2008 part I
So what happened this year? Well too much to be honest. It's all kind of blurry already, but I’ll try to put it into perspective today and tomorrow.
Well the first thing worth mentioning here is the Ski trip that I made to Are, Sweden from the 6th to the 13th of January. Tried snowboarding for the first time. The beginning was quite painful, but as the days progressed I really learnt how to stand on this slippery piece of wood...until one day before leaving I fell and totally twisted my elbow. The goddamn thing hurt even too month later eventually ruining my FC Toompea so called pre season training. But then again, in 2009 I will definitely do it again, but skip the last part hopefully. Oh, and the crew was nice. I think there were about 12 of us, whom about half of them I hadn't met before.
January also saw quite extensive work schedule: mainly meetings on the next Estonian Lisbon strategy, a three day consulting trip to Malmö, where I reside now. Also Triin's and Martin's wedding in Pilguse manor house in Saaremaa. Was nice and strangely enough took me back to this place again in summer. Will write about it later in part II.
February. I remember an interesting two day lecture on the Singaporean economy and its development path, which was held in the Estonian Development Fund. Main message: how to run a country like an enterprise. Key words: effectiveness, responsibility and "consensus". Those who have studied it, know why I stress the last word. A conference called Tuulelohe Lend, which was I think one of the first arenas where people started to discuss the effects of the Estonian economic downturn. But even then it was pretty much based on the April events of 2007 aka effects on transit. Then our little crew had our traditional winter days near Otepää. To be honest, this year wasn't something exceptional... Then one day in Helsinki as my calendar says - preparing the joint R&D council meeting for April. Again two short consulting trips to Malmö and a presentation on the Estonian ICT strategy and politics in London on eGoverment Conference. Remember meeting Lucy and Marius and those cocktails on Marlboro road…were excellent!
March was calmer travelling wise - took me again for two, two day trips to Malmö. Lot of meetings and work though - innovation and science policy council meetings, preparing PM's meetings with other ministers, Estonian forest sector developments, VISION ERA-NET meeting, energy technologies etc. I also remember Annabret graciously dancing in peter Paan in Tartu and the removal of one of my tooth. One very pleasant the other one not so... Lastly FC Toompea started it's season with a 2:1 victory over FC Soccernet. No goals from me, I as far as I can remember. Oh, and one more thing, February also made me a proud owner of a motorbike, Honda Hornet 900. Long time dream coming true, I guess.
April started with the annual European Commission delegations visit to Estonia assessing the progress of our structural reforms. Another two days in Malmö and then the joint Council meeting that I already described before on the 15th of April. 16th of April was a filming day for a management game on ETV. The last episode - we talked about our work and gave the assessors a crack at an assignment. Anyway, we won the game, which took us to London. 17th and 18th I spent in Brussels in a seminar on R&D impact assessment, but not really sure though... Might have been?! UK the from 24th to the 29th. Was in Brighton after a while staying at Rami's, visiting the old Lion and the Lobster, Bazak's joint ect. The end bit was in London attending the management seminar. Presentations by Kjsell Nordström and Peter Drucker (hope this is how you spell these names). Was interesting, especially the first one, but still nothing much I took with me though, except maybe the talent on how to make interesting PowerPoint’s.
May, also very work related - 5 days in Malmö and otherwise loads’s of meetings and writing of different papers. I also remember a research and development council meeting, weekends in Tartu and Saaremaa and Strategy Office's birthday party.
To be continued…
Well the first thing worth mentioning here is the Ski trip that I made to Are, Sweden from the 6th to the 13th of January. Tried snowboarding for the first time. The beginning was quite painful, but as the days progressed I really learnt how to stand on this slippery piece of wood...until one day before leaving I fell and totally twisted my elbow. The goddamn thing hurt even too month later eventually ruining my FC Toompea so called pre season training. But then again, in 2009 I will definitely do it again, but skip the last part hopefully. Oh, and the crew was nice. I think there were about 12 of us, whom about half of them I hadn't met before.
January also saw quite extensive work schedule: mainly meetings on the next Estonian Lisbon strategy, a three day consulting trip to Malmö, where I reside now. Also Triin's and Martin's wedding in Pilguse manor house in Saaremaa. Was nice and strangely enough took me back to this place again in summer. Will write about it later in part II.
February. I remember an interesting two day lecture on the Singaporean economy and its development path, which was held in the Estonian Development Fund. Main message: how to run a country like an enterprise. Key words: effectiveness, responsibility and "consensus". Those who have studied it, know why I stress the last word. A conference called Tuulelohe Lend, which was I think one of the first arenas where people started to discuss the effects of the Estonian economic downturn. But even then it was pretty much based on the April events of 2007 aka effects on transit. Then our little crew had our traditional winter days near Otepää. To be honest, this year wasn't something exceptional... Then one day in Helsinki as my calendar says - preparing the joint R&D council meeting for April. Again two short consulting trips to Malmö and a presentation on the Estonian ICT strategy and politics in London on eGoverment Conference. Remember meeting Lucy and Marius and those cocktails on Marlboro road…were excellent!
March was calmer travelling wise - took me again for two, two day trips to Malmö. Lot of meetings and work though - innovation and science policy council meetings, preparing PM's meetings with other ministers, Estonian forest sector developments, VISION ERA-NET meeting, energy technologies etc. I also remember Annabret graciously dancing in peter Paan in Tartu and the removal of one of my tooth. One very pleasant the other one not so... Lastly FC Toompea started it's season with a 2:1 victory over FC Soccernet. No goals from me, I as far as I can remember. Oh, and one more thing, February also made me a proud owner of a motorbike, Honda Hornet 900. Long time dream coming true, I guess.
April started with the annual European Commission delegations visit to Estonia assessing the progress of our structural reforms. Another two days in Malmö and then the joint Council meeting that I already described before on the 15th of April. 16th of April was a filming day for a management game on ETV. The last episode - we talked about our work and gave the assessors a crack at an assignment. Anyway, we won the game, which took us to London. 17th and 18th I spent in Brussels in a seminar on R&D impact assessment, but not really sure though... Might have been?! UK the from 24th to the 29th. Was in Brighton after a while staying at Rami's, visiting the old Lion and the Lobster, Bazak's joint ect. The end bit was in London attending the management seminar. Presentations by Kjsell Nordström and Peter Drucker (hope this is how you spell these names). Was interesting, especially the first one, but still nothing much I took with me though, except maybe the talent on how to make interesting PowerPoint’s.
May, also very work related - 5 days in Malmö and otherwise loads’s of meetings and writing of different papers. I also remember a research and development council meeting, weekends in Tartu and Saaremaa and Strategy Office's birthday party.
To be continued…
posted by Oliver at 2:31 PM
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