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Headlines: In Paris, feeling a bit like "Paul West"... (September 27th, 2007, 11:46am) *

Thursday, July 05, 2007 

Laptop breakdown

My laptop has given up so I have not been able to update my blog regularly, since my arrival in Geneva, or better said, Ferney-Voltaire, the French town I live in.
Many stories to laugh and cry about, well, Sports was mainly the crying part with about all of my teams in every possible sport failing to achieve something decent and Barça signing a hopefully-not-yet-washed-up Henry.
I also spend the whole last week in Paris, for my training which was well fun and quite motivating... although, the motivation probably peaked in Paris and fell to below 0 levels when the boss of my company and the Director of Switzerland, who happens to be the guy who hired me, announced that they leave the company, leaving my whole "departure to Zurich" in a bit of a vague position. I totally feel now like the player brought in by a coach who believes in him, just for the coach to resign for personal reasons 2 weeks later because he misses his family or so...
Paris is one awesome city and I´m starting to like the Frenchies more and more. I mean, I´ve known a few already in the past years, nice people, but I´ve always been a bit wary I must admit, mainly because of Napoleon, their success in football and their agrary politic in the EU, but hey, except from cab drivers (most of whom are not even French!! or rally French if you know what I mean) and waiters (aka arrogant b*tches), the rest of the World in la France is quite cool. Thumbs up.
So the other day in Paris we had a lovely dinner in a small, cosy restaurant in Montmaitre and guess who was sitting like 2 meters away from me....... Juliette Binoche and her new partner, who to me gave the impression of a filisofic-funny-wannabe with the look of a deep voice ballad singer who never quite managed to make a name for himself. I don´t know, it´s only the first impression buuuut... A propos, she is far from being a stunner or anything in person and her style is off the charts, in a negative way. She spoke excellent English though :P
Alright then, that much for now, in this superquick update. More to be posted soon....

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Sunday, June 17, 2007 

Goodbye London... Salut Geneve - Quick Roundup


Sancti Petri, where I went with my girlfriend, late May

Preikestollen, with Nacho, early June




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Thursday, April 19, 2007 

On the brink of tears and other reflctions


OK, the NBA regular season finished and the Celtics, oh surprise, lost again, yet another close game, to finish with an impressive 24-58 record. Nice! Now everything depends on the freakin’ 22nd of May draft lottery. If we are lucky and get a shot at Oden or Durant, two franchise players, as good as they get, coming out of university this summer, we have a shot at turning things around, if we get pick 3 that night, I will cry or go to Pangea, even if it is on my own and on a bloody Tuesday!

Anyways, the season finished and so did both my fantasy leagues and as already expected, I finished 2nd twice, which felt like a shot through the heart. As if I was some the Poulidor of Fantasy Leagues. On a positive note… well, there’s no positive note. Maybe I am too old for these games, I will give it a last shot next season, win and retire “in peace”.




OK, let’s move on and check some early predictions I made before the season started (not taking into consideration “All-NBA” Teams yet), which weren’t actually that bad:

Champion: Rockets if McGrady stays healthy (to be determined)
MVP: Kobe -> It looks like it’s a race between Nowitzki and Nash but Kobe scored 50+ 10 times this season and made a late push to keep his Lakers in Playoffs contention, so… who knows?
Top Scorer: Kobe, followed by Arenas -> This one was actually right, and Arenas finished 3rd.
6th-Man: Barbosa, maybe Delonte West or Antoine Walker if they don´t start... -> Not announced yet but it WILL be Barbosa!
Rookie of the Year: Rajon Rondo -> Mmh, nope, should be Brandon Roy
Most Improved: Shaun Livingston or Deron Williams (best case scenario as a Celtic: Al Jefferson) -> Jefferson is just up there, he made amazing strides of improvemente this year, Deron Williams improved a lot, too, but he’s a second year player so you might have expected it anyways and Shaun Livingston blew his knee and maybe his carer…
Sleeper Teams: Utah, Golden State... Boston -> And although no one counted on them, Utah and Golden State actually made the Playoffs, with Utah winning over 50 games. No comments on Boston…
Top Eight in the East: Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Miami, Washington, Boston, Orlando and Indiana in no particular order. -> New Jersey and Toronto made it, Indian and Boston didn’t, the rest were right.
Top Eight in the West: San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Clippers, Lakers, Phoenix, Utah, Sacramento. -> Golden State and Denver for Sacramento and the Clippers, who smartly enough extended their coach’s contract, having an even better team than last season (when they felt one T. Thomas trey short of the Conference Finals), and oh surprise, missed the Playoffs just the next season. And these NBA GM’s get paid millions! It is crazy!
Defensive Player of the Year: Ron Artest -> He went nuts yet again, hurt my fantasy team, and might slowly be working his way out of the league…
Coach of the Year: Don Nelson -> Put GS in the Playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons… but won’t receive much consideration.






