Photographic proof I spent time in Boston...

 can be found here.

Belated Thanksgiving post

Yes I know yesterday was Thanksgiving, but obviously it is not a holiday over here so I was working.  Still, I did take some time to be thankful. I got some emails/Facebook messages/other electronic communiqués from friends and family; I am thankful for the great people in my life even if we are physically many miles apart. 

I spoke with all (yes all) members of my immediate family yesterday; in spite of differences, I am thankful I am still able to be in contact with them.

I went out with a bunch of people last night and I reconnected with the guy who was my office mate at the Uni when I was here last. We had a few drinks and a whole lot of laughs; I am thankful for friends like him; it feels like we just picked up where we left off a few years back. I am really thankful for the amount of laughter in my life.

In spite of frustrations, I am thankful for my job; I work with some amazingly great people, am doing something I love (and am pretty good at) and am able to live in a another country and explore different aspects of my life.

From the Most Surprising Thing to Happen This Year Department, I am thankful for J who makes my heart flutter.

Finally, as a person who is very visual, I am thankful that I get to see views like this in a regular basis:

No, this is not a sign gone awry...It's in Welsh (Cardiff Rail Station)

Larger view:

Views from my window

So here are some views out my living room window. (I know Deirdre and Vicente were fans of the last set of posted here...so here's more for you guys :) )

First nice clouds:

Then some moonshine (for those who are curious, these were taken on July 11, 2008 at about 10:35PM BST and yes the sky does get that amazing shade of blue!):

Finally, the rainbow from yesterday's sunshower:


Here it is in a panoramic shot (click for full size):

Newark (the old-Newark, not the new-Newark)

So as I said in my previous past, I was in Newark (properly, Newark-on-Trent) in Nottinghamshire (yes, that Nottingham). It is a lovely place in the East Midlands, known for its historic castle, erected in 1123. The town was a centre of the Royalist side during the English Civil War; much of the castle was wrecked during that time. There is also a lovely market square and a big old church, the Church of St. Mary Magdalene.

I was there for 3 days for work and the weather was lovely (although was inside most of the day, I did manage to get out and about a bit).

Herewith, the pictures (click for a larger view):

This is the river Trent:

The sign says:
To cover the distance
of just one mile,
walk eleven times
along this
ancient pile

Here is the back of the church, and views from around the Market Square:

Holland stuff

Hello!

As I said in my previous post I was in Holland. It was a great experience both personally and professionally. I reconnected with a few colleagues I had not seen in a long time, did (if I may say so myself) some of my best interpreting work in a long time and was treated to fabulous food and hospitality.

Some general notes. You know that myth about The Netherlands being full of people on bicycles? No myth, my friend; bikes are EVERYWHERE! Streets are designed with dedicated lanes and it really makes for a cool sight, many more people walking and biking in most areas than driving. (You can see a bunch of bikes in one of the pictures below...that is a small collection of bikes compared to some of the bike parking lots we saw!)

I landed on Wednesday afternoon in Amsterdam, went to the town of Den Bosch (home of the aforementioned yummy dessert!) by train and met with some people from the conference I would be working. We were treated to a fabulous meal by our host. The weather was perfect so we ate outside. The wonderful company and food and location made it a great first experience in The Netherlands. It was the time of year for fresh asparagus so I had an amazing piece of salmon with white asparagus in a dill sauce. Afterward we had our yummy dessert!

On Thursday we went (again by train) to Eindhoven where the conference took place. The conference was great, and the language issues fun to work out. I was interpreting ASL<->English. There were spoken Dutch<-> English interpreters as well as Dutch Sign Language Interpreters. Boy that was fun! :) After it was all over back on the train to Den Bosch where we ate at the fabulous Brasserie Méprise.

Friday, in the morning, walked around Den Bosch and then was treated to a whirlwind tour of a a few places including an assisted living facility/nursing home/elderly residence for Deaf people. A beautiful place designed with visual communication as the driving force behind the architecture. Also got to meet some very lovely elderly Deaf Dutch people (including our host's mother who is in her 90's and barely looks 70!). We then went to the Rotterdam Deaf club and afterward I caught the train back to the hotel airport and flew home on Saturday morning, tired but feeling really lucky about the life I have!

Here are a bunch of pictures (click for full size):

Here is the train station with the full name of the town (see why everyone calls it Den Bosch!?!)

Here is one of the smaller bike congregation areas:

A lot of the architecture (and design as well) juxtaposed the old and the new in interesting ways that I really liked.

I love the headless statue with headless mannequins (note the bicycle!)

Some canal pictures:






The Dutch are egalitarian when it comes to porn; no segregation here!

I love the name of this store:


Oh, look, it's a statue just stuck here in the middle of a back street!


Oh, it's a fountain, how cute!!!


Oh, look, um, oh my, what a big boy you are...