Top of the Rock

Saturday morning Markus was woken up by a warm ray of sunshine at 0615 even though the night before was a rather long one. From his bed he could see a blue sky and that view provided him with so much energy that he got himself ready and went for a run in the Central Park. By no means was he alone with this thought. Not only was the Park crowded with many runners but there was also a bicycle race going on in the green lung of Manhattan. Markus did almost reach the very north end of the Park when he turned around and after 50 minutes he reached the hotel again. Not tired, but rather fresh. After a warming shower he crossed the street for a large Latte at Starbucks which gave him energy for his last day in New York.

It was far too nice to enter the Museum of Modern Art

As most of the shopping (damage) has been done already on Friday Markus targeted the nearby Rockefeller Center for a view over the city. The Top of the Rock viewpoint is probably the best place to overlook not only Manhattan but all the five boroughs and more. Within less than a minute he reached the 67th floor of the Rockefeller Center – which is home to TV channel NBC and famous for its Christmas tree every year – and once he stepped out from the elevator he was stunned by what he saw. Pictures of New York from a bird’s eye view are not uncommon, but seeing it with the own eyes is by far more impressive. The clue sky and sunshine enabled a wonderful view even in the distance and surprisingly it was less windy and warmer than at the bottom. Hence Markus spent more than an hour on the top, enjoyed sunshine and the great view of the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty in the distance, Queens, Harlem, the Bronx, Brooklyn , Staten Island, the Hudson and the East River.

Sunshine, no wind and THIS view. Just perfect.

Once he was back down in the streets of Manhattan he did some m ore shopping, had a Big Mac meal for lunch on Times Square and sucked up as much of the atmosphere of this vibrant city as possible before heading back to John F. Kennedy Airport in order to board his flight back home. After dinner on the plane and helped by a few glasses of red wine he slept for several hours waking up just in time for breakfast. Vienna welcomed Markus with a hint opf winter again - temperau=tures below 0even managed to get some sleep before landing in Vienna where he finally saw Jakob and Kerstin again. One thing after all is very clear though: "Markus and the City" will be continued. Most likely he will not be alone in the second season.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Who wants to be smart and who stupid?

Thursday started very early for Markus as the conference registration started at 0700 and due to the jet lag he woke up, but felt rather bad. The reason for the horrible feeling was definitely the sleep deprivation and not the fact that the New York Knicks used DJ Oetzi’s “Hey Baby” to get the crowd going the night before (which actually worked and the whole Madison Square Garden was noisy!). As the day progressed and the conference went well Markus felt better and better. For the late afternoon, when all meetings were over cocktails in the top floor of the hotel were planned giving a stunning view over Central Park and before they started Markus went top the room to freshen up and relax a bit. Unfortunately the next thing he remembered was waking up in his suit at 20.45 when the drinks were long over. He overslept. With almost 3 hours sleep on his account he was fresh and decided to go out for a walk, explore the city and have dinner somewhere.

Based on that, what is your answer to the initial question?

Friday morning Markus was top-fit and took more meetings than he initially planned until the conference ended at 15.30. He then got changed and walked down south towards lower Manhattan. And once he has left Midtown he saw a completely different New York. The streets got narrower and a bit dirtier, the fire-ladders (famous from various movies) suddenly appeared everywhere and the mix of people was completely different. After one hour of walking down 56 blocks he has reached the first destination of his “journey”: the Hollister store at 600 Broadway. He spent another hour inside the store of this new brand of Abercrombie & Fitch browsing through the three storeys of the store for numerous pieces of clothing that he has been highlighted by Kerstin, Lini and Peter.

Q1 sales of the A&F Group have to be strong after Markus’ visit

As he has been rather successful the next part of his walk towards the south tip of Manhattan was a bit more of hard work as Markus had to carry three shopping bags as well. By the time he reached the financial district not only the sun has set but also Markus was pretty tired. Nevertheless he wanted to see the building of the New York Stock Exchange in the famous, yet tiny Wall Street (it is rather an alley) as well as the 9/11 site. This huge hole in the middle of the Financial district has brought back the memories of the horrible events back in 2001 which he saw live on TV in his first months working in London and made him reflect and remain silent for a moment.

