2017-06-07 11:15
After a fruitless month of trying various fixes for uploads to Google Blogger, I’ve concluded that there isn’t a way forward with the platform. Unfortunately, its not… Read More
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Random Walks In The Low Countries Blog
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Reflections on expatriate life by an American scientist starting a new MedTech business in the Netherlands.
2017-04-22 10:08
Morning dawned misty and cool along the Amber Valley, a former mining district just southeast of the Peak District. Evening at the Farm Hotel had passed with comfortable ease, from dri… Read More
2017-04-21 18:00
There have been fewer blog posts of late because of numerous technical problems with too little time available to sort them. Open Live Writer has only been able to publish intermittent… Read More
2017-04-17 18:34
test pot Read More
2017-04-14 16:29
The great English landscape gardener, Capability Brown, transformed the working farmland and small formal gardens around Chatsworth House to rolling gardens in 1760. Joseph Paxton adde… Read More
2017-04-07 09:28
With meetings finished for the week, we decided to head north, rather than south, for the weekend. Trees and flowers are blooming later in Derbyshire than in Dorset, but there was a hi… Read More
2017-03-09 23:15
It’s been, well, decades since I flew in the airlines lowest privilege category. ‘not a bad thing, but different now that I’m demoted. The cause is a combination of fact… Read More
2017-03-09 23:05
A close friend called, asked if I could meet him in London today on a personal matter. Of course, anything, let me get the train in. I pick up a flower and a some fizzy water bef… Read More
2017-03-09 22:43
2017-03-03 22:09
Each year, Kew Gardens hosts a nighttime Christmas event in the arboretum, a walk filled with lights and music. My w.wezen and I went a few years ago and found it enchanting. Wor… Read More
2017-03-03 20:46
Flipping through the BBC directory the other evening, I came across a new art show: The Big Painting Challenge. A bit like Masterchef, it features a dozen amateur artists who go throug… Read More
2017-03-03 15:44
Our Technical File was submitted to our Notified Body today. I know, it’s one of those ‘What did he just say?’ statements. A bit of background, then: Medical Dev… Read More
2017-03-03 14:36
Today was the day for submitting our Technical File to our regulator, but a couple of key bits were still missing. The Notified Body was gracious about accepting a 12-hour slip, but it… Read More
2017-03-03 11:13
It’s a day for catching up, sorting through small jobs and picking up parts. I’d promised to fix a lock for the house, screws, oil, and fat screwdriver to get the cov… Read More
2017-02-27 09:14
We put in a good day’s work today, arriving at the hospital early with prototypes and engineers, then working with the physicians to verify that the whole system was operational. … Read More
2017-02-26 16:16
I’m never too certain of dentists outside the United States, so always save my dental checkups for visits back across the pond. It leaves me with longer between appointments than… Read More
2017-02-26 14:59
I’ve finally sorted out the logistics and financing of getting the car fixed. Initial proposals from Ford Lease were that the car be repaired in Maastricht. While likely pr… Read More
2017-02-26 14:58
i had set time and travel aside to be in Maastricht for Carnival this year – the four-day pre-Lent celebration filled with food, drink, and costumes (did I mention drink?). … Read More
2017-02-13 06:14
‘A restful evening’s walk along the Thames, followed by a foggy morning’s drive to Colworth ======================== Read More
2017-02-12 20:37
My new passport arrived today, ten days ahead of when the Embassy promised to deliver it. It feels sort of odd to have a clean, thin document again, pages crisp at the edges and unma… Read More
2017-02-12 12:41
The agent sighed: I need to check yiur visa status. He made a quick call to his supervisor: American…European residency…traveling to Hungary. Complications in the e… Read More
2017-02-12 09:49
There couldn’t be greater contrast between the ordered ambiance of Cookham village and the strange life of its most famous inhabitant, artist Stanley Spencer. At the same time, h… Read More
2017-02-05 12:36
Sunny but wintry cold this weekend; the storms have passed through leaving blue-washed skies and marshy puddles across the grasslands. Ideally, it would be a day for touring a stately… Read More
2017-02-01 13:09
Grosvenor Square is a small park adjoining the US Embassy in Mayfair, London. It’s been the traditional home for the official US presence in Britain since the first mission estab… Read More
2017-02-01 12:43