I also went to the movies yesterday and watched “Das Leben der Anderen” (The Live of Others), a great movie about the former GDR and its people. Having gone to the German School in Madrid and having experienced the whole reunification thing first hand as a kid from a quite close perspective (it was huuuuge in our school!!!), I was fascinated by the way, in which the single characters were presented, from Stasi Captain (Wiesler) to the playwright (Dreyman), his girlfriend, the foreign affairs minister…, all set up in the grayish atmosphere of the former GDR and it’s terrorizing regime, a country that presented itself as a model for its people but vastly failed, and it was not only freedom what its citizens lacked, but also hope that things might change for the better.
As the movie evolves, you get to find out how committed comrades show a human side you wouldn’t expect, given their social position and how some, in appearance, rather plain characters and situations, have much more of an emotional background than you would expect. The last line of the movie was just brilliant.
Well, I don’t wanna spoil the movie, I can just recommend it to everyone.







Oh, and I forgot to mention my new plant: Mimosa "Albizia julibrissin", gut I call her Junior. It was a present, a very cool one, and now I am trying to get her in shape after some inconvenient travelling, that didn't do the plant any good. It looks somewhat like this (picture below) and the amazing thing is it moves!!! I mean, you touch it and the leaves close (and no, it's not a carnivorous plant); I assume it is a form of self-protection, but if you touch the leaves here and there and the stalk, which immediately bends, you almost get the impression that the plant is dancing!!!! It's amazing. I am becoming a happy gardener and this Junior is the crown of my small "collection" of plants... :)








P.S. In case anyone wondered, my mate "Olson" stood up to his promise and had his early morning beer in Costa Rica. I didn't expect less!





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Tuesday, March 27, 2007 

A few random notes on a busy week...

... workwise that is. My social life is rather unexciting... Thursday I´ll be back in Madrid for the long awaited, or rather not so, "Aicecks" exam... At least I’ll get to see family and mates, which should be fun… Oh well, here a few things that happened in the last couple of days:



Ben´s cookies: OK, I hadn’t tried them yet and they are really good. Insider tip for everyone coming to London. Try Ben’s Cookies! ... 24% fat "only" :P



When I took my plane to Geneva from the City Airport (best Airport in London, hands down!!, and one of the coolest and most convenient ones I have traveled to or from ever…) I spotted Colin Jackson . Well, he was sitting next to me. I even took a picture and will try to post it at some point. That is the second celebrity in two weeks, after spotting Jeremy Irons. Colin is a World and European Champion in Athletics (110m hurdles) and Olympic Silver medalist. Random anecdote: According to my mate Gal, whom I met at a party on Saturday night, he… likes men. So I guess that’s why he gave me all those funny looks… Naaaaah, just kidding, lol!

