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Thoughts

Two big negatives, a multitude of small positives

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We’re nearly there – 2013 is taking its last breaths and with it a chapter is closing. It is a year which promised so much but delivered so little. The greatest thing its closing brings is the start of another year that, all things considered, presents challenges and opportunities to behold. It will definitely surpass anything the outgoing year offered.

Let’s start with the negatives – my father’s passing left a huge void in my life. It was expected, yet shocking. I knew that the phone call that came in at 2.44am on 4 November would bear no good news. I contemplated not answering in the hope that all will be fixed when I woke up the next morning. It didn’t happen.

Travelling home to Malta for the funeral was devastating. It also made me realise that my contacts with my native country are slowly coming undone.

It also made me kick myself for not listening to Nirvana’s final recommendations about telling people you love them. I didn’t, simply because I wanted to tell my father ‘I love you’ in person. It was too late. I now make sure I tell my kids – every day, many times a day.

This year also saw me effectively losing my job – it may not be so immediate, but my days at Chevrolet Europe are sadly numbered. General Motors has decided to ‘exit’ Europe and the decision has obvious consequences. It’s a pity – I like Chevrolet, and will miss most of the people working there.

Sometimes, however, being forced into taking a decision makes you see everything in a different perspective. I see it as an opportunity to better my situation, even though right now it may be hard to see life through rose-tinted glasses. But it will happen.

What I’m sure of is that 2014 will be very interesting. For the time being, there is still a job to be done at Chevrolet, and we’ll make sure it’s done right as our customers and those who believe in us deserve nothing less.

There have been a multitude of positives in 2013 – my daughters are all healthy and are enjoying what life is throwing at them. They laugh a lot, and that sound always makes me happy. We had fun holidays with friends, went biking, played, fought and cried together.

Work wise, we had some very successful events – the Trax launch in Croatia, Geneva Motor Show and IAA, the Young Creative Chevrolet Award Night in Manchester and other small, meaningless things that mean so much to so many.

I also started my Masters degree in Media, Communication and Public Relations, ran a half marathon and am now preparing to run a marathon. And Leicester City is top of the table – go Foxes!

The two negatives of the year might have been big, but the sheer amount of small positives has been incredible – maybe this year delivered more than I’m realising. That’s what I’m taking into 2014.

Sports, Thoughts, World of Cars

New job, cr#p hotel and Olympic dreams

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Camaro photoshoot in Spain. Many early mornings and long days - but one hell of a lot of fun!

Now 2011 has been one hell of a ride, and I’m seeing it off with a mixture of satisfaction and anticipation for next year. It took some time, but things are finally falling into place.

The year started off with news that I got the job I wanted at Chevrolet (General Motors). It was great news at the tail end of a year, 2010, I would sooner forget.

Work at my former employer had become untenable for a number of reasons – incompatible chemistry, divergence of opinion of how things should be run and a salary that was – by Swiss standards – laughable. It was neatly closed off with a broken promise by the company boss in NY for a reference letter. But that’s the past, way past in my books. The only good thing about it is that I met some nice people (still following you on the social media highway, chaps).

In my new job, there are the usual office clashes and bumpy rides, late nights and early mornings, long meetings and uncooperative people (you know who you are!). But you know what? It doesn’t matter. It’s still great and I love it. And my bosses are great, colleagues too, our products are best in class and our Europe-wide team rocks! Even the folks across the pond and beyond are helpful and supportive.

I sometimes wonder why it took me so long to get into the business. I guess we just tend to be dragged along into a job that pays the bills. People don’t seem to understand that I chose my job because I love it. And judging by the faces of some people on trains or in cars, during the morning and evening commutes, I’d say that the vast majority of people do not particularly like their job/boss/life.

My only complaint during my time there so far is that cr#p hotel I stayed at during our Centennial event. Man, was it bad. The Sternen Hotel in Worb, near Bern. For a start, calling it a hotel is an offence to hotels worldwide. Can you imagine that after a long day at work, I arrive, at around 8.05pm and was shouted at (really!) by the owner-cum-receptionist because I was late. No, seriously. I was told off because I was late arriving at a hotel! Not only, she walked up the steps and turned a sign round sternly saying that guests should arrive from 5.30pm to 7.30pm.

