I was working in the Amsterdam offices for a few days last week (a longer trip than my unscheduled visit 2 weeks ago).  Schiphol airport is a great place to be if you have to wait for flights, there are a huge number of shops to choose from, a casino, a museum, restaurants, bars and even a spa.  However one of my favourite things about the airport is that it is a walk-able distance away from the new Microsoft offices…

The Amsterdam offices are unique due to the fact that the entire Dutch subsidiary effectively works from home, but uses the office as a social hub to meet colleagues and customers.  There are no offices, or even any assigned desk spaces, instead everyone simply turns up and finds a spot in one of the variety of different styled working areas around the two buildings. 

It is surprising to see how this environment makes everyone in the office naturally socialable and chatty (or perhaps that was because they are Dutch?!).  Everyone kept saying hello to me, which confused me at first because the first couple of times it happened I thought they were people who I had met, but forgotten.  Whether it was the receptionist (who perched on a random spot in the atrium with a laptop), women serving coffee in the common area, the random stranger in the lift or the people sitting around the area near us, everyone was constantly smiling, saying hello and never trying to avoid social interactions with those around them (unlike in other office buildings I have been in). 

The mix of funky decor, friendly Dutch people and a flexible working philosophy definitely seems to have worked in Amsterdam and creates a very dynamic working environment.  Here are a few of my favourite pics from around the office…

The atrium can be seen in the bottom of this pic, with a funky fabric wall above it on the 1st floor…

Here is a hot desk area with soothing low lighting, cool coat hangers and another fabric wall in the background…

And yet another style of working space, with yet another set of colours for the fabric wall (I loved those walls! )…

There is even an Asian style low table which can be used for meetings, lunch or anything else you like…

Definitely a new way of working, which REALLY works in my opinion.  I wonder when we will get the same  concepts in the rest of the world?!

Check out this tech house tune with samples from Mario on the Nintendo…

LOVE IT!

When we were in Tokyo, some colleagues were kind enough to take me out for a traditional Japanese dinner which included Sushi and Shabu Shabu.

It is fairly typical for nice restaurants in Tokyo to have segregated sections for each table so that your party can dine in private.  This restaurant was no different, and we in fact had our own room with sliding doors for complete privacy.  In Japan it is traditional (‘protocol’ would actually be a better description) for the guest to sit furthest away from the room entrance.  The guest is also the first one to be served each course.  Since I did not know this protocol (and my colleagues were too polite to correct me), I sat near to the door when entering the room and as a result one of my colleagues who was my host actually received all of the courses first.

Shabu Shabu is Japanese fondue style meal where thinly sliced meat (beef in our case) is served with vegetables and dipping sauces.  The first stage of the process involves submerging thin slices of meat in to boiling water for between 5 and 13 (ish) seconds (depending on how well you like it cooked), then dipping it in one of two sauces (soy sauce, and another which I cannot remember the name of) before eating it.

I was a little worried that I was not cooking the meat enough, particularly since the part which I had pinched with the chop sticks often came out a little pink But I was not ill afterwards, so I guess I didn’t do too bad a job.  And I must say, that it was tasty! I experimented and decided that 7.5 seconds was my preference for the time to leave the meat in the water

I did get ‘told off’ for placing my chop sticks on the table, rather than resting them on the small ceramic stands provided, I won’t make that mistake again…

I haven’t got around to producing the rest of this yet, but here is the first part of our Le’Mans 2009 video..

Hopefully I will get the rest finished before Le’Mans 2010

News year resolution is definitely to VIDEO more!

On Friday we decided to take another trip outside of Bangkok to visit the Damnern Saduak floating markets.  Whilst many of the products sold are the same as most of the tourist shops and markets across Thailand, the way in which they are sold at the floating markets was quite unique and a fantastic opportunity to experience.

Each seller has a boat filled with food, wood carvings, t-shirts, or a variety of other tourist focused items.  As our boat was paddled through the markets, we constantly collided with others boats, were (literally) hooked and pulled in by keen sellers and rocked side to side by the wake of long boats travelling down the same canals.  Whilst I do not think the boats roll over very often it did not feel completely safe, particularly when we had to rearrange our seating order because the weight of the passengers was causing one edge of the boat to ride dangerously low to the water.

Khao Sok is also home to the tamest collection of ‘wild’ monkeys I have ever seen!  The monkeys do actually like in their natural habitat, however, the Thais have built a walk way around it which has attracted so many visitors that the monkeys are now used to being fed bananas and entertaining the crowds.

Apparently there are about 300 monkeys living on the edge of the mountain on which the walk way has been constructed.  They only come down when they are hungry, so the amount of monkeys you see depends on how many visitors have been each day.

It was amazing to see the little monkeys take an unpeeled banana out of our hands, peel it, chuck the skin away and chew on the banana like it was a corn on the cob.  It was initially a little scary to be surrounded by monkeys, especially when thoughts of the ‘Outbreak’ movie popped in to my head, however they were very friendly and the only thing they were interested in biting were our (slightly mouldy) bananas.

I got some fantastic video of Ali feeding monkeys, including some tiny babies who could not even carry the banana unless we broke it in half.  Very cute   I will upload the videos when I get home, but for now here are some ‘aaaw’ photos for you…

This another Thailand post which I am moving from my old blog (from Jan 2009)…

In the Khao Sok jungle on Monday, after lunch, we had the fantastic opportunity to take part in a 1.5 hour jungle trek, on the back of an elephant!  I have never even touched an elephant before, so sitting on the back of one with a Thai ‘driver’ sat in front of me was a pretty exciting experience.

