See you next month

I just noticed I'll be in Cambridge for Graduation in just one month. Time flies!

I was in Cambridge in May two years ago for the interview day, was there last year too, of course, enjoying the last month of the MBA and some running success, and will return this year for Graduation. Great.

I bought the plane tickets months ago and have already booked a room with views to Jesus Green in the Arundel House Hotel, just a few meters from my old flat in Chesterton Road.

Jesus Green and the riverside are great places for running and that's one of the the first things I'll do on friday when I get there, going running with my friends Giulio, Giacomo, Alessandro and Ben. I also hope to be able to find a race to do on the weekend, so I have an excuse not to get too drunk during the celebrations.

This is going to be a very special weekend for Miriam and me because we'll leave the kids at home with my parents. It will be the first time we go out by ourselves for such a long time since Diego was born three years ago.

I know some of my friends will miss Diego and Leo, but we are waiting for them in Sevilla whenever they want to come. We still haven't received any visit from MBA friends in Sevilla. Looks like Victor and Daniela from Chile are going to be the first ones.

Anyway, I just wanted to say I'm looking forward to go and see everyone in JBS.

Kedington 5k

One more race in the UK. It's a pity I only found training partners and the right contacts to go to races so late in the year. But the training paid off and today I won the Kedington 5k. 

This is a very amateur race, with only about 100 runners, but in a very demanding course and with a few good runners. I think I did a good race, clocking 16:20 for the very hilly 5k in the outskirts of Kedinton, Haverhill, Suffolk, not too far from Cambridge. 

I went with Giulio, a running partner from Cambrige. Also Alessandro, another Italian, came to the race. Giacomo and Ben, the other running partners I found this summer were both on holiday. 

I don't have the results or pictures from the race, but as I wanted to test myself I wore my GPS-HRM-sport watch and here you can see all the data about my race. Below the graph showing heart rate, speed and elevation. 

The bin guitar player

This is one of the Cambridge legends. The guy playing the guitar inside a bin. And it's real. 

The picture above is mine, taken today. 

The video below is from Youtube. 

Imperial War Museum - Duxford

We received another visit from the Pedrali family, my brother and sister in law and their three daughters from Italy. It was a good opportunity to do something together and we decided to go to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, very near Cambridge, on the way to Stansted Airport. 

My brother in law had already been there and it was a good idea to go again all together. It's a massive museum full of planes, tanks and other war vehicles. You can learn about the D-Day and Second World War, but also about commercial planes and the history of aviation. 

They also have historic planes still in working condition, and you can actually fly on them if you want. We didn't do it, but there were plenty of visitors and many did. 

The MBA year is almost over, and I'm quite busy finishing my IP, but we are trying to make the most of our time and taking some time off is always nice. 

Visita de Fernando y Laura

Estos días hemos recibido la visita de Fernando (Martí) y Laura. Yo llevaba mucho tiempo insistiéndole al Martí que viniesen a vernos y por fin se decidieron.


Nos lo hemos pasado bien. Llegaron el domingo de madrudaga y yo por la mañana me fui al St. Ives 10k. Llegué directamente al pub, al Fort St. George, para un buen Sunday roast y una pinta de Peroni. Le di a probar al Martí una cerveza local y no le gustó. Decía que sabía a café.

Además de ver algunos colleges en Cambridge fuimos a Londres a echar un día. Intenté llevarlos a ver las cosas más típicas y más o menos lo conseguimos. Incluso vimos el reloj de Willy Fog, como llama el hermano de Laura al Big Ben.

Vimos el Tower Bridge y la Torre de Londres, la catedral de St. Paul, Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, el Parlamento y el Big Ben, St. James' Park, Hyde Park, Picadilly, el Palacio de Buckingham, Campden Town, Harrods, el Barrio Chino. No sé si me olvido algo.

