Friends & Family... what Christmas is all about!

Sorry for the long period of silence! I'm now on the U.S. (NYC to be more precise), having just spent a wonderful Christmas with family (including Wilbert!) and friends in Des Moines. Got to see some really special people I haven't seen for a while (including Tim above), and that trend will be continuing this week in NYC and next in Las Vegas! So you all know who you are, and I can't wait to see you!

What a difference a few days can make...

After that last post, I sunk into the depths of dispair and fear. It drove me crazy to only have use of one eye and I had essentially lost all my energy for a week. The frequent trips to the doctor and hospital put me back to bed for the rest of the day each time I went. But in the middle of this week, things began to turn around. The sores stopped coming, my eye slowly started opening, the pain started to subside a bit, and I started to get my energy back.

For shingles, this is just a few hairs short of a miracle. Usually it lasts much longer and is much worse in intensity. Looks like I managed to get off relatively easy compared to the experiences of others who live with it for weeks and end up with chronic pain afterwards. So I'm going to rest up for the remainder of this week, start getting some work done at home (am now up-to-date on e-mail and got a draft presentation out this afternoon), have a relaxing weekend and get outside into the beautiful outdoors and recharge my batteries to be ready to go back to work on Monday. The truth is I'm completely stir-crazy and can't wait to get back. Well, at least this week at home managed to get me almost caught up on the first season of Lost...

New Tradition - Disease of the Year

I've always been relatively healthy. After growing out of a touchy stomach in my youth, I've very seldom had anything serious wrong with me. Then last year I got a nasty case of the whooping cough and was active but coughing my brains out for about three months.

Well, it seems this is going to become an annual tradition; but for a bit of variation, this year we're going to do something new: shingles ("gordel roos" in Dutch... literally "belt dandruff"). It's caused by the herpes zoster virus, the same one that causes chicken pox. Read more about it by clicking on the link above.

My rash (a funny moving painful sensation under the skin) began on Monday, and blisters started on about Wednesday. By Thursday they were much worse and it was clear something was wrong. I went straight to the doctor, who diagnosed me easily considering it was all on one side of my face - a prominent feature of shingles (from the Latin "cingula", meaning belt - the place where a lot of people seem to get them). She advised a "few days" of bed rest. It's likely to take more than that.

By Friday, my eye was starting to swell shut. My own doctor had blown me off and not returned my urgent calls on Friday, so Wilbert took me to the emergency clinic where I was finally prescribed some decent pain medication (Tramadol) and both oral and salve anti-virals. But by the next morning, my eye was completely swollen closed, so Wilbert carted me off to the emergency clinic again, then off to Hoorn for a special consultation with an opthamologist. The good news is that there seems to be no infecton in my eye itself. But I'll have to keep an eye on it because it can wreak havoc with your sight by leaving scar tissue on the surface of the eye. The bad news is that my eye is still completely swollen shut and I pretty much stayed in bed all day yesterday with the blinds closed and slept, followed by a full 8 hours sleep last night. I seldom every need that much rest, so I know my body is fighting something pretty serious.

Why have I joined the "Disease of the Year Club"? Well, both of these illnesses have had to do with pathogens that are either regularly present in our bodies or in our environments, and only cause illness when our immune systems are diminised by other illnesses, stress, or fatigue. I had just completed the busiest period ever of my professional life (with great pleasure!), as well as a tremendous amount of travel (seven hours west and six hours east) in a very short span of time. I think it took its toll on my body as a result. So I'll just have to find ways to take better care of myself in the future and plan my schedule more carefully.

So far I'm feeling pretty upbeat (not depressed as mentioned in the description referenced above), but just exhausted. The pain is somehwat under control, but I only have one eye and it's difficult and tiresome to even type this much text. Sigh. But I'm taking good care of my self (and Wilbert is taking excellent care of me, God bless him), so hopefully I'll beat this thing soon. I'll spare you any pictures, because it's not a pretty sight! If you're really interested, then click here.

Marketing Man in Action (in China)

One of the reasons I don't love being in China...

I got a beautiful three-line love note from Wilbert last night on e-mail saying he missed me. He's not always very verbally expressive about how he feels about me (but shows it in abundance with his actions every single day), so it was very special and made me realize how much I miss him when I go away on business. It's nice that after eight years of knowing each other I can still feel how very much I love him. There's nothing in the world like knowing I have such a wonderful person to go home to after galavanting around the world.