We were taken on the trek by the Elephant Hills elephant school, which looks after the elephants, runs guided tours through the jungle and provides food for visiting tourists.  The school is literally in the middle of nowhere and consists of a collection of small huts where the staff live, a ‘restaurant’ where the tourist food is cooked and the elephant living area where the animals live whist they wait to be ridden.

The school had a special mounting platform which was used to get everyone in to the seats, so getting on their backs was as easy as getting on a ride at the fun fair.

The trek itself was amazing.  We did not see any other animals, however, we wondered through some amazing scenery in a convoy of elephants.  Our particular elephant must have been very hungry as he stopped for food every 5 minutes, however it was funny to watch the driver unsuccessfully struggling with it and trying to get it to stroll forward.

After a nice round trip we arrived back at the elephant school where we given a bowl of (slightly rotten) fruit to feed to the elephants.  It was great fun to have a banana sucked out of our hands by which ever trunk managed to reach it first!

Someone reminded me tonight how important it is to blog regularly to preserve memories and feelings for a time when things might be different.  Before I start to get fresh content up, I need to move bits over from my old blog.  A lot of things have changed since I posted this, but here is my post about THE beach (from The Beach) in Phi Phi…

We arrived in Phi Phi on Wednesday and within 1.5 hours Keith and Tim had us on a boat, drinking beer and heading off to the island with THE beach from ‘The Beach’ film.

Perfect blue skies, beautiful scenery, beer and rice onboard, crystal clear water, good friends a boat full of like minded people made the boat trip a perfect trip!

We stopped several times during the trip for site seeing, snorkelling and swimming.  The boat was only about 70% full, so there was plenty of space for sunbathing, dancing, star jumps or whatever else we wanted to do.  The captain didn’t even seem to mind when was (accidentally) standing right in front of his view window, when I realised and jumped out of the way the only comment was – ‘It doesn’t matter, no rules in Thailand!’

When we arrived at THE Beach, I didn’t realise straight away because it’s slightly different in the film due to the fact that they superimposed an additional rock to make it look like the beach is fully enclosed – which in reality it is not.  However, once we had actually sailed in to the bay, the beach became familiar.

Whilst there are no hotels or types of development on the island, it is far from the deserted paradise which is portrayed in the film.  It was actually pretty busy and when arrived on the sand we found a bar, snack bar and toilets.  It was still an amazing beach though, with sand which felt like flour and water which was as clear as any swimming pool I have been in.

We stayed for about an hour, had so me drinks, played Frisbee and soaked up the sun.  When we got back to the main boat, I did not think anything could actually top the day, but then we saw the sunset…

As the sun set we headed back, partied on the boat for a little longer, Tim put on his santa outfit, Larry Limbo socialised with everyone on the boat and eventually we arrived back at the dock just in time for dinner.  Top 1st day in Phi Phi!  More to come soon

‘Back in the day’, when I was working with Moravia (the company, rather than the region), I used to be out in Czech Republic fairly regularly.  Whilst there were a few trips to Prague, most of the visits were to Brno, which is the second biggest city in the Moravia region of the country. 

I was there in the summer with Serena and Mirek, we had a free afternoon, so decided to take a walk up Brno castle.  I used to talk on camera an put the videos up on YouTube, rather than blogging (I really should start to do more videoing again), so here are a couple of clips …

Walking up the path to the castle…

And it started to rain as we walked back down the other side…

During a recent business trip to Munich I had the great pleasure to attend the fantastic live performance from the Chinese State Circus.

The venue was a previous residence of a German monarch which is now used for a variety of events… (note: it actually was covered in snow when we were there)…

Click here to see it on Bing maps.

During the summer the gardens provide a tranquil area for Germans and tourists to get away from the cars, busses and trams of Munich.  The interior reminded me of the British Museum a little, with lots of marble, staggeringly high ceilings and beautifully designed rooms separated by grand pillars.

We were with a bunch of Microsoft people, so they arrange for us to have dinner before the show.  The food was very nice, consisting of fresh bread, rare cooked beef and a imaginatively presented ice cream dessert…

It felt a little weird sitting at a table in the corner of the huge reception area, surrounded by other theatre goers (is that a word!?! Spell checker didn’t pick it up, so I guess it is!), but it was a nice start to the show (particularly after a couple of glasses of Champagne

The meal only lasted for about 45 mins (since we arrived a bit late), after which we wondered in to the next room to wait for the show to start.  The stage looked fairly basic without any of the performers on and kind of reminded me of a nativity stage from my old school productions….

The show started with a tubby German (I think) guy walking in from the left, with a spot light focussed on him whilst he struggled to lift him self up on to the stage.  The skill required by the acrobats in the show required huge amounts of concentration and seriousness, so the comedy element added by the tubby guy was a welcome addition.

Gradually the Chinese acrobats entered the stage and performed absolutely breath taking acts as part of a continuous story line.  I must be honest and admit that I have no idea what the story was supposed to be, mainly because I was so mesmerised by the various ‘stunts’ on stage.

The audience area was dark, so it felt a little rude to take photos during the performance, hence I do not have any.  Photos was not really do the show justice anyway.  Some of the amazing acts we saw included dives and sumsauts through wooden rings barely wide enough for a man/women to fit through, one guy balanced upside down on another guy’s head whilst they mirrored each others actions as the guy on the floor walked along the stage, juggling giant vases (I think they were plastic), human pyramids (although that description hardly does it justice), a women shooting a bow an arrow upside down with her legs and toes and a lots more absolutely unbelievable routines.

(Photo from Idene)

(Photo from augschburger)

If you would like to spend a couple of hours being shocked and amazed with increasingly risky and unbelievable performances right in front of your eyes, I strongly recommend going to see one of these shows.

A quick search of Flickr for Chinese State Circus photos shows acts which were not included in the show we saw, so I suspect each show has it’s own unique combination of performances and routines.