Important note for this past weekend: I bought a new laptop since my old one died two weeks ago. I am very pleased with it so far. It’s a bit larger than the old one was, but it is very nice to both look at and it is quite fast. For the geeks amongst my readers: it’s a Sony Vaio NS11 Z/S

Soooooo… last weekend I was in Amsterdam….after not having ( Read more... )

Yesterday, for the first time since I moved here I got on Métro line 14. It is, at the moment, the only unmanned line that is used. It just felt weird to be in a vehicle that is moving of its own accord. But I must say it's fast,. efficient and it looks very modern compared to some of the other lines in Paris.

On another note: my laptop died, it'll ( Read more... )

Nine years after taking the MBTI test I am still the same type: ENFP
To me proof that the model can withstand the test of time.

The German focal point of the financial markets does not have a lot of things going for it when you want to go out sightseeing. Seeing as how most of the city was reduced to ashes during WW2, it is filled with an odd mix of houses and high-rises now that seem to have been randomly placed next to one another.

I needed one day to see all interesting ( Read more... )

I now know what it means to live in a 19th century building. I cause a leakage on the second floor and my upstairs neighbours are leaking down to my floor. On top of that my washing machine broke down last weekend. All of this together means I have upstairs neighbours that act as if nothing is happening, downstairs neighbours complaining about a ( Read more... )

After spending a lifetime without them I finally bought a pair last weekend...and made immediate use of them with the very nice weather here in Paris last Saturday. (Sunday was crap, forget about that day)

Last weekend three colleagues of the AFM dropped by for a "werkoverleg" which resulted in lots of wine and beer drinking and good times all round ( Read more... )

What to say on Quatorze Juillet? The French celebrate the start of the revolution with the storming of the Bastille. It kind of resembles Koninginnedag in what it stands for, but the French wouldn’t be the French if they did not build it up with much grandeur. There was an air show above the Champs-Elysée and a military parade. I actually woke up ( Read more... )

A busy weekend…a good aikido seminar by Bruno Gonzalez and Pascal Guillemin kept me busy for most of both Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday there was a huge Japan Exposition just outside of Paris. Regretfully, it did not turn out to be what I had expected. It was mostly about video games. Now I understand the presence of Nintendo and Sega. I had more ( Read more... )

Went on my own shopping spree in the past two weekends and it’s quite a bit different from the .nl in the fact that everything goes on sale during a six week period. And they start with good reductions in price right away (starting with 30% right of the bat for just about anything). According to my manager here French women actually have shopping ( Read more... )

….but I couldn’t get in sadly. Despite serious efforts on my behalf, trying to bribe Blizzard personnel, trying to buy someone else’s ticket, pleading, it was all to no avail. I only found out through the website that at that event the announcement of Diablo III was made

I tried to walk my disappointment off, walking on rue Vaugirard, which is the ( Read more... )