Category: Everything else

Getting to know a city is like getting to know a partner in a relationship in many ways. The first visit is generally the period of romance (or not). You never quite see the city as it is but after a visit or two, you begin to understand ‘her’. Quite the same with Zurich. So here are some thoughts about the city that would hopefully be of help if and when you plan a trip –

Pros:

Great People: I found (in my limited experience) the swiss to be happy go lucky and generally nice. I think that comes from a land blessed with lots of wealth and a high level of stability and security. Nevertheless, definitely a happy place.

Easy travel system: Much like Singapore, Zurich has a clear and easy travel system that makes roaming around the city a breeze.

Generally good weather in summer: It’s funny I say this because this week was one of ‘those’ weeks which every local would like to forget. It was very hot coupled with the fact that rooms typically don’t have air-conditioners or fans. Nevertheless, the weather in the summer is generally very pleasant.

Beautiful Lake: If you are staying at Zurich, I’d recommend staying near the lake. It is a very pretty sight in the summer.

Bahnofstrasse and Alstadt: These are the touristy places. Bahnofstrasse is supposedly ‘the richest street in the world’ as all banks have headquarters there.
Alstadt is the old town. I haven’t had a chance to explore the Alstadt yet. On the next trip, maybe!

Yoghurt: If you are a yoghurt lover, this is one of THE places to be. I was on a healthy diet of 1 litre of simply the world’s best yoghurt! :) Small joys..

Not-so-pro:

Expensive: Zurich is one city I wouldn’t want to take my family on holiday. Expensive is an understatement especially where food is concerned. A very average meal would cost around 20 swiss francs (nearly 20 USD) so I guess you get the picture.

However, on further exploration, there are small eat outs that would allow us to have a good meal for about 10 CHF. But again, that takes a bit of searching.

Lower quality of service in eat-outs: A couple of eat outs had rather rude waiters. We were told that’s because labor is very hard to find (average wage of a laborer is roughly 25 CHF/ hour!!) and hence, restaurants can get away with poor service in general.

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If I were to travel to Zurich, I’d take my time to plan as the costs would tend to be sky high otherwise! And if I were traveling to Switzerland, I would stay in the countryside and only visit the city anyway..

All in all, definitely a city worth visiting! :)

What else would you say to someone you meet for a few moments and you more or less know that you will never meet him/her again?

And that makes sense because you probably never really exchanged names and probably would not even remember if you did meet again?

But, somehow, there is a sort of ‘end‘ in sight when we say ‘Have a nice life‘ – a certainty that in this case we don’t like.

Why is that?

Acceptance – like many things, easy to say, so very hard to do even when it is with regards to something that is hardly likely to change our lives..

Hope – a lovely thing, makes us believe that a random tryst like the one above might actually change our lives..

It’s the mixing of the two that makes life interesting after all..

I’m a morning person. Like to get up around 6. Turns out my career is likely enhanced by my proclivity to be up with the roosters.

If you’re a night owl, on the other hand, you might be more creative and intelligent than us up-with-the-sun types, but your rhythms are out of sync with the corporate clock.

“When it comes to business success, morning people hold the important cards,” writes Christopher Randler in the Harvard Business Review article, The Early Bird Really Does Get the Worm. Randler is a biology professor at University of Education in Heidelberg, Germany

Randler’s research shows that morning people often have the following traits, which can lead to business success:

They earn better grades in school.
Early risers anticipate problems and act to minimize them.
They’re proactive.

Proactivity seems to be the key to all this. Morningsters are more likely to agree with statements such as “I spend time identifying long-range goals for myself” and “I feel in charge of making things happen.”

Evening people, while creative, intelligent, and funny, can also be pessimistic, neurotic, and depressed, according to Randler. They are also out of sync with the hours kept by business and schools, which are in full operation while they doze.

One can learn to become a morning person, but Randler is not sure that would lead to greater productivity.

“There’s evidence that something inherent may determine proactivity,” he says. “Studies show that conscientiousness is also associated with morningness. Perhaps proactivity grows out of conscientiousness.”

I don’t know what to make of this research. As a manager, should I be thinking of ways to get more productivity out of my vampires? How do I bring their attributes of humorousness, etc., into the entire organization?

I’ll have to sleep on that one. What do you think?
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Source: BNET

Good morning.. Have a great day! :)

I just realized how rather boring I am. I’m not much the TV/movie/sitcom person, nor am I the big party geek and what’s worse, I actually really like the thought of working hard!

The thought of working continuously on a tough (and hopefully thought of as impossible) problem is something I find stimulating. And I’m happy with a week with lots of work, a good amount of football, a decent dose of Manchester United and an evening with friends.

While I obviously consider myself very normal (Duh..), I realize how boring I might seem. I’m already on the more boring end of the spectrum back in Singapore but here in Europe, gosh, I just look weird. We got out on an evening and it begins with me not drinking or smoking and after a whole day of training/working to do some research followed by wining and dining, a fellow associate was all set to explore the city (at 11 in the night with the day starting early tomorrow) and I obviously passed the opportunity and obviously found the prospect of blogging out my thoughts more tempting – so there you go.

That’s me in a snapshot. I guess I like things in boxes – for eg: this is an official trip so all focus is on work, staying fit, getting rest etc and would be completely different if I was out here on holiday. And as I’m looking around, I realize how much I take my own characteristics and habits for granted as the norm..

Having said that, I love the fact that I’m this boring because at the end of the day, this is what makes me tick and ready to go every day. The thought of meeting a whole bunch of exciting people, looking for ways to add value and maximize opportunities till when I’m in Zurich before heading back for a nice weekend to Singapore with friends, football, re-org and more work to do – now, that’s my kind of fun! :)

To the simple things in life, then.. :)

Happy wednesday! :)

A man is driving down a mountainous winding road in his sports car. It is a beautiful, sunny day. He has his convertible top down, and he’s driving along enjoying the majesty of the environment.

He sees another car approaching, and as it gets closer, he notices that a woman is driving and she has her head out of the window. As the two cars come closer, he slows down and hears the woman yell “PIG!” The man quickly reacts by yelling back, “COW!” The lady’s car moves on up the winding road and the man continues on his way. As he picks up speed and goes around the next turn in the road, he runs right into a large pig!

When people yell, will you hear threats or opportunities?
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Wow! :)

Yup, big enough first, smart enough next and strong enough finally..

3 stages that I would never have thought of ..

Happy Tuesday! :)

There are some days that are just heavy. More often than not, it is a result of one or a combination of a couple of the following –

1) Lack of sleep
2) Too much intellectually challenging activity
3) Information overload
4) Too many things to juggle at the same time..
5) An unclear priority list resulting in more stretch than necessary..

I’m on the information overload boat for today. Time for a nice bath and some shut eye so I can begin dreaming about what I learnt today.. haha.

Have a great day! And rest well to those in a similar boat! :)

Have a nice day! :)

Looking forward to a great week! :)