Alef Arendsen

Yesterday, me and two others enjoyed our last kite boarding session of the year at Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. The water was cold, but just as earlier this month, we dressed up like Ninjas and off we went. Also, we went to the sea this time, as the lakes in Holland are exceptionally cold right now, after a little cold spell earlier two weeks ago. The surface water is probably not more than 2 or 3 degrees right now in the lakes, whereas the sea still is about 8 or 9 degrees I believe.

It wasn’t much of a session, as the winds quickly dropped to levels where I could not get decent enough speed anymore with my 12sqm. I forgot to bring my 16.5sqm (stupid!!!). The other two guys did bring their bigger kites, but then again, jumping and decently going up-wind was pretty much impossible for them too…

At least I got to shoot some soul-session like pictures…

Now for a quick bite and off to my friends to celebrate New Year’s.

I was in Italy again trying to insure the place we bought there (normal insurance in case the house breaks down for some reason), so we visited the bank.

We’re slowly finding out what everybody has been talking about with respect to the Italian way of dealing with things. First of all, at the bank we were not able to insure the house, because we are foreigners. Apparently, the bank of our choice does not do home insurance for foreigners.

We then went on to an insurance agency close by and tried to get an insurance there. The girl behind the counter told us the ‘m/c e rotto’ and that’s why we can’t give you an insurance yet (the printer has broken down). *sigh*

I know endurance is something can improve with enough exercise. I also know endurance is something you have to maintain with exercise. I hate that! I just took up running again. I have not ran since the middle of June which is when I did 70km for two weeks in a row. That, combined with two Sunday afternoons playing tennis, screwed up my knees (which I know, is not surprising ).

I tried various times to start exercising again, but each and every time, my left knee starting hurting again. I didn’t try anymore since the beginning of October and that was more because I was constantly on the road and didn’t bring my running shoes with me all the time. I compensate a little with kite boarding (which, to my surprise, does not make my knees hurt at all).

Anyway, tonight I did a 5k run and that’s when it showed. About two-thirds of the way I was already completely exhausted. It’s good I didn’t bring my HRM, because I ignored everything and kept on running, trying to finish the 5k in under 25 minutes. I didn’t succeed: 25m05. Oh well, it wasn’t that bad. But it seems I have to start doing a lot of exercise again before I’m back to my 21 minute time (that’s outside, inside it was better).

(listening to Skalpel – Theme from ‘Behind the Curtain’ while writing this… highly recommended)
I saw Joris Luyendijk for the first time in a talkshow called ‘De Wereld Draait Door’ with Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. Joris has written two books on his visits to Cairo that lasted for one and two years respectively. Both books are best sellers and challenge some of the common thoughts about Islam culture. For some reason, I didn’t like the guy very much. He came across as arrogant, all-knowing about the Islam culture and Egypt, just because he had been there for a couple of years or so.

I had just been to Cairo myself and to be honest, I got back with mixed feelings. Good feelings about the country and the people being so hospitable, but also weird feelings because I simply could not understand a whole lot about the culture. Had Joris Luyendijk done a better job at explaining that his book really is a good one to read if you want to know more about the differences between the western world and for example the Muslim culture in Cairo I would have definitely bought and read his book(s) earlier. For some reason though I didn’t do that and I promised myself to put Cairo on my ‘places-to-visit-again-list’, just to find out more about those differences that I didn’t understand back then (and of course to enjoy the country). I wanted to do that myself, instead of having this seemingly arrogant guy learn me something about it.

Don’t worry, Cairo still is on that same list, but in the meantime I did read Joris’ first book titled Een goede man slaat soms zijn vrouw (literally translated as: ‘A good man sometimes hits (or slaps) his wife’) and I have to be honest here: this book is nice and helped in my understanding of the culture in Cairo, Egypt! Of course the title is very provocative and that’s one of the reasons I didn’t like it a lot at first. I can’t help but get the impression when I see a provocative title that the book is bad and that the title is still trying to attract readers to the book.

Only in the end does Joris explain why he chose the title. I’m not going to explain that here. It’s not that the book would be any less interesting if you would know already. It would however be silly to try to explain the reasoning of the entire book in a single blog entry. If that would have been possible, reading the book would be a waste of time and it’s not!

On the contrary, how much I disliked him on TV, Joris is a good writer, has an entertaining style and seriously makes you think. The book is not a page turner, sometimes you’ll have to work your way through a couple of pages because some passages are a bit boring, but then again, sometimes skipping one of two paragraphs is not such a big deal–the book doesn’t have a plot whereby you cannot miss a single page.

Concluding: I’m glad somebody (can’t remember who) has recommended this book to me. It made all things Cairo a lot clearer. I’m looking forward (even more) to going there again!

