enjoying the little ones

we enjoyed the long week-end very much ... it all started off with a night out with the best of the best ... what do you expect if you are having dinner with Dawn (MC project manager) and of course Olly (the best User Experience architect alive on this planet) .. all of this in the best surroundings of the Fifteen restaurant in Amsterdam ...

a smashing combination from my part, getting the best of cooking with the best of web ... of course the night was filled with many discussion on web and how to get from WEB 2.0 to WEB 3.0 ... ideas that certainly require some further investigation over some wine and by preference under a nice sunset ... to be continued ..

Saturday was recovery day for us , topped off with the latest play of Abbatoir Ferme, a local Mechelen theater crew that is rocking the boat ... artistically a very nice play, even superb i would say .. telling a story without words always has been my favorite, but i could not help to wonder why we always need to look for things so far deep down and beyond the normal reason .... as a counter measure to the high artistic values we went for a bike ride on Sunday, crossing the Ardennes and visiting the flee markets .... contrast between art and kitch or whatever you call it ...

today was running around to get the necessary bikes (yes Agnes needs some bike in Amsterdam to really feel integrated there :-) )... in the evening the real art .... a vernisage of 5 young artists , between 6 and 8 years old ...

it was so nice to get the explanantion of Ward on his art pieces .. it were all dreampeople that he gave a face, rushing through the gallery at the end he ran off continuing to play with his brother in the back yard ....

does one need more of a week-end ?

Happy travels

Toon

... it is time for ...

some action .... this very long week-end was packed with it:

1. getting serious in the hobby

thursday i had the pleasure and joy of cooking again for a group of people. my brother needed some help to assit him at a friends son first communion. ok, they already took a take away thing under the arm for the starter and the main course which i did not really like, but my god did we as a team (Agnes, my brother and Patty his wife) blow their sock off with the apetizers adn the dessert ...

veal in a crusty parmesan coat with salvia
foie gras on a bed of black peppers roaster pears
patoato with leek and salmon eggs
...
desert: gratinated sabayon with red fruits

this of course fuelled my appetite to have once my own restaurant here in Mechelen, maybe a dream that can become reality. i will need to find some venture capitalist to do the funding :-)

2. getting serious about my condition

started running this week-end with agnes and Lauran. Must admit i was the one trailing the pack and my body was aching all day the day after , definitely time to get into shape now i know that getting serious about 1 is requesting a fit condition

3. getting serious my commitment to global peace

i did it, i got my subscription to ello mobile (for everybody in belgium: go for it too; www.ellomobile.com). it is a virtual operator that allows you to let your heart speak. their complete profit goes to the project i selected: helpen to get water to villages in africa and fund mobile schools for kids in South america.

now i know where i will go for my next trip: go and visit the projects i have supported in Africa and south america.

My god life can be so simple on a sunday evening, let's see how i can get some steps closer to this all tomorrow

Happy travels my friends

Toon

The stones .. and i bet you they ain't rolling

well well well .. it has been a long time i had them, but there they are again: the kidney stones. My god did i pick the wrong timing for this. if they're not out the natural way (you know the moment you pee and it says 'ting'), surgery will be the alternative ....

being in the hosptal makes you feel very helpless and makes you realize you have to take somebodies word for it. Talking about trust. a guy puts a needle in your arm and connects it to some liquids and he just assures you that the pain will go away .... well it didn't ... so he got an injection needle out to give me the real stuff: please lay down because you are going to feel dizzy and be very fuzzy ....

i was already wondering: why do i need that : i already feel like that since a long time. He clarified to me that was the difference between the mental and the physical state ...

anyhow not being able to work in this place is a blezzing in a way, but also adds to the frustration that i'm feeling. I'm so impatient to get things moving and now my stones block my normal functioning ...

i hope my stones travel fast from my left blatter :-)

Happy travels my friends

Toon

I'm belgian after all ...

Flo heiss sent me a very nice one

radio silence ....

is not a good thing in life ... it's been to quiet the last two weeks but i can blame the work for that and the fact we are franticaly trying to finish off riens his room....

somebody one day will have to tell me how to find the right balance in life between work and dreams ... i feel been sucked into my old pattern again of focussing really hard on work and loosing a bit the perspective i loved so much when i was travelling with my bike through Morocco ... feels now like a distant thing ....

getting used to the instant world is not a thing that you can do in a sec, feels like i need some course in fast reading and response .... i've put the bar quite high in wanting to be up to speed in two or three weeks, but reality is that it just takes a bit longer since the ratio amount of information and time is not fit into a 24 hour day ...

i rest assured, everybody told me that i should take the time to get my head around the initial phase since everything you take time for now is won in the long run .....

taking time now to say hi and tell you all that i still miss the old gang ...

happy travels

still have sand in my shoes

feels in a way already so long ago that i was on my trip, but still it is echoing in my head ... i still smell the morocan wood fires, taste the tagine, feel my heartbeat on the track ....

i changed the map in the living room for the one from Asia, but still need to make up my mind on where to go. Ulan Bator to Beijing seems like a nice challenge :-)

happy travels my friends

a secret reminder of your biking trip

My first days ....

well it's back to the real world .. today my first day at Microsoft and had my first part of the introduction. it's a bit strange of mving from a state where you only think about what destination to pick for tomorrow to what marketing plans to set-up for the coming year ...

all in all it feels good to be back into the IT industry with all it's buzz and excitement of technology. it will take some time from me to get my head around the new challenge, so you can imagine i'm really nervous to life up to the expectations ... but i feel i can count on a lot of people to help me achieve it ...

on the other hand in the back of my mind i can not stop thinking about the adventure i had and already feel the urge to start planning for the next trip ..

This is it . . .

The figures speak for themselves . . . I'm leaving all this behind to start a more normal life tomorrow : my first working day . . . Feel like a teenager again . :)

After the clean up . . .

Still adjusting to be in our own house . . . Checked my mails and snail mail : oh yes i'm back to reality with a bang . . . I promised myself to write a bit more about the Morocco experience for myself to make sure i do not forget the details . . .

Before clean up . . .

Home . . Home . . .

Taking my adventure to dream land . . . I dreamt about this trip for more than half a year . . . And i made it . . . Now tomorrow will be the start of something new, built upon what i experienced before . . . Happy travels and like they say in Morocco: inshallah . . . Toon

We received an offer . .

My bike and i received an offer to play in a movie . . . Spongebob squarepants the motorcycle story . . . My body and especially feet and hands feel like sponges . . . My butt is rather square and the motorcycle is obvious . . .

France is welcoming us . .

With some heavy rains . . . As if they want to wash away my Morocco experience . . . But i still have sand in my shoes to remind me of all small things i experienced . . .

Brothers in arms . . .

Also coming back from Morocco

These guys are coming back from Morocco as well . .

1200 renault 4 driven by students spend 10 days in Morocco for a humanitarian rallye . . . Nice guys and seems view had a lot of fun . . .

The change . . .

Olivetrees nicely lined up as soldiers for inspection, no more mules but tractors doing the labor, farms instead of shelters, roads with luxury 4x4's that never saw anything remotely close to a trail . . . . Yes i'm in europe again and it shows . . . . Haven't figured out what i like most . . .

Unfortunately i have no space left in my bags

On my way to Granada to change my tires . . . Now i really feel i'm going home . . .

From trail to track :) .