Lots of first on this trip. Longest flight so far, 12 hrs. Imagine sitting 12hrs in a confined space, in more or less the same position. Not a very good experience. I wonder, how the airline got away with this kind of user experience.

Also the coldest climate my body has experienced so far. Everywhere i go, the tips of my hands / toes gets a bit of pain from the cold. Like, literally standing in front of the aircon blower set at level 2, and a thermostat set at 20 deg. celsius, 24×7. It’s the kind of cold feeling you get in a cold night, and you’re taking it in, since you know it’s just temporary. And you can just go back inside the house, or wait for dawn, to get the hot temp back. Except that in this case, you don’t ever get the hot temp back. It’s always cold.

Also, for the first time, i have to change my body clock. Very annoying, knowing that i have to switch back again in 2 weeks time.

It’s my first trip to Netherlands, the country that i helped built a software for 7 years now. I felt emotional seeing our office in Holland, knowing, we started our journey here, back in our office back in A.S. Fortuna. There’s a great, inspiring feeling, seeing the hard work we are doing, and seeing the impact. I am very proud, very much.

I will be here for at least 2 weeks, and will probably spend some time touring. Most of the days, i expect to do a lot of work, but mostly strategic stuffs. It’s the first time, all of us managing the company are in the same place. So it’s a good get together, to discuss our vision, strategies, and finalize some goals.

I learned, this time of the year, Holland, gets a lot of sunshine, from 6am to 10pm. Even now, 8pm, there’s still enough daylight to spend time outside.

I plan to do a lot of runs in the coming days. I’m training for a marathon, so i need to do 45KM to 50KM mileage every week. Once i figured out how to get 3G data access on my iPhone, i’m sure i can easily just go anywhere in the city on foot.

Lots of prepared, pre-packed instance meals. All kinds, most are ready to eat ones.

I’m also planning to visit some GP clinics, and see how our software is used. Perhaps get some idea how we can improve it, and also put all our efforts in perspective. Although, i’ve known a lot of how our products work through Harm, i think, it’s a different feeling, when you see it first hand. You get a whole new perspective, in how to approach it.

You might wonder why we didn’t do this before hand; back then i just didn’t see an urgent need for it. Now that we are making a few pivots in our product, it’s good to put the new directions in a good perspective. We’re also positioning for a global market, so my experience here, will help a lot, in going to new markets later on.

I’m also experiencing first hand, what it’s like to be a foreigner. I’ve been to SG twice this year, and even if it’s a new country, it didn’t feel different, since the people there are mostly Asian. So the ambiance still feels like home, except in an advanced country. In Holland, they all look different, taller, whiter, and blonder. It’s easy to pick me out in the crowd, as this small Asian dude, who looks definitely like a tourist. And not to mention, i also dress like one, at least, relative to the fashion here.

I’ll just leave you with more pics from the first day of my trip. Since i’m very sleepy already, even if Mr. Sun is still out there.

This is a view from one of the canals, in-front of our office, which they say is also along the famous red light district

This is how our office in Holland look like, very similar to the Simpleteq days.

And it’s true, people bike here a lot. And they ride very fast. I onced saw a girl, with earphones, driving one-hand, while the other hand is texting, and probably cruising at 10kph. Perfectly legal.

My watch measured, 18 deg. outside.

It’s easy to buy some “seeds” across.

Food will probably look like this for a while, knowing that Harm and his brothers, also eat like this most of the time (not the carbo-carnivor eating in PH).

We ordered these online, and had it delivered in the apartment. We booked our apartment, through AirBnb, and everything seems to be nice so far.