Call me crazy but seriously, every time I say I’m headed to Switzerland, immediately the image of John Leguizamo as Toulouse Lautrec in Moulin Rouge saying “it’s set in Switzerland… exotic Switzerland!” comes to mind. I cannot get started on ‘Spectacular Spectacular’ though. 😉
Have just arrived Park Hyatt in Zurich, after a lovely Thanksgiving flight on Swiss, and already had a site and meeting after having slept maybe two hours on the plane. Am sitting at The Lounge now for a glass of red and salad. At this stage I would not describe Switzerland as exotic, but it’s early! Going through customs on arrival was possibly the easiest and speediest country I’ve ever entered. Hiring a taxi was equally as simple but crazy exxy: $59 Swiss-francs for a fifteen minute ride! There were swans in the lake even though it is 0 Celsius outside. The Christmas markets and ‘Lucy’ are in full swing. ‘Lucy’ is an illumination show of 12,000 crystal lights along Bahnhofstrasse during festive season. I will enjoy that tomorrow with friends. For today I think I will just have lunch, work a bit, enjoy that massage the chief concierge arranged for me, and chill the duty-free Vueve in anticipation of my long overdue reunion with Petra. A good friend described Zurich as possibly more dull than Brussels, which I completely disagree with to start, so I am keen on finding an argument to his criticism! Sadly though, given the year I’ve had and the week that lies ahead for me in Cannes… there most likely will be no kissing of any bartenders!
Petra is a woman just two years younger than me, who lived as a foreign exchange student with my parents, during one of my breakups when I moved back home. Petra and I spent many a night outside smoking cigs and drinking white wine, contemplating the unfairness of our very early 20s. I’ve not seen her since. It will be amazing and surreal to see her tomorrow. Then I will have the extreme pleasure of staying with she and her husband the week after my conference in Cannes, in their hometown of Baden. Very exciting! Although we’ve matured from cigs and cheap California wine to exercise and champagne. 🙂
Next week will be rather interesting. All my 2013 worlds will collide. Dubai, the VP, ‘don’t-piss-in-the-pool, Paul’, the Unnicknameable Brit… just to name a few! And scheduled periodic (or is it paranoid) phone calls from NYC for ‘check-ins’. Sigh. Oh wait… I’ll be in Cannes for a conference. I’ll have 15 twenty-minute long meetings each day, most will have the champagne flowing. Plus, I’ve now been ‘hand-selected’ by ILTM for a small focus group. I’m gauging about three invite-only cocktail receptions per night. I promised only to be at Armani’s, of course… because who can resist the Armani Boy!? 😉 I will have to work nights anyway when America wakes up. Will be interesting to see how it all pans out. I left my vitamins at home 🙁 all separated out in my new perfect pill sorter.
Note to self: no drunken blogs and no jacuzzis!
Hope everyone in America had a fabulous holiday yesterday. Mine was quite nice exercising and packing at my leisure. I must admit, I could get used to receiving messages like I did: “happy thanksgiving to my favourite american”. Aww. x
As I sit in this popular Lounge… I have to admit, Swiss guys are pretty freaking hot!