The twin towers are definitely missing here. As well as the lives of many!

The long journey ended first in an Irish pub in Greenwich village for a pit stop and a refreshing beer before crossing the street to a small Italian restaurant in Spring Street called Giorgione in which he had dinner with some colleagues. After the dinner they moved on to a small bar nearby for a few more drinks and they hit ground in the hotel at 0200 very tired.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

TMac blows out the Rip

Markus’ flight took of with approximately half an hour delay at 11.56 and was very smooth and did actually go by quite fast, even though Markus did not manage to sleep albeit the flat bed Austrian offers in business class. So he enjoyed the food, listened to lots of music and watched “Up in the air”, a movie with George Clooney about a frequent traveller (does that sound familiar?) as well as a few episodes of CSI New York to be prepared for the Big Apple. Upon an on-time arrival the Markus adrenaline level jumped as he could not find his passport and immigration documents anywhere. Only after a search for ten minutes and all passengers exiting ahead of him he found it well hidden in one of the storage compartments.

Somewhere over the Atlantic

As immigration into the US in the end was unproblematic and also the taxi-ride to the Parker Meridien Hotel, just by Central Park, was smooth and quick the stage was set perfectly for the first highlight of the New York trip: Markus has bought tickets for an NBA game in the Madison Square Garden. Together with a colleague he walked the few blocks south towards MSG and picked up his ticket for the matchup of the New York Knicks and the Detroit Pistons.

The gladiators are being introduced to the crowd...

As the game was not sold out it was no problem for Robert to buy a ticket in the same block and so they enjoyed a good American show with beer, hotdogs and a highs-coring game. As both the Knicks and Pistons are not really part of the strongest teams in the NBA this season the game quality was not outstanding, but there was quite a few spectacular moves and a lot of room for American showtime. In the end the home-team around Tracy McGrady beat the Rip Hamilton’s Pistons by 24 points. After the game Markus and Robert walked back to the hotel via Time Square and Markus soon fell asleep with a view over Central Park in order to be ready for the conference

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

To the five boroughs

Wednesday morning it was time to say „Good Bye“ again when Jakob and Kerstin drove Markus to the aiport for yet another business trip. While the two moved on to visit Anna and Lini at their flat Markus boarded a plane to a new destination. Unlike the most recent trips he this time headed for a long-haul trip to New York where he was attending the largest investor conference for Emerging European Equities in the United States. It is his first trip ever to the financial capital of the world and so the excitement was quite big when after thorough security checks he finally sat on the Boeing 767-300 waiting for pushback and take-off for the 10 hour flight from Vienna.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

A moving weekend

While Markus spent 2 days in London visiting some of his clients in the UK Jakob and Kerstin did enjoy the spring-weather in Vienna as much as they could and the junior has made some big further developments during the past few days. Thursday was a really busy day as firstly the last session of the baby-swim course took place and after another 30 minutes in the warm waters of the Dianabad Jakob received his “diploma” for successful completion of the “pollywog”. As the little one liked the swimming so much he continues already this week with course #2 and he is now aiming to become a sea horse. After the course Jakob slept well in his pram and in the afternoon Anna and Lini came to our place and both Anna and Jakob enjoyed the sunshine on the floor of our living room. Later on that afternoon Fabio and Marina stopped by for a visit and the two boys did check out in detail the educational and musical toy which Jakob stresses very often.

Are they playing or fighting?

On the weekend the nice weather remained and so we spent a lot of time outside on Saturday and did visit Heuriger Kroiss where we will have the lunch for the family after Jakob’s christening in 3 weeks time while on Sunday we walked all the way from home to Laurenz, Claudia and Olli’s place – that way Jakob managed to get some 90 minutes sleep – for a brunch at which we were also joined by Maria, Valentin and Mirko. The three juniors were very peaceful (when Valentin turned the sofa into a piece of art with a painted heard he was very quiet) and the afternoon went by very smoothly. As Jakob did not sleep for more than 4 hours – he was nevertheless absolutely easy going – we also walked all the way back home allowing again for some sleep. Once we reached home our junior did what he was indicating every so often the past few days: he crawled forward! Accompanied by a lot of noise he moved a few metres (or was it less?), really enjoyed himself and it seems that the door is open now for more mobility I our house. Apart from crawling our sunshine has also perfected to get up into a standing position, whereas he still has to improve to sit back down again. Currently he is reaching that goal only by letting the hands go and fall on is bum. Due to the diapers the drop is cushioned though.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

