Slovenia day 3

 Last full day in Slovenia! We drove to Ljubljana to do the half marathon. I had previously done a half marathon the week prior with a time of 1:41. Since I had done a hike the day before I was expecting to get a much slower time. However, I was motivated by my desire to beat my American friend so I persevered. I ended up getting the same exact time 1:41. Unfortunately Martin got an even better time of 1:38. I guess I'll have to beat him at the next race. We ended the day with some local Slovenian food and a bike ride around the city. Good day! I feel refreshed enough to get back to work in the Netherlands. 

Ljubljana

Slovenia day 2

We rented a via Ferrara set and immediately headed out to the start of the mountain to submit Triglav. Lisa damaged her ankle about a month ago so was unable to join us; she stayed in the van and learned German and did other hobbies instead. The hike was incredible. We were in a cloud the entire time so the visibility was limited, but it was still very arduous. It wasn't scary but there were a few narrow ledges which were quite fun. One we got back to the van we ate dinner and drove our way back to Ljubljana to prep for the marathon tomorrow.

Slovenia day 1

Wow it's been a long time since I've written on this blog. So much has happened. So many holidays not recorded, so much about my job at TU/e left untold, my future plans in the Netherlands, and my breakup with Karen. All of that should be probably be written here. But, my blog, my rules.

Day 1

I'm travelling to Slovenia to meet up with Martin and Lisa. We're going to do a via Ferrara hike and a half marathon. I began by flying into Croatia and catching a flixbus from Zagreb to Ljubljana. The reason for this is because it was much cheaper to fly into a neighbouring country - stay classy Europe. I met up with Martin and Lisa in the evening at the bus station and we immediately drove in their campervan to the start of the mountain. We finished the day eating some food and sleeping in the campervan.

Finland trip holiday 2023

 Here's a 'mostly' Chat GPT written blog of my Finland trip:

Last week, I went on a holiday to Finland with my girlfriend Karen, and our friends Megan and Yeshveen. We had a packed schedule with lots of fun activities planned. Here's a rundown of what we got up to.

Day 1: We took a flight from Amsterdam to Helsinki and then a connecting flight to Rovenemi. Once we arrived, we went to Nillis restaurant and tried some traditional Finnish food, including bear, reindeer, and salmon. We also had a delicious dessert made with squeaky cheese and cinnamon custard. This experience was outstanding and a welcome change from bitterballen and herring.

Day 2: In a futile attempt to avoid going into debt we purchased some budget cereal and milk for breakfast. We walked around Rovenemi city and stumbled upon a family ice fishing. The encounter was lovely, and I'm happy to say that the stereotype of very unwelcoming, quiet, and direct Finish people is very untrue. They told us that they expected to manually drill about 100 holes in the ice until they found an area with some fish. We then took a bus to Arctic Snow Hotel where we stayed in an ice hotel with engraved ice sculptures, an ice bar, and an ice restaurant. We also fed some reindeer and went sledding. Yeshveen and I enjoyed a sauna in the evening and rolled around in the snow every 20 minutes. 

Day 3: I woke up with my face glued to the ice mattress. After the right-hand side of my body had thawed, I had an all-you-can-eat buffet for breakfast. We then went on a snowshoeing tour. This was a simple and slow-paced march through thick snow. It was a lot of fun going off track and plunging yourself into the white abyss. Halfway through we stopped by a fire to enjoy some Finnish sausages. Later in the day, we went to the ice restaurant and had a gin-based soda called "long drink." It's delicious and is a very popular drink in Finland.  While drinking in the heated bar we also played a game called Connect 4. I developed an unhealthy addiction to the game and got quite competitive. Later in the evening Yesh and I went to the sauna where we socialized with a bunch of other tourists. We spent the evening in the artificial igloos. They had a glass ceiling installed so that you can view the aurora borealis from the comfort of your heated bedroom. Sadly, we didn't see any sign of the North Lights. 