Now two things spring to mind – 1. It was turned the wrong way, so even if by chance I had driven by, I would not have seen it, and 2. the first time I got there was when I arrived to check in – how on heaven’s earth should I have known. So I duly apologised for being but a mere client paying good money (it wasn’t cheap!) – she didn’t get the sarcasm. So if you are ever in Worb and need a hotel, DO NOT GO THERE! The room was OK, although the TV was a relic of the 1970s (you could hear what’s on but not watch), the towel was normal sized if you were an elf, and the windows had little pieces of cloth which you had to stick on with Velcro. Oh, the mini-bar was simply not there (although the piece of furniture that housed it was there, vents and all).

My year is now ending and I have just one resolution – I’ll be moving up from Sprint Triathlons to the Olympic distance. Cycling and running should not pose too much hassle, if I survive the swimming.

I close my first year as a blogger with three little notes: the first is that my eldest kid (Kim) is an up and coming gymnastics star, the second is that my middle child (Mia) is a little artist, and finally, my youngest (Lea) is a tough little cookie who will probably go on to rule the world (must make sure not to piss her off, I guess).

PS: Jerry has four leaves now!

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The Volt Challenge (Part 6 of 6): The final kilometres

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It’s very hard to give up, but sometimes it makes sense to do so.

Around 15km from my destination, La Chaux de Fond, I threw in the towel and pulled into a gas station for a quick splash and dash – just CHF10 worth to get me there.

It turns out that I needn’t have put any in as I had more than enough to arrive, but hindsight is 20/20 vision, I suppose.

Five hours earlier, I had left Darmstadt with the prospect of a long and boring drive – the Chevrolet Volt and my grand challenge made sure the trip was anything but boring.

The car had managed to regenerate around 150km of range. When you think that I started off with a range of around 280km and drove 420km, that’s very impressive. The only concession I made was to drive slightly slower than I normally would have driven – that’s it.

But I still had one huge problem to deal with – in my enthusiasm, I forgot (‘refused’ is probably a better word) to stop for food or to go to the bathroom, and now I desperately (really, I was desperate) needed a bathroom and quick! Wait until I got back to my hotel was not an option – that’s how bad it was.

I kept on going for another kilometer or so but then had to make an emergency stop –  so I half abandoned the Volt in the middle of a country road in (practically) complete darkness to do the business. The sigh of relief was audible many kilometres away, I was told.

So, at the end of the day, I didn’t complete my challenge, but the result is still – in my mind – impressive.

Now, I need another impossible challenge to complete – any thoughts?

Disclosure: The author works for Chevrolet Europe as Coordinator, Product Communications. All views expressed in this blog are his own

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The Volt Challenge (Part 5 of 6): Two critical moments

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I left the A1 and headed to Biel. I trusted the GPS because my mind told me that was the best thing to do. It wasn’t, of course. This was the first of two critical mistakes that was to have a defining effect on the outcome of my Volt Challenge.

The road quickly grew smaller and smaller until I ended up in the back roads leading to La Chaux de Fond, my final destination. I knew instinctively that I was in trouble, especially when I was travelling in pitch darkness that was only broken by lights in distant villages.

The constant changing from 50km/h to 80km/h and back was taking its toll on my power supplies, and the idiot who tailgated me for a good 20km did not help either (I hate tailgaters). This was because the closer he got, the slower I drove and we ended up creating a sort of concertina effect.

At this point I had around 65km of range left and the distance to base camp was barely 40km, so I was very confident I would make it, although I still had to keep in mind the fact that we had to drive the rest of the way uphill.

Then, disaster struck – the road was closed! Again, I trusted the GPS, which took me on a round trip back to where the road was closed. Making the same mistake twice was silly, but I was in a place I had barely visited before and by now it was night. Then, I engaged my brain and decided to follow the signs (detours are well signed in Switzerland) and I was back on track. But I had lost valuable range.

The second critical moment followed very soon after. The car stopped telling me what range I had left but only that my fuel was low and I had to charge or fill up (as if I didn’t know). I kept on going and going – but I had no idea of what range remained.

Disclosure: The author works for Chevrolet Europe as Coordinator, Product Communications. All views expressed in this blog are his own

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The Volt Challenge (Part 4 of 6): Rubber Duck and Wobbly Lights

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I was looking for all the help I could get. According to the reading in Darmstadt, I should have stopped without any power – electrically or gas provided – a long time ago. But the Chevrolet Volt was still moving. I needed some help, and then this help arrived in the form of two trucks.

