University Museum stairs

I love this shot of Elias playing on the stairs at the University Museum. Always forget to post when I've added some more pics to Flickr.

Off to see the floods

Elias's take on working

Elias said to me this morning in a very business-like tone: "Daddy, I love you, but you keep going away."

I tried to get more out of him on this, but the conversation kept meandering over to the subject of playing on the computer or Wii.

Both cute and disturbing.

Marky's Star Wars Party

Had a great time on Saturday the birthday party of my Bro-in-law. We were shattered and presumed that we'd need to leave early, but still wanted to put in moral support.

When we turned up we were greeted by the Sith Lord, Darth Vader himself. Though when he started laughing I got the distinct impression that it was just someone dressed up. But I quickly pushed the thought to the back of my mind when I saw that the garden was full of Star Wars creatures and a few Jedi Poo-Doo into the bargain.

We had unfortunately not dressed ourselves in SW-like outfits but the food and company was good. I really enjoyed meeting Mark's family and friends again. It's always good to see that someone you love has built a network of strong and genuine relationships around them.

Happy 30th Mark. Here's wishing you a good 3o more (maybe a couple more on that!)

Another day another hotel room: Asteria

A tour of my last hotel room on this trip. Slightly dark, but I'm happier in this one :¬)

For another much nicer hotel room tour see  Garr Reynold's Presentation Zen blog post about his stay at the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo. Ever so slightly outclasses my video for content and quality.

Micro Presentations

My bro, Antony, has a really interesting post on Micro Presentations that he saw when attending Reboot 9.0 conference a couple of weeks ago. As Antony says:

Basically people get to make their point, their pitch, their whatever, in the time that it takes for an automated slides presentation to move through 15 slides allowing a strict twenty seconds per slide. You see the clock counting down from 20 in the bottom right hand corner of the slide as soon as it appears...

Whilst I normally present with a whiteboard, PPT is quite often expected or necessary and I really like this idea. With so much information around there is a battle to deliver it what people need to know in a concise and timely fashion.

When I started my current job back in October 2006 I was really grateful for Guy Kawasaki's 10 20 30 rule. The idea of the micropres adds to this by taking the fear out of presentations for the audience.

Look forward to seeing some examples.

Mozzie stealth attack

Was kept awake last night by dive bombing Mozzies. Couldn't work out where they were coming from as they hadn't bothered me the night before and I had the window closed.

Finally figured it out this morning as I watched one of the blighters fly in under the door! They were zooming from room to room having a whale of a time, mozzie style. Really annoying - especially since my room didn't have Air Con.

I mean, a modern hotel (Hotel Cuijk) that doesn't have A/C! What's with that?! The great food, designer decor and views over the countryside are all very nice. But if you can't sleep because of the heat and the insects... well.

Back at the Asteria in Venray, tonight. May not be as up market as the Cuijk, but it's got Air Con and a decent restaurant. Looking forward to a good sleep on my last night in Netherlands.

Though I'm off to Italy on Sunday... Grrrr!