A month at INSEAD - AMP program

I was very fortunate that my boss recommended I attend a program he had gone on 5 years before, and that work agreed to sponsor me. It was a month long residential program at one of the top business schools in Europe - INSEAD in Fontanebleau, France.

Fontanebleau Chateau

The course was the AMP - the Advanced Management Program. For me it was one of the best and most significant learning experiences of my professional life. I learned so much about me, about leadership, business issues and management, and I met so many fantastic people. We were a group of 69 people from 33 different countries. There was such great intellect and experience amongst my classmates that spending time with them was fun, but also there was so much to learn from them.


We worked in large groups for lectures, and in smaller groups for case studies and projects. The groups were composed to get maximum diversity, and each time we did group work, there was so much to discuss, share and learn. We covered topics like coaching and teams, change management, finance and the financial crisis, marketing and business, governance, leadership, organsiation theory, process theory, politics and social power, conflict resolution, strategy, intercultural leadership, geopolitics, personal health management....and so much more!


Being in Fontanebleau also meant a few other things: The forest around Fontanebleau, great fun, great food and drink, and a weekend in Paris.


The forest around Fontanebleau is famous for bouldering and climbing, but for us it was a great place to exercise. I hired a bike from the bike shop in town for the whole month, and most mornings spent 1 to 1 and a 1/2 hours exploring the forest. Often I would ride over to the town of Barbizon, with a few side tracks, this would take about an hour. I also rode to many of the other neighboring towns (about 10-15 kms away) and near the end of my stay, found a great round circuit that took about 90 minutes. It was great exercise and fantastically peaceful. I saw lots of deer, jackrabbits, and plenty of bird-life. One morning I even came across a local Gendarme (local police officer) having a 'liaison' with a young lady in his police car.

We also went for a group bike ride, and with some members of the group not having ridden a bike for 25 years. We spent 4 hours getting to Barbizon and back (but it did include a fantastic lunch at a local barbecue restaurant)

We visited many of the local restaurants and pubs and had many super nights out (and lots of late ones). We often travelled in groups (anything from 5 to 40!) to Barbizon, to a small restaurant by the Seine, and to many of the local eateries and pubs. I was glad I was exercising most days, to counterbalance all the fantastic food and drink!

One of the weekends I travelled to Ypres in Belgium (see separate posting) and with a group to Paris. We raced up by taxi, as one of the classmates had to go shopping! We then had a brilliant evening in a restaraunt in the Latin Quarter, with 8 of us having a delicious dinner, and visiting a few bars to the early hours of the morning. The next day we had breakfast at San Michael

(Francis, Oliver, Phil, Inga)


visited Notre Dame and St Chapelle, the Lourve, then a big walk down to Lumemburg gardens where we rested up with a few glasses of champagne. We then caught the train back to Fontanebleau... where we caught up with colleagues and went out to dinner again!

(Francis, Hendes, Inga)

The value of the course, both personally and professionally, will last the rest of my life. I consider it as my 'half time break' - like in a football match. It was a chance to leave the field, look back and reflect, consider what I can do different, and recharge my batteries for the second half. I learned a lot, and feel I have integrated so much that it will really enhance how I lead, manage and move ahead.

I missed Nicole and the boys, as they went to Australia whilst I was there (see separate posts). However, I was glad to know that they were safe with family so I didn't have to worry about them (just missed them!).

The Beach

Stu has bought a new place less than 2 kilometres from the beach!

A great place, and will be perfect in the Summer after work, ride a bike to the beach and head for a swim.

A bit cold for a swim in July, (but that didn't stop Cameron from having a paddle), but we took Rosie for a long walk.

A week in Sydney

and this is the only photo I took!

(this is the train track they built with Oliver's Thomas track)
It was great to get up to Sydney and catch up with friends. A perfect week to head up is during the school holidays, then we can catch up with friends during the day....the downside is that some friends go away, so we miss them!

