon runs - which have been fun if a little painful. But thats probably down to insufficient training, and old running shoes. Need to address both these issues, but will probably only get around to doing something about the latter.

Been a while...

So it's been quite a while since the last update.. so let's just make a really quick resume of what's been happening...

January
Started out as the last year finished... on a plane! This time I spent a week in Romania, in Bucharest. Although i didn't see much of the town to be honest, as the hotel was a few miles outside and trips to it's heart were limited to a few meals and one evening watching the football in an Irish pub. A very nice one as it happens, with proper home cut chips!

February
A week in a very cold Moscow, a tie-in with a big food exhibition. Far too long to be in Moscow, with not enough to do, mainly due to my travelling companions contacts not showing up. Very frustrating, and it was so cold that jaunts out to the local tourist attractions was pretty limited. I did find a great Sports bar though to watch the Liverpool v Chelsea match. Sportsland... although it's probably spelt differently in Russian!

Got back from Moscow, and found myself looking for a new job! My boss handed over a P45 on my first day back, without much of an explanation... and certainly no warning whatsoever. But of a shock, but more funny than worrying. We'd been having departmental problems for about six months, and I'd been openly questioning some of the wilder decisions which were being taken. And also pointing out the severe lack of strategy. I knew that putting my head above the parapit would cause a reaction... and was prepared for this one. Although after a good meeting with the company CEO a week before Moscow, where we'd offered our solutions to the problem, I'd rather hoped that it would be changes at management level - and not at my level - which would suffice. No real worries though. I have 5 months contract to be paid out - plus a compensation claim for unreasonable dismissal.

After only a couple of weeks of looking, I've signed a contract to be a Business Manager with Arla Foods. A great job - better than the last one (on paper anyway) and something I was looking at before the walls crumbled at Tulip. Am REALLY looking forward to starting in mid April.

Istanbul and staying away from airports!

Been a while since the last post. The family congregated in Istanbul for Mums birthday in September, which was a fantastic weekend. Istanbul is a fascinating city, with so much going on, and beautiful scenery around every corner. The only time I'd been there before was for the Champions League Final in 2005.... and that was more about the football than the culture. But this time there was plenty of time to play tourists.

It was also the start of Ramadan, and although the locals generally follow the fast during the day, they certainly know how to party as soon as the sun goes down!

Here are some photos.

Since the trip to Turkey, its been a quiet (and welcome) time without airports and travel for me. I haven't really missed the travelling.... it can get quite boring and tiring, and being away from home so much can get frustrating.

However Christina has been travelling all over the USA! - she spent a week working near Boston, and a couple of days in Dallas. Lego have an "education centre" over in Texas, and theres a good possibility in the future that Christina could take a stint over there... something we'd definately like to do!

On the homefront, we've done some basic home improvements and sorted out the basement. Plus we've been pretty active with the local running club which we joined to get a little bit more motivation to our running regime. It seems to have paid dividends - we ran a 10km race last weekend in one of our fastest times yet.

London again......

London twice in two weeks.... this time I was on a marketing course which was based around what I do as a job - Product Management. I'd expected to come away full of new ideas, new theories and processes to help me re-invent the way I do things. Unfortunately it seems that the way I do things is pretty much the way they need to be done. In the context of theory anyway. So, rather uninspiring really. Not a complete waste of time though. They did great panini sandwiches in the canteen. Hmm.

I was lucky enough to time the trip with Tina Dickow giving a really small, intimate showcase concert at a pub basement venue in Farringdon. Tina's doing really well in Denmark with the release of her new cd, and the media here have been all over her. Its great to see. I've known of her for the best part of 4 years now, and its been fantastic to see the recognition grow.