Three weeks ago I also had my First UK Hairdresser Experience at a Hair Dresser saloon in Staines, Middlesex, which is where I happen to work. You know, cutting your hair is one of those things, you never know what the result is going to be and why would you trust a random person with some scissors anyway? OK, so on the street where my office is, there’s three hairdressers. One of them got discarded immediately because the “hair-cutter” looked too old, the other one, seemed too full when I went for my appointment, so I chose the last one, which looked alright (from a MK standpoint) and was empty at the moment. Alright then, when I went for my haircut on the next day, surprise, the saloon was not only full, but full with 16-24 year old young ladies (and chavs) and all hair dressers were women… I mean, I felt sooooooo much out of place. I almost expected someone to start the “George Clooney looks so sweet” topic at any moment… Or maybe not George Clooney, that’s more for the 30+ year old singles… Anyways, it was scary! I almost started wondering if they actually “cut” men as well, no, seriously…
OK, so the assistant washes my hair and I get a hairdresser assigned and she greets by shaking hands(!), which was funny… That never would happen in Spain. She looked alright, stylish wise that is, which was a good start, considering two of the other “professionals” had strange hair cuts that resembled the "stylish haitr cut" of one of those drunk English chicks in a pub -> Alarm signals! Well then, once this part was sorted out, discussions about how to cut my hair started and everything was a bit of a mess because neither was I sure about what I wanted, nor how to explain it, nor did the hairdresser seem to know where to start. But hey, gradually we got on the same page and it seemed to be working, and the hair started to get cut, and a bit more here and there, and then my hair got brushed and dried (apparently the English word is “blow-dry” but I will omit this from my story to avoid funny comments…) and it was one amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing experience. I cannot describe it but it still gives me the goosebumps… It was all about the brush, which I cannot describe either, the only thing I know, is that I need to get hold of one of these at some point…
Result of the whole experience: Shock when at the office I realized my hair looked much shorter than I thought, which led to the inevitable jokes amongst my, normally not very humorous, workmates, such as “Ohhhhh, who’s that kid in the corner?” – Whatever! Now I am happy that my hair is short and I don’t have to spend 3 hours every morning trying to sort it out plus some people seem to think it is ok, so… and my dad will be a happy man when he sees me without my gipsy looking mane on Friday! :)
Finally the rating for the hairdresser:
Cut-satisfaction: 8.5… Effort: 9 (considering she didn't have a clue of what to do from my explanations and might not even have understood them!!)... Dedication: 9.5 (it took quite long to cut all that crazy hair)... Name: Wicked! She is called Shiobane, which confused the sh*t out of me, to the point that I must have given her a “what the hell is that name”-look, and she decided to write it down… All in all a solid 9. Happy times!


This is not something that happened in the last few days, it always seems to happen again and again and again: People change formulas in reporting excel sheets, mess everything up and nothing ever happens. I have been close to sending over death-threats per e-mail in my a few times but as we are civilized people here in the UK, I just take a deep breath before thinking: “OK, maybe not kill… but definitely punch that person!” This is a serious issue, there is less worse things at work than having to fill in absolutely f*cking useless templates, correcting formulae and people changing them constantly, which leads to the same errors and confusion again and again and again… It freaks me out. Other than that, I am a pacific and calmed co-worker, believe it or not!

And nba.com launched it’s new edition of the NBA Dance Bracket http://www.nba.com/features/dance_bracket_2007.html which consists in picking your favorite cheerleaders (out of a number of teams) through the bracket in 1 on 1 matchups. And yes, I get excited about these little games… very excited actually!


… Talking about games, I am reaching the final weeks of Fantasy Hoops, too. After 4 years being a 3-time runner-up and finishing in 3rd place once, this year I enter the playoffs as the #2 (out of 12) and #1 (out of 6) seeds in both my leagues. I f I do not make it to the "pantheon" this year, I might as well give up on this but I am a hopeful boy… errr, man!


And the quote of the week goes to our always useless Football Manager: "No osea, a los jugadores se les fue la pinza..." (translated: My players lost it!) after Spain beat Denmark 2-1 in what my dad described as possibly "the worst half ever by a Spanish football national team"... Right so!!!

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Thursday, March 01, 2007 

Good things happen to good girls... or maybe not...

