Poor Fedor. The funny Dutch people in Eindhoven had some sort of power failure at the airport and his flight got cancelled. So after a lot of calling, messaging and other hassle, his only way of getting back here in time for work tomorrow was by train. So he's in the night train right now from the Netherlands to Milano.
That's what you get for flying Ryanair! If your flight is cancelled, you're on your own... aka: you're f*cked.
Oh well, I will welcome him with all his stuff at the train station tomorrow morning so he can go straight to work!
Ciao,
OJ
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
blog changes
Well, what do you think? Slightly different colour scheme compared to before, but I must say that I am rather satisfied. The only thing that unfortunately has not survived these changes was the randomised blog-title-picture :-(
But I will look into it to see whether I'm gonna be able to repair that too!
But I will look into it to see whether I'm gonna be able to repair that too!
A Very Happy Easter!
Happy Easter! A very happy Easter, in fact: lots of good news recently... I had a job inteview (by phone) for a fellowship program for this Summer, and I will hear the result from that in about a week... I was absolutely dead nervous, obviously, for the interview, but it seemed to have gone quite well!
Additionally, I had my paper accepted at 2 conferences (in Zurich and Amsterdam), although I am not sure yet I am actually going to make it to either of them, but it's always nice to hear that someone is interested, isn't it? Finally, as mentioned before, in 3 weeks, I will be in Izmir again for the weekend for a conference...
So, that was all the good news. For the rest it's been work, work, work (yesss, finally some results for my latest paper: a cooperative effort) and some R&R in between. Fedor's father and his father's girlfriend were in Milano last week. It was quite relaxing for me, because I had a very good excuse not to participate in the Day Entertainment Program... Instead I relaxed and cycled! With Fedors new bycicle, I went on a real trip to investigate the end-of-Milan! That is, I cycled down the Naviglio Grande until I was in the fields.... About 45 minutes of cycling, but it totally felt like I was back in the Netherlands. Look at this picture:
This week-end is, if possible, even more relaxed. On Saturday it was a bit stressfull, because Jorge and Diana (Costa Rican friends of ours) came for dinner and of course I had to match their excellent Costa Rican meal they made for us last month. So I spent the whole day making an entire Japanese meal. And it was a great success!!! So I was very happy about that. Fedor was not as happy, the next morning, because he had to get up early to fly to the Netherlands to see La Famiglia. But I am sure that all the festitivies in the Netherlands will cheer him up, despite his little hang-over... Anyways, I am having 2 very relaxed days, without Fedor here and the University doors locked for Easter! I watched three movies yesterday, while stuffing myself with sushi left-overs: it was lovely! Today, I may make another bycicle tour again, because the weather is gorgeous...
Now, those were my happy thoughts for the day. I will finish with a buckload of pictures of all the things that I hadn't posted pictures of yet.
downtown Porto
View from Cathedral over the river in Porto
Old City in Porto
Fedor, Nuno and Marta in the Museum Gardens
My brothers by Lake Como
Kim and Joost at the Cimitero Monumentale
Ciao,
OJ
PS I wil try and do something about this horrible colour scheme. But I'm not making any promises......
Additionally, I had my paper accepted at 2 conferences (in Zurich and Amsterdam), although I am not sure yet I am actually going to make it to either of them, but it's always nice to hear that someone is interested, isn't it? Finally, as mentioned before, in 3 weeks, I will be in Izmir again for the weekend for a conference...
So, that was all the good news. For the rest it's been work, work, work (yesss, finally some results for my latest paper: a cooperative effort) and some R&R in between. Fedor's father and his father's girlfriend were in Milano last week. It was quite relaxing for me, because I had a very good excuse not to participate in the Day Entertainment Program... Instead I relaxed and cycled! With Fedors new bycicle, I went on a real trip to investigate the end-of-Milan! That is, I cycled down the Naviglio Grande until I was in the fields.... About 45 minutes of cycling, but it totally felt like I was back in the Netherlands. Look at this picture:
This week-end is, if possible, even more relaxed. On Saturday it was a bit stressfull, because Jorge and Diana (Costa Rican friends of ours) came for dinner and of course I had to match their excellent Costa Rican meal they made for us last month. So I spent the whole day making an entire Japanese meal. And it was a great success!!! So I was very happy about that. Fedor was not as happy, the next morning, because he had to get up early to fly to the Netherlands to see La Famiglia. But I am sure that all the festitivies in the Netherlands will cheer him up, despite his little hang-over... Anyways, I am having 2 very relaxed days, without Fedor here and the University doors locked for Easter! I watched three movies yesterday, while stuffing myself with sushi left-overs: it was lovely! Today, I may make another bycicle tour again, because the weather is gorgeous...
Now, those were my happy thoughts for the day. I will finish with a buckload of pictures of all the things that I hadn't posted pictures of yet.
downtown Porto
View from Cathedral over the river in Porto
Old City in Porto
Fedor, Nuno and Marta in the Museum Gardens
My brothers by Lake Como
Kim and Joost at the Cimitero Monumentale
Ciao,
OJ
PS I wil try and do something about this horrible colour scheme. But I'm not making any promises......
Monday, March 10, 2008
bugger
Well, somehow, I am not able to change the text color anymore. Instead, I've had to change the background. Sorry for those people who are color blind or otherwise visually impaired, I bet it's completely unreadible now. I hope to soon find out how to get back to original state (which I never wanted to change in the first place: bloody blogger!)
Ciao,
OJ
Ciao,
OJ
Sunday, March 09, 2008
summary...
