This largest mansion in the United States was build somewhere late 1800´s. It has 250 rooms and is huge. A pity that you are not allowed to take pictures inside and nice to know that it is still privately owned (by the Cecils). The whole concept was taken from chateau Blois in France. The most evident I guess is the staircase. (left the original)
We did the backstage inside tour of CNN. It was fun to see the studio´s, the way the producers work and the scale of the whole operation. I was asked to read the 4 O´clock headline news, something I couldn´t refuse.... :-)
This display of the history of Coke is a little bit outdated. The only nice things are the fountains with tens of different soda pop flavors from around the world and the Coca Cola Shop. I bought a Japanese logo T-shirt.
Martin Luther King was born and raised in Atlanta and a impressive national park is made of his old neighborhood. We went into the house were he was born with Doug (a blind ranger) and his guide dog.It never stops to amaze me that it was only for 40 years or so when the south of the USA was having a apartheid system. And if you look carefully around you, you can still sense a separation between ethnic groups.
The carter Center here in Atlanta has all the papers and documents of the Carter presidency. It is fascinating to see the original speeches of Jimmy and what actually was being said in the end. When you look back of his period, it wasn´t so bad at all. It was a very difficult era: The USSR with Salt II pact, trouble in the middle east, the hostage situation in Iran, the gas prices went through the roof etc. etc. Maybe Jimmy was to involved with foreign policy, but that helped Reagan later on to score easily. It was nice to be in the Oval office (again). This was number 3.
When shopping in the mall we went into brookstone, one of my favorite stores. For our "crisis box" we bought a hand crank flashlight. Just crank the handle for 30 seconds for 15 to 20 minutes of bright light through its LED lights. It works perfectly. The only thing now left is a hank crank radio... :-)
We flew to Atlanta today with KLM and I am sorry to report that the service gets worse and worse each and every time. Luckily I do most of my intercontinental flying with BA or Lufthansa. The chairs are old, the TV screens tiny, the food is bad, the planes just downward dirty.
I haven´t been in Atlanta since my Coke period so was amazed to see that the city has grown substantially and is prettier then I remembered. We are staying at the W-hotel at the Perimeter mall, not the most swinging W I know, but fortunately with all the W perks.
In Dublin today to have lunch, dinner and some talks with our people their. Things go very well and I hope that the website will be live soon. Bought some new sportswear at Champions, my favorite sport shop.
Philips had a show with all their new gadgets. One of the new items are special dumbbells that have various sensors in them that measure your performance as you work out. Pity though that they couldn't afford a proper athletic model to demonstrate them... :-)
This evening's episode of Desperate Housewives gave us not only a hot same-sex kiss between Bree Van de Kamp's son, Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) and his erstwhile boyfriend, Justin (Eating Out's Ryan Carnes), but a scene in which the two of them appear naked in bed together.
Jochum is a farmer and is desperately looking for a girlfriend. In the KRO TV series "Farmer seeks wife" he is one of the big stars because he is the shyest person you will ever meet... :-)
Because of the new (beta) firefox 2.0 with build in spelling control, my typo's are a thing of the past... (Firefox 2.0 has some other great features too!)
Meet my new best friend: the Silverlit X-Rotor helicopter. This helicopter is made for indoor flying, but you need a very big space to make it really worthwhile.
Yesterday the ranking of the Fast Top 50, the 50 fastest growing companies in The Netherlands were being announced. It was a posh party at the new Movenpick Hotel. Funda ended as number 10, which was a fantastic result. Here you see me with Paul, who I met during my China Trip, of Coolblue who came in as number 12.
Through the amazing picture of Bob and Bri we finally can witness what really happened that fateful morning in September. Hear the sounds, hear the comments... This is REAL.
On October 24th in New York, Alma Tadema's 'ASK ME NO MORE...FOR AT A TOUCH I YIELD' will be auctioned. Estimate: $ 5.000.000. Almost 10 yeras ago a simulair painting of Alma was sold called youth (lower pic)
Today a very pretty baby was born: fundatravel! It child number uh... 8 I think. :-) The traffic was amazingly high just from the start. Let's hope people start booking as well.
Tins of beans were sold out today because of the remarks of minister Remkes that every houshold should have tins of beans at home in case of an emergency. (next to tons of water, candles, a radio, crackers etc...) I am not sure what we have at home for this kind of crisis: I think we do have lots of tins of mackerel... :-))
Two new websites are showing no risks what so ever for my neighborhood in Amsterdam centre. Risicokaart.nl shows maps with risks and crisis.nl give information when a crisis occurs. When there´s a risk on the map you will see symbols giving you clues about what kind of risk (bomb, fire, flood etc.)
Arnold, more democratic then most democrates, seems to be running a sure race for govenor. With about a 13% lead nothing can go wrong in November. He was training again last week at Golden Gym, Venice beach. But the way this guy is holding Arnolds´hand shows that he needs all his training buddies help to lift even his own arm nowadays...
Today I was a guest of LeasePlan at the John Palmers track near Bedford, UK. We were with a mixed groep of CEO´s and Robert Doorenbos, the Formula One driver. At one of the several races we did I managed to beat him. So Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker Cars and who just bought the Midlands F1 team immeadiately offered me to drive in one of their cars next week in Shanghai. Sorry Victor, but I have other plans... (By the way: that is actually ME driving in that race car!)