… wow, just heard something “cool” on the radio this morning. Funny things that happen in the Royaume Uni:

So there’s this young lady who calls a radio station because she saw a guy she liked, in a bar or wherever, or just maybe spotted him on a bus (I sort of missed that part…), but didn’t have the guts to talk to him straight away… Anyways, so this radio channel manages to get the guy on the phone, and don’t ask me how(?!?), and the moderator asks LIVE, on NATIONAL RADIO the following question:

“Chris, so do you want the £100 or a date with HER…?” (…her, who happens to be live on the phone, actually)

Well, guess what, the guy, very “gentlemanish” of him, answers:

“I’ll take the £100, going out with my mates this weekend so the money is cool!”

Gutted… Now, if you are the girl, after being sort of humiliated/dismissed for a “night out with my mates” (huuuhhh) on national radio, how do you feel about that?

Let’s suppose a) he doesn’t know who she is and b) he knows:

a) – best case scenario: what a wanker. Forget about him!!
- worst case scenario: depressed and eating ice cream for 4 straight days…
b) - best case scenario: see ice cream part… plus self-esteem on historic lows…
- worst case scenario: … well, you tell me…
Oh well, it was entertaining... :)


On a few other random notes:

- Celtics win 2 in a row!!! Wa wa weeeeeeee!!!
- Smoked shisha in a very cool Moroccan place bear Covent Garden the other day with James (a yankee), Lynn and Adeline (the funny Belgian). And the fres mint ice tea was the dogs bollocks, honestly!!
- Off to Paris again this weekend… no comments!
- Managing a music tool for a third party at work (I manage 20 countries for them from Romania to Denmark or Sweden…) I thought the Fins have quality music, there always seems to be one or two groups coming out of there every now and then… It’s like those unis that always seem to produce 1 or 2 very useful NBA players every season, not spectacular but solid. They have a quite rocky, gothic tendency and some nice freestylers. Also more original, normally, than the cheesy Swedes or the German speaking European nucleous formed mainly by Germany but also Switzerland and Austria…

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Friday, February 16, 2007 

Reviewing Germany... and its music...

OK, a few random carnival thoughts:

-I’m really in the carnival mood, although in London it’s sort of pointless as I will presumably end up having some drinks in a posh club in Mayfair or some random bar in South. Ken tonight which in essence is the anti-carnival atmosphere by default!
-Nevertheless… I created my “Karneval” folder on my mp3 this morning. I am sure I was the only bloke in the tube listening to Brings and co this morning, which invariably led me to think at one point, standing on the platform at Earl’s Court, that I may be a weirdo… but I was enjoying my tunes too much to give a crap, so… And now that we are actually talking about German songs, I think the time has come to establish my All-Time Best “German songs for when you are partying in Germany” chart, I mean, there’s questions in life that definitively need to be answered with indisputable authority and this is one of them, and it was about time to address this issue! So here’s my very personal recommendation of the 10 most enjoyable German party songs. Feel free to add your comments, even though I won’t probably take them into consideration, as I know what I am talking here, lol:

10 Viva Colonia / Viva Bavaria (the Starkbier-Oktoberfest version) & Superjeile Zick (A carnival classic… the lyrics almost sounds Dutch although it’s “koelsch”) – couldn’t leave either out of this list as they are too “must play” carnival songs…
9 Westerland (An all time super classic from the good ol’ Erasmus days)
8 Wahnsinn (Hölle, Hölle, Hölle) (Cheeeeeeesy but megafun, especially the version with the chorus, hehe)
7 Pure Lust am Leben (An optimistic song from some Chavy Bochum group of the early eighties “Geier Sturzflug”, have a look here so get a better picture of them. Utterly hilarious!!)
6 Drink doch ene mit (Best carnival song ever, hands down!! I get the goosebumps here… Talks about an old bloke who wants one last beer and doesn’t have the money to pay for it but eventually gets invited to join the people inside the bar – touching!)
5 Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann and a rather rare English version, wow!!! (Nena at her best... she f*cking kicked a$$... its so “Neue Deutsche Welle”…)
4 Zu Spät (Die Ärzte... Girl breaks up with singer, who in the refrain says something along these lines: “But one day I will take revenge, I will break all girls’ hearts, I will be a star and you’ll be longing for me but then it will be too late, too late…)
3 1000 und eine Nacht (Another mega-classic from the Erasmus days brought to us by Matthias Reim... superdupersong that tells the story of a guy and a girl who have been friends since they were kids and one night, the 1001st, “zoom” they kiss and well…)
2 Bayern (Die Toten Hosen musically bashing Bayern München, aweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
1 Über den Wolken (The Dieter Thomas Kuhn version is the funny one, this video is the original version by Reinhard Mey... I still remember myself singing it from A-Z on Altweiber in 2005 in the düsseldorfer Altstadt, going BONKERSSSSSSS “… schillernd wie ein Regenboooooooooooooooooooooooooooogen”, while everyone was giving me “what the heck?!?” between funny and confused glances… I know it by heart from my school, Switzerland summer camp days… Oh well, I’m getting carried away again…)

