Pants, Taxi Rank

Few more phrases for you - if something is bad, you can say it's "pants". "Next week is pants for me", "weather was pants last weekend", etc.

If you need to catch a taxi, find the nearest "taxi rank", or ask for a taxi rank. It's what we'd call a taxi stand.

That's it for now :)

Praha of Prague, Colour of Spirit

Let's try something different. Rather than facts and figures, here are some words that help me enjoy the memory of Prague. I think they're written in a way somewhere between "lyrics of a song" and a riddle. See what you think, I find it fun and strangely interesting :)  

London To Praha in such sweet passing //

Red x for return, start where you are

Car parking jet parks save cost over time remember time has cost

Arriving looking, you'll fly back, but heart shapes, and forwards as a pause

Such kind and second livings, for loved ones, felt in words and generosity

With the ksh and the krt and the provti and the schtm,  listen to the smile of tension, it's not so forced, just spoken 

Days awake in golden glow, glowing red shades of Pompei upon nightfall naturally lit by empathetic conversation 

Facial features noticeably local and more not so. architecture of diversity, diversity of architecture 

Policie contribute blue in sirening contrast, feeling prepared and protected, but from what. Unknown of not fearing

Melodious quiet buzzhumm allows a separation of sounds, whizz of a bike, putter of a car, chirp of a bird, click and ding of a cable car, note the laugh of a distant phone call

Porcelain, crystal in seek, even luck in the cards may spin your way

Coloured letters and emotions sprayed below, as you gaze up across the magnificence and tops 

The apostles will giggle on the hour if you watch the time that can't be seen, whilst the chords play rightside echoing around you 

Michael will take you over, ten stars crosses. Zlata ulicka crossbow bullseye in joyous momentum 

Sing play frolic tasting goulash and smoked spinning sugar. Segway between thoughts and places you'll see Let it be. Singing.

May the luck bring you water to cleanse, it may come and go, as we all do, enjoy  it's on and off

Curves and spikes proliferate the ancient  prayer wedding spaces of time and love. Sensing the whole city walking mindful the path back balcony like Florence Michelangelo 

Don't look for time, it isn't lost. Connect to your disconnected self finding what you seek. Integrate moments in freedom, worry not the lovely pursuit of past and future. The dungeon is real, spirit paddle bouyantly to sunset of renewal.

Such sweet momentary pass, come again!

Random - Beard and Pollen

For what it's worth, I haven't shaved in 2 or 3 weeks. It started at the NTL programme when I forgot shaving cream. Then I often don't shave on holiday, so it continued. I suppose I'm using it as something of a reminder about my deep learning at NTL. 

On another random note, there were small white things floating all over Belgium and the Netherlands. I didn't think much of them, but now I see them in the UK a little too. I'm guessing it's some kind of flower or tree pollen. I don't recall seeing such a thing in the states? (I remember invisible pollen that then piled up in a thick yellow on cars)

Amsterdam

We drove several hours from Bruges to Amsterdam. I must embarrassingly admit that I though Amsterdam was in Denmark :( It's in the Netherlands. Reminder for me to study basic geography, let alone culture!

It's a legit city. I drove on a highway with 14 lanes across both sides of highway (7 each way). The speed limit was 100 kmph. Similar to the UK, everyone followed the speed limit, apparently those cameras really do work. The hotel staff told me that tickets are issued as low as 4 kmph over the limit - I'm a bit nervous!

Once you're in the city, the somewhat predictable bikes and mopeds take over. But wow are there bikes, there must be 100 bikes at every corner.

We started at the Anne Frank house. It was almost a 3 hour wait to get in. We knew it would be long, but not that long. Given that time, I made good friends with all the people around me whilst the girls wandered around shopping. At one point I did hear two locals go by in their bikes as say "I've never seen the wait so long".

We had a great experience in the house. I wondered how my daughters would perceive it. My oldest had been well prepared in school, so she learned a lot. Seeing the rooms and her diaries is quite impactful. The one message from her dad that stuck with me was "most parents don't know their kids". He was saying that because his perception was that Anne's diaries were much deeper than she ever portrayed in reality. I find it a slightly controversial and memorable statement. Oh, before I forget, there was an oustanding violin player entertaining the queue. And, when it started to rain, the staff brought out umbrellas, very nice.

We then walked through the recommended neighborhood known as Jordaan. Honestly didn't see much there. 

We then walked all around the water based roads. It doesn't take long to see Amsterdam is heavily influenced by marijuana. It was interesting to see that shops weren't parallel to the water as I expected, all shops were on the roads perpendicular to the water, it seemed counterintuitive and "off the beaten path". There's also a heavy music influence in Amsterdam, we liked that part.

We walked back to our car to be extremely disappointed. Someone had smashed our back windshield and stolen a suitcase! :( we called local parking garage security and the police. We figured out that 2 iPads were in that suitcase, so the guess is that the criminals used a signal detection device to find them. We're still in the middle of insurance conversations. Very disheartening, but we're healing. 