Day 4: After another all-you-can-eat buffet, we took a bus back to Rovenemi city center and went husky sledding with five dogs per sled.  I was amazed at how the same breed of dog can have so much variety in personality. One dog kept digging in the snow at every opportunity. One would always roll in the snow. And one would always sing (howl) at the top of his voice. We also went snowmobiling in the evening and had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. It was cheaper and we wanted some spice to clear our frozen nostrils

Day 5: We took a morning flight to Helsinki and stayed in a hotel that was once a prison. We explored the city and had some multicultural food at Cafe Bar 9, including stir-fry and pasta. It was so delicious we decided to have pizza for dinner at another restaurant.

Day 6: We took a ferry to Suomenlinna, a military island. This island has a rich history. It was mostly funded by the French, fortified by the Swedish, invaded and conquered by the Russians, and reconquered by the British & French, and finally taken over by the Finish. The island itself was quite boring and unimportant. It featured little more than overgrown tunnels and decaying cannons.  

Day 7: Karen, Yeshveen, and Megan toured the aquarium while I headed south to the seaside restaurant and sauna called Loylys. There were three types of saunas available: a private sauna, and traditional sauna, and a 'smokey sauna'.  The Smokey sauna was a 2-story wooden house that used wood instead of coals which created a nice aroma and gave a pleasant pins and-needles feeling whenever water was added to the logs. The walls had been stained black from overuse and there was plenty of socializing. The demographic was about 60% tourists and 40% locals. It turns out that the etiquette of not talking in the sauna is a blatant lie. The Fins love to talk. Loylys was located right by the ocean so every 20 minutes I would go out and dive into the ice-littered waters to cool down. In the evening we had Indian food. 

Day 8: Megan, Yeshveen, and Karen wanted an easy day today so I ventured out by myself in the snow. I stumbled upon a library that featured 20 chess tables. Anyone can just show up and play. I beat 4 Finnish guys before I got destroyed by the same Russian guy 3 times in a row. It was a really nice experience.

Day 9: We took a flight back to Amsterdam, ending our amazing and expensive trip.

Overall, our trip to Finland was packed with fun activities, delicious food, and unique experiences. We enjoyed trying traditional Finnish food, such as reindeer and squeaky cheese with cinnamon custard, and had a blast sledding, snowmobiling, and snowshoeing. The private saunas and Loylys were definitely highlights of the trip. It was a great adventure. The only downside was the cost. Future trips will be made in Eastern Europe :)

Career path

 So, this is awkward. After 6 years of University level education, 4 years of industry & academic work in Australasia, and 2 years working my 'dream job' at ASML, I've decided it might be time to make a giant career switch. 

Brief Background:

When I first joined ASML my architect mentor mentioned to me that the first 6 months are the 'honeymoon' period. It's where you spend your initial time just learning as much as you can about the company without any pressure to contribute. He was right. The first 6 months of ASML were fantastic. I learned a lot about the company and the machines, and as a bonus, I actually contributed quite a bit. I got to work on really well-defined theoretical tasks that I think I performed very well at. Sadly, reality hit pretty hard after that. The nature of my work changed pretty abruptly. It turns out that real engineering tasks aren't all well-defined theoretical tasks. Most of them are poorly defined, higher-level design decisions that require common sense, communication skills, and the ability to learn top-down rapidly. This is my kryptonite. I like well-defined nitty-gritty tasks that require a lot of maths, and most importantly, a bottom-up understanding (building on an idea from the fundamentals). A catalyst to this was the lack of learning material; if you're stuck on something at University, you can always go to the textbook or YouTube to learn it. But in the real world - which is a messy place filled with incomplete documentation - the only way to clear doubts about how a machine/part works is to ask a colleague/s. What do you do after you've asked your colleague 5 times already? What do you do if the colleague knows less theory than you and can only explain a concept in a flawed way? What do you do if the task is undefined? The answer is iteration, determination, a positive attitude, and an ability to rapidly learn incomplete parts of a picture top-down. I cannot do the last part. It's not in my DNA. And any small shred of ability I have to learn top-down rapidly has been successfully stamped out by my years in academia.

