Blog It Forward - Martin Grob

[MGrob]

So here is my "blog it forward" contribution. I was asked or invited by jitendrakumar.kansal. Thanks for the invitation and sorry it took me so long to find the time or the right mood to write about me.  My sudden motivation has nothing to do with the cute little badge you get these days :wink:

What you should know about me...

I'm an SAP BusinessWarehouse InHouse consultant, working currently for a large medical devices company headquartered in Switzerland. I've been working with SAP since 2005 or BW 3.0B and being an active member on scn as of this year.

I love to travel the world.  With my vacation days and long weekends,  I'm working towards visiting my first 100  countries according to The Travelers' Century Club.  Currently, I'm at 87.  In addtion to travelling, my other big passion  (not counting scn) is photography... well, actually the two go really well together :smile: .

If you d'like to check out some of my shots stop by on my website mentioned in my profile. I met my canadian wife on one of my trips to the US and we had a long-distance relationship for about a year, until we settled in Switzerland.

About my Country/Hometown

Switzerland...

Did you know that Switzerland is the only country aside from the Vatican which has a square flag? Every other fun fact about Switzerland is probably a cliche anyway :smile: . You know mountains, chocolate, watches and Heidi..

Gossau SG is the town where I grew up and is a city with roughly 18'000 people, making it the 4th largest city in the canton of St.Gallen. There is nothing spectacular to say about the town itself, but I spent the first 25 years of my life there and it is still my center where we get together as a family.

I have been asked to answer the following three questions:

1) What makes you smile/laugh?

That question is now pretty easy... on Halloween my first little daugther was born and when I look in her face I can't help it - one just has to smile.

She is just the cutest thing :smile:

2) Had you not been into software at all, where would you have been?

Good question. My first education was as an electrician before I went to university and got my degree in Business Informatics. I probably would have ended up as a firefigther though and I did this on a volunteer basis for the last 10 years.

3) What is the craziest thing you have done in your life? :smile:

I would say taking the nuclear powered icebreaker "50 years of Victory" and sailing or rather crushing through the pack ice to the NorthPole. Personally I don't think I can get any crazier than this!! It was a very spectacular honeymoon into a bizar arctic world with 24 hours of daylight. 

I would forward this blog to my BW colleagues on SCN kr.ch and suman.kchakravarthy with those  3 questions.

• What do you most enjoy on SCN?
• What is the best lesson your parents taught you?
• Which 5 things do you absolutely want to achieve in life?

Remember the rules of the game:

- Follow the Blog It Forward Chain in order to be updated when the people you blog it forward to post the links to their "Blog It Forward" blogs.

- Read Moshe's blog again to make sure you follow the rules in your own blog:

• Provide an introduction to yourself
• Provide a fun fact about your country or yourself
• Add a cool picture of yourself or your homeland/town
• Answer specific questions that were "Blog It Forward" to you
• Answer 3-4 optional questions from the bank of questions provided below. Or choose to answer questions you make-up on your own.
• Create 1-2 personalized  questions you would like to blog forward
• List at least 2  people who you are blogging it forward to. Link to their SCN profile by typing @  and then their name (e.g @HisName).
• Ask the community to follow the Blog It Forward Chain in order to be updated when the people you "Blog It Forward" to post the links to their "Blog It Forward" blogs.

Thanks for reading my BIF.

[TammyPowlas]

Congratulations on your blog it forward and your greatest achievement - your baby

For those who missed yesterday's blog-it-forward celebration, here is the recording:

https://sap.na.pgiconnect.com/p2ll4gp69ze/

cc moshe.naveh

[keohanster]

Welcome Martin!
Wow, I knew your daughter would be adorable - and I was right!  And an exploration on an icebreaker sounds very adventurous - I am not sure if I am jealous or not.

Of course, with the nuclear power, it was probably well heated 😉

I have many lessons that my parents taught me. Some are funny, some are serious.  And my mom continues to teach me lessons to this day.

We will have to make sure you are lined up for NEXT YEAR'S BIF celebration!
Sue

[Jitendra_Kansal]

I am glad you accepted my invitation. Welcome to BIF family Martin !!!  :smile:

have you visited India already ? :wink: Your daughter is so cute !!!

enjoyed reading your life style.

Regards,

Jitendra

[vivekbhoj]

Great BIF Martin

  I'm working towards visiting my first 100  countries

Wow, visited 87 countries already

Checked your site and photos of Arctic are awesome

Glad to know more about you :smile:

Regards,

Vivek

[MGrob]

Just watched the replay Tammy shared glad I made it before you had to follow up on me :smile: . I have been to India..twice actually to the Rajasthan area and to Jammu and Kashmir

Martin

[RamanKorrapati]

Glad to know more about you martin. surely once time permits i will update my BIf.