See you in two days, L.P.! I miss you too!

One of the reasons I love being in China...

And this was food down the street from the office at a "workers"-type restaurant. Gorgeous! And it costs next to nothing.

September Recap

Recapping September, it was by far the busiest month of the year for me (for both personal and professional reasons), and I think I came through it pretty well. I wrote a whole blog entry about it, but Blogger.com ate it (lesson: use Word or another offline text editor to write your blog!). Here are the highlights:

We had four major tasks as a department this month: rebrand the company, run a successful annual customer meeting for about 90 customers and staff, run a stand at the year’s largest trade show, and launch a new website. Without an incredible team effort by my team in the U.S. and Europe and a divide-and-conquer strategy, it never would have happened. They pulled together and kicked ass. Way to go, guys! Here’s what we accomplished:

• Rebranding of the company has been mostly very successful. New logo, new house style, new marketing collateral, new everything. Still working on it through the end of the year, but it looks fresh, cool, but also stable and trustworthy. Easy for us to work with ourselves, so less dependency on our agency and lower costs for the company. And we got a brand new color printer which produces gorgeous stuff. This was my baby (though the first time doing it!) together with the invaluable experience and effort of one of my staff who has gone through this before. So one thing down. Wish I could show you, but don’t want to identify my company here.

• Next thing was the company’s annual customer meeting in Spain! This is my second year producing it, and I decided to run it this year more like a professional industry conference. I’ve been to so many of them in the last year that it was easy to pick and choose the best elements to include. The city and hotel are fantastic for conferences, and I would recommend the Hotel Maria Cristina in San Sebastian to anyone for a conference. Prices were incredibly reasonable, and the group events manager, Juan Pablo Beorlegui, was fantastic. The hotel is historic, gorgeous, and centrally located, and the pricing for a large group was about half that of what we did in Italy last year. I created lots of opportunities for participation, got in some interesting experts, and our customers were generous with their knowledge and participation. We had dinners on the beach, in a cider house and in a 19th century fort, we learned about Basque sports like tug-of-war, hand ball, rock lifting and wood chopping, and we spent three valuable days networking and talking about the future of our businesses. Was very cool, and again could not have been accomplished without the leadership and hard work of one of the talented people on my staff (N., you da bomb, girl!). Thanks to our efforts (and those of a handful of other company staff), the event was considered to be the most successful ever. So another notch in our September belt.

• The trade show I had far less to do with, as I was mostly focused on the first two projects, so I left it to the proven expert in trade shows in the company, and she pulled it off with flying colors. Because the new branding was only finalized less than a month before the show, she had to scramble extra this year to get everything done, but the result ended up being both a boot we could be very proud of, and we’ll fine-tune the few rough edges for the next show. Way to go, M.!

• Last but not least was a brand new website in less than 3 weeks from start to finish. Fully tuned to the new brand, fully loaded with content, and managed by 1) a guy in Amsterdam who had been with the company for just a few months and 2) a gal on the west coast of the U.S. driving the agency that was building it. So lots of challenges, but a great Phase 1 result. Now on to Phase 2! Way to go, J. & E.!

• And not to leave the other key person out of this, we had one guy playing “Flying Keep” the whole time, helping literally everyone out and making our lives easier by picking up difficult bits and pieces of each project; a video here, a flash animation there, a few brochures and flyers over there. Without you, R., none of us would have made it. Thank you!

• All of this was a total rush, very fulfilling personally and professionally, and also led to a small reward for me in the form of a promotion from Manager to Director. That was nice, thanks, boss. I’m really enjoying what I’m doing for the first time in about as long as I can remember.

• Next was my brother's wedding in Des Moines (USA). It was great to see so much extended family, and wonderful to watch Josh & Lorie (see below) enjoy their special day together. Made me long for my own special day some time in the future when the time is right. I went into it expecting to barely spend anytime with my family, and that was a good expectation to have, because everyone was so busy. Good lesson for the future (last Christmas at home was pretty much a train smash, so I've learned my lesson). I felt a strange combination of being connected to and at the same time disconnected from the whole scene. Lots of old familiar friends and family, but lots of people from Josh's life that I know nothing about. I guess that's what being an adult is all about. And I shopped myself silly, of course. :-)

Other cool stuff that happened this month:

• Reconnected with long-lost grad school friend Timo (http://timmuh.blogspot.com/) who I had somehow managed to lose track of. Spent a little while talking on the phone, was great to catch up with him. Hope to see him at Christmas back in Iowa.