This failure wouldn't bother me as much as it does if I didn't feel like I was the only person on the planet with this problem. When I ask my other colleagues about the mismatch between Engineering at University and Engineering in the real world, they often shrug it off. The typical answer sounds like "Yeah, it's a bit different I guess. But University was still useful in teaching me how to think analytically or what jargon is used". I cannot comprehend this answer. To them, the difference is a small puddle to jump over. To me, it's an ocean - and I'm drowning in it. "Think analytically" !?! I was thinking as analytically now as I was back in high school. "Know Jargon"?? You can learn all the jargon you need within a single week. You don't need 6 years of learning moments of inertia, euler bernoili beam theory, nonlinear differential equations, von mises stress formulas, and so much more just to 'think analytically'. In some sense, I feel like my University has betrayed me in how poorly its prepared me for the real world. It's as if I'd been swindled or robbed. 

Imagine you did a degree in French literature, and upon graduating you get your dream job at FrenchLiterature Incorperated. Then, within the first 6 months, you're handed a harness, climbing shoes, rope, and a chalk bag, and are politely asked to ascend boulders for the rest of your career. With a baffled expression on your face, you begin climbing the boulder, only to realize you're a really shit climber. All of your years studying French literature have left you with very weak upper body strength. After failing to ascend more than 2 meters, you look around in disbelief as you see your other French literature colleagues summit Everest with ease. Stunned, you ask your other colleagues for clarity. Your colleagues shrug their shoulders and say "yeah, well, when you study French literature, you were writing with your right hand - the same right hand you use to climb with - so it's not so different". 

And so here I am, sliding down the corporate ladder looking at what other adjacent ladders are within reach. 

I'm not just sure, I'm Covid positive

 I got tested positive for covid on the 29th December 2021. I almost made it to the end of the year...

This was a huge surprise to me because while traveling around Ireland and the UK I took a total of 2 PCR tests, 2 official antigen tests, and 4 lateral flow self-tests. All negative. While I almost certainly picked up the virus in London (read my previous post about England's approach to Covid), I only developed really noticeable symptoms on the evening I arrived back in the Netherlands on the 26th. This is my story:

The symptoms on the 26th were quite mild in the evening. I had a slightly sore throat and a slightly runny nose. 

On the 27th I still had mild symptoms, but my throat was beginning to hurt more. When going to bed I felt unusually cold for about 15 minutes despite wearing multiple layers and cuddling my portable hot water bottle (Winry). 

On the 28th all symptoms remained mild except for my throat. It was really starting to hurt now. When going to bed I could feel my windpipe swelling up, making it uncomfortable to breathe. 

I tried to sleep it off but at 3am, on the morning of the 29th, I woke up finding it much harder to breathe. My throat was very narrow and mucus was blocking the rest. I tried to swallow a small cold & coughing tablet which should have reduced the mucus that was obstructing my windpipe. Predictably, the tiny pill got stuck in my throat. Whoops. Despite this, I could still breathe fine - albeit uncomfortably. However, worried at the rate my throat was closing up, I thought it would be a mistake to wait another 5 hours to visit my GP. I woke Kaz up and told her to drive me to the hospital. The wait at the emergency entrance was long and arduous. While talking in a high-pitched voice, I had to tell the receptionist everything: symptoms, address, BSN, health insurance numbers, ID etc. She eventually let me through with a warning: "next time make an appointment to go to the emergency, the doctor is very annoyed with you".  The doctor managed to solve my throat issue by feeding me a crushed-up ibuprofen pill with water. No dramatic emergency throat slicing needed. He told me my symptoms were consistent with that of Omicron and that self-tests are very insensitive to the new variant. Kaz and I both did a PCR test that morning and we both did self-tests. We both tested negative on the self-tests and Kaz got a negative for the PCR test. My PCR test wouldn't come back positive until the late afternoon of the 30th. 

England 2021

Ireland done. next stop, England. 

