Angelo's Blog

Life and Cookin' with David, Peter and Angelo

2009-09-09T17:25:00.001+01:00

Date : 8th of September 2009
Location : David’s
Chef : Peter

Recipe : Curry Chicken

500 Gram Chicken Fillet
Spinach
Curry Powder
500 Ml Yoghurt
Basmati Rice
Garlic

Date : 9th of September 2009
Location : Angelo’s
Chef : Angelo

Recipe : Sweet Chicken

500 Gram of Chicken Fillet
Pineapple (can)
3 Garlic
2 Teaspoons of Sambal (or use Hot Curry spices if unavailable)
3 Paprika (Red, Green and Yellow)
1 Cucumber
1 Bottle of Tomato Ketchup
4 Spoons of Sugar
½ a cup of warm water

March - April - May 2009

2009-05-07T19:31:00.006+01:00

March 2009

I did not keep up any diary, apart from my work diary. So I looked at the photo’s I took the last few months. I could not recommend the horrible Indian Restaurant we tried out in Villingen. Nothing was properly cooked, and the dishes where tasteless.

David, Thibaud and Jos, in the worst Indian restaurant we visited.

April 2009, Easter Holidays

4th of April we left for a short break to the Netherlands. We went with the Eurotunnel, which is brilliant if the price is right. We booked a day return, which is far cheaper then a normal return. So buying two day returns for us worked out cheaper then anything else. We just do not return the same day :) We stayed at my parents place in Maarheeze. On Sunday we dropped the kids of at Linda’s parents place and we had a couple of days for ourselves, staying in the Carlton Hotel in “Naaldwijk”. http://www.hotelcarlton.nl/ The hotel was clean, although old fashioned in our eyes. In between the flower fields of the Netherlands, close to the Hague and Rotterdam. For a 4 star hotel we would have expected slightly better.

First day we went to Rotterdam, which has become a really nice city since my last visit. Even bumped into a Crumpler shop (awesome Aussie bags). We had a nice lunch nearby where we parked our car. We visited the Alexandrium, http://www.alexandrium.nl/ which is a large shopping mall for furniture and beds, just to do up some inspiration for our home. After that we went to Scheveningen, where we had an early dinner at Van Der Valk on the Pier. Surprisingly good food and service.

Scheveningen beach

Next day it was cloudy and drizzle. We went to Leiden, which was slightly disappointing, maybe also because of the weather, shortly after that we left again for Rotterdam. In the evening we went to “Tampat Senang”, an superb Indonesian restaurant in the heart of The Hague. This was recommended by one of the staff at the hotel. The restaurant has been there since 1922, and the atmosphere is absolutely brilliant. Every single part of the restaurant was decorated in the Indonesian traditional woodwork. http://www.tampatsenang.nl/ The food was really good too.

Tempat Senang interior, the Hague.

Our last morning in the hotel we had a long large breakfast. On our way back, we picked up the kids at Linda’s parents place, and drove straight to the pancake house in Lierop. http://www.decoeckepanne.nl/. My parents had their 45th wedding anniversary that day, so the entire family was there (My brother with his family, my parents and us).

"Breakfast in the Carlton"

Next day we went into Eindhoven. Had some food at the Thai place. After that we drove to the furniture mall and had a look around for some more inspiration. We saw a beautiful couch, which we probably will buy the end of this year to replace our current one, which has suffered badly from the kids. We visited my brother’s home that day, and after that we left to our friends in Valkenswaard.

Next day we went to ‘s-Hertogenbosch. In the evening we took out Linda’s parents for a meal in Hotel de Valk near Gilzenrijen. http://www.hotels.nl/gilze/valkgilze/pictures/

Week 2

I had to go back to work, although Monday was a national holiday, so we drove on Monday to Germany with the car. Working during the day, meeting up with the family at lunchtime, and in the evenings we went swimming at Solemar and to Aquasol. Both very nice pools (recommended).

bridge at river Moesel

Friday evening we drove back to my parents in Holland. Saturday we chilled out, did some shopping and visited our friends in Valkenswaard again. Sunday we went back home to the UK

May 2009

A couple of weeks back into work again. My mother turned 68 on the 1st of May. Did a lot of DIY in and around the house.

Senna and Noa at a farm in Southern Germany.

The child in me.....Lego !

2009-02-01T15:32:00.009Z

After a long time, here's another update. We had a great christmas holidays with the family. Life has not changed that much. Although traveling more frequent, with the result I'm at home more often then last year. Anyways. Here are some pictures of the old Lego from my early days which have been rebuild using an online catalogue (I'm so disappointed I got rid of the original manuals back in the days).

Lego Castle from 1978

Highway Maintenance from 1981.

Shell Petrol Pump from 1981.

Race Car from 1983.

Fire Station from 1983.

We are still looking for some parts (one or two) in the huge amount of Lego we've got here. Still need to organize the colors, as right now it's all in one large storage box. Anyway, still enjoying playing with Lego after all these years. What a brilliant idea from Denmark !

Weekend Passed

2008-10-19T17:40:00.004+01:00

Another weekend passed in Southern Germany. What happened in a nutshell ? Friday we had a leaving party from one of the people in the company. Got pretty wasted, but went home early. Next day Got up at 07:00 to pick up Jos and Mikael (a new guy) to go to Strasbourg, France. We had the train at 09:00 from Villingen Station, and had to get out at Offenburg, where we missed the next train as we didn't get the extra tickets for the train that would take us to France. So a two hour wait, we decided to go into Offenburg. It was anicer then expected, and there was a nice market. After a MacDonalds meal we left for France. The journey was smooth, the landscape boring and not very interesting unfortunately. We had a laugh anyway. Strasbourg is not very impressive, although some parts have some nice architectual buildings (such as the cathedral). We left on time again from Strasbourg back to Villingen. Once returned, we got in contact with Steffan, as they where going to a party where a director of the company was performing on the stage (DJ Size). We went with Rainer, Steffan, Jenny, Jos and Myself. The location was in Schwenningen, next to the Station. Good atmosphere, good 80s music and a top night. More people later on joined, and the party ended at about 03:00. Today I went out early and wanted to visit the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart. But that went not as planned.....Got on the train, had to change at Rottweil, but there was no connection there. So decided to go back to Villingen and went down South to Konstanz. The weather was beautifull, and totally relaxed walking around, taking pictures and had some food (of course). Went back at about 15:00, and am back in Villingen again where I bumped into Stef and Jenny at the Opal, which is a bar next to the Station (best spot to catch sun all day, if there is any sun). Will make some spaghetti now, as it's the only thing left in the cupboard :) Shopping again tomorrow. And end of this week FLYING HOME !!! One week to go for yet another year !

btw, for more images you can also visit : http://angelo-bod.hyves.nl/

Although for the people that are not fluid in Dutch, well look at the images only :)

Weekend again

2008-07-19T09:46:00.002+01:00

Listening to my Ipod Touch running the 2.0 OS. Downloaded some really nice free programs on the APP store. Eating some toast and a pint of Apple Juice, sitting next to the open window overlooking Villingen City. The Turkish restaurant still closed, where we went yesterday for lunch. They have a great lunch menu, just the normal menu is a bit pricey. It has been a really busy week, as the game I'm working on has an important milestone coming up end of August. A lot of assets are coming in, and are populating the game right now. Many more to follow. Last night had a long walk around town, and after that I had a take away Doner Kebab, which is massive here and only €3,-. Have to do some shopping, as my fridge is running empty.

We signed another deal with a new client last week, and doing some exciting female character work for them. All in the Final Fantasy 10 style again. The guys are really excited to be working on this, and so far it's going really well. I'm looking forward to get the first one finished, so we can move on to all the other characters and accessories we have to do.
Another project is running smoothly, although we had a hick up in our resources, but thanks to Shaf that's all sorted now again. The third project we have running is running very nice, so it's all onwards and upwards.

Okay enough for today, finishing my breakfast and off to Edeka (the local supermarket)....

July, Summer Holidays are coming up

2008-07-13T09:36:00.003+01:00

From a rather cloudy Villingen, another update from the Black Forest.
My parents where visiting yesterday accompanied by one of my aunties who turns 80 this year. They left the Netherlands last week to relax in a hotel in the Northern part of the Black Forest (nearby Offenburg). What did we do ? Had breakfast in "Raben", which is an Italian Ice Restaurant. After that we had a walk around, and later the day we had lunch / dinner at "Die Ott", 200Gr Angus Steak, with brattkartoffeln, salad and a bruschetta for a starter. They left at about 18:00 again back to the hotel where they were staying.

What else happened last month ?

Workwise we have a busy milestone ahead of us, but everything is going smoothly so far. And we planned our holidays as well, which is something we're all looking forward to. Our own business is expanding, as we started up a business offshore in Capetown, South Africa. As we signed another deal last week we simply had to expand in order to get the workload done on our side. So let's see where the future will take our company. "Onwards and upwards!"

I went home last week to visit my family, and on Saturday we went into town where Noa got a Red Nintendo DS. As the white one was broken, and has to be repaired. Went to Bluewater in London on Sunday, as it was a rainy day. Visited the lego store and some other places. Just a relaxed weekend really.

My friend Jos is now on a holiday with his parents. Visiting Hitlers Eagles Nest in Southern Germany, and then off to Toscane, Italy. Hope he will enjoy his trip over there. They planned a long roadtrip.

have been updating my Hyves, hard to keep everything up to date with all these sites we're on. http://angelo-bod.hyves.nl/ It's all in Dutch, but there are some images on there too.

More images will follow with the next update.

Another update from Germany

2008-06-07T10:13:00.004+01:00

Sitting in my "Fatboy", which made the trip in the car from the UK all the way to Southern Germany, I'm writing a small update. I finally moved out of the hotel, after six months. So we have an apartment now here. Had some issues when I moved in, as the hot water wasn't working, the heating wasn't working, so dishwasher was wrongly connected. But that's all fixed now. Only thing I need now is furniture. Last week Linda and the kids came over for a visit, as they had holidays. The weather was really nice, and we enjoyed every day of it. Went swimming a couple of times with the kids in Rottweil, a really nice pool called "Aquasol". During the day I had to work, so the kids went out with Linda to local places such as a farm, Triberg (the waterfall about 15 minutes drive from here).

Triberg, near the waterfall in summer.

On Saturday we were invited for a barbeque in Schwenningen by Thibaud. It was raining when we arrived, but the weather cleared and we had a nice afternoon. Thibaud was improvising with the own made bbq, and the food was delicious.

Closeup from the table.

Got my internet here sorted with KableBW (a 16Mb connection with telephone), works like a treat. And yesterday I installed the netgear wireless, so now I'm not tied anymore to any wires. Nothing planned for the weekend really, wanted to go to Schwenningen to look for some furniture. As Jos his car is broken, we depend on the public transport, but that's okay. Will see if he's already awake. Tonight it's kickoff for the Euro 2008 !

Frühlingsfest Stuttgart

2008-05-04T09:42:00.006+01:00

Frühlingsfest Stuttgart, Germany.

Another update after such a long time of silence. Summer finally started her ein Southern Germany, and yesterday was another beautiful day. We decided to go to the Frühlingsfest in Stuttgart (Which is the capital of Baden Wurtemberg). It's the second biggest festival in Southern Germany after the October Fest which is more famous amongst the international community.

Entrance of the Funfair.

We took the train from Villingen at 11:35 (bought a Baden Wurtemberg ticket, which allows you to travel with 5 persons for the entire day for € 27,-) and had to change in Rottweil. Mike, Steffan and Jos joined in this journey. Once arrived in Stuttgart we went for some quick snack at Mac Donald's.

Worlds largest (claimed to be) move able rollercoaster

Taking the S-Bahn which brought us to our destination (Cannstatt) we finally arrived there. One worth : "Massive!" It was really well organized, and the fairground was enormous. A nice little village was build for drinking and food, and the other side there where all sorts of crazy rides. 50 Meter high swings, roller coasters, dodgems and many more attractions.

Huge sausages and burgers.

It was a nice and sunny day, and a lot of people where there. Mike and Steffan where the brave ones, and entered some crazy rides. Mike's face was all white after some of the rides :) We left at about 19:00 back to Stutggart Hbf to take the train back to Villingen. In Rottweil we had to take a taxi, as there was no train to Villingen anymore (public transport in the evenings!). A great day, wish the kids would be able to join.

A view of the park from the Tiroler food place.

Snowboarding in Sonnenkopf, Austria

2008-02-25T07:53:00.002Z

Saturday we went to visit Sonnenkopf in Austria. Getting up at 04:00 to leave from the office to Schwenningen to catch a bus to Sonnenkopf, Austria. We had a fantastic sunny day, and a good first experience for me at least to try and stay on the snowboard while going downhill. Can't remember the amount of time I fell on my arse. Lotsa of fun, and Apres Ski afterwards. Will post some images from this trip again soon.

Zurich and Shafhaussen

2008-02-25T07:50:00.002Z

What happened over the last few weeks in the weekends again ?

Well, let's first update about our trip to Shafhaussen and Zurich, which we did on a really bright and sunny saturday. Shafhaussen we went to see some cool waterfall on the river Rhine. After having spend a few hours there, we continued our trip to Zurich, which was an amazing city. Will post some pictures later on.

Visiting Triberg and Freiburg

2008-01-14T09:37:00.000Z

This weekend Jos and myself went to do some sightseeing here in Southern Germany. Saturday we drove off towards Freiburg, and the landscape was just amazing. Posting some images we took on our journey. Sunday we visited Triberg, which was really nice. Only shame they closed some of the walking paths...

Just outside Villingen, towards Freiburg. Lots of snow !

An Alley in Freiburg, buildings from around 1400.

Me at the entrance of Germany's highest waterfall.
Me in front of the waterfall
Steep roads in Triberg, but very beautifull.

More images can be found on Jos account, at http://josti-man.hyves.nl/

What else ? Started going to the gym again. Went to the cinema to watch a movie (in German)......apart from eating, which is not new to the people who know me.

Days before the Newyear

2007-12-29T15:17:00.000Z

Days before 2007 in a nutshell:

The 22^nd I traveled back to the UK with RyanAir from Friedrichshaven.
When waking up just before the Airport, I had to wake up a girl who fell asleep on my shoulder. She was slightly embarrassed.

The 23^rd Back home again after a month ! I unpacked my stuff, and updated all machines in the house.

The 24^th I can’t remember. Resting.......

The 25^th We unpacked al presents under the Christmas tree after having breakfast. Got a Nintendo Wii this Christmas !
Went for lunch afterwards at our friends place (Ade and Moriam).

The 26^th We went for lunch at the Pizza Express in Stamford.
In the evening I became Ill, as I probably drunk too much vino!

The 27^th The van der Veens came over.

The 28^th We all went out in Peterborough (Food, shopping, played Wii, etc)
My old Dual P3 gave up to work after 7 years, so I disassembled it. Probably the power supply’s dodgy.

The 29^thThe van der Veens went back home again, and me back to the drawing board, working again for a few days.

Weekend update

2007-12-02T09:29:00.000Z

2nd of December 2008, Sunday

At the office, to charge my Ipod Touch, do some upgrades, surf and get the key for the playroom. What happened last week here in Germany?
We had the companies Christmas Party on Friday. The office shut at 16:00, and we where supposed to get to the venue at 18:00. I went back to the hotel to get dressed, and to pick up a colleague who is staying at the same hotel for the time being. We walked to the Venue, which was located on a hill, called "Hotel Diegner". Two rooms where prepared for the evening. One part was for the mother company, and one room for us. The atmosphere was good, although I missed music in the background, and my fingers where too rusty to start playing songs on the piano. Anyway, we enjoyed ourselves and went back to the hotel at about 03:00.
Woke up on Saturday at 10:00, which is rather unusual for me. Had a nice long shower, and my carves where hurting like hell, as I had cramps that night. Took a paracetamol as I was lightheaded, and went out for a walk in town to clear my head. Got some sandwiches from the local bakery (one of many here) and went to the office to check my emails. Sounds really boring, which it was :) After a while Anton came in too, and we had a quick chat. Anton comes from Ukraine, and makes us all crack up when he talks. He's a good guy ! Anyway, tried to get a German phone number, but somehow after filling in all the forms at the O2 shop, they denied my request to have a subscription. Maybe because of I do not have a permanent address, or because I'm not registered here. Can't really, as I live in the UK. So I decided to go to Voda phone instead and got myself a pay as you go card for €19,90 (including €10,- phone minutes). Once at home I tried the card, guess what ? Locked on the UK O2 network. Back to work, as I still don't have internet at the hotel I'm staying, and managed to unlock the phone. So I have now ANOTHER phone number. Well, handy though when I'm here. "Handy" is the word here for mobile phone, which made me laugh. "Tot Ziens", as Jan would say here. Time to take some more pictures with my camera !

Winter has come

2007-11-10T10:39:00.000Z

10th of November, Winter has come

An update from Germany, it started snowing this week. It is -1 degrees Celcius, but really nice.
Just a couple of images.

One of the houses

Milka promotion in the local supermarket, look Noa a Milka Cow :)

In front of hotel Ketterer, and a small river in the snow.

City Wall

Another cool looking house.

I'm off to town, do some shopping. Will do another update soon.