• Because of all the summer preparations for September, I let the garden go completely to hell. Got sick of it and just hired someone to come in and clean it up. Result = gorgeous.

• Am participating in a project to remodel our street and move the sidewalks, parking and street around to be more friendly and safe to pedestrians. Feels good to be involved in something local that binds me more to my city. Lots of the time I feel more like a citizen of the world than of this country or city, and it’s nice to do something “grounding” like this.

• In that vein, we’re trying to be more social with other couples and friends these days, which has resulted in some nice parties, trips to the spa, etc.

• I think I’ll actually have a birthday party this year for the first time in a while. Should be fun.

• Am so digging my Sony PSP. I’m not much of a gamer, but the device is just so cool! Feels like the whole Star Trek era has sort of arrived when you’re walking around with a little thing like that that has such a high quality screen with built-in WiFi and a web browser!

• Found decent tickets home for Christmas with New Year’s in NYC for both Wilbert and I. Economy on an airline where I have no points or status (could there be anything worse?), but pretty direct flights and a reasonable price. Can’t wait to do that with Wilbert. It’s likely the whole family (all 5 of us including spouses and kids) will be together for the first time, so that will be special. We’ll have to do a nice portrait.

• Am off to Beijing for a week in about four hours. Am going to make sure the new branding takes hold in our office there. I’m looking forward to being back there… it’s been a year, which is about the longest I’ve been out of China since I started working for my company. I love it there.

So that was my exhausting but fulfilling September and a few words about the future. Off I go to pack! Be well, everyone!

The dashing groom and blushing bride at the Wedding Reception

The groom and me at the Rehearsal Dinner

Bride Lorie with her newphew, Xander, at the Rehearsal Dinner

Aunt Barb and Dad at the Rehearsal Dinner

Josh & Mom at the Rehearsal Dinner

My mom and all her siblings at the Wedding Reception

Heidi, Josh and Mom at the Rehearsal Dinner

Mel and Heidi (in the pearls I got her in China) at the Wedding Rehearsal

Dr. Ruhe and Mom before the Wedding Rehearsal

Heidi, Mel and Merrick at the Wedding Rehearsal

Eskerrik Asko eta Hurrengo Arte! - Tomorrow we say goodbye to the Basque Country after a lovely, relaxed stay. So we wanted to say a big "Eskerrik Asko" (thank you!) to everyone who helped make it a nice stay for us.

Bilbao Guggenheim - Here is the amazing architectural feat by Frank Gehry (adorned with an attractive Dutch gentleman for decorative purposes).

Bilbao Guggenheim - And not to miss my chance, here I am (and yes, I was exhausted as I look!)

Bilbao Guggenheim - Here Wilbert is standing in front of the gigantic flower-covered dog that is the theme of the amazing Guggenheim musem in Bilbao.

Aste Nagusia Bilbao - Wilbert, Marcos and I hit the streets of Bilbao to enjoy the upbeat atmosphere offered by the year's biggest festival: Aste Nagusia (or Big Week). One week after San Sebastian's version, the bigger city of Bilbao offers a much different atmosphere (but equally enjoyable) than San Sebastian. Here the boys are wearing the traditional blue bandana the Bilbainos wear every year for the event.

Lizeaga Sagardotegi - Here we are enjoying our dessert (sorry about the blurry picture - blame the waitress!). The traditional Basque dessert is whole walnuts, quince (a hard fruit jelly called "membrillo" in Spanish & Basque), and Idiazabal cheese. Light and yummy!

Lizeaga Sagardotegi - The meal you get in a sagardotegi is almost always the same: Start with an omelette with cod that is salted, dried, stored, and then rehydrated for use (the ancient, traditional Basque way of storing cod), then some blocks of sauteed cod with green grilled peppers, and finally a gigantic t-bone steak that is always rare. A salad is optionally served with the steak, and bread always accompanies the meal as well. And your cider glass is your best friend for the evening.