También estuvimos en un Garden Party en un college. Basicamente una fiesta-picnic en Magdalene College, que está justo en frente de nuestra casa. Además echamos una pachanguita de fútbol muy apañada. Jugamos descalzos aprovechando el cesped increible que crece en Inglaterra.

Los tres días pasaron rápido. Diego hizo pronto amistad con Laura y Fernando y todavía pregunta por ellos. Leo, que se encargaba de despertarlos cada mañana, también. Los veremos de nuevo pronto en Sevilla.

St Ives 10k

Yesterday I run the St. Ives 10k and I was second!

Last week I met Giacomo, an Italian taxi driver that has been living in Cambridge for 19 years and who took me to the station once a few months ago. He's a runner too and we talked about running. But I never saw him again till last week. Then we talked about running (of course) and we went training together the next day.

He usually trains with Giulio, another Italian, born in Cambridge.

The thing is that we went together to the St. Ives 10k and run. It was not such a massive race as the London 10k, of course, but there were a few good runners. The winner was way better than me and won easily. I had a good fight with three other runners for the second place and had to push really hard for the last two kilometers, but it was good to be runner up and specially running half a minute faster than in London.

I finished in 33:20. You can see the results here.

And a picture of the podium below.

British 10k London Run

Yesterday I run the British 10k London Run and it was good fun. I finished 14th in 33:53, which is much better than I expected. You can see the results here.



People at JBS are quite impressed and some even asked me if I can make it to the Olympics. No way. It might look like if a 4 minutes difference between me and Olympic Champion Stefano Baldini is not that much, but closing that kind of gap is literally impossible.

But anyway, the most important thing is that the fundraising for New Foundations is going well.

You can see more pictures here.

Running for others

Sunday I'm taking part in the British 10k London Run 2008 to raise money for the charity New Foundations.

Almost everyone at JBS knows about it and support so far has been amazing, but according to Google Analytics there are a few others around the world who visit this blog regularly, maybe because they find it useful, informative, entertaining...

If you are one of those and you want to help, you can sponsor me here: http://www.justgiving.com/paco

To spice things up a little bit I donated 25 pounds and I bet that if I don't make it to the top 25 in the race (out of 25.000 entrants!) I'll double my donation. If I make it, you can double your donation. Many of my friends have taken me on this bet. But it's up to you.

Any contribution is welcome. New Foundations runs medical projects in the Niger Delta where £5 will pay for:

• seven patients to be treated
• 10 children to be vaccinated against measles, tetanus, polio and given Vitamin A
• over twelve months 3 people will receive sight
• three treated mosquito nets for children
• Just 80p can provide an antimalarial injection that saves a childs life

Many thanks. I'll let you know how I did as soon as I can, probably Sunday night.

Grantchester

Today we finally made it to the Orchard!

I had walked to Grantchester with mum and dad when Paco was in Paris for his MBAT but after stopping to see friends on the way it was too late to make it to the Tea Rooms. This time I went with the MBA ladies.

Well, we didn't have the same glorious weather we had when my parents were here, but it didn't rain, we got some sunshine and we certainly had lots of fun and ate en excellent tea!

Meanwhile the kids loved climbing up the trees, including Diego who decided that the best way to do it was barefoot!

Here go a few pictures:

MBA Ball

For me a ball has always been a sphere you can kick around. Here a ball is also a mega-party every college hold in Spring to celebrate the end of the academic year. As there are many colleges and to prevent clashes, they run from April to June.

This year, for the first time, the MBA class organised its own ball. It was another great job from the CBSC, a perfectly organised event. It was held at the University Arms Hotel, and it was a very strange feeling returning there after the Alumni Gala Dinner I went to in October. It felt like if it was a month ago. Time flies.

The party started at the school with drinks and prizes for the students that have contributed the most to the Cambridge MBA experience. Prizes went to Natalie from France and Janine from South Africa. What was the prize? A return ticket to anywhere in the USA with American Airlines.