Well, it seems to have been quite a while since I updated... And for some odd reason, blogspot decided that Black on Blue would be an improvement, it seems... I will correct this asap, once I find out how to do so. However, since I am downloading some movies right now, I have zero-speed when trying to do things online, so I can't do it immediately. This is also the reason why I am not adding any photos here. If you want to see photos from some of the things I will describe later, just check them out on Facebook or Volkskrant Reizen... And maybe I will add some later on, anyway.
Now, I can't believe I didn't even write anything about Porto yet! That trip seems ages ago already, even though it was only about 2 weeks ago. It was realllllly nice to see Marta (and Nuno) again and they were excellent hosts! They showed us all of Porto, which I should say is a beautiful city. It could use some paint and a good cleaning, but overall, it's very charming. But of course, for us it was mostly the hosts that made it best. We ate very, very well (fresh seafood: wooohooo) and went to a Port tasting in one of the cellars. We enjoyed some walking on the beach and a glass of wine looking out on the sea. I can imagine why Marta always says she wouldn't want to leave that city! One thing I did learn, however, is that it is possible to get a jetlag from only 1 hour time difference! Admittedly, it wasn't the time difference, but the fact that our flight was terribly early. Basically, we arrived at 8AM local time and had already been awake for six hours by then! This meant we could really enjoy the whole weekend, but it also meant we were totally wrecked at the end of it.
After returning there was another whole week of work to enjoy before, last weekend, my brothers arrived. It was very cool to see them and they were lucky with the weather. On Sunday, the temperature in Milan reached some 25°C, which is uncommon for Northern Italy on March 1! We went to Como that day and enjoyed the weather, the ice creams and the views from the top of the mountain. It was awesome! Also, they brought a new harddisk for Fedor's computer, which Jorryt had arranged somehow. So now Fedor has his own computer again: VERY NICE...
And............... I'm going to be an uncle again! Niels is expecting another child in September, which means that in my competition with Fedor, I will then be leading 4-0! Beat that! Seriously though, it's very cool and it'll be another good reason to go the Netherlands again in October or so...
The past week, I continued working and received word that my negotiations with the a conference in Izmir were successful: they are paying for my entire trip, including the flights, so I will be in Izmir during the 2nd weekend of April! I can hardly wait!
This weekend, Joost and Kim arrived from Rotterdam, to spend some time here, before taking the train to Firenze this morning. We had a lot of fun, meeting with other friends of mine and walking through town. They had been here before, but that was during Easter (last year) and many things were closed that time. So we had to do the Cimitero Monumentale still, as well as Hightech. I think they enjoyed it a lot too, as did we. Although, to be honest, I don't mind the fact that they left quite early today and we basically have an entire Sunday with each other, not doing much. Very Relaxing...
Particularly because it will give us the chance to FINALLY watch The Godfather tonight. Why make 3-hour movies? It is so inconvenient for people who have to work etc! We've had these since my birthday and never actually had 3 hours of time to watch even just the first part. But today we will!
Ciao,
OJ
Now, I can't believe I didn't even write anything about Porto yet! That trip seems ages ago already, even though it was only about 2 weeks ago. It was realllllly nice to see Marta (and Nuno) again and they were excellent hosts! They showed us all of Porto, which I should say is a beautiful city. It could use some paint and a good cleaning, but overall, it's very charming. But of course, for us it was mostly the hosts that made it best. We ate very, very well (fresh seafood: wooohooo) and went to a Port tasting in one of the cellars. We enjoyed some walking on the beach and a glass of wine looking out on the sea. I can imagine why Marta always says she wouldn't want to leave that city! One thing I did learn, however, is that it is possible to get a jetlag from only 1 hour time difference! Admittedly, it wasn't the time difference, but the fact that our flight was terribly early. Basically, we arrived at 8AM local time and had already been awake for six hours by then! This meant we could really enjoy the whole weekend, but it also meant we were totally wrecked at the end of it.
After returning there was another whole week of work to enjoy before, last weekend, my brothers arrived. It was very cool to see them and they were lucky with the weather. On Sunday, the temperature in Milan reached some 25°C, which is uncommon for Northern Italy on March 1! We went to Como that day and enjoyed the weather, the ice creams and the views from the top of the mountain. It was awesome! Also, they brought a new harddisk for Fedor's computer, which Jorryt had arranged somehow. So now Fedor has his own computer again: VERY NICE...
And............... I'm going to be an uncle again! Niels is expecting another child in September, which means that in my competition with Fedor, I will then be leading 4-0! Beat that! Seriously though, it's very cool and it'll be another good reason to go the Netherlands again in October or so...
The past week, I continued working and received word that my negotiations with the a conference in Izmir were successful: they are paying for my entire trip, including the flights, so I will be in Izmir during the 2nd weekend of April! I can hardly wait!
This weekend, Joost and Kim arrived from Rotterdam, to spend some time here, before taking the train to Firenze this morning. We had a lot of fun, meeting with other friends of mine and walking through town. They had been here before, but that was during Easter (last year) and many things were closed that time. So we had to do the Cimitero Monumentale still, as well as Hightech. I think they enjoyed it a lot too, as did we. Although, to be honest, I don't mind the fact that they left quite early today and we basically have an entire Sunday with each other, not doing much. Very Relaxing...
Particularly because it will give us the chance to FINALLY watch The Godfather tonight. Why make 3-hour movies? It is so inconvenient for people who have to work etc! We've had these since my birthday and never actually had 3 hours of time to watch even just the first part. But today we will!
Ciao,
OJ
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