Wednesday 27 October 2010

Last Trip to Italy

Having so much stuff sorted out over the past few days, I thought it's time for a little treat.

Carl and I will drive down to Lazise (on Lago di Garda) on Friday and have a relaxed weekend visiting Verona and – more importantly – the Tommasi wineyards to get some nice wine for himself and my good-bye tour. If you want to check out the offerings, go here: http://www.tommasiwine.it


We also considered to give Siena a visit on Sunday. We will see how well we test the newly acquired stock on Saturday night and check if we rather should have a sleep in and not make the long drive down South...

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Car Sold

I seem to be a lucky guy lately.

Last evening, I sold the car to a very friendly father of 5 kids. I told him that no-one can sit in the back unless he/she is under 1.50m tall. He seems to be okay with that as I guess that he has a few of those ;)
The more important objective for the purchase may also be that he now has a reason to leave the kids behind and spend a nice weekend with the misses :)

Negociations only took about a minute and I almost didn't have to reduce my asking price. Due to the fact that mine was one of only two on sale in Switzerland, I had put the price up already. The buyer told me that he was waiting since 9 months for my model to come on the market for a decent price. He probably would have taken it also for the original asking price.

But I am happy with the result anyway.
So, end of the week he will probably pick it up already.

No I have one happy and one sad eye...

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Car For Sale

In my lunch break, I put my car out for sale.
If you know anyone who may be interested in an Audi TT TDI (in Switzerland), send them to Autoscout24.

Time to say goodbye to the best ride ever...


Saturday 16 October 2010

My Temporary Home

For my last 2 months of work, I will share a flat with 2 work colleagues. This way, I have less hassle towards the end of my time in Europe and also save quite a significant amount of money.
The building doesn't look very nice on the first sight but the flats in there are great.


The panorama:


We don't really miss anything here. Huge TV with roughly 5,000 (or so) channels, rowing machine, etc.....




As a nice side effect, I can enjoy the great company of my colleagues. We frequently cook together and enjoy nice Single Malt Whiskys.



























Just a few test pictures with my new camera :)




New Camera

I bought a new camera to be able to document my adventures properly.
It took me quite a while to decide between a real compact, bridge and SLR camera. In the end I decided to start with a premium compact to have the option to always have it with me and thus don't miss a thing.

It's a rugged camera which is even waterproof.

This is it, a Sony Cybershot DSC-TX5.




Pictures from sony.com

The Story

What is this all about?
Well, as the title suggests, I am moving to Ecuador.

Jim, a good friend of mine, happened to meet his wife a couple of years ago in the UK and decided to move to her home town Cuenca a little over half a year ago. The two are very happy there and started to think about potential business opportunities. As Jim and I got to know each other while doing our MBAs a couple of years ago, he knew that he could always ask me for an opinion about his ideas. When he presented to me his latest thoughts earlier this year, I was immediately convinced of the potential of the idea. What it is, I will write about at a later point in time, when we have actually set it all up. Back then, I was in employment with a Swiss logistics company in Switzerland but was already looking for alternatives. So, when Jim asked me during my visit to Ecuador for his wedding if I want to join forces with him, I already knew the answer. The idea of moving to Cuenca and starting a business there didn't leave my mind during the days that followed my trip. It took me a couple of weeks and many discussions with friends and family to finally decide on: Yes! I am going!
I terminated my work contract and will leave my current job on 24th of November and fly from Munich to Cuenca via Madrid and Quito on the 16th of December.

So, this is the start of my blog in which I will write about the new chapter in my life.