Thursday 27 March 2008

Our trip to Wales

Starting on God Friday after a two hour EP meeting we left for Wales around two pm and managed to arrive at Little Hill End Barn in Llangennith around half past five. Thanks to modern GPS navigation and the help of Nick who stayed at the same place a couple of weeks ago



we found everything immediately.

After making ourselves comfortable with the place



we left for the first stroll through the neighbourhood which is not more than a couple of houses and a camping ground.

The dunes and the sea are only five minutes away and presented themselves in beautiful light.



Our planes for Saturday included the visit of a traditional farmers market in Grovesend. Since the description on the internet was not very detailed we actually had no idea what to expect. Arriving at the Community Hall in Grovesend we were nevertheless a bit surprised to see the market consisting of not more than ten booths selling stitching, embroidery and other craftwork but barely food. The only meat stand displayed a sign saying that there was no meat today but orders could be left for later delivery. We didn’t even ask whether delivery to Little Hill End Barn was possible. All in all our visit did not take longer than 10 minutes. The disappointment did not last long and after a short shopping stop at a nearby Tesco we continued to Lllanelli for a coffee.

Back at the Barn we decided to walk to Worm’s Head to find out how long it would take us. The small island is only accessible during 2.5 hrs before and after low tide. A trip therefore has to be carefully planned.





We found out that it is only a 45 minute walk either on the beach or at the bottom of the hill. We helped ourselves with some free information material at the National Trust visitor center and stayed for a mocha at a small café overlooking the beach.

On our way back we planned to visit Worm’s Head the next morning after a traditional English breakfast at the small café.

Since the weather didn’t look very good the next morning

we changed our planes and took the car to visit some of the suggested sites on the Gower peninsula. We started with King Arthur’s stone - a somewhat 6,000 years old dolmen, mentioned in documents more than 1,000 years ago.



From there we drove to Oxwich castel were we luckily weathered a strong rain and hailstorm while having a stroll through their small Welsh history museum.



Next stop was Three Cliffs Bay and Pennard Castle. The castle is located in the middle of a golf course. It acts a bit as a symbol to the course – very much like the old pipe on the course I used to play in Oberhausen just from a totally different period of time.
Three Cliffs Bay is a marvellous piece of earth and from the top of cliffs we had a great look.






Finally we made our way to Mumbles to have a scoop of Apple Crumble ice cream at Verdi’s café. Thanks a lot to Hermeet for the great advice. The ice cream and the amount of interesting people in the café were definitely worth the trip.


Weather on Monday morning looked much better. So we made our way to the small café for a full English breakfast which should give us enough energy for a whole day on the Worm’s head. With enough time left to the next high tide we started the climbing tour to the small islands. After a while of balancing over stones and cleft we finally enjoyed a great look over the surrounding.








On Tuesday we went only for a small trip to the small island on the opposite site of the Rhossili Bay. Burry Holmes is not even half as big as Worm’s Head but enables a nice look around as well.





We spent the afternoon sitting in front of the barn up to the point when it got too cold.


On our way back to Oxford we stopped in Cardiff the Welsh capital for a quick city tour. Totally tourist like we took one of the red double decker to see Cardiff’s main spots in round 60 minutes.






After five totally relaxing days we finally got back to Oxford in the early afternoon and prepared our place for the visit of the Kontny girls...

You can see more pictures of our trip to Wales here.

Wednesday 19 March 2008

Done - again

Puh... After a horrible learning evening yesterday with desperate oaths to start learning earlier next term if only this one last exam would turn out well, it's finally over for this term.

I have no idea what to say about the Financial Management exam this morning. I gave answers to all three questions and keep my fingers crossed for a clement bench.

After that we went straight to the Turf Tavern for a pint (or two) and had English breakfast afterwards. Now after a relaxing afternoon I'm on my way to the pub again to meet the rest of the group. Unfortunately our exams didn't end in the whole group given all the electives people had this term. Next term will be even more strange with all courses being electives and no exams in the big group... Anyway, that are things to worry about later.

Tuesday 18 March 2008

Almost there...

After finishing today's Operational Management exam there is only one left.
Ops was ok. The case study we had to analyze was gratifyingly short and the operational problem clearly identifiable. Only the questions were a bit strange since they didn't address the problem as a whole but in parts.

For some readers it might be interesting to see a small overview of this term's coursework overall:

Sun 27.01.
Finance II: payout policy I (400 words powerpoint presentation + excel spreadsheet)

Fri 01.02.
Operations Management: Highstreet exercise (1,000 words)

Sun 03.02.
Marketing: pricing for Virgin mobile (1,000 words)

Mon 04.02.
Macro: problemset with three questions

Sun. 10.02.
Finance II: payout policy II (400 words powerpoint presentation + excel spreadsheet)

Sun 17.02.
Marketing: marketing plan for Cialis (1,000 words)

Mon 18.02.
Macro: problemset with three questions

Fri 22.02.
Operations Management: discovery exercise (1,000 words)

Fri 29.02.
Operations Management: IT for fast fashion (Zara) (1,000 words - individual)

Sun 02.03.
Finance II: real options valuation (400 words powerpoint presentation + excel spreadsheet)

Mon 03.03.
Macro: problemset with two questions

Fri 14.03.
Macro: 10 questions + 2 page essay (individual work)

Mon 31.03.
Financial Management: Analysis of citibank's performance score card (3,500 words)

In addition to that we had / have to do an Entrepreneurial Project (EP) which is basically writing a business plan for a new company. I will spend some words on this project later since it kept us busy during the whole term.

I quick glance on what's next: after exams are over tomorrow I'm going to finish my part for the EP and bring myself up to date in terms of the Private Equity conference we are organizing. On Friday Klaudia and I will leave for a short vacation in Wales before the Kontny girls will visit us from Wednesday next week. On April 5th I'm going to Dubai for a week on a networking trip organized by some of my classmates. Back on Sat. April 12th school starts on the following Monday again with. Some lectures will already take place in week 0 as well as the PE conference (Wed. April 16th). But in the meanwhile I'm trying to relax a bit.

Monday 17 March 2008

50% done

Wow - time is flying by.
50% of the exams are already over.

Marketing this morning was ok. The task was to write a marketing plan for the charcoal division of a company. Interesting to see that 86% of the overall charcoal volume is used by heavy / medium users :-)
I hope that my thoughts are not too chaotic since I had some problems finding my way in the writing part.

Finance is difficult to estimate. The exam on the whole followed the kind of questions we were introduced to but I never no how it really was till I get the results.

I'm now back to more studying for Operations Management tomorrow and Financial Management on Wednesday.

Let's get ready to rumble!

After a busy term exams are lining up again...

Monday March 17th:

09.30 - 12.30 Marketing
14.30 - 16.30 Finance II


Tuesday March 18th:

09:30 - 11:30 Operations Management

Wednesday March 19th:

09:30 - 11:00 Financial Management


Please keep your fingers crossed :-)