Vancouver treating me well...

I arrived in Vancouver last evening after a comfortable flight with WestJet. I was quite impressed with the amount of leg-room, plus the plane was only 2/3 booked so there was lots of extra space. The only thing that sucked was not getting any food on the 5h flight so I had to survive on the tiny amount of salty and sweet stuff that we were given, plus the remains of a sandwich I got in Toronto.

Since I really wasn't in the mood to watch satellite TV I decided to get some work done. As to be expected the battery on my regular laptop ran out after about 1 1/2 hours so I switched over to using my XO. With its small size, excellent screen and long battery-life it's really the perfect laptop for flights. After some writing of blog-posts and articles I watched an episode of Entourage which really got me hooked even though it's admittedly somewhat of a stupid show.

XO'ing at 39137 feet altitude

The approach into Vancouver was just gorgeous and even though I often tend to sleep through the last half hour of a flight this time I was glued to the window. What a great view!

free WestJet advertising included

Upon my arrival I was immediately spoiled after being picked up with a cabrio and treated to Asian dinner (excellent salmon Sashimi) and beers (discussions about all things mobile included).

And after a good night's sleep on a comfy couch I today woke up to this view:

such a view might almost convert me into a morning person

I don't think that life really gets any better than this! :-)

Scared of the ticking clock

I know, I talk about this a lot, but it is really really scary how time flies. I'm not even talking about those outstanding 5 days in Boston from where I just got home two hours ago. Rather it's the fact that I realized that I only have a bit more than 2 1/2 weeks left here in DC!

Anyway, off to get some badly needed sleep... Good night everyone!

Remembering... Taipei

After last night's post and keeping an eye on all the news coming from Computex today it's not really all that surprising that I had another 'Taipei moment' tonight. After an interesting discussion session about ICT in education that Wayan had organized, we went out for dinner and beers. The moment we got out of the building and saw that it had rained I had somewhat of a flashback to my Taipei experiences in 2006 and 2007. The rain, the wet streets, the yellow lights in terms of the atmosphere combined with the fact that I was talking ICT over beers with a bunch of outstanding people from different parts of the world certainly reminded me of all the good times in past years. On top of that I didn't get too much sleep last night and had quite an intense and productive day and so it's not hard to connect the dots. Plus the weather in DC these days is remarkably similar to Taipei as it's hot and humid here and there's no escape from it, especially when the A/C in your office isn't working.

The generally interesting thing here of course being that I had spent quite a lot of time these past 48 hours reminiscing about Computex and Taipei. But it's one thing to think about something and a totally different story to actually be back there, to literally relive these moments long gone. I've often thought about these sort of moments and for some reason they're often connected to out-of-the-ordinary experiences such as Computex or travelling. I'm starting to believe that there are certain situations that the mind simply can't fully comprehend at the time, often due to sheer exhausting, sleep deprivation and mental overflow (been there, done that), which come back at later times to be thoroughly processed. Reliving those moments is probably part of this process. And actually I really don't mind it, quite the opposite, I cherish the chance to mentally be back in situations and places long gone.

So cheers to good memories and here's to many great experiences in the future! ...and could you please bring me another Sam Adams?! ;-)

Listening to Heavens - Patent Pending and In Flames - Come Clarity while I write these lines sitting in the metro on the way home...