Back again!

Already a week since the last post and what a week it was. From Tuesday will Friday an extensive sales conference with the company; plenty of meetings and necessary parties! Saturday I helped out moving party, on Sunday an evening with fraternity friends and... a couple hours with Tim and Revan! The only one missing at the Doffer reunion was Andy. Perhaps one of these days he will make it over from London!

Koala Kalore

Running out of recently taken pictures and being tied up in a regional sales conference for the next three days I give you bonus images of the Koalas I ran into during my recent trip to Australia. You can never go wrong with those creatures!

The Moon

Sharp-eyed blog readers have probably noticed at least two changes to this blog. The layout update is one, the other a change in the quality of the posted pictures since October 2006. From that time on I started using a new camera, a Nikon D70S with a 18-200mm lens. The changes in photo quality can best be seen in the "Widlife" vs "Golf and Kangaroes" posts below.

Last night I shot this overexposed image of the moon; just a small sliver was visible, but the sun's reflection exposed the whole moon. On the foreground tree branches are visible.

The Name Tag

Image: you just purchased a nice condo in Amsterdam and you are giving a housewaring party for 50 of your closest friends. Probably the last present you expect from your frat friends is a name tage for your front door. Yup, exactly what we purchased for our dear friend.

Storm In Amsterdam

If your company tells you to go home early because of the bad weather conditions, it must be serious. Indeed it was. Since 7.45am I was present at a surgery and had no clue what was going on outside. Some rain on my way to the hospital, yes, but during the next five hours Holland apparently turned upside down; flooded highways, 130km/hr winds, uprooted trees, blown away bikes and roof tile littered streets.

The house across the street; since i took this picture, the roof has been cleared of all tiles. The wind even bent the zinc lacing of the roof!

A canal; looks like a small sea to me!

One of the many trees that did not survice the storm!

Hello, Goodbye

It has been a busy week so far, for going out for dinner that is. From Sunday and Wednesday international colleagues of mine descended upon Amsterdam for a product training. Yes, I was bombarded to designated tour guide and obliged to go out three nights in a row. Yes, a tough life.
After half a day of rest it was time to give Sleumer a proper goodbye, since he's leaving for Romania for two years. Needless to say, it became a memorable farewell party!


Pre-dinner dinner drinks with colleagues at Van Kerkwijk, Amsterdam


Houting and Sleumer at Dauphine restaurant, Amsterdam

Thirteen And Counting...

It took me a day to recover from the 13th Dies celebration of my fraternity yearclub and motivate myself to post about the evening. "Dinner & Drinks" for sure; guys, awesome evening!


So what the hell is this all about? In 1994 we all decided to join the Minerva fraternity and on January 12th 1995 we were inaugurated as a jaarclub. (See black and white image above of the date!) Ever since we celebrate this date. For more information on the yearclub, photos and members, check out our website: Jaarclub Griffioen.

White Christmas??

I've spent my Christmas in Detroit and Chicago thinking that I would be freezing and that it would be snowing... but in fact, it wasn't that cold; about 30 Farenheit during the day and sunny. Chicago was great with such good weather in christmas time. We walked around millenium park, went to the Art Institute Museum and did some shopping... yeah with a favorable exchange rate and christmas sales a girl falls in the "let's go shopping" trap.
We met up with Monica, ex-roomate and in exchange at IESE this past term, for dinner at "House of Blues" and then went bowling. Yup, this trip was full of american experiences.... bowling, fast food, big family meeting and a lot of driving!
And, a Detroit Pistons' game in New Years' Eve! yes, now I can say that I've been in a real basketball game. It can't be compared to any european games.

Happy New Year to everybody!!!

The Twelve Apostles

The Twelve Apostles are a collection of natural limestone stacks standing just off shore in the Port Campbell National Park, on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. Probably some of the best pictures I have taken this trip, thus a nice moment to end the vacation picture posting series!

Wildlife

It's hard to escape any of the wildlife around; either in sanctuaries, parks, the wild or at your balcony. Below a couple snap shots.

"The Twelve Apostles" entry will be posted next, stay tuned! (Click images to enlarge)

Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road (known as the Surfcoast Highway between Geelong and Torquay) which stretches along the South Eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Geelong and Warrnambool is the world's biggest war memorial. It was built between World War I and World War II by returned servicemen in honour of their fallen comrades. The road took 16 years to build and it was all done by hand using picks, shovels and dynamite.

"Wildlife" entry will be posted next, stay tuned! (Click images to enlarge)

Golf and Kangaroes

If you are ever in Melbourne and you fancy a round of golf, make you way down to the Anglesea Golf Course for a special surprise. The course doubles as a habitat of nearly 1.000 kanagroes; just make sure you do not hit them while driving the golf cart.

"The Great Ocean Road" entry will be posted next, stay tuned! (Click images to enlarge)


What's up buddy? Chill, I am only here to play a round of golf.


The famous lounging area near the 150 meter mark. Members only, though.


Ready, set, aim... Nish attemting to avoid hitting a kangaroe.


Yes, my golf ball should have been around here... who ate it?

Decending down to Bells Beach; rumous has it that "Point Break" was once filmed here.

Walking along the famous Bells Beach

New Years In Sydney

As previously posted, I celebrated New Years in Sydney this year after buying a last minute ticket from Melbourne. A little insane to fly at 6.30pm on the 31st and leave again the next day at 6.15am. Just a better excuse to party all night! Tomorrow a "Golf and Kangaoes" entry will be posted, stay tuned! (Click images to enlarge)

The Ashes 2006 - Melbourne

I finally had a chance to take a quick look at almost 1500 pictures from my recent trip to Australia. Too many to post, so over the next few days I will start posting different themes/topics of the trip, starting with the fourth Ashes test match between Australia and England on December 27th, 2006.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground, or MCG, is the world’s oldest Test match ground, hosting a match between Australia and England in March 1877, three years before London’s Oval.


Overview of the MCC, on the 27th nearly 85.000 people came to watch the match.


MCC scoreboard

Hayden and Symonds in discussion


Monty Panesar in action


The game up close


Barmy Amry in action


Monty Panesar up close

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all the IESE2006 blog readers! Using up the last minutes of my prepaid internet ticket to sadly report that it's my last day of holidays. Tomorrow the nice, 35 degree weather will be exchanged for lousy, rainy canal streets and dusk that starts at 4.15pm. Ah well!
That last couple days been great, camping out in a near treehouse in Wye River on the Great Ocean Road while running the days down with reading, day trips, swimming/body surfing at the beach, bbq's, fishing on the rocks and exploring the coastal area; the ultimate relaxing holiday. Next week a large picture post will follow; i have taken 1100+ photo's by now and cannot wait to see them myself as well!