Der erste Woche im Deutschland

2007-11-08T17:13:00.000Z

4th of November 2007, to Germany.

Catching my flight at 20:00 towards Stuttgart from London Stansted. There was a long cue at the check in desk. Finally after checking in, I managed to find some food at Ponti's, where I had a lasagne, some garlic bread and a large fresh glass of orange juice. Once done I went through to the other side of the airport, where there was another cue of at least 30 minutes :( I had to rush now in order to catch the right plane, so I hurried to the trains that take you to the right Gate. I was the last one to get on the plane I believe.
First time I flew German Wings, and it was a pleasant experience I must admit. Slightly more expensive then Ryan Air, but at least arriving at Stuttgart airport, which is convenient if you want to drive to Villingen. It's all Autobahn, and there is no speed limit !
Having arrived at the hotel at 00:20 it was surprisingly nice. All new decorated, newly put in bathroom. Fridge, television, large enough bed. And.....5 minutes walk to work !
I just unpacked my things, and made up the bed. Time to catch some sleep, as it's my first day here. Exciting, and a lot of work to be done (keeps us all busy!)

On the way to work.

8th of November, already talking German

I caught myself today talking German. The weather has been good the last few days, and work is busy. Went out most of the days for food. I had Pizza, Steak etc. I learned not to order any starters anymore, as the portions are just to large to finish. Looking forward to the weekend to do some sight seeing over here, and take more pictures.
Well, posting some pictures of the city.

the lounge at the Hotel

Autumn Blog

2007-10-28T17:31:00.000Z

28th of October.

Autumn has started, and here's a summary of what happened this month.

Our last day at Vbeing was on the 13th of October. Shaf and myself are in the process of setting up a new company, and next week we are planning to start the design of the new website. We will keep you posted when we go life. I'll be starting contract work in Germany on the 5th of November, which is really exciting. So the flights have now changed from 8 hours every trip (to Delhi) to roughly one hour (to Stuttgart). Linda and myself went over there by car (racing over the Autobahn), and stayed there for one night. Beautiful place, and very clean. Th eproject looks very promising !

Our Halloween pumpkin after an hour of carving.

I had my 37th birthday yesterday, but had nothing planned. I met up with Shaf in town, where we had a coffee at Starbucks, and went to John Lewis to get myself one of those iPod Touch devices. Great gadget, and highly recommendable ! That will replace my old Palm V which I bought back in 1999. What I did not know is that Linda secretly arranged a surprise party for when I came back from town. So when we cycled home, I noticed balloons at the front of the house. And my friends opened the door....I really appreciated the effort, and I did not even expect what they did.

Our Pumpkin in the dark.

Today we took it easy. Preparing my laptop for my trip next week, visited the new B&Q here in Peterborough, did some food shopping. And just finished carving our pumpkin for Halloween. I've got some pictures of it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (the carving of a pumpkin).

Noa with a Butterfly face painting

Update since march 2007, oops

2007-08-23T13:11:00.000+01:00

23/08/2007

Wow, has it been so long since I’ve updated my blog ?

Okay, time for a quick update then…..

We finally we got married on the 7^th of July 2007. A Beautiful day with family and friends. We kept it relatively small, as we do not believe in massive weddings. My brother had arranged a cool Merc for that day, and the location was ace (well, we thought it was). Everyone enjoyed themselves, and so did we.

My family

After that I had another two weeks of work, and we went on a holiday in Lake Garda, Italy. Just bought a new tent nearby Cromwell, and some other camping gear. Driving through France towards Strasbourg, where we stayed in a hotel. Next day we drove through the Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland to Italy. What a difference that was from 24 degrees in Switzerland to 34 Degrees in Italy. Beautiful countryside, and the rest. The place was called Lazise, which is south east side of Lake Garda. Quite close to Verona, which was worth a visit too. In between Milano and Venice.

Strassbourg, France

Breakfast at our tent

The town of Lazise

The town of Sirmione

Path we didn't finish

After 10 days of camping we decided to head back to the Netherlands via Austria and Germany. Where we stayed in another hotel in Munich. Once arrived in the Netherlands we stayed at my parents place, and spend some quality time with our family. The kids loved it.

House made of carbon mailboxes in 's-Hertogenbosch

2007-04-14T18:24:00.000+01:00

26/03/2007, Monday Flying again

A chill out day today, as I have yet another long journey ahead of me. Checked my emails for work this morning, as we are currently doing a couple of projects which makes it quite hectic. All under control, as Shaf is taking care of work. Things are going well at Vbeing. Lots of balls are rolling right now, and there are a couple of projects in the pipeline. Including a game for the Xbox 360, with all graphics being supplied from us. New recruits starting, as we are ramping up right now.
A surprise from Ricky, as he told me tomorrow the office will be closed as it's a public holiday in India. So I presume when I arrive in Delhi I'll refresh myself, and do some shopping and ease out. So my first day at work will be Wednesday. I forgot to pack my contact lenses case and my glasses :( Noa wanted to go to MacDonalds with us, and after that we went and dropped Noa off to school. We shortly visited the neighbors and left to the Station. As I already packed, and put the luggage downstairs, I totally forgot about my glasses. When I was already on my way to London it popped up in my head. I managed to get new solution and a case for my lenses at the Boots Pharmacy here at Terminal 3. Also I got myself an exit seat after asking, as the person behind the desk said all exit seats where locked in their system, but apparently it was not so busy on the airplane. Now I'm sitting at Chez Gerard, a brasserie and bar at the airport. I just ordered a coke and a hopefully nice rumpsteak with some fries and pepper sauce. Sitting in a non smoking area ofcourse.
Once onboard on the plane I removed my contact, and tried to get to sleep.

Cafe Coffee Day nearby Central market

27/03/2007, Tuesday Arriving in Delhi

Some nasty turbulence woke me up during the flight. I believe I woke up at about 05:00 CET, while flying over Pakistan. I refreshed myself in the toilet, which felt good. As sitting.laying in a economy chair for a flight like this is not very comfortable. No matter what chair I believe. Maybe I should try the business class chairs once to see how they are. Anyway, I arrived safely at Indira international, and once collected my luggage I could not find the driver. My mobile didn't work here, so luckily I had plenty of ruppees on me from my last trip. After one hour I looked up some phone numbers, and made a call to Sareen. He would contact the driver. The driver wa new to the company and was waiting outside. Basically they did not tell him to pick me up inside the terminal. And I didn't know what he looked like, also the fact he wasn't there and I could not see any sign with my name on it. A bit disappointed in leaving the airport late, but nothing we could do about it. It's holiday today in India, so I'm basically going to relax. Once we arrived at the flat, the driver helped me with my luggage. Shauhan was already in the flat cleaning, and has ordered a shopping list to fill up the fridge. And some bread for in the mornings. I refreshed myself again and walked to Defense Colony, which is roughly about 15 minutes walk from here. The weather was pleasant, 34 degrees Celcius. Went to have a Subway, and afterwards I took a rickshaw to Central Market. He only wanted 30 ruppees for the trip, I gave him 45 in the end. We had to stop everywhere, as the traffic was really busy. And a heavy dude in the back like myself doesn't really help. Anyway, had a look around some shops, but didn't buy anything yet. I walked to Caffee Cofe Day again and had a strawberry frappee with some vanilla ice. After that I went back to the flat. Shauhan was sleeping on the floor in Steve's room. I just left him there, and went to sleep myself as well in my room. I woke up at about 19:00 and was looking forward to some dinner, but Shauhan must have forgotten I wanted some dinner. Didn't matter, as I just made some noodles. Made a small to do list for tomorrow, as my toilet seat was still broken, and needs replacing. Also the water cooker seemed broken. Fix fix fix.
That's it for today, just hooked up my laptop to the "stereo" over here, and will be listening to some music while reading the newspapers I got on the airplane.

The chair from the Sculpting Teacher from Delhi College of Art.

28/03/2007, Wednesday. First day after India Holiday.

First day at work again, surprisingly I was not the first one who was in. Which is also a good thing. Anyway, I managed to install my things and gone through all my emails I missed the last two days. Once that was done, I said "Hi" to everyone and had a look what everyone wwas working on. Everyone was busy with work. New projects where going well. Have made some appointments for tomorrow and Friday, to ensure some future employment of new people from various sources in Delhi. Some new sources which sounded really promising according to Shafeq. So I'm looking forward to the meetings. Later on the day I went out to Central Market with some of the guys to get some dim sum.
Going to bed early, probably watch a movie and then catch some sleep. Another day ahead of me tomorrow.

Lodhi Garden

29/03/2007, Thursday. New producer.

Watching "Walking Tall", with The Rock I went to sleep at 22:00, having said that I probably didn't sleep until 01:00 as the airco was noisy, but it was still too hot to turn it off. In the end I got some sleep and had a good start of the day. Made a dayplanning, and have done most of the tasks. One task will shift until tomorrow, and was of no great importance. Ricky, Tarun, Akhil and myself went out with a new producer who is starting with us on the first of May to Ansal Plaza, to have lunch at Pizza Express. We discussed work and other plans. It was a nice meeting. Coming back there where a couple of assets waiting for final review, so we can send those out to the client tomorrow. More work came in today, but all manageable.

One of the three main buildings at Lodhi Garden

30/03/2007, Friday. University Trip

Another set of assets ready for a client, and uploaded. I'm proud to see the continues progress of the artists and management team here in Delhi. Some more raw assets came in, so we can set our teeth into those as well later on today.
All steam ahead, and the whole studio have soon their hands full of the work we're getting in right now.
We went out to meet up with people from the Delhi college of Art. The Head teacher of Sculpting and the principal of the college. We had a really good conversation and all plans we had are coming together. After the meetings, which took rather long we had a tour through the university and had the chance to see some of the work they have been producing. Some outstanding work I must say, and was impressed with the dedication these graduates showed (also the other students). I'm looking forward to train them further into the digital field.
It was 39 degrees today. We left the office at 20:00 and went to my place to drop of the bags, and quickly refreshed ourselves. Off to get some food (again) Just came back from Ego at Friends Colony. Had some lovely Tom Kha Kai Soup (chicken, red chillies, coconut milk and some other ingredients). After that a green curry with some steamed rice. Just lovely.

Myself at Lodhi Garden

31/03/2007, Saturday Weekend Palika

Woke up at 10:00 this morning, now am sitting behind my mac and surfing the web. Replied my email again, and in wrote down a couple of ideas that popped up in my head. Kishan is coming over soon, so we'll go to do some shopping. Already made a shopping list, and know where to go and have a look. I'm now starting to get the hang of Delhi's layout and where to go and not to go. Was just looking at Rick Bakers work on the pixelogic website, great stuff. I just turned of the AC's and switched the fans on. Summer is getting closer and closer here. Apparently they forecast this summer to become the hottest summer in years. 50 degrees Celcius. I need a swimming pool here on the roof ! Tomorrow I'm going to spend some time to get the wedding invitations done, which I want to print out next week, and send them as soon as I'm back home in the UK. Put a chair outside on the balcony and catched some sunshine. KD arrived at around 14:00, and we went with the auto rickshaw to Connaught Place, where we visited Palika Market again. After some shopping we walked in the inner circle to have a look for some Prada sunglasses, which I spotted in a shop at Heathrow. No luck, one shop pointed us to another place where they might have them. So we decided to have some lunch at Kwality's, after ringing Tarun for directions. Kwality's didn't serve lunch anymore, only snacks. So we ordered two fresh orange juices. Even after 15 minutes they did not bring us any, so we just packed our stuff and left. Off to KFC for the first time since I've been in Delhi. Not bad at all, so worth going back one day. We went to catch another auto rickshaw to South Ex 1, where we went to have a look for some Tiara's. The ones we saw where rather expensive for here, as they have not been made here, but imported from the west. And where not even silver. We also visited Levi Square, but that was not interesting either. So we ended up at a shop i used to go all the time, unfortunately they stopped doing silver. Although knowing the owner, as I used to come there often before he moved and renovated his shop, he offered to make me one of silver. I've got his email, as I want to discuss this first with Linda. We also went to the shops which was recommended to us before for the Prada glasses. Funny, the glasses where here more expensive then back in the UK, so no deal ofcourse. My feet where killing me, as I was wearing shoes I have not worn before. So we decided to go back to Central Market with another Auto rickshaw. We went to have a nice cold drink around the corner, and afterwards we did some shopping (coke and chocolat and some fruit juice) KD was about to go home, and he left me Casino Royal to watch. A good day, and 38 degrees Celcius.

A snapshot from my Weather widget. Pretty warm as you can see.

01/04/2007, Sunday Weekend Lodhi Gardens

After watching 95& of Casino Royale, the dvd refused to continue. So I turned it off and wen to sleep at about 00:00. I woke up on time, and had a shower. The shower seemed to have gained back pressure and warm water. I ordered a taxi for 12:00 and went to see Lodhi Gardens, where I have not been before. Beautiful maintained gardens with 3 monuments dated from the 14th Century. It was close to a few places I have been before, but somehow I missed these little gems of Delhi. Good to relax. After a couple of hours we drove to Khan Market which is quite close from there where I had some food. Tomato Basil Soup, Red Pesto Chicken, a Banana Vanilla Ice cream milkshake and a Pepsi. I was just in time as the place was getting very busy. I had a walk around Khan Market, but most shops where closed. I noticed another sunglasses shop, but unfortunately this was the same franchise as the previous shops I looked, so the prIces where still higher then the high street prices back in the UK. After that we went to Connaught Place again, where I walked in the inner circle. Back to Central Market, the taxi driver dropped me off home at about 15:00. So I quickly refreshed myself, and had a walk over Central Market where I bought some presents for the girls. Nearby 3c's at Lajpat Nagar 3 I bought two nice massive bed sheets and pillow covers. Very high quality sheets these are, and reasonable priced too. Back at the flat now, we ran out of water, and hopefully they're going to refill the fridge tonight, cause with this heat I drink a lot of water. I forgot to bring my swim gear as well, as I wanted to try out the club which is relatively close to here. Next time I'll bring them. I just turned on the AC in my room, as the sun is shining right on my balcony, and makes it very warm otherwise. Tonight I'll have an early night I hope, so I can get up on time for tomorrow.

Yet another image from Lodhi Garden

02/04/2007, Monday Another week

Got up nice and early today, and was in the office at 09:10. Had to roll out new work today. What else ? We had 2 post graduates coming in for an internship. Went home at 20:00

A straydog resting on a tomb at Lodhi Garden

03/04/2007, Tuesday 34 today

Busy busy busy. We've just put quite a lot of our workforce onto one project. Ordered lunch, so I could oversee work. 21:00 everyone home.....

04/04/2007, Wednesday

work, forgot to write what I did today....

05/04/2007, Thursday New Renders online

Put some new renders online on the Vbeing website.

06/04/2007, Friday

work work work

07/04/2007, Saturday Weekend

I got up at 08:30 and started the day with a nice long shower and shave. Kishan was coming to my place at 12:15, and Tarun was going to pick us both up to go to Nehru Place. I prepared some files to be printed. Quite amazing prices. For a A3 size full colour print on 250 gr. Mat paper you pay 18 rs each. You pay the same price for any other paper. So up to 300 gr paper you can print (doublesided if required too). After that we went to the Intercontinental Hotel to have Chinese. It was an impressive building and also inside looked nice. The restaurant itself had a nice atmosphere, and so we ordered some food there, and drinks. The fresh orange juice was refreshing, and also the soup with tomato and egg drops tasted very nice. For mains we shared a couple of things, and we also had some scoops of ice as desert. Well worth a visit this place if you're in Delhi. But......it's not cheap (even for Europeans). After that Tarun dropped us off at Palika where KD had to exchange some movies. Half an hour later we where in an auto rickshaw again back to South Ex 1, where I got some more presents for the children. We took another autorickshaw back to my place and KD went home, and I had no dinner waiting for me, as they did not call me (I should have called really). So I went out to 3c's, a place where I've been before (close to central market) where you have some shops, a hindi cinema and some restaurants at the roof. Had some MacD's. Well, no plans for tomorrow. Oh yes, it was another hot day today. 37 Degrees Celcius.

Lodhi Garden

08/04/2007, Sunday Weekend

I stayed close to home today. I got myself a rickshaw to Defense Colony and got a compliment from some women driving a car. A nice start of the day. Off I went to Subway, after that I went back to Central Market to have a wonder around. Had a nice refreshing frappee again and went home afterwards. The servant phoned me up prior to coming home, to say he was going away for some hours and would be back at around 17:00. But when I came back at 17:30 the servant was not back. After some phonecalles he finally showed up at 19:45. I was hungry, but if I knew this I would have gone outside to eat something. Anyway, he made some lovely soup again with some paratta's. I went to bed early....

The bridge over the pond at Lodhi Garden

09/04/2007, Monday Mozzies in da house

Went out to Defense Colony again with TK, and RK. But as Subway was full, we decided to visit the restaurant next to it. I got some chinese Won Ton Soup, and a Hong Kong Style chicken dish, with 2 coke's for under 300 rs ! Also it was good enough to come back here. Worked untill 23:00 tonight, as all the guys went home, and we had to deliver a character. So RK and I stayed late to get it done. RK ordered some Domino Pizza which we shared and some softdrinks. Back in the flat now, and just killed about 20 mozzies in the flat with the batm while chatting to Linda on skype. Now I'm safe behind my mozzie net on the bed. About to watch a movie, and probably fall asleep. Four nights to go untill I can fly back to my family again.