Before leaving for the hotel we had an unofficial graduation picture, everyone in their tuxedos, rock star or dinner dresses. Actually Oliver missed the picture because he was watching a Germany match in the nearby Browns pub and I forgot to call him, Ofor from Nigeria was late and Dorji from Bhutan was in London. Probaly also a few others missed it. I managed to put Oli back in the picture with Photoshop. Where is Oli?

I was a good party but though there is still one more week of lectures people started to feel sad about the MBA being almost over. Many of us are going to stay over the summer, either in Cambridge or London, on holiday, working on assignments and IP, doing an internship or looking for jobs. But also many of us are going to leave soon and you never know when, if ever, are you going to see them again. It's a strange feeling.

Just in case we got a nice picture taken with our Chilean friends. From left to right, Andrés and Paula, Rodrigo and Blanca, us, and Victor and Daniela. Good friends I'm sure we are going to keep in touch with.

Once in the hotel we had dinner, Oscar Awards Ceremony and dancing.

In order to reduce costs we opted for a buffet dinner and that caused a massive traffic jam, but we all managed to eat and food was not bad for English standards.

The Oscar Ceremony was funny and very well run by David Sabel. I was voted by the rest of the class as Most Valuable Player, and there were many other funny prizes to Andrés as the most likely to be a CEO, Roupen as the best dancer, Juan and Natalia as the most likely to be models, and I can't remember more.

Finally, the dancing with Roupen, Vassily, Ileana and other superstars performing at their best. Music was provided by Cambiando, a salsa band where Oliver Campbell plays. Really good music.

At the zoo

Today we finally made it to Linton zoo. We had planned the expedition for Diego's birthday in March and had to give up on the idea because it snowed, but this morning we woke up and the day was perfect so even though Paco had an appointment in the afternoon we decided to make the most of the time we had.

We walked to the bus station and hopped on the first bus going to Linton, a small village on the outskirts of Cambridge, it was strange to realize how little we've been out of town in this year we've been without a car. The countryside is very flat but pretty, as is Linton with the traditional thatched cottages etc. From the bus stop it's 10' walk along a quiet road to the zoo.

We had a quick lunch and then started the rounds: the zoo is quite small but has some pic-nic areas, playgrounds and a bouncy castle so it's fun for the kids.

Diego loved the zebras and the tiger, but was annoyed with the lions who did nothing but sleep. He was also very taken by the enormous tortoises and tried feeding them stones! Luckily he couldn't get quite close enough!

We also saw monkeys, parrots and a giant rabbit.

However what Leo enjoyed the most was dropping his bib out of the buggy and watching mum, dad or Diego picking it up. "Isn't that fun!?!"

The Oxbridge Challenge

The event is still running, but as I have good news and some spare time I take the opportunity to write a quick post on the Oxford vs Cambridge MBA Challenge.

First, we won the football match 3-1. We played probably the best match of the season, especially in defense, and that made things easier. Gaylord, Rui and Juan scored. I'm quite happy with my performance as I took part in all three goal plays even if I didn't score.


Second, I won the 5km race. Ok, I was expected to do that, but you never know. And in this case the race was straight after the football match. I just had time to change my shoes and my shirt, less than 10 minutes.


We also won at Cricket, Rowing, Tennis and a few other sports.

Weather was almost perfect and my collegues did a great job organising the event. Everthing worked just perfect.

In the afternoon I played some petanque and we also won!

Then we went back to the school to have some drinks and then to St. John's college for dinner. Miriam, Diego and Leonardo came too, so it was very nice.

Before leaving the college grounds two guys, one from each university, jumped from a bridge into the river Cam. Too much wine...

The party finished at The Anchor, as usual.

The MBAT

I'm back from the MBAT. It's been an amazing weekend meeting lots of people, playing sports and enjoying the good weather, Paris and the french food.

On top of that I won 2 gold medals in cross country and 1.500 meters and I contributed to the bronze medal as a team in the cross country race.