I’m having lunch and working a bit in COSI at the moment somewhere downtown NYC. Close to me there are two men having lunch too and one of them is wearing one of those Bluetooth headsets. Now this guy has been having lunch for close to an hour and he hasn’t taken off his headset all that time. Now, I’m wondering, does this guy think this is a fashion statement or so, constantly wearing such a device, ‘coz then he’s wrong. He also does not look very nerdy or so, do that can’t be it either. Now, if he were a messenger, courier or has another job that requires a lot of calling that’d be okay, but even then: loose it while you’re having lunch, please… It’s *not* stylish…

Near the end of August, I posted about the upcoming conference season. Well, it’s almost done. After having finished visits to Denmark for JAOO, Bussum for NL-JUG, Greece for the Greek JUG, there was also an event that squeezed in on Mauritius last month. The last conference of this year (don’t worry, things will continue shortly after the turn of the year) is The Spring Experience.

It’s great to see that we’ll again have a big crowd turning up for our annual developer show in America. We’ll have great content, great speakers and all that in a great location. I’m looking forward to flying to Miami tomorrow from New York. A short drive after having landed at Miami airport will get me Hollywood, where the Westin Diplomat will not only provide an excellent setting for some great in-depth sessions on all things Spring, but also a relaxing environment to have some beers in and do the occasional networking.

Last September I was in Aarhus for the JAOO 2007 Conference. I hadn’t been there before and it was simply the best conference I had ever visited.

While at a conference, the hotel you’re sleeping in doesn’t really matter that much, you’re not spending a lot of time there anyway. The beds do matter of… they always matter…

The beds in the Scandic were good. The view wasn’t that good, as you can see. The hotel is in the centre of Aarhus, near the station and also quite conveniently located near the conference centre. Not much else to say about the hotel really.

Much more about the conference though. It really was great! But then again, this series is about hotels, not about conferences I reckon…

I’m in New York at the moment and I’m having great fun. I’ve never been to NYC for more than a day and this time, I really got to spend some time in the city.

I stopped by here on my way to Miami where I’ll be heading tomorrow for our annual conference The Spring Experience. Roy, a friend of mine from Utrecht is living here for a while (mostly because his girlfriend is studying here at Columbia University) and he’s shown me some parts of the city. My hotel is on Madison and 45th Street, so pretty central and I’ve seen the usual neighborhoods in the last few days (SoHo, East Village, Meatpacking District, China Town, Financial District and more of that). I’ll be going to Brooklyn tomorrow if I still have some time left.

Yesterday, Roy had his farewell party in a bar in Harlem and after a while, we got into a discussion about NYC and the attitude of the people here. Somebody concluded that you could somewhat compare it to the attitude of Amsterdam people. Just as Amsterdam people sometimes think Amsterdam is *the* city in the Netherlands and there’s nothing else but Amsterdam in the Netherlands, somebody told me many people in New York seem to think that New York has everything and everything revolves around NYC.

Well, I do not think that conclusion can be drawn that quickly, but what was more interesting was that, somebody gave an interesting kind of twist to this story. New York *does* have everything: the positives, but also the negatives and the fact that everything is crammed in such a small (well, relative that is of course) area is pretty interesting. If you walk up from Columbia University (main entrance) to say 124th Street, on left side of the road everything is pretty safe, whereas on the right side of the road (literally 100 meters away) you can find the projects; government subsidized housing. These are residential flats, comparable to the Bijlmer used to be like (well, actually, it’s nowhere near comparable, as the Bijlmer has never been as bad as some of the projects here in NYC are right now). The contrasts are very big and everything is very close to each other. Nice bars and restaurants on the one side of the road, whereas the other side is a complete no-go area.

Somebody mentioned that it’s an interesting city when you want to be confronted with those contrasts. It’s very hard to see the contrast of rich, comfortable and cozy Europe compared to dying Africa which is right underneath you. This was by the way the opinion of a student in on of the SIPA master programs, as I heard very much focusing on developing countries (so not very surprising), but there’s definitely something to it…

I like New York so far. Not sure if I could ever live here, but it sure is a city worth spending some more time in in the future or so. I’ll definitely be back.

No pictures yet by the way. I didn’t make a lot, but the ones I did make I can’t transfer off of my camera right now–I forgot my cable.

I’m listening to DJ Krush right now and his CD MiLiGHT, released somewhere in 1997 I think. This is one of the albums that made me appreciate hip hop. Now of course MiLiGHT is a mostly a collaborative effort between Krush and guys like Mos Def. Despite all the different artists on the CD it still has an integrated feel to it.

Next in my playlist is an even more brilliant album–I’m already looking forward to listening to that–DJ Shadow with his debut Endtroducing. It’s not just hip hop, it has a lot jazz, funk and soul influences as well. A great album and milestone in electronic music.

It was the album I frequently listened to several years ago… I have some good memories to that time, another reason it’s nice I found the album again…

Last September I stayed in London for a few days when I was on a business trip. My fine English colleagues had booked me a room near the training center where I was teaching class. The hotel was just fine. The WiFi wasn’t free, but there were free open access points available in the vicinity, so no worries about that.

The beds were very good (although a bit short) and I wouldn’t have a clue if breakfast was any good as I had my shot of Starbucks and a muffin every morning instead.

All-in-all a hotel where I wouldn’t make a detour for, but definitely wouldn’t hate staying in again, although it is on a somewhat busy street–Pentonville Rd.