The beauty of laughter

You have to put on your best pair of rose coloured glasses and consider the glass half full in times like this to keep perspective and a sense of humour.  Friends are doing an amusing job of keeping me laughing as we navigate through excruciatingly long days, egos and uncertainty at work.

Laughter and camaraderie have a way of lightening the load and reinforcing you are not alone:

- We laughed until we cried testing the new ‘telepresence meeting’ room this week. London has never looked so close as we covered our eyes, yelling ‘nOOOO!’ to avoid examining the nose hairs of our comedian colleague who seemed to delight in pressing his face against the camera. (I can tell you high definition television takes on a whole new meaning!)

- Arriving in my office to see ‘Happy Birthday!’ on the white board in big letters, my desk covered in presents and a fabulous birthday book reminding me the day was mine and to live it up.

February birthday cakes

- Another friend winding me up about my birthday all day making me think it was forgotten yet again, until I received an email with a ridiculously cheesy ‘Hippo Birdie to Ewe’ tribute just before midnight.  

- My Flemish officemates teaching me Dutch: (translated) ‘a man with an ape’, ‘I did NOT sleep well’, ‘I love you’.  These are the phrases of the week…

- Borrowing a random lady’s mexican sombrero in a bar in Brussels (when she wasn’t looking), passing it around, taking pictures of all five of us, only to return it without her realising it….  followed by the great ‘frites’ escapade in search of Belgian fries and mayonnaise at 2.00 AM on a Thursday.  (We finally found an open friterie in the red light district on the suggestion of one savvy New York-based friend who ‘had never spent much time there’.) The owners were so amused by us, we ended up with free portions. (I am still finding frites in my cream coloured car interiour where no one is ever allowed to eat but it was worth it!)

- The Italian carnival trip last weekend with its own priceless adventures and laughter deserves a post of its very own.

- And so much more…

Yes, laughter heals and makes life all the more entertaining.  It’s been a good couple weeks.

Long live the travel bug

To escape the chaos of work and life, I take solace in travel.  

“I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world,” (quote unknown) reads the words inscribed on an old greeting card tacked to my wall.  

It has been hard to see the forest through the trees the last couple of weeks.  Work is trying to say the least, (I will spare you the sordid details and preserve this blog from corporate tales of woe and dispair)!  It continues to pour rain…  Add a cocktail of snow, ice and wind for good measure and people are in vile humour.  Today’s icing on the cake was the incredulous news the Belgian government which already can’t govern (we’re on year two of non-governments and quick fixes) seems to have a new national bank on its hands!  The latest palaver in a string of many… sigh.

But I digress.  It’s clear the sunlight at the end of the tunnel for me is family, friends and travel.  So it is in this spirit that I confirm my 2009 holidays – at least the big ones! Miami and the Caribbean this spring, west coast in summer and Asia in autumn.  I think LeJaguar is in a bit of shock but has nevertheless graciously accepted my imminent departure for a ”girls weekend” to celebrate carnival in Viareggio, Italy.  Having a travel plan takes off the edge like a smooth glass of Oregon pinot noir.  It gives those of us who like to think of ourselves as travel connoisseurs, something to look forward to.

So break out the feigling, toast to travel, carnival and friends and enjoy the temporary escape from reality while you can.  It will be worth it.

(oh and go to the gym and pound out your aggression on the machines.  I’m staying the course!  It helps!  Work may be tough but if I can look and feel like a million bucks I will be unstoppable.) Go, go, go!

Dream away…

“Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist but you have ceased to live.”

 - Mark Twain

I make no apologies for being a dreamer.  One needs to be pragmatic and realistic in these challenging times, but I still like to believe in happy endings in both life and work.

Gong Hei Fat Choy! The year of the ox is upon us

Happy Chinese New Year!  For a day with more dreary news of layoffs and ‘business process optimization’ around the world, I am taking every opportunity to celebrate the new lunar year. Today, I am wearing red and very proud to be an ox!  For those that think they know me well, do the following characteristics accurately describe me?  LoL!  

Positive traits of the ox: Responsible, dependable, honest, caring, honourable, intelligent, artistic, industrious, practical

Negative traits of the ox: Petty, inflexible, possessive, dogmatic, gullible, stubborn, critical, intolerant, materialistic 

Read more about Chinese New Year and your Chinese zodiac sign here.

For the ox, it’s not supposed to be an easy year, but if we work hard, ‘it will be a year one can look back on with pride and a genuine sense of achievement.’

Oh and I am supposedly ‘good at implementing some sort of physical activity into my routine’ – (this will help my health this year) which is why I am starting the gym again tomorrow. (Really, I am.)

Fortunately, I am in the company of many great oxen as we navigate through the coming supposedly tumultuous year.  In addition to the list of 1973 babies I am proud to have as friends, we join 1961 oxen, Barack Obama, Timothy Geithner and my personal favourite, George Clooney!  We are the chosen ones to toil and plow through the thick earth with steadfast resolve. And then it will be spring, and with it, new shoots and leaves…

Stocking stuffer smiles

‘Tis the season to be thankful after a challenging 2008. Following are a couple things that brought cheer to my life this week:

- celebrating the 36th birthday of one of my dearest Belgian friends for the first time in years along with her family (with LOTS of champagne).

- delivering an assortment of homemade ‘American Christmas cookies’ and a bag of fresh Georgia pecans to the Brussels chef and his staff that shared their culinary secrets with me. (The Rice Krispie bears were such a hit, they may as well have been Michelin star quality!) This week’s press coverage about the chef and ‘the marche matinal‘ (coincidence or not) was an added bonus.

For KO: precious 'Frosty' front and centre on our Christmas tree

- The overnight success of our village family-run pizzeria, Di Miceli. Two years after its Italian-Belgian owners had the foresight to open an Italian restaurant in our tiny village in the heart of Wallonie, the restaurant has tripled in size and moved two blocks down the street.  No small feat after the son (and manager) resolved to open the new restaurant before the holidays, only to slip and fall three stories from the roof six weeks ago. Miraculously, he only suffered a broken arm and large cut on his temple. Looking around the aubergine and white interiour design with black and white photos of the village in the 1930s, you would think you were in a posh, hip and trendy Brussels restaurant. In the proud words of the 80-year-old farmer sitting at the table next to us, ”C’est magnifique!” 

- Madacascar 2 Christmas Eve afternoon with my godson, his two sisters and my Belgian brother in the peace of the cinema avoiding the last minute Christmas shopping rush. Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria’s’ ‘movin’ adventures are just as entertaining in French!

- The arrival gate at the airport: watching a family of 25 of every generation break into a chorus of cheers and applause at first sight of a new addition to their family tree: an adopted one-year baby girl in the proud arms of her new parents. Big brown eyes calmly taking in the smiles, flashes and video cameras around her as if to say, ‘what’s the big deal?’ A Christmas present to remember.  

- My Mom as a Christmas present on Christmas Day after she literally got the last plane out of Seattle, WA on the heels of a winter snowstorm. Her luggage may have arrived a day later but it was a minor inconvenience compared to the thousands of others sadly stranded in airports across the United States.

- Christmas Eve and Boxing Day dinners with family, good friends, homemade tiramisu and egg nog.

- The “Merry Christmas” text messages, cards, phonecalls, emails – sometimes from the most surprising of sources – that continue to brighten each day.

- AND finding out those plastic wrap and aluminum foil boxes in your kitchen drawer have little cardboard tabs you push in on each end of the box to hold the roll in place. Now how many of you knew THAT?! (Run to your kitchen and check now!)  

Other smiles from your week to share?