I think we also did quite well in football reaching quarter finals where we were eliminated by IESE, one of the favourites.

Cambridge is a small school compared to LBS, INSEAD and the like and I think we did quite well overall. I'm pretty sure we beat everyone in coolness, partying and networking ;-).

For me it was a quite busy weekend. I played three football matches on Friday, so Saturday morning I had very stiff legs. But the cross country race went well and I managed to come first covering the very hilly 7 km in 25:40. Inmediatly after I played the football quarterfinals, that we lost, and a couple of hours later I run and won the 1.500 meters in a very modest time of 4:44, almost one minute slower than my personal best but good enough to secure the win.

The support from the class was simply fantastic and they really made me forget about all my aches and pains during the final race. It really feels good being number one at something, even if it's not Accounting ;-).

I'm not in my best shape but I'm happy I'm running again and that my back and my foot are not complaining too much. I hope this can help me to come back and give another try to the marathon in autumm.

Weekend with Colby and Rebekah

Our friends Colby and Rebekah came to visit us over the weekend and it was a very nice break from MBA life. It was pretty intense too.

Friday we went to a Formal Hall at Magdalene College, courtesy of my colleagues Carlo and Amane. It was the first formal for Miriam too and the first time Diego and Leo stayed with a babysitter. Everything went well and we all really ejoyed it. Colby and Rebekah were quite impressed by the scenary and the college master saying grace in latin, among other things.

Saturday we enjoyed the best weather of the year, a true spring day. I played football in the morning at Parker's Piece while other MBAs practiced ultimate frisby for the MBAT. For lunch we decided to improvise a picnic in the park and got massive and delicious burgers from GBK. They make probably the best burgers I've ever eaten.




In the afternoon we went punting. The river was packed and it was quite funny because we had a few crashes with other boats and also saw a couple of people falling into the water. It was the first time I went punting this year and I did pretty badly. I was going from one side to the other of the river. Colby was doing it for the first time and did actually quite well.

Sunday the weather changed and it poured rain most of the morning. After church we went for lunch to a pub and finally decided to stick to our plan and take a train to Ely. We were lucky because entry to the Cathedral was free and we even managed to see the kids choir singing. Finally we took a tea at almost five in a very nice courtyard just behind the cathedral.

I love having friends at home. It's the only way I actually unwind.

When the sun shines

One of the funniest things of Cambridge in particular and the UK and other "cold" countries in general is that as soon as the sun shines everyones goes out and sits in the sun.

That has always been a quite funny thing for somebody like me who comes from Sevilla, where the sun shines over 300 days a year and people actually runs away from sun.

But now I live in Cambridge, I endured snow the day Spring begun, and now I also act like a leezard and go out as soon as I spot some sunshine.

That's exactly what we did the other day. It was still cold and the grass in the park was wet, but we decided to have a picnic.

Oxford vs Cambridge

El sábado fue la regata Oxford-Cambridge, conocida aquí como The Boat Race, y además el partido de fútbol entre las selecciones de ambas universidades, el Varsity Match.

Oxford confirmó los pronósticos y se llevó la carrera. Cambridge ganó el trepidante partido de fútbol por 3-5.

El plan era ir toda la familia a echar el día en Londres pero al final el tiempo se puso muy malo y fui yo solo. Bueno, solo con otros 50 o 60 MBA.


El partido se jugó en el estadio del Fulham, que está literalmente pegado al río cerca del puente de Putney. El estadio tiene una especie de terraza con bares desde donde se ve el río y desde allí vimos pasar la carrera. Esto es como el ciclismo, una hora esperando para verlos pasar a toda leche durante unos segundos. Afortunadamente los bares tenían pantallas y en cuanto pasaron nos metimos dentro para ver terminar la carrera por televisión.

