Thursday, March 20, 2008

Sweet childhood...


Just a quick thought triggered by photos from my childhood, my father sent this afternoon.

It was great and unforgettable time and when I compare it to current reality, it was quite...similar.
When I came here to the UK, everything was so new - places, people, everything. I had to then learn my life again.

After all we learn new things for all our lives ...and that's the beauty of the life....


me - age 2 (?)

:)


Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Sunny Liverpool

As Mario's parents, Jan and Marta, visited us for a couple of days, we wanted to show them the beauty of Manchester and its surroundings. Apparently, the most popular were clothing shops, where Mario's Mum bought almost half of things from shelves ;)

Even so, we had still some time to visit Liverpool, especially because the weather was so kind to us.
The Sun welcomed us in 'The Beatles' Home City and the trip appeared to be great!

During these few hours we: saw 1 Museum, 1 Art Gallery, made a bus trip around the city, ate chicken wings ;) made hundreds of pictures and...visited more shops :) I even bought a coat!

The city itself does not encourage visitors to make a short walk along the docks, there is now a huge building and constructing area. This is due to the city being a capital for culture in Europe this year. Unfortunately, the organisers didn't managed to prepare everything on time.
See more here: http://www.liverpool08.com

Anyway, it was great to celebrate the weather, the Sun and Mario's parents' visit

Beautiful statue in the art gallery

Cleopatra's incarnation

Mancio?

The beauty and terror of life

M&M

me...in your eyes

Andreasik Family

Mario's parents and me

the biggest cathedral in the Europe

also impressive, but in spaceship-shape cathedral

'Mind your head' written in Cantonese
gate to China Town

Albert's Dock
where the products were shipped from Manchester

Church

in the bus

Clayton Square

cold but happy
M&M

some shops with Radio City Tower in the background

Lime Street
Mancia making silly faces

in a hurry...
will we managed for a train?

Saturday, March 15, 2008

UK's First Enterpreneurial Summit

Following our friend's, Louise, incentive, we took part in a National Entrepreneurial Summit, hosted by the University of Lancaster. It is interesting that the organizers managed to gather in one place (Lancaster's Management School) so many students, also from France and Belgium, as well as great speakers interested in entrepreneurship.

During three intensive and unforgettable days, some great events took part, like Apprentice Challenge hosted by two Stars of this popular UK's show. Again, competition between groups was implement to stimulate our creativity and business flair. This time the challenge was to set up a company that produces three different jewelery stands.

After the first day's activities, including a party, the second day was even more interesting. We took part in several workshops on Idea Generating, Behaviours in business, Setting up a company at home and more.

I appreciated the most a great opportunity to network with people who are truly enterprising, like Emma Jones, who successfully set up two companies at her home. Speaking to people like her, I got this feeling and even conviction, that we can only be limited in our dreams by ourselves.

Thanks to this event, I realized that in order to enter the Enterprise Nation it takes only to try and follow one's dreams.


* I dedicate this post to my beloved Mario - a truly enterprising person, full of energy and courage to live his Good Life filled with Joy, Happiness and Love. I admire You and obtain inspiration from You every day!

Team working is working

Sometimes it takes to build towers to live your Good Life

Rhino's example to explain people's personalities

Dinner with keynote speaker in 4Star Hotel

M&M with their lovely cheese cake

Party time! (here with George)

Good bye Breakfast - time for summarizing our all efforts and experiences

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Enterprising with Flux 2008

Doing what you love for life and making money on that - man, that's the idea worth trying to carry out!
Fascinated by this simple, but incredibly complex to fulfill idea, we decided to gain some knowledge about 'how to be your own boss'. Most importantly, however, we wanted to practice it a bit and meet people who will be open to share with us their ideas and experience.

Flux500 competition was first initiative we took part in with Mario and our Friends from Salford University. Divided into two teams we were suppose to set up an imaginative company and successfully run it till achieving our goal. However, it was not as simple as it sounds...

The business for my team was to have a company that produces a decorative composter, that helps to turn the natural wastage into high quality compost. To make it easier and more competitive at the same time, we were suppose to compete with other groups, but we could also use some help of successful businessmen and women.

They helped us a lot with some Financial, Ethical, HR, Marketing and Strategic aspects of the business, however, it was us who finally pitched in front of everyone and were trying to 'get money' to set up a business.

Long story short, our team managed to get to final part of competition and we got second place, being beaten by the Manchester Metropolitan Uni.

Apart from good fun it was useful experience, as we managed to meet a lot of business related people and got some advice on how to operate in the real business environment.

Our Green Team thinking intensively and discussing fiercely

Finally pitching in front of experts and other Universities

me, Thomas, Leor, Mario, Ismael - future businessmen (and woman) :)

Tom during his Elevator Pitch discussing our business
with Gordon Brown's incarnation (one of the Experts)

Green and Blue - Salford Teams leaving the business competition to celebrate in a pub