‘You’re not going to be able to travel with this much longer,’ the Customs Agent warned, shaking his head and wagging my dog-eared passport. The book bulg… Read More
2016-12-20 03:34
‘back in Poole, the weather unsettled, but nice to be off the road for the weekend. We’re in the middle of device testing, formal validations that provide necessary evidenc… Read More
2016-12-20 02:12
2016-12-20 01:55
It was a trip I’ve made a hundred times. West of London to the ferries, the Dover crossing, the long straight motorway past Bruges, Ghent, around Brussels. The the washboar… Read More
2016-11-14 04:46
It’s been a very busy and stressed week, so my w.wezen and I decided that time off at the coast would be tonic. We needed to make a stop southeast of London, so decided to contin… Read More
2016-11-14 04:42
As one who grew up in Chicago, it would be impossible to overemphasize the significance of the Cubs winning the World Series this week. Coming back from a three-game, must-win deficit… Read More
2016-11-14 04:39
I gave myself three hours and a bit to get to the Ferry docks at Dover: its been raining hard all night and likely that the M25 would see some accidents even on a light Saturday morning. … Read More
2016-11-13 20:26
We will be able to meet with you on Tuesday, advised the design team. We can arrange hotels and start at 9. ‘considering that the date was only five days away, it presented… Read More
2016-11-13 20:26
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2016-11-13 18:00
A damp and peaceful Sunday morning beneath dripping skies along the Maas. I moved the car (late, but unticketed) and took a long wander around the old center. The Chri… Read More
2016-11-13 17:34
This is Bonfire Weekend across the UK, celebrations of Guy Fawkes night held in communities and fireworks lasting towards morning. We spent it in the seaside fishing town of Hastings… Read More
2016-11-04 09:27
The UK and Netherlands are both fortunate to have strong public broadcast news services in the BBC and the NOS (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting). Both are chartered to produce regular and… Read More
2016-11-03 21:50
I headed down to the seashore on yesterday evening around sunset, looking for a beer and a bit of quiet to set the week aside. Bournemouth Pier is free to wander once the summer… Read More
2016-11-03 14:02
…terwijl ik niet over te schrijven. It’s been a couple of months: ‘apologies for my absence. Everything is fine with my life, my work, and my important people. Bu… Read More
2016-09-04 21:01
‘just a warm summer’s evening sharing a drink and conversation, watching the light and colour change, riverside in Henley. Read More
2016-09-04 20:46
Work and travel kept me away from the opening weeks of the Tate Modern’s new extension, the Switch House. Ten stories set atop The Tanks, the angular brick structure is dedicated… Read More
2016-09-02 22:56
Being a expat can change your life for the better. And we bet you can be proud of your accomplishment whilst being a expat. I’ve trained Medium to highlight articles that deal w… Read More
2016-09-02 21:47
Georgia O’Keefe is an iconic twentieth century American artist, whose paintings are instantly and uniquely recognizable. Robert Hughes characterized her as “a ‘natura… Read More
2016-09-02 20:28
The company website has been in sad shape for some time. Out of date, incomplete, it marks the space for the company rather than excites people about the great things we are attempting… Read More
2016-08-31 17:02
A thousand years ago, the Domesday Book took note of the outlying hamlet of Stoche, lying in the rolling hills and waterways of today’s Northamptonshire. By 1254, its name had au… Read More
2016-08-30 21:48
It’s the 50th year of London’s Notting Hill Carnival, a Caribbean-themed street party held during August Bank Holiday each summer. Echoing the British fairs of the 18… Read More
2016-08-30 21:40
This turns out to have been my week for walking the Canals. I normally zip through Paddington Station on the way elsewhere, diving into the Tube or jumping onto the Great Western Railway ou… Read More
2016-08-30 21:32
“Life is a competition,” we used to joke. It’s the stereotypical male/American perspective on work, friendships, love, and life. So when my w.wezen sent an early emai… Read More
2016-08-11 19:15
‘sorry to have been missing the past few weeks: it’s been a busy travel interval mingled with a couple of technical failures and a brief illness. Things are progressing wit… Read More
2016-07-19 08:31
In America, a Pot Pie is home-cooked fast-food. They cost less than a dollar from Safeway, rendered into reliably binary choices of Chicken or Beef, sold under comfortable Stouffer and… Read More
2016-07-18 22:41
As the summer heat finally settles in, lazy afternoons turn to picnics in the park, beer tents, and music into the twilight. Readipop is the annual festival held at Christchurch Meadow… Read More