Como comentaba antes el partido de fútbol fue trepidante y Cambridge acabó ganando 3-5. Cambridge se adelantó tres veces en el marcador, pero Oxford empató las tres veces hasta que Cambridge marcó el cuarto en el 87 y el quinto en el descuento.

El mejor jugador del partido fue un chaval de Cambridge, un tal Stock de St. Catherine's College. Marcó los cuatro primeros goles en las cuatro ocasiones que tuvo y dio el quinto. Todo lo que hizo lo hizo bien. A mi personalmente también me gustó mucho uno de los centrales de Cambridge, Turnbull, y el nueve de Oxford, que según las niñas se parece al Prince Henry y tiene un nombre un poco pedante, Toogood.

De todas formas yo esperaba ver un poco de más nivel en el partido. Evidentemente los chavales eran buenos, pero no se veía demasiada rapidez ni precisión. Y no estoy comparando con el fútbol profesional, sino por ejemplo con el Cambridge United, que juega en el equivalente de Segunda B en España.

En la carrera de barcos prácticamente no hubo historia. Oxford era favorita y confirmó los pronósticos. El tiempo era muy malo, con mucho viento, y de hecho fue la carrera más lenta desde 1949. Oxford salió muy rápido y tomó un poco la delantera. Cambridge recuperó y se llegó a poner por delante al paso por el puente de Hammersmith. Sin embargo no consiguieron adelantar y tuvieron que coger la última curva de la carrera en paralelo por la parte de fuera, lo que los reventó.

Nosotros los MBA tendremos nuestro Varsity Match particular contra la Oxford Saïd Business School a finales de Mayo.

Exams over, assignments pending, GCP in progress

I wish I were an undergraduate in Cambridge. Their terms really last only two months and they don't have many hours of lectures. Today the city was half empty because the Lent Term is officially over and most of the undergrads have left. We, MBAs, have to finish some assignments and work in our Global Consulting Project, so life is not that easy for us.

Of course I'm simplifiying things a little bit. Undergrads in the University of Cambridge are very bright people, the best students from the UK and around the world. Normally they are mature, responsible, smart and focused people and though they might not have many hours of lectures they still have lots of revisions with their tutors, books to read and essays to write. I kind of like this academic model. You have much more room to focus on your priorities, you have to be responsible and self-motivated, and you always need to be able to integrate distinct information and produce knowledge.

But let's go back to the point of this post. First, we finished the exams for the term. Friday we did Strategy and International Business, two exams that as usual we had to write one right after the other in a three-hour slot. It's not easy to switch from one subject to the other on the spot and above all it's not easy to handwrite for three hours. I'm not used to it anymore and my hand and wrist hurted. My handwriting is even worse than it was when I finished my undergraduate degree and I wonder how the examiners can understand it.

I did the Strategy exam first and chose the question almost nobody else chose. There were two questions, one about strategic alliances, the one I chose, and the other one about strategy frameworks, the one everyone expected and almost everyone did. I was going to do it but I like to go against the stream so finally chose the alliances one. I didn't do the best exam in my life, nor the worse, so it should be ok.

Then I did the International Business part. In this case there were three questions and we had to chose one. I chose again the first one, which was about the shift and blurring of the boundaries of the firms in the Global Business Revolution. It was basically writing about the "cascade effect", the favourite theory of Peter Nolan, probably the best lecturer I have had so far in the MBA. I was a bit tired in the end and though I made all the points I wanted to make I probably didn't organise and express my ideas as well as I could. I still need to improve my English and my essay writing technique.

But thought exams are over, I still have three assignments pending. The People Management group and individual assignments and the Global Marketing individual paper. I'm working on them but they are due next week so I still have some time to waste with my blog.

To be honest People Management has dissappointed me a little bit. It's an elective but I think it overlaps too much Management Practice and Organisational Behaviour. I expected something more practical, more "how to manage people" from the manager point of view, rather than revising again conceps like motivation, leadership, etc. But it's still useful. All the MBA alumni I know always say that while you are taking the course everyone pays more atention to the hard (quantitative) than to the soft (qualitative) courses, but that in the end, when you become a manager, what you really use the most is your soft skills.

