HappyDays – Week FortyTwo
End of August and our summer vacations and sliding back into work at Internet Archive Europe.
It has been an incredibly busy September and I am just coming up for air and stealing some quiet time on Saturday morning. The fall rain is coming down, my cat is lying next to me as I curl up on the couch downstairs so as not to disturb anyone still sleeping upstairs. I am almost recreating my perfect setting from my college years. For me, my ideal afternoon was sitting by a fire, curling up in a comfy sofa or chair reading a book with a mug of hot tea while it rained outside and classical music played on the stereo. Bliss. Might have a tiny something to do with the beautiful living room we grew up in on the farm in Bolinas.
In my young adult years, I remember my mum loving the quiet of the early mornings. She would have her morning coffee and write in her nook of the dining room and I never understood how she could love to wake up so early. All I could feel was tired and wanting to sleep more. Now, I see the wisdom of her ways… Much like that famed but misattributed Mark Twain quote:
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
August 25 – Day 289
Monday morning, our last day in Switzerland and we woke up and were blessed to be able to witness this beautiful sunrise over Lake Neuchatel.
After a yummy breakfast of cake and coffee we drove north to Winterthur to meet up with a remote work colleague who has been building something awesome for the Internet Archive Europe. Winterthur is a beautiful small city near the German border. Many parts of it looked classically Swiss. We had a lovely lunch and walked up to a beautiful rose garden on the top of a hill with a nice view over the valley.
We then drove through Germany to Frankfurt to spend the night and break up the long drive again into two days. Driving up to Frankfurt, we stopped in a small town for an afternoon snack and figured out the parking permissions. You are allowed to park for two hours somewhere and you leave a wheel on your dashboard with the time that you arrived. I didn’t remember that I had this, but had been given it by my driving instructor when I finished her class three years ago. The Netherlands uses a very different parking regulation system of cars with cameras that drive around the cities and read your license plate; if you have paid, you’re alright, if not, you get a fine in the mail you need to pay.
Driving on the “Autobahn” in Germany was a tad scary, but I was given some good advice which is to mainly keep to the right and always keep an eye on your rear view mirror to see if people are coming up fast behind you so you can get out of the way if they are. Mostly people didn’t speed too much and even when there was no limit, people were mainly going around 130km/hr (80 mph). I kept on waiting to see if I would get a letter back at home, but one month out and so far we’re in the clear - whew.
August 26 – Day 290
We woke up in Frankfurt and had a lovely breakfast at the hotel we got downtown next to the train station - really good one with decent pricing - Metropolitan Flemings Hotel. There was city parking underneath so the car was nearby and good to go in the morning for the rest of the drive.
We had gotten some good advice from a co-worker about routes to take via Cologne because of roadworks, so deviated from the “easy route” but it ended up being quicker. Around lunchtime, Santi found a beautiful restaurant in a small village near the Rhine and we had a lovely outside lunch with a beautiful view.
Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent driving through the Netherlands and it was so interesting to see how the landscape and the weather changed. The skies went from blue back to grey. The wide open fields of Germany and France were replaced with tight-feeling polder fields divided up by canals of water which just take away the feeling of wide open space. I had gotten so used to fields looking like that that.
Writing now, I was just reminded of this incredible exhibit of Burtynsky photos we were lucky enough to catch in London May 2024.
“Polders, Grootschermer, The Netherlands, 2011” by famed photographer: Edward Burtynsky. “The Netherlands, or ‘low countries,’ gets its name from its flat topography, a quarter of which falls below sea level. These low areas are known as polders, many of which are reclaimed marshlands and flood plains separated from the sea by a system of seawalls, dykes and sluices. Polders are a testament to human ingenuity in the face of complex agricultural and settlement challenges.” You can see more of Burtynsky’s incredible work here on his website but be warned it’s quite the rabbit-hole and totally worth the diversion.
August 27 – Day 291
Wednesday was a quite day at home getting somewhat settled back in with working from home. Didn’t “do” much exciting stuff, but had a yummy lunch - so grateful for yummy and healthy food - sometimes it really is the “small things”.
August 28 – Day 292
Thursday I went into Amsterdam and worked from the office for the first time with Brewster in Amsterdam and figuring out what we need. It was good to be working together in the same time zone - makes life so much easier.
That evening, I spent the night and we had a prototype “Thursday Night Dinner” which Brewster and Mary have every week where ever they are with friends and family. Delicious and lovely company and good to figure out what is needed to make it run smoothly.
August 29 – Day 293
Friday we had our first “borrel” in the new space with Internet Archive Europe. It was another prototype to see how things shake out. We invited people over from 15:30 - 17:30 to see some of the projects we are working on and get to know people in the “Open World”.
It was a fun and interesting meetup with folks from Common Crawl who were in town for an Open Source conference - timing worked out perfectly.
August 30 – Day 294
Every year at the end of summer vacation, our street has a party where we eat BBQ and hang out. Years ago, I got roped into the organizing committee, so I help out organizing beforehand, practice my Dutch and build community. It’s a lot of fun and the kids have a blast with the bouncy castle, games and yummy food.
August 31 – Day 295
Sunday we went into Utrecht and this huge lego Formula 1 race car was on display in the central hallway of the mall. Pretty darned impressive.
The classic “Bohemian Rhapsody” was more than just “performed” by this awesome ensemble in Paris earlier this summer. Freddie once said "do what you want with my music, just don't make it boring"… well they certainly made it interesting - well worth the watch and I think Freddie would have been proud. Enjoy - I know I did!
Another full and lovely week. Where did you find that sweet picture of the tidy ! living room? So lovely to see the end of summer street party. That is so special mxm
That photo I took in 2007 on a visit back to Bolinas and it's up on flickr.