Papa John's in Noida, recommended

10/04/2007, Tuesday work.work.work

11/04/2007, Wednesday work.work.work

A market at Nehru Place, look at the DVD's

12/04/2007, Thursday Wrapping up tasks before the flight

Last day at work, so lots of things to wrap up. Things are going relatively smoothly with work, and the studio has yet again progressed a lot in a few months time. Proud of the staff, expanding again. Went out with Tarun and Ricky yesterday for lunch at the Miini Moghul, and bumped into Ricky's cousin Pax and his friend. The meal was outstanding yet again, I have not taken pictures of the food this time. Ricky dropped me off to the flat and I had my dinner (from Yo China!). After that I started packing most things, and to bed at 23:30

Look at that ! Outside some shops at Nehru Place.

13/04/2007, Friday Flying home again

After a good sleep, getting refreshed under the Shower I packed the rest up. The taxi driver arrived at 09:30. After dropping off the flat's cell phone we went straight to IGI. The driver was new, which you could notice in his driving skills and directions. Anyway, we managed to get to the airport. There was a huge cue, as there was a party of people from Belgium in front of us. After checking in the luggage straight to the Subway to get my breakfast, and basically that's all I'm having untill I arrive in London again. I can't wait to see the family again. Three weeks fly by when I'm in Delhi, as work is so busy. But still it is a long time from home. So now, I'm waiting in the lobby untill we can board. This weekend I'll update my blog, also the previous trip which i haven't posted with some images again from both trips. More and more mozzies in the flat btw, so Shaf can do some workout with the mozzie racket we have in the flat, to fry them. I believe I fried over a 100 of them while out here.

Closeup from the doorhandle from my bathroom

Quick update

2007-03-08T17:34:00.000Z

March already

Here's a quick update. Been terribly busy the last few months with work and preparing our wedding. I've been away for 3 weeks to India, and will post some pictures and a diary in this weekend. My parents were over for 5 days. I've been working on several new art briefs and a new tutorial (done some artwork too:)).

In Progress sideshot with Normals applied.

In Progress shot with the Ambient Occlusion applied.

In Progress perspective shot with Diffuse/AO/Normal and Specular maps. Still tons to do on this character, although it's getting there. Have to do his beard with alpha's, eyebrowse, eyelashes, add some more detail on the skin diffuse, inside of the mouth and facial rig it.

We've just successfully finished a 4 weeks art test for a French company, which included current gen characterwork and environmental artwork. Shaf has gone to India finally, but we made the mistake to book his trip for 4 weeks instead of three. Sorry dude !

14th of January 2007: Happy New Year!

2007-01-14T17:17:00.000Z

A brief update since Christmas 2006.

I was two weeks off before and after Christmas. Linda's parents came over on the 23rd of December to be with us in the UK during Christmas.
The kids got overloaded with presents, from both their birthday's AND Christmas presents. As all three celebrate their Birthday’s November and December. The 28th Linda's parents went home again.
I painted the living room main wall hazel and then the other walls are planned to get an egg white color. I've done one extra wall yesterday.
We did not plan to go to the Netherlands this year, but felt slightly bored, so we booked our journey at Sea France. We had to pack within one hour, and rush to Dover from here, as our boat was leaving to Calais at 18:00. We weer on time, and they got us on an earlier boat. The weather was terrible, but we made it on the other side. I surprised my parents when I rang, as they didn't know. So we had from Friday to the next Sunday, which was nice. We stayed at my parents place, and visited our friends while out there. The New Year we celebrated at my friends place in Valkenswaard, which was fun.
We bought some fireworks that day in Belgium and finished most of it that night. Being extra careful, as I didn't want to loose my hands. I gained too much weight again while out there, so now it's time to loose some again. All those snacks and nice things. We got a nice financial surprise from my parents for the year and for Senna’s 1^st birthday, which we celebrated now in the Netherlands.
Sunday we where driving back, but the boat was booked at 21:00, a bit late for Linda’s liking. So we set to France early, in the hope we could get on an earlier boat. We had to pay £34 extra, so we did. We arrived back home at 20:00. It was nice to have a break.

And I wish for everyone I know (expect for the people that do not deserve it) a happy New Year.

More ex-Sony travels to India

2006-12-10T08:48:00.000Z

Tuesday, 28th of November 2006

Shaf and I arrived at Indira Ghandi International Airport about 40 minutes early, as there was a heavy tailwind which speeded up our journey. The journey itself was not too bad, although someone puked in the corridor quite close to where Shaf and I where sitting. Row 70F & G. Not the best places to sit comfortable. Next time I'll pre book by phone and reserve a good seat for me. Also trying to sleep didn't work, as they woke me up if I wanted to get my seat in upright position as otherwise the fat "lady" behind me could not get her plate on her lap. The chauffeur was there waiting for us and drove us to the apartment. Shaf looked his eyes out. As it was his first time in India. In front of the house we had w2 beggars asking for food, we ignored them, and walked upstairs. Unpacked stuff, refreshed quickly and went to the office. We quickly went and visit Sati, and afterwards we went downstairs to greet everyone. Everyone was there, except Samrat who was ill. We introduced Shafeq to the team, and went out for lunch with TK and RK to Big Chill where we had a gorgeous meal. After that we did some small reviews, and went home. As we where feeling really tired from the journey. We did some shopping at the 24/7 and walked around. A quick round at Coffee Day and back to the flat, where we had our dinner while watching an episode of Futurama, and played a couple games of pool. Now in bed, put the alarm at 08:00. Busy day ahead tomorrow.

Me , standing next to a sacred cow at Lajpat Nagar 3

Wednesday, 29th of November 2006

During the day we bumped into a young fellow who carried two monkeys with him (both on a leash) performing tricks for people. Animal cruelty in my eyes. Anyway, they performed and Shaf took some pictures and I filmed it. We gave the chap 10rs for it, which is normally enough. But the annoying litlle fellow was asking for more. We just walked back to the office and ignored him. We also took some pictures for a new art brief we always prepare for the artists. This time it was an old and rusty Fiat. Enough reference to get the guys going. I filmed the underneath of this car for reference.
In the evening we went out to New Friends Colony, as I wanted to check out Ego Thai again. The food was really good. Only Shaf had for his main course Catfish. Now catfish lives on the bottom of a river and lives in the mud. Therefor the catfish tastes like mud. Well, that was what he had. It was getting cold in the evening (12 degrees Celsius).

Virendra and myself at a table at "Sagar Ratna" restaurant on our way to Agra.

Thursday, 30th of November 2006

Went to sleep at about 02:00, played pool (every night)

A "snake charmer" complete with the requisite flute, basket, and cobra. The poison sack was removed ofcourse.

Friday, 1st of December 2006

During the day we went out to Mini Mughal restaurant together with Ricky, Tarun, Shaf, Eldo, Gaurav, Samrat and myself. The reason why we went because it was going to be Eldo's and Gaurav's last day at Vbeing. They had to finish their course back in the UK. The food was really good.
Went out to Connaught place on Shaf's first Auto-rickshaw ride. We went to eat at QBA, Connaught Place. When we arrived it was fully booked, so we walked around to see some shops. We looked at some clothing but didn't buy anything. Also looked at Pashmina's (real fine woolen shawls handmade from the Kashmir district (North of India). They asked 8.000 rs for one, which is roughly £100,-. A bit of a rip off if you ask me. So we moved on.
Once back at QBA we went upstairs and ordered some QBA Coolers, and some food. We had a real laugh over there. The menu was funny, as apart from the egg fried rice, and boiled rice they had Foekin Fried Rice on the menu. The food was pretty spicey but good. Once we where finished we took an auto-rickshaw back to Central Market. First the driver asked us 300 rs to drive us back, while the way to Connaught place was 60 rs. It was still not 23:00, so he was not allowed to ask that price. I jumped out, and the driver finally took us for 60rs. Once we arrived at Central Market, which was close to where we live Shaf gave him the money, and then the driver was making a fuzz we should pay more. So no tip for him, and we only paid the agreed price. Not that 300rs is much at all anyway. Played some pool and went to bed, as we booked a taxi for the next day for our trip to Agra.

Interesting building structures at "Fatehpur Sikri"

Saturday, 2nd of December 2006

Tired from previous night the taxi driver woke me up at 06:45 ringing the doorbell. We ordered a taxi at 07:00 to pick up Virendra, one of our colleagueas in Noida. Virendra was born and raised in Agra, so the best guide in our eyes. Also he was going home every weekend, and driving with us in a taxi was much better in our eyes then taking the public transport. After picking im up we drove back Southwards. The journey was going to take us roughly 3 hours. But nothing like normal traffic over there, total chaos. But interesting. We stopped at a restaurant next to the road "Sagar Ratna" to get some food. This was our breakfast. We invited the driver as well, and once we where done we filmed a guy who was whistling and his snake only wanted to crawl ayway from him. On the way we passed a massive place made of marble. The owner believed he was "God", and people where camping outside this place coming from allover the country to visit this place. It was NOT the birthplace of Lord Krishna, which was somewhere else. Once we arrived in Agra we bumped into a traffic jam, and the driver just turned the car and was ghost-driving into the other direction. Quite scary this was, but we survived. It was really busy, but in the end we arrived at Mansingh Palace, out hotel. It was a good hotel in my eyes, we dropped out luggage and went to the Taj Mahal with the taxi. Once we arrived at the Taj Mahal and parked our car we left our mobiles with the driver, as you where not allowed to take these with you at the Taj Mahal. Annoying guides asking us if we needed one, and we explained the guy we had a guide (Virendra) Likes flies they followed us, trying to get some money from us. Once we bought the tickets we should have cued up in a 2 hour cue at the main entrance. Tickets for Indians was 20 rs, but for us it was 750 rs. I was used to that, and to be honest it was a decent price. Another person talked to Virendra and guided us to another entrance where it was less busy. The entrance was a small gateway through the walls, through a maze of small houses. Shaf haddifficulties difficulties getting in, as he forgot to leave his second phone behind, and still had an ipod which he could not take with him, so Virendra put these items into special lockers at the gate. We had to get back before 17:00 to pick up Shaf's belongings. Once we where all there we walked up to the Taj Mahal. Very impressive and obviously we took heaps of pictures. Not just pictures of the whole structure, but also close-ups of the marble tiles and ornaments of the Taj Mahal. It was reasonably busy at the place. Just before 17:00 we walked back to the entrance and picked up Shaf's belongings. We went back to the hotel and asked the driver to take Virendra home. We had some food, as we where really hungry. The dinner didn't start until 19:00, so we had some snacks before our dinner, and afterwards we went to the other side of the hotel for our dinner. We where acompanied by some musician's who made some awefull music. Went to bed after dinner and watched some t.v. I believe we finally went to sleep at 02:00.

The "Taj Mahal", another seven wonder of the "Tourists" world. Still to see : Great Pyramids of Giza, Great Wall of China (Flew over it, never been), Serengeti Migration, Galapagos, Grand Canyon (Flew over it, never been) Machu Picchu.

Sunday, 3rd of December 2006

Woken up at 10:00 by Virendra who went home previous night to his parents and had some breakfast downstairs. We checked out at 12:00 and went to the Agra Red Ford. Again those annoying guides...anyway, we got rid off them pretty quickly. The Red Ford had a nice view on the Taj Mahal. Very impressive and having sit on the King's Throne we left Agra Red Fort to go to Fatehpur Sikri, which was 1.5 hours drive west from Agra. We passed lots of Unds (Camels) and small villages. A lot of dust. We finally arrived there and some guys stopped us next to the road. Why the driver stopped was a riddle, I would not have stopped. One guide was really annoying and we finally told him off and drove toward the monument which we wanted to visit. A bit further down the road more guides where trying to stop our car, but the driver now got it and almost ran over some the guides. Impressive entrance, but here again. The guides reacted like flies. We made it clear we did not want any guide, and where just there to take pictures. All places have directions and subscriptions anyway. On our way back we stopped again at "Sagar Ratna" and bumped into some roadkill (people this time). We almost had a road-accident ourselves, when some large animal passed the motor-way. Some of the cars did not even had any lights, so hard to sport in the dark. The road to Delhi was not well lit, if even lit at all...We arrived at Lajpat Nagar at about 21:30. We warmed up our food, which we put into the fridge on Friday night.

The Kings office in Agra Red Fort, where me and Shaf sat on the throne.

Monday, 4th of December 2006

Busy day at the office

A swastika sign carved out of stone. And no ! the Nazi's have not been here.

Tuesday, 5th of December 2006

Another busy day at the office

Me and Shaf relaxing on the King's seat.

Wednesday, 6th of December 2006

Ricky, Tarun, Shaf and me went to Connaught place for lunch, Kwality's. And had some lovely food. We left the office at about 13:30. After lunch we went to some shops underneath Connaught Place, where Ricky showed us some of the shops. Both Shaf and me where very tempted to buy an XBox 360 there. Instead we bought some games instead, and asked the guy to deliver at least one Xbox 360 at the office the next day. We arrived back at the office at 16:30, so we worked late that day to clear up some work.

Delicious food at the Mini Mughal in Delhi.

Thursday, 7th of December 2006

I decided to buy an XBox 360 as well, so Ricky got the shop to deliver two. These models came from Korea, but who cares where they came from. As long as they worked. So they unpacked the boxes and showed them they where working. The boxes where quite heavy, and now it was the task how we bring them back to the UK. I left my box in Shaf's room.
Went to Domino's with Tarun, Shaf and myself. As we all where quite hungry. Although Sati invited us out that night, the reservation was quite late. He drove us back home to the apartment. We packed all our stuff, and cramped all my stuff into my bags.

A Tata truck loaded with people commuting towards Agra

Friday, 8th of December 2006 returning to the UK again

After a short sleep the doorbell rang at 09:45. It was the taxi driver who supposed to bring us to IGI Airport. Luckily we packed all bags the night before, so we just had to wash and drive to the airport. It is only a 40 minute drive there anyway. Once arrived we put our luggage for check in through the scan. Unfortunately there where no exit seats anymore :( But they gave us a whole row of seats for ourselves. We went to grab some breakfast at Subway at IGI Airport and went through the gates at 12:00. We could go straight into the airport after a couple of checks. The journey was good, I slept half the journey, as I was pretty nackered. Watched Batman Begins, which I enjoyed and landed at LHR at about 17:15 where Linda was picking us up. It was a good trip again, and besides all the fun other things we did in India work was going very well.

Dirty water underneath a structure at "Fatehpur Sikri"

Autumn colors

2006-11-23T09:09:00.000Z

Something to write before my next trip to India again.

First : Shafeq Rahman (ex-Sony) is joining Vbeing on Monday as our new Art manager. We are all looking forward to have him onboard, and he is really excited to join us, welcome on board dude.

Autumn has started a while ago, but on our trip to Stamford last weekend it really showed it's beatifull colors. Stamford is a lovely old town close to Peterborough, next to the A1. Some information on Stamford : http://www.stamford.co.uk/tourism/history.shtml

River in Stamford, view on the church.

We went to the Pizza Express on Sunday, and had a short walk around in the town. It was relatively busy, and the food was mjummie again. The kids enjoyed themselves, and afterwards we went to have a walk around the town.

Pizza Express in Stamford, just before the bridge.

When we got out the car Linda spotted these mushrooms. Nice enough to make picture.

Hypholoma Mushrooms

Lovely mushrooms (not to eat). They live normally on treetrunks. Have a yellow colored top. Coneshaped in the middle which is rusty brown of color. They mainly appear in September-Oktober.

Willow Tree next to the River in Stamford.

View on the river from the bridge in Stamford.

On Saturday Ivar and I went to Peterborough City centre on the bike, as we often do. Once in town there was a market. We went into Woolworths top have a look for a present for Noa's birthday next week. She's already becoming four years old. We didn't succeed, but we had some idea's now however. We met up with Linda, Noa and Senna in the Burgerking, and afterwrds Ivar and I went to John Lewis where we bought her birthday present. Cycling back I took the picture below. A view on the river Nene.

View from the footbridge over the river Nene in Peterborough.

Back in India, just missed the dewali festival

2006-11-03T17:28:00.000Z

30th of October 2006, Monday, Previous to the flight

After clearing everything from our trip to the Netherlands, I had to get ready for my next trip. Destination Delhi.
Got all papers ready, and sorted out my extended 2 year visa with thanks to Danny to let me stay in his beautiful mansion in Wimbledon Village.
Linda and the kids dropped me off at Peterborough Station again, and I had the train at 16:00 to Heathrow. Usually I leave earlier, but then I'm stucked for a few hours at the airport wondering around and spending money on games I don't have the time for playing anyway. So after my check in I managed to get a nice exit seat again (whole for myself). I had Ponti's before takeoff, so once on the plane I took my contacts out, and went to sleep. Not very comfortable, but somehow I always manage to fall asleep anyway. I woke up 1 hour before landing in Delhi. Had some cookies for breakfast and some OJ. The Service at Jet is really good, much better then Virgin Atlantic I would say.

flight screen from Jet Airways

31st of October 2006, Tuesday, Arriving, unpacking and a headache+sore throat.