On the other hand Global Marketing has even exeeded my already high expectations. Eden Yin is really an extraordinary lecturer. And when I say extraordinary I say good but also out of the ordinary, original, politically incorrect, challenging and fun. Their lectures are highly interactive but for some people his style is too harsh. In my opinion his attitude is part of the course and completely necessary. You need to question your assumptions, cure your cultural myopia and change your mindsets to be a good global marketer.

And as I mentioned before, while all the undergraduates are on holiday, we have to do our GCP. I'm doing it in a team with Andrés, Robyn and Will at Saatchi&Saatchi, one of the world leading advertising agencies. Our project coordinators are two MBA alumni, Jasper and Jane, which I believe is a great advantage because they know our expectations and also our potential and limitations. And our tutor is Allègre Hadida, the Strategy lecturer. She knows very well the company and his CEO Kevin Roberts and is being of great help.

Of course, after all this work and the exams we had a Pub Night at The Anchor on Friday. I went out late because I had dinner at home, put Diego to bed, and wasn't too sure about going out. I was a bit tired. But in the end I'm happy I went out because when I got there the party was at its peak and I had two or three hours of good fun and interesting conversations with colleagues. I even did my internationally famous "flag". I'll post a picture if I find it.

Pizza night

Don't believe a word of what Miriam said about her pizzas yesterday. They were fantastic. One of my colleagues said it was the better pizza he had ever tasted.

I went to watch Cambridge United football match against Woking with the guys who are doing the Global Consulting Project at Everton F.C. They requested the help of other football fans for a focus group for a market research and invited us to the match in exchange.

The match wasn't as good as the previous one we went, but Cambridge won again and they are second in the league. We might go to see other matches if they play for a promotion.

As in the previous time, I went with Diego. He didn't pay too much attention to the football, but behaved very well, enjoyed the singing and played a little bit with Juan, Dorji and Andres's son, Cristóbal.

Miriam rang me during the match and asked me if we wanted to have a pizza at home. Finally Juan, Luis, Dorji, Oliver and his brother Thomas joined us and we spent a very nice evening drinking beer and wine and eating crisps and pizza.

Tonight more social events, dinner at Carlo's kitchen in Magdalene College.

Baking!

I'm officially having a baking frenzy!

Yesterday I made pizza for some of Paco's classmates... but it was rather a rush and the result was not too great but today I really enjoyed baking my first loaf of bread in a long time. To be fair, I must confess I've just bought a great book on bread, so I just followed the recipe but the loaf looks quite good... I'll tell you how it tasted when we've tried it, I still don't trust my oven here... we just don't seem to get along.

And here go the photos to prove it:



The tulips are from last night (Thanks Dorji!): don't they look lovely?

Actually I've just found out that they grow masses of tulips around here and there's a big fair on in May... it would be fun to go have a look.

Yesterday I also discovered yet another bookshop I hadn't been in: they do story time for kids so I might take Diego there another day.

A trip to Ely

This week we decided we should make the most of the little free time we have as a family so seeing it was a lovely sunny day - even though freezing cold - we took a train to Ely to have a look at the famous Cathedral and walk around a bit.

Diego obviously enjoyed the train bit! He's really into anything that moves now: buses, trains, lorries (or lollies!!), cars, bikes... you name it! And we also have to mention that he's become quite a walker, he only needs a bit of encouragement and he'll go quite a long way on his own two little legs.

Paco and I admired the Cathedral: it's quite amazing especially if you consider that it's practically in the middle of nowhere! It was also nice to have time to chat over a meal.

And Leo... well, I think what he enjoyed the most was sleeping all wrapped up in his buggy!



Interior of Ely Cathedral



The stained glass windows reflected on the columns




Diego running to catch up with us!