Category: General

Time for a vacation

Oslo, Norway has seen its share of snow and cold (downwards to -25c) this winter. As many know I'm not particularly fond of this season, and so it has become a tradition of sorts to shorten it by adding at least one to warmer ares towards the longer end of it.

This year's trip, as last year's (why change a winning strategy), goes to Maspalomas, Gran Canaria, Spain. The one plan for the trip is to recharge my batteries and enjoy some books by the poolside together with some nice cigars. Oh, and did I mention it is a spa resort and thalasso -  definately adding to it being a nice place to relax!

So far I've downloaded a set of new books by Robert Ludlum, James Patterson and Neal Stephenson on my Kindle for iPad - in other words, trying to stay away from books on subjects related to finance or computer programming for once.

The real trial, is however, to what extent I'll be online during the vacation. For it to, truly, be a vacation I should probably shut off the pushmail functionality on my BlackBerry, but then again, knowing myself - with a WiFi enabled hotel and an iPad in addition to the BB, thats probably not gonna happen..

Quick update

I really should get better at updating this blog, but lately I must admit I've found twitter and linkedin to be quicker ways to provide short updates. My twitter updates, at least, are available in the right column for those interested.

So what is new? well, not that much, really. The past week I've been out traveling again , first to Brussels on Wednesday (0640 flight, yay) to sit in a panel discussion for some 20 odd investors, and then to the LBBW Covered Bond Forum in Mainz, outside Frankfurt, Germany.

Both events were indeed very nice, although in Brussels I pretty much only got in an out, but at least got to see the Grand Place.

And in the LBBW seminar we even got to see Germany's new bailout plan leaked by surprise guest: turn twenty euro notes into fifties

So, what is happening forwards? At least I'm staying in Norway for a week or so before going to Stockholm, but of more interest is being invited to sit in a panel at the IMN Global Covered Bond Conference in London in March, which should be fun... oh, and I scheduled a week of vacation in early march as well, to Maspalomas in Gran Canaria.

The month of traveling

September ended up becoming this year's Month of travel. It started off with a trip to Dortmund, Germany between the 17th and 19th in relation to Inter-tabac, a cigar gathering. As I'm the majority owner of a cigar importer in Norway this proved to be a very informative event. Below is a picture of myself and Augusto's General Manager (the GM) together with Don Pepin Garcia and his son, as well as the GM together with Pete Johnson of Tatuaje cigars.

The next trip went to Zurich, Switzerland for the annual Euromoney Covered Bond Congress. This trip included a casino night with UBS and me capitulating and purchasing an iPad. As the picture below shows I apparently also inadvertently applied for The Blues Brothers next to our taxi, a nice old Caddilac.

The final trip of the month, from 29th to 1st of October went to Octoberfest in Munich, Germany. If the picture of myself wearing Läderhosen isn't appropriate, I'm not sure what is.