It's amazing to see the kids growing up so quickly, and fabulous to see them get together and play and it is as though it was only last week that they saw each other. Same goes with the friends that we have made in our years in Sydney!!

We stayed with Kylie and Rob, and their little boy Oliver. It was good to see them again since they moved out from England. Rob helped me order my new laptop online, cause he is great at "building a better future".

A week in Sydney is just not long enough!

Bye old boat, Hello new boat!

Nana and Pa went to the boat show, and bought a new boat while they were there!

Pa was a bit sad to see his old boat pull out of the drive.

Then he and the kids went to pick up the new boat!

Cameron can't wait till we are back in an Australian Summer to go fishing with Pa!

Pa has the kids life jackets ready to go!

Melbourne Museum (and coffee with a friend)

Off to visit the Melbourne Museum for the Pompeii exhibition. A great exhibit, and I think we might have to make a trip to see the real thing at some stage in the near future!

The best part of the day was catching up with Laura, our friend from Berlin, the librarian at the kids school who migrated to Melbourne in Jan 2009. It was so lovely to see her again, and the kids think it is funny that she told them, they must call her Laura now, not "Mrs M".

I love the lifesize coat of arms at the Muesum. The kids love watching the Bower birds nesting. We took the blue lid off the water bottle and put in on the ground. The bower bird swooped on it in a matter of minutes. We watched lots of little mice under the bird feeders. We thought they must have been some sort of native mouse. When we asked one of the staff, she said they were not supposed to be in there, but have snuck in through the nets. The boys think at least they will be good food for the owls they have in the enclosure!
There was a Star Wars exhibition at Scienceworks...sadly we didn't get around to seeing it, but Yoda was at the Museum! You can enter a draw to win this model, Cameron really wants to win it!

As we were leaving the kids playing in the big trees in the nearby park!

Another Late Birthday Party

We arrived back to Melbourne, and Nana and Pa picked us up from the airport. Nana had organised a mini birthday party for Alexander with a couple of our friends. the kids had a great time with 10 helium balloon that Nana had picked up from the local ballon shop. They attached the balloons to their party hats and had a great time wearing them all afternoon!


It was great to catch up with my 2 oldest friends, Kelly who I have known since I was 6 months old, and Natalie, who I have known since my first day of primary school! It's fun to catch up, but never enough time!!

Off to Oz, in an A380

Our annual trip to Australia began a week earlier than usual. I decided to take them out of school a week early to have a bit more time this year....got the OK from the teachers and booked it all. Keeping the biggest secret possible this year, we booked the flight back to Oz on the Qantas A380 plane! We kept it a secret, just in case there was a problem, and the plane had to be changed to a 747-400, we didn't want to have the kids disappointed.

We arrived at Heathrow at Terminal 5 and had to catch the shuttle bus to Terminal 4. As we approached the terminal, Alexander saw the Qantas A380, and we so excited. "Is that our plane?" he asked excitedly.
"No, the 747-400 beside it, is our plane, I tried to get on the A380, but it was fully booked" I replied.

He sighed, and said, well at least we can see it.

1 1/2 hours before the flight was ready to go, he read the departure board and figured it all out.
"Mum, that A380 is at gate 5, and our gate is 5. That 747-400 is at Gate 6. WE ARE GOING ON THE A380" He was thrilled to say the least!!


When we got the call to board, Alexander could hardly contain himself...and as soon as we had stepped on the plane, he was asking the flight attendants all sorts of questions. Cameron wanted to walk through the entire plane to see how all the seats looked and was not impressed that he wasn't allowed to look into first class! ;)

The kids have Frequent Flyer Log books, and they asked the flight attendant to fill it out, and she took it up to the captain to get him to sign it. When she returned the books, she told me the captain would love to have them in the cockpit once we had landed in Singapore so they could have a look around.