I finally arrived at Indira Ghandi International at around 11:00 IST, and a got a taxi to pick me up and brought me to the office in Lajpat Nagar. After dropping off mr.Sing's present (Microsoft FlightSimulator X Deluxe Edition) I went downstairs to see my team. It was a good feeling to see everyone managing their own thing and being busy.
For lunch I got myself some butter chicken with nanbread which was mjummie, and I started again to drink heaps of water. Today felt really nice, as when I arrived it was around 27 degrees, and during the day it was 31 degrees. Now it cooled down already to 20 degrees, which is really nice. Also the dust particles give a nice effect when taking pictures. Before take off I already had a sore throat, but the flight only made it worse. So 2 paracetamols in a minute and some dinner which Shauhan prepared.
We've prepared some of the work we had to do today, and I left as I feel really tired, and I have catched a headache now too. Hopefully after a good night sleep that will be gone.

"Where did they say it was ?" fltr : Tarun, Ricky, Akhil and Samrat

1st of November 2006, Wednesday

I had a really long sleep and finally woke up at about 10:00. Quickly washed and off to work, as it was a busy day again. Training preparations, Reviewing work. The day was nice filled up with all kinds of tasks. I went out with Tarun today to get some money out of the cash machine, and parked our car later at "flavors", but to my disappointment it was closed. There was a 3 day strike from most of the shops in Delhi. As the government decided to close down all the shops that where illegally started in residential area's. So that's a major thing between the Indian government and the shopkeepers. Anyway, we decided quickly to get ourselves a take-away from Domino's, which was really nice. Played Ridge Racer on the XBox 360 today as well, which didn;t look as good as I expected to be, but maybe it would look better on a HDTV. Not a reason yet to buy one I would think. I'd wait until the Wii comes out, as this consoles attracts me more then the other two right now. Some good games coming out on the PSP soon again, which I';ll def get for the collection (all retro). I went home at about 20:00, and paid a visit at the local coffee shop. Then off home to try and contact Andrew, who wasn't there. Quickly chatted with Linda. Now, I have been listening to modules from our own musicians (TBL) and other musicians from Mono211. I just been thinking that it is about time to update our old website with some new material we released during the last few years, as nobody seems to update it. Well, up to me again I would say to do this task. Although the website looks outdated, it's still functional and has still no flash :) I have to go to sleep in a minute, otherwise I'll feel like a zombie tomorrow. And I'll have to assist two of our artists tomorrow with a nice new job we're doing right now. And they seem to love the work too. Tomorrow we'll have a look at all the idea's for our new VBeing website, to get some inspiration for a new and fresh layout. Hopefully soon after that we'll make this all happen and update the one we are running right now.

inside Chilli's at Kahn Market, Delhi

2nd of November 2006, Thursday

What happened today, not much. Lotsa work been done, meetings, eat, sleep.

just on the edge of Khan Market

3rd of November 2006, Friday

Had a good sleep again, and had a nice long shower this morning. After arriving at work we had some meetings at the office and went out for lunch with Ricky and Tarun. Khan Market is a nice marketplace full of Europeans for a change. It's a popular place amongst them apparently. We had some lovely food. Had a strawberry smoothie, pepsi, tomato basil soup and red pesto chicken. Tarun and Ricky paid for me (I have to pay them when they come in the UK, and that's slightly more expensive:)) Anyway, we went to a toy store there where I bought 2 Auto Rickshaw models (not very good ones, but the best I could find there. And Ricky asked one of the Rickshaw drivers if I could make some pictures (I believe he told the driver I was a tourist), and he was more then happy pictures where taken from him vehicle, he even showed the engine, axels, the lot. So I shot quite a few pictures for a new Art Brief for the guys to do :) Lovely model when it's finished and up and running. While eating btw we got some bad news one of our employees got beaten and pushed. So when we arrived back at the office we got fully informed. The ex-employer of one of our friends came around with someone else to have a word with one of our artists outside the office. Nobody was there to help him as he was outside. Two new recruits are starting with us on Monday as they wanted to leave their previous company for reasons and wanted to join forces with us. So we welcomed them. Now we did not poach them as they came out of free will. The ex-employer took this as an offence against him and did something he hopefully will regret. As an official complaint was filed against him through the police. Poor guy, I wish I was there to help him. I have never seen such a thing happing in my career, and totally out of order and unprofessional. Well, it's weekend now, and hopefully I will enjoy this one as all the other ones, as I always do while I'm out here. I haven't ordered a cab yet, but will do that tomorrow after my sleep and go and see the Ricksmeister :)
Dinner is waiting in the microwave (don't worry, it's a healthy meal).

an Auto Rickshaw with it's proud owner, according to mr. Singh not very expensive to buy. Would be funny me driving around in Peterborough in one of these things. Anyway, we managed to get plenty of reference images for the guys :)

4th of November, Saturday, Weekend

09:04, Just woke up and am getting ready to go out. Will make some plans for today, and then will contact Sareen to arrange a taxi with driver for me. It looks like a another nice day, not too hot anymore like a couple of months ago. Will have to give Ricks a buzz later to see what his plans are for today. Need a paracetamol as I have a mild headache, but hopefully that will be gone soon. Just turned the AC off, and opened my room door.
My taxi arrived at 11:00, and we went towards QBA at Conaught Place to get some lunch. I was the first customer, and they recognized me. Had some Yum Tom Kai Soup, Garlic Bread and a Butter Chicken with nan bread. After that we went to Gurguan, which took a while, as the traffic was heavy. We parked the car in the carpark underneath the shopping centre and I bought some presents for the kids. After visiting the shoping mall opposite that one we went to a Handy Craft shop, where Mukund pointed me to during my last visit and bought two beautiful handmade vases for the house. I gave Tarun a call and went back to S-Block, next to M-Block Market. The street names over here still surprise me, or not. They do not really make sense, but it seems to work. Picked up Tarun, and we went towards New Friends Colony. To my dissapointment the Ego -Thai place was shut, so where the other Ego places. So we decided to go to Pebblestreet, which looked like TGI Friday's inside, and the music was 100% 80s. The service was poor, as it started with the wrong starter. Then we got our main meal before the soup, and they forgot the garlic bread. The mocktail was average, and they didn't have bottled drinks. This restaurant gets 1 star for me, and I will not be visiting that again. Nevertheless the food tasted okay and we had a good laugh. Then we dropped off Tarun, and I'm back home now. I'll go out in a minute to Central Market to walk around and maybe do some small shoppings.

QBA at Connaught Place at 12:00. I was the first customer of that day.

5th of November, Sunday, Weekend

Woke up at about 09:30 this morning, and the driver was early today. He explained me yesterday he had to attend a wedding at around 17:00, so I couldn't use the service after, which was fine by me. We drove to Khan Market, as I wanted to get some breakfast of Big Chills, but forgot India is not awake so early. Most shops where still closed, so instead of eating there I ended up at MacDonalds where I had 2 chicken burgers, some fries and a coke. Shame they only provide chilli sauce of tamato ketchup. After that we drove all the way towards Noida to pick up Kishan, as we missed out on the Museum for Modern Arts. KD showed me proud his latest art piece he produced at his new company. His machine was just too slow to show a 2k image. So he wanted to update it anyway. Good move I would say to update the equipment he was working on. After visited the museum we went out to Tanino's for the buffet which was good as usual. It was good to hear how business was over there from his point of view. After that we drove back via Noida, where I have not been before. Very clean area, nothing like Delhi itself as it was mostly new and well maintained. We dropped off KD and went back to Lajpat Nagar. Coming back Chauhan was cooking dinner and I went out for a walk behind Central Market through Central Market to a linen shop close to see whether they had some nice duvet covers. It was a bit pricey for my taste, and the ink was on the sheets. So I walked out and got myself a nice strawberry McShake from McDonalds. Now I'm back again and chilling out behind the television. Busy week ahead again tomorrow, which I'm looking forward to.

One of the shopping Malls in Gurgaon.

6th of November, Monday

Nice and early at the office. That early that even Davi was not there yet. He came running saying, sorry I am late :) Anyway, had a good and fruitfull day again at the office. We finished another batch of art assets for a client. We stayed in yesterday, and had Domino's for lunch. Chatted with the trainees, and welcomed 3 new artists who joined us yesterday. Went to bed at about 23:00....

7th of November, Tuesday

Got up at 09:00 and had a good long shower. Busy day ahead again as I'm preparing some work for the guys over here. The Intuos 3 Wacom tablets arrived ! Result. We got in the guys and did an introduction on these and rolled it out. The guys loved it ! Also we had reviewed the latest JIMMC Competition, and we passed 9 candidates. So Vbeing is expanding yet again. Basically it was a very good day.

A monkey sitting on the back of a bicycle on the way back to Delhi.

8th of November, Wednesday

Sonnu, one of our artists came along in the evening, looking for a shop that was open, as the Twenty Four Seven shop was closed again. It's all to do with sealing shops in Delhi which are located in residential area's. It's a strange thing. The Locals government took bribe money to allow people to start a shop in residential area's, although it was forbidden by the government. Now the Local government want's to close all these shops in Delhi. So you imagine quite a few people are the "victim" of this now, and out of any income as far as I know. Only doctors, food places like MacDonalds and Hospitals are not affected in these area's. So riots are going on, and huge traffic jams are caused by this in the morning. The police is blocking off several roads, and they're smiling. As they are not affected by this anyway. I guess they enjoy the chaos, keeps them busy. Haldiram's close to the office which always supplied us with food had to be closed as well. So now we have to find another place to order our food. Plenty of places still left, but that was convenient for us all. (to be continued)

MacDonalds Breakfast at Khan Market at 11:30. Two MacChicken burgers, large fries and a coke.

9th of November, Thursday

Went out to Pizza Express at Ansal Plaza with Ricky, Tarun, Samrat and Akhil. Both me and Tarun where tempted to weigh ourselves, and I ended up being 20Kg's too heavy according to the machine. I was 6.3" and 108.8 Kg. Still 10 Kg's less than a while ago. In the evening Tarun came over to my place to play some pool untill 23:00.

The Powersocket for my Macbook Pro. India>UK>Powersupply :)

10th of November, Friday, Flying back to the UK
When I arrive back home I have to actively start looking for new recruits from the UK. I have a couple of candidates in mind, but have to sort things out before we will make an official offer to join forces with VBeing. The ball is rolling however, and on my next flight (the 27th of this month) we will have another person onboard. I arrived at India Gahndi Airport a couple of hours ago, and my bag got checked as I had a Submachine gun in it :) Well, a plastic toy one for Ivar :) No exit seat for me this time, as they where already taken. As I'm a regular flyer I'm going to find out whether I can reserve an exit seat at all flights, as they are most convenient for my legs (and the rest). I had a roast chicken sub at the newly opened Subway Restaurant this morning at the airport and had to go for secutiry checks again at gate 7. Once arrived there, they changed it again to Gate 10. So back again and another security check. Now it's time to wait untill we finally board. Fingers crossed they have put on some new movies, as I've seen most of them right now. Looking forward for my next trip as I'm planning to go to visit Agra and the Taj Mahal. Never been there before, as in the summer it was just too hot. Now the temperature has come down, and it's around 30 degrees now, which is nice. Evening temperature's are dropping to a 17 / 20 degrees at nights. I'm going to enjoy my weekend of not doing anything, and am getting the new guy visiting me on Monday.

The Netherlands

2006-10-30T10:59:00.000Z

30/10/2006

We came back yesterday from a long journey via the Channel Tunnel (Calias-Folkestone). Had a good holiday. We departed on Thursday evening and arrived at my parents place at 23:00, as we catched an earlier train in Folkestone. My mum was still up, and my dad came out of bed as well. After a good night sleep we went to 's Hertogenbosch on Friday. the 21st. The wheather has been very nice the last week, especially on my birthday, which was on the 27th. We went out to various places, and visited a nice pancake house in a village called "Lierop" with my parents. Also the local snackshops where happy to see us again :)
Also went to Eindhoven a few times to go shopping, and enjoy our free time.

Indonesian restaurant "toko Murah" in Eindhoven.

On Monday I went to my friend Guido, who was at home that day. And me and Noa stayed at their place, and picked up their son later at school. We went to a playground close to where they lived where we had been before, and the kids really enjoyed themselves. In the evening we went out to their local snackbar. Had a good day, and it was good to catch up again.

Noa in Weert, rubbing off the charcoal of this Shop's board :)

On Wednesday we went to "Ouwehands Dierenpark", which is a really nice Zoo nearby "Arnhem". The place "A Bridge too far". We got 50% discount from a shop, so we checked it out. This Zoo was build in 1935, and the Germans bombed it during WWII. They totally rebuild it in 1941 again, and it's stil open. The kids really enjoyed it.

Icebear in "Ouwehands Dierenpark"

Ivar and myselfs inthe train journey in "Ouwehands Dierenpark"

An ugly creature in "Ouwehands Dierenpark"

My parents garden.

Noa in front of the shed in my parents garden.

Time is always short when you go for one week, and everyone wants to see you you when you're in the country. But we just did not have enough time for ourselves to do this. Then again, it's just a 40 minute flight to get from the Netherlands to the UK. And driving is okay too.
I always love to go by ferry, but Linda prefers the Euro Tunnel, as she always gets seasick.

to Northhampton

2006-10-08T17:29:00.000+01:00

Sunday, 08/10/2006

This morning Ivar and me went to the local Carbootsale again on the bike, while Linda and the girls where going with the car. Afterwards we went to the Service just outside Peterborough where we had some KFC, MacDonalds AND Pizzahut :) Well everyone had something different.

Senna in her high chair at the Service

We have never driven on the A605, so we decided to go and have a look at North Hampton. Nice first impressions from the town. It had a nice town square, which looked similar to the market square in Cambridge. Plenty of shops, and I had to resist buying 4 games (Taito Classics, Ghouls'n Ghosts on the PSP and Lego Starwars 2 for the PS2) In the end I bought Rainbow Islands Revolutions for the Nintendo DS Light.

We went outside as well, and decided to go back after a while. As it was all shops and there was no end to it :) I shot some more snapshots...one nice one of the other two kiddo's :)

When driving back to Peterborough again, I spotted this funny numberplate. Well in the Netherlands it would be funny at least, as it's direct translation means c*nt. Here's the proof :

September Again

2006-09-23T14:07:00.000+01:00

Monday 11th September 2006, 18:19 Flying to Delhi again.

Brought Noa to school today, she wasn't happy I was going away again. But their grandparents are coming over this week, so they have all the fun. I missed them for today, cause I had to leave Peterborough at 15:00. Sitting here with my laptop on a table at Heathrow Terminal 3. I got myself an exit seat again. And had a really nice lasagne, some OJ and some of those lovely biscuits they always have at Ponti's, just before customs. It reminded me of the Ponti's restaurant we always used to go to in Wimbledon. I only carry 1 bag at the moment, which is quite convenient (inclusive the laptop), and the flight is on time, which is good. Just trying to kill some time, and pasted in my Iitinerary for the next two weeks of my stay in India. I noticed they planned in Saturday and Friday, the day which I'm flying back in the morning. So I'll see if I can squeeze that in the already busy schedule. Not sure if Ricky will be back at the office. Hopefully he will. Looking forward to meet up with the guys again. Although Steve warned me it was "f*ckin' hot", and lots of "mozzies" this time. Ah well, I got used to it. As long as I'm not going to see the toilet too often I'll be fine. Hopefully Jet Airways have changed their movies onboard, as I've seen all of them already. Maybe I should buy myself some magazines to read. Although I'd rather sleep on my way to India, just so I feel okay tomorrow morning when I arrive.

Transport Vehicle from the Crafts Museum

Tuesday 12th September 2006, 20:40 In the appartement

Back at the apartement. Exhausted from a long days work here. I had a really pleasant flight, as I had yet another Exit seat this time. The plane was not even half full. The takeoff had a slight delay, as their was luggage onboard from the flight to Mumbai. So they had to unload that again. After 30 minutes delay we finally took off. I watched X-Men 3, which I enjoyed, After that I got my contacts out and got comfortable for a nights rest. Never as comfortable as your own bed, but at least I managed to get some sleep at least. When I woke up we where 30 minutes from Delhi. I forgot to take the chocolate I bought at Heathrow Airport. After 15 minutes waiting for the luggage to come on the band I got myself to the exit of Indira Ghandi Airport. The same driver who drove us last time was there again. The wheather was nice, about 32 Degrees Celcius, and a slight breeze. We drove straight to the Studio, where I said hello to everyone and went straight to work. For lunch I had a nice butter chicken disk with Nanbread. Time to relax now, as I left the office at around 20:00. Catch up some good nights sleep, and another busy day ahead tomorrow.

