if you're Irish, come into the parlour!

Not the most inventive of song titles, I know, dear reader, but with it bein' Saint Padraig's day and all, it was the first one to come into my mind.

I'm not bothering to apologise for my absence (the best part of two months), meaning only to get on with some observations.

My sojourns since I last checked in have taken me to London for a higher education conference and the heaviest snowfalls for 18 years and then back to Nottingham where the snow followed me and, yes, you guessed it, Nottingham had the heaviest snowfalls for 18 years I Have some pictures and must remember to come back and load them up for general viewing - geez I'm getting slack at this, ah well). Not having to put up with the snow and its incoveniences for long periods of time, I satisfied myself that the fresh fallen snow was a "winter wonderland" and enjoyed the experience for as long as it lasted.

A later trip to Brussels to chair a stream of a European HR summit added to the network I have been building here, and I was able to catch up with my friends from EFMD in the process. I'm back in London on Thursday for a CK Prahalad/Marshall Goldsmith extravanganza, and that might be worth reflecting on when I return.

It's hard to think that it was only a number of weeks ago that there was snow on the ground when the daffodils are now out in bloom, although today's weather has turned suitably "Irish" (ie cold and miserable) but at least it's not raining. I've got an addition to the apartment recently in the form of "Biggles", a young bear whose naming (and donations for Red Nose Day) won him for me. He has settled in nicely - photos also of him to come.

Not very exciting all this dear reader, but at least it's a contribution and so I move on to the next thing and try and reduce the times in between.

hands up all those who had lunch in Vienna today!

Hello dear reader, happy new year and the, by now, usual apologies for my absence .... now

well I can put up my hand (*grins*).

I'm moved to return to the blog and use the shameless title because that's exactly what I did today.  But it's better than that; let me explain.

This morning, I woke up in Brno (home of Gregor Mendel, he of genetics fame) where I had, the afternoon before, delivered two graduation speeches on the importance of being a responsible, reflective practitioner.  Picked up my colleagues from the Brno International Business School (BIBS), we drove to Bratislava, in Slovakia, to view the BIBS teaching facilities there.  We then drove on to Vienna for lunch (as you do; *grins* again) in a delightful Italian restaurant opposite the Opera House, walked through the city centre to Kathedrale St. Stephan Haus (the Cathedral of St Stephan), took a carriage ride around the centre, then retraced some of the route on foot for a closer look.  

After an expresso to fortify us for the return trip, we drove back to Brno in time for dinner in a restaurant on the 15th floor of a building that gives a wonderful, almost 360 degree, view of the city, with special emphasis on the Spilberk Castle and Augustinian Abbey and Church of St Thomas (spiritual and physical home of the aforesaid Mendel).

Okay, so that tells the story about the last 12 hours or so, but there is the little matter of the last 5 months, you say.  I'm not going to try and capture that in the context of this blog (or, in all probability) any succeeding blog, but I will say that the last 5 months have been a happy and fulfilling, albeit intensely busy, time for me.

I think the best way to sum up my reaction to my time in Nottingham, is to recount events at the airport in Sydney, on my way back to Nottingham after visiting family over Christmas.  As I was walking through the airport, it occurred to me that I could, if I wanted, simply walk back out of the airport and get a taxi back to Carlingford, home and family.  My response to that thought, though, was to affirm to myself my excitement about and commitment to the work I am doing at Nottingham Business School, affirm my enthusiasm for and enjoyment of working with the folks at the School (and in the University more generally) and, therefore, affirm my decision to take on the role in the first place by getting on the plane.   However that sounds written in and read from a blog, it makes sense to me and I'm getting on with it! :-)

So dear reader, this post comes to an end, with greetings for 2009 and the year of the Ox, as well as a happy Australia Day for Monday.

I will be back; how regularly that occurs, I'm not sure but Macarthuresque, I will return.

two weeks later!

mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa dear reader!

The last two weeks have passed in a blur as I have been to Harrogate for the BAM (British Academy of Management) conference; moved from the Welbeck Hotel to a serviced apartment about a 5 minute walk from the Welbeck in one direction and our offices in Park Row in the other; wandered through the Newton and Arkwright buildings that will be the NBS home in another 12 months or so; been back to London for a CBI conference; found what could become my local (The Hand and Heart); and shared a pint with friends Sarah and Murray at The Playhouse.  All the while, I have been on a steep learning curve as I come to grips with the School and its denizens, as well as the wider context within which we operate.  Throughout, Sue and Barry have been a great presence and support, both at work and at play (and at laundry for that matter).

What follows are the notes I wrote on the first night in Harrogate (the reason for it not being 'blogged' appears at the end):

Tuesday 9^th September

Amy, David, Betty and Nancy – the last 90 years of Lamond history summarised in these four names, as my Aunty Nancy (the youngest of the four at 81) recounted my grandmother Cathy Lamond’s offspring.  I’m not sure when I’ll get this information on facebook, but after an emotional evening of regular cups of tea from Uncle Joe (Nancy’s husband) “watering” Nancy’s recounting of so many different experiences, I wanted to get some of the details down in this Word document while they were still fresh and remembered.  But I get ahead of myself in my diary.

