11 boarding cards in 14 days

I did up my expense report after flying in from Amsterdam yesterday morning, and I actually took 11 flights in the last 14 days! That's bloody madness! It's good to be home, it's been a while! And yes, I am so gonna try out that cooker that we bought but never used!

Will be posting some pictures of the countries visited in the last two weeks later today.

Here we go again!

An absolute stunning morning here at Cork Airport! Thank God for the wireless Internet here; keeps you amused while waiting for the EI840 to Amsterdam. Meeting the parents for some coffee and breakfast while on a 4 hour stopover before continuing to Nicosia, Cyprus! All going well I should be there by 18.00 hours CET. I know it's fairly crazy.. last week in the freezing cold of Iceland, off to the sun and heat in Cyprus later today.

Assembly call to Amsterdam.. better call!

Lovely County Kerry

The last time I posted I was still in Reykjavik; I saw bits and pieces of Norwegian fjords on approach into Oslo Airport and had a few good pints from Ronan in Walton on Thames just outside Heathrow on Friday night. It was good to be back in Cork yesterday morning; Had a quick snooze in Passage before continuing on again to Lauragh. I tell you, after a week of taking a plane nearly every day, it's great to just sit in the car doing 60 miles an hour along the Cork and Kerry roads. We had a beautiful summer evening last night, so we got the disposable BBQs fired up and have a lovely, lovely evening!

Will be going back to Cork now in another while; have to get my suitcase sorted out: On my way to Cyprus and Athens for this week, and then stopping over in Amsterdam over the weekend.

"Borders?" - There are no borders. There are only timezones.

Goodbye Hotel Reykjavik

So, that was Reykjavik; on approach into this small island (300k people, half of them in the capital), it looks like you're on the moon; just dark rock, nothing else!

My digicam is giving me troubles (again!), so I don't know if the shots I took of the mountain will actually make it across to my PC when back at the office, but we'll see.

One thing; bring a lot of $$. This country is expensive!! Last night's dinner: Chicken Piri Piri skewer, a glass of Carlsberg and ice-cream. 50 bloody Euro!!!

And I thought we were being ripped off in Ireland?

By God, it will be good to go home on Saturday and pay 4.20 EUR for a pint, thinking it's actually good value :-)

Gate 16A at Arlanda Airport

Awaiting the inbound IcelandAir jet for Reykjavik; Laptop is nearly out of battery and I did not see any power points behind customs, so it's gonna be short. Had a very good sleep, got some more testing done in the morning and after some hassle with e-tickets vs regular tickets, I managed to get checked-in, and get myself a window seat. Should be interesting to see Iceland from 10,000 feet. Will have the digicam handy and hopefully post some pics tonight - pending that the hotel has wireless.

If else, I say goodbye and good night.

A long day!

This day, my 28th birthday started fairly early alright; got up at around 5 to make the 0736 flight to Heathrow and then connecting onwards to Stockholm.. I got here around 1430 CET and the hotel is a dive; you're average youth hostel is better than this; the only good thing is the wireless internet access..... keeps you amused listening to RedFM over the Internet while testing the products all day.. heading to bed now, wrecked.. of to Reykjavik tomorrow.

Sweet dreams.

Luggage? Check! Tickets? Check! Passport? Euuhhh

Well, I need to pick that one up tonight, but I'm pretty much fixed for my trip away next week. Looking forward to it I must say! It should be fun running from gate to gate again barely making flights, having hassle because of the amount of carry-on luggage that you're brining!

Leaving the office shortly to see Brendan Grace and going for a meal tomorrow night in Kenmare as Julie is also celebrating her birthday this weekend. So all is looking bright!

Will hopefully have connectivity on Monday in Stockholm !

Back on tour 1-2-3 - Part II

Just in case you're around any of the following cities, let me know:

Monday May 16th: Stockholm
Tuesday May 17th: Reykjavik
Wednesday May 18th: Reykjavik
Thursday May 19th: Oslo
Friday May 20th: London
Saturday May 21st: Cork !

Gotta do some field testing for the company, so it's literally gonna be a flying visit.

All exams out of the way!

Just spoke to Deadlydee; Tort exam went very well, so it's all over! It's time to close the books, file the notes and just relax! Well deserved I must say!

Not much other news; the cooker got delivered, we just need to connect it. Will be going to Brendan Grace in the Opera House tomorrow and then out for a mighty night. If you're around, do join us for a few bevvies!

In Kerry over the weekend celebrating my birthday, so yeah, the sun is shining! And it's about time!