I like swiss, its one of the best place to visit.

Thanks

[Steffi_Warnecke]

87 countries?! :shock: WOW! I'm at 12... got some catching up to do! :grin:

And when I look at the picture of your daughter, I can absolutly understand why you would smile. How cute is she?! And that expression... *gg*

Honeymoon on an icebreaker to the North Pole is definitly something. But I'm with Susan and also not sure, if I'm jealous or not. :grin:

Really great read and some exciting information about you. It was a long wait, but definitly worth it. :wink:

Regards,

Steffi.

[former_member182196]

Nice  BIF.. its good you visited 87 countries. Have you visited India if no come ones. Here we have so many good places..... :smile: you can enjoy a lot here.

Congratulation.and your Doughtier is do cute like an Angil ....... :smile: :smile: :smile:

Happy to know more about you :smile:

Regards,

Satendra Mishra

[former_member46]

Great BIF!! 87 countries is really impressive!! Can I ask which was your favorite?

I'd also recommend adding Israel to the list :wink:

[MGrob]

speaking of achievement my work colleagues took a screenshot of my scn profile and added a pacifier to my badge collection and sent that to me :smile: she is indeed though my best work...

[MGrob]

Hi Susan

It was definitely an adventure of a lifetime and probably not the most comfortable honeymoon girls look for that why we had an agreement that this was one part of the "cruise" and another in the caribbean..:)

Sadly I missed the BIF celebration but I watched the reply thanks Tammy!

[MGrob]

Well everyone has different priorities and hobbies and mine is collecting countries and get a full passport before it expires :wink:

[MGrob]

Israel is definitely on the list and made it almost this early summer to Tel Aviv to visit friends but travelling with a pregnant wife in her last trimester is not that fun and Israel was a bit too hot for her.. who knows probably next spring :wink:

[MGrob]

Oh and my favorite so far is bolivia. I have visited it in 2006 and it was just gorgeous. I loved the salar de uyuni

[srinu_s1]

Very nice blog Martin,nice to know more about you. :smile: Thanks for sharing

thanks,

Srinu.

[Former Member]

Wow, Its great. Keep safe travelling

[Former Member]

Hi Martin, Great to know about you and your passions :smile:

Really enjoyed reading such an intresting BIF!!!

haa Your Baby is So Cute.............

And all the very best for Century>>> :smile:

Best Regards,

Rama

[former_member181931]

It is nice to get to know you better Martin!

87 countries is impressive, especially with such a distribution geographically. You know you've found your soulmate when she is willing to follow you to the North Pole on your honeymoon 😉

Thanks for sharing a picture of your daughter with the community, indeed she is very cute and the expression on her face is priceless.

I know and love Switzerland as I lived very close to it in France, with my family we used to go ski and hike in the Swiss Alps on a regular basis, sometimes we would even see the Alps from Alsace 🙂

I've bookmarked your personal web site, nice pictures!
Laure

[MGrob]

I hope the travelshots soon can get updated as I thought I manage to get the hundred full before the baby but I ran out of time :wink: Now that the little one also has a passport the travels can begin again..

The Alsace is also a very pretty area and I go quite regularly in summer for a glass of wine or two :smile:

[Former Member]

My god 87 Countries? How can make it possible. Like to know how you are managing timetable.

Regards,

Sushant

[Former Member]

Hi Martin,

Wow! Switzerland! Dream Destination of each and everywhere in this universe!

Nice place to visit during honey moon.

Thanks for sharing about you and your experience.

Now only I know that only Switzerland has square flag. :smile:

Once again thank you so much for good info!

Regards,

Hari Suseelan

[Former Member]

Martin,

Nice to know more about you through BIF.. Thanks for sharing your journey so far...!

BR, Srinivas Salpala

[former_member183424]

mgrob

I am very happy to hear about you..

I also love photography...

[Matt_Fraser]

Thanks to steffi.warnecke for pointing to this BIF. :smile: Martin, great story, and I love the idea of the Travelers Century Club -- time for me to get busy and visit more countries! The icebreaker trip to the North Pole sounds fascinating. I spent some time on the other end of things, in Antarctica, though I didn't quite make it to the South Pole (I got within about 400 miles, though).

[Former Member]

Hi Martin,

Nice to see your blog. and great idea on travelling the entire world. i was surprised to see that you have travelled for 87 countries.. great. by any chance visited india ?

Regards,

G.V.Shivakkumar