It’s a dusty and smoggy day in Hong Kong - as you will see in the background of this picture. On the right you see the hills leading up to Sunset peak.

I’m waiting next to gate 47 for my flight to Singapore. I’ll be there a bit more often in the coming months - so I better get used to taking this flight.

I’m boarding CX888 to Vancouver - this will be a 11 and a half hour flight.

I can’t recall taking a bus to the aircraft instead of the airbridge so this picture below will be a rare one.

Vancouver is mighty cold and I don’t really have many warm clothes anymore - you simply don’t need sweaters and jumpers in Hong Kong. So this will have to be a matter of adding more layers of clothes.

We’re celebrating christmas in an unexpected place. Matthijs and I joined Nadine and flew up to Dubai for a few days so that we can enjoy Christmas together.

As a real nice surprise for matthijs we went to “Ski Dubai” yesterday which is an indoor snow and ski park. A great thing to do during christmas.

What a contrast from the snow of yesterday to be sitting in the pool today! It’s a nice 25 degrees and a little windy.

Tomorrow we plan to look at the desert and maybe a few camels.

If you observe the picture below closely you can see that I’m having champagne and reading a copy of the Telegraaf. All courtesy of the Cathay Pacific lounge.

A bit of consolation for taking a flight on Sunday midday - I’d rather stay home with the family!

Next few days I’m in Singapore.

It’s already a month back, but we hadn’t gotten around to writing on this page about our holiday in Holland.

Ik ga eens in het Nederlands verder voor de verandering.

Het was een korte en intense vakantie in Nederland. 40 jarig huwelijk van pa en ma (opa en oma) en verder het bezoeken van diverse vrienden en familie. Elke dag dus erop uit en we hebben heel wat kilometers afgeraced in onze gehuurde ‘bolide’.

Pa en ma’s feest was een succes vooral doordat het een van de enige mooie dagen qua weer was. Zie hun eigen fotoos hier: http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Album=VZ8LUS4X

Veertig jaar bij elkaar - en nog veel langer natuurlijk. Nadine en ik zitten pas op vier jaar, maar we plannen ook minimaal voor 40 jaar.

Matthijs heeft genoten met zijn vele nichtjes en neefjes, maar vooral met Yanieke - over wie hij het hier nu nog heeft.

Verders hebben we Robbin in levende lijve aanschouwd, de nieuwste aanwinst binnen de familie - en Robbin is dus ook een gezonde dame. Ook al was ze slechts drie weken oud, ze was al van de partij in veel van de dingen die we hebben gedaan.

Vrienden uit Nederland natuurlijk ontmoet, en ook anderhalve dag in Groningen doorgebracht, met vrienden uit Hong Kong notabene. Dan is het toch weer bijzonder dat je 8000 km verderweg met z’n allen in een boerderij in Zuidwending rond het kampvuur staat.

Fotoos hieronder.

It’s been a while since the last blog entry - and I missed blogging our holiday to Holland… Some pictures will follow soon or maybe I’ll delegate to Nadine!

I’m at Vancouver airport waiting for my flight to Hong Kong. It’s delayed by over an hour…

The last few days I’ve spend in Bellevue near Seattle for business meetings. The weather has been great which does not happen often here in the North West of the US…

This morning I drove back from Seattle to Vancouver, which is about a 3 hour drive. Vancouver is a nice city. It struck me that none of the buildings looks older than 15 years, but there’s still a nice authentic atmosphere to this town.

A bit of a cliche picture here from New York!

This trip was succesful - both business and pleasure wise. Meetings and presentations went well, while I spend a day wandering around this great city.

Now into an airplane for a nice 16 and a half hour flight home…

I woke up early this morning (jet lagged) and started walking uptown at 7.30am.

I just reached Rockefeller Center and did all the key sights downtown and here, including Empire State Building 86th floor.

Time for lunch now, and then maybe a nap in Central Park.

I’m now in New York and having a drink all by mysef on Pier 17.

I have a brilliant view view over the East river and Brooklyn bridge from here.

So far I wandered around downtown Manhattan and Wall St today. Tomorrow I will venture uptown.