2013 New Year's Resolutions

Time flies! Its already time to make New Year's resolutions for 2013. First though, I'll check in on my 2012 resolutions and see how I did...

Looking back on my 2012 resolutions:

• My first resolution was to learn Dutch to level A.2. I already passed level A.1 in spring and should pass level A.2 by the end of January if I study. So not doing too badly.
• My second resolution was to improve my publication output. Things are going great in that regard, so I am very satisfied.
• My third resolution was to go to the gym 100 times. Here I failed pretty badly! I think I have been closer to 50 times. Something I can improve on in the coming year!
• My fourth resolution was to train our golden retriever puppy. This has gone pretty well, though she remains a bit too excitable around children.
• My fifth and final resolution was to fix up the garden and finish my vegetable patch. This also went pretty well. My veggie patch has been producing for the kitchen since June and the garden looks a lot better

Some resolutions for 2013:

• I will find more time for Caren and I to unwind together.
• I will do at least one local 'fun run' and go to the gym more than last year.
• I will improve our garden and grow my first harvest of mushrooms.
• I will improve my Dutch to at least level B.1.

Overall, I can only home that 2013 is as good for us as 2012 was. I have a lot to be thankful for.

Happy New Year!

First Year in Leuven, Belgium

Caren and I have been in Belgium for a little over a year now, and I noticed recently that I had lots of photos sitting on my phone, so I thought that I would upload a random selection as a kind of retrospective.

Penny at a Cafe in June

New Potatoes in July

 

Summer BBQs

 With Michelle at Zoete Water in October

With Adam and Christie at Ruben's House in October

The Veggie Garden in November

Sunrise over Overijse Fields in December

Its been a great year. Hopefully 2013 is just as good.

Snowboarding in Mont Tremblant, Canada

In late November I traveled to Quebec, Canada for the Middleware 2012 conference and a few days snowboarding in Tremblant. 

After a good flight with Air Canada, I took the Galland bus to Tremblant village, where I had a private room in the HI Youth Hostel. The staff were very friendly and the rooms were pretty good. There was also a good bar, where I tried my favorite Canadian beer 'La Fin Du La Monde'.

Youth Hostel in Tremblant Village

I woke up early and jet-lagged the next day at 5AM, so I decided to go for a walk. I saw some deer, but wasn't quick enough to get a photo and also the sunrise over the frozen village lake. It was -17 when I arrived in Tremblant, but my room was nice and warm and there was fresh snow, so it didn't matter.

Sunrise Over the Frozen Lake

After taking the free bus for the five minute ride from the village  to the resort, I went up the mountain on the first gondola of the morning. Conditions were excellent all day, with a few inches of fresh powder on a deep man-made base.

Snowmaking running on Full

20 runs were open supported by 4 lifts, not bad for the 1st of December! I had a lot of fun cruising down the mountain.

View from the Summit

Riding the Chair Lift

If you are visiting Tremblant I would highly recommend that you try a local delicacy at Smoke's Poutinerie, near the Gondola. The beer is also pretty good at La Diable, and is all brewed on-site. Unfortunately my second day was a wash-out (literally) as the snow turned to wind and rain. I braved the conditions until lunch and then retreated to my room.

Rainy Conditions on the Summit

On Monday, I caught the Galland bus back down to Montreal and by lunch-time I was at the conference.

Boston and New York

At the end of August, I travelled to Cambridge, MA for the IEEE-NCA 2012 conference, where I was presenting a paper on our LooCI middleware. After the conference, we took a short holiday to Boston and New York.

Cambridge was nice. We stayed at the Hotel Marlowe near MIT overlooking the Charles River. Some of the food and drink highlights included lunch at Legal Seafood and Brunch at the Cambridge Brewing Company, a prize-winning brew pub in Kendall square. The food was good and the beer was great. The best beer was their 'summer barleywine', which had a gentle whisky-like taste.

Caren Tastes Samples of the CBC Beers

The hotel also had free Kayak rental, so we hired a couple of kayaks to cruise the Charles River. Here's a few shots.

Ready to Go!

Across the River to the Boston Skyline

Rail Bridge Linking Boston to Cambridge

After the conference, we went into Boston itself, following the historic 'Freedom Trail', which covers Bostons revolutionary history. Here are a few shots:

The Old State House, Site of the Boston Massacre

Historic Quincy Market is now a Food Court

Refuelling with a Cookie Sandwich at Boston Market

The Bunker Hill Memorial

On Sunday night, it was the feast of St. Anthony, which means a big party in Boston's North End. We had a great dinner at a famous family-run restaurant called Giacomo's. The restaurant doesn't accept reservations and because of the feast there was an hour long queue on the street, but by dumb luck Caren and I were the only party of two, so when a couple of seats came up overlooking the kitchen, we walked straight in.

