Not much meeting news to tell. Tuesday night we went to the Olive Garden — a small restaurant group here in the Netherlands unrelated to the chain back home. Very nice dinner. Last night was an “official” dinner, and we all (about two-dozen plus of us) clambered onto a charter bus and went to the Koetjes en Kailfjes (in Noordwijk), Excellent meal, and very patient service.
Took walks with two groups when we got back to the hotel, which made up a bit for the utter lack of exercise the day before. I also was virtuous and did half an hour on the treadmill this a.m.
Meetings are going well, though the IT folks are dropping like flies. One of my directs can only be here this week, not next, due to a new baby at home. One of his directs has to pop out for a couple of days to deal with a funeral. My boss flies home tomorrow. And the one Finance-related IT we got had to fly back to the UK this morning because his kid was in hospital. Next thing you know, they’ll be expecting me to make decisions.
Weather has been cool but clear. Not that we’ve spent much time outside.
The facilities here at the hotel are quite nice, without being posh. My room is comfortable (aside from a rock-hard bed) and relatively spacious. TV is a mixed bag, but there are BBC1 and BB2, and lots of undubbed American TV with subtitles on the other channels (I watched a late-season Alias last night, which was sort of odd since that’s what I’d set my alarm to on my Blackberry).
Not sure what the unofficial touring plans are for Saturday afternoon or Sunday day. I definitely want to get over to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum, but I don’t have a lot of explicit tourism targets beyond that (though, speaking of explicit, it sounds like there will be the inevitable Red Light District Rubbernecking Tour taking place at some point). We’ll see.
Still feeling jetlagged — the mornings are the worse (since they are the middle of the night back there — my PC’s clock shows it just past midnight at home), but I’ve found I can stand in the back of the room and stay awake (on my feet) that way. If I just sit in my chair, I keep threatening to nod off.
Unless, of course, some of us find other ways to keep ourselves amused. Amidst all the e-mail I was dealing with on the fly during the meeting, I ended up in a lively exchange with two other people in the room, making various side comments to what was going on (and who was going on and on); it made me think of telepaths sitting in the room snarking with each other with nobody else the wiser. Naughty, but amusing.
Still haven’t managed to score any Genever (Dutch gin), but the wine’s been decent and the bar serves good beer.
And, for the moment, that’s about that.