Day 1: 

We arrived at Heathrow airport and were greeted with a clusterfuck of bureaucracy. Firstly, the 2 PCR tests we had booked (in Ireland and in London) weren't checked. Neither was our passenger locator form. Secondly, after waiting for 2 hours for our bags to arrive, we finally found them on separate baggage carousels! Then, lastly, we had to catch a black cab to the COVID testing site because we were running late. The clinic had highly untrained personnel (my swab barely touched my nose). The taxi driver, who was not wearing a mask, vented to us about how COVID kills fewer people than the flu and that it's destroying the economy. He was extremely critical of card payments and was very open about how much he wanted the PM to die. Admittedly, the cab driver was homeless - he showed us the sleeping bag and gas heater in the back seat before he drove off in a huff. 

With our bad start out of the way, we were ready to start our day. The first thing we noticed was how similar everything looked to Australia. The brick front yards were a dead giveaway. 

When we arrived at Pestana hotel, Kaz was very eager to jump straight into self-isolation without saying hi to my auntie. Unfortunately, this didn't work out because Alex and Clare were there ready to ambush us on our arrival. After our not-so 1.5m hello's we sprinted upstairs and spent the remainder of the day and the following day in isolation. 

Day 2:

Self-isolation sucks, but if you have to endure it, it helps to have a great hotel room. The room, which was partially purchased by my parents and my uncle, was pretty swish. It had a decent view of Battersea Park and had a bathtub with neon lights. 

It struck me as odd that we needed to self isolate ourselves so effectively in London. I could understand self-isolating in New Zealand because you can view the country as a pure, clean Petri dish. But England is more like a messy dog bowl. If anything, the whole country should isolate to protect us.

In the evening, after enough kicking and screaming, Karen allowed me to have dinner with my Aunt and Uncle. Marcus was there too. Clare made an excellent dinner and it was nice catching up with my family. Marcus is a stereotypical British University student. He says "you know what I mean, right?" in every sentence and talks endlessly about his drinking escapades. 

Day 3:

This was our busiest day. We took the Uber boat all the way to London Bridge and walked around. The whole country was completely open. Stores were wide open, people were running, pubs were crowded. It was a big change from the Netherlands. We saw the Tate museum and to my surprise I actually really liked it. I ended up focusing almost none of my attention on the post-modern "artworks" and spent a lot of time admiring a mechanical project. Someone had created giant floating octopuses that were floating in midair with the help of drone propellers. It was very captivating and I couldn't help but figure out how they worked. 

In the evening Daniel Chee and I met up on Mayfair. All 3 of us enjoyed a very British meal consisting of Raman noodles and octopus balls. After that, we walked through the light festival and proceeded to get drunk in a local bar. It was great catching up with Daniel. 

Even in my drunken stooper I couldn't help but notice how much the average Brit doesn't care about COVID. No one wears masks and no one obeys government regulation. It's as if the whole society has become numb to the pandemic after the first hard lockdown.

Day 4:

We spent the largest part of our day recovering from our hangover. I walked a lot around Battersea Park while Kaz capitalized on our amazing hotel quality and read manga on her phone. 

In the evening we went to Wimbledon to meet up with my cousin, Andrew, and his wife Hellen. I really enjoyed meeting up with them. They have a kid called Marius and he's an uncontrollable bundle of energy that's strangely quite shy. I had never had a long conversation with Hellen before (only some quick small talk in Ireland for their wedding 4 years ago). It was very refreshing having a serious, intelligent conversation with them. Andrew was still very vague about his job, but I did find out that he spends at least part of his time contracted out to fight cybercrime against insurance companies. Hellen has an extremely stressful job doing psychology work on attempted suicide victims. To top off the night we went to the pub and drank some hot chocolates and ate some crisps. 

Day 5:

Christmas! Jake and Laura rocked up to Clare and Mark's apartment and we all had a very enjoyable Christmas together. They have a baby called Casper. The conversation was light-hearted and friendly. To top it off we played a board game called Codenames - adult-themed. It was a lot of fun. 

Day 6:
Last day. We met up with Daniel again briefly for another pub feed then sprinted our way around town to get more covid tests + a 2 hour bus to Stansted airport. 

Goodbye England! This was definitely more of a family visit than a country tour, and it was much needed! Stay posh.