Scorpio Sign from the Delhi National Museum

Wednesday 13th September 2006, 20:43 In the appartement

I had a good sleep, and woke up at about 08:00. I actually got out of bed at 09:00 cause I was feeling tired still, but duty called. Had a wash, shave and off to work we went. One lead was ill today. I've managed to finish all my tasks for today except one, which I will do tomorrow morning before most guys are in the office. I went home at around 19:00, and AK phoned me on the mobile to discuss work. So in the meantime I was micro waving my dinner and typing out an excel spreadsheet that he required by tomorrow for a meeting. Anyway, all sorted and am now on the bed with my laptop, and my food. Preparing work for tomorrow's lectures. After that I'll watch the second half from "Bachelor Party" with Tom Hanks. A real Classic (for me that is). I got an email from Linda this morning who is currently in Amsterdam, and it was good to hear she was doing fine. Sati came back today and dropped by in the Studio, as busy as he always is, he got a phonecall and drifted out of the studio again. Hopefully we will catch up later. Tarun showed me a brochure of some nice restaurant which he thought we should go this Friday. Well, count me in :) This Saturday I'll do some shopping for the kiddo's again, and Sunday I might visit some Museums over here together with KD if his wife agrees that is. Well off again, before my dinner gets cold. The dish for today is Boneless Chicken, Rise and some lovely mushrooms in a nice gravy.

Construction opposite Tarun's Flat

Thursday 14th September 2006

Another busy day today. Not any different from other days. Had some lovely nanbread and butter chicken with something else I can not recall the name at the moment. Went to bed quite late, and phoned my parents and Linda's parents who are currently looking after the kids for a few days.

Mjummie mushrooms sticks from "Geofries" at Ansal Plaza

Friday 15th September 2006, 21:52 In the Appartement

Had a long day today. Went out lunch for the first time since I arrived together with Ricky, Tarun and one of their friends. The Chinese restaurant we went to was very nice and can be recommended. I had a nice wonton soup and some lovely starters. After that a massive main meal and 2 scoups of vanilla and strawberry ice cream for desert. I have arranged a taxi again for this weekend, and am picking up Tarun to join me tomorrow, and KD on Sunday. Visiting Delhi's Art Museums.

A Fruit Tree in the Crafts Museum

Saturday 16th September 2006, Weekend

Got out of bed this morning at around 09:00, and had a long shower. Somehow the servant let himself in, although I locked the door, so that lock is useless. Waiting for the taxi driver at 11:00 we headed off to Tarun's place at S-Block. Tarun's got himself a nice spacious flat, adn soon after we arrived we went off to Connaught Place to get some lunch and drinks at Qba. After that we went to Janpath again to get some handmade paper. Some lovely shops there, although very touristy. After a couple of hours we went to Anzal Plaza where we did some shopping and stopped at Geoffries to get some lunch and more drinks. Dropped off Tarun afterwards, and back to the appartement. Got a slight headache again, which started this morning. So I'll take another paracetamol to kill the pain. I'm going to visit Central Market still, and do some shopping at the Twentyfour Seven before tonight. Tomorrow is another day, and I believe it's time to fully relax. I asked Chauhan (our servant) to make me some dinner for the night, as I do not feel like going out on my own tonight. Just came back from a long walk. Went to get a strawberry frappee at the Cafe Coffee Day, and I did not even have to ask what I wanted, they know that by now, which is funny. Afterwards I had a walk over Central Market to see if I could buy anything for the kids, but did not get any inspiration. Most of the things where bed linen, clothing and other things I do not want. It was nice, as it was not so dark yet outside. Always a busy place. Then I walked back to get some Pringles, Cadbury's Chocolate, Salted Pistachios and Apricot Nectar drink for tonight. Probably watch a movie tonight or play some games on the PS2. Maybe even go to bed early for a change. Hopefully I'll find something nice for all kids. I was tempting to buy clothes for the girls from "Barbie", which looked rather nice. But then again they grow out of it so quickly. Ah well, I might still do that. Have to ask Linda their clothes sizes. The food smells good I must say, although I'm not really hungry yet. Maybe I'm visiting the Ego-Thai at Friends Colony again tomorrow, as that place really was good last time we visited together with Steve. I did not take many pictures yet, which I should do, as I always regret not taking enough of them. When I was walking back here, I was thinking even though you take 1 million images of India, you still can not capture it. You need to smell, taste, and walk through India before getting an idea how it is like. So crowded during the day, so empty the streets are in the night. So many shops selling the same products. So many people just hanging around on the streets, like they have nothing else to do. But it's lovely and a superb experience. Love the people here.....

Shot from the leftwing from this Airbus Airplane to Delhi.

Sunday 17th September 2006, Locked Inn.

Last night I watched "Office Space" from Mike Judge again, as it was the only movie left on the harddrive. An odd start of the day, after having a really nice and long sleep. Just having confirmed with KD on the phone for our trip for today, I could not get out of the house. The lock refused to open from the inside, so luckily Chauhan was there, and got a locksmith to open the door from outside. It took him 30 minutes to come back with the locksmith. The driver waited for me outside in his massive Tata car :) We had to fill up the car and the Diesel price over here was RS 32,25 per liter, wow I wish the UK had these prices. Surely most if it is going straight to the UK government. We just passed a driving license testpark, which was solar powered. Going towards Vasundhara Enclave, on the outskirts of New Delhi. Have visited KD's place, we went to visit the Crafts museum, which was deserted when we arrived, maybe it was still too early. Anyway, did some shopping in the Museum Shop, and bought some really nice things. A couple of things for Linda, a nice present for Ivar (I hope he likes it) but nothing for the girls (yet). After that we went back to Connaught place, as I was quite hungry by now, and KD was as well. So we visited Qba (again) and had a nice Qba Cooller Smoothy, some Tom Kai Soup, garlic bread and chicken caneloni. Afterwards we went to the National Museum, which is next to India Gate. I gave my camera to Kishan. The reason for this because they charge tourists RS 500 for allowing the camera inside, and for locals only RS 20,-. THe entrance for me was RS 300, and for Kishan only RS 10,- Anyway, it was worth going, although I did not shoot too many images anyway. When Kishan told the guard I was working in India we could have had a massive discount :) Didn't matter anyway. We skipped the Modern Art Gallery for the moment, because we only had 45 minutes to go through that, so we do this next time around. We went back to South Ex where I got Linda's hanger fixed. The shopkeeper know me by now, and he told me they where moving address. I gave him my card, so he's going to give me a ring to give his new address as soon as they've moved location. They'll still be in South Ex. Bought some really cute clothes for Senna and Noa, which I'm sure they'll like a lot. Went the a coffee place to get some ice smoothie's and a blueberry Muffin. We dropped Kishan off at his place, and straight back home again. It has been a good day today.

A nice crafted artifact from the National Museum

Monday 18th September 2006

Busy day...

Tuesday 19th September 2006, AK in da House

Andrew arrived in India, but he didn't look to healthy, so he got a rest soon after his arrival. Hope he feels better soon.

Wednesday 20th September 2006

Busy day...

Ponti's at Heathrow Terminal 3. So much better then TGI's after check-in.

Thursday 21st September 2006

Last evening Finally, looking forward to go home again. It has been a very good 2 weeks here again, and I feel the guys really progressed. Also the trainees where learning during these 2 weeks. It's 20:40 now and I just packed the main things for tomorrow. I have sorted my clothes for tomorrow morning. I only have to pack the toileteries and the last bits, take off the bedcover and bedsheets for a cleaning and will leave here at 10:00. A taxi is being arranged to bring me to the Airport. Went to Flavours today for lunch together with Andrew, Tarun and Samrat. Andrew's treat, which was nice of him. So chilling out now, see if Andrew's still up to go anywhere for food. I'd love to go to Ego Thai, but we'll see. On my next trip I have to bring a lot of things. For KD a wacom tablet, VBeing mousemats, printouts. And probably some engine parts for Tarun :) Which he gets delivered at my place for me to take to India.

Friday 22nd September 2006, Flying back again.

I had a good nights sleep. Andrew and me got some Pizza Hut delivered last night, and watched Animal House with James Belushi. A real classic to watch. Went to bed around 23:30 and had a good sleep until 09:00. I got ready, and the taxi picked me up at 10:00 to take me to the airport. Had plenty of time, but went through the gate straight away. Bought some sandwiches and water and boarded at 13:00. Had a good flight overal, and watched :

"Nacho Libre", http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457510/
"Mission Impossible 3", http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317919/
"Over the Hedge", http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327084/
a episode from Friends
some fashion design documentairy

Landed safe, and am happy to be home again.

Last Bank Holiday of the year

2006-08-31T14:03:00.000+01:00

This was the last Bank Holiday from this year. We have been busy in the house decorating the kids rooms, and some sanding work upstairs as well. Both Noa and ivar where really pleased with the new colors on the wall.

Noa and Senna's bedroom

We have some plans with Ivar's room, for which we go shopping next weekend in Peterborough. We got some good tips from our Neighbour where to look.

Ivar's Bedroom

Also, we found another wholesale shop here in Peterborough. Great value for money, all bulk though. Giant pieces of bief, also non food products. Well worth a visit so now and then. Especially when you have a barbeque, or want to get drinks for a month or so in the house.

Hyperama Wholesale entrance in Peterborough.

On Monday we went to visit our friends the fam. Hill in Balsham, which was good to catch up finally again.

Virgin Atlantic vs Jet Airways

2006-08-21T19:42:00.000+01:00

31/07/2006 Monday

Today I'm flying to India again, this time it will not be Virgin atlantic, but Jet Airways. So no 32K Airmiles on Virgin, but still 24K, and 8K on Jet Airways now instead. Andrew dropped by this morning to go through my agenda and other work related things. I packed almost everything. I to the bicycle to cycle to Peterborough Station, but after 5 minutes I cycled over a sharp little stone and my tyre got a nice large puncture. So I walked to the Station as I has plenty of time. The only things which was slightly frustarting was I had three bags to carry and the bike. I catched the delayed GNER train at 14:00 to Kings Cross. Another 45 minutes underground journey to Heathrow Airport, Terminal 3. I arrived nice and early, and asked for an exit seat, which I got. At Virgin they would have charged me £50,- for this seat. Not awlays though, but those are Virgin's regulations. Once on board of the Airbus I sat next to a nice chap who was a producer responsible for organising shows and conferences such as the Bafta Awards. Most of his time he spend flying across the world, and the conversation we had was interesting. I watched "Failure to Launch" with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey
. Not a bad movie to watch. After watching the movie I removed my contact lenses abd went to sleep. The stewardess woke me up at 05:00 GMT, as we were about to land in Delhi, so I slept the whole flight almost.

Fountain with view on the Indian Parlement

01/08/2006 Tuesday

Time flies, and so do I often these days. It's August already. I went straight from the airport in the taxi to work, and got things done straight away. Everyone was happy to see me, and visa versa. Steve was already there, and we went home about 20:30 that evening. I had a nice long shower to freshen up. I then walked to the twentyfourseven shop nearby and got some coca cola and crisps. I had my dinner afterwards together with Steve which had been prepared by our servant. Watched an episode of the Simpsons and went to bed after that.

Indian House of Parlement

02/08/2006 Wednesday

I woke up after a good night sleep under my own duvet and pillow which I brought from home. Fell asleep again untill 10:10 and got ready to go to work. The good thing is we do not have to travel long to get to work, as work is only 2 streets away from the flat. I took some of the guys out for lunch to Pizza Express (Samrat, Mukund and Akhil) and the food was really nice. Bought a TShirt for my father in law, as I did not promise this, but he has been asking for it for a while now. Telling Linda that his size is XL :) I just noticed that I left it at the office, but it does not have wings. So hopefully it will still be in the office tomorrow.

Crowd on a Sunday in Old Delhi

03/08/2006 Thursday

Steve and I watched Xmen last night and a bit of the Mummy 2 on DVD.

04/08/2006 Friday

I got up at 08:30. Went to work, and had a good day. I was looking forward to the weekend to chill out and do some shopping and sightseeing. I've gone out to get myself a nice cold strawberry frappee atr Cofee Today.
Went home at 20:00 and watched a Thai Fight Movie, which was excellent. After that we watched Sin City, and half way the power went off. So we were stucked for 1.5 no power. Steve decided to get some rest, as the power failure was affecting the heat in the house. Temperature was rising fast as the airconditioners did not work. Then suddenly the power came back on and we watched the rest of Sin City. Great movie. Went to bed at around 02:00

05/08/2006 Saturday

Weekend ! I got up at 09:00 this morning, as I ordered a taxi for today at 10:00. The taxi was right on time and we drove first to India Gate, which is a momument for rememberance of those who died in both world wars. It has a lot of resemblance of Arc de Triomph in Paris. After that I walked to the Indian House of Parlemaint. It was pretty warm, but the himudity was worse. As it was only 31.6 degrees Celcius. Went back to Dilli Market place, and to South Extensioj to do some shopping. I got Linda something she has been asking for for a while now, and I hope she'll like it. I have to pick it up this Wednesday evening, and did a down payment already.
I phoned Steve who was still in the Flat to ask him if he would fancy some lunch. So we picked him up and drove to Tanino's. No buffet today, but the food was very very good again. They even remembered us :) I got Ham and Melon for starters, and a nice thick Tomato soup which was so good. And for the Main Course I had chicken breast filled with parmasan cheese and peppers. As a desert I had some Vanilla Icecream. Steve's lunch looked good too.
We dropped off Steve at the flat again, and went back to Gurgaon, where I bought some more sheets for our bed at home. The sheets and pillow covers I bought last time where really nice. And there was a good discount on the items. On my way back the driver was not at the taxi, so I waited for 10 minutes and phoned Sareen to see where the driver was. Then tyhe driver appeared and took me back to the flat as well. Came home at 18:00. It was of 45 minute car journey from the Flat to there. Tonight we are going out for some Thai food, which Steve recommended. I can't wait :)
A ordered a taxi through Sareen, which was the same dude who was driving me around today. He misunderstood where we had to go, as we ended up in Defense Colony, instead of where we had to be, which was Friends Colony. It didn;'t matter but we had to do a de-tour. So we saw an exit again from Lajpat Nagar, where our journey started. Finally arrived at the Geo Thai Restaurant, and the atmosphere was great. It was not busy as we where pretty early (20:30)
We ordered some Spicy Thai Soup, Chicken Satay for starters, and a red curry dish for Mains. When we where about to start our mains Sati popped up, which was a nice surprise, as he told us he would skip it this time. He ordered some food as well, which we all shared and I took care of the bill this time. Went back to the flat again and watched Die Hard with Bruce Willis. What a classic Yippee-Ka-Yee.

06/08/2006 Sunday

I got up at 09:30 this morning, and it was not as hot as I expected, India was still asleep this morning. My taxi arrived nicely on time again, the same driver as yesterday. Today I wanted to visit Old Delhi, and off we went to see the Jama Mashid. Located opposite the Red Fort in Old Delhi, where it was very very busy. Especially the small narrow streets was filled with people, and I could see everything because of my heigth :) I had to go through security, and had to open my bag which I was carrying. Asking how much my camera's where :) They where a friendly bunch, and I got through in the end. Had to take of my shoes, and had to pay 150 ruppees because of usage of any camera. I carried my own shoes, as I do not want to end up in Delhi, and someone runs of with my shoes. Then we went to Ferozshah Kolta, which was tiny, free and not well maintained the part that you could enter. Still a nice old structure to visit however. It was close to the Old Delhi Zoo. Opposite I visited Purana Qila, which was the most impressive structure I saw today. You could walk everywhere, I rested at some places, because the sun was getting at me. I really believe I tanned a lot today, although that was not my intention. I wondered around on a path that was running jusgt outside the Purana Qila, which was close to the water. A woman bumped into me asking for money, no change there. And she wanted to use it for the homeless children in India. What does make me believe she would actually get that money she collects at it's destination ? Anyway, she annoyed me as I gave her some money, but she noticed I had some larger notes in my bag, as she just asked for it. I walked back to the car, and we went back to New Delhi to get some lunch at Qba at Conaught Place. I asked the driver to join me, but I noticed he felt not comfortable at Qba, which is a really posh place to be. ANyway, he seemed to like the mocktails and the food. Then we drove back to South Ex again, where I bought some clothes for both my daughters. Even though India is cheap I got another 50% discount on it, as the discount season started. Also managed to find a A-Z Street map of Delhi, which is very usefull to have. We went back to the flat afterewards, and I had a nice nap of 1.5 hour. Steve came back from the office and I had a wonder around Central Market, to stretch my legs before it becomes dark again. I wlaked back to Coffee Today, where I read today's newspaper and had a Strawberry Frappee with a lump of Vanilla Icecream. Just came back to the flat, as Steve was about to set off for a trip to the Guru. I wonder what his experience will be like. He does not expect to be back before late, so I'll hear all about it tomorrow. I got some food prepared for tonight, as I'm staying in the flat tonight and watch a movie or something.

07/08/2006 Monday

Got up nice and early after a good night's sleep. Went out for lunch today with Mukund at the Pizza Express, and left work at 19:45. Just finished watching Die Hard 2, and am off to finish yet another world of New Super Mario Bros. on the DS Lite.
Had another good day at work, and have yet another busy schedule for tomorrow, which is good. I had a vegetarian dish for dinner tonight, which was good as well.

09/08/2006 Wednesday

A public holiday in India, which I will be using to prepare some work for Thursday, and later on I'll go for some shopping and go to South Extension for some final shopping before we fly back to the UK on Friday.