Police Band on Parade

The Boston Skyline at Night

Our Seats Overlooking Giacomo's Kitchen

From Boston, we travelled by Amtrak along the New England coast to Larchmont, NY where we spent a lovely few days with Julie, Tucker and Lucy. They were wonderful hosts. Lucy had grown so much since our last visit:

Lucy Eating Strawberries and Cheese -- Yum!

Our last three days were spent in New York City. Where we spent our time walking the city, eating, drinking and relaxing. Here are the photos:

Views from the Highline Park, a Nice Place for a Stroll

View of Midtown from the Rooftop Pool of the Holiday Inn

On our first night in New York, we went to a taping of the Colbert Report, which was great fun and then had a few drinks at the relaxing Sky Terrace of the Hudson Hotel.

Queueing at the Colbert Studio

Caren with her Ticket for Colbert

Cocktails on lawn chairs at the Sky Terrace

View from the Sky Terrace

We had a lot of great food in Manhattan, but two meals stand out above the rest: breakfast at Les Halles and lunch at David Chang's Momofuku

First morning: breakfast at Anthony Bourain's old restaurant Les Halles. It was great!

Best lunch: ginger scallion noodles at MomoFuku -- good noodles, great buns.

On our last day, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, had pizza at Grimaldi's famous pizza restaurant and attended the Friday night beer tasting in Brooklyn Brewery.

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge

We had great pizza at Grimaldi's - the white building under the bridge.

The Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsberg

Beer Tasting: try the BAM and the Sorachi Ace!

It was a great trip, Boston was very friendly and I don't think I will ever get tired of New York. Now I have to get back to the gym to work of all that nice food and drink.

Snowboarding in the Four Valleys

Wow, its been more than six months since I updated this blog. It turns out that tenure-track academia is pretty tough and doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging. Here's some photos from my late winter trip to Nendaz in the Four Valleys in Switzerland.

We arrived during the brief but harsh European cold-snap and had night-time temperatures of -20, but we were staying in a lovely chalet with its own outside hot-tub. The night time dash from the chalet to the hot tub and back was pretty funny. As you'd sit in the steaming water there would be icicles forming in your hair.

Our Chalet

The Four Valleys ski area is massive, and links Verbier, Nendaz, Veysonnas and Thyon. We didn't manage to cover the whole area during our stay, but we did a lot of exploring. My favorite run was all the way over from Mont Fort down to the Verbier base. The scenery was beautiful:

Mountain Views 1

Mountain Views 2

The final day, I decided to tackle 'Plan de Fou', a hard off-piste that I almost had a very nasty fall on. You need some adventure on the last day though!

 The Restaurant at the top of Plan de Fou

The mogul'd face - I tracked way right to find some powder

So perhaps my latest blog post ever. I'm now planning my next ski trip for Mont Tremblant in Canada in December after Middleware 2012.

New Year's Resolutions / Happy 2012

2011 has been a great year for me, and now its time to make some resolutions for 2012. None of these are very exciting, but I like a public record to encourage me to keep them:

1. I will learn Dutch to level A.2 of the European frame.

2. I will my improve my publication profile.

3. I will visit the gym at least 100 times this year (99 to go)!

4. I will properly train our new dog Penny.

5. I will fix up the garden and finish my vegetable patch.

Happy New Year!

Trip to Paris

Over the Christmas break, I spent a couple of days in Paris with my sister who was visiting from the UK. I've been to Paris many times before, but I never get tired of it.

Kath arrived at Paris Nord on the EuroStar early in the afternoon on the 23rd and after a late lunch, we went straight to the Eiffel Tower. I've been up many times, but Kath had never made it to the top and wanted to challenge herself... and she made it!

Going up the Tower in Daylight

One of the Views from the Top

The Tower at Night

The next day was Christmas eve, and so we decided to do something really Christmasy: visit the Paris Catacombes, a consecrated former stone quarry that houses the skeletons of six million former residents of Paris. The bodies were moved there after the nieghbourhood cemertary filled up and began causing disease.

Stop! This is the Kingdom of the Dead

Endless Skulls and Bones

...and more skulls.

After the catacombes, we visited Sacré-Cœur, a beautiful hill-top church that was just 10 minutes from our hotel. There was a nice Christmas market on and a Christmas Eve mass. I think that the views from Sacré-Cœur are even better than those from the Eiffel Tower.

Sacré-Cœur Seen from Below

Looking out Over the City

...and towards the Eiffel Tower.

One of the great things about bieng in Leuven is that Paris is just 90 minutes away by train; I can't wait to go back.