On the move soon

Markus was seriously considering buying cross country equipment and get on the tracks in the Prater the previous weekend when fresh snow turned Vienna’s green lung into a real winter sport centre. With temperatures rising significantly throughout last week the snow was melting fast and so it turned out a good decision to postpone any such purchase until later in the year. When on Sunday spring broke Vienna was lit by sunshine for the first time since weeks and temperatures reached more than 12 degrees the Prater was flooded with people. It seemed everything that had legs was there and the Hauptallee was as busy as one of Vienna’s main shopping streets, Mariahilfer Strasse, on the Christmas shopping Saturdays.

Markus did exploit the warm and nice weather on Sunday with a sporty premiere: For the first time he went for a run together with Jakob. The two set off early at 0830 when the Prater was still rather empty and soon after their departure Jakob fell asleep (which was the main task of being out in the fresh air anyway). For Markus it was the first time in almost two months to hit the tarmac again and so he took it really slow but at least he was running for 70 minutes. Given everything went so smooth the plan now is to repeat the sleep-run each weekend (ideally twice) if the weather allows and this way get Markus back into shape.

Preparing for the 100m final of the Summer Olympics 2018

But not only Markus did increase his activity level over the past as Jakob has started to “test” the right moves for motion on all four extremities. Due to the fact that our parquet is quite slippery and thus attempts are not very easy we provided him with a small carpet runway on which he now is moving slowly forward. What is striking though is that he is not crawling on arms and knees but trying to lift his bum so far that his legs are fully stretched and thus more or less walking on all four. We did prepare already for him to really kick off crawling and mounted the KiddyGuard on our living floor level so that the stairs are no risk for our junior and are already curious when the safety net will be tested for the first time!

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

It repeats itself just like Groundhog Day

Our quest to bring a certain rhythm into our life and to consequently help our junior getting more accustomed to the world seems to be bearing fruits. While Markus was travelling to London last week grandma Heidi spent most of her half-term holidays with us and thus supported to maintain certain rituals every day.

"HA! I have so much fun during the day!"

Jakob’s day starts between 0530 and 0600 with a fresh diaper and a changeover from pyjamas to “normal” clothes followed by 45 minutes playing while we can have a first coffee. When we get changed and ready in the bathroom our junior is either spending time in his cot (these days manly standing) or in his rocker. By 0830/0900 the little one is tired again and he is being wrapped in layers of warm clothes, put in the pushchair and off we go for a walk. Jakob usually falls asleep within minutes and usually sleeps peacefully for a few hours. Once awake its playing time again followed by lunch – carrots, potatoes or corn with beef – and something to drink. With the new energy the activity level increases in the early afternoon until its time for yet another walk and some more sleep in the buggy-seat. The afternoon usually is dragging and by the time Markus returns home from work Jakob tends to be tired, but once Markus enters the flat, the junior seems to get another boost and is frolicking for good 30 minutes followed by dinner, washing, sometimes taking a hot bath and changeover to the PJ before going to bed between 1930 and 2000.

"There is so much to do, that I dont even know where to start!"

Not only that the daytime is pretty well organized for Jakob, he is also a very well-behaved boy who is far less demanding than he used to be earlier in his life. The only remaining “problem-zone” is the night, as Jakob wakes up fairly often during the night – the first time usually 45 minutes after being put to bed – and prefers to sleep on top of his mum rather than his bed. As we are pretty sure that also that is “only a phase” we are pretty sure that sooner or later we will also get some good rhythm into Jakob’s nightlife so all three of us have more energy the following morning.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

7 months - the accursed month is behind us

Here we are with yet another month flown by and our junior has over the past month gained more of mobility and developed his personality further. Sitting upright is by now totally normal just as well as crawling backwards, whereas the latter is sometimes frustrating as object of desire usually move further away and sometime Jakob gets stuck underneath a sofa, chair or table. Even though stability and balance are far from fully developed the little one tries to stand up and jump whenever possible (i.e. whenever someone to hold on to is available) and has already surprised us by standing up in his bed.

