snow and a wedding dress

On friday we had horrible weather here, I've never seen so much snow and storm on the road before. I drove from Arnhem to Leiden to Vlissingen and it took us about 2,5 hours longer then usual (which would be wbout 3,5 hours).
A big bridge we went over was closed after we passed there, as was a stretch of road (because of broken power lines) so we were very lucky to get there at all. Many people had to spend the night in their cars, brrrrrr.

Apart from generally being super happy we arrived, we were also happy to be able to keep our appointments on the saturday as I had an appointment to shop for wedding dresses in the morning and we had an appointment with the photographer in the afternoon.
I hadn't expected it but I choose a wedding dress!
It was a surreal experience with my mum, my best friend and 2 sales women all having an opinion and the collective deciding "this is the dress" and 5 min later me sitting on a chair all confused with a dress, hoop-skirt-thingy, stockings, shoes, corset etc and a hat.
shocking :D
later on I called the shoes off as there was no way I could spend a day in them and still be able to stand, I will find some good ones :)

Cartes Exhibition, Paris

This week I spent Wednesday and Thursday in Paris at the world's largest smart card exhibition where Collis had a stand.

We had an exhausting time, I felt as if I had spent the whole week there when we had only been gone for 48 hours, there was so much to see and I have come away with a better appreciation of what goes on behind the scenes when you use your credit card. You wouldn't believe how many companies are involved getting that little bit of plastic from the bank to you...

One of my favourite stands was for Cryptography Research Inc who has an actual enigma machine from world war 2 on their stand.



We also had a great dinner at a top Paris restaurant, with everyone having a good time.

We left on Wednesday at 5:30am and didn't get to bed until 1:15 the following am, so I have suffered as if I had been drinking heavily! A few hours missed sleep and it's all messed up!

- Steve

wedding dresses malarkey

A while back we went to a wedding fair and one of the main missions was: inspiration for the dress.
I was all psyched up untill I actually arrived at the dresses and I saw the stick girls modelling and the lack of dresses in my size and I hit a bit of a low.
I made an appointment with a wedding dress shop mainly because my mum was on a mission, regardless of whether I was actually with her, but a couple of days later I felt better about the whole thing and decided to keep the appointment, olé!

So on to Rotterdam we went, my mum, my friend and Steve (though he went shopping during the actual fitting).
Sooo the woman who was going to help me asked me what I had in mind, then halfway through my second sentence said "never mind, lets get you into some dresses" and took over the show completely.
Regardless of me telling her what I wanted/liked and didnt want, she proceded to tell me I was wrong, dress me in the most silly gear and tell me I looked great and it was all very fashionable.
I told her I hated it and then the whole thing repeated for a grand total of an hour and a half...
She decided I was difficult and it was no use ...

Needless to say I havent found a dress yet and I wont be going there again any time soon.
On the upside, my mum and friend had a smashing time, almost in stiches at the performance :D

Wilbur Smith - River God

I borrowed this book from Miki's friend Annemarie. The story follows the life of Taita, a slave in ancient Egypt and his exploits and the people in his life.





I found the book very absorbing and the imagery gripping, the descriptions of the cruelty of the times was disturbing in a way that makes you glad to be alive in modern times and the author describes the main characters flaws in a great way (Taita is a coward at heart, but over comes his cowardice when those he loves are in danger). A great read, I may very well invest in some of Smith's over novels.

- Steve

Back to France...

I will be attending this years Cartes exhibition, which is the world's premier smart card expo. I will be going for two days and the exhibition is in Paris, so it's back to France!

Collis has a stand there, so I may be helping out there, I am not quites sure yet what the deal is exactly, but the two days I am there, there will be seven sales people, so I doubt I will have to do any hard selling, but maybe I will be covering when someone wants to go to lunch or something. I am hoping I will get to scout about, see what's going on and get a better feel for the industry I have found myself in...