Monday had been a busy day of pushing the feet further under the table as I picked up on a number of issues with which my Dean had entrusted me.  I was even late for tacos at Sue and Barry’s place at 7.30pm, as I finally extracted myself from the office and the seemingly endless stream of emails.  We continued the Park Gate possibilities at Sue’s and Barry’s place, while we munched our way through some quite delicious tacos and a couple of glasses of Australian red (which is ubiquitous in Nottingham, thank goodness J).  This also provided some relief from the issues I was requested to explore at work (positively and successfully I hope, but time will tell).

So, after a restless night looking towards the trip to Harrogate for the BAM conference and my visit to Aunty Nancy, I put in a full morning’s work first before a visit to one of the Park Gate properties I had arranged to view with Denise.  While the viewing went well beyond the time I had anticipated, it was well worth the extra investment and I think there may well be a result to come from that one.  Back to the hotel for a quick pack that wasn’t managed in the morning before heading to the office, and then I was confronted by the need to extend the rental period for the car I had picked up at Heathrow (and which, dear reader, has sat in the garage next door to the Welbeck for the last week or so as I have walked from one end of Nottingham to the other to meet my work meeting commitments).

You might remember the fun and games I had trying to get the car I had reserved and paid for in the first place (albeit the windfall of the Toyota Prius as a result).  I spoke (eventually) to the folks at Heathrow, then at Nottingham, but it was all too hard because the original booking was through an agent in Australia. “So”, I finally said to the young lass in Nottingham in conclusion, “I guess what I do is just turn up a day late and pay the 30 quid” (because the system wouldn’t let her add it to the booking in real time).  “Yeah, well, I guess that would work”, was her reply.

So this combination of an extended viewing, the silliness of failed technologies (and, I guess, a degree of procrastination on my part), I left for Harrogate about an hour and a half later than the original plan.  Add the rain and traffic problems along the way and it was more like 6pm than 4pm when I arrived at Aunt Nancy’s place (the sat-nav had taken me to Harrogate from an unexpected direction, and so I pulled in to her place before I got to check in at the Old Swan Hotel, my “home” for the next couple of nights (and the site of Agatha Christie’s missing two days in 1926, as Joe was quick to remind me and as I read further about later in the hotel services directory, which was long on history but not exactly discursive on services – no internet connection for example J).

and so I pick up the story with another visit to Nancy and Joe on the Wednesday night and a meeting with my 2nd (?) cousin Daniel, son of Nancy and Joe's daughter, Joy, whom I had met the previous evening.  After a good day's conferencing, I was ready for another raft of Nancy's stories and left not only with knowing more about my family but also with a very special reminder, thanks to Nancy's generosity.

The little bear in the picture to the right is a white chocolate bear from "Betty's", a famous Harrogate tea spot.  More important are the two jugs/vases you see facing each other.  These were a gift from my Dad to his mother more than 60 years ago, when he was home on leave from (I think) his military service in the middle east.  Cathy had passed them on to Nancy and now they have come full circle to another David.

That's probably enough for this contribution.

Pleasant Valley Sunday

Well, dear reader, it's midday on Sunday and here I am still in the hotel room, despite considerations about wandering about the hills and dales for the weekend - rain for most of yesterday, and tales of flooding at regular intervals, matched by weather predictions of continued rain, have kept me close to "home" instead.

At one level, it has meant that a lot of work, especially in regard to my journal editorial responsibilities, has been done, but it is hardly the vision of the pleasant valley Sunday that The Monkees had in mind (or maybe it was? - prompted by the song title, I've just "you tubed" a bunch of old Monkee videos in a very pleasant interlude; indeed the sun has just popped out!)

Yesterday I managed to clean up the leftover emails from my personal laptop, although I still need to sort out how I get all addresses, etc on to the University system (and then how I would get them off eventually when I leave in so many years time, but that's not for now). The emailing included a series of exchanges with Professor Joyce Liddle and we ended up at The Bell Inn on Angel Row between 7am and midnight, talking about the School, mutual colleagues and a raft of issues that could broadly be subsumed under the heading of "life, the universe, and everything".

... back to Sunday and still I hesitate to ring my Aunt Nancy, discovered by Kerry's detective work, and more than an ounce of luck in finding a third cousin of mine, Karen, who has been searching the family tree from her side and brought us together (and now I go to the good old standby - Layla with Eric (this is the live version but not the Unplugged version).

a little later at about 1.30pm:

Well, I've done it! Just got off the phone from talking with Nancy and her husband Joe, and I'll visiting them on Tuesday before I get into the BAM conference swing (when I know that the first trip out of Nottingham organised for me is to Harrogate, where Nancy and Joe live, and I match it to all the other examples of synchronicity and serendipity over the last month or so, then it was only the right thing to do!)

I've also subsequently been introduced to Second Life by Beattie Berry who is the overall co-ordinator of the Management Through Collaboration (MTC) textbook project, so while the day/weekend has not unfolded as I might have anticipated, it has still been a very positive, productive one (and it's just started raining again).

and so Sunday proceeds .......

teddybears' picnic

Another big day in the office as the Dean heads off to a well-deserved holiday break and I settle in for the next couple of weeks in his chair. In the meantime, I've had good news from Denise, who has a property for me to view on Monday, for possible purchase.

