Category Archives: Uncategorized

Today the Netherlands celebrated Liberation Day, 75 years of freedom after the war. That is a very long time, and hopefully it will continue to be a long time of peace. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a world completely devoid of war? I celebrated by taking a long walk, listening to an audiobook andContinue reading “Life in the time of Corona – Captain’s log: Day 51”

Today there was a 2 min of silence to remember WW2. Growing up on a different continent in a different world makes it easy to forget the immense sacrifice of so many people and the senseless suffering of so many more. Thinking about it is not always an comfortable thought, but it gives perspective toContinue reading “Life in the time of Corona – Captain’s log: Day 50”

7×7….that’s a lot of days. I made good use of the beautiful Sunday to go for a long walk in the park, around and around. A friend met me there and we kept our social distance while talking and people watching and generally enjoying Spring in Amsterdam. When you forget that you can’t go toContinue reading “Life in the time of Corona – Captain’s log: Day 49”

Today I cleaned my house. Seriously, I can’t imagine how the dust gets in within the space of a week, but at least I got to clean my house and getting it back into shape. I miss Priscilla, and Anna, and all the amazing ladies who cleaned my house in the years past. I guessContinue reading “Life in the time of Corona – Captain’s log: Day 48”

It is the weekend! And just in time too, because I’m exhausted. One day I was so tired that I ended up spelling the word as “exhorsted” and since then it was my go to word for being more than tired. This past week was one of those. At work we are going through aContinue reading “Life in the time of Corona – Captain’s log: Day 47”

I went for a walk this morning that turned into a run, because, why not? I am proud to say that I ran a bit longer, further and faster than last week. Let the record state that I was running 10 min longer and 10 seconds per km faster. That does not mean at allContinue reading “Life in the time of Corona – Captain’s log: Day 46”

In an email from one of the global leaders in the company, they talked about the fact that beyond COVID-19 we will likely adopt a more flexible way of working. It encouraged us to reflect on what works in the current setup and which practices we should keep up in future. So my musings below…Continue reading “Life in the time of Corona – Captain’s log: Day 45”

The problem with public holidays on a Monday is that the following Tuesday becomes a bit confusing. Some Monday things have to happen on another day while Tuesday things keep happening. On top of that the 5 days of work needs to be done in 4. Add to that the fact that days just runContinue reading “Life in the time of Corona – Captain’s log: Day 44”

King’s day 2020 in NL. Freedom day in SA. Legend has it that King’s day is one of the biggest parties around the country. I have seen pictures and videos of a sea of orange and a lot of beer. It struck me as odd today that I wouldn’t know what “normal” in Amsterdam looksContinue reading “Life in the time of Corona – Captain’s log: Day 43”

One of the interesting side effects of this stay at home malarkey is that people seem to rediscover their own kitchens. For a while al the flour has been sold out and its only now making an appearance again in the supermarkets, but still in small quantities. My social media feed has a lot ofContinue reading “Life in the time of Corona – Captain’s log: Day 42”