11/08/2006 Friday

Flying back to the UK, bus journey to Stansted Airport. Stay at the Radisson Hotel, and catch my next flight at 07:00 to Eindhoven, the Netherlands to be with my family.
I had a good flight back, even though the Airport Security was changed. I only had 1 hour delay from Indira Ghandi Airport, and they even allowed my luggage as hand luggage. After waiting for a few hours we boarded. I arrived at Heathrow at around 19:15 and had to go to the Bus Station to catch my bus to Stansted Airport. Unfortunately my bus was not for another 40 minutes, so i had to wait. I was tired after the flight, and had to sit in the bus for another 1.5 hours. When arriving at Stansted I walked to the Radisson and met up with Andrew. A nice and quick debrief and handing over some goods. Went to sleep at around 00:00, and the bed was really comfortable. They even supplied Wifi internet service for free. A real recommendation when you have to stay nearby Stansted Aiport. Wake up call at 05:00, and jumped under the shower. Walking to the Aiport again, it was so busy. The cue's where massive, and the security was over the top. Even had to take off my shoes. And all hand luggage had to be cleared. Hectic, but only had 1 hour delay on my flight to Eindhoven. Finally arrived.......Holidays.....

24K Airmiles

2006-07-05T17:45:00.001+01:00

03/07/2006 Monday

My third trip to New Delhi. Leaving on a Sunday this time, because I would have 2 extra days at work, which is very useful. Linda dropped me off at Peterborough Station nice on time, so I could catch the 16:57 GNER Train to London King's Cross. Now it was a really hot day and in Schotland thunderstorms made the GNER delay for at least 45 minutes. So we decided to drive to Heathrow instead. The A1 was not a problem, when we finally arrived on the M25 close to the turnoff to Heathrow, a accident happened with 6 cars, one BMW on fire. So 3 lanes closed off. And 4 lanes had to be squeezed into 1 lane. Still 45 minutes later as expected we arrived at Heathrow Terminal 3. Very busy, this time, so no luck with some nice seats for myself, like last time when I had 4 seats. I had an old couple sitting next to me waking me up every 3 hours as they had to go to the toilet. Anyway, it was a good flight in the end and arrived safely at Delhi Indira Ghandi at around 11:00. A same taxi driver picked me up, as he brought us to the Airport last time we where out here. He talked about I take you to my friends shop. Uhuh. Anyway, he dropped me off at work, where I got rid off the ohhh soo smelly engine I took with me for Tarun. I did take a big suitcase this time with bedding in there. Andrew, and Steve did the same a while ago. Had a good first day, and met up with some new people in the studio. Setting up the machine and my new desk....As the studio is slowly filling up it's space. Ricky, Tarun and myself went out to get some money out of the machine, and went out to Flavours, where I went on my last trip as well. The food was good (as always) and had stuffed mushrooms and and penne chicken. Oh yes, before I forget to mention. It was humid and 41 degrees Celcius. I went home around 19:00 to catch up with some rest.
Coming home, the Power was off, so I decided to keep myself calm, layed on the bed with some towel and icecubes in it to cool myself down. I decided to go out to get myself again 2 strawberry frappees with 2 lumps of vanilla icecream :) Did some shopping at the TwentyfourSeven shop and went homewards again. Now the power was back on and I put on all airconditionings in the house. Made a huge difference ! Didn't sleep untill 24:00 and managed to catch some sleep
in the end.

04/07/2006 Tuesday

After a good night sleep, I woke up at around 08:00 and turned around, where I woke up at 09:30 again. Time to get up and go to work. My stomach is still okay, as I haven't felt anything weird last last visits. Fingers crossed however. And off to work again. It has been a fruitfull and busy day again. Today I heard as well we have Friday off, which is rather nice. So I'll be planning to do some sightseeing while I'm here. Then again, I missed a bank holiday in the UK, so that makes up for it. And the office is closed anyway. Although I do have a laptop and could do some work I guess, I'll not commence work (at least not much anyway) this Friday. Had a nice chicken disk today for lunch, and left work at about 20:00 after a chat with Andrew. Still have to prepare some emails later on, while I'm typing this up and having my dinner which is lovely btw. Having Butter Chicken with Matar Pulao Rice. Sitting on the bed with a large pineapple juice mug with ice. I even had the opportunity to talk to Linda through Skype, as I'm using the neighbours, or someones who's wireless signal is strong enough to connect to the internet. I'm of to bed on time today, as I wanted some rest....Listen to some music as soon as I've send my last emails tonight.

05/07/2006 Wednesday

Had a good night sleep again. Although before going to sleep last night we had another power failure. This time for about 45 minutes. Woke up at 08:00 as I did set my alarm, and had a nice shower this morning. Going to work, it was already 36 degrees.
Another fruitful day passed, and managed to do most things which were planned. We did have a power failure, and even the generator this time didn't respond. So we had to shut down the machines (not for long though) I left at about 20:00 today. Mukund came back from his holiday in Thailand, which was amazing by the sounds of it. And we are planning to have go places this weekend. Friday was normally a day off for the company, but it had been changed due to circumstances. Which gives me the opportunity to do some more work while I'm out here. Just finished another beautiful meal prepared by our own butler. And watched some news while chatting with Andrew and Linda at the same time. Well, airco is working. So I'm going to sleep in a minute, as there will be another busy day ahead tomorrow.

06/07/2006 Thursday

Another good sleep :) And walked to work at 09:00. The office wasn't open yet, so I went and sit in the nice garden in front of the office. Had good news today, as one of our clients signed off the work we had done for them, and the Publisher was very pleased.
So hopefully our relationship will continue with more work. Did some useful smaller tasks today as well, and quite of lot of reviewing and feedback. We ordered some from Subway today at 13:00, still not delivered until 14:30, so Tarun and I decided to pop out for lunch at Flavors again. Driving in his wrecky old car, had a nice lunch, and within 40 minutes we were back again. Tomorrow the office will open at 11:00, as the generator needs fixing. But that gives me some time to do some documenting at home before going in. We will have to plan as well what we're going to do this weekend. I'll arrange a taxi with driver for the whole weekend to go places. Tonight I'll do some surfing and ask one of the guys if this is a good thing to do in the weekend. Some people say "you should go there, it's beautiful", but then again it's 6 hours drive :( So dinner in a minute, same as I had last night. After that I'll do some more food shopping and grab myself, yes, another strawberry frappe :) Just had a nice shower, as it was really hot today. The Power just went off in the flat :( So time to get the candles on and eat my dinner. Hopefully it will get back on soon.

07/07/2006 Friday

Had a long power failure last night, so I opened the balcony door. It was quite windy, which was rather nice. I tried to catch some sleep, and finally managed to do so at 01:00. Got up at 08:00 again, and was getting ready to go to work. Engineers where looking at our generator, so we did not have power until 11:00 this morning. People who where early came and joined me in the park. At around 11:15 the job was cleared, and power was back. Straight into work to get some important issues out of the way. It was another busy day, but good again. I was really pleased we finally mastered the main thing we needed to look into today. Went out for lunch to Flavors, again. This time with Mukund, Akhil and Samrat. Mukund drove his car over an edge where the parking attendant was. So in order to get his car back on the road the attendant placed some bricks. Mukund not so happy when that happened. In the evening I managed to reinstall Windows XP on my Macbook Pro, and got all internet working together with Ricky's help.
I arranged a taxi for this weekend including a driver to go places. So tomorrow morning I'm picking up Mukund, and then we're off to explore more of India. It's bedtime now for me, as it's going to be a long day tomorrow.

08/07/2006 Saturday

Weekend at last. Woke up dead on time, and packed all the things for today (including two bottles of water). As it was 39 degrees Celcius today, cloudy but hot. The taxi driver arrived 15 minutes late, so we left here at 10:15 towards Gurgaon, which is South from Delhi, about 45 minutes drive. We picked up Mukund, and he showed me around. A very nice place where he lives. After some drinks, we went to see the Lotus Temple, in Delhi. Very impressive building, and well maintained. It was very hot. At the temple we had to take our shoes off, so we did. And entered the temple. Not allowed to take any pictures inside, or talk. To be honest, it was a nice building, but not much to see. So we decided to leave the place again after 15 minutes. The gardens surrounding Lotus Temple where well maintained, and there was a nice pool around the temple as well. Back to the taxi we drove to the Iskcon Temple, which is NOT recommended unless you love Hara Krishna stuff. First of all, the building was not impressive at all, and second the temple was closed. So we decided to do one more tour, and then go and seek some airco at the shopping moles in Gurgaon. We drove to Humayun's Tomb. Which was well worth seeing. Although it was not very busy (not surprised cause of the heat) it was a nice place to see. Entrance for Indians was 10 Rupee, and for myself 250 Rupees. Well maintained as well, and the building structures looked impressive. Some builders were carrying out some repairs. And after 45 minutes we moved on again. Towards Gurgaon, where we ended up in one of the shopping area's. We had a nice break at Cafe Coffee Day and had "yes" you guessed, another strawberry frapee. And another nice cold drink. Surprisingly I saw ABN AMRO Bank and Bata Shoes here as well. Both Dutch companies. I bought some small towels, to whipe my face with, but just noticed I left them at Mukund's place. All sandals I tried where not wide enough, so no business there for them. We bought two tickets for the cinema tomorrow morning at 11:15, so I'll be leaving here again just before 10:00. Do some shopping for the kiddo's and Linda as well. After we drove back to drop off Mukund, we had some tea and some local biscuits and other things. I met his mum, dad, brother, sister in law, aunt and his nephew :)
I just got home, and the driver dropped me off at 21:00 again. Another nice hot and sunny day.

09/07/2006 Sunday

Another Power failure last night until 02:00 this time, it was not as easy to fall asleep, so just closing the eyes to try to get some rest at least. As the taxi driver was expected at 09:45. I did feel okay in the morning and the taxi driver was early. Progress !
It was very cloudy this morning, and even had some darker clouds, but still no sign of the Monsoon, which should have started 8 days ago. It was not busy on the road to Gurgaon at all, so we arrived at Mukund's place 30 minutes early. Had some chai (tea) and after 30 minutes we went to the cinema. It started to rain, not a lot but it was nice as it cooled everything down. The temperature drop was not very much, maybe if it rains for a bit longer it will be nicer outside. It's still 35 degrees, 4 degrees less then yesterday. We bought some tickets for "the Davinci Code". I carried a bag on me, and to dispose it, so we gave my bag to the taxi driver for safekeeping. Then back again to the cinema, as we missed the first 5 minutes or so. We visited the Yo, China ! restaurant, which was very tasty. Managed to get two covers for our new bed, in the size we wanted. One was cotton, and the other one Silk, very very nice quality, and you guessed it, cheap. Not for here however, as the shop was very exclusive.
Drove back to drop off Mukund again, and did some handycraft shopping at a mall nearby. Bought some little presents for the house and for the kids too. Around 16:00 we went to South Ex. where I bought some nice presents for Linda, myself some shorts at the Levi's Store and some other things. The taxidriver dropped me off at home at 18:00. I'm taking it easy tonight, might go out for some cold drinks nearby.
Well I decided because it was still quite early to go to Qba at Connaught Place. So I changed clothes, walked out and got an auto riksho around the corner. He asked 65 rupee, and I haggled it to 50. Gave him 70 in the end, as it was quite a distance. It took about 20 minutes, and the driver was friendly. I had a nice mocktail, with mint. Had the same drink last time when I was out with Steve. I had a nice garlic bread, fresh tomato soup and some chicken canaloni. I only spend around 1.200 rupee for all this (including the two mocktails). I got a recommendation from a Spa outside Delhi, on which I'm going to find out if that place is any good. Probably will do this on my next trip. The restaurant holder told me it was famous amongst people, and very exclusive. Well, that just for us :) Hope Linda will enjoy that one too. On a journey that should have taken 20 minutes lasted for more than 1 hour. The first driver asked for 200 rupees, as I said on my way here it was only 50. Yes, but it's dark :) So ? So I went to another one, this one was reasonable, the only thing the driver had his brother in the auto riksho, and his breath smelled of pure alcohol. Also he could not shut up. So annoying he was. They did not have a clue where they were going, as I noticed that after 5 minutes. I got really frustrated, as I did not wanted to end up somewhere in the middle of nowhere on my own, without the mobile not even working (that battery was flat within a day). So when we entered Lajpat Nagar 4 I stopped the driver, jumped off, gave them 50 and walked off. In search for another one who WAS capable of driving me home. This one had no clue either, as he stopped at so many places to ask. So a girl buying groceries finally pointed him in the right direction. As soon as I saw the Twenty four Seven shop I jumped out, paid him, and was home. What a relief. Did some shopping and walked home. So happy to be here again. Well, that was a adventure !

10/07/2006 Monday

Busy day at work :)

11/07/2006 Tuesday

Busy day at work :) Had some lunch at Falvors again together with Ricky and Tarun.

12/07/2006 Wednesday

Had a good sleep last night, and as the Monsoon started it became very humid, but at least the temperature was lower than last week. When I opened my door I noticed the whole floor was wet in the living room. It rained so heavily, the drain could not cope with all the water, so it flooded the livingroom. I quickly turned off al power sockets. I got some lovely Butter Boneless Chicken with Rice at lunch, while working. I'm tired, and am almost done with the things I needed to do. Time for a rest I would say. As these two weeks have been hectic, busy but good. Looking forward to see my family again. After work, some of the guys and myself went to Central Market, which is close to where I'm staying. It was a lively market with lots of people. Shops selling fabrics, and had some street dim sums. Very nice, and recomendable even by Tarun, who Stomach is not too strong. Home now, rest. Have some surprise evening meal.

13/07/2006 Thursday

Started early today, to finish the last things on my to-do list. Mukund, Akhil, Samrat and myself went for lunch at Georgy about 8 minutes drive from the office. There was a nice shopping mall as well. I stayed late this evening to join the guys to oversee some work they where carrying out. And had Butter Boneless Chicken with some nice nan bread and rice together with Mukund, Tarun, Hemant and Sonnu. Ricky stayed late as well, but he left home just before we did. I walked back to the appartement at 24:00.

14/07/2006 Friday

Flying home again with Virgin Atlantic at 13:00 IST. Just checked in, sitting here and waiting for my flight. Boarding time is at 12:10. Everytime Virgin is asking if I want a seat nearby the Exit, which costs £50,- extra. Last time Steve managed to get us seats for free. This time I got a guy helping me, so no chance of that. Well at least I tried :) The advantage I might have is that the seat next to me will be empty. So a little bit more space here for me. Will probably watching some movies on the way back home. It was a really good trip yet again, but am looking forward to go home to see the family again. Hopefully they'll like the presents.

16K Airmiles

2006-06-09T12:48:00.000+01:00

2^nd Trip to New Delhi.

31/05/2006

Yesterday I arrived after a good flight to New Delhi for the second time. At Heathrow Terminal 3 I treated myself with TGI Friday’s and did some shopping. Got myself 3 psp games and some after-shave. Once on the plane I was lucky enough to have 4 seats all for myself, so 5 minutes after take-off I already dozed off.

When I arrived I dropped my baggage off at the appartement and went to the office. Steve, Tarun and Ricky took me out for lunch at a nice restaurant. I can only remember the sign outside as it “Quality restaurant”, if it really was the name of the restaurant I can not recall.

The new Air-conditioning in my room was lovely; I woke up at 10:00 local time again and got myself ready to go to work. Without having any breakfast. I got used to this. At lunch Steve and myself got a fish fillet burger from McDonalds, as we didn’t want to upset our stomachs. The Chinese “Golden Dragon” always has an effect on us after we’ve been there. The “toilet effect” that is. Walked to the twenty four seven to do some shopping and here it is always cool after the 10 minute walk from the “Golden Dragon” in the Heat outside. We went to the Coffee place to get ourselves some more strawberry frappees. Getting back home, Steve played GTA San Andreas and we watched the England vs. Hungary match. I almost fell asleep, so I decided to go to bed after 10 minutes. Today was really hot and humid. All power generators had problems keeping up and our ISP had gone down, so no Internet connection. It did get fixed however later on the day. And it started to rain heavily, which was really nice. The Monsoon season is coming soon. So it’s cooler but more humid, so sweating next month. Went back to the appartement and had a nice long shower, food was calling as well. As Sjohan prepared us a nice meal (again). I’m not making it too late, as I have yet another busy day tomorrow.

01/06/2006

Work has been very busy again today, and went home at about 20:45. As there was a power failure in the apartment we just dropped our bags and went straight to the coffee place where we are becoming regulars.

Tomorrow I’ll be giving Basic Modelling Class to the Artists, and take two of the guys out for a nice dinner meal for their commitment towards some of the work they have been doing over the last few weeks. Had a beautiful lunch today, but I’m not sure my stomach liked it that much as I was visiting the toilets more often than usual. Even visited the toilet downstairs in the basement, and that is quite an adventure J it was another hot day today. Haven’t spoken to Linda yet, as we haven’t tried the Internet connection in the apartment. Just hope my laptop will be fixed soon again before my next trip at least. Just played some pool with Steve, and he boated me. I’m so crap at pool but at least I show progression and getting better at it.

