Van Gils Blogs

Today was officially my last day in Nijmegen. I felt a bit strange going to work today. Plenty of loose ends to deal with, though. I had a meeting with Erik to figure out what we still have to do on articles (two papers are accepted but still need work, a third was rejected so I’ll have to figure out where to send it), where we stand in terms of my promotion etcetera.

All in all the day was quite ok, though. I brought cookies for Stijn and Eric (unfortunately Eric couldn’t make it because the cast was taken off his arm at the hospital today and he was in pain, perhaps he’ll blog on the topic at his site). Left ‘m a few cookies for next week if he decides to come in for work Lunch in the new mensa was ok and the new coffee machine is bad. Hopeuflly we’ll have better coffee at my new job!

Around 4 o’clock we had some drinks with the IRIS group. Quite a few collegues showed up so that was fun. I realized that it’s bizar to leave with unfinished business… in the sense of papers that need finishing and new research being conducted (talked to Theo a while ago about some new topics that I want to explore with him). EIther way, drinks were nice. It was good to shake hands with so many wonderful people after having worked there for four and a half years. Q.E.D. I’d say.

Today we went out to look for a new bed for Koen. We’d been planning this for weeks but for some reason it just never happened. The first shop we hit was Beter Bed. Our plan was to get as simple a bed as possible… untill we ran into their flexa collection. Awesome. The idea is that you start with a simple frame and then construct the bed the way you like depending on the age of the child and so on (see the left image). In our case we want to start low (so Koen can get used to his new bed). Later on we want one of the two models outlined above, probably. We’re definately going for the whitewash. Pretty neat. So, we ordered it and in a bout 6 weeks the bed should arrive.

After having arranged the move at my old work, there isn’t much for me to do anymore. Some odds and ends had to be dealt with for wrapping up my dissertation such as writing a Dutch summary, adding a short bio and such. Almost done… I’m waiting for the number of the SIKS dissertation series and am going to deal with the typo’s that Eva found. Then I’ll have to get in touch with the printer (and then uncle Hans) to create the final version of the cover. So all in all, almost done, time to take it easy.

Last Thursday I went to play cards with Perry in Nijmegen (actually: Wijchen). As happens so often, I wasn’t too awake during the first two boards. Not good. Have to do some bridge stuff before actually sitting down at the table. Either way, we had a lot of fun as we had to deal with some interesting bidding (and playing) problems. Afterwards we played a few deals with Wim who is partially responsible for getting the 12-14 NT in HeX, our bidding system.

When we got to Perry’s house we had a few drinks and talked a bit, mostly about bridge. Damn his bookshelf is impressive We did find a sollution to some of the bidding problems we had at the table but it requires agreements which are so advanced that I can safely say that they are beyond me. Too complicated. Oh, I also borrowed a nice book on math from him!

Friday I had another chance to relax. I drove to Tilburg to my old university and spend most of the afternoon catching up with old friends. I dropped by Lucie and Hans for coffee and from there I went to Hans (aka Beer) for we agreed to go to the sauna. After a lovely dinner, a big hug from Sabrina, we drove to the sauna and spent a relaxing evening there. I decided to drive back home afterwards to sleep in my own bad. I guess that having a car isn’t always a bad thing.