Tuesday, December 31, 2013

New Year ... New hope

Well, its New Year again.
Professionally, nothing new to report.
I continue to bug people about my pet project.
It would be nice if this VIP were to give the plan a recommendation!

Personally, I am fit and healthy.
I lost about 5 stone this year.
Having lost it in a healthy manner, I am happy with the results.
MANY THANKS TO THE TRAINERS IN GYM4ALL!! Lee and Jade in particular.
 


The charity book is still available on Amazon. Many thanks to Claus and Tilo Werner for their help making this happen.Below, Claus and I visit a town near Lobstadt to promote the book.
Both Tilo and Claus worked for free!

To read the story behind the story, and find a link to Amazon please click here.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Christmas wishes to my Malaysian friends and helpers!

I just got off a skype call with Sofie. (Pictured). She wished me a Merry Christmas.
Sofie is the owner of Red Palm hostel. She and Tilo (also pictured) along with Hanis, Siti and Kamal ran/run the Red Palm hostel in KL. My second home in Asia!


This time last year Tilo got married to Curtney. I attend the wedding in Leipzig.
It went off well.
 
pppTilo and Curtney had a reception in Red Palm also!
Siti and Hanis are in the front, Sofie just behind with Intan a friend, who has just been misdiagnosed with malignant cancer... She is still ill, but hopefully she will get better!


Tilo does graphics, he did the work below for me.
 



 
 


Jimmy from Malaysia popped over to the UK for Christmas last year.
This year he is in Italy!
All the best to all of them!
Happy Christmas


 

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

First the good news... Ladies first! Holden to close...

Mary Barra, a talented 'car gal' from GM's ranks, steps up to lead giant automaker

Today, I see GM appointed a woman, Mary Barra to the top post.
I don't know Mary. I wish her all the very best.
When I worked in the Opel tech centre, Ruesselsheim, they had one female executive (Rita Forst).
The car park had a ladies only area...
Things are changing. A good thing.

Holden to stop making cars in Australia

When I worked in GM Germany, I met a few Holden engineers. We used to meet in Wiesbaden on weekends. They were friendly and welcoming. So I was a little sad to see they may be laid off.

GM ships (Daewoo) Chevrolet vehicles to Australia, and some Opel's. So I expect these two GM subsidiaries will suppy all GM vehicles in the future.

Obviously, this will adversely affect Holden Design as well as manufacturing.

I, in the meantime am keeping fit and waiting patiently for my project to take off...

2014 will be my year!


Sunday, December 8, 2013

Wishful thinking... Does Ross Brawn fancy a job?

1.Some years ago, I made a proposal to set up a commercial training division for Lotus Engineering (Malaysia).
It wasn't greeted with any great enthusiasm by the then Management. I left soon afterwards!
I believe in the validity of the proposal, and as the following decade has past, this belief has only grown stronger...
I have contacted many people over the years, presented to CEO's and industry experts.

2.Recently, an induustry expert, recently employed by Mercedes Petronas F1 has left his position. In the near future he will take a sabbatical...

3.Another industry professional, also connected to Petronas is reviewing his options.

Below are three short pieces related to the above three (3) points.

Fabulous Interview with Francis Ford Coppola

What happened was for five years later they revisited it (Patton script) and they had hired George C. Scott and Scott didn’t like the script they then had, and someone remembered this earlier script. So they went back to my script and that’s how I got to be in it. So the moral I want to teach all the young people here is that the same thing you get fired for is what they give the Lifetime Achievement Awards 30 years later.
( Call me deluded... but this is what I see happening with my proposal)

Some thoughts about Ross Brawn

Dr Mahathir reconsiders decision to quit Petronas

KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic) is rethinking his decision to quit as Petronas adviser.