Postcard from London: Meeting at EBRD, Harpenden or Joburg?

Temporary being based in the UK has its upsides. It is not as cold as Wisconsin (-26 F yesterday) and you can easily visit Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge (stadium). Reconnecting with colleagues and friends can be more tricky. Luckily, we could arrange to meet in Joburg.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p27qSt-Cv

I value friends, colleagues and networking. So being in a major capital city like London provides loads of opportunities to meet friends and colleagues, based here or passing through, and make new connections. And, somehow, timing seems always right, or nearly always so.

So, for example, I will be meeting some of my former colleagues from the European Bank, where I served for nearly 10 years in the Environment Department, during the official launch of EBRD’s alumni association. It seems my timing of being in London was good for this one (see pictures from that fun event posted here). I also jumped at the opportunity to meet with a friend flying over from Germany, talking family and business, while enjoying a good Persian meal in Covent Garden. This was good timing too, although I missed watching my kids practice fencing! Zoro, watch out, competition is coming.

Arranging another meeting with a colleague and friend based in Oxford proved more challenging. But we quickly realized that the world is a small place...

He kindly offered to meet me at a convenient location near my home, but timing did not seem favorable. However, we soon realized that we are both on consulting assignments taking us to southern Africa a couple of days later. So we agreed to meet in Joburg. I guess timing was good, we just had to find the right spot to meet. I am glad about this opportunity and look forward to catching up soon.

Poor timing or location to meet up in person? Find our what we have been up to in our latest newsletter posted here.