We drove back to Brussels for our flights. When we checked in for our flights, I said "we're flying to Brussels", whilst we were standing in Brussels. The lady tried not to laugh, so I said I must still be flustered about the bag. Given the story, she didn't charge us for any bags, so big props to EasyJet!

Belgium

We visited Belgium! Our first few nights were in Brussels. Our flights were on time, so we had a nice, unplanned first night to wander around. We stopped by Grand Place and the Mannekin Pis statute. Grand Place is basically the city centre gathering area. Imagine beautiful buildings around a cobblestone square area. There was a live jazz festival going on in the centre, so that was great timing. The aroma waffling around Brussels is unforgettable, I'd say the best smelling city in the world as far as I know :)

The next day we walked through 7 world class chocolate shops. The people were so nice and the chocolate was excellent. My oldest daughter and I loved Passion Chocolat. 

We then took the metro up to a place called Atomium. It's an extremely unique and unforgettable structure. It was built for the World Fair a long time ago, and soon thereafter it was decided to keep it. It basically looks like a huge atom, several hundred feet tall, with large spheres connected by "small" diagonal tubes. Once you're inside, after a long queue, each sphere tells a story about the structure. One sphere is dedicated to young students spending the night for science lessons. The views from the top are great!

The plan was to drive up to a town called Bruges, but we decided we had time to stop halfway in another beautiful town called Gent. I had never been there before. What a great place! It's about an hour from Brussels, and it has the same cute small town feel as Bruges. Except Gent has an amazing area of churches and castles, fantastic. Bikes and cable cars kept the town buzzing. There's a great bridge called St Michaels I think, that gives a view of 5 different awe inspiring structures.

We enjoy researching the names and ingredients of local popular dishes when we travel. Waterzooi is apparently popular in Belgium. I tried it in Gent and loved it, it's basically a thick chicken stew.

We drove up to Bruges from there. I was a bit worried that Bruges would lose its appeal after Gent, but it stood strong. Even driving through rush hour traffic, it was about an hour to get there.

First we walked to a place called Lake of Love. See, Bruges is one of those cities like Venice where there are a lot of waterways and bridges. Bruges was larger than I remembered it, which was a good thing. We took the boat tour around town and then learned that there are only one or two cash machines in the whole area. 

We went to the city centre and had lunch in the view of the tallest building, known as the bell tower. I carried my youngest daughter up 366 steps to the top, but who's counting :)

Unfortunately the Bruges trip ended a tiny bit sour as we shopped. One store owner fussed at my daughters because they were touching the merchandise. It caused a bit of a spat with her, so I guessed we learned local culture the hard way. Still looking forward to going back to the town someday!

National Training Lab (NTL) - Org Development Certificate

I don't normally mention work-related items here, but this one is a bit of a blend between work and play. I'm extremely fortunate to be part of a certification programme for Organisational Development (OD). 

OD is a very broad field with many definitions, one that I like is "improving organisational health and effectiveness through the application of behavioural sciences". It's very close to Knowledge Management. 

The programme takes place in Oxford and it has 6 modules. Each module is 4 days, except the first module is 5 days. The entire programme runs over 11 months, so the modules are separated by about a month or two.

I finished Module 1 a few weeks ago. Frankly, it's been some of the most transformational learning I've ever had. We learned many OD models, but mostly, we learned about ourselves and group dynamics through a process known as T Group (also known as Human Interaction Lab).

I'm not exactly sure how to describe a T group. Basically, you have 8 people in a room with a facilitator for 5 days. That's about it. Very little structure, very few rules. The idea is to learn about yourself and how your "use of self" impacts the group. They sometimes call it a deconstructive process, because you'll most likely need to check your assumptions and then re-build. Gestalt principles are recommended, which means you stay "in the moment", as opposed to discussing past or future. 

I'm still digesting all that I learned. It was such a great experience, I found a renewed version of myself and a tremendous growth in understanding group dynamics. 

Winnie the Pooh

My wife is a pretty big fan of Winnie the Pooh. Turns out that it was written in the UK. Not only that, it's only an hour or so from our house, and it's based on real life places.

So, we did our research and headed over to a town called Hartfield, where it all started. A good starting point is a tiny tea room called Pooh Corner. It's on the north end of town, all the action is south of it. 

After the shop, you can actually drive right to A A Milnes (the author) house. Well, the road is clearly marked private and it's very quiet, so we only turned on the road, then turned around. The signs scared us, as they probably should. I believe Mr Milne's wife still lives there. 

So then you can drive to Pooh Bridge and play Pooh Sticks. If you've read the books or watched the shows, wow, it really comes to life in a magical way.

You can then drive (or actually, it's all within a big hiking distance) to the 500 acre wood - as opposed to the hundred acre wood in the book. It's part of a forest called Ashdown Forest. You can park and walk around - the views are fantastic. It makes perfect sense how such great stories came from the area. There's even an area for Roo's sandy pit, and Eeyores Gloomy Place. They make perfect sense when you see them!

Gills Lap is another name for the area, it's kinda the circular hike around it all. We were surprised to see virtually no signage at all, it felt like we were 25 years before the commercialization of the area. There's one plaque in the forest that commemorates A A Milne and his graphic artist, but that's about it. I loved it!