Amsterdam, Netherlands

I've mentioned before on this blog that for our company's Intranet, I have taken a series of pictures of colleagues throughout the years. Every now and then a colleague will ask for a picture to be renewed. Because they're not happy with the one that is on the Intranet at that time, or because of a new hair style or appearance.

Today it was Emmelie's turn. Emmelie is our receptionist. She's Belgian but her Dutch is the typical Dutch Dutch - not a hint of flemish accent. Emmelie is the successor (apart from a series of short lived in-between receptionists) of Cyril, who had sat at the reception desk for nearly five years when he left the company two years ago. Replacing Cyril seemed like an impossible task - so strong was his influence on the 'feel' of the company, but it must be said that Emmelie has done just that. She's very nice and very efficient - and not just a great receptionist but also a very nice colleague. And doesn't her recently coiffed hair look great? That was the reason she only wanted her picture taken today - so unlike Cyril, who would jump in front of any camera he could spot!

Glasgow, Scotland

After a weekend that seems to have gone by way too soon again, it was time to return to Amsterdam today. In the morning the sun was out, the sky was blue and the air was very crisp - there had been night frost and there was still a layer of white over grass, trees and plants. The first night frost of the season.

I left Andy's and Colin's place at around ten in the morning and made my way to Queen Street Station, walking through the Botanic Gardens where the above picture was taken. From there everything went very smooth and very quick. The subway into town, the train to Haymarket station, the bus to Edinburgh airport, the flight back to Amsterdam ("we've landed 15 minutes early so we have to wait a bit for the gate to be available"), the train back to Amsterdam and the bike ride back home. It's become routine, although I do prefer the routine in the other direction! Hehe.

The evening was quiet, working on my pictures a bit, and then watching Life by David Attenborough on BBC1 - the only TV show I've actually stayed at home for in quite a while.

Milngavie, Scotland

After a relaxed breakfast at home we got on our bikes this morning and cycled to Milngavie (pronounced Mull-Guy), seven miles north of Glasgow.

View Bike to Milngavie in a larger map

It wasn't the first time in Milngavie - in fact, I think I've been there three times before. The bike ride towards Milngavie partly goes through the valley of the River Kelvin, clearly visible in the lower half of the above map. It's a very pleasant ride, although today I must say I found it quite scary. There are many dead leaves on the bike path and - this being Scotland - they tend to be wet... and wet leaves are tremendously slippery. So, where Andy and Colin typically were quite a bit ahead of me, I took things a bit easier. Not in the mood for small calamities today.

Milngavie is a very nice town with a provincial feel to it. It is also well known as the starting (or finishing) point of the West Highland Way, a 95 mile hike route that takes you north to Fort William which has the dubious honour of being the rainiest place in Scotland. Many years I have been thinking of walking the WHW, and again today I mentioned it. Suddenly the discussion went into the direction of commitment - to walk the WHW next year in April or June. Yikes! I better start training just a bit... still, it's something I'd look forward to very much!

Just north of Milngavie are water treatment works with three reservoirs; Mugdock, Craigmaddie and Bankell - visible at the very top of the map. We cycled there and also cycled around the beautiful reservoirs, which clearly show great those Victorians were. These reservoirs, holding water from Loch Katerine to the north, provide Glasgow with fresh drinking water.

We cycled back via the same route and in Glasgow continued cycling to Kelvingrove park where a large memorial fountain commemorates these water works. The fountain, only recently refurbished, wasn't working unfortunately but was impressive nonetheless. We then went for some coffees at the Tinderkwoks cafe in Byres Rd and then headed home where Andy and Colin prepared a delicious dinner with haggis, mashed potatoes and carrots, and for desert apples from the oven, filled with cranberries. Absolutely delicious! We washed that down with some drinks (real ale, whisky and real cider) in Tennents and the Three Judges bar. Well, we need to build up some energy for that West Highland Way, you know.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

The entire company I work for will be going on a conference trip to the Swiss ski resort of Zermatt in mid January - to celebrate our 25th anniversary.

As a teaser gift we all received a really warm winter hat today. Innit pretty? For a moment I thought of putting it on eBay and make some extra bucks... but it is a really good winter hat, and also, this will probably come in handy when they try to identify me after dragging me from underneath an avalanche. Bring on the brandy!

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Day two of my new role and still lots of my old role to deal with, but also the first signs of change - even though that meant struggling with Excel today. I know that database on a small, local scale can best be dealt with by building them in Access, but I just love Excel and sometimes my hopes for that application to be able to deal with anything (including making coffee and ironing your shirts) are just a bit too fat fetched. Ah well, maybe Excel 2010 will be able to deal with that.

Spijker again tonight (even I start yawning as I type this) but it was time to meet up with Sean again. Sean was already a friend of mine when he became my manager in November last year - which caused a bit of an awkward situation. One of the nice things of my new role is, that since this Sunday he is no longer my manager. Time to go out for a drink tonight, also because his partner was out of time on a business trip today, and because we had some catching up to do. It was a nice couple of hours in Spijker, sipping Black Bottle whisky and chatting away with enthusiasm.

The score on the pinball machine (which I was playing before Sean arrived in Spijker) is real of course. No photoshopping whatsoever. Na-ha. Nothing. Nada.