More Amsterdam

Just remembered that this is my 4th IBC and was reminded by Mike Berry
about the fun dinner we had a Blossoms last year with Sam, Steve F, Matt
G, Dave McG and Mike Berry.



Mike also reminded me about the cyclist who rammed sideways into a car
and then into a garbage truck. Fun to see a cyclist screw it up in
Amsterdam.



I also remembered the breakfast at the Mint hotel and then the walk through Vondelpark 3 years ago.

Amsterdam - IBC memories

Its probably my last IBC. I'll miss coming to Amsterdam, I've had so much fun here.

I just had a great dinner with the PM team at Singel 101. This is exactly what we did 3 years ago when I joined the PM team. Since then I've:

• I've told monkey stories at a bar on Spuistraat
• Steve dislocated his shoulder falling from a stairwell
• Had a great dinner at Utretchstaf... Bruce Bullis' favorite place
• Had a great dinner at five flies with Steve, Enzo, Simon
• multiple lunches close to the RAI
• long walks with Erica and alone trying to absorb a lot of this city
• Some really productive business meetings
• French bakery close to the Renaissance for soup and sandwiches
• Breakfast buffet at the renaissance 
• Late night genever with Steve Forde
• Late night bar hunting with Simon and Robert
  
• Interesting designer products in various shops
  

I'm sure there's more but what I'm trying to say is that I'll miss this city.

Come full circle

Mama died today. Very few people loved me and were as proud of me as he was. I could do nothing wrong in his eyes. Crying as baby as I type, alone in my hotel room in SF, sad. The least I can do is cry.

Life's funny sometimes. Just as I was thinking about starting a new phase in my life, I had breakfast today at 2000 post. Perhaps its a sign, I was not planning to go there, the hotel receptionist recommended that I walk 5 blocks over to eat at Sweet Maple. It just happened to be at 2000 Post. It would be life's surprises if my last meal is SF turns out to be at the same place where it started, where I stayed when I came to San Francisco to work for Dolby.

Dublin

Its always boring to sit in the hotel after meeting with RTE. Its cold and windy outside, the downtown is far and thank god, I have  "A Dance with Dragons" to keep me busy. Writing this blog helps too.

Waiting for Francois so that we can go for dinner at 7. Then I have a 6:30AM flight to catch.. so not a lot of sleep for me tonight.

La Paz - day 3 and 4

Decided not to Dive today and it was a good decision. I created the Delhi shopping tour site and spent my time having coffee and walking around La Paz. I read, "The clash of kings". All in all an awesome day.

Day 4 diving was great. Saw 10 Manta rays... 2 ship wrecks, a swarm of fish... It was great. Most likely I'll go to Cabo Pulmo tomorrow. It will be awesome. Funny that this opportunity was created out of the incompetence of the Baja Paradise team. 

La Paz - Day 2

while I did not see any sharks today, I did have a good time playing with the sea lions at La Isleta. This island is located very close to espirito santo island. Its funny how harmless they are and how playful. They could easily hurt you but they dont.

Tomorrow - the dive shop wants to go to the same place I dove yesterday and today. I really dont want to go but I dont know what else I can do in La Paz on a Sunday. Is that a good reason to still go? What if they see more hammerheads that I.. I can live with that I guess.

La Paz - day 1

Today I understood why La Paz is heaven for divers. In 3 dives and 10 minutes of snorkeling I saw:
1. Hammerhead sharks
2. Whake Shark
3. The most fertile reef I've seen yet
4. A bird diving in the water to get her fish

What a great day for diving. Not sure how I'll ever be able to top this.

The hammerhead shark - 2nd dive of the day was interesting. We were panting so much after the fast swim to get to the sharks that we surfaced. We surfaced from about 80ft to 0 in about 2 minutes or less. It was shocking and scary how quickly we came up. The dive master should be shot. He surfaced before everyone. Two other Japanese tourists with me had there dive computers and stayed at 5m/15ft to decompress. We all should have done that. Lucky escape is all I can say.