It’s been all hustle and bustle here lately.
Brian and Victoria came over from California for the annual Google Sysops hamburger. Amsterdam’s Hard Rock Café was the somewhat unlikely setting for the meet-up, which featured not only ex-Google employees, but also a healthy smattering of sysadmins from ISC. In fact, they were in the majority, as Geoff didn’t turn up.
The Hard Rock Café gets points for being non-smoking upstairs and providing free refills on soft drinks. The burger itself was surprisingly tasty, too, even if it wasn’t a Clarke’s smokey cheddarburger. All in all, the experience was nostalgically Californian, which, it seems, is as it should be.
The next day, Roman, Carine, Elina and newborn Rachel arrived on the night train from Zürich. They were here for about five days and we all had a lot of fun together.
A second lunch had been planned for the day that Roman arrived, but it ended up being just afternoon coffee, because I had to stay in and deal with an electrician. Said electrician hung up a light for us in the downstairs hallway and fixed a couple of non-functional wall sockets, all of which had been long-standing thorns in our side, so it was well worth the delay. Geoff missed this tryst, too.
Geoff did come alone for dinner Friday evening, but missed a breakfast appointment on Sunday, so we still haven’t met his mysterious new wife.
The Marxers left again on Monday evening, rendering the house relatively quiet once more. Geoff’s currently in Rome with his new bride, but will be back again at the end of the week. Some time next week, Frank and Kathy turn up for a few days. I daresay we’ll all go out for another Google Sysops burger in their honour.