I named the one in from Rubber Duck because apparently the leader of any truck convoy is called so. There was even a film. The second was baptized Wobbly Lights – I’ll let you guess the reason why.

I assumed, maybe incorrectly, that the trucks would open a corridor of air in front of the Volt which would further improve my efficiency. Driving behind Rubber Duck and Wobbly Lights also meant that I was cruising at between 80km/h and 90km/h, the range at which the aerodynamics of the Volt work best.

Then it happened. The range I had left and the distance to La Chaux de Fonds were equal. The Volt had managed to regenerate more than 150km worth of range. With the help of Rubber Duck and Wobbly Lights, I was gaining more and more. Within a few kilometers, I had a spare 15km of range.

Technology was helping me achieve something that a few hours earlier seemed neigh impossible, but technology was also to cause me a great deal of headaches.

The GPS indicated that I should now leave the A1 motorway and head to Biel. I had taken this route before and knew it was an option, but I also knew it wasn’t the greatest one. The other option was to stay on the same motorway toward Bern, but I didn’t know what effect this would have on the distance.

I could see the exit and noticed that Rubber Duck and Wobbly Lights were going straight ahead –  I had seconds to decide and no idea what to do.

 

Disclosure: The author works for Chevrolet Europe as Coordinator, Product Communications. All views expressed in this blog are his own

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The Volt Challenge (Part 3 of 6): An uphill struggle

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By now, the discrepancy between the kilometers left to travel and the range I had left in the Volt was down to just 50km from the initial 150km. I seriously began believing that I could make it, but I also desperately needed to go to the bathroom.

The question was whether I should stop, but I hard-headedly refused. I’m not Scorpio for nothing, I’ll have you know!

So on we went. I must point out that I was in fact alone in the car, but the little voice in my head felt like another person, one I didn’t immediately recognize. So the voice started using the royal ‘we’ while urging me on.

My greatest concern was that the road to la Chaux-de-Fond was all uphill from here – literally. I must have been at an elevation of around 400m and had to climb to the 1,000m+ of La Chaux-de-Fonds.

I knew this would be a problem as it would use up more energy. I also remembered that on my way to Darmstadt, there was an uphill section which now meant it was downhill. It was critical to my plans and ultimate success.

I’m now sure where I was, but the difference in range and distance were not getting closer. I trudged on for kilometer after kilometer, hoping for the best and looking for ways to reduce the gap. It had dropped to 22km but stayed that way for what seemed like an eternity. Why 22, I thought? Was there a catch I was missing?

Then the downhill came. This was the make or break of it all. By now I was travelling at 80km/h and the gap was dropping – 21km, 17km, 15km. Occasionally, it increased to our utter dismay. “What is wrong with you?” I would scream, beads of sweat rolling down my forehead.  The words would not even have left my mouth when the increase was met was a decrease and a sigh of relief from my part.

But we weren’t out of the woods yet.

Disclosure: The author works for Chevrolet Europe as Coordinator, Product Communications. All views expressed in this blog are his own

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The Volt Challenge (Part 2 of 6): The challenge begins

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Getting out of Darmstadt was not that easy. In fact, I took a wrong turn. Not the greatest of starts, but at that point, the idea to get back to Switzerland without refueling had not entered my head yet. My plan was to get home as quickly as the car could get me, and to eat a hearty meal on the way – I had already missed lunch.

I was not looking forward to the boring trip ahead – I had already done all the thinking I needed to think about for the day on the journey to Darmstadt early that day.

It was sometime then that it struck me. Plodding through road works at 80km/h, I realized that I left with a range of 278km, travelled around 20km and was left with a range of around of around 270km. The reason for this was power regeneration that fills the battery when the driver does not press the accelerator pedal of the Volt, brakes or uses the Low gear (something equivalent to engine braking).

The plan was hatched and once it entered my head, there was no way I was going to leave it go.

My first goal was to get to Basel without refueling, a distance of around 240km. At 222km from Basel, my fuel range marked exactly 222km, so I thought I would just make it there and find an Avia petrol station (Avia is the Chevrolet fuel partner in the on-going Centennial Media Launch).

Close to the border, I still had more than 100km of range left and here I started thinking that I could make it all the way.