I'll eat whatever i can grab!

We have also made the friends with Jakob’s own personality which makes certain things like changing clothes or diapers as well as feeding more cumbersome as there are many things our son wants to do instead. Luckily one or the other trick still works and we are hoping that this will remain the case for a while. The changeover to the buggy albeit persistent winter weather was the probably our best decision in the past months as walking our son now is clearly more easy due to the fact that he now enjoys being in the pushchair while being awake. Finally we can clock up miles big time!

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

The Saints are coming

Last night Miami hosted one of America’s biggest sport events, the final of the National Football League NFL – the Super Bowl. As this game each year is followed by millions of people worldwide the advertising minutes around and during the game are the most expensive for the year – this year the price for a 30 second spot reached 2,8mn USD – and usually advertising agencies produce special sport which are aired exclusively during that game, highlighting how important this final for the teams as well as the economy.

As ESPN America broadcasted the game with English commentators in Austria Markus decided to stay up and watch Super Bowl XLIV in which the New Orleans Saints clashed with the Indianapolis Colts in the Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens. While the Saints have so far never won the NFL Finals the Colts, led by experienced superstar quarterback Peyton Manning, could win the Vince Lombardi Trophy three times in the past. The New Orleans Saints were hit hard by Hurricane Katrina back in 2005 when their stadium – the Louisiana Superdome – was devastated so they could not play “at home” in the 2005 season this season they reached the final for the first time.

The game itself kicked of shortly before 00:30 Vienna time and it was the Colts playing out their routine of several Super Bowl appearances taking an early lead. Peyton Manning was at his best in the Colt’s second drive which was the longest ever in a Super Bowl (96 yards) resulting in a touchdown and the 10:0 lead after Q1. It was only in Q2 when the quarterback Drew Brees and his Saints got into gear and managed to reduce the gap by halftime to 10:6. In the third quarter both teams were playing very solid and equally strong whereas Indianapolis managed to hold on to a one point lead (17:16). At this point Markus was rather sceptical that his expectation of a New Orleans victory would happen the Colt’s quarterback usually plays strongest at crunch time in Q4. It turned out though that the Saint’s defence as well as the offensive versatility in the final quarter was much better, Drew Brees managed to make an important touchdown pass 5:42 minutes before the end and also successfully completed the two point conversion play which put them into the lead again. The following drive was crucial and several incomplete passes by Manning did bring up doubts about him really being able to change up. When Saints’ cornerback Tracy Porter intercepted a pass and scored a completed 74 yard run with a touchdown 3:12 minutes before the end the game was decided, as it would have taken the colts 2 scores within a short period of time. Though not impossible it did not happen and thus New Orleans won their first NFL Championship in their very first appearance in the Super Bowl. While the team celebrated the victory and Drew Brees his award as Most Valuable Player Markus rushed to bed for some 2 hours of sleep before heading to work in the morning.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!

When Markus returned on Sunday night after a whole week travelling, Jakob was asleep, but woke up soon and could not believe his eyes. He looked up several times in order to get fully convinced after a few minutes that his eyes did not betray him and that what hew saw was not a fata morgana which disappeared gain: Dad standing in front of him. Once he realised that Markus was definitely back our junior was all smiling and wide awake. During the following days Jakob familiarised himself again with Markus.

Not having seen our little treasure for seven days made all the developments much more obvious to Markus. While Jakob has picked a lot of small bits and pieces in his growth he did surprised Kerstin and Markus big time on Friday morning when they sat Jakob into his cot in order to be able to get changed and ready for the day. Not only that Jakob did move from a sitting position into a knee-stand which enables him to bite on the railings of his bed, but he moved on and pulled himself up into a standing position and so suddenly the little man was standing in his cot, grinning all over and leaning over the railing.

Freedom = standing on the own feet without help

Kerstin and Markus were full of joy and pride about this move and at the same time concerned that the railing might not be high enough so that Jakob could drop out of his cot. So probably his mattress has to be lowered yet again. Anyhow, this major step could be the beginning of even more mobility in our junior’s life and even more attention we need to dedicate to Jakob going forward.

Look at me - I did that all by myself

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus