Happy birthday Tanja!

Today was Tanja's 50th birthday. She doesn't look 50 at all but thankfully she dressed up so there was no mistake who the birthday girl was! ;-)

There was booze...

.... and smiley faces. Or not?

And there were pressies!

And party-time again ;-)

After work drink and dinner

Grey sky coming in. Not a lot of rain came out really...

After work we went out with a bunch of colleagues.

Waiting for the tram. It was a fun evening :-)

ChipSoft dinner 2013

The annual ChipSoft dinner was tonight. On my right were Tanja and Ira (from left to right).

Across from me were Geert and Norbert (left to right).

On my left were Koos, Wim and Eelke (left to right).

This was my dessert. It was a fun night :-)

CS-BBQ 2012

WHOA! Good morning fridge!

Today we had our annual BQ at work. Meat and beer is what I'm after today!

I wasn't the only one...

Tent.

Some of my favourite colleagues ;-) Tanja, George and Ira.

Passed the HISWA again on my way home. HISWA is a sailing ship thing.

Congratulations dad, Tanja and Patrick!

Milk, fruit, fish, bread, sugar, meat and nuts (kinda ;-). And the Saturday paper!

I went to my colleague Tanja's wedding today.

Tanja and Patrick looking great.

The ceremony was on a boat in the canals of Amsterdam. Fitting because Tanja is an Amsterdammer. It's also always fun to be on a boat I think :-)

The skinny bridge opened and closed for her wedding and another one that was on another boat (which you can just see on the right). It's apparently a council gesture. Very nice!

Patrick and Tanja as a married couple.

My colleague Ira was there as well. She doesn't usually wear a dress but it looked good! Cheers :-)

Floating around Java Island.

Nice colourful new apartment buildings there.

After three hours we docked again and Tanja and her family drove off in the limo.

Thanks Tanja and Patrick for letting me on your boat! :-)

After the wedding I took a train to Alkmaar because it was also my dad's wedding. Happy birthday dad!

The blackberry in my folks' garden is doing very well!

It was a busy and tiring but fun day :-)

Gipfelwelt 3000

Click the photos for bigger, better versions!

On the menu today was the Kitzsteinhorn near Kaprun. It's a big mountain with a lookout point / restaurant at 3029 metres which is called Gipfelwelt. It takes 3 rides to get there. They start at the left most parking and then go up.

We hoped for good views but instead we got a snow storm. But up we went, into the unknown...

Snowboarders were having a good time.

Waiting for the last ride to go up we were informed of the temperature. Not bad.

We had a photo taken which could be downloaded at www.photopoint.kitzsteinhorn.at. Normally you'd have mountains in the background but ehm. Well, not today...

To keep everything in place the top of the ski lift is anchored in the mountain by very long cables that end inside a tunnel that was dug especially for this.

When you click this picture you will see how it's done.

The tunnel is open to the public and features a few noteworthy sites. Part of it takes you through a permafrost part of the mountain.

Since the tunnel is on a 25% incline and it's at 3000 metres high they warn not to walk too fast. Walking down you don't notice a thing. I got dizzy after 10 steps and could only walk up quite slow. I remained dizzy for a few hours :-(

Marjolein at the lower end of the tunnel. It was VERY bright there!

After some un-impressive lunch we went down again.

The church in the centre of Zell am see.

Our hotel. Next time I would like a 100% non-smoking hotel please.

During today's apres-ski the management was thanked for taking us all on this trip once again. It got quite orange.

During our stay in Zell am see we were asked about our jackets a couple of times. Some folks even remembered us from 2 years ago. Back then, we turned Zell am see bright yellow :-)

All eyes were on the balcony.

ChipSoft is now sponsoring a mandril ape called "Ndoki" in the Amsterdam zoo.

The table next to us during dinner. Sam's wife, Ira, Ira's sister and Sam.

Last night there was a bit of a party going on downstairs. Drinks were on ChipSoft till 11PM but the party went on till about 4AM. Marjolein and I were in bed by midnight but couldn't sleep from the disgusting cigarette smoke entering our bedroom.
The next morning a few people found a booze-bill in their postbox ;-)

Avoiding the smoke we went to another hotel, the Tirolerhof, where I stayed last time. Here all the public spaces are completely smoke-free which is nice!

Me and my sunshine.

Ray "Alex" Charles.