Fitting a square peg in a round hole

My flight out of Auckland was delayed by 90 minutes, which meant I missed my connection to New York, so now I'm waiting at the Admirals Club at Los Angeles International Airport waiting for a later flight. The reason for the delay: Qantas had leased a British Airways plane for the Auckland to Los Angeles sector, but the catering company in Auckland hadn't been told. As a result, they'd prepared all the meals to fit the compartments of a Qantas 747 which is apparently slightly different to a British Airways 747. Aaaah, the beauty of outsourcing.

New Zealand wrap-up

Well, it's about an hour to go before I fly out to the U.S. I'm in the Qantas Club in Auckland, catching up on emails, and getting a few things organised for next week. Today is a looong day of travel. I started at 4:15 this morning in Queenstown, having had just 2 hours sleep. Seven hour drive from Queenstown to Christchurch, send-off lunch and hug session with Saj, Gretel, and Stephenie at Christchurch airport, quick flight to Auckland, three hours at the Qantas Club in Auckland, then I fly to Los Angeles, and connect through to New York. All up, I think it'll be a 32-hour day. Here's hoping I can get some sleep on the long flight across the Pacific.

My week in New Zealand has been absolutely incredible. The mountain scenery is absolutely stunning - snow-capped peaks for miles around, beautiful sunsets, and shimmering lakes. The snow is impeccable - over a metre deep at The Remarkables, awesome powder which made for pleasurable skiing. I don't know how I've survived all these years putting up with the Australian ski-fields. New Zealand is in a class of its own. Of course, the experience was complemented by the fact that I was staying in a nice hotel, dining out for breakfast and dinner every day, and sharing the experience with three of my closest friends.

Now it's off to New York to begin a new chapter in my life. This will be the first time I have ever *lived* overseas. It should prove to be a very interesting, and hopefully rewarding, experience.

New Zealand rocks!!

I'm in New Zealand this week, staying in Queenstown and skiing at the Remarkables. The weather has been a bit up and down, but we've had some incredible skiing, tubing, luging, dining, and drinking. Alas, it's nearly over, but I'm comforted by the fact that my next destination is New York City!!

All exams complete. I am now 50% of the way through my MBA

Stay tuned for more details as they become available. ;-)

4 down, 1 to go

Huge day today. Two big exams, and five hours preparing a case study for my Business Strategy exam tomorrow morning. In less than 36 hours I'll be in the air on my way to New Zealand. Very excited, but also rather stressed. Tomorrow will be a busy day.

3 down, 2 to go

Economics can be nasty, but I think I did enough to get maybe 70%. Two more exams, and less that 48 hours 'til I leave the country...

After the Bubbly Days, the Financial Hangover Sets In

[Financial Mail - South Africa 19.07.2002]

"Didata's share price has declined sharply in recent weeks, bringing its losses for the year to more than 60%. It has collapsed by 93% since its peak in 2000, when it was SA's third-largest listed company by market capitalisation (it is now barely in the top 40). Didata's misfortunes are a classic tale of the excesses of the technology bubble, where companies used expensive paper to buy other companies at premiums that look ludicrous today."

Facelift for Columbia Business School - Students website

Alas, it's just a front. Once you follow any of the links, you're back to the old, ugly, inconsistent content. I get the feeling there's a lot of manual work involved in producing the many parts of the CBS website. Perhaps I could instigate a big IT project while I'm over there, and help them revitalise the entire site. Pity IT spending is waaaay down in organisations this year.

T minus 3 days...

This is my last 'day off' before the transition to New York begins. I say 'day off' in that I haven't got any exams today, so I have the full day available to study and prepare for New York. I have two exams tomorrow though, and their probably going to be the most difficult out of the four this week, so it's going to be a fairly intensive day of study. The excitement associated with my upcoming ski trip in New Zealand and the prospect of studying at Columbia are making it difficult to focus on this week's MBS exams though. Perhaps I should leave the computer lab, and head for the library...

Sydney photography

In preparation for my big trip to New York, I've been scanning hundreds of my photos for electronic storage and viewing on my laptop. Here's two of my favourites from recent visits to Sydney:


View from Stephenie's apartment, July 2002



View from Point Piper, August 2001