2016-07-18 21:59
When I first took a class in watercolour painting, I quickly learned that I lacked basic drawing skills. While I could apply convincing and pleasing washes and blends, it was hard to p… Read More
2016-07-16 13:59
The votes weren’t counted when we all went to bed last night, I rolled over at first light, 4 am, picked up the tablet, and thumbed to the Times and Guardian. Brexit… Read More
2016-07-16 13:11
‘took a break from the office this evening to wander down and watch the sun set over the Harbour. A nice, changing rehearsal space to see what might be composed from light, refle… Read More
2016-07-16 12:51
Government waters continue to roil in the wake of the Brexit referendum. Every day brings a surprise resignation, a pointless pronouncement, a bit of high irony. The best ongoing com… Read More
2016-07-15 09:52
One of my objectives for the coming months is to hand off executive authority for running the in-market businesses to folks who have the experience and connections to do it well. I hav… Read More
2016-07-14 22:25
It’s not just jet lag. Long-haul travel has a lot of detrimental effects, from sleep deprivation to diet, sitting too long in one place and accommodating cultural shifts. I know… Read More
2016-07-14 21:30
1972 seems a long time ago. But, Sunday night. in Hyde Park, it was only yesterday. 1972: 44 years ago. I was a late-night DJ in the south tower of Neely Auditorium, takin… Read More
2016-07-14 20:43
It’s been a couple of weeks of bounding about. First, a trip to the corporate parent in Uppsala, then to London for the Manilow concert. ‘flight to Amsterdam the n… Read More
2016-07-14 19:52
New, high-resolution Landsat 8 images have been swapped into Google Maps, yielding really amazing pictures of terrain and buildings. The whole earth is now cloud-free and the detail is… Read More
2016-06-25 11:33
It been 40 years since I last saw Barry Manilow, lawn seating and KFC at Ravinia Park outside Chicago. He put on a wonderful show, lots of self-depreciating banter and familiar songs t… Read More
2016-06-25 11:26
2016-06-23 09:26
It was, first, about getting a Father’s Day gift into the mail. My diary anticipates every birthday and holiday by two weeks, placing cards and goodies into the methodical hands of th… Read More
2016-06-23 09:13
It’s a bit of a sodden day at the Bournemouth Food and Drink Festival. With an eclectic collection of restaurants, varied music, and cooking demos, its always been one of my favo… Read More
2016-06-23 08:33
I think that my past six months have set a record for not traveling. Still frenetic around the UK, my airline miles have fallen to taking only two trips in six months, unthinkable in p… Read More
2016-06-19 11:55
‘A still evening along Maastricht’s waterway. Read More
2016-06-19 11:28
As summer breaks, the annual Quayside Music Festival (Bank Holiday version) and Fayre in the Square gather in Weymouth. Two days of music, food, drink, and boats in the center of… Read More
2016-06-19 10:24
Too often, arts and culture play on a large stage, tailored for the greatest marketing appeal and the least demographic offense. The counterbalance are the small, hyper-local events th… Read More
2016-06-19 09:32
Google maps chirped in my lap, another suggestion for a route around congestion ahead. I took the suggestions: my tablet has evolved into a capable guide, even on familiar roads… Read More
2016-06-16 22:32
Medical device development is governed by Standards. If you want to bring a product to market, then there’s only one way to do it: Compliance with the rules. A… Read More
2016-06-16 21:09
We arrived hours early for the production: it’s hard to gauge distance and traffic through SoGlo (South Gloucestershire) so best to start out early. Our birthday destination was… Read More
2016-06-16 20:01
The River Wye flows through a rugged cleft heavily forested, in southeastern Wales. Literally inhabited for millennia, with cave artifacts dating back 12,000 years to Paleolithic… Read More
2016-06-16 18:29
“If I waited till I felt like writing, I’d never write at all.” — Anne Tyler It’s been a couple of months since I last wrote a note or posted a picture. … Read More
2016-04-27 20:30
Facebook is worried that its more than one billion daily users are sharing less with one another, headlined the Guardian on Tuesday. People are friending less and posting less: insiders attr… Read More
2016-04-24 10:32
A sunrise photo, not a sunset, as I struck out from Caversham on Monday morning. There was just a single ray of the rising sun probing ahead to the salmon glow from the east, marking… Read More
2016-04-22 20:51
Is it better to be likeable or sympathetic? ‘third day on the road, Cambridge to Braintree, Cambridge then Poole: five hours driving among meetings. Fortunately it’s a s… Read More
