Winter wonderland

Beginning of February and the temperatures are far below zero. We are measuring -23 Celsius in some places in the Netherlands and "The Elfsteden" fever is getting out! The Elfstedentocht (or, in West Frisian, Alvestêdetocht, English translation: "Eleven Cities Tour"), at 200 km, is the world's largest and longest speed skating competition and leisure skating tour, and is held in the province of Friesland, Netherlands only when the ice along the entire course is 15 cm thick. I just love the fact that everybody in The Netherlands is hoping that it will take place as soon as the temperature is getting below zero. I had a round of skating this morning my self and this brings back memories. In the early days we could skate almost every year, now with our kids growing up we are eager to teach them how to skate. Somehow skating fever is a little in the Dutch genes, with all the speedskating champions we brought forward over the last decades :-) I did not want to take the risk to go and take a tour on one of the lakes. I like to thank all the volunteers @ Blauw-Zwart for the hardwork to get a safe iceskating "stadium" ready her locally. The quality was good, thanks to Blauw -Zwart the local soccer club!

Happy 2012!

Back to work today and cleaning up my desk and my mailbox. Kicking off the new year with an empty mind and recharged battery! Hope you all have a wonderful and prosperous 2012 with lots of happy moments and a good health.

Sinterklaas or Santa

Today, december 5th, it's Sinterklaas in the Netherlands. A childrens tradition where Sinterklaas is bringing presents to the children accompanied by the "black piets". This morning I heard that Sinterklaas is about to be put on the Unesco World Heritage list. This event is forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value for the Netherlands as well as globally. I must admit it's right for us "dutchies". Sinterklaas is battling with Santa here in country as well, but it's part of our culture and to be shared with our kids. While being in Dublin last week where Christmas shopping is on big time, I felt so out of tune hearing the "Merry Xmas" songs through the speakers and see all the beautifull decorated Christmas trees.

I like to stick to only getting the Chritsmas atmosphere into the Netherlands after december the 5th and are looking forward to Sinterklaas visiting us later this afternoon and see all the happy faces around the room. It's probably in our DNA :-)

Merry Sinterklaas!

Getting my own branding organised!

As a social media and marketing specialist, constantly running projects for customers, my own site, branding and social media was really lacking the quality I'm fighting for within my customer arena. Updating the website, connecting it to twitter, facebook and social media was on the todo list for at least 5 years now, as well as getting up to speed with this blog. Today I've started my 2007 new years resolution before the list gets longer moving towards 2012 :-). I've ran into wix.com 2 weeks ago and started using that tool to easily create Flash sites. With tablets not supporting Flash that might need some attention sooner or later but al least I got rid of a that todo list item that was giving me the evil eye for a long time. Check out www.connact.nl and connywenting.nl and let me know what you think!

Blogging time?

Well well, having a sabbatical means cleaning up your todo list as well. I guess the question if there's time left for a blog is one a lot of people are asking themselves. I will start thinking about it while making up my mind what step next to be taken in my business career. I will keep you posted on my next challenges so stay tuned :-)

Having had another day of "off of work" and the adrenaline starts to become impatient again. Shall I make it an early night or shall I start up the other 2 notebooks as well ang get rid of a ton of emails by now. Tried to download Windows 7 Beta,it was on my todo list for a couple of weeks already but bummer...I was too late. Bits are taken of the web, mrs gadget woman, far too late.
Guess I need to get some rest and reload the batteries for some busy upcoming week with next fiscal coming up too soon. Stay tuned.

Enjoying a short mid term break and some time to clean the office, desktop, mailbox and get some updates done on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, all the communities online. It takes time but is interesting to keep in touch with friends, relatives and business contacts online. In my opinion it's pretty efficient, taking time when ever suits you and following people around the globe. At least it's great to find people from long time ago and reconnect. On the blogging thing I need to sort out where and what to do and how to find the right connections for feedback on questions keeping me busy in my personal but especially in my business life. Searching for ways to start discussions with fellow thinkers on the Educational spaces and how to address these. Open for suggestions.