Istanbul

The big event in my life this week has been a business trip to Istanbul. I was invited to attend a regional client workshop there about Ramadan for the X brand account (probably best not to mention names). There were clients from all over the Middle East in attendance. It was absolutely fascinating to learn about Ramadan and how it is perceived slightly differently in Turkey than in Pakistan. And then again, how there are quite a lot of similarities across all Islamic countries in the way it is observed. Especially the universality of Iftar.




I also had a lovely dinner with the clients that evening and sat next to the brand manager responsible for Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq. He was Egyptian and when I learned that I asked him about the recent Ramadan scandal Egypt has faced. His perspective was priceless: acts of violence against women are as much a product of religious oppression as they are economic factors (ie marriage being nearly as unaffordable as housing in some parts of Egypt).



My only regret was that my trip was too short, I only had 45 mins during a lunch break to get out of the hotel and try to see a tiny bit of the city. So I dashed down the hill from the Swissotel and checked out the Dolmabahce Palace. I will look for any excuse to go back.

Amsterdam Life - Phase Two

January 2007 got off to a great start. I celebrated New Year's with two dates - Al Sr. and Al Jr. They are, among other things, the reason I know how to shoot a gun and are probably responsible for the fact that I became a vegetarian later in life! And here we three are enjoying a rather adventurous meal at Envy in Amsterdam before heading out to Dam Square for some New Year's fireworks. Amsterdam was a virtual war zone of fire crackery that evening. I've heard that the city gets equally as fired up for Queen's Day so we'll just have to see about that come April.

And as part of phase two of my more settled in life in Amsterdam, I include here a view from the living room window of my new apartment in the Jordaan. My apartment overlooks the Brouwersgracht canal and the converted warehouses and boathouses along it. The Brouwersgracht is also known as the brewer's canal, for you factoid lovers. Stay tuned for more picts of my new place and the guest room I've named "The Anne Frank House" (for its simple austerity and the way in which I hope it wil be used as a refuge for any and all of my girlfriends who visit me).

November and December

I truly apologize for an entire two months of silence. I promise to try and get back on a more regular schedule of blogging in 2007.




November and December were a bit of a blur to be honest. I was quite literally all-over-the-place traveling for work. Work travel took me to: NYC (twice), Milan, Paris, Munich, Tokyo, Osaka and Hamburg. Most of the trips were taken for either research or presentations on Sharp Electronics.

Sharp is breaking new eco-friendly ground with their Kameyama manufacturing plant, which I visited with great interest. Sadly, US consumers are not ready for Turtle Mountain (the literal Japanese meaning of the word). US consumers still want to hear about how clear their new picture will be, or how much bigger their screen will be than their neighbors, or how much more baseball or football they'll be able to see. Yet I still have faith that one day US consumers will want to hear about technology that is also good for the planet. One day.

So while we wait for US flat screen consumers to wake up to the concept of Global Warming, let me entertain with you these picts from my travels. I’ve included a few picts from my totally awesome hotel in Paris, KUBE, (up top) which I obviously highly recommend for the business traveler. Next a few shots (below that) from my trip to Japan. Mount Fuji (of course) and the sunrise from my hotel room in Osaka. And below a few more picts of my festive and lovely W+K co-workers from Japan and New York.





And lastly, I leave you with a snapshot of Ofir and I over the Thanksgiving break. He came to visit me in Amsterdam and liked it enough to say he’d come back (whew).