Lizeaga Sagardotegi - Normally at a sagardotegi, you get up and walk to the various huge kegs of cider when the cidermaster comes out and shouts "Txotx!" at the top of his lungs. People line up and use their glass to catch the two-meter long stream of cider shooting out of the keg (in order to ensure maximum aeration of the cider). But off-season, you have to settle for the bottled product.

Lizeaga Sagardotegi in Astigarraga - To contrast/compliment our night at a restaurant with three Michelin stars, we decided to go to a traditional Basque sidreria (or "sagardotegi" in Euskera), a place that makes hard apple cider and serves wonderful traditional food. There are few that are open this time of year, but we found one that was.

Arzak - A Taste of Heaven

We've all eaten on average about three times a day every day of our lives thus far. So to have a single meal stand out in your memory for the rest of your life is a pretty big deal. And last night, for Wilbert and I, Jose Mari Arzak (pictured with us above) and his amazing staff accomplished this feat. Our dinner at Arzak in San Sebastian will go down in our memories as one of the most special and outstanding meals we've ever had.

Every detail from beginning to end was painstakingly thought out and well-executed (as one would hope from a restaurant with THREE well-deserved Michelin stars!). From the moment we arrived to the moment we left, we were treated like royalty. The atmosphere was friendly, elegantly casual, and while sophisticated, not at all ostentatious. We were approached in English (by a member of staff who had accurately judged us not to be Spanish or French like the majority of guests), but were accommodated when we chose to speak Spanish instead. We were expertly helped through our choice of menu items and wines.

The food was nothing less than edible art. We ordered the five course "Tasting Menu", and were proactively offered seconds (and thirds) of individual courses at no additional charge, giving us a chance to try as many as twenty separate dishes over the course of the evening (including complementary hors d'oeuvres and various desserts). We finished off the evening with cofee and a delightful "copita" of thier homemade pacharan, an anis-based Basque liqueur far better than any one we've ever had from a bottle.

We paid by far the biggest price we've ever paid for a meal, but in retrospect it was worth it for a unique experience that we'll remember for the rest of our lives.

Hondarribia Christopher - Felling a bit under the weather (think I'm coming down with a cold), so I look a bit grumpy. But all in all, it was a nice day in Hondarribia!

Hondarribia Airport - Hondarribia is also the site of San Sebastian's regional airport. Here, one of the regional Iberia flights from Madrid or Barcelona lands at the local airstrip. Local residents are strongly against the addition of more runways, but the provincial government considers it important for economic growth in the region. Where else have I heard this story?

Hondarribia Port - Wilbert gets some sun and smiles for the camera on a sunny day across the bay from the French Basque Country.

Hondarribia Market/Hotel - Wilbert poses in front of a hotel in Hondarribia with a decidedly un-Basque color scheme. But it matches his outfit.

Hondarribia Parador - One of the many "Paradores" in Spain - historic old buildings converted into tourist hotels. This one is in a beautiful old building (probably about 17th century).

Hondarribia - Another one of the typical Basque stone homes, beautifully decorated for summer.

Hondarribia - Today's outing took us to the beautiful border town of Hondarribia; the last outpost of the Spanish Basque Country across the bay from France. The town was celebrating a festival today, so there was an open-air market, art fairs and Basque dance and music demonstrations. The weather cooperated nicely as well. The town has lots of historic buildings like the one Wilbert is standing in front of.

At the old port is this beautiful tiled house. The tiles aren't actually different colors as it appears in the photo. They're made using a coloring and glazing technique akin to an oil slick, where they reflect light at different wavelengths in a rainbow-like fashion. Wilbert has gotten me a few pieces of pottery from Ibiza that use the same technique. Easily the most beautiful house in the port.

The old port of San Sebastian. Today the weather is really spotty, so we walked to the acquarium and took a tour. Afterwards we had lunch at "Old Dutch", a former Dutch pub that is now a restaurant, but hasn't yet changed its decor.

Amigos/Amis/Lagunak Elsa & Erramun

El Pupo con Producto Tipico

Plaza de Guipuzkoa - Renovated & Fixer Upper

A Song of Peace

I recently rediscovered some 22-year old recordings of my high school church choir and have been listening to them for the last week. One that continues to be one of my favorites is called "A Song of Peace", done to the traditional tune called Finlandia by Jean Sibelius (ca. 1899).