Disclosure: The author works for Chevrolet Europe as Coordinator, Product Communications. All views expressed in this blog are his own

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The Volt Challenge (Part 1 of 6): Setting the stage for an improbable result

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I have often thought up of seemingly impossible and downright mad ideas or challenges, like the time I wanted to row around Malta in a bath tub (remember that, JC?).

It didn’t happen, thankfully, as the rescue services would have certainly been called into action. The bath tub idea was scaled down to being pulled round the island by bike, but that idea was also abandoned.

But some others weren’t – one such case was when I decided to cycle from the Swiss town of Les Verriere, on the French border, to my home town, a staggering 185.5km away. It took me eight hours fifteen minutes and was as tiring as hell.

So when I was tasked to drive a Chevrolet Volt from Darmstadt, just south of Frankfurt in Germany, to La Chaux-de-Fond in Switzerland, the opportunity for another epic challenge came along.

I had a battery charge that would take me 58km and enough gas in the tank to power the generator for a further 220km – but my destination was 430km away. So I asked myself – can I get there without refueling?

Scenes from some crazy Top Gear challenge sprang to mind, but I was alone and there were no cameras filming it and making me truckloads of money. Even worse, I refused to stop for food or a bathroom stop as this would waste valuable power/fuel. This, as I was to find out later, was a stupid mistake.

Disclosure: The author works for Chevrolet Europe as Coordinator, Product Communications. All views expressed in this blog are his own

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My Volt record – 78.4km

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Electrifying: The Volt travelled 78.4km on one battery charge

You don’t need to re-learn to drive a car when you get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle. What you need to do is to learn how to drive efficiently, something which is also very useful in a ‘normal’ car.

The Chevrolet Volt is General Motor’s stab at going green (without the pitfalls of range problems). The car is driven exclusively by an electric motor. When the charge runs out, a gasoline generator powers the electric motor and you keep going – simple really!

The range of a Volt is listed at between 40km and 80km on battery power and more than 500km more on extended range. So today (9 August), I had a 100km round trip from Zurich to Luzern for a meeting and back home. I set myself the task of beating my previous record of 73.5km on one charge.

I drove in the city, on motorways, in pouring rain and bright sunshine, free of and stuck in traffic jams, behind trucks and a multitude of traffic lights and roundabouts. The result was a staggering 78.4km on one charge – record broken, yeah! Oh, and that left just uner 25km which I completed using the gasoline generator. So unlike Jeremy Clarkson and James May of Top Gear fame, I didn’t need to wiat for hours to charge the car - I just drove home!

Oh, by the way, I was always driving either at the speed limit or marginally under. The only allowance was the air-conditioner which I kept at a minimum. Otherwise, all was normal which is not surprising since the Volt is, well, a normal (albeit electric) car.

Disclaimer: The author works as Coordinator, Product Communications for Chevrolet Europe

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The cross beckons

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 Three years ago, nearly to the day, I joined Gibbs & Soell Public Relations . It was a challenge because it came after a brief stint with swissinfo.org, an experience that had severely dented my confidence.

People believed in me and took me on. It was a gamble as I had little PR experience. I was ‘just’ a writer who had hung up his pen years earlier. I had ups and downs at G&S, more ups than downs. I met many people, made friends, learnt the ins and outs of PR and the corporate world and, I believe, gave my own contribution to a number of successful projects. This has prepared me for my next challenge.

As of 1 April, I will be taking on the position of Product PR Coordinator with Chevrolet Europe. I am proud and honored to have the opportunity to work with such an iconic company. The more I learn the company and its products, the more excited I get about joining.

My new job also gives me the opportunity of making a living from something I am extremely passionate about – cars. It has to be in your blood. You have to want it so hard that you are willing to do crazy things for it, such as waking up at 4am early Sunday morning to watch the Australian Formula One GP.

I look forward to meeting my new team: I met the boss and managers and they are great people. So the prospects are good.

I will miss my colleagues at G&S, especially those in Zurich but also those across the pond. I will also miss all the people at Syngenta Crop Protection AG, my key account client. I’m not sure whether it is a job requisite, but I can safely say that all the people at Syngenta were nice to work with. I was also passionate about Syngenta because I believe in what the company does.

However much I loved my old job and my clients, the time is right for me to move on. The emblematic Chevrolet cross beckons…