2016-04-16 15:36
2016-04-16 15:33
‘Out to Bridport for a Friends meeting after a bit of a roller-coaster day. As it turned out, I was two weeks early for the meeting, but on-time for a sunset beach walk along one… Read More
2016-04-16 15:30
I remember, 40 years ago, a family trip to Europe that began with a drive through southwest England. My father attempted to Y-turn the rental car in a narrow Oxford street and nicked a… Read More
2016-04-15 12:47
‘bringing it around today, closing the circle from Dover through the Netherlands, back via Hull and Derby. It’s been a good trip, both business and leisure, but a lot of… Read More
2016-04-15 07:31
‘taking my coffee canister out of the cupboard, squinty 7am on a Saturday, I brushed away a tendril questing up from beneath the lower shelf. The water boiled (100C), weight ch… Read More
2016-04-15 07:26
Conversation will be our new User Interface. – Satya Nadella My day is filled with goal-directed tasks. They range from simple (scheduling, search) to complex (negotiation, pe… Read More
2016-04-14 20:30
The Port of Rotterdam is the largest in Europe, over 40 km long with nearly 150,000 vessels passing through each year. Among those are the England-bound ferries that leave Europoort on… Read More
2016-04-14 20:24
The Keukenhof Gardens, near Lisse and 15 minutes drive from Schiphol Airport, are a spring tradition among the Dutch and tourists visiting the Netherlands. Open only two months a year, mid… Read More
2016-04-14 20:16
If you’re visiting the eastern Ardennes, the handiest starting point is big and gritty Liège, an industrial sprawl from where it’s a short hop south to the historic resort… Read More
2016-04-14 09:11
Easter Monday, once a chance to catch up during the bank holiday, now a day that I religiously take away from my desk. The coming week will be a busy road trip, so it seemed appropriat… Read More
2016-04-13 22:33
Its a working few days in Maastricht, time spent with design groups that are working for the business, and a lot of catch-up with lapsed pieces of everyday life that scatter in my absence.&n&hell…Read More
2016-04-13 21:56
‘up early and off to Dover this morning for a circle through Belgium, the Netherlands, and north England. The weather started out wintry on the drive east, rainy and windy, ill o… Read More
2016-04-13 21:53
Our Saturday storm blew itself out ahead of Easter Sunday, black skies and spitting rain giving way to sunbreaks and rainbows. Still, it’s unseasonably cold (even in Englan… Read More
2016-03-26 09:04
At first glance, the image to the left could be by Matisse. It has the economy of line and the intimacy of expression that I always associate with his drawings. But it’s… Read More
2016-03-26 08:44
Dave is north and south and all about in the UK … I took a look at my map of the past two week’s travel (left). True to my words on Skype, I’ve been all over, skirt… Read More
2016-03-25 22:41
Europe is into the four-day Easter weekend, stretched a bit to make six for many folks. For me, ‘just another day at the office, with a couple of major issues headed towards reso… Read More
2016-03-25 09:43
It’s Mothering Sunday in the UK. The Netherlands and US celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May, but in the UK, it’ always the fourth Sunday of Lent. … Read More
2016-03-24 09:23
I was in the middle of early morning conference calls when the phone chimed and text messages started pinging through You’re not in Brussels, are you? I tapped into the Gua… Read More
2016-03-23 18:55
In 1416, Michael Warwick accepted a commission for making 200,000 bricks for Thomas Stonor for the princely sum of £40, and to deliver them three miles away for an additional £… Read More
2016-03-15 11:31
Winter has lingered in England. While the US enjoyed a much warmer February than usual, drizzly rain, biting wind, and occasional hail has been the norm across the southern UK. … Read More
2016-03-15 11:27
It’s hard to know how the restaurant critic of the New York Times ever wandered off-track into this part of Dorset. The owner of the Seaside Boarding House Restaurant thought that the… Read More
2016-03-15 11:21
I’m making a two-day loop through East Anglia, driving between London and Cambridge. The connecting drives link sessions with investors and directors, course administrators and s… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
2006-06-07 11:16
I’m sure we’re missing something… We were standing at the location of Bracknell’s Christmas Market, empty and dark. Walkways led away in four directions… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
We were two hours into the flight when something shot beneath my seat. I glimpsed a slim white body, a long tail with a puff-ball of fur at the tip. A cat? A short spectacled wo… Read More
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