Once we landed in Singapore, I looked after the carry on luggage, and the flight atttendant took the kids to the cockpit. A few minutes later the captain told me to come up with my camera to take some photos. When I got there, the kids were in the seats and the chairs were being moved from side to side, up and down, back and forwards. They were both thrilled! A huge highlight for both of them, and a memory they won't forget in a hurry!!!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

This year's school production was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Alexander was so excited when the auditions were approaching and only wanted to go for the role of Charlie. We tried to get him to audition for other parts, but he was adamant that he only wanted to play Charlie. We were worried that if he missed out, he would be disappointed about not being in the production at all. He was so confident that he would get the role, and sure enough he did. Rehearsals were every Tuesday afternoon straight after school until 5pm, and a few Sunday's as well.


The roles were cast perfectly by Miss Lauritzen and Miss Beves, and it was a terrific performance from all the kids.

Miss Lauritzen made all the kids in the cast "Wonka" Bars!
Alexander is now ready for next year's production..and wants to know what it is so he can start working on his auditions...let's have a Summer break first!

A new neighbor

Cameron and Bradley found a new 'neighbour' in our garden! With all of the tropical style rainstorms we have had, this little fella had taken up refuge in the garden.


The boys were fascinated. Cameron adapted one of the butterfly nets (removed the net from the handle) and managed to catch him. They then placed him in the 'insect viewer with a mini-habitat, and observed him for a while. After a while, the frog was released...and sadly we haven't seen him since!

Theatre Club

Every Saturday morning, we have breakfast and drive to Kreuzberg. Alexander has Theatre Club with some of his friends. It was a small group this semester (4 of them), so they managed to get a lot of time to work on their own scripts,as well as various theatre games. They did a great production this semester, and it is amazing to see how Alexander, Emily and Isaiah (The 3 Musketeers) have grown up since their first stage production of joke telling in the School Talent Quest 4 years ago.



While Alexander is at Theatre Club, Cameron gets to play in the playground for awhile, before we head into the coffee shop for a coffee and a cookie!

Frog hunting in the Gruenewald

Whilst Alexander was attending rehearsals for his upcoming "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" performance, Phil and Cameron headed off in to the Gruenewald to 'hunt frogs'.

Down behind the Sandy hill in the forest is a lake/swamp. With two butterfly nets, Cameron and Phil explored every inch of the shores.

They captured a small frog, which was observed, photographed and released. They also saw big frogs, toads, fish, lots of butterflies and dragonflies, waterbirds (with young) and a grass snake!


It was a great few hours. As we were riding home, Cameron had a flat tyre. It was no ordinary puncture, but a 3cm split in the weld on the tube. Phil pushed both bikes home (about 5km) at double pace - so he was home in time to go and get Alexander from his rehearsals!

A summer un-birthday party

Due to timing and indecision, Alexander's birthday party was significantly delayed...but when we had it, it was a summer 'un-birthday' garden party, and was worth the wait!

About 2 hours before the party was suppose to begin it began to rain, so we cleared the cellar incase we needed to herd the kids in there. Thankfully about 1/2 hour beforehand, the rain stopped and the sun came out...the grass was dry enough for the party to be held in the garden, with a few picnic blankets laid out.

We had 10 kids in the garden, each with their own canvas and copious amounts of paint, they spent the afternoon painting, running around the garden, or hopping into all of the party food.

The kids had such a great time, and for Phil and Nicole it was easy to run. By the end of the afternoon all the kids had a 'masterpiece' to take home. Even our little neighbor joined in (look in the front row). She had a wonderful time - mostly getting paint on her hands and her clothes (the nice white long sleeve tshirt she was wearing went stright in the bin after the party..after a lot of blue paint decorated it), and a little on the canvas.

With Alexander having his birthday in winter, such 'outside' party options are not possible. A great day.

Buga Park

We took the kids to Buga Park with Sonia, Alan and BJ. We had forgotten their bathers, but they just stripped down to their undies and off they went. The raft provides endless fun for all the kids!

These fish sculpture water fountains provide lots of water for your sand sculptures!