Another good day passed. I woke up after a nice long sleep at 06:45 and went back to sleep again. Eventually I got up at 09:00. Had a nice long shower and got myself pineapple juice, which I’d bought. All things, which we planned for work today, got done. For lunch we had some pizza, although mine was cold when I started because I did not take the time for lunch, as I was busy. Did a basic Modelling class for the Artists and a Q&A Session, which they filmed. Steve went back home, while I went out with Mukund, Kishan and Arvind to a popular Italian restaurant called “Fortuna” in Defence Colony. The food was lovely, and it was fully packed. I took the guys out as I promised this before. Mukund drove us all home. Steve and I were talking about games and played some GT4 and GTA San Andreas again on the old PS2.

Samrat and Mukund went to jantar Mantar with my camera for an intense photo shoot.

Shame I had not time to go, as I’d love to see that as well. Better luck next time. They shot 350 images on 3 Mega pixels, which remind me to charge the battery for this weekend. Still have to do some shopping, as I lost my Hindi Phrase book last time on the plane.

03/06/2006

I love Indian food; although this is the 6^th time I’m visiting the toilet. Just went out to the office today to clean up some work and had tea with Steve and Sati Singh.

We had a really nice chicken dish again, which was comparable with Tikka Massala back in the UK, but slightly more spices in it. Dinner was already cooked, but I’m not hungry yet. Watched the England vs. Jamaica match and played some pool again. Looking forward to tomorrow. First of all no work J and we hired a cab with a driver for Tomorrow. We’re going to visit some of New Delhi’s monuments. I only spend 12.000 rupees yesterday for the 4 of us at Fortuna’s, which is £50, -

I’m going to get another Strawberry Frappee again at the Café. The weather was pleasant today as it was cloudy and not as hot as the days before. Going through some coursework tonight, to see what’s it about.

04/06/2006

Got up at 10:45 this morning and had 15 minutes to get ready. So had a quick shower. Out taxi arrived at 11:00. The taxi driver was very punctual and did a good job waiting for us. Although later on he wrote down more hours and more kilometres then he actually did, which was cheeky. Cheap anyway for a full day, so we didn’t really mind.

First we went to see the “Red Fort”, which was very impressive to see. Entrance fee was 350 rupees for tourists. At the gate there were some guards fully armed. They checked my bag when I went through the gate to see if I didn’t carry any weapons or such. We visited the harem’s place, which was nicely architecture. It was very hot, so we decided to take a little brake from walking underneath some large trees in the shadow. After 1.5 hours we went to the exit again. We skipped the Indian Military Museum, as it was A) Busy, and B) We were very hungry at that point as we both didn’t have nay breakfast.

Towards the exit we went into a small hand carving shop. Very impressive work they showed us, all hand made. I bought myself a little wooden elephant, and Steve was examining the slightly more expensive ones. Euros 1.000. I got a 40% discount, but that’s normal in India anyway. The owner’s shop was from 1951, and he gave us his business card. So next time we can go in for free. We took the taxi to the other side of Delhi to go and eat at Tonino’s. Another Italian restaurant close to Qutab Minar. It was buffet time, and it was gorgeous food. After Tonino’s we went and see Hamanan’s Statue. The statue and the temple where impressive, but the surrounding area was not well maintained. We did not bother visiting the other side, as we had to take of our shoes at the entrance, and the floor was boiling hot. Got back into the cab, and we drove to Qutab Minar, which was very impressive again. A high tower build around 1200 AD. By the Muslims in India. So well worth a visit when you’re in Delhi.

It was 18:00 and we were ready for nice refreshment, so we went back to Connaught place to Qba. We had nice lemon and mint drink with ice. Very refreshing. Went back to the apartment to chill out and played some pool again. I lost 4-0…

05/06/2006

Another good sleep and start of the day. After having a shower. I left at 18:00 with Mukund to do some shopping, but when we finally arrived my stomach didn't feel well. So we decided to go home and Mukund dropped me off. So I was skipping the shopping to a later date. Wanted to go to the Golden Dragon later, but skipped it due to my stomach. And Steve didn’t feel well either. He cached a cold. Just captured a baby gecko and released it at the balcony. After that I electrocuted some mosquitos again. Only 2 days left at work now, and still plenty of things on the to do list. I hope I can squeeze it all in before we returning to the UK. I see a lot of progress at the guys work. And their workflow is improving every visit. There’s still a lot to teach.

06/06/2006

Number of the beast almost. Three sixes in the date today. It’s not too warm, but then again it’s only 09:00. What I did forget is that the office is not open until 09:30. There is a nice breeze in the park opposite work, it’s really relaxing. Nice shades from the trees.

Steve and I went mosquito hunting again last night, there were so many of them. I think they left the door open. Especially in the kitchen. My stomach feels slightly better today. Took two paracetamols this morning. Hope I feel better again today. A couple of things on my schedule today, as shifted some of my priorities. So set those ones an s soon as possible, so I can get on with the other tasks still left open. I’ll have to document all this for the Vbeing Art Bible. So everyone can have a look into this for reference, guidance.

07/06/2006

Went shopping with Mukund for 2 hours at a place nearby Nino’s. Bought the girls some nice things. After that we went to South Extension to buy Linda a nice silver necklace and Ivar some nice T-shirts. We went to have some lunch at a bar, where I saw some nice cups and saucers, which I took home afterwards. I just bought a whole set J

Going back to the office, we wrapped up all things, and went home at 18:30. As Sati Singh send his driver around the apartment to pick us up to take us out art his Club where he lives. Impressed with the club, as at was a nice place to retreat and relax. A nice swimming pool, tennis court, bar, library, Snooker place and some other activities that you could do there. Sati Singh took us home at 23:34, and we stayed up until 02:00. Packing our stuff for the flight again to go back home.

08/06/2006

The driver picked us up, and I quickly hopped in the office to book my seat for the flight. Said goodbye to the guys and off we went to the Airport again. We got ourselves some nice seats with plenty of leg space at the exits in the plane because Steve started flirting with the girl at the counter J So Thanks Steve for that. Had a good flight, and Flight VS301 landed at around 18:00 on London Heathrow again. Back home……

After a busy and fruitfull week

2006-05-20T17:40:00.000+01:00

So what happened since my last blog update, 7 days ago ? The wheather has changed, and it started to rain again. It has been a busy week at work, but enjoyed it fully. Soon I'll be off again to New Delhi, so probably 44 degrees again. I'm looking forward to the trip, it has been three weeks ago I have been out there for the first time.

Have been buying some things (what's new there?) I got sick of my 1G of ram in my work machine, so I had a quick look on overclockers, and ordered 4Gig DDR. It was not as expensive as I thought it would be. Today I've ordered a bag for the laptop from the Apple Centre here in Peterborough and a new telephone with additional handset. If you live in a 3 story house, it's not nice to run up and down just to catch that phonecall. So they're charging right now. Eeehm, what else ? Made an appointment for a quote on a real wooden floor for the lounge and hall downstairs.

Did some work in the Garden, and planted an apple tree.

On the bike this morning trying to fix Ivar's bike, as he had a flat tyre. But when I examined it it was full of little pinholes, from bushes or something. So we went on my bike with a pillow on the back to ease the pain for him...It was a nice ride to the City Centre. Bought a couple of things, as mentioned above and visited the deepfry factory "Burger King". On our way back I wondered what the houses looked like inside at Twigden Houses at Valley Park. They were very small, even the four bedroom houses where tiny and very pricey. At least we had a quick look, which was interesting to see how their houses were build. Very similar these days anyways. Good to see the houseprice for the four bedroom houses were substantially higher than when we bought ours.

So now it's almost evening and am sitting relaxed behind my laptop. Updating yet again the "bodblog". Here some pictures from our kids I took today.

Ivar eating his fries at "Burger King"

Noa and Senna both on the couch.

Food & Garden

2006-05-13T17:12:00.000+01:00

Well, what can I say. Some beautifull days passed, so we got the BBQ outside and here are some pictures of the food that dissapeared in people stomachs.
Went out to a Plant Show here in Peterborough, and got ourselves some plants and trees for the garden. We're really happy with it.

More pictures from New Delhi

2006-05-03T13:07:00.000+01:00

23 April : My flight to New Delhi with Virgin Atlantic. Lift off was at 23:30, it was a nice and easy flight, and even managed to get some sleep. I was sitting at a window seat with nobody next to me, well he moved somewhere else because there were not many people onboard, so more space for us all. Had some dinner, which is never fantastic, watched a movie on their onboard entertainment system, Chronicles of Narnia. At 02:00 I decided to catch some sleep, until 06:00 when they woke us up for breakfast. The yoghurt was nice, but the rest wasn’t really.

24 April: Arrived in New Delhi, after the passport control there was already a taxi driver waiting for me with my name on a piece of paper. Couldn’t miss it really. So after a 45 minutes drive in an air-conditioned cab we finally arrived at the Office. Very colourful, lots of taxi’s, riksho’s all blowing their trumpets J most cars had dents in them. It was about 42 degrees Celsius when I arrived, so the air-conditioning was a relief. New development area’s next to area’s where people sell fresh fruit next to the road. The residential area where we are staying looks mixed. Getting back to the apartment, which was down the road from the office (walking distance) having a shower, and get drop off my bags. Impressed with the nice marble floor, but the poor decoration, as the apartment was a bit empty. 3 bedrooms which each a double bed, high ceilings, air-conditioned, build in wardrobes A nice little kitchen with a fridge, microwave, gas cooker with a separate gas bottle, as it’s properly not connected to a gas network over here. A pool table, which has been bought by Andrew and Steve somewhere nearby. A couch and two chairs in front of the TV set (lots of channels btw) Cable TV J some balconies, and all bedrooms have their own en suite bathrooms. Although my shower is far from perfect, so maybe I’m buying my own showerhead to get all that fixed. The third bedroom is not yet equipped with air co. But will be soon I hope. We got an invite from it yesterday to go to the party by the Canadian Embassy here in Delhi, but didn’t feel like going. Coming back from work we chilled out and got my short on. We went out to get some cash out of the cash machine. 4000 rupee’s, which is roughly £50,-. Then we went to a nice little bar where we had coffee and 2 nice milkshakes. Which was 225 rupees. How cheap. I just left the change as it was so cheap. Got some shopping in the seven eleven drinks and some other bits. Gassing away last night, which was a relief. Had a good sleep, and woke up at 08:15 local time. Andrew got up later, so I watched some TV. Got at the office at about 10:00 straight into work. No breakfast this morning, which gave me a slight headache, but ordered a pizza from the Indian Pizza hut and some garlic bread instead. Just arrived back to the apartment…. aaah air-conditioning J Ricky told me before we left he had power failures where he lived 6 hours a day every day! Imagine that! Anyway, we had one too today, hooray for laptops with their own backup. I just made a list from things I would like in the apartment. Most things seem to be there, but there are some essential things, which makes the stay a bit more comfortable after such a long travel here and back. A airco in the 3^rd bedroom, a new toilet seat, a new showerhead & shower curtain, A table light for next to the bed and a dustbin for the bathroom. No Big LCD screens J

So tonight we’re going out for some food and drinks. Don’t know where yet, but having a drive in one of those riksho’s as they call them here. Poor driver. Slightly overslept on the 27^th, because we watched the match Villa Real vs. Arsenal that night until 02:30, I had 10 minutes to get myself ready, as we had an appointment somewhere. Mukund picked us up from the apartment in his car. Thank god he had air-conditioning in his car. It only took us half an hour to get there. Going back at the office I had those delicious “pancake” type with vegetable filling. I left the spicy sauce where it was, because of the amount of chilli’s drifting at the top. We went back to the apartment and had some nice chicken, rice and green stuff (which looked like mushy seaweed) It was a kind of cheese dish. With some tiny Nan cakes. Can’t recall the name. Have to look that one up on the menu we get given by the guys who are maintaining the apartment. After finishing two plates we went to meet up with the three programmers who are heading to the States after their Visa papers have been cleared. I have find out what the names were, and met up around the corner to catch our auto riksho. We went to a place about 15 minutes drive away called “Café Morrison’s”, which was a very nice bar, but not very busy. The music was loud at some points, but that was a good atmosphere. Some locals were there as well. So we started to drink Kingfisher beers and had quite a few of them by the end of the evening. The others took one round of tequila shots, which I skipped this time to stick with the beer only. We had such a laugh over there, and it was a shame to see the guys leaving, as they’re a great bunch. We kept converting everything into rupees and laugh afterwards. 10 pence? Too much! 5 pence (converted), which is multiplied by 75 in rupees. We went back at about 01:30 I believe, the guys joined us for another beer back at the apartment, and I decided to go to bed at 02:30. Which is why I am late today. Andrew still is in his bedroom; I might have to knock on his door in a minute to wake him up. As there is plenty of work to be done. I haven’t taken that many photo’s yet, which I should, but have plenty of time hopefully this weekend to go to some places and take pictures, which I’m planning to do anyway. It’s beautiful over here, like the culture. What I don’t like however is the “Nala”, which is the open sewerage system they have over here. I should make a picture from that as well. Another day ahead, time to do some work again. Looking forward though to cold England, even if it would be 30 degrees Celsius J

It’s an early night for us tonight. Got some nice dinner (again) and after refreshing ourselves we went out to get some money out of the cash machine (8.000 rupees) per person. Went back to a place we went before to get some cappuccino, and 3 strawberry frappe’s and a tin of cookies. Coming home again it was time to recover again and time to get some sleep. Saturday we are planning to do some work from home, and will go out later on the day. We got 2 table lights today, for next to our beds. Need to buy some more clothing, cause I only have a handful of t-shirts on some shirts and me. This weekend probably. In the evening we went out the some of the guys to Qba, which was a bar for where the upper class normally hangs out. We had some starters and a couple of drinks before the rest of the guys from work joined us on the terrace, which was overlooking the New Delhi Underground station. Andrew’s friend arrived as well that day, which was on a trip through India. She is staying until tomorrow-morning 05:30 to head off again on the train to another destination. Their friendship goes back 20 years. So we took care of the bill for the guys and went back to the apartment. I went to bed not too late, chatting with Linda until my power fell out. We had a power failure previously, and my air co didn’t work anymore. So it was a rather hot night. And my stomach was a bit upset again, not too bad. But had problems falling asleep. When I woke up this morning, I had a nice cold (ish) shower, which felt great. Pippe made Andrew and myself some breakfast (mango) before we were going to do our shopping into town. The electrician arrived as well just before we left the apartment, and fixed the electricity problem. It was one of the fuse boxes downstairs, which he showed us. So if we have this the next time, we should be able to fix this ourselves. Andrew was reading out of his Hindi phrase book, which had some hilarious translations in there. Whoever wrote that book must have been funny in the head. We ordered a cab today, because we wanted to visit multiple places. We went to South Extension 1 first to have a look at some jewellery shops, and managed to find some things for my wife, which I hope she’ll be pleased with. After that we went into a Levi’s Store and managed to find myself 3 pairs of nice jeans. Size went up to 40 for me, as 38 didn’t fit me anymore. Those only were 1.800 rupees each, so in total I bought 3 pair of jeans, which I normally would spend on buying one pair of the same jeans back in the UK. We went to a coffee bar later ‘Parista’ with its uneven stairs, very dangerous. Andrew and my food was okay, but pippe ordered something which wasn’t right, so we got the bill and left. Back to the taxi again off to Defence Colony with one stop. Got some money out and took some pictures of some great statues. Having reserved a place for lunch, which was delicious, but way too much. It was filled up the place. Then we did some shopping across the road where we got some shopping for the kids. Hopefully they like the gifts from their dad from India. Going back again to the apartment and getting freshen up as my feet stank because of the shoes I was wearing today. Now they’re preparing us some food for tonight and are watching the football match Chelsea-Manchester United. So chilling out tonight and tomorrow we’ll be off to Sati’s house. Probably do some preparation work before we go there for work. A couple of days to go before we fly back home. Having had a really good night sleep and no mosquito’s biting me, we wet through the competition entrees, which took us 2 hours or so. After that we walked towards Defence Colony, which was about a 20-minute walk in the hot sun. When we arrived we found an Italian place called “Moets”, which was nice and relaxing. Bought a little Hindi phrase book in a bookshop in the same area, and went back on a tuktuk. He asked us 40 rupees for the drive back to C41, as we knew it was normally 30 rupees. Didn’t want to haggle, because carrying 32 stones (2 people) was a big task for him, On top of that we had a good laugh and the driver was very friendly. So when we arrived after a drive on the motorway we e him 100 rupees instead. The guy was sweating his head off. Relaxing back in apartment again we got ourselves ready to be picked up by one of Sati’s drivers, driving us to his villa. Very impressed with this all, as at the gate where 4 people waiting with guard dogs. Security…. Entering the house a nice large hallway everything in marble (even the driveway) we met up with Sati’s wife as well. She left a good impression behind. We had some snacks and 2 bottles of very good red wine in his lounge room, which was in the basement. After that we went to a recommended Italian restaurant “DIVA”, we had to wait, because we were half an hour later than booked. I had a nice filled chicken breast, Pepsi and a nice bottle of white wine. Sati dropped us off home again at 12:00 and went to bed, a quick chat with Linda before sleeping. And another good night sleep…Monday now, my mum’s birthday. I’ll wait until it is 12:00 before ringing her, as the Netherlands is 4 hours behind. Today will be a busy day again. Looking forward to wrap everything up this week and to sleep in my on bed again soon. Missing the family, but am getting used to it all. We had 2 new artists starting yesterday. Yesterday was a busy day having talked to most of the artists on an individual basis. So today I’ll finish the list. Last night when we went home we were supposed to meet up Tarun and Samrat at home, but due to a power failure once again we moved to the coffee bar down the road. The air conditioning was not on there either, and it was pretty warm. 2 Ladies were sitting there and were looking at us all the time smiling. One of them, which had a profile, you could put a beer on her mouth while she was running down the street, and the other one’s nose was so curled up, it almost ended up in her mouth, with all those rings. Anyway, Samrat joined us there, and he told us the electricity was back up as there where lights burning at home, so we shot of back home. Later on Tarun joined us, and we played some pool, had a few drinks and dinner. I went to bed at 01:00 and had a reasonable good sleep. The shower this morning was great. So another day ahead And…..Skype is great. 10 minutes to the UK for only 18p from India. A good connection too J