I was at the reunion of Nijenrode today. I was asked to be part of an enterpreneurial panel in the morning and to give alecture about Internet in thet afternoon. Here you see me with Frank Crebas of Marktplaats and Durk Jan de Bruin of Startpagina. All the three mayor websites of the Netherlands in one place... :-)
I trow away my old HP G85, how still worked perfectly, but was way to big for our desk (specially with the Korg Kontrol49 on it now) The HP5610 is a true all-in-one and very compact.
Tot mijn verbazing is detective Hecule Poirot weer actief. Hij is in Irak de rechter van het proces tegen Sadam. (Hij opereert onder de naam Abdullah Al-Amiri, maar je herkent hem direct - toch?)
Op 30 september is er de tweede reunie in de maand: mijn lagere school St. Bavo bestaat dan 100 jaar. Mijn hele familie heeft daar geleerd. Op de website kwam ik ook mijn broer Joost tegen.
Het is weer bijna veilingseizoen en de vriendsglasglazen komen weer op de markt. Op 3 oktober is er bij Christies een veiling waar het bovenstaande linkerglas geveild wordt. Het heeft als omschrijving: the faceted engraved with a continuous scene of three houses, trees, birds and a dog, inscribed Marque D'amitié, on square foot, 13 cm. high (one corner with small chip, minor frits ) Het glas ziet er op het eerste oog niet heel bijzonder uit en is vrij laat (1800), maar de inscriptie kan dus veel goed maken.
This largest mansion in the United States was build somewhere late 1800´s. It has 250 rooms and is huge. A pity that you are not allowed to take pictures inside and nice to know that it is still privately owned (by the Cecils). The whole concept was taken from chateau Blois in France. The most evident I guess is the staircase. (left the original)
We rented an enormous white Lincoln Town car. It is getting us smoothly (and slowly) everywhere.
Sleeker, memory expandable, camera, Mp3 player AND full Blackberry features: I cannot wait.
In Dublin today to have lunch, dinner and some talks with our people their. Things go very well and I hope that the website will be live soon. Bought some new sportswear at Champions, my favorite sport shop.
Philips had a show with all their new gadgets. One of the new items are special dumbbells that have various sensors in them that measure your performance as you work out. Pity though that they couldn't afford a proper athletic model to demonstrate them... :-)
This evening's episode of Desperate Housewives gave us not only a hot same-sex kiss between Bree Van de Kamp's son, Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) and his erstwhile boyfriend, Justin (Eating Out's Ryan Carnes), but a scene in which the two of them appear naked in bed together.
Jochum is a farmer and is desperately looking for a girlfriend. In the KRO TV series "Farmer seeks wife" he is one of the big stars because he is the shyest person you will ever meet... :-)
Because of the new (beta) firefox 2.0 with build in spelling control, my typo's are a thing of the past... (Firefox 2.0 has some other great features too!)
Meet my new best friend: the Silverlit X-Rotor helicopter. This helicopter is made for indoor flying, but you need a very big space to make it really worthwhile. 
Yesterday the ranking of the Fast Top 50, the 50 fastest growing companies in The Netherlands were being announced. It was a posh party at the new Movenpick Hotel. Funda ended as number 10, which was a fantastic result.
Netmakelaar had a joke on the url www.fondu.nl I had to laugh a lot, it is really funny. I never looked at our logo that way.
On October 24th in New York, Alma Tadema's 'ASK ME NO MORE...FOR AT A TOUCH I YIELD' will be auctioned. Estimate: $ 5.000.000.
Today a very pretty baby was born: fundatravel! It child number uh... 8 I think. :-)
Tins of beans were sold out today because of the remarks of minister Remkes that every houshold should have tins of beans at home in case of an emergency. (next to tons of water, candles, a radio, crackers etc...)
I am happy to see on Google Analytics that the amount of visitors on my Bog has gone up dramatically since I blog in English... :-)
Arnold, more democratic then most democrates, seems to be running a sure race for govenor. With about a 13% lead nothing can go wrong in November. He was training again last week at Golden Gym, Venice beach. But the way this guy is holding Arnolds´hand shows that he needs all his training buddies help to lift even his own arm nowadays...
Am I the only one or was Queen Beatrix having her hair blown dry during her speech to the nation today?
I was at the reunion of Nijenrode today. I was asked to be part of an enterpreneurial panel in the morning and to give alecture about Internet in thet afternoon. Here you see me with Frank Crebas of Marktplaats and Durk Jan de Bruin of Startpagina. All the three mayor websites of the Netherlands in one place... :-)
I trow away my old HP G85, how still worked perfectly, but was way to big for our desk (specially with the Korg Kontrol49 on it now) The HP5610 is a true all-in-one and very compact.
Op 30 september is er de tweede reunie in de maand: mijn lagere school St. Bavo bestaat dan 100 jaar. Mijn hele familie heeft daar geleerd. Op de website kwam ik ook mijn broer Joost tegen.
Het is weer bijna veilingseizoen en de vriendsglasglazen komen weer op de markt. Op 3 oktober is er bij Christies een veiling waar het bovenstaande linkerglas geveild wordt. Het heeft als omschrijving: the faceted engraved with a continuous scene of three houses, trees, birds and a dog, inscribed Marque D'amitié, on square foot, 13 cm. high (one corner with small chip, minor frits )
