Finding AHP

We visited the French and Spanish Basque Country this summer for our babymoon when Sarah was 6 months pregnant. Our itinerary traces a straight line but we used public transportation so it was a bit more complicated. Here's how we got around and the highlights of each destination. Alicante to Bordeaux (flight) We found Bordeaux to be a charming, walkable city with great food. We visited the customs museum, and learned all the customs about customs. We also enjoyed the wine museum and the river ferry within the city transit system. Bordeaux to Saint Emilion (car - two hours) We booked a day trip at the last minute via getyourguide and shared a van with a few uppity young Brits. The town of Saint Emilion was forgettable, unless you like small wine and cheese shops crowded with tourists. We visited two vineyards and had a picnic lunch. Bordeaux to Biarritz (bus - two hours) The bus from Bordeaux to Biarritz takes about two hours, passing Bayonne just before its destination. There is a...

Greetings from quarantine Friday. It's the third week of quarantine in Spain. 900 people died of coronavirus today in this country, as they did yesterday. But that feels far away. Our days are all pretty much the same. I work from the kitchen and my wife Sarah does online Spanish class plus a lot of Netflix. She's already devoured every single season of RuPaul's Drag Race, which is like eating 10 ice cream cones in a row. At first it's fun, even a little naughty, but eventually it's excessive and you get a stomach ache.  After work we exercise with Apple TV before the 8pm moment of applause. There's a cute old couple across the way that dances to the music blaring from the fire house around the corner, but I cannot manage to get their attention.  Today was sunny so we had lunch on the terrace. It's not all bad. I also took out the garbage and went to the bakery. The simple pleasures of quarantine.  I'm proud to be in Spain at this moment because there...

Hello friends, Two years ago I wrote to tell you of my arrival to Seattle. I remain here, triumphant and defiant, and today I am drafting this email on the architect table (which is made for drafting) in my new home. Yes, very exciting. Here's an unsolicited life update in Q&A format. Q: You own a home? A: Yeah, man. It's easy. I live in the Columbia City area of Seattle, an ethnically diverse, up-and-coming area. You can check out photos in my  AirBnB listing  for the guest bedroom. Q: What is AirBnB? A: Google can answer that. I will tell you that running an AirBnB has been a rewarding and moneymaking enterprise. Generally my guests stay 2-3 nights. Mostly they are from California, or Germany. Germans are clamoring en masse to visit Seattle. Q: Why did you leave Barcelona? A: I just felt like I had completed the end of a cycle, especially when the managing partner of the consulting firm I was interviewing with there told me that if he was in my shoes he wo...

Greetings from  Seattle , my new home. I’ve got a wonderful apartment here courtesy of Brent and Alicia Eyler. Everybody look at the  picture  of Brent and Alicia and say thank you. You’re probably thinking,  Seattle ? Didn’t you go to business school in Barcelona? Didn’t you magically turn up in Hong Kong? The answer is yes. I will summarize my last two years for those who were not keeping score. I will even cite reputable sources. -            I moved to Barcelona in 2011 to do my MBA at ESADE. It was a rollercoaster. I uncovered my passion for business journalism and amassed freelance clips, but decided journalism wasn’t a viable career choice. I perfected my Spanish only to leave Spain due to the continued economic woes there.  Read more about what I learned in the MBA . -            I came to San Francisco in 2012 for an internship during my summer vacation. ...

Greetings from Hong Kong. I live on one of the main drags of Hong Kong Island, Queen’s Road West. I’m about 5 blocks from Hong Kong bay, where all the ferry boats and cruise ships dock. To the east is the financial district, which looks like any financial district with glass skyscrapers, wide boulevards, and expensive restaurants catering to office workers. To the south is a wealthy residential area called Soho, whose modern loft buildings have names like The Butterfly and The Manhattan. At night, Soho is full of whites: trendy young couples and old, eccentrically dressed Brits. As you get further into Soho, higher up towards the peak at the center of Hong Kong Island (called, appropriately, The Peak), the heat is tempered by a mountain breeze and real estate becomes more exclusive. The Peak was exclusively for Europeans until the 1950’s and today the condos sell for tens of millions of dollars. My area is a bit more grimy but there’s a great variety of shops – a supermarket with an ai...

Hello my friend,   This is my occasional update to show I'm thinking about you, even though I write only about me.   First thing first, please read my  latest article in  The Economist . It expounds upon what I told you last time about Fair Observer. The editors in Which MBA give me more and more freedom to write about what I please, which I take as evidence that my writing has progressed during my recent re-immersion. And if it seems like I'm timing these updates around my latest articles, that's because I am; if I'm to parlay this blog into a full time gig with  The Economist , it behooves me to have a well-read blog.     Last week we made some real progress at Fair Observer. We agreed to open print distribution with a company called  Slimbooks.  We finished our press kit for an east coast road trip that the co-founders are taking. And we were turned down by two more investors! I now have two direct r...

Reporting from the Plug & Play Center in Sunnyvale, CA - the breeding ground at one point of famous startups like PayPal and Milo. The facility is now home to 300 companies (at least in name; most of the companies don't show up every day), including   Fair Observer.   I've been at Fair Observer for about two weeks and it is genuinely strange. We live in a mansion on a hill overlooking the latino slums of Daly City, CA. Luckily we have access to nearby luxuries such as Target, the US Post Office, and Sports Authority. Once a week we go to Costco and spend hundreds of dollars on groceries. The other people in the house, mostly Germans, have ravenous appetites - particularly for milk, juice, and cookies. It's like living in a fraternity house. We have enough fit men for a 5-on-5 football match.   Also, I have managed to piss off the administration of ESADE with a piece in  The Economist  where I outline a series of things the schoo...