Amsterdam Art

Found this one while waiting for the tram on Sunday eve;



It's basically an advertisement to create an artist impression of your ultrasound scan.

They've come a long way since Rembrandt and Van Gogh?

Back in town!

After a quick and relaxing flight (nobody on 29B and 29C allowed me to take full ownership of row 29), I made it home. Good to be back! I missed the place! Well, it will most probably be only for a few days as Iceland and the Nordic countries are planned to be visited from May 16th onwards; era, what can you do?

At least the cooker arrived today! Won't be able to get the house warming squeezed in due to the travelling, but at least we can cook again (yeah right).

Definition of bravery

True bravery is arriving home stinking drunk after a very late night out with the boys. Being met at the door and assaulted with a broom by your wife...... and still having the guts to ask: "Are you cleaning, or were you flying somewhere"?

All things come to an end

Time flies when you're having fun; It sure does! It's Monday morning and only another few hours before I have to catch my flight back home; It was good being here, had a lot of fun, met up with great, great people again, but it's time to pack my bags and say my goodbyes.

Until next time!

Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers

It's one of those Sunday's after a lovely night before; ye don't know whether you want to get up, stay in bed, can bare breakfast, or just juice alone! Had a lovely, but quiet enough night last night in Utrecht; I can't remember the name of the Italian restaurant where I ate with the friends from Uni, but it was excellent! Will definetely go there again!! Then, I just had a quiet drink (couldn't bare to take Heinickers) in the Stairway to Heaven pub with the lads and lassies from CNOR (don't ask); was fairly dead alright, so yeah, it was great to take the 00.54 train home.

Last Friday night though was a different story alltogether; Put it this way; It was good to be back around the Leidseplein area of the city!

Better get some coffee and breakfast before the next guests arrive again :-)

Carpe Diem!

A few more hours!

And I'm of to good old Amsterdam! It's been well over 5 months since I've been home properly, so I cannot wait to board flight EI 844 at 17.05 and enjoy a quiet pint in the Tara pub at Rokin, Amsterdam later tonight!

So far, the flight schedules look good, everything is on time, so hopefully this keeps going until my flight later tonight!

"In de stad Amsterdam... lalala lalalaa laalalaaa..... Amsterdam!"

Life before the computer

Memory was something you lost with age,
An application was for employment purposes only,
A program was a TV show,
A keyboard was a piano,
A web was a spider's home,
A virus was the flu,
A hard drive was a long trip on the country roads,
and if you had a 3 1/4" inch floppy, you just hoped nobody ever found out!

05.05.05

When I looked at the date this morning, I immediately spotted the date: 05.05.05. As we'll only have such occurence for another 7 years in this millennium, it makes you wonder whether you should do anything special on a day like this.

And then I remembered; it's 'Bevrijdingsdag' today; The day that WWII ended in native The Netherlands; definetely a day to be honoured and remembered! I completely forgot about the two minutes of silence to mark the war deaths last night; was too busy running my 6k in the gym; Better add that into my Outlook for next year and not forget it anymore!

Did it pass the line?

I don't know, but I don't care. Chelsea is gone!

Priceless!

Photos of Koninginnedag!

The guys from Apple forwarded me some photos of last Saturday's celebrations;



At least I was still sober enough on that one...



More photos can be found here.

Back on tour 1-2-3!

A long, long time away, I know, but if ye want to get cheap-enough (except for Aer Lingus of course!) deals, ye better get them early:

We're doing a quick-and-run visit to the UK and NL:

Thursday September 29th:
Cork-London Stansted: 0735-0950 hrs

Friday September 30th:
London Stansted-Eindhoven: 1700-1900 hrs

Saturday October 1st:
EFTELING !!!! All welcome!! Come along!!

Monday October 3rd:
Amsterdam-Cork: 2045-2130 hrs

One down - two to go

Just spoke to Dee; a b#tch of a paper, but hopefully enough to get a pass. 'Couldn't have done more' - so yeah, delighted that this one is out of the way.

Up the walls myself at the office so no time to upload photos from the Queensday celebrations. It was brilliant though!

Leve de Koningin!

So, that was a man, mad, mad night celebrating Queensday! Feel a bit rough today, but I think I deserved it! Brilliant evening, lots of Dutchies and yes, too many bevvies! Will probably have some pictures by the middle of the week. Thank God it's a Bank Holiday tomorrow and I won't have to go to the office until Tuesday. And then it's only 3 days and I'll be in the Tara in Amsterdam catching up with all the Dutchies back home.

Enjoy the weekend for what's left of it.