I've been round to Sue and Barry's place on the way home (well, back to the hotel) after work (still far too late) and picked up my laundry, all wonderfully fresh and dried. Sue has also gifted me Sir Neo, my very own teddy bear to cuddle and who now graces the photo on my profile instead of my ugly mug. A Call for Papers for the Management History Division for the 2009 Academy of Management (yes, already, even though this year's conference finished about 3 weeks ago) and I'll finish the night with a baguette and a glass of diet coke, while I work out what the weekend will bring.

Friday (with a nod to Joe Jackson)

Hello gentle reader,



Despite my best efforts to try to stop and reflect at the end of each day, time is passing in a blur of activity and excitement such that my ramblings here are more intermittent than I would hope, so forgive me if the entries are not as frequent as I would like them to be at this stage. That being said, I owe some thoughts about Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

First thing to say is that each of the days have been more than worthwhile as I have got to meet a number of the key people in the University, from the Vice Chancellor down, each of whom has been invariably personable, welcoming and clearly committed to the University. It's reassuring to find such a positive vibe and it is helping me to settle in as I come to grips with the SRFs, CMTs, RPGs and other TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) that are NTU's.

The only blip on the horizon at this stage is my frustration at trying to find a more permanent place to rest my head. I had lined up with Martin Co, one of the real estate agents that keeps bankers hours, to inspect a property in The Ropewalk yesterday (couldn't do it on Saturday or Sunday, of course) at 10.00am ("We don't get out of bed before 9.00am", quipped James, the young lad with whom I'd made the arrangement) and promptly arrived to wait, and wait, and wander from Ropewalk Court down to Derby Road and back, in case I had misunderstood the agreed meeting place - nothing, zippo, nada!

After half and hour of fruitless waiting and wandering, I walked back to our Park Row office and rang Martin Co, to be told that they had rung the office number I'd given them as a security check and, as there was no answer, they didn't turn up (they hadn't bothered to tell me they would do that, and I had no record of them doing so, but needs must). After some toing and froing as they frantically looked for somebody at their end to be available, we agreed to try again, this time at 11.00am. Again, I stood outside Ropewalk Court in vain - these people don't really seem interested in letting!

My luck was on the change though, it seemed, because while I was standing there, a lady from another letting agent had arrived to show a different flat and her viewer hadn't showed. We chatted and I established that Denise and her colleague are the principals of at your service a relocation services company they've been operating since 1997. Serendipity or no, Denise now is charged with finding me a place to rent or buy and I'm hoping to hear good (or at least better) news this afternoon when she calls me.

In the meantime, Sue and Barry have been keeping a friendly eye on me. I visited last night for "bangers and mash", laundry detail, and another delightful evening of conversation, washed down with a medicinal glass of red wine.

Another day of briefing and learning awaits .....

i can't think of a song with ... doh! Ruby Tuesday!

Tuesday and the last couple of days have flown past.

Sunday was another delightful day, thanks to Sue and Barry, who took me on the "Cook's Tour" around Nottingham, including "Beeston Tech" (the friendly nickname for the other University in Nottingham), Trentbridge, Notts Forest, Notts County and Nottingham Trent's Clifton Campus.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon with neighbours Adam (from Sydney) and Elsabe (from South Africa via Germany) who were as delightful as Sue and Barry. It was when Adam and I popped downstairs to the local Budgens (7-11 equivalent) to replenish the red wine supplies that the whole notion of "the migrant enclave" hit me.

Having watched folks from all over the world arrive in Sydney (the Greeks in Newtown, the Italians in Leichardt, the Vietnamese in Cabramatta and the Chinese more latterly in Carlingford, Eastwood, Epping and, especially, Chatswood), I had a "textbook" appreciation of the gathering together. Within 3 days of arriving in Nottingham, I was part of the Aussie "enclave"! I now have a much fuller appreciation of the experience and the gathering together, even to the extent of "Yep, this is an OK neighbourhood and I'd like to live around here" (sotto voce, of course, is "and I'm close to Sue and Barry, to Elsabe and Adam").

We rounded out the evening with a viewing of "Kenny", a quintessentially Australian movie about a man and his loos, and I headed back to the Welbeck well set up for the week.

Yesterday was the first full day in the office and I dutifully arrived, suitably suited and ready for action, beginning with a briefing session with Baback, the Dean. I think we get on well - we share similar views and thought processes and he is very open to ideas. This was particularly evident in the afternoon's school executive meeting where we had a very fruitful strategic planning session - it also exposed me to a very sharp, but nonetheless personable group of people with a great collective sense of humour. We did some good work throughout the afternoon and I could end the first day well satisfied with the results.

I've got an office, a phone and a laptop that works (although I don't yet have a security card, coz the folks in card services are "training"). I've got a payslip and filled out forms, met lots of people already and no-one's snarled at me or bitten my head off yet, so I'm doing more than OK. If I can just find somewhere to live .....