Had a good day today at work, and had a nice Hawaiian pizza today for lunch. After watching a couple of episodes of Lost at home we went out to the Golden Dragon again on foot. Had really good food. Chicken Kee with X.O Sauce (god knows what that was). Anyway, on the way back we took a different transport method. The auto-riksho. Off to bed soon again for yet another day of India.

in Asia

2006-04-25T09:52:00.000+01:00

Here some images I took : The appartement in New Delhi, Outside the appartement, Flying over Delhi and a small shot of where our plane was before getting there. More to come. Am writing a little logbook which I'll include next time as well. Very hot it was yesterday, hooray for the airconditioning. 42 degrees celcius.

the Netherlands

2006-04-08T16:13:00.000+01:00

What happened ? Friday the 31st we drove to the Netherlands at 05:30. SO that's where we are at the moment. A nice long break after all the interviews. Ready for our new adventure in Asia. We had a really good journey to the continent. SeaFrance's boattrip was really good, although the breakfast was not fantastic. After driving for 3 hours through France and Belgium we finally reached my hometown, where my parents live.
We had a really good night sleep, as the bed at my parents in the guestroom is super comfortable. The next day we went to Eindhoven to do some shopping, and Ivar stayed with his grandfather, helping him in his garden. We bought clothes, books, stuff for the Asia trips and other things. We quickly dropped by at my brothers place before we went back, and it was nice to see them again and see our nephew. That evening we went to a nice place in Belgium just over the border called "the Bever". Fantastic for kids in the summer as they have a nice playground and a lake nearby.

A couple of days ago we visited one of ours friends nearby Weert, which was nice. Unfortunately their dog was so full of excitement he jumped on Noa's back and she fell on the pavement with her face. We went immediately to the Hospitals First Aid, but they couldn't do anything. Good to see her recovering so fast. It was not a pretty sight, but everything is fine. Was visited Eindhoven multiple time, and tried to book a house at CentreParcs, but everything was pre-booked, even the larger houses. So we decided to go to Linda's parents, nearby 's-Hertogenbosch.

Yesterday I visited my friend Guido. He was at home babysitting his son. So Noa joined us, and the kids had fun together, while we were catching up stories and talked about memories. Also I managed to make some copies of old fotographs I did not have. As he had photographs from of my previous houses in London, which was fun again to see.

Today we visited 's-Hertogenbosch, but it started to rain after a couple of hours, so we hit back to the car with the city buss (like park & Ride). Tonight we will chill out at Linda's parents, and we're about to have our dinner. Tomorrow we're going to take Linda's parents out for lunch somewhere.

Happy mothersday !

2006-03-26T07:27:00.000+01:00

Happy mothersday. I know it's not mothersday in the Netherlands at the moment, that's 2 weeks away from now. The time has changed overnight, as the summertime has come. To my surprise our son already went downstairs to get the table ready fro breakfast, I just finished it off with some boiled eggs, plates and the rest needed. Linda just woke up. It's a beautyful day outside, and everything feels good. On the jobfront : I'll keep you informed, as soon as everything has been started. All very excting again. I have to go to the doctor tomorrow to get some vaccinations for a trip I am going to make to Asia. Will have to sort my visa out as well in a few weeks. Holidays are coming up. The last 2 weeks have been very very hectic as you can imagine, but worthwhile putting the effort in ofcourse. That's it for now, I'll put more photographs on the blog next week. Thanks for all my friends for the support they gave us last few weeks.

Big Bod Back by Dope Demand

2006-03-10T09:58:00.000Z

Well, by now I guess I could write in in my blog. I have made redundant from Sony Cambridge due to there was no suitable position for my Art Role anymore. I could not believe the news, but at least this puts everything back into perspective. No hard feelings against Sony, as this was a hard decision for them as well.

Some of the nice feedback from friends and collegeas :

"You're a supremely talented, enthusiastic and hardworking artist and I'm sure Sony's loss will be a better studio's gain". Mark Gibbons, ex-Art Director SCEE Cambridge.

"I can't imagine it'll be too hard to find something given your portfolio - I certainly hope that's the case". Chris Sorrell, Creative Director SCEE Cambridge.

"you're too talented to not get work immediately". Steve Martin, Producer

Thanks for all the support from people from : Nixxes, Blizzard, EA, SquareEnix, Framestore, Eidos, SCEE, SCEA, Rockstar, Teamplay2, Woedend, UBI Soft, Dreamworks Interactive, Lego.

I have things lined up, and fingers crossed I'll back on my feet again, as quite a few companies show their interest in me.

York

2006-03-05T07:41:00.000Z

Yesterday we decided to go and have a look in York. It was quite easy to get there. On the A1 and keep going North. I passed Newark as well, which is were John from the train lives :) Quite a long drive from Peterborough though. It was a beautifull clear day and a perfect opportunity to clear my head with all the things that are happening at the moment which I will not go into at this stage. It was freezing cold up in York, and there was snow everywhere in the city. We didn't get to see a lot though, maybe it's a good time to go back in the summer to take some more a better pictures. Parked the car at KentStreet Carpark, which was a 5 minute walk from City Centre. We had a nice meal in a Bella Italia restaurant with the kids. Here are some snapshots from yesterday and an updated picture from Senna in het bed.

Our new car !

2006-03-01T15:07:00.000Z

A sad day, and a happy day ! Our old Volvo is no more here, but in exchange we've got the superdeluxe V70 back. Longer as expected, as I'm at home now. What happened before ? We got a call on monday from the Volvo Dealer they couldn not deliver it on time, so it would be today instead of yesterday. Than yesterday I got a phonecall from the finance departement they made a mistake and were £1.200,- short. We already signed, so they discussed it with their supervisor and decided to give us the discount because they made the mistake. So £1.200,- back from the old Volvo, and £1.200,- from the mistake they made. Good deal if you ask me. Than this morning we were going tol collect the car at last at 10:00, but our insurance papers still didn't arrive in the post, althought they were posted last thursday by first class mail (NOT!). So we only could finish the paperwork, but not take the car with us yet. Coming home, we found the insurance papers on our doorstep. Back again to swap the cars. Now we've got it, but it was a bit late to go to my work in Cambridge, so I'll have to book a day off for this. What a nice toy this is ! Look for yourself...

Volvo 850GLT OUT - Volvo V70 SE 5DR IN !

2006-02-24T16:40:00.000Z

Well, we finally did it. We've just bought a new car. A Beautifull with every luxury item you can imagine on it. 2.4 Liters, Automatic, Diesel. Volvo V70. I'm very happy, as this is my first big car purchase and am looking forward to getting it this tuesday. We're getting rid of our 850GLT, which has been good to us for the last 2.5 years. We will miss the old car, but than again. It's good to drive a new car....So excited !
Feeling better again today, and monday it's back to work again. We'll be pretty busy again for the next project. Still have to found out what it is exactly.
Have a good weekend everyone !

DIY in the house

2006-02-21T17:56:00.000Z

Did some DIY. A frontlight for outside next to our front door. I didn't like the plastic light we orignally got from our builder. Very old fashioned. This fits better with all the rest. 2 Bird Houses outside in our garden, and we already had a visitor looking at one of them. I'll try to register each time a bird gets in and take some snapshots each year :) My father made them for us. And a nice kitchen light for our kitchen table.

Another ZBrush session now into Maya

2006-02-08T16:59:00.000Z

Another day passed. Got myself into ZBrush again, and getting to know the pipeline between ZBrush and Maya MentalRay rendering. Quite straight forward, and as complex as I thought it would be. Although it's not a perfect pipeline. My last day tomorrow as I'm having friday off :) Hoooray.
The model is lowpoly. The displacement map is 2048*2048. With a simple Mentalray Skinshader.

Carbootin'

2006-02-05T11:00:00.000Z

Another carboot this morning, again busier as last week because of the wheather is getting better. Nothing there though. What did we see this time ?
1 Playstation1 in bad cosmetic condition for £5,-, and some gameboy stuuf I've seen a couple of times before as they're from the same people. Many East-Europeans on the carboot, like you're not in England anymore. Here some images I took this morning.

Another 4 days to go at work before our holiday, which I'm really looking forward to.

Outsourced some freelance work this week for a small Dutch company in the Netherlands. My colleaguea's are having fun with that, and some money in the end :)

About to update my satelite as well today with the latest settings, moving some recorded audio shows (Ferry Maat's Soul Show) and In the Mix by Ben Liebrand. Do some editwork to cut the commercials and MP3 them for my Ipod.

Our neighbours came for a visit yesterday and we had a nice curry takeaway .

That's my weekend in a nuttshell..

Holidays coming up

2006-02-01T16:06:00.000Z

Not long to go untill we pass the channel again for a nice short break of it all. Working on 24 again, doing some wlakthrough maps for the game. very boring, but keeping us all busy. Within a week or two (possibly when I come back from my break) we'll found out what the future will bring us regarding my next project. Will i be commuting to London, like some others of our studio. Will I stay at Cambridge to do the work remote ? Whatever happens, it's good to get my teeth in a fresh new project. I wished it was going to be a PSP title, but it's more likely a PS3 title by the look sof it. Finishing off those wlakthrough maps this friday, so hopefully I have some time again to finish off what I started last week. My ZBrush model..

Some Anatomy Zbrush work (day3)

2006-01-25T15:52:00.000Z

Have been working on a base male model in Maya the last 2 days, get it all edge-looped nicely. So today I started working on the body's Torso into ZBrush. Printed out enough reference material for muscles and landmarks. Not pulling all my weighth on it as I want to take my time to get it properly done. Later on I'll create some blendshapes within ZBrush, UV it, and texture the character. After that the skinning and some IK handles. I haven't touched any advanced rigging yet, so it has to do with just IK (with locators).

Another week

2006-01-23T09:16:00.000Z

Another week started today. What did we do last weekend ? I took pictures of old games to sell on EBay, and so far sold quite a few of them. It creates space in the house again, get some money back from a small investment I made back than. Went to the Peterborough Carboot again yesterday, and it ws very cold on the bike. I took my son Ivar with me as well. It was bussier as last week, but nothing to see. 1 Megadrive in poor condition, and 1 smaal megadrive (one of those tv joysticks with games on rom) useless, so we left it and went back not long after arriving. Finished a tutorial for a book written by Martin McKenna, and am looking forward to read the edited version when it's ready. It will hit the shops Autumn time I presume. I'm thinking about a what's new section on my website just to let people know what I'm upto as a professional. I might look into to that today how to set that one up in Flash and maybe an XML sheet.

Another useless carboot

2006-01-15T16:03:00.000Z

Yet again, although bussier as last week's, a useless carboot sale in Peterborough. What was there ? 1 Nintendo Gamecube with a couple of games, I believe I have seen the same guy a couple of times before, so I presume he just asks the full price. 1 NES with some games, in good cosmetic condition, but the old woman wanted 25 pounds for it. Way too much for what it was I think, "I rather keep it myself", she said. Well, she can now. Imagine that, an old lady who doesn'r even know how to switch it on, playing games on a console which is more than 15 years old :) When the wheather is slightly better we're going to other carboots again. Saw some gameboys as well, not interesting at all. I started selling unwanted games now on Ebay. 29 Items for sale now. PS2, Atari ST, NeogeoAES, Commodore hardware. A big clearout, as accumulating all these items clearly take up a lot of space.

Parents out - Brother in

2006-01-13T12:48:00.000Z

My parents just left to the trainstation to go to Stansted Airport, where they catch their flight back to the Netherlands. My brother and his family arrived last night and went straight to the Orton Hall Hotel in Peterborough, which they loved. This morning we had them for a visit, and they just went back as their son needed his sleep. We will see eachother again tomorrow, which gives us all a rest from everything. Tidy up the house again a little bit, don't need to do much though. This will be mu last weekend before I go back to work again, which should be good. Back in my old routine again. Just hope the wheather will be clearing up, because at the moment it is a bit miserable outside, although it is dry at least. For all people who have missed me, I'm back next week, Angelo in da house ! Senna is doing a great job, sleeping intervals of 4 hours nonstop, and drinking very well. We are very lucky with her.

Friday again

2006-01-06T18:38:00.000Z

We're forgetting time, especially after all those holidays. Still a full week to go before I go back to work. Everything is falling into place at home again. Next week my parents will come over for 5 days, which I'm looking forward to. So do they to see their newborn grandchild. Anyway, here 2 images of Noa, Ivar & Senna. Noa & Ivar were in a strange mood again. Upcoming sunday is carboot day again...

Senna on day 2

2006-01-01T20:06:00.000Z

Here a quick snapshot from the two sisters Noa and Senna. All is fine, althoug they are still in the hospital. Gives me some time to get everything perfect at home. Although I hate doing ironing.But heej, I have to do it. Soon it will be full house, as my brother is going to book his visit for next week friday. The birth cards are being printed today, so hopefully everyone will receive theirs by post soon.

Family Bod has been expanded again

2005-12-31T20:46:00.000Z

Today at 10:32 our daughter was born. Her name is Senna Anita Valerie Bod. Weighing 2748g, 49cm. In Peterborough Hospital, UK. Both mother and child are doing fine and having a rest, including me. So here are the first images from our new baby girl.

Happy newyear everyone !

Christmas Baby Bod ?

2005-12-23T13:34:00.000Z

Linda got back from the hospital yesterday for a checkup on our new baby. Everything is fine, and here is the scan of the baby (21/12/2005). A very exciting time in our lives yet again.
Yesterday was the last day at work for this year, which feels great. Happy holidays ! We'll keep you posted with some photographs during these holidays. Family Bod is expanding rapidly !

Last monday this year at work !

2005-12-19T16:51:00.000Z

The last monday at work this year has almost gone. It has been awefully quiet at the office, as most people took their holidays. Have been thinking of new idea's for a website I started last saturday, which is a website for my daughter's playground. I've come up with some crazy little idea's, so I'm looking forward to put some of my creativity into this website. I'm sure both kids and teachers will like it all. It has to be informative and be linked with the kids as well. Like a virtual business card for the school. One hour to go, and I can't wait to breathe some fresh non office air again to catch my train back home.

Carboot Peterborough

2005-12-18T10:22:00.000Z

I got at the weekly carboot this morning at 09:00. Very cold outside, so not as busy as usual, but a very nice day. I Did not buy anything this time.
What was there : all unboxed (not all on one stand).
1 Sega Megadrive, 1 Super Nintendo, 2 Gameboy colors, a N64, 1 Gameboy SP. And the obvious games for the Mastersystem, SNES, Megadrive, PS2 & Gameboy. All not worth buying looking at the condition of them. I didn't see the Commodore 4+ unfortunately. Maybe more luck next week.

Twentyfour concept art

2005-12-15T17:32:00.000Z

Have been asked to do some concept art for "24 - the game" covers, so here's the result of an hour sketching. I was working on a rather funny bar render for my neighbour James, which will be used in a competition animation for 10 second club. Almost weekend.

Gameboy Micro Famicom edition ?

2005-12-14T09:21:00.000Z

I ordered a Gameboy Micro Famicom edition last week on Ebay Japan, and got an email from the seller it was shipped by EMS last saturday. Can't wait to get it out of it's box. Not much else to post, except I'm not attending our yearly Sony Christmas Party this year as my wife is heavenly preganant, and I'm on standby mode from now on.
Just went to Nando's across the road for lunch with my pal Dean. Coming back, a package is waiting for me. YES ! The Gameboy Micro arrived, what a beauty ! What do you think Danny ? This is the first photograp I took with my new Sony DSC-N1 camera. Picture is not really sharp, but who cares ?

Carboot Peterborough

2005-12-13T11:19:00.000Z

Walking at the carboot in peterborough, I bumped into a Commodore C4+ with lots of extra's. Unboxed, and wasn't sure it was in working order. The guy wanted £20,- for it, which I thought was a bit much looking at the state of the machine. maybe he'll be there again next week, and I'll put a bid down for a tenner. A bit further I bumped into someone who had a US Snes with a broken powersupply and a pad in reasonable condition. Bought that of him for £5,-