Honorable mention: 10 nackte Friseusen (Micky Krause), Aber bitte mit Sahne (Udo Jürgens), Herbert Grönemeyer (he’s big in Germany... Männer is cool, also the live version of Bochum, which always seems to turn in one of those kicking-a$$ performances...), Denkmal (Wir sind Helden, love it…), Jeanny (Falco), Terra Titanic (Peter Schilling… the video looks really weird actually… I remember we even listened to this song on our way to the football Eurocup in Portugal in 2004. … And my mates were Spanish, go figure!)

And not to forget: Gib Köln keine Chance!

- On a random note: I just found this Game Boy “World Cup” review (a game from the early 90’s) in Spanish. If you ever played the game, read it, it’s hilarious, the guy analyses every single detail… CRAZY!

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Friday, October 27, 2006 

Superhero quizz

I thought this was curious: Superheroes. It's a questionary about superheroes.

These are my results. Not much of a high percentage match with any of the superheroes (I guess I'm very normal then) but the Green guy is fine with me!! May he bring this year's Celtics the power with his ring!!!
P.S. Good to not be Robin. By a mere 5% but still, since when is he a superheroe? He's like the Bin Laden of superheroes, who would ever play superheroes and pick the Robin character???

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Thursday, October 19, 2006 

Threatened at Stamford Bridge...

… for showing my Spanish flag during yesterday’s Chelsea-Barça game!!! I was sitting in the Bacerlona supporters’ stands and a few guys behind me got a bit aggressive and started menacing me to not show the flag again so I didn’t “get into trouble” that they were “just warning me”. Now that’s absolutely bollocks!!!

That much said as for Catalan separatists. Bunch of a$$holes as it was well known before, but... it's still sad to see all those flags from different countries (Mexico, Brazil...) being well accepted in the Barça stands and on the other hand being threatend for showing a Spanish one. But that's out country, unfortunately, and that's where our government and our President (well, not mine), a person as evil as it gets, is pushing us! Same for Barcelona's president and all the rest of f*cking bastards with aims of seceding from its parent country, which is no other than SPAIN!!!!!!!

More to follow…

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Thursday, September 07, 2006 

Most deseperate job application... ever?

http://www.gumtree.com/london/05/5365605.html

... my mate's mate. Anyone who might help out?!? :P

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Friday, August 25, 2006 

Unbelievable Story of the Day: Kidnap girl escapes after 8 years!

It happened in Austria, 8 (!!!!) years ago. In 1998 a 10 year old girl got kidnapped in Vienna and despite extensive search, neither the family nor the authorities ever again knew from young Natascha Kampusch. Yesterday, at the age of 18, she managed to escape from the dungeon where she had been kept all these years. Her kidnappercommitted suicide the same day, just hours after he found his “prisoner” had escaped. It turned out the guy, Wolfgang Prikopil, a communications technician, was questioned after Natascha’s disappearance on her way to school as the owner of a white van. A school friend said she had seen Natascha getting into one the day she vanished. Now, you tell me if this guy does not look like a f*cking weirdo (here’s a pic, scroll down: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5284048.stm) …

Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train” comes into my mind here… and the usual Shawshank quote du jour "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies".