I love it both for the amazing, powerful crescendo it reaches in the section I've italicized below, as well as its subtle but firm call not to let patriotism and national pride blind one to the fact that people in other parts of the world feel the same about their own countries - and that no one country is inherently superior to another - a thought that I fear is far too prevalent these days.

Note that I've seen alternate texts to this one, but this is the text we always used. Click on the title to download/stream the MP3 of this 1983 recording (levels are a little low).

"Song of Peace" (Finlandia), text by Lloyd Stone
Matins Choir, Plymouth United Church of Christ
Des Moines, Iowa - June 1983

This is my song, O God of all the nations
A song of peace, for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is.
This is my hope, my dream, my shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams the same as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the oceans
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover
And skies are sometimes blue as mine.
Oh hear my song, thou God of all the nations
A song of peace for their land and mine.

May truth and freedom come to every nation,
May peace abound where strife has reigned so long
That all may seek to love and build together
A world united, righting every wrong;
A world united in its love for freedom,
Proclaiming peace together in one song.

Wilbert surveys La Concha from our lunch spot on the terrace of La Perla.

The beautiful architecture of San Sebastian, which I love. Details are everything...

Wilbert's into bears...

Three kids with the biggest teddy they'd ever seen

La Concha beach as viewed from La Perla, a luxurious restaurant and spa.

Traditional old Basque houses right next to San Sebastian's bay, La Concha.

The barandilla, the symbol of San Sebastian.

Semana Grande Fireworks

El Buen Pastor behind the ginko trees

The Bay of Biscay

Reminding us where we are...

Wilbert sees La Concha in San Sebastian for the first time.

Ahh... vacation!

Believe it or not, for the more than eight years that I've lived in Europe, I've never really ever taken a proper two or three week holiday. I've almost always smacked a week of holiday on the beginning or end of a business trip (often with Wilbert). That's been nice (and especially economical), but this year we decided to do the "European Thang" and have a proper two-week holiday. We're sitting on a long layover in Charles de Gaulle's Air France Lounge on our way to Biarritz in France, where a car is waiting to whisk us away to San Sebastian in The Basque Country, where I spent one year going to school and learning the Basque language in 1990-91. It will be the first time I've spend such a long time there on vacation, but more importantly it will be the first time that Wilbert has gone with me, and I'm really looking forward to that. When you travel with someone who's never been somewhere you've already been, it almost forces you to see it with new eyes, so that will be fun.

We got a cushy deal at San Sebastian's finest hotel, the Maria Cristina, partially because I'm a platinum member of Starwood Preferred Guest (the world's best frequent guest program!), and partially because I'm renting out the entire hotel for four days next month for a company meeting. :-) So we'll be getting a Junior Suite with a balcony overlooking ocean and sea. It's Aste Nagusia/Semana Grande/The Big Week (the Basque Country means by definition linguistic complexity), so we'll be enjoying the many musical performances, nightly fireworks competition, and generally jolliness in the streets for the next week.

This holiday couldn't have come at a better time. I'm loving my job but reaching burn-out because of the huge proejcts we've bitten off as a team this summer. It's normally our busiest time of year already, but we've complicated it further by choosing to do a major rebranding of the company as a whole, all of which has to be ready for our fall events. I just feel lucky to be working with a good crew of professional, cool people who will take care of everything just fine while I'm gone.

So the timing of this holiday is both good and bad. Guess I'll really get to see what my staff is made of while I'm gone. I think they're up for the job! Besides, it's not every day you get to spend 12 days in the junior suite of a five-star hotel and eat at a restaurant with three Michelin stars (Arzak)!

For 10 years he was the sweetest and most loving cat in the world. In the last four years his behavior has slowly spiralled out of control to the point where we just couldn't deal with him anymore. He was my oldest and dearest friend in this country, and the decision to have him put to sleep was one of the most difficult I've ever made. I shed many a tear today (and suspect there are more to come), and I will miss his sweet soul dearly. And at the same time I'm glad our home life can go back to some semblance of normalcy. I love you and I'll miss you Inaki. Holding you in my arms as you slipped away was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do in my life. And at the same time, I'm glad you left this world without pain and in the arms of the parent you've known your entire life, and not of some stranger. God bless you and goodbye.