Surfacing After Two Months...

Greetings to my friends and faithful readers in Blogland...Yes, my productivity in blogland has waned substantially in recent weeks--mainly because I've had less interest in writing and musing on life and more interest on, well, living it...

February finds me with no major complaints, the biggest of which, the overpowering darkness of Northern European winter has finally given way to the point where it is light both when I leave the house and leave the office.

Still, I have no doubt that my thoughts of going to Sweden, Finland or Estonia for "midsummer" (quote marks because "midsummer" marks both the first and last days of summer in these Baltic climes) are still pegged to my residual darkness trauma of the last few months.

Before a few special items (several of which I've recycled from my more assiduously maintained Facebook page), some basics:

* Living arrangements: while having a late-twenties American flatmate can result into the descent into some fraternity-house-style living habits, the recent engagement of a cleaning lady has brought many smiles to Rue d'Oultremontstraat... It's been nice having intelligent American company to come home to, particularly as the Obama administration gathers steam, though middle-east discussions can get a bit dicey, as it's hard for me to convince him that one side in a conflict can indeed be right all the time.

* Work: Am enjoying my organization--though being in a foreign outpost of a strong company that has a very strong culture has been very much an education...

* Dating: no wedding bells by a long shot, but the quality of my conversations seems to be improving. I'm attributing this mainly to the amount of available light.

* Sports: My beloved Wisconsin Badgers have come back from the dead, last seen turning a six game basketball losing streak into a five game tear back through the standings of the eleven-member Big Ten Conference of America's finest state universities... As for Tottenham--listless performances of late leave the Mighty Spurs stuck dangerously near the trap door to relegation and the oblivion of the so-called Coca-Cola Championship. Only pleasure to be taken from the season has been the relatively weak performance of the Hated Arsenal Scum. But of course the Scum are faring far better than we are. Ptui.

* Lugano: Travel has been at a premium of late, as I become ever better at conference calls and web exchanges at work. But a recent IABC conference got me out of Belgium for a few days and over to Lugano--the small Swiss lakeside city that is best described as "Italy went to Obedience School".

Lugano is extremely attractive, and it's main academic institution, the Universita di Svizzera Italiana (translated as "the university of Italians lucky enough to be Swiss") is also to European professional communications schools what my alma mater London Business School is to business schools: Numero Uno.

The conference was excellent--http://europe.iabc.com/ has more details.But what stole the show was Lugano itself... Italian and Swiss seem to be two contravening paradigms, and for the most part they are.

I would have dug the local cuisine more if my lifelong aversion to Parmesan Cheese and its near-relatives wasn't on full guard for the visit, or if the little white spear in otherwise excellent pumpkin soup at the main dinner event didn't happen to be a chunk of rabbit, one of the two main species I don't eat because I think they are cuter than I am (the other, of course being my old friends, the pigs).

Still, the setting is breathtaking. The secret of Lugano is its low elevation--300 feet--while surrounded by alpine mountains. Thus Lugano has a surprisingly mild climate described as mediterranean, with the occasional palm tree. In the architectural detail, Lugano is clearly Italian--churches, public buildings and street signs being clearly Italian in style.

But other flavors emerge. French fashion houses, Credit Suisse, German names like the Lido Seegarten hotel (the conference hotel), and a mixture of modern and more-Swiss-looking architectural styles. Add in the neon ads for classic Swiss watches on the lakeshore: Rolex, Rado, Tissot, Jaeger le Couture and the picture becomes clearer--particularly from the deck of the spectacular Casino Lugano. Still, the most telling difference between Italy and Svizzera Italiana: the parking. Orderly, rational, coherent parking--not like a bunch of people had hydrochloric acid spilled in their laps.