Sad story with a “feel good” ending, sort of…Obviously no one will be able to make up for what this girl has gone through and its severe, I would assume, psychological consequences but she’s free now, in good condition according to reports, and hopefully she’ll eventually be able to enjoy the rest of her "new life"...

Here's some footage: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/08/24/austria.missing/index.html

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Thursday, July 20, 2006 

Question of the Day: Why do headphones ALWAYS crack?



... moreover, why do they always start failing when you are listening to the best song or when you need them most, or when you are just starting your journey at 8 am and you have a looong day ahead of you?!?! It freaks me out!!! Just happened this morning again... And the worst thing is no matter how much you spend on them, they always end up broken!

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Monday, June 05, 2006 

Awesome video

Watch out for the last performer!!! Crazy!!!

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Thursday, May 04, 2006 

Cool links

Just a few cool and funny links for a change, you can find some of them on the links section on the sidebar:

Rocky revival: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8MZ_2kB72E&search=rocky
Nice tackle!!!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvYxzH1XbKo&search=germany%20england%20tackle

Urban Ninja: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKrId1Gob0g&search=urban%20ninja

AWESOME MUSIC SITE witha cool live streaming database. It´s like an online radio, just much cooler because you can actually choose the music yourself:

http://www.radioblogclub.com/

Picks for tonight´s NBA GAMES:

Indiana over New Jersey
Chicago over Miami
LA over Phoenix

Further, as far as for my predictions:

Real outcome My prediction

Clippers 4-1 Clippers 4-1
Mavericks 4-0 Mavericks 4-2
Pistons 4-1 Pistons 4-1

... not too bad, hein? Especially considering I loose money about everytime I make bets :)

There´s still a few open posts, I´ll try to catch up asap.

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Saturday, April 15, 2006 

Some Random Pictures...



St. Katherine Dock... in the city centre. Pretty cool!!




... High Street with Church Street. I live just around the corner to the left :)
Note the two guys taking a picture as well? They were Japanese... damn, it was about 7:00 am!!!



... Staines Town Hall. That´s were my office is...

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Friday, April 07, 2006 

Link of the Day: Let the Intern run the show!!!

A job for becoming a New York Knicks intern during the summer:

http://nbateamjobs.teamworkonline.com/teamwork/r.cfm?i=8663

It doesn't get much closer to my dream job, well, except for that it's the Knicks :)

Now, if that's the person who's gonna have some impact (through analysis or research...) on decisions regarding draft candidates the Knicks stuff might consider... it's sort of a scary thought, how an NBA organization might be run. Then again, looking how thier GM, Isaiah Thoma, has performed so far, it might actually be not that bad of an idea letting the intern run the show and if possible even have some impact on trades.... at least some of the fans might feel more confortable with the idea!!

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Wednesday, April 05, 2006 

Picture of the Day: Samuel Sánchez (cyclist)



... after winning his second straight stage at the Vuelta al País Vasco in Spain.

Lucky guy!!!

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Monday, April 03, 2006 

Beckham, stop being a whiner!!

Quote of the day:

David Beckham: "A Medina Cantalejo le gusta el Barcelona"

David Beckham: "Medina Cantalejo likes Barcelona".

Now even Beckham has started to complain about Spanish referees. The once polite and always educated marketing product from the UK has lost his composure due to his team's lack of presence when it most counted and his own inability to carry struggling Real Madrid as the team leader he was once supposed to be. David, c’mon, just play football and stop being a lady, or you and your "past his prime primadonna" teammate Roberto Carlos could soon be joining a circus as the main attractions!

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Sunday, April 02, 2006 


First post. Just had to start with something so a picture should do :)

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About me

  • Bonjour, I'm Marco, welcome to my little place on the Internet.
  • I started this blog when I arrived in London in early 2006, hence the name “london-connection”. In the meantime I have moved to Paris, after a short stint in Geneva. I like to write about silly stuff, about sports, travelling and going out… just about everything that crosses my mind, actually. The little things that spice life up a bit.
  • I hope you enjoy the trip...
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  • "House of Lies - How Management Consultants steal your watch and then tell you the time" - Review

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